Chapter 52 Bodhicitta (I) Go to hell!
"If you want spirit stones, I have plenty."
"No, that's not necessary," Zhu Ciying said. "I couldn't spend all the ten million spirit stones I exchanged for at the Zhixing Division after returning from Sixiang City in a hundred years."
"That's because you don't need much," Xie Rangchen said. "If it were someone else, they would have squandered it all long ago."
Zhu Ciying thought about it and realized the same thing.
If ten million spirit stones were given to Yu Yongji, the master of Penglai Island, he would have spent all of it on ordering a flying car.
"Brother, you haven't practiced sword in a few days." She suddenly remembered that although Xie Tiantian was a bit of a noob, his cultivation was top-notch in the entire cultivation world. In the future, when facing the Demon Lord Shuo Heng, he would definitely be the main force.
Moreover, just his face, which was exactly the same as her senior brother's face in her previous life, would probably scare the Demon Lord half to death if he just stood in front of him, even if he just pretended.
She leaned forward slowly.
Xie Rangchen couldn't understand the reason behind her sudden approach. His heart was beating faster and faster.
His long eyelashes drooped slightly, his gaze fixed on her gradually approaching red lips. He recalled that night at Taoyuan Residence, when she was drunk and he had walked her back to her room, and he had accidentally seen her lips up close.
At that time, he thought his junior sister had beautiful lips that looked soft.
Now, he still held the same idea as before, but with one more thing added, he seemed to be a little too demanding and wanted to kiss her.
Realizing this, Xie Rangchen woke up as if from a dream and moved his body back.
Zhu Ciying took this opportunity to snatch the candy bag, successfully achieving her goal: "I'll confiscate the candy for now! I'll return it to you when you start practicing swordsmanship!"
She didn't know what kind of psychological process Xie Rangchen had gone through, and she returned to her residence with the candy without any burden.
Xie Rangchen held his head with one hand and pressed two fingers on his throbbing solar plexus, causing his head to swell and ache.
The calming bell is so noisy.
It reminded him again that he had special feelings for Zhu Ciying.
As for the extent to which that feeling had been redefined, whether it was a desire for physical contact or love between a man and a woman, he was not completely sure.
Anyway, it is definitely not a friendship between fellow students.
During the seven days after returning to Shaoyang Sect, Xie Rangchen worked hard to practice sword for seven days. Zhu Ciying awarded him seven candies and encouraged him to practice sword for a full month, so that he could get a perfect attendance award.
Xie Rangchen made a comeback and thus swept up all the sword cultivators of Shaoyang Sect.
Recently, Zhu Ciying always heard complaints from sword practitioners.
"Jiang Huai is simply inhuman! Xu Feihuai and Qu Wanqing swinging their swords 3,000 times a day is terrifying enough, but he's even more reckless than them, swinging 10,000 times a day!"
"Oh! You can complain all you want, but don't stop! If we don't complete today's mission, Master will definitely punish us by making us copy the Heart Sutra when we get back!"
"Stop talking, save me first! I can't feel my arm anymore!"
She had heard a lot of words like this.
While supervising her senior brother's sword practice, she secretly guided him to imitate his senior brother in his previous life.
And Xie Rangchen did a great job in this regard.
Sometimes, Zhu Ciying stood in the distance and secretly watched him. Just seeing his back would make her lose her mind many times.
She actually thought that her senior brother from her previous life had returned.
But she had confirmed it a long time ago that Xie Tiantian's bone age was indeed 21 years old, and it could not be faked.
If he was a senior brother from the previous life, he would be over 300 years old now, like Shi Xiangyue.
Zhu Ciying looked up at the sky silently.
Senior Brother has ascended to the upper realm...
If one day she could ascend, they would definitely meet again.
*
On the tenth day, Zhu Ciying and Xie Rangchen were called to the meeting hall.
Sect leader Qu Yantao saw her two senior brothers walking into the hall side by side, and he became more and more satisfied.
"The whereabouts of the artifact, I, several elders, and several powerful people in the cultivation world have roughly figured out."
He handed Zhu Ciying a map drawn with spiritual power: "The detailed locations have been marked, and the route has been planned. You should follow this general direction to find it. It will take the shortest distance."
"If you encounter any difficulties along the way, remember to inform the sect. Shaoyang Sect will do its utmost to help you."
"I wish you a smooth journey and hope you find the artifact soon. You are the ones chosen by the oracle. Whether the cultivation world can overcome this crisis depends on you."
