Chapter 22: Fixing the First Seal |
[Nov. 26th, 2018] . . .
Three days later . . .
Xíng Zhǐ undid Shěn Lí’s sling and dismantled her splint. Then he applied pressure above an acupuncture point and concentrated on treating her injury. Shěn Lí suddenly smiled and asked, “Earlier you said you left behind four items in the area around the two seals in the Ruins. But none of the soldiers on patrol have ever encountered them. Do you still remember where they are?”
“Mm. One is on a hill top, another is in a lake, another . . .hm,” Xíng Zhǐ replied as he released her hand. “Move your arm now.”
Shěn Lí sat up as she obediently moved her arm first bending it a bit before stretching and turning it several times in a circular motion. Her body was unexpectedly loose and pain-free. This kind of recovery speed was astonishing. An injury like this would normally take at least two weeks of rest.
Yet it only took Xíng Zhǐ three days to heal her.
“It seems like the issue is resolved,” he grabbed her hand and held it in his own, palm to palm.
Shěn Lí automatically pulled her hand back without thinking. Xíng Zhǐ looked at her confused. It was an awkward moment and Shěn Lí coughed before saying, “Yes? What is it?”
Xíng Zhǐ gave an easy chuckle. “The formidable the Azure Sky king is unexpectedly shy?” He grabbed her hand and entwined his fingers through hers. “Simply examining your joints. Try to grip my hand as hard as you can.”
“No . . .” Shěn Lí pulled her hand back and rubbed the space between her brows. “I was just worried I’d break your hand if I put pressure into my grip.”
Xíng Zhǐ gave her a blank stare. He laughed out loud after a second. “Your Highness can be at ease. Please feel free to grip my hand as hard as you want. I promise I won’t break.”
The words reminded her that the man in front of her was the Celestial realm's, Immortal High God Xíng Zhǐ, a person with an immortal body. It wouldn’t be like gripping that mortal man’s hand. Despite knowing that the one in front of her wasn’t Xíng Yún she still hesitated, her heart remained uncertain. Their attitudes were so different but their faces were so similar. That laugh and that smile . . . Shěn Lí found it hard to control her emotions. She angrily grabbed Xíng Zhǐ’s hand, laced her fingers through his, and gripped hard.
The moment she did Xíng Zhǐ said, “Mm. Good. You’ve recovered well.” He pulled his hand back after saying so. “Your Highness is healed enough and should be able to guide me around the area later this afternoon.”
“This afternoon?”
“This evening would be fine as well.”
“No, this afternoon works.” He completely suppressed her. This Immortal High God Xíng Zhǐ was seriously hard to deal with.
. . .“The only thing around here are the destroyed barracks and camp for the soldiers, but farther south is a high mountain. No matter what we do, we can’t get anything to grow near the base. Before, hundreds of years ago, miasma would flow around the borders, but the mountains blocked it from entering the land. We left a little late, so it’s too late for us to go to the lake. We’ll investigate the mountain first.” Shěn Lí took out a map one of the soldiers drew and seriously gave directions to Xíng Zhǐ.
Shěn Lí turned to find him slowly fidgeting with his robe. She was really annoyed and had to restrain her temper before speaking to him, “Immortal High God, we should go to the mountains now.”
“Mm,” was his reply. He was focused on the hem that trailed in the dirt. He grabbed it and seemed to weigh his options while swinging the hem in his hand. He fingered it briefly before tearing off a strip and tossing it toward the boundary of the miasma. The silky white fabric rode on the wind as it slowly drifted away from them. “Let’s go.”
Shěn Lí followed the fabric with a thoughtful gaze, momentarily unable to turn away. Even the Demon emperor couldn’t wear such fine material. To think he discarded something like that so easily. Shěn Lí turned around and studied Xíng Zhǐ’s clothes from behind. Even though he’d been in the Demon realm for several days, his clothing was pristine.
That day with the Scorpion-tailed fox, she remembered she had smeared blood all over him just before she fainted. It seemed he managed to launder it clean with just water.
