Chapter 126: Towards the Mortal World
Her own Dao companion was much more powerful than the goddess.
Enlightenment was never an easy thing.
If one could achieve great enlightenment just by listening to a few words from Chen Suxin, how could there be so many foolish people in the world?
It was useless to be anxious.
Ning Ruoque deliberately squatted outside the courtyard for a long while.
Only after the wound on her neck had slowly healed did she tidy herself up and push the door open to enter the house.
The room was filled with a pleasant, calming fragrance.
The afternoon sun shone through the gauze curtains, filtered into a warm and soft appearance, and then, without any reservation, it was sprinkled on Yin Buran.
Yin Buran was originally getting up to put on her clothes.
However, the moment she saw Ning Ruoque walk in, she was too lazy to move. She just sat by the bed, letting her outer robe pile up loosely in her arms.
“Why are you back so early?”
Ning Ruoque’s tone was flat. “The fight is over.”
Then she paused, lowered her eyes, and added in a small voice, “I didn’t want you to run back and forth, so I ended it early.”
She bent down and helped Yin Buran put on that outer robe.
Just as she was carefully tying the belt, she didn’t expect Yin Buran to lean over, and like a small animal, she sniffed at Ning Ruoque’s neck.
A light breath fell on the most sensitive skin. Ning Ruoque almost didn’t shrink back, and she was so numb that she was like a little puppy being held by the neck.
What was even more terrifying was that Yin Buran’s cool fingertips were tapping lightly on her neck.
“Here, there’s a smell of blood.”
“…”
The sound passed through her eardrums like an electric current, and Ning Ruoque couldn’t help but cover the place where the wound had been.
This action, of course, had no meaning. She couldn’t help but be annoyed. Why didn’t she hide it more carefully?
Yin Buran continued to size her up. “Did you lose the match?”
Since she had already asked, Ning Ruoque had no choice but to admit it sullenly, “Mm.”
It was fine to lose in the past, but in front of Yin Buran, she felt an indescribable discomfort and only dared to stare at the dark patterns on Yin Buran’s clothes.
“Is that so…”
A murmur came from by Yin Buran’s ear.
Ning Ruoque couldn’t help but look, and she happened to see Yin Buran raise her chin reservedly and speak with a straight face.
“I’ll pour a cup of Seven Bitters Tea for Senior Yan next time, to vent your anger.”
Seeing that Ning Ruoque was still in a daze, Yin Buran continued to explain, “It’s a kind of medicinal tea that can make one’s tongue bitter. I brewed it when I had nothing to do.”
Ning Ruoque recalled Yin Buran’s “good methods” from back then.
Sprinkling itching powder on the clothes of people she didn’t like, putting a strange pill in their tea that would make them “woof” continuously, and throwing a small snake on their seat…
This kind of sneaky little trick, Ning Ruoque had actually discovered long ago. Not only had she not exposed it, but she had also helped to cover it up several times.
Because she found it very cute.
Now that she heard Yin Buran talk about it again, she suddenly became curious. Who was the first “victim” of this bowl of medicinal tea?
So she asked directly, “Who did you want to serve it to at first?”
Yin Buran pressed her lips together.
She lowered her eyelids again, and her dense eyelashes hid her emotions, before she spat out two words.
“Senior Sister.”
Ning Ruoque was still curious. One had to know that Qin Jiangli was a master of poison. It was not easy to trick her.
“Then did you succeed?”
It was quiet all around for a while.
Yin Buran smoothed her long hair before she said nonchalantly, “No, she found out.”
She and Qin Jiangli did not have any grudges against each other, and the tea was also a good tea that could regulate the body.
It was just that she wanted to throw a little tantrum.
But being “forced” to recall the old things, Yin Buran couldn’t help but be a little angry from embarrassment.
She frowned, snatched the belt from Ning Ruoque’s hand, and tied a very proper knot.
After she was dressed, she looked up and saw a certain sword cultivator grinning at her.
That silly look, Yin Buran had no doubt that even if she were to hand the medicinal tea to Ning Ruoque, this person would drink it all in one gulp.
Ning Ruoque is the easiest to fool.
“Ranran… Ranran, you’re so good…”
Ning Ruoque was still smiling. “Thank you for being willing to tell me these things to comfort me. I’m not so sad now.”
Yin Buran let out a soft breath and squinted her eyes.
