Even If You're My Senior, It's Still Forbidden - Chapter 53
Seeing her dazed and distant look, Ji Weining couldn’t help but feel a pang of heartache. She gently ruffled Su Jin’an’s hair and asked, “Would you like to rest for a while?”
“Better not. There are only a few days left before the secret realm closes.” Su Jin’an lowered her leg from Ji Weining’s waist. Though she longed to rest, there simply wasn’t enough time.
As expected, Su Jin’an remained resolute. Ji Weining silently set her down but kept an arm wrapped around her waist.
Su Jin’an tried to steady herself but lacked the strength, leaning heavily against Ji Weining with most of her body. Burying her face in Ji Weining’s chest, she glanced around at the surroundings and asked, “Is there something strange about this forest?”
Then again, no matter how strange it might be, it couldn’t compare to the illusion they had just experienced.
Ji Weining wasn’t entirely familiar with all these formations either. After some thought, she speculated, “It seems somewhat like the ‘All Things Greet Spring’ formation.”
“All Things Greet Spring?” Su Jin’an had never heard of this formation, nor had she come across it in any of the books she’d read.
“When all things greet spring, it’s like a final radiance of the setting sun.”
With that explanation, Su Jin’an understood the purpose of the formation.
“It’s already the season of spring.” Tender buds sprouted, and the forest grew lush.
A gentle breeze swept through, unlike the illusion from before this one was mild and soothing.
“I never thought someone would still know of this formation.” A voice drifted over, reaching their ears.
Ji Weining turned toward the source of the sound just as a spell shot toward her. With a swift wave of her hand, she blocked the attack, though some residual energy still landed on the person who had cast it.
“May I ask, honored immortal, how we can leave this place?”
The woman frowned at the mark left on her sleeve. “Are you from Qingheng Mountain?”
“Yes. Are you not the one who set up this formation?”
She shook her head. “I am the one trapped within it.”
“But she forgot, once All Things Greet Spring is activated, even memories fade away.” Her tone was calm, yet tinged with sorrow. She lifted her gaze to them. “I forgot her.”
“Do you know how to leave this place, senior?”
“Perhaps by deactivating the formation, I can be freed, and this illusion will dissolve?” She couldn’t even remember how to break the illusion herself. All her memories stopped at the time she first arrived at Qingheng Mountain.
Yet, in a way, it had allowed her to live again, to exist here.
“Senior, do you not wish to stay here?”
“If you were left alone in this desolate place, isolated and merely surviving, would you be willing?”
“I’d rather enter the cycle of reincarnation sooner.” Her brows curved gently, her expression soft. After awakening, she had forgotten everything. The longer she stayed here, the more she forgot herself, where she came from, where she was going. Eventually, each day grew increasingly dull, spent only in the company of these trees.
It seemed she must have been someone respected, for otherwise, no one would have gone to such lengths to activate this formation, exhausting their spirit just to preserve her.
Su Jin’an released Ji Weining and asked, “Might I ask your name, senior?”
“Hou Qian.”
Ji Weining suddenly felt she seemed familiar so it was her.
“You’ve heard of me?” Hou Qian noticed the shift in her expression.
Her current appearance was entirely different from the portrait Ji Weining had seen before. Now, she was more vivid, more alive, no wonder Qingheng Mountain had been willing to use the All Things Greet Spring formation to keep her alive.
“Senior, do you wish to leave?”
“Is my master still around?”
Master Houqian’s master?
“Then whose disciple are you?”
“Mu Chanjuan.”
“So it’s that girl Chanjuan. Calculating the years, she must be quite advanced in age by now.”
“I wonder if she’s approaching ascension yet.”
Ji Weining nodded, she was indeed close, if she would just stop tinkering with those peculiar medicines of hers.
“Very good.” She nodded.
“Can I leave?” She glanced at the illusory surroundings, unsure how to exit. This Spring of All Things was beyond her current comprehension.
Facing these boundaries left her uncertain.
“Of course you can.”
Since they used the Spring of All Things to preserve her, they must have intended for her to live.
“Then do you know why I’m here?”
Ji Weining shook her head. “We’ll only know after we go out and investigate.”
Without leaving, she couldn’t check the records of their entry into this secret realm.
The realm was vast, like a small world, all created by predecessors each fragment gathered into Qingheng Mountain’s treasures, whether real memories or illusory trials.
“If Senior wishes to leave, I’ll think of a way.”
But could something from the Spring of All Things survive outside it? Ji Weining wasn’t sure, she didn’t know if she could endure.
“If Senior desires it, I might have a method to try.”
She had become like this due to demonic energy, what if it vanished after she emerged?
Houqian turned away to ponder. Her hair was exquisitely styled, and now she clearly appeared as someone intriguing.
Su Jin’an found the figure strangely familiar. She looked at Ji Weining, who took her hand and patted it gently.
