Coasting through the skies and treading over clouds, the Heavenhoof Horse hauled along the carriage that Zeng Fei and Sun Ru had leased out. Due to the formations cast on the structure, it was surprisingly quiet and peaceful inside without major jolts or the wind roaring in their ears.
Ever since she’d come to, Sun Ru had been eerily quiet and reserved, causing Zeng Fei to fret that she’d taken great offence at what had happened.
To clear the air between them (and to prevent the risk of her doing a Dai Xinyue on him), he kowtowed towards her. “Once again, Sister Sun Ru, I’d like to wholeheartedly apologise for what happened there. I had no idea he would do that - he’s such a handful you wouldn’t believe it. If I’d known—”
“No, don’t worry about it. I’m also at fault for getting so close in the first place.”
Though the content of her speech was unremarkable, the strangely soft tone she used prompted him to glance up in curiosity. Her irises were glimmering, like someone had littered tiny jewels within.
“Although I was supposed to help your minion, it was he who helped me. When I got hit…” She paused, her gaze distant in the likeness of someone reminiscing; suddenly a current ran through her body, causing her to quiver and let out a mellow moan. “~I never expected it to be so hot.”
Zeng Fei’s vision shook. “Huh?” Why was he getting yandere vibes from her? This couldn’t be right.
Yet, as she trained her fervent gaze on him, he could swear the temperature of the surroundings went a notch higher. “That fire, it wasn’t normal.”
Raising her delicate fist, Sun Ru inflamed it and allowed the tongues of flame to scorch the air around. “Do you see?” She held it out in front of Zeng Fei, who was mightily unsure if she was currently threatening him or not. “Do you smell the difference?”
“Um… no?”
She pulled her arm back. “For those who are not Dao-seekers of the Flame, I imagine it must be difficult to tell the difference until higher levels. But your minion’s, Pingu’s, Pure Yang Phoenix Fist was more fiery, more cleansing, more everything. The instant I was hit, I knew the Domineering Fist, no, all the variants I’d been learning were flawed imitations of the one Pure Fist.”
Her chest rose high, then dropped as she exhaled. “Even though I’m more proficient in the technique, I cannot hold a candle to his flame.”
Zeng Fei didn’t know where his polite, justice-minded Sister Sun had disappeared off to, but he dearly wanted her back by now.
Trying not to make a sound from the floor of the carriage, he sat up and crawled backwards on his hands away from this maniac.
He didn’t get very far before her blazing eyes caught him.
“Eek!”
She lunged at him, in one smooth motion clambering over his body and grabbing him by the collar of his robes. Her body practically laid over his, face flushed, yet any notions of romance felt more distant now than if she’d been staring at him stony-faced.
“Where did Esteemed Pingu learn that technique from, Brother Zeng?”
Unlike before, her disturbing tone went unnoticed as the content of her speech functioned like a trigger word, activating the sleeper agent inside him; arching an eyebrow, he took hold of her hands in his.
“Nuh uh, he’s really not esteemed, alright? Let’s not be fooling ourselves now. And trust me, I would know - I’ve been with him since day one.”
Noting how hot her hands were then, he released them and cleared his throat, regaining his composure. “As for where he learnt it from, I don’t know. Some stuff he just knows to be honest. Maybe he had a past life or something, haha.”
Since Zeng Fei could hardly admit the deepest and most contentious secret to the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, he made a flippant joke to ease the tension between them.
Yet Sun Ru’s face scrunched up with seriousness.
“Hmm, I did hear from Fairy Hong that you’d inherited a technique from an ancient cultivator… could it be…” Her eyes widened. “Right, that must be it! Pingu must have learnt the Pure Yang Phoenix Fist in his former life, whereas the ones around today are mere derivatives that hold a fraction of the whole!
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“Nah I was just joking, I swear…”
His denial of the self-evident truth went unheard.
“You must teach me, Brother Zeng!” She got off of him, moved back, and kowtowed. “I beseech you to teach me, Brother Zeng!”
But at least the conversation was on safer grounds now. Zeng Fei exhaled in relief and righted his clothes. “I mean, I can’t but if Pingu wants to—”
“Yes, please allow Esteemed Pingu to grace me with his flames once more.”
Zeng Fei’s voice dropped. “Hey, listen up, buddy, if you keep calling him an esteemed person, I swear to god you’re going to catch hands.”
He snarled and pulled his arm back like he was threatening to throw a punch (naturally, he wouldn’t actually do so because she would most definitely thrash him in a fight without Pingu’s help, but still, he refused to cede ground on this matter).
