Chapter 39: "I like my junior sister."
Xie Lingyu hugged her so tightly that Sang Ying could hardly breathe, but she didn't push him away. She just rested her head on his shoulder.
"Xie Lingyu, you're taking so long to find it this time."
"What if I've really become an old woman by the time you find me? Maybe my grave will be overgrown with grass by now."
She complained for a moment, then laughed, "Luckily, I've already reached the Foundation Establishment stage. That stinky old man said I'd need to be at least seventy or eighty to reach it, but I reached it before I was even forty, and I'm already at the third level. Xie Lingyu, aren't I amazing?"
"Xie Lingyu, why aren't you saying anything? Are you listening?"
"I'm listening."
The young man tightened his arms around her, and Sang Ying, whose arm was wrapped around him, moved her hand and managed to stick out a finger to poke his cheek.
"Although... I know you might miss me a little after not seeing me for so long, if you hug me any tighter, you can really go and offer incense to me next year."
The young man then released her, and Sang Ying breathed a sigh of relief. Just as she was about to take a small step back, her hand was suddenly grabbed, and cold knuckles pierced through her fingers and held her firmly.
Holding it tightly.
She paused for a moment, then looked up at him.
A hundred years is a very short time for a cultivator; it may only be the time it takes to go into seclusion and take a nap.
The young man in front of her didn't look any different, except that he was a little thinner and his dark eyes were deeper. When he looked at her, there seemed to be a lot of complicated emotions in them, but she couldn't see them clearly.
The young man, wielding his sword with one hand, severed the tree root clinging to time, and then, holding her hand, left the small town she had waited for for a hundred years.
Sang Ying looked at his profile and suddenly felt a little dazed.
In fact, as time went on, her memory became increasingly blurred. She couldn't remember anything, except that she was waiting for someone.
But she had no idea what that person's name was or what he looked like.
Many people advised her not to wait anymore, saying he wouldn't come.
But she believed he would come.
It wasn't until recently, when the pendant on her collarbone emitted a scorching heat, that she suddenly remembered those memories—memories of him.
My chest suddenly felt hot, and the sound of my heart pounding so loudly it drowned out all other sounds around me.
The stone bridge and the rain curtain faded behind her, and warm water droplets suddenly landed on the back of her hand. Sang Ying saw the young man suddenly stop and turn to look at her, puzzled.
It wasn't until she looked up and saw her small reflection in his dark eyes that she realized she was crying.
Large tears streamed down her cheeks. Sang Ying paused for a moment, then raised her hand to wipe them away. But the tears only fell more and more, and she couldn't wipe them all away.
She was panicked and at a loss, "Hey, what happened..."
Suddenly, her cheeks were lifted by the young man's long fingers, and the familiar scent of sandalwood enveloped her. He lowered his head and gently kissed away the tears at the corners of her eyes.
He parted slightly, looked at her, and said softly, "I'm sorry, junior sister, I'm late."
"..."
Sang Ying suddenly raised his hand and bit it hard on the back of his hand, tears streaming down her face. She said fiercely, "Xie Lingyu, why are you so late? I've been waiting for you for so long, every single day, and you haven't come. I hate you, I hate you..."
"I like my junior sister."
Sang Ying was stunned, her tears suddenly stopped, and a faint blush appeared on her ears. "Don't think that I'll forgive you just because you said that!"
"Um."
The young man grabbed her hand and pressed it against his face, his voice low, "Junior sister, you can punish me however you like."
The skin beneath her palm was warm and cozy. Sang Ying moved her fingers nervously. She didn't want to hit him or scold him. She had waited for a hundred years, and he had also been searching for her for a hundred years in the vast world.
All she wanted to do now was hold him, kiss him, and spend the whole day with him, just like he used to cling to her.
But she was too embarrassed to say these things aloud, and she couldn't be as shameless as him.
Sang Ying looked away and gave a soft snort, lightly slapping her palm before withdrawing her hand. "Let's talk about punishment when we get home. Aren't there more important things to do right now?"
