B5C15: Miss Li’er
After an indeterminate period of time, Qin Yu can gradually feel the existence of his body. He moves his fingers. In just a while, the feeling of having his whole body under his control comes back to him. He cannot help giving a faint smile.
When he opens his eyes, the first thing he sees is a bamboo roof.
“Not the coral reef!”
His face changes color greatly. He sits up at once, his eyes glittering intensely. After a moment, he looks around and quickly gains a good grasp of everything in his surroundings. This is the interior of a very tranquil bamboo room. There is no one else here.
Originally Qin Yu was hiding in a coral reef, but upon regaining consciousness, he discovered that he was in a bamboo house, so how could he possibly not have been shocked? He immediately uses his holy sense to check his body over, including his soul and everything inside his dantian.
After finding that there is nothing wrong with his body, he secretly lets out a sigh of relief.
When being restored by the Meteoric Tear, he basically does not have the slightest amount of power to resist whoever wants to kill him. Now, it looks like the one who took him here did not inflict any injuries or use any restrictive spells on him.
Qin Yu looks outside the house. He is astounded to find out that this bamboo house is surrounded by the boundless ocean. Obviously some restrictive spell has been set up outside the house and is screening out all of the water directly, leaving this house totally unaffected by the water. He expands his holy sense.
This bamboo house has 3 front rooms, 3 back rooms, and a courtyard in the center. There is absolutely no water in the courtyard and the rooms, but outside the house is the limitless ocean. At the moment, there is unexpectedly n.o.body else in this bamboo house.
“Who’s the owner of this place?” He gets out of bed to leave the room. The moment he gets down from the bed, his holy sense feels someone approaching in the courtyard. He immediately exits the room in 2 steps.
Wise and stable!
The 1st impression Qin Yu has when looking at the man in front of him is that this is a wise, stable person. His calm eyes seem to be able to see through other people’s souls in an instant. And he looks like a 40 year old mortal.
“Young man, you’ve regained consciousness?” This man says smilingly.
Qin Yu puts his mind on alert. He simply does not know when he was saved and brought to this place. If that happened soon after he had been injured, this man must know how severe his injuries were. His spleen was shattered, his liver was damaged very badly and there was a huge hole on his stomach. Theoretically, these were absolutely fatal injuries.
So, ordinary people would definitely be amazed to see that he has now become vigorous again.
“I am Liu Xing. Sir, may I ask who you … Ah, you’re a human!” Qin Yu jumps out of his skin because he has just made a sweep with his holy sense and discovered that the man before him unexpectedly does not have a demonic aura. Moreover, he simply cannot get any information about this man’s power level.
To the best of his knowledge, his holy sense can at least find out the power levels of those at the early Yuanying stage or below and therefore this man should have reached the middle Yuanying stage at a minimum.
“You can call me Uncle Lan. Right, I’m indeed a human. Well … you can think of me as a Xiuxianist.” Uncle Lan says with a relaxed smile.
Qin Yu is greatly shocked inwardly. A Xiuxianist who dares to go down into the ocean will encounter mortal dangers anytime. Therefore, even people of high power levels do not dare to stay long underwater. After all, there are very many experts among underwater Xiuyaoists.
“Uncle Lan, you’re a Xiuxianist, then why are you staying underwater?” Qin Yu asks doubtfully.
He does not take notice of the sentence Uncle Lan said just now — ‘you can think of me as a Xiuxianist’. If he was really a Xiuxianist, why would he have said so? It is just that at the moment Qin Yu is worrying that the secret about his Meteoric Tear will be discovered and is also amazed to know that Uncle Lan is human, so naturally he pays no attention to this flaw.
“I’m staying at the bottom of the ocean because Li’er likes the environment here. It’s I who brought her to this place.” Uncle Lan explains smilingly. He seems to have a fairly good impression of Qin Yu.
“Li’er?” Qin Yu is surprised.
“It’s Li’er who took you here, but she already went out. Come. Get a taste of the tea I’ve prepared.” Uncle Lan says enthusiastically then leads Qin Yu into the courtyard at the center of the house. They sit opposite each other.
Uncle Lan pours 2 cups of tea for both of them. Afterwards, he begins to chat with Qin Yu.
Even though the chat is very relaxing, all the while at the bottom of his heart Qin Yu is worried about whether or not his secret has been discovered. What ordinary Xiuzhenists would not be amazed by and curious about the fact that he was able to survive such mortal injuries?
“Uncle Lan.”
An elegant voice rises. Qin Yu turns his head to take a look.
He sees a girl with long, silky black hair that hangs loose. Her eyes give people a feeling of serenity, her skin is glowing like jade, her blue clothes are very casual and a white belt is fastened fairly closely around her waist.
