Chapter 7: Be careful, be careful! Your attempt to steal a chicken backfired; you didn't get anything...
Li Chenjin: "..."
She silently gasped, not expecting Shen Zhengyuan to suddenly ask such a question. She also didn't expect that these past two days, when he stared at her, he wasn't watching her hoe the ground to pass the time, but rather thinking about the logical problems and inconsistencies in the things she had said before.
Sure enough, this person can't be idle. After only two days of free time, he started overthinking and asking questions she couldn't answer. She couldn't very well agree with him and say that she was a pervert who liked to fall in love with children at first sight, could she?
She was trying to figure out how to smooth things over when she heard him say, "You don't need to think about what to say to lie to me, because there were no outsiders around when I went out of the pass, and I don't remember you."
"You're not a disciple of the Dharma cultivation world, so logically you couldn't have seen me before. Therefore, everything you said before was a lie. What are you trying to achieve by getting close to me, and what do you want?"
Li Chenjin: "..."
She stood there, her brows slightly furrowed, unsure how to answer.
As the atmosphere between the two gradually fell silent, Shen Zhengyuan continued, "You said you have a heart ailment. Assuming that's true, the fact that your heart ailment has never been cured means that the Zen community has no way to cure your illness."
"So you want to cure your illness through other methods, whether it's a magical artifact, a secret technique, or even the thousand-year-old snow lotus from Snow Mang Mountain. The so-called love at first sight is just a temporary excuse you want to leave behind. You're doing all this just to gain my trust so you can take what you want when I'm not looking. Am I right?"
Li Chenjin took another deep breath, secretly admiring Shen Zhengyuan's intelligence. So many days had passed, yet he not only remembered what she had said, but also analyzed the loopholes in it and came up with a good reason for her. He was truly admirable.
Li Chen smiled slightly, "Your guess was pretty accurate, wasn't it?"
Shen Zhengyuan stared at her for a long time before slowly withdrawing his gaze, lowering his eyes, and saying calmly, "So, you really were only after those things..."
“You guessed correctly in some ways, but you also guessed wrong in many others. I don’t want your magical artifacts and secret techniques, nor do I want the Thousand-Year Snow Lotus,” Li Chen said. “I genuinely want to heal you, but as for the specific reasons, I can’t explain them to you clearly. Just think of it as me wanting to find someone who can protect me.”
"Think about it, once your spiritual veins are repaired, you can cultivate those secret techniques. After you master them, there will probably be few in this world who can rival you. Then, relying on my status as your savior, won't I be able to roam freely in this world?"
Shen Zhengyuan said, "I am now the only one left in the cultivation world, and I am a cripple. Once the news of the cultivation world spreads, people will come to hunt me down, wanting to seize the secret techniques and magic treasures. At that time, I may not survive, and you may also be implicated and die. If your purpose is just to find protection, you should leave me now and return to your Zen cultivation world."
Li Chen sighed, "What you said makes a lot of sense. According to what you said, it is indeed best for me to return to the Zen cultivation world, but I can't just abandon you like this, can I?"
Shen Zhengyuan paused. "What do you mean?"
"What I mean is, even if a bunch of people come after you soon, I won't abandon you and run away for my own life." Li Chenjin said with a seemingly cheerful smile, "So, in your eyes, I'm some kind of coward who's afraid of death? Since you've figured out that what I said before was all a lie, why don't you think about why I'm staying? It's love at first sight, but when can't you fall in love?"
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Shen Zhengyuan: "...You really haven't been to the world of Dharma cultivators."
Li Chenjin was taken aback. "What?"
“Some of what I just said was false,” Shen Zhengyuan said. “Although I rarely came out of seclusion when I was in the cultivation world, the few times I did did were when the sect leader summoned me to attend the conference. At the conference, in addition to people from other cultivation worlds, there were also many mortals who came up the mountain to take refuge. If you had really been to the cultivation world, you would know that what I said was false.”
Li Chen was both amused and exasperated. He hadn't expected Shen Zhengyuan to be so adept at making up lies, and to be so eloquent and composed, without batting an eye, making it difficult to tell whether he was telling the truth or not.
