klisemfg Chapter 498 The Secret of the Rune
Chapter 498 The Secret of the Rune
I was awakened by the morning light filtering through the bamboo curtain.
My forehead felt like it was being pricked by a fine needle, and my throat was dry and sore.
When I regained consciousness, the first thing I felt was the warmth in my palm—Wen Chen's hand was covering mine. He was sitting half-sitting on the edge of the bed, his drooping eyelashes casting small shadows under his eyes, and the ends of his hair were covered with morning dew, which was dripping onto my wrist.
"Awake?" His voice was terribly hoarse, and when he looked up, his eyes were bloodshot like a net, but he still touched my forehead first. "The fever has gone down."
I opened my mouth, only to find my throat was hoarseer than I'd expected: "Fu..."
"Drink your medicine first." He interrupted me, turned around, and picked up the bowl of medicine from the table.
Zi Ling entered from the outer room at some point, carrying a celadon bowl, her hair still damp with dew. "This is Elder Qingfeng's newly prepared 'Refreshing Soup,' he said, because your headache is due to excessive depletion of your spiritual energy." As she handed the bowl to Wen Chen, I noticed her fingertips trembling. "Last night you were delirious with fever, constantly chanting something about 'Cloud Shadow Terrace.'"
Wen Chen blew on the medicine soup and brought it to my lips: "Drink it first."
I stared at the dewdrops still clinging to his eyelashes, then suddenly reached out and pressed my hand against his wrist: "I remember what the runes said."
He paused, the steam from the rim of the medicine bowl hitting my nose: "A-Yao—"
"Cloud Shadow Terrace, concealing true meaning; when true meaning manifests, all eons are resolved." I recited each word carefully, as if a handful of sand had been sprinkled into my throat. "And the light from the key pendant and the scabbard is connected." I took out the key from around my neck; the words "Cloud Shadow" on the back still shimmered with a pale gold. "This isn't a coincidence, is it?"
Wen Chen's thumb gently brushed against the back of my hand: "Elder Qingfeng said that the runes in the ancient cultivation world often communicate using cryptic language. To decipher their true meaning, one must find someone who understands ancient scripts and the Dao of Arrays." He put down the medicine bowl and took a bamboo leaf from his sleeve. "I've had someone invite the Void Spirit Immortal."
The bamboo leaves were still covered with morning dew, and I then noticed a faint bamboo fragrance in the quiet room—the ethereal immortal had arrived?
As the curtain was lifted, I was swallowing the last mouthful of medicine.
Elder Qingfeng stepped in first, his snow-white eyebrows furrowed in two: "Young friend, you're finally awake. This matter of the runes cannot be delayed." Behind him followed an old man in a bamboo-green Taoist robe, a fresh bamboo leaf tucked into his hair; this was none other than the ethereal immortal.
He was still holding a sandalwood box in his hand. The scabbard of the Demon-Slaying Sword that I had been clutching before I fainted last night was lying in the box, the runes still glowing faintly.
“Fairy Xiao.” The ethereal immortal stopped before the bed, his gaze sweeping over the lingering blue marks on my wrist—marks I’d made myself last night when my head ached. “The runes of the ancient cultivation world were originally inscribed into spiritual materials with divine sense. Forcing them upon you with mortal sense is like trying to grasp red-hot iron with a mortal’s hand.” He lightly traced the patterns on the sword scabbard with his fingertips. “However…”
"But what?" Wen Chen's hand tightened on the back of my hand.
The ethereal immortal raised his eyes, a smile appearing in them: "These runes contain a Dao guide." He took out a jade slip from his sleeve. "I probed it with my divine sense, and the veins of the runes actually resonate somewhat with the direction of your spiritual veins." He handed the jade slip to me. "Try it; use your consciousness to follow the path within the jade slip."
The moment I took the jade slip, my fingertips suddenly went numb—the numbness traveled up my arm and into my mind, as if two hands were kneading away the hard lump in my headache.
Wen Chen's breath was right next to my ear: "Stop if you feel something's wrong."
I closed my eyes and guided my consciousness according to the instructions in the jade slip.
This time, there was no excruciating pain; instead, it felt like drawing a clear spring from a dried-up riverbed, spreading along my meridians.
The moment my divine sense touched the runes on the sword sheath, those golden patterns suddenly came to life, unfolding into a picture in my sea of consciousness: a high platform shrouded in clouds and mist, with a jade tablet as tall as a person standing in the center of the platform, and I could actually understand the words on the tablet - "Cloud Shadow Platform, hiding the true meaning; when the true meaning appears, all tribulations are resolved."
"You see it?" The ethereal immortal's voice seemed to drift from a great distance. "These runes are not ordinary markings; they are a cultivation method."
