Chapter 211 Study Circle Before Refine Weapons
Autumn is almost gone. The fat crabs still taste perfect, yet leaves on trees have turned yellow. After a gust of wind, yellow leaves fall and cover the ground. Winter is coming.
The cyan little fox has started to pull out grass and make its own nest. However, there is not much grass in the backyard so it has to make do with bamboo leaves fallen on the island.
It's already winter and most of the animals living in the mountains seldom go out. This makes it harder for Goldie to hunt for food. Mr. Lin has been thinking about whether he should buy some beef from the market to feed Goldie. One day, he sees Goldie grabbing a big snake. From the mud on its claws, Mr. Lin knows that Goldie has just dug into the snake's cave.
"Pah!" Goldie throws the snake to Mr. Lin. Ms. Lin screams. In a hurry, Mr. Lin casts a "Bound Spell". Since he is not skilled in this spell, Mr. Lin almost uses up all his wood Reiki to strap this big snake which weighs over ten pounds.
Ms. Lin is soaked in her own sweat. She is scared, "Goldie is becoming more and more cranky these days!"
Looking at the golden hawk, Mr. Lin suddenly realizes, "Don't blame it. This snake is a gift! You should thank it!" The big snake can't even move while being tightly strapped by the vines of the iron thorn. Mr. Lin walks to the snake and lifts it up, laughing.
"It's cold. This is the best season to have some snake stew. This snake is so big. We shall invite Cui and his family here and share it."
Ms. Lin has seen and cooked snakes before. She was just startled by the size of this one.
Over the phone, Fatty Cui promises to come immediately after Mr. Lin says they are going to have a snake dinner. After arriving, Fatty Cui looks at the big snake hanging on a tree and asks in amazement,
"How should we cook it?"
Ms. Lin says that she is going to stew the snake. As a foodie, Fatty Cui shakes his head and says that making a stew is such a waste of this big snake. In the end, under Cui's recommendation, the snake is chopped into parts and made into snake stew, snake soup, and stir-fried snake.
Cui's daughter, Lucy, is three years old. She has entered kindergarten. Wang Miao'e and Fatty Cui have moved back to downtown for Lucy. Lucy hasn't seen Luodong for a long time. Today, she is happy to be at Lin's house. She runs around in the front yard and then drags her mother to play with her in the back yard. Though Wang Miao'e has seen Goldie for several times, she feels creepy when Goldie stares at her.
Lucy is clearly more vigorous than other three-year-old girls. She runs in and out of Lin's vegetable field and steps on the bridge which leads to the little island before her mother even notices.
"Cui Wanlu, stop right there!" Wang Miao'e shouts, hands on her waist.
Lucy giggles and starts to run faster. Within a few seconds, she is on the island.
That's right, Lucy is Cui Wanlu's nickname. Her fat and cheesy father gave her such a beautiful and elegant name. Fatty Cui loves his daughter so much that he never thinks that she is naughty. He always believes that she is just pure and innocent.
The cyan little fox acts aggressively at this little girl who just stepped onto its territory. Luch is not afraid at all. She thinks that the little fox is playing with her and she claps her hands and stamps her feet. The little fox is furious. It comes at Lucy and tries to scratch her with its paws. Then it is lifted up by the neck.
"Aunt Lin!" Lucy calls. Then she reaches out to pinch the little fox in the nose.
The cyan little fox struggles because it is in such a disgraceful position right now. However, it can't get out of Lin's hand.
Seeing that Lin Luoran suddenly shows up on the island, Wang Miao'e stops to worry about her daughter's safety.
The weather is cold. Though they've been drinking the spirit wine for years, they put on warm clothes. Lin Luoran is the only one who still wears light clothes. Wang looks at Lin talking to Lucy under the bamboos and feels that Lin Luoran has become thinner again.
"You were in closed cultivation the last a few times I came here. What makes you come out today?"
Lin Luoran smiles. She lets go of the little fox after telling it not to hurt anybody.
"I've smelt the fragrance of snake stew so I come out to join the party!" Lin Luoran stands shoulder by shoulder with Wang Miao'e. Four years ago, when Lin first bought the house, Master Jia personally made some dishes and treated them in the bamboo cabin.
Lin Luoran can still remember the taste of the dish called "Fragrant Balls in the Fog", but the four people who enjoyed the dished together now have different lives.
Back then, Lin Luoran just stepped onto the path of cultivation. She didn't know any spells nor had any magic weapon. She couldn't even use the Reiki inside of her body. Four years have passed and she has laid foundation.
Four years ago, Wang Miao'e was a normal businesswoman. She was over forty years old and she couldn't bear a child. Now, she is slim and pretty, and her daughter is already in kindergarten.
Baojia was a jewelry designer and her grandfather was the commander of the military district. Baojia had a rich fiancé back then, and lots of other girls were jealous of her... Now, Baojia is also a cultivator and she seldom designs jewelry. Commander Qin is retired and Liu Zheng is far away. Baojia is missing. Maybe she is somewhere, waiting for Lin to find the Soul Wood and wake her up.
Lin is not sure whether she will find the Soul Wood soon. She feels that as her cultivation grows, things in life don't become any easier.
Perhaps everybody has to experience the gains and losses of life.
"Wang, do you know where Master Jia is?"
During the past four years, every detail of the house demonstrates that it belongs to the Lin family. Master Jia, who said he was going to visit some friends, now is nowhere to be found. Lin Luoran is worried.
Wang Miao'e shakes her head. She notices Lin's worries and she doesn't mention the fact that Master Jia's family has also been looking for him for four years and they find nothing. Wang hopes that no bad news is the best situation for now.
