Chapter 48: The Beast Within
Xiao Nanfeng's ancient ring had been roughly engraved with the sketch of a nameless beast.
Hesitantly, Xiao Nanfeng attempted to infuse spiritual power into the ring, which immediately absorbed it whole. The disappearance of that spiritual energy immediately caused Xiao Nanfeng's eyes to brighten. Indeed, the ring his father had left him was no ordinary token!
Xiao Nanfeng began to anticipate what he would find within. He summoned a huge wave of spiritual power from his stellar lake, which he fed to the ring.
An even stronger suction gulped down the spiritual power, causing Xiao Nanfeng's eyes to widen. The amount of spiritual power he had used was equivalent to Yu'er's current capacity.
"Still not enough? I'll keep going, then!" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes grew more and more intense.
A flood of spiritual power surged into the ring, on and on. Eventually, the surface of the ring finally took on a golden sheen, but it seemed to require yet more spiritual power still.
Xiao Nanfeng's stellar lake upended itself, sending torrents of spiritual power out of his mind and into the ring. The golden light that emanated from the room lit up the entire manor.
Xiao Nanfeng's forehead beaded with sweat. He had expended the majority of the spiritual power in his stellar lake, enough for a hundred storage pendants like the one Yu'er had! Was it yet insufficient?
Rather than back down, he continued to infuse spiritual power furiously into the ring. He swore that he would attune it right that night.
As he expended more and more spiritual energy, Xiao Nanfeng began to doubt his decision. His stellar lake had almost been drained, and his face was turning pale. It had been an impossibly long time since he had last been drained of spiritual energy. Just how much did it take to attune this ring?!
Suddenly, the ring trembled violently and began to hum. It had finally reached its capacity. It gave off a golden light that resonated with Xiao Nanfeng's senses.
Xiao Nanfeng clutched the ring tightly as the hum and golden light vanished.
The ring seemed to be no different from before, but Xiao Nanfeng could sense that it had attuned to him.
Xiao Nanfeng suppressed his excitement and sent a pulse of spiritual power into the ring. As expected, a small pocket of space suddenly opened up over the surface of the ring. Through the black haze, he could vaguely see the space within.
"I succeeded?" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes brightened.
He took a dagger on the table, marked it with spiritual power, and then pushed it through the haze. The dagger was instantly sucked into the storage ring. With a tug on the spiritual tether, he retrieved the dagger easily.
The consumption of spiritual power was so small as to be insignificant.
"Just how large is the space within the ring? Could Father have left me a clue as to his disappearance?" Xiao Nanfeng peeked in with anticipation, but the interior of the pocket space was so dark that he couldn't see a thing.
He gathered his spiritual power and sent it deep into the space within, wanting to see it clearly.
However, the interior of the ring seemed almost like an endless chasm. Ten feet, thirty feet, a hundred feet—it seemed endless!
Suddenly, his spiritual power seemed to be caught by something on the far end of the pocket space. A mysterious force had sensed his spiritual power and was rapidly coming closer. In the blink of an eye, it had shot out of the pocket space, heading straight for the center of Xiao Nanfeng's forehead.
"No!"
Just then, the superior yin pearl located in his mindscape trembled. A gust of cold air formed a barrier in his mind. The mysterious force struck the barrier, which remained immobile. The bitter cold caused the force to dissipate.
Xiao Nanfeng was very shocked. Through his spiritual power, he could 'sense' an entity deep within the pocket space, with light in shades of red and gold, as though two big, red lanterns had been strung up in that pitch-black space. Lanterns? No, they seemed more like the eyes of a ferocious beast, the sclera red and the pupils gold and vertically slitted. The beast was glaring at Xiao Nanfeng in an incredibly creepy manner.
Xiao Nanfeng shuddered. The eyes, as though sensing that Xiao Nanfeng was looking at it, suddenly retreated back into the darkness unwillingly, vanishing from sight.
Everything had happened in the blink of an eye. Cold sweat had drenched Xiao Nanfeng's back. If not for the superior yin pearl's timely assistance, he might already be dead.
To have died to a ring, of all things, was something that he could not and would not tolerate. He could sense that the ring his father had left him was no ordinary storage ring—after all, Yu'er's storage pendant had no such fearsome beast.
He didn't want to investigate what else lay within the ring, lest the beast show up again.
