Chapter 19: Yun Wan Breaks Through Foundation Establishment

Xie Tingyun hadn't expected her to cry.

His hand tightened around the demon core. His voice dipped. "You're crying?"

Yun Wan was crying from pure, white-hot anger.

This was the closest she had ever come to dying. A real brush with death, close enough to feel it breathing on her neck. She had put everything on Xie Tingyun because she trusted him, and his flat, indifferent response hit her like a stone dropping into still water — no ripple, no acknowledgment, nothing.

She wiped her face with the back of her hand and kicked him.

He didn't move. Didn't dodge, didn't step back, just stood there and took it. Yun Wan's temper was fully alight and she kicked him again, but she had just spent everything she had fighting a demon beast. The blow landed soft and harmless against his black robe.

She was exhausted.

She turned her back to him and cried quietly, shoulders shaking.

She had been beaten bloody in the boxing ring before. Cracked ribs. Couldn't breathe without pain. Not once had she felt this wronged.

Behind her, Xie Tingyun's grip on the demon core went tight. "Do you want to rest and continue?" A pause. His eyes cut sideways to the tree beside him. "Or..."

When she had cried herself empty, Yun Wan dropped cross-legged onto the ground. "Your turn to explain."

Xie Tingyun crouched to her level. "Regulate your breathing first."

She was annoyed, but she obeyed. The spiritual energy pooled at her core felt different — thick, clear, almost luminous. She pushed it gently and it moved through her body with none of the old resistance.

The original owner of this body had a furnace physique. Weak cultivation, thin internal energy, always struggling. But right now, what Yun Wan felt in her eight extraordinary meridians was noticeably fuller. Not by much. But for this body, it was enormous.

Had she broken through Qi Refining? Into Foundation Establishment?

She almost couldn't believe it.

"A cultivator has to conquer fear before they can advance." Xie Tingyun's voice was calm. His eyes were not. "Wanwan. You cannot put your life in anyone else's hands. Not anyone. The only way you survive this world is by relying on yourself."

That landed.

She had understood from the moment she arrived how this world worked. Two words summed it up: eat or be eaten. She had wanted to reach Kunlun Sect to learn to fight. She had sought Xie Tingyun's protection because she didn't want to die on the road. But somewhere along the way she had gotten comfortable. She had started assuming he would always appear when things went wrong. She had forgotten that this road would eventually end — and he wouldn't always be there when it did.

That was the lesson he had just forced her to learn.

"Also," he added, "I placed a protective barrier on you beforehand. You were never in real danger."

Yun Wan sat with that for a moment. She looked down at the fresh bootprint pressed into the front of his black robe.

"Did I hurt you?"

Her lashes were still wet. The fury in her eyes had burned out.

Xie Tingyun's expression softened, just barely. "If I say yes, will you deduct it from my wages?"

She laughed despite herself.

"Eat." He held out the demon core again.

She had just taken it when a sharp, familiar voice cracked through the air behind her.

"You two again?!"

Yun Wan turned. Pink robes, silver sword, a young man in gray trailing half a step behind. Qin Zhiyan and Chu Lin, whom she had parted from just the night before.

Yun Wan stared at Chu Lin. He had been half-dead yesterday. Now he looked like he'd slept twelve hours and eaten a full meal.

Male protagonist energy. Truly terrifying.

"We got word that demon beasts were attacking people on Xiaotian Peak," Qin Zhiyan said, already scanning the area. Then she saw the corpses. Her eyes went wide. "Don't tell me — you killed all of these?!"

Having two of her sect's missions stolen by the same people twice in a row had done something to Qin Zhiyan's composure.

Before Yun Wan could speak, Xie Tingyun reached into his robe and produced a handful of demon cores. Seven. Eight. He held them in his open palm with the casual ease of someone displaying fruit at a market.

"Just collecting a few for her to snack on."

He remembered. The day Qin Zhiyan had called it wasteful — he had filed that away and waited.

Qin Zhiyan stared at the pile of cores in his hand and said nothing. The color rose in her face.

Xie Tingyun opened the small cloth bag at Yun Wan's hip and tipped them all in. "Eat them like sweets."

Yun Wan was touched and wanted to hit him. Everyone else brought offerings to Buddha. This man had walked into the temple garden, ripped up the flowers by the roots, and handed them over. Extraordinary.

She stretched her arms out toward him. "Carry me."

Her legs had gone numb from sitting and her whole body ached from the fight. She was not walking another step.

He turned his back to her without comment and she climbed on.

"Disgusting," Qin Zhiyan snapped, eyes sharp with irritation. "Having a man carry you in broad daylight. Have you no shame?"

"Oh." Yun Wan tilted her head. "I see."

Qin Zhiyan blinked. What? What do you see?

Yun Wan slid off Xie Tingyun's back, took two running steps, and launched herself onto Qin Zhiyan's back. Her legs locked around her waist. One hand gave her a light pat on the hip. "Then I'll have a woman carry me. Let's go."

Qin Zhiyan went completely still.

Then her lips began to tremble.

She burst into tears.

No one had ever done this to her. Not once in her entire life.

"Get off!" She thrashed, trying to throw her off. "Get off, get off, you shameless — get off me right now!"

