Chapter 9 Pig Farm:
Shen Bingsi got angry.
I was extremely angry.
I understand.
But he had no choice.
They grew up together, and no one knew Shen Bingsi's temperament better than him. When others got angry, they would yell and shout, but Shen Bingsi would remain silent. His life force would evaporate instantly, as if he had turned into a mannequin wearing a stone mask.
Rong Xie first saw Shen Bing Si like this at the Shen family's Plum Garden. It was raining heavily that morning. Rong Xie crawled through a gap in the broken wall of the Plum Garden to find Shen Bing Si to play with. When he looked up, he saw a strange stone statue sitting on the steps in the corner of the house. Rainwater flowed from his hair and down his gray face. His face was expressionless, and his eyes were wooden, staring straight ahead without blinking.
Rong Xie was so frightened that he fell to the ground in the grass. Fear welled up in his heart. He wondered who had put this ominous stone statue there, right in front of the gap in the plum garden. Could it be that Miss Shen had discovered that he often sneaked over to play with Shen Bing Si and deliberately put such a scary thing here to intimidate him?
But... who would carve their son's likeness into a stone statue?
Rong Xie peeked out and secretly observed the stone statue on the steps until the thing's eyes rolled, and it stood up and walked away, supporting itself on the steps.
Later, Rong Xie learned that Shen Bing Si would become like this under certain specific circumstances.
After leaving the Shen family manor and entering the inner sect of the Lingjing Sect, Shen Bingsi rarely had this problem anymore. There were one or two times later, in extreme cases, Shen Bingsi did revert to that behavior, but Rong Xie was no longer afraid; he knew how to coax him back.
As long as Shen Bingsi doesn't grow legs and run away, Rong Xie is confident he can coax him back to normal within twelve hours by making him delicious food, giving him a sword tassel he made himself, or massaging his shoulders and legs. He'll easily return to normal, and the process of going from petrified to normal will be especially cute. Shen Bingsi will be a little embarrassed, something that's usually unseen.
But this time, Shen Bingsi grew legs and ran away, and it's unknown how long it will take for her to return.
"Squeak—"
The door was not closed, and the door panels were swaying inside.
Rong Xie walked over and stood by the door in a daze for a while. The midday sun made the grass, trees and rivers in Huanxue Valley shine. The budding greenery already showed signs of future prosperity. However, in such a beautiful scene, there was no trace of Shen Bingsi - he had long since gone far away.
Although Rong Xie knew that Shen Bingsi was highly skilled and had amazing swordsmanship, he still felt worried. What if Shen Bingsi got angry and encountered danger, and made the wrong judgment?
Rong Xie closed his eyes and told himself that such a thing would not happen, but he still felt empty inside, as if a piece of him had been lost.
It's been a long time since I've made Shen Bingsi this angry.
Rong Xie reached out and closed the door, turning around to face the courtyard strewn with fallen petals. Just moments ago, they had been eating fish together at that stone table, cooking fish and washing dishes together in the kitchen, their laughter still ringing in his ears, but they were no longer there.
The quiet I had grown accustomed to had now become unbearable...
Rong Xie lowered his head and quickly walked across the courtyard.
Back in his study, surrounded by the comforting scent of books, Rong Xie felt a little better.
He sat down and whispered to himself, "Rong Xie, you did a great job."
The solution is to reject Shen Bingsi just like before and keep your distance from her. Only then will the two of them not develop feelings that go beyond friendship. Shen Bingsi's Dao heart will not be hindered, and he will not be killed by her to prove his Dao. They will reach a truly happy ending where no one gets hurt.
But……
Rong Xie hesitated, wondering if he could really survive until the end. At the rate at which his spiritual energy was depleting, he might die of old age before the Heavenly Demon was born.
Ultimately, the problem lies in Rong Xie's cultivation.
Rong Xie took a deep breath and went to the large box in the corner of the study.
The large box was filled with a lot of miscellaneous old items, all of which had been moved from the inner disciples' quarters. It was only slightly tidied up the day it was moved in, and then it was sealed here and never opened again.
There were many things inside that reminded Rong Xie of his painful past, such as the inner disciple's robes that were worn out from washing, the tattered training shoes, the peach wood sword he was given in the first swordsmanship class, and the textbooks for the five basic courses: Breathing Exercises, Meridians, Inner Strength, External Skills, and Swordsmanship.
These things became useless to him after he left the inner sect.
Rong Xie pulled out five textbooks from the bottom of a drawer, stacked them together, and moved them to his desk.
He lit a stick of incense to calm his mind, then opened the textbook "Heart Method" and began to read. Every word he saw was familiar.
Once, Rong Xie could recite these words fluently from memory.
But what's the use of that?
Among his batch of inner disciples, those who slept until noon and skipped class achieved Foundation Establishment, those who always mispronounced the names of acupoints achieved Foundation Establishment, and those who always created their own sword techniques and didn't follow the rules also achieved Foundation Establishment.
Rong Xie did not achieve Foundation Establishment.
Because he hadn't yet reached the Foundation Establishment stage, Rong Xie studied with the next batch of new inner disciples for three years, then with the next batch for another three years, and so on...
Twelve years have passed, and he still hasn't reached the Foundation Establishment stage. On the night before the Foundation Establishment assessment, he injured his meridians from practicing all night and vomited blood. If Shen Bingsi hadn't forcibly dragged him out of his meditative state, he probably would have gone into qi deviation.
Years later, Rong Xie still often dreams of returning to the examination hall, feeling cold all over under the cold gaze of the invigilator elder, and waking up in fright.
"well……"
Rong Xie sighed, rested his chin on his hand, flipped through a few pages of the textbook, and found that he couldn't concentrate at all.
