Lightning pierces the sky and tears apart the dark night.
The rumbling thunder sometimes is deafening and sometimes is not, as if someone is banging drums high above the sky, very rhythmic. There is a power in the thunder and lightning. Lin Luoran now feels very real, unlike the past.
Faint candlelight is shining in the towering castle. Ma Yiming and the others are still exploring the castle. The thunderous night is not a rare occasion in the movies before the New Era on the earth. Han Weiya is from a wealthy family and she has seen a lot of such kinds of movies and books. Lin Luoran is in her own room with completely relaxed spiritual mind. She can hear the little girl telling others the legend of vampire.
Blood Line? Well, Lin also once participated in Blood Line’s masquerade in the past.
Maybe it has been so long. She now even thinks the blood line which she hated before is very kind—in this Nami Star on the other side of the starry sky, she can’t see any blood line.
There are thunder and lightning and horses in stables neigh endlessly. There is no other living person in the castle except for Lin Luoran and her fellows.
Lin Luoran’s spiritual mind scans every room. In the basement, cyan little fox is really busy.
Although the fox asked Han Weiya to bring the alchemy furnace, it doesn’t use it when making elixirs.
There is no hellfire in the castle either.
Cyan little fox slowly picks out the spirit medicine it needs from a bunch of spirit herbs. It rubs them with its small paws. Its rubbing is like a cultivator purifying medicine with an alchemy furnace. Is this the secret ability of making elixirs in the nine-tailed fox family?
Lin Luoran laughs stealthily. She thought that all cyan little fox could do is identifying medicine. After all, this guy always grows medicine but it never actually succeeds… Could it be that it was actually learning every kind of spirit herbs in the process of planting medicine?
Lin Luoran inexplicably remembers what the man in robe said, “you have to see the essence of the mountain”.
Cyan little fox is irritated because of the thunder but it gradually calms down in the process of rubbing the herbs.
Lin Luoran concentrates her spiritual mind outside the old castle again. The rain washes endless grass and water droplets on the grass blades seep into the mud. The water Reiki is mixed with a little power of thunder and lightning.
It is said that the thunder of nature carries a sense of righteousness. Therefore, monsters with low personal ability never go out to walk in thunderstorms and those who are less courageous even shiver. The nine-tailed royal family like cyan little fox only hates thunder and lightning. Nevertheless, for monsters of plants and trees, they are more likely to be destroyed by thunder—what is the power of thunder and lightning?
Before Lin was injured, she had never had such a clear feeling for thunder and lightning.
The strong wind blows up the white curtains in front of the window and the lightning illuminates Lin Luoran’s face. In the thunder, she is surprisingly peaceful.
She has not seen the essence of the mountain until now. What about the thunder and lightning?
With technological civilization, even the earthlings before the New Era knew how thunder and lightning forms. The top of the cumulonimbus cloud is usually high and there are often ice crystals on the upper part of the cloud. With attached ice crystals, the breaking of water droplets, the air convection and other procedures can produce charges. Generally speaking, the upper part of the cloud is mainly full of positive charges while the lower part is negative. The potential difference is formed between the upper and lower parts. When the potential difference reaches a certain level, discharge will occur. This is “lightning”, often seen at night together with wind, rain and thunder.
During the discharge process, the air expands sharply due to the sudden increase in temperature in the lightning channel. It results in shock waves and strong thunder… Lin Luoran closes her eyes and feels the thunder and electricity in the air. This common sense which everyone knows is not enough to convince her.
Day has dawned and the thunder gradually disappears. The four of Ma Yiming finish making Xiaozhi get “castle phobia” and end the adventure of the ancient castle.
In the morning after the rain, the trembling dew drops on the tip of the grass are so beautiful. The siblings of the Ma family reach an agreement to go to the mountain forest on the other side of the river for self-cultivation. Han Weiya and Colin also run to the forest to pick up mushrooms. Only concentrative cyan little fox is left in the castle. Without disturbing thunder, it can focus more on making elixirs.
Lin Luoran is motionless. She has been standing by the window for most of the night.
The fragrant air of plants awakens her from her intoxication. Lin Luoran finally grasps the aura that surges in her heart.
Lin has no pen, ink, or paper at hand but she can’t hold the urge to write something. She stretches out her right hand and uses her index and middle fingers as pens to write something in the air.
There are still lots of lightning molecules which don’t get the time to leave. Lin Luoran moves her fingertips and they all have a tendency to move around.
Following what she learned, Lin Luoran uses her finger as a pen. Every stroke she makes is deliberate and precise, just as she remembers. After the last stroke of the word “Thunder” is completed, a large number of thunder and lightning elements have gathered in front of Lin Luoran. If she is not Lin Luoran, she must be very happy now. However, Lin Luoran feels a little disappointed.
She can clearly feel the energy generated in her “pen”. It is the gathering of thunder and lightning molecules that have not yet left after the thunderstorm.
