Don’t tell me this is the exact technique little Hua has fallen for with Gu Yanying?
Qiu Haitang shook her head and dismissed this absurd thought. Not only would the technique blind the man with love, the woman would be the same. If she still refused to be lovesick, the red thread would fade in colour, and she would waste her only opportunity for nothing.
She sank into her thoughts again. She could only use this technique once in her life, so she had to be extremely prudent. She became slightly excited inside. They all say that those who possess the Aspect of Peach Blossom Beauty never have their love reciprocated and will die in melancholy. I don’t believe this at all. Master, oh master, watch as Haitang breaks this predestined fate!
If she had obtained this cultivation method a few years ago, she definitely would have used it on Hua Chengzan without the slightest hesitation, but it took her quite a lot of thought before she could make any decision now. After thinking long and hard, she decided to not think about this for now. She would grasp the cultivation method first.
Originally, changing her cultivation method was not this easy. However, the Major Method of Clouds and Rain and the Heart Dyeing Art of Rouge had many similar aspects. They both involved Profound Yin spiritual qi, and she happened to have a Rouge Heart in her possession.
Hmph, Northmoon, if you ever dare to force yourself onto me, don’t even think about getting away scot-free, without taking any responsibility!
Qiu Haitang smiled proudly and immediately sat down. She held the Rouge Heart in her hand and began practising the Heart Dyeing Art of Rouge.
Gradually, a dense, red light spread out, permeating her surroundings and making the pitch-black bottom of the lake an extremely magnificent place.
……
On one side, Li Qingshan controlled his mirror clone to continue refining the rivers and lakes of the Ruyi commandery. In the past, he had refined many large rivers and lakes, but he had done so in a hurry. Now, he was carefully experiencing the process. He wanted to refine all the bodies of water within the Ruyi commandery so that he could make preparations for breaking through to the fifth layer of the spirit turtle and the second heavenly tribulation.
On the other side, he spent half a day dealing with the majority of the matters in the academy before going to the school of Medicine to find Ru Xin.
In the alchemy room, Ru Xin had already refined the Jade Melting cauldron. She was currently refining a cauldron of pills, but her eyebrows were slightly furrowed. She seemed rather uneasy. Suddenly, she heard Li Qingshan calling for her outside, so she stood up and opened the door. A smile immediately appeared on her face.
“Congratulations, congratulations! Sir, you’ve conquered another beautiful woman! You’ve found your partner for life now!”
For once, Li Qingshan heard something that was not so horrible from her, but the sneer on her face was basically as clear as day. He could not help but smile. “Yeah. You have no idea. Her figure and her voice…”
Ru Xin interrupted him. “Then why have you come here?”
“Stop making me explain all the time. Didn’t we agree on it?”
“Tsk, looks like you didn’t end up getting your way.”
“I’m not as lustful as you think I am!”
Li Qingshan was not boasting with that. If he truly were lustful in nature, then the night roamers had all those women for him to enjoy. There was so much variety in type and age that even a harem of three thousand paled in comparison.
As long as the night roamers developed properly, he could easily sleep with a different one every day without doubling up, all the way until the end of time. However, if he spent all his time and energy on this, that would simply be stupid.
Ru Xin could not help but admit that too. Even the weaker Qi Practitioners of the academy would often do things like going drinking with women. It truly was anything but strange for them to have a few consorts outside the academy. Li Qingshan could already be considered as rather self-disciplined in this respect.
“Let’s go then, you lustless man!” Ru Xin stowed her cauldron away. She no longer had to attend to the cauldron at all times now.
“To where?”
“Obviously to a place of cultivation!”
Ru Xin took off into the air, and Li Qingshan followed closely behind. They left the academy and arrived in the sky.
Ru Xin shut her eyes as if she was sensing for something. A while later, she determined her direction and flew off towards the south.
Li Qingshan gazed into the distance. The horizon was a line of black clouds.
Gentle drizzle drifted down from the dark skies, swept about by the wind like white mist, silently nourishing the earth.
Ru Xin descended and landed on open plains. The verdant, green grass reached all the way up to her waist.
“So you were looking for a place with rain!” Li Qingshan landed close behind her.
“This is the first lesson!”
Ru Xin extended her right hand. The drizzle in the surroundings revolved and danced around, gathering in her hand and forming a white ball of water.
“How difficult can that be?”
Li Qingshan raised his hand, and all the drizzle within three hundred meters of him was violently drained away, forming a semi-spherical space without a single droplet of rain and condensing into a huge ball of water in his hand.
As long as he wanted to, even draining all the drizzle within five kilometers of him would not be difficult. In terms of control over water, even Ru Xin, a merfolk, paled in comparison.
“You idiot, not like that! Look closely!”
Ru Xin brought the white ball of water before Li Qingshan. Li Qingshan discovered that every single droplet of rain was flying around, but they did not merge together. They seemed to be dancing about randomly, but they did not collide even a single time.
Ru Xin’s gaze drifted like the light drizzle as if she had entered an extremely deep recollection.
Li Qingshan tossed away the huge ball of water and extended his hand again, gathering the drizzle once more. He discovered that maintaining the overall shape of the ball while maintaining the trajectories of the thousands of droplets of water at the same time was not easy.
“Let’s go!” Ru Xin casually tossed her ball of water at his face. It turned into mist mid-air and flooded Li Qingshan’s face. The moment he felt some of the moisture, the ball of mist dispersed. He asked in surprise, “Let’s go? But you haven’t even said anything yet.”
