Chapter 151
Yu Sui saw him coughing severely and asked worriedly, "Senior, can you still hold on?"
Lin Chenghai waved his hand, then pulled it back to cover his mouth. He looked up and glared at Yu Sui, "I'm afraid I won't live to get out of here."
"That won't do!" Yu Sui's tone was somewhat anxious. "If you die, then Wenyang Xiu will die too."
Lin Chenghai wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and said, "You're still hiding and concealing things from a dying man. Your heart isn't sincere, so how can I trust you?"
After hearing this, Yu Sui pulled down the cloth covering her face, revealing her somewhat reddened face from being wrapped up. Her dark, bright almond eyes stared at Lin Chenghai without blinking, showing a helpless expression, "Now Senior should be at ease, right?"
Lin Chenghai looked Yu Sui up and down, then suddenly burst into laughter. It wasn't Wenyang Xiu's voice, but one tinged with hoarseness, the voice of an aged man, "Though your master has lost his physical body, his eye for choosing disciples is quite good."
Yu Sui reached out to wipe her face and looked back with a puzzled gaze.
"Though the Azure Blood Golden Butterfly's poison is formidable, not many people know about its Soul Stealing and Spirit Swapping effects." Lin Chenghai pointed in a direction for Yu Sui. "I need to rest before I can move. Help me gather some herbs to stop the bleeding first."
Yu Sui asked, "Would using hemostatic pills directly work?"
"Of course that would work." Lin Chenghai asked, "Do you have any?"
Yu Sui took out two pills from her Mechanism Box and handed them over, "I bought them."
Lin Chenghai wasn't polite and reached out to take them, "These should be quite expensive, right?"
"Yes, quite expensive." Yu Sui nodded. "The price of buying one pill could let Senior Brother spar with me five times."
Lin Chenghai tilted his head back to take the medicine, and hearing this, he choked, "You have to pay money to spar with your Senior Brother?"
"Yes." Yu Sui rested her chin on one hand, also wearing a helpless expression. "Without money, I don't qualify to spar with my Senior Brother."
Lin Chenghai desperately wanted Yu Sui to say more things related to Mei Liangyu. He deliberately scolded, "How can sparring between fellow disciples be so stingy, actually charging money before agreeing to teach! This Senior Brother of yours is truly excessive. What else has he done? Tell me so I can help you scold him!"
Yu Sui looked at him with confusion, "Why would you scold my Senior Brother?"
Lin Chenghai said righteously, "Isn't such vile behavior deserving of scolding?"
Yu Sui's face was full of disapproval, "My Senior Brother is so capable, casually sparring with people would indeed be a waste of time."
Lin Chenghai, "......"
With Yu Sui's words, he was actually left speechless.
He regulated the Five Elements Energy within his body and looked up at Yu Sui for a while, his expression becoming mysteriously profound, "Do you like your Senior Brother?"
"Me?" Yu Sui wasn't surprised by this sudden question. Lin Chenghai couldn't even see half a trace of shyness on her face. He only saw the young girl point at herself with one hand, then shake her head.
Lin Chenghai thought she was denying it and was just about to speak when he heard Yu Sui say with a bright smile, "Senior Brother and I have mutual feelings for each other."
When Yu Sui said this, Lin Chenghai actually didn't dare believe it. He looked at Yu Sui with half-belief and half-doubt, but Yu Sui only blinked playfully at him.
No matter how he looked at it, she seemed to be joking.
While Lin Chenghai was regulating his breathing, he indirectly tried to get information about Mei Liangyu from Yu Sui. Each time Yu Sui fell for it and went along with his words, Lin Chenghai would sigh in his heart at this little girl's naivety.
"You said you came to find your Senior Brother. Is he conducting business in the Underwater Mechanism City?" Lin Chenghai watched Yu Sui with one eye open and one eye closed.
"I don't know either." Yu Sui said distressedly, "Senior Brother came to the Abyss Sea once and then disappeared without a trace. With so many Sea Whirlpools appearing in the Abyss Sea, I'm even more worried."
Lin Chenghai deliberately teased her, "Your Senior Brother might have already been swallowed by a Sea Whirlpool long ago. You won't find him. Anyone swallowed by a Sea Whirlpool gets torn to pieces by the chaotic Five Elements Energy inside, leaving no bones behind."
