Chapter 24 The Little Turtle Eats Rotten Lotus Root
The old ancestor was determined to die.
The two were too far apart in height. After Duan Jiuyou supported Di Jiang, half of his body was swallowed up, like a short cane supporting a not-so-spirited pine tree.
The imperial territory may seem thin, but it is actually quite substantial. The two of them were walking on ice and snow, and even with Duan Jiuyou's strength, it was very difficult for him to walk.
"Hold on a little longer." Duan Jiuyou's attention was focused on Di Jiang, and he would check on him every now and then.
"I won't die." Di Jiang's tone was normal, but his breath was very weak.
Duan Jiuyou gave him advice: "When you can't hold on anymore, think of the useless spiritual doctor in the abandoned house and the hot bathhouse. Although they are useless, your body can handle it. You will be fine when you go back. Then you can glare at or scold whoever you want."
Di Jiang looked at the top of her head: "When did I ever glare at people or curse at them?"
She was clearly referring to herself.
"Never glared at me?" Jiuyou recalled as she walked, and it seemed that she hadn't, not even when she was angry and cursing. She shook her head with a chuckle, "People misunderstand you too much. Even after I've been by your side for over a month, I still think you're fierce."
After waiting for a while and not hearing a reply from Di Jiang, he continued, "But you should also reflect on yourself. Although you don't like to beat or scold people, you never hesitate to kill. The Wuxiang Formation is littered with corpses. Even if the other party was a vicious beast or evil spirit, truly heinous, couldn't you have dealt with it in a gentler way? It looks so frightening."
Di Jiang knew that Duan Jiuyou was making small talk with him because he was afraid that Duan Jiuyou would "fall asleep". But he wouldn't die so easily. If he really froze, he would at most be unconscious for a few days. He could be "thawed" by steaming him in a medicine pot.
He had been like this before when he fell ill. At that time, he had just entered the tenth realm, and his primordial spirit was dissipating. He was even weaker than he is now. However, it was quiet around him then, and no one was talking to him, especially not this kind of nonsense.
"Didn't you hear me? Then I'll speak louder and ask you again?"
Duan Jiuyou refused to let him go, tilting his head upwards, determined to keep going back and forth with Di Jiang.
Di Jiang, annoyed by her shout, turned his ear to one side and said, "I'm used to it."
The reason why the Formless Formation is terrifying to outsiders is because its range is too wide and its damage too great; if it is not controlled, it will harm innocent people. However, this formation is the most worry-free formation for the Emperor. He has used it to catch fish since he was a child. He can accurately remove fish within his formation by force, weight, range, and even by targeting fish he doesn't want.
"Are you used to being misunderstood? Just because of this fierce formation, a perfectly orthodox divine race is about to be turned into a heretical demon."
Di Jiang didn't respond. After a while, she lifted her shoulder and said, "I'm calling you a heretic."
"You think you're nice to other people?"
This is truly driving a lord of the wilderness to his death. When has he ever shown his emotions to anyone? Right now, he's utterly annoyed, his brows furrowed, and he even gives off a bewildered expression that's full of life: How dare you ask such a question?
Duan Jiuyou said, "Isn't it good that I'm trying to fix it?"
Di Jiang was puzzled. "What did you change?"
Duan Jiuyou: "The officials who advised me said that I had a bad temper, was easily impulsive, and would get angry at the slightest provocation."
Di Jiang: "Have you changed?"
Duan Jiuyou: "I've changed. I was much fiercer before."
...
Duan Jiuyou: "Why aren't you saying anything again? Are you asleep?"
Duan Jiuyou: "Imperial Territory?"
Duan Jiuyou: "Too fierce?"
Duan Jiuyou: "Your Excellency?"
Is there no cure for this talkativeness?
Di Jiang grumbled inwardly.
Duan Jiuyou seemed to have grown an extra ear, and suddenly blurted out, "Don't keep your thoughts to yourself, speak up and tell me."
...
The imperial territory had suffered greatly along the way, and the emperor basically ignored it whenever possible. However, Duan Jiuyou took a different approach.
Duan Jiuyou: "Do you know that you sometimes talk in your sleep at night?"
Duan Jiuyou: "Don't you believe what I said?"
Duan Jiuyou: "It's rude to ignore people!"
Duan Jiuyou: "Your sleep talking is full of swear words, it's so dirty."
Di Jiang exhaled a long breath through his nose: "Stop spreading rumors!"
“It’s true,” Duan Jiuyou said. “You’re absolutely right that the vassal is a complete idiot, unable to think straight.”
Di Jiang: "That might be possible."
The two chatted idly for a while as they walked. At first, Di Jiang responded, but he became less and less talkative as they went on. Duan Jiuyou felt the weight on his shoulders getting heavier and heavier, and knew that Di Jiang had fallen into a coma. So he simply changed from carrying him on his back to carrying him on his own body.
The Four Seasons Demon followed the two closely. Unaware of Duan Jiuyou's innate superhuman strength, she saw it as a frail woman struggling to drag her beloved along.
"Stop crying!"
The Four Seasons Demon was full of emotions; when his eyes welled up with tears, a light drizzle began to fall in the ridge.
Duan Jiuyou glared at it and snorted, forcing it to swallow its emotions and return to its previous fear.
The Four Seasons Demon couldn't help but complain, "Why are you two both so fierce?"
"Where am I fierce?" Duan Jiuyou looked dissatisfied. "You could say he's fierce, that's true. He'd wipe out a family and clan at the slightest disagreement. But I'm a priest, I've served nine terms, I'm the best person among good people."
