Chapter 61
"Wasn't looking at anything." Mei Liangyu answered casually, but didn't withdraw his gaze.
Yu Sui walked to the side, crouched down to look at Ji Shuyan's corpse that had been brought back. He had transformed into a wrinkled appearance, like a mummified corpse, yet even thinner than a mummy, as if his bones, flesh, and blood had all been crushed and mixed together into a paste to form paper, barely recognizable by facial features.
This was the first time she had seen a living person drained of life force and turned into a talisman, not to mention that Ji Shuyan had deep connections with Lady Su and had been ordered to kill her.
Yu Sui was examining him carefully.
The room fell quiet again for a moment.
Mei Liangyu withdrew his gaze and went to find his Junior Sister. Walking over, he saw Yu Sui with both hands supporting her cheeks, staring seriously at that human skin talisman.
Ghost Way School talismans that killed people still looked quite terrifying, strange and twisted. Most people would feel chilled in their hearts after looking at them for just a few glances.
Mei Liangyu stood leaning against the table, looking down at Yu Sui, and asked her: "You've been staring at him for so long without any fear at all."
Yu Sui looked up blankly: "Why should I be afraid?"
Many thoughts flashed through Mei Liangyu's mind, like how you're a precious little princess, how your innocent and harmless appearance is too deceptive, how every time he looked at her she seemed delicate and fragile, only making him think of beautiful things, completely at odds with this world stained with blood and fire. But in the end he only said: "It's fine if you're not afraid."
"I want to look at him more." Yu Sui turned her head back, staring at the dead Ji Shuyan and saying, "I will remember what every person who comes to kill me looks like. Maybe someday I'll die at their hands, so at least before I die I should remember who killed me."
An unexpected answer.
Mei Liangyu looked down at Yu Sui crouched on the ground. Tables and chairs were scattered around, the first floor was too quiet, only the sound of their two voices.
He seemed to think for a while before speaking carelessly: "Your mother is a quite famous Thirteenth Realm master of the Agricultural School."
Hm?
Yu Sui looked at Mei Liangyu in surprise, meeting his thoughtful dark eyes, listening to Mei Liangyu continue: "Taiyi Academy has many and diverse people, people from all Six Kingdoms, the Outer City is even more of a mixed bag. Even without leaving Taiyi, news from outside still continuously flows in, so I've heard people mention her."
"Heard from whom?" Yu Sui asked curiously. What kind of person would mention Lady Su?
Mei Liangyu was quiet for a moment before saying: "Someone who's already dead."
That night, he was the first to reach the Five Elements Water Field.
He saw the elder who was severely injured and on the brink of death. The other party looked up at him and gently shook his head, signaling him not to come over. The person who had conversed with him so pleasantly before only left him with one cryptic and unclear sentence in the end.
Also that night, unusually, all twenty-four Saints in the academy chased over and personally witnessed the elder's death.
His Master asked if he had any conversation with the elder, but Mei Liangyu lied to Saint Chang Gen for the first time, not telling him what the elder had said.
Mei Liangyu once again recalled the details of that night in his mind, while unhurriedly telling Yu Sui: "It was just when chatting with him about Agricultural School Nine Schools Arts that I heard him mention your mother, because she became famous for being able to summon five phantom beast shadows, and phantom beasts are Agricultural School forbidden techniques, because one could easily be backlashed by the shadows and lose oneself. The Agricultural School's supreme treasure, Breath Soil, can prevent this kind of unstable backlash from occurring."
Yu Sui nodded, looking serious, like a well-behaved student listening to class.
Mei Liangyu said: "So your mother understands Breath Soil better than you do, and has her own forces. As long as she tells the outside world that the Breath Soil isn't with you, or that it's damaged and only half remains, the number of people pursuing you would decrease significantly."
"How does Senior Brother know I only have half the Breath Soil?" Yu Sui asked in surprise.
Mei Liangyu stared at her and asked: "You only have half?"
Yu Sui blinked: "Yes."
Mei Liangyu made an "oh" sound and said very calmly: "I was just saying that casually, didn't expect you really only have half."
Yu Sui: "......"
He got her again.
Mei Liangyu just felt that since Yu Sui could cultivate, she wasn't an ordinary Ordinary Practitioner. Perhaps something had previously restricted her, and knowing that Yu Sui had the Agricultural School treasure Breath Soil in her body, maybe the problem lay with the Breath Soil.
But Mei Liangyu said instead: "Working backwards from your mother's strength and status, it's indeed possible. It's just that your family didn't really try to stop it, but allowed the news to spread."
