Sheng Jiao, seeing he seemed scared stupid, chuckled softly and gently set him down to stand steady.
Yan Ling staggered, only then realizing this was the gege who gave him osmanthus cake. Still shaken and about to speak, a sinister wind from the side whistled over, blowing his disheveled hair straight into his mouth.
Yan Ling went “ptui ptui” twice, looking back in confusion. With just one glance, he was scared numb by the fierce ghost’s ferocious face.
Sheng Jiao was actually also scared out of his wits, but seeing the child before him frightened to wooden-faced stillness, his eyeballs not even moving, he hurriedly stepped forward to pull him protectively behind. The still-weak Tianyan Pearl crackled with several lightning patterns, shocking back the fierce ghost pressing forward.
The fierce ghost wandered back half a step, but quickly approached again.
Tianyan spiritual power was becoming increasingly scarce in the Thirteen States. Even the Tianyan in Shen Tianshe was nearly depleted—completely unable to repel these wandering souls and vengeful ghosts.
Yan Ling was so scared he hurriedly grabbed Sheng Jiao’s sleeve and hid behind him.
In a place he didn’t notice, the Tianyan spiritual power remaining from Xi Jue’s activation of his xiangwen was like a semi-transparent river, slowly drilling into the back of his neck before suddenly disappearing without a trace.
No one saw it.
Because they’d waited so long without Sheng Jiao’s “conviction,” the wandering souls could no longer suppress their ferocity. A mass of ghosts approached the two children step by step, bringing an overwhelming pressure impossible to ignore.
Sheng Jiao’s whole body tensed. Not very skilled at using the Tianyan Pearl, he could only draw his sword, protecting Yan Ling as they retreated step by step.
But in a place like a chessboard, where could they retreat? After a few steps, Yan Ling’s back hit the transparent barrier with a “wu” sound. He staggered and squatted down—Sheng Jiao’s long legs nearly stepped on him.
Yan Ling didn’t understand how just moments ago they were eating and sleeping at Yan Family Mountain, and now they were in such a terrifying place.
Was this the excitement that flower peacock mentioned?
Indeed quite exciting.
Just as the mass of vengeful ghosts was about to surround them, Xi Jue heroically appeared before the two in an instant. Arms crossed, maintaining an extremely handsome and mighty posture, he raised an eyebrow: “Shorty, call me big brother and I’ll save you.”
Yan Ling was extremely flexible, immediately sobbing: “Big brother save me! Big brother, your nose is bleeding.”
Xi Jue: “…”
Xi Jue’s face froze. He carelessly wiped with his hand, saying coldly: “Are you blind? Which eye saw my nose bleeding?”
Just as his words fell, two more blood streaks slid down from his nose.
Xi Jue: “…”
Even knowing this was a life-or-death moment when he shouldn’t laugh, Yan Ling still couldn’t hold back. Burying his face in Sheng Jiao’s sleeve, he let out a muffled “pfft” laugh.
Xi Jue’s face turned green all over.
Sheng Jiao, being such an upright gentleman like jade, naturally wouldn’t mock others to their face. Instead, he took out a silk handkerchief from his sleeve, gently offering it: “Wipe it.”
Xi Jue: “?”
Confirmed—this person appeared to be a modest gentleman on the surface but was actually deviously wicked inside.
Xi Jue gave up completely, taking it and casually wiping his nose, saying in a muffled voice: “Do you want to leave or not?”
Yan Ling hurriedly scurried over to hug Xi Jue’s arm: “Big brother, yes, let’s go go go.”
Xi Jue snorted, about to activate his xiangwen to escape. Yan Ling suddenly said to Sheng Jiao: “Gege, come with us?”
Sheng Jiao was tempted. After thinking, he still shook his head: “Father wants me to stay here for several months before I can leave.”
Xi Jue sneered: “Don’t bother with him. Come or not.”
“But it’s very dangerous here.” Yan Ling looked at him longingly. “Does your father want you to die here?”
Sheng Jiao choked.
Yan Ling didn’t have much malice—he simply felt Sheng Jiao’s father probably hated this son. Otherwise, how could he possibly throw him in a place full of vengeful ghosts?
Xi Jue impatiently was about to activate ‘Wheresoever I Roam.’ Yan Ling keenly sensed that familiar Tianyan spiritual power, hurriedly extending his hand toward Sheng Jiao. Amidst the violent wind, he shouted: “Come on!”
Sheng Jiao froze.
At this moment, vengeful ghosts were pressing in overwhelmingly, as if about to tear the three into pieces and devour them.
Yan Ling was still striving to extend his hand toward Sheng Jiao.
Sheng Jiao hesitated for an instant, but his body was more honest than his brain, taking the lead to extend his hand toward Yan Ling.
