Chapter 40
Seeing that black shadow about to surge into her body, a tiny silhouette shot out from her embrace and the two met in midair.
“When we accepted this mission, it hadn’t…hadn’t been like this. How could it be that with merely a single night…” Bai Jing had never seen such a blood-soaked and bleak scene; she only managed a few words, unable to continue on. Her words led to a violent clench of the other three’s hearts.
“Could it be, we…” Su Yu only managed four words then stopped, but what she was going to say was perfectly clear to Ruan Li and Hua Xuwan. Taking a breath, Ruan Li walked directly out.
“A-Li, where are you going?” Su Yu was somewhat worried, and hurriedly chased after her.
Ruan Li paused, surveying her surroundings, “I’m searching for someone.”
“Who?” Su Yu failed to understand why.
Shooting a glance at her, Ruan Li’s brows tightly locked: “Zitan Jun had said before that there were people who came to investigate. Though they were unsuccessful, but having discovered that there was a spirit wreaking havoc, they couldn’t have left without a word. Aside from the corpses of the villagers just then, had any of you seen any immortal sect disciples?”
Hua Xuwan was suddenly enlightened, and then shook her head with a grave face, “I wanted to see if there were any survivors, hence I had searched thoroughly through the southern part of the village. There weren’t any.”
“I didn’t see any either.”
Ruan Li’s expression became heavy, “We’ll search again, I still feel like we’ve missed something.”
“We’ll split up to search. If there were immortal sect disciples present, no matter what, there’s certain to be signs of battle,” Hua Xuwan pondered.
Su Yu nodded and then turned to look at Bai Jing, “Bai Jing, you’ll come with me. A-Li, you go with Xuwan. If there’s anything suspicious, don’t act alone.”
They nodded and split into groups of two to investigate once more. Ruan Li still came back empty handed; in every home, there were only corpse after corpse with their hearts ripped out, unbearably tragic to witness.
“Is this really a clam spirit? How could it do such a heartbreakingly brutal thing?”
The fires of resentment burned in Hua Xuwan’s heart, her face dark and gloomy. No matter whether it was a man or woman, elderly or young—this monster hadn’t let a single person go. As soon as she thought of how there were even infants killed, her heart was wrung out even further.
Ruan Li said nothing, only her hand tightly clutching at her sword’s hilt betrayed her current mood. For this life, what she hated most, was the act of exterminating a clan and massacring a village; everything in front of her was a reminder to what the Dragon Clan had experienced in bygone years. Even the greatest hatred, the greatest ambition, shouldn’t allow for so many innocent and defenceless people to pay with their lives. In that bygone battle, she was still resting in her egg and was too well-protected by her dad; left entirely unaware as to the devastating situation outside.
Later, she heard tales of the scene back then, more than once, from the mouths of dragons who escaped the calamity; one could imagine the tragic scene from merely the gaps left between their words. Infant dragons who had just been born, dragon eggs waiting to hatch, and the parents who had their dragon cores carved out, skinned, tendons torn out alive—all for the sake of guarding those young dragons.
The more she thought, the more the hatred in her eyes grew. She stared unblinkingly into the house, at the young man and woman protecting their infant daughter. This feeling of sympathy had already caused her to lose all control.
Originally, Hua Xuwan was immersed in the flames of resentment, but suddenly felt that the aura of the girl beside her was off. Turning to look and discovering that Ruan Li was glaring at that family, surrounded by low pressure, a ruthless intent permeating through the frigidness of her aura, clothes also swaying without a breeze.
Despite knowing that it was Ruan Li, Hua Xuwan still felt cold terror. She simply didn’t dare to call her immediately, swallowing before probing: “Ruan Li, you…what’s wrong with you?”
Her head came up, a frightening killing intent contained within her black eyes; Hua Xuwan unconsciously took a step back. Right then, a paper crane flapped its wings to rapidly fly over, only then did the killing intent in her eyes die down, regaining her sanity.
She desperately met Hua Xuwan’s eyes, gritting out between her clenched jaw: “This spirit is too despicable, I definitely won’t let it live. Hua-shijie, it seems to have discovered something, we should hurry over to have a look.”
