Pursuing Immortality

A couple “getting physical” all the time was not the same as a couple getting physical all the time.

Either way, the last thing Gu Yu expected was to start exchanging blows with his girlfriend soon after he got back home. He would rather snuggle up to her with kisses and hugs, then chit-chat while sipping tea.

He wasn’t given any choice, however. With his girlfriend waiting outside, he had to go out and meet her.

“Teehee!”

Long Qiu giggled behind her hands. Scuttling out after Gu Yu, she sat down on the threshold and rested her chin on her palm, ready to watch the fun.

Xiaozhai stood ramrod straight outside. She wore a long white shirt with a loose lower hem, giving it the look of a one-piece. She had a pair of casual trousers on, revealing her ankles, and a pair of trainers on her feet.

She rarely wore anything dowdy, but had her own preferred style. The awareness of certain taste was hard to come by in an environment as secluded as this. Of course, with her perfect bone structure, anything would look good on her.

“Are you sure about this?” Gu Yu asked with a wryly smile.

“I’ve made my initial achievement in Metal Thunder. Don’t you want to try it?”

She rolled up her sleeves by a few centimeters. The white cuffs were pushed up, revealing her fair skin underneath. Gu Yu and Long Qiu watched her movement and were simultaneously struck by one peculiar expression, “overlapping snow”.

“But I only just got back. How about tomorrow?” He tried his best to put it off.

“Cut the crap. I’m starving! Let’s get it over with and we can eat!”

She moved back to the open space enclosed by the houses. Resigned, Gu Yu followed her. They then set some distance between themselves.

“Here we go!”

Raising the corner of her mouth, Xiaozhai disappeared from where she was in a poof.

“Woosh!”

Turning into a blurry shadow, she dashed at him like a wind, a leaf, or a knife. The light about her seemed gilded, her momentum swift and fierce.

‘That fast?!’

Gu Yu shuddered, for it was indeed out of his expectation. His girlfriend was very quick to begin with. Now that her meridians were opened up, she was turning into a wild whirlwind, whose incredible speed almost created a vacuum suction ¹ .

With his sensing capability, he could only make out the rough direction of her attack. Gu Yu dared not take her lightly. Dodging hastily to the right, he struck backwards with an open palm.

“Thump!”

Xiaozhai materialized on his left like a ghost. Two slender palms met and two forces of air made a muffled sound.

The single strike was enough for Gu Yu to realize the extent of Xiaozhai’s change. When they exchanged blows before, Gu Yu always had to hold back his strength because of her mortal physical body. This time, however, he was undoubtedly aware of the improvement in her level. She had passed that threshold.

Alerted, he positioned himself properly and instantly became serious.

“Hoho!”

Seeing his reaction, Xiaozhai was even more exhilarated. The energy of Metal Thunder circulated inside her instantaneously and a tremendous momentum was exerted, accompanied by subtle flickering lightnings.

“Thump!”

Their palms met again and both stumbled back for a few steps.

Gu Yu felt a shock along his arm and a faint yet disruptive energy containing the rule of thunders bolted into his body from his palm.

The energy ran riot, incomparably overbearing, so much so that nothing in the whole wide world seemed to be able to stop it. When it bumped into his internal spiritual essence, it even managed to devour a tiny proportion of the latter.

It was thanks to his abundant spiritual essence that he was able to dispel it in time.

‘Was that the energy of Metal Thunder?’

Gu Yu was secretly astounded. It was as incredible as in the legends! No wonder the thunder book said: of all the heavenly ordinations, thunder was the mightiest!

But she had yet to finish. Xiaozhai raised her arm slantingly and pointed out with her fingers. Her melodious voice rang out, “Thunder! Come!”

‘WTF!’

He was genuinely shocked. Instantaneously, he circulated his spiritual energy around his body and tuned up his defense to its maximum, in case the next second dark clouds would roll over his head and heavenly lightnings strike down.

One second, then two seconds and three seconds passed… the sky remained dark and silent without any trace of disturbance.

“Ha ha ha! If I could summon thunder now, I’d be fighting my way up Longhu Mountain already!”

