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Chapter 80: True to One’s Heart
Fate is heaven’s decision, be true to your heart! These nine words made Gu Yunlan’s heart tremble, it was an indescribable feeling. She wanted to flee and hide away. She looked foolishly at the Fated Love Tree before her, exactly how old is this tree? She had always looked down on this tree disdainfully in her previous life; thirty percent heaven’s will, seventy percent your own skill isn’t it?
Xuanyuan Ying instead walked directly to the other side of the table, looking at her fixedly. Gu Yunlan also moved to the other side, bowing her head to pull on the end of a ribbon.
She walked towards the large tree with her head lowered, the walk seemed unnaturally long. She couldn’t even think it through, why were Xuanyuan Ying and her doing this? For fun? Or is it actually just to cause mischief?
Only when they arrived at the Fated Love Tree did she come back to consciousness. Looking across the ribbon, on the other end stood a man wearing a white uniform -Xuanyuan Ying. She blinked.
The two stood there without speaking, both looking at the other. Suddenly, Gu Yunlan felt the ribbon in her hand moving slightly. Looking down at the red ribbon in her hand, the ribbon ripped into three. Other than one strand in each of both their hands, one strand lay quietly on the ground.
“The red ribbon breaking must have been for a reason!” The old man’s figure slowly squatted down. He picked up the length of ribbon on the ground, standing up, he took the two ribbon parts from the two’s hands. His unsteady shadow slowly disappeared into the night.
Gu Yunlan focused again, this time thinking it was rather funny, yet still couldn’t get rid of the smear of disappointment in her heart. She took a breath, then walked over to Xuanyuan Ying and grabbed his elbow, pointing behind him, “Xuanyuan! Look! The lanterns over there are set on water, how pretty!”
Xuanyuan Ying lowered his head to look at her, then silently turned to whereshe pointed. Nobody knows what he’s thinking.
The two slowly walked to the side of the bridge. The old man slowly appeared from the darkness again. Looking at the red ribbon in his hand, he reminisced, “Bizzare! Broken then whole again, truly unsolvable, unsolvable!”
This caused Xuanyuan Ying, who was getting dragged away by Gu Yunlan, to stare blankly, broken then whole again? He suddenly thought it was rather funny; he himself is an unrivaled existence, how can a mere red ribbon tell his fortune?
Standing by the railing, the piercing cold wind blew by.Gu Yunlan let go of his elbow and leaned against the railing, facing the lights of the lanterns on the other side. The lights lit up the rippling water’s surface, slowly, an orange lotus lantern floated down from upstream. One, two lanterns turned into countless flower lanterns. What seemed like hundreds of flower lanterns filled up the entire Gu River.
The river water flowed quickly, in less than half an hour, the flower lanterns from upstream floated past them. Further downstream of the Gu River, the waters were disturbed while upstream, the girls lined up neatly by the river bank.
Watching from afar, the two sides of the bridge have already been set up full of tables, leaving a strip in the middle for a walkway. People filled up the tables, their laughing andchatting could be heard from far away.
For there to be such a peaceful celebration in the warring times is truly not easy! Gu Yunlan sighed, it’s possible the war would reach them later in the year!
In this moment, the hate for Yangjin suppressed in the bottom of her heart erupted out, no! She can’t let him live so peacefully. War may erupt in another half year, and by then, she wouldn’t be able to make her move even if she wanted to!
“Oh my!” A gasp brought her out of her deep thinking. Pulled back to reality, she lifted her gaze to see a group of men gasping as they crossed the bridge. Faintly, the sound of roaring laughter could be heard.
“People will be here in droves soon, it’ll probably get really crowded. Shall we go over there for a stroll?” Xuanyuan Ying stood next to her, saying softly.
“How do we get across?” Gu Yunlan stood up straight mindlessly. She looked all around, but other than that one bridge, the entire Gu River didn’t have any other bridge.
“Where are you looking!” Xuanyuan Ying pointed at a ferry further downstream. The Gu River isn’t very wide, only about ten meters. The Gu River didn’t have many bridges either, just this one. Any more would be moat’s bridge outside the city walls. Normal crossing would just be by a ferry.
Gu Yunlan’s pupils lit up. Pulling on Xuanyuan Ying’s hand, she headed upstream, “Let’s take the ferry upstream alright?”
“Whatever you want!” Xuanyuan Ying broke into a smile, and followed her steps up the river. Her hate suddenly flew out of her mind for the time being. He knew though, it’s impossible for her to let go of the resentment from the previous life. If she allowed it, he would be willing to accompany her. In any case, as long as she is alive, his strength can recover.
The two people followed a path upstream. Incomparably quiet, the winter/autumn air was bitingly cold. Despite Gu Yunlan having absorbed pure Yin energy before, her body was very special, hardly ever hungry, yet it isn’t resistant to cold. She shifted her sleeves; she didn’t wear enough!
Just as she put down her hand, it was grabbed by the person behind her. A warm current then entered her body, his chiding voice said by her ear, “How dumb! You don’t even know how to revolve the energy in your body?”
Gu Yunlan smiled towards him, she really didn’t know that all the tangled bits of energy could protect against cold.
Walking for a while, she could see the ferry port had one empty boat. Xuanyuan Ying bent down to untie the rope holding the boat.
He stood up, then gracefully lept on the boat, turned around to hold Gu Yunlan’s hand and gently guided her to the deck.
“Xuanyuan! You know how to steer the boat?” She looked at her surroundings, asking curiously.
“I don’t!” Xuanyuan Ying simply shook his head.
Gu Yunlan suddenly had black lines all over her face, he doesn’t know… then what’s the point of taking the boat?
