Chapter 6
After finishing her kneeling, Yu Sui returned to her residential courtyard. The mute woman and others had already prepared things to massage her knees. After all the fuss, she finally lay down on the bed.
Today she didn't need to go to the National Academy. As dawn broke slightly, the Strange Fire's heat that hadn't yet subsided made her sit up again. She raised her hand to wipe the fine sweat on her forehead, then touched her cheek. The burning pain from being hit had disappeared, and no signs of being struck could be seen now.
She gently rubbed her cheek for a long time.
Yu Sui thought from the beginning and finally discovered the scene of Zhongli Que calling out to her in her memory.
"Don't go out!"
This meant she knew what would happen if she went out.
Yu Sui raised her hand to fan herself, walked to sit beside the Liu Dan Jade Stone, gazing at the Strange Fire in her palm in contemplation.
If she had mediocre talent, then the children around her were all geniuses, each with considerable talent in some field.
Nangong Ming had only tested her talent once. He seemed hurt by the results and didn't bother again afterward.
As for her three elder brothers, during their first talent test, they had already determined which of the Nine Schools they would join in the future.
Nangong Ming's cultivation came from the School of Names, one of the three Yama Kings of the School of Names with "Asura Eyes."
Asura Eyes were unique to the School of Names. With just one look, they could see through your entire life. Very useful for assisting talent testing, but also had a frightening side:
They could see through all illusions and break all military formation methods.
Though Nangong Ming didn't personally test Yu Sui's talent and instead requested an old practitioner from the Yin-Yang School, he used Asura Eyes to watch the entire process, confirming the old practitioner's words weren't wrong, that his foolish daughter indeed had mediocre aptitude and couldn't achieve much.
This lifetime she was just a container holding Breath Soil.
From the moment children's talents were tested, they began cultivating.
Yu Sui looked back at the Five Elements Light Core in her palm. She had extracted six from the Strange Fire.
Though the upper limit had increased, she didn't know what to do with these extracted Five Elements Light Cores. Besides being obtainable repeatedly, what other uses did they have?
Surely they weren't just for her to squeeze and play with, that would be quite wasteful.
Yu Sui propped her chin in thought for a long time.
She knew too little about cultivation matters, all from books.
This world had even fewer records of Strange Fire, none in books at all.
Five Elements Light Cores contained the power of cultivators' various supernatural arts, but she hadn't joined any of the Nine Schools for cultivation and didn't know the supernatural arts of the Nine Schools.
Nine Schools arts.
If she couldn't learn others', then she'd create her own.
Yu Sui stood up and placed the Five Elements Light Cores in different locations: bedside, dressing table, courtyard flower cluster, and main gate.
The next day Yu Sui went to the National Academy.
Princess Shangyang asked why she didn't come yesterday. Yu Sui said she felt unwell.
"Did you get scolded by your father when you went back?" Princess Shangyang propped her head up with a smile. "I heard the Lin family matter is being tried by your father. It was useless for him to find your brother, so he definitely came to find you."
Though Princess Shangyang was young and had an arrogant temperament, she wasn't a fool. Yu Sui heard she would go to the Yin-Yang School in the future because her talent test showed the highest compatibility with the Yin-Yang School.
Unfortunately, Princess Shangyang was obsessed with Gu Qian. Seizing this opportunity, she said to Yu Sui: "You help me watch Gu Qian. In the future when you make stupid mistakes and get scolded by the Prince, I can also put in a good word for you, help you get scolded less, right?"
Yu Sui, lying on her desk sleeping, silently turned her head, facing her with the back of her head.
Princess Shangyang rolled her eyes in anger and ignored her.
Yu Sui closed her eyes, ignoring the surrounding noise. She separated her consciousness, trying to connect from the Strange Fire to the Five Elements Light Cores scattered throughout the manor.
They were born from the Strange Fire but also mixed with her mental energy, enabling them to regenerate repeatedly.
Perhaps there was a connection between them.
Yu Sui decided to try.
Her separated consciousness circled around the Strange Fire. Looking from the burning flame, she could see faint fire threads moving in the Five Elements Light Cores placed in the manor.
Yu Sui saw from the Strange Fire:
The mute woman brought maids in through the main gate. Some maids swept fallen leaves in the courtyard, changed and washed her bedding, lit incense in the room, placed fresh flower branches in vases, and took away flower branches that were starting to wilt.
Birds landed in the flower cluster, stealing nectar. Hearing the mute woman opening the door, they flapped their wings and flew away.
Yu Sui opened her eyes, then closed them again.
Waste utilization succeeded.
……
After separating Five Elements Light Cores from the Strange Fire, Yu Sui could also activate connections, dispersing her consciousness to the Five Elements Light Cores' locations.
Yu Sui practiced for seven or eight days, placing Five Elements Light Cores in different places to observe what effects they would have.
