Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 29

Yun Qing’s happiness didn’t last long.

After this insane immortal obtained the result he wanted, he raised his index finger and lightly tapped her shoulder. An invisible blade of energy pierced through her shoulder blade, causing blood to gush out immediately.

Yun Qing couldn’t help but scream in agony, both in pain and shock. Since childhood, she had been impervious to weapons, and this was the first time she had ever been wounded. How effortlessly he had hurt her!

Was this the power of an immortal?

“Will you write it or not?” he asked Le Chenzi.

Le Chenzi crushed the yellow rice in his hand into powder, casually tossing it outside the cage while saying:

“If you think this will threaten me, then you truly underestimate the Way of One Mind. One heart, one mind, with no external concerns—I don’t even place importance on myself, so what does a disciple matter?”

The man sneered and raised his finger again, sending an energy blade into Yun Qing’s abdomen.

“Will you write it or not?”

Yun Qing felt as if an iron grip was twisting and tearing at her intestines, the pain nearly causing her to faint. So this was what being injured felt like?

Although she was in extreme agony, she had mentally prepared herself and didn’t make a sound from this stab. She didn’t want her master to hear and worry about her.

The man was somewhat surprised. “You have backbone.” As he said this, he sent more energy blades through her body, one after another.

Yun Qing’s body was covered in blood, large beads of sweat rolling down her forehead. The pain blurred her vision, and she began to lose consciousness.

In her hazy state, she thought she heard Fu Xue crying out. “Senior sister, what’s wrong? Who are you? How have we offended you? Are you mistaking us for someone else? Stop it! Senior sister, wake up… wuwu…”

The intense pain made these sounds seem distant, like standing on the edge of a crumbling cliff, hearing the wind from a deep valley far below—floating and lacking a sense of reality.

Yun Qing thought, Fu Xue is awake…

She’s so timid, seeing me in this state, she must be frightened…

Yun Qing struggled to pull at the corner of her mouth, wanting to smile, but the pain left her facial muscles unresponsive. Her face formed a strange expression as she said softly:

“It’s okay, junior sister, I’m fine.” Her voice was so faint, she wasn’t sure if Fu Xue heard her.

Fu Xue cried. “If you have a problem, come at me! Don’t hurt my senior sister anymore!”

“Such deep sisterly affection. Well then, as you wish.”

Yun Qing’s heart sank. This wouldn’t work. She had a special constitution and was already suffering greatly; how many stabs could Fu Xue endure? No, she couldn’t let her junior sister take the blades…

At that moment, a surge of strength erupted within her. This strength supported her as she raised her head and coldly laughed with a provocative tone:

“Evil cultivator! One day, I will repay this debt! I’ll gouge out your eyeballs, rip off your skull, and feed your heart and liver to wild boars!”

“Mere ant, daring to compare yourself to the sun and moon!”

She had angered him. The wind blades suddenly became more dense, falling like raindrops in rapid succession.

Yun Qing didn’t know how long he stabbed her. She felt that the reason he finally stopped was probably because there was no place left on her body where he could strike.

She was numb from the pain and thought, this must be what being dismembered feels like.

Later, she kept wondering, why haven’t I died yet? Death would bring release…

Fu Xue was still crying. Yun Qing desperately wanted to pat her head, but she couldn’t even lift a finger.

“Will you write it or not!”

Le Chenzi: “There’s still a little one. Why not kill her too?”

“Good, good, good!” The man laughed in extreme anger. “The followers of the Way of One Mind are truly cold-hearted and uncaring!”

This was followed by a series of rumbling thunder.

As Yun Qing’s consciousness gradually faded, both the thunder and crying grew more distant. She thought, I’m finally going to die.

……

Yun Qing suddenly opened her eyes.

She was breathing heavily, eyes wide open. The first thing she saw was Jiang Baiyu’s face, with firelight dancing across it, illuminating his furrowed brows and concerned gaze.

Jiang Baiyu was kneeling on one knee in front of her, his palm pressing on her shoulder. Seeing her open her eyes, he sighed in relief, “Finally awake.”

Nearby came Fu Xue’s crying. “Wuu….senior sister… wuu…”

Cheng Suiyan was shaking her. “Fu Xue? Wake up, Fu Xue, there’s roast chicken!”

Yun Qing closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

The breeze carried the dampness from the river, mixed with the fresh scent of surrounding grass and trees. The campfire crackled, and the hand close to it could feel a slight warming sensation on the skin.

In the distance came the rustling of small animals, perhaps a yellow weasel or a hedgehog. Further away, the howl of a lone wolf echoed mournfully across the land.

All of this pulled Yun Qing’s emotions back to reality from that barren, painful situation.

She opened her eyes, raised the back of her hand to wipe her forehead, and found it covered in sweat.

“So it was a dream,” she murmured to herself, moving her shoulder and feeling pain throughout her body.

Could a dream be so real? She felt disoriented for a moment.

Meanwhile, Cheng Suiyan had finally awakened Fu Xue.

