Chapter 35: Within easy reach
Fortunately, his eyebrows are still black, Jiaoran thought.
He asked in a seemingly unkind tone, "Why were you crying just now?"
When Jiaoran heard him ask this, she couldn't help sobbing and couldn't say a word.
"Why aren't you talking?"
Jiaoran pointed to his neck.
He asked her to open her mouth and held her throat to check. "Don't worry, it's my little dragon that hurt your throat. It will be healed after a while."
Jiaoran wanted to ask him if it was true, wouldn’t he become mute?
But she couldn't say it.
He calls the snake a dragon, how strange.
She wanted to ask him why he brought her here, Jiaoran wanted to go home.
He ignored her, closed his eyes and continued to meditate.
Jiaoran pushed his arm, wanting him to continue talking so that he could know how to get out. Suddenly, a big snake jumped out from behind him, half of its body stood up, as thick as the mouths of two drinking bowls. There was a vertical golden mark in the middle of the snake's head, and it had a bloody mouth. Its tongue moved back and forth, making a strange sound.
She was so frightened that she sat back and didn't dare to go forward.
"It's good that you don't talk. I don't like noisy people. But don't touch me. I'm in seclusion and brought you here."
Jiaoran didn't want to ask him why he brought her here. She pointed to the only hole above her head.
"What do you want to say?"
She was really anxious, but she couldn't speak and stamped her feet in frustration.
So he pulled his hand and wrote in it.
However, just as she touched his hand, the snake spit out its tongue again, revealing an extremely ferocious look, forcing her to retreat.
Jiaoran didn't dare to do it anymore, and she took a few steps back.
After a moment, he slowly opened his eyes and extended his hand.
Jiao Ran didn't know what he meant, so she boldly wrote on his palm, "How should I get out?"
He asked, "What are you going out for?"
"go home."
"Haha, what's so good about the outside world? Countless joys and sorrows, separations and reunions, and intrigues and deceptions."
Jiaoran rolled his eyes. She told him to go home, but he was talking about all this bullshit about joys and sorrows, separations and reunions. Why was he talking about so much nonsense?
"Where is your home?"
"Xiu Tu."
“Never heard of it.”
Jiaoran wrote, "One of the twenty-four states."
"I've heard a little bit about it, but if you want to go back, go back. Who wouldn't tell you to go back?"
"exit?"
He shook his head. "I don't want to tell you."
Jiaoran took her hand away, but he held her hand and wiped the blood from her broken palm with a handkerchief.
Jiaoran thought he was bandaging her. "Thank you, I'm fine." Jiaoran wrote in his hand.
He smiled and said, "I just want to see how your blood is different from others."
Jiaoran thought he was a freak. The same bright red blood, what difference could there be?
On second thought, Fenghuangchu and Mu Jin also put her blood on that platform that day, like slaughtering a pig. Could it be that they really wanted to harm her because her blood was special?
Forget it, let’s go home first and then talk to A Niang and the others in detail.
She stood up and looked around, only to find dark stone walls all around.
Only the crack above my head allowed a little light from the sky to leak in.
But the gap was very small and there was no room for anyone to enter or exit.
Jiaoran touched the stone walls around her and looked carefully, but couldn't find a door. She couldn't help but feel discouraged.
After searching for a long time, Jiaoran still couldn't find any doors, windows or exits, and she burst into tears again in anxiety.
Hearing the woman crying, he frowned, "You really love to cry, so annoying... If there is no door, are you a flower or plant that grew here?"
When Jiaoran heard his advice, she thought, yes, if she could get in, there must be a way out.
She stretched out her arms and looked around to find the direction of the wind, searching for a long time.
Jiaoran sat in front of him. The wind around him seemed a little different. In an instant, a flash of inspiration came into her mind.
She rushed to the man and tried to push him away. He stood up, picked up the thick straw mat and looked down.
He said, "You are quite clever."
There was a stone slab under the cushion. As soon as Jiaoran lifted it up, something like a wellhead appeared.
There is a bottomless stream of water below, flowing at a very fast speed.
Jiaoran lay down at the entrance of the cave and listened downwards. The deep undercurrent sound made her feel afraid.
He patted the python's head, and the snake rushed in, its golden scales flashing, and it entered the rapids and disappeared.
He smiled and said, "Do you still want to go home?"
Jiaoran was extremely angry. He brought her to this place and there was no way for her to escape.
She wanted to hit him, but he seemed to see through her. "I didn't ask you to stay here. If you want to leave, just leave. Just swim out like the wind."
He didn't speak to her, and a long time passed like that.
Jiaoran could barely distinguish between day and night with the help of the crack on his head. Apart from this, there was another way to distinguish them.
The big python came out of the water every day and knocked its head against the stone slab. It was very smart. Whenever it heard a crackling sound, the white-haired man would lift the stone slab and call it in.
