Chapter 53
Chapter 53: Carefree
With its wound healed, Shan Gao’s mood brightened so much it became almost unbearable.
Once it realized Wei Qing Lan had no intention of killing it, it started circling him with its tail lifted, running its mouth without pause. “So. You like that little girl, don’t you? I’m telling you, don’t. You shouldn’t like her. She’s too dumb, too stupid. You’re about the same age, but your talent is worlds apart. If you become Dao Companions, she’ll drag you down.”
Wei Qing Lan turned his head and looked at it. He didn’t say a word.
Shan Gao sighed dramatically, like an elder weighed down by wisdom. “My master had a Dao Companion once too. That Dao Companion was lazy and spoiled. She couldn’t endure hardship. Her talent wasn’t high, and she wasn’t diligent either. She couldn’t even survive a Foundation Establishment Stage thunder tribulation. Every time, my master had to block it for her. She dragged him down for over a thousand years. In the end, she still couldn’t withstand the heavenly lightning and died—spirit and all. My master almost followed her into reincarnation. Later, my master’s master had no choice. He went to Oxhead Mountain and picked a kind of grass called ghost grass. Eat it, and you forget your worries. That was how he made my master forget the past, focus on cultivation, and finally reach the Dao without that burden.”
Shan Gao watched Wei Qing Lan’s expression and got anxious when it didn’t see a reaction. “I’m serious. I’m telling the truth.”
“You’re overthinking it,” Wei Qing Lan said flatly.
Shan Gao muttered, “I’m not. Don’t underestimate beasts. Our senses are sharp. You treat her differently than that man who left treats her.”
Wei Qing Lan looked back at it.
That calm gaze turned sharp enough to cut.
Shan Gao jumped and stumbled backward. “If you don’t want to hear it, pretend I never said anything! I didn’t say anything. I swear.” It spun and bolted.
Wei Qing Lan watched it flee, then let out a soft scoff, the corner of his mouth tugging up for only an instant.
He returned to the cave dwelling. Jiang Li Sheng was still unconscious.
He didn’t sit down to meditate beside her the way he usually did. Instead, he stood at the edge of the stone bed and looked at her quietly.
Someone asleep like this looked harmless. Peaceful. Her face was pale, but her brows were relaxed, as if her dreams held no trouble at all. It was almost infuriating. Her spiritual abode had been shattered into scorched earth, and she still slept like someone who trusted the world.
As if she knew someone was guarding her.
As if she knew she was safe.
Wei Qing Lan had met countless cultivators, but he had never met someone so carefree.
After a while, he sat down on the stone bed—not cross-legged, not cultivating. He leaned back, half-reclining against the stone, and took out a string of beads from his storage ring. He rolled them between his fingers, slow and absent-minded, like he was killing time.
Shan Gao returned after half a day, carrying a sword manual in its mouth. When it saw Wei Qing Lan lounging there and playing with beads, it blinked hard, suspicious it was hallucinating.
Was this man… not cultivating?
Was he the same kind of person as that stupid girl?
That didn’t make sense. With such a young bone age and such high cultivation, how did he get there if he wasn’t diligent? Talent couldn’t do everything. Could it?
Shan Gao was still tangled in its thoughts when Wei Qing Lan raised a brow. “What is it?”
Shan Gao snapped back to reality. It hurried forward and placed the sword manual neatly by Wei Qing Lan’s hand like a well-trained servant. “This is the sword manual my master left behind. My master used to be a sword cultivator. He only switched to formations later because he kept helping that Dao Companion survive tribulations. That Chen-surnamed idiot rummaged through the treasure vault and took a dozen useless scraps, but he couldn’t get the best thing. No eye for value at all.”
The manual looked ancient—yellowed cover, curled edges, torn corners. It practically announced it was incomplete.
Afraid Wei Qing Lan would dismiss it by appearance alone, Shan Gao hurried to add, “Everything in my master’s treasure vault was destroyed. Only this survived, because my master put seals on it. There were only two things he ever sealed. One was the inheritance formation he left behind. The other was this sword manual. That Chen-surnamed man was the fated one my master chose for it, but he had no sense and couldn’t even take it away.”
Wei Qing Lan lifted the sword manual between two fingers. Seals spread across it, layered like invisible webs—more than one, more than two. He tried to unravel them for a moment, then paused.
He couldn’t open it.
That, more than anything else, caught his interest.
He sat up straight, the idle laziness gone, and began studying the seals in earnest.
Shan Gao finally relaxed. Yes. This was right. A person like him should be cultivating, not wasting time.
Jiang Li Sheng slept for a full twenty days before she finally woke.
The first thing she saw was Wei Qing Lan half-reclining beside her, propped against a soft pillow. He was tall and lean, his posture relaxed, his face calm and refined. A sword manual rested in his hands. When he turned a page, it made a faint rustling sound—soft, but in a cave this quiet, it felt loud.
The stone bed was wide, but with a second person on it, it suddenly felt narrow. The moment she woke, her breathing tightened like she’d been pinned.
Wei Qing Lan noticed immediately. He turned his head, meeting her wide eyes without a hint of embarrassment. “You’re finally awake.”
He sat up and set the sword manual aside. “Can you move?”
Jiang Li Sheng wiggled her fingers. Strength—thin as a thread, but present. She blinked and slowly pushed herself upright. “Senior Brother Wei… how long was I asleep?”
“A little over twenty days.”
Jiang Li Sheng’s eyes widened. “You couldn’t wake me up?”
“Mm.”
She rubbed her stiff neck and grimaced. “No wonder I feel like a plank. Twenty days…” Then, realizing he was watching her, she froze and asked cautiously, “Senior Brother Wei… you stayed here the whole time? Guarding me?”
“Mm.”
Guilt washed over her. “I wasted your time. Over twenty days…” She scratched her head, ashamed and bewildered all at once. “I didn’t think I’d sleep that long.”
“It wasn’t wasted,” Wei Qing Lan said, gesturing toward the sword manual. “Cultivation is cultivation anywhere.”
Jiang Li Sheng followed his gesture and saw the battered manual. It looked like it had survived an apocalypse, but if Wei Qing Lan cared about it, it couldn’t be ordinary.
Her guilt eased, just a little.
She asked, “Where’s Senior Brother Chen? Did he… not wake either?”
“He woke right after you fell asleep,” Wei Qing Lan said. “He felt there was no point in all of us waiting, so he left first. He said to tell you he wasn’t unwilling to wait—he simply didn’t want to waste time.”
Then he added, “Seven days ago, he sent a message. He still hasn’t found the entrance to the Qi Shan Secret Realm. He heard this secret realm won’t go dormant for half a year, and it’s only been a month so far. He wants to keep trying. He said if you wake up and still want to go to Da Gui Mountain, we can go there and meet him.”