Chapter 22 (2/2)

Xiang Liu stopped talking and Xiao Yao was so anxious inside. She thought that he must’ve decided to leave the North Pole after meeting Fang Feng Bei there. But by then the Sheng Nong Kingdom had fallen and General Gong Gong was leading a paltry resistance army with all his family and friends abandoning him. Yet a certain Nine-headed demon actually willingly went to him, perhaps initially it was to repay a debt, but then Gong Gong truly bonded with him so adopted him as a son. One could repay a debt, but the bonds of love and affection are impossible to ever fully repay.

When she thought to here, Xiao Yao actually hated Gong Gong a little, but she felt her hatred really made no sense. So she just pouted and was angry at herself for being angry.

Xiang Liu caressed her brows “Are you unhappy? You don’t like the snow? Then I’ll take you to play in the ocean.”

Xiang Liu descended into the ocean depths with Xiao Yao.

Who knows how many more years pa.s.sed and Xiao Yao gradually felt her own legs. She tried to wiggle her toes and it wasn’t clear if it moved. She couldn’t ask Xiang Liu to check for her. But regardless of whether it moved or not, she felt that her body was close to awakening.

One day Xiang Liu came back but instead of his usual touching her forehead and cheeks, he instead quietly stared at her. Xiao Yao couldn’t figure out what he was thinking, but she knew he was deciding something.

Xiang Liu picked up Xiao Yao “Tonight is a full moon. I’ll take you out to play!”

Xiao Yao was confused, wasn’t full moon a night for healing?”

Xiang Liu took her all over to stroll around, sometimes leisurely swimming in the ocean, other times heading up to the surface to rise and fall with the waves.

Tonight was different than usual in that he talked a lot. Every time they got to a place he would start talking.

“Here is a seaweed the size of your pallet in Qing Shui Town. If you like it, in the future you can use it to make a pallet.”

“A monster fish, and his fish inside is even better than the fish amethyst you wear. But from now on you won’t need this stuff anymore.”

A strange sound reached them from within the water, it wasn’t the sound of musical instruments or the sound of people singing. But it was even more alluring than musical instruments, and even more pure and soulful than people singing. It was so beautiful as to defy description, it was the most beautiful sound Xiao Yao had ever heard in her life.

Xiang Liu said “It’s mating season for the merpeople. This is the sound of their mating song and is purportedly the most beautiful sound in the world. The humans and the G.o.ds cannot ever heard it. Perhaps after you awaken you will be able to hear it.”

Xiang Liu took Xiao Yao out for a long time and they didn’t return until late into the night.

“Xiao Yao, do you remember Tu Shan Jing? Wen Xiao Liu’s Ye s.h.i.+ Qi? Since you’ve been sleeping, he’s also been unconscious. His life has been maintained by spiritual medicines until now but it’s almost at the limit. He’s at the brink of death.”

Jing, Jing……Xiao Yao didn’t feel sad when she died, life has its beginning so it must have an end. It didn’t start happy and need not end sad. But right now she was very sad, she didn’t want Jing to die.

Xiao Yao tried to move.

Xiang Liu asked “If he died, will you be really sad and hated me to the core?”

Xiao Yao answered in her heart: I don’t want Jing to die, but I also won’t hate you.

Xiang Liu said “Tonight I’m waking you up.”

Xiang Liu fed his essential soul blood to Xiao Yao, and different than before where it felt like warm flames that chased away the coldness of death in Xiao Yao’s body, tonight his essential soul blood was a raging inferno that scorched Xiao Yao. It was colliding in her body and appeared to rip her insides to shreds before slowly bonding it back together.

Xiao Yao couldn’t cry out but her body violently shook. Gradually her hands could move, her legs could move, and then she painfully cried out as all the soul essence entered her body and she pa.s.sed out in the midst of unbearable pain.

When Xiao Yao woke up, she felt the warm sun on her body and she subconsciously turned over to keep on sleeping. Suddenly she opened her eyes in disbelief. She laid there in a daze and then slowly raised her hand up.