"Forget about this. Let's go and taste the snake meat!" Lin Luoran changes the topic. She holds Lucy in her arms and heads to the dining room. The cyan little fox is also attracted by the fragrance and it follows Lin and Wang to the dining room. It tries to take out a piece of snake meat from the boiling pot, and its paws are burnt.
Ms. Lin takes out a deep plate and puts some soup and meat inside. She gives the plate to the little fox. The little fox jumps onto the chair, sits by the dinner table and starts to eat.
Lin Luodong is back home from school and Wei Xue comes with him. The two of them have become best friends and they sometimes go to each other's house for dinner. The Lin family is happy that Luodong goes well with Wei Xue, and Wei Xue's parents also are glad to see their daughter grow closer with Luodong. After all, Lin Luodong's grades at school are good.
Lucy feels that her uncle Luodong is taken away by this girl she doesn't know, and she keeps staring at Wei Xue. Wei is not afraid of Lucy either and she stares back. The adults on the table are aware of this, yet they don't intervene.
This warm "snake dinner" is just a break for Lin Luoran. When she returns to the basement, she becomes focused again.
Lin Luoran has drawn so many lines on the ground of the basement that she doesn't even have a clean place to stand.
Fortunately, the results are satisfying.
Lin is holding a crystal-clear jade. This is the best protection jade pendant she made. It took her three months to figure out the structure of protective magic circles and to carve the circles on a small jade pendant.
Zeng Tian had long since delivered the bamboo sheets Lin asked for to her house. In order to focus on the magic circles, Lin Luoran hasn't even looked through them.
It is necessary to have effective tools to do good work. Finding the Soul Wood is certainly important, but Lin Luoran has to ensure the safety of her family first. She doesn't want to put them in danger again.
Also, Lin Luoran finds it worthwhile to spend three months on studying magic circles. After all, magic circles are important when it comes to making some armors.
Lin gathers some Reiki on her fingertip and directs them to hit the jade pendant. When the Reiki are one meter away from the jade pendant, light starts to shine on the pendant. Then, the Reiki are dissipated. Nothing else happens.
Lin Luoran makes several more attempts and the jade pendant on the ground is finally broken into dust.
Commander Qin's jade pendant didn't turn into dust before. It now turns out that Lin has underestimated the material of Commander Qin's jade pendant and the crazy Taoist's cultivation.
During the "Inception of Spirit", pendants made from the same piece of jade may acquire different effects based on the level of cultivation of their owners.
For example, the jade pendant Lin made is able to stand any attack in the level of Training Qi, yet it only has one chance of protecting its owner from the Wakan of cultivators in the level of Laying Foundation.
Though Lin Luoran is not so skilled in weapon refining, the jade she used to make the pendant is not of the best quality... Jade can contain Reiki, which makes it the best material to carve magic circles. However, jade is not enough to serve as real weapons.
Suddenly, it comes to Lin Luoran that she once saw a large bluestone on the mountain of her native town. Back then, she only thought that the bluestone was unusual because a black epiphyllum was growing on it.
Now Lin Luoran realizes how magical the black epiphyllum is.
At that time, the flame fruit in her space helped cleanse her meridians and bone marrow. It was the best time to start to cultivate, but Lin didn't because no one was there to teach her. Only after the black epiphyllum opened her ocean of consciousness, she officially stepped on the path of cultivation. Or else she would be an ordinary person who may make a fortune by selling the vegetable she grows in the space.
How could the bluestone be normal?
According to the Introduction of Swords, Lin believes that the bluestone can be used to make weapons, but she is not sure whether it is the right material to make protective pendants.
Looking at the scorpion shell which has become black liquid after all the boiling, Lin Luoran can't decide whether she should go get the bluestone or not.
Chapter 212 Six Months for an Armor
Lin Luoran slices down a piece of a two-meter-long shell of the Scorpion King to do an experiment. After refined by the Strange Fire, the shell gradually melts into a pile of shiny black liquid. It is floating above the Strange Fire and changing its shape.
After being refined, the two-meter-long raw material becomes one bowl of black liquid. It is the essence of the scorpion shell. The three months she spent is not wasted. She has designed a set of methods for refining armors after she completed the broken magic circle and studied the chapter of refining weapons in Introduction of Swords many times.
She puts a lot of pieces of jade next to her and sits near the Strange Fire.
Several translucent lights appear between her fingers. They connect her fingers and they target at the liquid scorpion shell.
Lin Luoran recalls her design for the armor and controls the light. She uses the light to pull and shape the black liquid carefully.
This step seems to be easy, but actually, the pile of black liquid is unbreakable and it will take a lot of strength for Lin Luoran to pull it.
The spiritual mind plays a very important part in keeping the shape in mind while refining weapons. Those whose spiritual mind is not strong enough will probably make mistakes in their first try of refining weapons: they may want a knife and end up with a sword... This subtle controlling force is a trial for controlling the spiritual mind.
The liquid becomes longer and thinner and it is shaped above the Strange Fire.
There are dazzling sparkles on the surface. Little by little, it becomes the shape that Lin Luoran wants it to be.
There is not much shiny black liquid. With Lin Luoran's control, it is forming the shape of sleeves and waistline. After Lin Luoran used up her Reiki and the Reiki of several pieces of jade, a black armor that looks like a battle suit from manga takes shape.
She withdraws Reiki and the "battle suit" drops to the ground and breaks a few cabbages.
