novelraw Chapter 61 : Manipulating Her for a While
Chapter 61 : Manipulating Her for a While
Chapter 61: Manipulating Her for a While
“Benefactor Fang! You absolutely must not!”
Zhang Su’s voice turned urgent.
She even took the initiative to lift the coffin lid. That gentle, soft-featured face looked anxious and flustered, and her bloodless pale hand grabbed Fang Chang’s sleeve.
She had risen too hastily.
Her monk robes were loose and spacious, yet they could not conceal the outline traced by that sudden movement.
The front of the robe wrapped in coarse gray cloth was so full it nearly stretched the fabric taut, and at this moment it rose and fell heavily once.
The cloth buttons strained tight, revealing astonishing curves and softness.
Bearing a sensual fullness that even death could not erase, it pressed heavily against Fang Chang’s arm.
“If one delights in killing, one shall fall into hell, become a hungry ghost, or be reborn as a beast. The karmic retribution for killing is already horrific enough, let alone inciting harm against one’s own kin! This is one of the Five Grave Sins. After death, one shall fall into the Avīci Hell and suffer immeasurable torment!”
Fang Chang smiled.
He did not care in the slightest about the cruel tortures of the underworld or reincarnation after death.
“Don’t forget, Master Zhang. I walk the Corpse Refinement Path. If what you said is real, then after I die I’ll probably have to experience every punishment at least once anyway. Mere incitement hardly matters anymore. Too many debts don’t weigh a person down.”
As he spoke,
he pulled his arm free from where it had been heavily pressed.
Zhang Su, meanwhile, was startled by the sensation against her chest. Only then did she realize she had become overly agitated.
A faint blush drifted across her face. She straightened her posture, pressed her palms together, and softly recited several lines of “Amitabha.”
“This poor nun has behaved improperly.”
She seemed to have calmed down, and also to have figured something out.
Her voice returned to that gentle older-sister-like tone as she patiently tried to guide him.
“Could there perhaps be some hidden circumstances behind this matter? This poor nun believes Benefactor Fang would not commit such cruel acts without reason.”
Fang Chang let out a soft laugh.
The night wind blew in through the broken corner of the window.
Cold and chilling.
During the early and middle stages of 《Fallen Immortal》, before her drastic transformation, Cui Wenxi had been known among players as the little sun, the senior sister.
Even Fang Chang, who specialized in the rogue cultivator playstyle and never joined a sect,
had encountered her quite a few times during various random event dungeons.
And so long as one spoke with her,
regardless of whether the player was a demonic cultivator or an orthodox cultivator, Cui Wenxi would always say some encouraging words and grant a small buff called 【Warm Sun】 that increased maximum vitality.
Her impatient yet cheerful personality also gave her a certain comedic charm throughout the story.
But just as Fang Chang had said from the very beginning,
in 《Fallen Immortal》, nearly every character had their own story.
And the tragic nature of Cui Wenxi’s character
could already be seen from the fact that she would rather cripple her own cultivation than make a choice.
Even without Fang Chang’s interference,
such incidents would not have been the first, nor would they have been the last.
In the end, it would even cost her life.
Fang Chang had no ill feelings toward her.
In fact, if the various NPCs had affection meters above their heads, Cui Wenxi’s favorability toward him would probably rank somewhere in the upper-middle range.
Of course, mixed within that was also disappointment born from frustration.
There was nothing he could do about it in the game.
But now that this was reality, Fang Chang was determined to properly manipulate their senior sister for a while no matter what.
...
...
“It worked.”
Cui Wenxi sat cross-legged atop the bed. Excitement and delight surfaced upon her bruised cheeks.
《Five Turbid Nurturing Lock》 possessed two prerequisites.
The first was that the Crimson Palace must not be completely shattered.
At the very least, its basic framework had to remain intact. Even if riddled with cracks, so long as it could barely retain the turbid aura, there remained hope for restoration.
The second was that the cultivator must already have successfully guided the five turbid auras of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth respectively into the lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and spleen, while also being capable of preliminarily controlling them from leaking outward.
The first prerequisite posed no issue.
Back then, in her desperation, Cui Wenxi had only wanted to disperse her cultivation and had not completely destroyed the position of her Crimson Palace.
As for the second prerequisite,
Cui Wenxi’s cultivation aptitude had always been exceptional.
