Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 28

Cheng Suiyan crawled out of the river and circled around the bonfire.

Fu Xue asked curiously, “What are you doing?”

“I’m drying my clothes.”

“Stop drying them. I’ll teach you the Moisture-Removal Technique.”

The Moisture-Removal Technique was the most basic spell that could remove dirt and moisture from one’s body. The fact that Cheng Suiyan didn’t even know such a fundamental technique surprised the other three.

Yun Qing asked, “Who was your master? How come you haven’t even learned the Moisture-Removal Technique?”

Cheng Suiyan sat down on the ground, opened his hands and said, “Let me be honest with you. I’m self-taught and have never had a master.

Well, when I was twelve or thirteen, I did associate with some Daoists and we called each other martial brothers. I took their pills and got sick.

After that, I became cautious and decided to wait until I met a true master before becoming an apprentice. I haven’t met one until now. Except for you all—you are true masters, especially you, Yun Qing.”

Yun Qing calmly accepted his flattery and asked, “So, are you saying you intend to take me as your master?”

“Uh,” Cheng Suiyan seemed troubled and looked at her face for a few moments before finally saying, “May I ask how old you are?”

“I’m nineteen.”

“You’re two years younger than me.” Cheng Suiyan shook his head. He couldn’t bring himself to call such a young girl “Master.”

Yun Qing said, “I’m not interested in taking disciples right now. Let’s wait until I find my master.”

“Your master?”

“Yes.” She nodded and briefly explained the situation.

Cheng Suiyan’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! I could join your Longshou Sect and become your fellow disciple!

I wonder if your master would be willing to accept me as a disciple. But it doesn’t matter—someone will surely accept me, right? Doesn’t your Longshou Sect have three thousand people?”

Yun Qing: “???”

Fu Xue raised her index finger, awkwardly scratched her cheek, and avoided eye contact. Yun Qing immediately knew that her junior sister had been boasting when she wasn’t around.

Naturally, Yun Qing wouldn’t embarrass her junior sister, so she nodded gracefully and responded, “Even if you joined the Longshou Sect, you would only be a junior brother.”

It didn’t matter. If Cheng Suiyan later questioned the “three thousand” figure, they could count all the creatures summoned by the Six-Path Sealing Bell—there would definitely be more than enough.

Fu Xue asked Cheng Suiyan, “If you’ve never had a master, how did you get your Zhaoming Painted Bone Fan?”

“By chance. I bought it at a high price. I gave that person a lot of gold and silver, as well as some valuable medicinal herbs. He was quite mysterious, with his face covered, and unwilling to reveal his name.”

Yun Qing understood. This mysterious person probably urgently needed the herbs to save a life, which was why he reluctantly parted with the fan. Looking at it this way, it truly was a chance encounter, and Cheng Suiyan had been lucky.

****

That night, they camped outdoors.

The night watch changed from two people to four, with each person only needing to watch for one two-hour period. Their watching order was Fu Xue, Yun Qing, Cheng Suiyan, and Jiang Baiyu.

After watching for two hours, Fu Xue saw her senior sister open her eyes at the right time and promptly fell asleep.

Yun Qing sat up and habitually looked around like a vigilant leopard.

She saw Jiang Baiyu lying flat with one hand cushioning the back of his head, one leg bent, his eyes open, looking at the sky, his clear eyes filled with starlight.

Yun Qing found it strange, not sure if he was asleep or awake—some people did sleep with their eyes open. She crouched beside him and waved her hand in front of his face.

Jiang Baiyu grabbed her hand.

His palm was broad, his fingers long and strong, his palm slightly warm. Yun Qing felt the heat that didn’t belong to her, and her heart thumped heavily.

His eyelids lowered slightly, half-closed, his gaze falling on her face. His bright eyes reflected the firelight and starlight, scattered and flowing with light.

Yun Qing moved her wrist, and he released her.

Jiang Baiyu looked back at the sky and said softly, “Do you need something?”

Yun Qing awkwardly flexed her fingers and asked, “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I never sleep.”

“……”

What a strange person.

Yun Qing no longer paid attention to him and began to meditate.

That was when the unexpected happened.

As soon as she began to meditate, an indescribable intuition surged in her heart—a physical instinct of fear, trembling, and confusion caused by being suppressed and intimidated by an enormous power.

Before she could even process a single thought, her entire consciousness seemed to fall into a dark abyss, falling, falling endlessly.

……

When she regained consciousness, Yun Qing heard an unfamiliar voice speaking.

The voice was clear, cold, like a spring hitting pine stones. The voice said, “I almost forgot, you have two good disciples.”

Another voice responded. “So?”

Although it was only two words, Yun Qing immediately recognized it as her master’s voice! She opened her eyes with delight. “Master!”

……Her master wasn’t there, only a strange man. This person’s face was blurry; his left hand was pinching Fu Xue’s shoulder, while his right hand was holding hers.

Yun Qing tried to move but couldn’t.

Fu Xue was still unconscious.

