Chapter 193 - The World of Mortals is like a Dream
Chapter 193 - The World of Mortals is like a Dream
TLchecked – Zaki, Edited- Animeart
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Lin Shu also frowned.
He did not suffer any injuries, the Extinction Needle only shattered his meridians, but it hadn’t left any internal wounds in his body that could have led to him spitting blood.
And Xiao Shao’s bed actions a while ago at most left some skin wounds — in fact, he couldn’t even use the word “wound”.
But Xiao Shao’s expression showed that he knew what was going on.
Lin Shu was wrapped in his outer robe, his temperature was tested on his forehead, and his hand was held to check the pulse and probe his meridians and Qi.
Xiao Shao said: “You hurt your soul, and it’s because of me.”
Lin Shu: “Hmm?”
“My human body is no longer like another person and I lost control before and still cannot fully return to my original state.” Xiao Shao said, “Therefore, my whole body is full of evil Qi from heaven and earth, and you have a mortal body. As long as you stay by my side, your soul will be damaged... Even if you have your cultivation base, it’s useless. It’s just a temporary reprieve.”
Xiao Shao put him on the bed, and moved Lin Shu away from himself. His gaze was heavy and he didn’t know what he was thinking.
Lin Shu: “Can’t you solve it?”
Xiao Shao: “No”
Lin Shu thought for a while and asked, “How.... long will I last?”
Xiao Shao pondered for a while and said, “About three days.”
Three days?
Lin Shu felt a little confused.
He asked again, “Then... How far away should I be from you so that I won’t die?”
Xiao Shao gave a number: “Five feet.”
Five feet?
Lin Shu was even more confused.
What was the difference between that and never seeing each other?
He slowly wriggled and wormed his way to Xiao Shao’s side, leaning against him.
Xiao Shao was about to pack him up again and throw him to the other side of the bed.
Lin Shu: “There is no hurry at this moment.”
Xiao Shao seemed to be moved and convinced and he let Lin Shu stay at his side. His fingers combed Lin Shu’s hair, after a while, the knitted brows seemed to loosen and said, “Maybe there is a way.”
Lin Shu: “Hmm?”
Xiao Shao picked him up horizontally: “Let me take you to a place.”
Lin Shu was taken outside by him.
He had been tossed around for so long, he was too weak to stand up, so he leaned on Xiao Shao’s shoulder the whole time and felt very comfortable.
——In his last life, he didn’t get in close contact with anyone, and he would recoil and feel nauseous for a long time if he was touched. Therefore, he was puzzled why those furry kittens in the streets liked to curl up and play together. Now he had some understanding.
Xiao Shao carried him through the blood mist. Halfway down the road, he could not help but say: “You are so good.”
Lin Shu originally was very good and obediently hung on him. When he heard this sentence, he was a little unhappy.
He said, “It’s no use being good.”
Xiao Shao laughed lightly: “Why do you say that?”
Lin Shu didn’t know what came over him. He was slightly wronged: “I stood in front of you and said a lot to get you to remember but you couldn’t remember anything. When I mentioned Yingying, you remembered everything.”
As soon as he said it, he regretted it. What was he thinking when he said and why did he feel that his speech just now was full of arrogance and rudeness?
“How can you accuse me out of thin air?” Xiao Shao also felt wronged.
Lin Shu wiggled his calves in the air, waiting to hear how he would argue.
“I had already remembered who Lin Shu was, but I still didn’t remember the things in the world,” Xiao Shao said softly. “You are the love of my heart and all the rest of the mundane and trivial matters have nothing to do with it. I would have gradually remembered them over time but when you mentioned Yingying, I just remembered the rest of the world’s affairs. I remember the rest of my worldly attachments.”
The black crow’s words were really beautiful.
But Lin Shu was tormented by the vines and the two Xiao Shao’s, and had already experienced the cunning ways of this crow, so he would not be easily moved to tears.
He heard Xiao Shao say, “I need to quickly resolve the impact of grievances on your emotions, otherwise I don’t know what you’ll be complaining about later.”
Lin Shu laughed.
Xiao Shao was stunned when he saw him laughing but hugged him extremely tight: “I ......”
After the “I”, there was nothing said for a while.
This Phoenix was never hesitant to speak. So Lin Shu was quite curious: “Hmm?”
Xiao Shao kissed him on his forehead repeatedly as if kissing something precious, it was a very touching sight, and with great distress he said: “I have no regrets in this life when I see you smile... But because of me, you abandoned your Heartless Dao and are suffering from immense pain. I don’t know what to do...”
Before he finished, he was interrupted by Lin Shu: “In fact, it doesn’t matter.”
His voice was hoarse, and he couldn’t use any strength while speaking. Therefore, his voice was slow, sluggish, and with a soft nasal tang to it. Even he was embarrassed to listen to it.
