“You just don’t like to consider these things.” Xiao An smiled.
“I’m already prepared to go for a great battle with the Soaring Locust King. You sure know how to undermine me!” Li Qingshan pinched her nose in both blame and affection.
“I just want to reduce your troubles as much as possible,” Xiao An said in an aggrieved manner.
“I know, but you should still discuss it with me first in the future! Sometimes, the simplest and most effective method isn’t always the best. No problems also means no challenges. At the end of the day, the path I walk is to advance valiantly, not hiding away somewhere and scheming. Oh! I suddenly understand what they mean by afflictions are also opportunities for enlightenment. Looks like I didn’t eat the Fruit of Wisdom for nothing.”
Xiao An could not help but giggle. She bit her lip to stifle her laughter and said, “Yeah, I promise.”
Li Qingshan lowered his head and kissed her on the forehead gently. The red mole between her eyebrows was just as distinct as before, but she had already gone from a muddle-headed child to a beautiful young woman. Her petite body had become much more graceful too. Most importantly, she had her own thoughts and ideas now, which left him both glad and also somewhat despondent to a certain degree.
“You probably have to stay here for a few days?”
“I want to take part in the entire plan.”
“Fair enough. I need to find the time to pay a visit to the Sword Collection palace and pull out the sword they owe me.”
The treasured swords of the Sword Collection palace had already become inessential to Li Qingshan, but why would he not take it when it was free? He could basically get some payback against the Sword Collection palace too, so why not?
“The Sword Collection palace,” Xiao An murmured in thought.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re humming and hawing again. Oh right, since your memory has recovered, who exactly was the one who harmed you originally? Don’t tell me it’s that Light Queen or whoever she is? We’ll get revenge no matter what!”
“It’s difficult to say.” Xiao An shook her head, also a little uncertain.
“We’re in no hurry anyway. Once this wraps up, we’ll investigate properly. Who cares who the bastard is. We’ll line them up and give them a beating one by one.”
Li Qingshan said that and was about to set off for the north. Xiao An clung onto him firmly and said softly, “You can leave tomorrow.”
“Alright then!”
As a result, the two of them just embraced each other quietly, watching the moon sink below the endless mountains. They did not say anything, but they understood one another.
On the peak of Great Buddha mountain, the Dauntless monk saw this from afar and frowned a little before letting out a sigh in the end and turning around to return to his meditation room. He contemplated the people who he had to contact for the plan this time.
The Fierce King of Chu would definitely be the first!
……
The King of Chu’s estate.
The caretaker of the estate led two people through the meandering hallways and arrived before a small, quiet building. Before the caretaker could even say anything, the doors suddenly opened, and a middle-aged man walked out. He was dressed in fancy, green clothes with a book in his hand. He studied the two people behind the caretaker indifferently.
One of them was a short, old man with skin as dark as charcoal, while the other was a slender woman with a face like white jade. The woman’s cultivation was clearly an entire realm higher than the old man’s, but she treated the man with great respect. They were Ru Xin and Hua Ci.
“Disciples of the school of Medicine, Hua Ci and Ru Xin, greet your majesty!”
The Fierce King of Chu asked, “I heard you have a way to deal with the locust plague?”
“We do,” Ru Xin said confidently.
“You’re not human?” The Fierce King of Chu squinted his eyes slightly. He noticed Ru Xin’s otherfolk aura immediately, but to his surprise, he was actually unable to immediately differentiate the bloodline she possessed.
“Is that important?” Ru Xin answered with a question.
“Answer honestly. Whether it’s important or not is not for you to decide,” the caretaker rebuked.
“Is this how the king’s estate treats talents?” Ru Xin was well-versed in life, so she could not be frightened by a single caretaker. Instead, Hua Ci felt rather unnatural, except it was not particularly obvious given his complexion.
“Talents? None of the honoured guests in the king’s estate have a cultivation below the third heavenly tribulation.” The Fierce King of Chu’s lips curled into a mocking smile that was not particularly obvious.
“Then you’re welcome to have them deal with the locust plague, your majesty. We’ll be taking our leave,” said Ru Xin.
“Alright, tell me your idea. I hope it’s not a waste of my time!” the Fierce King of Chu said.
Ru Xin began to tell him her plan. In the beginning, the Fierce King of Chu had still been rather inattentive. How could a Golden Core cultivator and Foundation Establishment cultivator resolve a problem that even a group of great cultivators struggled to solve, let alone the fact that they were disciples of the school of Medicine, the school least skilled in combat. However, he gradually became serious as he listened to Ru Xin’s explanation.
On all previous occasions when he assembled the honoured guests for discussions, his objective had always been to find Soaring Locust King somehow and to kill him. However, Ru Xin had put forward a completely different solution. It could not kill the Soaring Locust King, but it could contain the locust plague from the very source and constrain the Soaring Locust King.