The matter was true, but as for “deliberately revealing her own embarrassing stories to comfort the other,” that was by no means her original intention.
What on earth is this sword cultivator thinking?
It seemed that she was completely immersed in her own world, not knowing what the world was.
So much so that she leaned over with a grin, and with a scoop, she held Yin Buran in her arms and rubbed against her affectionately.
Seeing that her own clothes were all in a mess, Yin Buran was so angry that she grabbed the sword cultivator’s collar and bit her on the neck.
Ning Ruoque let out a muffled groan, covered her neck, and let go.
In fact, it didn’t hurt.
Yin Buran didn’t use any force, or perhaps her strength was too little. Even the fierce biting action was like a lick and a kiss.
Ning Ruoque was still staring at Yin Buran, and the hair by her temples covered the faint red on her ears.
The latter, while tidying her clothes, asked as if unintentionally, “Why don’t you have a match with the goddess more often?”
She wanted Ning Ruoque to accompany her more, but she was not willing to delay her cultivation.
After thinking for a long time and finding no good solution, she could only wrong herself and follow Ning Ruoque at all times.
“The goddess wants me to learn her sword moves,” Ning Ruoque answered frankly.
To be precise, Chen Suxin actually still wanted to pass on the common people’s dao.
“Everyone’s path is different. After watching others wield a sword a thousand times, a sword cultivator can only pick up their own sword in the end.”
When she said this, Ning Ruoque’s expression was still gentle.
Her eyes were like a pool of spring night dew, without the so-called aggressiveness of a sword cultivator.
Yin Buran then knew that although she could not walk the ruthless and selfless common people’s dao, for Ning Ruoque, breaking through the bottleneck was only a matter of time.
It was just that how far she could go, and whether she would fall on the way, all depended on her fortune.
Yin Buran tugged on Ning Ruoque’s sleeve.
She secretly felt that her own Dao companion was much more powerful than the goddess.
But she didn’t say it. She just kissed her without any warning when Ning Ruoque obediently came over.
Her hand went under her clothes, slid across her firm waistline, and just as she was about to continue upwards, she was firmly held down.
The warm light outlined Ning Ruoque’s fluttering eyelashes, and her lips, which were opening and closing, were even more full.
Ning Ruoque did not hide it and pressed her lips together, staring at her without blinking, and even said stammeringly, “In broad daylight, it’s not good… to be like this.”
Yin Buran: “…”
Damn it!
*
Before the sun could set, a message came from Chu Xuan.
As a person who had completely given up on sleep, she had found time to look for the old classics left behind in the sect, and was planning to have a meeting to see if they could come up with a good solution.
So Yin Buran asked Ning Ruoque to carry her to the study.
The one who arrived the earliest was still Chu Xuan.
After a few days, her projection was sitting in a pile of bamboo slips in a carefree manner. She didn’t look tired, but she was inexplicably much more disheveled.
She was stroking her chin and staring at Ning Ruoque openly.
Before Ning Ruoque could speak, she asked first, “What’s on your neck?”
This person had suspiciously changed into a high-collared inner shirt today. She could see clearly that there was a red mark near the collar!
Ning Ruoque subconsciously went to touch her own collar and looked at a certain culprit who was calmly sipping tea.
This was what Yin Buran had deliberately kissed after she had bristled, and she refused to let it fade.
Before she came to the study, she had even pulled down her collar to look at it repeatedly, as if she were particularly satisfied with her own “masterpiece.”
And now, Yin Buran’s expression did not change. “A mosquito bite. There have been a lot of mosquitoes on the mountain recently.”
This was clearly a lie to fool people. Chu Xuan curled up the corners of her mouth and couldn’t be bothered to argue with them.
When Si Mingyue’s phantom, with all her silver ornaments, sat down with a jingle, a precious pearl on Yin Buran’s low table also lit up.
The ones who were participating in this discussion were not just the four of them.
Estimating that everyone was here, Ning Ruoque let out a soft breath and chose her words to express her thoughts. “Taotie, although it has possessed Jiang Ai, I guess that she should have been very weak at first, so much so that she could only indirectly affect my actions.”
Yin Buran immediately added, “She’s not at her peak now either.”
Otherwise, why not kill Ning Ruoque early when she was still weak, and instead use such a roundabout and high-risk method?
