A month

This morning fumble lasted for an hour or so before both of them got enough of kissing and wished to cuddle, and doing so discuss their pasts.

For the first time, both Du Lan and Xiao Fan revealed information about their past was this moment. Both narrated their experience while the other silently listened, hugging the other from behind, making the experience easier.

Xiao Fan honestly told his whole history inside the prison in The Bald Eagle Dynasty though he answered some intended to be obvious bullshit to her about escaping the place.

Du Lan could anyhow perceive that he still hid this information, but she was still stunned to learn about his past.

She had noted that he should have lived in some closed environment when she had guessed the reason for his lack of social skills. This story of his fit well with into that.

However, she knew that someone like him escaping the Bald Eagle Dynasty was only due to the help of the being following him.

Nevertheless, as he did not address, it must be the being's doings and warnings about him not telling about him. So she bit her tongue and prepared for a long wait for the next piece of information to her puzzle.

Telling her own story, she had much less to hide, and although she didn't spend a life in prison, most would say her story was worse than his by a wide margin.

Her story went from fleeing from a conquered city to another, repeating this over and over again until the city that had a population of few hundred thousand was cut down to the size of Greenwood town.

In the end, only a fraction of the population that had fleed with her had endured. She even told about her having a brother; however, she had no knowledge what had happened to him.

The only thing Xiao Fan got to know about her brother was the name, Du Peng. Should he ever hear about him, he must look for him Xiao Fan noted.

Du Lan had also, of course, asked about his family and where they were yet Xiao Fan had absolutely no idea or even the names of these people anymore.

Xiao Fan honestly had no idea. He didn't even remember their names as it has been well over ten years from the last time seeing them, and he was too young then to think about carving their names onto the wall.

This long talk that delved into their past made them feel closer to each other, as neither had spoken about this to any outsider. It felt good to have someone else to discuss one's history while the other one could relate to it and carry some of those worries.

When their retreat in Xiao Fan's room ended, they scheduled how they would be spending the next month here, in Hefei City.

Following this most of their days were either spending time by training, in the company of the other, or at least the latter part was consistent since during that time they didn't leave each other's sight for an hour.

Training wise both of them saw an expected rise in their cultivation, Du Lan became a second-grade and soon after reached the peak just needing something to push her into the third grade.

However, like her sister, it was weird how little of a backslash she had from such a rapid breakthrough. Her only problems were sorted by staying only one single day in bed, not letting Xiao Fan be her nurse even for a moment.

Xiao Fan, after breaking through to fourth grade himself observed the same symptoms as last time, ending up in bed while Du Lan was taking care of him like last time for a few days.

The difference between their backslash was too vast to Xiao Fan's liking, but tough luck, he said to himself and continued to mumble.

Then to break their peace, Lei Tao and others were frequently visiting them with the pretence of delivering money or such, but every visit turned into for discussion where everyone just praised them.

Surely if they had known that both of them broke through in just a few weeks, there might be a severe drop even in Lei Fan's and Lei Tian's minds as they took over a half a year with the same grades.

On the other hand, Du Lan was ecstatic about progressing so fast and so thanking Xiao Fan more and more, for he was actively teaching her new ways to improve faster.

Due to this, there was even a chance for her to be at the same level as Du Huan when meeting in a month in Hangzhou, which made her squirm from happiness.

They also did activities that seemed weird to other people who knew about them, for they would suddenly leave during the night, presumably gone into the forests nearby to do something.

Still, this had the Lei Family in chaos every time they did so even if they had left a note for them, telling that they will be back.

Their trips to the outside were made because buying mutant meat would be way too suspicious and Hefei didn't even sell it in the first place.

During one of the week-long trips, they even raced back to the Monkey tribe, though their main goal was to go and see if Du Huan had left another message for her sister.

When they saw there was no message, they didn't think much of it since most likely Du Huan had by now left for Hangzhou or some other city on the way.

But there was one thing they did do with Du Lan's family because they went to visit her parents inside Greenwood town during one night.

Before this, they didn't want to take the risk of alerting someone, so they hadn't gone into there; however, now that both of them had much higher cultivation things were easier.

So one night they passed any security that was only mortals, no one even seeing their shadows during the infiltration after wich Xiao Fan followed her back to a small cottage.

Inside the small cottage that was just one story tall and had only two rooms, Du Lan's father and mother were doing their everyday business when a knocking came from the door.

Thinking who could it be at this time, Du Lan's father went to open the door. Yet when he opened the door, there was a sight he didn't expect to see anymore, for he had believed that Du Lan was lost.

However that didn't seem to be the case as Du Lan happily called him out when seeing his father ¨Du Tai I'm back home!¨ She greeted her father.

For a moment, Du Tai was happy, but then he saw a tall man next to her daughter, who he didn't think was here for anything good as he wasn't one of the villagers.