It is black but shiny. It is as thin as a cicada's wings but it is very heavy. It is the clothes refined from the scorpion shell.
Lin Luoran picks up the "clothes" and she feels a little embarrassed. She doesn't have experience in designing clothes and her family live in the city so she can't make a robe. The design from manga seems to be funny, but it can protect the shoulders, the body and ankles very well. It is very functional as it is both protective and light.
It is very convenient for Mrs. Lin to wear it next to the skin. She can wear whatever she wants and no one will notice.
Of course, this is only the first step.
After regaining Reiki, Lin Luoran takes out the diamond of fire that she got from the Strange Fire. There is no Reiki inside her mother's body, so after she finishes the magic circle, this armor can only take a few attacks before it cracks, just like the jade pendant of Commander Qin's grandmother — after all, this kind of magic weapons are made for cultivators and when they are used to protect ordinary people, they need to be more powerful.
If she doesn't have the diamond of fire, Lin Luoran will probably inset some pieces of jade. Although it may look like she is showing off, they are useful. Now that she has the diamond of fire, it is enough to be used as the circle core.
Lin Luoran is making hand gestures and carefully pinches a fire line from the Strange Fire and burns it at the waistline. That part becomes soft gradually and Lin Luoran insets the diamond of fire at the melted part with Reiki.
She withdraws the Strange Fire and waits until the clothes cool down again. The diamond of fire is inset at the waistline. The scarlet diamond is eye-catching on black. Lin Luoran restrains her excitement and keeps the clothes inside the space.
Walking out of the basement, she finds herself very hungry so she heads to the kitchen. Lin Luoran looks at her watch and finds that the refining and shaping of the armor take three days. No wonder she feels hungry.
After getting something to eat, Lin Luoran goes back to her room and has a nice sleep in her bed. She has slept for over ten hours. Therefore, when she returns to the space, she is in a good fettle again.
The reason why she is so solemn is that the next step is very crucial in refining weapons — carving magic circles.
The armor Lin Luoran refines is a low-grade magic weapon. There is room for mistakes at the beginning of the refining process. When purifying raw materials, if it is not purified enough, it will affect the quality but will not cause any other bad consequences; if anything happens during shaping, it will only make the product look uglier.
However, if anything goes wrong with the carving of magic circles, the magic weapon will be ruined unless the maker starts all over again.
The scorpion shell is extremely hard so Lin Luoran cannot carve with Reiki. The best way is to control the Strange Fire to carve the magic circle.
Lin Luoran has to be highly focused to pinch a line of Strange Fire and use it to carve the magic circle.
She casts a "Fire-drawing Spell" and pinches a line of fire from the Strange Fire. It looks like a needle jumping inside Lin Luoran's hand. Lin Luoran calms down and starts carving.
Actually, she is more like "piercing" instead of carving.
Every needle falls on a special node. These nodes seem to be arranged casually and disorderly, but together they form a shape, which is the key to this protective magic circle.
Lin Luoran knows that the most important part of a magic circle is its nodes after she made a lot of experiments and drawings and finally completed a broken magic circle. It is the nodes that evoke the echo of Reiki between the sky and the ground. The nodes can change some rules inside the magic circle and make it powerful enough to make life-or-death choices.
It works like the spells. Each spell has a corresponding hand gesture. The higher the level of the spell is, the more complicated the hand gesture is. Perhaps this is how cultivators draw Reiki to them. It is indeed a bold assumption that the nodes and the frequency of spells are connected. Lin Luoran doesn't know if other cultivators know about this. However, she only has one broken magic circle to study but other cultivators must have a lot if they want to, no matter how much the cultivation world has declined.
Every spot Lin Luoran pierces with her "needle" is close to the diamond of fire, which is the circle core she sets for the magic circle. As long as the diamond is not broken, it can deliver Reiki and make the armor able to protect ordinary people.
She is highly focused. Some nodes are big, so she has to burn it with the Strange Fire more; some are very small, so she has to pierce it quickly. This job is very taxing and every movement she makes is made carefully.
When she is tired, she lies down under the apple tree; when she is hungry, she eats some fruits; when she is thirsty, she drinks from the little pool... One day, Lin Luoran finds that food tastes bland in her mouth and she realizes the passing of time.
Finally, she finishes the last movement...
The trace of the magic circle is like a complicated pattern. Lin Luoran looks at this simple clothes with secret design hidden in it and smiles.
Her nails have grown longer and she seems to be staying in the space for a long time.
Fortunately, she is now better at controlling the Strange Fire and she has made no mistakes. Looking at the armor, Lin Luoran knows that the last step has come.
Lines and nodes have only set the foundation for the magic circle. Making an armor that can protect the owner needs more than Reiki. The final step is called "incepting in spirit".
Reiki is not enough for this — this step requires Wakan of Laying Foundation. Therefore, even if ordinary people get something like an "encyclopedia for magic circles", they can carve nothing more than a pile of useless lines.
Wakan lights up the nodes one by one... They are just like stars hidden behind clouds and now they are showing themselves. Lin Luoran increases the input of Wakan. After a long time, she finally sees the "stars" connected together by Wakan. They are now moving on an orbit centering the diamond of fire—
The armor is still dark, but suddenly, it has a soul. Lin Luoran smiles.
She takes the clothes out. The snow on the roof has disappeared and vegetables are growing well in the backyard. There is green on the willow trees near the lake. Winter has gone and spring arrives. It's been half a year since she went in... She has spent six months to make this one armor. With all her time and energy, even she has been dealing with an ordinary piece of iron, it should be an unstoppable sword!
