Dark oppressive clouds shrouded the entire mountain range, and autumn rain was always preceded by cold, biting winds.
When Ruan Su woke from her nightmare, her eyes snapped open instantly, crimson-tinged vision marred by terror as she stared blankly at the pitch-black "blood-colored" sky above.
She had dreamed a nightmare, dreaming that Xiao Yi had left her, just as he had once abandoned those younger siblings of his. No matter how she begged him, he never looked back, walking away with such cold indifference, leaving her all alone in that place...
It was just a dream, right?
Trembling, Ruan Su cast her gaze upon the small cabin the two of them had built brick by brick. The door stood wide open, the interior pitch black, drafts howling through with mournful cries, not a trace of life within.
The people were gone, the place left empty.
Fear made the young girl ignore the pain surging through every part of her body. She carefully curled herself up, wrapping her arms around her own body, lips pressed tightly together, nose sniffing hard. The blood soaking her thin garments had already scabbed over, sticking to her skin, constantly tugged by the mountain wind with soft rustling sounds.
It started to rain.
The sky had already darkened, the campfire beneath the roasting rack had gone out, and she still lay in the same spot.
The first drop of rain struck the corner of the young girl's eye, sliding down her pale cheek, then gradually spreading.The boundless forest was disturbed, autumn rain fell silently, the wind carried intent, and only a hoarse, trembling whisper escaped her throat.
"Sor...ry..."
"It's... Big Sister's fault for being useless..."
"Sor...ry..."
"It's Big Sister's... fault for not being able to cul...tivate..."
"......"
"...Are you crying?"
Like an illusion, accompanied by a soft sigh, a familiar childish voice came from nearby, calm enough to be reassuring:
"If it hurts, don't talk."
"......"
Ruan Su's eyes instantly flew wide open, even the trembling of her body ceasing entirely, afraid it was merely a hallucination from her dream.
But the childish voice did not stop, coming again with the same even tone:
"Don't move around too much. Just slowly turn around."
"......."
Ruan Su twisted her body bit by bit, looking behind her, and discovered that Xiao Yi was also sprawled motionless, lying just over three meters away from her.
Qin Yi didn't look at Ruan Su. Any movement would bring pain. Staring up at the rain falling from the sky, his expression was so indifferent that it didn't seem like someone who was completely immobilized from severe injuries. He said casually:
"The cultivation technique was something I told you to practice. The fact that you ended up like this is also because of me, so there's no need to be surprised."
The truthfulness of those words was practically zero.
At least for Ruan Su.
Her brain's instinct directly told her this was an out-and-out lie. The other party must have collapsed alongside her due to some uncontrollable, unknown factors.
But Ruan Su would tell her instincts that his words couldn't be more true.
Xiao Yi hadn't abandoned her...
Xiao Yi had saved her...
She was the one who had gravely wounded Xiao Yi...
The young girl stared unblinking at the blood-soaked profile of the boy beside her, her dark pupils flickering with self-reproachful unease.
Time passed slowly.
The autumn rain pouring from the heavens expanded and intensified, water stains trickling down the charred tiger leg, the firewood embers beneath hissing as they died out. Rain rapidly soaked the entire mountain range, shrouding it in a hazy mist of drizzle.
Raindrops struck his cheeks, washing away the caked bloodstains. Qin Yi squinted, feeling his own immobile body.
This autumn rain had come at the worst possible time.
He didn't know what would happen to Ruan Su, but if he lay here all night, hypothermia was inevitable. And judging by the past habits of autumn rains on Nianci Mountain, this rain would patter on relentlessly for several days.
Rustle, rustle...
A rustling sound came from beside him. Qin Yi glanced sideways and saw the young girl struggling to crawl toward him through the rain curtain, her half-burned face radiating stubborn determination.
She was a mess.
So pathetic that it was hard to imagine she had kicked a towering three-meter-tall Shaking Ape to death the day before yesterday.
What is she trying to do?
The moment their eyes met, Qin Yi understood her intention. He stared at her for several breaths, then gently shook his head and said:
"Don't bother. If you can barely even crawl, don't think about dragging me into the cabin."
"......"
Ruan Su's body stiffened, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of her lips, but she still continued crawling toward the boy.
