Wen Shubai went to fetch a washbasin and filled it with water.
Ji Zhaoxi stood in front of the basin with a deeply serious expression.
Seeing how tense she was, Wen Shubai chuckled softly. “Junior sister, you can relax a little.”
“Oh, right!”
Ji Zhaoxi placed her hands over the water’s surface and closed her eyes.
Wen Shubai’s voice was warm and gentle. “Junior sister, don’t try to freeze it. Instead, feel the movement in your hands.”
He gently took her fingertips and guided her hands downward.
“Feel the flow of the water, and let it settle.”
Ji Zhaoxi sensed a surge of spiritual energy coming from Wen Shubai’s hand, guiding the qi inside her body.
Time passed slowly, and the calm surface of the water in the basin gradually began to form wisps of extremely fine icy mist.
Wen Shubai spoke softly. “Junior sister, what do you feel?”
Ji Zhaoxi frowned deeply, concentrating as hard as she could. Suddenly she spoke up: “Senior brother, I feel like my hands are burning hot, as if they’ve been scalded.”
Wen Shubai froze for a moment, then quickly let go of her hand and apologized. “I’m sorry, junior sister. I forgot to control my spiritual energy.”
Ji Zhaoxi let out a breath of relief too. She had been worried that the heat meant her meridians were about to explode.
After several more tries, Ji Zhaoxi could freeze the water in the basin on her own without Wen Shubai’s help.
In the afternoon, Ji Zhaoxi began practicing how to control her spiritual energy again.
She gathered her power at her fingertips, trying to freeze the dewdrops on a flower petal without hurting the flower itself.
Ji Zhaoxi was drenched in sweat from the effort. The first time, she froze the entire table. The second time, she froze the whole flower, and once it thawed, the bloom immediately wilted.
Wen Shubai sat nearby reading a book. Ji Zhaoxi snuck a nervous glance at him and quietly hid the frozen flower behind the table.
Suddenly she heard him get up behind her, and she quickly pretended to look focused.
“Junior sister, how is the practice going?” Wen Shubai walked over, his voice gentle.
Ji Zhaoxi cleared her throat. “It’s going all right, senior brother.”
Wen Shubai’s eyes curved slightly as he stood beside her, clearly indicating he would watch her freeze that single drop of water on the petal.
Ji Zhaoxi looked up at Wen Shubai, and when he met her gaze, he gave her an encouraging nod.
Ji Zhaoxi stared silently at that drop of water.
“Senior brother...”
Wen Shubai said softly, “What is it, junior sister?”
Ji Zhaoxi was starting to doubt that she was a genius again. She constantly wavered between thinking she was a prodigy and thinking she wasn’t.
She held her breath, a wisp of cold air spilling from her fingertip. Just as she was about to freeze the dewdrop, a child’s scream suddenly rang out from outside. Her hand jerked, and that stream of spiritual energy veered past the flower and spread along Wen Shubai’s fingertips instead.
“Crack...”
Now not only the flower was frozen, but Wen Shubai’s entire hand, along with the table, was encased in ice.
“S-Senior brother!” Ji Zhaoxi panicked completely, her movements going all over the place.
She instinctively tried to use the warmth of her hands to melt the ice, but her ice spiritual root only intensified, releasing even more spiritual energy instead.
It wasn’t just his hand anymore—the lower half of Wen Shubai’s body was now frozen solid.
“Senior brother, I’m sorry, I’ll undo it right now...”
Ji Zhaoxi’s eyes were red with panic.
Why was her spiritual energy so brutal...
Wen Shubai watched her frantic state, and something stirred in his chest. He said gently, “It’s alright, junior sister.”
He reached out with his other, unfrozen hand and pressed hers against the layer of ice. He soothed her in a low voice, “Don’t worry. Close your eyes now and feel the spiritual energy within the ice. Don’t push it away...”
Wen Shubai’s gaze lingered on Ji Zhaoxi’s face. She looked genuinely frightened, her lashes trembling, a tear clinging to the edge of her hand.
