Chapter 25 - 19: He Actually Touched Me?
Jiang Mu walked over to the sandy training ground in the courtyard and summoned the Demon Slot from his sea of consciousness.
Thanks to the contributions of the lesser demons from before and Huang Silang, the demon blood inside the Demon Slot was now more than half full, glowing with a hazy red light—enough for Jiang Mu to expend for a good while.
Beside the Demon Slot, the Demon Shadow of Huang Silang stood quietly.
As vacant as a puppet.
’Butcher Zhang’s Demon Shadow can help me temper my physique and increase my physical strength. So what wondrous use does this Demon Shadow of Huang Silang have?’
With a hint of curiosity, Jiang Mu reached out to touch it.
However, his fingertip passed right through it, meeting no resistance.
’Hm? No reaction?’
He frowned and tried a few more times, but there was still no response.
’It seems I haven’t found the right way to use it... Oh well. I’ll have plenty of time to figure it out later.’
Jiang Mu stopped dwelling on it. Instead, he infused Demonic Qi into the point of light beside the Demon Slot and summoned his own Demon Shadow.
He input a command.
The Demon Shadow then began to practice the Heaven-Breaking Eight Skills on its own.
Afterward, Jiang Mu took out the bone token he had found on Huang Silang.
’Zhang Daxie said this thing is a breath-concealing Magical Treasure, but it’s covered in fiendish aura. Since I can absorb and convert Demonic Qi, maybe I can use it to cleanse this item as well.’
With a thought, wisps of pure Demonic Qi coiled around the bone token from his fingertips.
HISSS—
The fiendish aura on the bone token was rapidly washed away and purified by the Demonic Qi.
Immediately after, the once-dim patterns on it lit up one by one, emitting a faint, subtle glow.
Jiang Mu could clearly feel that the quality of the bone token had risen a level under the tempering of the Demonic Qi.
It now faintly resonated with his own aura.
’So Demonic Qi really can cleanse Magical Treasures...’
Jiang Mu was thrilled.
A short while later, Yuan Ahqing, having finished the laundry, timidly walked over. "Master, I... I don’t know anything about cultivation. I’m afraid I’m too stupid and won’t be able to do it well."
Jiang Mu put away the bone token and comforted her gently:
"Don’t be afraid. Cultivation isn’t as scary as it sounds. I’m teaching you so that you can protect yourself, and also protect your Sister Xiang. And who knows? If you practice well, you might even be able to protect me one day."
The young girl, who had been filled with anxiety, suddenly found her eyes shining at his last sentence. She nodded vigorously.
"Master, I’ll definitely practice hard!"
"Good. I’ll start by teaching you the most basic Body Forging Method."
Seeing her fighting spirit rekindled, Jiang Mu began by teaching her the most fundamental Pile Skill from the Body Casting Skill.
Under the eaves of a nearby corridor, Bai Xiang leaned against a pillar, watching quietly.
Seeing Jiang Mu have the frail young girl ram into a wooden post again and again, she furrowed her slender brows and muttered under her breath:
"That’s no way to teach a girl..."
...
Yuan Ahqing’s aptitude, as it turned out, was not bad.
After Jiang Mu explained and demonstrated it in detail a few times, she had mostly memorized the posture, footwork, and breathing rhythm of the Pile Skill.
And, just as Jiang Mu expected, the girl trained with a desperate fervor.
Her frail little body seemed to not know the meaning of pain.
She slammed into the hard wooden post again and again. When she fell, she got back up. When her skin broke, she gritted her teeth and endured it, not making a single sound.
The consequence of this was that,
by evening, Bai Xiang had wrapped the young girl in so much gauze she looked like a little mummy.
Watching Yuan Ahqing cry, her face full of guilt as she mumbled about being useless, Jiang Mu found the sight a little comical, but he still patiently offered a few words of comfort.
In the process, he earned several rare glares from Bai Xiang.
After helping Yuan Ahqing drink a calming, pain-relieving medicinal soup and waiting for her to fall into a deep sleep, Jiang Mu returned to the sandy ground to continue his own cultivation.
He didn’t return to his room to sleep until late at night.
...
The night was deep, and all was silent.
Bai Xiang, who was thought to be asleep, quietly rose.
Her small, jade-like feet bare, she went and sat by Yuan Ahqing’s bedside.
By the faint moonlight, she gazed at the stubborn little girl whose brows were still furrowed in pain as she slept. With a soft sigh, she reached out a slender finger and gently caressed the space between the girl’s eyebrows.
’This girl... she reminds me of myself at times.’
’Oh, well. Our meeting was fated. I shall help you, just this once.’
Bai Xiang gave a light wave of her delicate hand.
CREAK—
The window swung open.
Outside,
a bright moon hung high in the night sky, so pristine it seemed untouched by dust, coating the world in a layer of silver frost.
Bai Xiang raised her other hand.
She formed a profound spell seal towards the night sky.
In that instant, a star in the night sky seemed to flare into brilliance, linking itself to the bright moon.
The disc of the moon suddenly seemed to magnify.
It was as if someone had yanked the night sky a foot closer.
