Chapter 29 Obscure (Part 1) Unable to bear seeing a pearl tarnished, Huang…
Back then, Taihui and others also sought medical treatment for Lin Feiran, but to no avail. They could only try to make up for her condition and recuperate, but her spiritual meridians not only did not improve, but deteriorated further and became more and more sluggish.
As time went by, when the matter was brought up again, everyone changed their tone, telling her to stay in Sanqing Mountain and not to overthink it. At that time, she understood and never mentioned the matter of treatment again.
She thought to herself that they had helped her for many years and had shown her their kindness, but she couldn't let it go.
Lin Feiran had, of course, considered what she would do if the spiritual veins could be cured one day.
Ecstasy? Relief? Or perhaps tears of joy?
I didn't know before, but when this moment finally arrived, I felt only boundless peace.
After the two entered the hall, Ru Xian naturally took off her outer robe, leaving only a loose inner robe on her body. The gold ornaments jingled, and her fair skin was fully revealed as she walked.
He turned to look at her, then slightly raised his chin toward the edge of the couch: "Go sit by the couch and prepare to remove the curse."
Beneath the moonlit window was a long couch, beside which sat a small, level stool, woven from purple bamboo, soft yet resilient. Lin Feiran knew at a glance that it was prepared for her.
Sitting on the stool, she glanced to the side and saw Ru Xian adjusting her inner robe, then taking several gold rings from the cabinet and binding them around her arms and wrists. Her waist-length snow-white hair was casually tied with silk and draped over her right shoulder, revealing a slender curve of her neck.
"..."
Lin Feiran felt uneasy, and the hesitation of accidentally wandering into a woman's private quarters rose again. Should she go out and wait?
While he was pondering, Ru Xian turned around and walked over. He sat cross-legged on the couch very naturally, his voice like pearls and jade, slightly cool: "Take off your clothes."
Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt, and Lin Feiran uttered a single syllable: "Huh?"
Lin Feiran immediately replied, "I won't bite. No matter how painful it is, I can endure it."
Ru Xian glanced at her, then closed her eyes: "The pain in this world is not something you have to endure. If you can't endure it, then don't."
He tossed a medicine pouch into her hand: "It's for pain relief. Put it in your mouth when you can't bear it."
After he finished speaking, he raised his right hand, and Lin Feiran consciously placed her left wrist under his palm.
"Then let's begin."
His fingers were long and slender, his skin as white as jade. When his fingertips pressed against the spiritual veins on her wrist, they felt as cool and delicate as jade handles. A gentle press felt like a thousand pounds.
In an instant, Lin Feiran felt a squeezing pain, as if a thousand pounds of force were pressing on a finger's width of his pulse. Almost instantly, a thin layer of sweat appeared on his back.
As if sitting cross-legged on a long couch, outside the window was the rising moon, a few faint rays of light floated in, and then transformed into blades of light in Ru Xian's silent opening and closing mouth, gleamingly cutting into Lin Feiran's bloodline.
In that instant, pain swept over her, and Lin Feiran couldn't help but groan. The veins on her neck suddenly bulged. She subconsciously grabbed her wrist, which was as sharp as a hailstone, but immediately let go after exerting force, only clenching her fist tightly to endure the pain.
More and more pure light gathered in the room, even brighter than the moonlight. It poured in piece by piece, more painful than peeling off skin and pulling out bones. As it invaded, the spiritual veins violently resisted, contracting and expanding to the extreme, trying to devour the wandering pure light as before.
Ru Xian's brows furrowed slightly, her parted lips stopped, her snow-white eyelashes were half-open, her emerald eyes gleamed, and she looked down at him without any emotion.
Lin Feiran sat upright, one hand tightly gripping his robe, the other hand clutching the hem of his robe. Her lips were tightly closed, and she bit down on the medicine pouch between her teeth, but it was clearly having limited effect. Her forehead was already damp with sweat.
He extended a finger and touched her forehead, spiritual light seeping in. He uttered a few syllables she couldn't understand, and then said, "The exorcism hasn't started yet. I'll give you one more chance. Do you want to take off your robes?"
Without saying a word, Lin Feiran took off his outer robe, but since the two of them couldn't let go of each other's hands, they could only let it pile up in their arms.
As she undressed, Ru Xian closed his eyes and said in a cool voice, "Tonight is only the first time to remove the curse. There will be a second, a third, and many more times. Even if you can't help it, you won't be able to stop. I won't stop just because it hurts."
Now, close your eyes and let your spiritual energy circulate throughout your body.
Lin Feiran did as instructed.
