Lady Cultivator Chapter 248 - Remained Unconscious

In any case, although Ye Zhenji felt awkward, his feelings gradually dissipated in the end.

He’d long grown up. For some matters, he actually understood them; it was just that he needed time to come to terms with them.

Therefore, while he deliberately chose different visiting times from his master in the beginning, he could now calmly visit his aunt together with his master.

On second thought, his feelings must’ve been because he never thought that his aunt would one day become someone’s Dual Cultivation partner, so he found this matter to be so unbearable, right? In fact, after he thought about it calmly, there was nothing bad about his master being her partner. If the two people he was closest to were together, he actually wouldn’t feel bad about it at all.

Furthermore, he’d been thinking lately—maybe he should find some time to travel on the outside. From what he remembered, his aunt wasn’t much older back then than he was now, but she always handled things in much more experienced manner, and she also didn’t have such a senseless way of thinking like him. Maybe he was lacking too much experience, so even though he was no longer a child, his thoughts were still so childish.

“Master.” Ye Zhenji regained his train of thought upon seeing Qin Xi walking in from outside.

Qin Xi nodded then s.h.i.+fted his line of sight towards Mo Tiange, who was lying on the bed. “How’s her condition today?”

“Still the same as before; she’s not getting any better nor is she getting any worse,” said Ye Zhenji.

Qin Xi walked over. As usual, he used his spiritual aura to examine the condition of her body, and when he finished, he finally transported his spiritual aura, which had undergone rounds of practice using a secret technique, into her body to nourish it so that the spiritual aura inside her body wouldn’t lessen and consequently cause her body to dry up.

It’d been half a month already, but Mo Tiange still hadn’t regained consciousness. Nevertheless, in every nouris.h.i.+ng process, Qin Xi discovered one thing.

He mainly practiced two cultivation techniques. One was the Art of Three Primordial Cycles; this was a cultivation technique he got along with the Yang Spiritual Bead during the trip he took after he built his foundation. Reportedly, this cultivation technique was very much related to the Distant Past era, because ancient cultivators believed the origin of the world–the three primordial auras–was the foundation for cultivating. They believed that if the three auras–extreme Yang, extreme Yin, and neutral auras–could become one, they’d be able to achieve the Great Dao. This technique was suitable for cultivation level advancement, but the practice was very demanding. He had already obtained extreme Yang aura and neutral aura; he only lacked extreme Yin aura now.

The other one was the Pure Yang Technique pa.s.sed on to him by Yuan Bao. Because he had the Yang Spiritual Bead inside his body, he had an endless supply of Yang spiritual aura. Right now, he was already somewhat successful in practicing this Pure Yang Technique—the originally faint Yin spiritual aura inside his body had long faded away, leaving behind pure Yang spiritual aura.

Every time he poured his pure Yang spiritual aura into Mo Tiange’s body, he discovered that his thread of spiritual aura and the pure Yin spiritual aura inside Mo Tiange’s body would attract each other and would practically become inseparable. She was now unconscious, so she naturally couldn’t control her spiritual aura. In other words, the attractive force between the two kinds of spiritual auras was completely instinctual.

What was even more amazing was that every time he finished nouris.h.i.+ng her body, he always discovered that he didn’t lose any spiritual aura in the slightest. Instead, he found that there would even be a slight increase in his spiritual aura.

According to reason, this shouldn’t be the case. Spiritual Aura wouldn’t just increase without any reason. When one used spiritual aura to heal others, they normally always experienced a loss of spiritual aura—there wouldn’t be a spiritual aura increase. Nevertheless, that kind of situation indeed occurred. He spent several days thinking about the matter but eventually still failed to comprehend it.

Just as he frowned, he suddenly caught sight of Ye Zhenji sitting dejectedly on the side from the corner of his eye, so he asked, “What’s wrong?”

Ye Zhenji looked up, numbly stared at him for a quick moment and once again lowered his head. “Nothing.”

Qin Xi pondered then asked, “You’ve been in quite low spirits lately, but it shouldn’t just be because of your aunt, right?”

Hearing what Qin Xi said made Ye Zhenji even more crestfallen. “Master, you knew?”

Qin Xi couldn’t help but smile upon seeing Ye Zhenji’s current appearance. He walked over, sat next to him and reached out to stroke his head, provoking Ye Zhenji to call out loud: “Master, I’m not a child!”

