(11)
Thin mist diffused around as the crescent moon leaned lazily against the plum branches, casting a pale blue, soft shimmer.
Parting the dew-draped flowering branches, Jiang Xing looked deep into the blossoms for reasons unknown. He clearly felt the end was right before his eyes, yet the next second, all he saw were still layer upon layer of deep red petals.
He didn’t know how long he had been walking, but as the last damp, flower-laden branch was parted, he finally caught sight of a back figure that was all too familiar.
A Daoist robe as white as snow was broadly draped across the ground. The plum blossoms, reflecting the quiet scent of the moon, intermingled with the softly swaying tree shadows. The bright moon’s clear luminescence accompanied the rising and falling cold fog, as if an immortal from heaven had descended into the mortal realm.
Jiang Xing froze for a moment, then quickly recovered his senses, feeling somewhat annoyed that for a split second he had actually thought the other person was an immortal.
It was clearly that idiot, Zishu Bai.
“Why are you here?”
He always seemed to question Zishu Bai so cold-heartedly, his words laced with a bit of disdain and impatience.
Yet Zishu Bai’s reply was also never outside his expectations—it was bound to be gentle, peaceful, and filled with the utmost goodwill.
“Waiting for you.”
Zishu Bai turned his head slightly to look at him, a gentle smile hanging by the corners of his lips.
Only then did Jiang Xing notice he was holding a small orange cat in his arms—precisely the one they had saved. The cat was affectionately acting spoiled in his arms, revealing its fluffy belly and scratching wildly at the Daoist robe with its paws.
But hadn’t this cat been turned into a wild boar by Zishu Bai?
Pausing for a moment, realization suddenly dawned upon Jiang Xing: he was dreaming.
Considering that Zishu Bai was actually somewhat reliable this time, all he needed to do next was chat and have a heart-to-heart with this fake Zishu Bai in the dream, and he would be able to comprehend the Dao.
Sitting down on the green stone steps, he said boredly in a faint voice: “Let’s begin.”
“There’s no harm in taking it slow.” Zishu Bai set down the cat in his arms and explained to him in a low voice, “Everything that happens in the dreamscape will not be known by the me in the mortal world, so you and I can do as we please.”
Jiang Xing understood now. So this was just an avatar of Zishu Bai, an illusion that could only appear in dreams.
The other party suddenly chuckled softly, saying in a warm voice: “Or, if you have any resentment toward me, you can unleash it as you wish.”
Hearing this, Jiang Xing raised an eyebrow, his fingertips resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist. “Is killing you fine too?”
“Of course.” Zishu Bai answered him without the slightest hesitation. “The me in this dreamscape was born for you, to be commanded as you see fit.”
Boring.
Jiang Xing instantly lost interest. He had no habit of abusing idiots, not to mention this idiot was merely an illusion.
He leaned lazily against the plum tree, waved at the cat, and said in a cool voice: “I don’t have time to vent on you. I want to increase my spiritual power.”
The cat immediately leaped down from Zishu Bai’s arms and ran toward him, jumping into his lap in one bound.
Ignoring the person in front of him, Jiang Xing wantonly kneaded that fat cat. Had the real Zishu Bai been here, he would absolutely never have done this.
“Mm.” Zishu Bai hummed in thought, saying thoughtfully, “Alright, how about I teach you sword technique?”
He stood up and suddenly caught Jiang Xing’s wrist, pulling him into his embrace.
Jiang Xing looked at him in disbelief, growing annoyed hindsight-style. Just as he was about to make a move, a long sword was stuffed into his palm.
The faint, warm breath brushing past his ear caused his entire body to instantly go rigid.
“So timid, just like a cat.” Zishu Bai couldn’t help but chuckle, squeezing his wrist and giving it a light shake. Leading his hand, he executed a beautiful sword flower as his voice sounded deep, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re very much like a cat?”
“Say something like that again and I’ll stab you to death,” the veins on Jiang Xing’s forehead throbbed. “And also, do you have to stand this close to teach me?”
Zishu Bai didn’t feel there was any problem at all, saying candidly, “My mother taught me this way back then, too.”
