Chapter 62: Past Life Causes (Part 3) Only Shining on Me
Late at night, the crackling sound of rain mixed with heart-wrenching screams resounded through the heavens and earth. The raging fire consumed all the wood, then gradually died down after being washed away by the rain.
Zhu Ciying woke up at this time, her throat was dry and sore, and there was a taste of blood in her mouth.
She struggled to open her eyes, and suddenly, a dark shadow pressed down on her head.
"The demon has been killed by me."
"Don't be afraid, I'm here to save you."
Scarlet blood rain was drizzling from the sky. The young Taoist half-knelt in front of her, and the sky-blue oil-paper umbrella in his hand tilted towards her.
In the girl's slightly trembling pupils, dragon-patterned white jade flashed by, and then a figure was reflected. The young man had a golden appearance and jade-like body, with the grace of pine wind, water and moon, the posture of an immortal, and the bones of a swallow and crane.
However, what caught her attention most were the two small red moles under his eyes.
Could it be the young Taoist priest whom she has been thinking about for many years?
Is it him? It must be him!
Zhu Ciying's nose felt sore, and she blinked and began to cry.
He came to rescue me again.
Seeing her crying, Xie Rangchen thought that she was injured by the beam and the wound was too painful, so he quickly gathered his spiritual power and moved the heavy wood away through the air.
The moment she was rescued, Zhu Ciying got up and immediately used her hands to sign language. Her tears were getting more and more, and her fingers were shaking badly.
[Please, Lord Daojun, save my brother! ]
"My brother is a very good person. You've met before, and you saved me! Daojun is also a very good person. Please save my brother. He will definitely repay you with spirit stones!"
[Daojun, he is the only relative I have left...]
The young Taoist couldn't understand sign language, but Xie Rangchen, who was attached to his body, understood every word.
She had recognized his identity so early and knew that he had been to the Zhu Mansion and collected medicine for her.
"Don't worry." Xie Rangchen suppressed his sadness and comforted her to calm down.
Zhu Ciying stopped gesturing and wiped her tears with her sleeves, her thin body still trembling.
She waited quietly for Daojun to feel her brother's pulse.
Zhu Liansong was seriously injured, his internal organs were shattered and bleeding, his spine was smashed, and coupled with the massive bleeding, there was no possibility of him surviving.
Xie Rangchen was silent for a long time before shaking his head at her.
Her tears flowed down like a flood breaking through a dam.
This time, she didn't use sign language.
She knelt down in front of Zhu Liansong, hugged his cold and stiff body and cried bitterly.
From silence to sobbing and then to wailing.
"Ah...Brother! Brother!"
After the bloody rain came a violent storm. Xie Rangchen stood beside her, looking at the dark sky in the distance, silently holding an umbrella for her.
At daybreak, the young Taoist priest put away his umbrella, picked up Zhu Ciying, who had fainted from crying, and carried Zhu Liansong's body to a place with high mountains and clear waters.
Passing through a town on the way, he spent two hundred spirit stones to buy a high-quality coffin and a shovel.
He dug a hole in a place where wild flowers grew wildly near a stream and buried the brave boy who was determined to protect his sister even at the cost of his life.
Zhu Ciying sat beside the high mound of grave, buried her head and wept quietly. Her voice was hoarse from crying, and even swallowing was extremely painful and difficult.
Xie Rangchen filled a bamboo tube with water for her and said, "Your brother lives here. You can come and see him anytime you miss him."
Zhu Ciying held the bamboo tube with a dull look in her eyes.
The young Taoist priest lowered his eyes and looked quietly for a moment at the girl who had just escaped from the fire and was covered in dust and dirt and had no time to tidy up her appearance. Then he walked to the stream.
Her house burned down, and her only brother died protecting her. It seemed like there was no place for her in this vast world.
He could roughly understand her situation, so he wet the handkerchief, turned back, bent down, and gently and patiently wiped away the black dust on her face bit by bit.
The girl's fair face gradually appeared in his eyes.