The girl is holding a bamboo basket with some lingzhi mushrooms in it in her left hand.
“Liu Xing, this is Li’er. It’s she who saved and brought you here.” Uncle Lan says with a smile.
Qin Yu looks at the girl named Li’er before him. In the past, because his father was a prince, even the female servants in his family were all beauties. However, the girl in front of him … To tell the truth, she has jade-like glowing skin and an air of elegance, but her face can only be considered above average.
“Miss Li’er, thank you for saving my life.” Qin Yu slightly bows and says.
His mind, however, is on full alert at this moment as he does not know when this Miss Li’er saved and took him here. If most of his injuries had healed by the time she saved him, this will be a good thing because in this case she should know nothing about his fatal injuries.
“There’s no need to thank me, Mister Liu Xing. I brought you here, but even if I hadn’t done that, you would still have been able to recover by yourself.” Miss Li’er looks at Qin Yu with her brilliant, crystalline eyes. There is a rare hint of curiosity in those serene eyes now.
Qin Yu suddenly frowns.
He has found out that the Meteoric Tear is nouris.h.i.+ng his soul with a heat current that is 2 to 3 times as powerful as the heat current it normally sent out in the past. He does not know the reason of this. To be exact, the heat current sent out by Qin Yu’s Meteoric Tear has intensified a lot since the appearance of Miss Li’er.
“Mister Liu Xing, Uncle Lan, please continue with your conversation. I’m going back to my room now.” Miss Li’er slightly motions then goes towards the 3 rooms at the back of the bamboo house and comes into one of them directly. In this house, the 3 back rooms belong to Miss Li’er while Uncle Lan uses the 3 in the front.
Qin Yu now has occupied one of the rooms.
“Uncle Lan, Miss Li’er doesn’t seem to be very powerful. How can you let her stroll around the underwater world of Xiuyaoists alone with no worries?” After drinking up his cup of tea, Qin Yu asks smilingly. Just now, with a sweep of his holy sense, he discovered that this Miss Li’er is unexpectedly only at the early Jindan stage.
It is very dangerous for anyone with just early Jindan-stage power to enter the underwater world of Xiuyaoists, let alone an early Jindan-stage human Xiuxianist.
Uncle Lan closes his eyes to enjoy the flavor of the tea then says with a smile: “Li’er has some special skills. Even though she can’t win against Xiuyaoists, to protect herself in the underwater Xiuyao world is no problem to her at all.”
“Special skills?” Qin Yu secretly remembers this.
The meeting with Miss Li’er moments ago has left him with a faint good impression of her.
Suddenly —
A very serene and fresh piece of zither music rises, sometimes sounding like the tinkling of a stream, sometimes reminiscent the water flowing down from a high mountain. Qin Yu cannot help putting his cup down and closing his eyes to feel the music carefully. On one side, Uncle Lan also does the same.
The music then intensifies, sounding like ocean waves cras.h.i.+ng against the sh.o.r.e unceasingly. After a long time, the music changes again. Now it is evocative of an endless forest and the steady rustling of the pines. In the end, the music makes Qin Yu feel as if he has entered a land of ice and snow, and as if the entire world has been covered in white.
It is only long after the music has stopped that Qin Yu wakes up.
He opens his eyes with nothing but quietude in his heart. Since rashly going into the underwater Xiuyao world, he has been suffering the hards.h.i.+p of being hunted by Sang Mo and has even had a serious battle against a blood-red aquatic python so he has not been able to rest easy.
But now, for the first time since his entrance into the underwater Xiuyao world, Qin Yu has calmed down.
“Miss Li’er’s zither skill is definitely at grandmaster level.” He praises sincerely. He has listened to the music performed by zitherists who were called masters in his father’s mansion before, but he feels that this Miss Li’er is basically 2 levels above them.
With a hint of confidence on his face, Uncle Lan says: “Even in my clan, Li’er’s zither skill is top-cla.s.s. You’re very lucky to be able to hear her perform.”
Qin Yu has just listened to only a piece of music but his mind seems to have been cleansed. During this period of time, all those killings have made him cruel and antagonistic, but this piece of music alone has purified his mind.
“In one respect, Miss Li’er’s zither skill also represents the level of her mind. I feel that her mind seems to have reached a very high level.” Qin Yu says doubtfully.
Through the sounds of the zither alone she was able to create such a majestic, fresh and serene atmosphere, and even made Qin Yu feel as if he was personally experiencing what the music was conveying. How can someone with a low level of mind possibly have achieved such skill? But why a person with such a profound mind is only at the early Jindan stage?
