Chapter 54: Water Fairy (1)
The clear river flows eastward, and the faint smoke and clouds reveal the vast stars.
Fifteen inserted the torch into the side of the boat. Li Yuanying leaned against the windowsill, looking at the scenery outside. Tonight would be a sleepless night.
She stretched out her hand, and the silver moonlight kissed her skin. She seemed to not feel the cold in her body, and everything seemed to become quiet, a feeling she had never experienced before.
"Don't think about it, Miss Li. It's useless to think too much." The embroiderer lay on the bed next to Li Yuanying. She covered the quilt for Shiwu and lay down herself.
"Okay, you guys go to sleep first, I'll be asleep in a bit."
Li Yuanying's thoughts flew far away. She thought of her mother and her senior brother. She wondered how her senior brother was doing, whether he was okay or injured.
However, since the Gu family has arrived, senior brother should be safe and sound. The Gu family is very powerful, especially that person - Gu Jinzhi.
He will definitely ensure that his senior brother is safe.
Li Yuanying's mind flashed back to the time when the three of them had studied together at Zhang Lao's house. Gu Jinzhi had always hated sunlight, so he often stayed out at night, like a night owl.
He would come to Zhang Qingchen every night to practice with him, and Li Yuanying would watch the fun with fruits and pastries in her hands.
Although Gu Jinzhi's swordsmanship was also taught by Master Zhang, it was different from what he learned from Zhang Qingchen and Li Yuanying. Li Yuanying didn't know which sub-sect of the sword sect it came from, but now that she thought about it, her swordsmanship was very similar to Qilang's, extremely sinister and insidious.
Gu Jinzhi rarely talked to Li Yuanying. After every competition with Zhang Qingchen, he would go straight back to rest and would not say a word to Li Yuanying.
It was not until someone from the Gu family suddenly came, not knowing what urgent matter they wanted to tell Gu Jinzhi to go back, that he had a few serious words with Li Yuanying before leaving.
That day, after breakfast, Li Yuanying was about to go to sword practice. As she passed the Zhang family's courtyard, she saw a young man, wrapped up from head to toe, standing under a tree. He seemed to have been waiting for a long time; a few fallen petals still clung to his shoulders.
Li Yuanying looked for a long time before recognizing that it was Gu Jinzhi.
"Senior Brother Jinzhi?" She was a little unsure.
"Li... Wanwan..." The young man hesitated for a moment, but still called out the name.
Then, he handed Li Yuanying a sword. The sword was transparent and the tassel was a plum blossom, which was extremely beautiful.
Li Yuanying was amazed at such a stunning sword. She took it in disbelief: "Senior Brother Jinzhi, is this for me?"
"Um."
"It's so beautiful! Really? Can I really have it?"
"This was made just for you."
Li Yuanying looked at the sword carefully and couldn't let it go. She wanted to draw the sword, but found that the sword did not move at all.
"Wanwan, to use this sword, you need to inject a trace of your soul into it, and from then on, you and the sword will become one."
"I see. No wonder I couldn't pull it out. What's its name?"
"Cold as ice and tough as embers, let's call it Frost Embers. What do you think?"
"Ice...Frost...Embers." Li Yuanying said each word carefully and nodded. "Good, good name."
"Wanwan, we're parting today, and I don't know when we'll meet again. I hope you and Qingchen are doing well."
"Brother Jinzhi, where are you going?"
"I'm going back to the Gu family. They need me there."
A gust of wind blew the petals off Gu Jinzhi's shoulders, and they floated in the air like rootless duckweed.
"Senior Brother Jinzhi, we can go to the Gu family to find you." Li Yuanying said naively.
Li Yuanying remembered that Gu Jinzhi was wrapped too tightly at the time, so she couldn't see his expression. He just nodded.
It has been two years since we parted that day. Gu Jinzhi should have grown into a more mature man by now.
Actually, he is already a young man.
Now that he had gone to Chang'an and she was going to Heishui, it was indeed not as easy for the three of them to get together as before.
Li Yuanying kept staring at the river and found that the waves were a little strange, as if there were always two waves clustered together and then collided.
She looked behind the ship and saw a dark shadow following their ship not far behind. It seemed that there was another ship hiding in the night.
Li Yuanying immediately became alert. She walked out of the cabin and came to the deck.
She saw a few boatmen chatting idly on the deck.
"Hello, is there a boat going with us over there?"
A short boatman nodded and said, "Yes, that's someone else's boat. Don't worry, miss. They're not bad people. We're all going to Blackwater together."
Li Yuanying walked to the stern, hoping to get a clearer view of the ship. Unfortunately, the night was too dark, and she could only make out a silhouette of someone standing at the head of the bed. After a while, he seemed to notice Li Yuanying, turned around and left, never to be seen again.
The difference between the ship behind them and them was that it was completely dark, without a single light, like a ghost ship. Li Yuanying knew that usually they would disguise themselves like this and quietly approach the enemy only when they wanted to launch a surprise attack.
So, even though the boatman said that, she was still a little worried.
Just as she was about to return to the cabin, she suddenly heard a melodious singing voice. It seemed like a woman was singing, the voice was high, melodious and very beautiful.
Li Yuanying returned to the deck and asked the boatmen, "Did you hear the singing?"
The boatmen all said they heard it.
"It might be the boat behind us! When it started sailing, I saw a young man on that boat. He was very wealthy. He chartered the entire boat by himself and brought two very beautiful girls with him."
