133 War between heaven and man
Li Li thought Shen Tang was saying he was overestimating himself. He shook out his dried clothes and put them back on, saying, "You're right, my lord."
With that, he stood up as if to leave.
Shen Tang spoke to stop him, "Li Li, wait—"
"Is there anything else you want, my lord?" Li Li's words were humble, but his expression suggested otherwise.
"Do you really want Martial Spirit?" Shen Tang asked.
Li Li found it amusing.
"My lord, I remember the lady saying that unresolved issues are meaningless. Is my answer important?"
How could he not want Martial Spirit of his own? Who wouldn't want the chance to change their fate? But he didn't deserve it; that was all.
Shen Tang seemed not to notice the sarcasm in his words, solemnly and seriously saying, "It's very important, extremely important."
Seeing her like this made Li Li angry again. His temper flared, and he began to be serious, "I want it, I'll pay any price."
"Any price?" Shen Tang said playfully.
Li Li hesitated for a moment, pursed his lips, and added, "Except for the lady, any price will do."
At this point, Li Li didn't want to stay here anymore. Unexpectedly, Shen Tang said something astonishing. She spoke in a plain tone as if discussing the weather, "Why do I need your lady? The cost isn't that great. You just need to give your loyalty, sincerely and from the heart. Perhaps—I can really make your wish come true."
Li Li's gaze grew colder, his presence becoming unpredictable. He smirked, "Loyalty? From you? My lord, have you forgotten? I am now the servant you bought, bound to be loyal to you."
"Late at night, my lord, you should rest early."
He emphasized the word "loyalty," appearing loyal but actually being ambiguous. In fact, he had a good impression of Shen Tang; she was young and strong, but just now those words really hit a nerve with him. If Li Li could still keep a good face, it would be strange.
Shen Tang, however, didn't mind his rudeness.
"If you don't try, how do you know it won't work?"
Li Li hesitated for a moment, then stepped firmly past Shen Tang and into the woods. After a rustling noise, only Shen Tang remained by the stream.
She stood there for a while, idly staring into space—"Ah, nowadays, no one believes the truth."
"Trying won't hurt..." Shen Tang rubbed the side of the seal on the calligraphy, which read "Ninth Rank, Lowest," seemingly calm but with hidden currents of thought. She always remembered one thing—
Her calligraphy seal didn't have any words on the side.
No, to be precise, it had no rank.
For months, a problem had been bothering her.
Was it a bug caused by her crossing over, which resulted in her calligraphy seal having no words, or was "no words" a certain rank in itself?
Qi Shan is no ordinary person, driven by a great vengeance with a clear purpose. So what could have caused him to slow down and let her follow him around for free? It's truly baffling.
But she's not entirely clueless either.
Shen Tang lowered her eyelids and looked at her reflection in the creek. When she first met Qi Shan, she had tried to see if she could disguise the rank of her calligraphy seal as "First Rank, Highest." Qi Shan's response was ambiguous and vague. He didn't say it could be done, nor did he say it couldn't be done. Instead, he bluntly stated that "First Rank, Highest" is a sage's rank, a fictional rank that only nobles can possess.
At that time, she had some suspicions, but considering her own safety and her ignorance of this world, she decided not to rush into anything and instead waited quietly for the truth. So she pretended not to know anything and didn't dig deeper.
Whether it was "Ninth Rank, Lowest" or "First Rank, Highest," it didn't make much difference to her.
She wasn't just passively floating along; Qi Shan and Chu Yao were observing her, so why wouldn't she secretly observe them too?
Details reveal character; a glimpse unveils the whole.
Through their long association, Shen Tang gradually figured out one thing—they meant no harm to her, and they even "had requests" of her.
Because she had a secret—something even Shen Tang herself didn't know, but they knew! It just so happened that knowing this actually made Shen Tang breathe a sigh of relief. Compared to kindness without any reason, having ulterior motives actually made her feel more at ease; mutual benefit meant alliance.
Up to this day, she had some guesses about this so-called "secret."
In the afternoon, they were casually chatting about how luck in writing and martial arts can help gather calligraphy spirit and martial spirit, but in the evening, Lin Feng informed her that she could store "heaven and earth spiritual energy" with her female body and might be able to gather calligraphy spirit... These two things were seemingly unrelated, but they had the same crucial condition.
The Imperial Seal!
Even "First Rank, Highest" calligraphy spirit had a necessary condition—the Imperial Seal!
Following this guess, Qi Shan's somewhat perplexing, evasive words seemed to have explanations.
With her palm cradling the transparent and clear as crystal calligraphy seal, Shen Tang looked at it for a long time, her fingers closed tightly into a fist. The knuckles turned white from the exertion, and the corners of the seal's edges left traces on her palm, but the calligraphy seal remained unchanged.
"If my guess is correct..."
Although she had a guess, the evidence was insufficient, so she was testing Li Li.
If Li Li could also contact "heaven and earth energy" under the influence of martial luck and successfully cross that threshold, then it would be almost certain that she possessed the "Imperial Seal" thing.
However—
Who could tell her where the Imperial Seal was?
Why did she have the Imperial Seal???
What secrets did this body really hold????
"This is troublesome—"
Shen Tang bent down to pick up a pebble and threw it out with a flick of her hand. She watched as the stone skipped across the water's surface with a series of splashes before sinking in. She sat down abruptly, tempted to follow Lili's example and jump into the water to vent her frustration. But considering there were no hair dryers in this world, having wet hair for half a day was not a good idea, so she dismissed the thought.
"Drawing a knife to cut the water... Damn it, can't I recite a poem to soothe my nerves?" She had just spoken four words when the essence of Danfu swiftly dissipated, forcing Shen Tang to shut her mouth. This world was truly unfriendly to chatterboxes. It took her half an hour of paddling in the water to calm herself down.
Before she could truly control the calligraphy spirit, even casually reciting a poem could risk her life. It was really frustrating!
Shen Tang grumbled to herself.
Just as she was about to get up and go back to sleep, she caught sight of the creek rushing downstream from the corner of her eye. A strong impulse uncontrollably surged up in her heart—should she run away overnight? Getting involved in the schemes of Qi Shan and Chu Yao clearly went beyond what a homebody like her should deal with.
She had just raised her foot when she stopped herself.
No, no—how could she leave now? What about the others?
She might be a homebody, but she wasn't a passive bystander. What was there to fear?
She still had the Imperial Seal on her. This thing was like a bound orange artifact; it could only be dropped upon death. With such an orange-grade martial artifact in her possession, running away wouldn't do her any good. Thinking about Chu Wu Hui, Qi Shan, Xiao Lin Feng, and the dozens of others she had met that afternoon...
Shen Tang felt rooted to the spot, unable to move. It suddenly dawned on her what Qi Shan meant by "shouldering."
After a while, she decided to go back to sleep.
As she turned around, she saw a familiar young man standing not far ahead. His long hair, normally tied up during the day, now hung loosely around his shoulders, draped in a dark cloak. He stood there quietly.
Who else could it be if not Qi Shan?
Shen Tang felt a chill down her spine.
"Yuanliang?"
Was she seeing a ghost in the middle of the night???
Qi Shan smiled gently, "Why isn't Yuli going to sleep?"
Upon hearing "Yuli," Shen Tang instinctively straightened her back.