Chapter 23 - Tassels
Another day, the sun shone on the sect's plaque, which had been completely renewed, and the reconstruction work of Guixu Sect came to a temporary end.
What was floating in the air was no longer dust, but an extremely strange... a complex smell that was a mixture of burnt, spicy, and some indescribable fishy and sweet smell.
The source is the kitchen.
Luo Hongyi rolled up her sleeves, and there were a few suspicious black and gray stains on her beautiful face.
She was watching over a small, bubbling clay pot, the smoke from which emerged an unsettling, ever-changing rainbow of colors.
She held a long jade spoon in her hand, carefully stirring the magma-like liquid in the jar. Her brows were furrowed, and she muttered to herself, "...Three breaths of fire, seven parts of earthly evil resentment... and one drop of Moon-Eating Rabbit's saliva stabilizer..."
As she spoke, her other hand shot out like lightning and accurately grabbed the tip of the ear of the Moon-Eating Rabbit, which had just wandered to the kitchen door and was trying to steal a bite of the dried poisonous mushrooms drying in the corner.
"Ouch!" The Moon-Eating Rabbit cried out in dissatisfaction, its ruby eyes widening.
"Be good, lend me some saliva." Luo Hongyi smiled, and with lightning-fast movements, she rubbed the jade spoon against the edge of Rabbit's mouth, then quickly dropped the tip of the spoon stained with the suspicious crystal liquid into the pottery jar.
The liquid in the pottery jar suddenly boiled, spewing out a thicker pink-purple smoke with a strong corrosive smell!
"Cough cough cough...Senior Sister Luo! What kind of biochemical weapons are you refining?" Su Tang covered her nose and ran over from a distance with tears in her eyes. Her psychic eyes were a little dizzy from the smoke.
"What do you know, little brat? This is the 'Improved Version of Seven Steps Down, Fragrance Spreads Ten Miles Away'!" Luo Hongyi raised his chin proudly, ignoring the Moon-Eating Rabbit that rolled its eyes due to the smoke.
This overbearing smell spread rapidly like living tentacles, occupying most of the space in Guixu Sect.
Xie Zhao was leaning against the newly built half of the courtyard wall, closing his eyes and trying to warm his soul.
The smell hit him, and he immediately jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on. Covering his nose, he rushed towards the relatively "safe" direction of Chu Linyuan's cave: "Brother, help me! Junior Sister Luo is trying to poison my husband...ah no, my brother!"
He was in a panic, stumbling and about to bump into Chu Linyuan who had just walked out of the cave.
Chu Linyuan had just come out of his breathing exercises and was about to check the condition of the altar at the bottom of the deep pit.
His figure was as straight as a pine tree, his black robe fluttering in the breeze. The moment Xie Zhao rushed over, he reacted extremely quickly, frowning slightly, his feet not moving, but his body turned half a step sideways very naturally, avoiding Xie Zhao's reckless charge.
However, Xie Zhao rushed too hard, and the wind he created still swept across Chu Linyuan's waist. To be more precise, it swept across the object tied to the hilt of the Frost Silence Sword hanging at his waist.
A red sword tassel with a dull color, ordinary material, and even a little fuzzy on the edges.
The tassel was lifted by the wind and swayed slightly. The small, equally inconspicuous jade bead at the end knocked against Chu Linyuan's dark clothes, making a slight sound.
Chu Linyuan's movements paused imperceptibly. His gaze instantly shifted downwards, landing on the swaying, inconspicuous tassel.
Deep within those always icy, still eyes, a tiny ripple flashed, like a pebble dropped into an icy lake. It was so fast that it felt like an illusion.
Almost subconsciously, his right hand dropped very naturally, and his fingertips lightly brushed over the tassel, gently holding it and smoothing out the slight ripples caused by the wind.
The movements were smooth and concealed, as if he was just casually adjusting his clothes.
"What are you panicking about?" Chu Linyuan's voice sounded, still cold and emotionless. His gaze moved away from the sword tassel and fell on Xie Zhao's face, who was covering his nose and looked like he had survived a disaster.
"Senior Brother! Junior Sister Luo..." Xie Zhao didn't notice Chu Linyuan's subtle movements at that moment. He was only concerned with complaining, pointing in the direction of the kitchen, accusing the horrible poisonous smoke.
Chu Linyuan's gaze passed over Xie Zhao and swept over the swirling colorful poisonous fog and Luo Hongyi's busy figure at the kitchen door. His brows furrowed slightly tighter, and he was obviously not very satisfied with the smell.
But he didn't say much, just said lightly: "Stay away." After that, he walked towards the deep pit, the hem of his black robe brushed the ground, and the red tassel on his waist swayed gently with his steps, and then disappeared into the shadows again.
Xie Zhao watched Chu Linyuan walk away, then turned back to the kitchen, where the toxic smoke was billowing, and sighed helplessly. He rubbed his nose, which was sore from the smoke, and his eyes casually swept over the place where Chu Linyuan had just stood. He seemed to think that his senior brother's actions just now were a little... too natural?
But he didn't think much of it, just thinking it was just tidying up his clothes. After all, that tassel...
