CH 38

Chapter 38.1: The Night Before the Storm

When they got back to the pond in Heaven Firmament Peak, Li Xinmei was still leaning against the orchid tongue grass.

She had fallen asleep.

Liu Feizhou carefully examined her body. “She has pretty good luck. Someone has treated her with spring comes upon a withered tree. If not for that, she wouldn’t have survived long enough for me to come.”

“Can she be treated?” asked Su Tingyun carefully.

“The only way is to nourish her with pills and after a couple years, she’ll be able to return to her previous level. She can cultivate, but as I’ve said before, she has a severe internal injury. Even if she doesn’t fear pain or death, she won’t be able to get any further than Spirit Condensation.”

“You two have already been accepted into Wuliang Mountain, so as long as you don’t commit any crimes, you won’t be kicked out. Although it won’t be the most carefree, just staying here until you die of old age isn’t that difficult.” Liu Feizhou’s tone soften a little bit when he saw the injury on the girl. “And aren’t you also Spiritual Master Lingwu’s great benefactor? Just grab onto that backing tightly and you’ll be fine!”

“What pills does she need?” Su Tingyun didn’t reply to this and just started asking about the pill.

“She’s only at the Spirit Condensation Stage right now, so have her take second rank meridians-moistening pills and full spirit restore pills. Simmer an ointment that helps replenish the meridians for external application. After a couple years of this, she’ll probably recover.”

Liu Feizhou glanced around, then reached out to pinch the orchid tongue grass’s fat leaf. However, Su Tingyun spread out her arms protectively to block him like a mother hen protecting her chicks.

Liu Feizhou was annoyed. “I was planning to write down the way to make the full spirit restore pill for you on a leaf, but you’re stopping me?”

Su Tingyun’s house was near a large tree, so she hastily went over to pick a couple leaves before offering them to Liu Feizhou with a bright smile.

He gave a cold humph, then started carving tiny words onto the leaves with his spiritual consciousness. After doing all of this, he flicked the leaves and sent them stabbing into a nearby rock. “You helped me make pills yesterday, so this makes us even. Don’t bother me anymore.”

He turned and was about to leave, but when he saw how Old Madame Wei was very carefully wiggling the leaves out one by one, he frowned slightly. With a flick of his hand, he threw a spirit stone to her feet.

Su Tingyun was starting to worry about the fact that she didn’t have enough spirit stones to buy medicinal herbs to make this pills when she noticed the spirit stone that rolled to her feet. By the time she looked up, Liu Feizhou had already gone quite far away. Su Tingyun picked up the upper rank spirit stone and felt that, how do you put it? Liu Feizhou wasn’t a good person, but he wasn’t rotten to the core either. But in any case, she owed him for this favor. Once she earned enough money, she’d pay him back for this spirit stone.

After all, she was going to leave the cultivation world in the future, so what need was there for spirit stones? Her chest of gold and gems was way more useful.

During the following days, regardless of how chaotic it was outside, the tree, house, and pond at the side of Heaven Firmament Peak’s public square was exceptionally peaceful and relaxed.

Everyday, after Su Tingyun finished making pills for the day, she would chat with Li Xinmei and would tell her the stories she had read before in order to distract her so that she could be a little happier.

The orchid tongue grass also liked to listen to the stories she told. Every time she got to the climax, if she left them on the cliffhanger and said that she would tell them the rest tomorrow, the orchid tongue grass would be unhappy and start throwing a tantrum. Su Tingyun just stuck to her decision smugly and no matter how much the orchid tongue grass wailed and shouted, she didn’t continue until the next day.

Xiao Mei couldn’t help but laugh at this scene of a person fighting with a plant. This was also something Su Tingyun did purposefully.

Every once in a while, Su Tingyun would hear news about the outside world from Yin Li. That mysterious palace had drawn the attentions of several influential powers and now, there were rumors that some secret area’s array had opened ahead of time. Spiritual Master Lingwu had been training in seclusion for fifty years to form his golden core and lacked battle experience, so he had been sent out to learn through experience. After this period of time, he had gained quite some fame. Even the daughter of the Luminous Moon School admired him, and this added a lot of topics for everyone to gossip about.

Su Tingyun wasn’t Wei Yun, so she didn’t feel anything upon hearing this news. She felt that it was good for Su Lijiang to walk out of this past’s shadow and love a person properly. If this happened, it would finally put a true end to those past events.

In the blink of an eye, five years had passed. Su Tingyun’s cultivation level gradually climbed to the second level of Spirit Condensation. Li Xinmei was finally able to start cultivating again and her cultivation was still at the third level of Spirit Condensation. The majority of the batch of new disciples that had been accepted with her had already successfully established their foundation. Xu Wei was still the most advanced out of the group and was now already at the third level of Foundation Establishment.

After reaching Foundation Establishment, it was much more difficult to advance. To most people, it was already good to be able to increase in one level every ten years. The reason Xu Wei had been able to advance so quickly was because he had pretty good natural talent at the sword and he also obtained his master’s recognition and was bestowed quite a lot of treasures. There was also the factor that luck played. When he was training outside, he just happened to eat a hundred year amethyst fruit that had the effect of cleansing his bones and purifying his meridians.

So if one wanted to obtain a chance, one had to leave home and make one’s way in the world. Su Tingyun had heard about this from Du Xizhi but she didn’t dare to tell Xiao Mei.