But what should be said still needed to be said, so he continued: “Anyway, in the eyes of the world ...... Lin Shu is just a young pretty face raised by Big Miss. Young pretty faces, they do not need to have a high level of cultivation.”
Xiao Shao gently laughed, but the look in his eyes was still very complicated, Lin Shu pushed him: “It’s you who is making trouble, walking is important.”
Xiao Shao gave a “tsk” and said, “This resentment has its advantages, you can even talk back.”
The tone was like a loving old father.
Lin Shu was a bit chagrined and said that it was actually not appropriate for him to be so aggressive at times.
At that moment, he stopped talking. Xiao Shao carried him and then leaped between the palaces and pavilions of Phoenix Mountain Villa. Finally, he weaved in and out through a vast array of Qi in a specific pace and walked into a deep and long underground corridor. After seven turns and eight turns in the maze, he stopped in front of a small alcove in the wall.
Lin Shu surveyed the shape of the alcove and automatically took out the Order of the Phoenix that Xiao Shao had given him earlier. The Order of the Phoenix was embedded in the alcove, the wall cracked open and an underground treasure pavilion opened.
Xiao Shao took him deeper into it and said, “This is the secret vault of the Phoenix Mountain Villa, guarded by the ancient methods; it is claimed to be the safest place in the world.”
Just as he was saying that, he stopped in front of a multipurpose compartment and picked up a bottle of pills. A few words were written on the body of the pill bottle, but it was different from the usual and ordinary way of naming the pills. It was a pair of short sentences with sentimental meaning “Like a distant dream, where to seek the trace of fragrance”.
“Seeking a trace of fragrance ......” Lin Shu recited these three words, remembering an anecdote told by their teacher in their Alchemy class.
It was said that a certain Pill Monarch was in love with a certain Immortal, but the Immortal’s soul was scattered due to an accident. The Pill Monarch devoted his life to researching the method of gathering the souls. He created a furnace that could seize Heaven and Earth’s Fortune Luck into a miraculous elixir, and named it “Seeking Fragrance”.
He turned most of the pills into a drinkable elixir and fed it to the corpse of his wife, trying to reunite his wife’s soul—-but where could you find the soul of a person who had gone up in smoke? There was not even a single trace of movement in the soul of his beloved wife. The Pill Monarch was so desolate that he died in exhaustion.
But this potion still had a few pills of lesser qualities left, and became famous in the history of Immortals. It was the only unique medicine in the world that could stabilize the soul. Unexpectedly it was in the hands of the Phoenix Mountain Villa.
Xiao Shao poured a pill out and sent it within Lin Shu’s body wherein the pill melted. Lin Shu immediately felt that his whole body becoming clear, and the weakness he felt after vomiting blood was immediately better.
“One pill of the elixir will work for about one month.” Xiao Shao said and poured those pearl-like pills into his hands and counted them, five in total.
In addition, Lin Shu had just taken a pill, therefore his death could be delayed up to half a year.
“I will ask the Senior Pill Masters to make the medicine again.” Xiao Shao said to Lin Shu.
Lin Shu nodded.
But he also understood that the soul was easy to scatter and hard to gather. In this vast immortal path, there was only one bottle of the miraculous pills that could stabilize the soul. How would it be easy to make them again?
Just like the morning dew that was easy to dissipate, life had always been short. It was just better to live each day as is.
As he was just about to turn back, his eyes stopped and he pulled at Xiao Shao’s lapel.
Xiao Shao turned to look.
On the top shelf above, the Qi intention was powerful, profound and unpredictable. Vaguely, there was the shadow of several books that looked very familiar.
They climbed to the top of the hidden treasure pavilion and saw the several peerless manuscripts.
The《Spring mountain sword》 and so on were the three peerless manuscripts given to Lin Shu by the Great Wizard. In addition, the 《Phoenix Blade》 was a peerless secret manuscript of the Phoenix family. The other few books were the ones that were really puzzling to Lin Shu.
《The Ten Thousand Parts of Creation》,《Illusion and Reality》, 《The Whale Drinking and Swallowing the Sea》... These were clearly three peerless secret manuals of the Dream Hall, Huanhai Tower and Henglian sect!
Why were they here?
And so it seems, of the eight peerless secret manuals, the Phoenix Mountain Villa already has seven of them, only《Endless Yearning》was missing.
Xiao Shao frowned for a long time and said, “My Mother once had mentioned that after the secret manual of Dream Hall was stolen, the other sects of the Immortal path felt they were at risk. The Huanhai Tower were good friends with the Villa and entrusted the Villa with their secret manual for temporary safekeeping.”