Zhu Ciying's fingers holding the bamboo tube trembled slightly, and a beam of warm light seemed to be projected into her empty eyes. She heard the boy's gentle voice: "If you don't know where to go, come with me."
The girl blankly held Daojun's hand, which was as warm as her brother's, and walked towards an unknown place.
*
"Grandma."
"Is Jiang Huai back?" The old man with completely white hair came out of the kitchen with his crutch.
Xie Rangchenxu helped her up: "Grandma, it's been a long time since we last met."
The old lady smiled and sighed: "Two years, it's been a long time."
After a few pleasantries, Xie Rangchen said, "Grandma, this child has a pitiful life and no relatives left. Could you take her in and let her live here?"
The old lady lost her eyesight in an accident when she was young and was kicked out of the house by her husband. She has been helpless and lonely for many years.
She should be happy to have someone to keep her company.
But there are also concerns.
"If she doesn't mind me, a blind old woman... I will take care of her as my own granddaughter."
Xie Rangchen lowered his head and asked Zhu Ciying if she wanted to live with her grandmother. She just held his hand tightly and asked anxiously, "Will you leave?"
Of course I have to go.
The young Taoist looked into her eyes, feeling strongly that her desire was about to overflow, but he didn't say anything about leaving.
"I won't leave until you're healed."
Zhu Ciying lived in the house of her blind mother-in-law.
Xie Rangchen would apply medicine to her skin every day to treat burns caused by fire.
Occasionally, when he went out for something, he would always give her some toys that children liked when he came back.
A string of candied hawthorns, a tiger puppet, a chubby colorful clay figurine, a paper windmill or a dress of excellent material and style, a few hair ornaments...
Zhu Ciying found a box and carefully stored all the things he gave her.
She insisted on meditating and cultivating her spiritual power every day, otherwise the sword bone would torture her again.
One day, she developed a high fever again and was bedridden.
Xie Rangchen came back from outside, checked her symptoms, asked the old lady to take good care of her, and hurried out again.
He flew back to Huaijiang Mountain on his sword.
"Senior brother, what have you been busy with outside recently?" Yu Feifei happened to run into him.
Xie Rangchen said succinctly: "Cure illnesses and save lives."
"Is that the little girl you mentioned before?"
"Um."
He quickly scanned the medicinal field and picked a disease-free grass.
Yu Feifei lowered her head and rummaged through her storage bag, then took out a lantern and gave it to him: "New Year's Day is coming soon, and the little girl will definitely be happy to receive the lantern."
Xie Rangchen: "Thank you, Junior Sister."
"Hey, hey, hey, Yu Feifei, what do you mean by secretly giving my senior brother a lantern?" Yun Cangyu appeared out of nowhere, "I'm also your senior brother, why don't I have mine?"
"You? Didn't you just become the second senior brother of Qingwei Sect a day earlier than me? What's so great about that? If it wasn't for the rain and slippery roads that day, I would have arrived at Huaijiang Mountain earlier than you."
Yu Feifei rolled her eyes at him in annoyance: "If you want lanterns, that's fine. Just call me Senior Sister and I'll consider giving them to you."
"You! Yu Feifei, stop dreaming! Even if I die or my brain is eaten by demons, I will never call you Senior Sister!"
"But you've already screamed." Yu Feifei smiled and spread her hands.
Yun Cangyu: "I was just making an analogy, it doesn't count!"
The two of them quarreled, forehead to forehead, staring at each other, as if they wanted to stare holes through each other.
Xie Rangchen held his brows together and said, "Yun Er, Yu San, you two calm down."
Yu Feifei: "Want a fight? If you lose, just call me Senior Sister."
Yun Cangyu: "Fight me if you want! Don't expect me to let you go! Let me make a deal first, you can't cry if you lose, and then you can give me ten lanterns!"
"You, the lion, are opening your mouth so wide..."
When the two men started fighting, Xie Rangchen put a protective shield on Yaotian and went down the mountain alone.
*
Zhu Ciying woke up and felt lighter.
The Dantian is full of spiritual energy and the whole body is full of strength.
