Chapter 2
Sheng Ningyu was certainly not simply lusting after beautiful women.
Although Xie Qianjing's appearance is indeed one in a million, who among those who could accompany Sheng Ningyu back then wasn't exceptionally beautiful?
Each of them possesses a top-tier appearance in the cultivation world.
Sheng Ningyu proposed traveling together for two reasons: first, to test the man's background and, consequently, to keep him under her watchful eye; and second...
Time flies, and sixty years have passed in the blink of an eye.
Sheng Ningyu didn't know the way.
She didn't know how to get out.
Even sixty years ago, Sheng Ningyu didn't need to memorize the way.
She was naturally carefree and easygoing. In the past, when she went out, either her friend would give her directions in a bad mood, or her second senior brother would accompany her with a sigh. Therefore, Sheng Ningyu never needed to know the way in advance, nor did she need to force herself to memorize the route.
Frankly speaking, someone as unreliable as her should not have been able to take over the Sword Pavilion or become the "Sword Master".
In the world of cultivation, "Sword Master" is a very prestigious title.
In Yunmeng dwell immortals, who roam the fourteen continents in the cold.
The fourteen continents are home to numerous sects, large and small, and anyone can become an immortal if they have the right opportunity.
For hundreds of years, some sects have remained evergreen, while others have made a fleeting appearance. Along with the rise and fall of aristocratic families, one after another has taken the stage, enacting one love story after another, which has drawn praise and sighs from later generations.
Amidst the bustling crowds, the name "Jiange" needs no prefix.
Because there has only ever been one Sword Pavilion.
Sword Pavilion is located on Guiyi Mountain, and the masters of Sword Pavilion in succession are called "Sword Venerables," who are respected and admired by everyone in the cultivation world.
Sword Pavilion has a rule: unless there are major events in the Three Realms, the Sword Masters of each generation will not leave the Star Gazing Platform, nor will they set foot on dusty ground or descend into the mortal world.
But Sheng Ningyu didn't want to be the Sword Master, and she didn't believe in superstitions.
So after cultivating the Ninefold Sword to the fourth level, she resolutely left the White Jade Star Gazing Platform and stepped into the mortal world, enduring the seven emotions and six desires of the mortal realm.
When the older generation of cultivators mentioned her, they would stroke their beards and exclaim in praise: "Sheng Ningyu! Born with the bones of a sword, she is no ordinary person. She is truly the number one disciple of the Sword Pavilion! She is..."
They're just too disobedient.
People from Jian Ge are generally upright and dignified, self-disciplined and respectful of propriety. They have never seen anyone like Sheng Ningyu.
Laughing and joking, indulging in wine and romance.
Sheng Ningyu has visited the Hehuan Sect, picked the Qingnong Flower by the Rainbow Pool, casually modified a talisman that had remained unchanged for a thousand years, created a unique magical artifact, and owned a towering building standing above the East Sea...
Do whatever you want.
At that time, Sheng Ningyu thought that if someone like her could become the Sword Master, then God must be blind.
Who knew that God would actually get an eye ailment.
After his master, Sword Master Ning Guihai, passed away, Sheng Ningyu became the new Sword Master.
She still doesn't follow the rules very well.
And so she suffered the consequences.
Among those who once rode alongside her in her carefree days and guided her through the mortal world, who knows how many of them joined forces with the demonic cultivators of the Mitian Realm to remove her sword bone, strip her of her spiritual power, and seal her in a coffin.
In the blink of an eye, the sexagenary cycle has passed.
...
“Fellow Daoist Ning, I found these on that person.”
A soft voice interrupted Sheng Ningyu's drifting thoughts.
She looked at the handsome young man in front of her. He was looking at her with a smile on his lips, his face sincere and obedient, seemingly unaware that she had been lost in thought.
Sheng Ningyu accepted it without changing her expression.
This habit of wildly imagining things is something she brought with her from the coffin.
It needs to be changed.
She lowered her head and examined the object in her hand carefully, raising an eyebrow.
A bag of low-grade spirit stones and a bottle of pills.
As for swords and the like, to avoid being tracked, Sheng Ningyu casually tossed them aside and didn't take them.