Xie Zhao curled his lips and muttered to himself: This was a cheap item that I bought casually at a roadside stall, and my senior brother has kept it and hung it up. He didn't throw it away or change it. He can be considered nostalgic.
He shook his head and gave up the idea of "taking refuge" in the cave because he was actually afraid of being frozen to death by Chu Linyuan. He turned around and found a place with upwind access, far away from the kitchen and the deep pit. He sat down cross-legged and continued to struggle with his damaged soul.
When Xie Zhao opened his eyes again, it was already dark, and darkness quietly enveloped the God Burial Abyss.
In Guixu Sect, only vague outlines remained of the traces of reconstruction in the night.
Inside the newly built main hall, several fragments of large earth core chalcedony were placed in a corner, emitting a warm and soft glow, barely dispelling a small patch of darkness. Iron Ox's massive body curled up against the wall, snoring like thunder.
The fire in the kitchen had long been turned off, and Luo Hongyi had returned to his cave, seemingly studying the medicinal herbs he had collected during the day. Occasionally, the slight colliding sound of jade could be heard.
Inside the cave, the light of chalcedony is softer than during the day, flowing like quiet moonlight.
Chu Linyuan remained seated cross-legged on the mat, seemingly lost in a deep meditation. His aura was as profound as the abyss, and the dragon pattern on his right arm completely vanished, without a trace of movement. He closed his eyes, and the fatigue between his brows had largely dissipated, leaving only a calmness as icy as snow.
Xie Zhao leaned against the opposite stone wall, breathing evenly and slowly, and seemed to have fallen asleep.
He tilted his head slightly, and the collar of his blue-gray robe was slightly open, revealing a bit of his graceful collarbone.
The long eyelashes cast a quiet shadow under the eyes, and there seems to be a hint of relaxation at the corners of the mouth, as if surviving a disaster.
There was silence in the stone chamber.
However, in the shadow corner where the chalcedony light could not fully illuminate, Chu Linyuan's left hand was not placed on his knees in a seal as usual, but hung down at his side very naturally.
His fingertips were unconsciously and extremely slowly twisting the red sword tassel hanging at his waist.
His rough fingertips caressed the fuzzy silk threads of the tassels, feeling the cool, slightly angular touch of the inferior jade beads. His movements were gentle, slow, and filled with a cherishing that was almost instinctive, something he himself hadn't even noticed.
It was as if it was not a cheap gift from a roadside stall, but some extremely important token that could bring an indescribable sense of security to this dangerous God Burial Abyss and in the silence of the night.
The tassel gently wrapped around his fingertips and then loosened, the subtle friction sound almost drowned out by their breathing.
At this moment, Xie Zhao, who was leaning opposite, trembled his quietly drooping eyelashes very slightly.
He wasn't really asleep.
The feeling of emptiness caused by the damage to his soul made it difficult for him to fall asleep completely, and he was always in a hazy state of half dreaming and half awake.
The subtle, continuous rubbing sound of Chu Linyuan's fingertips was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, pulling him back from the edge of a light sleep.
He did not open his eyes, but his breathing became more even and long, as if he was still asleep.
But beneath the deliberately maintained calm, a ripple was stirred in his heart.
Brother...are you touching that tassel?
Xie Zhao's thoughts were a little vague.
He remembered it very clearly. It was many years ago, not long after he started following Chu Linyuan, that he bought it from an old man selling groceries at a market in a run-down town.
At the time, he said with a smile: "Brother, look at how bright the color is, it matches your cold sword so well! Hang it up, it's my filial piety to you!"
He remembered that Chu Linyuan had only glanced at him coldly, neither accepting nor refusing. He shamelessly put his sword directly on the hilt.
Later he thought that with his senior brother's temperament, this thing would either be shattered by the sword energy or thrown away.
I didn’t expect...that he had kept it all this time?
Moreover, at this moment, in this silent and deserted night, the man who was always as cold and hard as ice would unconsciously stroke it over and over again?
An extremely complex wave of emotions surged through Xie Zhao's heart. There was surprise, confusion, a hint of ecstasy he wasn't even aware of, but mostly, an indescribable bitterness and... heartache.
This tassel was like an insignificant mark left by his reckless intrusion into Chu Linyuan's cold world. It was rough and cheap, but it was unexpectedly preserved. It even became a subtle comfort to the other party in the dark night when no one knew about it?
Xie Zhao's heartbeat quietly quickened in the darkness. He kept his eyes closed, maintaining the illusion of sleep, but his consciousness involuntarily and cautiously reached out in Chu Linyuan's direction, capturing the subtle sound of caressing, sensing the cherishment contained in that movement, a cherishment that even the owner himself had not yet perceived.
The light of chalcedony gently enveloped the stone chamber, stretching the figures of the two people and casting them on the cold stone wall. One sat quietly in the light;
One dozed in the shadows, his mind swirling with emotion. Outside the cave, the night deepened, and the murderous aura of the God Burial Abyss surged silently in the darkness. The brief tranquility of the Guixu Sect was like the eye of a storm, maintaining a fragile balance between silent protection and quietly growing bonds.
The red tassel wrapped around the fingertips has become a silent but tenacious emotional anchor in this dark night.
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