"Congratulations, you have entered the Qi training stage. You will be a real cultivator in the future." Xie Rangchen handed her a bowl of black medicinal juice.
Zhu Ciying raised his head and took a sip.
"Eat a piece of candy to take away the bitterness."
Zhu Ciying looked at the candy lying flat on his palm, hesitated, took it in her hand, but did not eat it.
"Why don't you eat it?" The young Taoist priest asked suspiciously, taking out more candy. "I still have plenty."
She bit her lip silently.
The mind is not on sugar at all.
Is he... so nice to everyone?
In fact, it is true.
He took care of the old lady, felt pity for her life experience, treated her injuries, and sought shelter for her... He was truly a kind and gentle man.
Seeing that she didn't move for a long time, Xie Rangchen guessed that she didn't like sweet things, so he took out the lantern that Yu Feifei gave him.
"New Year's Day is coming soon, how about I take you to light lanterns?"
Zhu Ciying nodded.
They walked to the river together.
It was getting dark and the riverside was already filled with people lighting lanterns.
Xie Rangchen found a pen, paper and ink, and Zhu Ciying squatted by the river, gently stroking the lantern with her fingers.
There were people coming and going around, and the noise was deafening.
"Write down your wish before lighting the lantern," the young man said gently.
Zhu Ciying paused and shook his head.
She has no wishes.
Because it is impossible to achieve.
"Then I'll write one for you." He picked up the pen and wrote down the eight words stroke by stroke.
Zhu Ciying watched it clearly from the side, and she knew every word:
【After suffering comes happiness, the coming year will be bright. 】
Xie Rangchen folded the paper and placed it inside the lantern: "May your hardships be followed by happiness, and may the coming year be bright and prosperous."
The coming year will be bright...
Zhu Ciying clenched her sleeves as a thought quickly crossed her mind.
Will I still be by your side next year?
*
After the New Year, the sect sent a message, and Xie Rangchen said goodbye to his grandmother and Zhu Ciying.
He was gone for half a year.
In the past six months, Zhu Ciying followed her blind mother-in-law to make a living by making candy during the day, and practiced swordplay with a wooden sword in the yard at night.
She hung a lantern on the door every night, fearing that Xie Rangchen would come back and she would not notice it immediately.
One day half a year later, Xie Rangchen went down the mountain.
"Where is the little girl?" He asked the old lady when he didn't see her.
Grandma: "I haven't heard any noise today. I guess he's hiding."
"Hide? Why hide?"
"This child is shy," the grandmother sighed. "Maybe she lost a loved one when she was young, which left a trauma in her heart. She doesn't like to communicate with others. It's a pity that she doesn't even have a playmate of the same age."
While the two were talking, Zhu Ciying hid behind the door, secretly looking at Xie Rangchen through the crack, watching him shake his head and sigh, and then go out to look for her.
"Are you shy?"
The young man's gentle voice suddenly came from above his head. Zhu Ciying shuddered and turned around stiffly.
After the Chinese New Year, the eighteen-year-old Xie Rangchen was still not as mature as he was at twenty-one, and still had the gentle spirit of a young man.
"Are you still afraid of me?" he asked softly.
Zhu Ciying shook her head.
"Then why don't you talk to me?"
The girl pursed her lips and mustered up the courage to speak: "When will you come back this time?"
The boy paused, then asked, "Why do you ask?"
"Because, because..." She curled her fingers and clung to her dress tightly, "I want to always, always be by your side!"
Xie Rangchen's heart skipped a beat, and he stared at her again and again in disbelief. In the past eighteen years, no one had ever expressed their need for him so firmly and earnestly, either in words or in words.
After a long time, he recovered from his shock and chuckled, "Do you treat me as your family?"
Zhu Ciying: “No!”
She had never considered him a brother.
She just wanted to possess him from the bottom of her heart.
Xie Rangchen made an exception and stayed at grandma's house for one night.
At night, when he was lying on the bed, there was a gentle knock on the window.
Xie Rangchen got out of bed and opened the window.
Zhu Ciying was holding a basket of fruits, and her dark eyes lit up because of him: "Daojun, can you watch the stars with me? It won't take too long..."
