"Alright, let go of me. Holding onto a stick like this is just silly, don't you think?" Liú Sū said. "If Li Qīngjūn sees you, he'll probably think you have some strange hobby, and then your good intentions will go to waste."
Qín Yì sat nearby, resting the wolf-toothed club across his knees. "I felt uncomfortable the moment you left my side. If something happened to you, I wouldn't know how to go on."
Liú Sū fell silent for a moment, letting out a sigh without saying anything.
The dark club felt heavy, and the endless loneliness surrounded it. Its spiritual power was weak, and it could only move a short distance. It didn’t dare to go far, feeling isolated in the quiet courtyard, trapped in a never-ending solitude.
Staying alone in the Immortal Trace Mountain was one thing, but once it tasted the joys of the mortal world again, it never wanted to feel that loneliness again.
When outsiders suddenly intruded, even though it was confident that this formation would hold, a fleeting sense of helplessness would rise within it, wishing that Qín Yì was by its side.
Qín Yì said, "From now on, when we meet with the Lord, I want you to come with me. If not, I won't go."
Liú Sū chuckled lightly. "So, are you going to let me take over your body?"
"Are you going to take over my body?" It wasn’t out of fear that it would be taken over, but rather that it genuinely wanted to take over. This was the biggest issue between them.
Qín Yì understood that at least during their initial encounters, Liú Sū had been harboring thoughts of taking over his body. It wasn’t his paranoia; it was just a fact. Liú Sū never tried to deny it either, as it truly wanted to take over and didn’t bother to make excuses.
Qín Yì’s bloodline was unique and useful to it.
They had been wary of each other until now, and neither knew what kind of relationship they had.
"You..." Qín Yì sighed softly. "Do you really want to kill me?"
Liú Sū remained silent for a long time.
After a while, it slowly changed the subject. "These people are low-level cultivators. They avoided the guards at the palace and sneaked into the backyard. I suspect they are from Donghua's faction, trying to investigate your background while you meet with the Lord. A sudden appearance of a cultivator who can argue with him would surely make Donghua Zǐ wary."
Qín Yì listened quietly to its somewhat rambling diversion and didn’t press the previous question. After hearing it out, he asked, "What sect is the first palace of the Heavenly Pivot?"
Liú Sū was taken aback. "I've never heard of it."
Qín Yì tapped his head. It made sense; Liú Sū had been in the mountains for countless years. With so many sects rising and falling in the world, how could it possibly know everything?
He probably needed to find another way to learn about the current cultivation world.
"Minhe comes from this sect. From the king's tone, it seems this sect is quite famous in this world... like how people react to hearing about the Heavenly Court or the Jade Pool in the Journey to the West stories."
"I had a feeling," Liú Sū said. "So, is she really on Donghua Zǐ's side?"
"At least she is opposite Li Qīnglín. This is the biggest variable. If it's not resolved, all of Li Qīnglín's calculations will be useless."
"When there is an absolute power gap, ordinary wisdom becomes useless," Liú Sū said calmly. "I suggest you prepare to escape at any moment. Making a teleportation talisman should be today’s lesson."
Escape... Qín Yì pressed his lips together and didn’t respond.
"Are you reluctant to leave Li Qīngjūn?" Liú Sū immediately saw through him and laughed. "What did the king say?"
Qín Yì's face turned slightly red, but he honestly replied, "He said he would think it over, but I think he already leans toward it. He isn’t a king who cares much about state affairs. The reason he wants to form an alliance is probably to prevent the Western Wilderness from invading and disturbing his quiet cultivation. Since he is that kind of person, the allure of my pills will likely be more important to him than whether the enemy bothers him."
Liú Sū fell silent again.
Qín Yì asked, "What’s wrong?"
"Nothing... At this moment, you are on the must-kill list of both Donghua Zǐ and Máng Zhàn. It’s better if you don’t go out."
"I don’t go out much anyway."
