Her heart aches a little
There are still those endless peach trees on the gate of the eldest brother's mountain, but now spring has long passed, and there is nothing left on the peach trees except the bare peach branches.
She slowly landed on the gate of the eldest brother's mountain.
Behind her, Second Senior Brother also followed her figure and landed to the side. Seeing the peach blossom branches on the hilltop, he sighed softly, "Do you still remember when you first came to Daoli, you accidentally ran to the hilltop where the eldest senior brother lived, picked a peach blossom and said it was beautiful. Since then, he has never let a peach blossom wither."
He paused and continued, "Unfortunately, he is now too seriously injured and no longer has the extra cultivation to sustain these words. Not long after he was injured, the peach blossoms on the hilltop withered."
After hearing this, Zhou Suyao felt bitter in her heart, but she did not say anything. She just gently pushed open the closed door of her senior brother's room.
In the room, the bitter taste of the medicine made her cough a few times, and she immediately felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. She frowned slightly and walked to the bed, holding on to the wall.
The eldest brother still looked like the immortal she had seen that day in the netherworld, but now he had his eyes tightly shut, as if he couldn't even rest in his dreams. Seeing the eldest brother's vulnerability, a vulnerability she had never revealed before, she felt a sudden pang of pain in her heart. She raised her hand and gently smoothed his brow.
"The first time I saw my senior brother in such a state of disarray was when we were playing chess that day and I ate one of his dragons." Zhou Suyao chuckled, her voice trembling slightly. "He really shouldn't have spent ten years of cultivation saving a mere worthless fish. It makes me feel so ashamed. I'll avenge him when the time comes."
Upon hearing this, Qu Mingwu, who was standing by, immediately retorted, "Big Brother won't regret saving you. On the contrary, if he sees you in this state, neither human nor ghost, he'll regret not teaching you well."
"no……"
Zhou Suyao also wanted to refute, but for the first time, she, who was so eloquent, felt panicked and unable to defend herself.
Seeing her like this, the second brother felt bad too. He could only gently place his hand on her shoulder and comfort her softly, "You don't have to say anything more. I understand. I'm not really criticizing you. I just hope you...don't be too sad...Okay."
Qu Mingwu thought for a long time, but found that he had said something too much, so he patted her shoulder and stopped talking.
Just at that moment, the third senior brother pushed the door open and walked in.
He placed the medicine tray on the table, picked up the medicine bowl and walked over. When he looked up, he saw the two people leaning against Zhou Shanyuan's bed. He was still not serious, and such a heavy atmosphere actually made him laugh.
"What are you doing? If someone didn't know, they would think you were coming here to attend the funeral of our eldest brother."
However, his joke was too inappropriate. The glares from the two people beside the bed frightened him so much that his hands trembled and he almost knocked over the medicine bowl. He could only raise one hand in surrender, "Okay, okay, I said the wrong thing. Then why are you two standing so close together? Why don't you move aside so I can pour this medicine in. Zhou Suyao, you should have a bowl later too. I was lazy and made two trips to get two bowls. The master said that this thing is unique for refining spirit cores. He visited many medicine sects to get this medicine. Don't waste it."
Zhou Suyao ignored the third brother's chatter. Her gaze was still fixed on the eldest brother's pale face. The remaining warmth from when she smoothed his brow just now seemed to still linger on her fingertips. The words that the red-clothed female ghost said in the underworld that day were always lingering in her mind like a ghost - she had his breath on her body, so who was this him?
It's all so confusing.
If it really was Xuan Yangming, then shouldn't the person he chose be Ming Luo? After all, Ming Luo was the one who matched her words about being the chosen "personal disciple." Otherwise, how could she, having only met Xuan Yangming two or three times, possibly confirm her words?
Unless... unless there is a deeper secret hidden in it.
Zhou Suyao felt her mind was in a mess.
Before she came to this world, she was just a salted fish who lived a life of idleness and waiting to die. After coming to this world, she found harmony among her master and stayed away from conflicts. She was also the youngest disciple in the mountain sect, and her senior brothers always gave her all kinds of good things. She also always adhered to her identity as a salted fish and never caused trouble.
But now...
She stared at the elder brother's face, which looked like a banished immortal but pale.
"Second Brother." Her voice was so hoarse that she didn't even realize it. "Tell me, that day, how did the eldest brother... break through the Yin Realm, and how did he destroy his own elixir?"
Seeing her so distracted, Qu Mingwu was reluctant to tell her the true situation of that day. However, when he saw Zhou Suyao's raised face and the red eyes, he sighed slightly and said softly:
"I don't know what forbidden technique Senior Brother used that day...even Master doesn't know. But when he carried you out, his spiritual energy had already collapsed, and his body was covered in blood. The Yin-Yang Road behind him hadn't yet closed, and I could still hear the howling of the sea of blood and the mountain of corpses."
He paused, then continued, "As for Senior Brother's elixir... Even though Master immediately sealed his five senses to prevent the spiritual energy from escaping, Senior Brother's injuries were so severe that most of the elixir had already shattered. The small portion that remained was also covered in cracks. It was only enough for him to say to us, 'If there are any changes in the underworld, please protect me,' before it completely shattered."
"His spiritual energy is dissipating at an alarming rate. If Master hadn't used his most precious spiritual elixir to preserve his remaining cultivation, he would probably be no different from an ordinary person by now."
The second brother's words were like an extremely sharp knife, cutting into her heart again and again, making it increasingly difficult for her to breathe. When she was about to collapse, the ghost girl's words once again echoed in her mind:
"You look so much like me... the one he chose... do you... want to be free from this?"
Xuan Mingyang's seemingly immortal face flashed through her mind.
