22: Chapter 22 It's not just middle-aged women who wear veils

Wen Yushu and Gu Jian were spat out from the mirror surface and crashed onto the ground.

After the tentacles receded, the two people crawled out from the pile of shattered mirror shards, propped up Xie Feng's arms, and helped him up from the ground.

Xie Feng had already passed out completely.

His eyes were tightly closed, and the light gushing out from his two eye sockets had already extinguished, leaving only hollow outlines that were still faintly bleeding.

Fortunately, he had fainted.

Although The Guide's gaze was still present, Xie Feng had already passed out, and that gaze was temporarily locked deep within Xie Feng's consciousness.

If Xie Feng were still awake, given the distance Wen Yushu and Gu Jian were from him at this moment, the two of them would likely have suffered disaster as well.

Wen Yushu retracted his spiritual power threads, his peach-blossom eyes devoid of any expression. He groped out that letter paper from his sleeve, refolded it, and shoved it back into his sleeve.

"Let's go."

Gu Jian propped up Xie Feng, while Wen Yushu walked in front.

The three of them passed through the collapsing corridor, the mirror surfaces shattering one by one beside them, the fragments falling onto the ground and making a dense sound, like countless cups shattering all at once.

Xie Feng was dragged along by Gu Jian, his two legs leaving intermittent marks on the ground. Inside his two hollow eye sockets, there was nothing at all.

Shattering the mirror at the end, the three returned to the bottom of the mine pit.

Sunlight shone straight down from above.

Two mirrors stood not far away, each with a scorched mark on its surface radiating outward from the center, like two eye sockets burned out from the inside.

Xie Feng could not feel the sunlight; his eye sockets were filled with wind.

The first instant his consciousness recovered, he tore off the fabric of his cuffs, rolled them into two balls, and jammed them tightly into his eye sockets.

The movement was rough, without hesitation.

He did not know if The Guide's gaze would leak out from his hollow eye sockets and shine onto Wen Yushu and Gu Jian.

Xie Feng did not dare to gamble.

Wen Yushu stood at the edge of the mine pit, looking up at the patch of sky surrounded by mica fragments above the mine pit.

"Brother Xie. The things in your eyes are more than what I calculated."

Xie Feng turned his face toward the patch of wild grass at the edge of the mine pit.

The cloth balls stuffed in his eye sockets prevented him from feeling the wind, but he could hear the sound of the wild grass rubbing together; he could not see, but he knew.

Someone was standing there.

It stood farther away, outside the box, having watched the entire play.

"Do you have a mask?" Xie Feng asked. "Give me one."

Neither of them answered immediately.

The two of them thought of that terrifying light.

"Take mine."

Wen Yushu pulled a veil from his sleeve. It was dark gray, with a thin and light fabric, neatly folded.

"It's not much of a Magic Treasure, but at least it can... cover things up a bit."

"You two close your eyes first."

Wen Yushu and Gu Jian closed their eyes.

Xie Feng was not quite accustomed to the darkness and slowly turned his head away.

He groped to find the cloth balls stuffed in his eye sockets and dug them out.

The instant the cloth balls left his eye sockets, that chill surged up again.

The two hollow eye sockets were like two dried-up wells, the wind pouring in from the well mouths and passing through his empty cranial cavity.

He gently covered his face with the veil to block the light from The Guide.

"It's fine now. Open them."

The two opened their eyes.

Wen Yushu looked at him.

Gu Jian also looked at him.

The dark gray veil covered the upper half of Xie Feng's face, from his forehead to the bridge of his nose, and then to his cheekbones on both sides.

The veil was thin and light, yet completely opaque, tightly concealing the two hollow eye sockets behind it. The edges of the veil pressed against his skin, slightly adsorbed by the residual warmth seeping from the eye sockets, outlining the contours of his eye sockets.

When there was no wind, the veil remained motionless, like a layer of solidified gray mist.

Xie Feng's face originally had sword-like eyebrows, star-like eyes, and distinct lines, but now, the most eye-catching position on that face was replaced by a patch of dark gray nothingness.

There was nothing beneath that veil; standing there, he looked like a person hollowed out from the inside.

"Let's go," Xie Feng said.

His voice was trembling, adrenaline was receding, and pain was surging up.

Seeping out from the deepest part of his cranial cavity, it spread along the trigeminal nerve to his entire face.

Wen Yushu saw it.

He flipped out a pill from his sleeve and shoved it into Xie Feng's mouth from underneath.

The pill melted upon contact with the mouth, the bitterness spreading from the root of his tongue to his throat.

The pain did not disappear, but was wrapped in something, like being beaten through thick cloth.

Wen Yushu propped up Xie Feng's left arm, and Gu Jian propped up his right arm.

