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Join the ServerWithin the guest room, the delicate tendrils of sandalwood incense curled lazily upwards.
Lu Hongzhuang held her breath, her concentration absolute, as her wrist hovered, the cinnabar-tipped brush struggling across the yellow talisman paper.
This single successful attempt was the culmination of an entire afternoon’s effort.
On the corner of the table, the first perfectly formed talisman lay quiescent, yet she now wore a furrowed brow, vexed by the challenge of creating a second.
Fine beads of perspiration dotted her forehead, and she felt as though she clutched not a mere brush, but an insurmountable mountain.
The slightest tremor in her concentration, a flicker of unease, caused the brush tip to waver. The once-fluid rune instantly warped, its spiritual energy scattering into nothingness.
“Ugh!”
With a frustrated sigh, Lu Hongzhuang crumpled the ruined talisman paper into a tight ball and tossed it to the floor beside her.
There, a small mountain of discarded paper balls had already begun to accumulate.
Across from her, however, Su Qinghan’s actions presented a stark contrast.
She wasn’t even seated at the table; instead, she reclined languidly in her wheelchair, a simple wooden board resting on her lap serving as her drawing surface.
With a delicate lift of her wrist, the cinnabar brush danced between her fingers as if imbued with life, its strokes flowing seamlessly, each talisman completed in a single, unbroken motion.
One after another, they appeared.
In the span of time it took for a single stick of incense to burn, a substantial stack had accumulated before her, each talisman radiating an inner spiritual glow, utterly flawless.
Su Qinghan stifled a yawn, casually folded the last completed talisman, then meticulously bound it into a small bundle with a length of red thread before tucking it into the capacious folds of her sleeve.
Having completed her task, she appeared utterly depleted of energy, slumping forward onto the table, her face buried in the crook of her arm, utterly still.
“Hey, are you alright?” Lu Hongzhuang inquired, unable to suppress her concern at Su Qinghan’s appearance, which suggested she might ‘ascend on a crane’ at any moment.
Su Qinghan’s head shifted within the cradle of her arms, a muffled groan escaping her lips.
“Drained dry,” she rasped, “not a single drop left.”
Lu Hongzhuang simply stared.
She gazed at the solitary finished talisman before her, then glanced at Su Qinghan’s conspicuously bulging sleeve, a tempest of conflicting emotions swirling within her.
How could the disparity between individuals be so vast?
A quiet interlude settled over the room, broken only by the faint rustle of Lu Hongzhuang’s continued struggle with the talisman paper.
Su Qinghan remained sprawled on the table, gradually regaining a measure of her strength after a considerable pause.
Boredom gnawing at her, she maneuvered her wheelchair to the bookshelf nestled in a corner of the room, casually plucking out a thread-bound book.
Upon opening the first page, her gaze was met with a dense array of square characters, their strokes intricate, their structure archaic.
Su Qinghan stared at them for a considerable while.
Well, she didn’t recognize a single character.
Silently, she closed the book, then deftly glided her wheelchair, without a sound, to Lu Hongzhuang’s side.
Lu Hongzhuang, having just expended the strength of ‘nine oxen and two tigers’ to finally complete her second talisman, was now wiping the sweat from her brow with her sleeve.
A book was abruptly thrust into her view.
“What now?” Lu Hongzhuang asked, a hint of irritation in her voice.
“Teach me to read,” Su Qinghan stated, pointing to the book’s pages. “Read this to me. What kind of nonsensical scrawls are these?”
Lu Hongzhuang was indeed weary, and seized the opportunity to take a much-needed break.
Taking the book, she settled beside Su Qinghan and, illuminated by the natural light streaming through the window, began to read aloud, word by painstaking word.
It was a rather hackneyed tale from a storybook.
It recounted the adventures of a wandering knight-errant who, in his quest to rid the common folk of suffering, vanquished a heinous demon lord. The very instant he struck down the fiend, propitious omens manifested from the heavens, bathing the world in a myriad of golden rays. The knight-errant felt his body grow weightless, his virtuous deeds complete, and he ascended to immortality on the spot.
Having finished the story, Lu Hongzhuang propped her chin in her hand, lost in contemplation.
She turned her head to Su Qinghan, asking with a touch of uncertainty, “Do you think this is true? If someone truly finds a person who has committed every conceivable evil, and then kills them, can they genuinely accrue merit and ascend to immortality on the spot?”
Su Qinghan, after hearing this, paused for a moment, then regarded her with an expression typically reserved for the utterly foolish.
“Nonsense!”
She abruptly straightened in her seat, an exaggerated expression blossoming across her face, and launched into an impromptu performance.
“Believe me,” she declared, “if this storybook were true, the world would have long since devolved into utter pandemonium!”
As Su Qinghan spoke, her hands and arms began to gesticulate wildly, illustrating her point.
