Chapter 90 - 87: In the Mist
Familiar streets, a familiar scene.
Everything seemed exactly as it was seventeen hundred years ago.
Illusory Spirits brushed past Lu Changyuan, as if he were the only living creature in the entire Netherworld moving against the current.
Before long, a cluster of red Other Shore Flowers suddenly appeared before him.
’Looks like another unlucky soul failed to find shelter and died tonight.’
Lu Changyuan walked around the Other Shore Flowers and continued forward. Not far ahead was a building that looked like a tavern. According to what that Spirit had said, Mei Zhaozhao likely lived in the small house behind it.
"Hm?"
Before Lu Changyuan could get any closer, he heard a violent commotion.
He took two steps closer, and the door to the house suddenly flew past his ear into the distance.
’What’s happening?’
From the darkness, a blood-soaked humanoid creature crawled out.
It was on all fours, its posture twisted as it scuttled like a lizard. Its fingernails had grown into long, sharp claws that glinted eerily in the dark.
Most horrifying of all, a woman’s head was impaled on its sharp claws, long hair dangling, still dripping blood.
"Xiao Hai?"
Lu Changyuan frowned.
"Watch out!"
Mei Zhaozhao, clad in a black robe, leaned against the doorway, her left hand clutching a wound on her right shoulder.
She wasn’t entirely sure what had happened either.
Just a short while ago, Xiao Hai’s qi and blood had surged, and he had suddenly lashed out. Caught off guard, Wang Lian had died at his hands. Then, Xiao Hai’s body had practically exploded, blood bursting through his skin and drenching him into the blood-soaked man he was now.
Lu Changyuan asked in a cold voice, "What happened?"
Mei Zhaozhao felt a sharp pain from her shoulder. She gritted her teeth and shook her head. "I don’t know either. It’s like he’s gone mad. He’s unbelievably strong now, utterly terrifying."
Lu Changyuan raised Broken Thought, not forgetting the reason he had come. "Miss Mei, where is Xiao Qingfeng’s spirit tablet?"
"Just now, when I was fighting with Xiao Hai... Xiao Hai ate it!"
Xiao Hai suddenly charged. Lu Changyuan met its attack head-on but was still forced back half a step by the impact.
The once First Realm Cultivator was now impossibly strong; even Lu Changyuan couldn’t gain an advantage.
Just as Lu Changyuan raised his sword to strike again, countless black Spirits emerged from the surrounding shadows. They were clad in armor and twisted as they gathered around.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Su Youwan hadn’t even finished saying "be careful" before Lu Changyuan was gone. She could only sigh, obediently close the door, and return to bed.
’I just need to wait here for Lu Changyuan to come back.’
A Silver Needle materialized in her hand. The maiden then lifted her hand, and within the lines of fate that only she could see, Su Youwan threaded the needle through.
After a long moment, the Silver-haired Maiden pinched her own cheek, her red pupils devoid of any emotion. "Sun and Moon Palace Left Guardian Su Wuxiang, Right Guardian Lu Changyuan."
She murmured softly, repeating, "Right Guardian Lu Changyuan. To think he looks like a young man."
In Su Youwan’s eyes, Lu Changyuan was indeed quite handsome.
Looks weren’t a particularly important trait among Cultivators. Most male Cultivators were handsome and female ones beautiful, but it was rare to see someone as good-looking as him.
’The last time I saw someone with such looks... was probably my master.’
Su Youwan couldn’t help but think that in the end, all Cultivation led to were soulless skeletons. They were just nice to look at on the outside, not interesting like Lu Changyuan.
She suddenly realized something. The parts she found interesting about Lu Changyuan were precisely the parts that made him seem like a mortal.
Mortals needed to eat and sleep. They shed layers when it was hot in the summer and added them when it was cold in the winter.
Lu Changyuan seemed to be the same way, especially with his excellent quality of sleep.
’Is this also a form of Cultivation?’
As Su Youwan thought of Lu Changyuan, her heart grew inexplicably calm, like watching butterflies dance in the spring, or a soft feather drifting through the clouds, eventually taking on their color.
It was also like tasting a sesame candy from childhood as an adult, memories flooding the heart, until the clouds gathered and parted, suffusing everything with a gentle sweetness.
It was a feeling that was hard to describe.
Perhaps it was called...
Red Dust?
Su Youwan suddenly missed her master a little.
Ever since entering the Compassionate Palace at the age of seven, she had embarked on the path of Cultivation under her master’s personal guidance. But once she had chosen her Destined Celestial Dao and set her own Dao, her master no longer managed her.
Instead, her master told her to go and experience the Red Dust for herself.
She had met many people and seen all walks of life in the Glazed Dynasty, but none of it truly moved her.
From Su Youwan’s perspective, the world could be divided into black, white, things to be managed, and things not to be meddled with.
’In essence, it was probably just about not letting Cultivators bully mortals.’
Many people called her a Bodhisattva of Supreme detachment.
But that wasn’t true.
Su Youwan felt she was never a Bodhisattva of Supreme detachment, but rather someone who strived with all her might on the path of the Dao.
Now, after fifteen years of Cultivation, she had begun to grow weary of the Daoist robes she wore. Everywhere she went, someone would call out, "It’s the Little Ancestor of the Compassionate Palace."
The Lotus Crown, the blindfold, the birdcage—they seemed to have become her symbols. She was extremely uncomfortable with these things and the reverent voices that accompanied them. If she could, she would retreat to a deep mountain forest to pursue her Cultivation, ignoring the affairs of the world.
Her master once told her, "The Celestial Dao is not the Human Race’s Celestial Dao, but you can be the Human Race’s Destined Celestial Dao."
Su Youwan didn’t understand these words.
Her master also said, "The Red Dust is right before your eyes. If you can see it, it is the Red Dust. If you cannot, it is the Supreme."
Su Youwan didn’t understand those words either.
No.
She had started to understand a little lately.
Perhaps the Red Dust wasn’t just the Mortal World.
’Think about it.’
’What is the Red Dust? Anything that makes you feel alive is the Red Dust.’
After giving up on searching for the Red Dust, the Silver-haired Maiden had found something that seemed like it could become her Red Dust.
And Su Youwan had only recently learned...
...that a man’s cheeks are warmer than a girl’s, but his hands are larger, just about big enough to cover her small head.
Not only that, but a man could warm the blankets when he slept. Unlike her, whose blankets were still cold after a whole night.
’If I get married, I’ll have a man to warm my bed.’
Su Youwan couldn’t help but think.
CLANG CLANG.
The cage not far away suddenly began to shake, nearly falling to the floor. Su Youwan looked over, her picturesque brows furrowing slightly.
"You may not."
So said the Silver-haired Maiden.
She got out of bed and pulled away the black cloth. Unlike what Lu Changyuan had seen, a cute, red-eyed bird with smooth, pure-white feathers appeared in the cage.
’A caged bird. That is also her.’
That was why when Lu Changyuan had asked her what was inside the cage, she had answered that Youwan was inside.
The bird seemed very happy to see her, hopping and chirping excitedly.
’Everything is fine.’
"Be good. You can’t come out yet. Perhaps in a few more years."
Until she achieved the Dao of Yao Guang, the emotions in the cage could not be released.
BANG BANG BANG.
Someone was knocking on the door.
’Who is it? Is Young Master Lu back?’
Su Youwan covered the cage again.
Darkness once again swallowed her emotions. Naturally, she didn’t see the faint, spreading trace of red on the bird’s snow-white feathers.