A ray of hope
Xu Shulou lay quietly on the bed. Before the man left, he said that he would order the puppet to remove her shackles, but she waited for half a day and nothing happened.
She writhed back and forth in her bound position on the bed, wrapped herself in a quilt, and then exerted force to throw herself off the bed. The chain that bound her was very long, and she almost rolled to the other side of the room with this force, knocking over several tables, chairs, pots and pans in the process, making a loud noise, which attracted people.
Regular footsteps were heard outside the door from far away and gradually approached. Soon, the door opened wide, revealing Yu Qishuang's face, which was whiter than snow. She lowered her head to look at Xu Shulou lying on the ground, just looking at him, with no joy or anger on her face, without any emotion.
After being made into a puppet, she probably could not use those storage props. Her Hanmei umbrella was hung on her waist, its light dim, and one could no longer get a glimpse of how the fairy Saixue, who once roamed the world with an umbrella and sword, was so charming and unparalleled.
Xu Shulou felt a little sad and tried to talk to her, but she didn't respond.
Xu Shulou thought about it, then struggled out from the quilt that wrapped him like a cocoon, and showed her his wound that had just burst open.
Yu Qishuang moved, took a porcelain bottle from the antique shelf beside her, placed it in front of her, and untied her shackles. Seeing Xu Shulou start to apply medicine on himself, she walked out of the room again.
They probably received some instructions, perhaps to not let Xu Shulou die, to give her medicine if she was injured, and to ignore her at other times.
At least the shackles were temporarily unlocked. Xu Shulou carefully applied the medicine and tried to push the door. Sure enough, the doors and windows were locked. She searched the room and found that her Quexie sword was gone. She didn't know where her Qiankun bracelet was put. Even the Julingzhu she wore around her neck was taken away.
She thought for a moment, dragged her own shackles over, and began to break the lock.
During this time, two puppets were attracted over again, but they did not stop her. They just stood there stupidly and watched her break the lock.
Xu Shulou took a tentative step out of the room, but was still not stopped. She tiptoed past Yu Qishuang and slid out of the room.
At this distance, Xu Shulou could even clearly see the tiny hairs on Yu Qishuang's face. She looked so lively and beautiful in the sunlight, as if her chest would rise and fall and she would start breathing in the next moment. However, Xu Shulou knew that she was gone and there was no possibility that she would respond to him again.
Xu Shulou walked out of the room, but the two still did not respond.
They seem a bit dumb, don't they? Xu Shulou always felt that these two were not as smart as the puppets in Xuancang Academy. Why was that? Was it because those were the masterpieces left by the master, and these two were the work of the apprentices?
There was no time to think carefully. Since he had left the room, he had to try to escape. In the blink of an eye, Xu Shulou had already run a distance and soon understood why they did not stop him.
This building was actually built on a cliff, and it was absolutely impossible to escape without spiritual power. Xu Shulou stood on the edge of the cliff and looked down, guessing how likely it was that if he jumped directly, he would fall into the pool below and survive and discover the secret inheritance like in the popular novels in the mortal world.
After a moment, she had to admit with regret that this possibility was not even half possible.
Xu Shulou tried to use her spiritual power, and immediately felt as if her dantian was pierced by thousands of needles, with a burst of dense pain. She endured the excruciating pain and forced her spiritual power to use some of it. Perhaps the person's realm was too low, and the spiritual energy of the cultivator in the Crossing Tribulation Stage was not sealed well enough. However, this little spiritual power was not enough to defeat the puppet, nor was it enough to fly.
Can I use this spiritual power to pass on the message? Xu Shulou lowered his eyes and thought carefully. He gathered his spiritual power and raised his hand to eject a small stone. The stone hit a transparent film in the air and shattered into powder.
Sure enough, the barrier.
She sighed. Since the puppet didn't stop her but just watched from afar, she decided to take the initiative and wander around here casually.
The courtyard on the cliff was built very exquisitely and even had a small garden, but it was obviously no longer taken care of and was overgrown with weeds.
Xu Shulou felt that this courtyard did not look like the work of the man who abducted her here. Instead, it was the work of a man who knew how to enjoy life.
She soon found a solitary grave in the weeds. There was no name engraved on the tombstone, only the year the tombstone was erected and a sentence: "Fool, died while digging out the golden elixir by himself."
Xu Shulou remained silent, trying not to guess which brilliant cultivator was buried below. Just looking at the date on the signature, it seemed that a long, long time had passed, even before Yu Qishuang.
She was silent and simply cleaned up the weeds and dust around the grave. Suddenly, her eyes focused and she noticed something.
She searched the garden carefully and saw two other graves. There was no word like "idiot" engraved on the tombstones. Xu Shulou couldn't help but guess that it was the puppet maker's own mistake that caused the mess.
Her guess was soon verified. When the man came again, Xu Shulou raised this question.
The man's face twitched and he didn't give a direct answer, but Xu Shulou already knew the answer.
Before he entered, Xu Shulou was shackled by two puppets again: "You haven't come to see me for twenty days. You seem to be very busy."
The man sneered: "Could it be that you can't wait to see me?"
"I just want to know what you're up to?"
The man looked at her and said, "I'm repairing puppets for the Qingcheng Sect."
