I Need To Find A Way To Make Her Love Me Again - Chapter 49

“You are, naturally, the one in my heart.”

The woman’s response seemed to vibrate right against her ear, yet felt worlds away. It was as if she had entered another dimension, the world became blurred, and a light, airy sensation took over.

In a trance, she seemed to drift off. Her head sluggishly nudged the person beside her, her eyes glazed with a dazed expression.

Watching her, Yi Rong couldn’t help but curve her lips into a smile. She reached out to stroke the sideburns of the person in her arms, her gaze filled with irrepressible affection.

Suddenly, a sharp knock-knock-knock at the door shattered the moment. She turned to see a silhouette standing at the entrance.

Yan Xingyu was startled awake by the sound. Following the noise, she squinted against the blinding white light pouring through the door, realizing with a shock that it was already morning.

Standing outside was a woman in purple. Her dark eyes held the same playful, flippant smile they had the first time they met.

Recognizing the face, Yan Xingyu jumped up and shouted, “Liu Ruoni!”

“I’m here,” Liu Ruoni replied as she stepped inside, looking at the pair. “Why are you two sleeping on the floor?”

Seeing her approach, Yan Xingyu hurriedly said, “Quick, help me get these things off Yi Rong’s body!”

“Xingyu, take another good look. Does Yi Rong have anything on her now?”

At Liu Ruoni’s words, Yan Xingyu turned to look at Yi Rong standing behind her. The flowers that had covered her body had vanished without a trace. She still grabbed the arm she had examined the night before, checking it thoroughly. Confirming the flowers had left nothing behind, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Turning back to the woman, she snapped, “Liu Ruoni, it’s just a lamp! Why set up such a protective barrier? Who would even want to steal this broken lamp of yours?”

Liu Ruoni looked at the magnificent beaded lamp and countered, “How can you call it a broken lamp? The decorations are made of extremely rare sea pearls. It’s worth a fortune.”

Yan Xingyu glanced at the lamp, which looked even more dazzling and opulent in the daylight and was momentarily speechless.

Liu Ruoni smiled and asked, “On the contrary, why are you two here? Shouldn’t you be resting in the guest rooms?”

Remembering that they were trapped all night because of that Chen’er monkey, Yan Xingyu said, “Did you keep that monkey as a pet? It’s the one that lured us here last night.”

Liu Ruoni looked enlightened and uttered an “Oh.” “So that’s what happened. I forgot to mention that to you.”

Yan Xingyu snorted. “I bet there’s more than one thing you ‘forgot’ to tell me.”

Liu Ruoni raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Well, that’s why I’m here now.”

“Since the story is a bit complicated, it’s best to start from the beginning. Or…”

Yan Xingyu cut her off. “Just tell me about Yan Xiaoling and the Yulan Palace.”

“Oh, then that’s simple,” Liu Ruoni replied. “The gist is: Yan Xiaoling turned everyone in Yulan Palace into Human Gu (human puppets/parasites). She has teamed up with the Sect Leader of Qingding Mountain to use these Human Gu to create a massive formation.”

Yan Xingyu asked, “What kind of formation?”

Liu Ruoni said, “An evil formation capable of summoning the Crane Tower.”

This answer was somewhat unexpected, yet as Yan Xingyu thought about it, everything seemed to point in that direction. She asked, “Wasn’t it said that collecting the four crystals would summon the Crane Tower? Why bother making these Human Gu?”

Liu Ruoni gave a slight, mocking smile. “The idea that gathering crystals summons the Crane Tower is, of course, a lie. It was just a joke Yan family ancestors played on their descendants.”

Yan Xingyu: “…”

“However,” Liu Ruoni continued, “the legend of the Crane Tower itself was also a joke played by the Xiangzhu Fairy on everyone.”

“What? What?” Yan Xingyu was flabbergasted.

Seeing Yan Xingyu’s expression lose all composure, Liu Ruoni smiled and walked toward the beaded lamp. She stroked a small colored-glass lamp featuring a vivid blue long-tailed bird. “Rumor has it that the Xiangzhu Fairy was extravagant and depraved, and only ascended to immortality through sheer luck.”

“But how could a former Master of the Lingluan Palace be merely ‘extravagant’? The Fairy was simply unrestrained and free spirited in her actions, which inevitably made many people jealous.”

“That didn’t stop her from performing heroic deeds, she just grew to dislike publicizing them. By chance, she came here, helped our ancestors resolve a long standing terror caused by a demonic tiger, and generously taught them the art of talisman making. Perhaps it was then that she achieved perfect merit and ascended to immortality here.”

“Her ascension was the result of step by step accumulation. Where is the ‘luck’ in that? But those jealous of her spread wild rumors that she didn’t deserve it, causing a massive uproar.”

“The Fairy was too lazy to argue with them, so she fabricated the story of the Crane Tower. She let the world believe she simply had the good fortune to encounter an immortal at the tower and was granted immortality.”

“Interestingly, once the story spread, the insults died down. Instead, people began to yearn for the ‘Crane Tower’ she had made up. There were even many low-level cultivators who worshipped her, hoping some of that ‘luck’ would rub off on them. The rumors that once harmed her vanished.”