Oh! She really could move!

“Xiang Liu!” Xiao Yao sat up but then her head b.u.mped into something hard and she saw stars.

No one answered her and she saw a sliver of sunlight trickling in from outside. Xiao Yao felt that she was inside some sort of sh.e.l.l and she used her hands to feel the surface above her head and her sides. The sides slowly opened like flower petals until instantly Xiao Yao was bathed in sunlight.

Only someone trapped by darkness before would understand that sunlight was the world’s most ordinary yet precious treasure! The sunlight stung her eyes but she was reluctantly to close her eyes. She faced the sunlight and slowly stood up and let out a happy holler.

After she calmed down, Xiao Yao noticed that she was wearing a loose fitting white robe and was standing on a large open clam sh.e.l.l. She was surrounded by endless ocean and the waves crested against the clam sh.e.l.l and sprayed up white foam.

All these years, Xiang Liu placed her in the middle of a clam sh.e.l.l to sleep in the ocean. Xiao Yao couldn’t contain her smile, didn’t that make her like a pearl hidden inside a clam sh.e.l.l?

Xiao Yao put her hands around her mouth and yelled “Xiang Liu, Xiang Liu. Where are you? I’m awake.”

A white and gold condor descended but without Xiang Liu on his back.

Xiao Yao stroked its back “Furball, where is your master?”

Furbal flapped his wings and called towards the sky once, as if urging Xiao Yao to get on his back.

Xiao Yao happily asked “Xiang Liu asked you to bring me to see him?

Furball shook his head.

Xiao Yao quizzically asked “Xiang Liu asked you to take me home?”

Furball nodded his head.

Whether Xiang Liu had matters to attend to or he was purposely avoiding seeing her, Xiao Yao stood there in a dumbstruck daze, the initial happiness of regaining life and light disappearing like receding waves.

Furball pecked Xiao Yao’s hand to urge her to hurry up.

Xiao Yao climbed on Furball’s back and it rose into the air and flew towards the Middle Plains.

Xiao Yao stared at the pa.s.sing ocean surface as it rushed past her like a shooting arrow, disappearing behind her. The feelings in her heart were so jumbled.

The next morning, Furball landed outside Zhi Yi Castle and Xiao Yao knew many people would recognize Xiang Liu’s winged ride and knew Furball could only take her as far as here.

For whatever reason, Xiao Yao’s heart was filled with an endless ache. She suddenly grabbed Furball’s neck tightly and Furball squirmed in annoyance but didn’t really put up a fuss. It c.o.c.ked its head and endured with a sigh.

Xiao Yao buried her face in Furball’s neck as her tears came tumbling down, one after another, falling silently on Furball’s feathers and disappearing.

Furball finally got fed up and impatiently called out once.

Xiao Yao raised her head and the tears were gone from her eyes. She slid off Furball’s back and patted him “Go back to your master!”

Furball ran a few steps and then flew into the air. Xiao Yao raised her head to watch it fly away until it was completely gone from her sight.

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Xiao Yao entered Zhi Yi Castle and saw it bustling with people on the street even more than before and felt relieved. She called for a carriage and hearing people speak made it feel warm and personable.

The carriage arrived at Little Zhu Rong’s residence and Xiao Yao got off. The two servants at the front door were new faces and didn’t recognize her. But the housekeeper did and stared incredulously at Xiao Yao while she smiled “Don’t recognize me anymore? Pay my carriage fee and then hurry to tell Xing Yue that I’m here.”

The housekeeper stuttered “Princess?”

“Yes!”

The housekeeper immediately paid the carriage and then vanished in a puff of power and then moments later Xing Yue came bursting out of the residence “Xiao Yao, is it really you?”

Xiao Yao twirled before her “Do I look like someone transformed into me?”

Xing Yue ecstatically grabbed her “Thank G.o.d!”

“How’s my Gege?”

Xing Yue said “Everything is fine other than he worries about you.”

