Chapter 282 – Even If They Met, They Would not Recognize Each Other (1/2)
Chapter 282 - Even If They Met, They Would not Recognize Each Other
It was late at night, and the indistinct disk of light in the plains still hung over the horizon, giving even the reeds at the edge of the plains a little light. Xu Yourong opened her eyes as she awoke. The crystals in her hands had already become useless powder and the true essence in her body had recovered somewhat. However, it was only enough to suppress the poison in her blood, and could not be used to solve any of her other problems.
With a thought, she retracted her pure white wings. Only when her fingers brushed up against something did she remember that she had rescued a human cultivator.
Her finger rested against that human cultivator's vein, then after a moment, she slightly raised her brow. She seemed rather surprised—this human cultivator did not have that much true essence, and it was not a result of any sort of battle. There was something wrong with the meridians themselves. To be born with such a defect and yet still enter Ethereal Opening and thus obtain the qualifications to enter the Garden of Zhou; one could infer from this just how diligently he inevitably would have had to cultivate.
It was a pity that this person's luck was simply too disastrous. The Garden of Zhou was so vast, and yet he somehow managed to encounter Nanke's two wings. His body was heavily injured, and if he did not receive treatment soon, he would definitely die. The other reason this person's luck was just too disastrous had to do with her current situation. Currently, her true essence was almost completely exhausted and she had lost a lot of blood. It was simply impossible for her to use the Sacred Light technique to treat his wounds.
She stood up and looked towards the depths of those plains as she shook her head, then she turned around and began walking in the opposite direction. Across the pond of reeds, not too far away, was dry land. A little further past that was a forest, and past the forest, she could faintly see a cliff. If she followed that cliff, she would probably arrive at one of the gardens that the human cultivators were gathered in. She even remembered that this particular cliff had many caves.
She silently gazed at the dense forest and cliff through the weeds. Yes, she only remembered, but she could not see it clearly. Right now, her vision was still blurry.
She had thought that the person's situation to be dire, but her situation was even more disastrous. In order to escape from Nanke with that person in tow, she had ignited far too much of her Heavenly Phoenix true blood, and now the poison in her blood had begun to spread. Her vision, as well as the rest of her five senses, had all received serious damage. If she could not promptly make her way out of the Garden of Zhou, she really would die here.
At the summit of Sunset Valley, the phoenix soul had awakened, but so what? Without a fleshly body to inhabit, what did it matter how strong the soul was? Without a lamp wick for the flame, could the flame exist? Would she really die here?
A gentle breeze blew from the plains. As it blew across the water beneath the reeds and weeds, its temperature lowered, and it felt slightly chilly. Her expression remained serene, but the hands that hung over the edge of her skirt began to tremble, as if they wanted to grasp the wind but could not. As she calmly gazed at the mountains of the Garden of Zhou, slowly… ever so slowly… for some reason, she became angry.
Yesterday when she had taken her final leave from the Mountainside Whispering Wood, she had gone to where the senior from Holy Maiden Peak was and learned that Chen Changsheng and the wolf youth had quietly departed. It seemed they had gone upstream of that river. As the next Holy Maiden of the south, she was privy to many secrets. Although she did not know it exactly, she knew that the entrance to the Sword Pool was some place upstream of that river.
Chen Changsheng's original destination had been the Sword Pool.
The upper reaches of the river were separated from this patch of reeds and from the peak of Sunset Valley by several hundred li. Separated by such a vast distance, even if Chen Changsheng and Zhexiu could fly, they still would not have been able to rush over here.
This was why she was angry.
She had never concealed her thoughts on Chen Changsheng, and she had never much liked the fiancé that she had never laid eyes on. However, she and that person had a marriage contract between them after all, so she naturally had some conjectures, and even hopes.
Only with hope can there be disappointment.
As she looked at the mountains of the Garden of Zhou, gazing in the direction of the upper reaches of that river, she developed an ineffable fury towards that fellow. ”He doesn't have the slightest grasp of the bigger picture, only knowing how to treat injuries and save lives. Could it be that he didn't see that this was all part of the demons' plan? His actions are so extremely small-minded that it really makes one angry.”
The chaos within the Garden of Zhou definitely had something to do with the demons. It was only because she had reached this conclusion that she had walked that lonesome mountain path on Sunset Valley. If Chen Changsheng and Zhexiu had reached the same conclusion and they had pooled their strength, then together with Liang Xiaoxiao and Qi Jian, those two members of the Divine State's Seven Laws, they would have definitely been able to break through the demons' plans.
But Chen Changsheng had gone to find the Sword Pool, so she had given such an evaluation.
She could not have thought that at the peak of Sunset Valley, Nanke had given a similar evaluation of her.
”As expected, Shuang'er wasn't wrong. Normally he'll appear honest and considerate, kind and benevolent, but when push comes to shove, you can see the cold selfishness within. At this time, he still regards the Sword Pool as more important than anything else. Only… why was it that he was like me, rushing around the Garden of Zhou for two nights doing his utmost to save others?”
Xu Yourong creased her brows in thought, then finally came to an answer—Chen Changsheng had done it on purpose and saved all those people for her to see.
”Did he use this method so that… I would get a good impression of him? Truly a hypocritical scoundrel.”
Her mood was a little strange, so she no longer thought about it. Turning, she went to look at the cultivator that she had rescued. Because her vision was still blurry, she lowered her head and moved very close to get a clearer view of that person's appearance. His unconscious appearance, with his brows creased tightly together, still gave a honest and calm impression, like one would want to get to know him. His age was around twenty years old.
”He seems like a sincere person. For him to be at Ethereal Opening at his age, perhaps he's some heavily favored core disciple of some sect, or perhaps he was on one of the Three Banners of this year's Grand Examination. It's a pity that he's going end up a corpse in this wilderness.”
She had confirmed that she could do nothing to save him, so she could not help but feel a little regret. She shook her head in pity, then reached out her hand and began to search his body, looking for something that could prove his identity. Unexpectedly, she found nothing except a very ordinary dagger, whose surface bore no mark or insignia.
She remembered that when she rescued him last night, there had been a strange weapon in his hands, possessing the shape of an umbrella, but now she could not find it. She wrinkled her brow, then perhaps because she thought of something, she turned around and began to make her way to the dry land across the pond of reeds. The water soaked her skirt, causing her to leave marks on the beach at the edge of the forest.
In the very instant Xu Yourong's figure disappeared into the trees, a thin black silhouette fell like lightning on that patch of reeds.
The reeds swayed with the wind. A strand of Qi suddenly appeared then just as quickly vanished. A little girl wearing a black dress appeared by Chen Changsheng's side. At her waist was a jade ruyi.
The little girl had a cold expression, and her vertical pupils were as black as her dress. All this made that red birthmark between her eyebrows seem all the gaudier.
She was the Black Dragon. Chen Changsheng called her Zhizhi, or sometimes he would call her Hongzhuang.
As she stared at the unconscious Chen Changsheng, the slightest trace of concern and confusion appeared in her cold expression. ”Weren't you on the other side of the cliff? How did you suddenly end up here?”
As a noble and powerful Black Frost Dragon, even though she was but a strand of a soul, it only took her a glance to see that Chen Changsheng's insides were riddled with injuries.