novelJourney of the Bead
| ← Ch.130 | Ch.132 → |
Lin Luoran has touched the leaves of the "ice grass". No more strangeness happens except for the icy coldness.
Lin's heart is pounding. No matter how strange the grass is, she has to pick it. Though she has just got out of the secret land where Reiki is abundant, she has seen this kind of pure Reiki only once since she stepped on the path of cultivation — the sapling which helped cleanse her bone marrow and clear her meridians!
The scorching heat in her belly after she ate the red fruit is still fresh in Lin's memory. She has picked so many kinds of spirit herbs and medicines in the secret land but she never saw something like the sapling. Lin Luoran believes that the sapling is the actual magical restorative.
The ice grass lives in boiling water. Do magical restoratives always live in such a contradictory environment?
Lin Luoran carefully moves away the little stones around the ice grass, trying to pick it while not hurting its root.
As soon as Lin lays her hand on the root of the grass, the silver fish comes out of nowhere and starts to attack Lin angrily.
Lin Luoran hides back into her water dome. There is abundant water Reiki around her, which helps support the water dome to become firmer. Looking at the angry little fish, Lin Luoran now enjoys the pleasure of revenge.
Magical restoratives are always guarded by beasts. Is the silver fish the guardian beast of the ice grass?
The fish is so lame!
Lin Luoran pulls the ice grass up and pushes the angry little fish aside. The water temperature is high, and she will be so sorry if the ice grass dies once it leaves the environment — at this point, the magic space of hers becomes Lin's last hope.
Lin transports herself into the space with the ice grass, along with several small stones that protect the grass.
Lin Luoran plants the ice grass by the side of the little pond and surrounds its root with the small stones. Its leaves are still full and shiny. Turns out the grass can live in the space quite well?
Lin Luoran is relieved. The water in the pond is not changed so that she can stop worrying about all the other spirit herbs. However, the ice grass is so odd. It seems that its coldness only exists in itself, no matter it is in the boiling lake or in the pond.
Lin Luoran puts her hands in the pond to feel the water temperature. The abundant water Reiki refreshes her mind and all the medicines and vegetables in the space.
Lin can't help thinking about the feeling of floating in the sea. Unlike the naughty fire Reiki, water Reiki is the most peaceful even in the age when Reiki on earth is restless.
Water Reiki is just like the ice grass. It is harmless most of the time and the best it can do is to freeze whoever dares to touch it.
Water Reiki doesn't have little tails and it never runs around. It's like the quiet raindrops, gentle and beautiful... Lin Luoran is thinking randomly. She realizes that she has gained much more than she expected from her drifting in the sea.
She has swum with fish, melted ice into water, spent a night in a snow cave, walked in snowstorm, and climbed up a 2000-meter-high iceberg with her bare hands. All the experiences have inspired her.
Lin has never had more understanding on the nature of water Reiki than she does right now.
Ice is made of water, so is frost. Water has so many forms, which are all the same.
Standing by the spring in the space, Lin Luoran forgets about the fact that she is still at the bottom of the lake and drifts into tranquility.
Even roaring thunder can't wake her up from the tranquility.
However, the bead is at the bottom of the lake...
Lin Luoran has forgotten about this, but not the silver fish!
From the fish's point of view, the evil creature suddenly disappears with the grass it is guarding. Only a round ball covered with her smell is left on the stones.
In fact, the silver fish is not so lame as Lin Luoran assumed. The fish comes from a miraculous species. Every thousand years when it moves forward to the next stage of its life, the fish grows to be smaller and simpler. Its talents disappear, and all it has are its recognized characteristics and some means of self-preservation.
Once it goes through the 1000-year suffering, the silver fish will acquire the inheritance of its species. Also, it will deform and become the fiercest monster.
Lin Luoran is lucky. The fish happens to be in its most vulnerable stage. Otherwise, picking the ice grass will be so much harder than escaping from that dead woman!
Now, the silver fish is muddle-headed. It is not so intelligent. All it knows is that the ice grass is important, but it forgets that the grass is the treasure it has been guarding for 1000 years. The ice grass is gone with Lin Luoran, and there is nothing left but a bead. The silver fish rolls on the sand, making the lake water muddy. It has nowhere to let off the steam in its heart, so it swallows the bead.
In fact, the fish was born with the ice grass. Because it is muddle-headed now, it has no idea that losing the grass will be deadly for it. The fish only feels that the boiling water is becoming more and more unbearable. It can't stay at the bottom of the lake any longer and the bead in its stomach is making it uncomfortable. Thus, the fish decides to play around and digest.
The silver fish swims to the surface of the lake in a few seconds.
The heat at the center of the lake makes the fish feel uneasy. It swims against the current and disappears into the river.
Its stomach is getting more and more upset, and it is bumping itself against pebbles at the bottom of the river doesn't help. Without noticing, the silver fish has gone far away from the lake and out of the range of the ice river.
The silver fish swims along the river into the sea. Now it feels good. It forgets about its stomach and rushes at the little fish living between corals.
The silver fish can knock out a cultivator in the level of Training Qi with one bite, so these defenseless sea fish are no match for it. The silver fish runs around and eats. It is so full that its stomach stops being uncomfortable. Lying between rocks, the silver fish wants to take a nap.
There are so many foods in here and it used to stay at that cold-hot lake where no other fish can survive. It was such a waste of life.
The silver fish burps. It has completely overlooked the warning from deep of its mind — the sea is too dangerous for it!
A seal has been staring at the silver little fish for a long time.
Perhaps the seal wants to eat something else for a change today, it is quite interested in this strange silver fish. However, the seal wasn't able to catch the fish because it was swimming so fast. Now, the silver fish is too full and lazy, so the seal which has been preparing for a long time attacks immediately!
The silver fish only feels that the light becomes dark all of a sudden. The seal bites the fish on its head and swallows the fish.
The fish was too full to move fast.
Also, it was careless and couldn't react quickly enough to use its toxin.
God's arrangements are always so strange. For example, the dead woman didn't expect herself being defeated by Lin Luoran, a junior cultivator in the level of Training Qi. Also, the silver fish, guardian of the ice grass, never thought that it would end up in the stomach of a seal.
The fish will become a high-level monster if it can survive its 1000-year suffering; if not, it will die. It has to lose in order to gain, just like the path of cultivation. People say that human will become immortal as long as they keep cultivating. However, there is no back out in the world of cultivation.
The seal has no idea what the Tao of nature or cultivation is. It has successfully eaten the silver fish. Enjoying the aftertaste, it crawls on to the ice to take a breath and bathe in the sun as usual.
Every spring, when sunlight starts to shine on this cold land and when days become longer, seals will crawl on the ice to enjoy the sun. They always hide behind ice dunes and stay alert to the environment.
It is also the best season for seal-hunting. The sea water is so cold because of all the melting ice, and they will freeze to death if they don't get ashore to bathe in the sun.
On the ice, the seal looks up and glances around every few minutes. Since everything is so quiet, the seal lies down again and continues to enjoy the sun.
Between the seconds the seal looks up and down, it overlooks a piece of white canvas which flutters in the near distance because of its bad eyesight.
A man in white furry hat shows his head. Since the seal moves, he goes back to lurk motionlessly.
The white canvas looks like a pile of ice from the distance, but it is actually moving slowly.
The Eskimos live in the coldest area on earth. They are familiar with hunting and killing a seal which is enjoying the sunbathe on the ice.
The seal falls into sleep with the bead in its stomach. The white canvas moves again.
Storm is coming again...
| ← Ch. 130 | Ch. 132 → |