Thinking of this, Liu Ying smiled helplessly. Even if he really was in disguise, what could she do? These past few months together, traveling with her across half of the Central Plains, had subtly changed her state of mind. Sometimes she really didn't want to follow her anymore; being with her made her increasingly uncomfortable. Seeing her smile made her nervous, and talking to her wasn't as natural as before. She often found herself thinking about other things, causing her distress. Her unwavering love for Yan Ming had also changed. That was the most suspicious point. Before, she had been as enthusiastic as a prostitute when she saw Yan Ming, but after that, she feared him like a natural enemy. *Thump*, her index finger tightened, and the zither string rang out harshly and discordantly. Why did everything have to be related to Yan Ming!
Liu Ying walked to the table, made herself a cup of tea, and quietly gazed at the crescent moon outside the window. Xue Qing must be furious at being locked up for no reason. Knowing her temper, she probably chopped up almost all the tables and chairs in the room. What a pity, she practiced writing at those very tables and chairs ten years ago.
The next morning, Xue Qing was awakened by the sunlight, her eyes a little swollen from that damned snoring. Didn't any of the hundreds of monks at Shaolin Temple consider poisoning Abbot Chankong's food to make him mute? Remembering last night's experiment, Xue Qing ran to the door, her clothes disheveled. Sure enough, the area smeared with ink was smooth as new; all the scratches had disappeared. A self-healing door? When did the author change this novel to a fantasy setting? Xue Qing ran her hand over the marked area; there were indeed no traces left.
Xue Qing examined the wooden door meticulously, inch by inch. The door was truly alive! It had sprouted! Several tender green shoots were growing between the cracks in the wood. Xue Qing reached out to pluck one of the shoots, but it trembled, and an invisible force pushed her hand away. Xue Qing's eyes caught the movement of the patterns on the door. She repeated her action, this time focusing intently on the patterns. Sure enough, the patterns subtly changed, and with these changes, the delicate shoots in the cracks seemed to generate a force that resisted her.
Xue Qing had never seen such a magical broken door. She spent the entire day teasing the tender buds growing through the crack in the door. She could even tolerate Abbot Chan Kong coming over to knock on the wooden fish and try to persuade her after his meal. The reason why this broken door was so indestructible was precisely because of this.
Author's Note: ╭(╯3╰)╮ Thank you to Miss Honeybee, Miss Nata, and Miss Yun for the generous tickets!
This is the prize from the last game: Fang Yun's mini-drama! Collecting more mini-dramas will unlock new stories!
At night, Fang Yun suddenly sat up in bed, awakened by a nightmare.
Fang Yun got out of bed and poured herself a cup of tea to calm her nerves. She sat down at the table, the moonlight casting a gloomy shadow on her.
My mind is filled with the image of that man, dressed in flowing white robes with cranes crying out on his sleeves—everything that Kunlun Palace is most proud of.
"Don't blame me, I wanted to save you... I couldn't disobey my master's orders." Fang Yun said, his hands tightly gripping the teacup and his head bowed.
The blood everywhere was as red as a scorched wasteland, and Fang Yun would never forget the angry eyes that opened when he died. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Fan Cheng.
Discovering fireflies
For the first time, Xue Qing experienced what it felt like to have money but nowhere to spend it. Accompanied by the sound of the wooden fish drum outside the window, she laid out the silver notes one by one on the wooden table, and then played with stacking silver ingots on the table covered with silver notes. Sometimes the wooden fish drum outside would suddenly stop playing. Don't worry, that's because Abbot Chankong had fallen asleep out of boredom while playing.
Xue Qing discovered that when her breathing synchronized with the sound of Abbot Chan Kong's wooden fish, her breathing became exceptionally smooth, even giving her a pleasant sensation. At midday, when the sun was at its brightest, the wooden door gleamed in the direct sunlight, and tiny buds slowly emerged from the cracks to photosynthesize. Their oval leaves trembled slightly, the trembling mirroring the rhythm of Abbot Chan Kong's wooden fish. Could this be a coincidence? Plants are the simplest of things, stubbornly clinging to environments that benefit their growth. They don't let their own thoughts dictate their efforts; there must be a reason for their actions.