Counting the days, the Heavenly fire was at its peak at the beginning of the seventh month. It was the most suitable time to burn the peerless secret manuals that were imbibed with the Heavenly Dao’s Qi Luck. However, recently, there was a war and Phoenix Mountain Villa underwent too many changes. Unexpectedly the most opportune moment was wasted. The Phoenix Villa Headmistress did not burn the manuals as promised. On the contrary it looked like she was even collecting all of them.
If it was Xiao Shao of the past, he would have asked the Phoenix Villa Headmistress to understand her reasoning behind why the manuals were being collected, but now he probably didn’t trust anyone.
Lin Shu saw him take the manuals and put them away as he said, “There’s something strange. We will slowly deliberate and decide what to do in the long run.”
Lin Shu nodded: “En.”
Then, he thought, “Of the eight peerless secret manuals, seven has been seen, but where the hell was 《Endless Yearning》? Where was Lord Taoyuan?
This unresolved case, from the beginning to the end, could not be solved.
Xiao Shao listened to his doubts and said that Lord Taoyuan; if he had not ascended, he could not have died, and if there was destiny, they would surely meet.
Lin Shu also asked him about the appearance of Lord Taoyuan.
Xiao Shao said that at that time, he was too young and hence could not remember Lord Taoyuan’s facial features. Lord Taoyuan always wore green robes. His temperament was gentle and clear, without any undulations. He was like a Heavenly Immortal, but yet he had a clear understanding of the world, as if he had seen the worlds of mortals many times. He couldn’t be easily described in words. At that time, he was seriously ill and could not go outside and would be very unhappy everyday. Lord Taoyuan accompanied him, sitting next to his bed, talking about the mountains and rivers of the world, telling about the wonders and strange anecdotes from his various travels in the world.
Hearing this series of praise, Lin Shu was dizzy.
Xiao Shao smiled and tapped his nose: “I’m jealous that you had such a good master. But you have forgotten it all. You’re still sleepy now. You really have no conscience.”
Lin Shu said that he couldn’t really remember.
But he was really sleepy, really.
He was a mortal, and couldn’t resist Xiao Shao’s tossing and turning.
Xiao Shao obviously knew that what he had done before was not human. After he took him back to his room, he properly placed him in the quilt, hugged him and said, “sleep.”
Lin Shu almost immediately passed out. The last scene before he lost consciousness was of Xiao Shao gazing over himself and looking outside of the window at the dark sky.
Yes, although Xiao Shao regained his sanity, he could not take back the grievances and hostile energy released outside. It was dark; dark for thousands of miles. They didn’t know how to end it.
The days that followed were very leisurely.
There was no Dynasty, no Mountain Villa, and no trivial matters. Xiao Shao’s nature was exposed.
Lin Shu pushed away Xiao Shao, who was dozing on his body, and gave him a pillow. He thought in his heart, I thought you were a hard-working puffer-fish. Unexpectedly, once there was no restriction, you also turned into a salted fish.
Xiao Shao, who had completely transformed into a salted fish, except for pulling him to for dual cultivation, was only playing and sleeping these days.
Oh, and one more thing, urged him to study 《Extinction》 .
Under his supervision, Lin Shu slowly started to read and learn about it slowly, trying to get started.
But what was Xiao Shao doing when he studied so diligently?
Sleeping beside him, or reading some meaningless books and folklore, local anecdotes, such as a thousand-year-old fox and the love-hate obsession of the scholar, such and such a big bandit slaughtered thousands of innocent people, incurring the wrath of heaven, thunder and lightning tribulations.
After half a month of this, Lin Shu began to write notes to some old swordsmanship books. He had lost his cultivation, but his enlightenment was still there, so he was able to write it with ease. Xiao Shao finally had something to do, that is, to accompany him to write, together with the discussion of doubts, or consult the ancient books.
This day, Xiao Shao suddenly had a whimsical idea, hugged him and said, “Baby, you are so gifted, according to your memory, plus your comprehension, if you write a copy of 《Endless Yearning》, you might be able to trigger Heaven and Earth’s Qi Luck and end up recreating 《Endless Yearning》.
Lin Shu knew in his heart that he was not yet able to integrate the last move, so how could he talk about recreating the peerless secret manual?
Before he could speak, he saw Xiao Shao seemed a little depressed again as he said, “You should have been an Immortal ruler in the heavens, but because of me, you turned back into a mortal, I can never forgive myself.”
“Back then, my meridians were blocked, and it was only because of you that I was able to recover, so it’s considered karma paying off.” Lin Shu looked at the red candle on the table and said lightly: “What’s more, how do you know ......”
Xiao Shao: “Hmm?”
“And how do you know that ......” Lin Shu’s voice was softened, as if he was speaking to him, but also as if he was speaking to himself:”It is not my wish to be an ordinary mortal?”
After saying this, he was perplexed himself.