What Yin Buran could be sure of was that the goddess had been paying close attention to Ning Ruoque’s movements and would definitely make a move when necessary, and Taotie could not resist.
But that was before. If it were allowed to develop further, the consequences would be hard to predict.
A clear female voice came from the precious pearl. “According to the ancient books, the Demon God Taotie has a sheep’s body and a human’s face, and it loves to eat human souls, and it knows no limits. Its power comes from human desires. We have to act quickly.”
This was the owner of the Hundred Rumors Tower. Yin Buran had collected many of the storybooks she had written.
Someone else said, “Taotie eats desires. As long as human desires are not extinguished, Taotie will not die. The Sword Venerable had exhausted all her strength back then to stop Taotie outside the human world. How easy is it to kill it?”
As her voice fell, the room was filled with rustling discussions and sighs, and there was no result for a while.
Si Mingyue looked left and right, hugged her staff, and said softly, “I have a question.”
Her voice was not loud, but the room quieted down.
She said unhurriedly, “Since Taotie is so difficult to kill, how was it dealt with before the goddess ascended?”
“…”
After a long while, a familiar, gentle female voice came from the precious pearl.
“Sacrificing humans, at least ten thousand, and at most…”
Chen Suxin paused for a moment, skipped over the latter half of the sentence, and said directly, “It does not know moderation. When it has eaten to a certain extent, it will fall into a deep sleep.”
“At this time, whether it is left alone or killed on the spot, it can be made to lie dormant for a thousand years.”
Everyone was speechless for a moment.
It was said that that was an era when gods and humans coexisted. There were many cultivators like Ning Ruoque, but there were also even more troublesome demon gods than Taotie.
The world was a furnace, and without the goddess’s protection, humans could only be the firewood.
So it was true that Ning Ruoque wanted to avoid the goddess, and it was also true that she respected her.
Chu Xuan changed her posture, put her leg on the low table in front of her, and was the first to break the silence.
“In that case, our peaceful days, are they a little too short?”
She thought simply. Although they were both closing their eyes, eating their fill and sleeping, and being beaten until they were unconscious, were two different things. The latter could not possibly recover faster.
Ning Ruoque had really made Taotie suffer back then, and its demon body was almost split in two.
“This…”
“Could it be that we can only rely on the gods to suppress it?”
“How about, Palace Master Si, you do a divination?”
Upon hearing that she was to perform a divination, Si Mingyue shrank, wishing she could curl up into a ball.
She shook her head repeatedly, and her gauze hat even slipped off. “No, no. It’s not accurate!”
She refused to make a move, and the people who did not know what was going on were still persuading her.
In the end, she was forced to open her eyes and looked at Yin Buran pitifully.
Before Yin Buran could “rescue” her, the precious pearl flashed. “I want to know why the Heavenly Dao would allow Taotie to be reborn continuously?”
A refreshing and grand tone, as if one could imagine the woman’s bright and graceful, peony-like appearance.
It was the Medicine King.
She had previously learned that Yin Buran and Ning Ruoque had “privately decided on their lifelong affair,” and she was so angry that she had rolled up her sleeves and had said that she wanted to have a match with a certain little rabbit.
After failing to put medicine in the steamed buns, it was uncertain when she would throw a small snake on Ning Ruoque’s bed.
This time, with a serious matter before her, the Medicine King was merciful and temporarily put aside her grudges.
Her nails, painted with cochineal, tapped lightly on the tabletop. “It’s not easy to come back from the dead. One must know that all things work together, and we are all in it. To shake the laws of the Heavenly Dao, one has to pay a price.”
Everyone only knew the superficial meaning, but Ning Ruoque had heard the hidden meaning in the Medicine King’s words.
She couldn’t help but glance at Yin Buran out of the corner of her eye.
The person who had paid the price was holding a teacup to warm her hands, but the color on the back of her hands was still pale, and the blue blood vessels could be seen winding.
Yin Buran was noncommittal about this, while Si Mingyue, on the other hand, clapped her hands and muttered indignantly, “That’s right. Why can Taotie die and then live again?”
After she finished speaking, she quickly frowned, and she herself also reacted.
The Heavenly Dao was ruthless and treated all things as straw dogs. There must be a gain for every loss, and there would be no situation of favoring a certain race.
Yin Buran finally put down her teacup.
She looked up, and this time, she spoke with certainty, “I think it has already paid the price.”
