Chapter 54 Landing and Shaping
"Qiao Xi".
A voice suddenly sounded from behind her. Qiao Xi turned around and saw Morax.
She frowned: "Hey, I just came looking for you, but you weren't here."
Morax smiled and stepped forward: "Yingda told me everything."
Qiao Xi said, "Morax, I can never find you."
Morax nodded and said, "I understand."
After saying that, he took out a pendant made of a small piece of amber and handed it to her, saying, "With this, you will be able to find me in the future."
Qiao Xi took it and examined it in her palm. The small piece of amber was pale and clear. Qiao Xi hung it around her neck and asked Morax, "Is this a telephone?"
Morax tilted his head slightly: "A phone call?"
Qiao Xi laughed: "So, I can talk to you through it?"
Morax understood what the girl meant, and he shook his head: "No, it will only lead you to me, and you'll know when you need it."
Qiao Xi nodded and carefully tucked the amber pendant into her clothes.
Morax watched her move. Given the length of the rope, the pendant would inevitably fall to her chest. He carefully reminded her, "This is a small portion of my power. I can sense its situation, so..."
Qiao Xi was still immersed in her curiosity about amber. She looked up and naturally asked Morax, "So what?"
Morax coughed lightly: "So, why don't you shorten the rope, or just wear it on your hand?"
As soon as Morax finished speaking, Qiao Xi paused. She reacted for a moment, looked up stiffly, and then decisively pulled the amber out of her clothes. She hurriedly ran into the house, saying as she ran, "I'll turn it into a bracelet right away!"
After saying that, she slammed the door shut.
Morax watched her back with interest, then raised his wrist to look at the safety buckle bracelet on it. This girl's work was indeed exquisite. This bracelet was made by her some time ago. He wondered how much she had improved it now.
Morax became curious and slowly followed behind.
He pushed open the door, and Qiao Xi came out carrying her large suitcase. Morax nodded slightly to her when he saw her.
Qiao Xi smiled: "Do you need any help?"
Morax: "Is there any pay?"
Qiao Xi: "Then I don't need your help."
Morax laughed: "I'll work for you for free."
Qiao Xi put the box on the table and, while looking for materials in the box, said, "This gentleman is so kind. Why don't we repay him with our bodies?"
Morax walked over to her, watched her take things out of the box one by one, nodded, and replied lightly, "Yeah, that's fine too."
Qiao Xi had almost finished looking for her things. She looked up at Morax and said, "So easy to talk to, huh?"
Morax: Of course.
He looked at a silver hairpin that Qiao Xi had placed on the table, picked it up and examined it for a while. It looked familiar. He casually put the hairpin in Qiao Xi's hair and said, "Have you seen it somewhere before?"
Qiao Xi took the silver hairpin off and put it in the tool to melt it. She said, "I wore it on my wedding day."
Morax frowned slightly.
Qiao Xi shaped the molten silver and looked at Morax: "Weren't you there that day too?"
Morax tapped her on the head: "Try a different way of saying it next time."
Qiao Xi smiled.
She skillfully stretched the silver into long threads, then removed the amber and wove it onto the beads. Qiao Xi picked up the plain silver bracelet and shook it, asking Morax, "Is it pretty?"
Morax said, "It looks good."
Qiao Xi smiled, put the bracelet on her wrist, and felt much more at ease.
After doing all this, Qiao Xi mysteriously beckoned to Morax: "Come here."
Morax raised an eyebrow slightly. In the past, whenever this girl got into a mood, she would probably kiss him. Thinking of this, he felt a little happier. So, as she said, he stepped forward, bent down, looked into Qiao Xi's eyes, and happily prepared to be kissed forcefully: "What?"
Qiao Xi leaned close to Morax's ear and said, "I'll show you how to fly on a sword."
Morax had already heard from Liu Yun that Qiao Xi had mastered sword control, but seeing Qiao Xi's expectant spirit, he pretended not to know anything and listened to her as he walked into the courtyard to see how she controlled the sword.