Seeing that she transformed back into the Ruan Li she was familiar with, she let out a breath. After catching up, she couldn’t help but exclaim: “Ruan Li, your aura just then really scared me. It really had a few parts of Huaizhu Jun’s imposing manner.”
Ruan Li’s eyes were slightly dim, apologising: “I was too emotional, not controlling it with you.”
“I don’t blame you. I also want to catch this clam demon and rip it to shreds.”1
Not only did Hua Xuwan have no thoughts to the contrary, she was deeply moved that despite Ruan Li learning her imposing manner, that personality of hers with a sense of justice and clear distinction between hatred and love was entirely unaffected by Huaizhu Jun.
The two followed the crane to the west side of the village, that expansive river once again spread before their eyes. Looking into the distance, those three willow trees were still visible.
“What have you found?” Ruan Li extended her hand to invite the crane over. After landing on her palm, the crane pecked at her hand. Once it had stopped, she looked to the river’s surface.
She felt that something was off, especially the position of that willow tree, the flow and direction of the river seemed different from what they saw at the entrance of the village. The pair approached the shore step by step, the river’s surface increasingly bewitching.
“Hua-shijie, bring shijie over here,” at this moment, Ruan Li was already guarded, eyeing the undisturbed and still waters.
Infected by her, Hua Xuwan also nervously stared at the river’s surface, immediately drawing a transmission talisman in midair, the talisman paper turned to ash in the blink of an eye, the glyphs on it instantly flying into the village.
“What have you found?” Hua Xuwan squinted at the river’s surface, yet saw nothing at all.
“I don’t know, I simply sense that there’s something really wrong with this place,” finishing, she hung her head and looked at her feet, then gradually looked back. Yellow dirt was beneath her feet, and ten steps behind her was a patch of already withered wild grasses.
The grass was slanted over, and oddly dense.
Only, the stretch of grass abruptly dropped off, as if it was blocked by something and left a good distance from the riverbank; yet after a meandering path, it was somehow connected to the distant opposite shore. As she observed, Ruan Li’s eyes abruptly darkened, and she suddenly understood what was wrong, “Not good!”
She hastily turned around and rushed towards Su Yu and Bai Jing—who had already dashed over—to loudly shout: “Shijie, don’t come over!”
As her voice fell, she simultaneously summoned her flying sword and turned to grab Hua Xuwan. And right at this instant, the ground beneath their feet abruptly turned to water, and the two began to sink. Her flying sword diving into the water instead, positioned beneath her feet and preventing her from sinking any further. But great waves stirred the river’s surface, a whirlpool forming beneath their feet, her sword was sucked in and simply unable to leave.
Not only so, but four streams of water shot out like dragons breaking the water’s surface and surrounded the two of them, winding around them.
A spurt of scarlet light arose in the sword in Ruan Li’s hand, rapidly slicing out. And though Hua Xuwan was half a step behind, she also immediately offered up two talismans to block the two water dragons on their left and right.
“A-Li!”
“Shijie!”
Seeing that the situation was far from good, Su Yu leapt onto her sword and flew towards the two. Bai Jing hurriedly followed behind her, a sweep of sword intent slicing straight towards the whirlpool beneath their feet. Everything happened within the span of a second. But Ruan Li’s sword stabbed through the water dragon onto the water’s surface; Hua Xuwan’s talismans also hit empty air. Her sword stance suddenly fell through, nearly destabilising her body. They had fallen for another trick. Ruan Li’s spine went cold, fearfully aware that something had already soundlessly approached her and Hua Xuwan. The paper crane that had been perched on her shoulder furiously flapped its wings, abruptly turning and flying backwards.
Ruan Li was shocked, a spurt of spiritual power gathering in her left hand. Piercing through the water dragons that had fooled them to grab Hua Xuwan, who was teetering on the verge of collapse—and then violently flung her hand to forcibly send her out. Caught off guard, Hua Xuwan’s body flew towards the shore.
She turned in midair, her expression falling, “Ruan Li!”
It was as if a formless hand had grabbed Ruan Li’s body, rapidly pulling her backwards. The whirlpool beneath her feet swallowed Bai Jing’s sword intent and then quickly shrank, dragging her into the water.
