Chapter 8: Change

Around dusk, Xun Qiu, who was meditating in his room and recalling the Aperture Opening chapter of the Nameless Book, heard a knock on the door.

He paused for two or three seconds, then got out of bed and opened the door.

Su Wantian, looking exceptionally weary but having changed into a clean set of clothes, walked into the room and frowned.

“Why haven’t you changed your clothes or taken a bath?”

“It’s too much trouble.”

Xun Qiu said lazily.

“I don’t have to clean up the bed anyway, and I was pretty much like this before.

The times I was clean were few and far between.”

Remembering the first half of his life’s experiences, Su Wantian nodded slightly and closed the door behind him.

“Do you have time to chat?”

“I’m not asleep yet.

Do I look like I have anything else to do?”

Xun Qiu sat back down on the bed.

“Just don’t tell me you’re not going to the Grand Profound Sect.”

Su Wantian was a little curious.

“What if I really changed my mind and didn’t want to go?”

“I would kneel down and call you ‘daddy,’ and beg you for some travel money.”

Xun Qiu replied quickly.

“You really are… firm in your pursuit of the Dao.”

Su Wantian was silent for a long time before finally finding a phrase that sounded like a compliment.

“I haven’t changed my mind, but it looks like my father has no intention of letting me go.

However, I will definitely do what I promised you.

We’ll find a chance to run away when we go out tomorrow…”

“I don’t care, but what about you?”

Xun Qiu hit the nail on the head.

“Your parents haven’t had enough time to be happy about your return, and you’re just going to run off?

Can you live with that in your heart?”

Su Wantian pulled up a stool and sat down.

“I can’t.

So I plan to come back again, no matter the outcome.”

“Aren’t you afraid of the trouble… I don’t think your father doesn’t want you to go out and cultivate.

He’s just angry at you.”

Xun Qiu complained.

“You father and son are really the same, so awkward.

It’s like speaking your mind would kill you.

It would be so much better to be as honest as I am.”

Su Wantian let out a long sigh, his face showing the expression of a sage who has seen through the mortal world.

“The people of this land are just like this.

Expressing feelings like concern, love, and longing seems to be an incredibly shameful thing.

I can’t escape this custom either.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Besides, even if we were to have a heart-to-heart talk, we’d have to make some preparations, find a good day…”

Su Wantian rambled on.

Xun Qiu couldn’t help but yawn.

“By the way, can you call someone over and have them send a wooden tub full of hot water here?”

“You’re planning to take a bath?”

Su Wantian stood up.

“By the way, I feel like something’s off with you.

Why are you being so sparing with your words?

If it were the energetic you from last night, for every word I said, you would have retorted with ten.”

“Mmm.”

Xun Qiu said, sparing his words.

“I’m adjusting my mindset.

I plan to use the contents of that jade bottle tonight.”

“…”

Su Wantian was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly said:

“Didn’t I tell you to rest for a day or two before making a decision?

You just escaped death today, and you don’t look like you have any energy right now.

Didn’t Fairy Yun also say, for you to make up your mind…”

“As for determination, I already said it during the day.

I’ve never lacked it.”

“But it’s not a bad thing to prepare more…”

“You good-for-nothing, do you think everything will just wait quietly for you to be ready?”

Xun Qiu glanced at him.

“Your parents will wait for you to figure out your thoughts, but will that monster wait for you?

If a bandit broke in right now and slashed your mother with a knife, and you shouted at him not to move, to wait for you to be ready… would he wait for you?”

“Although I understand what you mean, that example…”

Su Wantian was silent for a long moment.

“Ah, probably not.”

Xun Qiu hummed in agreement.

“That’s right.

I understood this principle a long time ago.

You could say I live every day as if it were my last…

It was only recently when I met Fairy Yun that I lived a few days without worrying about the future.

Thinking about it now, I was never one to procrastinate.”

He longed for change, for power, for cultivation.

He had no parents, was carefree, and made all his decisions himself…

Perhaps the unfamiliar Xinyang City had suddenly given him a sense of crisis from the unknown, perhaps the six days of medicinal baths and hiking had subtly given him a bit of confidence, perhaps the argument between Su Wantian and his parents today had made him let go of certain things…

Xun Qiu now genuinely possessed the courage to charge at fate—and corresponding to that, he also possessed the awareness to calmly accept failure.

