"Friend"

Xiao Fang watched as Li Lian suddenly burst into flames, even her hair burned red in her fiery aura. She looked like a devastatingly beautiful fire elemental.

Her fists, eyes, and hair could hardly be seen because the concentration of the flames were the heaviest in those areas.

He tried to swallow his anxiety while his nervous sweat evaporated instantly from the scorching heat that emanated in waves from her gorgeous flame covered body.

This was the first technique she learned from the flame scroll. Who else was better to test her newly acquired skills than her philandering liar of a fiancé.

"Hahahahaha", she laughed devilishly as her hands burned even more fiercely.

"Your body might be as strong as metal, but let's see if it's fire proof too. Prepare to meet your doom, Xiao Fang!"

"Do you want to kill me with the technique I gave you?!", he pleaded to her.

She smirked menacingly, then spoke in a low bone chilling tone, "You'll live"

She suddenly charged towards him, leaving behind a trail of flames that incidentally didn't burn the furniture or floors.

Xiao Fang suddenly found his cool then said, "Good! Good! Good! Let's see how long you'll last against my sword!" 

Xiao Fang reached into his spatial pouch to grab his sword, but he only grabbed air. It was in that moment that he realized he gave his sword to Xun Wei.

"Sh*t...", he thought.

Xiao Fang got up and thought about running towards the door, but how can a man as fearless as him run from his wife. He decided to face her head-on.

Xiao Fang charged towards her, then grabbed her wrists, just above her burning hands.

"Lian'er, let's talk about this", he smiled bitterly.

"You can talk to my fiery fist!"

She kicked off his chest to break free from his hold and launched herself up into the air. Her head nearly reaching the ceiling.

While at the apex of her flip, she let loose a volley of fiery bullets roughly the size of her fists towards him.

Xiao Fang was too exhausted from work to dodge her attacks, so all he could do was attempt to defend himself from the incoming projectiles.

...

Her attack wasn't very powerful since she just started learning the technique yesterday. Each fire strike felt like she threw a hot cup of tea at him. Though it was hot, it didn't pack too much of a punch.

His exposed arms became scarlet red as if he gotten a sunburn.

"Are you done?", he inquired in an exhausted voice.

"Yeah, now I'm done", she said out of breath.

She seemed extremely satisfied with how amazing her first and only technique turned out. Truth was, she just wanted to see what her new technique was capable of.

Xiao Fang collapsed on the bed, not even having the energy to get under their blanket.

Li Lian removed his shoes, positioned him comfortably on the bed, then cocooned herself into his arms. She had an innocent grin, but satisfaction written all over her face.

"Xiao Fang, how was I? Didn't I get stronger?", she said in a whisper, but he could tell from her tone that she was happy that she could actually punish him now.

Xiao Fang groaned lazily in response, but still managed to pull her in tighter and kiss her head proudly while inhaling her wonderful scent he loved so much. Though to her it sounded like he responded with some slight pain, but in actuality he didn't feel anything at all. He was just too tired to use any real words.

A heartwarming flame seeped out of her pores and engulfed the both of them. Xiao Fang felt a relaxing warmth cover his body and healed any of his remaining aches.

Though her spirit energy healed him, it didn't replenish his stamina. So he quickly fell asleep with Li Lian still snuggled comfortably in his arms and his face buried in her fragrant hair.

Once her loving fiancé fell asleep, Lian'er reluctantly extricated herself from her lover's muscular arms. She then leaned in, whispered "I love you" under her breath and gave him a gentle peck on his cheek. She then sat down by the bed and began to cultivate. She was so happy with her progress that she had already forgotten why they had fought in the first place.

She circulated the new mysterious energy throughout her body and felt her spirit cultivation rising rapidly.

"I'm definitely going to get into the inner court", she thought with conviction.

She's been working hard everyday for more than a year for this. It was like a dream come true and it was all thanks to Xiao Fang and their fated meeting some months back.

"Thank you for coming into my life". She quickly refocused and pressed on eager to increase her cultivation even more.

-

-

-

In the morning, Xiao Fang woke up feeling Li Lian heartwarming fiery aura. He watched as her hair and sleeping gown danced beautifully in the still air as she cultivated.

"Did she stay up all night again?", he thought, worrying if she would be alright without any sleep.

10 minutes later, she slowly opened her eyes.

"Xiao Fang, you're awake. How long were you watching me for?", she asked a bit surprised. Xiao Fang shook his head.

"Not long, I just woke up", he said as he laid on his side staring at his beautiful fiance.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?", she began straightening herself up and combing her hair with her fingers.

He stopped her hands, "That's not it. I was just thinking about the first time we met".