She wasn’t panicked, as she entered the water her eyes darted about to search for the paper crane, to find that something was tugging at her shoulder. It was actually the crane furiously pulling at her clothes, trying in vain to pull her back up.
Such actions from one tiny paper crane were no different from an ant wanting to shake a tree, laughable and ridiculous. But from how it pulled as if its life depended on it, it seemed to be entirely unaware that it was no different to striking a stone with an egg, somewhat overestimating its own abilities.
She could tell that it had already forgotten its own weakness, wholeheartedly wanting to prevent her from falling into the water. Hence once her mirth passed, what came was a difficult to disregard warmth and being deeply moved. When her body hit the water, she took the paper crane into her hand.
“A-Li!” Su Yu’s eyes were red with desperation but seeing those water dragons surging out to draw Hua Xuwan back in, she could only save her first. The long sword in her right hand sent out layer after layer of flourishes to seal all their paths of approach. Her left arm held out to catch her, the two hurriedly retreating. Staggering to her feet, Hua Xuwan sent a talisman directly into the water. That talisman also melted into the water.
“Su-shijie, that’s a tracking talisman,” as soon as she stood steadily, she hastily explained and then she took up her sword again, wanting to head back in.
Su Yu blocked her way, “You should stay here to provide support, don’t enter. This is a clam spirit, don’t fall into its trap.”
“Su-shijie, I’ll go with you.”
Seeing that Hua Xuwan was unwilling, Su Yu turned to shoot her a glance, “If I don’t come out in the time it takes an incense stick to burn, then you should alert the sect.”2
Her eyes were abnormally determined, leaving Hua Xuwan unable to refuse. Watching Su Yu surge forward a few steps and then dive into the river, Hua Xuwan’s heart was left hanging.
“Shijie, what should we do?” Bai Jing was slightly agitated, seeing her shijie’s upset expression, she was even more unsure of what to do.
Taking several deep breaths, Hua Xuwan reminded herself, “I can’t fall into disarray. I can’t panic”
Recalling what she knew of clam spirits, she immediately bit her fingertip open and started to draw talismans.
“Xiao-Bai, help me.”3
Bai Jing hastily stepped forth, helping to draw the talismans with her. Hua Xuwan specialises in the art of talismans and formations, the as called clam spirit specialises in using illusions to entrap others. Taking advantage of the cover from illusions to sneakily attack its enemies. They were too careless just then, stumbling into the clam spirit’s illusions. That was what led to them being beaten without a chance of retaliation. She needed to set up a formation to break through the clam spirit’s illusions, to aid Ruan Li and Su Yu.
The moment she fell into the water, Ruan Li held her breath. She also protected the crane in her hand with a sphere of spiritual power and took it into her embrace. Realising that it was still struggling, she tapped it once, then immediately stabbed out behind her back. That thing dodged it. Right after, she spun herself around again, letting out three consecutive slices. Sealing the three paths: above, around, below.
It was dark in the water’s depths, she was basically unable to see anything clearly. But her mind was abnormally clear, recalling what Luo Qingci had told her when they trained. She shut her eyes and gave up her sight, instead tracking the fluctuations in spiritual power. The clam spirit, its most distinctive characteristic was that it was adept in concealing its presence, creating an illusionary realm to entrap its prey. Using her eyes would be the most disadvantageous. The water was frigid, a pressure that enshrouded her entire body, a difficult feeling to bear. Ruan Li quietly stood in the water, sensing the movements of every ripple in the water. ‘Something entered the water’, she muttered to herself, preparing to attack. Then a burst of spiritual power broke through the water, directly heading for her face. She turned aside and pulled her sword in to block the attack, rapidly heading forward, drawing her sword to strike. Her opponent was equally fast. As she blocked, the sword in her hand violently trembled, she was involuntarily swept back several metres. The paper crane that had settled down in her embrace suddenly wiggled around; the strike that Ruan Li had gathered her full strength for was abruptly halted. With this pause, she immediately thought of the familiar feeling from just then and hastily opened her eyes, “Shijie!”