This was a rather subtle state of mind.

Xun Qiu himself couldn’t explain where it came from, but his intuition told him that now was the time.

Perhaps there would be another day when Xun Qiu would have such a state of mind again, but he would never let an opportunity slip away from him.

It was like this when he stole copper coins from the street vendor Bo Qiuyun, it was like this when he asked Yun Qingping to take him to cultivate, and now, it was like this when he made up his mind to practice the Nameless Book.

Su Wantian looked into Xun Qiu’s eyes, trying to see some weakness, hesitation, or fear, so that he could persuade him to change his mind.

But in the end, he only saw a piece of tranquility, so he delayed no longer and turned to leave.

“Wait a moment.”

Less than two quarters of an hour later, two servants came to the room carrying a wooden bathtub and five or six buckets of steaming hot water.

Su Wantian waved his hand, telling them to leave quietly, and asked one last time:

“Have you made up your mind?”

“Mmm.”

“Then I’ll stand guard outside for you, to prevent the servants from disturbing you.”

He gave Xun Qiu, who was about to take off his clothes, a deep look.

“If anything happens, remember to call me.”

“I know, I know… you’re so naggy, are you a woman?”

Xun Qiu jumped off the bed, and the door closed with a click.

He didn’t hesitate either, took out the small jade bottle, and poured all the colorful liquid inside into the wooden tub, then jumped right in.

“I… f*ck, it hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, how can it hurt so much!!!”

Almost at the instant his skin came into contact with the liquid in the tub, Xun Qiu cried out, but he soon lost even the strength to cry out.

The hot water mixed with the medicinal liquid had almost turned into some kind of highly corrosive liquid.

A terrifying “sizzling” sound was constantly emitting from all over his body, and his skin and flesh were visibly disappearing.

In just a few seconds, Xun Qiu’s pupils dilated, and his body gradually lost its strength, falling into the water.

Su Wantian, who heard the commotion outside the door, turned around in an instant, his hand already on the door.

But he suddenly remembered Xun Qiu’s calm eyes, and his hand hesitated for a moment.

The sound inside disappeared.

He finally let out a long sigh and sat down at the doorway.

“I’ll trust you this once.”

A sharp sword light descended from the sky, splitting a towering mountain peak vertically in two.

Amidst the rolling dust and scattered clouds, Yun Qingping, holding a sword in mid-air, was about to strike again, but she suddenly paused and glanced north.

“You’ve made your decision so quickly… Xun Qiu, heh, we’ll meet again in the future.”

During her pause, a dark shadow escaped from the devastated ground that stretched for a thousand li.

It was a burly man, completely black, with scarlet patterns crawling on his body.

He burst into laughter, his voice echoing between heaven and earth.

“Not bad!

Not bad!

You little wench have some of the flair of the Grand Profound Sect’s Rotten Wood Sword Master.

Truly worthy of being fellow sect sisters!

Come, take my punch!”

The clouds rolled, and all sounds were silenced.

Almost at the same time the voice entered her ears, the figure’s punch had arrived in an instant.

The power, so heavy it seemed to want to swallow the entire world, was unleashed on Yun Qingping’s slender body, instantly crushing her into flying ash, leaving no flesh or blood behind!

“Hmm?”

Having succeeded in one strike, the dark shadow showed a surprised expression.

He turned his head abruptly and saw strands of clear wind reconverging into Yun Qingping’s form in the distance…

Squinting his eyes, he found that besides the sword in her right hand, Yun Qingping was also holding a simple stone pearl in her left.

An ancient legend flooded his mind, but the dark shadow was not alarmed, but delighted.

“One of the Thirty-Six Immortal Artifacts, the Gale-Calming Sea-Suppressing Pearl.

It has been lost for ten thousand years, yet you found it!”

Yun Qingping’s expression was indifferent, her lips moved slightly, and she said succinctly:

“Again.”

“Good!

Again!

This humble one will see today whether the immortal artifact is sharper, or this humble one’s fist is harder!”

The dark shadow’s voice rolled, sweeping across heaven and earth, but Yun Qingping frowned.

‘It’s too loud.

Although it’s a bit of needless worry, I hope it doesn’t affect Xinyang City…’