Each school has its own unique internal energy cultivation method, but ultimately, some schools' internal energy cultivation methods are even derived from the same book, only with adjustments to the use of internal energy. The most direct way to use internal energy is to change the breathing method. Inhaling, holding your breath, and multiple breaths, and where to exert force, will all produce different effects of internal energy cultivation. When Xue Qing sleeps at night, she can reduce the volume of Abbot Chan Kong's snoring by circulating her internal energy to her ears. Of course, her meager internal energy is worlds apart from Abbot Chan Kong's profound internal energy, and she still needs to work harder to get a good night's sleep.
A thought popped into Xue Qing's mind: Could this old monk be...? Xue Qing told herself to put aside her personal emotions and suppress the urge to dot the bald monk's head with six more dots. After calming down, Xue Qing noticed something even stranger. The patterns on the wooden door looked like a human figure when they became clear in the sunlight. She remembered reading in a horror story that the phenomenon of shadows on the wall was because there was a corpse buried in the wall. Could there be something strange inside this door too?
Xue Qing didn't want to go near the door anymore. She sat on the bed at a distance and looked at it. The tree pattern in the shape of a human figure looked familiar, so she hurriedly jumped off the bed and found the medical manual of the Emei Sect. She turned to the page on the human meridian diagram and compared it with the tree pattern on the door. It matched perfectly. Could it be that Abbot Chankong deliberately locked her here so that she could clear her mind and face this door? Could this door be related to the Yi Jin Jing (Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic)?
While Xue Qing was locked in a small dark room at Shaolin Temple, earth-shattering changes were taking place in the Central Plains martial arts world. Dong Chou launched a call to action in the martial arts world, and the Emei Sect, Wudang Sect, Shaolin Temple, Lingyu Sect, and Qilin Pavilion were the first to respond and establish the Martial Arts Alliance. Kunlun Palace intended to join the Martial Arts Alliance, but questioned Dong Chou's leadership ability. Although the vast majority of people supported Dong Chou, Kunlun Palace was, after all, the sect that suffered the most casualties in the war against the desert fifteen years ago. If only one faction disagreed, Dong Chou could not rightfully ascend to the position of alliance leader. Dong Chou was very glad that his illness had not been discovered, otherwise Kunlun Palace would have had even more reason to replace him.
"Second Uncle, I've already sent the letter," Cocoon Butterfly reported as she entered the room.
Dongchou was sitting by the window drinking when he nodded to indicate that he had heard.
"Second Uncle, I have a question," said Cocoon Butterfly, blinking her eyes.
"ask."
“Since that expert is your friend, why not introduce him directly to your aunt? Mother said your friends are all strange, and it would be very difficult for your aunt to meet him,” said Cocoon Butterfly.
Dong Chou pondered for a moment, then sighed and said, "Junior Sister is a very extreme person, and..." Dong Chou did not say the words that he suspected Xue Qing was colluding with the Underworld to Jian Die. He only said, "If she does not want to get involved in the Martial Alliance's struggle, then let it be as if nothing happened. If she is willing to help, this matter will not be difficult for her."
"Second Uncle, will Abbot Chankong really pass on the Yi Jin Jing to Aunt? Mother said Abbot Chankong is an even more annoying old bald monk than you."
"...Does your mother have a grave?" Dongchou asked expectantly.
“Mother said that she had made too many enemies in her life, and to avoid being whipped after death, she told me to burn her and Father’s ashes together and scatter them in the desert sands, so that she and Father could laugh together again.”
Dongchou smiled and said, "I envy your father. Although he didn't live long, he did everything he wanted to do. After I die, my senior sister will be so angry that she won't even want to see my grave."
Cocoon Butterfly grasped Dongchou's withered hand: "Some people live for a hundred years but are just walking corpses. In the desert, there is a kind of grass that only grows for one day a year. On that one day, it will suddenly climb all over the mountainside from a single seed. Even if it only lasts for one day, it is an indelible day."
Dongchou smiled and patted Jiandie's head: "I never thought that the person who understands me the most is such a little girl."
Speaking of the "Jade-Faced Swordsman" who was once active in the martial arts world, the heroes praised him for his superb martial arts skills, while the heroines praised him for his dashing and unrestrained nature, and his lofty aspirations.