Xie Rangchen responded: "Okay."
He walked out of the house and met her in the yard.
"Why do you want to look at the stars?"
"I can't sleep."
The boy was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "How do you usually look at the stars?"
Zhu Ciying: "I'll sit on the roof and watch with my brother."
"Then tonight, I'll take you to see different stars."
“Daojun——” the girl exclaimed, and her body became lighter.
Xie Rangchen picked her up with one hand, and the spiritual power in his body suddenly burst out. He opened his thin lips slightly and whispered "Jade Phoenix", then flew her into the sky on his sword.
“This is the closest place to the stars.”
White light streaked across the night sky rapidly. Zhu Ciying sat in his strong arms, raising her hands to pass through layers of flowing clouds. The stars that she once thought were out of reach were right in front of her palms, as if she could grasp them at any time. This truly made her realize what was mentioned in poetry and books: "You can pick the stars with your hands."
Xie Rangchen took her flying for several circles and finally stopped at the center of the huge full moon, the most beautiful place in the entire night sky.
"There aren't many beautiful stars. Make a wish."
"Half a year has passed, and you still don't have any wishes?"
"Can it be realized if it exists?" Zhu Ciying always felt empty in her heart.
"Then let me make a wish first." Xie Rangchen said, "I hope your wish will come true."
"How is it? Can I make a wish without worries?"
Zhu Ciying nodded heavily.
In my heart, I silently made the most pious and arrogant wish of my life: [I hope that one day, the Taoist Master's gaze will only linger on me.]
The bright moon hangs high in the sky, shining only on me.
*
Before Xie Rangchen returned to the sect, he left a glass jar full of candy for Zhu Ciying.
He said the candy in the bottle was very special, colorless and tasteless, and could bring good luck and fortune to anyone who ate it. If someone could taste the sweetness, it meant they had rediscovered hope and a reason to live.
The night he left, Zhu Ciying peeled a candy and held it in her mouth, savoring it carefully. After a moment, she came to the conclusion that what Xie Rangchen gave her was just ordinary, colorless and tasteless candy.
He really treated her like a three-year-old child.
Zhu Ciying dipped her pen in ink and wrote a line of small words on the candy wrapper: [The Taoist Master also has black water in his stomach.]
After writing, she folded the candy wrapper into a five-pointed star, put it back into the candy jar, and slept with it in her arms all night.
*
Three years later, Xie Rangchen broke through the Tribulation Period in seclusion and was only one step away from ascending to heaven.
At the beginning of winter when he was twenty-first, after a heavy snowfall, his master sent a message asking him to go to the top of the mountain.
"Master."
"You're here."
"I told you my fortune last night." Jiang Zunyue threw him a wooden stick.
"Your destined match has appeared, and she is in Xiangzhou.
"It just so happens that she and I, and you and she, had a connection many years ago."
"She was born with a sword bone just like you, a rare talent. In fact, her talent is even higher than yours. If you give her enough time to practice and grow... in the future, you will be no match for her."
Xie Rangchen's expression remained calm, as if this destined marriage had nothing to do with him. He asked, "Master, why didn't you bring her up the mountain earlier?"
"She has not severed her earthly ties."
“It’s different now.”
Jiang Zunyue looked towards the town at the foot of the mountain in the distance: "The time has come. I, the master, will take her up the mountain."
After three years of seclusion, the boy lost his youthfulness, and his youthful spirit was completely restrained, becoming more mature and steady.
"My good friend invited me to a banquet, so I went down the mountain."
The young man's figure disappeared in the wind and snow.
*
It was snowing heavily and the temperature at night was extremely cold.
Zhu Ciying was wearing thin clothes and ran all the way into the forest.
A series of small footprints were left in the snow, and blood dripped every few steps.
Deep in the dense forest, the girl stopped and secretly grasped the hilt of the sword at her waist.
"You killed the city lord's family of thirteen and you still want to escape?"
Dozens of strong men in black armor surrounded her.
The leader laughed a few times: "The little brat is quite a runner. He made me chase him for seven or eight days without food or water!"