Chapter 213 A Different Path
When Lin Luoran gives the armor to her mother like giving her a treasure, she doesn't receive her mother's compliment. Instead, Mrs. Lin pulls her ears.
"How dare you! You didn't accompany your family at the Spring Festival. You have been in your basement since last October. Our bamboo shoots have grown from being eatable to real bamboos and then you come out... Luodong got the highest score in his school this term. He has waited for you for the whole vacation. We live in the same yard. Do you mean that even if your dad and I want to see you, we have to make an appointment first?"
Lin Luoran's ears are red. When she was five, she let go of their neighbor's chickens and her mother pulled her ears like this. This "pulling ears" has been accompanied her as she grows up. However, when she gets older, Mrs. Lin doesn't do this very often. It seems that she is really angry this time.
"Mom, please be gentle..." Lin Luoran hides behind her father, just like what she used to do. Mr. Lin helps Lin Luoran with a lot of sweet talk. Finally, Mrs. Lin's attention is drawn to the clothes.
It seems to be light. However, when Mrs. Lin lifts it up, it is over dozens of kilograms heavy. How to wear it? Lin Luoran takes her mother's hand on the diamond of fire and Mrs. Lin feels like her finger is stung and some blood drops on the diamond and soon they are absorbed.
"What's this?" Mrs. Lin is a little afraid of this blood-sucking diamond.
Mr. Lin is curious, "Is this dropping blood to recognize the owner?"
Different from his wife, who is always staying in the kitchen, Mr. Lin has lived a younger life and he has kept up with the pace. He has read some novels on cultivation and he is not strange to this action.
Lin Luoran nods her head and Mrs. Lin is curious.
After her blood is absorbed by the diamond of fire, Mrs. Lin feels that she and the black clothes are somehow connected and it feels good.
This time, the armor is much lighter and softer. Mrs. Lin feels skeptical and heads to her room to try it on.
"This is comfortable... I don't even feel that I wear it..." The fabric suits her well. It is fascinating.
Lin Luoran closes her eyes and feels the magic circle. It is operating correctly. Suddenly, the fire appears in her hands and it is thrown to Mrs. Lin.
Mr. Lin wants to go and protect his wife, but he suddenly realizes that it is their daughter and she will never hurt her mother. Therefore, Mr. Lin doesn't move and looks at them. As for Mrs. Lin, she doesn't have time to react as her daughter is very fast but she is just an ordinary person.
The fire blasts in front of Mrs. Lin. Suddenly, the soft light on her successfully stops the fire. The armor is like a shield set by Lin Luoran's magic and it gives Mrs. Lin protection from all directions.
Mrs. Lin is shocked but Lin Luoran has tested all the five natures of Reiki to "attack" her. Perhaps it is because of the diamond of fire and the place where the Scorpion King lived, this armor is inclined to the nature of fire. When it is attacked by spells of fire nature, it not only resists the attack but also absorbs some Reiki and uses it for defense — turning attack into defense, it means that it has become a perfect second-grade armor. Lin Luoran cannot believe that it is just the first one she finishes.
Mr. Lin feels pleased. The clothes refined by his daughter has given much protection to his wife, who cannot protect herself.
"Dad, I have some other things to do. When I finish, I will make one for you and one for Luodong. Please wait for me, ok?"
Mr. Lin answers with a smile.
As a parent, seeing that the daughter has made more and more progress, how can he not feel happy?
Mrs. Lin is attracted by this fascinating clothes. Lin Luoran goes back to her study while her mother focuses on the clothes.
The study locates in the bamboo house on the little island. One room is occupied by the cyan fox and another room stores a lot of books Lin Luoran collects. Spring arrives and bamboo shoots grow from the ground. Lin Luoran decides to dig them out and make a dish.
Speaking of bamboo shoots, Lin Luoran recalls her childhood. In her hometown, the bamboo shoots in spring in the mountains are thin and white after peeled. They are precious delicacies from the mountains. In the past, bamboo shoots pickers lived in the mountains since spring and looked for this kind of wild bamboo shoots all day. They sold it to the merchants at a low price. Lin Luoran's tuition fee came from this.
She wants to go back to the hometown and goes into the mountains for the bamboo shoots and the big bluestone... However, she doesn't have much time lately.
Lin Luoran opens the door of her study and looks at the table.
There are dozens of bamboo sheets on the table. Lin Luoran picks up one of them and they are indeed written in Shui script. Zeng Tian is reliable. He took all the bamboo sheets that were written in Shui script here in case of omission.
If dozens of unearthed bamboo sheets just disappear, it will create much of a stir. After all, a lot of scholars have seen it. Therefore, Zeng Tian found someone to make fake ones. He has spent a lot of money on the fake ones and paid much attention to details... Those bamboo sheets that are sent to the museum seem to be antiquities from the Han dynasty, but the real ones are actually here.
If Lin Luoran translates all these scripts on the bamboo sheets on her own, it will cost her a lot of time.
She thinks about Rong Donglin, whose father is the master of Shui script. It will be the best option to have him translated these scripts.
Lin Luoran is a girl of action and she drives her car to the University of Chuan. She explains to Professor Qi the reason why she is out of touch for the past six months and asks to have Rong Donglin taught her the Shui script.
"You want to hire him as a tutor? What nice timing. We have organized the materials of the Han dynasty tomb. He is now in the second semester of the third year and is thinking about getting an internship. You have solved a big problem for him."
Professor Qi wants Rong Donglin to continue academic research. However, to study some subject requires money. Rong's family is not well-off and that makes Professor Qi anxious. He likes this good student but the good student needs to survive before continuing academic research.
