Evan Yang pretended to be troubled and said, "I need to go back and cultivate."
"You dare?" Lena King snapped angrily.
"Eh, you want to fight? Looks like you're not my match either. You saw the contest earlier—do you want to become an ice block? Last time I just let you win," Evan Yang said. "You dare mention last time? If you bring it up again, I'll tell my sister you snuck in here before," Lena said.
Evan Yang turned it over in his mind, wanting to test whether Lena truly wanted to kick him out, so he said, "Then go ahead and tell her. Worst case, they'll kick me out or destroy me. Doesn't matter."
"You—" Lena was furious, not expecting Evan to be so fearless, and realized her earlier words were just out of anger.
"What?" Evan Yang said helplessly.
"So what will it take for you to stay?" Lena King asked, frustrated.
"Well, can you at least talk to me politely? Don't be so loud, and stop threatening me with your Palace Lord status all the time. If you can do those two things, I'll stay. If not, I'd rather be killed," Evan Yang said.
Lena thought it over, weighing it for a long while before finally saying, "Fine, I agree."
"You said it yourself, I didn't force you," Evan Yang said. "Nonsense!" Lena snapped.
"Hey, hey, you just said not to be loud—what about that? That doesn't count," Evan Yang frowned.
"Fine, you win. I'll change, okay?" Lena said, frustrated.
"That's more like it," Evan Yang said.
"Can we start now?" Lena asked.
"Start what?" Evan Yang asked curiously.
"Of course, how to freeze water! You haven't forgotten, have you?" Lena asked suspiciously.
"Oh, that. You can't rush it. Even if I explain, you might not get it right away," Evan Yang said.
"Then what should I do?" Lena asked, curious.
"Alright, let's do this—do you have a small cup?" Evan Yang asked.
"I do." Lena took out a cup she usually used for water, placed it on the ground, and looked at Evan curiously.
Evan Yang looked at the cup and smiled, "Fill it with water."
Lena scooped up water from the nearby lake with the cup and asked, "What next?"
"Next, try to freeze the water in the cup," Evan Yang said.
"Freeze it? Is that really possible?" Lena was skeptical.
"How will you know unless you try? Besides, you have the water attribute, so naturally you can control water. Try lowering the temperature—make it as low as possible," Evan Yang said.
Following Evan Yang's instructions, Lena stared intently at the cup, concentrating, muttering to herself that she wanted it to freeze.
"Freeze! Freeze!" Lena chanted.
Evan Yang sighed, "That's not how it works. Chanting won't help—you need to focus your heart."
"Focus my heart?" Lena muttered.
"Exactly. Focus your heart—try again," Evan Yang said.
Following Evan Yang's method, Lena tried to focus her spirit and control the water attribute step by step as he instructed, but after several hours, nothing happened.
Evan Yang smiled, "Don't give up. Cultivation is like this—it doesn't happen all at once."
"Okay, I'll try again," Lena said seriously, giving it another attempt.
Evan Yang thought to himself, "It's easy for me because I have the Ice-fire Sacred Flame, but for her, I'm not sure if she can manage it on her own."
While Lena was cultivating, Evan Yang watched the Spirit Monkey, which bared its teeth and claws at him, clearly afraid he might approach Lena.
"You stupid monkey," Evan Yang said.
Lena was so focused on cultivating that she didn't notice what Evan Yang was doing, so he took the opportunity to try and catch the Spirit Monkey, turning it over to see what made it special.
The Spirit Monkey chattered in protest, but it was useless. Evan Yang laughed, "It's no use. Your master is cultivating and won't care about you, so just relax."
Sensing Evan Yang's sly smile, the Spirit Monkey was deeply frustrated.
But the Spirit Monkey was quick—Evan Yang missed on his first try. Frowning, he said, "I don't believe I can't catch you."
After speaking, Evan Yang flashed forward and continued. He and the Spirit Monkey chased each other around. This monkey was truly amazing—not only could it swim and dive, it could even fly.
The only fortunate thing was that it didn't attack. Otherwise, Evan Yang would have been extremely frustrated.
While Lena was cultivating, Evan Yang played with the monkey. Several times he almost caught the Spirit Monkey, but always missed.
The Spirit Monkey found being chased by Evan Yang amusing. Several times, it stopped and shook its red bottom at him.
Evan Yang snorted coldly, "Shake, keep shaking. Soon, you won't be able to shake anymore."
After Evan Yang's snort, the Spirit Monkey felt a chill. As it tried to escape, it realized its bottom tightened and was sealed.