Uncle Lan smiles: “Li’er has no interest in practicing even though she’s exceptionally talented. If she wanted to practice, she’d surpa.s.s me very quickly. But she has no intention of practicing so her power has only reached that level.”
Only now does Qin Yu know for certain that his holy sense does not deceive him. Miss Li’er is indeed only at the early Jindan stage.
“Sis Li’er.”
Following a loud roar, a monkey rushes in from the outside. Qin Yu can only see a golden light flash before a monkey stands in front of him. With a sweep of his holy sense, he is secretly startled to find out that this monkey has reached the middle Yuanying stage.
At this moment, he is finally able to confirm one thing — his holy sense is comparable to that of a middle Yuanying-stage Xiuzhenist. As he is observing the monkey, the monkey also takes a look at him.
“Kaka … you’re the wounded man that sis Li’er brought here, right? I’ll introduce myself first. I’m Hou Fei. Kaka … I’m stronger than you!” After saying so, the monkey bursts out laughing while scratching his head.
Uncle Lan says loudly: “Hairy monkey, show our guest some courtesy.”
Only when the monkey hears that does he suppress his unruliness, saying: “Master, there are no experts in this valley. This man isn’t at a high power level but he can give me a fight. The other demonic beasts in the valley no longer dare to fight me.”
Qin Yu is shocked in his heart.
It turns out this middle Yuanying-stage monkey is actually Uncle Lan’s disciple. When his disciple has reached the middle Yuanying-stage, then how powerful is he? At least Qin Yu cannot find out Uncle Lan’s power level, nor can he make a fairly accurate guess at it.
“You’re always brawling all day long. Be quiet for me.” Uncle Lan says loudly in a solemn voice. The monkey immediately stops saying and stands on one side.
Uncle Lan then says smilingly to Qin Yu: “Liu Xing, this monkey is very noisy and eccentric like that, but he’s a divine beast Fiery-eyed Aquatic Monkey. Perhaps there’s no other one like him in the underwater Xiuyao world.”
Now Qin Yu is greatly shocked inwardly.
This is a divine beast and, moreover, a Fiery-eyed Aquatic Monkey or something. The secret books he has read talked about some divine beasts too, but none of them was a so-called Fiery-eyed Aquatic Monkey. However, he basically does not doubt Uncle Lan’s words.
“Kaka, I’m a one-of-a-kind divine beast, but Master doesn’t let me leave the valley. He said my power is too weak, humph, humph.” Hou Fei on one side says with pretended annoyance.
Qin Yu’s heart, however, skips a beat.
His power is too weak? Not even a middle Yuanying-stage divine beast is allowed to leave the valley? This Uncle Lan really demands too much of his disciple. After all, divine beasts cannot be judged by their power levels. Generally, they are at least 10 times stronger than other experts of the same power levels as theirs.
A middle Yuanying-stage divine beast can compare with a normal Dongxu-stage Xiuyaoist.
Qin Yu and Uncle Lan talk to each other in the courtyard of this bamboo house for a long time. Somehow this Uncle Lan seems very interested in him. Instead of chatting to Hou Fei, an expert and also his own disciple, he chats to Qin Yu for more than a half day.
Hou Fei is forced to call Qin Yu ‘big brother’, just like how he was forced to call Miss Li’er ‘big sister’ in the past.
Now Qin Yu is in his room. Earlier, he requested Uncle Lan not to let anyone come into his room so that he would be able to practice. Without saying a word, Uncle Lan set up a restrictive spell that surrounded the room completely. However, it did not affect Qin Yu’s entering and leaving the room at all.
“I’m very weak when compared to Hou Fei, not to mention when compared to Uncle Lan.” Having become aware of the gap between them, he decides to refine the blood-red aquatic python’s yuanying.
His holy sense goes into his spatial ring. There is a huge carca.s.s of a blood-red aquatic python in the immense s.p.a.ce of the ring. He gives it a thought and a vague ma.s.s of a purple light appears in the palm of his hand.
There is a yuanying in the middle of the purple light. Because its owner’s soul has disappeared, now this yuanying is like an energy crystal.
Qin Yu sits down with legs crossed. The yuanying is floating in front of him. His indistinct stellar energy rushes forth and forms a maelstrom-like nebula around his body. At the same time, a stream of his Stellar Flame enfolds the yuanying and begins to gradually melt it and get rid of the impurities. The energy of the yuanying then starts to move according to the rotation of the maelstrom of stellar energy …
NOTE:
Li’er’s name is p.r.o.nounced similarly to Lee-er, and not Liar.
End of b5c15.