Chapter 6#
Her Husband Sends Her to Have Her Spiritual Root Tested#
Yan Jianxiao blinked instinctively, his long lashes brushing against the other’s palm.
Ying Qingye’s hand was so hot.
Ying Qingye: “Let’s go to the second floor, I’ve booked a room… how disgusting—that person is starting to vomit black blood and mud.”
Yan Jianxiao: “…”
…So why did he suddenly cover her eyes like that?!
Thinking this, she reached up to pull at the hand Ying Qingye had pressed over her eyes, trying to pry it away. But as it turned out, Ying Qingye might look easygoing, yet his actions were forceful—his arms were like sturdy shackles, and once he’d covered her eyes from behind, he wouldn’t let go.
Yan Jianxiao grew anxious. Being mute from birth, she couldn’t speak, and only when emotionally stirred could she let out a faint sound from her throat—
“…Mm… 0001090303”
Let go of her!
Ying Qingye: “?”
“You can actually make sounds, Yan Yan?” Ying Qingye was genuinely surprised, so taken aback that he forgot all decorum. He simply scooped her up by the waist—
No matter where in this world or the heavens, no one had ever carried anyone quite like this. Ying Qingye bent slightly, sliding his arm down to hook it around Yan Jianxiao’s waist from behind in a one-armed hold. His arms were long, and Yan Jianxiao was thin, so capturing that slender waist was effortless.
One arm looped around her waist, lifting her off the ground.
The sudden weightlessness made Yan Jianxiao’s feet dangle in the air, and instinctively, with a hint of dependence, she clutched at the arm wrapped around her waist.
Meanwhile, Ying Qingye’s other hand remained steadily pressed over Yan Jianxiao’s eyes.
The whole sight looked like he was carrying an unruly little cub.
When they reached the room he’d booked, Yan Jianxiao was finally set down, and her vision returned. She looked at Ying Qingye with a bit of sulkiness—
That lift-and-carry position had, quite properly, not brushed against her chest at all, but it certainly put the carrier’s lower back and single-arm strength to the test.
Ying Qingye wore a black robe, his long hair tied high in a jade crown. After carrying her all the way, not a trace of sweat appeared on his handsome face—clearly, it had been effortless for him.
…Was she really that light? Why could Ying Qingye lift her with just one hand?
“You can produce sounds?” Ying Qingye looked at her.
Yan Jianxiao nodded, demonstrating for him. “Mm… ah…”
Then she wrote: Only that.
“Very quiet.” Ying Qingye blinked. “Were you born this way? Have you ever seen a clan physician about it?”
Yan Jianxiao shook her head, writing: I don’t know.
She didn’t remember whether she’d ever seen a physician at all, but she didn’t need a genius to figure out that Qiao Weiyang would never have found her one.
Ying Qingye looked thoughtful. “Then after dinner, I’ll take you to Danzhu Peak to have someone take a look. Maybe it can be cured.”
Yan Jianxiao blinked, gazing at him, and found a little spark of hope slowly rising in her heart.
It might be cured?
“Do you have any dietary restrictions?” Ying Qingye asked, flipping through the menu on the table.
Yan Jianxiao looked at him, a little speechless.
Even if she did, she couldn’t say them.
Ying Qingye realized his own foolishness the moment he asked, and cleared his throat. Suddenly producing a small placard from behind his back, he placed it in her hand.
“I’ll read the menu out loud now. If you want something, shake the green side at me. If you don’t, shake the red side.”
Yan Jianxiao looked down at it and found it rather amusing.
It was a small wooden placard with two faces, one red and one green. The green side had a little checkmark on it; the red side, a little cross.
“Purple Qi Glutinous Rice Cake?”
“78”
“Spirit Spring Stewed White Lotus?”
“78”
“Stir-Fried Green Snake Meat?”
“72”
“Tofu and White Jade Soup?”
