Wang Zhong walked forward, holding Hu Liena in his embrace, and softly comforted her.
"The kind of thing you mentioned will never happen."
"My spirit is a tree. No matter how lush it grows, or how tall it becomes, its purpose is only to shield those around it from wind and rain."
"It will not fly high, nor will it go far, because its roots are there! A tree without roots will die."
"Nana, you told me, if there is no past, then consider the day we met as the anchor of reality, and everything remembered after that is my past."
"Nana, in the past I remember, every day, you are present! You are the root of my Wang Zhong; without you, I will die!"
The young man's calm voice, filled with sincere emotion, caused Hu Liena, who was in his arms, to blush. The temperature of her delicate earlobes soared astonishingly.
"Zhong, I want to rest for a while! Can you... can you go out first?"
Held in his arms, Hu Liena suppressed her shyness and stammered out the request.
Releasing her, Wang Zhong looked at her. Apart from her slightly flushed face and excited demeanor, she seemed well, her previous sense of loss gone.
"Okay."
"Then, you rest well, I'll be going now."
Retracting the Nine-tailed Fox that lay beside him, Wang Zhong gently walked out and softly closed the door.
After Wang Zhong left, Hu Liena kept her head down, the blush on her face spreading from her earlobes to her neck. Her small body was burning hot. Finally, unable to bear her shyness any longer, she buried her face in the quilt.
A muffled, petulant sound came from beneath the covers.
"Idiot! Idiot!"
"Does he know what he's saying! That scoundrel!"
"Ah! I'm so embarrassed!"
Just as he stepped out of the room and reached the staircase, someone was already waiting in the hall.
Xie Yue leaned against the wall, his handsome face wearing a distinctly malicious grin. Seeing Wang Zhong descend, he raised an eyebrow and asked with a forced smile, "Finished talking? How was it? Happy?"
The nonsensical question left Wang Zhong bewildered, but he still answered earnestly, "Yes, we're done talking."
"It was okay, not exactly happy though."
Xie Yue's eyebrows twitched at this response.
Since moving in, even Xie Yue rarely went upstairs, let alone entered Hu Liena's room. Yet this scoundrel could go there as he pleased, as if it were his own room, and she, his dear sister, didn't even object.
This stark contrast almost made him, the brother, feel an imbalance of jealousy within his heart.
So angry! Who exactly are brother and sister here!
This scoundrel, still calmly saying it was okay! Do you know how envious I am!
"Wang Zhong, you scoundrel, today I will make sure you know who Hu Liena's brother is!"
Yelling wildly, Xie Yue sprang up, determined to pin Wang Zhong down and let him feel the wrath of Hu Liena's brother.
However, Xie Yue was destined to suffer.
Instead, Wang Zhong pinned him to the ground within moments, leaving him unable to move.
Lying prone on the ground, Xie Yue angrily shouted at Wang Zhong, who was sitting on him, "If you have the guts, get up! Let's fight another three hundred rounds!"
Wang Zhong crossed his arms, tilted his head to look at Xie Yue beneath him, raised an eyebrow, and his calm words infuriated the other party to the point of spitting blood.
"Can you even beat me! Forget three hundred rounds, fight for thirty more years and you'll still be pinned to the ground and ground to powder."
Slamming his hands on the ground, Xie Yue protested indignantly, "Stop the nonsense, do you dare get up!"
"Today, I must go all out with you."
"You can't even stand, how dare you talk about going all out! Xie Yue, you're no good! Too weak!"
Sitting on Xie Yue, Wang Zhong sized him up. His smiling words, however, cut into Xie Yue's heart like a knife.
It stimulated him to the point that his handsome face contorted painfully.
"Brother, Wang Zhong, what are you doing!"
From the hallway, Hu Liena, who had recovered somewhat from her shyness, peeked out with a still slightly flushed face. Seeing their strange interaction, she asked.
"Ah, I don't know."
"As soon as I came downstairs, your brother wanted to fight me."
Wang Zhong looked up and explained cheerfully to Hu Liena.
In response, Hu Liena rolled her eyes at the pinned Xie Yue and said with annoyance, "Brother, what are you doing? You know you can't beat Zhong, yet you still go up to him. Aren't you asking for trouble?"
Asking for trouble!
The words echoed in Xie Yue's heart, chilling him to the bone.
His own sister, seeing her brother pinned, the first thing she thought of wasn't to help him, but to mock him for asking for trouble. Xie Yue's heart ached.
"Wang Zhong, get up."
"I won't mess with you anymore. I'm feeling upset and want some quiet."
Xie Yue, on the verge of tears, could only surrender. There was no other way; in his sister's heart, he was no longer the most important person.
After Wang Zhong got up, Xie Yue patted the dust off his clothes and walked back to his room with a mournful expression, going to 'lick his wounds' alone.
Wang Zhong and Hu Liena looked at each other in confusion. Wang Zhong shrugged, not understanding, while Hu Liena thought for a moment and then shook her head.
Hu Liena knew very well that if her brother truly had something on his mind, he wouldn't act like this.
His current demeanor was clearly an act.
She waved to Wang Zhong, signaling him not to mind, and Hu Liena returned to her room.
She knew that now that Wang Zhong had obtained his third spirit ring, he would definitely want to test it out, or cultivate to consolidate his strength.
As for herself, she also had to cultivate diligently and break through to level twenty as soon as possible, so as not to fall too far behind.
Xie Yue and Hu Liena retreated indoors. Wang Zhong didn't linger, and his steps led him towards the small wooden house in the forest.
Just as Hu Liena had thought, with his newly acquired third spirit ring, Wang Zhong, although he knew what the spirit skill was, was unsure of its power without personal testing, only having a general sense.
Furthermore, after absorbing the third spirit ring, his spirit had grown, and the extent of the spirit skill's improvement also needed thorough experimentation.
And there was also a ten-thousand-year Ghost Tiger spirit bone, and the spirit skill it provided, whose strength also needed to be experienced firsthand.
These three reasons made him eager. After all, both the growth of his spirit and the ten-thousand-year spirit ring represented a qualitative leap in his strength.
Wang Zhong's current strength had likely more than doubled.
"Third spirit skill, it really is Wood Clone!"
"I just don't know how much of my own strength it will have. I hope it's not less than fifty percent! Otherwise, this spirit ring will just look good."
As Wang Zhong ran forward, he couldn't help but feel apprehensive in his heart.