Chapter 145 - Liu Lan’s Romantic History

“Senior Gan, what do you mean?” asked Long Chen with surprise.

“You don’t have to hide it anymore. Everyone knows,” said Gan Lin with a forced smile. “We all know about what happened just now, that you two confessed your relationship to Chu Yunxi. This news is probably going to spread throughout the whole Turquoise family very soon. It’s going to be the biggest piece of news before the inner family qualifiers ...”

Fuck!

Long Chen cursed privately. He knew this was Liu Lan’s doing.

Obviously, she couldn’t let anyone know that she had hatched a scheme that involved Long Chen walking in on her during a bath, so she had to resort to a funny lie like this one. However, it was exactly juicy gossip like this that people easily fell for ...

My reputation is going to spread across all the nine outer families, seeing as I stepped on Chu Yunxi to snatch his love! But I’m going to be in so much trouble during the inner family qualifiers. Liu Lan!!

Long Chen had the urge to swallow Liu Lan whole.

After bidding Gan Lin farewell, Long Chen turned to return to his quarters. But Liu Ling, who lived next door, was standing at her door and glaring at him. “You bastard! I won’t let you touch my sister!”

Then she shut her door with a bang.

“Huh?”

Long Chen’s resentment was indescribable.

Whatever! They can think whatever they want! I need to work hard and cultivate while I can. Not just for Lingqing, but also to stay alive! I must survive the inner family qualifiers!

But I’ll be competing against the best prodigies from all nine outer families. The pressure is on ...

When he pushed the door open, Ling Xi was already waiting for him.

When he saw the concern in her eyes, his heart suddenly became infinitely calmer.

He felt like a ship returning home after fighting the rough seas for a decade.

“You’re back.”

“Mhm.”

***

Long Chen spent the next ten days cultivating.

Two of those days were dedicated to hunting demonic beasts at the Heavenly Martial Realm. He still couldn’t kill Category Five Black-tier beasts, so he had to stick to Category Fours.

News of the unfortunate event involving Liu Lan had spread across all the outer families, causing the Turquoise Imperial Hall to turn into the butt of the joke and target the Turquoise Sun Hall.

Long Chen kept a low profile within the Heavenly Martial Realm in order to avoid creating more conflict.

He lived like a mouse, hiding himself to avoid unnecessary conflict. He didn’t even take the demonic cores and Beast Souls he collected to the Treasure Pavilion for contribution points.

At this point, Ling Xi was naturally well aware of what had happened to Long Chen that day, though he had given her a watered-down version of the story. After Ling Xi heard it, she was merely disgusted by Liu Lan.

The inner qualifiers were getting very close. “Even if Chu Yunxi doesn’t go for me immediately, many of the other prodigies are on the same level as him. If I aim to join the inner family, being at the late Human Core Realm is definitely not enough.”

Sitting in the spacious underground room, Long Chen consumed the blood essence of four Category Four Black-tier demonic beasts. However, they didn’t have much of an effect. He was indeed closer to the Earthly Core Realm, but he did not make a breakthrough.

All the inner family members were excited for the inner family qualifiers.

The qualifiers were a huge event for the outer families. Only the best of the best members of the outer families could win, and they would shine brightly when they joined the inner families. This was also a platform for the outer families to compete against each other. Although they were all united against the outer world, there was still a lot of internal competition.

The nine outer families had worked as hard as they could to prepare for this event, to show off their strength and strengthen their ranking amongst the outer families.

The Turquoise family members were especially excited.

In other families, the two participants all had great relationships and made great partners. However, the Turquoise family had Long Chen, who was at the Human Core Realm and was selected despite not meeting the requirements. Most importantly, there was a huge ongoing conflict between him and Chu Yunxi.

Everyone loved gossip. At this point, there was no one in the nine outer families who didn’t know the romantic story of Chu Yunxi fighting another man to the death over a woman.

The most mysterious character in this story was Long Chen. It hadn’t even been two months since he joined, but his cultivation had skyrocketed from the Eighth Draconic Stage to the late Human Core Realm.

Not only was he impressive in the field of cultivation, he was also a force to be reckoned with when it came to romance. Everyone thought Liu Lan and Chu Yunxi were going to be a definite match, yet Long Chen had somehow won her heart instead. It was like giving a head of good cabbage to a pig, or a flower stuck in a lump of cow dung.

The fact that these two love rivals were going to represent the Turquoise family as a team triggered curiosity in the audience. That was why they were all looking forward to the qualifiers.

