Twenty-four: The Great Dream and the Great Awakening - Part Two
The destination is the pond where the lotus flower originally existed.
Mingjin didn't want to go near that area, so she hadn't been there since their first chance encounter, but now she was forced by circumstances. However, when she finally rushed over, she found only a pool of clear water with some withered lotus leaves and roots floating on it.
She called out a few times, and there was no response.
After lingering for a while without finding anything, Mingjin had no choice but to return to handle his business.
I had planned to take some time to visit that area again, but then one thing after another came up. Putting aside the usual patrol duties, I also had to learn a new and complex spell, and then Chai Wang came to stay on the mountain for two days. In the end, as expected, I did not get Mu Ning's permission and had to return with a slightly bitter feeling.
On the way down the mountain, the two chatted for a while.
“Elder Squad Leader’s injuries are still not fully healed,” Chai Wang replied. “It’s not exactly a serious illness, but he often feels unwell. My master thinks it’s because Elder Squad Leader’s living quarters are damp, which is not conducive to his recovery, so he had Elder Squad Leader and Jing Yun move to the city. However, Elder Squad Leader is still the same as usual, unable to bear the quiet rest.”
"Where are Elder Zhang and Jingxun?" Mingjin continued to ask. "When I left Juxia, Jingxun was still bedridden."
"Elder Zhang has fully recovered and is now able to hunt ghosts. Jing Xun's injury has also healed, but because of the injury, he has missed some of his studies. Elder Zhang is not lowering his standards, and he has been looking worried lately, just wanting to get back to his original state as soon as possible. Jing Xun is indeed a bit unlucky."
“That’s good,” Mingjin thought for a moment. “I suppose Elder Zhang is worried that he might get hurt if he’s let out, so he’s keeping a closer eye on him.”
“But Jingxun is probably feeling uneasy,” Chai Wang said, still worried. “After all, his junior brother has already graduated from the sect before him. Although this is a common occurrence, he will feel even more upset if others ask about it in the future.”
Now that lunch has been served and half an hour has passed, Mingjin, knowing that Chai Wang enjoys drinking tea and wine, invited him to Changhe Town to try their local good wine.
There weren't many people in the shop. When the proprietress saw Mingjin and Chaiwang come in, she came over to greet them and invited them to sit down at a nearby table.
"A pot of wine."
The proprietress brought over a teapot and two cups.
"What a fragrant wine," Chai Wang said, sniffing the aroma before taking a final sip. "Good wine. Just for this one pot of wine, the journey was worthwhile."
"Master Mu is simply too busy with matters on the mountain to find the time."
"Don't worry, I won't let this bother me," Chai Wang said with a smile as he poured himself another cup. "I've been on this mountain for a day and I can see how busy you cultivators are. Elder Mu also said it's because he's busy with his own affairs. He said that if I still have this intention after this period, he's willing to let me stay and cultivate. I haven't made a big fuss about it, so not many people know about it. No one will laugh at me when I go back."
"That's good," Mingjin said, feeling a little relieved. "If you like it, I'll send you a few jars. Take them with you and try them later."
"Then I won't stand on ceremony. Cheers!"
I salute you. May your journey be smooth sailing.
Chai Wang didn't let Ming Jinyuan see him off. He waved goodbye and left when he arrived at the tavern entrance, which gave the proprietress, who had been watching the shop behind the counter, an opportunity to ask her something.
"Tianguang, have you seen my sister's Chong'er lately?"
This reminder made Mingjin realize that he hadn't seen Mei Chong for several days. Normally, they rarely ran into each other due to their different official duties, but at least they would see each other when dining at He Geng Tang. Unfortunately, Mingjin had been too busy these past two days and hadn't had the energy to look around while eating, so he hadn't noticed Mei Chong's whereabouts.
"I've been busy these past few days. What's wrong?"
“It’s been almost five or six days, and this girl still hasn’t come to my shop. I’ve been taking care of her since her parents moved away from town. Although she lives in the mountains, she comes to visit me every two or three days unless she goes out to cultivate. It’s been five or six days now, and she hasn’t come to tell me beforehand. I’ve been worried sick, so I came to ask you what’s going on.”
"Don't worry, I haven't heard anything yet. I'll ask when I go up the mountain."
"Then thank you."
The shopkeeper wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and watched Mingjin head up the mountain.
Ming Jin initially thought it was nothing serious, since Pang Ming hadn't said anything. However, as he walked in through the gates of the Medicine Sect, the sound of his footsteps echoed and the medicinal aura was heavy, which made him uneasy.
When she arrived outside Mei Chong's house, she saw Penholder and Inkstone perched on a stool by the door, looking into the house. When they saw her, they simply turned their heads and stared at her with their eyes before turning back.
Before Ming Jin even reached the door, Huang Jing pushed it open and came out.
"You've arrived."
