Twin Lotus (8)
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The departure time from Jingzhou is set for seven days later.
During these seven days of free time, her daily routine consisted of meditation and cultivation.
A deep, pale blue internal force gently enveloped the red-clad girl who sat cross-legged on the couch.
Song Ling sat at the table, propping her chin on her arm, staring blankly at Xie Yuan.
He recently took some time to return to Buzhichun and retrieve his master's sword, Bu Ran Shuang.
The sword remains as good as new; he has polished it every day over the years.
My master's sword already possessed a sword spirit, which could even materialize into a physical form.
He had seen him when he was very young. He was a white-robed gentleman with an extremely gentle and refined appearance. His master called him Yun Chen.
After his master disappeared, he could no longer sense the sword spirit. The sword followed its master, sharing life and death; when the sword was destroyed, the master died. This fact seemed to be telling him that his master would never return.
Several times he was nearly killed by the forces of Heaven, and although the sword had lost its spirit, it still saved him at crucial moments on several occasions...
"Ah Ling, what are you thinking about?"
After circulating her last burst of internal energy through her dantian, Xie Yuan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and opened her eyes.
"Congratulations, Master, on your return to the Void Breaking Realm."
"If you hadn't given me this Primordial Pearl, I wouldn't have been able to break through so quickly."
Xie Yuan opened her palm and the Hunyuan Pearl floated in her hand. The spiritual energy around it and inside it was extremely pure and abundant. If she remembered correctly, the struggle for this thing had triggered a life-and-death battle between the major sects of the martial arts world. However, in the end, countless sects suffered heavy casualties, only to find that the Hunyuan Pearl was fake. The real one seemed to have vanished into thin air and never appeared again.
She had only seen records related to the Hunyuan Pearl in her master's treasure pavilion.
This happened when she was ten years old. Her master called it the Hunyuan Transformation. She never expected that this thing would now be in Song Ling's hands. If it were to appear in the world, it would surely cause countless disputes.
“If Master likes it, then it belongs to Master.” Song Ling smiled slightly at her. “By the way, Master, I’ve brought your sword over.”
Xie Yuan's gaze shifted to the sword box on the table. "Undyed Frost," she said. As soon as she finished speaking, the long sword flew out of the sword box and hovered in front of her. She sighed and lightly ran her fingertips along its smooth, sharp, icy blue blade. "Long time no see."
When she died, the sword spirit should have dissipated with her. However, she was always worried about Song Ling, so she entrusted Yun Chen to guard Song Ling for her. Before she died, she sealed all her spiritual power on Bu Ran Shuang. But now it seems that he was still seriously injured and has fallen into a long sleep.
She took out a drop of her heart's blood and infused it into the sword. An extremely powerful spiritual energy fluctuation began to float around the sword and lasted for a full half-hour before it began to subside.
"Ah Yuan, you're back..."
A man's voice suddenly came from the void. Although it sounded weak, it was still very gentle.
"Yun Chen..."
"Little Bell has grown so much; it seems I really have slept for a long time..."
——
Although Yun Chen has awakened, he has suffered severe injuries and has not fully recovered. He is currently unable to solidify into a physical form.
To recover as quickly as possible, she not only needed her cultivation as the sword master, but also needed spiritual energy to nourish her spirit body for a period of time. Therefore, Xie Yuan simply sealed the Chaos Pearl into the Undying Frost Sword.
After doing all this, Xie Yuan sheathed her sword and set it aside.
Seeing that she had finished, Song Ling quickly sat down next to her and smiled expectantly: "Master, look, wasn't I very good?"
Xie Yuan knew he was referring to the fact that he had retrieved the sword for her.
"What mischief are you up to now?"
She saw right through his little scheme and looked at him with amusement.
"Master, you've been so engrossed in cultivation lately that you haven't had time to spend with me," Song Ling said pitifully.
"Nonsense, aren't we together every day?" Xie Yuan said expressionlessly, pushing away his hand that was tugging at her sleeve, and then stood up.
Seeing that she was really about to leave, Song Ling hurriedly hugged her waist and said, "Master, don't go."
Xie Yuan looked down at her waist speechlessly. The young man had stunningly beautiful features and was looking up at her with a pleading look in his eyes.
"Now? Can you let go?"
Song Ling was stunned. He subconsciously let go of her hand. He belatedly raised his hand and gently pressed it to his lips. Although the touch was brief, the lingering fragrance seemed to remain on his lips for a long time.
Xie Yuan had already sat down at the table and slowly poured herself a cup of tea.
Did Master just kiss him on his own initiative?
Xie Yuan couldn't help but chuckle. It was the first time she had ever seen Song Ling so dazed, with an incredulous expression on his face. Wasn't he usually quite assertive when he pestered her for kisses? How come he froze after she kissed him first?
This feeling was very different from when he usually kissed her first. Although she would always go along with him, it was clear that it was her initiative that made him feel more happy.
"Master, is this a reward?"
In the blink of an eye, Song Ling was kneeling on one knee in front of her, her eyes sparkling as if she had discovered a new continent.
"What reward? What are you doing?" Xie Yuan asked, puzzled. She reached out to pull him up, but he had already rested his chin on her knee.
