nycdaug Chapter 390 The Love and Career of a Beautiful Immortal 11
Chapter 390 The Love and Career of a Beautiful Immortal 11
Chapter 390 The Love and Career of a Beautiful Immortal (11)
"Time has changed so much after all..." he sighed to himself.
Ran Cang walked quickly over, took his hand which was hanging in mid-air, and gently led him through the courtyard.
Sui Si sniffed lightly, and smelled a cold fragrance lingering on her sleeve mixed with an unfamiliar bitterness. The smell was rich and heavy, as if it had been extracted by boiling all the medicine furnaces in the Moon Palace dry.
"Ayu, what's wrong with you...?"
He hesitated, his heart filled with doubt and worry.
A white tiger skin rug had already been laid out on the stone bench. When he sat down, he heard the crisp sound of a cracked teacup lightly tapping the table. This familiar sound made him pause slightly. This was the celadon porcelain that they only took out on their birthdays.
"The plum tree in the southeast corner..."
Sui Si suddenly turned towards the end of the corridor, frowning slightly, "Why can't I hear the sound of flower buds breaking through the snow?"
His hearing was exceptionally sharp, and he was intimately familiar with every plant and tree in the courtyard. Without the familiar sound of flower buds breaking through the ice, he felt something was missing.
Ran Cang's hand, which was pouring tea, trembled almost imperceptibly, and a hint of panic flashed in his eyes.
That ancient plum tree, destroyed by heavenly fire, is now nothing more than a phantom she reconstructed with her icy essence.
To be honest, all this garden full of plants and pavilions is nothing more than a mirage woven from frost and obsession.
"It's not flowering season yet."
She tried to make her voice sound relaxed and natural as she placed the warm teacup into her brother's palm.
Looking down, he noticed the ice cracks appearing on the back of his hand, and his heart tightened. The backlash from forcibly opening the birth pool's restrictions yesterday was beginning to take effect.
Sui Si took a sip of tea, then suddenly frowned:
"A snow-capped peak adorned with verdant greenery should be paired with the icy springs of Kunlun; where do you obtain your water from?"
Although he had lost his divine power and his body could not withstand the erosion of the chaotic breath, he could still taste the sweet and pungent flavor of the tea mixed with the blood of the heart of the scorched dragon.
"Ayu, are you hiding something from me?"
His tone was demanding and left no room for argument, and his brows furrowed even deeper.
Ran Cang stared at the white silk over his eyes across the stone table, where faint traces of gold were seeping out.
Three days ago, when she ground her natal Frost Soul into powder and mixed it with half of her divine essence to rebuild his spiritual veins, her brother shed tears of blood, which melted the snow that never melts in the Arctic Abyss.
"Brother, don't overthink it, it's just ordinary water."
She avoided her brother's questions, her eyes darting away.
"Brother, would you like to try some freshly pickled plums?"
She tried to change the subject, pushing the ice jade disc towards her, the sealing seal on her wrist faintly burning.
Those shattered golden bodies that she had locked deep in the Arctic Abyss were now wailing in resentment at the bottom of the birth pool.
Sui Si accurately picked up a green plum, a move that made Ran Cang's pupils shrink sharply.
She watched him hold the candied fruit to his lips but didn't bite it, his porcelain white teeth gently scraping the frosting sugar. Suddenly, she remembered how he taught her to set up a star array when she was a child—back then, her brother's fingers were also suspended on the star chart like this, as precise as a ruler measuring the heavens and the earth.
"Brother, you..."
Ran Cang hesitated, wanting to speak but unable to, as those beautiful memories now pierced her heart like a knife.
"Ayu."
Sui Si suddenly grabbed her hand as she tried to pull it back, and turned her face, covered by a white silk veil, toward the North Star.
"Is my natal sword broken?"
His voice was soft, yet it struck Ran Cang's heart like a heavy hammer.
The Frost Flower Bracelet on Ran Cang's wrist exploded with a crack. She watched in horror as ice mist seeped out from the crack and condensed into the phantom of half a sword tip at her brother's feet. That was the last fragment of the divine artifact she had buried at the bottom of the Birth Pool.
"Brother, how...how did you know..."
Her voice trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes.
As dusk crept over the courtyard wall, frost began to form at the ends of Sui Si's white silk ribbons.
Ran Cang excused himself to fetch his cloak and hurriedly left his seat, but spat out a mouthful of ice shards the moment he turned the corner of the corridor.
The tiny runes wrapped in those gold-dyed ice fragments were the backlash from the seal she had forcibly left in her brother's body.
