“It’s me.”
“Who are you?”
Jiang Bingbing spun around in place. Did that voice just come from inside her head?
How terrifying!
Fen Jue, who heard Jiang Bingbing’s inner thoughts: “…”
Watching her spin around like a short top.
Fen Jue showed an expression of unbearable sight, letting out a long sigh, “Sword Tomb, I saved you.”
“Oh—” As the other person’s sentence grew longer, Jiang Bingbing recalled his wonderfully magnetic voice, “I remember now! Scarlet-Robed Sword Cultivator, you’re the senior from Sword Sect.”
He didn’t expect her to remember.
Fen Jue actually felt a sense of relief.
After feeling relieved, he found it hard to believe—he was really quite tolerant of Jiang Bingbing.
“Senior, where are you?”
“I’m in your Consciousness Sea.”
Jiang Bingbing relaxed her guard after realizing it was an old acquaintance and sat by the Spirit Spring, swinging her little feet. “Huh? I hear your voice as if it’s coming from inside my head!”
“What is the Consciousness Sea?”
“Hmm—” Fen Jue organized his words slightly to help her understand better, “After a cultivator guides qi into the body, they generate Spiritual Sense. The Spiritual Sense forms a Consciousness Sea after Foundation Establishment.”
“The Consciousness Sea is inside your head.”
“Wow—” She stopped swinging her feet and eagerly asked, “But I haven’t reached Foundation Establishment yet!”
“So your Consciousness Sea is barren.” Fen Jue casually scanned it, “There’s nothing there.”
It sounded a bit shabby.
This feeling was both magical and eerie.
Can you imagine? The words you speak come from your mouth, but another person’s voice emerges in your mind—what does that feel like?
This telepathic communication felt subtle.
Moreover, through bone conduction, the other person’s already sexy, deep voice became even more lethally pleasant.
What Jiang Bingbing didn’t know was…
Fen Jue heard all these inner thoughts of hers clearly.
Fen Jue, who had lived for a thousand years, blushed.
“Ahem, I can hear your inner thoughts just now.”
“!!!”
Jiang Bingbing’s little face flushed red instantly, immediately changing the subject, “So you can see when I bathe or use the toilet?”
“How perverted.”
“…” Fen Jue took a deep breath, using all his cultivation to control himself from cursing this fool, “I’m not that idle. Most of the time, I’m cultivating. Even when I’m not cultivating, unless you’re in mortal danger, my five senses are sealed.”
Why was he explaining this to this strange little fool?
After speaking, Fen Jue pressed his thin lips tightly, his brows filled with regret.
“Oh, oh, oh, so that’s how it is. I feel much more relieved now!” She was someone with a strong sense of privacy, after all.
Fen Jue: “…”
“Don’t you want to ask anything else?” His tone was almost despairing.
Such a powerful Sword Cultivator living in her Consciousness Sea, and all she wanted to know were trivial things?
Jiang Bingbing: “Ask what?”
Her tone was frank and righteous.
Fen Jue gritted his teeth and said, “For example, ask me why I’m in your Consciousness Sea, whether I pose any danger to you, how you came back to life after dying in the Sword Tomb, and ask me to teach you cultivation and guide you in sword practice.”
“Oh, I don’t want to know those things.”
Jiang Bingbing summoned her flying mount and patted Little Hamburger, “Back to Jade Immortal Peak.”
Fen Jue: “?”
Does this girl really have no curiosity at all?
Jiang Bingbing just wanted to reach Foundation Establishment so she wouldn’t have to attend classes, then eat, drink, and live a carefree life for the rest of her days.
“Wait, that’s not right!”
“Oh, I’m actually quite curious about one thing.”
“!” Fen Jue’s eyes lit up with anticipation. “Ask away.”
Jiang Bingbing: “Sword Cultivators generally wear white, blue, black, or gray clothes. Why do you like wearing red?”
