NOVPUBYan Yu woke up feeling quite uncomfortable.
As soon as he awoke, he felt both his upper and lower body tightly grasped by someone.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out that Yun Jin had come at some point and was sleeping on his right side, holding his upper body tightly.
Ningning was still lying on his left. This girl had a habit that when she was sleeping next to someone, she would subconsciously reach out to hold hands. But since Yan Yu’s upper body was in Yun Jin’s arms, perhaps she couldn’t reach his hand, so...
Ah, it was all because of the vigor of the early morning!
Yan Yu carefully pushed Yun Jin’s arm away and painstakingly pried Lin Ning’s fingers off one by one. Finally, he managed to extricate himself from the embrace of the two girls and sat up, planning to change his clothes.
He had just taken off his pajamas when someone barged in through the wall.
"Yan Yu," Zhao Yuanzhen came in and asked, "have you seen Ningning? She hasn’t made breakfast... oh?"
Her gaze fell on Yun Jin and Ningning, who were sound asleep on both sides of him, and her look clearly expressed her indignation at how he always seemed to wake up with bedfellows.
"Why didn’t you knock when you came in?" Yan Yu carefully stepped over Lin Ning’s body, got out of bed, and began fastening the buttons on his shirt.
"They all come through walls; why should I bother knocking?" Zhao Yuanzhen asked coldly, "Now tell me, how did Ningning and Yun Jin end up on your bed?"
"Because I’m handsome," Yan Yu answered calmly, "They just couldn’t restrain themselves. You can’t blame them for that, the heavens are to blame for giving me such a handsome face..."
"Then I can’t restrain myself either!" Zhao Yuanzhen immediately fumed, her anger rising, and with a leap, she executed the "Fish Caught in Secret Grasp," pinning Yan Yu’s head under her armpit, "Off you go! Go make me breakfast!"
"Stop squeezing! My neck’s going to break!"
"I’ll squeeze you to death!"
Zhao Yuanzhen dragged Yan Yu away. As the door shut with a slam, Lin Ning took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
She turned her head instinctively and saw Yun Jin, who had also gotten up without a word and was just silently gazing back at her.
The two shared a silent look for a moment.
"You’re here," Ningning said.
"I’m here," Yun Jin replied.
"You shouldn’t have come," Ningning said.
"But I still came," Yun Jin said.
"You’re too hasty," Ningning said.
"You’re afraid," Yun Jin said.
"I don’t want to be left behind by you guys," Ningning said.
"I must surpass you guys," Yun Jin said.
"Then I wish you smooth sailing," Ningning said.
"I also wish you success in your endeavors," Yun Jin said.
Although the two hadn’t spoken out loud, their eye contact probably meant just that. And then Ningning finally spoke up:
"I should get up and make breakfast now."
"I’ll help you in a moment," Yun Jin said with a smile.
Both of them climbed out of bed and silently returned to their own rooms to change clothes without mentioning the incident further.
——————————
Shortly after breakfast, members of the Huofeng Team officially came over to visit, intending to have a joint training session with the Zhenhai Team at the academy’s training ground.
"Good morning, Captain Yan." Tang Xiaolian was the first one to greet Yan Yu.
Zhou Hongyu, who was behind her, narrowed her eyes but didn’t say much — at least in front of her own team members, she was still that cool and imposing captain who was curt with everyone else.
"Morning," Yan Yu nodded to Tang Xiaolian and then confirmed with Zhang Huaide, "Your team now has four at the Hua Mansion Stage, right?"
"We’re minus Qingxi and Hou Qing," Zhang Huaide nodded, "They’re likely to advance within the week so we brought them along to observe the combat at the Hua Mansion Stage."
"No problem," Yan Yu of course wouldn’t split up their team and continued, "Regarding the sparring, Ling Yun and I have worked out a plan; let me hear your thoughts first..."
In the Hua Mansion Stage version, the dominant position of the Sword Immortal vocation was somewhat weakened, with Magic Cultivators being strengthened instead. With the initial construction of the Purple Mansion, both True Yuan capacity and strength saw significant improvements, allowing Magic Cultivators to start transition from artillery to bomber. Therefore, how to leverage the strength of powerful Taoism Methods,
"Yun Jin’s Star River Secret Art, for now, we’ll leave it to Captain Zhou’s Great Bright Fire to deal with," Yan Yu said, "She needs to shift from restriction to offense, and in this aspect, she is still junior and has a lot to learn from Captain Zhou."
"As for Ruoxi, her Thunder Method is too dangerous, so we’ll use your best defender, Qin Meng. I’ll remind Ruoxi to control her True Yuan strength well, and the school’s medical team will be standing by."
"Reasonable," Zhang Huaide said, "What else?"
"Ling Yun is a Cultivator Envoy, so let her spar with Xiao Lian," Yan Yu continued, "Ghost Summoner versus Bug Summoner, their summoned creatures number is about the same, which is good for practicing battlefield command and troop deployment; and for Yuanzhen, I hope you can be her sparring partner."
"I’m against Zhao Yuanzhen?" Zhang Huaide appeared surprised, "Captain Yan, aren’t you overestimating my swordsmanship?"
"Sparring is not the same as fighting, winning or losing doesn’t matter, what’s important is whether you can improve in certain areas," Yan Yu said with a smile, "Her strength lies in aggressive attacks, but this time I’m going to ask her to focus on defense. Brother Zhang, help me find any gaps in her defense."
"I’ll do my best," Zhang Huaide adjusted his glasses lightly, "Then Lin Ning..."
"I’ll spar with her," Yan Yu said, "No one knows better than me how to train a Sword Immortal." 𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒑𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝒐𝙢
"Hmm, let’s go with that," Zhang Huaide nodded.
He decided he would secretly observe the sparring between Yan Yu and Lin Ning while he was practicing with Zhao Yuanzhen.
Thus, everyone began the exercises as planned.
Meng Qingxi and Hou Qing, who were still at the Marrow Cleansing Stage and hadn’t advanced yet, sat on the side, watching. Although they were relaxed, they weren’t idle because Zhang Huaide had assigned them a task to observe the combat techniques of the Zhenhai Team members after entering the Hua Mansion Stage, in order to provide reference for their own team’s subsequent training adjustment.