Zhu Ciying: "What about the remaining half? Are there any other magical weapons to deal with the Demon Lord?"
"The remaining half is the blood and spirit of the cultivators in the world of cultivation." Qu Yantao said with a smile, "So many years have passed. Isn't the experience of the Shixiang clan enough to sound the alarm for us? The world of cultivation is the world of cultivators. Everyone should take up their own weapons to protect their homeland."
Zhu Ciying fully agreed with the sect leader's words.
Afterwards, she discussed several details on the map with him and carefully asked about the key information to pay attention to.
After bidding farewell to the Sect Master and exiting the meeting hall, Zhu Ciying said to Xie Rangchen, "Senior Sister Qu and Senior Brother Xu will stay in the Sect to deal with matters concerning the demon clan. Therefore, for now, it's just the two of us on this trip to find the artifact."
"Time is running out. Brother, go back and pack some clothes. We will set off immediately to the nearest East Sea to find Bodhicitta."
They separated at Feijue Peak and gathered at the foot of the mountain a quarter of an hour later.
Zhu Ciying changed into a goose yellow dress, with a light blue shawl tied diagonally on her shoulders. Her slender waist was once again hung with storage bags, and she was holding a large stack of things in her arms.
She walked slowly but very steadily.
Xie Rangchen saw her from afar and for a moment he had a vision of Ah Ying.
However, the difference between the two of them is that Aying was more at a loss when facing the enthusiasm of her fellow students, while Zhu Ciying was all smiles. Her smile was natural, friendly, generous, decent, warm and happy.
Xie Rangchen liked to see her smile.
"Everyone heard we were going down the mountain, so they stuffed things on me. My storage bag is about to fall out, so please help me get it."
Xie Rangchen reached out and helped her take some things so that she could free up her hands to organize the other storage bags.
"Let's go to the nearby flying car station first."
A storage bag couldn't be placed inside another storage bag, so Zhu Ciying took out a bag and put everything her fellow disciples had given her into it. Just as she was about to put it on her back, a hand reached out from behind and pulled the bag over.
Xie Rangchen weighed the bag and said, "It's not heavy, but you'll get tired if you carry it for a long time. I'll help you carry it."
Zhu Ciying: "Thank you, Senior Brother."
She continued to busy herself with looking down at the map on the jade slip, planning her route.
Xie Rangchen took advantage of her distraction and threw the bag into his personal storage space. He did it quickly and decisively. He knew his behavior was wrong, but he still did it without any psychological burden.
Among those storage bags, some were given by her senior sisters, and some were given by her senior brothers and junior brothers. He didn't have the energy to check who the items belonged to one by one.
But he only knew one thing: letting his junior sister use other male cultivators' things of unknown origin? Go to hell!
It’s enough for my junior sister to have him.
He was able to address all of her needs.
*
"The map given by the Sect Master shows that Bodhicitta is in the Mortal Realm. To the easternmost part of the Mortal Realm lies the Dongying Sea, and near that sea lies the Lingyue Kingdom. Bodhicitta is in the capital of the Lingyue Kingdom."
In the bustling street market, Xie Rangchen held Zhu Ciying's hand and walked through the crowd.
At first, when Xie Rangchen first suggested that they walk hand in hand, Zhu Ciying was still trying to refuse. But there were so many people in the mortal world, and they kept bumping into each other when coming and going. It was really easy to get lost.
She wasn't used to holding hands.
It was not until they were about to reach the territory of Lingyue Kingdom that her pounding heart became numb and calm.
She rolled her eyes slightly, her gaze fell on their intertwined hands, and raised her eyebrows.
It seemed like she and her senior brother had just started out as a simple couple, with his hand holding her fingers. When did it become like this?
Soon, Zhu Ciying had no time to think about this problem anymore.
"Junior sister, we have arrived at Lingyue Country."
Zhu Ciying looked up and saw three large characters "Lingyue Kingdom" engraved in gold-plated style on a long plaque on the high city gate.
Zhu Ciying and Xie Rangchen, disguised as demon catchers, successfully sneaked into the capital of Lingyue Kingdom using the pass prepared by Shaoyang Sect.
Monster catchers are a profession that is highly respected by mortals in the mortal world, and they are welcome wherever they go.
But Zhu Ciying didn't like too crowded places, so she chose a quieter inn to live in.
After the waiter opened the room, Zhu Ciying and Xie Rangchen went upstairs to pack their things and take a rest.