Five Elements Light Cores separated to the outside world would disappear on their own after twelve hours.
Fortunately, they were small enough, only fingernail-sized, hidden in dark places where they weren't easily discovered. No one would think a crazy person would extract their own Five Elements Light Core to randomly place and play with.
As Yu Sui grew older, she could no longer use her "child" status to obtain useful intelligence between Nangong Ming and Lady Su. Even matters related to Breath Soil were rarely heard anymore.
Now discovering the use of Five Elements Light Cores, Yu Sui decided to place one at Lady Su's location to see if she could hear something.
Recently Lady Su was still monitoring her studies. Yu Sui had to report to her every day. After kneeling outside the door and reciting her textbooks, Yu Sui went inside to drink some tea, just as Gu Qian arrived and Lady Su got up to leave from behind the screen.
Yu Sui found the right opportunity and placed the Five Elements Light Core on the bookshelf behind the screen.
She made an excuse about being hungry and left, taking a detour back to her room on the way, having the mute woman bring dinner to eat in the room.
Yu Sui sat under the Liu Dan Jade Stone, propping her chin with both hands, closing her eyes to concentrate.
The Strange Fire flickered lightly. Through it, Yu Sui saw the scene from the Five Elements Light Core's side:
Lady Su walked into the room, followed by Gu Qian. Gu Qian frowned and said: "Lin Shouxian betrayed my father. I want to personally take his head. Why did you act first?"
"You want revenge, but you can't be hasty," Lady Su said. "You're too weak now. Just focus on how to become stronger. As for other matters..."
She spoke halfway but suddenly frowned, her gaze looking toward behind the screen.
Yu Sui was slightly startled. In an instant, it seemed invisible pressure was transmitted to her through the Five Elements Light Core, a dangerous and deadly pursuit flying toward her.
Lady Su walked slowly toward behind the screen, her gaze sharply scanning around the room.
Yu Sui instinctively wanted to crush the Five Elements Light Core, and miraculously, the Five Elements Light Core hidden in the bookshelf followed her command, disappearing silently.
The scene in the Strange Fire vanished.
Yu Sui touched her eyebrows, her dark pupils showing calm composure.
It seemed this was the acuity of a Thirteenth Realm expert. Wanting to obtain information from beside Lady Su and Nangong Ming through such means was still too naive.
After this experience, Yu Sui was much more cautious when using Five Elements Light Cores afterward.
But she wasn't without gains.
At least she knew Gu Qian truly carried blood vengeance, and both Nangong Ming and Lady Su were escorting his revenge plan.
Yu Sui had also considered placing Five Elements Light Cores at Gu Qian's house, but on second thought, there were hidden guards following him, and their realm wouldn't be below Tenth Realm Master level. Who knows if Nangong Ming would also go check. If discovered by Nangong Ming, he could lock onto suspects just by checking who had been to Gu Qian's house.
The risk was too great, so Yu Sui gave up.
……
For Gu Qian to become stronger, he naturally trained desperately, with Prince Nangong's manor as backing, helping him find resources.
Yu Sui used the excuse of playing at Gu Qian's house to learn while there.
Gu Qian completely didn't notice Yu Sui's scheming. When he sat meditating practicing breathing techniques, Yu Sui would move a small stool to sit beside him, propping her chin with both hands and watching.
When Gu Qian opened his eyes, he would see that small, exquisite face with moist eyes bright as gems, her pose of propping her chin and tilting her head endearingly cute, making his heart soften.
"Are you hungry?" Gu Qian thought and asked. "Should we go back to the manor to eat or eat here?"
"Not hungry yet." Yu Sui shook her head, glancing at the sky. "If we eat here, will Big Brother Gu go buy and bring it back?"
Gu Qian stood up and said: "I can cook myself."
Yu Sui expressed surprise: "Wow, Big Brother Gu, you can cook too?"
"I used to cook often," Gu Qian said.
"Isn't that what the maids do?" Yu Sui asked.
Gu Qian sighed and walked toward his small kitchen: "What would you like to eat? Forget it, I can't make the delicacies from the manor. You'll have to make do with home cooking."
"I'm fine with anything." Yu Sui tilted her head to look over. "As long as it's made by Big Brother Gu, anything is fine."
Gu Qian said okay.
Yu Sui followed over, watching him wash vegetables, rolling up her sleeves: "I'll help too."
"Don't you dare!" Gu Qian immediately stopped her. "Just wait over there. I'm afraid if you help, even the porridge will get burned."
"Oh." Yu Sui took her small stool to sit by the door, blinking and looking around before saying, "Big Brother Gu, I'll share my parents with you. You can also become a child of the manor. Then I can see you at the manor every day without running back and forth."
Gu Qian looked back at her irritably: "I have my own parents."
Yu Sui asked innocently: "Where are they?"