"It's that one from just now."
Song Ling repeated it earnestly and stubbornly.
"Yes, so you need to be good from now on."
Xie Yuan, without changing her expression, lied to him, and even patted his head as she spoke.
"Um!"
He seemed to be really enjoying it; all that's missing is a tail following him.
She had never realized before that Song Ling was susceptible to this kind of thing.
——
Cang Yue took Tao Su back to Bu Zhi Chun for treatment, while Xie Yuan planned to take Song Ling to her master's place of seclusion. Her master, Zhu Qi, was a famous sword immortal in Bei Zhao, who had been famous throughout the world for a hundred years. His sword was called Jing Hong.
Qi Ming Nan Jue Gui Xian, Li Shui.
When she was a child, she lived in seclusion with her master in the Chu Mountains of Beizhao. She had always loved the martial arts world and often sneaked down the mountain to search for various folk tales in nearby towns and villages.
Among them are many strange and unusual stories about leaving the water.
It is said that this Ghost Immortal of the Southern Scripture was a famous Ghost Prince in the martial arts world a hundred years ago. He never showed his true face, and only the dead had ever seen his true appearance.
There are also rumors that he was a born freak, an androgynous monster who was not accepted by the world, so he went to practice sorcery.
The most widely circulated story is the "master-disciple feud" between the sword immortal and the ghost immortal.
Zhu Qi was originally a member of the royal family of Bei Zhao. His ancestors were founding generals and inherited the title of Zhenbei King. He was born with a sword physique and surpassed his peers in cultivation at a young age, making him one of the best at the time.
A hundred years ago, my master said that his master was a man of extremely eccentric temperament in the martial arts world. He did not care whether he could become famous in the martial arts world, nor did he care whether his master would respectfully call him master. All he needed was a pot of wine and a sword.
He didn't teach him for very long. Later, he left a letter and left. When he became famous for his sword and was ranked among the sword immortals, he saw his master's figure in the crowd from afar. When he went to chase after him, he had already disappeared into the crowd.
Not long after, he bid farewell to the General's Mansion and went on a journey. In the martial world, he encountered a refugee named "Li Shui" from Nan Jue. At the time, he was fighting with other refugees for a small piece of hard steamed bun. He was only eleven or twelve years old, thin and small, but to Zhu Qi's surprise, he won, though he was about to die.
This senior brother, whom she had never met, was ultimately "sacrificed for the greater good" by their master in front of everyone in Beizhao.
He later went mad with revenge, slaughtering his enemies' entire families, becoming unstoppable.
His ambition was so great that he even killed the king of Nanjue and declared himself emperor.
However, the story doesn't explain why he went to war with Bei Zhao; it only says that he suddenly launched a war against Bei Zhao.
His master was the King of Bei Zhao Guang Zhao, who was also a sword immortal; he couldn't possibly not know that.
In the end, the sword immortal fought the ghost immortal for three days and three nights, and killed the ghost immortal. After this battle, he gave up his title of King Guangzhao, stayed away from the court, and lived in seclusion in the mountains.
Many people have made various guesses about the reason, but apart from the person involved, it is probably impossible for anyone else to know.
Back then, Xie Yuan found many stories about her master and that mysterious immortal, but she read them secretly behind her master's back, since it was not appropriate to openly read gossip about her master.
But she couldn't suppress her curiosity any longer, and she danced in front of her master, intentionally or unintentionally.
Master's expression stiffened slightly, and he looked like he had something difficult to say.
He said six words.
"Your senior brother is not dead."
Xie Yuan felt that her eyes must have widened to the size of copper bells when she heard those words.
Master said that when there is an opportunity in the future, he will take her to see Li Shui.
She just didn't live to see that day.
Although she had never met this senior brother, she didn't know if her master had told him about it. One day, she was catching fish by the stream when a large crow suddenly snatched her bamboo basket. She was so angry that she drew her sword and chased after it, but she couldn't catch it. She returned to the stream in a fit of rage and cursing, only to find that the bamboo basket was back, but there was something extra inside: a bamboo slip used for sending messages.
She opened it and saw that the visitor's handwriting consisted of three wildly cursive characters, extremely arrogant.
The word "full faith" consists of only three large characters.
Junior sister.
Well, to be precise, she has two senior brothers. The one she grew up with is Senior Brother Xie Jue.
The one who was rumored to have died a hundred years ago was none other than the Southern Martial Immortal, Li Shui.
This senior brother, whom she had never met and who was a hundred years older than her, was different from the rumors she had read about in the storybooks.
Ever since that incident, this senior brother would come to her place to make his presence known whenever he had the chance.
He would give her some strange little trinkets, like mechanical crows, wooden rabbits, puppet dolls...
Xie Yuan found this senior brother quite interesting.
Before going into seclusion on Luoqi Mountain, she bid farewell to her master and senior brothers, and also left a letter for her eldest senior brother.
She knew this journey would be extremely difficult, and that she might never return.
But she was still inexplicably happy.
After all, becoming a master was a distant and unexpected concept for someone like her.
The road ahead is long and arduous.
If it's gone and never to return, then it's gone and never to return.
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