novelraw Chapter 6 – Brother, will I die?
Chapter 6 – Brother, will I die?
[The girl's condition is far more severe than you imagined]
[This is not an ordinary mortal illness, nor is it damage from external forces. It's a kind of internal collapse, with her body gradually approaching its end.]
[You can't understand, nor do you know why.]
[You can only try your utmost to find a cure, but unfortunately, even the miraculous elixirs of cultivators cannot eradicate her illness, merely delay her body's decline.]
[You strive, you attempt, like a bird desperately flapping its wings, flying wildly through a thorn-filled forest, seeking a glimmer of hope.]
[But no matter how hard you try, even if you're covered in wounds, pleading with everyone including your master, you still can't find the true cause of her illness.]
[You can only watch her suffer more each day.]
[You can only watch her grow more haggard each day.]
[You are powerless, you can do nothing.]
[Reality never changes according to one's will. You can't, like the protagonist in a passionate anime, rewrite the tragedy and suffering before you with a baseless shout.]
[In the face of true tragedy, human effort always seems so insignificant, so small that it leads to despair.]
[Every morning greeting, every goodnight farewell, is a signal drawing ever closer to death. You've been running under this pressure for four years, ultimately to no avail.]
[Four years have passed. You are 20, the girl is 14.]
[The once adorable child who followed you everywhere, calling you brother, has grown into a beautiful young lady, but she can only lie in bed all day, like a fragile object full of cracks, ready to shatter at any moment.]
[In some people's eyes, this frail pallor is the ultimate beauty, but in your eyes, it's the most despairing, helpless, and hateful sight.]
[Your seasons seem to have only the harsh winter left, unable to feel joy and warmth anymore.]
[The girl sees all this, her eyes often filled with guilt and remorse.]
[Compared to her own pain, she seems more concerned about your increasingly weary body, frequently apologizing to you.]
***
"Sorry, brother..."
Sen Sword Peak Cave Residence.
Years have passed.
The interior of the cave hasn't changed much, still the same few tables and chairs, and the flowers and plants the girl once transplanted by hand, with a faint fragrance permeating the silent stillness.
The girl lies quietly on the bed.
Her hair is long and black.
Her beautiful eyes are dull.
Her lips are pale.
She has a fragility that seems ready to shatter at a touch.
"It's okay, there's no need for apologies between us," Xu Xi shook his head, placing a pill into the girl's mouth, "This is today's Nine-Leaf Pill, take it and have a good sleep."
The girl nodded obediently and swallowed the pill.
After taking it, the gravely ill girl smiled at Xu Xi, like the morning sun, like a beautiful dream, like a flawless sky, asking for a reward just as she did in childhood.
"Brother, Moli has taken her medicine~~"
With a smile in her eyes, the girl seemed never to have grown up, acting spoiled towards Xu Xi.
At this moment.
Right now.
Xu Moli's frail body and lively voice formed an incredibly stark contrast, giving the observer a deep sense of suffocation.
It made one involuntarily silent, made one involuntarily sorrowful.
"Yes, Moli is a good girl."
Xu Xi forced a smile, suppressing the sting in his nose, taking out the candy he had prepared, which the girl put into her mouth, savoring it as if it were a precious treasure.
Was the candy really that delicious?
Xu Xi recalled.
Every time he gave Moli candy, she would show an expression of utmost happiness.
After eating the candy, the girl did not fall asleep as usual but made a request to Xu Xi, saying she wanted to go outside, and Xu Xi agreed.
Sword flight was naturally out of the question, as the speed would ravage her already fragile body.
So.
Xu Xi supported the girl.
They walked out of the cave, taking a simple stroll around Sen Sword Peak, which was already in autumn.
They walked very slowly, slower than the turning of life's wheel, more detailed than the bits and pieces of daily life.
Strolling on the ground paved with autumn leaves, there was a bit more radiance on the girl's face.
But.
Even such slow walking, even such a short distance, was still a heavy burden for 14-year-old Xu Moli. Her steps suddenly halted, clutching the fabric at her chest tightly, her face unusually pale.
"If you can't walk, don't force yourself."
Just like when she was little.
Xu Xi carried the girl on his back, letting her rest there.
The girl responded softly, "I understand, brother."
Lying on the familiar back, feeling that sense of solidity and stability, the girl's eyes gradually closed, feeling an overwhelming drowsiness.
Before falling asleep, she asked.
"Brother, will Moli die?"
"No, brother will save you."
"Mm, Moli believes in brother, brother won't lie to Moli..."
Xu Moli's voice grew weaker, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She lay on Xu Xi's back, burying her head into his shoulder, trying her utmost to stay awake.
But the blood in her mouth continued to flow, draining the girl's strength bit by bit.
By the time Xu Xi realized something was wrong.
The girl had already fallen into a coma.
***
[You successfully joined the Heavenly Sword Sect, becoming an envied Heavenly Spiritual Root True Inheritor Disciple. Your future is promising, your life is brilliant, you are undoubtedly a prodigy in the Cultivation World.]
[But in contrast, your sister contracted a severe illness, which worsened in her 14th autumn.]
[You had no way to save her, only continuously completing sect tasks and self-studying alchemy, using elixirs that even cultivators found incredibly precious to delay and save your sister from death.]
[In the fifteenth year since crossing over, you are 21, Xu Moli is 15.]
[You successfully broke through to the late Foundation Establishment stage, your strength advancing further, not fearing ordinary Golden Core True Persons. You gathered elixirs for your sister faster.]
[But at the same time, Xu Moli's condition worsened, losing the ability to walk, confined to bed all day.]
[In the sixteenth year since crossing over, you are 22, Xu Moli is 16.]
[Your pressure has reached its limit, you seem to be on the verge of going mad, searching everywhere for a way to save your sister.]
[Finally, before your sister's life reached its end, you found a description related to her illness in an ancient book from overseas.]
[Heavenly Calamity]
[The ancient book records that having a Spiritual Root is necessary for cultivation, a well-known fact in the Cultivation World. But among the countless mortals, there are always one or two special ones who can absorb spiritual energy without a Spiritual Root.]
[But Spiritual Roots are the foundation of cultivation. Without them to aid cultivation, a mortal's body, after absorbing a large amount of spiritual energy, is instead harmed.]
[Therefore, this situation is called Heavenly Calamity, meaning a disaster sent by heaven.]
[Your sister Xu Moli is precisely in this situation.]
[The abundant spiritual energy in the Heavenly Sword Sect caused her Heavenly Calamity to arrive early. Upon learning this, you were stunned for a long time.]
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