Chapter 64: Childhood Memories
"There's actually such a method?" Rong Xie couldn't believe it.
If such an evil method of control truly exists, once discovered, the Lu family would become the target of public criticism. Why hasn't it come to light yet?
“Yes… I didn’t believe it at first either. I consulted many medical practitioners, but none of them could find a problem. Their diagnosis was that Xiao Ya’s spiritual root was very short, and she was not suitable for cultivation in the first place. It was normal that she had not made any progress,” Lu Yinglin said.
"But... isn't Xiao Ya very talented?" Rong Xie asked, puzzled.
“That’s why I believe there was an external force at play. When Xiao Ya entered the Xuan Tian Sect, his spiritual root was tested. At that time, his spiritual root was normal. He wasn’t considered exceptionally talented, but reaching the Foundation Establishment stage shouldn’t have been a problem. Otherwise, the Xuan Tian Sect wouldn’t have accepted him into the inner sect. Don’t you agree?” Lu Yinglin analyzed.
"Hmm...that's true."
"That's what I said to those medical cultivators as well. I told them that there must be a problem with such a short spiritual root, and it must be caused by external forces. I asked them to make another diagnosis. But they said that it's not impossible for a spiritual root to be normal at first and then become shorter. There is a type of spiritual root that is like that."
“Ah…” Rong Xie murmured to himself, “A consumable spiritual root is a spiritual root that will be consumed by itself after being overused. Among people with mediocre talent, a large proportion of them have consumable spiritual roots that prevent them from establishing a foundation.”
“Indeed, Junior Brother Rong is quite knowledgeable about this as well.” Lu Yinglin nodded. “That control method is disguised as a consumable spiritual root, so even the most skilled medical cultivators cannot diagnose it. Even if I explain it to myself, no one will believe me, let alone prescribe a treatment.”
Rong Xie's ears were ringing. No wonder the Lu family hadn't been discovered yet. A consumable spiritual root... it might be the result of being controlled by someone? Could it be...?
He couldn't help but let his mind wander. He had also entered the inner sect through the Spirit Mirror Sect's spiritual root test and reached the tenth level of Qi Refining, but he couldn't break through to Foundation Establishment. In the end, he was also diagnosed with a consumable spiritual root.
His background is also very vague. If it weren't for Shen Bingsi's insistence, he might have already become a slave and become Shen Bingsi's page, just like Xiao Ya... They are so similar in some ways.
If the Lu family can control Xiao Ya and deprive him of his cultivation ability, what about the Shen family? The Shen family and the Lu family were old friends; they fled to Heyang together. It's not impossible that they exchanged secret methods of controlling people, right?
"Junior Brother Rong? Junior Brother Rong?" Lu Yinglin's voice came from behind.
Rong Xie snapped out of his daze and looked at Lu Yinglin, a strong urge to get to the bottom of things welling up inside him. He sat up straight: "And then? You couldn't get a diagnosis, so you didn't just give up, did you?"
Lu Yinglin was taken aback: "Of course not... I just noticed that you didn't look well, Junior Brother Rong. Could it be because of the strong wind on the river..."
"I'm fine, please continue," Rong Xie urged.
Lu Yinglin didn't know why Rong Xie was suddenly so interested in Xiao Ya's affairs, but for Lu Yinglin, this was exactly what he wanted.
He continued:
"Of course I didn't give up. I tried all sorts of ways to beg the head of the family to forgive Xiao Ya. I said that all the outrageous things I did before were my fault and had nothing to do with Xiao Ya. Xiao Ya advised me, but I didn't listen. If anyone should be punished, it should be me. Why should Xiao Ya be punished?"
"But the patriarch wouldn't budge and refused to retract the punishment no matter what. He told me that this was the consequence of my disobedience, and they wouldn't punish me directly, but rather the servant boy beside me. At that moment, I understood why they arranged a servant boy for each Lu family member with spiritual roots, and why they turned a blind eye to the close relationship between us and the servant boy, and even secretly promoted such things. It turned out that this servant boy was not only their spy to monitor us, but also a tool to make an example of us."
