On the rooftop in the midsummer of their seventh year, the boy’s voice was filled with suppressed anger.
“I can see, Xie Shiyi, so let me guide you.”
Now the red thread, peach blossoms, candlelight and crying cicadas wove together.
It was as if they were a world apart from that time.
Xie Shiyi’s grip around his wrist loosened little by little.
Unafraid of death, Yan Qing just had to add a sentence, his tone carrying a smile. “Venerable Immortal, can you tell left from right now?”
Xie Shiyi said, “Back then, the one who couldn’t tell left from right was you.”
Yan Qing wasn’t angry. When they were seven, this small matter was enough for them to argue over for a year, but there wasn’t much point to arguing about it now.
Yan Qing scrutinized the way Xie Shiyi’s eyes seemed to be covered in a layer of mist, and was suddenly suffused with happiness. “Wait, let me find a white cloth for you to cover your eyes with.”
Xie Shiyi asked insipidly, “You don’t want to go to sleep anymore?”
Only now did Yan Qing remember that Xie Shiyi had conjured this house specifically for him to sleep in. He laughed and said, “I’m not sleepy right now.”
Xie Shiyi lifted his hand and stroked his own eyes, saying casually, “Yan Qing, you’re at Qi Refining level right now. Tomorrow, we’ll set off for Southluster. From here, it’s a journey of thousands of miles.”
“......”
Yan Qing was truly thankful for how Xie Shiyi couldn’t go a moment without reminding him of his cultivation.
Originally, Yan Qing hadn’t felt that recovering his cultivation was a pressing matter.
He had his soul thread and was familiar with numerous arrays and talismans. As long as he didn’t seek death, it would be easy for him to swagger across all of the upper realm.
But once he heard the affairs of the nine great sects and three noble families from Xie Shiyi, he silently moved forward the schedule for his cultivation.
Yan Qing sat across from him and casually asked, “Xie Shiyi, what cultivation level were you the last time you took the top spot on the Bluecloud Conference ranking?”
Xie Shiyi: “Great Ascension.”
Yan Qing clapped his hands in feigned awe. “Wow.” After he spoke, he pointed at himself, his eyes curving. “Yaoyao, do you feel that with my speed in recovering my cultivation, I can steal the top spot on the Bluecloud ranking this time?”
Xie Shiyi said unhurriedly, “I feel like you can’t even participate in this Bluecloud Conference.”
Yan Qing chuckled without amusement.
Faced with Xie Shiyi’s slightly dull eyes, he felt an irrepressible itch in his heart.
Xie Shiyi’s features were as sharp and cold as the frost and snow, but his hair like black silk and his pale skin acted against that air of alienation. His eyes, which no one had dared to look at before, were now covered by a thin layer of soft mist, hiding his deadly, penetrating gaze. He seemed much more approachable.
Yan Qing slapped the table and rose. “No, I have to find something for you to cover your eyes with.” He didn’t think too much about it; he was just nostalgic for that little boy with black cloth covering his eyes.
They had lived in that house in Divinification Pavilion for five years. Compared to the long lives that cultivators enjoyed, five years was nothing, gone in a moment.
But the years a person experienced in their youth were always different from what came afterwards.
Even now, Yan Qing remembered the placement of every blade of grass and stand of trees in this place. He stood up and said, “You really conjured everything?”
Xie Shiyi: “Yes.”
Yan Qing: “I remember that back then, we put the scissors and cloth next door.”
When he walked out and opened the door, the light of the moon and stars scattered over the ground.
Xie Shiyi sat by the table, his snowy robes tumbling to the ground, looking silently forward, his dull eyes like ash. The cold moon was like frost. A tiny white flower blew into the window with the breeze, floating past his robes and landing in his hand. Xie Shiyi looked down, his face caught in a mixture of light and shadow. He couldn’t see reality.
Next door, Yan Qing flipped through boxes and shelves and finally found the scissors and cloth.
In fact, he would rather cut off some of the mermaid gauze and spirit silk that Xie Shiyi was wearing. These two items were fantastically expensive in the cultivation world, and were difficult to buy even with thousands of pieces of gold. But he could already envision Xie Shiyi’s ice-cold gaze.