Her opponent had no reaction whatsoever, rather attacking once again, her blows becoming increasingly fierce. But when Ruan Li shouted out ‘shijie’, the traceless monster attacking her suddenly became Su Yu.
They’ve fallen for another trap.
Just as she was thinking of this, she sensed two blasts of spiritual power rapidly approaching. Her pupils turned to slits and she let out two slices behind her without even turning her head. With two consecutive blows, each struck the spiritual power coming to attack. And Su Yu’s sword was right before her eyes. The edge slicing past her throat, cutting off strands of her free-flowing hair. Her left hand slid along her blade, grabbing Su Yu’s wrist.
Su Yu abruptly pulled, wanting to take back her sword. A streak of spiritual light sliced the dim waters’ surface in half, shining down from above. Su Yu saw through who was in front of her, relaxing her grip and grabbing Ruan Li’s hand, leveraging her grip to throw herself behind Ruan Li. With a resounding cry, Su Yu kicked that clam spirit, the two using the counterforce to swim several metres away in one go.
“A-Li, leave!” Her heart went cold, desperately pulling Ruan Li to exit with a leap.
Hanging her head, Ruan Li borrowed the light shining down to see a white shadow with a face as pale as a ghost. A head of white hair scattered about; shooting out from the depths after them like an arrow leaving the bow. That face screeched ferociously, soundlessly, like a vengeful spirit, anyone would want to avert their eyes. The instant they broke the surface, Ruan Li released her shijie’s hand, clutching her sword with her feet pointed to the sky, plummeting down. As she fell, she concentrated spiritual power into her sword. The sword’s silhouette and her body merged into one, clashing with the white shadow flying out.
She stabbed through the other’s body, her sword-tip lightly tapping the water’s surface. Flipping upright to stand steadily; behind her, that white shadow painfully clutched at its own throat, bursting apart in front of them.
Right as everyone let out a sigh of relief, a black shadow shot out from the remnants left from the explosion. Ruan Li was a mere three body-lengths away from it, when she realised something was wrong, it was already right in front of her. Su Yu’s heart shuddered, and despite knowing she wouldn’t make it; she still flew over. Seeing that black shadow about to surge into her body, a tiny silhouette shot out from her embrace and the two met in midair. In an instant, the black shadow faded into black mist, disappearing without a trace, that white silhouette also slowly floated down.
Ruan Li’s pupils abruptly shrunk; her heart was emptied. She had always reacted rapidly, but in this moment it was as if she couldn’t move at all, watching that paper crane spin through the air and land on the water. The paper crane that fell on the water bobbed and swayed with Su Yu’s footsteps, silent.
“A-Li, you…” Su Yu frantically inspected her, yet saw that she was staring blankly at the paper crane on the river. She opened her mouth, furrowed her brow but couldn’t continue on. Ruan Li bent at the waist to pick up the crane. Its eyes that had always been two dots of bright eye-catching red, were now also dim and lightless.
“This paper crane was made by master; she can definitely make another. Don’t be sad. That you’re safe is the most important thing.” Su Yu was also saddened, this crane was clever and had accompanied them throughout this journey, extremely cute. It was especially close to Ruan Li, almost following after her. Ruan Li also had a lot of affection for this little guy. But seeing her shimei like this, she could only console her.
“En, I know.” Ruan Li very calmly responded, taking the paper crane back.
And in the distant Tianyan Sect, Luo Qingci suddenly opened her eyes, gradually letting out a turbid breath, rubbing at her chest.
“Something’s happened to A-Li,” she stood up, heading out of her dwelling in Youtan.
—Translated by Hei
Author’s Comments:
How master loves this little whelp, every one of her sock-puppets are protecting her.
Translator’s Comments:
Thanks to the readers who are liking all the chapters as they binge-read, my emails are now unusable but what fun that was to wake up to. Gave me a nice burst of motivation as well.
挫骨扬灰—literal: ‘crushing bones and scattering the ashes’. ↩︎ The time it takes for an incense stick to burn through is around half an hour. ↩︎ 小白—literal: ‘little white’, xiao + name is an affectionate nickname that holds a bit of teasing towards someone younger. Interestingly enough, xiao-bai specifically is often used to describe innocent/naive characters. ↩︎
Chapter 40
Seeing that black shadow about to surge into her body, a tiny silhouette shot out from her embrace and the two met in midair.
