Chapter 73 A Long Way to Go
1783 Words
His mind seemed like the lunar eclipse. After darkness, the light shone into his sea of consciousness bit by bit.
Ning Xiaoling looked at him discreetly. She could clearly feel that her fellow disciple seemed to be drained of something just now.
It was like that rainy day when he told the story of the young Taoist priest in the room. Back then, she felt that her fellow disciple was like a star. His dim light could be seen by the common people while the body covered by the light couldn't be seen.
Ning Changjiu sat there and stayed silent for a long while. Now, he was like a man who walked in the darkness for long and suddenly saw a streak of light piercing through the darkness towards him.
The beam of light was like a sword. As long as he held it, he could get rid of the long night.
"Xiaoling..."
After a while, he slowly opened his mouth, stroked her hair lightly and looked into her eyes, saying softly, "Thank you."
Although his smile was faint, Ning Xiaoling could feel his delight. It was like under the peaceful lake, 10,000 fancy carps arose with the surge of the water. Suddenly, it seemed that the fancy carps would shrug their bodies and jump out of the water together, causing crystalline spindrift.
Ning Xiaoling avoided Ning Changjiu's scorchingly warm eyes and then said with embarrassment, "Why do you thank me?"
Ning Changjiu didn't answer but suddenly said, "Xiaoling, I'm your fellow disciple."
"Emm?" Ning Xiaoling was dazed and didn't know why he suddenly said so.
Ning Changjiu continued, "I'm not possessed by anyone or any spirit. I'm always your fellow disciple. The Ning Changjiu before that night is still the current me."
Ning Xiaoling was shocked for a moment. What Ning Changjiu said seemed complicated but she could still understand.
He wanted to dispel her last doubt.
"Changjiu, you don't need to do this."
"I'm afraid that you still have scruples."
"Actually, it is good enough that I know you are nice to me," Ning Xiaoling puckered her lips and raised her head, saying. "Moreover, somehow I have a feeling that you never change. You are always you... Well... It is my instinct, right?"
"It's so great that I can meet you."
The short while of peace seemed the snowstorm that had just stopped.
"Blockhead," Ning Xiaoling shouted and suddenly rushed forward to hug him by surprise. Ning Changjiu's drooping sleeves slightly moved. He heard the young girl sobbing and then the white clothes on his chest became damp.
Ning Changjiu bent his arms to pat her back lightly.
He couldn't help sighing.
In his last life, his innate spirit was slain off by his master so he always had a misunderstanding. That was, his innate spirit was slain off by his master so his Zifu was empty now.
However, it was 12 years ago.
If time really went back and everything returned to the starting point, what happened back then wouldn't matter.
He hadn't started cultivating or fostered the spirit, just as before.
It was great that everything restarted.
He closed his eyes. Holding the young girl in his arms, he gave a faint smile.
His smile contained part delight, part self-mockery.
Under the paper window, his mind was completely clear.
It was such a simple thing but he had been bothered about it for half a month. No wonder he would have a hunch upon seeing the book in the library today. Yet, he still didn't think it through back then.
He was a blockhead indeed.
"Xiaoling, don't cry. Let me teach you to read. Well... Where were we last time?" Ning Changjiu said in a low voice.
"Last time, you taught me the strokes..." Ning Xiaoling faltered.
Ning Changjiu laughed out of anger, saying, "What? You want me to teach that again? If your master finds it out, she will be mad."
"Jiajia has a sharp tongue but a tender heart. She won't be mad at me. Although she rarely talks with you, she must really care about you in secret."
"Yeah, I cannot let her down anymore," Ning Changjiu said softly. "There there. Get up. I will teach you to read poems. You should be literate in the future and not become a foolhardy girl."
"What poems..."
"Today, it snows in the bleak midwinter. Every snowflake falls as if jade breaks. Let me teach you some poems about snow."
...
In the afternoon, an oil lamp was lit and the books remained the fragrance. Talks arose continuously.
"The whole world is made by white jade, which clears my mind and makes me want to become immortal..."
"At the dusk of the cold day, the sound of trumpets came continually from the city gate, blowing the snow off the tree."
"..."
After a long while, Ning Changjiu slowly folded the book and asked with a smile, "Which one do you like?"
Ning Xiaoling pondered for a while and then said seriously, "It is comparable to the salt sprinkled in the air?"
...
Lu Jiajia landed on the bleak Cloud Tower by sword. On the Cloud Tower wreathed by the cold mist, it suddenly snowed. The sky was vastly white. As the wind whistled, there seemed to be white fishes dancing around and rolling lots of frost and snow.