“78”
“I’ve figured it out—you only like sweet vegetarian dishes? No wonder you’re so thin.”
“78”
Ying Qingye casually added a few meat dishes before looking back at Yan Jianxiao. She was delighted with the little placard and kept playing with it, then looked up at him, blinking, as if hoping he’d ask a few more questions.
The corners of Ying Qingye’s lips curved up slightly, a glint flashing in his eyes. Another mischievous idea had taken root.
“You like this placard?”
“78!!!”
Yan Jianxiao nodded, looking at Ying Qingye, who kept gazing at her. She liked this easy, lighthearted feeling.
Ying Qingye thought for a moment, then asked again, “Do you like pink?”
“78”
“White?”
“78”
“Green?”
“78”
“Gray?”
“72”
“Do you hate me?” Suddenly, Ying Qingye threw this one in, for reasons known only to himself.
Yan Jianxiao froze, not raising the placard, and blinked at him—
Why ask that all of a sudden?
Ying Qingye also paused. “…”
Fortunately, the waiter arriving with the dishes quickly broke the strange atmosphere. Ying Qingye snapped back to his senses and helped arrange the table, looking for all the world like he was the servant, while the one sitting down was the little ancestor.
The little ancestor thought to herself: Ying Qingye really does have the bearing of a gentleman. No wonder so many people liked him.
In this marriage, anyone could see that she was the one who’d gotten the better deal, so why was Ying Qingye the one asking if she hated him?
When people are embarrassed, they pretend to be very busy. Even Ying Qingye hadn’t expected that sentence to slip out. Probably because he was young, his brain had shrunk to the size of a pea.
Before this pretty little mute, even he seemed to have become childish.
All the dishes were on the table now, and a white jade bowl held a snow lotus with its petals fully unfurled. Ying Qingye picked up a bowl and set it in front of Yan Jianxiao.
Without any shyness, Yan Jianxiao looked at him, then raised the placard.
“72”
After raising it, she wrote in his palm: I don’t hate you.
Why would she ever hate Ying Qingye?
Seeing this, Ying Qingye’s lips curved up for no apparent reason, and he couldn’t press them back down. Yan Jianxiao took the bowl of soup and began to drink.
…
Located in the northern part of the Canglin Sect, Danzhu Peak was where female cultivators gathered. Any male cultivator who entered would get smacked flying—this was a piece of the original novel’s lore that suddenly resurfaced in Yan Jianxiao’s memory the moment she saw the peak’s name.
Beneath a tapestry of colored clouds, the three great white characters of Danzhu Peak stretched across the mountain, while a towering white birch tree soared into the sky, standing beside the entrance to the peak.
Before them stretched a hundred-step staircase of white stone.
Ying Qingye: “This is Danzhu Peak. I called a friend of mine over—she’ll take you to meet her master, who can check your spiritual root and your muteness… Hm?”
The end of the silk sash he’d been holding suddenly went light. Ying Qingye turned and saw Yan Jianxiao crouching on the steps not far away, arms wrapped around her legs like a little rabbit sitting there in a daze.
“?” Ying Qingye gathered up her sash and walked over.
Yan Jianxiao looked at the small, spirit-infused eyes on the birch tree with a face full of tears unshed.
The original novel described this birch tree as an ancient divine tree that could see through a person’s gender. That was why male cultivators couldn’t enter Danzhu Peak—the moment they did, they’d be sent flying.
She couldn’t get in!
Yan Jianxiao sniffled, looked up at Ying Qingye, the corners of her eyes reddened, looking thoroughly aggrieved.
Ying Qingye draped the sash back around her, crouching down to her level, a little helpless. “What’s wrong now?”
She took his hand and wrote: Can I not go in?
Ying Qingye was silent for a moment before asking, somewhat confused, “Why?”
Yan Jianxiao made up an excuse, writing: I’m shy around strangers.