To be precise, it was frozen. The Spirit Monkey jumped around in fright, not sure if it was pain or something else. It flew into the air and dove into the water at incredible speed. Evan Yang was stunned. "This guy, hidden speed," Evan Yang thought, estimating that even at his fastest, he couldn't catch the monkey.
Evan Yang laughed watching it suffer, until the Spirit Monkey came to Lena for help. Lena, returning to herself, saw the ice block on the monkey's bottom and burst out laughing.
The Spirit Monkey chattered in grievance, and Lena said to Evan Yang, "It's a bit mischievous, but you don't have to do that."
"Just joking with it," Evan Yang said with a smile. He removed the ice block and asked Lena, "How is it going?"
"After several hours, this is all I managed," Lena said, holding the cup out to Evan Yang.
Evan Yang took the cup and felt it. There was a trace of coldness inside, indicating signs of freezing. Evan Yang smiled, "Congratulations, you've made some progress. Keep going, and it will freeze soon."
"Really?" Lena said joyfully.
"Yes, try again if you don't believe me," Evan Yang said with a smile.
Lena, overjoyed, took the cup and continued to work hard as Evan Yang instructed. Meanwhile, the Spirit Monkey looked at Evan Yang strangely, holding its hands protectively under its bottom, afraid it might suffer again.
(Irrelevant web prompt omitted from translation.)
Seeing it like this, Evan Yang really wanted to laugh.
"Hey, what's your name?" Evan Yang asked the monkey after playing with it for a while, curious.
The Spirit Monkey cleverly used one hand to write two characters on the ground: "Sage Monkey."
"Sage Monkey? You can even write human characters? That's amazing," Evan Yang said with a smile.
Seeing that Evan Yang wasn't actually bad, the Spirit Monkey wrote a few more words on the ground: "Why are you laughing? I'm smarter than you humans, and faster too."
Evan Yang laughed at this and said, "Oh? Do you want to try your bottom again?"
Hearing this, the Spirit Monkey quickly protected its bottom, making Evan Yang almost burst out laughing, especially since it was holding a stone that was wedged right at its bottom.
The Spirit Monkey was wailing, then pulled the stone out and threw it away, looking at Evan Yang in frustration.
Seeing the monkey's bottom bleeding, Evan Yang said, "Let me help you." He used a trace of Heaven-Cold qi to heal it.
Soon, the Spirit Monkey's bottom was much better, and it felt more comfortable. It looked at Evan Yang curiously and wrote on the ground, "You're not a bad person."
"Of course I'm not," Evan Yang said. He felt the Spirit Monkey was not ordinary and wondered if he could get closer to it.
"Can you help me pick something?" the Spirit Monkey wrote on the ground.
"What do you want picked? Can't you do it yourself?" Evan Yang asked curiously.
The Spirit Monkey wrote a lot on the ground, meaning it didn't have the strength to pick it. Evan Yang was curious what required such strength, so he let the monkey lead the way.
Soon, they arrived at a mountain filled with peach trees. Evan Yang wondered, "You want me to pick peaches?"
The Spirit Monkey chattered to indicate it wasn't peaches. Evan Yang followed, and on the mountain, he saw a tree different from the others: it was black and very hard, like a stone, cold to the touch.
The Spirit Monkey wrote on the ground, "There are several black fruits up there. Help me pick them."
Evan Yang flew up and saw several fruits, each about the size of a fist. He reached for one, feeling it was hard as stone, and even with force, it wouldn't budge. He tried harder, but still no reaction.
Finally, Evan Yang frowned, "What kind of fruit is this? It's so hard."
The Spirit Monkey chattered, encouraging Evan Yang to keep trying. Evan Yang had no choice but to grip a fruit tightly, pull hard, and even hang from it, pulling down.
It took a lot of effort, but the fruit finally loosened a bit. After much hard work, Evan Yang finally pulled it off. He held the fruit, suspicious, "What is this, really?"
The Spirit Monkey grabbed the fruit, found the spot where it connected to the tree, and used a stone to knock it several times. The opening widened, and liquid began to flow out.
Without hesitation, the Spirit Monkey began to suck up the liquid, eating until it was red all over, then collapsed in satisfaction and fell into a deep sleep.
"What? Just fell asleep like that?" Evan Yang exclaimed, then checked again and found a powerful force inside the Spirit Monkey, enough to make it sleep.
Curious, Evan Yang wanted to know if the power came from the fruit, so he went back to the tree, found another fruit, and used the same method to pull it down.
He finally got the fruit, broke it open as the Spirit Monkey had done, and drank the liquid inside.
A faint black liquid flowed out and entered Evan Yang's mouth. He felt a cool sensation, then a powerful force seemed to surge through his body.