But the golden figure is not the lowest spell which can be finished if Reiki is gathered together.
As the word “lake” written by the man in robe, it clearly grows out of nothing. The man creates a huge lake out of thin air.
So this word of thunder is totally a failure.
Lin Luoran dissipates the power of thunder and lightning gathered at her fingertips, wondering what went wrong.
Around nine o’clock, the siblings of the Ma family who went to the mountain forest for self-cultivation come back. Colin also comes back with Han Weiya. The two have picked a lot of mushrooms. Han Weiya must have learned something from spirit herbs books recently. She did not pick a bunch of brightly colored but poisonous mushrooms.
Lin hears several people talking in a low voice, saying that she was injured and they want to cook something delicious for her.
The craftsmanship of these people… Lin Luoran thinks about it and decides not to discourage them.
Lin Luoran is not discouraged when she fails to write the word figure thunder. She meditates on the carpet for a while, alleviating the anxiety caused by her serious injury. Lin Luoran goes downstairs and has a lively breakfast with a few young people. She goes straight to the mountain to get some bamboo back.
“Aunt Lin, what are you doing?”
Seeing Lin Luoran digging a hole near the castle, they all feel very strange. Ma Yiming and Colin both ask her to go to rest.
“I have nothing to do so I decide to make some paper for fun.”
She wants to make a batch of rice paper by herself to practice the golden word figure.
When she was at the University of Chuan, she read a lot of books. The ancient method of making paper is not very complicated and she thinks she can have a try.
After knowing what kind of pit Lin Luoran wants, Ma Yiming and Colin “rob” her job and begin to dig the pit.
Han Weiya and Ma Shuangshuang also do not want to fall behind. They ride on their horses and smash all the tender bamboos with horseshoes. Lin Luoran stores water in the dug pool and pushes the rotten bamboo pieces into the pit with water.
Several people follow Lin Luoran’s instructions. They find some hay and branches to cover the pit and are all tired and sweaty.
Working with bare hands can always make people feel peaceful. Besides, Lin Luoran is so badly injured that she is breathless when she uses every little spell. She doesn’t want others to know it because it will only make these young people worry.
Tender bamboo fermentation takes half a month. During this period, Lin Luoran uses ginseng slices to heal and keep on meditation every day. She also thinks about using Han Weiya’s alchemy furnace to make some healing elixirs. However, there is no hellfire near the manor. She is so injured that she can’t even lift Bolus Fire, not to mention making elixirs.
Windsor takes Judith to come here twice. Mostly, the fat prince comes here for delicious food. As the heir to the royal family, Windsor is destined to lose something called “freedom” while getting something else.
This beautiful woman can no longer be an arrogant interstellar pirate.
After half a month, tender bamboos have fermented. Cyan little fox pushes open the basement door.
“Try first. We will see if it can work.”
It is an elixir with the color of blue-and-white porcelain. The fox hasn’t named it. It’s a special way of making elixirs in the fox family so Lin Luoran also doesn’t know its Grade or Rank.
But it is really effective. Less than half an hour after she takes the elixir, Lin Luoran can feel the subtle Wakan wandering in her pubic region. It begins to nourish the damage in her body.
Ever since she forcibly restrained gathering vitality and vomited blood in the illusion circle, the four golden elixirs in her pubic region have always been stagnant. They look reluctant to make Wakan for her. However, now they get nourishment from the elixir and can even move a bit. It’s really a rare situation.
“What a good elixir!”
Lin Luoran praises sincerely. After listening to it, cyan little fox finally relaxes. It took a lot of energy to make this elixir. Its fur is dark now. Hearing Lin Luoran says that it is helpful for her injury, cyan little fox is so relieved. It is so tired and falls asleep, curling up on the carpet in her room.
Peeling, pickling, rinsing, fermentation, crushing, papermaking, pressing, uncovering, drying… for the ancient way of making paper, papermaking is the most complicated step. Lin Luoran also tries for many times. After a month, when the slightly yellowed white paper finally becomes dried, Lin Luoran can smell the remaining sunlight on the paper. She starts to practice the word figure “thunder”.
Maybe because her state of mind is gradually calming down during the papermaking process in this one month, Lin Luoran now has a special feeling when practicing the word figure “Thunder” at this moment.
The thick ink wanders on the white paper. She feels that she has caught the pulse of thunder and lightning.
She can hear her own breathing, pulse, heartbeat, and wind outside the window.
This is the end of midsummer. It is gradually cooling down. Autumn is coming and thunderstorms will no longer occur usually.
Feeling the “thunder” for the whole summer, Lin Luoran finishes writing at this moment. There are sparks on the paper. Suddenly, the white paper burns without fire and there is an exploding sound from the clear night sky.
It’s thundering—
Lin Luoran stares at the sky blankly. Did she succeed?
