A Record of Heavenly Secrets [Transmigration Into A Book] - Chapter 4

What a troublesome bunch.

The kitten patiently listened to the whispers coming from inside the coffin, words that only demons and monsters could understand. It stretched its rounded front paws forward, gave a leisurely stretch, and nimbly jumped down from the shaking coffin.

It walked with an elegant gait on its little short legs, its tail swaying slightly. Its narrowed feline eyes remained fixed on Yan Qingli as it approached the sleeping woman.

Fortunately, the source of all this trouble had been caught and confined here. Now those annoying prisoners could finally shut up. It wouldn’t have to endure their incessant cries of “Smells so good” and “I want to eat her” coming from every direction, tormenting its ears and keeping it restless all night.

The kitten lay down against one side of Yan Qingli’s chest and raised a furry paw, pressing it against her forehead. A barrier formed beneath its paw, blocking all the white spiritual light that swirled around the woman’s body. One after another, the coffins inside the carriage gradually settled down, and silence returned.

Just as it was about to withdraw its paw, its dark violet eyes suddenly narrowed. To its surprise, the white spiritual energy had somehow passed through the barrier and clung entirely to its soft paw pad. The nourishing spiritual energy poured into its body through its acupoints, causing even its main divine soul, far away on Mount Lao, to stir slightly.

Such pure and extraordinarily nourishing zhenyuan! Could this woman also possess the legendary medicinal constitution said to appear only once every hundred years?

It tilted its head and studied Yan Qingli thoughtfully with its sparkling violet eyes. The beautiful face so close to it was scrunched up from a nightmare, her brows tightly furrowed. Beads of sweat were steadily forming on her fair forehead.

This woman wasn’t even a spirit creature, yet she was so fresh-faced and beautiful. With her peach-blossom beauty and jade-like complexion, she could certainly be considered one of the finest specimens among the majority of rather plain-looking humans.

Curled up in Yan Qingli’s embrace, the kitten felt exceptionally comfortable as the zhenyuan nourished its body. The intoxicating energy gradually made it drowsy, while the warmth of the human blood flowing beneath her skin radiated into its soft fur. It was wonderfully warm.

Her body temperature was so high. She was probably having a nightmare.

It yawned, its sleepy eyes half-closed, then suddenly pressed its little furry paw flat against her forehead. Its thick, soft, plum-blossom-shaped paw pad brushed gently over her skin, and the beads of sweat instantly evaporated, disappearing without a trace.

Yan Qingli awoke from her nightmare drenched in sweat. In a reflexive movement, she kicked the sword resting beside her against the carriage wall. It struck with a loud clang before falling to the floor with a crisp clatter.

She touched her neck and sat up cross-legged, still looking badly shaken. Once again, she had dreamed of her previous life, when Perfected Jiuyang had tricked her into entering a Spirit-Locking Formation, where Bu Yunlou had brutally dug her heart out right under the Sect Master’s nose.

A sense of impending danger rose in Yan Qingli’s heart. Dreams were often omens. Her medicinal spiritual root was exceedingly rare. If the Sect Master couldn’t find another medicinal ingredient capable of curing his daughter’s illness, he would inevitably come looking for her again.

The kitten nestled in Yan Qingli’s arms was suddenly flung out. It let out a displeased little whimper, rolled across the floor, scrambled to its feet, and jumped back onto the coffin lid.

One of its ears tilted slightly as it listened, while its little head lowered to sniff through the thick chains. After confirming that the demonic aura inside the coffin was still present, it relaxed and settled into a sitting position atop the lid, its dangling tail swaying contentedly.

Xiaoming, who had been curled up beside the coffin, was also awakened by the commotion. She sleepily climbed to her feet, several rays of light filtering through the gap in the carriage curtain and illuminating her face.

Xiaoming rubbed her eyes, still red and swollen from crying the night before. She lifted the carriage curtain and looked outside, then turned toward Yan Qingli with a pale face.

“Senior Sister, everyone in the carriages has come out. We’ve already entered Mount Lao’s barrier.”

Yan Qingli smiled faintly and picked up the sword from the floor. “Now that we’re here, you don’t need to call me Senior Sister anymore. I’m no longer a member of the sect. Just call me by my name.”