Ru Xin said, “What do you want to hear from a lesson that doesn’t even cost you a dime?”
Li Qingshan curled his lip. “How much do you want?”
“Forget about it. Hold onto that thing in your hand!”
Ru Xin took off and arrived in a small, fenced courtyard on the edge of a village. A guard dog barked madly at her. She shot a glance at it, and it immediately whimpered, scurrying back into its kennel with its tail between its legs.
Afterwards, she pointed at the tank of water in a corner and shot a glance at Li Qingshan in the same way. “Stick your head in there!”
“What kind of cultivation is this? I’ve even seen many large rivers and lakes, so what can a tank of water do? Don’t even think about fooling me!”
Ru Xin smiled, or more accurately, she forced out a smile. “Immediately!”
Li Qingshan stared at her for quite a while before walking over to the water tank helplessly and plunging his head in there.
In the house, a farmer’s wife with a kitchen knife in her had peered through the crack in the door fearfully and saw a strange sight. A woman in white as beautiful as a goddess stood in the centre of the courtyard as a large man plunged his head into the water tank.
Much later, Ru Xin knocked the side of the water tank and smiled. “Let’s go!” She still did not give any explanation.
Li Qingshan rushed here and there with Ru Xin, witnessing all kinds of water, from wells to puddles, from small trickles to deep pools.
Only the ball of water that Li Qingshan still held in his hand since the very beginning felt a little like cultivation. The rest was all performance art, or more accurately, being fooled.
For example, the well he leapt in was actually a dry well. He said, “There’s no water in here at all!” Ru Xin answered, “Exactly because there’s no water.” before sealing the well for a whole day. As Li Qingshan sat at the bottom of the well, he was even prepared to commit murder.
If anyone else dared to fool him like this, he would have smashed their heads in with a punch long ago. However, although Ru Xin’s various demands truly seemed no different from performance art, very stupid and very pointless, they also seemed to be hiding great meaning.
For the sake of his great cause of cultivation, Li Qingshan could only put up with it.
He felt like Ru Xin seemed to be in a rather bad mood. She did not even joke around, her face overcast. Only when he finished cultivating, or in other words, when he had been successfully fooled, would she let out a smile as if the clouds had cleared up.
Of course, he was not a romantic who was willing to do various stupid things to make a beauty smile. All of this was for the sake of cultivation. Yep, exactly that! Even if he found the smile quite nice, he was only playing his role as her friend.
Several days later, under the dripping eaves of a ruined mountain temple, Ru Xin sat on the stone steps and propped up her face, gazing at the gloomy skies in a silent trance.
Li Qingshan sat beside her, gazing at the droplets of water. Just like all their predecessors, they landed on the groove in the tiles and were smashed to pieces.
And what was the meaning of this performance? She still did not explain it.
Li Qingshan listened to the sound of rain. His mind gradually settled down, and he recalled the various kinds of water he had come across during the past few days.
The water trapped in the tank silently seeped through every crack. The bottom of the dry well was filled with moisture. The deep pool seemed bottomless at first glance, while the muddy and shallow puddles clearly reflected the sky, as well as her face.
Ru Xin suddenly stood up and yawned. “Alright, it’s about time to go back.”
“Just what is the meaning of all this?” Li Qingshan could not help but ask.
“How would I know?” Ru Xin shrugged.
“In other words, you admit you spent the last few days fooling me!” Li Qingshan pushed closer to her in a confrontational manner.
“Do you know what you mean to me?”
“Huh?” Li Qingshan was taken aback, and his feet stopped.
“It’s just like how I don’t know what I mean to you either. Water has no fixed form, just like how all is impermanent. All I can do I get you to see and feel. As for the meaning, all you can do is ask yourself and look at your own hand.”
Li Qingshan gazed at the ball of water in his hand. Under Ru Xin’s request, he had maintained it the entire time. Before he knew it, it already began showing signs of stability. There was still a difference compared to Ru Xin’s, but he had already improved a lot.
“I’ll admit you have a point!”
Ru Xin quietened down. “Those words weren’t from me. My mother told me that!”
“Your mother!? Did she also make you plunge your head into a water tank or lock you up in a dry well?” The actual question Li Qingshan wanted to ask was not this, but he was unable to bring himself to ask that when he saw her expression.
“Why would my mother play tricks on me!?” Ru Xin stared at him in surprise like he was an idiot.
Li Qingshan rolled his eyes before smiling gladly. She’s finally back to normal at least.
Ru Xin suddenly took out a neatly-folded Communication talisman. She listened quietly for a while and said, “My master is calling me. Hmm? Chu Tian is awake!”
“I better see for myself too then!”
Li Qingshan smiled. He also knew that cultivation was not something that could be accomplished in a single stroke. Since he had already seen what he needed to see, what he needed to do next was comprehend in peace and search for the meaning within.
The two of them took off into the sky together. When they passed through the clouds, Li Qingshan suddenly asked, “If you don’t tell me, of course I wouldn’t know what I mean to you. And, if you want to know what you mean to me, you can just ask me. People aren’t water. They can help one another to understand!”
Above the clouds, the sun shone brilliantly as the blue sky stretched as far as the eye could see. The pure-white sea of clouds rose and fell, extending into the horizon.
Ru Xin was mildly taken aback. She smiled resplendently. “Perhaps!”