Xie Lingyu led her outside, saying, "I've already restrained the tree demon's roots. Now all we need to do is cut off the main trunk of the forbidden area."
Sang Ying was taken aback. Wasn't it said that even the powerful figures of Yaochi couldn't solve this time-related problem?
But then he realized that he must have come up with some way to break the spell over the past century. Otherwise, if he had searched like this, with the number of tree roots and the speed of reproduction, he probably wouldn't have found her even after another two hundred years.
A hundred years have passed in the tree spirit's timeline, but only one day has passed in reality.
As soon as Sang Ying came out, she took out the restored glass mirror and looked at it. After looking at it, she breathed a sigh of relief. If a hundred years had passed, she didn't know how chaotic her home would be.
She put away the glass mirror, looked around, and saw that the weather was fine and sunny. Qingying was sitting against the tree stump under the Thousand-Turned-Fate Tree, and glanced at them indifferently.
"I really underestimated you."
Seeing that a major battle was about to break out, Sang Ying made a move, "Xie Lingyu, I'll go wait over there so as not to get in your way."
The young man tightened his grip on her knuckles and said calmly, "I only get distracted when my junior sister isn't around."
Qingying stared at their tightly clasped hands, her eyes filled with unreadable emotions. She gave a cold laugh, "I know you two are in love, but you don't have to show it off in front of the enemy even at a time like this, do you?"
Not far away, Xu Baishen, who had been watching the two reunite from afar, followed behind after the tree roots dissipated, and watched them quietly without saying a word.
The tree spirit is now extremely weak and unable to control its emotions, but it has also regained all its memories.
Before entering the secret realm, he still doubted the authenticity of their relationship, but after this experience, he no longer had any doubts.
When he lost his memory, he thought Xie Lingyu was her lover, and he had a dark thought. Later, that dark thought came true in the tree demon's illusory timeline.
They were separated for a hundred years, and he stayed with her for a hundred years.
A hundred years is a short time for a cultivator, but it is her entire life.
All the medical practitioners said that she was not suitable for cultivation, and that at most she could only barely reach the Foundation Establishment stage in her lifetime, by which time her lifespan would be almost over.
She chose to overdraw her life force in exchange for the possibility of achieving early foundation building.
He watched her diligently cultivate every day, despite her frail body, she insisted on pushing herself, day after day.
She may have been a very delicate person in the past, but no matter how much pain or suffering she endured during her spiritual practice, she never stopped.
He asked why.
She gently wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, "If when he finds me, all he can do is look at the grass on my grave and not jump out to curse him, that would be too lame, wouldn't it?"
He thought she would give up sooner or later, and that by staying with her when she forgot him, he might be able to fulfill his dark dream and be with her.
But one night, when he saw her still cultivating through the window, suddenly coughing up blood in pain, then calmly wiping it away and continuing to cultivate, he knew it was impossible.
She loves the person she has been waiting for.
Even if she might never see him again, she wouldn't fall in love with someone else while waiting.
...
Sang Ying blushed slightly at Qing Ying's disdainful words, but she still listened to Xie Lingyu and didn't let go, instead gripping his knuckles tightly.
She raised her chin and snorted, "He has a point. What if you launch another sneak attack?"
It's because I'm afraid she'll do something bad in secret, not because she's also reluctant to let go!
Qingying paused for a moment: "I wouldn't use the same trick twice."
Sang Ying snorted coldly: "That's hard to say. Who knows what a dark and perverted person might do?"
Qingying: "..."
"Oh, by the way, you guys wait a bit before you fight, I have something to show you."
Sang Ying suddenly remembered something and bent down to get something from her storage ring. But when she reached out, she realized that her right hand was being held and her left hand was not very handy. So she opened her mouth and asked the person next to her, "Xie Lingyu, help me look through it."
What are you looking for?
"It's just a roll of painting, and it's a bit old."
Xie Lingyu raised her hand and suddenly pulled out a gleaming washboard made of ancient black iron, along with a shopping receipt.
After a two-second pause, he spoke up: "Doesn't Jingxi wash all your clothes at home? Why did you buy this?"