Qiao Xi landed steadily in front of Morax and asked, "Is it impressive?"
“Impressive,” Morax smiled.
Then, this phrase "amazing" permeated all of Qiao Xi's subsequent time. Since breaking through the sword control barrier, under Morax's guidance, Qiao Xi made rapid progress.
During this time, Morax remained, and Qiao Xi also learned how to use magic to interact with amber in order to find Morax.
Since mastering the skill of finding Morax, Qiao Xi has found herself becoming increasingly dependent on him. Rather than dependence, it's more like anxiety about separation, because she was heartbroken for a long time after Morax left. So whenever she couldn't see Morax for a while, she would use amber to search for him.
Sometimes she would stumble upon Morax discussing matters with the fairies, and she would hide to the side.
Morax had suggested several times that they should just make their relationship public, but Qiao Xi was reluctant and wouldn't allow it. She felt that if her masters found out, she wouldn't know how to get along with them.
Morax, though frustrated, respected her choice.
At the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, Qiao Xi received the news that her form could be finalized during her final test.
Upon hearing the news, Qiao Xi breathed a huge sigh of relief; she was finally safe and sound.
During this period, when the rapeseed and sesame of Tianheng Mountain were ripe, Qiao Xi spent a lot of time with Jin Lan and others going down the mountain to help the villagers harvest rapeseed and other crops.
The sun dries the last bit of moisture from the rapeseed and sesame seeds, leaving behind hard, brown, withered stems and black seeds.
Wearing a straw hat and holding a sickle, Qiao Xi squatted on the hardened ground, cutting the stems along the roots and stacking them together. Finally, she tied them up with wheat straw. Jin Lan pulled over a two-wheeled wooden cart that looked a bit old, and Qiao Xi carried the bundled sesame seeds and rapeseed onto it.
After the land was harvested, Jinlan pulled the cart in front while Qiaoxi pushed it from behind. Since Qiaoxi could now use some of the immortal magic, she used a little magic power from behind, which greatly increased the efficiency of pulling the cart.
After pulling the flatbed cart to the grain drying area, Jinlan spread several large pieces of coarse cloth on the ground. Qiaoxi unloaded the crops, and the two of them took wooden sticks and began to beat them down. After beating down all the rapeseed and sesame seeds, they used an iron rake to gather the broken and withered stems on top to one side. They then collected the seeds at the bottom and used a winnowing basket to remove the dust and withered leaves from the seeds with the help of the wind before putting them into bags and tying them up.
Some seeds will always fall to the ground and into the cracks between bricks and tiles, and the magpies will stop nearby to eat them.
After repeating this work for several days, the rapeseed and sesame near Tianheng Mountain were all harvested.
Just as Morax said during last year's heavy snow, this year is a good harvest. Both rapeseed and sesame seeds have a high oil yield. After saving the seeds for next year, they will start pressing the oil.
Qiao Xi and Jin Lan were each given a bag of fried sugar cakes with sesame filling. The two sat under the osmanthus tree eating them. Suddenly, Qiao Xi's nose twitched. She looked up and found that the osmanthus flowers had bloomed.
Qiao Xi excitedly pulled Jin Lan, but Jin Lan reflexively dodged to the side, saying, "It's oily, my hands are oily, and my new clothes are oily."
Qiao Xi then realized that she was too excited. She smiled shyly and stretched out her arm: "You can wipe it on me too."
Jinlan glanced at her, took a sweet cake out of his bag and handed it to her. He asked, "What happened to you just now?"
Qiao Xi pointed to the tree: "Look, the flowers are blooming."
Jinlan, biting into a sugar cake, gazed at the tiny flowers clustered like millet grains on the tree, lost in thought: "Really?"
*
That evening, Qiao Xi led Morax to the tree and pointed at it, saying, "Morax, the flowers are blooming."