There were about ten days left until the first day of the eleventh month. Every day that they waited felt like a year.

Although Long Chen had won in the field of romance, he was likely going to suffer on the battlefield.

Being the only one at the Human Core Realm among the twenty participants, Long Chen had attracted a lot of attention. Countless people pored over his details, and it was surmised that although he had defeated Feng Wutian, he was still the weakest participant in the qualifiers.

Whenever Long Chen went out, he found that most people in Lingwu City were talking about the inner family qualifiers. He was also one of the most popular topics. The conversations about him were never positive, and when they mentioned him, they said that they wanted to witness how big the fight between him and his love rival would be. “Chu Yunxi is the ultimate miracle prodigy, and the Chu family has deep pockets. The beautiful Liu Lan must have been dropped on her head as a baby—why else would she pick a pig like Long Chen!?”

Every time he heard something like that, he had to fight the urge to vomit blood. This was why he didn’t dare go to the Treasure Pavilion, because if he were surrounded by these people, he’d probably drown from the spit.

“What a shameless bitch.” Ling Xi had also been furious for days, puffing up her cheeks. “Long Chen, it will indeed be difficult for you to compete against them at your cultivation level now. Don’t worry though, now that I have consumed the Soul Grass, I can at least launch one attack that an Earthly Core Realm cultivator cannot withstand. If that Chu bastard tries to touch you, I’m killing him!”

When she recalled that he had hurt Long Chen, she grew furious.

Long Chen felt slightly helpless. “Whatever. I will just have to hope for a breakthrough during the qualifiers. If not, I might not stand a chance ...”

Ever since he joined the Lingwu family, his status and reputation had quickly risen, so he never felt afraid. However, this time, he needed to compete against all the other prodigies from the other outer families, which made him feel helpless.

I don’t think I’ll be able to take revenge on Chu Yunxi any time soon.

Just as he was thinking about it, what made him feel even more helpless was that Liu Lan was here to see him.

He didn’t want to see her, but she continued to stubbornly wait outside. “Xiao Xi, I’m going to go out and see what nonsense she spouts. Don’t be rash. That woman is very strong. We’ll wait until I’m stronger to beat her up. What do you think of that?”

Before he left, he saw Ling Xi’s dark, hostile glare and quickly pacified her.

“Hmph! Wait till I recover my strength, I’ll make her suffer.”

When he opened the door, Liu Lan was wearing the black chiffon dress that she had worn the first night she entered his room, revealing her attractive figure. However, she was also wearing a black cloak that covered her face.

“The inner family qualifiers are about to begin, and you have no trump card. There is a large auction at Yuanling City’s Dawn Trading Alliance marketplace today. Shall we go check it out?”

Long Chen wanted to shoo her off the moment he emerged to avoid accidentally attacking her out of rage. But when he heard about the auction, he hesitated and then decided to go.

He took another cloak from Liu Lan and followed her to Lingwu City.

Many cultivators had offended someone or done something to create enemies, so it was quite common to hide one’s identity. And being secretive was especially common at auctions. That was why it was normal to wear a cloak to one.

Since he had the cloak, Long Chen could walk openly next to Liu Lan without causing a huge commotion.

“It’s been a lively ten days. Your romantic history has become a popular topic for after-meal gossip,” said Long Chen mildly.

“Is that a complaint, or are you enjoying it?” Liu Lan asked, amused.

“Are you teasing me again?”

Liu Lan smiled, neither agreeing or disagreeing. “Don’t worry about those things too much. Long Chen ...” Her brows furrowed. “The qualifiers are far more dangerous than you can imagine. It doesn’t matter if you believe me, but I genuinely don’t want you to die.”

“Are you actually a cougar?”

No matter how good her upbringing was, his repeated insinuations of her being old almost made her rage. However, she owed him, and now was not a good time to rage.

Rolling her eyes, she continued, “All I can do is apologize for what happened last time. Chu Yunxi turned out to be more extreme than I expected. When the qualifiers begin, I expect he’ll kill you no matter the cost.”

“What are you trying to say? Are you happy about it?” Long Chen’s voice turned cold.

“I didn’t mean that.” Liu Lan panicked a little. “I am just telling you to be more reserved this time. Staying alive is your priority. You’re still young, a few years younger than Chu Yunxi, and you’ve only just joined the Lingwu family. You will be able to surpass him in the future.”

“That’s enough. I will not show mercy towards people who should be killed,” Long Chen stated, then he walked ahead.