Chapter 335: Longing

The vast ocean gradually turned from black to white. When Hao Ren and Xie Yujia saw land again, they already arrived at the port of East Ocean City.

The warm sunlight had dried Xie Yujia's tears. When Little White landed on the ground behind the administration building of East Ocean University, Hao Ren withdrew the red energy sphere.

It was one o'clock in the afternoon.

"Thank you, Hao Ren." Xie Yujia exhaled deeply.

If she had not elevated to level 8 of the Qi Refinement Realm and didn't miss her parents that much, she wouldn't have asked Hao Ren to travel so far with her.

"In the future, if you want to visit your parents, just tell me, and I'll bring you to them," Hao Ren said with a smile.

Sunlight shone through the holes in the ceiling of the deserted bicycle shed and onto Hao Ren's shiny hair. His smile also looked especially radiant under the sunshine.

"In the future, I'll go visit them myself. I'll cultivate hard to achieve this goal." Xie Yujia smiled as well.

Suddenly, she looked toward the roof of the academic building. "What's that?"

Hao Ren turned his head and looked in the direction of her gaze. Then, he felt like his lips were covered by something soft.

Xie Yujia placed her hands onto Hao Ren's shoulders and stood on her toes while her lips touched Hao Ren's.

Hao Ren tensed up immediately. Feeling her smooth lips, Hao Ren felt like his heart beat so fast as if it was going to jump out of his mouth.

His eyes widened, and he didn't know what to do next.

Sunlight reflected off Xie Yujia's fine hair, making Hao Ren feel warm and comfortable.

"I got to go now. I've missed one class already." Xie Yujia stepped back and jogged to her bicycle that was parked on the roadside.

Hao Ren looked after her in a daze. He then ran his tongue along his lips and tasted a trace of sweetness.

Xie Yujia rode her bike toward Academic Building A.

"Er-hem..." Hao Ren cleared his throat and touched his lips. Seeing no one was around, he inhaled deeply and patted his chest before walking around to the front of the administration building with forced calmness.

His class was in Academic Building C, and he could catch the second half of the class if he went there now.

When he was about 100 meters away from the administration building, Lu Linlin and Lu Lili sneaked out from the small back door.

"It could be done like this..." Touching her chin, Lu Linlin had a naughty smile on her face.

"Sister, Gongzi is back," Lu Lili pointed to her left.

Lu Linlin turned to that direction, and Lu Lili took the opportunity to peck Lu Linlin's lips. Then, she stepped back and covered her snicker with her hand.

"Well! You are a quicker learner, aren't you!" Lu Linlin reached out to pinched Lu Lili's little nose while the latter dodged with a shriek and fled.

Hao Ren went into the classroom in Academic Building C through the back door, but he still attracted many student's attention.

It was an elective course he had chosen together with Zhao Jiayi. Recently, Zhao Jiayi had been busy with training and matches, so he had to come to the class alone.

"He's Hao Ren, right?"

"Yeah. He forced Huang Xujie to back off yesterday in the public bathhouse."

"The guy who used to come to class with him is the current captain of the basketball team, right?"

"Huang Xujie is not afraid of the new captain of the basketball team, but he is afraid of this Hao Ren."

"His girlfriend is the sister of Xie Wanjun, the former captain of the basketball team..."

"Oh, I know her; she's beautiful. Who would expect that the brawny Xie Wanjun had such a pretty younger sister..."

The gossips began to simmer in the classroom with the arrival of Hao Ren.

Hao Ren pretended to have not heard their whispering comments. He took a seat in the last row and listened to the old professor talk about ancient Chinese poems.

However, he noticed some Zhen-level dragon cultivators in the classroom. They all looked back at Hao Ren and whispered to each other.

The word about the crisis of the East Ocean Dragon Clan had spread through the Dragon Tribe, and the young cultivators began to know that Hao Ren as the Fuma of the East Ocean Dragon Clan.

The clubs which had tried to recruit Hao Ren now all kept their distances. After all, the elders in their families were all trying to stay clear from the East Ocean.

Ignoring their whispering discussions, Hao Ren steadied his breathing and circulated the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll in his body.

With peaceful body, heart, and mind, he circulated the five-elemental sword energies in his body, and the dragon core gradually grew.

