“You know, actually… it’s not like, it’s not like no girl has ever threatened to die for before. I’ve seen it, I’ve actually seen it.”
His gaze shifted to outside the window, as if he were thinking of things from a long, long ti ago. “Seen it many tis.”
“It’s just that this one is different. You know… I thought demons. Demons… are different from people. Cruel, cunning, cold, and ruthless. But this one was vastly different—she subverted my… perception.” Li Yunxin frowned and spoke slowly. “Actually, it’s not just about feelings. Mm, it’s also because my perception of a certain group was overturned in that instant, causing a very strong psychological impact—I discovered, oh, so they can be like this too—this was sothing I had never thought of before.”
At first, he spoke with a frown, but gradually, it was as if he had found a train of thought in his words. Or perhaps a stream of water had finally found a crack and was eagerly pouring out.
His words slowly beca fluent, his expression was no longer listless, and with every sentence he spoke, his spirits rose a little more.
“So, in essence, I hypnotized myself. That woman first showed all kinds of goodwill, so I thought she loved . But I had no real feelings for her, so I didn’t value her love, thinking it was very shallow.”
“I was also full of confidence in my own judgnt, so this impression beca even more profound. Then at that mont, I struck and hurt her first, only to discover afterward that she actually did love and was thinking for my sake—”
“On one hand, it was an emotional subversion, on the other, a cognitive subversion, and I had previously trusted my own judgnt so much!”
“So this new reality completely destroyed my previous perception… I was stunned. Once my rational thinking ceased to function and my defense chanisms were temporarily dismantled, the suggestive guidance that woman had intentionally or unintentionally given before led my habitual thinking down another path—love!”
Li Yunxin stood up, frowning slightly. “Yes. That’s it—it’s not like I haven’t experienced this kind of emotion before! It’s because of an illusion. Because of being misled. Because of a temporary collapse of my defenses.”
He turned to look at Old Daoist Liu. “Isn’t that right?”
The old Daoist coughed. “Brother Xin, I still… don’t know the beginning and end of the matter.”
Li Yunxin almost imdiately gave a brief summary of the events.
After finishing, he stared intently at Old Daoist Liu. “Tell , isn’t it? Huh? An illusion?”
Old Daoist Liu lowered his head and thought for a mont, not answering his question.
Instead, he said in a deep voice, “There’s only one thing.”
“Brother Xin, that palm strike of yours could have killed her. And her father, according to you, his powers are even greater than yours; killing her would have been even easier. But he only sent her flying to your side.”
“Brother Xin, if her father wanted to kill her, he would have done it himself. But since he showed rcy, why would he then knock her to your feet? At that ti, you were already more than ten feet from Dongting, and you had previously struck and injured her. If you had beco murderous and killed her… wouldn’t the Lord of Dongting’s rcy have been in vain?”
“This point, I don’t know why. But to be brutally honest, I, Old Daoist Liu, think that the Lord of Dongting and this Lady Hong were taking a risk and using a feigned injury ploy. Since he could let his daughter lose her life to beco a Ghost Cultivator, I imagine he wouldn’t mind her dying one more ti. The Lord of Dongting rules over a thousand-mile lake; his own daughter is just a convenient tool… but not irreplaceable.”
He slowly looked up at Li Yunxin. “Don’t you think so?”
But Li Yunxin didn’t speak. He sat down again, just rubbing the rough teapot on the table.
Old Daoist Liu shook his head slightly. “It’s not… that there are no other possibilities. But Brother Xin, you’ve said before that the most treacherous thing in this world is the human heart.”
“If it wasn’t a feigned injury ploy, then the Lord of Dongting was angry that she let you go and struck her. That palm strike showed rcy. To be able to show rcy even in such a rage, then when Lady Hong returns and the Lord of Dongting thinks about it more carefully, he would be even less likely to do anything to her. House arrest and punishnt might happen, but her life… should not be in danger.”
