381: Chapter 381: Hanshan, the owner of the Yanagi family

After their passionate embrace, Li Zhiyi leaned against Chu Sheng's chest, her breathing not yet fully restored to normal, her fingertips tracing idle circles on his chest.

She was silent for a moment, as if deliberating how to speak, and then said.

"You now... just how strong are you? Those fires—the Southern Scorching Flame, the True Sun Fire, and the Nether Blazing Fire—I've never even heard of them, yet you can summon them with a wave of your hand. You didn't have this ability before."

Chu Sheng looked down at her with a hint of a casual smile at the corner of his mouth, his tone as nonchalant as if he were talking about the weather today.

"Average, average, third in the Five Regions."

Li Zhiyi glared at him, clearly not believing it.

Chu Sheng did not explain, merely raising his free hand and casually making a grabbing motion toward the sky above his head.

The entire Liuyun Mountain Range trembled slightly.

Boulders rolled down, birds and beasts flew up in fright, and the ground within a radius of hundreds of miles trembled slightly.

Then, the main peak of the entire mountain range, along with several surrounding peaks, rose slowly by several zhang as if supported by an invisible hand.

They hovered in mid-air, casting a huge shadow in the twilight.

The rubble on the edges of the mountains fell with a rustling sound, crashing onto the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.

But those peaks simply hung there, motionless, as if nailed into mid-air by someone.

From the distance came the terrified howls of Yao Beasts and the flapping sounds of panicked flocks of birds; countless Yao Beasts were fleeing their lairs in a panic, running toward the outer edges of the mountain range without looking back.

Chu Sheng withdrew his hand, and those peaks slowly fell back into their original places, fitting back into the contours of the mountain range.

Not even a single blade of grass in the crevices of the rocks was crushed.

He looked down at Li Zhiyi, his tone still casual: "Do you believe it now?"

Li Zhiyi opened her mouth, unable to speak for a long time. After holding it in for a good while, she squeezed out a sentence: "You... did you just lift up the entire mountain range?"

Chu Sheng said: "Just a little less than half, I'm saving my strength. Otherwise, how am I going to fly you back later?"

In the distance, at the entrance of the Chiyun Cave, the ox demon was squatting behind a large rock, covering its head with its two front hooves.

Beside it squeezed a few shivering lesser demons; one of the bolder ones poked half its head out from a crack in the rock to take a look, then quickly shrank back.

The ox demon lowered its voice and said: "Scatter, scatter, all of you go back into the cave. That brat is just putting on an act, stay away, don't get grazed by him."

As if granted a great reprieve, the lesser demons scrambled back into the Immortal Cave on all fours.

The ox demon itself also shrank its neck, shuffling its feet as it moved toward the cave. When it reached the entrance, it couldn't help but look back at Chu Sheng hanging above the mountain range.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, it turned and squeezed inside, closing the stone door of the cave tightly without leaving even a crack.

Chu Sheng bid farewell to Li Zhiyi.

She stood at the mouth of the valley watching him leave, still clutching that newly acquired spark of fire in her hand.

After walking a few steps, he turned back and shouted: "If you encounter something you can't handle, just wave that fire around, I'll be able to sense it."

Li Zhiyi did not answer, merely waving her hand at him, as if shooing away a distant flying bird.

Chu Sheng did not return directly to Qingshi Town, instead diverting his course to the Liu Family.

The Liu Family estate was more than a circle larger than before; the stone steps in front of the door had been replaced with new ones, and the courtyard walls had been expanded outward quite a bit.

The stone lions at the entrance were polished to a bright sheen, and even the door knockers had been replaced with cast-bronze ones, engraved with intricate patterns that looked like some sort of Family crest.

Liu Qingyan, dressed in the attire of the Family head, was sitting in the main seat of the front hall, flipping through a scroll of documents.

Today she wore a well-tailored dark cyan robe, her long hair tied up and pinned with a simple jade hairpin, her face as still as water, her brows slightly furrowed.