Great masters in the ancient cultivation world often inscribed their most treasured skills into precious artifacts, waiting for a destined person to decipher them. He tapped the scabbard with his knuckles. "The fact that your divine sense can activate the runes indicates that it has recognized your 'fate'."
When I opened my eyes, Wen Chen was staring into my bright eyes.
He reached out and tidied my messy hair: "Does it hurt?"
“It doesn’t hurt.” I took his hand and pressed it against my chest, where it was pounding fiercely. “I can feel it. This method… can make me stronger.”
Elder Qingfeng stroked his beard and chuckled, "This old servant knew that Fairy Xiao was no ordinary person." He turned to the Void Immortal, "And the Cloud Shadow Platform..."
"The Cloud Shadow Platform is the testing ground of the ancient cultivation world." The ethereal immortal sheathed his sword back into its box. "Legend has it that the jade tablet at the center of the platform holds the true meaning of a great being; one must first decipher the runes to see its true essence." As he rose, bamboo leaves from his hair rustled onto my lap. "However, Fairy Xiao, while this method can strengthen one's divine sense, it consumes one's own spiritual energy—"
“I do,” I interrupted him.
Wen Chen's hand suddenly trembled.
I turned to look at him. The emotions surging in his eyes seemed to threaten to engulf me, yet he simply said softly, "I'll stay with you."
The sound of a morning bell came from outside the window. When Ziling came in carrying freshly brewed medicine, I was stroking the "cloud shadow" on my keychain.
The two characters gleamed with a warm gold in the morning light, echoing the runes on the scabbard.
Perhaps, as the female immortal said, "Don't be afraid"—what I want is never smooth sailing, but the courage to grit my teeth and touch the rune again, even if it hurts so much that I faint.
And now, I've finally found the key to that door.
"Once I've mastered this technique," I said, looking up at Wen Chen with a smile, "we'll go to Cloud Shadow Platform."
He tucked the blanket around me, his fingertips brushing against my palm: "Okay."
But the worry in his eyes was thicker than the morning mist.
My hand gripping the scabbard of the Demon-Slaying Sword trembled slightly, the runes beneath my fingertips still retaining the warmth of the clear spring in my sea of consciousness.
Wen Chen smoothed my sweat-soaked hair and brushed his knuckles against my burning earlobe: "Do you really want to start now?" There was still some lingering spiritual energy in his sleeve, indicating that he had set up a triple protective array while I had my eyes closed.
“I can’t wait.” I gently placed the scabbard on my lap, the runes glowing with a honey-colored light in the morning mist, as if echoing my beating heart.
Last night, when I was delirious with fever, I kept dreaming that I was standing in front of the jade tablet at Yunying Terrace. The words on the tablet were shrouded in mist, and they became clearer with each step I took—it was a desire I had never felt before, more urgent than when I was called a good-for-nothing in the mortal world and wanted to prove myself.
The ethereal immortal tapped his bamboo staff on the ground, and the fragrance of bamboo wafted out. "Fairy Xiao's spiritual veins already have a three-tenths affinity with the runes. I've been nourishing them with bamboo dew for the past three days, and today is the perfect time." He shook a green bamboo leaf from his sleeve, a dewdrop clinging to its tip. "Hold it under your tongue; it will help alleviate the depletion of your spiritual energy."
Wen Chen suddenly grabbed my wrist, his fingertips as cold as if they had just been dipped in ice water: "I'm setting up a defensive line around your sea of consciousness. If it stings, pinch my palm." He opened his hand, revealing the crescent-shaped marks I had left from last night in his palm lines. "Stop if it hurts."
I put the bamboo leaf in my mouth, and its bitter taste immediately spread.
The moment he closed his eyes, Wen Chen's scent, mingled with the fragrance of pine, rushed in—he must have used a newly made incense ball.
As my consciousness traveled along the path in the jade slip, I heard my own heartbeat so loud it hurt my eardrums. But this time, there was no burning pain; instead, it felt like a pair of gentle hands were smoothing out my tangled spiritual veins.
"Yes, move it three more fen further towards the heart meridian." The ethereal immortal's voice seemed to float in the clouds. "Be careful to control the flow of spiritual energy; don't let the runes absorb it too quickly."
The scroll in my mind unfolded again.
The words on the jade tablet were no longer blurred. The words "Cloud Shadow Platform, Hiding True Meaning" shone with a golden light, and the patterns on the tablet even connected with the runes on the scabbard of the Demon-Slaying Sword.
I tried to touch the words with my divine sense. As soon as my fingertips touched the words "true meaning", the entire scroll suddenly shook violently. The scabbard on my knee was incredibly hot. I opened my eyes abruptly, and the sweat on my forehead hit the scabbard with a soft "hiss".
