229 – Escape from

Upon hearing Xue Qilin’s declaration, Qi Qiqi’s eyes widened, and her bright red eyes promptly reflected the lass’s unwavering expression. She didn’t respond, as if she wanted to deeply engrave Xue Qilin’s current expression into her eyes, mind, and soul.

After a long time, an “um” came out from between Qi Qiqi’s lips.

She leaned her head sideways, half-buried her head in Xue Qilin’s hair, and exhaled, making Xue Qilin’s ear itch.

“Qilin, am I useless?”

“How could you?” Xue Qilin spoke in an unyielding tone, “When I was your age, I was still playing with mud.”

Perhaps because she imagined Xue Qilin squatting on the earth and playing with mud, Qi Qiqi chuckled and pinched Xue Qilin’s waist disapprovingly.

“What nonsense! Great-grandfather said that you joined the Merak Temple when you were ten years old and have been training in the Sword Mound all this time.”

“Is there no mud in the Sword Mound? You don’t know this. But when I was bored, I liked to make mud balls and throw them at swords. Let me tell you this in confidence, I threw the most mud balls at Phecda. That’s why she tried her best to chop me to pieces at that time!”

Xue Qilin blurted out some nonsense and gesticulated with her entire body. Anyway, Phecda is not here, and she is not afraid of being exposed.

“I’ll give it a try if I have a chance…”

Qi Qiqi, who knows what went through her head, didn’t reproach Xue Qilin. Instead, she said she would like to try making mud balls and throwing them at swords.

“Wait, you want to play with mud?”

“What… didn’t someone just say that they played with mud?

Xue Qilin blinked blankly for a while.

“Well, I did. It’s just hard to imagine… you squatting on the ground and playing with mud. Aren’t you obsessed with cleanliness?”

As far as Xue Qilin knows, Qi Qiqi has to take three baths a day and is constantly dissatisfied with her messy appearance. As a result, she thought that Qi Qiqi is a bit of a clean freak.

If it wasn’t for the fact that she has a lot on her mind, Qi Qiqi should have taken a bath as soon as she came back.

“What do you mean by obsessed with cleanliness! I just like to take baths, that’s all. It makes me relax.”

“Ah, so that’s it?!”

Xue Qilin was greatly shocked. It turns out that she misunderstood things.

“Yes, that’s it.”

“Oh, okay. I see. I thought you were a bit of a clean freak.

“No way!” Qi Qiqi is a little emotional, “To make such a mistake, you’re really thoughtless!”

“Er…”

At a loss for words, Xue Qilin feels that Qi Qiqi’s words are reasonable. At the same, she feels a bit guilty.

Until now, she didn’t actively concern herself with the people around her. Only when the other party revealed distress or unhappiness, would she “passively” concern herself with them.

Qi Qiqi sighed helplessly. Subsequently, guilt weighed heavily on Xue Qilin’s shoulders. After all, she is conscious of what Qi Qiqi said.

There are things that you can never escape from, especially when you want to protect certain things. Then, you cannot escape from in front of them even more, and can only face them.

Although she keeps saying “I don’t want to look into people’s past, the past isn’t important”. But in fact, she’s just afraid that the more she understands, the more she will need to take responsibility.

Um, perhaps I just want to escape from the responsibility that comes with knowledge… Xue Qilin sighed secretly.

“Sorry, I will try hard…”

In any case, Xue Qilin feels that she should first apologize frankly.

When she heard her sincere apology, Qi Qiqi didn’t say anything, and just issued a gentle “mhm” sound.

Then, silence filled the room.

As if they froze, the two remained silent and motionless for a whole, waiting for time to pass. In the meantime, only the body heat of the other party accompanied them.

When the candle flickered several times and was about to go out, Qi Qiqi got up and put a new candle.

It’s worth mentioning that she didn’t use tools to ignite the candle. Instead, she used magic to light a flame on the tip of her finger and ignite candle.

