Chapter 53
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Combining his experiences in the previous and current lifetime, Li Fenglan has spent thousands of years in Tianmian Palace. From a regular disciple to the future sect leader, he had experienced almost everything.
But…after so many years, Li Fenglan still experienced for the first time what it felt like to use the back door to leave Tianmian Palace.
On the first night he was thrown into the dungeon, Li Fenglan was released. Upon inquiry, he learned that Mu Hantao had made up a random excuse for his release, and Jiang Yichang, as someone in the know, had chosen to turn a blind eye.
Li Fenglan didn’t know how the two immortals felt, but he was certainly a bit nervous after being released from the dungeon.
According to the rules of the sect, Li Fenglan was taken back to Miguang Mountain by the head disciple, Zhuang Zhixia, at midnight.
After sending her off at the cliff, Li Fenglan was about to head to his room when he saw a huge white figure passing through the buildings on Miguang Mountain and appearing in the square.
It was Cheng Huang, with its huge body filling the entire square in front of Miguang Mountain.
“Wuwuwu~” It carefully squeezed onto the square, even tucking its tail neatly.
Cheng Huang settled here and blinked lightly at Li Fenglan. Whether it was an illusion or not, Li Fenglan felt that Cheng Huang was somewhat melancholic at this moment. At least those icy-blue eyes were full of grievances.
“Cheng Huang? It’s so late, why aren’t you resting yet?” Li Fenglan said as he reached out to gently touch it.
The little guy then rubbed his hand and pouted, saying, “Fenglan, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”
After speaking, Cheng Huang suddenly seemed to remember something and looked at Li Fenglan, saying, “Fenglan, are you in pain? Does it hurt?”
Although Cheng Huang had grown larger, its tone of voice was still as sticky as ever.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Li Fenglan smiled and said.
Then, after listening to Cheng Huang’s sobbing for a long time, it finally stretched out its white paw and patted its head hard, saying, “If only I could become smaller…”
If it could become smaller, it could accompany Li Fenglan tonight.
But before Li Fenglan could be moved, he saw Cheng Huang talking and suddenly, its huge tail swept up from behind.
Li Fenglan felt that Cheng Huang’s tail was a little strange, but he didn’t think too much about it.
Although his cultivation had mostly recovered, the heavily injured Li Fenglan only wanted to sleep well at this time. Li Fenglan comforted Cheng Huang again, telling it to rest well tonight, and then walked towards his room under Cheng Huang’s reluctant gaze.
Cheng Huang carefully turned around and quickly coiled its huge tail behind its back. However, its movements were still a step too slow…
It was only after passing Cheng Huang that Li Fenglan noticed…that there was a small golden thing hidden where Cheng Huang had just put down its tail.
“Goo goo goo!”
It was Duan Wannian. She wanted to fly over to Li Fenglan, but was blocked by Cheng Huang’s big tail. Cheng Huang had intended to coil the little guy up when it turned around, but she managed to escape.
“Goo goo goo goo goo!” Duan Wannian kept calling out, as if accusing Cheng Huang’s behavior just now.
Seeing this, Li Fenglan, as the owner, couldn’t help turning around to take a look at Cheng Huang. In the moonlight, he could clearly see Cheng Huang pouting its mouth.
“Hmph!”
Li Fenglan couldn’t help but think that Cheng Huang was being unfair by acting cute just because it was young.
Although Cheng Huang, now an adult, was much smarter than before, seeing that Li Fenglan looked exhausted now, it didn’t play any tricks. It just pouted and gave a “heng” to Duan Wannian before turning around reluctantly and heading back to the mountain.
Duan Wannian, who just liked to act cute to Li Fenglan, was essentially still the same as before. Seeing that Cheng Huang has left, Duan Wannian immediately said, “Goodbye!” Her voice carried a hint of undisguised boasting.
Li Fenglan: “…”
“Okay, go find Duan Qianli.” Li Fenglan said helplessly.
Although this chubby little golden bird flying in the air was unwilling, after struggling for a while and thinking of what happened before, she finally nodded slightly.
However, before Li Fenglan could catch a breath, he suddenly saw Duan Wannian landing on his window frame.
“Um, this, for you! Gugu!” Duan Wannian finally spoke to Li Fenglan.
And with the light from the little golden bird, Li Fenglan finally saw what was on the window frame.
Only to see a neat pile of fruits and small animal carcasses placed there.
What is this?
Li Fenglan had never seen such a scene before.
“…What is this?” Li Fenglan tried to ask.
As he looked at her like that, Duan Wannian, who was flying in mid-air, seemed a little shy. She wanted to cover her face with her wings, but when she tried to do so, her chubby body almost fell off the windowsill.
“Gu!” Duan Wannian quickly flapped her wings and said, “This is for you, Fenglan. Gu~” before flying away in a flash.
So this was a gift?
