Hua Qian Gu could finally see again, the joy she felt couldn’t be put into words, even with all the chaos in the savage wilderness and living in the shabby little cabin; in her eyes, everything was bright and colorful.
She held Snorting Beast tightly onto her chest, touched its warm fur, poked at its soft pig-like nose. She always wanted to know how the one that never left her side look like, it was cuter than what she imagined.
Snorting Beast crawled onto her shoulder, licked her face, and licked her eye lids. Hua Qian Gu felt the coldness on her eyes and remembered Tang Bao. Although Dong Fang was by its side and she didn’t need to worry, she still missed Tang Bao. She missed it sleeping in her ear, rolling on her palms, acting like a spoiled child while holding her nose… it had never left her side for this long before and had always kept her company…
“How old are you?” Zhu Ran asked, according to her cultivation before she couldn't be more than 12-13 years old, must've stopped her growth when she got her immortal body.
—Almost 20 years old.
She wrote uncertainly, suddenly became absentminded, she had actually been by his side for so many years already.
Zhu Ran suddenly grabbed her hand and looked at it carefully. He didn’t lose his immortal body, but since he was trapped in the savage wilderness, he lost his power, so not getting older or dying was natural. But she had returned to her mortal self, why hadn’t she grown? It's already been a few months since she’s been here, why is it that even her hair and nail hasn’t grown?
Hua Qian Gu felt uncomfortable and retracted her hand.
—There were rumors that after you were kicked out of the sect your whereabouts were unknown. But you were in the savage wilderness all along.
Zhu Ran made a ghastly laugh: “That’s natural; Mo Yan couldn’t bare to kill me, but wouldn't allow me to live in the six realms."
Hua Qian Gu no longer had any interest in what happened to him and Mo Yan. Since they can never leave, whatever happened outside will no longer have any connections with them. But she misses Qing Shui, Dong Fang and Sha Qian Mo, and even more worried about Tang Bao and Xiao Yue…
—I still want to thank senior brother; if it wasn’t for you I would have long been dead.
Zhu Ran smiled coldly and said,” First of all, I told you not to call me your senior brother, just call me Zhu Ran. Secondly, I didn’t save you, your power to live was so strong that nothing can kill you, and Snorting Beast was always there to protect you.”
—But I still want to thank you for taking me in.
“Do you know why I took you in?”
Hua Qian Gu shook her head, unsure.
—Because you knew from the start that I was also a Chang Liu disciple…
Zhu Ran cut her off, “What does you being Chang Liu's disciple have anything to do with me? I saved you because I thought you were unusual, maybe you’ll be useful in the future. Remember, I only want to use you, you don’t need to be grateful, if you think you owe me anything, return the favor in the future.”
Hua Qian Gu vaguely understood him, didn’t know he was going to be so blunt, can't help but be slightly taken back. From the first time she laid eyes on him, she knew he was not an upright person.
—You want to leave?
"humph, I cannot be trapped here forever, I have to get my revenge. You’ve been here for so long, suffered so much, you don’t want to leave?"
—My Teacher sent me here, he must have his reasons, I'm already so apologetic towards him, I don’t want to go against his orders.
If Teacher really didn’t want to see her, then she will forever stay here. She lowered her head and ignored the ache in her heart.
Zhu Ran saw through her and coldly laughed:"Well this is interesting; you actually fell in love with Bai Zi Hua."
Hua Qian Gu’s body shook, she clenched her fists, and lowered her head even more. Her face was covered with scars, she was afraid that anyone who saw her face would be able to tell. When Teacher saw her react to the Jue Qing water, he must've been disgusted by the feelings she had for him. That was why he angrily sent her to the savage wilderness and never want to see her again. Why does she want to go back to be an eyesore?
"No wonder Bai Zhi Hua was this angry. To be honest, you sure are something, all those years I spent at Chang Liu, don’t even talk about anger, I’ve never seen any emotions on his face. Tsk tsk, that's too bad, I’ve missed a good show. Even if this is his order, you don’t have anyone you want to go back to see?"
Of course there is, Tang Bao, Dong Fang, Lou Shi Yi and Xuan Yuan Lang, they’re all outside. Do they know that she has been sent to the savage wilderness? Would they be worried sick? Asking everywhere about her whereabouts? Will teacher tell them he had sent her to the savage wilderness? Or is it to say that her existence, like Zhu Ran, from now on would be written off?
When she thought about Xiao Yue and Tang Bao, her heart ached. Even without Teacher, she had a lot of people that love her. She couldn’t selfishly leave them, she promised she would protect Xiao Yue, how can she not do anything or care that he would get punished when he didn’t even do anything wrong?