However, neither could Xiao Nanfeng bear to not use the ring entirely. With the superior yin pearl in his mindscape, he was relatively safe. In the end, he gritted his teeth and began a series of experiments. He found that as long as his spiritual power didn't extend deep into the depths of the ring, the beast wouldn't show up. At the very least, the space within a hundred feet of the opening was safe.
In the end, Xiao Nanfeng slid the ring onto the middle finger of his left hand.
"At worst, I won't go prying into the depths of the ring. I'll just use it to store objects close to the opening!"
Xiao Nanfeng's face was pale. In order to attune the ring, he had exhausted almost all his spiritual power. He quickly got into a cross-legged position as he meditated and circulated his qi in accordance with Body of Yin to replenish the spiritual power he had consumed.
The next morning, Yu'er was surrounded by a group of Taiqing disciples.
"Yu'er, just what were you doing in Nanfeng's room last night? You disturbed the spiritual aether, and I found that my spiritual power regenerated more quickly than usual!"
"That's right!"
"Alright, alright, that's enough! I was playing this flute. I didn't bring a guqin with me, so Nanfeng broke a bamboo table and whittled this flute out of it," Yu'er explained, somewhat impatiently.
The disciples all glanced at the bamboo flute, unable to discern anything unusual about it.
"Did you do anything else in Nanfeng's room?" Ye Dafu called out, somewhat jealously. After all, Yu'er had paid a visit to Xiao Nanfeng alone in the middle of the night! Everyone was thinking about the question, but only Ye Dafu was foolhardy enough to ask it outright.
"Ye Dafu! Nanfeng expended all his spiritual power in an attempt to save us all yesterday, and I was simply helping him regenerate that spiritual power. How dare you accuse us in such a vile manner? Is this the sort of thing that you think about?!" Yu'er retorted, scowling.
The senior disciples felt a bout of shame overcome them. Yes, how could they have been thinking what Ye Dafu did? They certainly couldn't afford to be seen that way—which meant they had to openly declare their support for Yu'er instead.
"Right! Ye Dafu, you were the first one to fall prey to Xiang Zhirou's music! You're a stain on the Taiqing sect's reputation!"
"Senior Sister Yu'er and Nanfeng have a perfectly platonic relationship! How dare you accuse them of something so crass!"
Ye Dafu: ...
Just then, Xiao Nanfeng slid open the door to his room upon hearing the ruckus outside. Everyone glanced over.
"Is something the matter?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.
Everyone was silent. They looked at Xiao Nanfeng's pallor and tiredness, as if he hadn't rested the entire night.
"Look! I told you all something went on in that room last night!" Ye Dafu cried out, aggrieved.
"Shut up!" Yu'er rebuked Ye Dafu again.
However, the other disciples all gave Xiao Nanfeng and Yu'er strange looks.
"Nanfeng and I are innocent! Why are all of you looking at us like that?! Go on, shoo!" Yu'er shouted, waving her hands and scattering the other disciples.
Some among them smiled meaningfully, while others were jealous or envious. Yu'er was popular among the disciples of the sect, and she was the subject of many a crush. Now, however, there seemed to be no hope for any of her prospective suitors...
The disciples scattered, sighing regretfully at the lack of substantive gossip.
"What's wrong with them all? Why are they all looking at us strangely?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.
"It's all your fault!" Yu'er blushed as she stomped her feet.
"My fault?" Xiao Nanfeng seemed entirely confused.
"Forget it. What's the matter with you? Didn't you regenerate all your spiritual power last night? Why do you still look so exhausted?" Yu'er asked.
Xiao Nanfeng looked all around him, then whispered to Yu'er, "Let's talk inside."
"Why can't we talk outside?" Yu'er flushed faintly, but still followed Nanfeng into his room.
"Look at this!" Xiao Nanfeng took a dagger out of his storage ring.
Yu'er widened her eyes. "You have a storage artifact, too?"
"Yes, I do. I spent too much spiritual power trying to attune it last night," Xiao Nanfeng confessed wryly. He didn't reveal that there was a beast within the ring, afraid that Yu'er would be worried.
"Don't worry! I'll play the flute to help you regenerate your spiritual power." Yu'er was very happy for Xiao Nanfeng.
The senior and junior disciples outside the room, upon hearing the flute playing inside once more, felt as though their dreams had been shattered. They stumbled around in despair.
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