"What's wrong?" Wen Chen's hand instantly pressed against my back, his spiritual energy flowing in like a warm spring. "Does it hurt?"
The ethereal immortal leaned closer, the tip of his bamboo staff touching the runes on the sword scabbard. "It's a good thing," he said, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "The runes are actively absorbing your spiritual energy, which means the method is starting to operate." He turned to Wen Chen with a smile, "Immortal Venerable, don't be nervous. When this old servant untangled the ancient jade slip, I was also burned with red marks."
Wen Chen's thumb repeatedly rubbed the red mark on my wrist, his Adam's apple bobbed, but he ultimately said nothing more.
Over the next seven days, the sandalwood incense in the quiet room grew stronger and stronger.
I get up at dawn every day and meditate in the spirit-gathering array made of warm dust cloth. The ethereal immortal guards the table, and the tip of his bamboo staff is always covered with freshly picked bamboo leaves—he says that the bamboo energy can stabilize the fluctuations of the runes.
Zi Ling delivers spiritual porridge three times a day, and there is always a Gathering Dew Pill at the bottom of the bowl. She says that Elder Qing Feng specially prepared it to replenish spiritual energy without harming one's foundation.
On the morning of the seventh day, just as I finished my practice, Wen Chen suddenly grabbed my wrist.
His fingertips pressed against my pulse, and the fine lines at the corners of his eyes tightened: "Ayao, your spiritual veins..."
"What?" I asked, staring at his suddenly bright eyes.
“It’s 20% earlier than seven days ago.” He pulled me to the window, where morning light filtered through the gauze curtains and fell on our clasped hands. “Look.”
I followed his gaze—a layer of pale golden light appeared in his palm, like crushed stars, flickering with his breath.
That was a sight I never dared to imagine before. In the mortal realm, I couldn't even draw qi into my body, but now I could make spiritual power manifest.
"Fairy Xiao is indeed a prodigy." The ethereal immortal stood at the doorway, a string of freshly picked bamboo leaves hanging from his staff. "Practice for three more days, and you'll achieve a minor mastery of this technique." He paused, his gaze sweeping over the sword sheath on my lap. "But..."
"Just what?" Wen Chen's voice deepened.
"The runes are absorbing spiritual energy at an accelerated rate." The ethereal immortal tapped the sword sheath with the tip of his bamboo staff, and the previously faint golden light now shone brightly. "This old servant used my divine sense to probe them yesterday, and they seemed... to be searching for something."
I suddenly remembered the strange phenomenon I witnessed while meditating last night—a thin crack suddenly appeared on the jade tablet in my sea of consciousness, and a ray of light brighter than the runes leaked out from the crack. Just as I was about to get closer to take a look, I was awakened by Wen Chen's spiritual power.
He was holding me, his back covered in cold sweat, and said that the fluctuations in my mind were so strong that they were about to break through his defenses.
"Perhaps the opportunity to reach Cloud Shadow Platform is approaching." I pressed my hand against the scabbard, the heat seeping through the fabric into my palm. "Once we've mastered the basics, we'll go."
Wen Chen didn't say anything, but simply pulled me closer to his arms.
His heartbeat came through his clothes, unusually fast.
On the night of the eighth day, I was meditating when the sword sheath suddenly vibrated violently. With a "crack," it sprang up from the table, and the runes shone brightly with golden light, illuminating the entire quiet room.
I instinctively reached out to grab it, but was burned and pulled my hand back—the temperature this time was ten times higher than usual, as if it would burn through my skin.
"A-Yao!" Wen Chen's voice whistled through the air as he rushed forward, shielding me behind him, frost-colored sword energy condensing at his fingertips. "Get back!"
The scabbard emitted a clear "hum," and enveloped in golden light, it hovered in mid-air before slowly drifting out the window.
As I gazed at that ball of light, I suddenly remembered the light that emanated from the crack in the jade tablet last night—it was exactly the same color as this ball of light.
“Don’t stop it.” I tugged at Wen Chen’s sleeve. “It’s calling to me.”
Wen Chen turned to look at me, her eyes swirling with struggle, but she finally let go of my hand.
When the scabbard floated to the window, it suddenly emitted a blinding light, and I instinctively closed my eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, the bamboo curtains in the quiet room were billowing in the wind, and in the distance came the disciples' exclamations: "Look!"
Golden light shines from the summit of Zhuxie Peak!
Wen Chen gripped my hand tightly, his knuckles turning white: "A Yao, this fluctuation..."
“I know.” I looked out the window at the increasingly bright golden light, and a sweet, metallic taste rose in my throat—a sign of excessive consumption of spiritual energy.
But I knew in my heart that this was not a sign of danger, but rather a tremor before the door opened.
The true meaning of Yunyingtai will likely be revealed sooner rather than later.