“When we accepted this mission, it hadn’t…hadn’t been like this. How could it be that with merely a single night…” Bai Jing had never seen such a blood-soaked and bleak scene; she only managed a few words, unable to continue on. Her words led to a violent clench of the other three’s hearts.
“Could it be, we…” Su Yu only managed four words then stopped, but what she was going to say was perfectly clear to Ruan Li and Hua Xuwan. Taking a breath, Ruan Li walked directly out.
“A-Li, where are you going?” Su Yu was somewhat worried, and hurriedly chased after her.
Ruan Li paused, surveying her surroundings, “I’m searching for someone.”
“Who?” Su Yu failed to understand why.
Shooting a glance at her, Ruan Li’s brows tightly locked: “Zitan Jun had said before that there were people who came to investigate. Though they were unsuccessful, but having discovered that there was a spirit wreaking havoc, they couldn’t have left without a word. Aside from the corpses of the villagers just then, had any of you seen any immortal sect disciples?”
Hua Xuwan was suddenly enlightened, and then shook her head with a grave face, “I wanted to see if there were any survivors, hence I had searched thoroughly through the southern part of the village. There weren’t any.”
“I didn’t see any either.”
Ruan Li’s expression became heavy, “We’ll search again, I still feel like we’ve missed something.”
“We’ll split up to search. If there were immortal sect disciples present, no matter what, there’s certain to be signs of battle,” Hua Xuwan pondered.
Su Yu nodded and then turned to look at Bai Jing, “Bai Jing, you’ll come with me. A-Li, you go with Xuwan. If there’s anything suspicious, don’t act alone.”
They nodded and split into groups of two to investigate once more. Ruan Li still came back empty handed; in every home, there were only corpse after corpse with their hearts ripped out, unbearably tragic to witness.
“Is this really a clam spirit? How could it do such a heartbreakingly brutal thing?”
The fires of resentment burned in Hua Xuwan’s heart, her face dark and gloomy. No matter whether it was a man or woman, elderly or young—this monster hadn’t let a single person go. As soon as she thought of how there were even infants killed, her heart was wrung out even further.
Ruan Li said nothing, only her hand tightly clutching at her sword’s hilt betrayed her current mood. For this life, what she hated most, was the act of exterminating a clan and massacring a village; everything in front of her was a reminder to what the Dragon Clan had experienced in bygone years. Even the greatest hatred, the greatest ambition, shouldn’t allow for so many innocent and defenceless people to pay with their lives. In that bygone battle, she was still resting in her egg and was too well-protected by her dad; left entirely unaware as to the devastating situation outside.
Later, she heard tales of the scene back then, more than once, from the mouths of dragons who escaped the calamity; one could imagine the tragic scene from merely the gaps left between their words. Infant dragons who had just been born, dragon eggs waiting to hatch, and the parents who had their dragon cores carved out, skinned, tendons torn out alive—all for the sake of guarding those young dragons.
The more she thought, the more the hatred in her eyes grew. She stared unblinkingly into the house, at the young man and woman protecting their infant daughter. This feeling of sympathy had already caused her to lose all control.
Originally, Hua Xuwan was immersed in the flames of resentment, but suddenly felt that the aura of the girl beside her was off. Turning to look and discovering that Ruan Li was glaring at that family, surrounded by low pressure, a ruthless intent permeating through the frigidness of her aura, clothes also swaying without a breeze.
Despite knowing that it was Ruan Li, Hua Xuwan still felt cold terror. She simply didn’t dare to call her immediately, swallowing before probing: “Ruan Li, you…what’s wrong with you?”
Her head came up, a frightening killing intent contained within her black eyes; Hua Xuwan unconsciously took a step back. Right then, a paper crane flapped its wings to rapidly fly over, only then did the killing intent in her eyes die down, regaining her sanity.
She desperately met Hua Xuwan’s eyes, gritting out between her clenched jaw: “This spirit is too despicable, I definitely won’t let it live. Hua-shijie, it seems to have discovered something, we should hurry over to have a look.”