Although there were no clear divisions in Zhen-level, with 70 openings unlocked, Hao Ren was somewhat in the mid-tier. However, with his current strength, he could defeat any Zhen-level cultivator with one hand. That was why he didn't care about the gossips of these weak dragon cultivators.

Time ticked away, and the afternoon classes ended in the blink of an eye. Hao Ren picked up his books and returned to the dorm before riding Little White, the express train, to visit the 'prisoner' in the East Ocean Dragon Palace.

As the Fuma of the dragon palace, he went into the palace and to the small building where Zhao Yanzi was locked in without incident.

Zhao Yanzi had been waiting for Hao Ren for the whole day. After hearing the knock on the door, she immediately pushed the book she had been reading under the pillow. "Who is it?"

"It's me!" Hao Ren answered.

Zhao Yanzi felt sweet, but she said in a cool tone, "Come in! It's annoying that you come to bother me every day!"

Hao Ren pushed open the door with a smile, knowing what Zhao Yanzi was really thinking. As a girl who loved to have fun, she was bored to death being locked in the small building. Zhao Guang was, in fact, trying to tame her a little by grounding her.

"What did you do today?" Hao Ren shut the door and walked over.

"Nothing! I just slept!" Zhao Yanzi answered him sulkily.

"Did you do some reviewing?" Hao Ren continued to ask.

"No! I just slept for the whole day!"

"Oh? What's this then?" Hao Ren pulled out a math excise booklet from beneath her pillow. A corner of the book poked out of the pillow, and Hao Ren spotted it in one glance.

"The pillow is too low, and I used the book to raise it!" Zhao Yanzi pouted and said after hesitating for half a second.

"Did you eat?" Hao Ren put the book on the nearby desk and asked her.

When he entered the room, he saw an empty meal box at the entrance and knew that she had begun to eat today.

"Humph!" Zhao Yanzi didn't answer his question, thinking he was like a nagging mom.

She had been hoping to see him the whole day, but now that he was here, she found him annoying with all the questions.

Hao Ren sat on the chair and opened the exercise booklet to look for some exercises for her to do.

Since Hao Ren stopped talking, Zhao Yanzi cleared her throat and asked him, "Did you do anything naughty behind my back?"

At her question, Hao Ren's heart lurched since he had been unsettled by Xie Yujia's act today. He felt uneasy due to Zhao Yanzi's sudden question.

At Hao Ren's silence, Zhao Yanzi snorted again. "You must have gone on a date with Xie Yujia, right?"

In fact, she didn't dislike Xie Yujia. However, she felt inferior to Xie Yujia who was gentle, pretty, could do housework well, and was excellent in her studies.

The truth was, Xie Yujia also felt inferior to Zhao Yanzi who was vivacious, cute, and gifted in cultivation.

"Today, we will review physics, and I'll teach you the concept of pinhole imaging and plane mirror imaging." Hao Ren placed the exercise booklet before her.

"Humph! Humph! Humph!" Zhao Yanzi snorted three times before sitting up against the pillow and reading the exercises.

She indeed had some difficulty in understanding some of the points in the books. She didn't want to fail the final exams because Zhao Hongyu had promised her an overseas vacation this summer if her ranking went up.

Hao Ren pulled the chair closer to the bed and explained to her how to solve such problems in detail.

Shoulder to shoulder, they looked quite intimate under the flickering candlelight.

After the two-hour session, Hao Ren closed the exercise booklet and stretched his shoulders before standing up.

Zhao Yanzi was a bit numb in her legs after a whole day of sitting, and she was a little reluctant to see Hao Ren leave.

"I'll come over tomorrow to continue the tutoring session. Ten days will pass quickly," Hao Ren comforted her.

With Zhao Guang's character, it was impossible for him to release Zhao Yanzi before the time was over.

"Ok! Ok! Go! You are nagging me again!" Zhao Yanzi waved her arm impatiently.

"One more thing. Don't get sluggish on cultivation. You can't cultivate the formal techniques until you reach the Foundation Establishment Realm," Hao Ren reminded her.

"Got it!" Zhao Yanzi furrowed her brows angrily.

Seeing the anger on her cute face, Hao Ren smiled before walking out of the room and shutting the door behind him.