The playful glint in Liu Ruoni’s eyes deepened. She paused, then continued: “But among those seeking the Fairy, there was one who deeply admired and worshipped her, the ancestor of Qingding Mountain.”

“After her ascension, he built many temples in her honor and gathered many believers for her. He worked incredibly hard to gain her favor, but the Fairy remained indifferent to him.”

“He didn’t give up. Instead, gaining her recognition became his obsession. He practiced cultivation desperately, hoping to reach immortality to stand by her side. Unfortunately, he never succeeded before he died, but his obsession was passed down through the generations.”

“For the descendants of Qingding Mountain, achieving immortality to see the Xiangzhu Fairy and offering their ancestor’s ‘sincerity’ to her became a generational mission.”

Hearing this, Yan Xingyu felt goosebumps rise on her skin, and a wave of nausea hit her stomach.

She endured it as Liu Ruoni continued: “Ascending to immortality isn’t something that happens overnight. Out of millions, hardly one succeeds. Under such ancestral mandates, the descendants of Qingding Mountain began to warp.”

“To see the Xiangzhu Fairy, one doesn’t necessarily have to become an immortal. One can also trigger a great worldly catastrophe.”

“Such a disaster would draw the attention of the Celestial Realm, and the Fairy would naturally appear. Furthermore, if they were the ones to ‘resolve’ the disaster they created, wouldn’t they accumulate massive merit?”

“Thus, they devised a way to manufacture and raise Human Gu, waiting in the shadows for the numbers to reach a scale sufficient for their plan. But Human Gu aren’t easy to make. They primarily require the corpses of cultivators. The more powerful the cultivator, the better the Human Gu produced.”

The image of the Huos beast on Qingding Mountain and Yan Xiaoling’s face flashed through Yan Xingyu’s mind. Her heart began to throb violently.

“So the Grandmaster raised a Huos beast on Qingding Mountain to kill countless disciples on the Heavenly Stairs,” Yan Xingyu realized.

At this, Liu Ruoni gave a cold, briefly bitter laugh before regaining her composure. “But that efficiency was too low, the number of Human Gu remained small. That is, until Sect Leader Xu happened to meet Yan Xiaoling.”

“He set his sights on Yulan Palace. And Yan Xiaoling, that lunatic, actually did as he wished and turned the entire Yan clan into Human Gu. However, Yan Xiaoling isn’t exactly easy to control.”

“Additionally, the death of the Huos beast hit her hard. She became increasingly impatient to use the Human Gu to trigger the catastrophe and fulfill their ancestor’s wish. She wants the efforts of generations to bear fruit in her hands.”

“To hell with ‘generational efforts.’ They want to become immortals by doing such evil? In their dreams,” Yan Xingyu couldn’t help but curse. The story grew more disgusting the more she heard.

Liu Ruoni didn’t mind the interruption, her own mocking expression showed she shared the sentiment.

“But the more Sect Leader Xu pressured her, the less Yan Xiaoling listened. To make her behave, he also learned to spin tales. He told her that by using the Human Gu formation, she could summon the Crane Tower, and the tower would grant her any wish.”

Yan Xingyu’s expression turned strange. “What kind of wish could Yan Xiaoling possibly have?”

Seeing Liu Ruoni, who had been speaking so fluently, suddenly freeze for a long moment, Yan Xingyu wondered if she had said something wrong.

“Her wish… is indeed a very difficult one to fulfill.”

Liu Ruoni’s gaze grew dark and unreadable. She said, “She wants to bring her sister back to life.”

“What?” Yan Xiaoling’s sister… wasn’t that the mother of Yan Xingyu’s original body, Yan Xiaoxiang?!

Yan Xingyu glanced sideways and saw that Yi Rong was also stunned into silence.

Liu Ruoni continued, “Life cannot return from death, even immortals find that difficult. Yet, somehow, Yan Xiaoling believed it. It’s almost funny. She was the one who killed her own sister because she wanted to turn Xiaoxiang into a Human Gu, though she never went through with it and now she wants to resurrect her.”

“That lunatic… she really deserves to die.”

The teeth-gritting hatred in Liu Ruoni’s voice was unmistakable. Yan Xingyu watched as the resentment overflowed from her eyes, feeling a jolt of fear.

“Right now, more than half of the Qingding Mountain disciples are at Yulan Palace, preparing to gather all the Human Gu for the formation seven days from now. Although I’ve leaked some information to let young Sect Leader Jiang interfere, it’s still hard to stop them. Therefore, Xingyu…”

Liu Ruoni looked at Yan Xingyu, then at Yi Rong standing on the other side. “I need your help.”

Yan Xingyu’s brain was still reeling from the massive info dump. Her mouth moved on instinct: “How can I help?”

Liu Ruoni said, “Go help Palace Master Guan complete the ‘Scroll of Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains.'”

“What’s that?”

“It is the ultimate treasure of the Lingluan Palace, also known as the Pivot Scene Scroll. The landscapes within the painting have the power to trap evil. However, because the Xiangzhu Fairy used it to suppress a great evil a hundred years ago, the treasure was damaged. Successive Palace Masters have been repairing it ever since.”

“I heard Palace Master Guan is close to finishing the repairs. If you two go and succeed in restoring it, we will have a way to counter the Human Gu that Yan Xiaoling and the others have unleashed.”