It held a small bamboo basket in its mouth.
When it was opened, there was food inside.
Jiaoran thought that a freak like him had already practiced fasting.
The first two times she was too embarrassed to eat with him, but later on, she didn't feel ashamed to sit cross-legged in front of him and eat heartily.
There was only a taciturn person, a person who could not speak and a snake that could not speak in the cave. Sometimes, Jiaoran could not tell whether it was a dream in the Governor's Mansion before or it was a dream now.
Whenever starlight appeared from the crack above his head, he would take a drop of bright blood from his finger and drop it into the bottle every seven times, then walk away on his own. When he walked into a shadow, a flash door in the cave opened automatically.
He walked very fast, in the darkness as if in the light. Jiaoran wanted to catch up with him, but he moved through the darkness like a ghost. She couldn't even touch the corner of his clothes, as if she was following a ghost all the way.
After several times, Jiaoran closed her eyes, gave up the objects within her faint sight, and used only her ears to judge where he was and entered a place she didn't know.
Finally, one time, she found the place according to the faint sound of the wind she heard. This time her speed was just a little bit off. She was just about to follow her to see what was in the dark room, but at the critical moment, the giant python suddenly jumped out from the darkness and stopped her.
She smelled the strong animal scent of the python and dared not follow it. However, the closed stone door gave her a chance to take a peek. She saw a towering alchemy furnace inside, with an inextinguishable flame.
The room was full of bottles and jars, and hanging from top to bottom were pieces of bamboo joints. No one knew what was inside the bamboo joints.
Several days passed like this. One day, after the python brought food, it stared at Jiaoran.
Her scalp tingled under its stare, and she suspected it wanted to swallow her. The man and the snake faced each other, and the python's eyes were bigger than the walnuts she saw her father holding in his hands when she was a child.
Just when she thought it was going to swallow her, the python knocked the basket over with its head.
A candle rolled out from inside. Jiaoran picked up the basket and saw a tinderbox inside.
Only then did she realize that it was asking her to light the candle. Seeing the python shaking its tail in disdain, Jiaoran felt helpless. It couldn't speak human language, so how could she know what it meant.
Jiaoran chose a square concave stone similar to a candlestick, dripped some wax on it, and finally fixed the candle on it.
It had been a long time since she had seen such a dazzling light, and she squinted her eyes for a while to adapt.
One candle is enough to light up half the cave.
With the help of the candlelight, Jiaoran could see the giant python clearly. It was coiled up with half of its body raised higher than a human head. Its tail was coiled on a huge rock behind it, and the tip of its tail was dancing back and forth in the air, as if it was entertaining itself.
Jiaoran didn't know what it wanted to do with the candle. The white-haired man was not there, and it was just her and it here for company.
She pointed to the place where he disappeared, wanting to ask if it was the light source its owner asked her to send.
But snakes are not as smart as humans. Usually, when she pointed at something and gestured, the white-haired man would understand what she meant, but this snake just didn't understand.
She practiced for a while, then felt tired and turned around and fell asleep on the jade bed.
At first she felt it was cold and prickly, but after two days, she slept soundly and the pain in her lungs gradually disappeared. She hasn't coughed at all in these days.
Among the things that the python brought her, there was always a bowl of red date water, which seemed to have other medicinal ingredients added to it, so it always tasted sour and bitter. She thought it was for him to drink, but he looked at her and then at the red date water, and Jiaoran understood that it was a decoction for her.
This guy is really a freak. He seems to know very well that she is now out of energy and blood, so almost all the food he brings is to replenish her energy and blood.
She had been eating and drinking for free these days, so she had no objection to him taking her blood. It was just as painful as an ant sting, so she could still bear it.
Compared to Mu Jin and Fenghuang Chu who wanted to drain her blood, he was much more conscientious.
Now I have it... Jiaoran picked up the candle and looked at the stone wall above the jade bed. There were already thirteen correct characters in total, and the fourteenth one had only one horizontal stroke.
She lay on the bed with her eyes closed, and fell asleep after eating. It seemed as if she had returned to the time in Mianyuan, where she was carefree. There were not so many rules in the Governor's Mansion, and she did not have to greet or kneel everywhere.
The python climbed up and covered her arm. It was icy cold and gave Jiaoran goose bumps, but she didn't dare push it away.
Seeing that the person on the bed closed her eyes and ignored it, the python began to climb onto her belly. Jiaoran was afraid to sleep anymore.
What exactly does it want to do?
Jiaoran sat up and gestured, "Go away!"
The python wrapped around her arms and pulled her down.
Now she understood that the python wanted to take her somewhere.
Jiaoran followed it for a few steps, getting farther and farther away from the platform. When passing by the candle, the python swung its tail and almost knocked over the candle. Jiaoran hurriedly used his hands to protect the light.
