Chapter 250 Though Dead, Still Alive (Life and Death Tribulation) "So, in the end, is it life or death...?"
"Life and death like hailstones?"
Gu Yu's eyes gleamed, and the vermilion runes on her face appeared even more chaotic in the rain.
"This is the first time someone has asked him about it."
Lin Feiran continued, "Can it be counted?"
Like a hailstone, the life or death of Ru Xian hung in Lin Feiran's heart like a long sword with no resolution in sight.
The reason the two formed a pact was to find the Cloud Soul Rain Spirit Grass, a method he had come up with after searching through medical classics.
After refining the spiritual herbs, he was indeed at peace for a long time. The spiritual energy did not become chaotic again, and those strange patterns never appeared again.
He doesn't even need to sleep during the day, nor does he need to bask in the sunlight to alleviate his pain.
Everything seemed perfectly peaceful.
However, during her time in the Demon Capital, Lin Feiran noticed something was amiss.
Ru Xian's cultivation and spiritual power were gradually increasing.
Whether it was the spiritual pressure he unconsciously released at night that inexplicably woke her up, or the spiritual energy he exuded while lying in the courtyard watching her practice swordsmanship during the day, it all indicated the ascent of his cultivation level.
For cultivators, cultivation is about enhancing their spiritual power, until they achieve enlightenment at a certain moment and are able to break through to a higher realm.
However, depending on their cultivation level, cultivators can absorb different amounts of spiritual energy.
Just as rivers cannot contain lakes and seas, and overflow when full, spiritual energy that cannot be contained can only dissipate.
That's how he is now.
It's possible that Xue Xiu has been at the Divine Travel Realm for a long time. The reason he hasn't been able to break through is not only because he intentionally suppressed it, but also because he hasn't yet comprehended it.
For a cultivator to break through a realm is simply a matter of enlightenment; when one's state of mind reaches a certain level, one's realm will also reach that level.
Now his spiritual energy, which had been stagnant for a long time, has begun to flow and grow again, which means that his state of mind has changed. For cultivators, enlightenment or non-enlightenment is only a matter of a moment, and no one can determine it or stop it.
There was once a sage who reflected on himself in the mountains and attained enlightenment in one night. He emerged from the mundane world and entered the realm of forgetting himself, walking alone to the realm of returning to his true self. From then on, his white hair was reborn, and he descended the mountain to travel.
Even a sage cannot control himself, let alone him.
He must have had a premonition that he might break through to a higher realm at any moment, which is why he was in a hurry to find other ways to avoid dying from a violent spiritual energy outburst.
The change in his spiritual power at this moment coincided with the time Qiu Tong had mentioned, making it difficult for Lin Feiran to feel at ease.
She looked across at Gu Yu, who was turning the teapot lid. All the foam in the pot had been skimmed off, leaving only the sound of the tea sliding between the porcelain bowls. Occasionally, clear tea would overflow from the bowl, mixing with the dripping rain.
Finally, he stopped.
"I can calculate it, I can calculate it. But life and death divination is different from ordinary divination. It requires inquiring about the secrets of heaven and the flow of fortune. If you want to ask about this, you have to let me give you something in exchange. Is that alright?"
Lin Feiran nodded: "Okay, what would you like to retrieve, senior?"
Gu Yu shook her head: "I don't know either. The answer will be clear after divination, but I can't guarantee whether it can accurately predict life or death. Are you still willing to have it done?"
"willing."
“Alright!” Gu Yu immediately raised her hand, holding up three two-inch-long wooden sticks. “Then I will calculate the fate of this nemesis.”
The three wooden sticks rotated, extremely slowly yet extremely quickly, with good and bad omens engraved on their two sides, appearing and disappearing intermittently.
The rain suddenly stopped, and the stagnant raindrops floated to the side, reflecting the world around them and Lin Feiran's focused gaze.