Xiao Yao said “I ought to go to Sheng Nong Mountain to see Gege first but I heard Jing is very sick. I want to go to Qing Qiu to see him, can you come with me?”

Xing Yue pulled her inside “You came to the right place. Jing gege is not at Qing Qiu, he’s here.”

Xiao Yao said “Take me to see him now.”

Xing Yue led her to the Evergreen Residence “What happened years ago? How did Jing gege end up in the cherry blossom canyon?”

Xiao Yao replied “I don’t know either. All I know is that the man turned all the cherry blossoms into daggers and sent it flying into me. Then I couldn’t see or hear anything anymore.”

Xiao Yao remembered the extent of Xiao Yao’s injuries and still felt shocked. She patted Xiao Yao’s hand warmly “Those people who hurt you have all been dealt with by your Gege. They won’t harm you again.”

Xiao Yao was silent.

They arrived at the Evergreen Residence and Xing Yue knocked. Jing Ye opened the door and when she saw Xiao Yao she was startled “Princess?”

“It’s me!”

Jing Ye grabbed her and pulled her inside the residence and she was already crying. Xing Yue was shocked “Jing Ye, how can you be so rude to the Princess?”

Xiao Yao was being pulled behind but called back to Xing Yue “I’ll handle things here, you send word to Zhuan Xu that I’m back.”

Xing Yue realized she had things to take care of now that Xiao Yao was back “Fine, you stay here with Jing for now. If you need anything have someone summon me.”

“Fine! I won’t be polite with you!”

Xing Yue smiled and turned to leave. Because the G.o.ds lived for so long, it was common for relatives to see each other every tens of years, and even seeing family once every hundred years wasn’t uncommon or strange. So not seeing Xiao Yao for tens of years didn’t make Xing Yue feel distant from her.

Jing Ye appeared scared Xiao Yao would disappear so held her hand tightly.

She led Xiao Yao into the middle of the forest where a wooden hut was built using wood from Jade Mountain’s peach blossom trees. Walking into the room, it was filled with all sorts of exotic flowers and plants to create a maze that kept all the spiritual power centered over a crystal pallet where Jing quietly laid.

Xiao Yao sat down next to the pallet and carefully took in Jing, his body was atrophied and his face pale white.

Jing Ye said “Countless doctors came to check on Master and they all said he was broken hearted so all his spiritual essence was shattered and he is seeking death.”

Xiao Yao picked up Jing’s wrist to take his pulse.

Jing Ye continued “To keep him alive, the Grand Madam used every method and even got the Grand Emperor to allow him to be brought into the holy Yang Valley to use the holy water there to heal him. But whenever he leaves the Evergreen Residence his condition gets worse and even the most powerful spiritual essence is of no use. Princess, please save Master!”

Jing Ye kneeled before Xiao Yao and bowed her head.

Xiao Yao asked “Why would Jing choose to die, why is he so sad he doesn’t want to live anymore?”

Jing Ye glared at Xiao Yao “How could Princess not know?”

“Why should I know?”

“When Prince Zhuan Xu arrived to save Princess, they saw Master holding Princess and you had already died. The entire maze was engulfed in flames and Master could break mazes and ought to be able to leave any maze but instead he was holding Princess and sitting inside waiting for death.” Jing Ye cried “Master would rather be burned to death then leave the already dead you. Princess, how can you now know Master’s heart? He wants to be with you whether in life or in death!”

Xiao Yao turned to look at Jing and murmured “You really are so broken over me that you are seeking death?”

Xiao Yao felt the sh.e.l.l around her heart shatter completely, all those threads that she tried to cut all those times finally weaved together into a web at last.

Hu Zhen brought medicine in “Time for medicine.”

Jing Ye helped Jing up and put a cloth around his neck before feeding him the medicine. But it all dribbled out onto the cloth and nothing was taken in.