Fen Jue: “…”
…
As it turned out, Jiang Bingbing truly meant what she said.
She wasn’t the least bit curious about him.
She even completely ignored his existence.
Every day, she would wake up at mao hour, ride that ugly mount that gave Immortal Lord Qingxue a headache to class, obediently eat her meals at noon, and return to Jade Immortal Peak to continue cultivating after sunset.
When bored, she would talk to that stinky egg.
When had Fen Jue ever suffered such indignity?
Who was he?!
He was the number one figure in the Sword Sect!
A prodigy unseen in the cultivation world for a millennium, he began Guiding Qi into the Body at three, reached Foundation Establishment at five, achieved Golden Core at thirteen, and ascended directly to the Upper Heavenly Palace before even reaching five hundred years old.
If the Sword Sect knew Jiang Bingbing had Formed a Pact with him,
they would be driven mad with envy.
And yet this little girl actually completely ignored him.
“Little fool, aren’t you curious why I’m living in your Consciousness Sea?” Fen Jue couldn’t hold back and asked.
Jiang Bingbing was reading a book about talismans.
She counted her assets—all given by her master and the others—and figured if she spent carefully, it would be enough. But the cultivation world had so many good things, all requiring money to buy. She couldn’t always just wait for clothes and food to be handed to her.
She heard that talismans, elixirs, and artifact forging were the most profitable.
So she asked Immortal Lord Qingxue for three books.
Planning to learn whichever seemed easiest.
“Not curious,” Jiang Bingbing casually popped a dried fruit into her mouth, mumbling, “If you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”
“…” Fen Jue was left speechless. He really didn’t need to be this proactive himself.
Silence fell between them.
Jiang Bingbing continued flipping through the book pages.
“It doesn’t look that complicated.”
“Tch—” Fen Jue shook his head, his phoenix eyes slightly lowered. “You certainly speak boldly.”
Cultivation and talismans were two different things.
On the path of cultivation, spiritual roots accounted for half, with the rest depending on comprehension, diligence, and luck.
Talismans were different.
Comprehension came first.
With this, if you couldn’t understand it, you just couldn’t. If you couldn’t grasp it, you just couldn’t.
No amount of effort would help.
“Why do you want to learn talismans?” Fen Jue still couldn’t help but ask. Who could blame him when this little fool ignored him?
“To make money!” Jiang Bingbing blurted out instinctively. “I don’t know how you ended up in my Consciousness Sea, but I know it must be you, Senior, who saved me. If I make money, I can buy expensive elixirs and spiritual artifacts for my master, senior sisters, and senior brothers, and I might also have a chance to repay your life-saving grace.”
This sudden outpouring of heartfelt words
left Fen Jue silent.
This little girl knew how to repay kindness.
“Talismans… they’re not entirely difficult. Once you grasp the trick, you can apply it to many others.”
“Look at the Clear Mind Talisman you just flipped to.”
“Mhm—” Jiang Bingbing obediently waited for his guidance.
“Remember the direction of each stroke. Channel your spiritual power into the brush tip, and draw the talisman with your heart.”
“Okay.”
Jiang Bingbing pulled out a Talisman Brush, easily gathered spiritual power to its tip, dipped it in a dab of cinnabar,
and began concentrating intently on tracing the design onto the talisman paper.
By the time she finished drawing this Clear Mind Talisman,
she was already drenched in sweat.
“So exhausting, my goodness.” She took out juice from her little fridge and drank heartily. “Drawing talismans really is hard!”
“Senior?”
Jiang Bingbing called a few times but received no response, so she assumed he had closed off his senses to cultivate.
Little did she know,
Fen Jue inside her Consciousness Sea was utterly stunned.
His face was filled with disbelief.
If he hadn’t seen it wrong just now, Jiang Bingbing had drawn the Clear Mind Talisman in one go.
There was no rest or pause in between.
Could it be that—
this little trickster who plays dumb to catch the tiger, is actually a talisman genius?