Fortunately, she knew her limits—once he turned around, she stopped staring so openly.
“You’ve completed Yinqi Ruti. How do you feel?” Huangfu Yuan asked her.
“Refreshed and clear-headed. Even though I didn’t sleep all night, I don’t feel tired at all.” She stood up, jumped down from the large rock, walked over, and looked up at him. “Huangfu Yuan, may I ask you two questions?”
“What?”
“I can absorb the green and red light particles, but I also absorbed a white one. What is that white light particle? Am I going to explode and die?”
“White light particle?” Huangfu Yuan’s eyes showed confusion. “Let me examine your body. Give me your hand.”
You Yu extended her hand. He frowned slightly but didn’t take it directly—instead, he probed her condition through a layer of Lingli.
After a moment, he released her hand. “There’s nothing wrong with your body. No signs of impending explosion.”
You Yu let out a sigh of relief and asked, “What Linggen corresponds to white light particles?”
Huangfu Yuan shook his head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. When I return, I can look it up for you.”
You Yu wasn’t too disappointed. After all, he was a Sanxiu—limited knowledge was to be expected.
“I saw many colored light particles, and none of them reacted to me except the white ones. Whenever I absorbed the red and green particles, the white ones would follow along and slip in too.”
A flicker of surprise passed through Huangfu Yuan’s eyes. “You can see many colored light particles?”
Seeing his furrowed brow, You Yu’s heart skipped a beat. She said uncertainly, “I saw red, yellow, brown, green, purple, white—all sorts of colors. Am I… am I abnormal?”
“Indeed, it’s abnormal,” Huangfu Yuan said. “When ordinary people cultivate, they can only see the Lingqi corresponding to their own Linggen—those light particles. You only have Huomu Linggen, so you should only be able to see red and green.”
Right—she remembered the books said exactly that. She’d thought she might have misremembered.
“But why can I see so many colored light particles?” You Yu was puzzled. “They’re all around me, but they don’t seem to want to enter my body.”
Huangfu Yuan was silent for a moment before speaking. “There have been such cases before, but they were only rumors. No one has actually witnessed it.”
“What kind of cases?”
“I’ve heard that in the past, some people had Yin Linggen in addition to their manifested Linggen.”
“Yin Linggen?”
“It means the Linggen exists within the body but hasn’t been activated.”
“Can a Yin Linggen be cultivated?”
“No. Only after it’s activated and becomes a Xian Linggen can it be cultivated.”
So it was like recessive genes versus dominant genes—she understood now.
“Then how does that work? Will it affect my cultivation?” she asked.
“I’ve heard it won’t. I’ve never heard of Yin Linggen having any effect,” Huangfu Yuan said. “But people know very little about Yin Linggen, and there are very few in the world. As for someone like you with so many Linggen… I can’t be certain what will happen.”
“As long as it doesn’t affect my cultivation, it doesn’t matter.” You Yu finally felt at ease, and she also realized she was hungry—her stomach cooperatively let out a growl.
She rubbed her belly and said, “Huangfu Yuan, when do we set off for Mo Cheng?”
“If you’re in a hurry, we can leave right now.”
“Ah, no rush, no rush. Let me have breakfast first before we go.” You Yu remembered she still had half a chicken from yesterday—she could heat it up and eat it.
Huangfu Yuan wasn’t in a hurry. He said “As you wish” and went to sit cross-legged in meditation nearby.
You Yu moved quickly and finished in about fifteen minutes. After eating the roasted chicken, she even pulled out a fruit she’d picked yesterday from her bamboo basket and munched on it.
When she finished packing, Huangfu Yuan opened his eyes. Seeing the bamboo basket on her back, still caked with mud, he frowned again. “Get rid of the basket.”
“But there are still some herbs I dug up inside.”
“Where’s the Storage Bag I gave you yesterday?”
You Yu took the Storage Bag out of the basket—it had gotten a bit of dirt from the herbs on it.
Huangfu Yuan cast a Qingjueshu on it, then took it, gave it a light wave, and everything in the basket was transferred into the Storage Bag. He handed it back to You Yu.
You Yu took it happily and looked at the spotlessly clean Storage Bag, thinking to herself: this guy definitely has OCD.
Huangfu Yuan produced a sword and infused it with Lingli, causing it to grow longer and wider. He flicked his sleeve, and You Yu was lifted onto the sword by an invisible force as he stepped onto the front of it at the same time.
“Ah—”
Caught off guard by the sudden flight, You Yu was startled and instinctively grabbed onto Huangfu Yuan’s sleeve.
Huangfu Yuan looked at the small hand on his sleeve, and his brow furrowed again.
“I—I washed my hands.” You Yu didn’t see his expression, but she understood people with OCD and immediately explained.
In the end, Huangfu Yuan said nothing and flew off with her.
Half a day later, they arrived at Mo Cheng.
You Yu was overjoyed—this was much better than walking on her own.
Huangfu Yuan brought her to an inn, took out a piece of silver, and booked two rooms—one for each of them.
“Huangfu Yuan, you even have silver for common folk!” You Yu exclaimed. “Don’t cultivators all use Lingshi?”
“They were exchanged when I came out before,” Huangfu Yuan said. “I need to go into secluded cultivation for a few days. Feel free to do as you please afterward.”
“Alright, alright.” You Yu replied with a smile.
Not only had he brought her to Mo Cheng, but he’d also paid for her room—he was simply too kind. He’d been seriously injured before, so he definitely needed to heal. She mustn’t disturb him and affect his recovery.
“There are some Bigudan pills in this bottle. One pill can keep a person from feeling hungry for three days.”
You Yu had read about Bigudan in books, of course, but since she’d already accepted his thanks, she didn’t feel right accepting another gift. She picked up the Storage Bag at her waist and asked, “How much is this?”
“It’s just a bottle of Bigudan.”
Huangfu Yuan tossed the bottle directly to her and went to his own room.
You Yu held the bottle and waved at his retreating figure. “Thank you then!”
The two each returned to their own rooms. Huangfu Yuan indeed needed to heal his injuries. After setting up a Zhenfa around himself, he changed his clothes and began meditating to repair his damaged Jingmai.
He’d already recovered somewhat last night, but because she’d grabbed his sleeve, he’d had to speed up to get here sooner, outputting more Lingli and damaging his Jingmai again in the process.
You Yu went to her room, first opening the window to look at the street outside for a while. She had no desire to go out shopping, so she shut the window with a bang, took a Bigudan pill, and sat cross-legged on the bed to begin cultivating.
The Xiuzhenjie was cruel—without Xiuwei, she was nothing but a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
What use was shopping? Better to spend the time cultivating!
She immersed herself in cultivation once again and saw the colorful specks of light. The other specks remained aloof as before, floating in the air without much fluctuation.
She paid them no mind and absorbed the more active red and green specks, along with the white specks whose origin she couldn’t quite figure out.