IS Chapter 161

Chapter 161

At the end of May, Ye Zhuo found an excuse to send Jin Ming away on a long trip.

The Golden Dragon elder brother and he had been at peace recently, except that sometimes he couldn’t control his mouth and would make strange noises like “tsk, tsk” and “interesting.”

He stayed at the Plum Blossom Abode and finished writing a set of sword techniques for Jin Ming. The Golden Dragon was a Dharma cultivator and not very particular. He clearly possessed a divine sword and was learning advanced sword techniques, but the two didn’t quite mesh. Based on the Golden Dragon’s aptitude, Jin Ming’s own habits, and the many characteristics of the Heavy Cloud Purple Lightning Sword, he wrote this set, which was better than nothing.

Besides the sword techniques, he also left a letter, offering a few words of thanks and explaining the arrangements for the future. In total, it was only three lines, mainly saying that he was leaving, the little dragon worm had its own destination, and everything was arranged, so Jin Long didn’t need to look for him and could go play on his own.

After sealing the letter, there was nothing else to do. Ye Zhuo stood in front of the window for a while. The red plums had withered, and the ice and snow were beginning to melt.

He looked towards his spiritual sea.

The little dragon worm was coiled in the center of a lotus leaf, hugging a lotus petal, and looking at him with bright, sparkling eyes. Ye Zhuo didn’t know how he could see eyes in a ball of spiritual energy, but they were there. There were also the bumps of dragon horns on its head.

No name.

Giving it a name would make it seem real. Ye Zhuo wouldn’t do that kind of thing.

He only felt that this thing had been here long enough.

“Go out,” Ye Zhuo said to it.

The dragon cub tilted its head, as if it didn’t understand what he was saying.

“Go out. From here.”

The dragon cub looked around blankly.

“Never mind,” Ye Zhuo thought. This thing didn’t even know what was outside.

“Go to where you should go.”

The little dragon worm paused, as if trying to understand.

Then it flipped over on its belly towards him, rolling around on the lotus leaf to curry favor.

“?”

Was it really planning to stay here?

Words were only effective if said three times, and besides, it didn’t seem to understand.

It was already eating half of his spiritual power every day. Even if it came out earlier, would it starve to death? A creature with four legs couldn’t have such a weak constitution.

“Are you coming out or not?”

The little dragon worm climbed onto the lotus flower, hugging the lotus petal and constantly rubbing against it. After rubbing for a long time without success, it sniffed around, looking for something. It circled around without finding it and became anxious, wagging its tail. Ye Zhuo understood; it didn’t know how to get out either.

Perhaps the time given by heaven hadn’t arrived yet. But the time Ye Zhuo gave it had. Even if it didn’t want to come out, it had to.

“Fine.”

Ye Zhuo picked up a sharp ice crystal dagger.

The tip of the knife pointed at a certain spot in his chest, then moved away. That was too strange. So he moved it down a little, to his side abdomen.

His sword could kill other people’s primordial spirits, so could it not cut open his own spiritual sea? In an instant, sword intent formed, its sharpness already revealed.

Ye Zhuo slashed down.

His clothes were ordinary, and the blade easily cut through them.

So did the flesh.

The moment the tip of the knife pierced his skin, the little dragon cub cried out, “Awoo!” Ye Zhuo had never heard it cry so loudly before, and his head hurt.

He wanted to say, “Get out!” but the dragon cub had already completely disappeared. All the spiritual power in Ye Zhuo’s body was suddenly being consumed frantically. The dragon cub transformed into thousands of streams of light, rushing around in his spiritual sea and meridians, trying to find a way out. But it couldn’t find one and continued to crash around.

Ye Zhuo felt an unfamiliar pain. To cut open his spiritual sea, he had dispersed his cultivation technique, so his current sensations were no different from those of a mortal. So this was what it felt like; he hadn’t experienced it for many years. Instinctively, he slashed down again, two inches. It could be a little longer. He wondered what three inches and three-tenths would feel like.

But he didn’t manage to slash it. The dragon cub was wailing so hard that his head throbbed. A burst of spiritual power grabbed his wrist, preventing him from moving. Just one slash was like taking its life.

Finally, specks of light scattered from the void, gathering together like birds returning to the forest. Ye Zhuo put down the knife, and those specks of light slowly condensed in front of him. It was still wailing, whimpering, which was very annoying to hear. When the last bit of light left the void spiritual sea, the crying completely stopped. A complete halo of light was in front of him.