For so many years, it was the first time that Li Fenglan had received such a special gift.
Even though Duan Wannian, who had just finished giving the gift, had flown away happily and could not see how he would deal with the pile of strange things for the cultivators. However, Li Fenglan still walked to the window and carefully collected the gift that was given to her, little by little.
After finishing everything, he finally returned to his room.
…
The moon was full that night, and Li Fenglan laid in bed and saw that there wasn’t a single star around the moon.
As he looked at the moon, memories of the events of the past few days flashed through his mind one by one.
Unconsciously, Li Fenglan became sleepy and dozed off.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, a light knocking sound came from outside the door. Instinctively, Li Fenglan felt comforted by the presence of the person outside and mumbled something before falling deeply asleep.
Then, the person who had knocked slowly pushed open the door and walked in.
It was Ling Buyan, Li Fenglan’s master.
In Li Fenglan’s mind, his master had always been elusive, appearing and disappearing without warning. So when he returned to Miguang Mountain earlier and didn’t see Ling Buyan, he didn’t think much of it.
After entering the room, Ling Buyan turned around and closed the door with a gentle motion.
He slowly sat in front of the bed and rolled up Li Fenglan’s sleeve a little.
In the next moment, a cold, white wrist appeared in front of Ling Buyan’s eyes.
Li Fenglan’s external injuries had already been healed by Ling Buyan’s spiritual power when they were in the dungeon. And before leaving the dungeon, Li Fenglan had changed into a new set of clothes.
From the outside, there was no sign that he had just been through a fierce battle.
However, when Ling Buyan lightly touched Li Fenglan’s wrist with his fingers, he felt that a lot of qi had mixed into Li Fenglan’s meridians. This qi was particularly aggressive and was now colliding with Li Fenglan’s own spiritual energy within his meridians.
During the day, it was not so bad, but now that the qi had yet to dissipate and Li Fenglan’s spiritual power had begun to reject it, the two forces began to clash with each other, and there were even signs of it intensifying.
Sure enough, although Li Fenglan was sound asleep, his brows were tightly furrowed, and his lips were turning pale.
Ling Buyan slowly removed his hand from Li Fenglan’s wrist and then touched his forehead with the back of his hand. “He has a fever,” Ling Buyan whispered.
The fever caused by the qi could not be suppressed or drained by forceful use of spiritual power. If they wanted to reduce the fever, they could only use the most basic methods.
The next moment, a jade basin appeared on the small table in the room, filled with ice water. There were also a few white handkerchiefs in a small jade plate next to it. Ling Buyan got up and walked to the table, slowly rolling up his sleeves.
His fingers were long and his joints were distinct. Most of the time, Ling Buyan’s hands were hidden under his large black robes. Therefore, these hands, which had not seen the light for a long time, looked exceptionally pale. Paired with their graceful shape, they looked like sculptures carved from white jade.
Ling Buyan hesitated for a moment, as if he was trying to figure out what he should do.
After a few breaths, he slowly picked up the handkerchief and soaked it in the ice water. After a short pause, he took the handkerchief out of the water and then clumsily wrung it out.
In Li Fenglan’s mind, Ling Buyan was almost an omnipotent person.
But now, Ling Buyan was actually doing a small task poorly. After all, this was the first time he had taken care of someone in his long life.
After wringing out the handkerchief, Ling Buyan sat back on the bed. He carefully pushed Li Fenglan’s stray hair away from his forehead, and then placed the item in his hand on Li Fenglan’s forehead with great solemnity.
Feeling the coldness on his skin, Li Fenglan, who had already fallen asleep, finally struggled to open his eyes a little.
“… Master?”
“I’m here.”
“What’s wrong with me, Master…” Li Fenglan’s voice was very soft, so soft that even he could hardly hear it clearly.
Ling Buyan adjusted the handkerchief slightly and said, “You have a fever due to the influence of the Sword Forest Qi. Don’t worry, your master is here. You’ll be fine by tomorrow morning.” Ling Buyan’s voice was very gentle, so gentle that Li Fenglan almost closed his eyes and fell asleep again.
“Mm,” Li Fenglan murmured and nodded slightly. Then, in a somewhat confused state, he suddenly reached out and lightly tugged at Ling Buyan’s sleeve. “Master, can you stay with me?”
Li Fenglan’s voice, spoken in his sickness, was sticky and with a bit of a nasal tone.
Hearing Li Fenglan’s words, Ling Buyan couldn’t help but pause. He instinctively put Li Fenglan’s wrist back into the blanket and said, “Okay.”
This was the first time Ling Buyan had heard Li Fenglan speak to him in this tone.
In fact, even before entering Tianmian Palace, Li Fenglan had been taught by his parents and teachers to be a “gentleman.” Later, when he followed Qiu Wanyou to study in Tianmian Palace, he learned to hide his emotions even more.