He became a little hostile towards Xiao Fan.

But before he could say anything, Du Lan seeing what was about to happen cut her father short ¨Father he isn't anyone evil!¨

¨How can you say so? Didn't you get kidnapped by some monkeys a few weeks ago? Don't just tell me that now you are bringing some man that you have found to show us¨ He shook his head disapproving.

However, their talking on the front door had by now gathered Xie Jie's attention and hearing their speaking easily also came to see who were the people her husband was speaking to.

When she noticed her daughter had come back, she didn't think anything more as she took Du Lan into a hug.

It was one long hug of a mother, who had thought her child as dead.

This did, however, leave Du Tai and Xiao Fan awkwardly staring at or more like Du Tai staring down on him while he tried his best to keep his cool for a moment.

Xiao Fan hadn't thought about meeting her parent's so soon, and when she heard her talk about meeting them right now, he had become visibly hesitant at the same moment.

But how to say no? There was saying no.

So there Xiao Fan stood, letting a mortal pressure him like he was some Body Strengthening realm expert flooding his pressure on him.

To end this stare, it took a while as Du Lan in her mother's embrace didn't get to do any defusing. Therefore this awkwardness only ended when Xie Jie noticed him.

¨Lan'er who is he¨ She asked still having Du Lan in her hug, but her eyes were now fixed on Xiao Fan standing outside the door.

Du Lan for a moment tried to dislodge herself from Xie Jie's hug to no success, so she spoke from there ¨He's Xiao Fan, a wonderful person that I might have shot with an arrow. Soon after we became a couple¨ She let out the short version with a giggle.

Telling it like this prompted Du Tai to break into the Body Shattering realm.

However, he soon came back to the mortal villager status because Xie Jie hearing her daughter tell it like this she reasoned that there must have happened something between them. She wouldn't let her man drive the poor young man out at least not yet.

Xie Jie would for now be unbiased ¨Come inside Xiao Fan. We can continue talking there¨ She also advised her husband to stop trying to scare him.

Xiao Fan thanked them and proceeded to come inside the hut that like he had seen from the outside only had a bigger room and smaller room, one for the couple to sleep and the other for everything else.

Inside the bigger room, there was one table which around all of them took a spot to sit in before starting their discussion from the start.

Xiao Fan during this talk was constantly thinking about anything to say while he listened Du Lan talking through what had happened so far and dropping bits concerning how great of a man Xiao Fan was.

Her parents at least Xie Jie became accepting towards Xiao Fan, because from what she heard her daughter had already fallen for this man, who was way beyond her level in terms of talent.

However, luckily for her daughter, this man seemed just as fallen for her as she was for him; hopefully, it would stay that way Xie Jie thought.

Xie Jie was still only gradually accepting him. Du Tai, on the other hand, was still trying to be menacing at him though he had toned down considerably after hearing him being a cultivator.

Maybe he shouldn't go against such a character Du Tai reconsidered.

They spend their time talking to her parents until morning lights started to ray down into the room they were in. Noticing it was almost day prompted a quick retreat back into the forest where they had come from.

When they left, Du Tai and Xie Jie talked everything considering their daughter.

And during their discussion, they concluded that Du Lan was having a man of her dreams and they shouldn't stop her seeing him, for he had made their daughter become a bigger star than Du Huan.

There was no reason that they could even use to stop Du Lan; furthermore, there was a large pouch of gold coins on the table as a gift.

The journey there still only took a few days for them, so they had ample time to hunt and eat mutant meat much as possible while every time they stopped, they crafted makeshift weights from trees or boulders on which to use in training.

Hefei City didn't even know what weightlifting was, everyone there focussed on running and bodyweight excersises, maybe that was why Lei Tao never got far in cultivation.

Of course, even when they were outside the wall training, it didn't mean they hadn't had the time to enjoy each other since after Du Lan had noted how much more satisfying it was to sleep next to him they spend every night in the same position.

And every time they did so, Xiao Fan couldn't but think how great it was to have someone like her with him and how he couldn't let her down in any way in the future.

When the time came to chose a place to enrol into after the tournament, he would only look at those places who let him take Du Lan with him there. There would be no way he would leave her anymore.

This thought getting firm roots in his mind also meant that Du Lan's plan to strap her onto this brach had succeeded way beyond her imagination.

Now when she would meet Du Huan, she might already be crushing her in terms of cultivation and status. Then she could hammer her in the sister rankings some more by showing of Xiao Fan to her she thought.

Despite Du Lan's wishes, her idea of crushing her sister in terms of cultivation wouldn't come to reality.

Some god had decided after seeing them skyrocket in everything after becoming a couple wouldn't let them have it too easy and so had gone visit Du Huan.

And others.