Chapter 14: Mist Spirit (3)

After seeing who was at the door, Zhou Xin secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

She whispered, “Why are you here?”

Changsheng tiptoed into the room and sat down beside the desk. “After evening lessons, Changsheng went to Shuiyunjian to look for Senior Sister. When I saw that Senior Sister wasn’t there, I thought I’d try my luck at the quiet room.”

A smile rose in his eyes. “I didn’t expect to see Senior Sister secretly kissing Court Minister Shen.”

Zhou Xin immediately retorted, “Nonsense. I wasn’t!”

Changsheng said, “Then why was Senior Sister leaning so close?”

Zhou Xin said, “His face was slightly red and his brows were tightly furrowed. I suspected he might have a fever, so I lowered my head to check.”

Changsheng asked, “Is that so?”

Zhou Xin stiffened her neck. “Of course!”

“Then Changsheng misunderstood Senior Sister. Fortunately, Court Minister Shen didn’t wake up. Otherwise, if he had heard Changsheng talking nonsense, it might have caused a misunderstanding.” Changsheng scratched his head in annoyance.

Zhou Xin tilted her head and glanced at the person lying over the desk. His breathing was still very even, but his brows had relaxed, and he no longer looked as uncomfortable as before.

She pulled Changsheng out of the hall and sat beneath the corridor. “Junior Brother, I remember you know the paper crane voice-transmission art. Can you send a message to Perfected Linghe?”

Changsheng drew out a long “uh” and hesitated. “If there’s no one around Perfected Linghe, then it’s fine. But if there is, and someone sees this technique, Changsheng will definitely be scolded.”

After saying that, he waved his hands repeatedly. “Better not.”

“Then teach me. I’ll send the message to Perfected Linghe.”

His eyes lit up. “That’s a good idea!”

Changsheng went back to his room and brought out two sheets of paper, cut them into squares, and folded a paper crane in just a few motions. He placed it on his palm and blew at it.

The paper crane rose with the wind, flapping its wings as it lingered in front of Changsheng.

He pointed at the paper crane. “Just like this.”

Zhou Xin blinked, feeling that this was a little fantastical. “Do you have to chant anything in your heart?”

Changsheng shook his head. “Perfected Linghe said that as long as the heart is calm while folding the paper, the crane will naturally be imbued with Daoist qi and become lively.”

Zhou Xin did as instructed, folded a paper crane, placed it on her palm, and blew at it.

The paper crane was blown onto the ground.

Changsheng said, “Perfected Linghe said that if the heart is not calm, the paper crane will be tainted with worldly thoughts and won’t be able to fly.”

Zhou Xin: “...”

She went inside, brought out another stack of paper, and sat beneath the corridor folding one crane after another, while Changsheng sat beside her and watched with wide eyes.

Neither of them noticed that the person lying over the desk behind them had straightened up. When he saw the steamed buns wrapped in oil paper at the corner of the table, he froze slightly.

He reached out, but just as he was about to touch the paper packet, he withdrew his hand again. He lowered his eyes to the book before him, but did not turn a page for a long while.

After who knew how many cranes Zhou Xin folded, the area by her feet had unknowingly become covered with paper cranes. Her mouth had gone dry from blowing, and just as she was about to give up, the paper crane in her palm rose with the wind.

Overjoyed, she pinched Changsheng’s cheeks. “Junior Brother! I succeeded!”

Changsheng said, “Senior Sister, say what you need to say quickly. The paper crane can only last for a limited time.”

Zhou Xin immediately said, “May I ask Perfected Linghe, what kind of spirit can reside inside the human body, causing someone to experience pregnancy-like symptoms, become gluttonous, sleepy, frequently need to urinate, and occasionally suffer cramps in the hands and feet?”

After saying this, she looked at Changsheng questioningly.

Changsheng said, “Use your qi to control it. Whoever you want to find, think of that person in your mind.”

Zhou Xin followed his instructions one by one. The paper crane circled around her a few times, then flapped its wings and flew away.

Changsheng asked, “Why does Senior Sister ask that?”

Zhou Xin raised her hand and pointed her thumb behind her. “That, you’ll have to ask Court Minister Shen!”

Changsheng turned back accordingly and gave a soft “Huh?” Then he called out, “So Court Minister Shen is already awake!”

Zhou Xin turned her head at the sound and saw that the man had just finished reading one book and was opening the next.

Changsheng ran into the room, sat beside Shen Jibai, and leaned closer to his stomach.

Shen Jibai leaned back, increasing the distance between them, and said coldly, “What are you doing?”

Changsheng scratched his head. “...Changsheng is a little curious.”

Zhou Xin rolled her eyes. “He’s only two years older than Tannu. Why are you being so fierce?”