Jing Ye was worried Xiao Yao would find it distasteful and quickly wiped the medicine from his lips and explained “In the past he could take in three spoons out of ten but this year he won’t even take a single drop. Hu Zhen says that if it continues, then Master…..” Jing Ye’s tears started falling again.

Xiao Yao took over the bowl “You guys go outside, I’ll feed him the medicine.”

Jing Ye stared at Xiao Yao and she said “If I can’t do it, then I’ll call you back in, okay?”

Hu Zhen tugged Jing Ye’s sleeve and they walked out.

Xiao Yao spooned medicine and fed Jing but it all dribbled out like when Jing Ye did it.

Xiao Yao touched his cheek and sighed “What to do? Last time you were gravely injured but you had the will to live. No matter how hard to swallow you would work with me, but this time you are rejecting the medicine.”

Xiao Yao put down the bowl and held Jing by the neck and lightly kissed his eyes, then lightly kissed his nose, then lightly kissed his lips. She bit down on his lip and murmured “Do you remember? In this residence I learned the zither from you, and each time you shyly wanted to kiss me but restrained yourself and even purposely stayed a distance from me. I could sense all that but I loved to tease you so I pretended not to know. I wanted to see you battle with your own self-control. But once you kissed me, you turned from a little rabbit into a big bad wolf, no matter how I avoided I couldn’t run from you, and then I turned from the big bad wolf into the little rabbit.”

Xiao Yao laughed “But now you’re really the little rabbit and I get to do whatever with you.”

Xiao Yao picked up the medicine bowl and drank a sip before kissing Jing and dribbling the medicine into his mouth. Jing’s consciousness was still asleep but it was like a tree that wrapped its roots around soil so his subconscious started to swallow the medicine and wanted more of the sweetness. The entire spoonful of medicine went down his throat.

Just like that, with a kiss and a swallow, Xiao Yao fed him the entire bowl of medicine.

Jing’s face was still pale white but Xiao Yao’s face was reddenend and she nestled against Jing’s shoulder and said softly “Can you wake up now? I like you being the big bad wolf.”

Jing Ye waited outside for a long time but continued to worry so she knocked “Princess?”

Xiao Yao said “Come in.”

Jing Ye and Hu Zhen entered and saw Jing laying on the pallet but the bowl of medicine empty.

Jing Ye saw the cloth next to the bowl only having a few drops of medicine on it and she asked “Princess, did you dump the medicine?”

“No, I fed Jing the whole bowl.”

Jing Ye was incredulous “And only a little dribbled?”

Xiao Yao nodded “You dribbled a spoonful, I dribbled a spoonful, the rest he drank.”

Jing Ye stared while Hu Zhen nudged her “As long as Master drinks the medicine then he can be saved.”

Jing Ye was like waking from a daze and excitedly said “Go make another bowl and have Master drink another.”

Xiao Yao and Hu Zhen both laughed and Jing Ye realized she was being silly. Xiao Yao said to Hu Zhen “This medicine is good, send another bowl in four hours.”

Jing Ye asked “Princess, how did you get Master to drink the medicine? Teach me!” If Xiao Yao was just anyone, Jing Ye would keep her here to take care of Jing, but she was a Princess so no matter how much Jing Ye wanted she couldn’t dare ask Xiao Yao to help feed her Master medicine.

Xiao Yao blushed slightly and said “My method is secret and can’t be taught.”

Jing Ye was disappointed until Xiao Yao said “I’ll stay here to take care of Jing, after he wakes up I’ll leave. You don’t need to learn it.”

Jing Ye was so ecstatic she kneeled down and Xiao Yao helped her up “Give me some meat and vegetable porridge, I’m hungry.”

“Yes.” Jing Ye rushed out but then stopped and looked back. Xiao Yao said “From now on, I’ll take care of your Master and you don’t need to worry about him.”

Jing Ye happily answered “Yes!”

After Jing Ye brought the porridge, Xiao Yao ate half and fed a few spoonfuls to Jing. Xiao Yao’s const.i.tution was also just healed from a long illness, plus she didn’t sleep for an entire day and night, so she felt exhausted.

