Chapter 78
Chapter 78
Li Qingying immediately spat out a mouthful of black blood, her body swaying unsteadily. I rushed over to support her, watching as her face turned deathly pale in an instant. A surge of nameless fury rose within me, and I looked up, ready to argue with Lord Xiao, but Li Qingying pulled at my sleeve.
She silently shook her head at me.
Lord Xiao stood there like a lone pine on a precipice, gazing out at the sea, motionless.
The sea breeze whipped the hem of his robe. In the deep of night, his entire silhouette appeared desolate and lonely.
I helped Li Qingying slowly move away from that stretch of coast, my mind heavy with worry throughout the walk.
Lord Xiao’s words-‘Tonight isn’t the fifteenth, is it?’-made me connect many dots.
Ever since I met Li Qingying, she had gone out for three days during the fifteenth of the month for two consecutive months.
Even when she stayed with me at the Ghost Market until three in the morning.
Before, she had been unwilling to tell me where she was going. Now it was obvious; she must have been going to that Broken Cliff.
But that place was a Forbidden Zone of the Dragon clan. Why would she trespass there?
What was hidden at the bottom of the sea beneath that cliff?
Why could the power beneath the waves force Fengwu to manifest?
No, it seemed I had it wrong. The thing that had established a connection with the power beneath the sea wasn’t Fengwu itself, but the Golden Scale embedded in the bow’s riser!
“Urgh…”
Li Qingying suddenly bent over, retching out two more blood clots.
As soon as the clots hit the ground, they quickly transformed into a Blood Mist and dissipated into the air.
Li Qingying looked miserable while retching, but once she finished, she took a long, deep breath and seemed to recover slightly.
I also noticed that her complexion had improved significantly. More importantly, the red mole on the tip of her nose had stopped bleeding!
This… so the palm strike Lord Xiao dealt her wasn’t just a punishment for trespassing in the Forbidden Zone, but also a way to help her expel the Yin-Evil Poison?
It turned out this man wasn’t as cold and heartless as he appeared.
I stayed with Li Qingying as she crouched by the roadside for a short while. When she stood up again, her gait was steady.
We walked toward the Pawnshop, neither of us speaking for a long time.
However, my mind was racing, and I couldn’t help but steal glances at Li Qingying.
As we neared the West Street Entrance, Li Qingying suddenly spoke. “Xiao Jiu, if you want to ask something, just ask. This isn’t something I can keep hidden forever anyway.”
I immediately asked, “Is the thing hidden beneath the sea Liu Junyan’s Lifebound Artifact?”
The Golden Scale had originally been embedded in Liu Junyan’s sword; there should be a resonance between the two.
Li Qingying gave a soft hum of affirmation. “Xiao Jiu, you’re very smart.”
“So what about you?” I asked. “Leaving for three days every fifteenth… were you going there to retrieve the sword?”
I remembered the wound on her shoulder when she first returned; it had clearly been a sword cut.
“I won’t be going anymore,” Li Qingying said sadly. “Perhaps I was lucky before, or perhaps Lord Xiao turned a blind eye and let me slip through. After tonight, I likely won’t be able to enter the Forbidden Zone ever again.”
I didn’t quite understand. “Why could he act like he didn’t see you before, but not after tonight?”
Li Qingying didn’t answer my question.
Yet, I found the answer in her silence.
Li Qingying came from the Linghai Red Carp clan; she was a part of Linghai to begin with. But I wasn’t.
Furthermore, my appearance tonight had caused a disturbance in those waters.
If Lord Xiao truly wanted to guard against someone, it wasn’t Li Qingying he was worried about-it was me.
I was the intruder.
“I really should have given up long ago,” Li Qingying said, sniffing. “I’ve been overestimating my own strength; I couldn’t even budge the Sword Array in the slightest. Lord Xiao probably just watched me for his own amusement. But you’re different, Xiao Jiu. Your presence has already affected the Sword Array.”
I asked, puzzled, “A Sword Array?”