“I ran into Yuanyi’s aunt in town. She said she hadn’t seen Yuanyi in a long time and asked me what was going on,” Huang Jing said, closing the door behind her as she came out. There were no windows on this side, so Ming Jin couldn’t see what was happening inside. “What happened to her? Is she injured?”
“No,” Huang Jing shook his head helplessly, “she is sick.”
"Sick?" Mingjin was quite surprised by this unexpected development. "How did you get sick? When did you get sick? Is it a serious illness or something else? Why didn't anyone say anything?"
“It’s been several days. The day I brought you breakfast, Master called me over, and it was about this,” Huang Jing pulled Ming Jin to sit down on the bamboo chair next to the two cats. “I wasn’t there at first. Master said it was a sudden attack. He was walking along the road when he suddenly collapsed and has been in a daze ever since. It wasn’t an injury. No amount of magic has worked.”
"What illness is it?" Mingjin asked anxiously.
Huang Jing touched his face and shook his head, saying, "I don't know. Master has been searching through books for several days. Although he found a similar symptom and revised the prescription several times, the medicine has not improved the condition at all, and it has even worsened. A few days ago, he could still drink some soup, but now it's difficult for him to even take medicine. Only Master, Yuan Da, and I know about this; we haven't had time to find out about the others. Yuan Bei has been at the academy these past few days; he doesn't know. I'm not hiding it from you."
"It's gotten this bad in just a few days?" Mingjin, who had been focused on nothing else, was taken aback by this unexpected news and almost lost her balance. "Can I go in and take a look?"
“Go ahead, but she just fell asleep. My master and I haven’t been able to go out much lately. I’ll go talk to my master, and then go down the mountain to inform the shopkeeper.”
As soon as Mingjin opened the door, the two cats jumped off the stool and tried to slip through the crack in the door with their slender bodies, but Huang Jing was quick and took them both away, one in each hand.
The room was small, with a bed, cabinets, a table, and a window. Perhaps to allow Mei Chong to sleep peacefully, the window was not open, only letting in some sunlight so that Ming Jin could make out the furnishings. Thinking of Huang Jing's words, Ming Jin closed the door with his bare hands, felt his way to the bed, and sat down on the stool by the window.
Mei Chong was always in her memory, but he wasn't as serene as he was now; he lay there alone, his lips pale. Although Mei Chong was asleep, he wasn't sleeping soundly. It wasn't hot outside, but her forehead was covered in sweat, and she kept shrinking deeper into the covers.
Mingjin didn't dare call her, but simply picked up a towel from the shelf next to her, wet it in the basin, and used it to wipe away her sweat.
Mingjin sat by the bed for a while, but her visit was an unexpected event. She had other things to do in the afternoon, so she could only wipe the sweat from Mei Chong's forehead one more time before gently getting up, pushing the door open, and leaving.
There was no one outside the door, and the cat followed Huang Jing away.
Thinking that he hadn't seen Jizhen in a long time, Mingjin decided to go and say a few words to her before leaving. However, he couldn't find her in her study. Instead, he was met with the stench of a row of pots of medicine being boiled outside in the courtyard.
There was no one around, and Mingjin didn't plan to wander around aimlessly, so he abandoned his previous plan and left.
For more than a month afterward, Mingjin went to Mu Ning's place every few days to learn new spells. However, her cultivation level was not as good as Mu Ning's. While Mu Ning was already able to create a complete but small magic array, Mingjin's magic array still couldn't even connect the boundaries.
In her spare time, she would go to that pond, but as the days passed, she never saw them again. As time went on, Mingjin's patience wore thin, and she became reluctant to even take out the lotus seeds still in her pouch to look at them.
Mei Chong's illness neither improved nor worsened, but she remained in a daze, unable to get out of bed. When she was feeling better, she could speak a few complete sentences to those around her, but then she could not. As time dragged on, the people on the mountain became more or less aware of Mei Chong's sudden disappearance, but because Ji Zhen acted cautiously, everyone only came to visit her once.
After inquiring about Mingjin that day, Huang Jing brought Mei Chong's aunt up the mountain to visit him that afternoon. The innkeeper was naturally heartbroken, but he suppressed his sobs, only whimpering, before leaving the house. Because the cultivators were busy with their daily lives and no one could take care of Mei Chong, the innkeeper was given special permission to try coming up the mountain.
Although Mingjin was troubled by the two things mentioned above, what actually occupied most of her energy was Chen Duan's metalworking skills.
Ever since Mingjin was able to cast spells independently, even though the effect was as small as a thread, Mu Ning concluded that his ability was sufficient. She took him around to exorcise evil spirits, striving to quickly improve his skills in battles against them. However, because Mu Ning insisted that they could only use metal magic and no other spells, the two of them had to spend a lot of time dealing with evil spirits that they could usually sweep away with a wave of their hands, leaving them extremely tired.