Ye Zhuo’s spiritual sea had been emptied by that just now, He paused. The spiritual power of this world began to converge madly towards the halo.

Dozens of aura meridians, countless immortal crystals and spirit stones from storage treasures. Most of them were from the Dragon Realm; the rest were from secret realms. It was like a dragon sucking water; it seemed like it would never be enough. Ye Zhuo was speechless. Could it really have been too early? According to Lin Zhu, it would naturally transform outside the body when it matured, but Ye Zhuo didn’t want to wait. He didn’t have time to compete with this thing in terms of lifespan.

Fine, he would just incubate it for a few thousand more years.

Even like this, it was desperately trying to arch towards him. It should save its strength. Ye Zhuo reached out to touch that warm halo of light. It finally calmed down, and something rubbed against his hand.

After a while, its absorption of spiritual power finally slowed down a bit. Ye Zhuo saw a transparent, shell-like barrier slowly forming, inside of which was a small dragon worm, its body luminous and only vaguely defined. A pair of bright, sparkling dragon pupils were looking at him through the shell. Was it not crying anymore? He looked over, and the little dragon worm rolled over again, showing him its belly, still hugging the lotus petal in its arms.

A spiritual power-formed object, crystal clear, was still pleasing to the eye.

Unfortunately, it would turn into a black dragon when it grew up.

Ye Zhuo looked closely, and there was a red spot on the little dragon worm’s chest, like a lotus pattern. What was it doing? It was at the reverse scale position.

The spiritual power in his hand gradually condensed into a solid form, becoming heavy and substantial. The icy dragon eggshell slowly took shape, its texture exactly like dragon scales.

The dragon cub inside was also becoming a bit invisible.

Ye Zhuo knew it was always looking at him. After a few glances, it was about to rub against him. Since it couldn’t rub against his fingers now, it could only rub against the shell, looking at him pitifully.

It learned from Dragon Li Yuan. Ye Zhuo reached out and heavily knocked it on the head.

——Then it happily rubbed up again.

Finally, many things could no longer be seen. The dragon cub’s movements became slower and slower, closing its eyes as if it was too sleepy to open them, but it still tried to open them again, looking at him with teary eyes.

“Sleep,” Ye Zhuo said.

The dragon cub rubbed against his finger one last time through the shell, seeming to whimper, but he couldn’t hear it clearly. Then it slowly closed its eyes, fell to the bottom of the dragon egg, curled up with the lotus petal in its arms, and slept quietly. Ye Zhuo watched it.

A dream in the Hidden Abyss for thousands of years. When it woke up again, perhaps it wouldn’t remember anything.

Then a big black dragon would come to be its father. That wasn’t bad either. Ye Zhuo suddenly remembered last winter when Li Yuan had brought the Micro-Snow Palace’s children to carve ice lanterns in front of the main hall, a chaotic scene of chickens flying and dogs jumping.

Ye Zhuo suddenly smiled.

How absurd, he had given birth to a little dragon.

Accompanying the primordial universe, holding the sun and moon, heading north to the sea and resting at Cangwu in the evening, such a creature.

No one would hinder it, and no one would hurt it. It could do whatever it wanted. It didn’t have to cultivate if it didn’t want to, and it didn’t have to use a sword if it didn’t like swords. That was pretty good.

The black jade eggshell completely formed, isolating the rich sea of spiritual power inside, and also isolating Ye Zhuo’s sight.

Ye Zhuo held it in his hand and tossed it up and down. It wasn’t very light, which was good. It was barely worthy of being his bloodline. He also saw a faint, dark red lotus pattern deep within the black jade. A lotus-born immortal body was also a good talent, so it could slack off again when cultivating.

He knocked on the eggshell with the hilt of his sword. It was a very sturdy thing, protected by the Heavenly Dao. Most likely, even if it fell to the ground, rolled off a cliff, climbed mountains of knives, or descended into cauldrons of boiling oil, even if this world was destroyed, it would still be fine.

He was in a good mood today, so he wouldn’t test it out one by one.

Amazing, a little dragon.

Alive.

Ye Zhuo didn’t know where to put it for a while. Living things generally couldn’t be put into storage rings. And this thing, the storage ring wouldn’t dare to take it in.

He thought about throwing it into the cold pool outside, but when he moved, he found that his movements were very slow.

Ye Zhuo looked at himself in confusion.

“…”

There was a faint noise outside the courtyard. Luckily, he had sent a message to Feng Jiang in advance, so he should be arriving now. Any later, and he would recover on his own.