"And what about him?" Siji Yao looked at Di Jiang.
"Him?" Duan Jiuyou straightened his back to lift the weight. "He will be a great person among good people in the future."
The sky was overcast, creating a contrast between the two worlds of white snow and warmth. Duan Jiuyou was not particularly sensitive to warmth or weight, which was an innate advantage. Even now, carrying a heavy load, he did not feel tired, only worried.
Di Jiang was very close to her at that moment, his chest pressed against her back, and she could feel his heart beating inside his chest. But it was beating very weakly; she didn't know if it was always like this, or if he was about to pass away.
She felt uneasy, and her steps became hesitant. After a few steps, she called out to the Four Seasons Demon and asked it to help support Di Jiang, so that he could sit down on the ground.
The Four Seasons Demon checked the man's breath first and said that he was most likely dead, "His body is frozen stiff."
Duan Jiuyou had no intention of treating it. He sat on the ground, took out a bright white dagger from his sleeve, pointed the blade inward, gripped the hilt with both hands, and plunged it into his own chest without hesitation.
The Four Seasons Demon watched in horror as Duan Jiuyou staged a suicide attempt, nearly pushing Di Jiang, whom it was supporting, away with her. It initially thought she was driven to despair and wanted to die for love, only to later discover otherwise.
Duan Jiuyou showed no signs of dying. The knife struck her right in the center, yet she neither cried out in pain nor fell to the ground, as if the knife had been stabbed into someone else and had nothing to do with her.
She drew blood from her heart with her blade, wiped it with her finger, and brought it to Di Jiang's lips.
The blood of the giant turtle can prolong life, using one's own life to extend the life of another. Duan Jiuyou has an inexhaustible supply of life, but she lacks abundant heart's blood. Unlike ordinary immortals, she will not bleed incessantly. The same depth of wound might be a waterfall for others, but for her, it will only be a few drops of water remaining in a cup.
Siji Yao watched as Duan Jiuyou stabbed her four or five times in succession before her beloved's expression gradually regained some color.
After that, she quickened her pace, and whenever she felt a faint heartbeat on her back, she would stop and stab herself a few times.
Such deep affection is truly touching!
The Four Seasons Demon's eyes welled up with tears as she asked directly, "You must love him very much, right?"
"It must be true!" Siji Yao admitted to the deep affection on Duan Jiuyou's behalf before he could explain.
It asks the men and women of this world, "How many can do what you did? Those who have a life to save may not risk it, those who risk their lives to save may not have your good health, and among those with good health, how many are willing to give it up?!"
It was so moved that it cried, and its big, fat body trembled, like a talking white pig.
Duan Jiuyou felt annoyed as soon as he saw the Four Seasons Demon's tears. He was about to tell her to hold them back when he noticed that the weather at Four Seasons Ridge had changed.
The thick snow that had accumulated on the mountain was melting, the icicles that had clung to the old trees were turning into "rain," and the biting cold wind had gained warmth. It was as if a page of an old painting had been torn off, and in an instant, the whiteness faded away, the mountains gained color, the trees gained color, and even the sky seemed to have been splashed with a bucket of azure, revealing a clear brightness from the gray and gloomy atmosphere.
Duan Jiuyou stared blankly at the sky, then turned to the Four Seasons Demon: "Your mood has improved?"
"It's not just good, it's incredibly touching! Seeing how you treat him, I feel like I've seen true love!"
Love is warmth; in the heart of the Four Seasons Fairy, it is like springtime, a season of blooming flowers and bright sunshine.
Duan Jiuyou's expression was complicated.
She didn't understand anything about deep affection; she saved Di Jiang simply because this man couldn't die so easily. It wasn't just because if he died, she would continue living endlessly, but also because he was the chosen tenth emperor. If he couldn't smoothly take over the Heavenly Realm, even greater upheavals would occur in the Three Realms within a hundred years.
"If you had told me this method would work earlier, I would have done it already," Duan Jiuyou said, looking dissatisfied.
Is this a big deal for her? Are you afraid she's not ruthless enough to herself?
That's really overthinking it.
Sunlight pierces through the clouds and falls into Siji Ridge. After the weather clears up, the road is no longer difficult to walk. Those roads that seemed to have no end in sight also have a visible length in the clear sky, like the sun breaking through the clouds.
Di Jiang gradually regained consciousness under the scorching sunlight.
By then, Duan Jiuyou had already led him over mountains and valleys to the border between Duhe and Siji Ridge. She helped him lean against the riverbank, against the mountain behind him, rolled up her long skirt, and while cursing Liu Tianshi, she struggled to pick the Heart-Gathering Lotus.
Liu Tianshi lied to them again: the Heart-Gathering Lotus didn't grow on the shore at all, but in the water near the shore. Duan Jiuyou leaned his body and stretched out his arm to measure the length, and his knuckles were always two fingers apart from the flower stem.
"She's such a troublemaker!" she muttered, moving her fingers that had repeatedly brushed past the flower path. "Since we agreed to help her get it, we certainly wouldn't give up easily just because the process is difficult. But she's so suspicious and secretive. She's like a little bastard who's eating rotten lotus root, full of evil intentions!"
When Old Master Duan got angry, he cursed all his distant relatives. After cursing, he felt that comparing Liu Tianshi to Little Wangba was an insult to Little Wangba, so he snorted and continued to scoop flowers with a straight face.
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