Shen Jibai said, “Shen speaks to Tannu in this tone as well.”

Zhou Xin shrugged. “No wonder that child can’t even smile when he sees you.”

Shen Jibai raised his ink-black eyes and glanced at her indifferently, but said nothing.

Zhou Xin sat diagonally across from him and casually took a book from the stack on the floor.

As though remembering something, she said, “Junior Brother, is there still any hundred-year-old lightning-struck wood in the storeroom? It doesn’t need to be very big.”

She raised her hand and measured with her index finger and thumb. “This big is enough.”

Changsheng nodded. “There is. Changsheng will go get it now.”

Once he left, the quiet room returned to silence. The two people at the desk both focused on their books, and neither of them seemed inclined to speak.

After the time it took for one stick of incense to burn, Changsheng returned with a piece of lightning-struck wood and joined the reading group, helping them search for a spirit that could cause someone to develop pregnancy-like symptoms.

The three of them gathered around the desk and read late into the night. Changsheng’s head slowly dipped lower and lower until, in the end, he fell asleep with his head pillowed on a book, drooling.

Perfected Linghe’s sleeping quarters were at the back, but Zhou Xin could not use them without permission, so she carried Changsheng to a bamboo mat nearby, took off her Daoist robe, and covered him with it.

Shen Jibai looked at her quietly. A thoughtful emotion reflected in his cold, clear eyes, and his gaze grew increasingly complicated.

After settling Changsheng, Zhou Xin sat back down at the desk and yawned. “Did Court Minister Shen sleep enough during the day?”

Shen Jibai gave a slightly awkward “Mm.”

She nodded. “Then Chao will go rest first.”

Shen Jibai gave another low “Mm.”

As soon as the words fell, he suddenly slapped the desk with one hand while clutching his abdomen with the other, his head lowered very far.

“What’s wrong?”

As soon as Zhou Xin spoke, she noticed that the hand placed on the desk had already clenched into a fist, the veins on the back of it faintly bulging.

When she looked up again, Shen Jibai’s face was already deathly pale. Beads of sweat the size of beans covered his forehead, and his brows were tightly twisted together.

“Does it hurt badly?”

Shen Jibai only shook his head without speaking. She did not know whether he was truly fine or already in so much pain that he could not speak.

Zhou Xin circulated her Daoist qi and pressed her sword fingers against his forehead, using it to suppress the spirit fetus running wild inside him.

A moment later, Shen Jibai’s complexion eased considerably.

He withdrew the hand pressing against his abdomen, raised his head slightly, and said, “...It seems... very agitated.”

Zhou Xin withdrew her hand. “Does it want to rush out?”

Shen Jibai nodded slightly.

After such a disturbance, Zhou Xin was no longer sleepy. She picked up a book, preparing to continue reading.

Shen Jibai pressed his lips together, looking as though he was enduring something.

Most likely, the spirit fetus was still rampaging inside him, only not as violently as before, so he could barely endure it.

Zhou Xin asked, “Do you want to rest for a while?”

He shook his head. “It suddenly became agitated, so there must be a reason. Shen wants to find it as soon as possible.”

“All right,” Zhou Xin said. “Then Chao will risk her life to accompany a gentleman and stay up with it all night.”

Hearing this, Shen Jibai’s brows shifted slightly. His lips moved, as though he wanted to say something. But after a pause, he pressed his lips together and said nothing.

The night was cool as water. An uninvited guest entered the quiet courtyard and stood on the branch of a nanmu tree outside the window, looking down at the three people in the hall without moving.

The evening wind blew, and a paper crane flew through the air, heading straight toward the quiet room.

The uninvited guest shifted his gaze and glanced at it. In the next instant, his figure moved and disappeared.

Zhou Xin slapped the desk hard and shouted joyfully, “Found it! It’s a mist spirit!”

Shen Jibai had never heard of this kind of spirit. “Mist spirit?”

A paper crane flew in through the open window on one side and circled above Zhou Xin’s head.

Perfected Linghe’s voice came through. “Morning mist can develop a spirit. It can sense changes in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, cultivates the Heavenly Dao, and performs good deeds. It is the embodiment of utmost purity and goodness. Its spiritual energy connects with the qi of the human body, so evil cultivators most often capture this kind of spirit to increase their cultivation. But if the main body is not consumed, once a remnant limb left inside the body senses the movement of the main body, it will behave like an infant sensing its mother’s body, causing the person to exhibit pregnancy-like reactions. The more severe the symptoms, the worse the main body’s condition.”

As soon as the voice fell, the paper crane shattered into a scattering of starlight, circling around the two of them several times before gradually spreading through the entire hall.