"Ah..." Rong Xie showed a look of pity, "This is too cruel, they don't treat people like human beings at all, how could they do such a thing?"
“Yes, that’s why I refused every time they tried to assign me a page. So, you should understand why I did what I did this morning, right?” Lu Yinglin sighed, his face somber.
"I see, then... I can't blame you." Rong Xie understood Lu Yinglin's predicament. "Then... what happened to Xiao Ya later?"
Lu Yinglin remained silent, gazing at the river with a heavy weight of sorrow in his eyes.
Rong Xie knew it was impolite to keep digging deeper, and he also knew that Lu Yinglin had said from the beginning that Xiao Ya had died more than ten years ago. However, he couldn't help himself. He really wanted to know what had happened to Xiao Ya after her spiritual root was completely exhausted.
“He encountered the worst situation. Because his spiritual root was exhausted and all his spiritual power was given to me, he… suffered a backlash from the Heavenly Dao, and the five signs of decay of a celestial being.” Lu Yinglin uttered those cruel four words.
The Five Signs of Decay of the Celestial Being is one of the most terrifying situations in cultivation. A person can age overnight and become a gruesome dried corpse, yet they will not die for a short time. While still conscious, they can watch themselves age and decay.
"I'm sorry..." Rong Xie swayed, grabbing the gunwale to steady his precarious body.
Lu Yinglin slowly shook his head, trying to keep his voice from trembling. He had originally told Rong Xie about Xiao Ya in order to gain Rong Xie's sympathy and bring the two of them closer. However, now that he was talking about it, he was completely immersed in the pain of the memories. He had not originally planned to go into such depth.
“A few days before the attack, he comforted me, saying that he no longer had to go against his conscience, being my confidant while monitoring me and telling his family about my every move.”
“He said he had had enough of this kind of life and that he could finally stop being a servant. I should congratulate him. He told me a lot about his future plans. He wanted to go to the human world, to the city, to those noisy places. He wouldn’t be cultivating anymore, so he would have plenty of time to play as he pleased and experience all the fun things in the human world. That way, he wouldn’t have lived in vain.”
Lu Yinglin's voice finally trembled uncontrollably, and he covered his forehead.
He said, "I'm right. We should have fun. Life should be about having fun. Every day and every moment of happiness is what's real."
"I promised him I would take him to experience all the fun and delicious things I knew. Who knew that just a few days later, he..."
Lu Yinglin couldn't continue speaking, and only muffled sounds came from his throat.
Rong Xie took out an unused handkerchief from his pouch and handed it to Lu Yinglin. Lu Yinglin thanked him in a low voice, took the handkerchief, and wiped his face.
Rong Xie pressed down on his shoulder and patted it gently.
After a while, Lu Yinglin's emotions stabilized, and he put Rong Xie's handkerchief into his pocket.
“In his last few days, I couldn’t take it anymore. I went home, knelt before my master, and begged him to spare Xiao Ya. I said I would do anything he asked me to do, as long as he spared Xiao Ya. He could even use the same methods he used to control Xiao Ya on me. Wouldn’t it be faster to control me directly than to control the servants around me?”
Lu Yinglin shook his head.
"But it was no use. No matter how much I begged or threatened, the patriarch wouldn't budge. In the end, I threatened to kill myself, and the patriarch had no choice but to tell me that the control method could only be used once. After that, the servant's spiritual root would be ruined, irreversibly and irreversibly. As for the depletion of spiritual power and the five signs of decay, those were beyond his control..."
"..."
That concludes Xiaoya's story.
Just as Lu Yinglin said, he still didn't know what that control method was, but he told Rong Xie some useful information.
That method of control can only be used once. After that, the servant's spiritual root will be destroyed immediately, and he will never be able to cultivate again.
As for the backlash from Heaven and the five signs of decay between Heaven and Man, they were not directly caused by the control method. Rather, it was because Lu Yinglin took away Xiao Ya's spiritual power without her knowledge, which led to the accumulation of negative effects and caused the situation to become extreme.