After a palm strike of Metal Thunder, Xiaozhai felt her breath a bit disordered and now she was having a tummy-ache from all the giggle. Long Qiu followed suit and fell over the doorsill laughing, apparently having great fun teasing her brother.

“Tsk!”

Gu Yu grimaced and protested, “You guys are not playing by the book!”

“Blame yourself, you came around too quickly.”

Xiaozhai gradually stopped laughing. Seeing that her boyfriend seemed a bit dispirited, she moved closer and asked, “Are you mad?”

“Not really, feeling a bit hapless, that’s all…”

He waved off the subject and only wanted to go back to his room, but Xiaozhai grabbed him in time and pulled him near to comfort him. “There, there, I’ll let you go on top later.”

‘Pfft!’

TMI! She might not think much of it, but Gu Yu couldn’t! He turned to look at Long Qiu, somehow having a guilty conscience, as if they were shamelessly discussing which position they enjoyed the most in front of a minor.

“Oh my, I’ve left some food for you. I’ll go heat it up.”

At twenty-one, Long Qiu already knew all there was to know about certain things. Besides, she was with an extremely experienced driver all the time and with the influence of what she constantly saw and heard, Long Qiu managed to keep her composure and disappeared into the kitchen after the announcement.

Following their dinner, our two fellows naturally proceeded to their “sweeping away the fallen leaves and destroying the banana trees”.

***

After their “physical contact” and before they went to sleep.

Frankly, Gu Yu found his girlfriend perfect apart from one thing: he would probably never find her panting on his chest like a timid little woman while caressing his chest. Instead of panting, she was full of energy and not only that, she also loved having a breath of fresh air.

Right now, the two were sitting on the roof with their clothes all disheveled. With a silver moon above head and red lanterns hanging below, the scene was as eerie as one could picture.

But the night was tranquil and a clear breeze was blowing gently. With the glistening red waves, it was quite a quaint view.

“The initial achievement of Metal Thunder only enables me to control the energy within my palms. It’s not too effective an attack yet.”

Xiaozhai opened her palm and released a little lightning, which looked like streaks of electric arcs hopping in her hand. They were rather pretty. “Plus, the thunder technique is very spiritual-essence-consuming. Even at this scale, I can not sustain for more than a couple of strikes.”

“Isn’t it Thunder-in-palms?” Gu Yu asked curiously.

“No, it’s not the same.”

She shook her head and explained. “Thunder-in-palms is the secret skill of Zhengyi. Apart from practicing the method internally, there is also the corresponding talisman. One has to draw talismans in their palms and focus their energy into them. The human body acts as a transfer station and one borrows the natural energy of thunder to strike out. The Internal Technique of Five Thunders does not work that way. It enhances the human body so that it can generate thunder by itself and for its own usage. The thunder book did not say it explicitly, but from what I deduced, by the time my Metal Thunder reaches the state of passionless, I’ll be able to release my thunder technique.”

By release, she meant she could strike others with lightning.

Gu Yu immediately saw what she meant and was already feeling sorry for whoever pissed her off in the future. Xiaozhai soon changed the subject and asked, “So, how was Tianzhu Mountain?”

“Well, it’s complicated. All in all, it was quite worthwhile…”

He then described his trip in detail, including data of the spiritual stones, the negotiation on the reward, his detour to Jiang Zhao, his idea of having Xiaojin joining them, etc.

“…”

Xiaozhai pondered for a while at his words. “From what you said, we should indeed start strengthening ourselves. I think the government will gradually move to the backstage and let the sects do their bids. Especially after they train their own cultivators, the time to reset the rules will come.”

“I’m ok with resetting the rules. What I don’t like is to see them indulging certain parties to disturb the old ones.”

Gu Yu gave it some thought and continued, “I actually feel sorry for those sects. The detachment they imagined in cultivation is impossible to achieve in this mortal world.”

“Well, enough with that…”

Xiaozhai brushed off the subject and looked around casually. She suddenly looked up and said with wonder, “Hey, just look at that moon.”

“Whoosh!”

With that, Gu Yu jumped off the roof instantly and ran swiftly back into his room for no obvious reason, his voice trailing behind him. “That moon my a*s! You snuck up on me last time with that same lousy excuse. Do you think I’m an idiot?”