novelBalance in Character
| ← Ch.161 | Ch.163 → |
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
"That's decided, then. We have no disciples in our sect, anyway. We will keep this girl as our disciple, " Qi Chengyu said.
"No way!" Lonemoon surprisingly objected.
"Why not?"
"Not only because of cultivation technique." Lonemoon frowned. Things may not have been turning out according to the plot, but it did not mean that what was said in the plot would not still come true. He did not feel safe handing the female lead over to Qi Chengyu, who had no clue about the plot - especially not when the little girl still seemed to be suffering from bad luck."She... is quite special. You can train her, but you cannot take her as your disciple."
"Special?" Qi Chengyu paused."What's special?"
Lonemoon kept quiet. He could not tell her that the little girl was the female lead who might cause Qi Chengyu to die."She... she..."
"She has a demonic seed in her, " Shen Ying said suddenly.
What?
Everyone was shocked. They all turned to look at her.
"What!" Lonemoon snatched the fruit from Shen Ying's hand."What demonic seed? How do you know that?"
"I saw it!" Shen Ying tilted her head.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"You didn't ask!"
"..." Where's my knife!
"Isn't there a symbol of a lotus on her forehead?" Shen Ying took another fruit and bit it."I thought you knew it."
"What has this got to do with the..." Lonemoon paused mid-sentence, recalling something important. Suddenly, his eyes widened."She... She isn't the mental demon seed that Ning Zi'an cut away, is she?" At that time, the female infant did indeed have an identical lotus mark on her forehead.
"That's right!"
Holy shit!
Right my ass! This was such an important matter, yet she did not bother to say anything about it. Lonemoon felt a sudden urge to beat her to death. Thinking back to the plot, he realised everything was turning out exactly the way it should.
The male lead in the plot trained himself in the ruthless sword technique, but he was different toward the female lead whom he had just met. Not only did he teach her his skills, he went the extra mile in protecting her and ultimately fell in love with her. Lonemoon initially thought that the female lead was just attractive, but thinking about it more carefully, it appeared possible that he treated her that way because they were of the same body. That was probably why they felt attracted to each other. What's more, at the time, the male lead did not even know he was Celestial Emperor Chen Ge.
"Wait!" Lonemoon exclaimed, remembering something."Her looks... She doesn't look like a mental demon seed." He checked the child's spirit roots and meridians. She didn't even have a bit of demonic Qi in her, much less a demon seed. She looked like a completely average child. At the most, she had a better body-type. Of course, this could be attributed to her pure Yin body-type.
"Oh..." Shen Ying recalled something and added, "Your male lead made the lotus flower melt into her body."
"Lotus flower?" Lonemoon pondered over this and turned around, shocked."It's not the... Heart-Cleansing Lotus, is it?"
"I think it is."
As she spoke, everybody felt a weight in their chest.
Yu Hong grimaced."No wonder... no wonder Junior Sister's luck... is this way."
"What's wrong?" Shen Ying, the illiterate immortal, turned to Chef and asked, "What's the problem?"
"Master..." Yi Qing fell silent, then began to answer, "It is said that the Heart-Cleansing Lotus is a treasured belonging of the immortal families. It cleanses the spirit and relaxes the consciousness, purging it of all evil thoughts and desires. It keeps one pure and clear. That's why it's called the Heart-Cleansing Lotus. There is a cause and effect to everything in this world, so the Heart-Cleansing Lotus usually only appears in places with rich Yin Qi. But..." Yi Qing paused."The mental demon seed is, by nature, evil. Implanting it into her body is akin to poisoning her. The Heart-Cleansing Lotus thus controls this demonic Qi and ensures that she never becomes a demon again."
"Uh-huh." She already knew this."And then?"
"And then..." Yi Qing frowned more deeply and answered in an even tone, "The next time she reincarnates, she will be able to get rid of the demonic Qi. If I'm not wrong, this is the third time she has been reborn. That's why the demonic Qi is more or less gone. But as in all things, you win some and you lose some. She made use of the reincarnation process to get rid of the demonic Qi, so she must pay the price. Obviously, the price she's paid is... her luck!"
"Huh?" What does that mean?
"Master, her luck is bad for a reason." She's paying the price for having the Heart-Cleansing Lotus and for the loss of her demonic Qi."What's more, luck cannot be changed. Even if she becomes an independent soul in future, she will still... live an entire life of misfortune."
