Chapter 146: Because I Don't Want You to Be Bullied

"By the way, Master, did you just say that excluding myself, there are three disciples in our sect in total? Apart from me and Senior Sister Yu Shi, who is the other senior sister?" Chen Bo asked, looking puzzled.

"Your second senior sister? There's no use telling you, since you don't know her anyway. But disciple, you must cultivate diligently! There is one tiny little rule for being Huoyuanzi's disciple."

"The three of you determine who is the junior and who is the senior based on your strength. If your strength surpasses that of your Senior Sister Yu, then you will be the senior martial brother. So you better not slack off, or you'll be stuck being the little junior brother for the rest of your life! Hahaha!" With those words, Huoyuanzi's figure flashed and vanished, though who knows what could be making him in such a rush.

After Huoyuanzi left, Chen Bo did not linger there for long, as he was a busy man after all. As for what he was busy with? Naturally, he was preparing to go outside and test out the new functions of the system. He wondered if this monster-slaying and level-up feature was really as ridiculously overpowered as the system described.

Walking along the path, Chen Bo thought about how he had suddenly made a dramatic U-turn from being Yu Shifei's student to grandly evolving into Yu Shifei's junior martial brother.

Furthermore, according to Huoyuanzi's words, as long as his strength could surpass Yu Shifei's, he would become the legendary senior martial brother! Just picturing that scene sent a surge of excitement through Chen Bo!

"I have a little donkey that I never ride..." Chen Bo hummed a cheerful little tune, and his entire mood instantly brightened up.

Just as Chen Bo was thinking of returning to his dormitory to rest for a bit, he inadvertently passed by a secluded little lake on the academy grounds and caught sight of a fiercely familiar and graceful figure.

A breeze blew past, causing wave after wave of gentle ripples to dance across the lake's surface, while small silver fish leapt out of the water before plunging back in with a soft splash.

Suddenly, Chen Bo heard a tranquil and ethereal melody played on a zither, carrying a faint hint of a maiden's melancholy within the notes, striking straight at a person's heartstrings.

Chen Bo's brows furrowed slightly as he paced forward and spotted a figure sitting with her eyes closed, playing the instrument.

She was dressed in a pale-colored gown, with a white longsword slung across her waist, and three thousand strands of dark hair danced gently in the wind.

A pair of delicate eyebrows were etched with worry, and a trace of sorrow was even faintly discernible.

The song ended, but the audience had yet to disperse. For some reason, as the melancholic tune finished playing, Chen Bo's own mood grew somewhat depressed as well.

Almost instinctively, Chen Bo walked over to the side of the beauty and sat directly on the ground cross-legged just like her, paying no heed to the dust that might soil his clothes.

"The tune isn't very good, and your expression isn't very good either. Of course, if I'm around, everything else will turn for the better," Chen Bo said, turning his head to gaze straight into the beauty's pretty face.

The sudden masculine voice startled Yu Xin'er slightly. This somewhat magnetic yet utterly infuriating voice sounded rather familiar.

Opening eyes that had not lost their lively sparkle, Yu Xin'er saw the face of the speaker and immediately recalled who it was.

Pulling herself together and effortlessly wiping away the tearstains at the corner of her eyes, she said coldly, "What are you doing here? Aren't you afraid that I'll strike you down with a single sword?"

"Afraid? How could I not be!" Chen Bo continued with a deadpan expression. "However, I'm even more afraid of seeing you like this. Can you tell me what on earth has happened?"

At that moment, Chen Bo could feel his heart pounding wildly, almost as if a motor had been installed inside his chest. Could this count as him confessing his feelings?!

Yet it was merely wishful thinking on his part; Yu Xin'er did not catch Chen Bo's underlying meaning. After all, she was accustomed to devoting herself single-mindedly to cultivation, and her emotional intelligence in such matters was no higher than that of other girls her age.

Yu Xin'er's lively eyes stared straight into Chen Bo's, though regrettably, all she saw was a face as calm as an ancient well. She said, "You shouldn't know."

The so-called calm as an ancient well was actually just Chen Bo being so nervous that he had no idea what expression to make.

"Is it because of that mother of yours?" Chen Bo suddenly remembered something and frowned.

He only then recalled the vicious woman he had nearly disfigured last time, though he didn't elaborate further, considering this was a young woman's private affair.

"No, it's not her." Yu Xin'er had no idea why she was answering Chen Bo's questions, nor why her tone sounded so flustered.

"You're still afraid of her. Why on earth are you afraid of her? She's just an ordinary person, while you are a cultivator with a solid backing like Yu Shifei behind you. It should be she who fears you instead!"

As Chen Bo spoke, his voice involuntarily grew louder. Each and every word pierced straight into Yu Xin'er's heart, leaving her at a complete loss and unsure of how to respond.

Chen Bo looked into her eyes; that cold and detached look had vanished, replaced instead by the bewilderment of a little girl.

Pondering for a brief moment, Chen Bo suddenly reached out and grabbed Yu Xin'er's small hand. Under her gaze—which shifted from astonishment to bashful anger—he said, "I know you were in some kind of trouble that day. If you want to solve it, follow me."

For some reason, Chen Bo's voice right now seemed filled with an irresistible persuasiveness, and Yu Xin'er allowed herself to be pulled along in a daze.