Chinese literature is an ordinary major, so an internship is very important for students of Chinese literature. If Lin Luoran can provide a job for Rong Donglin, Professor Qi is pleased.
Rong Donglin goes to Lin Luoran's home with her. He is shocked by the big house. After entering the study, he is shocked again by the bamboo sheets.
He says, "This... This is from the tomb of... The Han dynasty!" God! He has been staying with these things for months and he can tell that they are real. These precious bamboo sheets should be kept in the museums, but now they are on this table. At that moment, Rong Donglin has a lot on his mind, including his assumption of Lin Luoran's identity. Is she an antiquities trafficker?
He is thinking about calling the police.
However, all his thoughts disappear in Lin Luoran's smile. Rong Donglin recalls what happened when he first met Lin Luoran and her brother — if they are antiquities traffickers, there will be no good people in this world.
There is sweat on Rong Donglin's forehead. Lin Luoran waits until he calms down and explains,
"What you think is correct. This is the real bamboo sheets of that Han dynasty tomb. However, I dare to show you, so I'm not an antiquities trafficker. Let me tell you the truth. I want them because I want the information written on them to save someone."
"Saving people?" Rong Donglin is confused.
Lin Luoran doesn't make further explanation, "I invite you here to translate these scripts on the bamboo sheets... I need the most accurate translation and when your work is done, I will give them back."
Lin Luoran has helped him so he has to pay a debt of gratitude. Rong Donglin doesn't ask more and he accepts the translation job.
Lin Luoran tells her mother to arrange a guest room for Rong Donglin and closes the door.
Rong Donglin starts working. Lin Luoran sits on Goldie's back and casts a "Mini World" to cover herself and Goldie. They fly above R City.
Mrs. Lin is the only one with an armor on and Lin Luoran cannot rest assured. She decides to go back to her hometown and take that bluestone in the mountains here.
As long as she can keep her family safe, Lin Luoran will do anything necessary. No matter what kind of situation she meets outside, as long as she has a family, she has somewhere to feel safe, somewhere warm.
Goldie is flying. When they are in the sky, Lin Luoran lowers her head and sees someone holding the claw.
Lin Luoran sneers.
It is the little cyan fox!
She wants to "terrify" this bold fox, so she ignores it and lets Goldie keep flying.
*******
Ever since Elly took over Fortune House, the inner decoration has changed. The color is now lively and vivid.
Just like the inner decoration, many "close friends" of Elly take this opportunity. The management team has greatly changed. Young people become middle managers like department managers but this is not the strangest part. The one who has the fastest speed of getting promoted is called "Xin Yuanping" and she became the special assistant manager of CEO right after she came to Fortune House. When Elly is out, she can make most decisions. The two of them spend most of their day together so there is a rumor that the new CEO is a lesbian.
The door of Elly's office is closed and Elly sits at the desk, looking at the woman on the sofa carefully.
She has long hair and looks modern and experienced. That is a pretty office lady.
She is now playing with a stamp and she shows a satisfied expression.
Elly asks carefully, "Have you figured out its secret?"
Xin Yuanping has helped Elly a lot in the past two years. All she wants is this small stamp. Elly thinks that this stamp is far more ordinary compared to other treasures her family has. She doesn't understand why her grandpa didn't want to give that to her.
Xin Yuanping doesn't answer. As soon as she has this stamp, she doesn't have to stay with this silly girl at all. However, if she wants to open that place, this silly girl is useful.
Xin Yuanping smiles maliciously. Elly feels that the room becomes cooler.
"I remember that you once mentioned, her ex-boyfriend is called Li Anping, right?"
Xin Yuanping's thought changes fast. Elly takes a while and finally knows who she is talking about.
"Li Anping?" She doesn't really remember this guy. However, he is not just Lin Luoran's ex, he is her ex as well.
Xin Yuanping packs the little stamp and smiles mysteriously,
"Yes. Ask him to come and work at Fortune House tomorrow... No matter how. Do you understand?"
Chapter 214 Fighting with the Snake and Saving the Fox
Sitting on Goldie's back, Lin Luoran reaches the mountains behind Li's Village soon. She asks Goldie to hover above the mountains and looks for the mountain where she found the black epiphyllum. After finding out the right mountain, she directs Goldie to land on the top of the mountain.
The cyan fox is hanging on Goldie's claw and the wind has tangled its fur. When it lands, it cannot move its limbs at first. When it can move, the cyan fox makes faces to Lin Luoran and runs into the grass nearby.
Lin Luoran knows that it likes flowers and grass and it cannot stay with her now that they are in a mountain full of plants, so she just lets it play. She goes to the cliff and sees that the bluestone is still inset in the mountain.
Lin Luoran casts a "Wind-riding Spell" and flies down. She tries to move the bluestone but it is deeply inset there. She couldn't do anything before but now she is a cultivator in the level of Laying Foundation. She casts a spell of earth nature and the mountain cannot stop her from pulling the bluestone out.
Lin Luoran only takes seven minutes to pull that bluestone out.
It is as big as a round table. After washing all the clast around, the bluestone is cyan in color as if a cyan light comes through it... Lin Luoran closes her eyes and feels the bluestone. Reiki molecules of five natures move around the bluestone slowly. However, she cannot tell the quality of the bluestone itself. It feels like an ordinary stone without Reiki.
Lin Luoran is thrilled. This one fits the description in the Introduction and it might be the one she needs.
Lin Luoran thinks about it and the bluestone disappears.