Furthermore, she had once advanced smoothly all the way to the Fourth Realm without obstacles, so her comprehension in this regard was naturally not lacking.
By drawing parallels from one method to another, this Five Turbid Path, already seventy to eighty percent similar to the Grand Void Path, naturally posed little difficulty for her.
Within these short two hours,
she had successfully drawn in the Five Turbid Aura and separated them into the five organs.
“With this, I can begin drawing the Earth-Filth Aura within the spleen upward and slowly infuse it into the Crimson Palace…”
Earth governed heaviness and support. The turbid earth aura resembled sticky clay.
It could seep into every crack within the Crimson Palace and mend the damaged areas.
Cui Wenxi sensed the turbid aura and Spiritual Essence within her body and knew she could not rush matters now.
She needed to allow her physical body to gradually readapt to Spiritual Essence and turbid aura.
Yet at this moment, there was no way she could fall asleep.
The night wind drifted past.
Cui Wenxi simply stared blankly at the dust settled upon the window lattice.
It was not as though she had never attempted to cultivate anew.
But every time she felt Spiritual Essence flowing from her ruined dantian like water leaking from a broken bamboo basket, that sense of futility became unbearable.
Not much time had passed since her cultivation had been crippled.
She had thought about her mother’s cold-heartedness, the rumors within the sect, and the inexplicable hatred from her younger sister Cui Shuyu.
Did she hate them?
Not really.
She had never wanted to slaughter the Cui Family to the last person. They were, after all, still her family.
If she could return to the Dao Realm,
she would still remain on Canglan Mountain,
and she would also remain within the Cui Family.
But she would try to change her mother’s terrible way of thinking.
Afterward, she would no longer hold herself back over every little concern. She would become more cheerful, more carefree, more unrestrained.
She would live more freely and joyfully.
Cui Wenxi’s gaze settled upon the box of medicinal ointment sitting on the windowsill.
——Like him?
Sensing the obvious activity of Corpse Yin Aura beyond the door, clearly indicating corpse nurturing,
Cui Wenxi could not help but laugh. The smile first overflowed from her bright sparkling eyes, dispersing the gloom like warm sunlight.
She shook her head.
No, that would be far too lawless.
I definitely don’t want to be like him, using crooked demonic arts within Canglan Mountain.
...
...
Seven days later.
At this point, there were still three days remaining before the Direct Disciple Trial began.
.
The rain had only just stopped in the afternoon.
The ground paved with blue bricks remained damp, reflecting the gray light of the sky.
The air carried a crisp scent of grass stalks.
Fang Chang walked leisurely.
His blue-gray robes had been washed until faded pale. The sleeves were rolled up twice, revealing slender wrists.
“What have you been doing these past few days, leaving early and returning late?”
Although Zhao Yuntong was speaking through voice transmission from within the Black Tortoise Square Cauldron, she still instinctively lowered her voice.
Seeing Fang Chang wandering around Canglan Mountain every day like an old man taking slow strolls, she had finally become convinced their identities were not under suspicion and dared to speak more openly.
Zhao Yuntong was not afraid of Canglan Mountain.
If she had infiltrated the place alone, she might have acted even more arrogantly than Fang Chang.
But the problem was that she no longer belonged to herself now.
From the perspective of proper object self-cultivation, she deeply feared interfering with Fang Chang’s affairs and causing him to develop negative feelings toward her.
“I’m helping Canglan Mountain improve its mountain-protecting grand formation.”
Fang Chang answered casually.
“You’re that kind-hearted?”
“Master Zhang said it best. Perform Two Good Deeds a Day and accumulate immense virtue. Since I’m naturally kindhearted, what can I do?”
Zhang Su had clearly been eavesdropping and was immediately baited out, hurriedly defending herself.
“This poor nun never said such a thing!”
“Get back inside, lustful nun! I’m talking to him!”
“Ugh... Benefactor Zhao is truly overbearing.”
Every time Zhang Su was called a lustful nun, she became unbearably embarrassed.
Yet because Fang Chang had witnessed her lust-filled illusion within the Nine Heavens Secret Realm, she only dared to weakly protest.
Fang Chang smiled.
Between the two of them, although Zhao Yuntong’s cultivation was slightly lower, Zhang Su clearly could not handle her unpredictable temperament and repeatedly suffered verbal defeats without the ability to retaliate.
Just as he listened to the two bickering,
he suddenly saw crowds gathered around the martial training grounds, bustling with excitement.