“Su Shijie, would you like to hear my evaluation of you?” Bai Feng interrupted her, “It’s not just polite talk; it’s sincere, a heartfelt assessment.”

**Chapter 153: You’ve Been Unengaged?**

Su Lanqian instinctively looked up, meeting Bai Feng’s serious gaze.

“I believe you, Su Shijie, are a genius, a talent that far surpasses other formation masters.” Bai Feng raised his right hand, revealing a discarded formation disk. “Do you remember this old disk?”

Su Lanqian gazed at the formation disk that had accompanied her through many days and nights, nodding subconsciously.

“This disk not only employs ‘Qian Zhen’ but also contains concepts that seem utterly out of place with today’s formation system, even a bit heretical.”

Su Lanqian nodded again. Before this, she had never seen anyone deconstruct formations as thoroughly as Bai Feng did. While other formation masters were busy seeking the path of formations, trying to get closer to it, he was sprinting in the opposite direction. His portable formations seemed devoid of any understanding of the path; they were cold and rigorous structures, as if the path itself held no significance for him.

“When you brought this discarded disk to me, I was genuinely surprised,” Bai Feng said softly, looking into Su Lanqian’s eyes. “It was here that the thin image of you as a genius in my mind began to change.”

He paused, his tone slowing as he spoke each word with care: “You are a genius far beyond other formation masters. I don’t know how others see you, but at least in my eyes, you are undoubtedly a unique talent.”

“…”

Su Lanqian lowered her head, but the next moment, her small face was grasped by two hands.

Bai Feng slowly crouched down, his eyes locking onto hers.

“Think back to the time you were my assistant. In a very short period, you mastered most of the methods for creating portable formation disks. You could clearly understand my various quirky and even unreasonable requests, and sometimes you even helped me improve the disks.”

“That was just…”

Before Su Lanqian could finish, Bai Feng interrupted her again: “Su Shijie, don’t deny yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, then at least believe in me. If you don’t like the term ‘genius,’ I can rephrase it.”

“You are my indispensable assistant. To put it in a rather inappropriate metaphor, we are like a sword cultivator and their sword, or an alchemist and their cauldron. A sword cultivator can still fight without a sword, but they won’t be able to unleash their full potential. An alchemist can refine pills without a cauldron, but the quality will suffer. And I, who you consider a genius, also need your help.”

Simply put, I need a tool.

Su Lanqian’s face turned slightly red, her eyes unable to meet Bai Feng’s. In a very soft voice, she said, “But… I’m only at the early stage of Golden Core, and I might not be able to improve my cultivation in the future…”

“That’s a minor issue.”

Bai Feng smiled, lowering his head to rest his forehead against hers. Then, he split off a portion of his consciousness and left it at the edge of Su Lanqian’s sea of consciousness.

Su Lanqian’s face instantly flushed bright red, her mind seeming to stop functioning. She stood there in a daze, even after Bai Feng pulled away, she remained unresponsive.

“Su Shijie?”

“Ah, yes!”

Su Lanqian snapped back to reality, lowering her head and instinctively reaching up to touch her forehead, where Bai Feng’s warmth and touch still lingered.

“I’ve left a part of my consciousness in your sea of consciousness. It can protect you from the interference of inner demons. You shouldn’t have to worry about them until you reach the Nascent Soul stage.”

Bai Feng’s tone seemed a bit weak, and even his body appeared slightly transparent. “However, inner demons are born from your own weaknesses. I can only help you suppress them temporarily. If you want to go further, you still need to find a way to address your inner weaknesses and conquer your inner demons.”

“Mm, thank you.”

Su Lanqian nodded, but judging by her dazed expression, it was hard to tell if she truly understood.

“If you encounter any problems while cultivating, remember to come to me in time,” Bai Feng reminded her a few more times. “And if you have time later, feel free to check in with me. After all, this is my first time doing this.”

“Mm…”

“Alright, let’s head back.”

Bai Feng snapped his fingers, and they ‘returned’ to Su Lanqian’s dimly lit bedroom.