His hand bearing thin sword calluses gripped Yan Ling’s soft five fingers tightly at the critical moment. The instant they made contact, ‘Wheresoever I Roam’ fully activated. A golden light enveloped them, taking the three and instantly disappearing from the scene.
In a split second, vengeful ghosts swarmed over.
“Bang—”
This time Xi Jue’s landing was more stable. He directly used ‘Wheresoever I Roam’ to transport the three to Yan Ling’s small bed. Suddenly crashing down from nowhere, they nearly collapsed the wooden bed.
Yan Ling nearly hit his head again. Fortunately, Sheng Jiao was quick-eyed and quick-handed, cushioning the back of his head to prevent the already injured head from getting worse.
Xi Jue was tilting his head back using that handkerchief to wipe the nosebleed that accidentally flowed out again. Unhappy, he kicked Yan Ling’s calf, saying in a nasal voice: “Why’d you actually bring him along? No wonder I consumed so much spiritual power this time. Look, I’m bleeding from the nose.”
Yan Ling’s meridians felt uncomfortable. He had a total feeling Xi Jue seemed to have inadvertently transmitted a strange spiritual power into his meridians using ‘Wheresoever I Roam,’ but he couldn’t describe the strange feeling in his body. He could only cover the back of his neck with tightly furrowed brows.
But seeing Xi Jue seemed truly badly injured, Yan Ling pressed his lips together about to speak when he heard Sheng Jiao say gently: “I just saw—you hit your nose on the bedpost and that’s why it bled. It wasn’t from consuming spiritual power.”
Xi Jue: “???”
You fucking saw and didn’t know to give a hand?!
Xi Jue hooked his finger at Yan Ling, saying coldly: “Shorty, come here. Don’t know if this person is good or bad—careful he’ll harm you in secret.”
Yan Ling hesitated, his hand still clutching Sheng Jiao’s sleeve, saying softly: “He… he gave me osmanthus cake to eat.”
“I even saved you!” Xi Jue had never suffered such grievance. Furiously slapping the bed board: “Listen to me—come here!”
Yan Ling could only purse his lips and crawl over. Xi Jue grabbed him and pulled him behind, saying to Sheng Jiao with chin held high: “Which family are you from? Why were you in that… that ghost place?”
“That’s Shen Tianshe, a trial illusion realm.” Sheng Jiao wasn’t angry either. After answering, seeing he was standing on someone’s bed with shoes on, he hesitated and was about to get down.
But Xi Jue pointed at him: “Don’t move!”
Sheng Jiao stopped, looking at him puzzled.
“I remember now.” Xi Jue glared at him. “You’re that Spirit-grade xiangwen from the poor clan. What’s it called? Oh right, ‘Fathom the Heavenly Dao’!”
Yan Ling asked curiously: “What is ‘Fathom the Heavenly Dao’?”
“A very fierce thing.” Xi Jue scared him. “If you make even a small mistake, he’ll directly summon heavenly thunder to strike your head!”
Yan Ling didn’t believe him at all, looking at Sheng Jiao longingly: “Can you really summon heavenly thunder?”
Sheng Jiao thought about it, rubbing the two pearls lightly together. With crackling sparks flying, in the narrow bed curtains a small heavenly dao actually struck down, blasting a tiny scorched hole in the brocade quilt.
Yan Ling watched dumbstruck, only feeling this thing was so impressively ostentatious!
Much more impressive than the flower peacock.
Xi Jue inwardly cried disaster. Just moments ago, Shorty was affectionately calling him big brother, but now he was so easily enticed with sparkling eyes. Dissatisfied, he poked Yan Ling’s small chubby face, saying coldly: “Ling’er, hurry up and send him away.”
Yan Ling came to his senses, saying in surprise: “How do you know my name?”
Xi Jue gritted his teeth and pinched Yan Ling’s small face: “I said, throw him out for me.”
Sheng Jiao sensed Xi Jue’s hostility and said understandingly: “Mm, it’s already late. I shouldn’t linger here either.”
Yan Ling went “Huh?”: “Are you going back to Central State?”
“Mm.”
“Then stay one night.” Yan Ling said excitedly. “Tomorrow morning my father is also sending the flower peacock back to Central State. You could ride the airship together.”
Sheng Jiao paused: “This place… isn’t Central State?”
He thought it was just a short-range teleportation array.
Xi Jue crossed his arms: “My xiangwen is much stronger than yours that only knows how to strike people—by the way, who’s the flower peacock?”
“You.” Yan Ling said.
Xi Jue: “…”
Xi Jue smiled menacingly and pounced forward to continue pinching his small chubby face, making him howl, drawing Yan Hanque over.
Yan Hanque looked at the three people on the narrow bed. After a long silence, he said: “And who is this?”
Yan Ling hurriedly said: “A friend.”
