novelraw Chapter 76 Lingyuan
Chapter 76 Lingyuan
Mingxun hadn't returned to Chenyu Valley for a long time. Fujin, who was alone in the cave, felt lonely to death. Although Lingyuan was with her, the big, dumbfounded guy was much more interesting than the human.
Moreover, Fu Jin was very worried that without their supervision, Ming Xun might do something outrageous on her own.
The thought of being forced to wake up by the strong smell of blood that day, only to find a woman covered in blood when she surfaced, still fills Fu Jin with lingering fear.
What made her even more uncomfortable was that Mingxun didn't panic at all after discovering her. She simply calmly put down the sharp weapon in her hand, smiled at her, and said, "Sorry for waking you up. I thought the pool water would be enough to block out these unpleasant smells."
Water can indeed block most of the smell, but there was just too much blood on her body, which spread out on the ground, with one stream even flowing into the pool.
Mingxun had clearly noticed this as well, and her apologetic expression deepened: "I'll take care of it later."
Fu Jin was almost amused by her: "Is this the time to talk about this? You should be treating your wound right now!"
Mingxun finally managed to spare some attention for the still-bleeding wound on her arm, and slowly bandaged it under Fu Jin's stern gaze.
After wiping away the bloodstains, Fu Jin finally discovered that her arm not only had fresh scratches, but also many old wounds that had long since healed and were now just scars.
She didn't dare ask, nor did she need to. After all, today's experience had made her realize that Mingxun's true nature might not be what she usually appeared to be.
Indeed, after all, she was capable of abandoning Morax, the Rock God, at the height of his power, to join her own master, and then turning around and joining her, Lingyuan, and Yaojun in their rebellion.
But no matter what, they had lived together for so long, and Fu Jin found it hard to let her do whatever she wanted. Now he was starting to worry that Ming Xun, who was far away, would take advantage of his absence to do whatever she wanted.
The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed, and her tail began to thump the water restlessly.
"Lingyuan, Lingyuan—" she called out her friend's name.
Not far from the pool, the enormous lion-like beast seemed to have heard the commotion, but it hadn't woken up yet. It thought it was dreaming, so it smacked its lips and moved to a different spot.
Fu Jin raised her voice: "Ling Yuan!"
The lion beast still didn't react; it was fast asleep.
Fu Jin simply crawled out of the water and splashed her face with his icy body water.
The lion beast finally woke up from its dream, opening its round eyes to look at her, as if asking what was wrong.
Fu Jin was still fuming, but she hadn't forgotten the important matter: "I'd like to ask you to go to Liyue Harbor and check on Mingxun. She hasn't been back for a long time, and I'm a little worried about her."
Although she is not an ordinary fish and can walk outside without the current, she still needs to recover from her injuries and cannot go too far from here.
"Mingxun?" Lingyuan's eyes were filled with confusion. "Didn't she just leave not long ago?"
Fu Jin: ...
It's normal that there's no alternation of day and night in the cave, making it difficult to discern the passage of time. In addition, Lingyuan is prone to sleep, sometimes sleeping for several days at a time, making it even more impossible to tell how much time has passed.
Fu Jin tried hard to convince himself.
Although it made perfect sense, she couldn't help but feel a little angry: "You! You really are—humph."
Worried that she would ignore him, Lingyuan immediately transformed into human form and raised his hand to assure her that he would set off right away, even though she still didn't quite understand why Mingxun was going to Liyue Harbor.
Being an honest girl, she casually asked, "Speaking of which, what's she doing in Liyue Harbor?"
"Of course, it's to reconcile with the Rock God!" Fu Jin excitedly wagged his tail, then, fearing the blockhead wouldn't understand, added, "By the way, if you accidentally run into Morax when you go to find Mingxun, remember to avoid her. She's approaching him under the guise of an ordinary person, so don't let her give herself away."
*
Although Fu Jin had carefully reminded them, she had clearly forgotten something more important—that is, none of them had actually seen the Rock God disguised as an ordinary person.
She even forgot to emphasize to Ling Yuan that Morax had now become a mortal.
Therefore, when the latter found Mingxun's aura in Liyue Harbor, even though she also sensed that there was a mortal standing next to her, she descended from the sky without any hesitation.
Fortunately, there aren't many pedestrians around, otherwise they would probably be so terrified by this scene that they would fall to the ground and exclaim that it was an immortal.
The raindrops were blocked by an invisible barrier just before they fell on her. The silver-haired woman, with an ethereal air, slowly walked towards the person in front of her.
But soon, she stopped in her tracks.
Ling Yuan had a strange expression as she tilted her head to look at the scene in front of her. From her angle, the two people under the umbrella seemed to be very close, so close that they were more than friends.
She asked blankly, "Is this your lover?"
For the inhuman lion-like beasts, when a pair of opposite sexes are too close, it means they have an unusual relationship, such as siblings or lovers.
She hadn't seen the people next to her before, so they couldn't possibly be Mingxun's siblings; they must be her lover.
Ling Yuan's sudden appearance startled Ming Xun. She instinctively pushed Zhong Li away, even though the two of them hadn't done anything out of line.
It was just a raindrop that knocked a leaf off and let it drift into her hair. Zhongli then asked her opinion and picked it off for her.