Junior sister was crying again... was it because she was worried about him?
Under Wen Shubai’s deliberate guidance, Ji Zhaoxi’s spiritual energy wound its way around the ice. As her breathing steadily calmed, the ice began to crack, and finally dissolved into droplets of water. The ice was undone.
The moment she heard the sound, Ji Zhaoxi immediately grabbed Wen Shubai’s hand tightly, her eyes welling up again.
She had frozen senior brother’s hand until it turned blue...
Even when he was in the abyss, he had never been frozen this badly.
“Senior brother, does your hand hurt a lot?” Ji Zhaoxi’s voice was thick with tears.
Wen Shubai’s hand, which had been pale blue, was now starting to look a little purple...
She kept rubbing his hand over and over, wrapping it up tightly in hers.
Wen Shubai let her fuss over his hand, feeling her soft fingertips against his skin as he murmured to comfort her: “It doesn’t hurt, junior sister.”
Ji Zhaoxi hurried off to get a hand warmer from the innkeeper and stuffed it into Wen Shubai’s hands, massaging warmth back into him with guilt written all over her face.
Then it suddenly struck her—Wen Shubai had a fire spiritual root. Her eyes lit up as she looked up at him. “Senior brother, can’t your fire spiritual root warm your own hands?”
His hand was still so cold, but surely fire spiritual power could warm him up himself.
Wen Shubai paused, a faint furrow of genuine confusion crossing his brow. “Junior sister... is that something a fire spiritual root can do?”
Ji Zhaoxi looked at him expectantly. If senior brother could warm her up, he must be able to warm himself up too.
But as it turned out, it didn’t work.
Ji Zhaoxi sighed in disappointment and went back to warming his hands with the hand warmer.
Wen Shubai watched her, dripping with sweat from all the effort, and said apologetically, “I’m sorry, junior sister. I didn’t help you, and I ended up causing you trouble.”
Ji Zhaoxi frowned hard and looked at him seriously. “What are you saying, senior brother? This is my fault. What does it have to do with you?”
She felt like senior brother might have a people-pleasing personality.
Ji Zhaoxi couldn’t help asking, “Senior brother, you’ve saved your fellow disciples so many times, but when you got hurt, they just abandoned you. Aren’t you angry?”
Wen Shubai looked at her indignant face and smiled. “Junior sister, I’m not angry.”
“Why not?” Ji Zhaoxi asked, confused.
Wen Shubai said warmly, “That’s the rule during sect trials at Tianjue Sect. Everyone is just following protocol.”
Ji Zhaoxi was quiet for a moment, then said, “But senior brother, you didn’t follow the rules either. You saved us so many times.”
Wen Shubai couldn’t argue with that, and let out a low chuckle.
Seeing that he was still laughing, Ji Zhaoxi was furious. She muttered under her breath, “Fine, just keep saving people then. See who saves you next time you get left behind. After all, you love rescuing people so much.”
Wen Shubai wanted to explain himself, but the moment he saw her red-rimmed eyes, he couldn’t get a single word out.
“Junior sister...” he said softly, his voice tinged with awkwardness.
Ji Zhaoxi didn’t answer and didn’t even look at him. Wen Shubai’s heart suddenly raced with panic. He was used to seeing her smile at him. Looking at her angry, puffed-up face now made something ache dully in his chest.
Wen Shubai gently tugged at her sleeve, his voice hoarse. “Junior sister, don’t be angry. I won’t save people anymore next time.”
In truth, back then he had charged ahead simply because he was afraid those monsters might accidentally hurt her.
A cloud suddenly popped out of thin air and tentatively patted Ji Zhaoxi on the head.
“Smack——”
The next second, the cloud was directly slapped onto Wen Shubai's face. Wen Shubai pulled the cloud off his face, a hint of amusement in his eyes.
“Little junior sister.”
Ji Zhaoxi was stricken with guilt, but she still said with full confidence, “I hit you on purpose!”
Wen Shubai looked at her, let out a soft chuckle, and said, “If my little junior sister wants to hit me, then go right ahead.”
