Awkwardness

"Ugh" Meng groaned with a troubled face while sitting under the tree with Wan Xiu sitting next to him.

"Hehe, looks like brother Meng is becoming very popular." Xiu said with a teasing smile.

"How is that a good thing...There are at least hundreds of marriage offers for me! They treat me like some kind of treasure they need to obtain! Thankfully, most of them are from smaller sects so I can simply refuse but I have to be more courteous with a few of those that came from Major Sects. *sigh*" Meng muttered with a lifeless voice before thinking if this is how those most beautiful and talented girls in this world are being viewed and treated.

"Others would have been happy about the opportunity to choose from so many girls, so you ought to welcome it unless karma will take it all away from you and no one will actually show interest in you in the end, hehe." Xiu giggled and gave him an "advice"

"Others? Have you seen brother Hengjun? He has also received a few of them since he placed in the top 10 despite his profound strength." Meng asked with a raised eyebrow as if he was looking at an idiot.

"Senior brother Tie is, well...Senior brother Tie" Xiu didn't pull no punches and directly said with a straight face.

"Ouch...I actually felt pain for him but I guess I am not that different from him except that he is just too focused on training and I am...well, very careful?" Meng said with a forced smile before he noticed one disciple approach them in a hurried manner. Meng looked at him with a questioning gaze.

"Senior brother Su, there is someone looking for you...And I think we better avoid offending such person so I quickly went to inform you." Disciple said, gasping for breath.

"Alright, thanks for informing me, let me handle the rest." Meng said and stood up with Xiu following his example.

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"Su Meng...As we have agreed before, I have arrived." Chu Yueli said to Meng, feeling a bit strange as it still felt to her a bit unnatural to go "look" for junior. Not to mention she had absolutely zero ideas how and where would they be cultivating. This entire idea of cultivating with Meng made her pretty tense but she trusted her elder sister so she still arrived here despite having no information.

"Fairy Chu Yueli...That's good, just yesterday night I completely finished my preparations." Meng cupped his fists before turning to Xiu who was looking at Chu Yueli with great curiosity in her eyes.

He explained to her that he will be leaving for, perhaps, a very long time...Xiu immediately started asking for details with a bit panicked expression but Meng patiently explained everything and only then she finally calmed down.

"I will inform everyone else, so...brother Meng...Once you return, my profound strength will once again increase numerous times over!" Xiu said with a bit shaky voice. She was smiling but Chu Yueli could see the sadness in her eyes.

"I will return, don't worry. Don't slack off, you and many others are the Iron Spear Clan's bright future. Also, tell brother Hengjun that he can start distributing the "thing" we have discussed before...He will know what those words mean." Meng put his hand on top of Xiu's head and said with a comforting and encouraging smile.

"Mm!" Xiu held back her tears and just vigorously nodded her head with a bright smile and closed eyes.

Meng turned at Chu Yueli and nodded his head. Upon seeing this, she turned around and started leaving and Meng followed closely after her.

Along the way, till they left the city, none of them said anything. There was complete silence between them.

"So...What is your plan?" Chu Yueli could no longer repress her curiosity so she asked with a low voice.

"Let's first travel near the Wasteland of Death. I think we can train there for about 3 months, and after that...we will see how fast Fairy Chu Yueli's progress will be.

"Wasteland of Death, huh?" Chu Yueli muttered before she gracefully waved her hand in front of her and big snow-white bird-type profound beast appeared in front of them, looking at them without any hostility.

"This is Little Chan, it has been caught and tamed by Elder sister. Although it is Sky Profound Beast, its nature is very gentle." Chu Yueli quickly explained when she noticed Meng's curious eyes.

"I see, then let's not waste any more time..." Meng understood that she wanted to use this profound beast to get to the Wasteland of Death. Although Meng intended to go on his foot as he treated it also as part of training but one journey wouldn't matter that much plus Chu Yueli was perhaps anxious and wanted to start cultivating as soon as possible.

