Chapter 308: Chapter 242: Are You Serious?
In Liang Lu’s impression, Lin Yao was usually stern, serious, and not one to smile or laugh lightly.

In her everyday life, Lin Yao didn’t have many friends and wasn’t particularly interested in hobbies. The thing she did most was attend classes, cultivate, and participate in extra training sessions.

One could almost say she was a highly self-disciplined cultivator.

Moreover, Lin Yao’s ability to remain unfazed by change during numerous competitions cemented Liang Lu’s image of her as aloof, disciplined, calm, and ruthless.

Of course, Liang Lu couldn’t be blamed.

It wasn’t just her—practically everyone who knew Lin Yao shared a similar impression, including her teacher, Core Formation cultivator Yan Yue.

However, the Lin Yao that Liang Lu saw now was utterly different.

Liang Lu felt that the Lin Yao before her eyes was not the Lin Yao she knew.

She simply could not reconcile the lovesick girl before her with the stern female cultivator who once stood on the competition stage wielding a sword.

There must be something wrong!

Definitely something wrong!

How could Lin Yao possibly have such a personality?

Could it have all been an act before?

Impossible! She couldn’t have performed such a flawless act!

While Liang Lu stood there questioning life, Lin Yao was in a completely different mood.

Jiang Cheng saw Lin Yao pounce toward him and instinctively tried to dodge.

It had been excusable in front of the library, where the foot traffic was minimal.

But this was the Living Square!

It wasn’t jam-packed, but it wasn’t sparsely populated either. In such a place, to be hugged by Lin Yao in front of everyone, what would that look like?

However, Lin Yao did not operate on the same logic as Jiang Cheng.

Back in Wuyue, she had been more formidable than Jiang Cheng, and it was the same now in the Capital.

With the teachings of Yan Yue and the tempering of Liang Lu, her current combat prowess was comparable to any of her cultivation level peers from the Immortal Sects.

She was “Peerless in the Same Rank” within a certain scope, not something Jiang Cheng’s cultivation level, artificially boosted by updates, could compare with.

Moreover, being at the ninth layer of Qi Practicing, her cultivation level was naturally higher than Jiang Cheng’s.

So she captured Jiang Cheng effortlessly and wrapped her small hands around his waist and back, hugging him snugly.

With her head buried in his chest, Lin Yao greedily inhaled Jiang Cheng’s scent. Just the smell exuding through his clothes was intoxicating to her, like a potent wine.

Her cheeks blushed pink, her body temperature rose, and even her long, straight, and beautiful legs involuntarily tightened slightly because of Jiang Cheng’s proximity.

If there were truly a condition known as “Jiang Cheng Syndrome” and Yue Linger happened to be a late-stage sufferer, then without a doubt, Lin Yao was at the terminal stage of “Jiang Cheng Syndrome,” hopelessly Jiang Cheng-addicted and beyond cure.

“Lin, let go of me. This is not appropriate in public,” Jiang Cheng said sternly.

But Lin Yao understood Jiang Cheng better than anyone else.

Jiang Cheng was the kind of gentlemanly good guy.

His previous warnings tended to be more symbolic, meaning that as long as one was shameless enough, it was possible to continue testing his limits.

“No,” she replied.

“Hey, you!” Jiang Cheng exclaimed.

Jiang Cheng tried to pull away Lin Yao’s arms, but it wasn’t effective; the girl was too clingy, the complete opposite of Liu Qing.

“Liang, please help me out,” Jiang Cheng said, reaching out to Liang Lu.

“Me, how can I help?” Liang Lu, too, had never witnessed such a scene. For her, holding hands on the street was already a big deal, let alone hugging a male cultivator in public…

She just couldn’t bring herself to do such things.

Before Liang Lu could act, Lin Yao wisely let go of Jiang Cheng of her own accord.

She had embraced Jiang Cheng to both satisfy her own desire and to assert her status in front of Liang Lu; she didn’t intend to cause trouble for Jiang Cheng.

Or rather, whoever dared to trouble Jiang Cheng would certainly not get away with it if she had anything to do with it.

Seeing that Lin Yao was not causing a scene, Jiang Cheng could finally get to the point of their meeting: “Liang, didn’t you say you wanted to buy materials?”

“Ah, yes, that’s right,” Liang Lu confirmed.

Liang Lu had used buying talisman materials as a pretext to ask Jiang Cheng out.

“Shall we go then?”

“Okay.”

Lin Yao followed Jiang Cheng uninvitedly.

Jiang Cheng asked curiously, “Liang, is Lin also coming along to buy talisman materials?”

Upon hearing this, Liang Lu thought that her chance to retaliate had finally arrived.

“No, I’m not that familiar with Lin Yao, and I didn’t invite her. She just showed up here on her own for some reason,” Liang Lu implied that Lin Yao had ulterior motives.

But Lin Yao was straightforward: “Of course, I’m here waiting for Jiang. Did you think I was waiting for you?”

Liang Lu retorted scornfully, “For the sake of seeing Jiang Cheng, Lin Yao, you really are well-prepared.”

Lin Yao’s approach was simple and direct: the truth in its most unapologetic form was a potent weapon against someone like Liang Lu who preferred to be indirect and traditional.

“What, you won’t strive for the person you like yourself and would rather coyly give him up to someone else?”

After saying that, Lin Yao employed the same tactic again, hugging Jiang Cheng’s arm to assert her position.

Liang Lu was at a loss for words.

The kind of blunt words Lin Yao used were something Liang Lu herself wouldn’t dare utter even in private, let alone on the moderately crowded Living Square.

Nonetheless, seeing Lin Yao’s smug expression, Liang Lu didn’t want to seem weak.

She reached out her hand, hesitated momentarily, and then managed to embrace Jiang Cheng’s other arm albeit hesitantly.

But compared to Lin Yao’s unabashed embrace—as if not minding being taken advantage of by Jiang Cheng—Liang Lu’s embrace wasn’t quite so bold, just feigning contact with her arms.

Yet even that minimal contact made Liang Lu’s ears burn and flushed her cheeks.

Seeing Liang Lu’s gesture, Lin Yao couldn’t help revealing a triumphant smile.

Li Qingge had hoped she would attract Jiang Cheng’s attention and thus distance him from Liang Lu. However, she wasn’t foolish. Jiang Cheng distancing from Liang Lu was advantageous only to the Taixu Sect, but what good would it bring to Jiang Cheng?