When Ru Xin finished telling him her plan, the Fierce King of Chu shut his eyes and pondered over his thoughts for a moment. He opened them again and said, “Stop wasting time. Spread the plague immediately. I’ll send people to provide you with protection, as well as to give you their full cooperation. Once this is over, you will be honoured guests of the king’s estate. I will personally arrange a banquet to celebrate your deeds!”
Ru Xin and Hua Ci bade farewell, and the Fierce King of Chu paced through the courtyard a little longer alone. Suddenly, he received a message from the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, which left him delighted. The heavens are smiling upon me. With this two-pronged approach, it’s finally time for me to deal with this source of great trouble!
There was another piece of news with the message, which left him extremely curious.
Not only has that One Will recovered the Affliction Severing blade and reached an agreement with the Golden Cicada Spirit King, but she’s even undergone the third heavenly tribulation and defeated the Seven Treasures Monk King! What an unbelievable genius. Even Xuanri pales slightly in comparison to her!
He had heard about Xiao An’s achievements a long time ago, but he had never seen her in person. He felt slightly eager for some reason, which surprised him a little. He temporarily set this thought aside, planning to go to the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga to meet her first. He was considering exactly who to send to protect the two disciples of the school of Medicine.
……
“Please hold on. My king is sending someone over right now.”
In a small garden within the king’s estate, the caretaker became much more polite towards them.
“Yes,” said Hua Ci.
“Congratulations, master. Felicitations, master. You’re becoming an honoured guest of the king’s estate.” Ru Xin clasped her hands with a smile.
“Just you coming was enough. Why did you have to drag me along?”
Hua Ci originally refused to come to the king’s estate with Ru Xin. He had been dragged here against his will by her. Gazing at Ru Xin before him, the little girl from the past had finally grown up such that she had thoughts of her own. She was finally free from her hatred too, which made him sigh with a smile.
“If it weren’t for the sake of letting master have it easy in the future, why would I travel all the way here?” Ru Xin said.
“It was a very correct decision for you to return,” said Hua Ci. Even he had never imagined a plague would be able to save everyone.
“I have to help you break through the second heavenly tribulation at the very least. Look, even someone like Qian Rongzhi could become a Golden Core cultivator. Master, you’ve been too negligent of your cultivation during the recent years,” said Ru Xin.
“She’s a genius like you, not someone I can compare to.”
“Genius? I think she just suffered a little more than others!”
When Ru Xin returned to the Academy of the Hundred Schools to find Hua Ci, she saw another genius make it onto Qian Rongzhi’s island. His name was Lin Xuan, or perhaps Chu Tian.
By now, it had already become very difficult to tell whether their sickness of madness and arrogance had been cured or if they had already reached beyond salvation!
“That’s reasonable.” “Meow~”
A faint voice rang out from the darkness, coupled with the lazy meow of a cat. The Dark Queen emerged from within the dancing tree shadows, holding a black cat with heterochromia. “Under the King of Chu’s orders, I’ve come to protect the two of you.”
This Month is Still Not Over Yet
I’m currently participating in an event organised by Qidian. I arrived in Shanghai yesterday before flying to Xinchang today. During that time, I discarded the plot that I thought of previously and outlined some new details. I basically stayed in the hotel for the entire afternoon yesterday. When they asked me how many characters I had written, I said, “A single sentence.” Alright, I’m overestimating myself here. I ended up deleting that sentence too.
When I write, it’s like the breathing of a patient in critical condition. It’s always almost non-existent and survival can only be ensured in the intensive care ward isolated from the world. Just living by itself already takes all of my energy, and even just the slightest interference from the outside world makes me feel like my time is up.
But I don’t plan on apologising for now. It’s a hundred and twenty thousand characters. It isn’t the end of the month yet, so I still have hope! Today, I even said in the chat group that I’ve basically achieved the specifics of what I promised, such as how many releases there would be yesterday and how many there would be today.
As for something as vague as when I said I wanted stable releases, it actually wasn’t just for say either. Most of the time, it’s when I think the upcoming plot will be relatively smoother and I have a relatively complete outline in mind, but I’ve realised almost immediately that thinking up half a month’s worth of plot in half a day doesn’t suit me at all. If I force myself to follow the outline, it’ll be written horribly.
According to my precise calculations, I’ve released forty eight thousand words so far. I’m still missing seventy two thousand, which is roughly six thousand characters a day from now onwards. Alright, it’s not like I haven’t tried a release rate like that. I also find two thousand words a day to be dissatisfying.
One more day tomorrow and the event will be basically over. Then, it’s about time I march on forwards. I really don’t feel despair until it’s staring me right in the face, don’t I?
