Chapter 61, or perhaps, it was his spring...
Although Liu Yuan didn't know why Yun Xianqing had turned hostile, she didn't dare to speak again under Yun Xianqing's threatening gaze. She only lowered her head slightly and asked him, "Can you let me go? I still need to go to Lingjiang Palace."
“I can take you there,” Yun Xianqing said with a smile.
Liu Yuan looked at the girl in green. Although she was still bound, she showed no sign of dejection. Instead, her eyes sparkled: "Really?"
Yun Xianqing met his eyes, slightly twitched the corners of her lips, and gave a cool, indifferent smile: "Of course it's true."
Liu Yuan looked at him and involuntarily shivered, but he quickly ignored it: "Then let me go."
Yun Xianqing said slowly, "You can break free on your own now."
Liu Yuan: "What do you mean?"
"It means you have no cultivation now," Yun Xian said calmly. Although he was talking to Liu Yuan, his eyes kept scanning Meng Chiwan. Seeing Meng Chiwan talking to Wei Jiyu as if nothing was wrong, a gloomy emotion flashed in his dark pupils.
Liu Yuan hurriedly checked the spiritual vein. She found it completely empty, without a trace of spiritual energy.
His eyes widened instantly, and he looked up abruptly, asking, "How could this happen? What did you do?"
"Do you want an explanation?" Yun Xianqing asked instead of answering.
Liu Yuan was furious: "Shouldn't you give me an explanation?"
"No, that shouldn't be the case. Isn't it because you're too weak that this is happening?" Yun Xianqing asked him, tilting her head as if she were seriously puzzled.
He was so self-righteous that Liu Yuan was speechless for a moment, and after a long while she finally managed to stammer out, "...You wait."
Yun Xianqing didn't even look at him this time. He slowly retracted the rope, and then, for some unknown reason, the rope slowly turned into dust in his hand, leaking through his fingers.
Even though it was just a rope that was crushed, it felt like something else had been crushed.
He smiled slightly: "I forgot to mention, it's actually not the Immortal Binding Rope, but the Spirit Binding Rope."
"So what?" Liu Yuan asked.
"It means your cultivation level is gone forever," Yun Xianqing said calmly, his slow and deliberate manner revealing the coldness in his bones.
Meng Chiwan frowned unconsciously as she watched.
Liu Yuan certainly deserved it, but Yun Xianqing's current appearance was too different from the one she remembered. Even though she had imagined that he would look completely different, he still looked like a madman in her eyes right now.
He seemed indifferent to everyone and everything, as if all things in the world were mere playthings in his hands.
He can easily shatter what others cherish with a smile, and he can use his own rules to induce others to accept his views.
Why would such a person have any dealings with her, why would he stay by her side for so long, and why would he ultimately kill her?
Is it just for fun?
Her fingertips began to feel cold without her realizing it.
Wei Jiyu, who was standing to the side, seemed to have noticed something. He tentatively tapped her hand lightly, and when he realized that she did not resist, he asked her, "Are you cold?"
Meng Chiwan snapped out of her daze and belatedly shook her head. She looked up at Wei Jiyu to let him know she was alright, but instead met Yun Xianqing's gaze.
Yun Xianqing looked at her. There was no smile on her face.
He slowly shifted his gaze to the hand that Wei Jiyu had touched in her line of sight.
Meng Chiwan instinctively sensed some danger, but she was unwilling to be at a disadvantage. So she gently shook her head at Wei Jiyu, reached out and took Wei Jiyu's hand, and said, "It's not that I'm cold, it's just that I was thinking about some things, so I was a little lost in thought."
She patiently explained to him.
A sudden pain surged in Yun Xianqing's mind. He pursed his lips, forced it down, and then smiled again. His behavior, facial expressions, and even the things revealed in his eyes were all flawless.
She showed no sign of vulnerability whatsoever.
Like her, he was unwilling to be at a disadvantage.
Meng Chiwan looked at him, wondering what gave him the ability to act so nonchalantly.
She was like a rational observer, analyzing why Yun Xianqing was in this state.
Liu Yuan was immediately extremely anxious, and her voice rose considerably: "They can't come back? What do you mean?"
"Where did you get your cultivation level? Do you really think you're some kind of unparalleled genius?" Yun Xianqing asked him leisurely.
Liu Yuan paused, as if her mouth had suddenly been sewn shut with needle and thread.
Only Yun Xianqing's leisurely voice could be heard in the air: "However, Lingjiang Palace does indeed have many geniuses, and they can all be your stepping stones. So, you need to slowly search for them."