Rong Xie thought about it carefully and realized that his situation was not quite the same as Xiao Ya's.
After Xiao Ya's spiritual root was destroyed, he could no longer cultivate, but he could still do so.
During those days at the Prosperous Pavilion, Shen Bingsi channeled spiritual energy into him during the day and dragged him into meditation and refinement at night. Although the experience was terrible, his cultivation level did indeed increase. He went from the seventh level of Qi Refining to the tenth level in just seven days.
If you calm down and think about it, given the temperament of the Shen family, if they had such a powerful way to control people, they would have already destroyed Huanxue Manor. Why would they be so tolerant?
However, the fact that the Lu family had such methods still made Rong Xie very uneasy. Even for the sake of more servants like Xiao Ya, he could not sit idly by.
However, with his current strength, he is still not as good as Lu Yinglin back then. If Lu Yinglin couldn't solve the problem back then, he shouldn't even think about it now.
Is seeking help from Shen Bingsi the only option...?
Rong Xie immediately pictured Shen Bingsi, her eyes red and excited, shouting at him, "You really sold Guangdian Bailan?!"
"..." Or maybe we should wait a bit longer.
After Lu Yinglin finished speaking, he took a while to calm himself down before he could pull himself out of his emotions.
He hadn't expected to speak so emotionally this time. In fact, more than a decade had passed, and his feelings were no longer as deep as they used to be. Time can heal all wounds. In the past decade, he had brought up this incident a few times to gain sympathy from his new lover, but none of them had moved him as much as this time.
"I'm sorry, I lost control a bit," Lu Yinglin said with a wry smile. "I didn't expect that at my age, talking about the past would still make things so ugly. I hope you'll forgive me."
Lu Yinglin looked up, expecting to see a deeply moved face, but Rong Xie was staring into the air, absentmindedly thinking about something else.
...That's how it was just now.
Lu Yinglin felt somewhat frustrated. Whether in the business world or in the red-light district, there was no one he couldn't capture attention or control, let alone someone like Rong Xie who had little social experience.
"Junior Brother Rong? Junior Brother Rong?" Lu Yinglin called out again, "Was I too long-winded? I noticed you were often distracted..."
Rong Xie felt apologetic: "No, I was just thinking that this method of control is truly terrifying. I don't know how many people have been harmed. If..."
“Yes, but that’s the Lu family after all, the Lu family that’s connected to me by blood.” Lu Yinglin said helplessly, “I can’t do anything to them, I can only refuse their offer to arrange a servant for me… Perhaps, next time I encounter something like this, I will remind that ignorant Lu family member who is just as ignorant as I am to cherish the servants around him.”
"..." Rong Xie frowned slightly, wanting to say something, but held back.
Lu Yinglin felt that the matter had been discussed enough, so he changed the subject and looked deeply at Rong Xie: "It has been a long time since I have confided in someone so deeply. I think it may be because, Junior Brother Rong, there are some things about you that are very similar to Xiao Ya."
Rong Xie looked over in surprise, which satisfied part of Lu Yinglin's humiliated pride.
“You are all bound to one person, you have all suffered a lot of grievances, and you only think of leaving when you can’t go on anymore, but you are afraid of the outside world.”
"The words I wanted to say to Xiaoya but didn't have time to say, I unknowingly said to you: Don't be afraid, the outside world isn't that scary. Someone as good as you will definitely find your own place in the world."
As Lu Yinglin spoke, he leaned closer to Rong Xie. Just as he was about to intensify his offensive and leave Rong Xie with an unforgettable memory, Rong Xie spoke first:
"No, not at all. I thought it was similar at first, but then I realized it was different. Bing Si treated me very well. I left him only because of myself... Moreover, he never treated me like a servant. He treated me like a best friend, the kind that is one of a kind in the world."
At this point, Rong Xie let out a mixed laugh.
However, to Lu Yinglin, these words were undoubtedly a clarion call of defeat.
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