She first mimicked a righteous knight-errant, raising a single hand in a sword-finger gesture, pointing forward. “Hmph! You corrupt official, steeped in wickedness, tormenting the common folk! Today, I shall execute heavenly justice, claim your head, and in return, amass boundless merit!”
She then dramatically swung her hand forward, punctuating the motion with a resounding ‘Swoosh!’
Immediately, she switched characters, transforming into another passerby who leapt out from the side, pointing at the ‘knight-errant’ with profound indignation.
“Ah! You! You heartless butcher! How dare you commit murder in broad daylight, slaughtering innocents! Watch as I slay you, this ‘hypocrite,’ and rid the people of a menace!”
She enacted another ‘fatal blow’ gesture.
Swiftly, she morphed into a second passerby, pointing an accusing finger at the first.
“Hmph! You brazen bandit! How dare you commit such violence in broad daylight? You are utterly lawless! Die!”
Su Qinghan, relishing her one-woman, three-character performance, finally spread her hands wide, delivering her concluding remarks.
“Ultimately,” she summarized, “under the immense allure of immortality, everyone would view others as nothing more than walking packages of merit. Today you kill me, tomorrow I kill him, and we all merrily accumulate merit together. Then, the martial world would cease to exist, and we’d all ascend to the heavens as deities. How truly splendid.”
Lu Hongzhuang watched Su Qinghan’s comical display—her wild gesticulations, her exaggerated winks, her animated expressions—at first stifling her amusement, before finally succumbing, a sudden burst of laughter escaping her lips.
Her clear, melodious laughter echoed through the room.
“Where do all these convoluted theories of yours even come from?” she asked, tears of mirth welling in her eyes.
Su Qinghan’s performance had utterly drained her last reserves of energy. Her entire body went limp, and she instinctively tilted her head to the side, settling it naturally upon Lu Hongzhuang’s lap.
“Exhausted…”
Lu Hongzhuang’s laughter ceased abruptly.
Her entire body instantly froze.
The soft strands of the girl’s hair brushed against her leg, and the warmth of her breath permeated the thin fabric. This unfamiliar, unprecedented sensation left Lu Hongzhuang utterly flustered.
Instinctively, she moved to push Su Qinghan away, yet her hand halted midway, suspended in the air.
‘This feeling… it wasn’t unpleasant, after all.’
Just as Lu Hongzhuang’s mind descended into a chaotic jumble, Su Qinghan, nestled on her lap, suddenly uttered something indistinct.
“I’ll speak, you listen and remember.”
Lu Hongzhuang stiffened, “Remember what?”
“The Heavenly Master Dao, its introductory incantation.”
Su Qinghan’s voice was barely a whisper, yet it struck Lu Hongzhuang’s heart like a sudden peal of thunder.
She instantly banished all extraneous thoughts, dedicating her entire focus to listening.
“’Gather the spirit, maintain singularity; align with the Dao, merge with truth.
‘Accumulate essence, gather qi; clarify the will, delve into the subtle.’
Su Qinghan’s voice remained steady and drawn-out, each word seemingly imbued with a peculiar rhythm that resonated deep within Lu Hongzhuang’s spirit.
These incantations diverged sharply from the martial cultivation methods of the Demon Exorcism Division, which primarily focused on the circulation of qi and blood. Instead, they pointed towards a more profound and ethereal domain: that of spirit and intent.
Lu Hongzhuang dared not show the slightest negligence, meticulously engraving every single word into her memory.
By the time Su Qinghan uttered the final line, her voice had become almost imperceptible.
“…When true unity manifests, the spirit ascends to the Jade Capital.”
As her words faded, her breathing settled into a steady, profound rhythm.
She had fallen asleep.
Once more, a profound stillness enveloped the room.
Lu Hongzhuang looked down, her gaze falling upon Su Qinghan, who lay peacefully asleep on her lap.
Her complexion remained pale, her long eyelashes casting faint shadows beneath her eyes. Gone was the usual glint of cunning and aloofness that characterized her when awake; in this moment, she appeared as fragile as a delicate porcelain doll.
After a long moment of hesitation, Lu Hongzhuang cautiously extended her hand, gently, almost tentatively, stroking Su Qinghan’s hair.
It was soft, and smooth to the touch.
‘What kind of person… was she, truly?’
At times, she resembled an unprincipled charlatan, spouting twisted logic, resorting to trickery and deceit.
At others, she was like a sage who had seen through the world’s illusions, capable of overturning deeply ingrained perceptions with but a few choice words.
Her mannerisms, her perspectives on all things, were utterly unique, rendering her a profound enigma.
Lu Hongzhuang’s fingers gently grazed Su Qinghan’s cheek.
‘I find myself increasingly eager to understand you, Su Qinghan.’
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