He finished by adding, "Even a Saint couldn't survive coming out of a Sea Whirlpool alive."
Yu Sui said, "I don't care about any of that. I just want to find my Senior Brother. I'm certain I can find him."
Lin Chenghai mocked, "How would you find him if he died in a Sea Whirlpool?"
Yu Sui replied without thinking, "Then I'll go into the Sea Whirlpool to find him."
Lin Chenghai slapped his thigh with one hand and pointed at Yu Sui with the other, "You've gone this far, and you still say you don't like your Senior Brother!"
Yu Sui seemed not to understand why he was so excited and asked puzzledly, "I already said we have mutual feelings for each other."
Lin Chenghai heard this for the second time and became somewhat convinced.
He hadn't seen the Young Master for many years and had no news about him. He had no idea what the Young Master looked like now and could only piece together guesses from other people's scattered words.
"My Senior Brother is so capable, he's not necessarily caught in a Sea Whirlpool. It's also possible he went to the Underwater Mechanism City." Yu Sui stood up. "Senior, if you've finished regulating your breathing, let's hurry and leave here to find people."
Lin Chenghai's gaze followed Yu Sui's movement. Looking up, he asked, "Little girl, what's your name?"
Yu Sui had previously deliberately revealed that she was a disciple of the Ghost Way Saint.
After seeing Lin Chenghai's reaction, she knew he didn't yet know that Nangong Ming's daughter was Saint Chang Gen's second disciple.
Telling him her name at this time would instead create unnecessary complications.
Yu Sui wanted to rely on Lin Chenghai to find Mei Liangyu. After guessing that the Young Master Lin Chenghai mentioned was Mei Liangyu, she could use this point to make Lin Chenghai develop favorable feelings toward her.
Meeting Lin Chenghai's probing gaze, she said softly, "Senior, just call me Little Yu."
When Lin Chenghai stood up, he said, "Seeing that you're such a likeable girl, I'll help you out. When we get to the Underwater Mechanism City, I'll help you find that Senior Brother you keep thinking about."
Yu Sui looked completely doubtful, "You just said you wanted to scold my Senior Brother, but now you say you'll help me find him. Forget it, I'll find him myself. Senior, you just need to keep Wenyang Xiu from dying."
Lin Chenghai's teeth itched with irritation. Covering his mouth as he coughed, he said without allowing refusal, "How can we forget it? It's decided. I'll help you find him! Otherwise, you silly girl will also fall into a Sea Whirlpool!"
That word "also" was quite meaningful.
Yu Sui laughed inwardly but maintained a helpless expression on her face, "Senior, I heard your conversation with Ou Saint earlier. You secretly snuck in to go to the Underwater Mechanism City, so you must have other business to attend to, right?"
"That won't interfere." Lin Chenghai waved his hand. "I'll handle my own affairs. As for you, besides being bold and having money, you only have strength below the Third Realm. If I let you go find your Senior Brother alone, whether you can return to the surface alive is questionable."
Yu Sui asked in surprise, "How does Senior know I'm below the Third Realm?"
Lin Chenghai snorted, pointed at his own eyes, then pointed at Yu Sui, "I can tell some things with just one glance."
In Lin Chenghai's view, Yu Sui had some cleverness, but not much, and was quite easy to see through.
For a girl of this age to be so innocent was quite normal.
Yu Sui displayed her surprise without concealment, "Is this a unique Nine Schools Art of your Buddhist School? Being able to see through others' cultivation levels at a glance."
Lin Chenghai laughed heartily, "It has nothing to do with schools. When you reach my level in the future, you'll be able to do it too."
Yu Sui asked, "Thirteenth Realm?"
Lin Chenghai was about to answer when he started coughing again. Covering his mouth, he stopped walking. Yu Sui turned back to look at him, "Senior, do you want to take a few more hemostatic pills?"
"How many do you have?" Lin Chenghai was surprised by her.
"Fifteen pills per bottle," Yu Sui gestured to show the number, "I still have two bottles."
While reaching out his hand, Lin Chenghai asked in amazement, "Is your Mechanism Box completely filled with medicine?"
Yu Sui took out hemostatic pills to give him and added, "I brought two Mechanism Boxes, so I can carry more things."