The sound of the snake crawling was faint in the darkness, and Jiaoran felt a little nervous.
Could it be that he was going to take her somewhere to feed his little snake offspring?
She was lost in thought when the python brought her to a flat stone wall in a short while.
Jiaoran was unaware of this and continued to move forward. Unexpectedly, she stepped on empty air and found a cliff thousands of feet below. She was only paying attention to the strange murals on the wall, but did not notice that there was still several feet of distance between her feet and the wall.
From such a distance, he is painting on the stone wall in mid-air. It's divine.
The python swung its tail and wrapped around her in mid-air, and Jiaoran was nearly strangled to death. It put Jiaoran on the ground and hit her on the head with its flexible tail. She thought it was expressing its dissatisfaction and deliberately teaching her a lesson.
Looking up, Jiaoran held the candle higher, and only then could she see clearly that the wall surrounding this place, which was several miles long and wide, was covered with murals.
Looking from the west to the east, there are sword techniques, fist techniques, and palm techniques in order. Although Jiaoran could not recognize the unique skills of each school, she felt that there was a set of palm techniques that looked very familiar to her.
Strike forward with your palm facing diagonally to the upper left.
The palms point forward and are higher than the head.
Turn slightly to the right, pass the left palm over the right palm, and at the same time retract the right palm.
The penetrating directions are different, alternating between front penetrating palms and left and right penetrating palms.
Focus on penetrating the opponent's eyes, throat and other vital parts.
This is the Cloud-Piercing Palm of Baihong Palace.
Jiaoran was watching intently when someone behind him suddenly said, "The candle is about to burn your hand."
She dropped the candle to the ground suddenly, burning herself and grimacing. She was so engrossed in watching that she didn't notice the fire burning her fingers.
The python's tongue was spitting out rapidly, and there was a whistling sound coming out of its mouth. She had every reason to believe that the python was laughing at her.
Jiaoran didn't know what he intended to do. If these murals were transported out of the island, they would definitely be worth a lot of money and would be no less valuable than "Gao Shan Shou".
It was just a small island in the river, but it actually hid such a cave. She remembered what the old man said when Senior Brother Bu Yue and Chai Hui were fighting: there are mountains beyond mountains.
No matter how fierce the competition was in the Central Plains martial arts world, the secret manuals of each sect were not very important in the eyes of the people in the sect. But now, those coveted martial arts treasures hidden in books appeared in front of her and were within her reach.
The Phoenix Cub greedily put all the secret books he saw in the armory into his arms. How could he have imagined that thousands of miles away, there was a stone wall that gathered the strengths of hundreds of schools.
"Your blood is like stagnant water from an ice spring, lifeless. When you're better, you can start learning how to accumulate internal energy, and then learn boxing, swordsmanship, and other techniques to strengthen your physique. When you're almost done, I'll continue to draw blood."
When the first snow of winter came, a faint fragrance wafted from the cave. Jiaoran went there with the light and found that a Clivia had bloomed in the moist soil of the cave.
A fragrance rises from the dark room.
She sat there and watched for a long, long time, so long that she didn't even notice when the python suddenly appeared above her head.
Winter had come, but she still couldn't speak.
So, he called her little mute.
He didn't care about her name at all. He called her a little mute because of their past experiences. Hey, hey, he said too much.
The python brought her a branch of wintersweet flowers, and she was surprised that the wintersweet flowers outside were about to bloom.
Snow flew in from the gap and fell down piece by piece.
Jiaoran was waving the flower branches, which was a good opportunity to practice his sword skills. When he thrust out his sword, the sound echoed in the empty valley.
She was practicing swordplay, but she didn't know which school of swordplay it was from, as it was scattered and unsystematic.
While he was practicing, he suddenly had an idea and flew into the air and stepped on the branches of a plum tree. Jiaoran knew that he was going to exchange a few moves with him.
She was not afraid either. She retracted the Wintersweet Sword with a whoosh, leaving him no place to step.
In the blink of an eye, the flower branch stabbed towards his heart as fast as lightning.
At this time, snow and petals are flying all over the sky, and it is another beautiful year.
The white snow and golden wintersweet flowers are intertwined in the cave, and from a distance it looks like an ancient painting.
Jiaoran's body rose up in the white snow. With just a little guidance from him, she had made some progress in her lightness skills. Although she couldn't walk on the snow without leaving any footprints yet, when she rose up on the green branches, her body looked so light and graceful that she herself didn't even notice the change.
She put the wintersweet branch behind her back and followed his usual practice of putting her hands behind her back.
He was also falling lightly, so slowly that he looked like a flower hanging in the air and slowly falling.
He was the strangest person Jiaoran had ever met. He had a bad temper and was free and easy, as if nothing in the world could restrain him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
