12dz Chapter 254: We are both fallen people at the end of the world
Chapter 254: We are both fallen people at the end of the world
The bamboo bud pattern on the moon-white shirt. When Shen Yue touched the moon-white shorts for the first time, his fingertips were stung by the almost invisible spiritual power.
This was the uniform of the outer sect's third-rank disciples. Silver bamboo shoots were embroidered on the left chest, and the stitches were so fine that they seemed to be embedded in the fabric.
On the fifteenth day after the system collapsed, she finally rose from a menial servant to an outer disciple qualified to wear patterned clothes by identifying three mutated "Dragon Beard Bamboos" in the Lingzhu Garden.
The morning mist of Qinglan Mountain always flows into Zhuxi Garden at 3:15 AM, wrapping the connected quiet rooms like an ink painting.
Shen Yue walked on the slippery bluestone slabs to the martial arts field. When passing by Jun Jiuchen's quiet room, he saw him wiping a dagger by the window.
The blade was long and narrow, casting a cold light in the morning light. The black cloth wrapped around the handle was stained with dark red stains, like dried blood.
He changed into a new moon-white shirt today. Three silver bamboo patterns on the lapel rose and fell with his movements, but his cuffs were carefully rolled up, revealing the bruises on his forearms that had not yet healed - he must have been in trouble again last night.
On the martial arts field, the voice of the elder who teaches martial arts came through the mist: "When breathing, focus your mind on your dantian. If you feel your spiritual energy is blocked, visualize the growth of bamboo branches..."
Shen Yue sat down cross-legged as he was told, but quietly spread his spiritual awareness around.
She did not inherit the original owner's cultivation aptitude. Although she could not even draw the most basic spiritual power into her body, she never easily displayed her true spiritual power. She could only rely on the observation skills she had developed in the modern workplace to save her life.
In the corner of his eye, Jun Jiuchen's fingertips trembled slightly when he breathed in and out. It was obvious that his internal energy was not flowing smoothly. It must be that his old injury had not healed.
The Poisonous Weeds and Secret Letters in Lingzhu Garden At the hour of Si, Lingzhu Garden was immersed in sunlight, with thousands of green bamboos filtering through fine spots of light.
Shen Yue squatted beside the newly sprouted dragon beard bamboo and picked up a curled young leaf with his fingertips.
The back of the leaves is covered with fine white lines, which look very much like the parasitic traces of "bamboo lice" in modern botanical atlas.
She pulled out a small wax-sealed bottle from her sleeve, which contained insecticide powder prepared according to the "Essentials of Herbal Medicine" - it was made by grinding dried pyrethrum into powder and mixing it with morning dew, which was most effective against bamboo lice.
"Be careful of the third one on the left."
The sudden sound made her turn around suddenly.
Jun Jiuchen had been standing in the bamboo shadows at some point, with a few fallen leaves on his moon-white shirt, as if he had hurried over from the back mountain.
He raised his chin slightly and pointed to the exceptionally sturdy dragon-beard bamboo to her left. "Beneath it is buried the 'Heart-Eroding Grass.' If its juice touches the skin, it will corrode the bones in three days."
Shen Yue quickly retracted her hand, and sure enough, she saw a few dark purple grasses growing at the roots of the bamboo. The serrated protrusions on the edges of the leaves were exactly the same as the specimens she had hidden in her residence.
"How did you know, brother?"
She stood up and noticed that half of the bandage was exposed at the end of his sleeve, and there was a faint trace of black blood.
Jun Jiuchen didn't answer, but took out a piece of letter wrapped in bamboo skin from his sleeve and threw it to her: "I just found it under the window of your quiet room. The handwriting doesn't look like that of a sect disciple."
The letter was unfolded, and there were only eight small cinnabar characters on it: "Bingtang Xiaoba, leave Xiaoyao as soon as possible."
The handwriting was crooked, as if the writer was trying hard to suppress trembling.
Shen Yue's heart sank suddenly.
Bingtang Xiaoba was her disciple number. This letter was obviously a warning, but it was unclear whether it was directed at an enemy or a friend.