Lin Chenghai popped the medicine in his mouth and looked at Yu Sui in disbelief.
Large-capacity Mechanism Boxes were quite valuable and ordinary people couldn't afford them. Mechanism Boxes also consumed some Five Elements Energy. Large-capacity boxes consumed even more, and storing many items also required Five Elements Energy to maintain. To avoid excessive consumption, most people carried just one and wouldn't fill it completely.
If someone carried two, or even three or four, that showed extreme confidence in their own Five Elements Energy.
Yu Sui dared to carry two because she had several hundred Five Elements Light Cores. The cores contained masterless energy, and she could spare a few or dozens of them to maintain the Mechanism Boxes' existence with ease.
What surprised Lin Chenghai was how someone below the Third Realm like Yu Sui dared to use Five Elements Energy on Mechanism Boxes.
If she were truly a Mechanism School practitioner, that would be understandable.
Yu Sui released Five Elements Light Cores to scout ahead, leading Lin Chenghai around crowds while hiding in dark corners using Instant Shadow Talismans. Lin Chenghai followed for a stretch without relaxing his vigilance, using his own methods to probe their surroundings. Discovering that Yu Sui's path always avoided crowds, he was somewhat surprised by her again.
Though her cultivation was below the Third Realm, she seemed to have some ability.
Yu Sui could avoid crowds but couldn't find where Li Jin Shuang was.
The Five Elements Light Cores she had released earlier were all shattered by the energy waves, unable to keep up with Hu Gui and the others. Now she could only search anew.
Along the way, Lin Chenghai said, "We need to go to the third underground level, near the stern."
Yu Sui wasn't familiar with the Spirit Bird's structure, but Lin Chenghai knew it well. With his guidance and Yu Sui's scouting, their cooperation was quite harmonious, and they made it through without major incidents.
When they reached the third underground level at the stern, the two hid in a cabin meant for resting.
Yu Sui stood by the window looking out. This place looked familiar, it was where Zhang Xiangyun's group of three had climbed up earlier. Opening the window, she could see the outside corridor and railings, as well as the barrier shrouding the ship's hull in the distance.
Lin Chenghai sat cross-legged on a chair, continuing to regulate the Five Elements Energy in his body.
Yu Sui asked quietly, "Senior?"
Lin Chenghai didn't respond. His eyes were closed, his complexion pale, his forehead darkened, his breathing weak, almost imperceptible.
Yu Sui asked again, "Senior, are you dead?"
Lin Chenghai, "......"
Hearing the genuine concern in this girl's words, the curses that had reached his lips were swallowed back down.
Lin Chenghai said in a deep voice with his eyes still closed, "I'm regulating my breathing."
Only then did Yu Sui feel relieved, "It's good that you're not dead. Will Senior's other companion come here too?"
"Probably not." Lin Chenghai said, "I don't need to find him. When the Spirit Bird reaches the Underwater Mechanism City, no one will stay on the ship anyway."
"You've all been discovered already, so how will you enter the Underwater Mechanism City?" After her surprise, Yu Sui muttered, "Senior, if you're not looking for anyone, then what am I bringing you along for?"
Lin Chenghai couldn't help but open one eye to glare at her, "Don't think you can escape Ou Rushuang's notice just by relying on Instant Shadow Talismans. From the moment you were struck out of hiding, he could guess the existence of Instant Shadow Talismans and will re-examine the Mechanism School practitioners on the ship."
This was indeed correct.
Yu Sui had also seen the situation on Ou Rushuang's side through her Five Elements Light Cores. He had Baili Mo and Murong Lie re-investigate the Mechanism School practitioners on the ship.
He also stationed people at several exits, lighting Bright Fire Talismans at the exits. Anyone using Instant Shadow Talismans to approach would be immediately exposed.
Yu Sui maintained her innocent act to the end. After hearing this, she stared at Lin Chenghai with wide eyes, "Then what should I do?"
Lin Chenghai closed his eyes again, "What are you afraid of? You're a disciple of the Ghost Way Saint. Could Ou Rushuang actually kill you?"
Yu Sui said, "He'll definitely stop me from finding Senior Brother, but if I can't find Senior Brother, I won't be at peace."
Lin Chenghai thought to himself that whether the mutual feelings were real or fake, this girl definitely liked the Young Master.