“Junior Sister Yun Yuan, the spiritual meridians in your body are very stable. I imagine that in another few years, those damaged spiritual meridians of yours will be completely restored.”
Inside Qingxuan Sect’s Spirit Medicine Pavilion, the healer Ye Wujiu placed two fingers against the girl’s wrist. After sensing the faint flow of spiritual meridians within her, he nodded in satisfaction. “Your little child husband’s Pure Spiritual Body truly lives up to its reputation.”
In the original story, her damaged spiritual meridians were completely restored four years later. Ironically, that was also the very day Xie Zhao stabbed her to death with a single sword strike.
“Senior Brother, what if I stop taking the medicine now…”
“Absolutely not.” The satisfied look on Ye Wujiu’s face immediately turned solemn. “You cannot stop taking the medicine now. The moment you do, you’ll die.”
Shen Yun Yuan asked, “How long can I live?”
Ye Wujiu thought Yun Yuan was joking. But when he met the serious expression on the girl’s face, he answered her question as if possessed. “Three years at most.”
Shen Yun Yuan’s heart sank.
Even Ye Wujiu, slow as he was, noticed that something was wrong with the girl.
“Why did you suddenly bring this up?”
Shen Yun Yuan said, “I heard that Senior Brother was born into a family of divination practitioners.”
From the affirmative tone of the girl’s words rather than a questioning one, Ye Wujiu knew that she had come prepared today.
What families of divination practitioners studied was the art of peering into all things under Heaven and Earth.
A low-level fate master could deduce another person’s fate pattern, fortune, blessings and misfortunes, opportunities, and karmic causes and effects. A high-level fate master, meanwhile, could deduce the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth and the future direction of the world.
However, because peering into the secrets of Heaven’s destiny carried the risk of backlash, high-level fate masters generally did not live long.
Ye Wujiu’s father had once been the foremost fate master. It was precisely because he had glimpsed secrets of Heaven’s destiny that he should not have seen that, when he underwent his lightning tribulation, both his eyes were struck blind. Only then had he managed to escape with his life.
Ye Wujiu had severed ties with his family when he was young. No one knew of his origins, much less that he had been born into a family of divination practitioners.
Ye Wujiu’s eyes darkened. “Yun Yuan, who told you these things?”
Shen Yun Yuan shook her head and said, “No one told me any of this. It’s only because I had a dream.”
Ye Wujiu frowned. “A dream?”
Naturally, Shen Yun Yuan could not tell Ye Wujiu that she had transmigrated into a book. Since Ye Wujiu had been born into a family of divination practitioners, replacing the truth with a dream she had experienced would make it easier for him to believe her.
“That dream told me that I can’t let Xie Zhao continue serving as my medicinal primer. Otherwise, all of us—even everyone in Qingxuan Sect—will die.”
Ye Wujiu’s eyes darkened. After a while, he could not help laughing. “My young lady, it was only a dream. For all you know, it was nothing more than a nightmare.”
“No. I know it wasn’t a dream.” Shen Yun Yuan’s expression was utterly serious.
Ye Wujiu frowned. “So… you want me to help you perform a divination?”
Shen Yun Yuan nodded. “Mm. Just a small divination. I want you to help me determine whether I should stop taking the medicine.”
In the past, when she had been bored, Shen Yun Yuan had read quite a few books, including books about fate masters. She knew that as long as a fate master did not touch upon a major divination, performing minor divinations would not endanger their life. In fact, it could even increase their cultivation.
“All right, I can help you.” Ye Wujiu said, “But as for whether you should stop taking the medicine, you’ll first need your elder brother’s consent.”
Shen Yun Yuan’s elder brother, Shen Zhihui, was the current sect master of Qingxuan Sect. Because of her condition, her elder brother had gone to the Southern Abyss to seek medicine for her and would not be returning anytime soon. That was precisely what she had been counting on.
Once Ye Wujiu finished performing the divination, her elder brother might not have returned yet, and Ye Wujiu would have no choice but to help her stop taking the medicine.
“All right.” Shen Yun Yuan agreed without hesitation.
*
By the time Shen Yun Yuan emerged from the Spirit Medicine Pavilion, it was already evening.
