After Becoming the Hero's Ex-fiancée

Let’s Be Friends (1)

Unexpectedly, Cui Wang laughed.

He laughed out loud, and it was as if someone had struck the deepest and most melodious bell in Zheng Wan’s ears; the sound penetrated her ears, causing a wave of tingling sensation.
Her eyes widened in surprise.
“…Cui Wang?”

Cui Wang turned his head; there was a smile in the corners of his eyes, but when his gaze met Zheng Wan’s, as if realising something, the laughter stopped abruptly and froze on his face, turning into a cracked mask.
He retracted his smile and took on a solemn expression.
“I’ll be your cultivation guard.”

“…Mhm.”
Zheng Wan got off his back dazedly. In an instant, Cui Wang had returned to becoming that ice sculpture even gods couldn’t get close to—or rather, he was even colder than before.

Stinky old stone.
She kicked off her skirts, steeled herself, then untied everything else.
“I’m ready.”

Suddenly, the formation plate was filled with light, and a unicursal hexagram formation appeared in it. Cui Wang flicked his sleeves, filling the formation plate with a dozen or so Yuan stones, then said, “Enter the formation.”

Zheng Wan entered the formation as he instructed.

Cui Wang couldn’t keep himself from looking up.

The youthful maiden was like a pigeon that had been plucked clean of all its feathers, and was standing prettily in the formation. Her eyes were dark, her skin gleaming and fair, her lips a bright red, and her black hair draped down like spilt ink, covering the skin that was sweet as honey, as well as her snowy peaks and deep valley.
It could be seen that she was a little uneasy with the current situation.
She asked timidly, “What’s next?”

Cui Wang cast his eyes down at her and raised his hand to recall the green stone he placed on the table just now. He clenched his fist around it, and an explosive sound rang out as a bundle of ice-blue flames burst out.

The temperature in the room suddenly jumped up.

Zheng Wan felt as if she had suddenly been thrown into a furnace. Reflexively, she channelled the ice vital energy within her body until she felt more comfortable. Only then did she have the energy to look at the bundle of flames—it was a very shallow cluster that was ice blue, and was about the size of a broad bean. It was jumping about weakly in Cui Wang’s palm, as if it would go out at any moment—
Cui Wang wrapped it carefully with vital energy, then stepped into the formation with that bundle of flames and came before her.

“Circulate your vital energy for one week.”

Zheng Wan reflexively activated the Non-Emptiness Sutra, and right then, she felt that all the Qi in her body became connected with the formation plate.

“It will hurt a little.”
As soon as Cui Wang’s words fell, a cold touch landed on her exposed lower abdomen. Right after, she felt an extremely fierce heat, which quickly burst outwards from her navel and rushed upwards to her dantian…
Zheng Wan let out a muffled grunt, then immediately tasted blood between her lips.

“Refine the flames with your vital energy as soon as possible.”
Cui Wang’s voice sounded somewhat distorted through the multiple flames.

Zheng Wan opened her eyes with difficulty and found that her whole body was burning, and fine ice-blue flames were coming out of her body. Cui Wang was standing one foot in front of her, and there was a fist-sized cluster of purple flames floating in front of his chest. Zheng Wan could feel that under the suppression of those purple flames, the ice blue flames shrank and retracted inward.

“Focus.”
“Begin refining.”

Zheng Wan was in pain.
She was in great pain.

She would usually make a fuss, crying as she complained, but for some reason, she didn’t want to show weakness in front of Cui Wang at all.
There seemed to be a flame burning violently in her lower abdomen. That energy seemed like it was going to burn through her all internal organs—Zheng Wan could only chase after the blue core desperately with her vital energy.

However, this bundle of ice flames was extremely hateful. It had a small and cute appearance, but when it reached her dantian, it was like a naughty and mischievous child, crashing and burning wherever it hit. Zheng Wan couldn’t keep her tears from streaming down her face.

Yet, she had no choice but the continue. Her soul consciousness sank downwards, commanding her vital energy to make a desperate lunge and wrap around the rampaging ice flames, then sink down onto a tiny vital root.

Zheng Wan’s vital root was an ice-blue stem that was like crystal glass.
Grandma Jin had said that the purer the vital roots, the fewer impurities there will be. Immortal-grade vital roots were completely crystal clear, unlike hers, in which tiny spots could still be found if you looked carefully.

As soon as the ice flames came into contact with her vital root, smoke rose up.
Zheng Wan noticed that where the smoke was coming out from, the tiny spots seemed to have become ligher.

She instantly understood what Granny Jin meant by refining vital roots. If there was a line between heavenly and immortal grades, using this ice flame to refine her vital root was to run towards the side of the line where immortal grade was——
No matter how far she could go, she would only stand to benefit from doing so.

Zheng Wan was in such pain that she curled up, yet she still didn’t forget to use vital energy to wrap the dark ice flame and start refining it——
Gradually, she forgot to cry, but every time a puff of smoke leapt out from her vital root, she would tremble from the pain.

“Endure it,” said Cui Wang in a deep voice.

Endure your ass.
Zheng Wan tried her best to glare at him with her wet eyes. As she did so, she thought wildly in her heart that if she really wanted to look for a cultivation partner in the future, she would never have someone who was so cold. She was in such pain but he didn’t know to hug her, and only cared about being fierce to her.

“Concentrate.”
“Stop scolding me in your heart.”

“……”
Zheng Wan did indeed begin to refine the vital flames seriously.

Cui Wang watched for a while, then closed his eyes and began guarding her cultivation. This went on for one night, and it was until the eastern skies were white the next day that Zheng Wan stopped. The moment she finished refining the flames, the formation plate shattered with a loud sound.

Cui Wang opened his eyes.

What he saw was a girl standing naked in the warm golden warm sun. She was bathed in the light, and the corners of her mouth were slightly raised, looking very happy—but this happiness only lasted for one breath before it turned into tears.

She opened her arms towards him.
“Cui Wang, hug me.”

Cui Wang looked at her, and felt like the gu in his dantian turned into water in that instant.

“…Cui Wang?”

Only then did Cui Wang return to his senses; he took a few quick steps and pulled her into his arms.

Zheng Wan started to sob.
“I was in so much pain, yet you were so mean to me.”

“Mhm.”

“That really, really hurt a lot.”

“Mhm.”

“Cultivation is such a pain.”

“Mhm.”