After putting the bluestone into the space, Lin Luoran checks everywhere around and makes sure that this bluestone is the only one. After that, she feels satisfied.
Goldie goes to find food and the cyan fox is not around, either. They belong to the outside world and Lin Luoran doesn't want to restrict them too much. It is good for them to play freely in the mountain.
She wanders around in the mountain and finds a wild pear tree, a chestnut tree and a fig tree. She puts them in the space and prepares to plant them after they go back home.
It is still early. Lin Luoran recalls that Luodong mentioned having eaten fresh bamboo shoots the other day, so she decides to dig some bamboo shoots. This kind of bamboo shoots is the special local product of this mountain. Even when it grows up, it is still small, so Lin Luoran should have good eyes to find them.
Although she doesn't wear a raincoat and there are a lot of branches on her way, Lin Luoran is nimble and it costs her little time before she searches the whole mountain and finds enough bamboo shoots for her family. Therefore, she stops.
She claps her hands and remembers the translation job of Rong Donglin. She wants to go home.
Lin Luoran is about to call Goldie here and she suddenly hears a loud chirp — it is Goldie!
Lin Luoran casts "Wind-riding Spell" and flies towards the chirp of Goldie. People always come to this mountain so it should be safe here. Even if there are beasts, Goldie can defeat them easily, so why is it chirping?
Goldie is not far from her and she arrives soon. It is extremely quiet on the top of that mountain. Goldie stands still on a big tree, looking at the ground.
Lin Luoran looks at the direction it is looking at. There is a big, red snake with a triangle head on the ground. It is as thick as a bucket and it is now coiling on the ground and sticking out its tongue. The smell is stinking.
The grass around it is withered — this red snake is poisonous! No wonder Goldie chirps to alarm her. However, she turns her head and suddenly sees something familiar in front of the snake. She is worried.
The cyan fox! Actually, it is now lying in front of the snake and its fur is now shiny black. There is no cyan color at all. Is it poisoned?
She was wondering why Goldie is fighting this dangerous creature and now she knows why. Goldie wants to save the cyan fox but Lin Luoran doesn't have time to appraise it. Not knowing the cyan fox is alive or dead, Lin Luoran summons the Sword of Bright immediately.
Fight with the snake and save the fox. This is everything on her mind. However, she calms down and realizes that the snake is so thick. If it moves, it may crush the cyan fox to death.
Lin Luoran jumps on Goldie's back and Goldie understands what she wants to do. Goldie takes off and flies in the opposite direction. The red snake may think the food in front of it is so small, so it puts the fox aside and chases Goldie.
Goldie can fly at a high speed but now it flies slowly and not very high above the red snake. Lin Luoran casts a "Mini World" on her. She flies down on the wind and goes back to the place where the cyan fox is lying.
She checks the fox with her spiritual mind and finds that the fox is still alive. Lin Luoran doesn't know how poisonous the venom is so she can't touch the cyan fox. The only thing on her that can cure is the Circulation Bolus. However, it is specialized in curing wounds, not detoxification, so Lin Luoran is not very hopeful about it. She wraps the fox with Reiki and gives it one bolus to eat.
She doesn't dare to hold the cyan fox so she takes out a coat from the space and wraps the fox with it. Suddenly, she hears something alongside with Goldie's chirp. The red snake realizes her stratagem and comes back!
Lin Luoran avoids the attack with the cyan fox. The snake almost drops its venom on her. The venom drops on the ground and it is buzzing with a nasty smell.
What powerful venom! Although Lin Luoran has avoided the attack, the smell makes her very uncomfortable. People from nearby villages come in the mountains for food or medicine from time to time so it is likely that they will encounter this snake. Although she doesn't have a good impression on most people of Li's Village, they are, after all, her close neighbors for over twenty years. Lin Luoran makes up her mind... She must kill this snake!
She throws the coat above and Goldie catches it accurately. Lin Luoran turns back and chops on the snake's head.
The red snake is a toxic creature but it doesn't have a solid shell like the one of the Scorpion King. The flying sword is a Grade Five magic weapon. As soon as Lin Luoran chops on the snake's head, it is hurt. Blood comes out and some blood drops on her sleeve and burns some black holes. Lin Luoran tears down the sleeve quickly.
Even the blood is poisonous. She must kill it.
Lin Luoran feels dizzy and the cyan fox needs to be cured soon. She has to be fast. Lin Luoran infuses Reiki on the sword and casts a spell of sword. It gets cold soon. Just as the red snake wonders why it snows, Lin Luoran's sword already chops on its "weak point".... It feels soft... Lin Luoran doesn't know that her sword can be this powerful. The head is chopped down by her and blood comes like a river. A tree opposite is poisoned by the blood and it is corroded son. This is terrifying.
As the head is down, the snake is dead for sure. Seeing the blood everywhere, Lin Luoran feels it a pity that the meat is poisonous and it cannot be eaten by animals. She throws a fireball at the snake's dead body and jumps on Goldie's back.
She has to save the cyan fox immediately so she cannot stay there and watch it burn. Seeing that the snake is on fire, she directs Goldie to go back home.
She smells the smell of the meat burning. The fire goes down gradually and there is just the headless body of the snake on the ground. It is dark and no one can tell what it was.
After a long time, the snake's body moves. A little red thing reaches out its triangle head.
Its tongue is buzzing in the air. It can tell the smell of the snake venom, no matter how far it is.
******
Lin Luoran goes back home. She hurries to the study and opens the door. Rong Donglin is shocked but he cannot ask what happened, so he just watches Lin Luoran rush into the next room and close the door tightly.
Perhaps the bolus is a little helpful as there is black liquid coming out of the cyan fox. Lin Luoran cannot let the liquid drop on the ground, so she summons them with Reiki. After that, she finds a basin and puts it underneath the cyan fox, who is floating in the air. The basin is used to collect the venom.
The bolus is not enough to force out all the venom.
Lin Luoran thinks about Reiki. She wraps the cyan fox with the gentlest wood Reiki and infuses Reiki into its body — it is the purest Reiki of living. Lin Luoran saved Baojia in the same way. Snake venom breaks the nervous system, so as long as the cell renewing is fast enough, the victim should be able to discharge the venom on his own, no matter the victim is a person or an animal.
As soon as the green wood Reiki enters the body of the cyan fox, the black venom is afraid. Lin Luoran directs Reiki to chase after the venom and forces the venom to gather in one claw of the cyan fox.
She slides on the claw and black blood comes out.
When the blood turns red and the fur of the fox is cyan again, Lin Luoran knows that she is correct.
The black liquid in the basin is actually fox blood mixed with snake venom.
Lin Luoran checks the body of the fox and finds some remaining toxins. However, the cyan fox is breathing smoothly. It is safe now.
She pours the liquid into a jade bottle and puts it next to the poison sac of the Scorpion King. She enters the space and takes out some water. She soaks the cyan fox in.
There are a lot of functions of the mysterious space that Lin Luoran doesn't know, but she is sure that it will help the cyan fox.
She closes the door, feeling a little tired.
It seems that saving the cyan fox is not hard, but only she knows how much Reiki she has spent. Without Reiki, Lin Luoran is just an ordinary person and ordinary people feel tired.
Wind of early spring blows on the bamboo leaves and Lin Luoran suddenly realizes that there is someone in the next room — Rong Donglin, who is ignored by her, is now looking at the big hawk next to him and shakes his fingers, sweating...
Why is there a big bird here?
Lin Luoran sighs. Rong Donglin is not the only one she forgets, there is Goldie, too.
This island is occupied by the cyan fox and Goldie, but she forgets...
Chapter 215 Planting Magic Circle, Enemy
What should she tell Rong Donglin?
Out of Lin's expectation, Rong doesn't even know Goldie's name. He only worries about the safety of the Lin family because such a big hawk lives in their house.
Lin Luoran remembers Rong's stiffness every time when he sees Goldie and she has no doubt on the authenticity of his worries. At night, Mr. Lin makes a few dishes with the bamboo shoots. Rong Donglin loves these dishes so much that he feels that he has gained more energy for the translation of the bamboo sheets.
The starlight today is a little dim. However, Lin is still in a good mood.
It's 11 o'clock. Rong has returned to his bedroom. Lin's backyard is now quiet and peaceful under the moonlight.
This place will become more beautiful. Lin Luoran speaks to herself when she thinks of the bluestone in her space.
Lin first goes to check on the little cyan fox. It is lying in its nest, completely motionless, but its breath has slowed down. Lin takes some fruits and herbs the little fox likes and puts them by its side.
It's late at night. Rong Donglin is the only one in this house that hasn't gone to sleep yet. Lights in Rong's room are still on. Lin Luoran assumes that Rong can't see through the bamboo leaves, so she moves the bluestone out of her space.
Moonlight pours down on the island through the bamboo leaves. Within a blink of an eye, Lin takes out some raw jades out of her space. The pure and peaceful Reiki in these jades twinkles under the moonlight.
These raw jades are all in high quality. If Lin trades them for money, she could buy three more houses as her current one. However, Lin is going to bury these jades under the ground along with the bluestone!
This idea came to Lin because of the big bluestone. Lin uses Reiki in the five elements to probe the bluestone again to make sure that it really doesn't contain any Reiki. Lin now has more confidence in herself.
At first, what raised her suspicions was the black epiphyllum held onto the bluestone by some mud. The epiphyllum didn't seem to contain Reiki yet it almost made Lin lose herself during her inward vision.
Back then, Lin Luoran only thought that this was an accident. However, as she gains more knowledge on cultivation, she knows that spirit herbs like the black epiphyllum have to live around abundant Reiki. There are certainly more wood Reiki in the mountains than in the cities, but the wood Reiki in the mountains are only enough for ginsengs or psoriasis to grow. This strange black epiphyllum has to live and grow with another treasure. According to the introduction, this half-jade hard bluestone is called "Reiki-gathering Stone".
The name of the bluestone sounds nothing special, and the stone itself can't be used as a medicine. Nevertheless, it has a unique function: to plant magic circles.
More specifically, in the age when the world of cultivation was prosperous, every school had a Reiki-gathering Stone like this. These stones used to be put at the core of the protection circle of the mountain and they served as the base of the complex protection magic circles.
The only function of the stone is to gather Reiki.
The stone can gather the Reiki in the five elements that flow in the air in order to constantly support the operation of magic circles. The stone looks nothing special, yet it can change the environment around it. Nowadays, Reiki in the air are thin and agitated. The function of "Reiki-gathering" seems to be lame, yet Lin Luoran has her own "cheating device".
She has the bead! Though Lin knows no magic circle of Reiki-gathering, she may have a chance of planting a huge protection circle which covers her entire house. From the outside, it will be a huge protection circle that keeps the Lin family safe. From the inside, with the Reiki-gathering Stone at the core of the magic circle, her bead can refine the Reiki the stone gathers, which makes the house a perfect place for cultivation.
Lin Luoran feels that her heart is pounding.