Liu Yuan seemed terrified: "I'm going home, and I'm not going to Lingjiang Palace anymore! That woman was just lying to me!"
"You're going," Yun Xianqing said with a smile.
Almost as soon as Yun Xianqing finished speaking, Liu Yuan felt a tremendous pain coming from his body, as if something was churning and churning inside him.
His internal energy was like a pot of boiling soup, scalding his whole body until he curled up. He couldn't care less about going home anymore and just kept screaming in pain.
Yun Xianqing stepped back two paces and stood still, watching Liu Yuan's death throes, a hint of pleasure appearing in his eyes.
Meanwhile, Meng Chiwan on the other side only stared at Liu Yuan on the ground the whole time, not giving him even a glance.
He lowered his eyes, and then the pain in Liu Yuan's body gradually dissipated.
"...What do you want me to do?" Liu Yuan's face was ashen.
“Go to Lingjiang Palace,” Yun Xianqing said.
“You said you could take me there,” Liu Yuan said.
Yun Xianqing smiled slightly: "Didn't I help you?"
"...Help me with what?" Liu Yuan was speechless.
“Cultivators can’t find where Lingjiang Palace is,” Yun Xianqing said patiently.
Meng Chiwan listened from the side, completely confused, but Wei Jiyu beside her changed her expression, as if she had thought of something.
She wanted to ask Wei Jiyu what she was thinking, but Wei Jiyu just shook her head and said that she had not yet verified it and could not say more.
Afterwards, Yun Xianqing confiscated all of Liu Yuan's magical artifacts. It is unknown who sold them, but they were exchanged for a large bag of money and spirit stones, an amount that an ordinary person could never see in their entire life.
Liu Yuan fully expected Yun Xianqing to give him money and spirit stones as travel expenses, but to his surprise, Yun Xianqing used all of his money to help some poor people and impoverished cultivators.
He robbed the rich to help the poor. He acted like a good person.
I wonder who it was made for.
Meng Chiwan remained unmoved, because in her view, people are complex, and even if he did a good deed now, it could not make up for what he had done to her.
She didn't think he was faking it, but she also didn't think he was a good person, at least not a purely good one.
She wouldn't label a bad person as a good person just because they did some good deeds, nor would she completely label a good person as a bad person just because they did some bad deeds.
Liu Yuan was left on the bustling street by Yun Xianqing with a mournful expression. She was not exactly penniless, but she was certainly destitute.
In the end, all they left him was a decent set of clothes.
Let him go find the Mausoleum of the Crimson Palace on his own.
Meng Chiwan looked at him and suddenly thought of a possibility: Yun Xianqing wanted to find Lingjiang Palace, but for some reason he couldn't find it, so...
This possibility cannot be ruled out, but we need to wait and see. Even if she guesses wrong, it's alright, after all, she's only here to investigate Liu Yuan's cause of death.
Running into Yun Xianqing can only be considered as her bad luck.
At first, Liu Yuan encountered nothing and wasn't hungry or tired, so he was relatively well-off. But later, his aimless walking made him thirsty and hungry, and he couldn't care less about anything else. He wanted to eat something, but after searching his entire body, he couldn't even find a single coin.
He tried to enter the store with the same confidence as before, asking for his money, saying that he was the young master of the Liu family and that someone would pay for him later.
"I want to eat this. If you don't give it to me, you'll be sorry when I get home!"
But here, nobody cares about the Liu family. They are just ordinary people trying to make a living in this world. Paying for things and exchanging money for goods is a matter of course.
Perhaps someone was willing to help Liu Yuan, but even the kindest person, when faced with someone like Liu Yuan who so confidently threatens others, would simply ignore him and let him fend for himself.
Everyone had only one word for Liu Yuan: "Get out."
Liu Yuan was so angry he wanted to hit someone, but without spiritual power, he was ultimately outnumbered.
His once-important robes were gradually trampled and turned a dull gray, losing all traces of their former nobility.
He lost the only valuable thing he had.
Just then, he finally passed by a pawnshop and wanted to exchange his robe for some food, but he was turned away in disgust.
He was pushed down at the doorway like a filthy thing. Then he slowly got up, sat on the stone steps at the door, and hung his head.
He wanted to find Yun Xianqing, but Yun Xianqing never appeared again. Only Meng Chiwan and Wei Jiyu followed behind him, patiently waiting for his fate.