For some reason, Jiang Xing felt that the Zishu Bai in this dream was very different from the real Zishu Bai. If he had to put it into words, the Zishu Bai in the dream seemed more open, speaking to him without faltering or hesitating…
He suddenly understood: the Zishu Bai in the dream wasn’t afraid of him.
Not afraid of him getting angry, not afraid of him hating him.
“You know, when I practiced the sword in my youth, I defeated my father at age three, beat my mother at age six, and by age ten I already had no rivals on Mount Penghao.”
Zishu Bai held Jiang Xing’s wrist and lightly flicked the sword, instantly slicing through the pale red petals falling in front of them. Then, looking at him as if claiming credit, he said triumphantly, “Pretty impressive, isn’t it?”
Quite a braggart, too.
Jiang Xing sneered. He had thought boasting about oneself only happened with villainous cannon fodder like Wu Moxun; turns out Zishu Bai also felt secretly proud in his heart, thinking he was very impressive.
“Childish,” he evaluated coldly.
Suffering a heartless blow from him, Zishu Bai softly refuted as if refusing to accept it, “It’s not childish at all. This is very difficult; why don’t you try?”
Talk about stubborn.
Jiang Xing was amused to the point of laughter. “Try then try.”
He pushed Zishu Bai away, holding the long sword, and aimed at the petals dancing and drifting in the air.
One strike—missed.
Two strikes—missed again.
They were clearly visible and touchable, yet every time those petals were about to touch the tip of the sword, they would quickly slip away from beside the blade.
He grew increasingly annoyed. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zishu Bai standing with his hands behind his back, laughing softly.
In a flash, he narrowed his eyes and stepped forward to grab Zishu Bai’s hand. This idiot was indeed forming hand seals to manipulate those petals!
“You dare play tricks on me?”
Jiang Xing pushed him hard into the grass. In an instant, flying flowers scattered dew, and floating mist contained fragrance. As the snow-white Daoist robe spilled across the ground full of petals, Zishu Bai still couldn’t help laughing: “I told you earlier this is very difficult.”
Difficult my foot, wasn’t it because you were making trouble behind the scenes?
“Can you actually teach or not?” Jiang Xing asked, at the end of his patience.
Restraining his smile, Zishu Bai said softly: “You view cultivation too seriously. It’s not that you can only cultivate to achieve some goal; rather, if you find it interesting, progress will naturally come at lightning speed.”
He gathered a pile of petals from the grass and tossed them into the sky. “Try again. This time I won’t cast a spell.”
Jiang Xing tightened his grip on the sword in his hand. After a long moment, he still raised the sword to deal with those petals.
Can’t even slice them, where’s the fun in that?
The angles at which those petals fell grew increasingly tricky; sometimes they even darted past his neck.
He didn’t believe he couldn’t slice them.
Holding his breath and concentrating his mind, Jiang Xing stared intently at one of them. The moment that petal was about to float down in front of him, he thrust his sword lightning-fast.
The tip of the sword closed in on that petal with thunderous momentum, but at the very moment it was about to slice through, the petal turned into a buzzing heavenly insect flapping its wings.
His pupils shrank rapidly for a split second, but the sword was already too late to pull back, barely slicing that heavenly insect to death.
“So that’s how it is; this is what you’re afraid of.” Zishu Bai’s voice sounded from behind him. Turning around, he saw Zishu Bai picking up a petal and saying in a low voice, “You’re afraid that demon beasts will appear in the inner sect assessment again, you’re afraid that you won’t be able to win relying on yourself, and you’re afraid that you will die.”
“Nonsense,” Jiang Xing interrupted him in a deep voice. “Who isn’t afraid of dying? If I had your kind of luck, I wouldn’t be afraid of dying either.”
Zishu Bai raised his eyes to stare at him, saying softly, “With me around, there’s no need to be afraid.”
With his expression freezing slightly, Jiang Xing looked at him and couldn’t help letting out a low sneer.
Sometimes he was truly curious about how this guy’s stupid brain worked, to actually be able to say such shameless words out loud.
“Can you stay by my side for a lifetime?”