He spoke slowly in the stillness, his voice melodious, like chanting, yet also like whispering, like pine flowers glistening with dew, snow mist, and spring grass swaying resiliently—everything was so strange and ethereal that Lin Feiran even felt a little lightheaded, forgetting the pain in her meridians.
Suddenly, the surrounding spiritual energy gathered and poured in, engulfing her body and mouth and nose. She felt as if she had been dragged from the sky into the deep sea, almost drowning. The pain was no longer limited to one place, but spread to every meridian.
Her heart pounded like a drum, and she could almost hear the gurgling sound of blood flowing back to its source. In the extreme pain, she suddenly opened her eyes.
Spiritual veins crisscrossed before my eyes, expanding and contracting, with streaks of clear light struggling and painfully traversing them, as if they might be swallowed up at any moment.
Gradually, the fragments of clear light gathered and condensed into a thin blade. The tip of the blade hovered above the runes embedded at the end of the spiritual vein, gently scraping and removing small characters.
In an instant, Lin Feiran trembled all over, unable to suppress his voice any longer. A cry of pain escaped from between his teeth, his breathing became heavy, and a little bit of blood seeped from his snow-white medicine pouch.
A single hair can affect the whole body; the meridians contract suddenly, sometimes like tendons stretched to their limit, sometimes shrinking to the smallest point, as thin as a hair. The bones throughout the body creak and groan, making a teeth-grinding sound, as if they were all shattered and reassembled, yet something faintly escapes from between the bones, like a sigh in the face of stubborn resistance to fate.
She forcefully suppressed the surging blood and qi, channeling her spiritual energy throughout her body to soothe the turbulent spiritual veins.
Removing a curse is like an ant moving a mountain; even a small talisman requires a hundred times the effort to move just a corner of it.
After an unknown amount of time, the thin blade formed by the clear light finally melted away, and the single-word incantation at the end of the spiritual vein dissipated, revealing the originally golden and radiant vein.
In an instant, the excruciating pain vanished, and the soft sound of a drop of water echoed in my ears.
When I opened my eyes again, what I saw was no longer the crisscrossing spiritual veins, but a vast and azure sea and sky, the realm stretching endlessly, with only the low-hanging sky and the reflected sea in sight.
Lin Feiran watched quietly for a moment, then stepped in, leaving ripples that spread far into the distance.
The sound of pattering water echoed beneath her feet. Looking down, she saw many "Lin Feirans" standing upside down beneath the sea. The moment her gaze fell upon them, they all stared back at her.
As the waves surged, they emerged from the seabed one by one, like Lin Feiran, their bodies as straight as snow pines, their eyes gleaming with clear light, only their expressions and mannerisms differed.
Some laughed, some were angry, some were sullen, some were blank; some lowered their eyes and dared not look at people; some glared angrily, like a raging fire; some had resentment in their eyes and were filled with hot tears; some squatted in a corner, saddened and heartbroken.
A young "Lin Feiran" ran past her, giggling. Something seemed to pick her up and carry her on its shoulder. A younger version of Lin Feiran sat down silently, wiping her sword without a sound. Her loose hair covered her eyebrows and eyes, and blocked the sounds of laughter coming from not far away.
More and more "she" figures emerged from the seabed, their faces and expressions constantly shifting and intertwining, blocking the path and preventing her from moving forward.
Suddenly, her hand felt a drop. Lin Feiran looked down and saw that the broken and chipped disciple's sword was back in her hand, just waiting for her to raise it.
Reflecting on the sea is to see one's true self by reflecting on the sea of one's heart.
What is the true self?
The angry me, the kind me, the brave me, the intelligent me are my true self; the timid me, the fragile me, the resentful me, the dull me are also my true self.
The teacher said, "If you see the true path of your heart, use your sword to cut through the weak and cross the heavenly gate."
All these images were ultimately reflected in Lin Feiran's calm eyes. She gripped the sword in her hand, pursed her thin lips, and slowly moved forward until she stopped in front of herself, who was bowing her head to wipe the sword.
She raised her sword, and it clattered.
The disciple's sword was tossed aside, and Lin Feiran leaned over and embraced her.
Good and evil, right and wrong, strong and weak, each is part of yourself, so why not accept it, and why cut it with a sword?
If you were to ask who in the world could be the first to fully accept Lin Feiran, the answer would undoubtedly be herself.
The person wiping the sword finally made a move. She raised her eyes, met Lin Feiran's gaze, and then revealed a faint smile.
Lin Feiran stood up, looked around, and smiled at everyone. The young Lin Feiran laughed the loudest and most heartily. She put her hands on her hips and said loudly, "I knew it! Nothing can stop me, Lin Feiran! Go ahead and do your thing!"