She realized that the kinder Ying Qingye was to her, the less she wanted to reveal that she’d deceived him. She didn’t want to leave the impression of a liar in Ying Qingye’s eyes.
This thought had even come to outweigh her desire to have her muteness treated.
But Ying Qingye let out a soft laugh. “Ruoxi has a mild temperament. She’s the third senior sister of Danzhu Peak. She won’t be fierce with you.”
Yan Jianxiao didn’t believe a word of it.
If she remembered correctly, Ruoxi was that bickering partner who was always at odds with Ying Qingye, chasing him around to beat him up every day. How mild could she possibly be?
This was when Ying Qingye’s domineering streak showed again. When she didn’t respond, he treated it as tacit consent. He bent down, slipped both arms around behind her, scooped the timid “little rabbit” up, and carried her off in one go.
Yan Jianxiao: “!!!”
Yan Jianxiao clutched Ying Qingye’s clothes in fright, unwilling to watch herself get exposed. She buried her face against her own legs, letting out muffled whines…
“?”
The birch tree hadn’t reacted?
Yan Jianxiao whipped her head around in astonishment—Ying Qingye was standing outside the boundary, while she was inside it.
The birch tree truly didn’t react at all!!!
Standing outside the boundary, Ying Qingye waved at her. “Go on, Ruoxi’s here.”
Ruoxi, dressed all in white, descended gracefully from the sky. Lowering her head, she spotted Yan Jianxiao. She’d actually watched the whole clingy display from above, and her brows lifted at once.
Oho, the wooden block has finally bloomed.
“My, so clingy with your Ying-gege, are we?” Ruoxi said with a smile, taking Yan Jianxiao by the hand. “Don’t worry—he can come pick you up in two days. My master will come out of seclusion tomorrow and can look at your condition.”
Yan Jianxiao stood up, still somewhat dazed. She looked at the birch tree and said soundlessly, “It…?”
It’s broken?
“This tree is called [Mu Baihua],” Ruoxi, assuming she was curious about what it was, explained with a smile. “It’s an ancient divine tree. Divine trees have spirits, and they adore people with a single wood spiritual root.”
Yan Jianxiao wasn’t foolish enough to ask Ruoxi outright why the tree couldn’t tell she was a man. Seeing that the crisis had passed, she cheered up again, nodding vehemently at the explanation.
Got it!
Ruoxi, seeing this, reached out and pinched her cheek, smiling. “Oh my, so obedient. How could you be a five-element spiritual root…? Who tested your spiritual root back then?”
Yan Jianxiao was too embarrassed to write on her hand, so she mouthed silently, “I heard it from others.”
Ever since she was little, everyone had told her she had a five-element spiritual root.
Ruoxi’s brow arched slightly—she’d actually understood her lip-reading. Taking her hand, she said, “So you’ve never actually been tested. Come, I’ll take you to the spirit crystal orb.”
How would Yan Jianxiao dare let her hold her hand? She pulled it away self-consciously and mouthed, “O-okay. I’m shy around strangers. Can we not hold hands?”
Ruoxi burst out laughing. She raised a hand and swept the sash across Yan Jianxiao’s face. “Alright, alright—everyone’s a stranger, except your Ying-gege, is that it?”
Yan Jianxiao’s ears turned red.
That wasn’t what she meant at all!
Ruoxi didn’t catch on to her shyness, simply leading her into Danzhu Peak.
Knowing full well she was a man, Yan Jianxiao kept her eyes forward, following Ruoxi without so much as glancing at the female cultivators around.
But plenty of female cultivators knew Ruoxi, and from time to time they’d call out to her.
“Bringing in a new disciple, Third Senior Sister?”
“What a pretty little girl… how old is she? Which immortal master does she study under?”
Some, mistaking Yan Jianxiao for a newly accepted disciple, sent out a thread of spiritual power to probe her—only to fall silent, unable to speak a word.
Eh? This person only has the faintest traces of spiritual power? How did she get into Danzhu Peak like this?