The two of them, one on the left and one on the right, supported him as they walked upward toward the mine pit.

Sunlight shone down from above, falling on the backs of the three people. Xie Feng could not feel the sunlight; he could only feel the body temperature coming from his left and right sides.

As well as with every step he took, those two empty chills deep within his eye sockets shrank inward a bit.

After returning to the Qingyun Sect, Xie Feng lay in bed for seven days.

On the third day, he woke up without opening his eyes.

Opening his eyes would have been useless anyway; he no longer had eyes.

He simply lay there, feeling the spiritual power slowly circulate through his six Meridians. Wen Yushu came once a day, dropped off the pill, and left without speaking.

Gu Jian did not come.

Tu Ziguan had come on the very first day, only to be blocked outside the door by Wen Yushu.

It seemed that the two slick fellows even broke out into an extremely serious quarrel.

Xie Feng heard it clearly.

"His eyes... Anyway, you can't go in, you can't look!"

"Step aside! This lord doesn't buy your account! Understand?!"

Mo Tang had come, stood at the doorway and glanced inside, and then left.

Elder Zhao had come.

He stood by the bed, grasped Xie Feng's wrist, and probed his Meridians with spiritual power. After probing, he fell silent for a moment, let go of his hand, uttered the sentence "Meridians are unimpeded," and left.

He did not ask about the matter of the eye sockets; perhaps Wen Yushu had reported it, or perhaps he knew that asking would be useless.

On the eighth day, Xie Feng got out of bed.

He stood in the room, facing the direction of the window.

Sunlight filtered through the window paper; he could not feel the light, but he could feel the temperature falling upon the veil.

He mobilized the spiritual power within his body, operating his six Meridians simultaneously. Spiritual light lit up from his palm and spread to his entire forearm.

His eyes were gone, but his cultivation realm was still there.

He spent three days getting used to the darkness, going from bumping and falling while walking to moving unimpeded.

"Without vision, hearing becomes sensitive, and a practitioner's five senses are indeed sharp," Xie Feng thought.

He exchanged contribution points for two Cultivation Techniques, one for attack and one for defense.

The attack Cultivation Technique was called Mirror-Breaking Finger, a name Xie Feng had chosen himself. It was originally a Yellow Rank High Grade finger technique of the Qingyun Sect, condensing spiritual power at the fingertips to break through a surface with a single point.

The defense Cultivation Technique was called Twining Strength, transforming spiritual power into threads that wrapped around the body, forming an extremely thin protective spiritual net.

He no longer looked down upon anything.

After mastering these two Cultivation Techniques, Xie Feng made a trip to the Affairs Hall.

The deacon handed him a wooden box, saying it was a mission reward issued by the Sect.

Xie Feng took the wooden box and opened it.

Inside was a veil.

The veil was dark gray, with a thin and light fabric, neatly folded.

It was very similar to the one Wen Yushu gave him, but thinner and lighter.

The instant Xie Feng's fingers touched the veil, he felt an extremely faint chill seep in from his fingertips.

He felt a texture that did not belong to any textile.

He turned the veil over and stroked along its edges.

Embroidered on it was a row of extremely fine patterns, not formation patterns, but some kind of text he did not understand.

Crooked and twisted, like earthworms dying under the sun.

When Tu Ziguan pushed the door open and entered, Xie Feng was just placing that veil issued by the Sect onto his head.

Then he gently tightened it across his forehead with a string and reinforced it with spiritual power.

Wen Yushu's piece had been washed by him, folded, and placed on the table.

Tu Ziguan stood at the doorway, looking at the new veil on Xie Feng's face without speaking.

His gaze shifted from the veil to the hollow eye socket positions of Xie Feng, and then back to the veil.

"Tu Wu," Xie Feng said.

"...Mn."

"What do you think of this veil?"

"Like a fan surface," Tu Ziguan said out of nowhere.

"What?"

"It's just... a fan, the fan surface of that kind of folding fan."

Tu Ziguan's voice was a bit dry.

"In my past life, I saw an old fan in an antique market. After peeling off the fan surface, that was the feeling. Peeling off the fan surface and covering it on one's face, that was this feeling."

Xie Feng did not speak, pressing the edge of the veil down a fraction tighter.

"Tu Wu."

"Mn."

"You didn't see anything about this veil."

Tu Ziguan did not answer.

He looked at the dark gray veil on Xie Feng's face, looked at those crooked patterns along the edge, and looked at the two hollow eye socket positions beneath the veil.

"What did I see? I didn't see a thing."

Xie Feng stood in the room, facing the direction of the window, sunlight filtering through the window paper and falling upon the dark gray veil.

Xie Feng did not ask where this veil came from.

He did not dare to ask.