The next moment, wisps of moonlight wove into a slender ribbon of light that descended from the heavens. It passed through the window lattice and gently wound around the fingertips of her spell-casting hand.
A hazy white halo appeared around the woman’s body.
Her robes fluttered, though there was no wind.
She looked like the Guanghan Fairy, accidentally strayed into the mortal realm.
Her other hand, which rested on Yuan Ahqing’s cheek, moved slowly downward. The moonlight at her fingertips condensed into silver threads that traveled over the girl’s bruises before seeping into her muscles and bones.
She was reforming Yuan Ahqing’s bones.
She used the power of the moonlight to nurture her body, clear her meridians, and lay a cultivation foundation far beyond that of an ordinary person.
Coincidentally, Yuan Ahqing was at the perfect age for this procedure.
Had she been two years older, it would no longer have been possible to reform her bones.
"Hm?"
Bai Xiang let out a soft cry of surprise, a hint of astonishment flashing through her beautiful eyes.
She looked down, staring at the unconscious girl, and murmured to herself, "This girl has an unawakened Sword Heart within her?"
The woman found it absurd.
That wastrel actually managed to pick up such a treasure?
After a moment’s hesitation, Bai Xiang continued to channel the moonlight, meticulously refining the girl’s physique.
At the same time,
as her Spiritual Power circulated, the disguise on her face began to dissipate like smoke.
Her once-plain features blurred, then peeled away.
In their place, a face of peerless beauty was revealed.
In that moment, it seemed as if all creation lost its color; even the bright moon dimmed in comparison.
The corners of the woman’s lips curled slightly.
A beauty that could topple nations.
...
After reforming Yuan Ahqing’s bones, Bai Xiang’s focus shifted, and she silently floated to the door of Jiang Mu’s room.
She gently pushed the door open.
Inside, the man was sprawled out on his back, snoring softly.
Bai Xiang stood quietly by the bed. With a wave of her delicate hand, a wisp of moonlight sank into the space between Jiang Mu’s eyebrows, causing him to fall into an even deeper sleep.
Then, she lifted the blanket.
Jiang Mu had a habit of sleeping in the nude.
His upper body was now completely bare, his lean, muscular physique on full display in the hazy moonlight.
Bai Xiang’s gaze was placid as she held her hand suspended an inch above his Dantian, slowly sweeping it back and forth.
A ball of gentle moonlight enveloped Jiang Mu’s body.
She was reading his bones.
She wasn’t reforming them, as she had with Yuan Ahqing, but rather probing the man’s foundation.
From the very beginning, she had paid little mind to Jiang Mu’s cultivation.
But after observing him for this short month, she discovered that his cultivation speed was shockingly fast.
That’s why she wanted to check his fundamental aptitude.
However, as her probe deepened, Bai Xiang’s fine brows furrowed ever tighter.
’Strange...’
’His aptitude is completely ordinary, and his meridians are of average width. There are no special characteristics at all... In fact, you could even say his talent is rather poor.’
Bai Xiang was completely baffled.
With an aptitude like this, forget breaking into the First Realm in a month; he might not even reach the threshold in a year.
’Could it be some kind of special constitution?’
Unfortunately, she couldn’t directly touch a man’s body. Otherwise, if she used a Secret Technique to probe deeper, she might have been able to find some clues.
Ever since she was six, she had suffered from a strange affliction.
Whether a man touched her or she touched a man, an invisible barrier would always separate them.
This was also why that fatuous emperor had exhausted the people’s labor and the state’s coffers to construct the Lu Platform, attempting to use a Sacrificial Skill to cure her strange affliction.
Even when she’d moved Jiang Mu to the bathtub after he had collapsed from exhaustion, she had only lifted him from a distance using her Spiritual Power.
Bai Xiang gazed at the sleeping man’s handsome profile, and a sudden thought struck her:
’Maybe... I should try that Forbidden Skill?’
She hesitated for a split second, but ultimately extended a slender finger, slowly reaching for the tip of Jiang Mu’s nose.
She stopped when it was an inch away.
An extremely fine wisp of ethereal blue moonlight condensed on her fingertip, which she then directed into his breath.
Just then, perhaps irritated by the cold from the moonlight, the sleeping Jiang Mu’s brow twitched, his expression turning uncomfortable.
Before Bai Xiang could even begin casting the spell, Jiang Mu suddenly lifted a hand in annoyance.
SLAP!
A crisp sound echoed.
As if swatting a fly, Jiang Mu slapped away the hand hovering over his nose. He then rubbed his now-itchy nose, rolled over onto his side, and went right back to sleep.
Bai Xiang’s hand froze in mid-air.
She looked at the back of her hand, now red from the slap, and a flash of annoyance and disappointment at having her spell interrupted crossed her beautiful eyes.
’It didn’t work...’
She shook her head and turned to leave.
But after a single step, her body froze, as if she had been struck by lightning. She stood rigid on the spot.
Wait!
Coming to her senses, Bai Xiang slowly raised her hand, staring intently at the reddened patch of skin.
Her beautiful eyes widened, her face a mask of utter disbelief.
’He...’
’Just now...’
’He actually touched me!?’