Yun Wan held on like an octopus and went nowhere.

Qin Zhiyan twisted, lunged, shook herself — couldn't shake her loose. The humiliation sat in her chest like something she had accidentally swallowed whole.

Yun Wan liked rattling her. But she wasn't cruel. When she judged the moment was right, she dropped back to her feet.

Qin Zhiyan drew her sword before she had even fully turned around.

The blade was called Tianxue, forged from snow stone mined in the Tianshan peaks. Cold light that could travel a thousand miles. Soft as silk, sharp as a shark's tooth.

"I will kill you."

Xie Tingyun and Chu Lin both went still.

Yun Wan looked at her calmly. "When are you planning to pay back what you owe me?"

The sword tip wavered.

The killing intent leaked out of the air like heat from an open door.

Qin Zhiyan remembered. Tens of thousands of spirit stones, still unpaid.

"Little Heavenly Peak belongs to an old man who runs a jade mine," Yun Wan said, businesslike now. "He hired me because a carving master moved in and ruined his operation. Since your sect already knows about the demon beasts, I'll hand it off to you." She fished a demon core from her pocket and held it out. "Take it. Consider it a gift."

Qin Zhiyan's eyes narrowed. She did not trust this. Not even slightly.

Yun Wan stepped closer and slung an arm around her shoulder. Qin Zhiyan wrenched away immediately. "Don't touch me."

"After you handle it," Yun Wan continued, unbothered, "meet up with us. I have something worth hearing."

"For what."

Yun Wan dropped her voice. "A way to make money. Come in with me, I'll cancel your debt and you walk away with profit on top."

Qin Zhiyan's expression flickered. Just for a second.

She didn't trust Yun Wan. But the flicker had been real.

Yun Wan pressed the demon core into her hand without waiting for an answer, then added a small pink handkerchief on top. Her spare junk. Perfect for disarming irritating female supporting characters with secretly soft hearts.

The gesture landed somewhere unexpected.

Qin Zhiyan had been sent down this mountain twice already, both times returning with nothing. If she came back empty-handed from Xiaotian Peak too, her father would say something. He was already unhappy about the spirit stones she had burned through yesterday. No allowance for at least two weeks.

If Yun Wan could actually help her turn a profit on top of clearing the debt...

What could possibly feel better than making money off someone you despised?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"You're not tricking me?" Qin Zhiyan kept her voice hard.

Yun Wan pulled out the debt note and handed it over too. "Does that settle it?"

Qin Zhiyan's eyes went wide.

Either this girl was ruthlessly clever or completely stupid. Given what she had just witnessed, probably the former.

"Besides," Yun Wan added, "your senior brother is right there. If I betray you, have him cut my throat."

That, Qin Zhiyan liked hearing. She lifted her chin. "Fine. I'll hold onto the note — so you can't claim I broke my promise again later."

"Perfect."

Yun Wan put the note back in her pocket.

"This old man at Xiaotian Peak — where is he now?"

"Wangshan City."

"We're going there anyway." Qin Zhiyan reached into her storage ring and produced a small golden boat. She raised one finger, spoke a spell, and the boat expanded outward — hull stretching wide, railings rising, gleaming gold in the mountain light. The most extravagant thing Yun Wan had seen since arriving in this cultivation world.

She stared.

Qin Zhiyan's smugness was immediate and complete. "Country bumpkin. Are you getting on, or were you expecting me to carry you again?"

Yun Wan ran up the boarding plank.

The Baolong Boat. The hull could shrink or expand at will, and anything stored on it would remain preserved for a thousand years — a merchant's vessel, standard in wealthier circles. But Qin Zhiyan's version was another level: thick red carpet, pink privacy curtains, a jade table laid with fresh fruit and pastries.

Yun Wan looked back down at Xie Tingyun still standing on the ground below and waved him up, eyes bright. "Xie Tingyun! Come on! No more riding through high-altitude wind!"

The brightness in her face did something to his expression he hadn't prepared for.

"There's no need, my sword can—"

The sword left his hand on its own. It sailed cleanly through the air and settled into Yun Wan's arms.

Finally, the peerless sword thought. No more being ridden.

Xie Tingyun stood very still. Then he clasped his hands behind his back and walked up the plank with perfect composure.

The Baolong Boat lifted into the clouds. Smooth, sealed from the wind, silent.

Qin Zhiyan, determined to demonstrate the full weight of what they were benefiting from, laid out wines that hadn't been seen in Hengshan in decades and delicacies that had no business being this far from the capital.

Xie Tingyun caught the fragrance. He hadn't smelled something like that in over a hundred years. His face stayed neutral.

His thoughts did not.

This is actually quite good.

He would get one.

Yun Wan ate peaches and drank wine and forgot, completely and without guilt, every difficult thing that had happened to her that day.

She leaned toward Xie Tingyun and murmured, "You should really get one of these. We'd never have to suffer the wind again."

Before he could answer, Qin Zhiyan cut in without looking up. "A Baolong Boat costs at least a million spirit stones. Can you even afford it?"

Xie Tingyun's hand stopped moving. He set his wine cup down. He turned to Yun Wan with the gravity of a man delivering important counsel.

"Wanwan," he said, "don't be so competitive."