Chapter 8

Xaoi Ning'er focused as best she could. The chilling cold of her body, and the blazing hot pain from her feet made it incredibly hard to cultivate, but still she persisted.

She'd been here for hours already, near the entrance of the training area where demon beasts knew not to venture. Beasts they were, but the more powerful their soul force, the more intelligent they became, and they knew powerful demon spiritualists kept watch near the gates and would kill them if they came too close.

This was the only time she could cultivate. During the day her time was filled up with Shen Fei trying to get close to her, her family making demands of her, studying and now starting today classes. Night was the only time she had to cultivate.

And she had get as strong as possible, as quickly as possible. The orange haired girl refused to become Shen Fei's woman. If it weren't for her father, the elders of the Winged Dragon family would have already married her off to the arrogant redhead from the Sacred Family and had her pumping out babies.

It was common for girls her age to be married off at her age already. Especially one like her who's growth had been enhanced with elixirs. Thirteen she may be, but Xaio Ning'er knew her body and mind had matured quicker and was more like that of what it would have been like once she reached around sixteen to eighteen years old.

She was the most developed in her class. Both curve wise in regards to the girls, and height wise compared to everyone else. She was the tallest of her class, even Ye Ziyun, the closest to reaching the bronze rank one in their class - not counting the resident genius who was far ahead of everyone else by far - with her body developed to greater heights through her cultivation couldn't compete with her body wise.

The pain in her feet spiked and the aura of her cultivation faltered, puttering out like a flickering candle in the middle of a rain storm. "Ah!" Ning'er gasped, falling to her knees and gritting her teeth as she tried to endure the pain running up from her feet.

...What was wrong with her!? The last few months, this condition had appeared out of nowhere and none of her family knew what it was.

Tears prickled in the corner of Ning'ers eyes. 'It isn't fair!' she raged internally. All she wanted was to be free, to pursue her own choices in life. She didn't want to be the bed warmer of that arrogant fool Shen Fei.

Was that really too much to ask for?

"Looks like you're pretty far along huh?" a rather familiar voice commented idly from above.

"Who's there!?" Ning'er immediately ignored the pain in her feet and jumped up, calling out the Blue Moon Dagger from her spatial ring, her palm grasping around the silver rank blade as she positioned herself looking up towards where the voice came from in a ready stance.

She blinked upon recognising who it was. The one who made the biggest fuss in her class, and who's name was on nearly everybody's lips after he broke through to the five star bronze rank during class this morning.

Shin Long. The boy was reclining lazily atop a long tree branch above her, peering down at her with a nonchalant look upon his face. Clad in a pair of grey shin length boots with red trim, white baggy pants tucked into them tied at the waist with a red sash and a pair of grey and red bracers atop his arms. He made for quite the sight, with his dual coloured eyes almost glowing in the darkness of the night, and his muscular, well defined torso gleaming in the moonlight.

"Shin long?" Ning'er peered up at the boy, bewildered, "What are you doing here?" she asked, lowering her dagger.

"I was just about to head out to cash my spoils from hunting demon beasts when I saw you." he shrugged.

Ning'er despite herself was jealous of the casual confidence he oozed. Like there was not a worry in his life. And of course his sheer talent. People put so much prestige on the colour of soul force, and considered those with red to have the least amount of potential. Then what did it say about Shin Long, that with a red soul force, he'd already reached the pinnacle of the bronze rank at a mere thirteen? Showing prodigious talent that put even Ye Mo to shame considering the boy was a poor orphan, ostracised by his blood family because he was a bastard, and thus had no access to expensive training tools like elixirs and such to boost his cultivation.

His complaints earlier to Nie Li about wasting his one soul pill earlier today was very telling. And his story background was well known to the upper echelon of nobles, who used his existence to mock the Sacred Family behind their back just to satisfy their own petty gripes.

If he had access to the kind of support that fool Shen Fei did, he'd probably already be a gold rank demon spiritualist.

Something clicked for Ning'er, and she remembered what he said first. "What do you mean I'm far along?" the orange haired girl asked. She was close to breaking through to the one star bronze rank, but that wouldn't be impressive to a guy like him. Not when he made her look like a talentles fool compared to him.

"Hmm." He hummed instead of answer her. His dual red and green coloured eyes swept over her form, pausing on her breasts, then hips before slowly sliding down her legs, clad in only a pair of clinging, tight spandex shorts.

Ning'ers eye twitched in irritation, "Don't just ogle me like that!" she snapped. She was so sick of the way males eyes spent more time on her tits than they did looking her in the eye.

"Do your feet feel hot?" he asked casually, "Burning in pain whenever night falls?"

Her golden orange eyes flew wide open in shock, "What?" she whispered in shock, "You...how do you know that?"

"You're far too developed for a girl of thirteen," he continued, ignoring her question, eyes lingering back on her large breasts again, and it took all of her willpower not to cross her arms over her chest and hide them from view, "Most likely because of a ton of elixirs to help have your body mature to an older state to increase cultivation throughout the length of puberty. Leading to a heightened amount of yin qi being created in a female who already produced more yin than males as a girl."

What? Did he know what was wrong with her? A pit formed in Ning'ers stomach, and it was only the pride she had in herself that stopped her from falling to her knees and pleading for his help.

Shin Long pulled his eyes from her chest and cast a look up at the moon in the sky, "Cultivating under the moon light which increases yin qi production would make it even worse," he continued before turning to look her in the eyes, golden orange meeting red and green, "Your body probably feels like your stuck in an ice chamber and its worse when your cultivating right?"

"Arctic Disease it's called," he pressed on before she could even begin to process what he was saying, "Just from a quick look at you I can already see the bruise on your foot, and feel the frigid temperature coming from your body. The more you cultivate, the more yin qi you'll produce, and once you break through to the one star bronze rank, you'll probably end up bedridden and lose a ton of power in your cultivation, at worst, you might just die."

Despair filled Ning'er and she collapsed to her knees, staring up at him with wide, sad eyes, tears pooling in the corners of them, "..I spent so much effort," she said, unable to stop the words spilling from her lips, "..In order not to be married off to someone like Shin Fei, I took those elixirs dutifully, studied all I was told to do and cultivated every night for hours to the point where I was constantly fatigued during the days. I spent so much time and effort to reach where I am now, and you're telling me my cultivation will disperse and I might even die if I keep it up?"

She couldn't hold her tears back, and they ran down her cheeks, "Shin Long, you know what this is right? You must know some cure right?" Ning'er desperately asked, voice becoming hysterical in her despair and panic, "..Please help me." she pleaded in a whisper. And no longer able to hold her composure, the despairing girl broke into sobs, crying her heart out.

"..Hah, how could I go through with my plans after something like this?" she heard him comment, voice dry. He sighed, and suddenly, there was a gentle hand atop her head, running through her hair, "There, there, no need to cry. I'll help you, I promise." Shin Longs voice whispered soothingly.

Something warm filled her chest, and Ning'er peered up at him through eyes blurred with her tears, to see the boy smiling down at her gently. Her heart beat hard in her chest, and her face, previously freezing cold, suddenly felt warmer than it had in a long, long time.