"I can't let my brother know, I can't..."
She coughed and murmured softly, her face filled with determination and pain.
Suddenly, the copper bell under the eaves rang out on its own without any wind, making a clear, crisp sound, as if it were lamenting her fate.
Ran Cang leaned against the ice pillar, panting, watching her hair fall away, turning to ash bit by bit from the ends—the price she paid for defying fate with her divine body was now relentlessly eroding her last remaining divine soul.
Before dawn, the Arctic Abyss was shrouded in thick darkness, with only the faint light of falling snow. A figure dressed in black stood under the eaves, holding a jade cup, quietly catching the snowflakes.
A piece of ice crystal gently landed in her palm. Instead of melting, it slowly condensed into a translucent plum blossom shape.
Ran Cang's fingers trembled slightly, and a barely perceptible emotion flashed in his eyes.
The plum blossom pattern is exactly the same as the design on my brother's favorite teacup.
She looked up at Sui Si, who was listening to the wind with his eyes closed under the eaves. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. She just sighed silently and gently pressed the plum blossoms back into the snow water.
The flames under the clay pot licked the pot's surface, and soon the water began to boil. The frozen plum blossom instantly shattered into foam in the churning snow water, just like the fleeting warmth in her heart.
"Brother, the tea is ready."
Ran Cang called softly, her voice carrying far in the silent snowy night.
Upon hearing the sound, Sui Si slowly opened his eyes, his gaze falling on the teacup in her hand, and nodded slightly.
The morning mist drifted over the ice bridge like a light veil, casting a hazy veil over the entire Arctic Abyss.
Sui Si stood with his hands behind his back and suddenly said:
"Ran Cang, I suddenly have a craving for sweet osmanthus lotus root."
Upon hearing this, Ran Cang's gaze fell on the illusory golden osmanthus tree in the courtyard that never bloomed, and a trace of loneliness flashed in his eyes.
"Alright, brother, please wait for me."
She responded softly and turned to walk towards the birth pool.
A thick layer of ice covered the birth pool, and a chill emanated from it. Ran Cang took a deep breath, raised his hand, and channeled his magic power. With a "crack," a crack appeared in the ice.
She bent down and plunged her hands into the icy water. The biting cold instantly spread throughout her body. She gritted her teeth, endured the excruciating pain, and dug out her last intact rib.
As she sculpted the ribs into the shape of a lotus root, shards of ice seeped into her veins through her fingers. The excruciating pain caused her forehead to be covered in cold sweat, but she remained silent, only silently reciting in her heart:
“Brother, this is what I can do for you.”
When Ran Cang returned to Sui Si with the prepared sweet osmanthus lotus root, Sui Si took it, gently bit off the sugar coating, but suddenly frowned:
"It's overcooked."
Ran Cang unconsciously hid her hand behind her back, her fingertips still dripping with icy marrow. She whispered:
“Brother, it was my fault. The true fire I formed from frost soul is ultimately no match for the red lotus karmic fire you summoned back then.”
Sui Si glanced at her, said nothing, and simply put down the candied lotus root in his hand.
The twilight, like blood, stained the entire icy plain red.
Sui Si sat under the corridor playing the zither. The music was melodious, yet it carried a hint of indescribable loneliness.
Ran Cang stood quietly to the side, listening intently, his gaze fixed on the altered strings.
This was originally made of North Sea shark silk, but now it is an ice string that she refined from three thousand strands of her hair.
Each time Sui Si plucked the strings, a layer of frost appeared on her graying hair, but she only smiled and said:
"Brother, your musical skills are becoming more and more exquisite. But this Arctic Abyss is cold, so don't catch a cold."
As she spoke, she gently placed a white tiger skin on Sui Si's lap.
At midnight, all was quiet, and Ran Cang was alone in the ice room repairing the cracks.
The ice room was bitterly cold, and her hands were red with cold, yet she continued to repair them meticulously.
Suddenly, she heard hurried footsteps outside the door. She looked flustered and quickly hid her festering right arm in her wide sleeve.
Through the ice door came Sui Si's gentle voice:
"Ran Cang, the plum tree in the southeast corner, looks like it has already bloomed."
Ran Cang's breath hitched for a moment. She had indeed broken off a sprig of ice plum and placed it under the eaves this morning.
But at this moment, through the crack in the door, she glimpsed that Sui Si's fingertips were stained with real flower juice, and that bright red rouge was clearly the blood she had dripped into the birth pool yesterday.
She was startled and thought to herself:
"Brother, has he perhaps already sensed something?"