Master is Also Running Away from Marriage Today (Transmigration) - Chapter 4

The next morning, Mu Ling woke up to news from Xiao Qi, the child was sick!

The child lay in bed, her face as pale as gold paper, her breathing faint. Her pulse was extremely peculiar, with shattered and broken meridians, like a battered boat riddled with holes that could sink at any moment. Yet, it was barely sustained by a miraculous vitality, clinging to a thread of life.

“What’s wrong with the child?” Xiao Qi asked nervously, seeing Mu Ling lost in thought.

The little puppet rarely saw people while living on Qingbo Peak and had already taken it upon herself to consider the child a close friend.

Mu Ling found it strange: the child’s pulse condition usually only occurred when spiritual power was forcibly activated. Only an extremely violent surge of spiritual energy could ravage the meridians to such an extent.

Yet, the child’s body held no powerful spiritual energy. Only that strange force Mu Ling had suppressed, now wandering through the child’s meridians. For some unknown reason, that force had begun to rekindle, growing even stronger than before.

Mu Ling suspected it was this force wreaking havoc, causing the child’s meridians to deteriorate so severely.

“Am I going to die?” The child’s reaction was unexpectedly calm. When Mu Ling didn’t answer, the child lowered her eyes as if exhausted. “If I die, so be it. Everyone dies eventually…”

“Bah! Don’t say such ominous things!” Xiao Qi quickly interrupted, casting a pleading look at Mu Ling. “Peak Master, look at her.”

“At such a young age, how could you…” Mu Ling sighed and reached out to pat the child’s head, but her words caught in her throat when she met the child’s gaze.

The child struggled to sit up, her back trembling, her chin sharp and delicate. She lifted her head, her forehead glistening with cold sweat, her face pale, her lower lip bitten tight. Her clear black-and-white eyes were tinged with crimson at the corners, as if brushed with vivid rouge, suddenly revealing a breathtaking beauty.

“If I survive this, can you let me stay?” The child’s pale fingers clutched at Mu Ling’s sleeve, her tone pleading.

Mu Ling froze.

So, the child already knew.

Mu Ling’s spiritual spring water could regenerate meridians, but the process was excruciatingly painful and lengthy. Taking anywhere from a month to a year. Even Mu Ling herself wasn’t sure she could endure it, let alone a child so young.

“Can I?” The child tightened her grip on Mu Ling’s sleeve, her eyes brimming with tears, filled with desperate hope.

“Focus on getting better first!” Mu Ling averted her gaze, her lips twitching slightly. Silently, she fed the child the spiritual spring water, unable to bring herself to refuse.

Before, the child had seemed calm and composed, mature and cautious beyond her years, so Mu Ling had assumed she understood. But now, perhaps sensing her own limited time, the child acting so clingy seemed like a completely different person, heart-wrenchingly vulnerable.

No matter what, she was still just a child.

Such a child was truly pitiful!

But what if her parents were still waiting for her?

Mu Ling’s mind was torn, but fortunately, the spiritual spring water took effect. Under the influence of the medicine, the child fell unconscious, sparing Mu Ling from having to make an immediate decision.

When the child woke again, the red at the corners of his eyes had completely vanished. It seemed he had forgotten the words he had pleaded to Mu Ling amidst the torment of excruciating pain, reverting once more to that obedient and sensible child. Silently enduring the agony and the rebirth of his meridians, he would occasionally catch sight of Mu Ling in moments of lucidity, forcing a faint smile onto his pale little face yet never again did he act spoiled.

Mu Ling couldn’t quite articulate the emotions stirring within. This child seemed like a flower bud on the verge of falling from its branch, destined to wither before it could bloom. Unconsciously, her heart ached even more for him.

Soon, half a month passed. During this time, Mu Ling had been exceedingly busy.

Apart from feeding the child spiritual spring water daily and having the puppet monitor his injuries, Mu Ling also kept a close watch on the happenings within the sect.