The smile on Qin Xi’s face remained. “Even though you’re not a child based on your age, your temperament’s still very much that of a child.”

Upon hearing that, Ye Zhenji hung his head and remained silent.

With a sigh, Qin Xi said: “Master knows you feel uncomfortable, but there has never been a case where a master reports to their disciples. If you wanted to know, you could’ve just come and asked me—why didn’t you ask?”

Ye Zhenji’s head sank even lower. He was well aware he was in the wrong in this matter. A master and disciple were just like a father and son. His master was already kind enough to him normally, but a master was a master after all—he mustn’t lack respect for Qin Xi.

“You’re still not going to ask anything now? I’ll leave if you’re not going to ask me anything…”

“Master!” Ye Zhenji immediately looked up. When he saw Qin Xi smiling, he realized he was being teased, so he said vexedly, “Master, you’re deliberately teasing me.”

Qin Xi smiled even wider and patted Ye Zhenji’s shoulder. “Boy, do you have anything you have a hard time talking about? Are you afraid Master’s going to blame you? Or could it be that you’re blaming me now?”

Ye Zhenji grabbed his head then said somewhat embarra.s.sedly, “I feel… like there’s nothing to say. Hualing said I’m just jealous, and I’ll be fine after a while.”

“En, it seems you’ve already decided to settle it on your own,” Qin Xi said with relief. “However, there must still be some matters you’ll be unhappy about if you don’t ask about them, right?”

Ye Zhenji nodded honestly. “I… I was actually very annoyed deep down, but after thinking about it for a while, I thought Master wasn’t in the wrong—I was just being too petty.”

“That’s not pettiness; that’s affection,” Qin Xi said with a smile, “Feeling uncomfortable shows that no matter whether it’s towards your aunt or towards me, the affection you have is real. Nonetheless, there are some matters which are still inappropriate for me to tell you outright now. When you can finally figure them out on your own, you can come and talk to me again, alright?”

How could Ye Zhenji have the cheek to say no? There was no such thing as a master explaining themselves to their disciples when it came to this kind of matter; it was already good enough that his master, worried that he’d feel depressed, was still willing to talk to him kindly about the matter.

“I understand, Master.”

“Alright, stay here and look after your aunt. If you want to leave later on, call Xiuqin and the others to come and keep watch.”

“Oh…,” Ye Zhenji responded then asked, “Master, are you going now?”

With a smile, Qin Xi said slowly, “Your grandmaster found a few more pill recipes that might be helpful in rousing your aunt earlier, but all the spiritual plants needed for those pill recipes are extremely rare. In a few days, I’ll leave to try my luck on the outside, so I have to go back and make some preparations first.”

“Huh?! Master, you’re going out?” Ye Zhenji looked at him then looked at the comatose Mo Tiange on the bed. “Then what about aunt?”

Qin Xi said, “Your grandmaster’s here. What are you worried about?” He then proceeded to remind Ye Zhenji: “When Master’s not here, you must look after your aunt well—don’t think about nonsensical matters. If there are any problems, do look for your grandmaster, understand?”

“En.” Ye Zhenji took some time to think but eventually swallowed the words he wanted to say about wanting to tag along. His aunt was in this condition, and his master was heading out to look for medicine—he better not cause any more trouble. He could go out traveling once his aunt was cured.

After watching his master leave, Ye Zhenji continued to sit and ponder, looking like he had a lot on his mind.

As for Qin Xi, after he left Mingxin Residence, he first dropped by Zhili Building.

Even though he had long started to feel annoyed towards Ruan Mingzhu, she was, in the end, a playmate he grew up with ever since they were children, and they had an excellent relations.h.i.+p when they were younger.

The four people in charge of looking after Ruan Mingzhu were Mei, Lan, Zhu, Ju. They weren’t too happy with this errand, so they’d been lackadaisical. It was only after they saw him coming over that they finally raised their spirits to salute him.

“Martial Uncle Shoujing.”

Qin Xi nodded then asked, “How’s Mingzhu?”

Momei answered, “Senior Martial Sister Ruan’s all good, but she doesn’t respond to people—no matter what we ask, she won’t answer. She just remains on her own, talking to herself.”

“Has she regained her wisdom?”

“This…” Momei contemplated the matter for a moment before answering: “We can’t tell… Grandmaster came to see her. He said Senior Martial Sister Ruan is now in an obsessive nightmare due to the Five Confusions Plaguing Spirit—maybe she understands some things deep down and it’s just that she’s unwilling to face them, or maybe she’s still confused and can’t clearly distinguish people and things.”