"..." So she's going to be extremely unlucky?
He was afraid the Lotus in Xuan Tong would cause trouble again. What's more, the Heart-Cleansing Lotus had already become one with Xuan Tong's body - nobody could remove it.
"If that's the case, we won't keep her!" Feng Ying suddenly said."Little Yu, you can just guide her training."
Although Feng Ying did not quite understand what he was hearing, he did understand that the child was not suitable to be taken in as a disciple. They went through so much trouble just to get to where they were. Little Yu had not even agreed to become his Dao partner! It would definitely do more harm than good to take in a disciple at this time. They should not - not even one!
"But..." Roasted Chicken Gal hesitated.
"The more unpredictable thing in this world is luck. We can't help her..."
Before he could finish, they all heard a familiar sound.
[Ding! Success in obtaining the item. Attribute Balancer: If you carry this item around, you can balance multiple attributes in your body (including luck)!]
With another ding, a blue necklace made of crystal appeared out of nowhere and dropped onto the ground.
Feng Ying: "..."
Shen Ying: "..."
Those who heard Shen Ying, who had been repeating after the system word-for-word: "..."
Flips table! Why couldn't he even woo a girl in peace!
——————
The system was of high technology indeed. After Shortie put the necklace on, her situation changed for the better. She no longer had a bad fall every three days, nor did she knock into the various furniture every five days. She even tripped far less while walking. She could ascend the mountain without getting hurt.
It was just that the balance was too thorough. While her luck increased, the other aspects of her character decreased. She had a pretty good spirit root and body-type to begin with. It could have allowed her to become stronger really quickly. Yet, after she put on the necklace, she became as average as other three- or four-spirit-root cultivators.
Roasted Chicken Gal explained the various choices to Xuan Tong so that she could make her own decision, but Xuan Tong ultimately decided to keep the necklace on. Although she took much longer to train, she still reaped the benefits of being born in the immortal world. Compared to cultivators in the mortal realm, she was already improving very quickly.
Qi Chengyu did not formally take her in as her disciple, but their relationship was hardly different from a master-disciple relationship. Perhaps it was because they suffered the same fate. Each day, after they finished training, Roasted Chicken Gal would spend the rest of her time offering advice to Xuan Tong. Feng Ying was understandably very dissatisfied with this situation. In an odd display of power, he would go into the training ground just to make his presence known. However Qi Chengyu would throw him out again.
Therefore, each day, the disciples saw a black figure being thrown out of the practice grounds.
The panic this caused in Invincible Sect slowly turned from an urge to remedy the situation to finally becoming used to it.
Perhaps because of what she went through as a child, Xuan Tong trained hard each day. Although the stabilisation was limiting her training, she took it very seriously and continued to train hard day and night. In a mere four years, she reached the advanced Golden Core stage. She looked very close to becoming a Nascent Soul. While her cultivation level was the lowest among all the disciples, she was already showing signs of growing immortal bones. They expected that in a few more years, she would become a true immortal. By this time, she had also grown from a Shortie to a beautiful teenage girl- even taller than Yu Hong.
The only thing that did not change was her offerings to Sect Master.
Shen Ying looked around the peak of the mountain and saw the greenery that did not seem to have an end. Sighing deeply, she wondered when she would ever finish all of the vegetables. Would she have to become a vegetarian?Suddenly, the future seemed bleak. What about... catching a rabbit for Shortie to keep?
"More water, more water." Radish was waving its leaves and catching the water that was dripping from Shen Ying's scoop. It said excitedly, "Little Big Sister, if you water me every day, I promise that all the vegetables here would double."
"..." Double?
Shen Ying's expression darkened. She kept her scoop and turned to leave. She did not want more vegetables!
"Eh?" Radish stared blankly at her bank and immediately ran forward, using its leaves to catch the corner of her robe. Half of its body was out of the ground."Little Big Sister, don't go. Radish has not seen you in a long time." Hmph! If its enemy had not sealed it here to take care of the vegetables, it would not be here! All it wanted was to remain in Little Big Sister's backyard and sprout flowers for her.
It thought that Shen Ying would kick it aside as she always did, but she suddenly stopped where she was and looked deep in thought.
"Little Big Sister... What's wrong?" Radish climbed onto her thigh.
Shen Ying tilted her head and answered, "Do you think... the black fog seems to be dissipating?
Huh? What fog?
| ← Ch. 161 | Ch. 163 → |