This year’s batch of new disciples in Qingyi Sect was exceptionally talented, with outstanding geniuses emerging every few days. Yet, Mu Ling never came across a disciple named “Lin Qingge.”

Had she misremembered?

Or had her transmigration into this world triggered a butterfly effect, altering the course of events?

A faint unease settled in Mu Ling’s heart.

Meanwhile, on the night the child’s meridians shattered, something strange had occurred among the new disciples. The four girls Mu Ling had rescued from the underground passage had all lost their memories overnight after accidentally ingesting the pollen of the Lixu flower.

For cultivators who had already built their foundations, Lixu flower pollen was a common alchemical ingredient. But for children who had just entered the sect and hadn’t yet learned to channel qi, it was a potent drug capable of erasing memories or even inducing dementia.

The pollen tasted sweet, resembling honey, so it was possible the girls had consumed it by mistake.

“They’ve truly severed their ties to the mortal world!” Mu Ling sighed upon hearing the news. Yet, in a way, it might have been a blessing in disguise. The girls had been haunted by the trauma of the underground palace, their cultivation progressing at a snail’s pace. After losing their memories, their minds became clear, and their cultivation speed improved significantly.

With no trace of Lin Qingge found over the past half-month, Mu Ling’s regret about becoming the disciple overseer deepened. Still, her appointment was now set in stone. Fortunately, the child’s words had given her an idea. While she had no intention of probing the hidden door concealed by immortal magic that the child had mentioned, she recalled that she could explore the secret realms of the cultivation world in search of treasures.

Secret realms were spaces left behind by ancient powerhouses after their deaths, often containing various magical artifacts. Mu Ling’s own treasure, the Mermaid Veil, had been gifted to her by Zhao Yunshi after she obtained it from an ancient secret realm.

However, most known realms had been thoroughly scavenged by cultivators, leaving few rare items behind. The remaining ones were hidden in obscure corners, fraught with danger but also richer in treasures.

Whenever she had free time over the past half-month, Mu Ling ventured out to search for secret realms. Finally, her luck turned. Before long, she discovered one deep in a remote mountain. This realm was peculiarly elusive, shifting locations every few days. Its exterior was riddled with formations that bore clear signs of human design, yet it remained unclaimed. It took Mu Ling a long time to break through the outer barriers.

To avoid complications, Mu Ling decided to enter the realm that very day.

Yet, the thought of the child at home gave her pause.

She hadn’t expected him to hold on for so long!

During this time, Mu Ling had also realized that the child’s body had become dependent on her spiritual spring water. The strange force within the child’s body could never be completely eradicated. Once the supply of spiritual spring water was cut off, that force would flare up again. Zhao Yunshi had also hinted to Mu Ling that with the demonic sects causing chaos and the mortal world in turmoil, it was nearly impossible to find the child’s relatives.

“You win!”

Returning home, Mu Ling looked at the child, who had exhausted herself into a deep sleep, and sighed softly.

The spiritual spring water would lose its efficacy two days after leaving Mu Ling’s spiritual abode, and she had no idea how long it would take for her to emerge from the secret realm.

Fortunately, perhaps due to having endured the torment of that strange force for so long, the child had developed some resistance. The speed at which her meridians regenerated far exceeded Mu Ling’s expectations within half a month, they had mostly healed! However, the faster the meridians grew, the greater the suffering the child endured. Yet, aside from her increasingly gaunt cheeks and pale, purplish lips, the child never once cried out in pain.

She must have grown accustomed to the agony.

The scars on the child’s body had faded significantly, and her delicate features suggested she would grow into a beauty. Putting herself in the child’s shoes, Mu Ling thought that if she were in the same situation, she would probably do everything in her power to stay here too.

“I still need a disciple. After I return from the secret realm, I’ll take you on as my disciple.” Mu Ling made up her mind in that moment. “Once you regain your memories, you can decide for yourself whether to stay or leave.”