Yu Sui changed to supporting her face with one hand, looking up at Mei Liangyu from below, her gaze carrying a gentle smile as she said: "Because the other half is with my mother."
While talking with Yu Sui, Mei Liangyu was also thinking about many things, but what he said aloud was only the tip of the iceberg of his thoughts. Perhaps because he thought too much, many things seemed easy for him to guess, but to Mei Liangyu they were all self-speculation, so there was no need to tell anyone.
Hearing Yu Sui say it herself, Mei Liangyu's gaze paused slightly, then immediately felt it was indeed possible.
If Lady Su obtained the Breath Soil while pregnant, when giving birth there might be competition for this power.
"He also followed my mother's orders, coming to Taiyi to kill me and seize the Breath Soil." Yu Sui looked back at Ji Shuyan, saying softly, "He also really likes my mother, seems like he could do anything for my mother, but he also really hates me, thinking I'm dragging my mother down, so getting orders to kill me should make him very happy."
Mei Liangyu, having suddenly learned the Nangong family secret, blinked and said: "Then he indeed deserved to die."
Yu Sui continued: "My mother should be disappointed, but she's lost a capable assistant, while I've lost a deadly threat, so I'm quite happy too."
She supported her head with one hand, looking at Ji Shuyan with calm and distant eyes, speaking with clear articulation, as if reminiscing, yet also as if contemplating.
Mei Liangyu was thinking at this moment that his Junior Sister indeed had something to her.
The information about mother and daughter trying to kill each other caught him off guard, but Mei Liangyu didn't say anything.
What could he say?
Say that not all parents in the world would sacrifice everything for their children, not all parents would love their own children.
Indeed not all.
There are always mother-daughter relationships that differ from ordinary people.
Family can be beautiful, but can also be cruel.
It's just that you happened not to have beautiful family, and found yourself in a cruel relationship.
Mei Liangyu looked at Yu Sui, always feeling she didn't need others to preach these things to her. She wasn't ignorant, and she had already made her choice long ago.
Moreover, having no memories of parents or family, he couldn't say anything praising or glorifying either.
"Senior Brother, you won't tell anyone, right?" Yu Sui blinked as she looked back at Mei Liangyu.
"No." Mei Liangyu answered immediately, "Don't worry."
Yu Sui had just curved her eyebrows when she saw Mei Liangyu also crouch down, meeting her gaze at eye level, saying with a bit of a smile: "There's one more thing."
She widened her eyes slightly, asking curiously: "What?"
Mei Liangyu said: "The apricots, spit them out."
Yu Sui: "......"
Blackbeard, who could have rested, was called up by Yu Sui to go knock on the door of a merchant who had already gone to sleep, buying a basket of fresh apricots from the merchant's inventory.
Mei Liangyu sat at the table edge, staring intently at the basket of fresh apricots on the table. Yu Sui brought over a water basin, picked several good-looking apricots and put them in the water to wash clean. Senior Brother had both hands wrapped in medicinal cloth and couldn't touch water.
While washing, Yu Sui muttered: "I didn't eat that many... a few dozen maybe. Most were used to make wine, and some made into jam. The rest made into apricot preserves and apricot cakes. Senior Brother, were they tasty?"
Only then did Mei Liangyu shift his gaze, looking at Yu Sui, then back at the apricots she was washing: "Not bad."
After a pause he asked: "You made them yourself?"
Yu Sui nodded: "Yes."
After saying this, she took a dry cloth and wiped the water off the apricots, then handed them to Mei Liangyu.
Mei Liangyu reached out to take them, asking: "Your mother surely wouldn't refuse to give you food and make you cook for yourself, right?"
Yu Sui was stunned: "That wouldn't happen."
Mei Liangyu made an "oh" sound.
After Yu Sui reacted, she laughed: "Although my relationship with my mother isn't good, it hasn't reached the point of not giving me food. I also cook some things I like to eat myself."
Mei Liangyu thought to himself that it had reached the point of life and death between you two, yet she still gave you food. This relationship was indeed quite strange.
"Stop washing them, I'll take them back to eat." Mei Liangyu looked up at Yu Sui, "Do you want me to leave now, or wait through the night and go back tomorrow?"
Yu Sui lifted the apricots from the water and looked back: "Is Senior Brother leaving?"
Mei Liangyu sat up straight against the table edge, but spoke lazily: "Whether I leave or not, you choose."
Yu Sui glanced out the window: "It's already dark. I'm afraid if Senior Brother goes back now you'll be ambushed again, so let's go back together tomorrow?"