I have been cultivating towards immortality all my life. If I want to ask for anything, there is really nothing that I want. Since my childhood I have been cultivating, so it is only natural to cultivate when I grow up as well.
To be a mere mortal in this world of mortals, it did not seem impossible.
Lin Shu looked at Xiao Shao.
Such deep love and doting, one would know at a glance.
Xiao Shao ...... is a very good person, both in appearance, and as a person.
Such a good person, it was surprising that he liked him so much, so then Lin Shu himself was...... not so bad?
If during his childhood, he had his current personality, wouldn’t he be able to get along with others well? Would he be then..... The person who was envied by the other party in the corner?
He suddenly knew that he was no longer afraid of people, and his speech was no longer stiff. The things that were difficult to look back on in the past and his unbearable emotions seemed to dissipate with the wind and could not disturb his heart again.
Was it because he met Xiao Shao?
He looked at Xiao Shao, and he became a bit obsessed, and at that moment he felt it was good to be like a salted fish with this person and spend a lifetime with him.
Xiao Shao kissed him and asked him what he was thinking about.
Lin Shu rubbed his eyes, didn’t speak, and leaned on his shoulder.
Xiao Shao took the writing brush and wrote notes for him.
After a long time of being tired, Lin Shu suddenly felt his mind being moved and heard his Senior Martial brother’s hoarse shout: “Junior Martial brother, Junior Martial brother!”
He was shocked to realize that the strength of his soul had decreased because he had become a mortal, and he did not know how long and how much effort it took for his Senior Martial brother to finally let him hear him.
His consciousness sank into the Qingming Cave.
Senior Martial brother cried: “Junior Martial brother, you finally came! The mirror is crazy! It wants to go out! The whole hall has been broken by it!”
Lin Shu: “.........”
He took the trembling mirror from his Senior Martial brother and took it out.
Once outside, the mirror was well behaved.
Lin Shu examined the mirror fully and saw that the mirror had a few more cracks behind it, which was about to completely break.
But neither he nor Xiao Shao could solve the mystery of the mirror. They could do nothing but take another look to see what was reflected.
Lin Shu’s scene of being stabbed in the wedding room had come to pass, and Xiao Shao’s blood only scene had come true. Lin Shu took the mirror, wanting to see what it would show now.
The moment he saw the front, he seemed to be sucked in by the mirror.
It was a sea of Peach Blossom forest, and when the wind blew, peach blossoms fell, falling all over him.
He saw that there was a road in front of him, so he walked into the depths of the peach forest along the stone paved road covered in petals and moss.
Then he saw a figure in green robes.
The clothes were of a mortal style, the color was very gentle and light, like clear skies after rain. This person’s black hair was casually half tied which was held together with a simple style of flowing clouds wooden hairpin. The whole person had a very calm and relaxed demeanor that was like a tourist in the mortal world.
He wanted to see the face of this person, but he couldn’t turn the person around. He could only see the back of the lonely and independent man among the falling flowers in the mountains.
He retracted his divine thoughts and Xiao Shao asked him about what he saw. Lin Shu responded that he seemed to have seen Lord Taoyuan for which Xiao Shao said that it seems they were indeed destined to meet.
Lin Shu asked him what Xiao Shao saw. Xiao Shao smiled and did not say, only said, not against the wishes of things.
Then that was okay.
They lived their lives like salted fishes.
In fact, sometimes, if the lives are too much like a salted fish, it would make people a little tired.
That morning, Xiao Shao said to him, “Immortal Lord, we have been in the villa for a month. Shall we go out to play?”
Lin Shu: “Where to?”
Xiao Shao slowly wiped the Guiltless blade in his hand and said, “It’s not my wish to be an Immortal, a cultivator and an Emperor. In the past, I did many things that I did not want to do. Now that I have no more worries, I want to enter the Jianghu again and be a Wandering Ranger with gratitude and vengeance —- kill those who couldn’t be killed in the past and do things that couldn’t be done in the past. Would the Immortal Lord allow me to do this?”
When he said this, he raised his beautiful eyebrows slightly. In the brisk wind and clear moonlight, the youthful spirit returned to the top of the brows and corners of his eyes in a twinkling.
When Lin Shu looked at him, he remembered that Xiao Shao had traveled with his cousin in Jianghu in the past. At that time, he was very open, unruly, calm and unhurried, and his attitude was very natural and unrestrained.
The world of mortals was like a dream. After several twists and turns, the events were already something that had happened a few years ago.
At once, he smiled and said, “Naturally.”
“There are many storms in the Jianghu, many lustful ghosts, many thieves,” Xiao Shao came close to him and blew a breath in his ear and flirted, “Immortal Lord, you must follow me well.”
Lin Shu tilted his head, thinking for a while, and finally took out the ice stringed zither that had not been used for a long time.
“Then I still play the zither for you.”
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Sorry for the delay – orz