——Feng Jiang burst open the door and saw a beautiful, expressionless face. Bright red clothing, skin like ice and snow, and long hair flowing like ink.

Ye Zhuo was leaning quietly against the bedpost, with a dark, dull thing thrown beside him.

The smell of blood was obvious. Feng Jiang was stunned.

Ye Zhuo slowly pointed to his abdomen.

At that moment, Feng Jiang’s heart almost stopped beating. He rushed over in a hurry: “Don’t move! Don’t move! Let me see!”

Such a fuss over nothing. It was just a superficial wound.

But he had dispersed his cultivation to cut through his spiritual sea, and all his spiritual power had been drained. At this time, it wasn’t good to rashly take medicine. He had to wait for his spiritual power to slowly recover naturally before he could withstand the medicinal effects.

Feng Jiang seemed about to cry.

“You can’t use spiritual medicine now, what should we do? I’ll use mortal methods to stop the bleeding, and sew up the wound first, okay?”

Ye Zhuo: “…No need.”

His spiritual power had been drained, but the lotus flowers and leaves left by the little dragon worm were still there. Some of them were slowly transforming into spiritual power, repairing the barrier of his spiritual sea. That shell was also opening on its own.

In fact, it was just a minor injury. Even if he did nothing, he would slowly absorb spiritual power from the outside and recover in a day or two. The wound would also heal quickly on its own, without leaving a scar.

He had had countless injuries heavier than this. Did everyone think he was like that dragon? Deliberately leaving a scar to play pitiful.

Feng Jiang saw Ye Zhuo’s condition clearly, breathed a sigh of relief, and carefully began to stop the bleeding from the wound.

“How did it become like this?” Feng Jiang said softly.

Ye Zhuo: “I gave birth to a little dragon.”

Feng Jiang’s hands stopped moving.

Was Ah Zhou telling him a joke? Feng Jiang hesitantly raised his eyes to look at Ye Zhuo, seeing that Ye Zhuo was being serious, as if he was saying something fun.

“…Huh?” Feng Jiang heard himself say.

Ye Zhuo pointed to the dragon egg.

Placed together with his Life-Bound Sword, anyone could see that they were made of the same material.

Only then did Feng Jiang see it clearly, and after seeing it clearly, he subconsciously looked at Ye Zhuo’s Life-Bound Sword.

Finally, he looked at Ye Zhuo’s eyes in confusion: “This…?”

Ye Zhuo said: “It’s this.”

Feng Jiang: “Li Yuan?”

Ye Zhuo nodded lightly.

Feng Jiang looked like he was about to cry.

“How…how could this be…” His originally steady movements suddenly became flustered. The bleeding had stopped, and Feng Jiang hurriedly looked at him, holding his wrist, “Ah Zhou, how could this be? Is Li Yuan not here?”

“I sent him away,” Ye Zhuo said. “He doesn’t know.”

Feng Jiang seemed like he was really going to cry: “Ah Zhou…”

“I’m fine,” Ye Zhuo said. “It’s pretty good.”

He sincerely felt that it was not bad.

Feng Jiang looked at him hesitantly.

“A Jiang,” Ye Zhuo said seriously, “I’ve let go.”

Feng Jiang’s tears suddenly fell. He cried, nodding vigorously, then smiled. He couldn’t help but hug Ye Zhuo tightly.

“…”

Feng Jiang’s emotions seemed a bit agitated, and Ye Zhuo patted his back awkwardly.

“Ah Zhou,” Feng Jiang said, smiling, “That’s great.”

He cried as he smiled.

Ye Zhuo: “.”

“You’re pressing on my wound,” he said.

Feng Jiang was so frightened that he let go. He was very close to Ye Zhuo now. It seemed like he had never seen Ah Zhou like this before. Like a piece of the moon on the horizon, the faint, clear light falling down.

“Ah Zhou, are you tired?” Feng Jiang suddenly said softly, then reached out to test his forehead.

Ye Zhuo shook his head lightly.

He was fine, it was just that suddenly it seemed like many things had ended, had passed. His spiritual power was empty, and there was no need to cultivate for the time being. He suddenly didn’t know what to do.

“Ah Zhou?” Feng Jiang said.

Ye Zhuo responded. He took back his sword. With nothing to do, he wiped his sword. Why did this sword have to grow into the shape of dragon scales? He thought of Li Yuan again. He looked at the dragon egg for no reason.