Qin Xi frowned and looked to the side, at Ruan Mingzhu, who was sitting on a stool and staring blankly at something. She seemed to neither hear them talking nor notice his arrival.

He walked over, calling her: “Mingzhu?”

Ruan Mingzhu didn’t move. It was as if she didn’t hear him at all. Nevertheless, her mouth moved, mumbling who knew what.

Momei also came over. She listened for a while then said, “Martial Uncle Shoujing, Senior Martial Sister Ruan said that she’s not Ruan Mingzhu.”

Stunned, Qin Xi was at a loss for words for quite a long time. When he looked at Ruan Mingzhu again, he felt his heart softening.

At first, Mingzhu was a very cute little girl. In his colorless childhood, the only bit of merriment he experienced was all provided by her. It wasn’t that he wasn’t thankful to her; it was just over time, Mingzhu continued to change, becoming more and more ruthless and increasingly odder, causing the distance between them to widen and widen.

About this matter, the blame couldn’t really be placed entirely on Mingzhu. The Five Confusions Plaguing Spirit itself was originally a test where one would lose their wisdom. At that time, she was hallucinating, so she did such an outrageous thing. From the trial aspect, she didn’t really do anything wrong because the Five Confusions Plaguing Spirit made people see what they loathed or yearned for; it was just that Tiange was unfortunately next to her, thus leading to this outcome.

After that matter, his master once told him in secret that Mingzhu had been muttering that she didn’t want to be Ruan Mingzhu and that she wasn’t Ruan Mingzhu. Her mental state was probably triggered, hence revealing its weaknesses.

Regarding what actually happened inside the Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation, they also found out after continuously investigating.

Maybe it was because Ruan Mingzhu knew she made a lot of mistakes but didn’t have the courage to face her mistakes, so she wanted to have a new ident.i.ty.

She didn’t intend to kill Mo Tiange out of resentment or anything. She was just envious of Mo Tiange’s ident.i.ty, envious of everything she had, so she wanted to become Mo Tiange, starting everything all over again, returning to the time when she hadn’t yet made any mistakes.

Upon seeing Mingzhu becoming like this, his master wasn’t without remorse. He said he also had to bear some responsibility for her personality becoming the way it was today, yet the result had to be borne by Mingzhu alone. He hadn’t taught Mingzhu to groom a strong heart, but he told her to bear all the consequences of her mistakes. She couldn’t, so she completely fell apart now.

If this was anyone else, Qin Xi felt he could harden his heart. One had to be responsible for the mistakes one made. Besides, it wasn’t like they didn’t give her any chances. Nevertheless, this person was Mingzhu—he couldn’t bear to let her be.

For so many years, he watched Mingzhu turn from being a bit mischievous and a bit finicky but nonetheless a kindhearted and cute little girl into her present self. When he saw her now and remembered how she was originally, how could he possibly harden his heart?

If at that time, they’d taught her patiently instead of abandoning her in the branch courtyard on her own for sixty years, would she not have turned out like this? If they’d given her a bit more care when she came back, would she not have fallen into this kind of predicament?

Unfortunately, there weren’t so many ifs in this world.

“Senior Martial Brother.” Ruan Mingzhu suddenly looked up and smiled at him. “Did you come to visit me?” Such a kind voice wasn’t the voice of the ruthless Ruan Mingzhu.

Qin Xi fixated his gaze on her. For a while, he couldn’t tell whether or not she’d recovered her wisdom.

Ruan Mingzhu smiled again, clapped her hands and pointed at the courtyard gate. “Senior Martial Brother, should we go to the back mountain? Last time, you said you’ll catch an Inferno Beast for me.”

“…” Catch an Inferno Beast for her… That was something they talked about when they were only about thirteen or fourteen years old. Could it be that she’d forgotten everything that happened all these years?

Qin Xi looked around, causing Mei, Lan, Zhu, Ju to come over and surround them. He then asked, “Mingzhu, do you recognize us?”

Ruan Mingzhu shook her head, and confusion once again emerged in her eyes. “No, you’re not senior martial brother—you’re grandmaster.” She once again smiled then tugged at Qin Xi’s sleeve. “Grandmaster, I want an Inferno Beast. Senior Martial Brother said he’ll give me an Inferno Beast.”