Seeing that she transformed back into the Ruan Li she was familiar with, she let out a breath. After catching up, she couldn’t help but exclaim: “Ruan Li, your aura just then really scared me. It really had a few parts of Huaizhu Jun’s imposing manner.”
Ruan Li’s eyes were slightly dim, apologising: “I was too emotional, not controlling it with you.”
“I don’t blame you. I also want to catch this clam demon and rip it to shreds.”1
Not only did Hua Xuwan have no thoughts to the contrary, she was deeply moved that despite Ruan Li learning her imposing manner, that personality of hers with a sense of justice and clear distinction between hatred and love was entirely unaffected by Huaizhu Jun.
The two followed the crane to the west side of the village, that expansive river once again spread before their eyes. Looking into the distance, those three willow trees were still visible.
“What have you found?” Ruan Li extended her hand to invite the crane over. After landing on her palm, the crane pecked at her hand. Once it had stopped, she looked to the river’s surface.
She felt that something was off, especially the position of that willow tree, the flow and direction of the river seemed different from what they saw at the entrance of the village. The pair approached the shore step by step, the river’s surface increasingly bewitching.
“Hua-shijie, bring shijie over here,” at this moment, Ruan Li was already guarded, eyeing the undisturbed and still waters.
Infected by her, Hua Xuwan also nervously stared at the river’s surface, immediately drawing a transmission talisman in midair, the talisman paper turned to ash in the blink of an eye, the glyphs on it instantly flying into the village.
“What have you found?” Hua Xuwan squinted at the river’s surface, yet saw nothing at all.
“I don’t know, I simply sense that there’s something really wrong with this place,” finishing, she hung her head and looked at her feet, then gradually looked back. Yellow dirt was beneath her feet, and ten steps behind her was a patch of already withered wild grasses.
The grass was slanted over, and oddly dense.
Only, the stretch of grass abruptly dropped off, as if it was blocked by something and left a good distance from the riverbank; yet after a meandering path, it was somehow connected to the distant opposite shore. As she observed, Ruan Li’s eyes abruptly darkened, and she suddenly understood what was wrong, “Not good!”
She hastily turned around and rushed towards Su Yu and Bai Jing—who had already dashed over—to loudly shout: “Shijie, don’t come over!”
As her voice fell, she simultaneously summoned her flying sword and turned to grab Hua Xuwan. And right at this instant, the ground beneath their feet abruptly turned to water, and the two began to sink. Her flying sword diving into the water instead, positioned beneath her feet and preventing her from sinking any further. But great waves stirred the river’s surface, a whirlpool forming beneath their feet, her sword was sucked in and simply unable to leave.
Not only so, but four streams of water shot out like dragons breaking the water’s surface and surrounded the two of them, winding around them.
A spurt of scarlet light arose in the sword in Ruan Li’s hand, rapidly slicing out. And though Hua Xuwan was half a step behind, she also immediately offered up two talismans to block the two water dragons on their left and right.
“A-Li!”
“Shijie!”
Seeing that the situation was far from good, Su Yu leapt onto her sword and flew towards the two. Bai Jing hurriedly followed behind her, a sweep of sword intent slicing straight towards the whirlpool beneath their feet. Everything happened within the span of a second. But Ruan Li’s sword stabbed through the water dragon onto the water’s surface; Hua Xuwan’s talismans also hit empty air. Her sword stance suddenly fell through, nearly destabilising her body. They had fallen for another trick. Ruan Li’s spine went cold, fearfully aware that something had already soundlessly approached her and Hua Xuwan. The paper crane that had been perched on her shoulder furiously flapped its wings, abruptly turning and flying backwards.
Ruan Li was shocked, a spurt of spiritual power gathering in her left hand. Piercing through the water dragons that had fooled them to grab Hua Xuwan, who was teetering on the verge of collapse—and then violently flung her hand to forcibly send her out. Caught off guard, Hua Xuwan’s body flew towards the shore.
She turned in midair, her expression falling, “Ruan Li!”
It was as if a formless hand had grabbed Ruan Li’s body, rapidly pulling her backwards. The whirlpool beneath her feet swallowed Bai Jing’s sword intent and then quickly shrank, dragging her into the water.