"Hey? Isn't that Yu Xin'er? Why is she holding hands with a man?! Heavens! Is my goddess about to fall? Has such a delicate flower been stuck in a pile of cow dung?"

"What the hell! Who on earth is that guy? How dare he hold Yu Xin'er's hand! Isn't he afraid of being beaten half to death by Guo Liu? Or does this guy have a background that makes him unafraid of the Guo family?"

"Tsk! That's definitely a relative of Yu Xin'er's, like an older or younger brother. What's so shocking about siblings holding hands?"

"That's not right! I remember Yu Xin'er has practically no male relatives in her family. There's no way she has any brothers!"

"In my opinion, that's an 'adoptive' brother! What a slut!"

"What the hell, you stinky bitch, how dare you curse my goddess!"

[...]

Enduring all kinds of envious, jealous, and hateful gazes, Chen Bo was actually extremely anxious inside, half-worried that these men might rush forward and tear him to pieces.

After all, the person he was holding onto right now was the campus belle of Tianyang Academy! The perfection-incarnate goddess in the hearts of countless students!

Still, Chen Bo's psychological fortitude was decent enough; he kept pulling Yu Xin'er all the way to his dormitory.

By this time, Yu Xin'er had finally snapped out of her daze. She violently shook off Chen Bo's hand and raged, "You little thief, you never change your wicked ways!"

With that, she made to draw her longsword and slash at him.

"Whoa, wait! Wait! Don't be impulsive!" Seeing that Yu Xin'er was about to resort to violence, Chen Bo hurriedly called a halt and said, "I'm trying to help you here! You really can't tell good intentions from bad."

"Help me? Do I need your help? And what trouble do I have that requires help?" Yu Xin'er said coldly.

"Look, aren't you free from frowning now?" Chen Bo shrugged.

Yu Xin'er was taken aback. It seemed that was indeed the case... but what was the deal with dragging her into his dorm room?

Chen Bo looked at Yu Xin'er's angry expression and suddenly realized that a single man and a single woman alone together could easily lead people's minds astray.

"Don't get me wrong! I know what's troubling you, and I have a way to help you solve it!" Chen Bo said with certainty.

At this, Yu Xin'er hesitated somewhat and said, "Can you really do it? But you don't have any influence in Tianyang City at all. How can you help me?"

"Does helping someone always require having some kind of background?" Chen Bo countered.

Under Yu Xin'er's silent gaze, Chen Bo continued, "When an ordinary man is pushed to wrath, blood can spill five steps! Xin'er, if you want to resolve this trouble, you must prepare to give up everything."

"Give up your status, your family... well, as for your family, you certainly already know how to make that choice."

Yu Xin'er was not stupid; she somewhat understood what Chen Bo was aiming to do, and asked in shock, "Aren't you even afraid of death?"

"As cultivators of our generation, why should we fear a battle? Ever since stepping onto the path of cultivation, life and death have long been cast aside. Someone like you who only knows how to practice in seclusion lacks this the most. Let me ask you, are you afraid?"

Are you afraid?

Afraid?

No! She was not afraid! If she were afraid, she wouldn't have survived until now!

With her gaze growing increasingly resolute, Yu Xin'er bit her lower lip and said, "I am not afraid!"

"Since you're not afraid, what are you hesitating about now? Since you're not afraid of death, why haven't you made your choice yet? You are afraid! What are you still afraid of? Afraid of your stepmother? Afraid of your stepfather?" Chen Bo's words struck like demonic incantations, continuously shattering Yu Xin'er's worldview.

"I said I am not afraid!!!" Yu Xin'er shouted these words out, her voice so loud that Chen Bo's ears almost rang.

The moment those words left her lips, Yu Xin'er felt a stifled, murky energy that had weighed heavily in her heart for years suddenly vanish. It felt as though her cultivation realm had advanced a step further.

This sight left Chen Bo dumbfounded. She truly was a peerless cultivation genius; a mere casual pointing from him had shattered her lingering inner demons.

Her future cultivation would surely soar by leaps and bounds. For some reason, an indescribable sense of accomplishment suddenly welled up inside him. This feeling was seriously awesome!

Yu Xin'er's eyes grew clearer and clearer. She gazed with a complex expression at the smiling Chen Bo beside her and said, "Thank... thank you."

"What are you thanking me for? You're the one who shattered your own inner demons. Since you're no longer afraid, do you dare to join me in pulling off something big?" Chen Bo smiled.

Without waiting for Yu Xin'er to reply, Chen Bo pulled two sets of night-crawling assassin outfits out of his dormitory wardrobe and said, "See if these fit."

He had bought these out of boredom some time ago, back when he had been afflicted with severe delusions of grandeur and thought it looked terribly uncool for a hero not to have a few majestic sets of night stealth wear.

Consequently, he had bought several sets in different styles, but had never had the chance to use them. Now that the opportunity had finally arrived, Chen Bo was beyond thrilled!

He could already picture himself wearing the stealth gear and leaping back and forth across rooftops—truly dashing enough. What young man didn't harbor a martial arts hero dream?

Accepting the night-crawling outfit, Yu Xin'er stared fixedly at the excited Chen Bo and murmured, "Why are you helping me?"

"Huh?"

Though the voice was soft, Chen Bo still heard it. Hesitating for a moment, he said, "Because... well, I just don't want to see you getting bullied!"