In fact, he understood everything in the textbook, but when it came to actual practice, he had to exert a lot of effort to feel even a little bit of it. Cultivation requires taking many aspects into account, and if he exerted too much effort in each aspect, he would become flustered and end up making a mess of things.
Before he knew it, darkness fell. Rong Xie rubbed his temples and lit an oil lamp.
His eyes involuntarily glanced at the fragments of the Turo Paradoxes beside him.
By the time he realized what was happening, he was already engrossed in reading the names of the islands, the local specialties that were offered as tribute, and the strange customs of the savages...
"Rong Xie, Rong Xie, you can't keep doing this!"
Rong Xie gently patted her face with both hands, reminding herself.
He put the fragments of Turobei into the bookcase, reopened the "Heart Method," and began to read it while channeling his spiritual power.
The next morning, Rong Xie woke up to a surge of spiritual energy.
He suddenly looked up from his desk, rummaged around at his waist, found the sound transmission jade pendant, picked it up and put it to his ear.
After waiting for a long time, there was no sound from the communication jade pendant, but the spiritual energy fluctuations continued to spread.
“It’s not a jade pendant…” Rong Xie rubbed his face. “Could it be… someone knocking on the door?”
If someone knocks on the door, it definitely isn't Shen Bingsi.
"Gah—ga ga ga ga ga!"
"Giggle!"
"Huff, huff, huff~"
...
In front of Huanxue Mountain Villa, Rong Xie stared in astonishment at the cages scattered on the ground, filled with chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep, all lively and jumping around. Next to them was a water vat filled with different kinds of fish, each one plump and delicious.
"Rong Xie, are you Rong Xie?" asked two tall young cultivators. The two were dressed in the distinctive attire of high-ranking disciples, clearly serving as personal disciples to the elders of each peak. They stepped forward and bowed to Rong Xie with clasped hands.
"I am... and you are...?" Rong Xie returned the greeting tremblingly.
"Thank you, Steward. We are disciples of Elder Yunfeng. We have been ordered by Elder Yunfeng to collect chickens, ducks, pork, mutton, fish and meat sent by the elders of various peaks. Please accept them!"
Rong Xie was stunned; he had completely forgotten about this...
A short while later, in the front courtyard, two high-ranking disciples used transport magic to move cages of live animals in.
Amidst the clamor, the two handed over a list, asking permission to check it, before bowing and taking their leave.
“No…” Rong Xie looked at the cages in the yard crammed with live animals, momentarily at a loss for words. “How… how am I supposed to keep them…”
Shen Bingsi ran away in a huff, and no one knows when he'll be back. What if he's gone for a year or two? Does that mean Rong Xie has to raise all these poultry and livestock for a year or two? Wouldn't that turn Huanxue Manor into a breeding farm?
Rong Xie felt a chill run down his spine. He took out his communication jade pendant and immediately contacted Shen Bingsi, asking him to return these items.
"Buzz—"
"Buzz—"
The jade pendant made a hollow, buzzing sound, but there was no response.
Oh right, I almost forgot.
For the first twelve hours after Shen Bingsi is petrified, he will be as smelly and hard as a rock in a latrine, and he will be cut off from everyone in the world. As long as he doesn't want to talk to Rong Xie, even if Rong Xie smashes the jade pendant, he won't be able to hear a single nasal sound from him.
"Ah..." Rong Xie muttered to himself amidst the screams of the startled poultry, "We're doomed..."
Who would have thought that on the very first day of deciding to rise up, trouble would arise?
Having no other choice, Rong Xie chased after the two high-ranking disciples and called out to them.
Fortunately, they hadn't gone far.
"Could you... take these living creatures back with you? Shen Bingsi isn't at the manor right now, and we don't know when he'll be back..."
The two high-ranking disciples exchanged a glance, puzzled: "These are what Senior Brother Shen wanted."
"I know, but he's not here..."
"Then let it sit and wait for him to return." The two stated their position. "If Steward Rong wants to return it, he can ask Senior Brother Shen to contact our elder. We cannot make that decision ourselves."
"this……"
"Is there something inconvenient for Steward Rong?" The two were polite, but their tone showed that they didn't take Rong Xie's opinion to heart.
Rong Xie had no choice but to ask them to move the cages to an open space outside the villa to minimize the impact.
"How...how do we feed them?" Rong Xie asked worriedly.
"Well...we don't know either. We'll go back and ask, then we'll get back to you," the two said.
The next day, bags of feed for the chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep were delivered.
Thank goodness, Rong Xie asked, otherwise it would have been a terrible tragedy for these creatures to starve to death in front of the door.
Thus, Rong Xie began a life of reading, cultivating, feeding chickens, and cleaning up their droppings, feeling as if he had returned to the Shen family manor. In the sweltering, pungent smell, Rong Xie sent Shen Bing Si three contact signals every day, earnestly praying for his prompt response.
Shen Bingsi must be incredibly annoyed, but he can't do anything about it; he's almost driven mad with worry too.
He even thought that it would have been better if he had left his adoptive mother and the child behind.
In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed.
Rong Xie felt like each day was an eternity.
That afternoon, as usual, Rong Xie took a winnowing basket to feed the pigs. Suddenly, the communication jade pendant he had been keeping close to his chest vibrated, and golden light pierced through his clothes, making Rong Xie's whole body glow.
The pigs and sheep in the cages retreated in fright, while the chickens and ducks flapped their wings and jumped around. Amidst the chaotic noise, Rong Xie answered the communication jade pendant with tears of joy.
"Shen Bingsi, come back soon!" Rong Xie said, feeling wronged. "When are you coming back?!"
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Old Shen quietly enjoyed himself.
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