They both got onto Little Chan's back and it took off, flying straight towards the Wasteland of Death.

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'Well, it's certainly a bit awkward, even for me who is capable of enduring a lot of awkward moments...' Meng thought as they were about halfway through their journey. They have been sitting on Little Chan's back without exchanging even a word and perhaps even Little Chan started feeling the awkward air being concentrated on its back.

*sigh* "Chu Yueli...do you hate me?" Meng sighed and asked while looking at her from the side.

"?!" She turned at Meng with a bit confused look in her eyes. Normally, she would ignore such a meaningless question but she could feel that Meng was serious.

"No, there is no reason for me to hate you. It's not your fault." She looked forward and replied quietly. She actually quite admired Meng's character but she didn't say it as she didn't want him to misunderstand anything.

"I see, I hope we will be able to solve this problem between us. We don't have to become friends but we should learn how to coexist together without any unnecessary trouble as we will spend "some" time together and it would be too bothersome if we had to live in such an atmosphere around us. During this time we will spend together, we should also drop any seniority between us as it will also only hinder us." Meng nodded his head, satisfied with her reply. He knew that it will take her some time to get used to it.

They quickly arrived near the Wasteland of Death and found a good cave where they could cultivate without any disturbances with also a waterfall and a lake nearby where they could clean themselves.

Their first cultivation session was completely awkward as this was the first time Chu Yueli had to let a man "hold" her hands...junior at that. Her hands were cold as ice but Meng didn't mind it at all, instead, he felt a bit pity towards how her entire body and organs were cold. The Profound Arts she was cultivating was full of faults in Meng's eyes.

Chu Yueli used her Frozen Heart Arts to fully concentrate on cultivating while Meng was "holding" her hands even though her hands were just resting on top of his palms. However, her concentration quickly broke as she felt warm energy slowly entering her body and her own ice-cold energy slowly moving towards Meng.

She opened her eyes with a shocked look on her face to look at Meng who had closed eyes, fully concentrating on cultivating. When she saw him like that, she calmed down.

At first, she thought that the warm energy that entered her body would somehow interrupt her Frozen Cloud Arts but in truth, it was in complete harmony with it, and instead, it was enhancing her profound arts.

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After 6 hours passed, they decided to stop as this was their first time cultivating together, and maintaining such a state needed both persons to be calm as a still pond and also required some trust between them. Meng already discovered that even if a woman he is cultivating together with isn't practicing any Yin oriented arts, he can still increase the amount of Yin energy he can absorb from a said woman by increasing the trust between both of them.

It was safe to assume that as long as he would be connected to a woman on a high emotional level, his own cultivation speed would increase but he knew that such a thing is perhaps impossible in Chu Yueli's case so he will need to build up the trust between them first which should be formed naturally in time and as she will grow more accustomed to his presence.

"...How are you feeling?" Meng asked when he opened his eyes.

"...Good, I no longer feel the chilling cold in my body but at the same time, I feel as if my Frozen Cloud Arts advanced a bit...Thank you" She also opened her calm eyes and replied before slowly retracting her delicate porcelain hands. Her hands were no longer cold as ice but instead, they were nice warm which was a completely different sensation to her.

"That's good, it looks like the trust between us is a bit higher than that awkward atmosphere was letting out...You can go cool your body in the lake, I will remain here to cultivate for a bit more." Meng said which made her slightly embarrassed but she didn't let it be seen on her face.

"There is no need to, I will continue to cultivate on my own too." She refused but Meng immediately shook his head.

"No, we can't cultivate without each other, it will only create inconsistency. We have to be in complete harmony with each other and doing this won't help as much as it will do harm." Meng said with a decisive tone and serious expression.

"Haven't you said that you will continue cultivating?" Chu Yueli frowned and asked for an explanation.

'Can't really tell her that I will cultivate my Physique as she won't understand it either'

"I will be tempering my mind and heart, I won't be increasing my cultivation base." Meng explained which slightly stunned Chu Yueli before she turned around and left the cave without saying anything in response.