Yan Hanque: “…”
How did his son make so many friends in just one short day, and each one from Tianyan clans?
Yan Ling’s room was too small. Yan Hanque had no choice but to find a new spirit mustard seed dwelling to take out for the two guests to live in.
“Uncle is too polite.” Xi Jue was very familiar, grinning as he hooked Yan Ling’s shoulder and pulled him into his arms. “Same as during the day, I’ll just sleep in one bed with Ling’er.”
Sheng Jiao still hadn’t figured out where this was, but he showed not a trace of panic. His expression gentle, he thanked him without rejecting Yan Hanque’s hospitality.
Yan Ling looked longingly at Sheng Jiao entering the new spirit mustard seed to rest, wanting to follow to see ‘Fathom the Heavenly Dao,’ but was yanked back into the room by Xi Jue pulling his little braid.
“Tomorrow come with me to play in Central State.” Xi Jue grinned. “Then invite your parents to visit my home, and you can play to your heart’s content with me.”
Yan Ling was instantly tempted, but remembering Yan Hanque’s instructions, he drooped his head listlessly: “Can’t.”
Xi Jue still tried to persuade him, but Yan Ling didn’t want to leave Yan Family Mountain at all. Curled into a tiny ball lying on the bed, covering his ears—not listening, not listening.
Xi Jue was half-dead with anger. He’d never coaxed anyone like this before. Immediately furious, he also climbed onto the bed, monopolizing more than half of it and sleeping soundly, squeezing Yan Ling until he could only shrink in the corner.
After being kicked twice, Yan Ling finally couldn’t take it. Furiously, he climbed up and kicked Xi Jue twice back.
Xi Jue slept comfortably and carefree—he didn’t even wake from this.
Yan Ling aggrievedly put on his clothes and walked outside, wanting to squeeze into Yan Yue’s room for the night. But just as he left the courtyard, he saw the spirit mustard seed across the way seemed to still have its light on.
Yan Ling hesitated, then quietly walked over and knocked on the door.
“Gege?”
Sheng Jiao couldn’t sleep in an unfamiliar place. He was sitting on a meditation cushion in cultivation when he heard the sound and gently opened his eyes.
“Mm? Come in.”
Yan Ling pushed the door open. Seeing Sheng Jiao in the moonlight like a little immortal, he ran forward without reservation, squatting there and looking up at him longingly: “Are—are you cultivating ‘Fathom the Heavenly Dao’?”
Sheng Jiao smiled: “No. Tianyan spiritual power in the Thirteen States is gradually decreasing. Xiangwen requires Tianyan to cultivate. I can’t absorb spiritual power for cultivation outside—I have to return to the Sheng family’s Tianyan shrine.”
Yan Ling listened half-understanding, then asked: “After you return tomorrow, will your father throw you into that Shen—Shen Tianshe again?”
Sheng Jiao’s smile faded. After a long while, he said softly: “I don’t know.”
“That place isn’t good.” Yan Ling sniffled, saying quietly: “The sounds are very unpleasant. Don’t go there again.”
Sheng Jiao asked puzzled: “Sounds unpleasant?”
“Mm-hmm.” Yan Ling tilted his head thinking. For some reason, a trace of Tianyan’s golden pattern flashed through his eyes. He said earnestly: “Like wood hollowed out by ants, creaking and groaning—it’s probably about to collapse.”
“Collapse?” Sheng Jiao was even more confused. “How do you know?”
Yan Ling said matter-of-factly: “I heard it.”
But he couldn’t explain at all why just hearing sounds, he could know Shen Tianshe was about to collapse.
The Central State clans appeared infinitely glorious on the surface, but actually were just like Yan Ling’s metaphor—like withered wood hollowed out by ants. The gradual disappearance of Tianyan earth veins made even the Tianyan spiritual power to maintain xiangwen cultivation shrink bit by bit.
Shen Tianshe was supported by Tianyan spiritual power. If it truly collapsed, perhaps all Thirteen States would learn the Central State clans’ Tianyan was exhausted, on its last legs.
Then there would likely be great changes.
Sheng Jiao didn’t think this far for the moment. He hesitantly extended his hand to lift Yan Ling’s loose ink-black hair, pressing lightly with his finger on the back of Yan Ling’s neck.
A weak muffled sound—Sheng Jiao abruptly withdrew his hand, looking at Yan Ling in shock.
Tianyan spiritual power?
A ten-year-old child—why would he have Tianyan?
Yan Ling looked at him curiously. His eyes faintly flashed gold, the back of his neck crawling with crack-like golden patterns spreading to his face, making him look like a porcelain doll about to shatter.
Sheng Jiao said in surprise: “You also have a xiangwen?”
Yan Ling asked puzzled: “Huh?”
**
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152