Shen Jibai was completely confused. “Shen has never consumed a mist spirit.”

Zhou Xin placed the book in front of Shen Jibai, pointed at one of the passages, and said, “The one inside Court Minister Shen’s body was probably a part deliberately left behind by the mist spirit’s main body. It did this to draw your attention, making it easier for you to track down the main body later and find the evil cultivator.”

Shen Jibai said, “So when it encountered the qi-eating spirit trying to harm Shen, it intentionally helped?”

Zhou Xin said, “There is another possibility: it was captured by the evil cultivator, and it just so happened that after capturing it, the evil cultivator came to steal the qi-eating spirit. The mist spirit seized the chance to leave behind a clue. That way, Court Minister Shen could quickly find the evil cultivator, and the mist spirit could escape the fate of being consumed.”

“In that case,” Shen Jibai said after sorting through the cause and effect, “how do we investigate the mist spirit’s main body’s location?”

Zhou Xin flipped a few pages further back and said, “Here, it’s written right here! It’s just...”

Shen Jibai immediately pressed, “Just what?”

Zhou Xin looked somewhat troubled. “Tracking it requires sword-control art... Court Minister Shen knows that sword-control art and lightning-summoning talismans are both high-level spells. Chao may not be able to succeed.”

Shen Jibai gritted his teeth. “We still have to try!”

Zhou Xin said, “Let me say the ugly words first. If anything goes wrong, Chao takes no responsibility.”

She pulled out the peachwood sword behind her, stood, walked to the hall, and planted the sword in the ground.

Her right hand formed sword fingers. She swept it upward while chanting under her breath, but the peachwood sword did not move at all.

Shen Jibai leaned against the corridor pillar, pressing one hand hard against his abdomen, his brows furrowing even more tightly than before.

Zhou Xin turned back and smiled awkwardly. “...Even people stumble, and even horses slip. Chao will try again.”

Shen Jibai clenched his fist tightly, his body trembling almost imperceptibly.

He lowered his voice and answered only, “Mm.”

Zhou Xin tried several more times. Although she still failed to control the sword, the peachwood sword seemed to sense something, and its blade trembled faintly for an instant.

She secretly sighed.

Chao Nanyi’s Daoist arts were merging with her soul too slowly. If she wanted to master them completely, it would still take some time.

She did not know whether she would succeed tonight.

A soft gasp came from behind her, like a low groan of pain escaping from someone imprisoned and unable to suppress it any longer.

Zhou Xin turned back and saw Shen Jibai bent over, his body trembling continuously. It seemed that the mist spirit inside him was rampaging too violently, and he could no longer bear it.

Thinking of the mist spirit’s characteristics, her heart tightened. Could the evil cultivator already be making a move against the mist spirit’s main body?

In her urgency, she used the sword-control incantation, and the peachwood sword actually broke free from the ground, flew in a circle through the air, and hovered beside Zhou Xin’s feet.

She shouted, “It worked!”

Shen Jibai braced one hand against the corridor pillar, as though trying to stand. But as soon as he took one step, he fell straight toward the ground.

Zhou Xin hurried forward to support him, wrapping one arm around his waist. “Endure it a little longer. We’ll go find it right now!”

Supporting him onto the peachwood sword, Zhou Xin formed sword fingers with her left hand and lightly tapped his waist and abdomen. She gently drew backward, and a cloud of mist flew out from inside him, coiling around her fingertips and refusing to disperse.

Using that mist, she used her sword fingers as a brush and traced a talisman in the air. Then she shouted, “Go!”

The hazy mist turned into a butterfly glowing with spiritual light and flew straight west.

Controlling the peachwood sword, Zhou Xin supported Shen Jibai and followed closely behind it.

Beneath the dusk, brightly lit Luoyang lay beneath their feet. It was already curfew, and the streets that had been packed with carriages and people during the day were now empty. Only a single patrol slowly moved along the Heavenly Street, likely making its night rounds.

As the butterfly flew above the Luo River, Shen Jibai said in a low voice, “...This is bad. The palace lies ahead. If the sentry archers discover us, neither of us will survive tonight.”

Zhou Xin looked back down at the ground. A patrol had rushed out from Chengfu Ward and was following closely behind them.

“Whoosh!”

An arrow swept past them head-on. Zhou Xin shouted, “No need to wait until the palace. The Jinwu Guards have already discovered us!”

Hearing this, Shen Jibai belatedly remembered something, and his face suddenly went pale. “His Majesty once issued an explicit decree: any Daoist cultivator discovered flying without permission is to be killed on sight!”

“Huh?”

Zhou Xin panicked. The peachwood sword swayed crookedly several times, then suddenly plummeted straight downward.

“Ah—!”