Gu Qian's rice-washing motion paused. He said quietly: "They're dead."
Yu Sui just blinked in confusion.
Gu Qian had already changed the subject: "You're willing to share your parents with me, but your three brothers wouldn't agree. Besides, your father is the most noble prince in Qingyang Kingdom, able to walk sideways in Qingyang Kingdom. How dare you suggest this."
Yu Sui said: "Father and Mother both like you. As long as they agree, it doesn't matter if my brothers don't."
Gu Qian was amused by her words, laughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath. Finally, he bent over squatting down and laughed for a long time.
Yu Sui didn't understand why this person had such a low threshold for humor.
……
Just as the sky darkened, Gu Qian had already set a table full of dishes. Yu Sui held chopsticks, taking small bites to taste each dish.
Just as Gu Qian was about to ask if it tasted good, the Wind-Listening Ruler on the table edge glowed slightly.
Yu Sui glanced from the corner of her eye. The Wind-Listening Ruler showed dark green color, with jade-like lustrous light, about three inches long. Gu Qian picked up the Wind-Listening Ruler and swiped upward on its surface to see messages sent by others.
Gu Qian looked twice then put it down.
The Wind-Listening Ruler was a high-level product of cooperation between the Taoist School, Yin-Yang School, and Technical Arts School. As long as it could connect to nearby communication arrays, even from thousands of miles away, they could transmit messages to each other.
Its function was comparable to the mobile phones Yu Sui liked to play with in her previous life.
Within the Xuangu Continent, the six kingdoms had countless communication arrays. Except for certain desolate, uninhabited areas where living people could hardly enter, almost everywhere was covered by communication arrays.
Wind-Listening Rulers were luxury items. Because they were too expensive, ordinary people couldn't afford them, and those who could afford them weren't ordinary people.
Yu Sui didn't have one because she was still young and stayed in the imperial capital without traveling far. The mute woman or guards serving her all carried Wind-Listening Rulers personally, ensuring they could relay messages at any time.
However, these were also divided into public rulers and private rulers. Wind-Listening Rulers possessed by people like city guards for official business were public rulers.
As the three schools' supernatural arts were modified and improved, the Wind-Listening Ruler's functions grew larger and its applications broader.
Gu Qian's Wind-Listening Ruler lit up again. He didn't look. Yu Sui asked: "Who is it?"
"Princess Shangyang." Gu Qian indicated she didn't need to worry about it.
Yu Sui asked innocently: "Big Brother Gu, when using Wind-Listening Rulers to transmit sound, can others break the code?"
Gu Qian explained to her like a little adult: "Impossible. Wind-Listening Rulers combine the supernatural abilities of the Taoist School, Yin-Yang School, and Technical Arts School, containing three vast and most complex arts. Even they themselves can't break them."
Yu Sui asked in surprise: "Why? Weren't Wind-Listening Rulers created by these three schools?"
"Wind-Listening Rulers aren't important. What's important is the central communication array that transmits information." Gu Qian ate a couple bites of food and continued explaining to his foolish childhood friend: "Have you seen a communication array? The National Academy has a super-large communication array, bigger than my house."
"It's covered with Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, Yin-Yang Five Elements, Twenty-Eight Constellations operating cipher texts. The characters these things create when fused and transformed are beyond worldly imagination."
Yu Sui really hadn't gone to see it.
She nodded repeatedly. After Gu Qian finished, he asked: "Why don't you have a Wind-Listening Ruler?"
Yu Sui said blankly: "I don't know."
Gu Qian sighed: "Forget it, tell me when you get one."
Yu Sui: "Mm-hmm."
……
That night when Yu Sui returned to the manor and lay in bed thinking, she thought, if she could break communication arrays... whenever she thought of this, her heart would become strangely calm, as if some force was comforting and guiding her.
Yu Sui found out from Gu Qian where the National Academy's communication array was located and went to find it by herself during lunch break.
This day brought strong winds, blowing the flower trees on both sides of the forest path swaying constantly.
Flying flowers and falling leaves scattered freely, falling and rising again. Yu Sui walked up the steps, entered the communication courtyard, walked through the main gate, and inside were glowing mountains.
The ground was a glowing stellar array with countless stars falling within. Triangular mountains were piled with dense characters, these characters spinning rapidly, colorful ribbons wrapped around the mountains rotating slowly, with numbers and symbols on them appearing and disappearing intermittently.
Numbers.
Runes.
Constantly alternating operation, ingenious design, vast mysterious power operating and connecting. Yu Sui stood among these mountains, tiny as an ant.
She looked up, her extremely dark pupils reflecting the mountain scenery. Every flashing number and rune was memorized in her heart.
Yu Sui gazed at the communication array before her. What others saw as rapidly rotating communication cipher text appeared slow enough in her eyes to see all information clearly.