She took the spirit stone, then stuffed the pill back into the young man's hand. She picked up a twig, held it in her left hand, and twirled it around, spouting nonsense as she said, "I lack talent and haven't yet cultivated Qi into my body. This pill won't be of much use to me. You can keep it."
Xie Qianjing tilted his head and actually obediently put the pill away.
Sheng Ningyu: "..."
Sheng Ningyu: "Open these pills and see if there are any that can heal your injuries."
Xie Qianjing smiled and walked to the right side behind Sheng Ningyu, saying, "Thank you for your concern, fellow Daoist, but my injury is not serious and will recover soon."
They were too close.
Sheng Ningyu's right hand, hidden under her sleeve, trembled spasmodically. She still had a nonchalant smile on her face, but she pinched her palm hard under her robe.
As she got closer, she realized that this younger person was unexpectedly tall. At 1.7 meters, she was already considered tall for a woman, but this person was much taller than her.
My right hand trembled even more violently.
It seems I won't be able to shake this paranoia anytime soon.
Sheng Ningyu subtly changed direction, letting Xie Qianjing walk on her left, and looked at the dried bloodstains on his body, as well as the bloodstains on his neck and wrists.
"soon?"
"Hmm." Xie Qianjing nodded obediently and said, "My flesh and blood have some special characteristics. Even if I am injured, if it is not serious, it will usually recover in less than half a day."
Sheng Ningyu: "..."
Can such a private matter be so easily told to a stranger you've only known for a short time?
Sheng Ningyu was speechless for a moment, then glanced at Xie Qianjing.
Who should we remind?
Sheng Ningyu tilted her head and pondered for a few seconds, but couldn't come up with an answer.
She suppressed the turmoil in her heart, pretending that her memory was unclear.
In short, things are different now than before. She can barely take care of herself and has no energy to do useless things anymore.
"It's good that it can be restored."
Sheng Ningyu skipped the topic and continued walking forward without turning her head: "Four of those cultivators ran away just now. In case they call for reinforcements, we should leave quickly and find a place to stay in a nearby town."
Seeing that she had skipped over her topic, Xie Qianjing's eyes flashed with a mixture of blood red and black energy for a moment, but it quickly disappeared.
He lowered his eyes.
Sheng Ningyu took a few steps and felt extremely awkward.
"Don't be behind me, come to my side."
"good."
Xie Qianjing obediently stepped forward and walked side by side with Sheng Ningyu.
His quiet and well-behaved nature made Sheng Ningyu feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Perhaps because she had been imprisoned for sixty years, Sheng Ningyu desperately wanted to speak, but didn't know what to say.
Fortunately, Xie Qianjing spoke first.
"That black box from earlier," Xie Qianjing pondered, gesturing with his hand, his tone gentle yet tinged with innocent confusion, "is that coffin-like thing that imprisoned Fellow Daoist Ning? Doesn't Fellow Daoist Ning want it anymore?"
It's not that it "similar," after all, that thing really is a coffin.
Sheng Ningyu: "..."
It's better not to say it.
and……
Sheng Ningyu lifted her eyelids and glanced at the person beside her.
Is this person mentioning it unintentionally, or is he deliberately testing us?
Xie Qianjing met Sheng Ningyu's gaze without flinching, his eyes clear and pure, his tone gentle, like a butterfly's wing lightly brushing his lips, his voice surprisingly sincere and concerned: "Fellow Daoist Ning?"
It seems she was overthinking it.
As time goes by, she used to laugh at her friends for being suspicious, but now she herself has developed the habit of being overly suspicious.
Sheng Ningyu recalled the past and couldn't help but chuckle, her tone becoming light and cheerful: "Of course not, it's just a little thing that others use for pranks."
The coffin was comfortable to sleep in, but it was too big to carry around. In addition, Sheng Ningyu was not sure if there were any tracking talismans on it, so she decided to return it to its rightful owner and bury it underground again.
With Xie Qianjing leading the way, the two quickly left the Mitian Realm.
But before they went out, they saw the corpses of the four cultivators who had just escaped.
Sheng Ningyu quickly stepped forward, squatted down, and used a wooden stick to pry it open to examine it.
The corpse's face was pale and bluish, and its body had ceramic-like cracks, as if it had been directly severed by silk threads. The flesh around its heart was rotten and blackened.
Her brows furrowed involuntarily: "Demonic energy."