Jing Ye came to clean up and afterwards Xiao Yao said “I want to rest for a bit, don’t bother me unless it’s urgent.”

Jing Ye wanted to say something but Xiao Yao already closed the door. Jing Ye stood there for a moment before walking away with a smile.

Xiao Yao pushed Jing to the side of the pallet and then climbed on and laid down next to him. In a few moments, she was fast asleep.

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When she woke up, Xiao Yao felt the light in the room was dim which meant it was dusk already. In the light floral fragrance, Xiao Yao stretched and then Zhuan Xu’s voice reached her “You’re awake?”

Xiao Yao sat up and saw Zhuan Xu standing in the trees looking at her.

Xiao Yao leaped off the pallet and rushed into his arms “Gege!”

Zhuan Xu refused to hug her and instead wanted to push her away “I’ve been missing you and thinking of you every single day, but you come running to see another man the moment you get back.”

Xiao Yao grabbed his arm and wouldn’t let go and tenderly called out “Gege, Gege, Gege…………”

“Don’t call me Gege, I don’t have a little sister like you.”

Xiao Yao pitifully stared at Zhuan Xu “You really don’t want me anymore?”

Zhuan Xu pouted “It’s not that I don’t want you, it’s that you don’t want me!”

Xiao Yao tried to explain “I heard Jing was near death so came to see him first.”

“Then you’re not worried about me?”

“How can I not worry? When I was unconscious I often thought of you. When I entered Zhi Yi Castle was when I lessened my worry, and the first person I asked Xing Yue about was you.”

Zhuan Xu remembered the way Xiao Yao was when she was gravely injured and immediately his annoyance vanished. He sighed and pulled Xiao Yao into his arms “You scared me to death!”

Xiao Yao knew how he must’ve felt and patted his back “I’m fine now.”

Zhuan Xu asked “Want to go back to Sheng Nong Mountain with me?”

Xiao Yao bit her lip “I want to wait for Jing to wake up first.”

Zhuan Xu looked at Jing sleeping on the pallet and wearily said “Fine, but……:” Zhuan Xu rapped her hard on the head “No more sleeping with him on the same pallet. If people see it they’ll think no man wants my little sister and she’s throwing herself at a man.”

Xiao Yao stuck out her tongue but obediently said “Yes, Gege!”

Zhuan Xu asked Xiao Yao how Xiang Liu saved her.

Xiao Yao answered “I was unconscious the entire time so I don’t know the specifics. Likely due to the voodoo bug connecting us, so his life was the thread that kept me alive, and then he used a certain type of voodoo blood spell and exchanged his life to continue mine.”

Zhuan Xu thought “Voodoo bugs, voodoo blood spells, those are all unorthodox methods. Does your body feel strange?”

Xiao Yao smiled “Gege, when did you get so narrow-minded? The traditional medicine used to save people can also be used to kill. The unorthodox voodoo can also be used to save people. How do you differentiate traditional good versus unorthodox bad?”

Zhuan Xu said “I’m not narrow-minded, I’m just worried that you’ll get taken advantage of. I will keep my promise so I don’t want Xiang Liu to play tricks.”

Xiao Yao asked “Xiang Liu saving me was in exchange for something?”

Zhuan Xu said “He said he could save you and asked to take you away. I had no other choice so I agreed. A few days ago he came to see and said that if I agreed to one thing then you can return safely.”

Xiang Liu really was clear and precise on each and every thing, he never gets taken advantage of! Xiao Yao felt all sorts of conflicted feelings, unsure if it was disappointment or relief “What was the deal?”

“He wanted one of Sheng Nong Mountain’s peaks.”

“What do you mean?”

“I asked Xiang Liu the same thing and he said that all the resistance soldiers following General Gong Gong are unable to forget their homeland but are willing to fight for their cause. If they died they would still not be able to be buried in their homeland. Xiang Liu asked that if one day I were to become the Xuan Yuan Emperor, then I was to carve out one of Sheng Nong Mountain’s peaks as a sacred land and then all the dead resistance army soldiers who were cremated could have their ashes brought back and buried in the Sheng Nong Mountain they long for.”

