Chapter 281: Journey to Zhongnan (4)

The will of the stars is the fundamental nature given by heaven to individuals.

In Central Plains language, it was also called innate nature.

As martial artists rise in realm, they become able to do more things.

And humans as creatures originally have the strange characteristic of wanting to do things they are able to do.

The reason is unknown.

In Qing’s homeland too, countless people did strange actions just because they could, didn’t they?

So martial artists naturally become unable to hold back from doing what they want as their realm rises, their innate nature gradually bursting out.

In fact, this is what could be called the difference between orthodox and unorthodox factions.

Daoist and Buddhist sects have their roots in cultivators, so even as they rise in realm and gradually become omnipotent, they simultaneously cultivate their minds to maintain their center and exercise self-control.

The safety mechanism of prestigious clans led by the Ten Great Clans is face.

To avoid bringing shame to the family name, to avoid losing personal face.

Though they are able to, they refrain from things that would bring criticism.

But the unorthodox faction is different.

The dream of unorthodox martial artists is fundamentally to live however they want, manipulating the world without regard for others.

As their realm rises they become intoxicated by that power and act more and more tyrannically, so if they cross the line, or if they’re caught, they immediately become demonic adepts.

Anyway, for these reasons, Qing’s True Qi was struggling every moment.

True Qi is Qing’s will and unconscious, and also touches the deepest layer of the unconscious.

On the other hand, it originally flowed in nature so it’s borrowing the energy of the world for a while.

True Qi is a wondrous energy that knows the inner workings, functions and mechanisms that even Qing herself doesn’t know, and remembers the flow of nature.

In fact, though the Great Meditation True Qi suppressed it once when it seemed about to burst, actually the cultivation method that struggled most was the Vermilion Yang True Qi, the Vermilion Yang Heart Cleansing Technique.

The Blissful Maiden Arts knew its master was in danger from the Heavenly Slaughter Star, so it concluded to turn that killing intent into yin intent as much as possible to prevent going berserk.

But what do you know.

This woman somehow has the body of a peerless beauty and world’s greatest seductress, but that lewdness is not yin energy but yang, similar to a man.

Thanks to this, the Blissful Maiden Arts, girlish from its name, has difficulty exerting its power.

So the Blissful Maiden Arts asked for help from the Vermilion Yang Heart Cleansing Scripture, a fellow Daoist technique.

The Vermilion Yang Heart Cleansing Scripture has roots in Daoism, so unlike Buddhist methods, it doesn’t consider personal pleasure affliction but acknowledges it as a nourishing technique.

Moreover, the Vermilion Yang True Qi has the excellent ability to cleanse the mind by containing pure yang energy, protecting the original spirit.

So it had the excellent ability to twist killing intent into yang-overflowing lust, and has been working hard non-stop until now.

Thanks to this, no matter how deep the Heavenly Slaughter Star got, the disaster of Qing’s killing intent going berserk and randomly killing people didn’t happen.

There was a side effect of the killing intent being pushed in another direction, but that was the original purpose so it’s ambiguous to call it a side effect.

Anyway, the True Qi that reaches to the bottom of the unconscious always finds answers.

So now, having reached the Transcendent Realm with the Heavenly Slaughter Star bursting out.

As its master wavered before the fate of the Heavenly Slaughter Star, now that her realm had risen and she started emitting starlight herself, it completely emitted the inauspicious star’s light and her eyes rolled back.

Now it’s completely overwhelming.

Prevention is difficult and treatment is difficult.

From the start, the center of her mind, her foundation, was not set on the path of cultivation.

So she doesn’t feel aversion to the Heavenly Slaughter Star, and has no effort to avoid the Heavenly Slaughter Star itself.

Just as she looks for food when hungry, she wanders looking for evil people to kill when thirsty for blood.

Even the selective activation of the Heavenly Slaughter Star is thanks to the Vermilion Yang Heart Cleansing Scripture’s tearful efforts.