Qi Qiqi is a hardworking person and has a lot of self-awareness. She knows that she can’t compare to Shui Yun’er in terms of progress in magic. Therefore, she trains more and is more hardworking than the other party. She even tries to accomplish some trivial daily tasks using magic, treating it as training.

In Xue Qilin’s eyes, Shui Yun’er is already astonishingly hardworking. However, Qi Qiqi is even more hardworking. At the same time, she balances martial arts and the heavy burden that is the Merak Temple. It’s hard to imagine that she has any time to rest.

Should I try to help her share a bit of the burden in the future? Xue Qilin mused.

She knows that her ability is limited and that she is lazy. Although she may not be able to help at all, but the attitude is often very important. Even if she can’t do important and complicated tasks, she can undertake some easy and miscellaneous tasks.

Even if it’s just a little, Xue Qilin wants to share Qi Qiqi’s worries.

After the room brightened up again, Qi Qiqi sat down at the table, picked up the teapot, poured two cups of tea, and pushed one to the seat opposite of her. Then, Xue Qilin got up from the bed and walked over.

“Qilin, you don’t agree that we should leave tomorrow?”

Xue Qilin just sat down, when she heard Qi Qiqi ask this question.

“It’s not that I don’t agree… it’s just that I promised old man Gong to cure Yang’er. I have to fulfill this promise first.”

“Um… I see.”

Qi Qiqi nodded, and then asked suspiciously, “But you’re injured now, you should rest for a while. Gong Tianyang’s affair can wait until you have fully recovered, can’t it? So, I want you to first go back to the Merak Temple and rest. You can pay another visit to the imperial capital at a later date.”

Not hesitating to make a trip, is it because she doesn’t want to stay here another day? Xue Qilin guessed so.

However, Qi Qiqi seems to have made a blunder.

“Little Seven, I think you are mistaken.”

“Um? What am I mistaken about?”

Qi Qiqi raised her head at once and blinked at Xue Qilin in surprise.

“Little Yang’s affair is not difficult to deal with. How should I put it… Even if I was just an Earth Realm practitioner, I could still do it. It may be a bit difficult for you guys. After all, martial arts emphasize the condensation and internal restraint of true qi.

Qi Qiqi revealed a somewhat puzzled expression and looked at Xue Qilin dully.

Aware that the other party didn’t really understand it, Xue Qilin contemplated for a while, and then continued to explain, “It’s like this… from what I observed, the Merak Temple is solely focused on sword scriptures. Needless to say, it is a sword sect that emphasizes “restraining true qi internally, gathering it on a sword, and itself serving as a sword”. Even for qi school experts, who pay more attention to the external release and control of true qi, it’s extremely difficult to control 720 qi needles at the same time to open all of Little Yang’s acupoints, because the control of true qi of martial practitioners solely depends on themselves. Conversely, control of true qi with magic relies on spell models.

“That is to say, as long as the spell model is constructed in advance, there is no need to deal with the problem of control?”

Qi Qiqi, leaning on her poor magic knowledge, issued a guess, hesitant. When Xue Qilin heard this, she snapped hers fingers at once.

“That’s right! Little Seven is really clever!”

Xue Qilin humphed twice, pleased.

“In other words, I can cure Little Yang tomorrow!”

Qi Qiqi pondered for a moment.

“Then, let’s leave the day after tomorrow?”

Xue Qilin suddenly dropped her head and said helplessly, “Ah, Little Seven, at least ask Little Qing’s opinion…”

Qi Qiqi furrowed her brows tightly and murmured, “But…”

“Little Seven, we should respect Little Qing’s opinion. When the time comes, if she really doesn’t want to go, then we’ll try to persuade her again. Okay, when Little Qing wakes up tomorrow, I’ll talk to her.”

Qi Qiqi hesitated for a while.

“Okay, I understand.”

In the end, she still agreed, agreed to Xue Qilin’s proposal.

Next, she looked out of the window at the dark night sky, which is not embellished by stars, and uttered a sentence in a downcast tone.

“– I just hope there’s no more hitches.”

At this moment, Xue Qilin didn’t take Qi Qiqi’s worries to heart.