“Brother Xin, if you really can’t let her go, then, deal with the matters in Weicheng first.” Old Daoist Liu patted Li Yunxin’s knee, not too heavily and not too lightly. “Then you can go and deal with that Lord of Dongting. At that ti, whatever the situation really is… there will be a result for everything.”
“You’ve said that everyone has a Heart Demon, it’s just a matter of whether it’s noticed or not. This Heart Demon of yours now… it’s better than others, isn’t it?”
“Sigh.” Li Yunxin sighed. Then he started to laugh. “You’ve improved a lot.”
But Old Daoist Liu didn’t laugh with him, only looking at him with worry. “Brother Xin, you’re not in a good state right now. How about… we put the Weicheng matter on hold for now? We can reconsider our plans.”
Li Yunxin stared at the dried sweet potato slices on the wooden tray for a mont, then finally reached out, picked up a slice, and chewed it slowly.
“No need,” he said in a low voice, closing his eyes and leaning back against the rattan chair. “I know where my problem lies. When things are hidden in the heart for too long, a person becos fragile. I’ve just been hiding myself for too long.”
“Let’s hurry—let’s hurry—”
“Let’s get these things done quickly—I’ve had enough of this life of hiding. You know, it’s ntally exhausting.”
He rocked back and forth in the chair. Then he pointed a finger at the wooden tray. “Pack so of this for .”
“Okay.”
After another while, the sound of a rooster crowing was heard.
“But your friend is quite resolute,” Li Yunxin opened his eyes and looked sideways at Old Daoist Liu. “You can follow and go to many places. And you’ve cultivated the Water Cloud Strength, prolonging your life. But she will probably grow old and die slowly… that’s really not a good outco.”
Old Daoist Liu opened his mouth but said nothing.
He subconsciously touched his beard. It was originally salt-and-pepper, but now it had turned black again, each strand translucent. He didn’t look like a sixty-year-old man, more like fifty.
“And after all this ti, you thought I was dead, yet you didn’t pass the Water Cloud Strength to her.”
“It’s just… the rules,” Old Daoist Liu said in a deep voice. “What Brother Xin passed to is the Celestial Heart Orthodox Law. The inheritance of the Celestial Heart Orthodox Law cannot be improper or unjustified.”
Li Yunxin pursed his lips. “We’re family. There’s no need to say such things. Transcribe a copy and leave it for her before you go tomorrow, so she can protect herself.”
“…Okay.”
Li Yunxin continued to lean back in the rattan chair with his eyes closed as if resting, and then fumbled with his fan.
A purple Talisman appeared in his hand.
He casually tossed it to Old Daoist Liu. “I got this from that Cong Yunzi after I killed him. It’s annoying to carry around—it always reminds of that old bastard. You can give it to her too.”
Old Daoist Liu carefully held the Talisman and glanced at it, then looked up. “Ah… Brother Xin, this kind of treasure…”
“What treasure,” Li Yunxin scoffed. “It’s gone after one use. You keep it.”
Old Daoist Liu wanted to say sothing but held back, yet he still put the Talisman away. “…Okay.”
However, just as he put the Talisman into his sleeve, Li Yunxin wiped his fan again and tossed him sothing else.
Old Daoist Liu quickly caught it and saw that it was a small bottle made of suet white jade.
“It’s said to prolong life and regenerate flesh and blood—sothing refined by the Shangqing Elixir Cauldron Sect. I have no use for it, so have her keep it.”
This ti, Old Daoist Liu finally stood up and sighed. “Brother Xin… I, this old Daoist, only accompanied you for a chat. You can see through it all by yourself.”
Li Yunxin closed his eyes and said nothing.
Old Daoist Liu looked at him for a mont, then sighed. “Alright, alright. But I won’t take any more.”
“There’s nothing left to take even if you wanted to.”
Old Daoist Liu then smiled. He thought for a mont and finally spoke his mind. “Seeing you so troubled tonight, I, this old Daoist, actually… actually… feel happier.”
Seeing that Li Yunxin didn’t reply, he shook his head. “I’ll go deliver these to her.”
Li Yunxin raised a hand and waved it. Old Daoist Liu gently opened the door and closed it again softly.
