Seeking Truth with a Sword

Chapter 440 - 391 Price Tag

"HEH, HEH..."

Chai Chai, who had been sleeping on the table, didn’t know what she dreamt about, but the corners of her mouth lifted uncontrollably, giggling foolishly.

"Wake up."

Li Ang gently patted her shoulder. Chai Chai muzzily opened her eyes, yawned, and scratched her head. "Is the wedding over?"

"Yeah, it’s over. Let’s go home."

Li Ang helped her out of the chair, nodded to their friends, and then took Chai Chai by carriage back to the Golden City Mansion.

"Song Dalang and Sister You finally achieved a perfect union; it really wasn’t easy."

Chai Chai pushed open the courtyard door and remarked sentimentally. "It’s good that they’re married now; no need to worry about all those gossips and rumors anymore."

Li Ang took out a talisman and lit the stove to heat water for washing. He casually asked, "What gossips and rumors?"

"About Sister You’s background."

Chai Chai pouted and said, "In Chang’an City, there are numerous scholars and wealthy men who marry Qing officials as concubines, but their primary wives are still properly courted and brought in as ladies from prominent families through formal weddings. There had always been matchmakers persistently visiting Song Dalang’s house, insisting on arranging a marriage for him."

Chai Chai droned on, yawning from time to time.

In Yu Country, it wasn’t uncommon for scholars and rich men to take Qing officials as concubines, but those with aspirations for officialdom typically had primary wives from noble or scholarly families.

Song Shaoyuan, as an Academic Palace Disciple with boundless prospects, repeatedly refused political marriages, insisting on marrying You Xiao. His moral integrity was much higher than those so-called "national pillars" from the Imperial College.

"What a beautiful love story. It’s a pity the Lanling Newspaper doesn’t have the contact details of that Jin Jiang writer; otherwise, I could have contacted him to write a novel taking Song Dalang and Sister You as prototypes. It might become famous for hundreds of years and be turned into a drama. I’ve even thought of a name, ’This Scholar Isn’t That Cold.’"

PFFT, why don’t you call it Song Shanbo and You Yingtai?

Li Ang suddenly turned pale, his steps sluggish, and he slowly came to a halt.

Standing in the shadows, he murmured, "You go to sleep after you’ve washed up. I’m going to write some more in the study."

"Eh? Okay."

Chai Chai, oblivious to anything amiss, yawned and went off to wash and brush her teeth before sleeping. Li Ang watched her figure vanish at the bedroom doorway, then slowly shuffled his feet and entered the study, sitting down with difficulty.

The study had replaced its oil lamps with talisman lamps. The light was stable and clear, and there was none of the acrid smell of oil lamps.

Mo Si began to stir again, many threads moving along his veins and nerves, gradually permeating organs such as the spleen, liver, lungs, kidneys, and pancreas.

Li Ang could hardly feel any pain, as the Mo Si had invaded different parts of his body, including free nerve endings, nerve fibers, dorsal root ganglia, and the spinal trigeminal nucleus, hijacking the physiological process of pain generation.

"Stop."

Li Ang took out several Wind Talismans from his talisman plate, looking indifferently at his own chest.

The invasion of Mo Si gradually ceased, retreating back into the spine, subdued and still.

Li Ang silently sighed with relief and returned the Wind Talismans to the talisman plate.

The current Mo Si still couldn’t contend with the Heaven and Earth Gang Wind. Li Ang’s threat of annihilating Mo Si by sending Wind Talismans powered by Telekinesis directly into the clouds remained effective.

But such balance couldn’t last long.

Even if Mo Si lay dormant in the spine, its powder could still spread to every corner of the body through the bloodstream.

The erosion intensified daily, yet there were still no countermeasures.

To continue suppressing Mo Si, the most likely method is to advance to the Cloud Patrol Realm, Li Ang thought. The problem is, for a Cultivator to ascend from the Rain Listening Realm to the Cloud Patrol Realm, they must achieve what is called ’Body and Mind Perfection’ and integrate their Spirit Vein. The Spirit Vein I can cultivate is composed of Mo Si. If I feed more Fine Gold and Mithril to Mo Si, it will enhance its strength and usurp control of my body before I reach the Cloud Patrol Realm...

To control Mo Si, one must first reach the Cloud Patrol Realm. To reach the Cloud Patrol Realm, Mo Si must be strengthened. Once Mo Si is strengthened, control is lost.

Li Ang rubbed his temples. This was simply a logical loop, one that seemed impossible for him to break on his own. Could it be...

He pulled open the drawer of his desk, and inside it, the Ten Thousand Spirit Book lay quietly.

Should he ask this book for help? The last time on the train when he faced the paper man, he had only asked the Ten Thousand Spirit Book for a way to save He Fanshuang, and it took three years of his lifespan...

After much contemplation, Li Ang still took out the Ten Thousand Spirit Book from the drawer, opened its pages, and softly asked the book, "If I want to know how to control the Mo Si inside my body without losing control and while ensuring my body and mind remain intact, what price must I pay?"

The Ten Thousand Spirit Book paused for a long time before a line of text finally appeared.

"Fifty years of lifespan."

SNAP.

Li Ang closed the book decisively and threw it back into the drawer.

No Cultivator in the world can escape the Heavenly Person Five Decays, and even those with the longest lifespans live up to only a hundred and twenty or thirty years at most.

Considering Li Ang’s own estimated lifespan of over eighty years, a reduction of fifty years left him with not many years to live.

He’d be a fool to agree.

Li Ang tapped his fingers lightly on the desk. But... since the Ten Thousand Spirit Book has set a price, it proves that there is indeed a possibility of achieving this...

He pondered in the study for a long time, until the sky outside gradually brightened and the early dawn sunlight shone through the glass windows.

Dawn had come.

Another sleepless night. Li Ang let out a long sigh, stood up from the chair, and switched off the talisman lamp on the wall.

The Doctors at the Academic Palace had resolved the miniaturization problem of the Spiritual Energy Machine and also reduced the cost. Different models of Spiritual Energy Machines had varying rates of collecting Spiritual Energy.

It was possible to transmit Spiritual Energy over long distances to a designated location through copper wires coated with insect glue (insect glue’s Spiritual Energy conductivity is extremely poor, allowing it to act as an insulator), powering melting furnaces, forging hammers, looms, and other machinery.

In the backyard of Li Ang’s house, there now stood a Spiritual Energy Machine that provided energy for the talisman lamps in every room.

Perhaps in time, more "home appliances" will be developed, and Chang’an City may truly need to build poles everywhere to transmit "electricity." Even transformers and high-voltage towers would be necessary.

The conductivity efficiency of Mo Si for Spiritual Energy far surpasses copper wire, even fine gold wire. I really don’t know what it is...

Li Ang rubbed his tired eyes, preparing to wash his face, brush his teeth, and sleep—he had already asked for two days off from the Academic Palace in advance, so he didn’t have to attend classes today.

Suddenly, as he was walking toward his bedroom, his pace halted and his gaze sharpened instantly.

「Suzhou, the outskirts, the mountains.」

The Su Family ancestral grave hidden in the dense forest welcomed a visitor.