Chapter 701: Chapter 701: Suppress

Letitia was brought to the prestigious Cloud School many years ago. Since then, she had begun to practice the martial arts and grow in her strength. Carrying deep in her heart the hatred of having her entire family exterminated, she had never even cried.

The only belief that kept her striving forward was that when the day came, she would avenge her family's death.

Compared to Cloud Sect, the competition at Cloud School was even more intense.

This was understandable as the Cloud Sect was situated in a remote place. The people who had been competing with Zen were a few warriors from some clans. These so-called noble clans were not even worth a mention in the Central Region.

On the other hand, the disciples of Cloud School largely came from the various third-grade noble clans.The reason why Letitia was able to stand out at Cloud School had a lot to do with her outstanding talent, but more importantly, it was her perseverance which made her succeed.

When she first came to Cloud School, she had had no kin to turn to and had been all alone. At that time, she had only been a little girl, much younger than the other disciples. Furthermore, she was a stranger who hailed from another place, so she had been constantly ostracized by other members of the Cloud School.

However, her sheer willpower, grit, and determination had ensured that she worked hard to improve herself step by step. With no one to support her, she stood out from the crowd of the millions of Cloud School disciples. At the same time, she secured the first place in the Cloud Road test.

After entering Cloud Hall, she had become what one would describe as a dazzling star. She had come to be the disciple of Imogen, who passed her the Sutra of Empyrean Goddess. After dispersing her cultivation eight times, Letitia was finally able to become the leader of the Cloud Hall.

Letitia was not a particularly strong person. Deep down, she was still like a little girl. Still, she suppressed all of her grievances, fears, and bothersome emotions deep down in her heart, never unloading them in front of anyone.

Even in the face of death, she remained calm and composed.

Despite possessing this ability to restrain herself, as soon as she saw Zen appear in front of her, she could no longer hold back her feelings and burst into tears.

Back when everyone had been fighting for the Dragon Soar Arena, Letitia had fallen in love with Zen. This young man had encroached on her heart. However, at that time, Letitia had had a lot of misgivings in her heart that prevented her from facing her true feelings.

Afterward, she had lighted the enchanted lamp and entered the celestial tomb. Although she had obtained a lot of treasures within, Zen had somehow disappeared.

Only then did Letitia realize how important Zen was to her.

In the following two years, she had never heard from Zen even once. Letitia had sent people from Cloud Hall to search the entire Central Region for him; she even assigned several missions for the purpose. The rewards she had announced if one were to be successful in this endeavor had been shocking. It was said that many disciples of the Cloud Hall shared these missions with other sects. Some disciples of the World Commercial Alliance and the Ethereal Spirit Sect participated in these missions to get their hands on these rewards from the Cloud Hall.

Because of assigning these tasks, Letitia had been heavily criticized by many Cloud Hall elders.

However, Letitia's verbal retaliation always shut them up.

It was true that Letitia had offered those rewards herself. Zen's importance to the Cloud Hall was undeniable. Zen was someone who could form the strongest sect-protecting array in the Central Region. For such talent, any sect would treat him the way they treated their ancestors. Cloud Hall had every reason to attach the greatest importance to him.

However, no matter how many warriors were mobilized to track Zen, no news about him ever came. Zen seemed to have disappeared in thin air. A year later, Letitia had no choice but to cancel the missions.

Even though she couldn't find Zen, Letitia still believed that one day, he would magically appear in front of her.

Still, she did not expect him to materialize so suddenly and in such a timely manner…

“Are you all right?” Zen asked as he stared at Letitia's fair-skinned, jade-like face.

Letitia's eyes were like a pair of pear blossoms bathed in the rain. Gradually, her hammering heart slowed down and she regained her composure. When it occured to her that she had just lost control of her emotions in front of Zen, her face turned red. Jumping out of Zen's embrace, she pursed her lips and asked, “Zen, where have you been these past two years?” ɽ𝘢ΝȮ𝖇ƐⱾ

Seeing how quickly Letitia recovered and questioned him in a hasty, serious manner, Zen laughed inwardly. He knew that Letitia was self-conscious. Perhaps speaking to him as the leader of the Cloud Hall was more in line with her way of doing things.