Tln: black lines, like: -_-|||
“We have spirit power, why the need to use physical strength to steer the boat?” Xuanyuan Ying looked at Gu Yunlan in surprise. With a thought, the boat made a turn and headed towards the middle of the river unhurriedly.
Gu Yunlan steadied herself then bent down to pick up the two paddles, passing one of them to Xuanyuan Ying, “No good! It’s no fun like that!”
She promptly sat down on a beam by her feet, saying, “Sit down! We’ll each use one to paddle!”
Xuanyuan Ying was stumped, yet was still helpless as he could only stop the boat, and like her, sit down and dip the paddle in the water.
“We’ll row like this, I’ll go then you!” Gu Yunlan showed him how. Seeing Xuanyuan Ying copying her awkwardly, she giggled out loud.
The boat started to move shakily downstream, sometimes Gu Yunlan could be heard laughing out loud. The poem recitation on the shore has started already and at times, a pair of a man and a woman would walk on the bridge.
Jade green waves rippled, combining with the lights. Gu Yunlan couldn’t help but think of a line of a poem, she softly recited, “Mirroring waves of rippling water, the guests returned to their boats in high spirits!”
Tln: i can’t poem
“Shouldn’t I be praising you, saying ‘good poem, good poem’?” Xuanyuan Ying teased. The two had already gotten tired from rowing at this point, instead they just let the boat free float upon the river.
“You broke the beautiful atmosphere!” Gu Yunlan shot him a look, how insensitive.
“Then I’ll accompany you in this beautiful atmosphere, what do you think?” Xuanyuan Ying looked at Gu Yunlan with half-lidded eyes. Seeing Gu Yunlan looking at him incomprehensively, he pinched at the air, then made a throwing motion towards empty space.
“Tong tong tong!” “Chi chi chi!” A sound suddenly sounded from the space. Before Gu Yunlan’s astonished gaze it separated, blooms of beautiful flowers appeared. Gu Yunlan stared unmoving, how pretty!”
Following the movements of Xuanyuan Ying’s hands, bundles of lights streaked into the skies, “Pop pop pop!” The streaks exploded in light; gold, silver, red, green, blue… Star-like flowers bloomed all around, like flowers scattered by a goddess.
“Isn’t it pretty?” Xuanyuan Ying gripped her by the shoulders, he enjoyed the peacefulness of the moment. The two watched the skies quietly; no annoying matters, this is what cultivators should be doing.
Meeting Gu Yunlan is equal to meeting big trouble. Even if it takes a few hundred years to heal his wounds without him, it’d be too slow compared to Jiangchen. But now he nevertheless doesn’t feel regret, slaughter energy is unimportant already. Having someone to accompany him during this long life is the best way to not be lonely! His mission has gotten more serious; Jiangchen, Bai Linlong, and changing her physique. It’s better to just enjoy the peace right now!
“How beautiful! How did you do that?” Gu Yunlan looked at the sky with shining eyes. She clearly saw that he didn’t take out any fireworks.
“Like this! Concentrate the power in your body on your fingertips, don’t let it out yet, then pinch hard!” Xuanyuan Ying raised his left hand unhurriedly, pinching gently, then tossed towards the space.
Another bout of multi colored flowers burst in the air, brilliant and dazzling to the eyes.
A faint voice could be heard coming from the shore, yelling in delight, “Wow, so pretty! There are fireworks!” “Beautiful! More beautiful than the Zi Family’s fireworks.”
Gu Yunlan smiled with her eyebrows. She focused on her Dantian, faintly transferring her power to her fingertip. She pinched her fingers hard, then flung it towards the sky.
“Pa pa pa!” The sky was filled with starry lights, yet fell like shooting stars.
“Not bad! You’ve got potential!” Xuanyuan Ying praised, he continued, “Practice a bit more, this is a very good exercise for controlling your spirit power!”
As the sky deepened even more, it became filled with fireworks. Lit up like daytime, Gu Yunlan smiled like a blooming flower.
The consequence of overusing either spirit power and physical strength is, she didn’t even have the strength to lift her feet. Their boat had already wandered to the city walls, when Xuanyuan Ying brought her to shore, she found herself too tired to move her limbs and almost fell over.
She laid on Xuanyuan Ying’s back, whispering her complaint, “Xuanyuan! That was definitely on purpose! Why didn’t you tell me that overusing will make the entire body powerless?”
“You shouldn’t talk now, properly fill out this feeling!” Xuanyuan Ying walked slowly as he carried her, smiling slightly as he said. His steps were gentle and steady, there was absolutely no bumpiness.
Gu Yunlan nodded her head hesitating and closed her eyes. Carefully sensing everything within her body, a patch of concentration sour feeling came out from her stomach and spread all throughout.
“Absorb the Yin energy!” Xuanyuan Ying’s voice was quiet. Even if he couldn’t see it, he could still sense the concentrated Yin energy.
Gu Yunlan made a move, now she could feel the coldness as the energy entered her body. She immediately used her spirit power to move the energy in her body to wrap it up.
She opened her eyes after a while, and released a breath.
“Move your arms a bit!” Xuanyuan Ying’s voice sounded again.
Gu Yunlan did as he says, and as expected, it didn’t hurt. She could even feel that the power in her body has increased!
“Let me down! I want to see how my physical strength is!” Gu Yunlan moved around excitedly, wanting to get down. She was looking forward to testing her speed.
“Hold on!” Xuanyuan Ying pulled her into his embrace, hurriedly slipping somewhere else.
Gu Yunlan looked at him in astonishment, not understanding at all. Only now did she notice they were standing at the mouth of an alleyway. What’s going on? She immediately sent out her spirit power!
“Pow!” The sound of a slap traveled to their ears.
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