She looked up to thank him, but saw that Jun Jiuchen had turned and left. His moon-white shirt brushed past an old bamboo, startling a few blood-red butterflies that were resting on the bamboo joints - that was the mark of his family's "Shadow Guard". It seemed that the pursuers had sneaked into the outer gate area.
The broken pages and secret compartments of the library At this moment, the library was filled with the musty smell of old jade slips.
Shen Yue knelt in front of the bottom bookshelf, flipping through the remaining fragments of "Baicao Shiyao" in the dim light coming through the cracks in the stone.
The edges of the pages were badly worn, and next to the illustration of the "Inquiring Heart Fern" was annotated in cinnabar: "Its juice can break the enchantment array, and requires three drops of fox blood."
She was watching intently when she suddenly heard the sound of wooden boards above her head.
"If you're looking for this kind of obscure classic, why not go to the secret compartment on the east side of the third floor?"
Jun Jiuchen's voice came from above. He had climbed up the bookshelf at some point and was reaching for a sandalwood box at the highest point.
The hem of her moon-white shirt fell down, almost brushing her hair, and the black bloodstain on her cuff became more obvious.
Shen Yue looked up and saw that when his fingertips touched the lid of the box, the sound of stone slabs sliding came from deep in the library.
The two fell silent at the same time. Only heavy footsteps could be heard approaching from afar, accompanied by a low conversation: "...The head of the family said that if we fail again this time, we must hand over the Shadow Guard's token..."
It’s the Jun family’s secret agent!
Shen Yue subconsciously wanted to hide, but was pulled onto the bookshelf by Jun Jiuchen.
He pressed her into the gap between two rows of bookshelves, while he stood outside, condensing a faint wisp of spiritual power at his fingertips, ready to break the formation at any time.
Shen Yue could smell the faint scent of blood on him, mixed with the musty smell of the library, which reminded her of the smell of disinfectant in a modern laboratory.
The spies searched among the bookshelves for a while and finally left cursing.
Shen Yue just breathed a sigh of relief when he felt something hit his lower back.
When she reached out and touched it, she found a piece of broken wood with the number "C" engraved on it - it was the task card she had lost this morning, which had been stuffed into the gap between the bookshelf at some point.
The sound of knocking on the door in Zhuxi Garden late at night. At the hour of Hai, Zhuxi Garden was completely silent except for the gurgling of the stream.
Shen Yue studied the broken wooden tablet under a solitary lamp. The broken parts were extremely neat, as if they were cut by a sharp weapon.
Suddenly, there was a very slight knocking sound on the window paper, three short and one long, which was the emergency signal that Jun Jiuchen taught her during the day.
She quickly opened the window and Jun Jiuchen slipped in. His moon-white shirt was stained with dew, and a deep wound on his left arm, where the bone was visible, was oozing black blood.
"The Shadow Guard's Blood Begonia poison," he gritted his teeth and sat down, pulling out a jade bottle from his sleeve and pouring out the elixir, "Help me see if there's an antidote."
Under the candlelight, the skin around the wound had turned a strange purple-red color, exactly the same as the toxicity of the "Blood Begonia" recorded in "Baicao Shiyao".
Shen Yue quickly dug out the herbal medicine bag, took out the dried heart-searching fern, ground it into powder, and poured out three drops of fox blood that had been stored for many days from the pottery jar in the corner. "This poison needs to be treated with poison. The heart-searching fern will break the spell, and the fox blood will overcome the corrosion."
While applying the medicine, she noticed that Jun Jiuchen's forearms were covered with old scars. One of them extended from his shoulder to his elbow, and its shape resembled a family torture device.
"Why don't you return to your family?"
She couldn't help but ask, her fingertips touching his hot skin.
Jun Jiuchen closed his eyes, a sneer curling up at the corner of his mouth: "Go back? Waiting to be turned into a living dead and guard that ten thousand year old iceberg for them?"
The flickering candlelight made the bloodshot in his eyes particularly clear. "At least I can breathe in Xiaoyao Sect, even if every breath is poisonous."
Shen Yue stopped talking and just quickened the bandaging process.
The bamboo forest outside the window rustled in the night wind, like countless whispers.
She knew that from the moment she took over the broken wooden token, her fate and that of the fugitive young master had been quietly intertwined in the bamboo shadows of Qinglan Mountain.