And it's not ordinary demonic energy.
It seems that even sixty years later, the world of cultivation is still not peaceful.
Just as she was pondering, Xie Qianjing's voice suddenly came from above, "Fellow Daoist Ning, they also have pills on them."
Sheng Ningyu's thoughts were interrupted. She put aside her many doubts for the time being, looked up, and saw the young man standing in front of her, holding a bag of pills in one hand, bending down slightly, and reaching out his other hand towards her.
The young man was exceptionally handsome. He stood in the night with a smile in his eyes. A crimson dot between his brows, as if a marriage pact had been made, made him appear even more delicate and fragile, like a butterfly's reflection in the moonlight.
It's fleeting, gone in an instant.
Unlike the ethereal immortals, she is more like a captivating ghost.
It inexplicably aroused a sense of unease and trepidation.
Sheng Ningyu looked away, avoiding Xie Qianjing's hand.
She stood up alone, took the pill, and looked down to examine it carefully. In doing so, she missed the undisguised malice that suddenly rose in Xie Qianjing's eyes after she rejected him.
Why is she no longer looking at him?
Xie Qianjing still had a smile on his lips, but the black mist hidden beneath his skin was swirling in waves.
A jet-black pill landed in Xie Qianjing's palm.
The fingertips were icy cold, and when they brushed against my palm, my heart skipped a beat, like the shadows cast by the cold moonlight on a cold night, easily interrupting my thoughts.
Sheng Ningyu's gaze fell on Xie Qianjing, who swallowed the pill directly, and she said in a subtle tone, "You didn't even ask me what I gave you before you just swallowed it?"
Xie Qianjing looked at him: "What did you give me?"
Sheng Ningyu raised an eyebrow slightly, her casual demeanor revealing a playful mockery: "Poison."
Xie Qianjing lowered his eyes and clenched his empty palms: "Okay."
The reply was so forlorn that Sheng Ningyu paused for a moment, her conscience aching.
She brushed aside the blurry image in her mind and coughed lightly: "This bag of pills contains disguise pills. Although they are only low-level pills, they can at least conceal our appearances to some extent." Sheng Ningyu then took another pill and placed it in Xie Qianjing's palm. "As for the one from earlier, it's for you to use to heal your injuries."
She was talking as she walked forward when suddenly there were no more footsteps beside her.
Turning her head, she saw Xie Qianjing staring at her without blinking.
He said softly, "My injuries heal faster than others, so I don't need any medicine."
This is the second time.
Sheng Ningyu sighed with a headache, enduring it again and again.
That's all.
Now that I can barely take care of myself, it's better to avoid trouble.
Sheng Ningyu swallowed the disguise pill on her own, pulled Xie Qianjing over, and looked directly into his eyes.
Xie Qianjing seemed to be stunned for a moment, then lowered his eyes, his long, raven-feather-like eyelashes obscuring his expression, and said, "What does Fellow Daoist Ning mean by this?"
Sheng Ningyu said in a light and flirtatious tone, "Use your eyes as a mirror to see if my face has changed."
Upon hearing this, Xie Qianjing chuckled softly, then raised his eyes, a slight ripple appearing in his deep, desolate eyes.
"And now?"
"Things have indeed changed."
His tone was casual, with a drawn-out ending, conveying a nonchalant laziness.
As soon as she finished speaking, Sheng Ningyu was about to turn around when someone grabbed her finger.
"Fellow Daoist Ning, look here."
Xie Qianjing held her hand and guided her to place her fingertips on his right wrist.
His voice was soft, and seemed to tremble slightly.
But if Sheng Ningyu could look through the long eyelashes into Xie Qianjing's eyes, she would find that the color in those abyss-like pupils was not pain, but a pleasure that burned silently like the flames of the Netherworld.
A muffled thud!
Unable to bear it any longer, Sheng Ningyu grabbed Xie Qianjing's wrist and pinned his back against the tree.
The movements were swift and ruthless, without the slightest hesitation.
"Xie Qianjing."
Sheng Ningyu narrowed her eyes, gripped his wrist tightly, the skin in her hand was cold as if it were covered in frost and snow, and her voice deepened slightly, carrying a warning.
"I don't care what your reasons are, but don't repeat this in front of me."
A note from the author:
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Xiao Xie is really in pain...
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