Yan Qing curled his lip and cut out a strip of white cloth with the scissors. Twisting it in his hand, he walked back.
“Venerable Immortal.”
Maybe he had called out “Venerable Immortal” too many times when he was playing the fool, but Yan Qing felt like it was pretty fun calling him this title now.
Venerable Duwei didn’t feel like paying attention to him.
With a lackadaisical tone, Yan Qing entertained himself. “Venerable Immortal, look at me. Oh, that’s right, you can’t see me right now, Venerable Immortal.”
Yan Qing moved behind Xie Shiyi and caught his raven-black hair in his hand without fear. Just when he looped the white cloth around Xie Shiyi’s face for the first time, the man spoke. “What did you use?”
Yan Qing: “Cloth, duh.”
Xie Shiyi: “What kind of cloth?”
Yan Qing said, “As long as it’s clean, isn’t any kind of cloth fine? Please don’t be such a busybody.”
Xie Shiyi’s voice was cold with scorn. “Aren’t you the busybody?”
“Oh.” Yan Qing’s face was expressionless as he tied a knot in the strip of white cloth.
Xie Shiyi’s hair was long and silky. A few strands hung down at his temples, and his lips were tightly pursed.
Yan Qing walked in front of him, bent forward to look at him and said, “It’s good now.”
The black cloth Xie Shiyi had covered his eyes with as a child was there for the sake of preventing further injury to his eyes. Now that he had grown up, this cloth was there purely for the sake of alleviating Yan Qing’s boredom. He had thought that once Xie Shiyi had on this layer of white cloth, he would take on a sickly air. He hadn’t expected that once he covered his lightless eyes, his murderous air would not soften, but increase.
Yan Qing: “You’re pretty good at being an Alliance Leader.”
Xie Shiyi asked apathetically, “Are you done messing around yet?”
Yan Qing was smart enough to say, “I’m done, I’m going to sleep.”
Yan Qing walked to the center of the room, where a bed was placed. The pillow and covers were tidy, but aside from them, there was nothing else on the bed. When Xie Shiyi was small, he rarely slept. If he wasn’t cultivating, then he was reading, arguing with him at the same time.
After tossing about all day and night, Yan Qing was a little tired. He threw himself onto the bed and let out a yawn. As soon as his head touched the pillow, he felt fatigue surging over him like a tide, and his eyelids fought to close.
Insects cried softly outside, and along with the faint sound of bells, they made for the perfect lullaby.
Whether it was his last life or this reincarnated one, Yan Qing had never had a good sleep. Now, perhaps because Xie Shiyi was at his side and there was the foremost cultivator in the realm guarding him, he subconsciously relaxed his guard against danger.
***
That year when they were seven, they made halting progress, but in the end, they learned how to ride a sword and successfully entered Divinification Pavilion.
But once they reached Divinification Pavilion, they immediately encountered their second challenge—poverty.
They were so poor that they were left with a single spiritual stone in the end, unable to get by.
So Yan Qing decided to go gambling.
Cumbrant City had a gambling parlor called Clearmanor Casino. As gamblers moved their chips from the outer venue to the inside, they gradually increased. Xie Shiyi had his own arrangements. Yan Qing had coaxed and pestered him into coming here and giving his body over to Yan Qing. From beginning to end, he watched coldly from the side.
Yan Qing was excelling at the game, winning hand over fist in a short amount of time. His ambition growing, he rushed in, but his luck was bad inside.
After three rounds, he was left with only the money he started with. He could only slink back to the outer venue with his one spiritual stone in his hand.
Yan Qing gritted his teeth. “I can’t believe this is it.”
So in disbelief, Yan Qing spent that day running into and out of the casino, winning money outside and losing it inside.
When the sun fell behind the mountains and they had to return to Divinification Pavilion, Yan Qing finally gave up. He earned a little money in the outer venue with a sigh and stopped gambling.
Clouds burned across the sky, filling the air with scarlet.
Yan Qing looked at the sky and cried out. “Xie Shiyi, I think we’re late. What should we do if the manager asks us about this?”
Xie Shiyi said lightly, “Tell him the truth.”