Gu Yu closed her eyes, the cinnabar runes on her face darkened, revealing a somber reddish-brown hue. Her eyes opened again, but instead of gazing at the vast sky, they stared at Lin Feiran.
Like an angry Vajra, it pressed down with a terrifying aura.
Suddenly, she saw a faint white mist rise around her, like a thick fog that she couldn't shake off. It flowed from her head to her feet, then rose back up, gathered at her heart, and then surged along her heart meridian to her fingertips.
The white mist slowly condensed at my fingertips into an endless thin line.
Lin Feiran knew that this was the weak and pitiful aura that the sword spirits had mentioned.
When the vital energy is cut off, it means that a person is about to die.
She didn't know whether this subtle energy was present from birth or had become weak after the Human Emperor cursed her to not live past twenty.
In short, it hasn't gotten any thicker to this day.
But somehow, something invisibly drew away some of this energy, and the wisps of white mist suddenly swayed. Originally as thick as a reed, it instantly became as thin and tough as wild grass. Except for not being completely cut off, it was almost no different from a person on the verge of death.
Lin Feiran was not surprised. To know something, you have to give something in return. If what she was asked to take away was her vital energy, then she would accept it.
Perhaps this happens often, because the eyes drawn on Gu Yu's eyelids only blink slightly, as if it were quite common.
But the next moment, they suddenly opened their eyes wide, and the few casually shaped lines revealed a hint of horror.
Lin Feiran looked down and saw that the thin white mist at his fingertips, as thin as a blade of grass, suddenly trembled. In the blink of an eye, it returned to normal. Although it was still thinner than that of an ordinary person, it had recovered after the change.
Lin Feiran looked up and happened to meet those strange vermilion eyes.
"..."
The two looked at each other in silence.
Its surprise and absurdity were even greater than hers.
Lin Feiran looked at his fingertips and couldn't help but wonder: What is this? Could it be that it's impossible to predict, so it's returning the energy?
She didn't speak, nor did she dare to disturb the person in front of her. The hidden light on Gu Yu's face gradually faded, and just as those vermilion eyes that had been scrutinizing her were reluctant to close, he opened his eyes.
In an instant, the three wooden sticks spun together and fell into his hand. The stagnant rain around him started to fall again, pattering at his feet.
Having witnessed the previous strange phenomenon, Lin Feiran hesitated and asked, "Senior, is there any result?"
Gu Yu only saw the secrets of heaven and knew nothing about what had just happened. He raised his hand and said, "No rush, no rush. Let me check if you are missing any limbs. If there is anything wrong, Ru Xian will really trample me to the ground and interrogate me."
He was very serious, even counting all ten of her fingers before he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"With all four limbs intact, a sharp mind, and the ability to count, it's good that he's not demented. It seems that his vital energy has been taken away."
He filled the teacups in front of the two of them and comforted them, saying, "Don't worry. A person's vital energy is important, but it is also very robust, especially for someone your age. It should be at least three fingers thick. Being a fraction less won't matter."
Lin Feiran hesitated for a moment, but still asked the question that worried her the most: "Senior, what was the result?"
Gu Yu took a sip of her drink and laid out three wooden sticks: "Just look at them directly."
The wooden sticks are placed on the side of the table, with the numbers from left to right representing great misfortune, misfortune, and minor good fortune.
"What does this mean?" She looked up.
Gu Yu coughed lightly, scratched his head, and said, "It means that the situation is not optimistic, but there is still a glimmer of hope."
"So, in the end, is it life or death?"
Gu Yu's voice trailed off: "If you seize the chance to live, you won't die."
"..."
This is just like a charlatan monk on the street who speaks ambiguously.
For the first time, Lin Feiran felt the urge to suddenly attack, but he had already said that he might not be able to give a specific answer.
She hesitated for a moment, then finally asked, "How can we seize this chance? Senior, you surely know the answer, don't you?"
“Of course I know.” Gu Yu’s eyes flickered slightly, and he raised his hand to tap the table. “As long as he stays in Rainfall City before late spring and doesn’t travel around, he will definitely be able to avoid this calamity.”
