Dual Cultivation: Gathering SSS-Rank Wives in the Cultivation World

Chapter 705: Chapter 705 - The Tournament’s Preparation

The word was flat. Toneless. The response of a teenager who had been asked the same question a thousand times and had learned that the shortest answer ended the conversation fastest.

Madam Yueying’s beautiful face fell. The relief was there, but so was the pain. The pain of a mother whose son looked at her with the eyes of a stranger.

She straightened. Composed herself. Her dark eyes found Xu Ran. The relief returned.

"Thank you," she said. Her rich voice was steady. Formal. "For saving my son. If you hadn’t been there..."

Xu Ran opened his mouth. To correct her. To explain.

"No, it’s fine," Lau said, cutting him off. His voice was tired. "Headmistress. It is the brother who saved me."

Madam Yueying’s dark eyes widened. She looked at Xu Ran. At the young man she knew as the main family heir, the talented swordsman, the pride of the academy. Then at her son. At the boy who sat in the back of the class.

"The brother... saved you?" she said. Confused.

Lau clicked his tongue. The sound was sharp. Annoyed. The sound of a young man who was tired of explaining.

"You see," he said. His voice carried an edge. "I am more than responsible."

Madam Yueying’s face changed. The confusion was replaced by something harder. The expression of a headmistress, not a mother.

"You would not be allowed to leave," she said. Her voice carried the weight of authority. "The academy has rules. You used a forbidden technique. The energy was detected across the entire region. People will come. Investigators. Sect elders. You cannot..."

"Of course I am," Lau said. He stood. His thin frame rose from the bed. "I will leave. How could you stop me?"

The words hung. The challenge, implicit. The boy who could transform into a void demon, telling his mother, a peak Golden Core cultivator and headmistress, that she could not stop him.

Madam Yueying’s jaw tightened. Her dark eyes, wet a moment ago, were dry. Hard. The eyes of a woman who had raised a son she did not understand and had learned to live with the distance.

The door opened again.

The young woman who entered was eighteen. Her hair was black, long, flowing past her shoulders. Her face was delicate, pretty, the kind of pretty that inspired poetry and duels. Her eyes were green. Unusual. Striking. She wore the academy uniform, the dark blue and silver, but on her the uniform looked different. The fabric, the same as every other student’s, clung to her body in ways that the tailors had not intended. Her breasts, moderate and firm, pressed against the silk, the shape of her nipples visible through the thin material when the light caught them right. Her waist was narrow, her hips flared, the fabric of her skirt pulling across her ass when she walked, the curve of each cheek shifting with each step.

She walked in. Her green eyes swept the room. Found Lau. Found Madam Yueying. Found Xu Ran.

"Lau," she said. Her voice was clear. Musical. The voice of a girl who had grown up around powerful people and had learned to make herself heard. "Are you again fighting with your mother?"

She clicked her tongue. The sound was light, teasing, the sound of someone who had done this many times before.

Lau trembled. His brown eyes found her face. At the green eyes. At the pretty features. At the girl he had loved since childhood.

He looked down. His face flushed.

"Shut up," he said. The word was mumbled. Embarrassed. The response of a young man whose cool demeanor, the demeanor that had faced down a headmistress, crumbled in the presence of a girl.

He said her name. Soft. Barely audible.

"Bai Lian."

Bai Lian’s face flushed. A faint pink, spreading across her cheeks. She looked away. Then back. Her green eyes, warm but exasperated, found his face.

She sighed. Turned to Madam Yueying.

"Madam," she said. "Let’s leave. This brat would not listen."

Madam Yueying looked at her. At the young woman who, somehow, could reach Lau when no one else could. The headmistress’s expression softened. A fraction.

"Indeed," she said. She nodded. She turned to the door. Her thick body, the robes pulling across her curves, moved toward the exit. She paused. Looked back at Lau. Her dark eyes held something. Regret, maybe. Love, buried deep. She left.

Bai Lian followed. Her hips swayed as she walked, the fabric of her skirt shifting with each step, the curve of her ass visible through the silk. At the door, she paused. Looked back at Lau. Her green eyes, soft.

"Rest," she said. "I’ll bring you food later."

She left.

The door closed.

Lau stood in the empty medic room. His face was still red. His brown eyes, downcast. His hands, in his pockets.

Xu Ran, sitting on the bed, watched. He watched the boy who was a demon. Who had challenged his mother. Who had been reduced to a blushing mess by a girl.

’Oh,’ he thought. ’Elder brother has this side too.’

He smiled. The first genuine smile he had smiled in a long time.

The next morning, the Crimson Peak Academy buzzed.

Xu Ran walked through the courtyard with Lau at his side. The boy, recovered, his brown eyes steady, his plain face composed, walked beside the academy’s top student. The contrast was stark. Xu Ran, tall, broad, handsome, his gray and silver robes marking him as the main family heir. Lau, thin, average, unremarkable, his plain robes marking him as nobody.

But Xu Ran called him brother.

"Elder brother," Xu Ran said, the word still feeling strange on his tongue. "Let me introduce you to the others."

The "others" were Xu Ran’s gang. Five Core Formation cultivators, the elite of the academy’s third-year students. They trained together, ate together, fought together. They were Xu Ran’s inner circle.

The introduction did not go smoothly.

"This is Lau," Xu Ran said, standing before the five young men in the training courtyard. "He is my elder brother. He joins us."

Silence.

The five exchanged glances. The tallest among them, a scar-faced young man named Han Bo, spoke first.

"Elder brother?" he said. His voice was flat. "This... kid? From the back of the class?"

"He saved my life," Xu Ran said. His voice carried an edge. "Last night. In the forest. Four branch family disciples ambushed me. And then Lin Zhao..."

He paused. The name was still raw. The betrayal still fresh.

"Lau saved me," he continued. "He is my elder brother. By oath. By the Xu family name."

Han Bo’s scarred face tightened. He looked at Lau. At the plain, unremarkable boy. At the brown eyes that held nothing remarkable. At the thin frame that suggested no cultivation base, no training, no power.

"With respect, Ran," Han Bo said. "He looks like he can’t hold a sword."

"Replace Han Bo with Lau," Xu Ran said. His voice was cold. The voice of the main family heir giving an order. "In the tournament formation."

The silence that followed was different. Heavier. Han Bo’s scarred face went white. His fists clenched.

"You can’t be serious," he said.

"I am," Xu Ran said.

"I’ve trained for three years," Han Bo said. His voice rose. "Three years. In the formation. In the strategy. In the tournament protocols. And you’re replacing me with... with him?"

"Ran," another gang member said. A lean young man named Zhou Wei. "Think about this. The tournament is in two weeks. We need our best formation."