Chapter 976: Yan Ji

Ning Cheng carried Yan Ji on his back and took Xin Xiu and Wu Qihong with him as he left Jiang Sanshan’s abode and returned to the Dao Seeking Inn.

Ning Cheng wanted to wake up Yan Ji as soon as possible.

Fortunately, he obtained the 5-Elements Heavenly Fruit. The only thing that could help awaken a cultivator with a severely injured foundation without damaging the body.

But to prevent others from disturbing Yan Ji’s awakening, Ning Cheng deliberately added several restrictions to the room. He even instructed Xin Xiu and Wu Qihong to refuse any visitors.

Ning Cheng carefully opened the restrictions on the jade box and took out one of the 5-Elements Heavenly Fruits from inside. The fruit was milky white in colour and gave off a faint sweet fragrance. He then raised his hand and used a simple water cleaning technique to clean the fruit out of habit.

Ning Cheng probably was the only person who would use a water cleaning technique to clean dao fruits. No one else in the entire cultivation world would even think of using such a simple technique to clean dao fruits.

But when the water cleaning technique touched the 5-Elements Heavenly Fruit’s skin, Ning Cheng’s spirit sense sensed a faint, almost indiscernible, fluctuation of a spirit sense imprint from it. Ning Cheng quickly took back his hand in surprise as he had only cleaned the dao fruit out of habit, expecting nothing out of the ordinary. It wouldn’t have mattered if he was the one to eat it, but this dao fruit was for Yan Ji.

Ning Cheng’s expressions turned a little ugly. He had never expected that this dao fruit would have a concealed spirit sense imprint on it. He wouldn’t have noticed the mark if he hadn’t used the water cleansing technique to clean the dao fruit. It didn’t matter if the spirit sense imprint on this dao fruit came from Jing Han on not; it definitely had something to do with him.

If not for his strong spiritual consciousness and the fact that he unconsciously used the water cleaning technique on the dao fruit, he would have overlooked it. No, he might not have even noticed it.

Ning Cheng quickly composed himself and carefully peeled away the faint spirit sense imprint before transferring it to a piece of scrap and sealing it in a jade box. Immediately afterwards, he took out the other dao fruit. Sure enough, Ning Cheng noticed another extremely faint spirit sense imprint on it.

After sealing away the two faint spirit sense imprints into two separate jade boxes, Ning Cheng thoroughly checked the two 5-Elements Heavenly Fruits for another half a day. Only when he felt sure there was nothing wrong with them did he select one and carefully feed it to Yan Ji.

The dao fruit melted into a fragrant fruity liquid when it touched Yan Ji’s mouth and smoothly flowed down her throat.

Yan Ji’s body quickly absorbed the 5-Elements Heavenly Fruit, but she still showed no signs of waking up. However, Ning Cheng didn’t use the second dao fruit and quietly sat beside her.

If one 5-Elements Heavenly Fruit couldn’t wake Yan Ji up, giving her a second or more wouldn’t be of any use.

As time passed in silent waiting, Ning Cheng gazed at Yan Ji’s clear but slightly pale face. Unknowingly, the first meeting between him and Yan Ji surfaced in his mind.

……

On the Law’s Way, Que Penghai, a Profound Core cultivator, wanted to finish him off to curry favour with Nalan Ruxue. At that time, Yan Ji, who he didn’t even know, stood up and stopped Que Penghai.

Nalan Ruxue felt confused about why Yan Ji stood up to help him and even told Yan Ji to mind her own business. However, he could still recall Yan Ji’s words from back then. “…… Everyone’s eyes will only see what their hearts want to show, although all of us has seen the same thing, it’s just that we all see things in a different perspective.”[1]

After that, she invited him, a cultivator with an Essence Building 4th Level cultivation, to join her team. No one in her group could understand her choice, but she still did so without hesitation.