Lin Feiran was relieved. Although she didn't know why it was late spring, she was at least able to avoid it.
"Senior Gu, I have another question. Is it possible for the vital energy taken away during a divination of life and death to return?"
“Once it’s taken, it can’t be taken back.” Gu Yu looked at her and chuckled. “Now you know you regret it? Don’t worry. Young people like you, losing a little bit won’t matter.”
This vital energy is both important and unimportant; ultimately, it's just a symbol of being alive. Those unlucky cultivators who were beaten to death, weren't they all two or three fingers thick when they died?
Lin Feiran felt increasingly puzzled: "But my vital energy has indeed recovered."
Gu Yu paused, then said, "Perhaps you've misread it?"
Lin Feiran straightened up and exhaled slightly: "I can still tell the difference between grass stems and wisps of smoke."
Gu Yu almost choked on the water. He was momentarily unsure whether to be surprised that her vital energy was so weak or surprised that it had recovered.
Are you sure?
Gu Yu pressed her fingers together on her wrist, and the white mist reappeared, indeed like the rising green smoke, thin and straight, yet subtly different.
If it were anyone else, he would have said that the orphan was destined for a tragic fate and that her future would be fraught with hardship, but this was Lin Feiran, and he only felt lingering fear.
If any more of her vital energy were extracted, she would likely perish here!
Gu Yu examined him for a few more moments, but still felt something was amiss. He got up and paced back and forth. After a few turns, he immediately said, "Something's not right. Your aura is a bit strange, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Let me cast a divination for you."
Before Lin Feiran could speak, he sat back down at the table. This time, instead of three long wooden sticks, he held a full nine in his hand.
Nine is the end, and all things return to one.
At his level of cultivation, divination only requires three lots, but he took out all of them at this moment, which was clearly not an ordinary divination.
He activated his technique again, opening his eyes once more. With a whoosh, the nine long divination sticks suddenly began to spin, the black and red characters for good and bad fortune constantly changing. Gradually, the spinning sticks seemed to begin to separate.
One becomes two, two becomes three...
Lin Feiran stared intently at the fortune sticks and counted out eighty-one long ones!
The previous lingering rain was gone; the raindrops in the sky had all disappeared, and the water ripples on the blue bricks gradually trembled. A few pebbles rolled to Lin Feiran's feet, making a soft sound.
She didn't notice; her gaze was entirely fixed on the fortune slips.
The long divination slip originally had two colors, black and red, with red representing good fortune and black representing good fortune. The alternation of black and red originally meant that the fortune or misfortune was unknown before the divination was written.
The divination was still ongoing, and the long fortune sticks were still turning, but at a certain moment, the text on the flipped fortune sticks quietly changed.
Lin Feiran's eyes flickered slightly, and he immediately stood up to look. Starting from the first one, the long sticks were still turning over, but no matter which side was facing up, both sides were completely black!
She immediately looked back, and saw a second one, a third one...
The red gradually faded, leaving only solemn black.
They seemed to be racing against her gaze, and everything they looked at changed color. Eighty-one black shadows came into view, which was chilling!
Lin Feiran's breathing slowed down, and Gu Yu began to form hand seals and close the spell. As he slowly opened his eyes, all the divination slips merged into one, turning into the original nine sticks, which fell onto the tea table with a splash, filling the view with blackness.
Just like in the case analysis, each one only has two characters on it.
Very bad omen.
Gu Yu lowered her eyes and looked at him for a long time before speaking: "Miss Lin, you should be more worried about yourself than about his life or death."
Lin Feiran picked up a long fortune stick and stroked the identical characters on both sides. Even though she already knew the answer, she still asked, "...What does the fortune stick mean?"
"In the face of the 'Nine-Nine Life-or-Death' principle, you are certain to die."
Author's Note: Three thousand is also love... [heart emoji][heart emoji]
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