When he mentioned this, his face wasn't very good, and he was obviously not satisfied with this job. He thought even his master's making of wooden and stone puppets was a waste of his talent, but now he had to make a living by doing a job that required even less skills. No wonder he felt so depressed.
Xu Shulou looked at him. This was the kind of person who came and went in the Qingcheng Sect without anyone noticing him, but he took advantage of the chaos to kill their most proud disciple.
She suddenly remembered that the puppet of Xuan Cang Academy was broken by the disciples of Xuan Ji Sect: "Have you ever repaired a puppet in Xuan Cang?"
"I've been there, and I saw you from afar," the man handed her another bowl of medicine, "but it doesn't make any difference. I didn't just target you that time. Xu Shulou's name is well-known in the cultivation world, and you've been on my list for a long time."
He looked at Xu Shulou who seemed to be waiting for her to reply. She raised her eyebrows slightly: "Are you waiting for me to say, I'm so honored?"
"Hmph, take the medicine."
While he was getting close to feed him the medicine, Xu Shulou suddenly jumped up, summoned all the spiritual power in his body, dragged the heavy shackles on his wrists, and grabbed his neck.
The man was strangled by her neck. He screamed "Ahhh" and struggled a few more times, waving his hands in the air: "Let go, let me go! I'm suffocating, help! Help me! Hahahahaha..."
Xu Shulou looked at him in confusion.
The man shouted a few words, and then suddenly laughed, laughing so hard that he fell backwards: "Am I pretending well? I thought you could be any different. You don't think you can kill me with this little spiritual power, do you?"
“…”
"I deliberately gave you freedom to move around, so that you thought you had room to fight or escape. I also deliberately left you with a little spiritual power that you could use, just to see your expressions when you fought to the death but ultimately failed." The man raised his hand to wipe away the tears from his laughter. "This trick has always worked, and it always pleases me."
“…”
"Especially Yu Qishuang. Every time I went to Qingcheng Sect with Master, she didn't even look at me. She was surrounded by a group of people and left." The man let Xu Shulou hold his hand on his neck. "There is a saying called the difference between clouds and mud, right? She is the cloud in the sky, and I am the mud on the ground... But look at it now? You so-called chosen ones, I give you a little fairness, and you fall into the mud and become a puddle of mud."
"That's enough. I really can't stand it any longer," Xu Shulou said sarcastically. "You are not creating fairness. You are just jealous of other people's talents. There is no need to speak so pompously."
"shut up!"
Xu Shulou raised his eyes to look at him: "You have a dull talent and no hope of becoming an immortal. Instead of thinking about making progress yourself, you want to drag others down to accompany you..."
Perhaps it was her slightly contemptuous look that irritated the other party. Before she could finish her words, the man had already slapped Xu Shulou in the face with his palm.
Xu Shulou did not dodge or evade, but just tightened the hand that was pinching his neck, and the fragile neck made a sound of bones breaking under her hand.
"You still don't give up... Wait, that's impossible, you..." The relaxed smile on the man's face had long since disappeared, and he struggled under her hands - this time he was not pretending, "How could you have so much spiritual power?"
He wanted to ask for help, but in order to lure Xu Shulou into taking action, he had just ordered the puppet to retreat. At this moment, a gurgling sound came from his throat and he could not utter a complete sentence.
"You know what? I discovered something in common among those genius cultivators, those who have cultivated to the Tribulation Crossing Stage before the age of 300," Xu Shulou whispered in his ear to clear up his confusion, "They all have admirable personalities."
When she was sweeping the lonely grave in the small garden, she unexpectedly found a golden elixir hidden in the weeds beside the tombstone. It was a golden elixir that had been dug out from someone's body.
The moment he held the golden elixir, Xu Shulou shed a line of tears.
The spiritual energy in a cultivator's body flows through the meridians, golden elixir and dantian. On the battlefield, some cultivators compress the whole body's spiritual energy into the golden elixir and then self-destruct to die together with the enemy.
However, the owner of the golden elixir had his spiritual power sealed at the time, so he could not self-destruct. So he simply dug out the golden elixir and committed suicide there.
Since this golden elixir has been dug out from the body, it can naturally store spiritual power and be used as a spirit gathering bead.
The moment Xu Shulou held the golden elixir, he felt the complex spiritual power contained in it. These spiritual powers must have come from different cultivators.
She immediately thought of their origin.
Perhaps the people before her also discovered this golden elixir. They input all the spiritual power they could mobilize into it one by one, and then hid it near the tombstone again, waiting for the golden elixir to accumulate enough spiritual power to counter the bad guys.
The people before her, those who died, all gave up the chance to borrow the golden elixir, because they knew that the spiritual power contained in it was not enough. If they could not kill with one blow, the golden elixir would be completely wasted. They were willing to give up the chance of life and continue to inject a little bit of spiritual power into it, leaving the golden elixir to those who came after them, leaving hope to those who came after them, and leaving the opportunity to eradicate evil to those who came after them.
After Xu Shulou got the golden elixir, he would endure the severe pain every day and inject all the spiritual power he could mobilize into it. After his spiritual power recovered a little the next day, he would continue, doing this over and over again for twenty days.
A tiny bit of spiritual energy gathers into the hope of life.
She bowed in the direction of Yu Qishuang and the nameless monk, respecting them for their willingness to die rather than leave a glimmer of hope for future generations.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com