A faint fragrance wafts through the air. The osmanthus flowers are not yet fully open; you can still smell their fragrance while they are still in bud. When the flowers are fully open, the fragrance will be so strong that it will fill the air. The flowering period of about half a month is enough to give people something to look forward to in the golden autumn.
Morax looked up, then down at Qiao Xi. Suddenly, he bent down and kissed the corner of Qiao Xi's mouth, then looked into her eyes and said, "The flowers I gave you have bloomed."
Qiao Xi smiled: "It's open."
The next morning, Qiao Xi was woken up early by her two masters, who were making a great commotion. Still sleepy, Qiao Xi got up and dressed.
She was exhausted from farm work these past two days, and almost fell asleep and forgot that she was supposed to get her hair done today.
Based on Qiao Xi's past experience reading stories, plot points involving breakthroughs or ascensions, like the character "形如定" (xing ru ding), are usually met with disapproval.
So ever since she left home, Qiao Xi had been anxiously observing the weather. Liu Yun noticed that something was wrong with Qiao Xi, and following Qiao Xi's gaze to the sky, she asked her, "Xiao Xi, what are you looking at?"
Qiao Xi: "Master, have you ever been struck by lightning?"
Liu Yun choked up. What does that mean?
She looked at Qiao Xi: "No, but Yi Xiao should have experience."
Yi Xiao, standing to the side, almost couldn't hold back: "How come I have experience being struck by lightning again?"
Liu Yun: "I was just talking nonsense."
Qiao Xi sighed helplessly, but she still couldn't help but observe the sky.
Yi Xiao asked, "Xiao Xi, what are you worried about? It's about to be finalized, you should be happy."
Qiao Xi: "I'm afraid of being struck by lightning."
Liu Yun and Yi Xiao looked at each other: "Why?"
Qiao Xi: "Then how can I break through?"
Liu Yun: "Huh?"
In fact, finalizing the design wasn't as complicated as Qiao Xi had imagined.
Liu Yun and Yi Xiao led her to a spot in the forest where Morax was waiting for her.
Qiao Xi walked over in a daze, only to see Morax place his palm on her forehead. Amber light circled around her a few times, and soon she felt her body float and become light, and then she felt a little hot.
Qiao Xi frowned as she looked at Morax. Seeing Morax's serious expression, she also became serious.
Suddenly, Qiao Xi felt all sensation being drained from her body. The next second, Morax withdrew his hand and smiled at her: "All done."
Qiao Xi felt that nothing had changed. After Liu Yun and Yi Xiao returned, Morax led her towards the cave. Qiao Xi reached out her hand and unintentionally saw a few wisps of blue and white ice crystals drifting from her palm.
Qiao Xi blinked. She had never seen this color before. She tilted her head and looked at Morax.
Morax frowned slightly and asked Qiao Xi, "Do you have anything on you?"
Qiao Xi touched it, but there was nothing there.
Morax asked, "How did you just unleash that force?"
This is clearly ice elemental power, but unlike Liuyun and others, Liuyun, as an element born between heaven and earth, can guide elemental power without external objects. As for Xiao and other Yakshas, guiding elemental power still requires the Eye of God.
So how did Qiao Xi manage to guide elemental power directly without using the Eye of God?
Seeing that Morax was staring at her, Qiao Xi felt a little awkward: "What's wrong?"
Morax still frowned.
Aside from elemental power, immortals have their own special techniques. Once mortals have fully mastered these techniques and their forms are finalized, they can freely manipulate them. However, the fact that Qiao Xi could suddenly use elemental power was unexpected by Morax.
After he explained these words to Qiao Xi, Qiao Xi thought that it might be related to the fact that she was from another world. Although she herself couldn't figure it out, there was still something she wanted to do at the moment.
Qiao Xi looked intently at Morax, secretly used her elemental power to create a snowball, and then, taking advantage of Morax's inattention, threw it at his face.
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Author's Note: I don't want to see my little red flower (a symbol of approval) fall, so I'm not taking any more leave. [Exaggerated praise]
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