Ye Zhuo suddenly said, “A Jiang, don’t I have a good father?”

Feng Jiang didn’t speak.

“It should have one,” Ye Zhuo said lightly. “You take it, I don’t want it.”

Feng Jiang: “Me?”

Ye Zhuo: “You take it back, put it anywhere. In the autumn, when you feel the time is right, give it to Li Yuan. It’s very resilient, it won’t die.”

Feng Jiang’s eyes turned red again: “Then what about you?”

“I don’t know,” Ye Zhuo said. He wiped his sword bit by bit, feeling very good.

Thinking of Yun Xiang Xi, he didn’t feel anything at all. He was just a dead man under his sword.

His fingers slowly stroked the blade. His sword was good in every way. He was looking forward to the day he would ask Xiang Xi about swords.

Past lives, present lives, future lives. Past Buddhas, present Buddhas, future Buddhas.

Everything had already happened. He had already crossed that river.

“And then what?” Ye Zhuo heard Feng Jiang ask him.

“I’m going back to Green Mountain, Ah Zhou, where are you going?”

Perhaps he would go walk around the mortal world.

When his wound healed, his spiritual power became even purer. Without realizing it, he had advanced another small realm. The Human Immortal Realm didn’t really have small realms, but his cultivation had increased a bit. The lotus flowers and leaves were still decorations in his spiritual sea. Ye Zhuo pushed them to the edge. He looked at them. One petal was missing from the lotus flower. The dragon cub had indeed pulled it off this one.

Ye Zhuo really went to walk around the mortal world.

Spring had arrived, and the peach blossoms were blooming. After half a year of ice and snow, ice jams and floods would come, which was something that could be predicted. The villages and towns in the mortal world had migrated to places less prone to disaster in the spring, as they had to gather for warmth in the cold winter. Some people were racking their brains to plan.

And then, they would do their best. Ye Zhuo saw that the mortals and the dynasties were very busy and not doing very well.

Would there be half a year of bitter summer after half a year of cold winter? Spring planting was late, and there might be no autumn harvest at all. Everything was in decline. That’s how the mortal world was now.

Some immortal sect disciples were running around in the mortal world, and when they saw him, they insisted on pulling him to their sect’s base to ask him to drink. Shen Xin Pavilion had actually managed to raise that little Qiong Qi. Everyone said that it was given to him by the Second Palace Master Ye, and people in the Tribulation Transcending Stage were bitten by the Qiong Qi cub every day.

Not wanting to bother with them, Ye Zhuo went to Illusory Cloud Cliff to take a look. It was no different from when he had left. Several jars of osmanthus wine were placed under the Sword Character Cliff. The swordsmith had been there, Li Yuan had been there, and Su Yizhen had also been there. He was the last to arrive.

Wei Sheng Xian kept writing letters urging him to return to Green Mountain. Ye Zhuo didn’t return, not wanting to see the Daoist cultivators trying to die. Wei Sheng Xian had also been busy and out of his mind for the past six months. Ye Zhuo told him to say what he needed to say in letters. Wei Sheng Xian drew him a picture of a Daoist cultivator hanging himself.

Finally, Ye Zhuo arrived at the East Sea.

He caught a fisherman and asked what time of year it was. The fisherman stuttered. Was he so scary? Like a monster?

Finally, he said that it had just passed the summer solstice, June 24th.

The date was good, all even numbers. Dragon Li Yuan said he would come in June. If he came on June 30th, he might really be locked up by their dragon ancestor. That was to be expected. Ye Zhuo found a familiar reef and comprehended sword intent and cultivated.

Li Yuan swam through the gentle waves of the East Sea. When he saw the sea and sky merging into one color, and the coastline of the mortal world unfolding like a distant line before him, the next moment, he saw the most beautiful, dazzling, vividly colored person in the world on the reef, wearing a red robe as beautiful as rosy clouds, carrying a dark, slender dragon-scale sword, quietly closing his eyes, and comprehending the sea and sky.

Above heaven and below earth, for thousands and ten thousands of years, the person he liked the most.

Li Yuan swam to his side, circled around, guarded him, and waited for him to wake up.

When that person opened his eyes, it was like a sudden burst of heavenly light, sweeping away all the fog and haze in the world. His eyes were as ethereal as glass.

The next moment, he was met with his sharply honed long sword.

Such a beautiful, sharp, and irreversible sword light.

“Dragon Li Yuan.” Li Yuan heard this person’s slightly smiling voice, “Come, let’s spar.”