Yan Qing was shocked. “Ah? If we tell him the truth that we spent all day messing around in the casino, won’t he yell at us?”
Xie Shiyi gave a derisive smile. “Weren’t we stealing from the rich to aid the poor today?”
Yan Qing said, “Oh,” and nodded.
He thought Xie Shiyi was going to make up a story where they robbed the rich to help the poor and did a good deed, in order to fool the manager.
But at the next moment, he realized the truth, and almost wanted to strangle Xie Shiyi to death.
What the fuck was he talking about, stealing from the rich to aid the poor?!
Divinification Pavilion was an illustrious school in the human realm.
Within the school, Xie Shiyi was at the cutting edge of talent. The Xie family had finally begun to value him, and sent him a constant flow of spiritual stones and rare treasures.
They no longer lacked money, but Xie Shiyi kept everything the way it was in his room, not touching a thing.
There was a bed, a wooden table, a chair and a few rusty bells.
Yan Qing and Xie Shiyi’s studies in cultivation had progressed step-in-step, because many times, when they encountered danger, he had to meet it.
And the most important reason was…
The year they were seven, they had a strong guard up against each other. They felt like the other boy gained too much strength, they would kill them.
***
Early the next morning, when Yan Qing arose, Xie Shiyi had already left the room. Outside, dawn had just broken in the sky, and the clouds were crimson.
Trouble was still snoring, deeply asleep. Yan Qing swept him up.
Trouble’s ears dangled, and his tone was dissatisfied. “What’re you waking me up for?”
Yan Qing said, “I’m taking you to see the world.”
Trouble almost laughed himself to death on the spot. “You’re ridiculous, you think—”
Yan Qing said, “Let’s go, we’re going to Desireless Sect.”
Before Trouble could finish his wild words, he had to swallow them live. His red eyes almost bulged out of his head. “D-D-Desireless Sect?”
Yan Qing said, “That’s right.”
The prison formation had opened, and the ice-blue light flowing above Springturn Sect had scattered. Almost at the moment the formation was canceled, Chengying led the group from Lightstream Sect away, not wanting to stay for another second.
Yan Qing courteously received a round of solicitous greetings from his father and the sect leader.
The sect leader was bubbling with pleasure. “Yan Qing, there’s no need to yearn after Springturn Sect. At the Bluecloud Conference, we’ll see each other again! Cultivate well; I’m waiting to see your name on the Bluecloud ranking.”
Huaixu was full of worry. “Qingqing, going all by yourself to Southluster, you have to be careful.”
Yan Qing smiled and nodded. Afterwards, he was deluged in more words of gratitude from A-Hua and A-Hu, as well as Congming’s watery well-wishing. Yan Qing twisted the red thread in his fingers, turned and looked at the center of the distant sky of the upper realm.
His eyes gradually darkened.
The upper realm, and the nine great sects.
As soon as Tianshu heard that Xie Ying was going to return to Desireless Sect with them, he almost jumped with excitement. The heap of old bones couldn’t stop himself from grinning. “Duwei wants to come back to the sect? Ah, that’s wonderful, wonderful!”
This pleasant piece of news smashed into Hengbai as well, spinning him around until he didn’t know which way was north.
Xie-shixiong was going to return to the sect?!
Once this piece of news got out, he was afraid all of Southluster would tremble.
The name “Xie Ying” was like a legend in Desireless Sect. Young people had simple hearts and admired the strong. What they saw wasn’t the power that Xie Ying held, but his brilliant talent and his place at the top of the Bluecloud ranking.
He was the head disciple of Desireless Sect. He shone like the clear moon in the wind, and his name shook the realm.
And in the cultivation world, Xie Ying had disappeared from the sight of the crowd for a long time now.
Even if he hadn’t gone into closed cultivation for a hundred years, living in Azurejade Palace for so long, he was hidden behind a thousand layers of snow, above a deep, cold, demon-hunting formation. Cultivators under Great Ascension level would find it hard to trespass. Aside from the leaders of the nine great sects and the heads of the three noble families, Azurejade Palace turned away all visitors.
***
cela's notes:
1:32 hours
Comments
Post a Comment