7 Chapter 7: The first of many

Surrounded by a cold hearted family, tortured by the Artic Cold Disease, losing her best friend, even if her will is strong Xiao Ning'er would undoubtedly feel lonely and helpless. At this moment though, with Ye Xing helping heal her, she couldn't help but be happy there was someone to help her and for her to rely upon, the feeling in her heart helped as well.

"Done!"

"...Thank you."

"Now remember the medicine and no training at night, at least until you're at Silver rank" said Ye Xing. Exhausted after using so much soul force and resisting his inner 'demons' he stood up and did a bit of a stretch.

"Is there anything I could do to repay you?" asked Xiao Ning'er blushing all over again.

"Two things actually. First can you pour your soul force into this crystal" replied Ye Xing trying to fight his demons and slowly loosing this battle.

"Sure, what's the other thing?"

"Uh... Can I see your cultivation technique? I know it's brash but I just wanted to see what kind of technique a noble family like yours would use."

"Here" she replies handing him the technique without hesitation.

Confused at her eagerness Ye Xing reads the technique and the disgust is plastered all over his face.

"Is something wrong?"

"Yeah you see my Grand Uncle goes on expeditions that can last years at a time and one day he came home from a ruin he found and gave me this technique he found in a library that dates back to the Snow Wind Empire and with books in its language. It was a common technique back then for commoners to learn but you see the problem is that uh you know what, here is the technique and you decide for your self" he explained his reaction before handing her his own technique as a show of mutual trust and so that she can see how trash tier glory cities techniques are in the process.

Xiao Ning'er took a moment to read over the translated version and soon had the same look on her face.

"I see what you where trying to say. My families best technique is incomparable to yours, where did your Grand Uncle find this ruin if I might ask"

"He said he found it, 3 months walk south of glory city, in a gorge, with a troop of Thunder Apes guarding the ruin. You know what's worse? I can read the ancient books in the school library and most of the techniques in those books are 3-6 times better than that technique you're using."

Taking a look a the Soul Crystal Ye Xing sees that just like in the manga Xiao Ning'er has the Winged Dragon soul form with the Wind-Lightning attribute, knowing that he could never find a technique better than the Lightning Dragon technique, Ye Xing stores the Soul Crystal away.

"What was the Soul Crystal for?" she asks while they walk to the training grounds entrance/exit together.

"Oh that? I just wanted to see your Soul Form and Soul attribute. I wanted this because I thought I knew some good techniques but they aren't nearly sufficient for you to use."

"What makes my Soul Form so special" she asks with her hands behind her back and leaning forward slightly.

"Well first of all it's the rare Winged Dragon which I can't personally put into words how amazing it is and envious I am. Second of all to add to that it's of the Wind-Lightnings attribute, very good for scouting and for attacking large groups of people or demon beast in mass. Lastly I only know parts of the technique most suited to you and I will need a few days to ask a friend if he knows the full technique."

"Oh. Who is this friend of yours?"

"Nie Lie. He may be more of an attention seeker than myself but he knows more than a dozen ancient languages where as I know only the Snow Wind Empire language and Woodland Empire language. To that end he also knows of many long lost techniques, that even in the hay day of the Snow Wind Empire, when humanity was at it's best and most advanced, that would be considered God tier. I'll see if I can wring the Lightning Dragon Chant from him for some knowledge he will kill for."

After walking to the gate alongside Xiao Ning'er Ye Xing went straight to his dorms to inscribe another 20 Crimson Flare scrolls before going to sleep.

...

The next morning Ye Xing arrives at the Fighter Apprentice Class early in the morning. Having seen that neither Nie Lie, Lu Piao or Du Ze had arrived he walks to the back of the class and takes a seat in the second to last row, in the same spot he had been seated in the first class.

Ye Xing takes out an inscription book his Grand Uncle had given to him for some light reading before class though half an hour in he is interrupted by an orange haired beauty in a pink floral dress, this would obviously be Xiao Ning'er.

'Remembering last nights events it's still a little awkward talking to her.'

"Hi, how are you doing?" said Ye Xing while realising how awkward that sounded after it had been spoken.

"I'm doing well thank you" Xiao Ning'er replied with a smile on her face. Unlike Ye Xing she neither looked or sounded awkward while spoke as she stood next to his desk.

"Would you like a seat?" Ye Xing went for the gentlemanly approach to her as officially they don't know each other. This didn't prove to be a problem for Xiao Ning'er as she had prepared for the mornings class and knew what she was going to do unlike mister MC who is a workaholic, with no people experience.

"Thank you" she said as she took the seat offered to her before asking "You know inscriptions?"

"I know a little from my Grand Uncle. he wants me to be an inscriptionist. Does inscriptions interest you by any chance?"

"I tried studying it for awhile but it was all so complicated for me and I eventually gave up on it."

"Ah I see. Well it was the same for me as well until I learnt a trick on how to memories the inscriptions."

"Can you teach me this 'trick' then by any chance?"

Having had a relatively smooth conversation so far Ye Xing would go on to teach Xiao Ning'er his little 'tricks' he brought over from Earth such as dividing the paper/scroll into grid like squares, after that you draw sections of the inscription in each square block until it's done and repeat.

...

He was teaching her some more small things but as Ye Xing was teaching Xiao Ning'er his stomach rumbled, much to his misfortune as he forgot to have breakfast this morning, this however was to Xiao Ning'ers' advantage as she had gotten so engrossed in their chat that she forgot about the breakfast she made and now it wouldn't be so awkward if she were to offer it to him.

"Would you like to have some of my breakfast while we talk?"

"I wouldn't want eat food prepared just for you Miss Xiao Ning'er" Ye Xing replied but it was futile as a lady in love will not stop at mere words when she has the high ground.

Xiao Ning'er pulls the lunch box she had prepared from her satchel next to her and places it on the table. After having opened it up Ye Xing saw that there was a dozen different foods in the box and realised that he was the target of her interest as was Nie Lie in the original timeline.

"You see I was making breakfast for my father and my self but he had gone to the clan halls for work before I had woken up and I was left with all of this food. So are you sure you won't share with me?" said Xiao Ning'er while coming up with a story on the spot to cover up why she had this much food with her.

Ye Xing tried to resist but it was futile as his stomach was true to it's self and he relented "If it's not a bother then I will gladly have some."

With Ye Xing accepting they shared the meal while talking about inscriptions or more specifically Ye Xing talked and Xiao Ning'er listened. Soon however Teacher Shen Xui walked into the classroom and Xiao Ning'er returned to her seat while Ye Xing went to the back of the class.

These breakfast talks would become a staple of both Ye Xing's and Xiao Ning'ers' morning lives. So much so in fact that soon Xiao Ning'er would proactively respond to what Ye Xing had to say and they would grow their relationship through these talks but that's all in the future.