By the time the meeting finally wound down, the moon was hanging high over the sect. Jia Wei Xin, exhausted from both the travel and the impromptu sect politics, was finally allowed to retire early to her room.
Meanwhile, Liu Mo Fei remained behind—still lazily fielding question after question from the endlessly buzzing elders.
---
The first three days passed in a strangely comfortable rhythm.
In the mornings, Jia Wei Xin would be dragged—sometimes literally—out of bed by a smiling Liu Mo Fei. No matter how sleepy or grumpy she was, he never let her skip training.
"You want to grow stronger, don't you?" he would say with a cheeky grin, placing a bowl of steaming, delicious breakfast on the table. "And also—you look cutest when you're half-asleep."
(That second part he usually mumbled when he thought she couldn't hear.)
They trained seriously for a few hours each morning and evening, Liu Mo Fei surprisingly strict when it came to her techniques. He genuinely wanted her to get stronger. And under his guidance—sharp, hands-on, and occasionally way too close—Jia Wei Xin greatly improved.
---
Throughout the days, smaller groups of elders would come by to meet with Liu Mo Fei, usually four or five at a time. Sometimes they needed Jia Wei Xin's clarification on the decentralized hub plan as they finalized it for execution. Other times, they consulted her on unrelated management issues—because they discovered, to their secret admiration, that Jia Wei Xin thought differently than most people and could offer creative, refreshing solutions to problems they'd struggled with for years.
Apparently, her "reinventing fire" moment had left a much deeper impression than she realized.
---
Of course, Liu Mo Fei never missed an opportunity to pamper her.
Exquisite spirit dishes, rare fruits, pastries made from high-grade spirit grains—every meal was basically a luxury banquet, no matter how much Jia Wei Xin protested.
"You need energy to train," Liu Mo Fei would say, acting all innocent.
Meanwhile, Zhou Li just quietly suffered in the background, managing the endless luxurious purchases from Liu Mo Fei's private fund. At this rate, Zhou Li thought wryly, if Sect Head Liu didn't earn more soon, he would bankrupt himself within five years.
Not that Liu Mo Fei cared. He already had far more wealth than he could spend—thanks to running a web of highly successful businesses outside the sect. In fact, Liu Mo Fei was a ruthlessly sharp businessman with an uncanny ability to attract top talent. His business managers were all elite, and the profits flowed steadily without him lifting a finger. In short—there was no end to his wealth. Plenty enough to pamper his future wife... and his current precious disciple.
---
But on the fourth day, everything changed.
In the morning, they were deep in an intense sparring session when Jia Wei Xin, breathless, grumbled mid-fight.
"Teacher, are you enjoying torturing me every day?" she panted, dodging a strike. "You feed me something delicious and pump up my energy, then you torture me again. Is Sifu secretly sadistic?"
Liu Mo Fei only chuckled, leisurely pressing forward.
"If you want to get out of this," he teased lazily, "you can always become my wife."He winked."My wife will have higher status than me. I wouldn't dare bully her."
Before Jia Wei Xin could even splutter a reply—Liu Mo Fei suddenly froze mid-strike.
---
He felt it—the wild surge in Jia Wei Xin's qi.
Her body, still delicate in cultivation terms, trembled violently. Energy burst from her in a chaotic, terrifying wave.
A visible shockwave exploded outward from her core, rippling across the courtyard.
Tiles cracked. Lanterns shattered. Trees bent sharply as if bowing to an unseen king.
Jia Wei Xin had broken through—reaching Level 3!
Even the high elders meditating in distant halls opened their eyes in alarm.
This—This was not normal.
Usually, only Nascent Soul cultivators or higher breaking a major bottleneck would cause such terrifying shockwaves.
Yet now—the energy clearly originated from the direction of Liu Mo Fei's private courtyard.
The elders exchanged sharp glances across their meditation halls, their faces darkening with realization.
If it wasn't Liu Mo Fei himself— (and it couldn't be, since Sect Head Liu had already long reached the highest stage long time ago)—then the only possible answer...
Was the disciple he had just brought back.
---
"Jia Wei Xin!" Liu Mo Fei snapped, leaping to catch her as her knees buckled.
Her face was deathly pale. Her breathing shallow. A golden-red mist of energy still clung to her skin, sparking with unsettling flashes of light.
He pressed a hand to her back, channeling a thread of his qi into her. His expression darkened instantly.
Inside her dantian—her spiritual core—two forces were tangled together, fighting for dominance.
Her native pure qi...and something darker, sweeter, infinitely more dangerous.
Demonic qi.
And terrifyingly—it wasn't harming her. It was helping.
But carrying two energies inside her body came at a terrible price.
---
Liu Mo Fei gritted his teeth.
Someone had been secretly infusing energy into Jia Wei Xin while she was idle. While she slept. While she drifted into deep unconsciousness after heavy training.
It wasn't ordinary cultivation assistance. It was a high-level demonic technique—originally designed to steal qi from victims during their most defenseless moments. When the body relaxed into deep sleep or unconsciousness, its energy defenses naturally weakened, making it vulnerable to subtle invasion.
---
"Zhang Tian!!!" Liu Mo Fei roared inwardly, his killing intent sending a ripple through the entire courtyard.
But somehow—Zhang Tian had reversed the technique.
Instead of stealing her energy, he was pouring his own qi into her. Silently. Relentlessly.
It was a method that even among demons, only the most skilled could perform—because infusing energy into a sleeping or unconscious body without causing damage required terrifying precision.
Zhang Tian, in his mad devotion, had mastered it flawlessly. Every strand of energy he gave her was carefully controlled, carefully fed.
He wasn't careless.
He truly believed he was helping her grow stronger.
The real danger—was that Jia Wei Xin's body was still too young, too untempered, to bear the weight of so much rapid power.
And worse—Zhang Tian had miscalculated.
He hadn't expected Liu Mo Fei to be training her so fiercely at the same time. Both men, with terrifying focus and skill, were pushing Jia Wei Xin toward greatness—each thinking they were helping her alone.
At the same time, if Liu Mo Fei had known that Zhang Tian had infused so much energy into her, he would not have pushed Jia Wei Xin so hard these three days.
After all, she had just achieved Level 2 two days ago.
But when two forces—righteous and demonic—both tried to accelerate her growth without knowing about the other...
The result was chaos. Beautiful, dangerous chaos.
People said great minds think alike—definitely true for Liu Mo Fei and Zhang Tian. Too bad both of them were complete idiots when it came to her.
Without realizing it, Jia Wei Xin had been carrying this unstable burden for days...until now, her body could take no more.
---
Jia Wei Xin must have felt it.
In truth, she had felt it—the painful surges, the shivering cold sweats that sometimes lasted minutes...and most recently, nearly two full hours through the night.
But every time it passed, she foolishly thought it would eventually go away. After all, she was used to braving hardships herself.
Jia Wei Xin was never the type to complain easily. In her old world and now in this one, her instinct was always the same: grit her teeth, endure, and find a solution quietly.
Being pampered by Liu Mo Fei—being treated like someone precious—was still something so new, so unfamiliar, she didn't even know how to lean on it properly yet.
And seeing Liu Mo Fei already so exhausted, working day and night to run the sect, she hadn't dared burden him more with her own problems.
---
Now, Liu Mo Fei understood everything.
And if he didn't act immediately—she would be torn apart from within.
Without hesitation, he scooped her into his arms and flew toward the sect's most sacred place.
He had never been this desperate to reach somewhere in his life. His heart was burning with an energy that he himself did not even understand.