Li Fenglan seemed to have never acted so spoiled with anyone before.
Yes, Ling Buyan felt… Li Fenglan was acting spoiled with him.
Unconsciously, Li Fenglan had already completely regarded Ling Buyan as his “own people”, even the only person he could completely trust and rely on. This may not be noticeable in ordinary times, but it is evident in times of illness.
However, Li Fenglan, who had just finished speaking, unfortunately didn’t see Ling Buyan’s face turning red after hearing his words, because he closed his eyes again.
Not only that, Ling Buyan coughed twice to cover up his embarrassment and then used the back of his cold hand to press against his face.
After a while, he stopped and took off the handkerchief from Li Fenglan’s forehead and replaced it with another one.
…
Ling Buyan left Miguang Mountain earlier for a serious matter.
He left Tianmian Palace and went to a nearby valley to collect medicinal herbs that grew at the bottom of the valley. This medicine could ease the influence of the sword forest’s qi and help Li Fenglan recover as soon as possible.
After changing the handkerchief, Ling Buyan immediately took out the medicine, crushed it with spiritual power, and applied it to Li Fenglan’s wrist.
After doing all this, he finally sat up straight and looked at the person lying on the bed in the moonlight.
Ling Buyan perhaps was the person who felt Li Fenglan’s change the most.
During the time before he fell into qi deviation, Li Fenglan grew up as a “perfect cultivator” according to the model of the cultivation world. He was powerful, kind, merciful, and even disciplined.
Li Fenglan always did only “what he should do”, even when he accepted Meng Linzhou as his disciple in the past life. For most cultivators, accepting a disciple is one of the top three important events in their life besides cultivation. Before accepting a disciple, they would always carefully select and evaluate their disciple’s talent, personality, and even compatibility with themselves based on their astrological signs.
However, Li Fenglan was different. After he reached a certain level of cultivation, his sect told him that he should take on a disciple and recommended the one with the best talent among the disciples who entered Tianmian Palace. Li Fenglan didn’t hesitate at all and accepted the disciple chosen by his sect.
Perhaps that’s why Meng Linzhou thought that his master didn’t care enough about him and started causing trouble.
In any case, Li Fenglan in the past was always pushed forward by the currents of life. Even though his talent and birth predetermined that he would walk a different path from everyone else from the beginning, Li Fenglan never found his own direction on the way.
This life, he finally changed.
On that day outside the sword forest, Ling Buyan had been silently observing Li Fenglan’s performance. Ling Buyan saw that Li Fenglan, who used to always be forced to “deal with” things, chose to break through the sword formation and personally told Qiu Wanyou that he was Li Fuyue.
At that moment, Li Fenglan was extremely determined, and Ling Buyan had never seen such a strong life force in a person before. His robe fluttered in the gusts of Qi, like waves crashing against a cliff.
Perhaps Li Fuyue’s identity will be exposed again, and he will once again suffer a fatal injury, but he didn’t care.
Powerful and kind are indeed Li Fenglan’s true nature, but that was only one aspect of him.
Li Fenglan was like a night-blooming cereus, before he was like a thin flower bud, but now this night-blooming cereus has finally bloomed slowly.
At the thought of this, Ling Buyan was about to replace the handkerchief on Li Fenglan’s forehead but paused.
Before that day, the Li Fenglan in his heart always had a bit of childishness and naivety. But after that moment, Ling Buyan realized clearly that the Li Fenglan in his heart had finally become an adult…one who possessed an undeniable brightness and was the only person who could stand by his side.
…This feeling could make his heart tremble at any moment.
After months of getting to know him, he had witnessed Li Fenglan’s growth little by little, and his heart had become increasingly difficult to let go of this person.
Ling Buyan suddenly became confused – he had been immersed in his cultivation for many years and had never thought about what would happen if he allowed his feelings to develop further.
That night, Ling Buyan really did stay in his room like Li Fenglan had asked, and didn’t leave.
As the night wore on, the elixir finally took effect, and the qi in Li Fenglan’s spiritual veins gradually disappeared. At the same time, the temperature on her forehead also slowly decreased.
…..
And in the middle of the night, Li Fenglan was awakened by a light sound.
“Tap, tap, tap”
“Tap, tap, tap”
After sleeping for half a day, he opened his eyes again and felt refreshed. Instinctively, he looked towards the sound coming from the window, but instead of the familiar figure of Duan Wannian, whom he had expected, he saw Ling Buyan.
It was now mid-morning, and the sun had already climbed halfway up the sky. However, the sunlight today was not intense, and it shone through the rice paper window into the room.
The strands of pale golden light fell exactly on Ling Buyan, who was sitting by the window reading a book.
As if realizing that Li Fenglan had woken up, Ling Buyan slowly put down the book in his hand and smiled at him. “Is your headache still bothering you?”