"No." She looked up suddenly, "There's something wrong with what the ghost girl said."
The two were startled by her words and looked over at the same time.
"Who is that female ghost and what does that mean?" asked the second brother.
"That day, I met a female ghost in the underworld. She told me that she sensed 'his' scent on me, and that she was accepted as a direct disciple by 'him' who possessed this scent, and was eventually devoured as a vessel." Zhou Suyao spoke rapidly, but her thoughts were clearer than ever. "If the 'him' this female ghost was referring to was Xuan Yangming—Ming Luo's master—then it would be more consistent with her information about her 'direct disciple'. Shouldn't it be Ming Luo? Why would it be me, someone who has only met him two or three times?"
The third brother frowned, obviously not following her train of thought. The second brother beside him looked stern and said in a deep voice: "You mean..."
"If all the conspiracies in the underworld this time were truly planned by Xuan Yangming, then what was his motive? What does all this have to do with me? Was this container referring to me, or was it because the female ghost at the time confused Ming Luo's aura with mine, and the container she wanted to point to was actually Ming Luo? If this wasn't the reason, then why did Ming Luo take the initiative to come to me to form an alliance? Was it because she discovered another problem that would endanger her life?"
The more she spoke, the more confused and flawed she felt. But right now, this seemed to be the only plausible explanation.
"So that's why she chose to betray her master and form an alliance with you?" The second brother frowned and said, "It's not impossible."
"This is the most reasonable explanation right now. So in five days, I must go to Jinluo Pavilion to meet Mingluo."
Zhou Suyao looked at the unconscious senior brother on the bed, her tone more resolute than ever before: "I can't give up this opportunity to understand the various conspiracies of the underworld. Sitting here will not bring me the truth, and I will not be able to save my senior brother."
Seeing her so determined, the second brother finally softened his heart. He knew Zhou Shanyuan best. If it was Su Yao lying here today, he would definitely be like this, determined to find out the truth.
"Okay." He finally said softly, "No matter what, Senior Brother supports you. I'll accompany you to the Jinluo Pavilion invitation in five days."
"I want to go too!" Zhou Zonglan also nodded vigorously.
"No." Qu Mingwu flatly refused. "Now that the news of the underworld has spread to all the sects, no one can predict what will happen. Now that my eldest brother is seriously injured in bed, what should we do if he encounters danger? Should we trust that unreliable old master, Master?"
"Okay." Zhou Zonglan said sullenly.
"In short, take good care of your injuries these few days," Qu Mingwu said. "Five days from now, I want to see a fully recovered Zhou Suyao. Otherwise, I won't let you take a single step out of this Second Mountain Gate."
Seeing the worry in his eyes, Zhou Suyao felt a warm current flowing through her heart... She was an orphan in that world, and no one had ever worried about her or loved her like this, but now...
She nodded solemnly.
Although the third senior brother was left behind, he didn't complain much. On the contrary, he brought another bowl of medicine to Zhou Suyao and said, "Drink it quickly. If it gets cold, the medicine will not be as effective."
She nodded and took the bowl of soup. The smell of medicine was disgusting. She closed her eyes tightly but drank it in one gulp.
“Hmm…”
Instantly, a mixture of pain and warmth surged from her dantian, converging on the wound in her lower abdomen. It was a heart-wrenching pain, a pain she felt as if she had been pierced through by the ghost soldier's spear a thousand times. Her eyes went dark, and she nearly fainted.
"Junior sister, hold on."
Zhou Zonglan supported her body and said, "You have to bear it. This medicine will forcibly awaken your Dantian. It will definitely be painful during this period, but once your Dantian recovers its spiritual power, you won't feel so uncomfortable anymore."
Zhou Suyao bit her lip, beads of sweat covering her forehead, but even so, she still nodded firmly and said, "I know, good medicine tastes bitter."
Not long after she said this, she felt a sudden warmth rising in her body. After traveling through the veins throughout her body for a while, this warmth steadily settled into her dantian.
"Are you feeling better?" asked the second brother.
"Yeah." She nodded again.
Seeing that her lips were indeed not as pale as before, the two of them felt relieved. The third brother stood up first and said goodbye, "I still have to go down to Master's mountain to boil medicine, so I'll leave first."
After a while, the second brother wanted to take her back to her mountain, but Zhou Suyao refused. She raised her hand and shook the worn key in her hand and said, "Master, give me the key. I want to stay with the eldest brother for a while longer."
"Then don't stay here too long. Go back and rest early." Qu Mingwu knew that he couldn't persuade her, so he had to say, "Your spiritual power is unstable now, so you should rest more."
"I understand," she said.
Before leaving, the second brother still looked back, feeling uneasy. Seeing her still sitting quietly beside Zhou Shanyuan's bed, he couldn't help but sigh, "These two are really more stubborn than the other."
Even though she had seen this pale face countless times, Zhou Suyao still felt her heart suddenly ache when she looked at it again.
She reached out and held the eldest brother's cold hand, trying to transfer some of the spiritual energy she had just condensed to him. However, the spiritual energy traveled through her body for several times and still could not be transferred to him, so she had to give up.
"Big Brother." She placed his cold hands against her forehead and whispered, "You always say that ascetics should cherish their lives, but you..."
She paused, feeling as if something inexplicably weighed down her chest. After a long pause, she said, "Rest well and heal your wounds. Believe me, I will definitely find all those evil spirits hiding in the shadows and repay those who have violated your moral integrity for all the suffering you have endured."
After saying that, she closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears from flowing out, but she didn't notice that the peach branches outside the window suddenly shook.
It feels like being blown by the wind, or like the heart is beating gently.
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