As the sky darkened, the soul contract between Zhu Ciying's eyebrows suddenly lit up. At the same time, a voice in her heart said, "Junior sister, come downstairs. I'll take you to the restaurant for dinner."
"Soul Contract?" It also has the function of transmitting messages?
Zhu Ciying tried to activate the contract and replied to Xie Rangchen: "Wait for me at the back door."
She hurried downstairs, walked around and came to the back door, and sure enough, she saw Xie Rangchen waiting outside.
"Brother, did you just use the Soul Contract to send me a message?"
Xie Rangchen walked in front and led the way: "Yes."
"Why not use jade slips?" Zhu Ciying asked, "or transmit secret messages through sound?"
"The information on the jade slip isn't confidential enough. The Xu Shuguan family's personnel responsible for managing the jade slip could access it," Xie Rangchen explained. "There's a chance other cultivators could hear the secret transmission."
Zhu Ciying: "With your level of cultivation, that shouldn't be possible, right?"
Xie Rangchen: "It's possible that some people have special skills. Junior sister, our mission cannot go wrong."
"The Soul Contract can only transmit information between you and me. It is protected by the laws of heaven and earth and is absolutely safe."
“You can use it with confidence.”
Zhu Ciying thought what he said made sense, but she also felt that something was wrong.
"arrive."
"I heard from the waiter that the food here is the best."
The two of them were dressed elegantly and looked extraordinary. Just standing outside the door, they caused a lot of discussion among the diners. The restaurant owner heard the noise and ran out to welcome them in.
Xie Rangchen asked for a private room to block out the onlookers from outside.
Zhu Ciying took the menu and ordered a few of her favorite dishes, and then told Xie Rangchen the names of the sweet and sour dishes he liked.
Downstairs, the old storyteller straightened his clothes, poured himself some hot tea, cleared his throat, and began to tell a story:
"In the late autumn of the second year of Zhaoping, a clam spirit moved into Jinhua Palace. Rumor has it that she hailed from Dongying, the easternmost ocean of Lingyue Nation."
"That clam spirit is full of treasures. Her shell can be forged into a powerful weapon, and her tears can be transformed into pearls that resemble 'the living dead, the flesh whitened by bones.' Rumor has it, her flesh is so tender and delicious that eating it can not only prolong life, but perhaps even grant immortality."
"Is this true? Is the meat of the clam spirit really that magical? Can anyone who has eaten it tell me something?" The diners in the restaurant listened to his words as myths and even made jokes about immortality.
The storyteller paid no attention and continued, "She is good in every way, except for one thing—she has no sense of shame."
"She seems to have no sense of shame and is a liar. She uses fabricated stories to harass the Emperor of Lingyue and destroy the relationship between him and his fiancée.
Poor girl, she was born with a heart disease and when she gets sick, she is at risk of death at any time.
Now, not only does he have to endure the interference of the clam spirit, but he also needs to rely on her pearls to survive.
If not, why would the Emperor let her enter the palace?"
Zhu Ciying was extremely interested in the magical pearl of the clam spirit and was listening attentively when she suddenly heard a group of soldiers burst into the restaurant, tied up the storyteller in no time and dragged him away.
The storyteller kept shouting "it's unfair, it's unfair" and the young leader among the officers and soldiers blocked his mouth with a rag on the table.
Xie Rangchen, who was sleeping lightly with his eyes closed, heard the noise and looked in the direction Zhu Ciying was looking.
Downstairs, the leader of the officers and soldiers was wearing a red round-necked robe with a black belt around his waist. His skin was dark, but his features were handsome.
When he spoke, his voice was cold but very clear: "You are publicly making up stories about your Majesty's private affairs. Don't you want to live anymore?"
The shopkeeper immediately knelt down and kowtowed to confess his guilt.
The leader didn't even look at him, and left with one sentence: "Don't let me hear any more rumors about His Majesty."
Zhu Ciying didn't hear the second half of the story and felt a little uninterested after the meal.
At night, she sneaked into the palace.
Before that, she used hypnosis to ask people in the palace to confirm that the clam spirit really lived in the palace, in Jinhua Palace.
Jinhua Hall is located at the northernmost part of the imperial palace. It is in a remote location and far away from the emperor's bedroom.
It happened that a young palace maid was about to enter the Jinhua Palace, and Zhu Ciying secretly cast a spell on her.
The palace maid pushed open the door of Jinhua Palace, but before she even walked in, she was choked by the dust that blew in her face and started coughing.
After a long time, she went in.