Xiaoming stared blankly at Yan Qingli’s smile for a moment. Her cheeks reddened unnaturally, and she drew her neck in shyly. “You look younger than me, so I’ll call you Little Sister Qingli.”

Yan Qingli couldn’t help laughing. She touched her youthful-looking face. She had entered the Fusion stage at the age of fifteen, and her appearance had remained that of a young girl ever since. It was no wonder Xiaoming thought she was younger. In reality, this body of hers was at least forty-five years old. She really couldn’t bring herself to call Xiaoming her elder sister.

“Little Ming, how old are you this year?”

Xiaoming didn’t react at first. After thinking it over, she finally realized Yan Qingli was addressing her and replied somewhat awkwardly, “I entered the Immortal Sect five years ago. I’d just turned fifteen back then, so I should be around twenty now.”

Yan Qingli had seen plenty of cultivators like Xiaoming, who became stuck at the bottleneck of the Enlightenment stage at twenty and gradually aged until they died. She wasn’t surprised.

“By my calculations, I’m nearly fifty myself. Age doesn’t really matter in the cultivation world. As long as we aren’t separated by a generation in cultivation seniority, we can simply address each other by name.”

Xiaoming was merely an outer disciple responsible for sweeping the sect’s mountain paths. She had never dared show the slightest disrespect toward an inner disciple. At first, addressing Yan Qingli directly by name felt awkward and strange. But seeing how gentle and kind the other woman was, she gradually let go of her reservations.

Mount Lao was not actually a mountain. Its spiritual ores and immortal stones had been completely excavated over a hundred years ago, leaving the original mountain leveled to the ground. Now, all that remained was an enormous, majestic stone palace standing amid the desert. The hundred-story structure towered into the clouds, occupying a territory of its own, isolated from the rest of the world.

Yan Qingli walked among the crowd, watching as the yellow talisman paper figures carried rows of coffins down from the carriages one after another.

After examining them with her true qi, she confirmed that the triangular copper coins hanging from the carriages did indeed serve a particular purpose. Their numbers ranged from one to nine, and the greater the number, the higher the rank of the imprisoned demon or monster. Of all the carriages she had encountered along the journey, the demonic creature imprisoned in the one she had shared with Xiaoming possessed the densest and most vicious aura. It was undoubtedly the most ferocious and dangerous of them all. No wonder their carriage had been adorned with nine triangular copper coins.

Outside Mount Lao, two ugly monsters with goat heads and human bodies were distributing slave identity tokens. Suddenly, a strange bird with colorful wings spread wide descended among the people waiting in line. The sight frightened the crowd into scattering, forcibly clearing an open space around it.

The multicolored bird screeched several times at the top of its lungs before finally producing a human voice.

“Which one of you is Yan Qingli? Someone is waiting outside the barrier with a Mount Lao Release Writ.”

Outside Mount Lao’s stone palace, Xiaoming tugged at the corner of Yan Qingli’s robe as they stood in line. With a mixture of envy and dejection, she said, “Someone’s looking for you, and they’ve even brought a Mount Lao Release Writ. Qingli, you really must have been sent into exile here by mistake. Now you can leave. Congratulations.”

“Not necessarily. Leaving might not be a good thing for me.”

Yan Qingli looked toward Yan Chixue standing outside the distant barrier, with Bu Yunlou following behind her. Her eyes narrowed slightly, their depths concealing unreadable emotions.

Xiaoming didn’t understand what she meant. “Why do you say that?”

Yan Qingli patted Xiaoming’s shoulder. Seeing her puzzled expression, she smiled and tightened her grip on the sword in her hand.

“Save my place in line. I need to settle a few things. I’ll be right back.”

The kitten had been playfully hopping back and forth across the yellow talisman paper figure’s shoulders, lazily licking its paws while basking in the sunlight. When it turned its gaze, it spotted Yan Qingli walking away behind a gaudy, red-headed bird with colorful feathers.

A dark violet glimmer flashed through its slit-like pupils. It leaped lightly to the ground and caught up with Yan Qingli in just a few steps before jumping onto her shoulder.