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira

Chapter 38.2: The Night Before the Storm

During these past five years, Su Tingyun’s appearance didn’t change much, but Xiao Mei had grown from a budding little lotus flower to an magnificent unfurled red lotus.

Xiao Mei’s facial features were very exquisite, so she was beautiful in a flamboyant way. However, due to her health, she also seemed a little delicate. This strong aura combined with a bit of gentleness gave her an unique beauty so when other beautiful cultivators stood by her side, they seemed dull in contrast.

Spiritual Master Lingwu’s disciples all treat Xiao Mei quite well. Even Du Xizhi would stumble over his words when he saw Xiao Mei, but Xiao Mei was cold and indifferent to everyone. Su Tingyun and the orchid tongue grass were the only ones that would ever see her smile.

Xiao Mei didn’t cultivate much these past five years, but she didn’t stop training her spiritual consciousness. Although she was staying in Heaven Firmament Peak, she would often go to the Array Hall to study arrays. As of now, she was skilled in making many arrays, but since due to her cultivation level, she could only study the theory of it and could not put her knowledge into practice.

Later, she started simplifying and improving high level arrays, then she set those arrays up around the house and the nearby area. Although the arrays weren’t as powerful as they could be, people still didn’t dare to casually enter because it’d cause a lot of pain.

Liu Feizhou had found this out for himself. He was trapped inside for half a day before he finally managed to get out. His face had turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

This particular day, Liu Feizhou showed up with a dark expression again.

“Old lady, where’s the pond angelica I told you to grow? Is it still not ready?”

These past years, Su Tingyun had still been helping Liu Feizhou plant things. Although the rank of the things she grew were still low, the herbs that she grew had much more spirit energy than others. So she started having a collaborative relationship with Liu Feizhou and they saw each other quite a lot.

Pond anglica was a plant that had very thick vines. Su Tingyun climbed onto the vine to pick it. Since the pond anglica was thick, it blocked a lot of the orchid tongue grass’s sunlight, so the orchid tongue grass’s leaves had been drooping unhappily these last few days.

Su Tingyun placed the herb she had just collected into the box and was just about to use the cool wind method to land when the orchid tongue grass suddenly screamed. The sound of it pierced her eardrums and caused her soul to tremble. Before she could react, she had already started falling.

Liu Feizhou had been looking up and watching her as she gathered the herb. When she fell, his eyes widened like those of an alarmed cat’s. He was taken aback as that sound reverberated in his eardrums and caused his blood to tremble, so for a moment, the thought of dodging didn’t occur to him.

What exactly was that orchid tongue grass? Its scream had such an effect on the soul! Could it be made into some sort of soul-nourishing pill…

These thoughts moved through Liu Feizhou’s mind sluggishly.

Su Tingyun was not skinny at all and was very well-built. Although she didn’t crush Liu Feizhou to death, that unexpected impact still managed to send Liu Feizhou crashing into the ground. The posture was nowhere close to graceful.

“Master, we’ve taken really good care of Grannie.” A young girl’s soft voice that was as pleasant as the chirping of an oriole drifted over.

Su Tingyun lifted her head just in time to see Spiritual Master Lingwu appear. He was handsome as always, but now he also had a stern murderous aura that was the result of having been polished by numerous life and death experiences.

Spiritual Master Lingwu’s brows were currently furrowed slightly in displeasure.

Su Tingyun looked down and realized her current posture. A drop of sweat slid down the side of her forehead.

This disgraceful position couldn’t have made Su Lijiang recall some unpleasant memory, right? If he ended up exploding, wouldn’t he kill her?

However, it was clear that Liu Feizhou was way more unhappy than Su Lijiang.

A burst of wind exploded from Master Liu’s palm and sent Su Tingyun flying backwards towards the pond. Fortunately, the orchid tongue grass reached out with its leaves and caught Su Tingyun. The scene was like meat wedged in a steamed bun.

Su Tingyun: …

As of now, the orchid tongue grass was only a little shorter than her, so when she was held like this, her head was the only thing showing.

Spiritual Master Lingwu saw the awkward smile on that person’s face and knew that the situation wasn’t what he had first thought, so he simply said, “The void sea has been calming down lately. After half a month, it should be still. At that time, I’ll send you back to the mortal world.”

Normally, it would take another two years for the wind season to end. However, ever since that mysterious palace appeared on the training island, the climate near the void sea changed and the wind season seemed to be ending early as well.

The cultivation world was very uneasy right now and the Wuliang Sect was at the very center of this disturbance. It was being suppressed on all sides by multiple powers. The situation did not seem good, so he had to send her back as soon as possible. In the future, he wouldn’t have the time to keep an eye on her.

“Ah! I can go back?” Su Tingyun was delighted to hear this news and smiled happily as she pushed the orchid tongue grass’s leaves away.

She was sincerely happy. Everyone present could sense this.

“You’re giving up the great road of cultivation to go back to being a normal mortal? After a few years, you’ll be lying on a woven mat and resting in peace six feet under.” Liu Feizhou curled his lips contemptfully. He took the box from her hand, then turned and left. His face was filled with displeasure because he actually felt like he would miss her.

Liu Feizhou no longer remembered his family. After interacting with this old lady and Li Xinmei for a long time, there was something about them that spreaded to him and would make him occasionally smile from the heart.

The cultivation world’s law was that the strong devoured the weak. This pair of grandmother and granddaughter were unique and were like small stars in the darkness. Although they were small, they gave people hope. They truly didn’t belong in this world.

And he, also cannot allow himself to be soft-hearted again.

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira