When Snow Ends, Green Returns - Chapter 3

When my cultivation was low, the lingering drugs flared every two or three months. Each attack lasted anywhere from three days to half a month, and every time, the pain made death seem preferable.

At such times, Yu Xuejin would silently cast pain-numbing spells for me.

But the hardship and wounds I suffered in ordinary training and expeditions were, in his eyes, trials his disciple needed.

Cultivation was a struggle against heaven itself in a world where the strong devoured the weak. If you feared pain, hardship, exhaustion, and death, if you lacked the heart of the strong, why cultivate at all?

You might as well go home and drink milk.

Besides, Yu Xuejin feared raising me into a fragile flower who could not survive this brutal cultivation world without him.

So unless my injuries were serious, he rarely used pain-numbing spells. At most, he prepared superb healing pills for me.

But during these last ten years…

Perhaps it was because we had formed a Dao-companion bond, changing my status from disciple to partner.

Or perhaps my attempt on my own life had frightened him.

In recent years, whenever Yu Xuejin noticed I was hurt, he cast a pain-numbing spell without another word.

My body still needed time to heal, but the pain vanished completely.

Yu Xuejin only glanced at me and, unexpectedly, seemed disinclined to pursue the matter. One arm circled my shoulders while the other slid beneath my knees, and he lifted me into his arms.

Instinctively, I clasped my arms around his neck.

His steps were steady as he carried me into the side hall.

“Shizun…” I called uneasily.

“Use my name.”

“…Xuejin.”

“Xuejin, I really do know I was wrong,” I said softly.

Yu Xuejin placed me on a meditation cushion, sat behind me, and pressed both palms to my back. He drew out the demonic qi remaining inside me, then sent spiritual power through my extraordinary meridians to heal my wounds.

“And what good does knowing do?” he replied calmly. “You won’t change.”

“Ever since you became my disciple, your apologies have been like farts. Once they’re out, you consider the matter over.”

Guilt silenced me.

“Once you’re healed, you’re going nowhere. You will stay by my side.”

I nodded obediently. “All right, Xuejin.”

Yu Xuejin inspected my primordial spirit as well. Only when he saw no fractures did he relax.

He gathered me into his arms, kissed my forehead, and murmured my name. “Huiqing…”

I tipped my head up, looped my arms around his neck, and kissed him. My tongue slipped between his lips to twine gently with his, greedily drinking in his breath.

“Xuejin, I want to dual-cultivate with you…”

Yu Xuejin had planned to remain in seclusion for half a year. Though he emerged one month early, he had still been gone for five months!

For ten years, he had practically wanted to hang me from his belt, while I clung to him at every moment. This was the longest we had ever been apart.

Five whole months! o(╥_╥)o

I missed him terribly.

I wanted to hold him, kiss him, share the deepest intimacy between lovers, and watch him possess me…

Even if I could not leave the bed for a month, I would accept it.

Yu Xuejin, usually so gentle and soft-spoken, laughed in anger and raised his voice. “Ji Huiqing! Have you looked at your injuries? Any other cultivator would already be half-dead, and this is still all you can think about?!”

“But it doesn’t hurt,” I said plaintively.

These little wounds would heal in another two or three days. Even without his spell, I would not have cared.

Yu Xuejin said nothing.

Then he rejected me mercilessly. “No. Wait until you’re healed.”

“We could join our spirits instead…”

“No.”

I fell silent.

My attempt at seduction had failed.

I was disappointed.

But I soon rallied.

Well, two or three days was nothing.

Yu Xuejin sighed and helplessly stroked my hair.

He did not look angry.

Only at a loss with me.

Nestled against him, I gazed up at his breathtaking face, then lowered my head to breathe in the cool, refined fragrance of snow lotus on his body.

Shizun was so beautiful…

Yu Xuejin smelled so good…

Adoration and love surged inside me, drowning me like a heavy, humid sea.

I could not help holding him tighter, like a dodder vine that lived by clinging to its host, and felt incomparable joy and contentment.

I was truly happy…

If this was a beautiful dream, then let it continue forever. Let me never wake…

The novel I had entered was a power-fantasy cultivation story about an overpowered hero who leveled up through endless battles.

The plot was utterly standard.

Sacrifice the family; gain boundless power.

At the beginning, the Ji clan was slaughtered by its enemies.

The hero narrowly survived, consumed by hatred, and met the passing Immortal Venerable Yu Xuejin.

Yu Xuejin pitied his plight and took him back to Tianheng Sect.

It happened to be time for the sect’s entrance examination, held once every five years: testing spiritual roots, crossing illusion realms, climbing the celestial stairs, group combat, and every other manner of selection used to draw new blood into the sect.