In contrast, the men guarding the boundary were filthy; their entire bodies were covered in grime. Shěn Lí’s eyes hung down as a strong feeling of displeasure came over her. Such unfairness was really stifling.
“What?” asked Xíng Zhǐ in bafflement when he saw her standing still.
“It is nothing.” Shěn Lí shook her head and walked toward him without saying another word.
. . .It took them all afternoon to reach the mountain. By then, despite the daytime sun, a dense layer of fog and miasma settled all around. Because the fog was so thick, their visibility was limited to a perimeter of five paces. Shěn Lí led the way, holding the map in one hand while clearing vegetation away from in front with the other. The miasma already eroded and weakened the plants in the area, so the branches and twigs crumbled easily under her.
“Where we are, we’re still close to camp. The officers and soldiers don’t come by this way often, so the map only covers the lower portion of the mountain. And we can't fly because the miasma obscures everything. We’ll have to find our way up by foot.”
She felt uneasy when he didn’t reply to her, so she turned around. Dense fog covered her vision. She strained her eyes, but couldn’t find him. She had heard Immortal High God lost his way en route to the Demon realm. Was it possible he was lost again?
“Immortal High God Xíng Zhǐ?” Shěn Lí called out as she retraced her steps. “Immortal High God!” A burst of cool breeze suddenly blew by, dispersing the heavy fog and clearing her vision. With the fog gone, she could easily see a celestial being in snow white robes slowly walking toward her. The miasma entrenched in the area dissipated with every step he took. It was as if a rainstorm came by and washed it away. Despite the lack of vegetation, the air felt fresh and clean.
Xíng Zhǐ’s robe reflected the sparse light in the demon realm as it fluttered gently in the breeze around him. The image imprinted in Shěn Lí’s mind as she stood mesmerized staring at him. The heaviness in her heart evaporated and her mind cleared.
. . . so this was an ancient high god!
To cleanse the air no matter how contaminated. . . clearly an ancient god was different from the demons whose only innate ability was to fight.
Xíng Zhǐ shook out his sleeves as he walked up, stopping two steps ahead of her. He turned around and faced her before saying, “Which way?”
Shěn Lí blinked, slowly coming back to her senses. As she raised the map up to take a look, something rammed fiercely into her foot and her grip on the map loosened. The wind picked up the dropped map and sent it flying away before Shěn Lí could react. She wanted to chase after it, but something circled around her legs, hindering her movements. Looking down she saw a four-eared wild boar biting her ankles. It wasn’t enough to actually injure her, but it was enough to block her from chasing after the map.
She angrily stooped down and picked the wild boar up by the tail. Then she gave it two firm slaps across its butt. “Getting in the way!”
The wild boar furiously wiggled trying to break free of her grasp. Xíng Zhǐ watched Shěn Lí closely as she shouted at the wild boar. He wrinkled his brow and said, “It’s been infected by the miasma. Put it down; I’ll burn it.”
“No need,” Shěn Lí said as she pitched her arm out and tossed the wild boar into the forest. The wild board screeched like it was about to die before disappearing into the woods. “The miasma has been infecting things in the Demon realm. Lower life forms will become aggressive and try to attack, but they’re weak, so their attacks are harmless. Even the common people can deal with them easily.”
Shěn Lí recalled enough of the map to bring them back to the trail. She climbed up the side and said, “Life here is hard enough. That wild boar didn’t do anything to deserve death. Until it does something bad, we shouldn’t punish it.”
Her words startled Xíng Zhǐ. “Ha. The Azure Sky king is unexpectedly so merciful,” he said after sizing her up from the back. His moodiness from earlier settled down. He talked to her as he followed behind. “If it were up to me, I’d nip it in the bud before it became an issue.” He paused again and stared at her from behind, his eyes thoughtful.
“If that’s the case. . . ” Shěn Lí shot a glance behind her, just missing the fleeting look in Xíng Zhǐ’s eyes. She gave an unrestrained confident smile. “then today must be really boring for you huh?”
After a short silence Xíng Zhǐ said, “It has been incredibly boring, yes.”
