Chapter 96 Help me piece it together
Nezha's voice came from outside the door, and Li Jing thought he was hallucinating. He looked at the door in astonishment and saw a slave tumbling and crawling in.
He slid forward to his knees as he crossed the threshold, then hurriedly raised his head: "Master!"
Li Jing recognized the man as one of the gatekeeper slaves, and a chill ran through him. The slave, seemingly oblivious to his expression, ignored him and said, "Master, the Third Prince is back!"
As soon as she finished speaking, the teacup on the table crashed to the ground. Madam Yin, who was pouring tea for her husband, hurriedly picked up the fallen cup.
"Wasn't Nezha dead? How could he come back?!" The sight of a corpse rising from the dead in broad daylight startled everyone present. Li Jing, who had still harbored a glimmer of hope, was completely shattered when he saw the red ribbon tied to the slave's body.
He turned sharply and roared at his bewildered wife, "Look at the fine son you've raised! Why are you building a palace for this unfilial son? I bet you won't be at ease until you tear this family apart!"
Lady Yin was speechless and could only lower her head and wring her handkerchief.
When he returned to the pass today, he was pointed at and talked about. Although he sent people to investigate what had happened inside the pass, Li Jing heard those whispers clearly.
Li Jing was in a foul mood when a flamboyant red figure approached from afar. He held a red silk ribbon in his hand, leading someone as if they were a dog. There were only two slaves guarding the mansion gate. One was tied up outside by Nezha, while the other had been released by the boy to deliver a message.
"That's right!"
The slave then added, "The Third Prince has grown up."
Li Jing thought: You don't need to tell me that, the people are already here.
As the person leading the dog on a leash (the Hun Tian Ling) gradually came into focus in Li Jing's vision, he felt utterly hopeless. The newcomer was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen, tall and slender, wearing a lotus-patterned battle armor, his face breathtakingly beautiful.
Lady Yin covered her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears, and stammered, "Nezha, you...you..."
No mother wouldn't want to see her child grow up, but her wavering stance would leave her pleasing neither side. As soon as Madam Yin spoke, Li Jing glared at her, and the woman retreated to the side, pretending to be invisible. Nezha, seeking revenge, ignored Madam Yin, who had spoken first. The closer he got to Li Jing, the more relaxed his tense face became. By the time Nezha had completely entered the main hall, only a gentle smile remained on the young man's face.
Li Jing, sweating profusely, preemptively struck: "You wretched creature! You committed evil deeds in life, claiming to be severing all ties with my Li family. If that's the case, why have you returned here in your dead soul!"
"Since you know our kinship is severed, why did you go to Cuiping Mountain to attack my golden statue and destroy my palace?" The young man drew a long spear and pointed it directly at Li Jing. The spear obscured his face, so only Nezha's ferocious eyes could be seen behind its sharp edge. He shouted, "Li Jing, you destroyed my physical body once, so I'll retaliate once, and we'll be even. You can't escape today!"
Li Jing drew his axe to meet him.
The two iron weapons clashed, sparks flying everywhere, falling into the lake like pebbles and splashing into Pingyu's eyes.
The sun was shining brightly today, and the shimmering light reflected off the girl's face. She instinctively squinted, then was kicked into the lake from behind.
thump!
Lu Ya Daoist withdrew his foot, and leisurely watched the girl choking on water while holding the fruit, saying, "You're already spacing out before we've even started?"
Pingyu struggled to her feet from the water. She spat out the water, wiped her face, and said, "I just sat down, how could I have time to daydream? Don't pick on me!"
A valley, deep in the mountains and forests.
Lu Ya had somehow found this place; when Ping Yu arrived, all he saw was a dense forest. Forget about human habitation; there wasn't even a trace of birds flying around. Everywhere his gaze fell, the ground was covered in a ghostly green light, which was truly eerie. If this person hadn't genuinely possessed some skill, Ping Yu would have thought he'd been bewitched by a beggar and taken to the mountains to be sold. This perfectly matched Ping Yu's stereotypical view of cultivation: highly skilled individuals appeared out of nowhere in the wilderness.
She was led forward until she arrived at the lake where she had fallen in. The mountains and forests were far from human habitation, and the vegetation gathered shade and flowed into the water to form the lake. In terms of location, it was very suitable for Pingyu, whose birth chart indicated water, to cultivate.
Lu Ya Dao Ren was a very efficient person. He immediately assigned the girl a task: Ping Yu was required to sit cross-legged by the lake and immerse her hands in the water to meditate until she could understand the messages conveyed by the water before she could end this stage of cultivation.
Hearing the girl's rebuttal, the Taoist clicked his tongue and shook his head, saying, "That's because you're clumsy and slow."
Ping was furious but dared not speak, and emerged limply from the lake. She sat cross-legged again and obediently dipped her hands into the water as the Taoist had instructed. Just as the girl closed her eyes, her master's voice rang out again. Lu Ya said, "I will only accompany you until the demon-summoning time at dusk. If you cannot sense the information in the water before then..."
Pingyu pricked up his ears, wanting to hear what the other person was saying in a presumptuous way.