Zen nodded his head and laughed. “I went somewhere you don't know about.”

Looking at Zen's mischievous smile, Letitia curled her lips. “Be more serious! Despite being a disciple of the Cloud Hall, you secretly left it! According to the rules here, you must be punished.”

Hearing this, Lavender, who was not so far away from them, couldn't help but roll her eyes. Compared to Letitia, Lavender was straightforward in her personality. If she were Letitia, she wouldn't have brought such an issue to the fore in front of Zen. It was beyond her understanding why Letitia chose to suppress the true feelings in her heart.

Letitia should have just embraced Zen. Suppressing her true feelings would do her no good! In the end, it was her who would suffer. 'And that would be what she deserves!' Lavender thought to herself.

To put it bluntly, Lavender was convinced that Letitia had an affected air.

What Lavender didn't know was that Letitia had suffered in her experiences too. The growth of these two outstanding women had essentially been very different. It had become Letitia's habit to put a lockdown on her true feelings. Just now, she had been overjoyed, and the torrent of her excitement had broken through what tried to suppress those feelings in her heart. But now that she had calmed down, she returned to usual manner.

However, to Zen, Letitia's pretentious manner was somewhat adorable. He continued to smile as he asked, “Then how should I be punished?”

Letitia only smiled. “I haven't thought about it yet! I shall let you know when a brilliant idea comes to me.”

At this moment, Lavender floated over to their side. “Do you need me to give you some suggestions about the punishment?” she asked Letitia.

It wasn't that Letitia had not noticed Lavender's presence, but Lavender had been too far away up until now. She didn't pay attention to her movements. Letitia had assumed that the girl was just Zen's sword spirit, but now that Lavender suddenly came into her view and spoke, it shocked Letitia a bit.

She looked at Lavender before turning to Zen. “Zen, what has happened to your sword spirit?”

Zen only shrugged. “As you can see, there is a soul within my sword spirit. In a certain sense, she is the sword spirit. Her name is Lavender.”

“Lavender? You're from a different race?” Letitia stared at Lavender, a trace of vigilance in her eyes.

A long time ago, Letitia had been curious as to why Zen had materialized his sword spirit into such a beautiful woman. This woman, except for her pair of pointed ears, was perfect from head to toe. Even Letitia could not be a match for her in this aspect. Letitia was not so tall, and perhaps not as perfect.

Lavender was about the same height as Zen, so Letitia was much shorter than her.

Lavender glanced at Letitia indifferently while the latter failed to contain the hostility in her eyes.

Letitia had watched Zen enter Cloud Hall and rise rapidly through the cultivation levels. She treated herself as Zen's leader, master, and guide. Moreover, she had fallen in love with him. When another strange woman suddenly appeared beside Zen, even if she was only his sword spirit, Letitia felt skeptical and vigilant.

Lavender was of a high stature, so she could see through things very clearly. After living for so many years, she knew more about human nature than both Zen and Letitia. Lavender simply smiled at Letitia's question. “Yes, I come from the Demon Night.”

In the Central Region, there had once appeared ogres and demons, but no one ever encountered members of a race like the Demon Night. Letitia was understandably unfamiliar with them. Seeing the smile on Lavender's face, Letitia still felt displeased. “Why are you staying with Zen?” she asked her bluntly.

Lavender blinked, a trace of mischief flashing in her eyes. 'Since you like to suppress your feelings, I'll allow you to suppress them even more, ' Lavender thought. She giggled and said, “I'm Zen's sword spirit. We are originally one.”

They were originally one...

The words sounded ambiguous, sounding as if Zen and Lavender were lovers. Before Zen had found a new body for Lavender, she had been in the form of the sword spirit, always residing within Zen's body.

Technichally, what Lavender said was the truth.

Letitia frowned and stared at Zen, obviously waiting for him to explain.

“Lavender, don't talk nonsense,” he said. Then he turned to Letitia. “It's a long story about her. I'll explain it to you later. Right now, you still have to deal with the matters of Cloud Hall.”

Cloud Hall had just faced a rebellion and Letitia still didn't know about it. Although Zen had suppressed the rebellion in time, Letitia was still required to decide on how to deal with the rebels.