Sang Ying narrowed her eyes and stared at him, then suddenly said, "Actually, it wasn't Jingxi who was washing, it was you, wasn't it?"
Xie Lingyu paused slightly.
Seeing this, Sang Ying said knowingly, "Sure enough, you were the one who secretly hid my undergarments while doing laundry!"
She had thought about it for a long time before but couldn't figure out when he had secretly taken her clothes. Now she finally understood.
Qingying: "..."
Xu Baishen: "..."
You two... you're quite the ladies' man.
Qingying was silent for a few seconds: "You stopped me just to show me this?"
Sang Ying coughed lightly, quickly stuffed the washboard back, and snatched the scroll from the young man's hand, unfolding it.
The canvas falls, revealing a tree symbolizing destiny. Beneath a red rope and a wishing plaque, a girl in a green dress rests against the tree, creating a beautiful and tranquil scene.
Qingying froze upon seeing the painting, a look of surprise flashing in her eyes, followed by disgust. She frowned and asked, "Where did you get this?"
Sang Ying shoved the painting into Xie Lingyu's hands and made him hold it while she gestured to it: "I saw this painting once during the New Year at a family's house in town. It was said to have been left by his great-grandfather and depicts his beloved girl."
Seeing Qingying's disgusted expression, Sang Ying smiled and said, "Don't be in such a hurry, let me finish."
"I also heard a story from him. His great-grandfather was a scholar when he was on his way to the capital for the imperial examination. He was robbed by bandits and was injured. He stayed in Yaoshui Town for a while."
"To save up for his journey again, the scholar became a teacher here, teaching children to read. One day, the scholar looked out the window and saw a woman resting under the 'Yuanqi' tree on the opposite bank of the river."
"The scholar fell in love with the woman at first sight and painted the scene. Strangely, no one else in the town could see the woman, only the scholar could."
“Every day after that, the scholar would look out the window at the riverbank across the river, hoping to see the girl in the green dress again, but he was always disappointed.”
"Until one day a month later, when he was sighing out the window, the girl in the green dress suddenly appeared, leaned against the windowsill, looked at him with her chin in her hands, and asked: 'Why are you staring at me? Are you humans so direct with the people you like?'"
"So this girl in the green dress is a spirit of the Tree of Fate, who has just taken human form..."
That's enough.
Qingying interrupted her coldly, "I have nothing to say to him."
"Okay, then let's skip this sweet and romantic love story."
Sang Ying gestured for Xie Lingyu to put away the scroll. "In short, before the scholar left, he made a promise with his sweetheart that he would come back to marry her when he achieved something."
Qingying sneered, "That sounds nice, but he hasn't come back at all in the past two thousand years. He even married another woman and had a child."
"So that's where the problem lies."
Sang Ying scratched her head. "I mean, do you have no concept of the lifespan of mortals?"
Qingying was taken aback: "What do you mean?"
"For your long-lived tree race, who can easily live for tens of thousands of years, a hundred years is just a nap, right?"
Qingying didn't understand, but she hummed in agreement. What else could one do in such a short time besides sleeping?
"But for an ordinary person, this is his whole life."
Sang Ying raised her hand and formed a divination hexagram. She paused for a moment, then said, "The scholar will die peacefully in the thirty-ninth year after he leaves."
Qingying froze, even a little confused: "He...is dead?"
Sang Ying nodded, "Yes, that's what the person who gave me the painting said too."
"Let me finish the story for you; it's quite simple. The scholar returned to Yaoshui Town five years later, but the girl in the green dress was nowhere to be found. He stayed in Yaoshui Town, lived his whole life, waited his whole life, and finally died under a tree."
"His adopted children, following his last wishes, buried him beside the Thousand-Turned-Fate Tree."
"Here it is."
Sang Ying raised her hand and pointed to the small tree next to the towering tree, "He was afraid you would be lonely, so he planted a companion for you. Isn't that thoughtful?"
Qingying was in disbelief. Looking at the sapling, she thought, "He... is dead?"
She thought he had only broken his promise and never returned because he had grown tired of her, but then she realized he was dead? Only a few decades had passed, and he was already dead?