“Hell, if you’re so insistent on it, you can call me that, but not him.”
Zeng Fei felt zero shame in saying this either: that cheeky penguin had already lapped up more than enough adulation at the tournament, so it was only fair Zeng Fei got to enjoy his share of the limelight this time.
Sun Ru banged her head against the carriage floor once more. “Please, Brother Zeng, I beg that you bid Pingu to share his technique with me.”
For some reason, her perfectly worded request just pissed him off more.
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Even with their flying carriage, the journey to the village took three full days. The horse must have had a sat nav built into it as they simply had to tell it that they wanted to eat or lodge overnight, and it would automatically take them towards the nearest restaurant or inn.
In the meantime, Sun Ru learnt the true Pure Yang Phoenix Fist by observing the way Pingu directed his energies when performing the technique.
Zeng Fei had made it explicitly clear to the penguin that he was to do it in the air, against an imaginary opponent if he was so inclined, but under no circumstances into her face again - even if, say, she were to explicitly ask for that (just as a precautionary measure).
Since she’d learnt all the modern variants, she was able to pick up the original easily enough, and furthermore was also able to carry over many of her insights, which she in turn shared with Pingu.
Zeng Fei acknowledged his position as the third wheel and only occasionally stepped in when he needed to translate what Pingu had said for Sun Ru, otherwise meditating to keep his cultivation at peak Qi Refining whilst it was being dissolved.
He pointedly ignored the penguin’s endless remarks about how Zeng Fei should use this opportunity to learn to huddle and perhaps even go a step or two further with this girl.
Although Pingu wasn’t too knowledgeable about human tastes, this girl was clearly respectful, a universally good trait to have in your mate no matter the race.
Listening to this prattle, Zeng Fei couldn’t help but muse if Pingu really did have a past life: there were occasional flashes of an older soul inside the little baby hatchling, after all.
Of course, there was no denying that Sun Ru was a beauty who would further grow up to be a femme fatale, but Zeng Fei could now also see there was a reason why xianxia protagonists always ended up going for the kuudere ice-cold beauties…
To be precise, he didn’t think Sun Ru was actually a yandere, better off described as a pyromaniac, an unabashed aficionado for all things fire-related and the type to believe that justice was best served by burning people at the stake… Were all fire-based cultivators like this?
The other major happening during the journey was that Zeng Fei learnt that combat wasn’t necessarily the quickest way to level up Pingu’s techniques.
Indeed, over the course of the three days, Pingu rapidly levelled the Pure Yang Phoenix Fist, going from level 6 to level 16 by the time they arrived at their destination.
At level 15, two brand new traits were unlocked for the technique, and the technique grade also went up from mortal to quasi-earth as the ‘low level’ modifier disappeared.
Pure Yang Phoenix Fist - Level 18
Technique Grade: Quasi-Earth
Positive modifiers: n/a
Negative modifiers: n/a
Ability Effect: when cast, charge up your fist to deliver a powerful fiery attack.
Unlocked trait at level 15, Cleansing: bathes your arm in Pure Yang Heavenly True Fire, which purifies yin entities and counters Pure Yin Death True Fire. Potency depends on qi expended and level of technique.
Unlocked trait at level 15, Enduring: the fire can no longer be doused by ordinary means and must be smothered with qi to extinguish, which, while simple, will burn through your target’s qi reserves.
[Emperor’s notes: A core attack technique from the Creed of the Phoenix Tongue that everyone in that sect practised. Good pick-up for melee builds.
Each level up increases the qi cost more than what a normal technique would experience, but this increased level-sensitivity applies to the power of the technique as well. The first time I saw a Grand Elder use it, having watched her sect juniors use it many times before, I believed it to be an entirely different technique until I interrogated the truth out of her.
Not linked to any other techniques, but this is made up for by various upgrades the Phoenix Fist undergoes when levelled up.]
Pingu
Race: Emperor Penguin
Cultivation: Seventh Layer (72%)
Demon Cores: Yang Rabbit (Third Layer Qi Refining), Kung Pao Rooster (Third Layer Qi Refining), Green-horned Python (Third Layer Qi Refining)
Strength: 24 -> 28
Agility: 15 -> 19
Constitution: 19 -> 23
Intelligence: 10 -> 11
Dexterity: 7 -> 8
Perception: 12 -> 15
Martial Techniques: Pure Yang Phoenix Fist (Quasi-Earth) - Level 16; Kung Ho (Mortal) - Level 7; Serpentine Slap (Mortal) - Level 9