The short boatman just spoke, and then the others started laughing too.
"I'm afraid that at night, the young man will feel lonely, so let the women sing a song to cheer him up."
"Yeah, hey, why don't we have this fate?"
"Just you? Come on, don't think about it. Thinking too much will only make you more worried."
Li Yuanying looked towards the stern of the ship. The singing did not seem to come from that direction, but from the front of the ship.
Sure enough, as the boat moved forward, the singing became clearer and clearer, and Li Yuanying could hear the lyrics clearly.
“
It was dark,
Close the door tightly,
See who's awake.
Don't breathe loudly.
Don't open your eyes.
Don't whisper.
I know where you are.
Don't tear the body apart.
Don't tear the shadow apart,
Don't try to escape.
I will definitely find you
.
”
When everyone heard the song, their faces changed slightly.
"These lyrics are so fucking creepy." A young man shuddered and shrank his neck.
"Who is playing tricks on you?!" the dwarf shouted towards the front, but there was no response.
Li Yuanying felt that something was wrong: "Everyone return to the cabin as soon as possible, close the door tightly, and don't go out tonight."
After that, she left the cabin, returned to her room, and locked the door.
The embroiderer was awakened by the noise. She glanced at Li Yuanying with sleepy eyes and said, "Miss Li, why do you look so bad?"
Li Yuanying closed the window of the room tightly, then sat on the bed with lingering fear and looked at the embroiderer: "I'm afraid we will be in trouble tonight."
After hearing this, the embroiderer sat up and asked, "What happened?"
"I'm afraid we've encountered a water demon..."
"Ling Yao? Is that the Ling Yao who likes to sing?"
Li Yuanying nodded: "I just heard that song... Ling Yao's favorite song about playing hide-and-seek..."
Li Yuanying's palms were sweating. She had once encountered a Ling Yao when she and her father were out catching monsters. She had paid a heavy price that time.
"This monster is a bit troublesome... he's stupid and stubborn." The embroiderer stretched.
"It's easy for the embroiderer to say."
"Anyway, we won't be chosen tonight, what do you think?" The embroiderer winked at Li Yuanying.
Seeing that Li Yuanying remained silent, Xiu Niang asked, "You don't want Ling Yao to choose us, so that you can save those crew members, do you?"
Li Yuanying is not that great. She knows how powerful Ling Yao is. Ling Yao is different from other monsters. If she fights against other monsters, she can still compete with them.
But Ling Yao's spell is locked, that is, as long as she "finds" someone, that person will definitely die.
That time, Li Yuanying and his group fought with Ling Yao for seven days and seven nights, with one person dying every night. They neither found a pattern in the killing nor knew why Ling Yao would pause. In short, after seven days, they were safe and sound.
That time, the only thing they could do was to lock the door and close their eyes as soon as night fell, just like the song said, and pretend to be asleep no matter whether they could fall asleep or not.
"Go to sleep." Li Yuanying said, then extinguished the torch.
She quickly lay down and closed her eyes. Based on her previous experience, people were more likely to die in a room with the lights on.
Ling Yao is actually a kind of charm demon. She does not kill people directly, but uses illusions. Therefore, Li Yuanying has always believed that the chosen person must have some characteristics that make it easier to trigger the Ling Yao illusion.
Li Yuanying recalled everything that happened at that time. In order to reduce her presence, she held her breath and only exhaled and inhaled gently when she couldn't bear it anymore.
How long will it last this time?
Will it last another seven days? Li Yuanying was a little scared.
If seven days is a fixed cycle, there are only ten people on the boat now, which means that at most only three of them can survive.
Could these three people be her, Xiu Niang and Fifteen?
Just as Li Yuanying was lost in thought, she felt someone open the door. She felt a sudden rush of blood to her head, and her hands and feet began to grow cold. She no longer had Frost Ashes by her side, and she couldn't use her magic. She could only hold her breath and wait and see.
That year, when she went out with her father, there was a senior on the boat who was very skilled in magic and swordsmanship. He lived near Li Yuanying. That night, Li Yuanying heard rustling noises in his room. The next day, when everyone went to his room to check, his head had been cut off and he was holding it to his chest.
Li Yuanying still can't forget this terrifying scene; it was the first time she felt the insignificance of human power. No matter how skilled you are, no matter how powerful your magic, Ling Yao's locking technique is unbreakable.
From then on, Li Yuanying never took the waterway to some remote places, but this time, this waterway was a prosperous commercial route. Unexpectedly, after the destruction of the Yuanming Realm, Lingyao also appeared.
Li Yuanying forced herself to calm herself down. If the person who came in was really Ling Yao, what should she do?
Her mind was working fast. Perhaps she had used up all her luck the first time she met Ling Yao. If she met Ling Yao again this time, she would be in great danger.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Li Yuanying felt the floor making noises when something heavy stepped on it. That was not the sound of human footsteps. It sounded like the object was extremely massive.
Afterwards, Li Yuanying heard a sound like nails scratching the wall, and a cold air rushed over.
No, we can't just sit there and wait for death.
There might be a glimmer of hope if we launch a counterattack, but if we just sit there and wait for death, everything will be over.
The past events, along with the present terror, swept over Li Yuanying, and beads of sweat began to seep out of her forehead.
Suddenly, Li Yuanying felt a pair of hands coming around her, and a familiar fragrance filled her nose. The hands embraced her, and a familiar voice rang in her ears: "Don't move."
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