They maintained the same positions they had in the ‘illusion.’ He withdrew his hands, while Su Lanqian pulled up the blanket to cover her flushed face, leaving only her eyes exposed.

“Su Shijie, if there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave now.” Bai Feng stood up. “Remember to come be my assistant!”

“Mm…”

Su Lanqian nodded very slightly, and it wasn’t until Bai Feng left and she heard the sound of the door closing that she finally relaxed, her body collapsing backward.

Thinking of what Bai Feng had just said, her face couldn’t help but flush and burn, the fear in her heart having vanished without a trace.

“Right, the consciousness!”

She suddenly remembered something and hurriedly checked her sea of consciousness, quickly finding the portion of Bai Feng’s consciousness left at the edge.

‘Will Bai Feng splitting off so much consciousness have any negative effects?’

Su Lanqian felt a bit worried.

After pondering for a few seconds, she cautiously extended her own consciousness to wrap around Bai Feng’s and began to pull it deeper into her sea of consciousness.

To prevent accidentally harming the consciousness and affecting Bai Feng, she had to protect this part of his consciousness!

After doing all this, she began to try cultivating. With Bai Feng’s consciousness providing protection, free from the disturbance of inner demons, she quickly immersed herself in her practice.

Meanwhile, Bai Feng naturally sensed that the consciousness he had split off was being ‘pulled’ by Su Lanqian.

“Why is it being dragged so deep into her sea of consciousness?”

Su Lanqian shouldn’t be so ignorant! Is it even possible to drag it deeper into the sea of consciousness?

This was practically putting her life in his hands. If he wanted to, he could easily injure Su Lanqian’s sea of consciousness, and in severe cases, it could even lead to her death.

If it wasn’t because Su Lanqian lacked common sense, then she must trust him far too much.

‘But that should be a good thing, right?’

Bai Feng stroked his chin, realizing this meant his little assistant (Palulu) probably wouldn’t be running away anytime soon.

---

“Finally, our Holy Land has reached an agreement with the Northern Region. In a few days, we can go check it out! I’ve never been to the Northern Region before!”

In a cave, a tall woman sat in a chair, smiling as she spoke to a girl beside her.

Then she seemed to remember something: “By the way, Yun Shimei, do you know that guy Bai Feng? I’ve never seen you so angry before. Is he your little crush?”

Yun Shimei shook her head expressionlessly: “No, his father knows my father.”

“Is that all?” The tall woman looked skeptical.

“... My father and his father once arranged a marriage while drinking, but it wasn’t fulfilled later due to some issues.”

The woman’s brows furrowed slightly: “You’ve been unengaged?”

She remembered that Yun Shimei couldn’t cultivate back then.

“No, it’s a more complicated matter.”

Yun Shimei shook her head, not elaborating further.

The woman didn’t press on, tilting her head to ask another question: “So, when you get to the Northern Region, will you go see him?”

“Mm.”

Yun Shimei nodded. Although she was a bit surprised by the collaboration between the Holy Land and the Northern Region sects, she didn’t plan to avoid Bai Feng. She wasn’t the type to wait until she reached the Transformation stage to meet him.

**Chapter 154: Is Bai Feng hinting that I should be more proactive?**

“By the way, Yumo, I’ve had a question for a while.”

Bai Feng said during a break from sword practice, addressing Bai Yumo, who was sitting beside him.

“What is it?” Bai Yumo turned to look at him, curiosity on her face.

“I’ve always felt a bit awkward asking this, so if you don’t want to answer, it’s fine.” Bai Feng layered a few shields around himself before continuing under the gaze of Bai Yumo and her friends, “I’ve noticed you never really talk about your past. It’s okay if you don’t want to share; I’m just a bit curious.”

Since Bai Yumo first arrived at his home, he had been curious about her past. However, at that time, he was focused on increasing her favorability, so he didn’t want to touch on any painful subjects. After acquiring the villain system, he became even more hesitant to ask, fearing it might remind Bai Yumo of sad memories and give the system a chance to extract luck points from her.