75: Chapter 75 Is he the soul of the sword?

Su Chen listened quietly, his heart clear. So that was it.

The last remaining gem of an isolated race, bearing kindness and wanting to help humanity, yet due to her lack of worldly experience and racial barriers, she was instead used by true evil and nearly became a sacrifice.

This world is truly ironic. He gently patted the back of Cang Mingyue's cold hand.

"I understand."

"None of this is your fault; it is those treacherous demons and monsters that have deceived people's hearts."

"Miss Cang Mingyue."

Su Chen looked at her.

"This is no place to linger. If you trust me, would you be willing to leave with me for now?"

"Perhaps we can uncover the truth, clear your name, and save the people of this entire city."

Cang Mingyue raised her head, gazing at Su Chen with tear-filled eyes.

Yet, to Su Chen's surprise, she shook her head.

"Thank you, Young Master Su, but..."

"I... I can't."

She glanced at her own fish tail.

"I am still in my juvenile form. With this tail, I can only move about in the near-shore areas on land; I cannot go too far..."

"Perhaps in a few years, after my cultivation improves and I become an adult mermaid, I will be able to have two legs like a human and walk freely on land..."

As she spoke, her beautiful eyes were filled with grievance.

"Huh?"

Su Chen was taken aback.

He hadn't expected there to be such a restriction.

In this case, if he wanted to cultivate his second investment target, Cang Mingyue, only two methods remained.

The first was to not leave Donglai Prefecture.

That was certainly impossible.

He was just a sword; even if he could take human form, the distance he could travel was limited.

Therefore, only the second method remained.

Quickly raise Cang Mingyue's favorability, and then, before he left, paint a big picture for her.

Let her quickly improve her cultivation and come to land to find him!

Su Chen, the master of the corner, nodded with satisfaction.

"Then... Miss Yue, when do you usually move about on land?"

"Usually at night, by the seaside," Cang Mingyue replied.

As a sea demon, she was, after all, an existence that "could not see the light" in human society.

Strutting down the streets during the day was certainly impossible.

Su Chen nodded.

"Since that is the case, Miss Yue, I will come here to the seaside to meet you every day at the Hour of the Rat, how about that?"

"On one hand, I will be staying in this Donglai Prefecture for a while longer to investigate the epidemic, and when the truth comes to light, I can give you an explanation."

"On the other hand, our meeting here is a matter of fate."

"As a practitioner of the Dao, I value fate the most, and this is a perfect opportunity to bestow some opportunities upon you daily, to help you take human form sooner."

Cang Mingyue raised her head, gazing at Su Chen with tear-filled eyes.

Mermaids are poikilothermic animals.

For the first time, she felt her own body.

It was so warm.

This was the first human she had met who was willing to show her kindness.

She nodded vigorously, gripping Su Chen's hand tightly, as if clutching the only piece of driftwood.

"I... I am willing to trust you, Young Master Su."

Moonlight spilled gently onto the sea surface, and neither spoke again.

...

That night.

In the small courtyard where Ye Jingjun and Ye Yuan lived.

Ye Yuan was still sitting cross-legged in meditation, recovering his cultivation.

That night, the moonlight was like water, flowing quietly into every corner of the dilapidated courtyard.

Ye Jingjun hugged her knees, curled up under the eaves in a sheltered corner of the courtyard.

The cold moonlight outlined her thin figure, casting a lonely shadow on the ground.

The Hour of the Rat had passed.

The person who promised to come still hadn't appeared.

"Master Su..."

Ye Jingjun was getting tired of waiting.

She felt two voices arguing incessantly in her heart.

One voice said, how could an expert like Su Chen really lower himself to keep instructing a child like her? Don't delude yourself; he only instructed you a couple of times as a casual favor during a chance encounter.

The other voice said, perhaps he just had something to busy himself with tonight and would come tomorrow night.

Ye Jingjun grew weary of the two voices arguing.