Li Qingying nodded. “Yes. Hidden beneath those waters is a Sword Tomb. Countless swords have formed an array to trap Seventh Master’s sword. Every month, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth, there are fluctuations beneath the waves. That’s the only time I can seize the chance to break into the Sword Tomb.
“But the ridiculous thing is, in all these years, I’ve never actually made it into the heart of the tomb.”
“Sister Qingying, have you ever wondered why Liu Junyan’s Lifebound Artifact would be trapped by a Sword Array within the Forbidden Zone of the Linghai Dragon Clan?” I asked.
Li Qingying froze.
I continued, “You want to retrieve Liu Junyan’s Lifebound Artifact for him, but perhaps you aren’t just fighting against a Sword Tomb. You’re fighting against the entire Linghai Dragon Palace. Can you really win against them?”
The answer was self-evident.
After a brief moment of daze, Li Qingying suddenly laughed.
It was a laugh of relief.
It was the letting go of an obsession she had held for over a hundred years.
Seeing her smile put my mind at ease. Only by truly letting go of this obsession could the influence of the Blood Mist be completely uprooted from her.
As we turned the street corner, the Pawnshop’s entrance came into view. But as our eyes swept over it, both Li Qingying and I stopped dead in our tracks. We stared in unison at the phantom figure standing beneath the Hexagonal Palace Lantern, not daring to even breathe.
The Hexagonal Palace Lantern was currently shrouded in the golden light of Merit. Now, within that golden radiance stood an extremely faint, translucent phantom. She looked so fragile that a single gust of wind might blow her away.
Yet, even as a mere phantom, I recognized her at a glance.
Who else could it be but Fu Wan!
Fu Wan had performed a Soul Sacrifice to the Hexagonal Palace Lantern; her soul should have been scattered to the winds.
But for some unknown reason, her Essence Spirit had turned into a tiny spark of firefly-like light that had remained inside the Hexagonal Palace Lantern.
With the recent surge of Merit within the Hexagonal Palace Lantern, had Fu Wan’s Essence Spirit actually begun to reform?
This… this was simply inconceivable.
Did this mean that after some time, once Fu Wan’s Essence Spirit had absorbed enough Merit, she might actually reappear in this world?
To be honest, for a moment, I didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
Avoiding total annihilation and reforming her Essence Spirit was certainly good. But if Fu Wan truly woke up one day and regained her self-awareness, would her obsession force her to repeat her past actions?
What if she saw Zhao Zixun again one day?
Or perhaps she wouldn’t even need to see Zhao Zixun. Just that Blood Letter, along with the Silver Ring and the Stamp, would probably be enough to cost Fu Wan half her life, wouldn’t it?
As I was lost in thought, a light breeze blew past, and the phantom vanished instantly.
Within the Merit that now filled nearly half the Hexagonal Palace Lantern, that tiny spark of light flickered indistinctly.
Li Qingying and I looked at each other, both of us simultaneously letting out a silent sigh of relief.
Yes, that single spark was too weak. Even with a steady stream of Merit supporting it, how could it be so easy to restore her to her original state?
After a long night of exhaustion, Li Qingying and I went to our respective rooms to rest.
I was truly tired; the moment I hit the bed, I drifted off.
But just as I fell asleep, I felt my entire body suddenly plummet. I opened my eyes to find water everywhere.
My body kept falling, deeper and deeper.
Having lived by the Zhu Pan River since I was a child, I was a decent swimmer. But right now, no matter how I thrashed my arms and legs, it was useless. It felt as if an invisible force beneath the water was pulling me down, dragging me into a continuous descent.
I held my breath until my lungs felt like they were about to burst.
Just as I felt I couldn’t hold on any longer, a flash of sword light streaked before my eyes. I squinted instinctively.
When I opened them again, I saw a bronze longsword thrust into the seabed. Coiled around the hilt of that longsword was a White Dragon.
The White Dragon was silver-white all over, save for its spine, which was marred by seven bloody holes…