"Miss, my young lady has a heart attack, and I'm here to get emergency medicine." The palace maid explained her purpose.
Zhu Ciying saw the clam spirit that made her very curious through the eyes of the palace maid.
She couldn't help but sigh: The clam spirit was born with a good appearance, skin as white as jade, red lips without any makeup, and a pair of clear and bright eyes that were particularly beautiful.
She knew that the clam spirit's name was Chang Xi.
Inside the hall, Chang Xi stopped writing, and ink dripped from the tip of the pen onto the white paper, forming a small black patch.
"Did Jiang Xuanxu send you here?" She pursed her lips and suddenly asked an irrelevant question.
When the maid heard the words "Jiang Xuanxu," her expression changed slightly: "The palace has strict rules. Young lady, you must never address His Majesty by his name again."
Chang Xi looked up at the maid, their eyes met, and the maid lowered her head first.
No matter how many times she saw her, she was always impressed by the clam spirit's beauty. Honestly, her own daughter was slightly inferior to her. But His Majesty disliked her, and for that reason alone, the clam spirit had no chance of becoming empress.
"I see. Thanks for reminding me."
Her eyes were red and swollen, as if she had just cried for a while. The maid had noticed this, but she had no reason to comfort a spirit who had stolen her love.
Chang Xi pushed the half-open wooden box in front of him, which was filled with pearls. The round pearls were of excellent quality. In the dim light of the hall, the pearls were surrounded by tiny dots of white light.
Zhu Ciying knew at first sight that they were rare treasures. Then, through the palace maid's hearing, she heard Chang Xi's weak voice: "When Miss Wanqing is ill, ask her to take one."
There are about a dozen white pearls in the box. Zhao Wanqing's worries only come up about a dozen times a year, so these are enough for her to use for ten years.
The maid glanced at him, a hint of surprise in her eyes, but she didn't hide it. She said, "My lady, His Majesty wants to eliminate the root of my young lady's illness in one fell swoop."
Chang Xi was slightly stunned.
Although the pearls can alleviate Zhao Wanqing's heart disease, it is not a long-term solution for a patient. Besides, getting the pearls requires making a deal with her.
Jiang Xuanxu doesn't like being controlled by others.
Solving the problem in one go is indeed in line with his personality.
"Your Majesty is so good to her." Chang Xi sighed.
Upon hearing this, the maiden straightened her back a bit. "Your Majesty has invited the most skilled witch doctor in Lingyue to treat the young lady. He said that only the purest heart blood from the demon race can be refined into a Jade Blood Pill to cure the heart disease."
She took out a dagger from her sleeve and placed it on the table. Her meaning was obvious: let Chang Xi do it himself.
And Chang Xi recognized this dagger.
——The birthday gift given to Jiang Xuanxu by the late queen.
She looked at it for a long time, and gently placed one hand on the pearl inlaid on the handle. The pearl had probably not been well maintained for too long, so the color was a little yellow and there was a small hole at the bottom.
Seven years ago, Jiang Xuanxu gave it to himself for self-defense.
But now, he has to use this dagger to cut out the blood from his heart and save his true love.
Chang Xi suddenly felt that the five years she and Jiang Xuanxu had known each other and been together was a complete joke.
According to Zhao Wanqing, she stole the five years when Jiang Xuanxu and Zhao Wanqing depended on each other and worked together to resist life and death crises.
How sad.
She gripped the handle and held the tip of the blade to her chest.
"If this is your majesty's wish, I will naturally help him put an end to it willingly, as a repayment for his life-saving grace two years ago. From now on, there will be no debt between him and me."
"Puchi——" Her voice was drowned out by the sound of the sharp blade piercing her flesh.
When Zhu Ciying saw this, her pupils suddenly shrank and a nameless anger arose in her heart.
After a brief moment of shock, the maid hurriedly used a porcelain bottle to catch the blood gushing out.
Half a minute later, she closed the door of Jinhua Palace and hurried towards Changning Palace.
On the way, she still remembered the last scene she saw in Jinhua Palace.
The clam spirit's usually beautiful eyes were covered with a layer of gray mist. She slumped over the table wearily, her pale lips moving in and out, her voice trembling:
"Please tell His Majesty that I am deeply moved by his sincerity and will no longer interfere with his relationship with Miss Wanqing. When the Jade Blood Pill is refined, I will return to Japan."
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The author has something to say: Soul Contract = Encrypted conversation between senior and junior brothers and sisters [dog head holding a rose]
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