Fu Xue opened her eyes with a blank expression, staring at Cheng Suiyan. After a while, she gradually came to her senses, slowly sat up, and looked at Yun Qing.

Yun Qing noticed the fine sweat on her forehead and the tear stains on her face, and asked, “Fu Xue, what did you dream about?”

“Ah, I don’t know,” Fu Xue replied, wiping away her tears, “I just know I was very sad.”

Yun Qing pressed her brow.

She suspected that she and Fu Xue had shared the same dream. But why had Fu Xue forgotten everything completely, while she remembered it clearly? Was it because of her special constitution?

Yun Qing suddenly recalled that the Incantation of Truth used by the immortal in the dream had been ineffective on her.

So, excluding the somewhat absurd possibility that “the immortal bought a fake Incantation of Truth,” the only explanation was that her special constitution could resist the immortal’s mental control.

And because of this, she remembered the dream clearly when she should have forgotten it, which must have exceeded the immortal’s expectations.

Yun Qing closed her eyes and recalled every detail of the dream, thinking of the despair and pain she felt when suppressed by immortal power. She still couldn’t help but tremble with fear, her skin breaking out in goosebumps.

She had an intuition that while the dream seemed false, it was actually real. That immortal truly wanted to capture them to threaten her master, just through the method of creating a dream.

As for why he didn’t capture their physical bodies, that remained unknown. Perhaps he felt it unnecessary, or perhaps he didn’t want to kill them all at once, keeping them for future attempts at intimidation.

Who was he exactly?

In the dream, her master should have had the opportunity to reveal his identity, so why didn’t he speak up?

Her master cultivated the Way of One Mind, so why did he teach her and Fu Xue the Way of Compassion?

What exactly was Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book, that even immortals couldn’t see the words on it?

And how was she able to see them?

…..

There were too many questions.

Regardless of who this immortal was, one thing was certain: he had a connection to Jiang Binghe.

Most cultivators would never have the chance to encounter immortals in their lifetime.

If Jiang Binghe knew any immortals, Yun Qing naturally thought of the most likely answer—his master, Huayang Zi Wen Zhongming.

Although Wen Zhongming had ascended nearly a century ago, he would still have some sentimental attachment to his disciple.

Ingratitude was despised by everyone, and the virtuous Jiang Binghe wouldn’t easily do such things, but if it was for his master, it made sense.

Moreover, the Incantation of Truth was a secret technique of the Huayang Sect, and that immortal happened to know it too.

Yun Qing suddenly recalled her confrontation with Jiang Binghe, when he had sworn confidently: “If you don’t believe me, I can swear by my former master, Huayang Zi.”

No wonder he could swear so easily—were they actually in league together?

Realizing this, Yun Qing couldn’t help but hold her head and shake it. How could her master be so reckless! After offending Huayang Zi, he still dared to save Jiang Binghe?

What extraordinary connection did he have with Jiang Binghe that was worth taking such a risk?

Seeing her furrowing her brow one moment and shaking her head the next, Fu Xue couldn’t help but call out, “Senior sister? Senior sister? What are you thinking about?”

Yun Qing came back to her senses. She was about to tell Fu Xue about her dream experience but worried about being monitored by Huayang Zi, so she kept her concerns to herself.

Thinking about the vast disparity in power between them and their enemy, Yun Qing felt as if a heavy cloud of lead weighed on her heart. She let out a long sigh and said:

“I don’t know why, but I suddenly feel worried about our mission to rescue Master. We don’t know what dangers lie ahead. With Jiang Binghe’s cultivation level, he shouldn’t have the ability to kidnap Master alone.

I wonder if there might be a more powerful entity behind this. Jiang Binghe is already half-immortal, so anything stronger would be…”

Fu Xue gritted her teeth and looked at her with determination, “Senior sister, I’m not afraid.”

“Not afraid even if we’re opposing immortals?”

“I’m not afraid even of death!” Fu Xue’s eyes shone brightly. “My life was given to me by Master. Dying for Master would only be natural.”

Yun Qing suddenly felt enlightened, and a surge of courage and determination rose within her. The fear and oppression brought by the dream were swept away.

Indeed, if they weren’t afraid of death, what was there to fear? What did it matter if they faced immortals? They would challenge the immortals regardless! So what if they were mere ants? Even as an ant, she would make them suffer!

****

Le Chenzi had been struck by lightning again. He thought today’s torture had ended, but the man didn’t leave.

Le Chenzi said irritably, “What now?”

The man said: “You know I didn’t kill them.”

“That’s because I know that you know using them to threaten me is pointless,” Le Chenzi said this tongue-twisting sentence, then continued:

“Your real purpose is just to confirm whether I can truly decipher Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book.”

The man clicked his tongue and said coldly, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll really kill them?”

“No, killing them would bring you no benefit.”

“This immortal kills as he pleases, what benefit do I need?”

Le Chenzi smiled, leaning against the cage and using his fingers to comb through his messy hair. He said, “She once said that you generally won’t do things that don’t benefit you.”

“She said this?” The man was silent for a long time, then suddenly smiled. “She’s right.”