Chapter 55 53. Moon, Clouds, and Water
After drinking the Blood Tea and stepping out of Xu Yuan's room, Liu Ruoxue felt momentarily bewildered. She then pushed aside her previous decision with a very casual excuse and went back to continue her cultivation.
Meanwhile, Xu Yuan went back to the Sword Field to continue his cultivation as well.
...
The following day, at the Sword Sect.
At the southwestern part, Guiyun Pavilion.
Guiyun Pavilion wasn't located atop the Yin and Yang Twin Peaks but on a secluded hill in a corner of the Sword Sect.
The moon was bright, and the stars were sparse; the snow fell and formed a picture, dyeing the world in a blanket of white.
A young swordsman with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes stood there with his hands behind his back, his deep gaze firmly fixed on the distant cold moon and mist.
As the name suggests, Guiyun Pavilion is the place where all the floating clouds in the Sword Sect gather.
The protective barrier of Spiritual Power of the Sword Sect isolated it from the great world, forming its own small world, where even the clouds couldn't penetrate.
In the Sword Sect, there is a position called the Cloud Shepherd, responsible for tending the clouds here.
That night, he had someone send a gift to the Cloud Shepherd on duty. If all went as expected, he and Liu Ruoxue would soon witness a magnificent cloud scene.
That was also why he had chosen this place for their meeting.
Just thinking of Liu Ruoxue made the young man's heart blaze with heat.
Ever since he had met her at the grand competition at the Sword Sect, he had fallen for this goddess-like fairy.
She was aloof and stunningly beautiful,—
In her eyes and posture, he saw what a fairy's unique grace should be.
Thus, he specifically devised a plan and requested his master to link their marriage arrangement with the grand strategy of the Sword Sect.
And now, she had arrived.
Snowflakes fell, and moonlight formed a ribbon.
A fairy in white clothes skimmed across the moon and clouds, gracefully landing on the cliff rocks.
"Fairy Liu."
The young man with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes hurried forward to greet her.
Upon hearing Zhen Dan call this way, the usually calm and reticent Liu Ruoxue's brow immediately tightened.
She thought of Xu Yuan, who always called her like this, but his tone wasn't as serious as the man before her, filled only with jest.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
For some reason, she felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
"Zhen, just call me Sister Liu," she said lightly.
She landed on the rugged cliff, her slender figure bathed in moonlight and snow, exuding an ineffable coldness and captivating charm.
"Sister Liu."
The young man looked at this scene, his eyes filled with fascination.
"It's really hard for you to take time out of your busy schedule to meet with your brother, haha, I hope it didn't disrupt your cultivation?"
The moment he spoke, Zhen Dan immediately regretted it.
Everyone knew that Liu Ruoxue was devoted to her cultivation. By using their master's authority to force her into this meeting, he had already touched a sore spot.
He inadvertently brought up the topic of cultivation.
Indeed, he glanced and saw her eyebrows slightly furrowed.
But the words had been said, and there wasn't much he could do, so he could only offer a dry laugh,
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As for the carefully prepared talking points he had rehearsed over the past days on the way here, they had already been tossed out of his mind.
"It's all right,"
Liu Ruoxue not only looked cold and detached, even her voice conveyed a sense of keeping people thousands of miles away, "Master taught me to integrate cultivation with rest, and cultivating isn't about constantly secluding oneself. Occasional rest is indeed indispensable."
"Indeed."
Zhen Dan muttered to himself, "That was close."
Little did he know, Liu Ruoxue was also feeling a mix of terror and slight relief at this moment.
When Zhen Dan had seen her brow furrowed, and his expression changed, she had thought he noticed the movements under her, but now it seemed it was a false alarm.
This damnable Xu Yuan, was he in such a hurry?
She hadn't even steadied herself yet and he was already urging her to bring up that matter?
Liu Ruoxue slightly clenched her legs together. Despite having cast a Silent Sound Formation beneath her skirt, she still felt inexplicably uneasy.
Although before coming, she had guessed that his way of reminding her would be to use the Life and Death Bead's vibrations to forcefully remind her, she hadn't expected him to be this anxious.
Moreover, if she was not mistaken, he was now definitely using a mysterious and unfathomable artifact, hiding nearby, waiting for an opportunity to act.
This was his idea of help?
Liu Ruoxue felt a rush of irritation.
"The weather today is really nice."
Zhen Dan wanted to slap himself, but the words were already out, and what's done was done. He had no choice but to continue bravely.
He had intended to engage her by discussing some difficult questions about their cultivation, but then he suddenly felt that, under the current circumstances, discussing cultivation would be a waste, wouldn't it?
"Yes, yes it is."
Liu Ruoxue bit back a response in resignation.
Under these circumstances, if she were to bring up the topic as Xu Yuan had instructed, wouldn't her intentions become blatantly obvious?
To make matters worse, the frequency of that thing had begun to increase slightly.
This was his so-called help?
Liu Ruoxue, suppressing the strange sensations emanating from deep within her, took a deep breath and thought resentfully.
He wants to see her embarrass herself, right?
Snowflakes fluttered down.
A few moments later, Liu Ruoxue still hadn't found what she considered the right moment to speak, or perhaps, as time passed, her mind was no longer on the conversation, but rather increasingly on something beneath her.
"Sister Liu, are you feeling uncomfortable?"
After Zhen Dan had been looking at the sky, calming his mind and talking incessantly for a while, when he turned back, he found that Liu Ruoxue was not paying attention to him but was looking down, her hands clenched into fists, as if enduring something.
"No, I, I'm fine."
As Liu Ruoxue was speaking, her expression suddenly turned pale, her delicate body trembled, and cold sweat emerged profusely from her forehead.
Not only that, her usually cold voice also unusually carried a quiver and incoherence, her gaze confused.
It, it had sped up...
"I was just thinking about a problem in my cultivation from a few days ago, no, no harm done, I have... understood it."
Luckily, she was sitting in the shadow of the pavilion and her usual cold demeanor helped, so Zhen Dan didn't notice anything amiss.
"That's good, that's good. I saw you looked a bit unwell and thought I might have said something inappropriate; speaking of which, the clouds today are indeed quite fascinating."
Zhen Dan was slightly puzzled but didn't think much of it.
Liu Ruoxue being absorbed in the Dao, such situations were normal.
The most important part was that he was indulging in joy.
Because the Cloud Shepherd had created what he wanted,
He pointed at the suddenly condensed clouds in the sky.
Liu Ruoxue was about to follow the direction Zhen Dan was pointing when she suddenly let out a very faint grunt, her brows tightly furrowed, her hands gripping her skirt tightly, her teeth lightly chattering, forcing out a strained smile, "Is, is that so?"
"Yes, look, the shape of that cloud resembles the character for 'pill,' and the other cloud looks like the character for 'snow.'"
Zhen Dan did not look behind at the girl he admired, fearing that he wouldn't be able to restrain himself from acting embarrassingly if he saw her condition.
But his lips curled in a confident smile.
With such a romantic topic, how could she not be moved?