But he couldn't see Meng Chiwan, nor Wei Jiyu. He could only see the darkening sky and the rain that slowly and densely covered the sky like a painting.
The dark, luxurious robe gradually became damp, turning an even darker color.
Suddenly, an umbrella was held over his head.
He looked up and saw a young man with a full head of white hair.
After several days and nights of ordeal, he finally softened his voice and said thank you.
"Thank you." Liu Yuan admitted that he felt like crying at that moment.
The white-haired youth simply smiled slightly, then asked him, "Do you want to go to Lingjiang Palace?"
As raindrops fell, Liu Yuan noticed that the white-haired youth's pupils were unfocused, as if there was a thick fog in his eyes that could never be dispelled.
He waved his hand in front of his eyes.
The young man didn't react at all, but after a pause, he said, "I can't see, but I know what you're doing."
"How did you know that I wanted to go to Lingjiang Palace?" Liu Yuan asked him.
"Because you're thinking about it," the young man said without the slightest hesitation.
"What else was I thinking about?" Liu Yuan's stomach was starting to hurt from hunger, but he still asked persistently.
"Are you thinking about when you'll be able to eat?" the young man said softly after a moment's thought.
The umbrella was later placed at the entrance of the inn, and clear raindrops fell from its ribs to the ground, wetting a small patch of earth.
Liu Yuan practically wolfed down her food at the dinner table.
His elaborate robes were also removed, leaving him in only clean clothes.
“You carry the scent of an old friend,” the white-haired youth suddenly said.
Liu Yuan was puzzled.
"Have you ever had a younger sister? A silly but adorable younger sister?" the young man asked him.
"No," Liu Yuan said. Perhaps there were, like cousins or sisters, but he had never cared about them.
He only cares about himself. In his mind, all women are the same.
"That's such a pity. You don't know what a wonderful person my sister is," the young man said with a gentle smile, looking down.
“But didn’t you say she was stupid?” Liu Yuan asked him.
"It really is silly. But I miss her so much." The young man answered casually, even somewhat inexplicably, leaving Liu Yuan puzzled.
"Then go see her," Liu Yuan said finally.
"I can't see him anymore." The young man stared at him, his eyes empty.
"That's a pity." Liu Yuan didn't react much. "What do you mean by saying I have the aura of an old friend on me?"
"...It's the scent of someone I really miss." The young man remained silent for a long time before finally answering him.
"Is she your sister?" Liu Yuan asked him after taking a sip of tea.
"Perhaps," the young man replied ambiguously. "Shall I take you to Lingjiang Palace?"
Liu Yuan paused in her eating and asked him, "I heard there are many geniuses there. What happened to them in the end?"
The young man looked up at him, his expression calm: "They are fine."
Liu Yuan felt relieved.
Sitting at another table, Meng Chiwan couldn't put her mind at ease. She looked at the young man, and an overwhelming emotion suddenly welled up inside her.
Hollow eyes. A thin body. The only thing that doesn't match is the full head of white hair.
"My brother's name is Lin Shuchun. It doesn't sound like a boy's name, right? But it's really nice-sounding, and I like it a lot."
"If you have the chance to see him, please call him Lin Shuchun. He will look at you with a smile, his eyes always shining."
I could almost hear the voice of an old friend.
Lin Shuchun. This boy she had never met before, yet she knew who he was the moment she saw him.
But he's no longer the spirited young man he once was. He said he misses his sister. He said Lin Yudong is silly but also adorable.
He was indeed foolish. In his search for his brother, he lost his life and haunted that haunted house for many years before finally finding peace.
His voice was different from Lin Yudong's; it was slightly gentler and more hoarse. Perhaps it was due to his advancing age, or perhaps it was due to the hardships he had endured.
Or perhaps, his spring has long since passed, so he has grown rings of age, and layers of deep longing.
"Lin Shuchun," Meng Chiwan said softly.
Wei Jiyu glanced at her and then said, "You know him? He can't hear us."
Meng Chiwan nodded.
But the moment she finished speaking, she clearly saw Lin Shuchun pause for a moment and glance at her.
So she called out again, "Lin Shuchun."
The young man's eyes were still empty, but he seemed to be smiling.
Author's Note: I've been completely addicted to games these past few days, playing to the point where I feel like I'm about to ascend to heaven... I've been so engrossed in it that I've forgotten to eat and sleep, even forgetting to update, hahaha!
Thankfully, it's over. Let's see if there's a ranking next week. If there is, I'll be busy.
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