Chapter 443 – Heart Matters
Before the bamboo house where some shade from the vegetable enveloped over the area, a gentle breeze blew by. Emerald-green leaves swished in the air as they fluttered down, descending onto the bodies of the boy and girl present before the bamboo house.
Ignoring those leaves that had landed on her, Ling Xi was clearing the stubble present on Mu Chen’s face. The ice-cold blade’s edge swept across his face, causing a slight refres.h.i.+ng feeling to surface on his skin. The earnest expression on the face of the girl before him caused feelings of warmth to surface within his heart.
After giving the final swipe of the blade’s edge across Mu Chen’s face, Ling Xi looked towards the face of the youth which had regained its sauve and handsome look, before nodding her head in satisfaction. With a sweet smile, she said, “Although your unshaven appearance looks quite good, I still prefer you being clean and shaven.”
Scratching his head, Mu Chen replied with a smile, “Elder Sister Ling Xi, you usually have a icy expression on your face. If you continue smiling like that, I don’t know how many people would get infatuated and fall head-over-heels for you.”
“What a slick mouth. I, your sis, doesn’t like that,” replied Ling Xi with a faint smile. Putting away the knife blade, she removed her jade-like hand from Mu Chen’s face. As she retracted her slender fingers, the remnant warmth at her fingertips caused her eyes to fluctuate, while her beautiful eyes slightly hung down.
“Elder Sister Ling Xi, what do you have in mind for my training from now on?” asked Mu Chen out of curiosity. He had only three more months of time. Within this timeframe, he needed to focus all of his mind towards his Spiritual Energy training and cultivation. After all, regardless of how many aces he had up his sleeves, Spiritual Energy was the foundation of everything. With a Spiritual Energy that was tyrannical enough, no matter how strong his aces were, it would be difficult for him to display them in full effect, akin to the cleverest housewife that won’t be able to cook without rice.
“Can’t my Spiritual Energy nourish your Spiritual Energy?” Her beautiful eyes staring at the leaves that had descended on the ground, Ling Xi spoke out in a soft voice.
Hearing that, Mu Chen instantly gave an embarra.s.sed smile before replying, “Don’t tease me, Elder Sister Ling Xi. How would I dare to use that method? If mother knew about it, wouldn’t she beat me to death?”
Ling Xi slightly tilted her head, causing her black hair to sweep down like a waterfall, covering her sleek and glossy cheek, before gently replying, “In fact, it isn’t nothing. Within that clan, the people who train and cultivate in the Yin Scroll of the Great PaG.o.da Art were originally just servants with with petty and low statuses. It seems that those servants would sacrifice themselves at certain times to fulfill the needs of those who train in the Yang Scroll of the Great PaG.o.da Art…”
Her voice grew softer and softer, since she could feel that the smile on the face of the youth beside her was slowly starting to become restrained.
Quietly looking at the white-robed girl by his side, with her slender legs faintly curling up, while her lovable figure appeared somewhat frail to the point of her trembling slightly, Mu Chen noticed some vacant moodiness gus.h.i.+ng out from her eyes.
“Elder Sister Ling Xi, are you suspecting that my mom letting you train and cultivate the Yin Scroll of the Great PaG.o.da Art was, in fact, for the sake of letting you become my servant?” asked Mu Chen in a slow manner.
A fierce tremble shook through Ling Xi’s body as she abruptly raised her head. Looking at Mu Chen, she shook her head, panic-stricken as her eyes brimmed with a freneticism that caused people’s hearts to feel pain for her. “No! I’ll absolutely not doubt Aunt Jing! If not for Aunt Jing, I’d be long dead in that ice-cold rain! If not for Aunt Jing giving me a to reason to live on, even if I continued living on, I’d only be a walking corpse!”
Aunt Jing was the pillar propping up her ice-cold life. She was willing to destroy herself than to doubt Aunt Jing, something she absolutely wasn’t willing to do.
When a person lives on, he or she would always need some kind of faith. This faith could be revenge, to protect or even other things. As for Ling Xi, the faith that had kept her living on was the warm and gentle figure that had brought her out of the ice- cold and despair-filled place of death. Therefore, once her faith collapses, she might truly lose all motivation to look ahead in life, completely similar to a walking corpse.
To her, this was a matter that was harder to accept than even death.
Looking towards the panic-stricken Ling Xi, Mu Chen extended his hands. Gently grasping those ice-cold jade-like hands, he spoke out in a soft voice. “Elder Sister Ling Xi, there are a lot of things in this universe that we’re unable to clearly decipher and understand. When our eyes are unable to help us obtain the answers, we have to use our hearts to judge and decipher. Do you think that my mother would lie to you?”
Hearing that, Ling Xi gawked, before gently shaking her head. Although the arcs were small, they were resolute and unwavering. She had spent so many years with Aunt Jing. Although her memories had been sealed, those feelings and emotions within the depths of her heart were absolutely not one bit a lie.
“Oh?” With a faint smile, Mu Chen spoke out, “looks like you’re jealous of me.”
Ling Xi immediately looked at Mu Chen vacantly, with her lips starting to unconsciously pout. “Are you blind or what?”