What’s more, on learning that he had supposedly ‘fallen’ in the Blood River Mountain, Yan Ji didn’t hesitate to re-enter the blood river to try and rescue him. Unfortunately, she couldn’t and ended up falling to the bottom of the blood river. Even at that time, the two barely knew each other.

Back then, he had only saved her and Xiang Zhilan from the blood river out of convenience but ended up washed away to the depths due to his own carelessness. Yet, Yan Ji still jumped down into the blood river to try and save him; unfortunately, she couldn’t and ended up lost in the depths of the blood river.

Ning Cheng had seen many ungrateful people and even those who didn’t take things like kindness to heart. Yet, a woman like Yan Ji, who only received a drop of kindness, never forgot to repay it. She even unhesitatingly jumped into the blood river, where she was sure to die several times over. That was the first time he, Ning Cheng, had met such a person.

After walking out of Law’s Way, the Le Continent’s three major forces chased him around for so-called ‘righteous’ reasons. Yet, even when her sister, Yan Yue, tried to kill him, Yan Ji quickly sprung up to defend him and said, “Touch him, and I’ll kill you.”[2]

At that time, she still hadn’t regained her sanity. As such, those words were more like an obsession in her heart.

Yet, even after she regained her sanity, she immediately went to find him. She travelled from the Le Continent to the Tian Continent. Then from the Tian Continent to the starry sky, and from the starry sky to the five grand realms……

She cultivated with a sense of frantic desperation and devoured pills and other resources. Quality, after effects, disadvantages, none of it mattered to her as long as it could help her raise her cultivation. If Ning Cheng hadn’t met Nalan Ruxue, Ning Cheng wouldn’t have known that Yan Ji did all this, cultivated so recklessly, all so that she could have the strength to find him.

Yan Ji had even agreed to spirit grafting and left behind a message. Although Shui Yueke was the one to tell him and didn’t know who the message was for, Ning Cheng immediately understood that the message had something to do with him.

Ning Cheng looked at Yan Ji and suddenly felt that he owed this woman too much. All he had done for her was take care of her in the Law’s Way for some time.

Ning Cheng’s thoughts grew farther and farther away as he gently picked up Yan Ji and lowered his head, just to look at her face more closely……

……

With darkness all around the eyes could see, Yan Ji hid in a corner feeling a little cold. She couldn’t see any indication of light; no, she couldn’t see anything, only darkness. Moreover, this darkness felt cold and filled with death.

She didn’t know how long she hid in this corner of darkness. She tried forcing her way out, but her body felt like it had been placed inside a block of ice. She couldn’t move no matter how much she struggled.

Gradually, the darkness around her grew darker and darker, to the point that it even started to suppress her soul. Her breathing started to grow more laboured, and only a single thought kept repeating in her mind. Was she going to die?

As death approached nearer and nearer, she tried hard to remember something good, tried hard to think of something, anything apart from her impending death. Unfortunately, she couldn’t recall anything at all, except for one name that kept lingering in her already fading consciousness. She couldn’t remember anything, but she couldn’t forget that name.

Ning Cheng, that’s right. Ning Cheng felt very important to her. But why was that name important? She couldn’t recall at all. But she clung on to those two words as if her life depended on it.

As she kept thinking about those two words, the two words suddenly started to fade away from in front of her eyes. Her memory also began to blur even more. Her heart grew anxious, and she began to struggle desperately, trying to hold on to the only thing she could remember. Those two words were the only thing she could remember, and if those two words disappeared from her memory, her consciousness and soul would eventually disappear.

Just then, a bright light suddenly erupted from the two words that were about to fade away. The light quickly dispersed the darkness, and she could finally see.

The bright light from the two words quickly grew in scope and intensity. Her fading memory started to grow clear and even seemed to bring back other memories.

The dissipating world around her also started to recondense, and a glimmer of life suddenly returned.

She struggled to open her eyes; she knew she must not let this chance disappear.

