Zhao Yunfei could somehow sense Lin Huang's tension. Her slender brows drew together in a tight frown, and for a brief moment, the air around her felt oddly suffocating.
Yes—suffocating.
In just a few short days, she had made astonishing progress, stepping into the peak of the early Qi Refining stage as if the path had been waiting for her all along. The speed of her advancement was nothing short of terrifying.
Lin Huang felt proud.
But pride came hand in hand with pressure.
Watching her grow forced him to push himself harder, to train longer, to squeeze every spare breath into cultivation. Falling behind was no longer an abstract fear—it was a looming certainty that if he dared to slack even for a moment, this girl might overtake.
Yet even with all that weighing on him, Wang Chen's absence pressed on his heart the most.