“Just because you saw my mom, who is that important to you, after seeing how my mother looked at me when we were reunited then seemed to cause your emotions to fluctuate a bit too much, which led you to have wild thoughts. ‘So, Aunt Jing’s favorite was her own son’, right? That way, you felt depressed, worrying about your personal loss, before wasting time on an insignificant problem. From the start, when you said those words, your emotions started to not quite be right…”
Looking towards Ling Xi’s increasingly beet-red lovable face, Mu Chen spoke out with a smile. “Ever since coming back from the Northern Heavens Continent, you have been having wild thoughts, am I right?”
Ling Xi’s lovable face had turned a deeper red as she tightly clenched her jade-like hands. Looking at the bright eyes of the youth before her, where some laughing intent had surfaced, she unexpectedly felt a slightly guilty conscience rising within her heart. She didn’t know whether what Mu Chen said was right or not, with the only thing she could confirm being that she truly was feeling somewhat depressed after returning from the Northern Heavens Continent.
“I’m sorry,” replied Ling Xi as she lowered her head. Mu Chen was Aunt Jing’s biological son. The latter having the deepest feelings for him was something totally understandable. Her own wild thoughts seemed to have no rationale behind them.
Mu Chen shook his head in response. He could quite understand what she was going through. When his mother and Ling Xi were together, the former clearly didn’t mention about him. Therefore, even Ling Xi didn’t know that his mother had a son. Added with the trust Ling Xi had for his mother, it was inevitable that the relations.h.i.+p between the two was the most important to the latter. However, now, he had suddenly barged in. Furthermore, he was his mom’s biological son, a relations.h.i.+p that was the continuity of a bloodline, something that Ling Xi was unable to compare with. This resulted in her having such feelings and emotions. When one looked at something with too much importance, one would suffer such losses when in such an outcome.
Ling Xi was clearly suppressing those emotions and feelings. However, despite that, when their chatting touched on some sensitive topics, she was somewhat triggered by them.
“Elder Sister Ling Xi, I don’t have any thoughts of competing with you about this. Furthermore, I don’t think that my mother would reject or distance herself away from you after finding me. No matter how long it is, you’ll always be together with us. I treat you as my Elder Sister. There’s no one allowed to bully you. Therefore, you won’t lose anything. Instead, you have one more person that would protect you. This is a very worthwhile matter, am I right?” Sitting before Ling Xi, Mu Chen spoke out with a faint smile.
Raising her head, Ling Xi looked towards the handsome face of the youth before her. Those bright eyes, the warm and gentle smile surfacing at the corner of his mouth, caused her eyes to uncontrollably turn red. Although she had usually appeared rather cold and indifferent, that wasn’t what her character was. Due to her early life experience, she was extremely sensitive. After possessing some warmth, she wanted to hold onto it, not wanting to let it go. Therefore, she was extremely exclusive and resistive to people near her.
Although Aunt Jing wasn’t her biological mother, Ling Xi had truly treated the former as her mother within her heart. Having only one next of kin, Ling Xi didn’t want to lose her.
The past few days of wild thoughts had caused her to develop depressing emotions. However, at this moment, when she looked at the youth before her, her emotions started to slowly stabilise, while the smile at the corners of her mouth erupted in a warm and gentle arc.
She looked at Mu Chen. The youth before her was clearly smaller than her. His strength wasn’t on par with her. And yet, it gave people a certain sense of ease. Truly, what a strange fellow.
Ling Xi gently smiled, her smile gradually returning to the state of the one before. Extending her fair and slender hand, she gently rubbed Mu Chen’s head, before speaking with a grin, “You’re much weaker than me. How are you able to protect me with that strength?”
Shrugging his shoulders, Mu Chen replied with a smile, “It’s not possible now, but there’s always the future. When I become stronger than Elder Sister Ling Xi, it’ll be time for me to protect you.”
Speaking till here, Mu Chen looked towards Ling Xi and gave a cheeky smile. “However, I never imagined that the strong Elder Sister Ling Xi would actually have such a childish side. Nevertheless, it quite cute.”
Ling Xi’s face instantly grew beet-red, as she knew that it could be considered that she had lost a great deal of face. Nevertheless, she could only shoot a resentful glare at Mu Chen, before turning her stiff lovable face.
With a grin, Mu Chen laughed, as he knew that Ling Xi’s face was, in fact, extremely thin. Although he knew that Ling Xi wouldn’t stop guiding him in his training and cultivation due to her embarra.s.sment, he knew that there wasn’t a need to be so fierce when forcing people. After all, being much stronger than him, it was extremely easy for her to deal with him.
“Ok. This moment stops now. However, as for those words, don’t say them anymore, okay? Although Elder Sister Ling Xi has trained and cultivated the Yin Scroll of the Great PaG.o.da Art, I absolutely don’t want you to become my servant. If you say those words again, I’ll be angry,” said Mu Chen with a straight face.
“Okay, I know.” Ling Xi’s reply was soft and gentle. How was this soft and gentle demeanor like the dignified and imposing third strongest expert of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy?
“What training are we going to do?” asked Mu Chen. Wanting to have a great improvement of his Spiritual Energy in the next three mouths seemed to not be a simple problem.
Slightly tilting her head, Ling Xi thought awhile, before smiling sweetly and replying, “Simple. I’ll teach you the Yin Scroll of the Great PaG.o.da Art to you. That way, you’ll be able to obtain the complete Great PaG.o.da Art. In fact, before she left, Aunt Jing had told me about this. Due to her not having time to teach it to you, she has allowed me to
do it.”
Mu Chen gawked, before his head started to heat up.
The complete edition of the Great PaG.o.da Art?