Lu Jiajia flicked the sword and it was unsheathed. Amidst the clear sword chirp, the wooden sheath at her waist was empty and the sword dashed through the sky.
She focused her mind and waved her sleeve with a whoosh. Holding the sword handle, she smeared the sword with two fingers of her left hand. The sword as bright as a mirror just reflected her cold brows and eyes. Then, she swung the sword.
She executed the sword moves according to the former part of the Heavenly Oracle Sword Method.
It included the three most majestic moves--"The White Rainbow Running Through the Sky", "The River Flowing into the Sea" and "The Black Rain Turning over the Basin", and the three chilly moves--"Carving the High Cliff", "May Flowers Falling Around" and "Knocking on the Moon to Visit the Immortal". She also struck the connecting moves such as "Sand Snow", "White Silk", "Flowers in the Mirror" and "Autumn's Makeup."
Among the cliffs, her sword Qi dashed around strongly, leaving streaks of narrow and dense sword marks on the constant rocks. The marks were in disorder, just like the words on the cliff.
On the Cloud Tower, the sword Qi was soaring and the snow was swirling.
Lu Jiajia's slender waist was wrapped with a belt. Her long and curvy figure flashed here and there in the snow.
By the cliff, the red plum flowers had just bloomed but her pretty figure was even more beautiful than the plum flowers and white snow.
The sword started with extremely high momentum, proceeded in a potent and magnificent style and ended like a beauty doing the sword dance in the pavilion and meanwhile singing.
Lu Jiajia had red lips, white teeth and fair-complexioned skin. The sunshine through the clouds shone on her cheeks, setting off her crystalline earlobes.
She stopped swinging her sword.
The snowstorm subsided.
Yet, Lu Jiajia sighed with regret. The tip of the sword slightly went across her and then returned to the sheath.
She stood there quietly, looking at the gradually disappearing sword Qi with her face full of confusion. The sword moves she struck were mostly the repetition of the fatal moves but at the end of the moves, she switched the style to softness, just like a singsong girl dancing around.
It was not because she suddenly felt soft-hearted but her spiritual power at one breath came to an end at the fifth sword move. The two damaged acupoints in her back had reached the limit, causing a heart-stabbing pain in her. Hence, the last two sword moves could only be as soft as the breeze, which looked quite eye-pleasing but actually unspeakably bitter.
The six major sword moves and the four auxiliary moves of the former part of the Heavenly Oracle Sword Method came to a hasty end.
When Ning Changjiu and Ning Xiaoling saved her, Ning Changjiu asked her what she should do when she couldn't advance in terms of her cultivation level.
When she put her ambitious words into practice, she just had a deep feeling of incapability.
Today, she was 24 years old. She was young even not as a cultivator...
"Yeah, I'm only 24 years old."
Lu Jiajia sighed. She looked ahead with puzzlement. If she was stuck in the realm of Long Life for the following 100 years, how could she get through it?
On Tianku Peak, there were only stars and rocks.
With her sword put behind her back, Lu Jiajia walked into the sword hall, her back facing the snow on the peak.
...
It was late at night.
Ning Changjiu sat cross-legged with a copper lamp lit before him.
He sat cross-legged, staring at the lamplight with the flames reflected in his eyes.
On the same day of his last life, the night was quite a blur to him. Back then, he should have rejected the arranged marriage and reached the realm of Purple Court.
If he met Zhao Xiang'er back then, in terms of their realm gap, she would probably not dare to clamor for breaking off the engagement.
However, things were still there, but men were no more the same ones.
He hadn't reached the Profound Realm yet.
A journey of one thousand miles began with one step. Previously, he had been confused for a long time and still failed to start cultivating.
When he cultivated in the last life, he felt as if riding on a cloud. Now, he was in the mortal world so he didn't want to or even think of coming down to earth.
It was not until today that he realized that everything really started over.
He still had the memories but there was no last disciple in Bu Ke Temple and his life was brand new too.
"I shall start from tonight..."
Ning Changjiu's breath was slightly deep. He stared at the flickering flame. A spark seemed to jump into his deadly lake of heart. Then, the spark set on the fire and gradually became bright.
For now, he couldn't find the incomparably sharp knife.
However, since he was sure that it was jade under the stone, even the flowing water could wash off the dust and sand.
Outside the window, the snow floated around like fishes. It was bleak.
On this ordinary snow night, Ning Changjiu in this life officially started cultivating.
- Writer