Immersed in thoughts, Lin doesn't realize that a protection circle that covers her entire house is so much like the magic circles that protected previous schools of cultivation. Of course, since her knowledge of magic circles is little, the protection circle for her family will be a simple shield. Because Lin doesn't know how to plant illusion circles or killing circles, it can only take the hit when there is an attacker.
Anyway, Lin Luoran never asks for more. She has cut the Reiki-gathering Stone into halves. She will bury half of the stone under the island in her backyard and the other half under her villa on Mount Qingcheng.
Lin casts an earth spell and makes the soil soft. Then the soil actively gathers around the stone and drags it under the ground.
One meter, two meters, three meters... Lin Luoran uses her spiritual mind to sense the stone. When it is ten meters down, Lin stops the spell. The stone is already deep enough.
Looking at the jades on the ground, Lin Luoran sighs that she has to do more hard work. Then she sits down and starts to carve the magic circle on the jades.
Lin has been practicing this during the last three months so she is now quite skillful at this. However, it's not easy to plant a huge protection circle based on the entire house using the jades as nodes.
Lin closes her eyes. She uses her spiritual mind to get a bird's-eye view of her house. She is so careful that she doesn't start to plant the circle until dawn.
She starts to walk around the house with jades in her hands.
A piece of jade in the size of an egg is put under the fish tank in the front yard. Jades in different sizes are planted in front of the camphor tree, on the right side of the garage, behind the building in the backyard, at the root of a rose, or under the lake.
The bigger ones of the jades are in the size of bowls and the smaller ones are like eggs. All of the jades contain plentiful Reiki. Other cultivators would be so jealous if they knew about this, yet Lin Luoran doesn't feel any grudge.
Lin Luoran has put over a hundred pieces of jade around the house. Her body is not tired but her mind is exhausted. She makes a complex earth spell to control all of the jades to sink under the ground.
The sun is rising when Lin finishes this. The lights in Rong Donglin's room are turned on again. Lin can't incept spirit into the jades in front of Rong, so she goes to the kitchen and prepares breakfast for her family.
**********************************
The Li's Village.
Four years have passed. Granny Li seems to become weaker and the skin on her face wrinkles. Nevertheless, she looks vigorous when she swears.
"Hurry up and make your brother a fried egg! He has to go to work after breakfast!" Granny Li is holding a plastic basin with millet in it and there are two fresh eggs in her right hand.
Her daughter complains, "Mom, you always prefer Anping to me! He has stayed at home and did nothing for three years, and you still want to let him eat the best eggs. It's better that you give them to my husband so that he can have the energy to work harder..."
Granny Li takes the feather duster and starts to hit her daughter,
"Do you really care about a few eggs so much? Anping is the only one in our village who is a postgraduate! He will definitely make a fortune someday. Don't you dare to compare Anping with your loser husband! Stop running..."
Granny Li is an old woman with great strength, but she is not as swift as her daughter. The two of them run around in the yard covered by chicken droppings. The old hen which just laid eggs is startled. It flaps its wings and jumps onto the wall, screaming.
During the last three years, things like this have happened a lot. Others in the Li's Village have all got used to it. Lying on the bed, Li Anping ignores the chaos and keeps sleeping.
Li Anping's brother-in-law bears grudges every time he sees his wife being beaten up by her mother. He works so hard to support the family and Li Anping never helps! He walks to Li Anping's room and knocks on the window. He says,
"Are you going to do nothing when your mother and sister keep fighting each other because of you? Li Anping, you've stayed at home for three years. If you are a man, you should get up and go find a job! This family can't support a loser forever!"
Granny Li shouts, "Anping is out of work for now. He is not a loser!" She lets her daughter go and comes to her son-in-law.
The three of them fight and shout in the yard. Li Anping can't pretend to be asleep anymore.
He gets out of bed and puts on his slippers. Li Anping pushes the door open and says,
"I'm going to work today. Can you guys stop shouting?"
He has stayed at home and done nothing for three years. Without fancy clothes, Li Anping doesn't look as handsome as he used to be. He gets fat and he seldom shaves. Dark circles are under his eyes. Lin Luoran wouldn't even be able to recognize him if he showed up in front of her.
Hearing that her son is going to work, Granny Li throws the feather duster away and says smilingly, "My boy, it's alright that you stay at home longer. I'm going to make some eggs for you!"
Li Anping's sister starts to smile. His brother-in-law never likes him, yet he is glad that Li Anping finally has a job... No matter what, he is a postgraduate. He should be able to find a decent job easily.
Later, Granny Li brings fried eggs to her son and watches him shave. The wrinkles on her face become deeper when she smiles,
"Anping, I always believe in you. You should tell us earlier that you've found a job, so that your brother-in-law can save those trash-talk... Anping, when did you start to look for jobs?"
Li Anping answers, looking at himself in the mirror, "The job came to me."
Granny Li becomes gladder. She and the entire family will be respected if her son has a decent job. She wants to tell the news to the others and she pursues which company her son will work in.
When Li Anping says "Fortune House", his mother shakes and knocks over the fried eggs on the plate—
"Anping, my son! How can you go back to that company... Elly is such an evil bitch. Have you forgotten that she hired those men to break your leg?"
Hearing his mother's words, Li Anping accidentally cuts his own face with the razor. He hates Elly even more than he hates Lin Luoran. He won't forget about this!
Since he now has the chance to go back to the Fortune House... Li Anping swears that he won't make Elly suffer!
Under the sunlight, a red snake passes by Li Anping's house. The old hen on the wall is scared and it forgets to scream.