Mingjin would typically go to Hegengtang for breakfast in the morning, bringing enough provisions for the two of them for the next day, and then set off home when the moon was high in the sky. Mu Ning did the same thing.
After a month, both of them had lost weight in their faces, which frightened Miao Sheng, who thought he hadn't given them enough food and that they were starving. In addition, he was very worried about Mei Chong's situation, so he gave Ming Jin a little more food than others.
Although Mu Ning made rapid progress, the effectiveness of her spells was still relatively small.
Right now, Ming Jin is hiding in a tree, watching Mu Ning perform the spell completely. In the end, she only managed to exorcise a weak evil spirit, and that was only after a long struggle.
The evil spirit remained unchanged, then vanished in a flash of black.
After all that fuss, Mu Ning took a sip of water.
Mingjin jumped down from the tree: "Master Mu, did you only use that gold technique just now?"
Mu Ning remained silent, only nodding.
“Although we used different magic than the spirits, the appearance of the evil spirits before they died was similar; they all turned into black smoke and disappeared. I originally thought they wouldn’t die, but were just captured and taken back.”
“Indeed,” Mu Ning said, closing the gourd lid. “If that’s all there is to it, then the value of this gold technique will be greatly diminished.”
“I was just thinking,” Mingjin said, organizing his thoughts from his time in the tree, “that to make evil spirits disappear, all that’s needed is to exhaust their cultivation, so they can’t stay between heaven and earth. If the spells of spirits, the spells that cultivators have deduced from spirits, and this gold spell can all make evil spirits disappear, then these spells should have one thing in common: they can all deplete the cultivation of evil spirits.”
“You’re right,” Mu Ning waved her hand, and the two sat down on two large rocks nearby. “Evil spirits harm people in two ways: first, by directly absorbing their lifespan to accumulate cultivation; second, by directly damaging their physical bodies, rendering them unable to continue living. We attack them, but the underlying reasons are different. Any other ideas?”
The two were now in a forest as usual, but the trees in the forest were tall but sparse, and with the changing seasons, the wind was starting to blow. Sitting in the forest could slightly relieve their previous fatigue.
"I have another question regarding the new interpretation that Elder Ban brought about the rubbings in Youran City. For a period of time, Youran City was actually a prison for outsiders. The evil spirits forced outsiders to have children, then snatched and killed the children. Although this is hateful, it was actually very convenient for the evil spirits. The inscription on the stone tablet is too vague about this matter, only stating that it eventually ended. They turned the stone tablet over and re-engraved new text, and there are no records of Youran City in any other place. This suggests that perhaps it was not due to external factors, but rather the evil spirits themselves who ended it. Before, in Baicheng, although that group of evil spirits mingled with the people, their permanent residence was still a house outside the city. Therefore, I speculate that although evil spirits absorb human lifespans, they cannot coexist with humans in one place for a long time."
“That makes sense,” Mu Ning thought, following Ming Jin’s line of thought. “And it wasn’t because the people rebelled. The people were just living their lives as usual, and even as prisoners, the evil spirits couldn’t live with them. Even if they rebelled, they could come back. Something must have happened during that imprisonment, something that could kill the evil spirits on a large scale. There’s a secret we don’t know about that can deal with the evil spirits.”
"I think the secret lies in this metal technique."
"How so?"
“The evil spirits might not be able to handle this, so a spell combining the two might be necessary,” Mingjin said.
"According to popular belief, humans can receive guidance from spirits because they have the spiritual root to create magic," Mu Ning said. "In other words, the magic we use now, because it was originally guided by spirits, is actually a combination of human and spirit magic from its origin."
"Master Chen and his senior sisters' golden magic is imitating that secret passage. If we think about it that way, its magic is probably a combination of human magic and underworld magic. If we insist on explaining it along with Youran City, it might be because a group of people and a group of evil spirits lived together for a long time, and when they were all unaware, the two kinds of magic combined to activate a similar effect of this golden magic."
A faint sound drifted from the woods. The two looked around but saw nothing amiss.
"It's just a pity that it's hard to verify," Mu Ning said.
“There is one path,” Mingjin said, “that is the Lord of Youran City.”
"Elder Ban's metal magic," Mu Ning understood what Ming Jin meant, "It's a pity we don't know much about You Ran City, and they escaped again. Of the names left on the rubbings, only this one probably knows the most."
"Should we discuss this matter with Master Chen?"
As Mu Ning got up, Ming Jin followed suit.
“Indeed,” Mu Ning took out her gourd and drank a few sips of water, “but now, we need to pay off all the evil spirits in the vicinity before we can talk.”
Hearing the first half of the sentence, Mingjin still seemed quite energetic, but when the second half revealed that he had to get back to work, his original fatigue returned: "Let's go back to the mountains tonight; the dry rations are really not tasty."
"Once the work is done, everything will be fine."
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