She knew she didn't want to stay here forever, she wanted to leave, wanted to see Xiao Yue, Tang Bao, Dong Fang and them, and she really wanted to see Teacher, even if he was disgusted with her.
Since she didn’t die, she will see them one day…
Zhu Ran saw her eyes light up, he slightly nodded and smiled.
"Don’t think so much, what you need to concentrate on is getting well."
Hua Qian Gu nodded, looked at a distance, holding tightly onto her Gong Ling. Zhu Ran grew vegetables around the surrounding of the cabin, he was most often busy with that. Sometimes, he went out for days without returning and didn't say where he went.
Occasionally, she would hear demons and beasts hissing in the forest. Hua Qian Gu gradually was able to walk, but she didn't dare to go far.
She was recovering faster and faster, but the scars from the sword wouldn’t fade.
The longer she stayed with Zhu Ran, the more she realized that this person was not that simple, even though he and Lou Shi Yi had the same teacher, but it was obvious that his cultivation was a lot higher. Not only was he proficient in the arts of invisibility, changes of the eight – trigram, each sect's swordsmanship, their strengths and weaknesses were within his palm. Poetry, painting, medicine and the arts of war, not a thing he didn't know. Even the forbidden techniques she stole and learned from Chang Liu, he already mastered them. Being exiled to the savage wilderness for decades, he never slacked a day, his swordsmanship was perfection.
She couldn't imagine being alone in the forest for so many years, having no hope of being able to leave, no one to talk to. She would have given up all hope, turned mad or suicide.
But Zhu Ran, he was so calm while waiting for an opportunity, soundless and motionless like a ghost, his patience terrified people.
Half a year has passed, Hua Qian Gu's body had completely recovered. When Zhu Ran wasn't around, she would practice her swordsmanship and occasionally pull weeds out from the ground so she could plant flowers around the cabin.
Snorting Beast caused mischief everywhere, moving around restlessly. If it wasn't knocking over the bucket, then it was trampling seedlings that she newly planted. It even went and ate her wooden shovel. Hua Qian Gu ran after it, caught its legs, shook it, and finally got the shovel out of its mouth. She held onto its nose and punished it. Snorting Beast finally behaved, using its hind legs to fill in the holes on the ground, and urinated everywhere to help her fertilize her plants.
She never thought the growth of the plants would grow at such rate. When Hua Qian Gu was weeding, a wild rose bud cut her.
A drop of fresh blood dripped from her hand, Hua Qian Gu's instinct was to catch it but she missed, and it fell on the ground. Almost immediately, the roses started to twitch in pain, letting out a miserable squeaking sound. Hua Qian Gu got goose bumps all over from the sound.
Hua Qian Gu looked at the cut on her hand, because the cut was small, she was able to see the speed of the cut heal, it only left a light scar.
But she had never seen a wound heal without medication before. She thought that even though she suffered through the Xiao Hun nails, stabbed so many time by the Duan Nian sword, suffered from the water of Three Lives pool, and being exiled to the savage wilderness with a mortal body, endured so much and still hadn’t die was because of Snorting Beast and Zhu Ran.
Now that she carefully thought about it, this didn't seem like just luck. Her body was no longer immortal, why hadn't she gotten older? It was as if she had become a monster.
Snorting Beast lingered by her side, thought that she was bothered by the cut from the flower she had tended to, it put on a face like it was going to avenge her and then jumped, stomped and rolled over the flowers. snort snort snort, watch me crush them all.
Hua Qian Gu snapped back to reality and found the ground completely empty. Snorting Beast lying on the side, burped, its little legs patting its bulging belly. It ate all the stems, leaves, roots, and didn’t even leave a blade of grass.
Hua Qian Gu looked at the empty, gnawed yard, chased Snorting Beast all around the cabin, want nothing but kick it like a ball.
Zhu Ran slowly came out from behind a tree, looked at Hua Qian Gu, and slowly squinted his eyes.
The night had arrived, Hua Qian Gu held Snorting Beast and slept soundlessly. She suddenly felt something small moving under the quilt.
—Don't play with the quilt!
She pressed firmly on where the movement was from, felt like something wasn’t right, opened her eyes and saw Zhu Ran by her bedside looking at her.
What does he want?
Snorting Beast wiggled around and stuck its head out from the quilt, Zhu Ran quickly used his hand to poke between its eyebrows, Snorting Beast's head crooked to the side, and it continued to sleep.
Hua Qian Gu shook Snorting Beast, puzzled while watching Zhu Ran.