She turned and pointed, and the Heavenly Sea Realm suddenly came to an end, where a simple disciple's sword hung, covered in scars, its blade half-bent.
Lin Feiran first walked slowly toward the long sword, her pace gradually quickening until she ran as if riding the wind. Everyone followed behind her, merging with her one by one. Finally, they all leaped up to seize the sword. When they landed back on the water, only she remained between the sky and the sea.
She held her sword and looked down, only to see a reflection in the water, a reflection equally calm and resolute, looking back at her.
The reflection was the first to raise its sword, and a cluster of sparks ignited from the seabed, sweeping across in an instant, burning the azure sky and sea realm into a surging crimson. Above the sky, white clouds gathered, condensing into raindrops, gentle and peaceful.
As water and fire clashed, she closed her eyes, raised her sword, and leaped into the Mirror Sea. The sea shattered and fell, and she fell with it. As she turned around, a drop of clear, moist rain entered her brow, nourishing her limbs and body, and a warm feeling flowed through her.
With a clear view and hearing all things, she had entered the realm of Zhaohai.
When she opened her eyes again, a crescent moon hung high in the sky, the paulownia trees shimmered with light, and everything was so clear. She gently exhaled a breath of stale air and looked at the person in front of her.
The situation wasn't as good as she had imagined.
His thin lips parted slightly, his forehead was damp, and his pale face made the red mark on his eyes appear even more alluring. His inner robe was already soaked with water, hanging down and outlining his long, slender figure. He was clearly in more pain than she was.
A moment later, he withdrew his hand, and his lips, which had been whispering, finally closed. Just as he was about to collapse, Lin Feiran quickly raised her hand and grabbed the hem of his clothes on his shoulders, stopping him without touching him.
"...The first exorcism ends here." He opened his eyes, not bothering to hide his hoarse voice and weary expression, nor did he need to. He simply leaned back against the windowsill, looking down at Lin Feiran. "Just now, the spiritual energy surged. Did you break through to a higher realm?"
Lin Feiran still had the medicine pouch in her mouth. She took it out, her eyes shining brightly, and unusually loudly proclaimed, "I've entered the Illumination Sea Realm!"
"Your mental state has long been established, but your spiritual power was insufficient in the past, making it difficult to break through."
Ru Xian said no more. He raised his hand, and the lights in the room lit up one by one. He squinted because of the light, but only for a moment, and then he walked past Lin Feiran and got off the bed.
He was fond of cleanliness and could no longer bear the sight of his soaked robes. Before even entering behind the screen, he had already taken off half of them, revealing a patch of snow-white skin on his shoulders and back.
Lin Feiran's mind was filled with the relaxed spiritual energy. Her spiritual meridians had been too sluggish before, making it extremely difficult to circulate spiritual energy. Now, with only a slight loosening and smoothing, it was like a dam opening its gates and the energy flowing down.
Lin Feiran suddenly felt a little giddy. She stood up abruptly, her cheeks flushed: "Lord, I feel a vibrant power I've never felt before. Is this the Illuminating Sea Realm?!"
A soft chuckle came from behind the screen. He pulled the smooth, snow-white hair from the back of her neck, let it briefly scatter outside the screen, and then gathered it back together.
He said, "This is only temporary. Go and tell someone to release the water."
He wasn't going to talk much with the person who was currently delirious due to the surge of spiritual energy.
"I'll release it. You've helped me so much, and you're still in so much pain. I'll repay you tenfold!" Lin Feiran felt dizzy and had nowhere to use her spiritual power. As soon as she finished speaking, she rushed out.
"No..." Ru Xian peeked out from behind the screen and happened to see Lin Feiran slipping away. He clicked his tongue, changed into a clean robe, and sat down at the table.
Lin Feiran indeed repaid the favor tenfold.
She quickly carried the water back to the side hall bathhouse, her figure swift and her movements nimble. Even though she knew the bathhouse had direct access to water, she still insisted on doing it herself, as if she had a lot of energy to spare.
Ru Xian sat with his legs crossed and his chin resting on his hand, watching her run back and forth until his eyes were tired.
Some people get drunk on alcohol, some on water, but Lin Feiran gets drunk on spiritual energy. This is not surprising, because she has an extremely strong and resilient spiritual vein.
With so many incantations embedded, she should theoretically be unable to practice spiritual cultivation and could at most only reach the Mind-Cleansing Realm. However, just as the object resembles its owner, even though the incantations were everywhere, her spiritual veins managed to force a path through those gaps, widening and deepening to absorb spiritual power, helping her break through to the Forgetfulness Realm.