But as she thought about it, she suddenly began to mutter, "At such a young age, if I were telling the truth, wouldn't it be frightening..."
It wasn't just frightening; it made her feel like she was committing a crime just by imagining it...
Shen Zhengyuan remained silent for a long time, then suddenly said, "So... the reason you've been helping me all this time is really because..."
"I like you," Li Chenjin said without hesitation or blushing.
"you……"
Shen Zhengyuan's gaze was blank, his expression vacant, as if he hadn't expected her to suddenly say those words. Li Chen, looking at his expression as if afraid he hadn't heard clearly, repeated, "I like you."
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
For the next few days, Shen Zhengyuan remained very silent, exchanging fewer than five words with her each day, which made Li Chen feel very at ease. For example, she no longer had to worry about being woken up by any noise when she slept at night.
Coincidentally, in the small town they encountered next, although there were few people, the pharmacy had a fairly complete supply of medicines. Li Chen prepared all the medicines and, while brewing them for Shen Zhengyuan, also casually put a few packets into his Qiankun bag.
They stayed in the small pharmacy for a few days until Shen Zhengyuan's injuries stabilized before continuing their journey.
But perhaps they were just being too pessimistic, because before they even reached the next town, they had only spent the night in a small house in the middle of nowhere. When they woke up the next day, they found that the house was surrounded by more than a dozen people.
Those people all appeared to be from the cultivation world, and the weapons they held were all different, suggesting they came from different cultivation worlds and sects.
Looking at their positions, they weren't standing close to each other, suggesting they were a hastily assembled team and didn't really trust the people around them.
Li Chenjin had been so busy these past few days that he had gotten up late, so when he went out, he saw Shen Zhengyuan already standing a few steps outside the door, silently confronting a dozen or so people opposite him.
Hearing the door open behind him, Shen Zhengyuan's previously calm gaze flashed with a hint of panic. Before Li Chenjin could react, he turned around and said to her, "Go back!"
The dozen or so people hadn't expected there to be anyone else in the small building. One of them couldn't help but say, "Didn't they say that everyone in the cultivation world was dead, leaving only a brat? How come there's still one here..."
"Exactly! Who spread this information? It's completely unreliable!"
"Why do you care how many are left? Anyway, all the powerful figures in the cultivation world are dead. How could these two little brats be a match for us?"
"Exactly! Moreover, all the magical treasures and secret techniques of the cultivation world over the past tens of millions of years are on this kid. If he gets those things, he can live as long as heaven and earth, and his cultivation will soar to the heavens in one step! I am determined to get those things, so don't back down now!"
"What are you afraid of? Look at these two people clearly, they both look sickly and short-lived. Do you think we can't beat them with so many of us?!"
"What are you fighting about? Didn't that kid already agree to hand over the stuff? I made it clear beforehand that things in the cultivation world are bound to their owners. If we forcibly take them, none of us can use them. They have to be given away willingly!"
The group of people were chatting amongst themselves, and it was clear that they had bumped into each other on their way here. Since they all happened to have the same goal, they formed a temporary team, which is why they looked like a disorganized mess.
However, although most of these people seemed unreliable, there was one who did seem reliable, like the leader of this hastily assembled team. As soon as he spoke, everyone else fell silent. "Kid, just like we agreed before, you give us the stuff, we won't kill you, and we'll even escort you to a safe place."
"You don't need to be unhappy. Anyway, you have no use for these things. With your meager cultivation level, anyone could easily defeat you, and you'd suffer a lot of physical pain. You're also a cultivator; you should know there are many ways to make someone wish they were dead. If you give us the things now, you'll be safe. Not only that, we'll even give you some silver. Isn't that a win-win situation?"
"I can give you the things," Shen Zhengyuan said coldly, looking at them. "But she has to come with me, and you can't touch her. Also, this house should be left to us as a place to stay, and we should also be given some spiritual medicines and herbs from the cultivation world."
One of them clicked his tongue impatiently and said, "Why are you making more and more demands? You're such a greedy kid!"