Shěn Lí became more unsure of their path the farther up they walked. She constantly glanced up at the sky feeling more jittery with each passing minute.
Xíng Zhǐ said, “It’s good that we have the moonlight.” He walked forward like he was walking in his own backyard, carefree and slow.
Shěn Lí knew better than to urge him to hurry. She could only accompany him as he slowly strolled passing by thickets of dead trees.
The two lost track of time and the sky darkened without Shěn Lí realizing it. Her eyes widened in amazement and her jaw dropped at the sight in the sky. The moon shone like a huge orb above her. How long had it been since this kind of clear moonlight shone in the Demon realm?
“We’ve reached the top.” Xíng Zhǐ came up from behind Shěn Lí and stood by a dead tree. The image of his silhouette outlined by the moonlight reflected in her eyes.
The tree he stood next to was different from the rest. Although it was withered like all the others, it had green leaf shoots at the tips. The baby leaves rustled in the wind as though they were going to fall.
Xíng Zhǐ stretched his hand out to the trunk of the tree. It trembled at his touch and made sounds like it was weeping and lamenting in grief.
This made Xíng Zhǐ furrow his brow. He sighed and in a placating voice said, “You must be exhausted.” White light rippled from the palm of his hand and into the trunk of the tree traveling all the way down to its roots in the soil.
Shěn Lí could almost make out the light as it spread over the scars of the ground underneath.
The ground shook as though the spirit of the mountain was coming to life, casting away the mist that enveloped everything. Shěn Lí stood looking over the edge of the hill and stared at the path they took up. It was lit up in the outline of a character, like an imprint of a word on the mountaintop.
As a matter of fact, everything from the moonlight, the dead trees, the path they took, it all linked together to join the earth and heavens, completely dispelling the miasma. He had calculated everything from their first steps.
They had drawn the character for the seal with their path up the hill, borrowed the strength of the moon to dispel the miasma, then finally activated the seal once they reached the top. Such a well thought out plan, yet he hadn’t tipped his hand at all.
This person. . .
Xíng Zhǐ waved Shěn Lí over as he pulled down a tree branch. She cautiously approached as she watched him stand on tiptoes and pull a huge leaf off a branch. He held it out to her and smilingly said, “The foliage in the Demon realm grow so large.”
Shěn Lí took the leaf and stared at it blankly. Slowly she pressed it against her cheeks. Feeling its coldness, she marveled at its existence, a leaf that managed to grow in the Demon realm. She was astonished at its vitality. If the children could share in such a sight, how wonderful would it be?
Her gaze softened and the corners of her mouth rose up. She was so lost in caressing the leaf she missed the look of tenderness in Xíng Zhǐ’s eyes and the smile on his lips.
“Do you want to sit in the tree for a while?”
Shěn Lí looked at him stupidly as she asked, “Is that even possible?” She carefully fingered the trunk of the tree, barely daring to touch it. “Won’t it break?”
Xíng Zhǐ was amused. “I’ll take responsibility if it breaks.” He held Shěn Lí’s waist as he brought them both up onto a sturdy branch. The moonlight filtered through the leaves and shone down on them; it felt as though they were sitting in their own secret hiding place.
Shěn Lí’s eyes widened at the view. She sighed and spoke with a wistful tone in her voice, “It’s so beautiful. It’s like there’s music in the air.” She stared mesmerized at the new shoots springing from the branches.
Hearing this, Xíng Zhǐ pulled a single leaf to his lips and blew a melody. Shěn Lí was pleasantly surprised. How easy. All he did was blow at a leaf. She mimicked his actions, grabbing a leaf and blowing fiercely on it. The result was less than stellar. The leaf shot out of her hand like an arrow and jabbed into the ground below.
“Ha?!” The music in the trees stopped. Stunned, she turned to look at Xíng Zhǐ. “Immortal High God, are you laughing at me?” She narrowed her eyes about to get up.
“No I was just thinking,” Xíng Zhǐ laughed as he turned to look at the moon, “that the moonlight this evening is really nice.”
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