In other words, if an ordinary person's spiritual veins are like a straight, shallow stream or river, then her spiritual veins are like deep, unfillable ravines, formed by being eroded and trapped in the gaps of incantations during countless spiritual practices.
When she broke through to the next realm, her spiritual energy flowed back into the valley, temporarily filling it but unable to be released, which excited her.
Ru Xian had no doubt that if Lin Feiran were given a mountain right now, she could swing in it all day without stopping.
After filling the tub with water, Lin Feiran still felt it wasn't enough, so she picked up a green bamboo stick and started practicing in the courtyard. She wielded it with great skill and grace, and walked into the bathhouse with her eyes fixed straight ahead. She closed her eyes to rest in the warmth of the bath, and when he came out, she was still there.
His movements were as swift as a startled swan, his sword as graceful as a swimming dragon; one moment he was on the rooftop, the next in the courtyard.
But he didn't expect it to be so tireless.
"Tsk, so young and impetuous."
Back in the palace, as soon as Ru Xian entered the inner room, Lin Feiran burst in, her flushed cheeks still warm, her clear eyes shining like stars, filled with genuine gratitude.
Ru Xian looked down at her, crossed her arms, and remained silent.
After exchanging glances, Lin Feiran raised her hand and turned off the light. She clasped her hands together in a mudra, and when she separated them, many tiny streams of light flew out from her palms, fluttering and scattering like a shower of light.
"I can actually use this kind of spell that consumes spiritual energy and is flashy but impractical."
The shimmering light filled the room, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. As I glanced up and swept the light across the room, my lips parted, uttering my second assessment of the day.
"The peacock spreads its tail feathers."
The word, originating from the human race, was somewhat offensive to him; he didn't usually like using it, but at this moment, there was no more fitting description. Ru Xian initially wanted to ask her to leave, but then she thought that she wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, so teasing someone would be more amusing.
He walked to the table and sat down, raising his chin slightly to indicate that she should sit opposite him: "Practicing swordsmanship alone cannot calm your spiritual energy, which you can neither store nor release. Come here."
A chessboard made of spiritual energy appeared on the desk. After Lin Feiran sat down, he continued, "Do you know how to play chess?"
"I know some."
Ru Xian nodded: "Then you take the black."
Condensing light is not difficult; it is considered one of the introductory spells. However, it consumes a great deal of spiritual energy. Using it as a chess piece, one must not only determine its size but also maintain it at all times.
After Lin Feiran placed a piece, he followed with his fingers. At first, the two were evenly matched, but after a few rounds, he slowed down and began to think carefully before placing his piece.
He never liked sitting upright, and this was even more so now. He leaned against the windowsill, his wrist resting on the desk, his eyes lowered as he looked at the chessboard. His snow-white hair looked like it was woven with silver threads under the moonlight, shimmering with silver light.
After a moment, Ru Xian looked up at her and asked, "Is this what you call knowing a little?"
Lin Feiran nodded and said, "I usually practice swordsmanship and haven't really studied chess much. However, my memory is good, and I have memorized all the chess scores I have studied. I'm just reciting them now."
Ru Xian stared at her intently for a few breaths before finally speaking: "Your talent is truly exceptional. If you can break through another realm before the Flying Flower Gathering, you will undoubtedly be the champion, and the title of the world's number one swordsman will be as easy as taking candy from a baby."
I want to lend you a hand; whether you accept or not is entirely up to you.
After he finished speaking, he conjured more than a dozen golden butterflies in his palm, which fluttered around the two of them.
The demons have decreed that, from this day forward, their sixth human envoy will assume the throne. Anyone who disagrees may come and fight; if victorious, the envoy will be replaced.
“I understand what you mean.” Lin Feiran stood up, released the golden butterflies between his fingers, and watched them flutter out. “A sword is forged through tempering. I’ve taken advantage of your favorable wind.”
She turned her gaze again: "But I don't understand why you've helped me so much? Even if I don't win the championship, I can still go into the valley to find things for you."
Ru Xian leaned against the window, looking up with her bright eyes slightly narrowed. After a long while, she said softly, "It's just that we all feel sorry for each other, but I just can't bear to see a bright pearl covered in dust and a great bell destroyed."
The author says: Sometimes, facing your own flaws is harder than facing others (suddenly becoming serious).
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Sorry it's late today, I've been quite busy with work these past two days TT
One more thing: because I'm not a full-time writer, and working during the day and writing until the early hours of the morning is really taking its toll, I'm going to adjust to updating five times a week, with no updates on Mondays and Thursdays. Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants between 2024-07-23 01:22:17 and 2024-07-24 22:37:37!
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