"Go to the desert. Anyway, I will unify the Central Plains and the desert. Then you can bring that wicked woman back to Lingyu." These were the words that Dongchou said to Liu Sishu before he left fifteen years ago.
"How can a body weakened by long illness contend with the heavens?" This was the lament of Tong Chou's master, the former head of Lingyu Sect, before his death.
Even with a long-term illness, one must fight against fate; this belief was conveyed through the hands of a girl half her size.
Still trapped inside, Xue Qing put her theory into practice, breathing in and out with the tender buds. Sure enough, a small force surged within her body, like a plant transporting nutrients. She could activate it within her body. Yan Ming's most proficient claw technique involved using internal force to press various acupoints on the hand joints at an extremely fast speed to achieve a sudden change in power. Liu Ying's sword technique, passed down from Dong Chou, involved dispersing internal force outwards. It was easy to imagine in one's mind, but in reality, the tiny amount of internal force within the body would not follow one's wishes. The cultivation of internal energy was obscure and difficult to understand, which is why internal energy was so precious. This door was like splitting a person open, allowing one to directly see the operation of the meridians within the body.
"Bald monk, do you have to be so annoying even when you're doing a good deed?" Xue Qing asked through the door, referring to Abbot Chankong, who was still persistently striking the wooden fish outside.
“Amitabha Buddha, Buddhism seeks affinity. If you, the demon star benefactor, have affinity with the Buddha, then you have affinity; if you don’t, then you don’t. This old monk has done nothing.” Abbot Chankong replied, accompanied by the sound of a wooden fish.
"Whatever you want to be, you old bald monk, I thank you anyway," Xue Qing said.
Abbot Chankong continued to strike the wooden fish in silence. Sending Xue Qing to Shaolin Temple was not his own idea, but rather he was entrusted by someone to do so. Sending Xue Qing and Liuying to Shaolin Temple was a bit like entrusting an orphan to someone else. Brother Dongchou, you really treat this sacred Buddhist place as a place to look after children.
Xue Qing remained indoors, her sense of time blurred. She felt depressed about her situation, yet also elated by her newfound control over her inner energy. She hoped Abbot Chankong would keep his promise and release her; at this rate, breaking free one day wasn't impossible. However, the lack of news from Liu Ying made her uneasy. Initially, she worried about his well-being, but later she increasingly felt betrayed. While it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, she still felt deceived. Liu Ying should be absolutely obedient to her; how could he lie to her? Had the plot changed, altering the relationships between people? Xue Qing was deeply uneasy about Liu Ying's change. Her goal had always been to break free from the original storyline, but now that she had disrupted its flow, she felt lost about the unpredictable future. She was no longer under the control of the original plot, nor was she in control of it. No one could predict what the future held.
A door separated Xue Qing from the outside world, and also separated two seasons. After late autumn came early winter. The first snow of that winter came gently, drifting down and covering the ground with a thin layer of snowflakes, turning the entire Shaoshi Mountain into a pure white. After winter began, Abbot Chankong rarely came. He complained that the cold made his hands ache from striking the wooden fish, so he hibernated indoors. After not seeing Abbot Chankong for several days and not hearing his annoying wooden fish, Xue Qing felt a little lonely and missed him. Mistaking the human-shaped tree pattern on the door for Yan Ming, she lazily practiced her sword, while the crunching sound of footsteps on the snow echoed outside the door.
"Bald monk, you've finally decided to get out of bed?" Xue Qing said sarcastically.
"Uncle-Master," came Liu Ying's clear voice.
Xue Qing was stunned, never expecting it to be Liu Ying: "You...you owe me an explanation."
"I can't see my martial uncle, I'm afraid it will distract you," Liu Ying replied through the door.
"Let me out," Xue Qing ordered.
"Not yet," Firefly replied.
Xue Qing was inside the door, his face already pale. He refused. He actually refused his request. The puppeteer was naturally nervous when the puppeteer had his own thoughts. He felt a chill in his heart and had a very ominous intuition.
"What, you're not listening to me anymore?" Xue Qing asked, her lips trembling.