“Huh?” A whole night had passed, and Li Fenglan had fully recovered. Therefore, he did not immediately react to what his master had said.
Only a moment later did Li Fenglan slowly recall what had happened – last night, he had been affected by the qi and had a headache and a fever. He had even grabbed Ling Buyan in a daze and asked him not to leave.
…..Wait a minute, does that mean that his master really didn’t leave and had been here with him all night?
No, that’s not right. Li Fenglan didn’t sleep too soundly at the beginning of last night because of his headache.
Therefore, he remembered that Ling Buyan not only did not leave last night but also helped him apply a cold compress to his forehead! Although Ling Buyan was not like his past-life master, who wore white clothes and held a sword all day long, looking like an immortal, he always had a mysterious and transcendent feeling.
And it was such a person who helped him apply a forehead compress all night yesterday?
Li Fenglan felt like something was off in this world.
He didn’t know that in Ling Buyan’s eyes, his facial expressions changed constantly in just a few moments.
After a moment of reflection, Li Fenglan finally spoke slowly, “No… it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“Well, that’s good.” Ling Buyan stood up and moved the book he was reading from the windowsill to the table, then slowly opened the window in Li Fenglan’s room.
Ling Buyan’s movements were very skilled, as if he had done it a thousand or ten thousand times before.
And sitting on the bed, Li Fenglan had a moment of illusion – as if he and Ling Buyan were a family.
Wait! No random thoughts allowed!
Just as Li Fenglan thought this, he interrupted himself in his mind.
The sound of “dadada” outside the window was very familiar to Li Fenglan. After becoming smaller, Duan Wannian often knocked on his window like this.
Sure enough, as soon as he opened the window, Li Fenglan saw Duan Wannian’s small head.
“Huh?” Seeing that Ling Buyan was the one who opened the window for her, Duan Wannian seemed a bit surprised. But after looking at the person opposite her with her head tilted, she suddenly made a meaningful “huh” sound, then said as if she understood something, “I get it now!”
Li Fenglan: ?
What do you get?
However, before he could ask this question, another dazzling light shone into the room. Golden wings instantly filled the window.
It was Duan Qianli!
He appeared too suddenly, and a sudden burst of light shone, causing Li Fenglan to squint his eyes slightly to avoid being blinded.
In the next moment, Duan Qianli was extremely angry and said, “You, you, you! I didn’t expect to encounter another one like you! Ling Buyan, you’re ignoring common sense!”
…Ignoring common sense.
This phrase sounded somewhat familiar.
Why did Duan Qianli like to use this idiom so much? Could it be that when he learned the language of the human race, he was lazy and only memorized a few idioms?
“I’m so angry! This time when we go to the mortal world to find that…dog emperor, me and Duan Wannian will also go!”
“Gu! Right!” Upon hearing the word “also”, Duan Wannian quickly followed suit with a “gu”. At the same time, she continued to act cute, blinked her golden eyes, and looked towards Li Fenglan.
Ling Buyan had already told Duan Qianli and Duan Wannian about their plan to go to the human world before Li Fenglan returned to Miguang Mountain.
According to Ling Buyan’s plan, the reason why they had to transform into humans and leave Tianmian Palace first was because Duan Qianli and Duan Wannian could not stay in the Qiankun bag for a long time.
If they were let out of the bag, their golden light would definitely cause trouble in the human and demon worlds. But now, things were different because of Duan Wannian’s “betrayal”, everyone knew they could shrink in size.
Previously, due to the dignity of the leader of the demon clan, Duan Qianli did not agree with Ling Buyan’s words.
But now… seeing such a scene, no matter what, Duan Qianli must agree.
Isn’t it just shrinking and losing a bit of face? He must follow!
At this moment, Duan Qianli, who had just made a difficult decision, didn’t know that after hearing his words, Li Fenglan was a little disappointed.
And not long after, Li Fenglan saw that the door of his room was gently pushed open.
The next moment, a small white figure rushed in at the fastest speed and into Li Fenglan’s arms.
It turned out to be Cheng Huang! It actually remembered the way to shrink.
“Wu wu wu wu! Fenglan!”
“Wu wu~ hug!” Cheng Huang rubbed against Li Fenglan’s arms, as if wanting to make up for all the regrets of not being hugged by its owner these days.
After a few breaths, it finally calmed down a bit. Cheng Huang rubbed Li Fenglan’s shoulder and excitedly said, “I finally remembered! Cheng Huang is back! Cheng Huang also wants to go with the owner!”
And seeing this scene, Duan Wan Er, who was just on the windowsill, immediately exclaimed loudly with a “gu” and rushed into the room.
At the same time, Duan Qianli, who was squeezed outside the window, suddenly changed his expression.
Others may not understand, but he understood.
That “gu” just now was not the same as before, it was a special title for a young demon calling their elders.
This poor sister!
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