Qin Yi let out a soft breath:
"Stop... I'll figure something out."
Only then did the young girl halt her movements.
Qin Yi had woken up earlier than Ruan Su and had also noticed earlier the devastating impact this seemingly insignificant autumn rain could have on the two of them in their current state.
He had tried to move his body, but shifting even slightly sent excruciating pain tearing through every limb and bone.
If it were only that, Qin Yi wouldn't really mind.
He wasn't afraid of pain.
The key issue was that it would cause bleeding, rapidly worsening his injuries.
That feeling was like a wound that had barely scabbed over being ripped open anew.
He had originally thought that Ruan Su's self-healing ability might be somewhat stronger, and perhaps once she woke up, she could drag him back into the cabin. But now it seemed that plan had also fallen through.
Ruan Su was even more badly injured than he was.
At this rate of recovery, it clearly wouldn't be fast enough.
If they didn't do something soon, their weakened bodies would be swallowed up by this utterly unremarkable, bleak autumn rain.
There was no need to wonder whether anyone would come to their small courtyard. The old master had given Ruan Su leave from work, and Granny Meng had only just come by last night to look at his jade pendant. He couldn't very well gamble on her coming again tonight, could he?
His body couldn't move, so he could only think of solutions from the cultivation side.
In the dying words left behind by the rich girl, she had mentioned being able to slice straight through an ancient tree. In other words, the spiritual essence absorbed into the body could be released, and it could intervene on the physical level.
The question was how.
The Heretical Scripture only recorded how to absorb spiritual essence; it didn't teach any method of output.
Qin Yi silently sifted through every piece of usable information.
Time passed slowly. The temperature of deep autumn continued to drop, and the rain kept washing away what little body heat remained between the sister and brother.
Seeing that the boy remained silent for a long time, the young girl started growing restless again.
Although she radiated an overwhelming sense of being on the verge of death, she felt her body should still be strong enough to drag the boy in front of her into the cabin. But just then, she noticed that the boy who had been "playing dead" suddenly moved.
His hand.
It was a hand seal, the Dengming Seal.
He wanted to enter Cultivation Vision?
Although Ruan Su didn't know much about cultivation, she instinctively felt this was dangerous. Her red lips parted slightly:
"Xiao...Yi, don't..."
"Quiet."
The fine rain pattered down.
Qin Yi replied softly, and his breathing rate began to adjust.
He hated risk. Having gone through what happened this afternoon, he knew that carelessly practicing cultivation could get you killed. But when he confirmed there was no other option, even facing near-certain death, he wouldn't hesitate in the slightest.
His mind recalled the meridian circulation diagram he had seen within his body under Cultivation Vision.
So-called meridians were somewhat similar to blood vessels, but this thing probably didn't exist on the physical level. At least, Qin Yi had never seen any organ resembling meridians inside a human body to this day.
Including the Calamity Seed.
The spiritual essence meridians in the palm were one of the densest parts of the human body, and also likely the most special.
When forming the Dengming Seal, merely touching the skin of his fingertips had connected two meridians, creating a brand-new spiritual essence circuit.
That had been an input circuit. If he could reverse it, he should be able to achieve outputting the spiritual essence from within his body.
And the breathing methods of the Heretical Scripture should have evolved from martial arts internal energy. If the Dengming Seal worked, other internal energy hand seals should also be usable.
Shaoyang, Yinge, Gongcao, Taichong, Tiangang...
Which hand seal could transform the Heretical Scripture's spiritual essence input into output?
His mind raced at full speed, Qin Yi carefully recalling every subtle sensory feedback the flow of spiritual essence had brought at that time.
A hundred and fifty breaths passed in the blink of an eye.
Just as those blue halos began to appear before his eyes, Qin Yi abruptly changed his hand seal. But it wasn't one of those recorded in ordinary internal energy techniques.
His body couldn't withstand any secondary damage. Rather than gambling on the effects of existing hand seals, Qin Yi trusted his own physical sensations of meridian flow more.
Silent, the ever-intensifying rain curtain compressed visibility to less than ten meters. But within this hazy darkness, in the silent small courtyard, a faint glimmer of light suddenly flickered to life...