Glimpse into the myriad aspects (2)
"Hmph—" Ye Yingying narrowed her eyes, cleared her throat, and suddenly teased, "You're both the Sword Master's disciple and the Alliance Leader's old friend. You're really low-key, not telling me anything."
Yun Yanqiu was slightly taken aback: "You actually cared about these things?"
“How could I not care? Sword Master and Alliance Leader Zhao are figures from a bygone era. You call them brothers, so by seniority they're practically my elders.” Ye Yingying analyzed seriously, “It was fine before I didn’t know, but now that I do, something just feels off…”
After hearing this, Yun Yanqiu's eyes showed a hint of bitterness: "You think I'm too old?"
"No!" Ye Yingying's mind immediately went into alert mode, and she hurriedly explained, "I just thought that you were at most older than me..."
She abruptly shut her mouth, knowing that if she continued, she would only make things worse.
Yun Yanqiu's complexion was noticeably worse. Seeing this, Ye Yingying didn't have time to think and simply hugged him, rubbing against his chest in a half-pleading manner: "Oh my, you're so handsome, you don't look old at all."
"What if I'm not good-looking?" Yun Yanqiu asked, looking down.
"Huh?" What did that mean? Ye Yingying blinked, momentarily stunned.
Ever since she met Yun Yanqiu, she had never considered this possibility. How was she supposed to answer?
Seeing that she was hesitating, Yun Yanqiu was very dissatisfied. He frowned slightly and stared at Ye Yingying's face with a resentful look, questioning, "Can't answer that already?"
"How could that be!" Ye Yingying quickly racked her brains, trying to defend herself, "You are you, I like you no matter what."
After saying that, she tilted her head back and pecked Yun Yanqiu's lips to express her feelings. After the kiss, she looked at Yun Yanqiu again and saw that his expression had softened a lot. Seeing this, Ye Yingying couldn't help but show a triumphant smile. This trick really worked.
Yun Yanqiu knew exactly what she was thinking, but it didn't matter; he was easily swayed by her charms, and the more the better.
After a brief moment of intimacy, Ye Yingying got down to business: "What's your relationship with the Ghost Calculator? How do you know his name is Duan Yougan?"
Speaking of this, Yun Yanqiu lowered his eyes, his expression calm: "I haven't had much contact with him, I only know that he and my master's wife are both from Yanqing Sect."
"Your master's wife..." Ye Yingying was stunned. So the Northern Ming Sword Master had a Daoist partner? This was the first time she had ever heard of such a thing.
"Yes, my master's wife, Qin Wenshuang, was once an inner disciple of the Yanqing Sect. She treated me very well, always regarding me as her own daughter," Yun Yanqiu introduced.
"Was it?" Ye Yingying asked, somewhat puzzled.
"When I became a disciple of my master, it seemed that she had already severed ties with the Yanqing Sect."
It sounds like there's some hidden story here... Ye Yingying couldn't help but fall into deep thought. She suddenly remembered that when she first met Yun Yanqiu, he had said that the Rakshasa Jade was given to someone else by the Ghost Calculator.
Yun Yanqiu didn't say that the jade was a gift to him. Could it be that the person to whom that cunning fortune teller gave the jade was Qin Wenshuang?
Just as Ye Yingying was about to ask further questions, Zhao Yuxiao returned with Wu Yue. Her attention was inadvertently drawn to Zhao Yuxiao, and she looked at Wu Yue suspiciously, her eyes seeming to ask: You actually gave in?
Wu Yue felt uncomfortable under her gaze, but stubbornly replied, "What's wrong? He begged me."
"Yes, I was the one who asked her first!" Zhao Yuxiao patted his chest, a hint of smugness on his face.
"Okay, okay, you go first..." Ye Yingying couldn't help but chuckle, then gave Wu Yue a meaningful look.
Wu Yue pretended not to see and urged everyone to hurry towards the post station. Upon arriving, the four inquired and learned that they needed to take different carriages to reach Lingyun Alliance and Lizhou. Several fine horses, puffing out white steam, were tied to the shafts of carriages heading in different directions.
"Then I'll take my leave here." Ye Yingying waved goodbye to Zhao Yuxiao and Wu Yue.
Suddenly, Zhao Yuxiao clasped his hands tightly towards them and bowed solemnly: "Senior Yun, Miss Ying'er, thank you for your care along the way."
"Why are you suddenly so serious? It's not like we'll never see each other again." Ye Yingying chuckled.
“That’s true.” Zhao Yuxiao awkwardly touched his neck after being told that. “Then I’ll prepare a celebration banquet at Lingyun Alliance and wait for your triumphant return.”