The Taoist priest uttered extremely cruel words in his nonchalant voice: "Then you will be expelled from my sect."
Pingyu: ?
The deep-seated bitterness and resentment in her heart vanished completely because of the Taoist's words. She couldn't help but say, "How can you say that? I just became your disciple!"
Graduating at the speed of light is terrifying to even think about!
Lu Ya, however, felt that his words made sense: "Whether a person is suitable for cultivating immortality can be determined in just a few hours. Your birth chart is water, which is yin in nature, and the yin energy is strongest when you encounter demons. If you still cannot enter the path under such favorable conditions, then it is better not to force yourself to endure the hardship."
He propped his chin on his hand, stroked his beard, and laughed, "After all, cultivating immortality isn't something that can be achieved through hard work alone. By the time you've succeeded in your cultivation and seek revenge, your enemy will probably have already reincarnated several times over."
Lu Ya's words were sharp, but undeniably, everything he said was true. A person without talent can hardly go far on the path of immortality, but Ping Yu had no way out. Revenge for this life's grudges is for this life; a child's fate leads to nine reincarnations, and in the next life, who knows if she'll harm those around her again. She was also a proud child, and a single word from him ignited her fighting spirit.
Meditation allows one to connect with the universe; combined with breathing exercises, it can expel impurities from the body, absorb spiritual energy to cleanse the meridians, and channel this energy into the dantian for one's own use. In a metaphysical sense, the five fingers correspond to the five elements and the five internal organs. There is an ancient method of diagnosing ghosts by pinching the fingers; simply by touching the pulse in the fingers, one can know which demon, ghost, or deity the possessed person has offended.
Ping Yu uttered a harsh threat: "You just wait and see!"
He then closed his eyes and began to meditate.
Meditation, also known as "entering samadhi," emphasizes "observing the nose and contemplating the mind." Previously, Pingyu's mind was free of distractions, like a salted fish. Not only was entering samadhi easy for her, but falling asleep was equally effortless. Now, her mind is burdened with too many things, like a bottle of water violently shaken, its surface swirling and tearing at her nerves. Pingyu is restless and agitated; even closing her eyes for a short while makes her feel irritable, and she just wants to open them and pace back and forth.
This won't do, she thought.
After realizing that he could not find peace of mind this way, Pingyu immediately changed his approach.
Lu Ya paused in his peach-biting motion, watching the girl in front of him stand up, and unconsciously raised an eyebrow. Ping Yu had just been kicked into the lake, so he had a basic understanding of the depth of the outer edge of the lake.
Without hesitation, Pingyu walked into the lake and sat down cross-legged, soaking herself in it. The girl was petite, and the water in the shallow section of the lake just reached halfway up her neck when she sat down. The surface tension of the water on her neck and face gave her a feeling of suffocation. It was also the time of Frost's Descent, and the temperature in the forest was low. The biting cold permeated every water molecule, penetrating every nook and cranny. In an instant, Pingyu's frail body turned pale with cold.
Lu Ya frowned as he looked at it.
Who calms their mind in this way?
This method, though extreme, was very effective. Hypothermia sluggished Pingyu's brain, making her unable to focus on anything that would disturb her thoughts. The coldness of her body forced Pingyu to concentrate on the little warmth she had left, in order to keep herself from freezing to death.
The so-called "eyes focused on the nose, nose focused on the heart" state of meditation was achieved through external intervention. As her mind emptied, Pingyu gradually forgot that she was meditating. The water in the lake seemed to be a part of her body, and her individual self constituted this lake in the forest. Time flowed by unnoticed, and the sun, which had been high overhead, lazily slid down to the mountainside.
Lu Ya looked up at the sky; the appointed time was approaching.
The setting sun resembled a crushed orange, and the twilight seeped into every inch of the land, both inside and outside the mountains, even turning the lake orange-red.
As the transition from day to night approached, a thick fog began to rise within the mountains. Bloodthirsty demons, lured out by the deepening colors of the sunset, emerged. The air was thick with the scent of a temple, filled with the damp fragrance of incense. Just as Lu Ya Daoist was about to rise and pull the girl away, he saw her figure sway slightly.
In the instant the demonic aura filled the air, Pingyu seemed to grasp the sound from the water. The lake water, which had become one with the girl's skin, bones, and flesh, pushed the ripples to her ears as she swayed.
At first, these sounds were just the crisp sound of water hitting the rocks.
Hearing the sound in the silence, Pingyu quickly held her breath and tried to listen. Under her complete concentration, the sound of water striking the water began to distort in her brain and ears. The crisp tapping sound slowly transformed into characters that she could barely make out.
……help me
The sound of the water was like that of a child, and also like that of a mature woman. She suddenly opened her eyes and saw many strands of hair starting from her feet and wrapping around her. They meant no harm, but rather seemed to be grasping at straws, trying to make the girl stop.
...My hands, my feet, my head, my body, they're all here.
There was no hatred in that voice, only a desolate and lonely lament.
help me……
Pingyu heard the lake water pleading with her:
Help me find myself, help me piece myself together...
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