"Run! Keep running!"
Zhu Ciying frowned.
She never imagined that the blind mother-in-law she depended on for survival was actually the wife of the city lord when she was young. She was driven out of the house by the city lord because of her blindness.
Half a month ago, the city lord suddenly sent someone to invite her back home to enjoy her old age. That day, she was selling candy at a stall outside. Her mother-in-law asked someone to leave a letter for her and left with them.
My mother-in-law said in the letter that she was just going home to see her family and they would come back after that.
However, she waited for five days, but there was still no news from her mother-in-law.
After several inquiries and investigations, she discovered that the city lord had no good intentions at all, and his promise of returning home to enjoy his old age was all a lie!
He tricked her into going back simply because his grandson had a strange disease and needed the flesh and blood of his closest relatives as medicine to cure the disease!
None of them wanted to die, and finally they remembered the poor old man who had been kicked out of his home for decades.
So, they used such a simple lie to easily deceive her and take away the relative whom Zhu Ciying had always regarded as her grandmother.
Shouldn't she kill the city lord's family of thirteen to avenge her dead relatives?
Why did it become a heinous crime when it was spoken by the other group? They were the ones who first said that the world of cultivation is a world of the jungle.
"What nonsense! I can't remember all the last words I've said."
The girl spoke coldly, making the leader tremble with anger.
"I wanted to leave you with an intact body, but that's no longer necessary. Come on!"
A dark shadow flashed by, and a dozen people surrounded her in a circle.
Zhu Ciying drew his sword and released all the spiritual power in his body.
Jiang Zunyue stood on the tree, watching the flashing swords and flying blood and flesh below with interest.
It was a long battle. Zhu Ciying cut the throat of the last man, and the sword fell out of his hand. He fell backwards to the ground, gasping for breath.
Jiang Zunyue was enjoying the show so much that he jumped down from the tree, walked a few steps to the girl, sat down and chatted with her.
"He was born with sword bones and a good foundation. Being able to defeat a Jindan cultivator above his level is rare in the entire cultivation world."
After confirming that he was not here to kill her, Zhu Ciying was too lazy to pay attention to him and did not have the energy to talk to him.
"Little girl, why do you know the Sixteen Swords of the Moon? That is the unique sword technique of my Qingwei Sect."
Qingwei!
"Qingwei..." Zhu Ciying raised her head and looked at him.
Jiang Zunyue smiled back: "Would you like to become my disciple and join the Qingwei Sect?"
Zhu Ciying: "I don't want to."
Jiang Zunyue was a little surprised. This little girl probably hadn't heard of his name, the Thousand Machine Sword Master. So many people in the cultivation world were vying to become his disciples, but he was still unwilling to accept them.
"Oh, that's a shame."
"According to your qualifications, I wanted to give you a peerless sword that is as good as the Jade Phoenix Sword in the hands of my eldest disciple."
"Jade Phoenix Sword? You... you know Jiang Huai?"
Zhu Ciying sat up with difficulty, staring at Jiang Zunyue with burning eyes, eagerly waiting for his answer.
"You mean Rangchen? His real name is Xie Rangchen, but he often uses the alias Jiang Huai when he's out and about."
"Why, do you know each other?"
More than just knowing each other!
She waited for him for three whole years!
She didn't cry when the old lady was killed, but instead rushed into the city lord's mansion with a sword to seek revenge. She didn't cry when she was chased to the end of the road, but instead held the sword and fought back to the death.
But when she heard the news about him from other people, she couldn't stop crying.
Jiang Zunyue frantically tried to comfort her, and then she choked up and said, "I will join the Qingwei Sect, and I will take you as my master."
She thought it through:
If the bright moon doesn't come for her, she will chase after it.
She wanted to let the bright moonlight shine on her alone.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Wishing upon a star first appears at the end of Chapter 10.
Yun Er and Yu San quarreled and fought frequently.
Yu San sent Xie Tiantian a lantern, and Yun Er came out all of a sudden. Why did Yu San have to give her 30 lanterns? It's so hard to guess. [Rookie]
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