He feigned nonchalance, but inwardly he was still somewhat uneasy. He wasn't entirely clear about the Ghost Calculator's true strength, but he knew that this trip would be no easier than what they had faced in Tianjin.
All four people present knew this, and Wu Yue pouted and said awkwardly, "Don't let him die."
"Don't worry." Ye Yingying raised her chin, her gaze firm. "I still have to go to the Lingyun Alliance for the victory celebration banquet."
With that, she turned and leaped onto the carriage, her robes drawing a graceful arc in the air.
With a flick of the driver's whip, the carriage sped off into the distance with a few whistles. Ye Yingying lifted the curtain on the carriage window, watching Zhao Yuxiao and Wu Yue's figures gradually shrink behind the carriage.
"What's wrong?" Yun Yanqiu asked with concern.
"It's nothing." Ye Yingying lowered the curtains, looked at Yunyan Hill, and smiled slightly. "It just feels good to be remembered like this."
"Is that so?" Yun Yanqiu raised an eyebrow, her tone tinged with a hint of sourness. "During the days when you left Xuanming Realm, didn't I always think about you?"
Hiss... Ye Yingying gasped, suddenly realizing that Yun Yanqiu was unusually difficult to coax today.
But no matter how difficult it is, we still have to coax them.
Ye Yingying leaned against Yun Yanqiu's shoulder, looked up at him, and said with a smile, "I've been thinking about you too."
"Yeah?"
"Of course!" Ye Yingying slipped her fingers into his palm, extending them from between his fingers to clasp his large hand. "No one in this world would treat me better than you..."
Ye Yingying's gaze darkened slightly. She took his hand and brought it to her lips, placing a soft kiss on the cold back of his hand.
The carriage bumped and swayed its way through the journey, finally arriving in Lizhou. The two disembarked at the post station, and Ye Yingying was momentarily dazed as she gazed at the poplar trees planted along the roadside.
This was the first time she had set foot on the territory of Lizhou since her resurrection. In the past, whenever she saw these straight and tall trees, she would feel a joy of returning home.
But this time, looking at these trees, she felt both unfamiliar and nervous.
"Rest here for a while." Yun Yanqiu took her hand and led her into the inn in a comforting manner.
The two ordered a pot of tea and sat down for a short rest. The inn was not very busy, with only a few scattered travelers sitting there. They looked tired, quickly ate a few bites of food, and hurriedly left to talk to the carriage that had brought Ye Yingying and the others there.
Yun Yanqiu observed the group's retreating figures, then turned to the shop assistant and asked, "Are all the people who come here lately heading out?"
"That's right." The waiter, bored, chatted with him, "Something's happened over at Michen Mountain, and people for miles around are fleeing for their lives."
Upon hearing "Michen Mountain," Ye Yingying's eyes flashed: "What happened over there?"
"I don't know." The waiter shook his head. "I only heard that many people near the mountain suddenly contracted a strange disease. No matter how you call them, they don't respond, they're like wooden statues."
The man lowered his voice mysteriously as he spoke, "Those who know a bit about magic say this seems to be something like an out-of-body experience..."
These symptoms sounded remarkably similar to what happened in Zhi County. Ye Yingying suddenly remembered what Gu Wusi had said: those events in Zhi County were nothing more than an experiment conducted by the cunning strategist using others.
What exactly is he trying to do? Ye Yingying's heart sank, and her expression grew increasingly serious.
"In short, whatever brings you two here, you'd better leave as soon as possible." The waiter advised while clearing the dishes from the table, "Our inn is very close to Michen Mountain, and I'm afraid it won't be long before we have to close down."
Ye Yingying remained silent. She knew very well that the strange illness near Michen Mountain would attract the attention of the surrounding sects, and she had to kill Ghost Calculator before anyone else.
Thinking of this, she slammed her hand on the table, stood up, threw down a few pieces of silver, and turned to walk outside. Yun Yanqiu immediately followed, saying, "The cunning fortune teller might not still be driving the road into the mountains."
"It's alright," Ye Yingying replied quickly, without turning her head.
Michen Mountain, the secluded cultivation place of the Ghost Calculator, was once her home. Unlike Xuanming Mountain, the path into the mountain was not concealed by arrays. The Ghost Calculator cultivated the art of weapon crafting, which she was very proud of. She had laid a net of various magical artifacts along the paths leading into the mountain; a single misstep would lead to utter destruction.
Ye Yingying had played in the mountains since she was a child. She knew exactly where each path led to the Ghost Calculator's residence, and what traps and mechanisms lay along them. The only variable was whether the mechanisms had changed in the years since her death.