The rooster crowed three more tis—it seed to be a chicken raised by Shi Kuizi in the courtyard. This sound provoked a wild rooster from sowhere, or perhaps a rooster from a family living in the wilderness… faintly, the crowing sounds rose and fell one after another.
No one would have thought that on this small platform halfway up South Mountain, by the side of Dongting Lake, there were at this mont two humans, five demons, one ghost, and one divine beast… coexisting in unusual harmony.
He sat alone in the room with his eyes closed for a while before opening them. The rooster crowed early, and the sky was still dark.
He let out another soft, long breath, his gaze turning to the ceiling.
Old Daoist Liu was a man, after all, and was bound to be a bit untidy. And it seed that Shi Kuizi was also not inclined to co here and do too much for him—after all, they had been living together for less than a month.
So he saw a spider web on the ceiling. Half of it was broken, with a corner dangling down.
A slender-legged spider hung in mid-air, lost in thought about who knows what.
“Lady Hong…” Li Yunxin muttered subconsciously.
He had planned to let the Lord of Dongting fight to the death with the Daoist Orthodoxy and the Sword Sect.
Who knew that this Lord of Dongting was hiding a trump card.
The current situation was reversed—it had beco the Lord of Dongting sitting back and watching him fight the Daoist Orthodoxy.
On the lake's heart, that Lady Hong said there was a way in the lake to distinguish the dragon qi on his body… to hell with it. What thod could it be?
This wasn’t a ga with glaringly obvious levels above one’s head. The human-skin bags of cultivators and demons were not flawed, nor would there be such a thing as “judging his spiritual energy fluctuations to be of a certain realm”—if a person couldn’t even control their own spiritual energy, letting it leak out so wildly…
Then they wouldn’t be far from their cultivation dissipating and dying.
He had to figure this out—how was his “dragon qi” seen through?
He didn’t want soone to suddenly jump out while he was walking down the road and say to him, “I know you are a Dragon’s Son!”
After the matter in Weicheng was settled, he had to go to Dongting.
Of the nine sons of the dragon, only Chiwen was in the Manifestation Realm. The Manifestation Realm and the True Realm were not so incrental relationship… a single realm of difference ant a disparity in strength that defied logic. Why was only the ninth son of the dragon like this?
The way Young Master Nine and the Lord of Dongting interacted was already strange—looking across the world, one couldn’t see any other Dragon’s Son accompanied by a great demon. Why did the two coexist peacefully?
That Lady Hong… mm… Lady Hong. That Lady Hong repeatedly told him that the relationship between the Lord of Dongting and Chiwen was extraordinary. And that Lord of Dongting did indeed show an unusually special attitude towards the Dragon Clan.
A three-thousand-year-old great demon being imprisoned here… who exactly was he?!
Li Yunxin closed his eyes, letting these thoughts churn into a chaotic ss in his mind, then opened them again.
The slender-legged spider on the roof was gone, having hidden itself away sowhere.
Li Yunxin stared at the spot for a mont, then flicked his finger.
A gust of wind shot towards the web, pinning the dangling corner to the wall.
He stood up, pushed open the window, and saw the fish-belly white of dawn on the horizon. Further in the distance was the vast Yeyuan Forest between Dongting and Weicheng. In the dim light of dawn, the forest was a deep, dark green, like a huge piece of ink-green jade. Even with his eyesight, he couldn't see a trace of Weicheng on the horizon—this Yeyuan Forest was so vast, almost comparable to Dongting.
He felt a familiar sensation—it was the urgent desire to conquer he felt that night when he stood by the Wei River and saw such a mighty river for the first ti.
Sudden enlightennt.
This river and mountain, although only a negligible corner of the world, but…
They were always the most solid and reliable support.
Li Yunxin lowered his head slightly, rembering a word he had said to Old Daoist Liu a quarter of an hour ago.
For the old Daoist, it might have been just an extrely ordinary word. But for him…
“…We’re family.” He repeated the phrase in a low voice.
He couldn't help but smile.
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