However, Lingyuan didn't understand these things. She only recognized what she saw with her own eyes. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that she was right, but she still didn't quite understand. After all, before she left, Fu Jin told her that Mingxun had come out to reconcile with Morax.
She asked instinctively, "But Fu Jin clearly told me you came out to look for—"
Before she could finish speaking, Mingxun rushed over and covered her mouth, ignoring the torrential rain all around.
Ling Yuan: ?
After ensuring she had no further opportunity to speak carelessly, Mingxun finally regained her usual shy demeanor in front of Zhongli: "I'm sorry, sir. If my friend's words offended you, I apologize on her behalf."
Her response was a soft chuckle from the man.
Zhong Li stepped forward and pulled her back under the umbrella.
Perhaps because of her rare loss of composure, he couldn't suppress the smile on his lips and could only cover his mouth with his hand and cough lightly: "It's alright, Miss Xun Ming's friend just misunderstood, it's enough to explain it clearly."
"Xun...Ming?" Lingyuan finally realized something belatedly and turned his head to carefully observe Mingxun's expression.
The man smiled shyly at Zhong Li, but when he turned to face her, for some reason, a layer of gloom seemed to suddenly descend upon him. Even though the curve of his lips hadn't changed, it still sent chills down one's spine.
Ling Yuan shuddered, feeling a bit like running away.
However, Mingxun, who was standing next to her, was pressing down on her shoulders tightly, giving her no chance to escape.
The lion-like beast immediately backed down, having instinctively learned to lie: "Fu Jin, Fu Jin said you came here to look for a job, why are you suddenly talking about love?"
Great, things are back to normal.
Mingxun's smile finally became more genuine, and she explained in a more emphasizing voice, "My relationship with Mr. is just that of friends. He is a regular customer at the shop where I work, nothing more."
"That's all." She repeated.
Zhong Libiao's gaze swept over her discreetly, and he smiled as he agreed, "Yes, Miss Xun Ming and I have only a very ordinary relationship."
Ling Yuan's limited mind raced for a moment, and she felt that the two of them were trying to cover something up, but no matter who it was, they probably had no reason to lie to her, so she decided to believe them this time and skip the topic.
She got down to business: "Fu Jin asked me to come see you and check on you."
Mingxun was stunned, as if she hadn't expected that Fujin still cared about her.
Lingyuan slowly added, "She was worried that you might do something outrageous, so she specifically told me to keep my eyes wide open and watch carefully, lest you try to fool me with sweet words."
Based on their conversation, she concluded that Mingxun and Zhongli were not very familiar with each other, and that the latter was not the kind of person Fujin had told her to be careful not to give herself away. Therefore, she made no attempt to hide her purpose.
Something out of line?
Zhong Li's eyes flickered, and he couldn't help but look at the other party involved. However, he was surprised to find that Ming Xun's expression was not very natural, especially after Ling Yuan finished speaking, her right hand subconsciously pulled back.
Because of the limited space under the umbrella, the two were very close, and even such subtle movements were easily noticed.
Mingxun immediately realized that her behavior was somewhat of a cover-up.
She couldn't even look up to see if Zhongli had noticed what was happening, so she could only grab the hem of her skirt with both hands to try to make her actions less conspicuous.
She didn't know if Zhongli would be fooled, but in the current situation, she didn't have time to think about it, because Lingyuan was already making a move to check it out himself.
Mingxun still remembered the weak persona she maintained in front of Zhongli. Even though she clearly had the ability to stop Lingyuan's actions, it was inconvenient for her to take action. But if she wasn't a little tougher, this stubborn guy in front of her could really strip her bare just because of a word from Fujin.
Since that's the case, there's only one choice left—
Mingxun hid behind Zhongli.
This scenario had occurred many times before. As a deity, Morax was always somewhat tolerant of his original followers, even if Mingxun's requests were sometimes strange.
At that time, the battle with the vortex demon god, the overlord of the sea, had just ended, and Morax had a rare period of leisure under the pretext of recuperating from his injuries.
In his spare time, he picked up his carving knife again.
He obtained many spoils from the battle with Oser, including some brightly colored corals, which would be perfect as embellishments for gold jewelry and given to Mingxun.
However, before the jewelry was finished, Mingxun, who was not used to him always staying in the house, came to his door again. Just when Morax thought she had something important to say, she asked him to accompany her on a long trip.
"I remember you're quite close to Liu Yun; perhaps you could ask her to accompany you."
His carving work had just begun, and Morax didn't want to devote his attention to other things for the time being. After hesitating, he still chose to refuse.
Mingxun was usually sensible, but this time she was unusually stubborn. Even after receiving an answer, she did not leave and remained standing in front of Morax with her head down.
She opened her mouth several times, but couldn't utter a single word.
"Mingxun?" Morax asked in confusion, reaching out to lift her face to see the girl's expression and figure out what she was thinking.
But Mingxun stopped him.
She tugged at Morax's sleeve to block his gaze, and only a dejected, hoarse voice could be heard: "I...I want an adult to come with me. There are some things I only want to tell you—"
(End of this chapter)
The author says: Little Mo, if you refuse your wife's invitations, she might run away from home!