The sun was sinking in the west, and the dusk of sunset dyed half the sky red. The setting sun was like gold, and the countless immortal mountains and buildings were stained crimson by its light. Their golden, upturned eaves shone brilliantly in the golden twilight.
As Shen Yun Yuan looked at the red glow before her, she could not help thinking of the buildings swallowed by roaring flames in that dream.
It was as if her eyes had been scorched. Even in the face of such beautiful rosy clouds, she could not bring herself to look directly at their splendor.
“Greetings, Senior Sister.”
Along the way, Shen Yun Yuan encountered quite a few disciples who had just finished their lessons.
Although Shen Yun Yuan’s health was poor and she could not practice the sword or perform physically demanding tasks, she was a formation master. Normally, whenever the sect’s disciples encountered something they did not understand about formation arts, they would come to seek her guidance.
“Senior Sister Yun Yuan.” As Shen Yun Yuan walked on, someone suddenly called out to her from behind.
When she turned around, she saw a young disciple with a handsome, upright appearance walking toward her.
Shen Yun Yuan studied his face for a moment. He seemed somewhat familiar, but she could not remember his name for the time being.
Fortunately, the youth did not beat around the bush. He respectfully drew a book from his sleeve and offered it to her with both hands.
“My name is Pei Zhou. I don’t know if Senior Sister still remembers me. Last month, I came to ask Senior Sister about a problem concerning formation arts. You didn’t mind my foolishness and even specially lent me this formation manual to study. Pei Zhou has now committed it all to memory, so I came to return it to Senior Sister.”
Looking at the formation manual in the youth’s hands, Shen Yun Yuan remembered.
Last month, a disciple had indeed asked her for guidance, and she had given him a book.
“So it was you.” Shen Yun Yuan smiled. “I told you before that the book was a gift for you, so there’s no need to return it to me. If you’ve already memorized every formation in it, you can lend it to the other disciples so they can read it too.”
The girl’s gentle voice entered his ears. Pei Zhou could not help tightening his grip around the formation manual. He nodded. “All… all right. Then thank you, Senior Sister.”
“You’re welcome.”
After saying that, Shen Yun Yuan had already left.
Standing there, Pei Zhou watched the girl’s departing figure, unable to bear looking away.
When a friend beside him saw that he was still watching, he could not resist teasing him. “You like Senior Sister Yun Yuan?”
At those words, Pei Zhou’s ears immediately reddened. He said indignantly, “What nonsense are you talking about?”
“Whether I’m talking nonsense or not, you have no chance anyway.”
His friend’s words made Pei Zhou frown. “What?”
“You haven’t been in the sect long, so you don’t know. Everyone in the sect knows that Senior Sister Yun Yuan has a little fiancé. What was his name again… Xie… Xie Zhao.”
As the two of them spoke, a voice suddenly rang out from not far away.
“Senior Sister!”
Following the sound, the two of them saw a young man running out of the Sword Practice Hall in the distance.
The youth wore a Qingxuan Sect daoist robe. His appearance was exceptionally striking, and he was running toward the girl in the distance.
*
On her way back to her residence at Fuyu Peak, Shen Yun Yuan happened to pass by the Sword Practice Hall where Xie Zhao had lessons.
Walking beside the girl, Chu Yue instinctively assumed that she was going to wait at the Sword Practice Hall for Xie Zhao so they could return to Fuyu Peak together.
But when she saw that Shen Yun Yuan did not stop as she passed the Sword Practice Hall, Chu Yue could not help asking, “Miss, aren’t we waiting for Young Master Xie Zhao today?”
When Xie Zhao had first arrived at Qingxuan Sect, he had not liked speaking and would not approach anyone. He had clung only to Shen Yun Yuan, so afterward, they had simply cleared out a room for him at her Fuyu Peak. He had lived there ever since.
It was no wonder that people in the sect spread rumors that Xie Zhao was her child husband. After all, for more than a decade, she and Xie Zhao had truly been inseparable, constantly crossing paths with each other.
Recalling that dream, Shen Yun Yuan knew that she should not continue on like this.
Shen Yun Yuan was just about to tell Chu Yue that they would not wait today when a familiar voice suddenly entered her ears.
“Senior Sister!”