Jiang Xing sneered. Before he could speak a few more sarcastic remarks, the other party suddenly leaned close, as if he had finally discovered his mistake, his voice carrying a deep meaning: “Why didn’t you refute the part about not being afraid with me around? Is it because you indeed need me?”
His throat choked, and all the words he had wanted to say just now were stuffed back down.
Of course he needed Zishu Bai. Without Zishu Bai, he wouldn’t even be able to walk out of Sand Town. But that was all because Zishu Bai was the protagonist with a protagonist halo, and nothing more.
Zishu Bai added in a warm voice: “Perhaps you don’t dislike me as much as you think you do?”
How could that be? The person he disliked most was Zishu Bai. Out of over a thousand chapters he had followed, there wasn’t a single chapter where Jiang Xing wasn’t cursing Zishu Bai.
“Perhaps you actually like me quite a bit?”
This was even more of a pipe dream. It was already good enough that he didn’t kill Zishu Bai; this guy really knew how to put gold on his own face.
Or could it be that Zishu Bai had secretly felt all along that he liked him quite a bit?
Was he crazy? Narcissistic to this extent.
Seeing that he remained silent without speaking, Zishu Bai gave a gentle smile and reminded him: “Jiang Xing, dawn is breaking.”
Dawn was breaking; didn’t that mean his dream was about to end? Yet they hadn’t done anything yet.
Jiang Xing finally couldn’t help but say anxiously: “What about my cultivation? Didn’t you say I was supposed to comprehend the Dao?”
“If you admit that you indeed need me, and tell me your true thoughts,” Zishu Bai picked off a petal from his shoulder and said in a low voice, “then when you wake up, your cultivation will increase.”
The blending of spiritual sense was originally meant for Dao companions to have heart-to-heart chats, yet Jiang Xing had been refusing to open his mouth.
Hearing this, Jiang Xing took a deep breath and had no choice but to say, “I indeed need you.”
“And?”
Jiang Xing pursed his lips tightly.
Whatever—it wasn’t the real Zishu Bai anyway.
Staring heavily at the person in front of him, he said in a cold voice: “I hate how every time you go on a mission, you complicate matters just to save people. I also hate how your holy father heart overflows, seeking a sense of presence everywhere. I hate how you lack eye for situations and don’t know the time, always easily drawing hatred toward yourself. You’re truly so stupid you’re beyond cure—so stupid I wish I could stab you to death with one sword strike.”
Zishu Bai: “…Alright then.”
Jiang Xing pinched his forehead. After a long silence, as if making a decision that violated his ancestors, he said in a low voice: “Aside from those, I don’t hate anything else about you. I know you have talent, are very smart, kind, and very good to your friends.”
He hated this person, but not to the extent of being irreconcilable enemies.
After reading over a thousand chapters without missing a single word, he was naturally clear about Zishu Bai’s strengths.
Jiang Xing was unwilling to admit that he needed Zishu Bai—not just needing the protagonist halo, but also needing Zishu Bai’s intelligence, kindness, and good treatment toward friends.
If he admitted it, wouldn’t that highlight Zishu Bai’s selflessness and greatness even more, while making him out to be a selfish, self-serving villain? Just thinking about it was disgusting.
Hearing his words, the previously dimmed gaze in Zishu Bai’s eyes lit up again with a small cluster of light. He smiled softly: “Did you say that just to be able to increase your cultivation?”
The corner of Jiang Xing’s mouth twitched slightly, already at the limit of his patience: “What do you think?”
Suddenly, cool fingers scented with floral fragrance lightly rested against the side of his face.
The crescent moon faded into the mountain peak, and the sky brightened with the white of a fish belly.
The gentle voice of the other party sounded in his ear, seeming to carry a bit of laughter, before the fingertips retreated.
“A reward for opening your heart.”
Jiang Xing’s eyelashes fluttered suddenly. Feeling his face, he touched a pure white petal that was icy cold, melting into his palm like snowmelt water in no time.
A continuous stream of spiritual energy flowed within his body.
Jiang Xing let out a long sigh of relief as if freed from a heavy burden. After going through such a big detour, he had finally obtained spiritual power.
Once he woke up…
He was going to beat that real guy to death.