“Take off your clothes.” In the dark cabin, Zhu Ran's eyes were bright like ambers, like a tiger staring at its prey. The expression in his eyes were just like Mo Yan, but even more heartless.
Hua Qian Gu used both hands to hug her chest, and remembered the humiliation she suffered. Even though her body had not grown, she was not young anymore, how can she not feel embarrassed being naked in front of another person…
“Take off your clothes.” Zhu Ran repeated impatiently, looking at the cautious expression in her eyes, it was like he was going to do something inappropriate to her.
Despite her kicking, he quickly got hold of her and tied her to the bed, stripped the robe she had changed to her size. While his actions were despicable, yet he attentively pulled the corners of the quilt to cover her private parts.
Then from the back of her ear to her neck, from her toes to her ankles, from her front to her back, he searched. Hua Qian Gu could not scream, she could only make sounds of protest.
Her body was covered with scars that it was frightening, he actually felt a slight sting in his eyes. He furrowed his brow with disdain and was disgusted at his moment of soft-heartedness.
He searched carefully for a long time, finally, just as he thought, it was hidden at a hard to find place, under her right armpit, the small marking of a seal, a micro size, blood red flirtatious complex pattern. At first glance, one would have thought it was a cinnabar mole.
The crease between Zhu Ran’s eyebrows deepened, he knew something was weird about her body, but never would have thought Bai Zhi Hua actually used such a high level seal on her. This kind of marking he had only seen once in an ancient book. Once the seal was placed, their lives will be joined, even if it was Bai Zhi Hua, he will surely be severely injured.
He actually put this kind of seal on her body? No wonder she didn't die even though she was extremely injured.
What is the situation between her and Bai Zhi Hua? If he saw her as calamitous, why not directly kill her, why would he rather harm himself to carry out this sort of seal? If he wanted to protect her, why punish her this harshly, and then send her to the savage wilderness? Or did he already know she can’t die and deliberately put on a show for others to see?
Zhu Ran clenched his fists, there was a slight anger in his heart. Bai Zhi Hua…why didn’t he guess him from the start? What exactly happened outside all the years he had spent here?
But the only thing he was certain of is that if he wanted to escape this place, Hua Qian Gu was his heaven sent chance.
“Get up!” Zhu Ran untied the rope, threw her clothes on her.
Hua Qian Gu lifted her right arm to see what Zhu Ran search for half a day to find, but her neck was too short, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t see. She didn’t even get the chance to tidy her clothes before Zhu Ran bluntly dragged her out the door.
What is he trying to do? If he wants her to leave then at least let her get Snorting Beast first.
Hua Qian Gu had greatly healed from her injury, but still moved clumsily, and couldn’t catch up with his steps as he pulled her by her collar.
The forest's darkness cannot be compared, from a distance there was a strange fearsome bird beast screaming from time to time, Zhu Ran's right hand dragged her on, and his left hand held a dagger. Every time a human eating flower showed up, he harshly cut it down, the nectar juice from the plant was like blood, splattering all over Hua Qian Gu's face.
They traveled for roughly an hour, long past Hua Qian Gu's regular range. They had gone far away from the cabin, thick forest surrounded them, a variety of monsters pry on her in dark places of the forest. They didn't dare to come close because of the dagger Zhu Ran was holding but more of them followed. Hua Qian Gu can faintly hear wild beast/demon sounds, she uneasily looked around and grabbed onto Zhu Ran's robe without knowing.
Zhu Ran didn't care too much, quickly running straight forward, suddenly Hua Qian Gu stopped running, no matter how he dragged her she wouldn’t budge, he looked back, saw that her legs were wrapped up by vines. He turned around and cut off the vines, and they continued to move forward.
Where is he taking her?
She didn't know how long they’ve gone for, Zhu Ran finally stopped, wind whistling in Hua Qain Gu's ear, it was so cold she was shivering.
In front of them was a cliff, the bottom was dark, can't tell how deep it was.
Why did he come here? Hua Qian Gu look at him puzzled, waiting for him to explain. Never would she have thought that Zhu Ran would reach his hand out and pushed her off the cliff.
Hua Qian Gu's reflex was to catch hold of his clothes but she missed it, only caught hold on to the stone sticking out the edge of the cliff.
Zhu Ran took two steps forward, bent over, smiled while looking at her, the smile made her bones shiver.
Then he mercilessly stepped on her hand, Hua Qian Gu brows furrowed in pain, half hanging in midair, feeling like her body was about to break into pieces, she couldn’t hold on any longer, slowly released her hand, and fell off the cliff.