He got quiet for a moment. Then said with confidence, "I used to love falling asleep, because I would always have the most beautiful dreams. But what do I do now? I don't think I want to fall asleep, not when you are more beautiful than my dreams".

She blushed slightly, as her eyes tried to avoid making eye contact with him.

"Why are you thinking about useless things", she said with embarrassment.

Xiao Fang chuckled to himself. "So you never told me, how do you like your gift? I couldn't tell last night since you were trying to burn me to death with it".

"Ah! Where are my manners. Xiao Fang, I love it. I don't know how I could ever repay you".

"Well, you could start by giving me a kiss, and a promise not to leave me", he said with sincerity while reaching out to draw her in for a good morning kiss.

"Lian'er, I love you", he whispered in her ear the way he knew she liked it after she gave him a kiss. 

"I love you too, and I promise I'm not going anywhere. You're my fiance after all", she replied with a big smile.

"Come to the inner court with me", he said.

"Mn, let's go together", she replied after a quick pause.

"Good, get dressed. You can cultivate when we get back".

"Where are we going?", she asked curiously.

Xiao Fang tossed a pouch into her lap. Inside she saw a few hundred beast cores of varying tiers, then she immediately understood.

Truth was, though beast cores were valuable items, they were almost worthless inside the sect.

"Follow me", she said and they left the house together.

-

-

-

Xiao Fang followed Li Lian to the mission board room. She began looking through the missions posted on the wall, looking for something specific.

"What are you looking for?", Xiao Fang asked.

"I'm trying to find a mission in the city of Mannan. We can't just leave the sect whenever we want, this will be our excuse to go there".

Xiao Fang briefly looked over all the missions. He had been training his 'Iron cutting Iron' technique for so long that his hands itched for combat. However, the missions he saw posted were too simple and boring.

"Escorting nobles, training children, exterminating a tier 1 infestation... are all the missions here this easy?", Xiao Fang said disappointingly.

"Why? You don't like any of them?", she asked with curiousity.

"Yeah, I don't. Let's do something a little more exciting".

.

.

.

> Novice (Outer court missions)

• Tier 1 Missions - Solo

• Tier 2 Missions - 2 party members

• Tier 3 Missions - 3 party members

• Tier 4 Missions - 4 party members

[ Tier 4 being the most difficult, tier 1 being the least difficult ]

.

.

.

Li Lian explained briefly.

"I see. In that case we should be looking at the tier 4 missions", Xiao Fang said as he climbed up the stairs to the 4th floor to see the board titled 'Tier 4'.

Upon looking at the tier 4 board, Xiao Fang and Li Lian both became speechless.

[ Da Long Wanted ]

[ 6,000 merit points ]

"They raised your bounty again. 6,000 That's just insane. They've been increasing it by 1,000 every month", she said in astonishment.

"At least it doesn't say 'dead or alive' anymore. Hahaha, when are they going to realize that doesn't look anything like me?", Xiao Fang joked.

She slapped his arm. "That's not funny. You're the only one with violet eyes in the entire sect. Quickly, put these on", she berated him like a nagging wife as she handed him his old blindfolds. Xiao Fang was a bit reluctant to put them on, but did so anyways.

Before he put them on he pointed to one of the missions on the wall and said, "let's do this one".

The mission titled intermediate level was crossed out and replaced with the words: Novice level

The reason being no one in the inner court wanted to do it so it was given to the outer court to do instead.

"Weren't you listening? We would need to be a party of 4 to do a tier 4 mission".

"I know. Tell that Gao Chen to come join us", Xiao Fang was able to connect the dots.

"Ah, you knew we were going on missions together?", she said admittedly.

"Mn, of course".

"You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad? Did he hurt you?"

"No, it's just... he's just a vulgar person".

"Hahaha, even more reason to make him come", Xiao Fang said with a mysterious smile.

"X-Xiao Fang, y-you better not tell him who you are, okay".

"I won't tell him, I promise".

Li Lian felt a bit nervous by his words. "When had he ever kept his promises", she thought.

"Xiao Fang... I thought it was just going to be the two of us".

"Hm? Did you want it to be just the two of us?".

"I..." she hesitated.

"Ah, no, it's just we are still down 1 person", she said hurriedly.

"I have a friend I can ask to join us", Xiao Fang said.

"A friend?", her eyes squinted.

"I'm sure you'll love her", he added.

Li Lian sighed inwardly, "why couldn't he just have guy friends", she thought.

She was interested to see who this "friend" was so she accepted his proposal.

"Hmph. Fine, meet me back here in 20 minutes", she said before leaving.

"Was she upset with me?", Xiao Fang wondered, but he didn't think about it for long once he thought about Xun Wei.