Nevertheless, the True Qi found an answer.

The True Qi first completely let go.

Trying to block it halfway just leaves lingering dissatisfaction like being interrupted during a meal.

Instead, they decided to focus on attacking when she felt great satisfaction and fullness afterwards.

So the Buddhist and Daoist True Qi waited for the moment.

There was an incident where the Heaven-Shattering Demonic Qi that was just laughing mindlessly on the side got beaten for not reading the mood, but anyway they wait for the moment to rise up all at once and suppress.

And now, at the moment the breath of an evil person who committed evil deeds all his life without ever feeling ashamed is cut off.

When nerve cells boil like molten iron in a furnace and emit all kinds of violent signals throughout the body.

The Buddhist and Daoist True Qi fired all at once.

Sometimes you have to add fire to put out fire.

Because if you add satisfaction to satisfaction, it remains as a long afterglow and you don’t even look at it for a while.

And after repeating a few times, the master will get used to it and deliberately raise Buddhist and Daoist True Qi at the same moment to sweep away the Heavenly Slaughter Star each time.

So following the incredibly lewd guidance of the Blissful True Qi, the highest authority in this field, the Buddhist and Daoist True Qi threw away all face and dignity and propriety, tickling the master’s whole body and running through Qing’s body with obscene gestures.

Just then the Awakening True Qi that had greatly straddled the master’s deep unconscious read the atmosphere and said there was no danger in a wide range.

At this, the Daoist and Buddhist True Qi, filled with resentment from all this time, thinking why don’t you avoid and fear that damn Heavenly Slaughter Star, and stop learning so much demonic arts, attacked their master full of their usual ill feelings.

Until their master’s mind couldn’t endure, her consciousness completely cut off and she fainted with her eyes rolled back and foam at her mouth.

“…prajnaparamita mahamantra mahavidyamantra mahabodhisattvamantra…”

Seol Iri naturally woke up thinking the voice reciting sutras was truly clear and clean, a really pleasant sound to hear.

And like someone who just woke up, she enjoyed the lingering sound with her eyes closed and enjoyed the beautiful voice filling the space.

Suddenly she urgently sat up.

“Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha. Ah. Miss Seol. Are you awake?”

But what greeted Seol Iri was Qing’s infinitely kind warm smile as she recited the Heart Sutra while sitting naked in full lotus position.

Eyes that were clear and deep and transparently sparkling like someone who had shaken off some great worry looked at Seol Iri.

At this, Seol Iri tilted her head.

Wondering if Miss Ximen’s eyes were originally this incomparably clear.

It was to the degree you’d think a high monk famous for his virtue, completely transcending worldly desires, would look like that.

However, she just thought whatever about Qing being naked.

Since she was like that when sleeping and now too, she must be someone who easily takes off her clothes, so she understood, or rather than understanding, she just didn’t care since it had nothing to do with her.

She must have taken them off after fighting the driver and getting wet. Without any other questions. Ah. The driver.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Seol Iri shortened her words that she seemed to have had an absurd dream where the driver suddenly attacked and she collapsed after being drugged to three characters.

Despite that revolutionary word saving, Qing just smiled faintly.

Then suddenly a bit of trouble seeped into Qing’s smile.

The front part of those beautiful eyebrows formed a slight angle, and a troubled-looking smile faced Seol Iri.

“Miss Seol. I think it’s useless to ask, but still.”

“…?”

“By any chance, do you know how to drive a carriage?”

In fact, Qing just asked without any expectations.

But, how could this be!

“Yes.”

“As expected. It’s okay. I didn’t expect anything from Miss Seol in the first place, so I’m curious what you can actually do- huh? You said yes? You can drive a carriage? You know how?”

“Yes.”

Seol Iri nodded again.

Qing’s eyes widened.

Those exceptionally clear eyes were dyed with surprise.

Seol Iri felt slightly proud for a moment, then wondered if it was right to feel proud now.