Ye Yingying arrived at the entrance she remembered. It was a tightly closed stone door covered with moss, looking like it hadn't been used or maintained for a long time.
An unassuming stone lantern stood by the door. Through the wind and rain, she reached into the lantern's chamber and found the mechanism hidden at the bottom. With a forceful turn, the heavy stone door rumbled open and slowly opened before them.
"Let's go," Ye Yingying said softly.
In her memory, this was the safest path, because the entrance was extremely well hidden, and the cunning strategist hadn't set many traps inside. Or rather, the interior of the passage itself was a natural trap.
The passage was quiet, damp, and dark, devoid of any light. Ye Yingying summoned flames, but even with their dim light, she could barely make out a sliver of the path ahead.
Upon seeing this, Yun Yanqiu hurriedly prepared to take out the Cold-Stabilizing Lamp to illuminate the area, but Ye Yingying sternly stopped him: "The Witch Spirit Lock is still on you."
"It's alright. I spent most of my time in the illusion in Jincheng, so I didn't use much spiritual power." Yun Yanqiu didn't take the backlash from the Witch Spirit Lock too seriously; it was something he was already used to.
"That won't do either. If we can avoid using it, we shouldn't!" Ye Yingying said firmly. "Just come with me. The layout here hasn't changed."
Yun Yanqiu realized he couldn't persuade her otherwise, so he gave up.
The two groped their way forward in the pitch-black cave. The deeper they went, the clearer Ye Yingying's memories became. She remembered that she loved taking this route when she was a child because there were almost no traps, and the few that were there were very obvious. It was safe, except for the darkness.
But as she grew up, she stopped liking to come here. It was too dark, and she would always feel uneasy without realizing it.
Strangely enough, as soon as she stepped into this passage, her heart began to race with nervousness, though she couldn't quite put her finger on where this nervousness came from.
Was it the excitement of facing the Ghost Calculator? No, that didn't seem right. Was it an instinctive fear of the dark? But she hadn't felt that way in the grimoire of the Merfolk in the Secret Sea.
Ye Yingying could hear the strong pounding of a heartbeat. She suppressed the strange feeling in her heart and searched carefully for an exit.
After a while, she finally saw another stone door, different from the entrance, with a stone lamp placed beside it.
"We've reached the exit," Ye Yingying said to Yun Yanqiu, turning around.
Yun Yanqiu stepped forward with a serious expression and placed his hand on the stone door to examine it. Then, his expression hardened, and he said in a deep voice, "The spiritual energy behind this is not right."
Ye Yingying also placed her hand on the door, sensing the movement behind it. Just as Yun Yanqiu had said, extremely chaotic spiritual energy fluctuations emanated from the other side of the door, like a raging storm.
"Perhaps, it's the Ghost Calculator's formation." Ye Yingying raised her eyes and met Yun Yanqiu's gaze. In the dim environment, the two were very close, their breaths mingling.
Ye Yingying paused for a moment, then suddenly suggested, "Why don't we go out and take a look?"
Yun Yanqiu lowered his eyes, gave her a deep look, and then calmly said, "Don't move, I'll go."
Having said that, he reached out and turned the mechanism inside the stone lamp, and the door slowly opened. A blinding beam of white light shone in from the opposite side, revealing a seemingly ordinary forest path.
Yun Yanqiu took a step forward and passed through the stone gate. He stepped onto solid ground and felt nothing unusual. There were no footsteps around him, only the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and the clear chirping of birds.
A breeze brushed her face, swirling a few fallen leaves into the cool cave. Ye Yingying stood at the entrance, gazing at the scenery outside; every blade of grass and every tree was much as she remembered.
She really came back... Ye Yingying was stunned, a strange emotion welled up in her heart, and she unintentionally took a step.
The moment she stepped out of the stone gate, a fierce wind arose, leaves flew everywhere, and the harmonious scene vanished in an instant.
The next moment, an aged voice echoed in the air: "You've come back after all."
Ye Yingying was horrified. She tried to reach out and grab Yun Yanqiu, but was surprised to find that the vortex of leaves had completely surrounded her.
"You cunning strategist!" Ye Yingying shouted at those around her, "What do you want to do?!"
No one answered her; only the rustling of the leaves stirred up restlessness in her heart.
The vortex gradually closed in, closing in on her and slowly robbing her of any room to move. Then, the voice in the air rang out again, sounding like mockery, yet also like comfort: "Don't worry, you and he will both go back..."
"Everything will go back to normal..."
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