Yun Qing had never been in such a completely helpless situation before and was inevitably terrified. Despite this, she temporarily ignored her own situation and looked around for Le Chenzi, calling loudly:

“Master, where are you? Master?” She couldn’t have heard wrong; that was definitely her master’s voice.

Meanwhile, Le Chenzi, now the size of a crow, sat in a cage with a complicated expression, watching his close disciple searching everywhere for him.

Looking like this bird, he was really too embarrassed to reveal himself.

Le Chenzi wiped his face, pretending to be calm and collected as he spoke, “My dear disciple, I’m here.” As he spoke, he picked up a yellow grain of rice and played with it casually.

However, due to being struck by lightning multiple times, his current appearance—with hair exploded like a bird’s nest, tattered clothes, and a blackened face—made him look like a beggar, with no trace of composure at all.

Yun Qing’s attention was finally drawn to the birdcage, and she stared at her master in astonishment. “Master? How did you end up like this?”

Le Chenzi helplessly spread his hands. “Don’t ask. It’s a long story.”

Yun Qing was filled with shock and suspicion. She turned to look at the person beside her, “Who are you?”

Although she tried her best to suppress her anger when speaking, she was still young and couldn’t help showing it. The man laughed lightly, “The anger of an ant only adds to the amusement.”

Le Chenzi sighed helplessly, “Since you know they’re like ants, why did you bring them here?”

“Because they’re your disciples. If you don’t write today, I’ll kill your disciples first.”

Write? Write what? Thoughts tumbled in Yun Qing’s mind. Of all the things her master possessed that could be coveted by powerful forces and needed to be written out, she could only think of one thing—Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book.

She pursed her lips and looked at her master in the cage. Le Chenzi gave her a barely perceptible twitch of his lips, confirming her guess.

It was fortunate that she knew her master well enough to read his expressions, even when he had become so small.

Yun Qing immediately understood. Her master had somehow offended this madman, so he pretended to be able to understand Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book to protect himself.

So what should she do now? Should she cooperate with her master and add fuel to the fire?

Before Yun Qing could speak, the man sneered, “You little girl, I can tell from your eyes that you’re not honest. Are you thinking of what clever words to use to deceive this immortal?”

Yun Qing’s scalp tingled with fear, her soul nearly leaving her body. “This immortal”—he called himself an immortal! What on earth had her old master done to offend an immortal?

She suppressed her instinctive trembling and tried to keep her tone steady. “Immortal, may I ask your honorable name?”

“Even so frightened, you still remember to fish for information? Like master, like disciple—both dishonest. The more you want to know, the less I’ll tell you.”

The man gave another pleased laugh, “Little girl, have you heard of the Incantation of Truth?”

Yun Qing thought, this is the end.

As a mere mortal, she couldn’t possibly resist an Incantation of Truth from an immortal. Once under the spell, she would surely tell everything she knew.

He would definitely ask if her master could really understand Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book, and then he would learn that her master had been deceiving him all along.

Amidst her grief, fear, and anger, Yun Qing had another doubt: why didn’t this immortal use the Incantation of Truth directly on her master? Logically, given her master’s cultivation level, he shouldn’t be able to resist it.

Unless her master practiced the Way of One Mind. Thinking of the book “Old Man Nan’s Dream Recollections” and the Eight Clouds Fate-Writing Brush in the Longshou Sect, Yun Qing felt this guess was probably correct.

Realizing this, Yun Qing said, “Are you sure you want to use the Incantation of Truth? I practice the Way of One Mind.”

The immortal sneered. “Little girl, do you think I’m that easily fooled? Neither you nor this girl has achieved enlightenment yet.”

After saying this, he said to Le Chenzi, “What kind of master are you?”

Le Chenzi remained silent.

Yun Qing’s heart gradually sank.

The immortal’s spells were unfathomably deep. Unlike Jiang Baiyu, he didn’t form a lotus seal with his hands; he merely raised his finger and lightly tapped Yun Qing’s shoulder. Immediately, dense, low incantations sounded around them, surrounding her like thick fog.

Yun Qing was conscious but helpless as she felt some invisible force invade her body, pulling at her spirit.

She closed her eyes in despair, thinking, is my entire Longshou Sect going to perish here today?

The incantation stopped, the fog dispersed, and Yun Qing opened her eyes.

He asked her in a slow and majestic tone, as if knocking on the door of her heart.

“What is thy name?”

“My name is Yun Qing.”

“How old art thou?”

“Nineteen.”

“Who is thy master?”

“Le Chenzi of Longshou Mountain.”

“Dost thou know what Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book is?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Can thy master Le Chenzi decipher Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book?”

“Yes. He can.”

“How dost thou know this?”

“Master once taught me the contents of Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book.”

“Canst thou write this book from memory?”

“No, it’s too difficult. I barely studied it.”

Yun Qing spoke these lies with a straight face, while an absurd guess formed in her mind.

Could it be that this immortal had bought the Incantation of Truth?

And he had bought a fake?

The man stopped questioning at this point.

Both sides were very satisfied with the effect of the Incantation of Truth.