Qing was truly surprised.

She was really incredibly surprised!

What is this? A young lady raised preciously who doesn’t know how to do anything, let alone have proper common sense, knows how to drive a carriage?

How? Did she learn out of boredom?

Wow. Even a worm has the talent to roll.

I didn’t know she had such a lowly skill.

“Hmm. The driver mister is probably on his journey to meet King Yama after crossing the Sanzu River by now. It turns out this wasn’t the first or second time he’s committed such acts. How could I leave such a vicious evil person alive? It’s absolutely not that I forgot and killed him, it was rightfully executing an evil person as a member of the orthodox faction, so it’s not my fault.”

The reason Qing specifically thought it was a lowly skill was because driving carriages is actually a lowly job done by low-class people.

So it’s a bit embarrassing to ask even if she knows how.

So her words got longer.

“So, could Miss Seol drive the carriage for me? It’s better than walking in this rain, right?”

“Yes.”

Seol Iri agreed readily.

If you compare walking in the rain vs driving a carriage in the rain, the latter overwhelmingly wins.

At least you’re getting rained on either way, but if you drive the carriage you can sit comfortably.

And usually there’s shade made for the driver’s seat too, so you get rained on much less than trudging through the rain.

Moreover, wasn’t it Qing who defeated the evil criminal in her place when Seol Iri collapsed from the drug?

Her current naked state must be because she got soaked while executing the evil criminal.

If it wasn’t for that, something really bad could have happened.

Though her judgment in choosing that evil criminal as the driver after making such a fuss is laughable, you can’t really blame her since he had the appearance of a living Buddha that anyone would be deceived by.

As Seol Iri readily got up from her seat to drive the carriage.

“Ah. Right. Miss Seol.”

Seol Iri answered by blankly looking at Qing.

Then Qing said with an apologetic expression:

“Since you’ll get wet driving the carriage anyway, will you give me your dry clothes and go? Wear those instead. Come to think of it, those were originally my clothes, right? I’m sorry for taking them back after giving them to you, but there’s no need for both of us to get uncomfortably wet, right?”

A vein popped on Seol Iri’s forehead.

Thanks to Miss Seol for driving the carriage through bad weather and a head cold, no.

Shouldn’t she do at least that much?

Give clothes, give food, get a room too. If a person has even the bare minimum of shame.

Right. Shouldn’t she have stepped up first saying she could do it when looking for a driver, as a matter of courtesy?

Qing grumbled inside.

It absolutely wasn’t because Seol Iri didn’t hand over the dry clothes and just left.

Plus she drives so well.

Qing is already an expert in carriage travel.

You might say there’s no skill in driving a carriage, but the passenger’s ride comfort varies greatly depending on the driver’s ability.

Basically, the roads in the Central Plains are a mess.

Moreover, with primitive Central Plains science, humanistic technological development considering ride comfort in carriages hasn’t happened, so you experience the miraculous unity of body and carriage where the terrible road conditions transmit the feeling of every grain of sand under the wheels directly to the passenger’s buttocks.

So the driver has to drive the casually walking horses well to maintain speed and minimize vibrations to reduce burden on the passengers.

When it rains on top of that, the difficulty skyrockets.

You have to judge whether the muddy water is shallow or if you’ll sink deep into the mud, or if it’s a pothole where the wheel will tilt and sink.

But rainy days are basically dark and the rain lines further obstruct vision with diagonal lines.

In that sense, Seol Iri’s carriage driving skills were already comparable to the most skilled experts even in fairly large stables.

Though I say most skilled experts, how amazing is it to be able to compete with those who have driven carriages for at least ten years, many for decades, some their whole lives (with robbery, murder, kidnapping and rape as side jobs)?

Of course, being a master, no an intermediate practitioner, played a big role in seeing through the rain, but even taking that into account, hmm.

Was Miss Seol’s talent in being a driver?

She was born in the wrong era and can’t shine, what a pity, Qing thought.