"You're lying! That's impossible!!"
"How come you're even more stubborn than me? Fine." Sang Ying changed the hexagram, arranging it into the shape of a celestial mirror, revealing the appearance of the scholar before his death.
"..."
It really drained her spiritual energy. Seeing that she had seen through it, Sang Ying quickly withdrew her power, exhaled, and felt somewhat weak.
The warm spiritual energy from her palm helped alleviate her discomfort.
Xie Lingyu looked down at her, "You're going to die anyway, why bother trying so hard for her?"
"What do you mean 'for her sake'? This is psychological attack, okay?!"
Sang Ying snorted loudly, turned her face away, and muttered, "I'm also very unhappy that she separated us for so long, so of course I have to get back at her."
Qingying has harmed them so much, how could she possibly be doing this for their own good? She's not a saint.
Xie Lingyu paused, "Leave this kind of thing to me, Junior Sister, why do you need to do it yourself?"
Sang Ying hummed softly, "You don't understand. She's just a stubborn person. She says she hates him, but she actually loves him to death. Otherwise, why would she stay in Yaochi for two thousand years and refuse to move even if he chases her away? Isn't she still waiting for him to come back?"
"For someone who cares so much about relationships, it would be most painful for her to know the truth."
Xie Lingyu: "...Junior sister is indeed uniquely wicked."
But to be honest, Sang Ying's revenge was really effective. Qing Ying was clearly devastated. She had always thought that he had broken his promise and had hated him all these years, yet she was waiting for a faint hope that he would come back.
But she never imagined that during the time when their lives were out of sync, he had already returned and waited for her his whole life.
Those few decades were actually his entire life.
It turned out to be his... life.
Suddenly, the sunlight overhead was blocked. When Sang Ying looked up, she saw a dark cloud with flashing lightning suddenly appear in the sky, exuding a faint aura of fear.
"This is... a heavenly tribulation?"
Xie Lingyu frowned and quickly led her out of the tribulation's range. "It's the Forty-Ninefold Tribulation."
Sang Ying was stunned. Upon hearing this word, she suddenly clenched her fingers.
When a cultivator breaks through a realm, they will attract a heavenly tribulation. Surviving the heavenly tribulation brings them one step closer to ascension. These heavenly tribulations have a fixed number of tribulation lightning bolts. With the rich cultivation experience in the current cultivation world, even if one's strength is insufficient to overcome them, they generally will not die or perish. Most will only experience a significant drop in their realm or be seriously injured.
The Four-Nine Tribulation is different from ordinary heavenly tribulations. It is not a heavenly tribulation that ends in one go. Cultivators with a cultivation level of Nascent Soul or above will suffer the Four-Nine Tribulation once every few hundred years.
There are only two ways to end this: one, ascend to immortality; two, die and disappear.
Otherwise, no matter where you hide, the tribulation lightning will strike.
Sang Ying's father died in the Forty-Nine Tribulations.
Xie Lingyu gripped her hand tightly, "Junior Sister."
Sang Ying shook her head. "It's nothing."
She looked at the Tree of Fate in the distance. This tribulation was Qingying's. Xu Baishen also withdrew and said to the two of them, "The Tribulation of the Forty-Ninefold is a tribulation to settle the good and evil deeds of cultivators over the past few hundred years. Many wronged souls died here in the early years. She has done so many evils, she will definitely not be able to pass this tribulation. The cycle of heaven and earth does not require our intervention."
Sang Ying simply watched the lightning strike down in the distance, one bolt after another, causing the Tree of Fate to sway precariously and the wish plaques to fall to the ground.
In the distance, lightning surged, and an indescribable feeling rose within her body. Her blood was burning, as if she were being drawn in, or perhaps resonating with something. Sang Ying stared blankly, then unconsciously took a step forward.
The person next to her pulled her back in time, "Junior sister."
Xu Baishen also said, "Junior Sister Sang, this is too dangerous."
Sang Ying finally snapped out of her daze, rubbing her forehead. What had she just been doing, actually trying to walk into the range of the tribulation lightning? Did this heavenly tribulation even have the power to bewitch people?
