Chapter 45
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
Chapter 45: Staying True to One’s Heart
Mu Qianyun woke up, the room dimly lit. Suddenly, she realized and shouted, “Cheng Yuyan, Bilu…”
Someone beside her spoke, “Shh! Keep it down! It’s the middle of the night; your voice can carry far. Luckily, I closed the window.”
“Li Hui?” Mu Qianyun’s face was wet with tears as she rushed into his warm embrace. She was just an ordinary person, beautiful but otherwise entirely normal.
Everything she had experienced these past few days left her breathless. She had been trying so hard to be strong, but with the people around her becoming so terrifying, she felt fear—real fear! A massive sense of loneliness enveloped her; Bilu had played the role of a jailer, and her family had suffered because of her. It weighed heavily on her heart.
“Alright, it’s all in the past now. What we need to think about is how to escape by the skin of our teeth,” Li Hui quickly reassured her. Up close to the girl for the first time, he caught a whiff of her sweet fragrance, and his heart fluttered uncontrollably, fearing the collective disdain of his Senior and Junior Sisters.
As Mu Qianyun gradually calmed down, feeling embarrassed, she looked up and trembled in fear, “Ah, what is that?”
The scene before her challenged her nerves—nine heads floated in the air, munching loudly. The dim light in the room made the atmosphere particularly eerie and terrifying.
“What are those?” Li Hui thought it would scare Mu Qianyun if he told her they were his, so he quickly changed his tone, “They’re things I found on Princess Yu Yan. I thought they looked pitiful, so I gave them some food, but I didn’t expect them to eat this much.”
Since they had dealt with Cheng Yuyan, the items she had stolen naturally returned. The Yin-Yang Nine Heads had been in a fierce battle with Zhang Tianhua and hadn’t fully recovered yet.
Considering that the Four Yin Four Yang Flying Head Burial Array had the nature of a talisman formation, he figured he might as well exploit it. The silver snake bracelet had been absorbing Dragon Energy, so why not take the opportunity to collect some interest? Was he being unfair?
Therefore, he activated the talisman formation, attempting to use the silver snake bracelet to stimulate the potential of the nine heads from a talisman perspective. The outcome was that these beings tumbled down the stairs, and by the time he caught up with them downstairs, they were busy chewing on Yin Soul Beads.
The silver snake bracelet worked as intended, firing nine silver beams into the heads. After that, the bracelet dimmed, turning limp like a dead snake. It seemed the work was done!
Done! Done! Done! It was important enough to say three times!
Li Hui couldn’t understand; the silver snake bracelet had devoured so many treasures from Duobao, including screens, guqin, banners, and instruments from the top of the Jade Pavilion, along with a tattered dragon robe and dragon-shaped golden mist. And what did he get in return? Three Nine Patterns Spirit Sense Talismans and one Nine Patterns Blood Ignition Talisman, along with the repair of two jade tablets, while only granting each head a silver beam, and that’s it!
That’s it!
“Based on what logic were these exchanged? Does it all depend on the mood of the silver snake bracelet? Also, I thought those two jade tablets would be impressive, but why do they activate so slowly? Is this why Senior Chen Mengde wrote so much about four-character mantras in his travel notes?”
Mu Qianyun carefully looked back and found the nine heads completely ignoring their surroundings. They were solely focused on consuming black beads, sometimes even fighting over them, with the larger ones bullying the smaller ones.
Not all the beads were black; some emitted a golden light, which upon entering the mouths of the heads made popping sounds, causing a gentle breeze to sweep through the room. The atmosphere felt comforting rather than terrifying.
“Where’s Cheng Yuyan? What have you done to her?” Mu Qianyun snapped back to reality, instinctively distancing herself from Li Hui, leaving him feeling a bit disappointed.
“She’s not dead; I put her in the corner of the room along with your maid.” Li Hui explained slowly, “When morning comes, you’ll wear her mask and clothes to take me out of the palace. In a few hours, the Wooden Building will collapse, burying the two of them in the earth. From now on, you will have nothing to do with the palace. Find a place to focus on your training; perhaps you can open up Spirit Motion marks and embark on your cultivation path. This is all I can do to help you. If you want to survive and live well, you must become strong. Anything must rely on yourself.”
“Letting Cheng Yuyan take my place in the grave… and Bilu too?” Mu Qianyun felt unable to accept it out of habit.
“Here’s a piece of advice to remember: Some people are not worth your mercy. If you show kindness to them, you will harm many others. Then you will be the greatest villain,” he warned, striking a chord with Mu Qianyun. She fell silent; unconditional mercy was evil. Show kindness only to those deserving of it—that is true goodness!
Cheng Yuyan isn’t worth it! Neither is Bilu!
Mu Qianyun was changing. Her gaze became sharp, and in a calm tone, she said, “I understand. Cheng Yuyan ruined my whole family; this is a hatred soaked in blood. I will personally set fire to this Wooden Building to say goodbye to my past. As for Bilu, she must have done many vicious things to help Cheng Yuyan change faces, so she deserves to die.”
It’s not just that she should die, but that she should be killed; the distinction between the two words is entirely different.
Li Hui shook his head, “Tsk tsk, I’m worried about you like this, swinging from one extreme to the other, transforming from such a kind girl into a ferocious avenger. Among cultivators, this is called going into madness! So I’ll be the executioner; just remember, on the path of life, there’s no hurdle that can’t be crossed. Don’t let yourself be filled with killing intent. Cultivators cultivate the heart; if they lose their hearts, how can they ever understand the Dao?”
“This…” Mu Qianyun felt like a broken string; she had been ready to connect to a certain tune, yet now felt lost. Her mind cooled, and the bloodthirsty killing intent seeped away.
“Hehe, come on, let’s do something happy. This is my favorite thing to do lately,” Li Hui smiled slightly, sitting cross-legged on the bed. He took out his and Cheng Yuyan’s possessions, pointing at the unopened bag of treasures like a little miser and said, “These are treasures—the foundation for a cultivator’s life! Just looking at them is your good fortune. Unfortunately, I’m old and my hair is completely white; Cheng Yuyan’s artifacts have become yours.”
Mu Qianyun didn’t know why, but seeing Li Hui like this made her feel both comforted and pained. She couldn’t help but ask, “Is there really no way? I mean, about your lifespan.”
“I don’t know. Uncle Sun said there’s a medical sage in Baisha Slope in Tianlai City; I plan to swing by and see if he can tell me what’s consuming my life.”
“That’s great! If you don’t mind, I’ll accompany you for the trip,” Mu Qianyun said boldly, an uncommon display of confidence for her.
“Sister? No way! You can at most be a Junior Sister. I have so many Senior Sisters that I can’t keep track, and every year, Junior Sisters become Senior Sisters. It’s such a troublesome vicious cycle; I deeply despise it…” The two unknowingly chatted for a long time, their hearts drawing closer together, even if they didn’t realize it.
