Xiao Ning'er was someone who always paid her debts. That's why she stopped talking with Ziyun at a young age. To not cause others trouble and be indebted to them. This was also why she didn't run away from her marriage with Shen Fei. Instead she cultivated Because she felt indebted to her family.
Even though Hong had not taken her back out of the goodness of her heart, he had taken care of her without causing her any harm. He had taken care of her without doing anything indecent or shameful to her , and for that she felt grateful.
After searching around, she found out that he was some one picked by the Lu family, and he had been there since his birth. Even though he had no talent as a spiritualist, he had created his own fighting style that allowed him to trump over almost of the untalented students at his age. But Ning'er knew from visual confirmation, that Hong was waay more stronger than he let on. Especially with how fast and effortlessly he had carried her back. But for some reason he didn't try to engage inconversation or ask for a reward from her or her family, which had left her feeling indebted. Not to mention, she liked his swordsman ship , so she had informed about his talents to her father and the fact that he had rescued heri hopes of getting him to be her teacher. After some consideration, her father had agreed ,but the problem was she couldn't find him. She had searched the fighter acadamy, Lu family grounds with Nei Li's friend Lu Piao and even searched the training grounds. But he was not to be found. Until she remembered the tree house.
It took a while, but after getting lost only a couple of times she managed to find the tree house with much effort. It was built in the middle of a giant tree, its trunk thicker than two people and tall as a redwood, which was not surprising since most trees in the area grow to massive propotions due to the influence of the energy present everywhere in the world.
Climbing required quite the effort since there was no ladder or any other equipment, and she had to rely on the small branches and pegs fixed at uniform distances to climb up.
After expending half her spirit force and most of her physical strength, she finally managed to reach her target. But to her dismay, he seemed to be cultivating. Seeing the spatial pouches laying on the ground, curiosity lit up within her like dry leaves in the middle of summer.She decided to check out his spatial pouch since he too had copied her cultivation technique.
'With this we will be even'
But things didn't go as she had planned. She had hoped that there might be something of significant or even personal that could give some information about him, but much to her dismay, it was full of meat. Bronze ,silver even normal beast meat was there. But nothing of any worth could be found .
Looking at the mountain of meat that she had pulled out of the bags, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. There was enough meat to supply a house hold of four for a couple of weeks.
She was suprised to see demon beast meat too. Unlike normal meat, demon beast meats have a quite unusual taste. Only people who can't afford normal food eat demon beast meat.
Sun slowly began moving behind the distant hills as darkness began to settle in. But Hong had not moved an inch. She had tried to see if he was sleeping or ignoring her, but there was absolutely no response. Hoping to catch him tomorrow she left back to her family .
Next day she went a bit early in case he would begin cultivating again, and even packed a somewhat large box of food as a tribute of sorts, but still there was no change.
This kept happening again and again for two weeks. Every day in the morning she would pack a big box of food and enter the tree house, and everyday she would have to leave without having to talk with Hong . She tried visiting him at different times too, hoping to catch him when he was not busy,but he never moved from his space. Really, if it wasn't for the gradual decrease of the muscles in Hong's body, she would've thought that he was deliberately avoiding her.
She was worried about Hong's health,especially since he didn't seem to partake in meals, so she began visiting daily in concern. Gradually she spent more time there than at the winged dragon family that it began to feel like a home away from home. She had heard about people cultivating under enlightenment for months, sometimes, so she turned her visits into a habit.
Every day she would arrive in the morning, clean the place and cook some food and leave, then after her time at the institute ended, she would go back and see if he was awake , eat the food she had cooked and leave back to her house after spending her time cultivating. After much insistence of Ye Ziyun Nei Li had parted a better cultivation technique to her . And considering the amout of help she and the winged she had provided especially with gathering purple mist grass Nei Li had agreed.
Everyday she would spend a few hours cultivating in the tree house, and for some reason energy always seemed to gather around Hong without being used (it was influenced by qi and his soul form) which was very beneficial for her cultivation. She had even reached four star bronze level in soul force and formed her soul wings, which immediately caused her family to break off the engagement with Shen Fei. Since they didn't want to give a definite future black gold rank spiritualist away for a little connection.
One day like all the others, she went to the tree house in the morning and engaged in a her usual activities before leaving. She spent her time at school associating with her new group of friends , which she was quite happy about and left them to go to the tree house. They all knew where she was going so they didn't stop her.
After entering the forest, she began utilising her soul wings to jump from branch to branch, following the path she had taken countless times in the past two weeks. She still couldn't belive how easily a boy of her age had rushed the same path without spiritual force, whereas she needed her wings to assist her even though she was on the threshold of five star bronze rank. Not to mention that she could only reach a fraction of speed he had displayed.
"I'm home!"
She said as a greeting even though there was no one to greet her back. She had often done this especially since this place felt more homely than her own home. But when she entered, she was in for quite the suprise.
A boy, the same one she had spent waiting to talk had woken up and was currently on his knees, his torso bare and his eyes brimming with tears.
He only took one look at her before cursing
"Well, f#ck"
A sentiment she felt similarly, even though she would have expressed it with slightly less vulgar words.