Chapter 517 - Do It Again

Jing Yi took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. "Alright. You said I have to control the air current first, didn't you?"

Qiu Ling nodded. "Yes. You know how to do that, right?"

"Mn." Jing Yi nodded. This shouldn't be too difficult. After all, the air spiritual energy had been the first he learned to sense back then. He felt a little more intimate with it than with the others.

The only problem was that he hadn't used it much. His time had been spent on simple cultivation. Feeling spiritual energy and taking it in. He knew how to do that but he had never tried to move the spiritual energy in another direction. It couldn't be that hard though, could it? At least it always looked easy when Qiu Ling or Yu Jin had done it.

Jing Yi closed his eyes to concentrate and felt for the spiritual energy around them. He didn't have any trouble sensing that of the air. He tried to move it down like Qiu Ling had done but it only rushed at him.

Jing Yi hurriedly broke off and looked up at Qiu Ling with a worried expression. "It … I don't really know how to guide it to a specific spot. I've only ever taken it in."

"Oh." Qiu Ling nodded. "No problem. We'll need a lot less time for the rest of the mission if you're able to fly on your own. So taking a little longer now isn't a problem. Furthermore … you're an inner sect disciple now. The sect would probably also like you to know how to fly. Isn't that also about their face?"

Jing Yi nodded. "I guess so." Although he couldn't deny that most of this was probably just something Qiu Ling said so he wouldn't feel bad. Qiu Ling just was like that.

Qiu Ling smiled happily. It seemed it had really been the right call to show Jing Yi how to fly. He seemed a lot more comfortable around him already. He should make sure that Jing Yi really learned how to do it! That would strengthen his trust in him. "How about trying to stop it from entering your body first?"

Jing Yi raised his brows.

"Well, I mean just do the same as when you take it in but try to stop before you can. Make it … stay it right outside of your body. If it doesn't work immediately, it's not a problem. That'll also strengthen your cultivation, right?"

"That's probably true." He didn't feel too optimistic though. At the end of the day, he had just never learned how to use spiritual energy. Only starting now when he was more than twenty years old … Wasn't it a little late?

"You can do this. You also learned how to take it in, right? Don't worry so much. I'm sure … you have a natural talent for this."

Qiu Ling's words made Jing Yi relax. Well, he might not be naturally talented but it was true that he had learned the rest without the sect's help too. It had only been Qiu Ling and him back then and it had still worked. It had taken some time and he had needed something to trigger his potential but he had managed to do it.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes again, concentrating on the spiritual energy again. He pulled it toward himself and tried to stop it while it was on the way to his body but even though he was able to make it move, he couldn't stop it without losing his connection to it.

Jing Yi furrowed his brow. Why was this happening? It shouldn't be so difficult. He should be able to make it move in every direction and even if he couldn't do that at first, he should at least be able to make it stop.

Qiu Ling watched Jing Yi's strained expression. Mn, come to think of it, he had no idea how good Jing He was with spiritual energy. He couldn't imagine that he would have any problems considering that gods were naturally able to control all the elements but who knew? Maybe there was this one thing that Jing He wasn't good at. In that case, he probably would have spent a lot of time to make up for his lack of talent until everyone else believed he was talented.

He tried to imagine how Jing He had struggled this very same way and his heart squeezed painfully. His beloved shouldn't have it so hard. There should be someone to help him. He didn't know if Jing He had really had trouble with learning how to control the spiritual energy but even if it was true, it would have been too late for him to help. Now, with Jing Yi though …

"Let me help you." He stepped behind Jing Yi's back and gently took his hands. "I'm not really good at this but when I had to learn how to control the air and water it helped me to visualize them. Here." He called one of the air currents over and had it stop in front of Jing Yi and twirl on the spot.

"Do you feel this? It's energy but with all that energy collected at one point, it can form a shape. This would be … some kind of whirlwind but you could also have it form another one." He waved again and the spiritual energy condensed into a sphere.

"Look. It's almost like a real object. So just like with a real object, you can push it around." He led Jing Yi's hand forward until it seemed to touch the sphere before moving the sphere of energy aside. "How about you try it again?"

Jing Yi kept silent until the sphere of energy unfurled and sped off again.

Qiu Ling furrowed his brow. His beloved hadn't even tried. He would have felt that. Just what was going on? "Jing'er? Is everything alright?"

Jing Yi tensed. "Could you … Could you show me again?"

"Ah? You didn't get it the first time?"

Jing Yi's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. He definitely couldn't tell Qiu Ling that being so close to him had distracted him so much that he hadn't been able to follow. No, if he did, he would just make matters worse.