Liú Sū didn’t reply to that, suddenly softly reciting a verse: "The heavens gain unity for clarity, the earth gains unity for peace, the valley gains unity for fullness, and man gains unity for longevity..."
Qín Yì was taken aback, but he heard Liú Sū continue reciting without stopping, going on for hundreds of words.
He seemed to understand something and quietly memorized it.
"The alchemist is singular, one is singular. Only the Dao has no counterpart, hence it is called alchemy." Liú Sū concluded, "As for the most basic path of inner alchemy, I can't guarantee if there are hidden traps or backdoors. Whether you practice it is up to you."
Qín Yì was silent for a moment before softly saying, "Okay."
No matter whether he practiced inner alchemy or not, it wasn’t something that could be achieved overnight. Right now, the only thing he could quickly learn was the teleportation talisman. Even if he didn’t need it to escape, it would still give him some extra safety.
After a casual lunch, Qín Yì began making talismans.
Yellow paper, red sand. Things he once completely disbelieved in another world, he now not only believed in but was also doing.
He learned to make talismans faster than he learned alchemy. Initially, he had no foundation in pharmacology and relied solely on his intelligence to learn. In his previous life, he specialized in painting and calligraphy. What he did in the old house in Immortal Trace Village was just casual sketches, but in reality, he was skilled in various calligraphy and painting styles. This foundation made drawing talismans feel like a gift from the heavens.
Without any magical power, the most important thing in making talismans is absolute precision in the lines. Even the slightest mistake can lead to a huge error. And talismans themselves are quite complex, inscribing the most profound laws of heaven and earth. How could it be easy to draw them perfectly?
Just this skill alone would take someone who had never been exposed to it months to produce even the simplest talisman.
But just a few days ago, when Qín Yì first learned the floating talisman, he only wasted three sheets before succeeding once.
"Ugh, it even requires flying white characters. How can flying white threads be absolutely precise?" Qín Yì helplessly tossed aside a failed talisman. The patterns Liú Sū had drawn on the ground couldn’t perfectly match the paper and pen in many places, so Qín Yì had to draw while it explained and corrected him. He had already wasted seven or eight sheets on this teleportation talisman without success.
"Be grateful. You have so much talisman paper and red sand to waste. Back in Immortal Trace Village, you wouldn’t have been able to do this. Otherwise, I would have taught you how to make talismans first instead of alchemy. These things are quite expensive, especially this yellow paper and red spirit sand. They carry spiritual energy and are probably quite rare and hard to find." Liú Sū teased, "Keep working hard to become a prince consort. It’ll be even easier later."
"Pfft, if I had that kind of mindset, Li Qīngjūn wouldn’t look at me."
Liú Sū laughed. "Doing nothing and letting things happen, is this the realm of cultivation? So, this is also a way to attract girls? The so-called invisible charm is the deadliest?"
Before it could finish speaking, a voice came from outside. "Qín Yì..."
The voice lacked its usual fiery energy and instead carried a hint of hesitation.
Qín Yì turned around to see Li Qīngjūn standing quietly at the door, looking at him with gentle eyes.
"Uh, is the funeral over?"
"Mm..." Li Qīngjūn slightly lowered her head and softly said, "I heard from the palace that someone said..."
"What?"
"You said, no matter how many beauties there are, as long as it's Qīngjūn." Li Qīngjūn clutched her clothes, asking softly, "Is that true?"
Qín Yì’s brush paused on the talisman paper, and his heart suddenly raced.
The air became very quiet, a gentle breeze swept through the courtyard, flowing into the room, lifting the hem of Li Qīngjūn's dress. The discarded talisman paper on the ground fluttered lightly, like flying flowers.
The bold girl stood there, her head bowed, her cheeks blushing. As Qín Yì looked at her, he suddenly remembered the day they first met when she kicked open the courtyard door. Compared to now, it felt like a dream.
(End of Chapter)