Su Jin’an understood immediately and remained silent.
About her matters, let her decide for herself.
“I want to leave. I still want to see the world outside.”
“Good. Then I’ll merge the Spring of All Things into your body. But if it fails, Senior might disappear along with the formation.”
“Merge?” She didn’t quite understand, how?
“Making you the core of the Spring of All Things.”
“The core, the formation’s core.” Houqian suddenly grasped it she’d never considered a formation operating with a human as its core. Then she recalled those human-core formations, none of those people met good ends.
How did Ji Weining come up with this?
She asked, “Is the demonic energy outside very strong now?”
“Yes, and no.” Or rather, demonic energy had always been intense many just never realized it.
Su Jin’an only cared about her. She pulled Ji Weining aside and whispered, “Senior Sister wants to help her? Will you be in danger?”
“Not at all. Wasn’t I fine when I drew the demon-subduing array?” Ji Weining patted her hand reassuringly.
Regarding formations, she trusted herself completely, she never made mistakes, and even if she did, she recovered quickly.
“Alright, then go ahead, Senior Sister.”
Senior Sister was indeed proficient in these areas, though she didn’t seem particularly fond of working with formations.
“Then let’s begin.” Hou Qian also agreed, wanting to seize this only chance to escape. It was the first time she had encountered another person since being trapped in this illusion.
Perhaps she should trust her, believe in her, and give it a try.
“Let’s begin.”
Hou Qian stood there, waiting for Ji Weining to activate the formation.
Ji Weining did not hesitate and quickly began.
Su Jin’an also emerged from her embrace, using her own magic to land on the ground.
The core of the “Spring of All Things” lay in the vitality of plants and trees, as well as the spiritual energy stored in spirit stones beneath the formation, which supplied the power.
Bit by bit, the formation took shape, but it also required the creator’s love for this world.
“It’s starting.” This time, the formation began to transform.
The entire forest, with its 789 trees, formed the core of the formation. Then came every flower, blade of grass, and tree, along with the birds, beasts, a spring, and a small marsh, a complete cycle that served as the heart of the formation.
All things.
The spring of all things.
A single flower contains a world.
A single leaf embodies enlightenment.
In an instant, the core of the formation transformed into countless threads, converging into a sphere created by Ji Weining.
Su Jin’an watched as the surrounding scenery began to change rapidly, transforming so drastically that she could barely recognize it as the forest it once was.
Everything rose from the earth, and beneath Su Jin’an’s feet, the land turned into barren wasteland.
A desolate, barren wasteland.
And all the living beings in this place began to flow into Hou Qian’s body, bit by bit.
Until even the last patch of forest turned desolate.
The illusion finally shattered.
The two of them descended, stepping onto the now-barren land.
Ji Weining was also surprised. The demonic energy within her had not emerged had it been dissolved by the Spring of All Things?
Hou Qian asked, “I wonder, how old am I now?”
Ji Weining calculated for a moment before replying, “I don’t know.”
The records never listed exact ages, and she couldn’t determine how old Hou Qian truly was.
“Forget it, asking is pointless.” Hou Qian glanced at her, sighed helplessly, and looked around. “Where will you go now?”
“To the next illusion.”
“When the secret realm ends, we will all leave.”
As long as the illusion no longer existed, theoretically, Hou Qian could indeed escape.
“Alright.” Hou Qian nodded in agreement, then added after a moment’s thought, “Then I’ll wander around nearby.”
“You two continue.”
“Mm.”
Continue? But where should they go? Ji Weining had no clear destination in mind.
“It seems the surrounding illusions have stopped.”
Had they completed the current illusion? Or did this illusion not count as one they had broken?
“Perhaps this illusion was broken by Senior Sister.”
She hadn’t contributed at all, so these things didn’t belong to her.
“Does it matter?”
It didn’t seem all that important.
At least they were out. This secret realm was truly stingy.
“If only I had participated in the competition a bit later, then I could have accompanied my junior sister.”
“Should I break it again now?” She wasn’t capable of replicating what Ji Weining had just done, and since the energy had already entered Hou Qian’s body, she couldn’t very well stab her again. She wasn’t like Jin Yishuang.
“There must be another exit.”
Ji Weining also felt somewhat at a loss. She wasn’t the one who created this illusion, nor had she ever taken part in it. If only she had made more preparations earlier. As she glanced around at the illusory surroundings, she looked up and said, “It seems the illusion is starting to change now.”
Could the secret realm be stuck?
Bewildered, they stepped into the next illusion.
Hou Qian did not join them in the illusion. From somewhere, she produced a bag of seeds and scattered them over the area where the illusion had just manifested.
“Grow quickly, little trees.”
With the arrival of spring for all things, once the formation ended, everything within the secret realm began to grow slowly.
“By the time I return, I’m sure you’ll have grown taller than me.”
As she spoke, a tiny sprout had already emerged from the soil.
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