Standing beside her was an old man in official attire, speaking about something; he looked like an imperial official who had just arrived from the Tianfeng Kingdom.

Seated in the side positions on both sides of the front hall were several clan elders of the Liu Family, each sitting upright with lowered heads and drooping eyes, not daring to draw a loud breath in front of Liu Qingyan.

After listening to the official's words, Liu Qingyan nodded gently, lowered her head to write a few strokes on the document scroll before her, and then raised her hand to signal that the official could withdraw.

Her movement was light, yet it carried an unquestionable certainty.

The official took the document scroll, carefully tucked it into his bosom, and withdrew from the front hall.

The several clan elders also rose one after another to excuse themselves, their footsteps extremely light, as if afraid of disturbing something.

The front hall quickly quieted down.

Chu Sheng did not enter the front hall directly; he leaned against the door pillar outside, looking through the half-open door crack at the figure sitting solemnly in the middle of the hall, the corner of his mouth curving up.

Liu Qingyan was indeed capable of standing on her own two feet now; that Aura, that majesty, was like a blade sharpened for many years finally revealing its keen edge.

She hadn't turned into the sort of person who forced out sternness; instead, she truly stood in that position, naturally emanating a quiet confidence that people did not dare underestimate.

Under her management, the Liu Family was no longer that small Family tucked away in a corner.

Even the imperial court of the Tianfeng Kingdom sent people to verify their rank, showing that she had already led the Liu Family to take a crucial step forward.

Chu Sheng stood outside the door without making a sound, watching Liu Qingyan finish handling the last few matters.

She flipped through a few more pages of documents, and only after confirming everything was correct did she put down her brush and massage her glabella, as if the day's affairs had finally come to an end.

After nightfall, Liu Qingyan returned to the back courtyard.

Chu Sheng was already sitting by the table in her room, a pot of freshly brewed tea placed before him, and he was leisurely sipping from his cup.

Seeing Liu Qingyan push the door open and enter, he put down his teacup and glanced at her.

His gaze lingered on her Family head attire for a moment, and then he asked with a trace of a smile: "Where is that Family head? Where did she go?"

Liu Qingyan leaned against the door panel, as if she had finally cast off that tight armor she wore during the day.

She did not answer his question, merely reaching out to untie the jade hairpin binding her hair, letting her long hair tumble down to cover half her face.

She walked over to the table and sat down opposite him, picked up the teacup and took a sip, and after a moment of silence, she spoke: "You saw it?"

Chu Sheng nodded: "I saw it. The Liu Family is indeed different now."

Liu Qingyan looked down at the teacup in her hand, her voice a few shades softer than it had been in the front hall during the day.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm walking quite steadily, and other times I'm afraid that if I walk too fast, I'll stumble."

Chu Sheng reached out, gently pushed her cup aside, and took hold of her hand: "Don't be afraid. Even if you stumble, I'll be there to cushion you."

Liu Qingyan did not pull her hand back, nor did she speak.

She kept her head down, her eyelids lowered, as if weighing the heaviness of those words.

After quite a while, she raised her head, her gaze falling on his face, her voice carrying a softness that would absolutely never appear during the day: "Then are you still leaving tonight?"

Chu Sheng said: "Even if I leave, I won't go far. If there's any movement on your end, I'll sense it."

Liu Qingyan did not reply, merely picking up the cup he had pushed aside and taking another sip.

It was as if she swallowed that sentence down with that gulp of tea, and then nodded gently.

The night wind blew against the window paper, making a faint rustling sound. The candlelight on the table flickered once, then stabilized again.

Liu Qingyan had already changed out of her Family head attire and was wearing a thin nightgown, leaning against Chu Sheng's shoulder.

Tenderness flowed like water.

She didn't ask questions about cultivation or what he had been doing recently, just quietly leaning against him.

Chu Sheng looked down at her and saw that she had already closed her eyes, her breathing steadying as if she were truly relaxing for the first time all day.

He reached out to pull the slipped corner of the quilt up a bit, leaning against the head of the bed without hurrying to sleep.