Premier Xia was waiting outside.

Seeing Hao Ren walking out from the small building, he took two steps forward and asked, "Gongzi Hao, how is the princess today?"

"Zi's appetite is good. You should increase her meal sizes," Hao Ren answered.

After a moment of consideration, he asked, "How has Su Han been in the past couple of days?"

"I'm not sure. Elder Xingyue is taking care of Inspector Su," Premier Xia answered cautiously.

"Ok." Hao Ren nodded before taking out a small, exquisite wooden box. "Please give this to Elder Xingyue and ask her to give it to Su Han."

"This is..." Premier Xia was baffled.

"These are the godly elixir pills from the Nine Dragon Palace; I got one of each kind. She hasn't recovered after such a long time, so I hope these pills can help her. It's late too late so I won't visit her today," Hao Ren said casually.

Taking the heavy box, Premier Xia was astonished as he thought, "The Fuma is indeed generous!"

Although Hao Ren took out quite a lot of godly elixir pills from the Nine Dragon Palace, each of them was priceless. Besides, the Nine Dragon Palace was now sealed, and it was impossible to get more pills from it, making these pills even more precious.

From Hao Ren's perspective, the godly elixir pills were useless to him, and Su Han could take them with her high realm. Besides, she was not one of the core members of the East Ocean Dragon Palace, and thus she wouldn't be given any precious godly elixir pills. That was why he gave her his share.

"That's all. I'll come to visit again tomorrow." Hao Ren strode to the main gate of the East Ocean Dragon Palace.

Premier Xia watched Hao Ren leave swiftly on Little White's back. After a moment of consideration, he hurried to Elder Xingyue's palace.

He was a reliable man, and that was why Hao Ren asked him to run this errand for him. However, the godly elixir pills were precious, and Premier Xia didn't want to keep them for long.

He hurried to Elder Xingyue's residence to hand the box to her in person.

Elder Xingyue was also astonished when she took the box from Premier Xia. As a core elder in the East Ocean Dragon Clan, she had been allocated only two godly elixir pills which could only help her cultivate. But in the box was a set of the five godly elixir pills, and Hao Ren had given them all to Su Han.

Closing the lid of the wooden box which contained five radiant godly elixir pills, Elder Xingyue looked up at Premier Xia and asked, "How is Princess Zi recently?"

"She cultivates each day, and it seems like she has gained some progress," Premier Xia answered.

Elder Xingyue considered for a moment and replied. "Well, I should give her some instructions on cultivation. However, she is cultivating the techniques of the human cultivators, and I'm not familiar with such techniques. In the dragon palace, all our cultivation techniques are dragon tribe techniques, right?"

"The Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll seems to be a human cultivation technique, but I'm afraid Princess Zi doesn't have the patience to cultivate it. None of the other cultivation techniques in our dragon palace will fit her." Suddenly, Premier Xia changed the subject. "Third Lord has taken the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll to restart his cultivation since his damaged dragon core can take this opportunity to cultivate the five elemental essences simultaneously to build a solid foundation."

"Why did you bring him up suddenly?" Elder Xingyue's beautiful eyes glanced at Premier Xia.

A smile appeared on Premier Xia's withered face. "Third Lord hasn't sent back any messages after being out for so long. I miss him quite a lot."

Wringing her hands, Elder Xingyue sighed lightly and said in a low voice, "He's a lucky man. He will be fine."

"Hehe, I hope so. I'm sorry to disturb your cultivation. I'd better go now." Premier Xia stood up and walked out of the living room.

Elder Xingyue sat in the armchair, deep in thought. Then, she exhaled deeply and touched the warm wooden box containing the godly elixir pills before walking out of the door.

Above the dragon palace, the blue waves were surging. She looked up at the layers of blue waves and was a bit emotional.

After a little pause, she crossed the small garden and walked toward Su Han's room.

"My disciple is luck. She is cold, but someone still cares for her. However, there's someone out there pursuing the Heavenly Dragon Realm and doesn't send any messages back even though it has already been more than half a month. Everyone says that I like to cultivation. But in fact, I am on a hard journey pursuing that magnificent figure before me," she thought.

In her fluttering robe, Elder Xingyue shook her head slightly and gently pushed open the door to Su Han's room.