Shen Zhengyuan's expression remained unchanged, as if he would rather die than give them the things if they didn't agree to his conditions.
Upon seeing this, the leader calmly replied, "Sure. As long as you give us the items, we will naturally give them to you in return."
"But you'd better not try anything funny. We can't kill you, but we can keep you here. You can go for ten days or half a month without food or water, but the girl behind you can't, right? She looks sickly, so she must be in poor health. The spiritual medicines and herbs you asked for are for her, aren't they?"
"I can only give you the secret technique first. As for the magical artifacts, I will give them to you after your promise is fulfilled." Shen Zhengyuan neither admitted nor denied it, but simply said calmly.
As the person currently at the center of the discussion, Li Chen slowly stood up from the ground.
She had been squatting on the ground looking for something, and some people were worried that she was going to do something shady. But it turned out that after squatting on the ground for so long, she was just picking up tree branches. It seemed that she was not only physically ill, but also mentally ill.
Li Chenjin, who was considered to be physically and mentally ill, was holding a tree branch that he had just found on the ground that looked somewhat decent.
The branch had too many forks, so she carefully broke off the extra forks, which took some time.
By the time she was finally satisfied with the branch in her hand, the two sides had already reached an agreement.
Seeing that Shen Zhengyuan was about to take out the secret technique, she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and click her tongue, saying, "I say, when you guys are discussing a deal, you should at least include me, right?"
Before she could finish speaking, someone snorted and said, "Who do you think you are? Talk to you? What's the point of talking to a sickly person like you?"
Li Chen pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "What you said isn't wrong. The affairs of the cultivation world are indeed not something I, a sickly person, can discuss, but I can explain the reasoning behind it."
"Think about it, everyone. If the magical artifacts and secret techniques of the cultivation world truly had the miraculous effect of allowing people to live as long as heaven and earth and to ascend to the heavens in one step, how could the cultivation world have ended up with almost total annihilation?"
One person said, "Naturally, it's because all the good stuff was given to him. Otherwise, why would everyone else in the cultivation world be dead, and only he is still alive?!"
That makes some sense, and she didn't know how to refute it for a moment. She could only sigh and continue slowly, "That makes some sense, but have you all heard this saying?"
Those people didn't seem to want to talk to her, but when they turned to talk to Shen Zhengyuan instead, Shen Zhengyuan also ignored them.
His gaze remained fixed on Li Chenjin, the meaning of which was self-evident.
Seeing this, they had no choice but to respond to Li Chenjin's words and ask, "What did you say?"
Li Chen said, “The Buddha said: ‘When an evil person harms a virtuous person, it is like spitting at the sky. The spit does not defile the sky, but it defiles the person himself. When the wind blows against a person, the dust does not defile the person, but it defiles the person himself. The virtuous person cannot be destroyed, for the calamity will surely destroy oneself (1).’ Therefore, I advise you all to be careful and not to take advantage of your own abilities to try to steal other people’s things. Be careful not to lose your life instead of getting what you want.”
One of them scoffed and said in a deep voice, "So much nonsense. Even if we wanted to bully others, so what? Besides, this is a deal between us and him, and he agreed to it. What else do you have to say? The stuff isn't even yours!"
Li Chen nodded. "The items are indeed not mine, but this transaction doesn't seem fair to me. These are treasures from the cultivation world accumulated over millions of years, and you're only offering some silver, along with some spiritual herbs and elixirs, in exchange. It's a losing proposition. If you weren't forcing me to buy and sell, who would be a fool to do it? Would you yourselves be willing to do it?"
"So what if it's a forced sale? Can he refuse to do it?" one of them sneered. "We can still try to negotiate with you now, but if you refuse to listen to reason, we can just rob you! Then we'll lock you up and torture you every day until one day you give in. But by then, you'll have nothing left. You won't get a single penny, let alone any spiritual herbs or plants!"
A note from the author:
(1) From the Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters Spoken by the Buddha
Xiao Li said with a sincere expression, "I like you."
Xiao Shen: ... (Silence is golden.jpg)
At Xiao Shen's age, he's completely defenseless against people who habitually spout nonsense. [doge]
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