Qingying had already suffered heavy losses at Xie Lingyu's hands, and she didn't last long under the Four-Nine Tribulation before the tribulation ended.
With the tree spirit dead, nothing in this forbidden area of Yaochi can stop them from leaving.
Xu Baishen bid farewell to the two. His original reason for coming here was to find his sister, but now that Xu Xuan was not here, he would have to go to other places in the secret realm to look for her.
Sang Ying looked up and saw the once thriving Tree of Fate crash down. Its trunk had been shattered into dust by the heavenly tribulation, but several charred roots protected the sapling.
Sang Ying picked up a piece of bark next to the sapling, which was also charred black, but she saw the words behind it that Qing Ying had blocked that day.
——Lingying my wife.
Sang Ying pursed her lips. If they hadn't missed each other, perhaps things would have turned out differently.
For example, if she hadn't persevered, she wouldn't be able to see Xie Lingyu now. Fortunately, they're still together, and can still be together.
alright.
Now that everything is resolved, it's time for her to settle accounts with Xie Lingyu!
He secretly planned to have his meridians replaced, and he hid his own money... With all these things combined, she was going to punish him severely this time!
Just as Sang Ying was about to turn her head, she suddenly felt a weight on her body as the young man fell on top of her.
She was stunned for a moment. How could she possibly catch him with her strength? She was immediately pushed to the ground. Looking up, she saw the young man with his eyes tightly closed, his forehead covered in cold sweat, his face pale, leaning weakly against her.
Sang Ying immediately tensed up, "Xie Lingyu? What's wrong, Xie Lingyu?"
"It's not a big problem. It's just that I forcibly used a blood sacrifice technique that exceeded my realm, broke a few ribs and tendons, dropped a few realms, and exhausted a hundred years of spiritual energy to find you. I won't die."
Shen Ying floated over on a cloud, calmly brushed off the sunflower seed shells, and with a flick of her wrist, the bandages automatically wrapped around the young man. She then tossed Sang Ying a few bottles of pills, saying, "Just take these, and the rest will take care of you slowly."
Sang Ying hurriedly fed Xie Lingyu the food, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that his complexion had improved.
Seeing that she was about to leave with Xie Lingyu, Shen Ying reminded her, "In his current state, how can he protect you in the cultivation world? It's very peaceful here with no one to disturb you. You two should stay here and recover. You can go out when the secret realm is almost over."
Sang Ying said softly, "Thank you."
Shen Ying: "The medical expenses are 100,000 spirit stones. Boss, would you like to pay in cash or by card?"
Sang Ying: "..."
-
Qingying's magic was broken, and the surrounding environment returned to the dilapidated state of Yaoshui Town after weathering the storms.
Sang Ying tried to follow the road and actually found the house where she used to live.
The layout inside was unchanged from when she left. Sang Ying tidied up the room and let the unconscious Xie Lingyu lie on the bed.
For some reason, even though he was unconscious, his hand was clenched tightly, and Sang Ying couldn't break free at all, so she could only stay with him.
As she stayed with him, Sang Ying unknowingly fell asleep as well.
When she woke up again, she was still groggy and felt something holding her tightly in its arms.
Something seemed to have gotten wrapped around her legs, like a puppy's tail, sticking to her and rubbing against her.
Sang Ying was woken up by the gentle touch. When she opened her eyes, the young man was burying his face in the crook of her neck, holding her tightly.
Seemingly sensing that she was awake, the young man raised his head, his dark, beautiful eyes meeting hers at close range, staring intently at her as if confirming her presence.
The dragon's tail, wrapped around its legs, twitched, and the downy hair at the tip brushed against its lower back.
His cool, soft fingers gently cupped her face, and he was about to kiss her, his breath falling on her cheek.
Sang Ying was in a daze. Before she could even kiss him, she instinctively pushed away the young man who was hugging her and pinned him to the bed.
"Who dares to climb into my bed like that!"
Xie Lingyu: "..."
————————
It's time to settle scores, like about the lover incident [shy face]
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