Chapter 474: Longing Leaves

Chapter 474: Longing Leaves

Knock knock knock!

“Scion Ye?”

Ye Qing opened his eyes. They looked as black and deep as the night. Floating in the middle of the darkness was a pair of black lotuses, and invisible ripples were washing out of the petals and into the real world. As a result, the room he was sleeping in was filled with profound, inexplicable, and anomalous mirages.

A few breaths later, the black lotuses in Ye Qing’s eyes sank deeper into the darkness. It wasn’t long before it was completely gone. However, Ye Qing’s eyes remained as black as the abyss.

“Cough... cough... Come in, Miss Longing!”

Ye Qing coughed twice, and cracks suddenly spread open on his porcelain white face and oozed blood. Strangely, the blood felt frigid, murderous, and oozing with deadly saber intent.

“Are you okay, Scion Ye?”

A bone-chilling sensation gripped Longing as soon as she stepped into the room. The power Ye Qing’s blood gave off intimidated even her, an Anomaly.

She couldn’t help but recall the attack that had split open the river five days prior. The attack didn’t just divide the Yong River in half, it had nearly crushed the Boat of Longing into pieces as well. If Ye Qing hadn’t defended the ship with all his might, it would have.

Unfortunately, he had to pay a huge price to do so. Since he had blocked the attack with his own body, the saber force and intent seeped deep into his body and ravaged his insides. At the time, his physical body looked like a porcelain vase that had bounced off the stairs a couple of times, his aura were barely stronger than the ambient energies, and his consciousness flickered like the flame of a dying candle.

Longing honestly thought that Ye Qing would never wake up, but to her surprise, he did just two days later. He would spend the next three days recuperating on his bed, never even taking a step out of his room.

“I’m fine, Miss Longing. You don’t need to worry about me. Cough!” Ye Qing tried to smile at her.

“Okay?” Longing snapped out of her memories and replied with a complicated look on her face. “I’ve never seen such severe injuries”

But how did he manage to extinguish his Soul Lamp? That was because he had contacted Faceless prior using the Longing Leaves.

The Longing Leaves were a Strange Artifact created from the leaves of a Longing Tree. The Longing Tree was a Hatred-class Stranger with a black leaf and a white leaf. Symbolizing yin and yang, the two leaves literally couldn’t live without the other. If either leaf was plucked first, then the other leaf would wither and die. Only by plucking them at the same time could both leaves be preserved.

The black leaf and the white leaf were known together as the Longing Leaves, and they each possessed a unique power of their own. The black leaf was yin in nature, so if its holder were to speak to it during nighttime, the white leaf holder would be able to hear their words. This would work even if the two holders were hundreds and hundreds of kilometers away from each other.

The white leaf was yang in nature, so its holder could write words on its surface and have it appear on the black leaf instantly. Again, this worked even if the two holders were far apart from each other.

The Longing Leaves were natural communication devices, and it was one of the loot he obtained from the jianghu warriors he killed. He gave the black Longing Leaf to Faceless and kept the white Longing Leaf for himself. After learning that he was going to attend the Hidden Dragon Meet, he came up with this arrangement so he could stay up to date on the happenings of Luo Shui even when he was away.

Then, things went to hell, and he had to contact Faceless to extinguish his Soul Lamp. He even made sure to time his “death” properly so it would coincide with the time the Soul Lamp was extinguished.

He had done everything in his power to fake his death. All he could do now was to pray and recover his strength as soon as possible.

Right now, his body was akin to a pile of rubble. He was a long way away from rebuilding it into a tower.

It wasn’t all bad news though. His mind and the “Paranirmitava?avartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” had grown by leaps and bounds thanks to his affliction. The bloodthirst and killing intent contained within Zhou Hengshan’s attack counted as negative emotions, which was why he had spent the past few days cycling the “Paranirmitava?avartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” to refine the saber intent inside his headspace.

Every time his spirit ran dry, he would restore it with a golden dragon-serpent rune and resume his task tirelessly. Three days and nights later, he finally managed to refine the saber intent, grow his mind, and advance his cultivation of the “Paranirmitava?avartin Heavenly Demon Sutra”.

Now, his spirit was as strong as a Spirit Master who had formed their Yin God.

For now, there was no point in honing his spirit further. The only way he could improve now was to create his Yin God and become a Spirit Master.

As usual, he needed a martial art to complete the next step. Depending on the martial art, the shape and power of his Yin God could be completely different. There was one thing that didn’t change, however. The stronger the martial art he used to create a Yin God, the greater his Yin God and his potential would become.