She wasn’t panicked, as she entered the water her eyes darted about to search for the paper crane, to find that something was tugging at her shoulder. It was actually the crane furiously pulling at her clothes, trying in vain to pull her back up.
Such actions from one tiny paper crane were no different from an ant wanting to shake a tree, laughable and ridiculous. But from how it pulled as if its life depended on it, it seemed to be entirely unaware that it was no different to striking a stone with an egg, somewhat overestimating its own abilities.
She could tell that it had already forgotten its own weakness, wholeheartedly wanting to prevent her from falling into the water. Hence once her mirth passed, what came was a difficult to disregard warmth and being deeply moved. When her body hit the water, she took the paper crane into her hand.
“A-Li!” Su Yu’s eyes were red with desperation but seeing those water dragons surging out to draw Hua Xuwan back in, she could only save her first. The long sword in her right hand sent out layer after layer of flourishes to seal all their paths of approach. Her left arm held out to catch her, the two hurriedly retreating. Staggering to her feet, Hua Xuwan sent a talisman directly into the water. That talisman also melted into the water.
“Su-shijie, that’s a tracking talisman,” as soon as she stood steadily, she hastily explained and then she took up her sword again, wanting to head back in.
Su Yu blocked her way, “You should stay here to provide support, don’t enter. This is a clam spirit, don’t fall into its trap.”
“Su-shijie, I’ll go with you.”
Seeing that Hua Xuwan was unwilling, Su Yu turned to shoot her a glance, “If I don’t come out in the time it takes an incense stick to burn, then you should alert the sect.”2
Her eyes were abnormally determined, leaving Hua Xuwan unable to refuse. Watching Su Yu surge forward a few steps and then dive into the river, Hua Xuwan’s heart was left hanging.
“Shijie, what should we do?” Bai Jing was slightly agitated, seeing her shijie’s upset expression, she was even more unsure of what to do.
Taking several deep breaths, Hua Xuwan reminded herself, “I can’t fall into disarray. I can’t panic”
Recalling what she knew of clam spirits, she immediately bit her fingertip open and started to draw talismans.
“Xiao-Bai, help me.”3
Bai Jing hastily stepped forth, helping to draw the talismans with her. Hua Xuwan specialises in the art of talismans and formations, the as called clam spirit specialises in using illusions to entrap others. Taking advantage of the cover from illusions to sneakily attack its enemies. They were too careless just then, stumbling into the clam spirit’s illusions. That was what led to them being beaten without a chance of retaliation. She needed to set up a formation to break through the clam spirit’s illusions, to aid Ruan Li and Su Yu.
The moment she fell into the water, Ruan Li held her breath. She also protected the crane in her hand with a sphere of spiritual power and took it into her embrace. Realising that it was still struggling, she tapped it once, then immediately stabbed out behind her back. That thing dodged it. Right after, she spun herself around again, letting out three consecutive slices. Sealing the three paths: above, around, below.
It was dark in the water’s depths, she was basically unable to see anything clearly. But her mind was abnormally clear, recalling what Luo Qingci had told her when they trained. She shut her eyes and gave up her sight, instead tracking the fluctuations in spiritual power. The clam spirit, its most distinctive characteristic was that it was adept in concealing its presence, creating an illusionary realm to entrap its prey. Using her eyes would be the most disadvantageous. The water was frigid, a pressure that enshrouded her entire body, a difficult feeling to bear. Ruan Li quietly stood in the water, sensing the movements of every ripple in the water. ‘Something entered the water’, she muttered to herself, preparing to attack. Then a burst of spiritual power broke through the water, directly heading for her face. She turned aside and pulled her sword in to block the attack, rapidly heading forward, drawing her sword to strike. Her opponent was equally fast. As she blocked, the sword in her hand violently trembled, she was involuntarily swept back several metres. The paper crane that had settled down in her embrace suddenly wiggled around; the strike that Ruan Li had gathered her full strength for was abruptly halted. With this pause, she immediately thought of the familiar feeling from just then and hastily opened her eyes, “Shijie!”