Mei Liangyu nodded: "Alright."
Yu Sui wiped the apricots she had fished out of the water, then asked: "Is Senior Brother's injury better?"
"About the same." Mei Liangyu stuffed a smaller apricot into his mouth, puffing out one cheek, speaking unclearly, "In a few days the Dragon Slaying Cave challenge will open. Are you going?"
Yu Sui blinked innocently: "What is the Dragon Slaying Cave challenge?"
"A cultivation challenge that opens once a year. I heard that tens of thousands of years ago, the last dragon of Xuangu Continent died at Taiyi Academy. Its corpse was preserved by the Taiyi people, and after transformation by Mechanism Arts and Nine Schools Arts, it can appear and disappear at will, with its own world inside."
Mei Liangyu explained: "Most importantly, the dragon head has Ye Pool, and in Ye Pool are inheritance marks of various schools' Heavenly Mechanism Arts. No cultivation is needed, you just need to obtain the inheritance mark to possess Heavenly Mechanism Arts."
This was indeed the first time Yu Sui had heard of this, so she asked curiously: "What are the conditions?"
Mei Liangyu leaned against the chair back, looking up at her slightly: "The Dragon Slaying Cave challenge doesn't limit disciple levels. Class A, B, C, and D can all go. It lasts for one month, but you only get one chance to enter. If you get beaten out by someone inside, you have to wait until next year."
"You can actually beat people out?" Yu Sui asked in surprise.
"Ye Pool can only hold nine people." Mei Liangyu said, "Places are limited, everyone competes based on ability, and they'll also try to reduce competitors."
Yu Sui looked at him, raising her hand to gesture: "Senior Brother and I are the same. We're both from Ghost Way School, and we both want to compete for Ghost Way School's Heavenly Mechanism Arts."
"Ghost Way School has quite a few disciples. Your and my competitors aren't just you and me." Mei Liangyu said.
Yu Sui asked again: "Can we compete for other schools' Heavenly Mechanism Arts?"
Mei Liangyu answered: "No, you can only compete for your own school's."
Yu Sui seemed confused as she asked him: "But Senior Brother, you know other schools' Heavenly Mechanism Arts. Didn't you obtain them through inheritance marks?"
"No." Mei Liangyu ate his apricot and decisively denied this guess, skipping over the topic. "When the time comes, three stage entrances will open: dragon tail, dragon feet, and dragon belly. Class A disciples will all prefer the dragon belly, close starting point, but also high competition. I suggest you take the dragon tail, don't go to dragon feet at all. The dangers inside come not only from academy disciples, but also from Dragon Slaying Cave's own inherent dangers."
"By the time you get from dragon tail to dragon feet, the people in that dragon feet area will have mostly sorted themselves out."
"When lost inside, don't look at the stars in the sky for direction, that might not be correct. You can bring a mirror or look at water reflections to see the truth."
"Prepare medicine and food in advance. If injured, Medical School disciples might send you on your way."
"If you accidentally enter a Military Formation, as long as you don't fight the formation puppets inside, you'll come out after a quarter hour. But if you fight the formation puppets, you must break the formation to get out."
Mei Liangyu told Yu Sui many things to pay attention to when entering Dragon Slaying Cave, because he felt he and Yu Sui wouldn't encounter each other, so giving advance instructions would help Yu Sui stay longer in Dragon Slaying Cave.
At least she wouldn't enter Dragon Slaying Cave in the morning and be sent out in the evening.
Yu Sui nodded, looking obedient as she listened. Without realizing it, they chatted until late at night. A maid came to say Wei Ren had woken up, and only then did Yu Sui go upstairs.
Seeing Yu Sui get up and leave, Mei Liangyu then withdrew his gaze, looking at the table full of apricots she had washed clean. Another night when his Junior Sister wouldn't rest or sleep.
He held a cool apricot in his hand, gently rubbing it, his thoughts returning to the night the elder died: the elder had been beaten out of the forbidden area Inverted Moon Cave by a Legalist School Saint. He went to Inverted Moon Cave as if looking for something, but later the Saints turned Inverted Moon Cave upside down and still couldn't find anything wrong.
Gu Qian also wanted to go to Inverted Moon Cave to find something.
What a coincidence, this year's Dragon Slaying Cave challenge, the dragon corpse's wandering path happened to pass through the Legalist School, Taoist School, and Technical Arts School territories.
Besides Silver River Water, what else was in Inverted Moon Cave? Mei Liangyu was now a bit curious.