In these turbulent times, human life was as cheap as grass. Letting the child leave the sect would be tantamount to sending her to her death. Now that the child relied on Mu Ling’s spiritual spring water and couldn’t be separated from her, even if Mu Ling didn’t want to form too many ties in this world, the bond she had with the child made it impossible for her to simply walk away.

As it happened, Mu Ling had no plans to stay in the Qingyi Sect for long. Once the Demon King was dead, she intended to wander the world and enjoy its sights. Before that, having been under the care of the Qingyi Sect for so many years, she felt she ought to find a suitable successor for Qingbo Peak and the child before her was one of the candidates.

As for the child’s spiritual roots and talent, Mu Ling wasn’t worried. The force within the child’s body could, in a way, serve as a catalyst for her cultivation. The child could harness this power to train, and once she grew strong enough, she might even refine it completely. Even without this force, the sheer resilience the child displayed in enduring pain meant she would never be an ordinary person in the future…

Early the next morning, Mu Ling left the Qingyi Sect after secretly leaving a message for Zhao Yunshi. After all, it wasn’t exactly honorable for a peak master to be this impoverished, and Mu Ling had no face to publicize the matter.

Mindful of the child’s condition, Mu Ling didn’t travel by wind. Instead, she found a sect-approved magical tool. A vessel that expanded to the size of a ferry and could fly through the air.

The child was now conscious most of the time. Bundled in a thick cloak inside the cabin, she slowly nibbled on the oversized spiritual fruit Mu Ling had handed her, which nearly covered her entire face. Her gaze flickered as she watched Mu Ling, veiled in white gauze at the bow of the boat, humming cheerfully.

Ever since she woke up that day, she had noticed the decline in her body and the subtle shift in Mu Ling’s attitude toward her. She understood then that the “other her” inside must have done something.

Taking advantage of Mu Ling’s absence, she successfully coaxed information out of the carefree Xiao Qi. During her critical injury, she had actually played the sympathy card with this woman!

At that moment, the child felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her head, and for the first time, she began to doubt the “her” inside her own body.

Wasn’t ‘she’ supposed to be incredibly powerful? How could ‘she’ have fallen to such tactics as using the “self-injury ploy” to gain sympathy? And lately, that ‘she’ had been so weak that ‘she’ hadn’t even appeared again.

The child couldn’t bring herself to continue playing the sympathy card and just wanted to pretend nothing had happened.

Until she realized the self-injury ploy actually worked, Mu Ling finally relented and agreed to take her in as a disciple.

As a disciple?

The best outcome the child had previously imagined was becoming this woman’s servant.

Hadn’t this woman always refused to take disciples before? How could she casually offer the position just like that?

Even now, the child still suspected Mu Ling was putting on an act, but what could Mu Ling possibly want from her?

Unable to help herself, the child glanced up at Mu Ling standing at the bow of the boat. In the next instant, she was abruptly swept over to Mu Ling’s side by a silk veil flung her way.

“Look down below!” Mu Ling grinned as she picked up the child, gazing at the scenery rushing past beneath them.

Having decided to keep the child, Mu Ling no longer treated her as an outsider. In her heart, she regarded the child as something of a little sister and wanted to help her become more cheerful.

The child, however, stiffened, not daring to move a muscle. Surrounded by the woman’s delicate fragrance, with her off-key singing right beside her ear, the child struggled to focus before finally looking downward.

Endless mountains and rivers stretched beneath her feet. The child felt slightly dazed, suddenly recalling the dreams she’d had while unconscious. Dreams of looking down upon the world with disdain.

She had heard Xiao Qi say that cultivators possessed heightened senses and could even glimpse the future.

Was that her future self?

In the dreams, she was cold, powerful, and invincible, striking fear into countless hearts.

But…

The child pressed her lips together and glanced sideways at Mu Ling. Her slightly agitated emotions suddenly settled:

That future version of herself might be formidable, but she didn’t seem as happy as this woman by her side.