Chapter 671 He is...
Back at the entrance, Su Jinjing had a slightly sorrowful look on her face as she tightly clenched her spear.
"Jinjing, you know what he is saying is true. Yang Qing may be unreliable in many things but not when it comes to his cases.
You know how selfish he is, there is no way he would do something that would take away his ability to sleep or eat his meals.
It's why he is so terrified of guilt or regret, even more so than Senior Lei Weiyuan.." Luo Meili said with a gentle smile.
"He really is the biggest coward I know.." Su Jinjing added with a chuckle.
"He is.." Luo Meili said in support as both burst into light peals of laughter.
"I know he is right. The only reason I suggested it, is because of him.." Su Jinjing softly said, with her gaze trailing to where Yang Qing had disappeared off to.
"We saw what the last case did to him, and it's not been that long since it happened. What if something happens to those four organizations? I can't help but worry how he would take it if the worst were to happen.." she added with worry rife in her tone.
"Like he said, we are each responsible for our own choices. He must have already prepared himself for that.
It was why he went out of his way to warn them of how dangerous this place is and I am sure he said something else to that elder of the Flowing Fist Sect.
You know how resilient he is, otherwise, he would not continually keep trying to scam the Order, despite the number of failures he has had.." said Luo Meili, her gaze flickering slightly.
Even though she said that some part of her couldn't help but worry for her shameless boss. If it wasn't for Yang Qing she would have opted to go to the beast tamer division. The reason she chose to be on his team, was because for some reason her physique, the Mandala prana green nebulae jellyfish physique seemed to quiet down every time she was around him.
Usually despite the numerous seals placed on her meant to contain it, she always had this foreboding like her body was about to be snatched away, or this feeling welling deep within her of being observed by a terrifying entity, waiting, waiting for her to show the slightest weakness and it would pounce on her.
That feeling was intense when she was younger and in the qi refinement realm. She was always afraid all the time, with never-ending lapses of what was real, and what was fiction. She always saw herself in the deepest part of space facing a monstrous jellyfish that was the size of the planet. The cosmos swirled around it almost as if it was birthed by it.
Facing that terrifying creature was always the most terrifying experience she ever had. She always felt like she stood there for thousands and thousands of years her body being destroyed and reformed by that entity. I
t didn't matter whether she was asleep or awake, those visions would strike her at any time, and every time she woke up her body would be filled with these green sigils that would continue to subject her body to agonizing pain for a few days to even a month depending on how long she spent in the realm with that jellyfish.
Those sigils would erode the hands of those who tried to touch her. It was the reason she was kicked out by her parents, who said she was cursed when her father lost his entire hand when trying to wake her.?The maddening screams she made every time she was dragged into that realm and got tortured didn't help either.
Kicked out and those tortures finally broke her as she wondered aimlessly with her mind half gone. The only reason she even survived back then was the corrosive side effect of those sigils acting as a protection for her, though she wasn't thankful for it.
Eventually, she wandered around until she found a certain cave which she made her home. That cave contained the remains of some spirit beast and survived on bone soup for quite some time until she was forced to move again and was somehow found by someone belonging to the Order who took her for the assessment.
It was only when she got in did she find out what was going on with her. She believed she was cursed, but it turned out she endured what she did because of her physique and the immense power it contained which was too much for her body to handle that it was forcibly altering her body so she could contain it.
Had she not been admitted into the Order and received their help, her physique would have eaten away at her body with the forcible improvements. In five years or less, she would have been consumed by it and disintegrated out of existence.
When they broke the news to her, she couldn't help but think that she really had been cursed. Her own physique sentencing her to death, how absurd was that? There were countless other dangers out there that would threaten her life but it was her physique that was the greatest danger of them all. Something that was meant to protect, and give her a fighting chance, was the one tying a noose around her neck and quickly strangling her.
The dean of the beast tamer division had experiences with such physiques and quickly created a seal that halted the terrifying experiences she had. She was no longer abducted to some unknown realm to get tortured, but the feeling, that fear that came from knowing that beast was watching her, it never went away, but it became manageable the higher her cultivation base, grew.
Of course, that was until she met Yang Qing, this goofy kid who was a few years ahead of her at the institute, and already had a reputation for getting into trouble with the fiendish instructors.
It was when he was running away from doing something nefarious no doubt that he ran into her, almost knocking her over. That brief contact, though it didn't completely erase the fear that wrapped around her body like chains, she felt something she never thought possible, a glimpse at what respite was.
She wasn't sure at first, but after seeking out Yang Qing a couple of times and striking a friendship with him so she could be around him, she felt it. Every time she was around him, that suffocating fear that she had known all her life would ebb away. Yang Qing's presence seemed to affect the jellyfish within. It was almost as if his presence would turn the jellyfish into a gentle docile being and that gentleness radiated even to her.
That effect became more and more pronounced the longer she stayed around him, and the stronger Yang Qing was for some reason.
When she graduated, despite the beast hall vying for her because of the latent gifts her physique afforded her, she decided to be an inquisitor and specifically asked to be stationed with Yang Qing.
That sense of ease she felt around him was something she would never trade anything else for.
The other day when she and Su Jinjing went to check on him to see if he was okay after missing breakfast, when Yang Qing opened his eyes, she felt something stir deep within her, a feeling of elation that ended up making her body feel lighter, like some shackle had been removed.
I hope you'll be okay. If I could, I would gladly carry the weight of the things you experienced at the Ice Emerald Sect and now.For what you have given me, I can never repay.."she thought, hiding the worry she heard in the deepest recess of her eyes.
Yang Qing always felt like a sanctuary for her. It wasn't in a romantic sense as she didn't see him in a romantic light and neither did he, but they had an inexplicable bond. Despite being slightly older than him, Luo Meili always felt like Yang Qing was her older brother, sheltering her from that monstrous jellyfish.
She would do anything to reciprocate what Yang Qing gave her, but alas, the things she could offer were limited, other than maybe keeping him company and bringing him rare dishes.
"Jinjing maybe we can have the chef prepare him red braised pork using that radiant star anise we found and the empyrean bee honey we collected is sure to improve the flavors in the hands of a skilled chef.
We can bring it to Yang Qing. Nothing cheers him more than food.."
Luo Meili paused as she held her chin in deep contemplation.
"Which do you think would rank at the top, Jinjing? Pulling one over senior Lei Weiyuan or food? I feel the former has a slight edge over the latter, with how petty he is.."
Su Jinjing mirrored Luo Meili's look as she held her chin, tilting her head slightly.
"This is a tough one... When I met him I would have said food, but over the years, I don't know... One thing I know for sure is he is greedy, he would likely choose both.." she said with a serious look on her face.
She and Luo Meili looked at each other in silence before they burst out laughing as they headed to the kitchen.
"He would.."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l