“Did you agree?”

Zhuan Xu sighed “Even a little peak in Sheng Nong Mountain is still a peak in Sheng Nong Mountain! I know this is a big deal so I can’t readily agree. But I also couldn’t say no, and it wasn’t just because of you. It was because I too want to give those men a place to rest peacefully. They are my enemies on the battlefield and we do our best to kill each other, but I respect their fight!”

Xiao Yao said nothing.

Zhuan Xu smiled “But I also told Xiang Liu that he might get shafted in this deal. What if I can’t become the Xuan Yuan Emperor? He can’t come find you then and cause trouble. Xiang Liu agreed but I still worry that he might have tricks up his sleeve.”

Xiao Yao laughed “Don’t worry, if Xiang Liu wanted to kill me using voodoo and such spells it’s not that easy to harm me.”

“Every time you mention voodoo you just glance over it, but how exactly did you learn to raise and plant a voodoo bug? And who taught you all the poison tricks you know?”

Xiao Yao asked “Can we talk secretly here?”

Zhaun Xu nodded and cast a protective spell barrier around them. Xiao Yao asked “So you know the Sheng Nong Herb Manual?”

“Of course, legend has it the Flame Emperor used his entire life to write that manual after testing every living herb in existence. The entire world wants that manual but after the Flame Emperor died it disappeared.”

“It was actually with my Mom. Do you remember when Grandmother and Grandfather were both ill and it was my Mom who was healing them.”

“Of course, but I always thought Auntie learned medicine from the court doctors.”

“I did as well and it was only later that I realized my Mom learned medicine from the Flame Emperor.”

“But….how could that be? Grandfather long wanted to exterminate the Sheng Nong Kingdom.”

“Who knows? Perhaps my Mom stole it.”

“Nonsense!” Many times Zhuan Xu’s respect for Xiao Yao’s mom greatly eclipsed her own.

“When Mom left me in Jade Mountain, around my neck was a jade container that held the Sheng Nong Herb Manual which taught my Mom all about medicines, but it also contained the Jiu Li Poison Voodoo Manual which contained all the spells about using poison and bugs. When the Royal Mother discovered it, she said both books were future catastrophes if people discovered it. She forced me to memorize both and then she destroyed it afterwards.” Xiao Yao remembered how she cried and sobbed and refused to talk with the Royal Mother afterwards for destroying what her mom left for her.

Xiao Yao said “Initially I tucked all that knowledge away in the back of my mind, but when I was captured by the Nine-tailed fox, I remembered the poison learnings. I knew I only had one chance to poison him so I was very careful, and even worried that the Voodoo King’s voodoo manual poisons were not deadly and discreet enough, and even used the Flame Emperor’s medical research to create more poisons.”

Xiao Yao waved her hands “My Mom left me those things likely wanting me to become a healer to ease the people’s suffering, but I think I’m going to become the poison master of my generation.”

Zhuan Xu smiled and touched her head “You do whatever you like.”

Xing Yue called outside “Zhuan Xu, Xiao Yao, my Gege is back.”

Zhuan Xu pulled Xiao Yao out “Have dinner with me, and after I leave you can take care of that guy however you want. If I don’t see it then it won’t annoy me as much!”

Xiao Yao smiled “Fine.”

As she walked out she said to Jing Ye “Since Jing is staying here, then clean up Jing’s old room and I’ll stay there for now.”

Jing Ye saw Zhuan Xu said nothing so relaxed and said with a smile “Yes.”

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Xiao Yao, Zhuan Xu, Xing Yue, and Feng Long enjoyed dinner that night and Xiao Yao discovered that she was actually asleep for thirty seven years.

Xiao Yao just got back and no one wanted to discuss too somber matters so merely condensed all the interest

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