Her opponent had no reaction whatsoever, rather attacking once again, her blows becoming increasingly fierce. But when Ruan Li shouted out ‘shijie’, the traceless monster attacking her suddenly became Su Yu.
They’ve fallen for another trap.
Just as she was thinking of this, she sensed two blasts of spiritual power rapidly approaching. Her pupils turned to slits and she let out two slices behind her without even turning her head. With two consecutive blows, each struck the spiritual power coming to attack. And Su Yu’s sword was right before her eyes. The edge slicing past her throat, cutting off strands of her free-flowing hair. Her left hand slid along her blade, grabbing Su Yu’s wrist.
Su Yu abruptly pulled, wanting to take back her sword. A streak of spiritual light sliced the dim waters’ surface in half, shining down from above. Su Yu saw through who was in front of her, relaxing her grip and grabbing Ruan Li’s hand, leveraging her grip to throw herself behind Ruan Li. With a resounding cry, Su Yu kicked that clam spirit, the two using the counterforce to swim several metres away in one go.
“A-Li, leave!” Her heart went cold, desperately pulling Ruan Li to exit with a leap.
Hanging her head, Ruan Li borrowed the light shining down to see a white shadow with a face as pale as a ghost. A head of white hair scattered about; shooting out from the depths after them like an arrow leaving the bow. That face screeched ferociously, soundlessly, like a vengeful spirit, anyone would want to avert their eyes. The instant they broke the surface, Ruan Li released her shijie’s hand, clutching her sword with her feet pointed to the sky, plummeting down. As she fell, she concentrated spiritual power into her sword. The sword’s silhouette and her body merged into one, clashing with the white shadow flying out.
She stabbed through the other’s body, her sword-tip lightly tapping the water’s surface. Flipping upright to stand steadily; behind her, that white shadow painfully clutched at its own throat, bursting apart in front of them.
Right as everyone let out a sigh of relief, a black shadow shot out from the remnants left from the explosion. Ruan Li was a mere three body-lengths away from it, when she realised something was wrong, it was already right in front of her. Su Yu’s heart shuddered, and despite knowing she wouldn’t make it; she still flew over. Seeing that black shadow about to surge into her body, a tiny silhouette shot out from her embrace and the two met in midair. In an instant, the black shadow faded into black mist, disappearing without a trace, that white silhouette also slowly floated down.
Ruan Li’s pupils abruptly shrunk; her heart was emptied. She had always reacted rapidly, but in this moment it was as if she couldn’t move at all, watching that paper crane spin through the air and land on the water. The paper crane that fell on the water bobbed and swayed with Su Yu’s footsteps, silent.
“A-Li, you…” Su Yu frantically inspected her, yet saw that she was staring blankly at the paper crane on the river. She opened her mouth, furrowed her brow but couldn’t continue on. Ruan Li bent at the waist to pick up the crane. Its eyes that had always been two dots of bright eye-catching red, were now also dim and lightless.
“This paper crane was made by master; she can definitely make another. Don’t be sad. That you’re safe is the most important thing.” Su Yu was also saddened, this crane was clever and had accompanied them throughout this journey, extremely cute. It was especially close to Ruan Li, almost following after her. Ruan Li also had a lot of affection for this little guy. But seeing her shimei like this, she could only console her.
“En, I know.” Ruan Li very calmly responded, taking the paper crane back.
And in the distant Tianyan Sect, Luo Qingci suddenly opened her eyes, gradually letting out a turbid breath, rubbing at her chest.
“Something’s happened to A-Li,” she stood up, heading out of her dwelling in Youtan.
—Translated by Hei
Author’s Comments:
How master loves this little whelp, every one of her sock-puppets are protecting her.
Translator’s Comments:
Thanks to the readers who are liking all the chapters as they binge-read, my emails are now unusable but what fun that was to wake up to. Gave me a nice burst of motivation as well.
挫骨扬灰—literal: ‘crushing bones and scattering the ashes’. ↩︎ The time it takes for an incense stick to burn through is around half an hour. ↩︎ 小白—literal: ‘little white’, xiao + name is an affectionate nickname that holds a bit of teasing towards someone younger. Interestingly enough, xiao-bai specifically is often used to describe innocent/naive characters. ↩︎