Having waited for so long, her eyelids gradually grew heavy, and eventually, unable to resist the exhaustion from days of travel, she fell into a deep sleep.

She didn't know how much time had passed.

A slight spatial fluctuation startled her from her light sleep.

Ye Jingjun opened her eyes.

By the thin moonlight, she happened to see it.

In the direction of the main room, a familiar figure in green robes appeared.

It was indeed Su Chen.

Ye Jingjun covered her small mouth, not daring to make a sound.

He seemed to have just returned from outside, his sleeves still stained with specks of blood.

His profile was still as handsome as ever.

However, before she could see more clearly, the figure vanished like green smoke, suddenly merging into the cracked longsword on the table.

Everything returned to silence, as if that scene just now had been a hallucination born of her extreme fatigue.

Yet, at this moment, Ye Jingjun's heart pounded wildly, almost threatening to burst out of her chest.

She covered her mouth tightly, barely managing not to scream.

Master Su... He actually came out of the sword!

She was naturally familiar with that sword.

It was the sword her "father," Ye Yuan, had casually bought in Qingzhou.

An absurd yet reasonable hypothesis slowly took shape in her mind.

Could it be... that Master Su is not a mortal, but a... sword soul inside the sword?

Once this thought arose, it could no longer be suppressed.

She recalled Su Chen's mysterious appearances, his superhuman insight into sword techniques, and how he always appeared and quietly left at specific times.

All the illogical aspects seemed to have answers now.

For a moment, shock, realization, pity, and a fluttering heart... a multitude of emotions mixed in the young girl's heart.

So, it wasn't that he didn't want to stay, but that he couldn't.

He was actually trapped inside the sword.

That night, Ye Jingjun had no more sleep.

She just leaned quietly against the corner of the wall, her gaze drifting from time to time toward the silent longsword on the table.

Her expression was complex and hard to decipher.

Not until the first light of dawn did she quietly rise, pretending to have just woken up.

After a night of meditation, Ye Yuan's complexion looked a little better.

He groped around and picked up Su Chen, who had been placed to the side.

As a swordsman, keeping his sword close was the most basic virtue.

Although Su Chen's sword body was full of cracks and not perfect, it always gave him a sense of peace.

"Father."

Ye Jingjun's voice sounded from the side.

"Your injuries seem to have improved?"

"Are you... planning to go out to investigate today?"

"Yes, being trapped here is no solution. The imperial court is incompetent, and demons run rampant. Although I have become a fugitive, since I have arrived here, I must see if I can do something."

Ye Yuan nodded.

"At the very least, I must find out what the source of this epidemic is."

Ye Jingjun was silent for a moment, then suddenly said.

"Then... Father, if you don't need to fight while you are out today, could you leave this sword with me?"

Ye Yuan was taken aback, his blind "gaze" turning toward his daughter.

"What do you need the sword for?"

"What about the wooden sword I made for you?"

"A wooden sword... is ultimately just a wooden sword."

Ye Jingjun lowered her eyes.

"I have recently had some small insights into sword practice, so I would like to take this opportunity to experience a real sword."

"Besides, when you are not here, if I have it with me, it will be good for self-defense."

(The following is the author's monologue; it does not count towards the update word count and can be skipped.)

(Thank you all for the urging updates, small gifts, and five-star reviews; it has made me feel everyone's enthusiasm.)

(Many readers have commented that my updates are a bit slow; I do not deny this.)

(I am a senior student and a corporate slave; recently I have been overwhelmed by my graduation project, internship, and postgraduate entrance exam interviews. I have been updating right at the deadline to maintain my perfect attendance.)

(I still need to check my results after a while; I don't know what the situation will be.)

(Once I am done with all of this, I should be updating more frequently.)

(PS: The gifts in the background are almost accumulating to 50 again.)

(One person, one gift to support the love, I will have to add an update tomorrow!)