owlsbooks Chapter 49 Clearing Up One's Thoughts
Chapter 49 Clearing Up One's Thoughts
As autumn deepens, the leaves of the ancient tree in the courtyard have turned varying shades of yellow. A cool breeze blows, and a few leaves twirl and slowly drift down.
Li Qingyi sat quietly on the stone bench, her gaze fixed on the crescent moon high in the sky.
"My master once said that a certain Purple Mansion True Person of the Taoist sect was indeed assassinated by Tingyu Pavilion once."
Ling'er's voice rang out softly, tinged with caution, "As for the specific outcome... we don't know."
She paused, then added:
Very few people knew about this, and it was deliberately suppressed at the time, so it did not spread throughout the world.
Li Qingyi slowly withdrew his gaze from the distance, feeling that there was something strange about it.
"If what Ling'er said is true, and the Daoist sect and Tingyu Pavilion have such a deep-seated blood feud, they should have killed me with a single blow, not just sent me away..."
Li Qingyi gradually calmed down and noticed the illogical parts of it.
"What's wrong?" Ling'er asked softly when she saw that Li Qingyi remained silent for a long time.
Thank you.
"I still prefer your rebellious side."
Seeing that he had no intention of saying more, Ling'er wisely got up, her skirt swaying gently in the autumn wind, and soon disappeared behind the door of the side room.
The courtyard returned to silence, with only the rustling of leaves in the autumn wind.
Li Qingyi sat alone under the tree, her figure appearing particularly lonely in the cold moonlight.
He leaned on the stone table with one hand, while unconsciously playing with the fallen leaves with the other, feeling the veins on his fingertips.
At this moment, several questions were swirling in his mind:
Who exactly is plotting to harm him in the shadows?
Or rather...when did he offend whom?
He pondered deeply. If he had offended the Purple Mansion True Person of the Qingchi Immortal Sect on Qingxin Peak, then…
With his whereabouts exposed, the other party could have simply captured and killed him directly, so why resort to such roundabout methods?
Could it be... Li Qinglian?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when he suppressed it.
If it really was her, how did she manage to transmit the message so accurately into the Daoist sect? Moreover, if she truly possessed such abilities, the Nether Moon Secret Box should have been retrieved long ago.
However, in the last simulation, the box remained on his body until he died.
This proves that it was not Li Qinglian who did it.
Li Qingyi felt an unbearable headache. "One more simulation! Wait, I haven't received my reward yet."
As his thoughts settled, the familiar light screen unfolded once more.
[Reward 1: Qi Refining Level 4 cultivation, which can be used to break through to Qi Refining Level 5 after extraction.]
Reward Two: After extracting the wisdom gained from centuries of experience, one's mind becomes more composed, and one's ability to perceive things and comprehend them is greatly enhanced, making it easier to notice details that were previously overlooked.
Reward 3: The medicinal essence within your body can be extracted and condensed into a medicinal pill, representing the accumulated medicinal essence over hundreds of years.
After taking it, physical strength, vitality, and resistance to toxins will all be enhanced.
Furthermore, any pills taken afterward that fall below the Foundation Establishment stage can be digested instantly without any concern for side effects or toxicity.
Reward Four: Your corpse after death...
This special reward was somewhat unexpected for Li Qingyi.
"The second and third options are both very tempting, but I have a cheat-like upgrade system that actually lowers the requirement for comprehension."
Li Qingyi preferred rewards like first and third place, which could bring substantial improvement, since strength was the foundation of one's standing in the cultivation world.
"But given the current situation, this level of cultivation improvement is unlikely to break the deadlock."
Thinking of this, Li Qingyi's gaze finally fell on reward two.
The biggest problem now is still the lack of intelligence.
Li Qingyi murmured:
"It's easier to notice details I've never noticed before... Was there any information I missed in the last simulation?"
"I choose option two."
The words fell.
An indescribable sense of vicissitude welled up in my heart.
A century of time flowed through the sea of consciousness in the simulation—
The excruciating pain and resentment when his cultivation was destroyed, the brief pleasure of avenging his great enemy, the joy of his limbs gradually healing, and the secret delight of Qin Xiyue running around searching for rare and precious materials for him...
All emotions, along with the emptiness at the end of life, ultimately vanish into nothingness...
A mix of emotions surged within him, and for the first time, his eyes showed the weariness of someone who had experienced the vicissitudes of life. His once clear eyes gradually became cloudy.
After an unknown amount of time—perhaps an incense stick's time, or perhaps longer—Li Qingyi slowly opened her eyes. Her gaze had regained its clarity, yet it held a deeper, more unfathomable serenity than before.
The night was deep.
Li Qingyi closed her eyes, savoring this unique state of mind.
"The refinement of hundreds of years is truly wondrous..."
The previous simulation was like watching a movie you starred in, like observing a fire from across the river; but this time, when you're collecting the reward, you've personally experienced the vicissitudes of the past century, so the feeling is naturally very different.
Suddenly, he remembered a reward from the simulation before last—"The Dao Sect's Attention," which could increase the favorability of the Dao Sect's high-ranking officials.
"Hiss..." Li Qingyi gasped. "This reward... could it be prepared for our current predicament?"
He suddenly realized that the rewards given by the simulator always seemed to correspond to his current or future predicaments.
Li Qingyi couldn't help but continue thinking:
If I had chosen this reward back then, wouldn't I have had a chance to explain myself back in the Dao Sect?
But soon he shook his head. "It's too late for regrets now. Focusing on the present is the right thing to do."
Before starting the next simulation, Li Qingyi decided to organize her thoughts so that she could see things clearly in the simulation.
Listening Rain Pavilion is an assassin organization in the Xuan Kingdom, rife with spies and operating without any moral compass. Once their identities are exposed, they become like rats in the street, hated by everyone.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator with a blood feud with Tingyu Pavilion will come to cripple him in the future.
"Wait a minute..." Li Qingyi suddenly had a thought, "That cultivator, could he be the unlucky guy Ling'er mentioned whose entire family was wiped out?"
Recalling the cultivator's demeanor in the simulation, and combining it with Ling'er's description, he felt that this speculation was more and more reasonable.
"That pharmacy hasn't appeared yet. That means... that person came specifically to cripple my cultivation, and only opened the pharmacy in Xuan Ce City afterward to keep an eye on me. Who's behind this?"
"How hateful!" Li Qingyi couldn't help but curse.
Having sorted through the information, he was now certain:
There is someone lurking in the shadows, playing a game against him.
"Who exactly is it?"
Despite his many doubts, he was no longer as anxious as before.
"The tempering of this mind over the past century is truly profound," Li Qingyi thought to himself, as he could clearly sense the transformation of his own character.
"And Ling'er, what is she hiding? And Xi Yue, what was she implying with that 'This shouldn't be'?"
At first, he thought it was surprise at the difficulty in restoring his cultivation, but now, upon closer reflection, he realized it probably had a deeper meaning.
"How come everyone has secrets?"
Li Qingyi recalled Qin Xiyue's meticulous care for him for over a hundred years, and her dying words, "I will seek justice for you," and his heart was filled with emotion.
As the autumn wind rises again, a withered leaf twirls and lands in his palm.
"Deep Blue, simulate it for me..." His voice was soft, yet carried an unprecedented calmness.