As memories became clearer and more apparent. Ning Cheng’s image started to manifest from the two words and grew more precise with each passing moment. Her strong perseverance to survive and the light from Ning Cheng’s name made her finally open her eyes, and she finally recalled what Ning Cheng looked like.

“I finally saw you…… I vowed that when I saw you again, I would marry you……” Yan Ji’s voice had a tinge of hoarseness to it as she stared into Ning Cheng’s eyes. Her head unconsciously rose up and kissed Ning Cheng’s lips.

Just as Yan Ji’s lips touched Ning Cheng’s lips, her eyes once again closed, and she fell into a deep sleep.

…….

“Yan Ji, are you awake?” Ning Cheng couldn’t help but ask in surprise. He had just lowered his head for a closer look when Yan Ji suddenly opened her eyes. Looks like the 5-Elements Heavenly Fruit truly worked and allowed Yan Ji to wake up.

Seeing Yan Ji slump back into sleep after kissing him, Ning Cheng couldn’t help but feel a wave of relief wash over him. Yan Ji’s recession into sleep wasn’t the same as in the past, but genuine sleep. She would wake up again in some time.

“Thank you, Yan Ji.” Ning Cheng once again lowered his head and kissed Yan Ji on the lips. He understood that Yan Ji wasn’t truly aware of his presence right now. Her actions from a moment ago was most likely a subconscious act or thought that she had seen him in a dream.

Ning Cheng wasn’t wrong in guessing that Yan Ji had indeed thought she had seen him in a dream. After she fell asleep again, her consciousness clearly showed Ning Cheng’s appearance.

I heard that before dying, one would see the person one wanted to see the most.

That’s not right; that feeling was so real. Did I actually kiss Ning Cheng? Was it not a dream?

Yan Ji struggled to open her eyes again, finally seeing Ning Cheng in the flesh. This time, she felt sure that her consciousness wasn’t playing tricks on her.

“Ning Cheng, is that really you? It’s really…….” Yan Ji’s tone was still a little hoarse, with a hint of trembling. Before she could even finish her sentence, more mist appeared in the corners of her eyes, and Ning Cheng’s figure instantly blurred. Yan Ji’s heart immediately turned anxious. She wanted to reach out her hand and wipe away the blurring at the corner of her eyes. But she couldn’t move her hand at all.

Ning Cheng lifted his hand and gently wiped the tears away from the corners of Yan Ji’s eyes. “Junior Apprentice Sister Ji, no one will ever dare to use you for spirit grafting…..”

“Wooo….” Yan Ji finally affirmed that the one in front of her was the real Ning Cheng and that she really was in Ning Cheng’s arms. No longer able to contain the loneliness in her heart, tears started to pour down her face.

She never thought that she would cry so much one day. She had an extremely independent character and always bore everything by herself. She had encountered too many dangers and faced them by herself, including many life and death situations. It had shaped her heart to the point that it would remain calm even if she faced certain death.

But now, she couldn’t hold back the sadness and loneliness in her heart. Perhaps it wasn’t sadness or loneliness, but happiness tucked away in the depths of her heart, a joy that couldn’t be expressed in words.

Ning Cheng gently wiped away the tears dripping down from Yan Ji’s eyes. “When this is over, I will take you back to see Luofei…..”

Yan Ji opened her eyes wide and took in every detail of Ning Cheng. Everything she had experienced had finally found the answer. Her body also gradually gained more and more strength, at least enough for her to subconsciously raise her hand.

Feeling Yan Ji’s body getting softer and softer, Ning Cheng knew that Yan Ji had started to gradually recover. Although she couldn’t cultivate, he believed he would be able to find the Exquisite Star Golden Concealed Leaf for her.

Yan Ji finally raised her arms and tightly hugged Ning Cheng, feeling a strong and powerful heartbeat. Her face turned a little warm, as this was the first time she had ever embraced a man consciously. But for some inexplicable reason, it gave her a sense of stability and peace.

[1]Chapter 197.

[2]Chapter 238.

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