Chapter 367: Sprightly Old Man’s Past, Jun Xiaomo’s Predicament

Translator: Minotauruz

Before the sprightly old man could devise a way to correct his disciple’s problematic personality, Jun Xiaomo’s body collapsed under the weight of the pressures weighing on both her mind and body.

Earlier today, Jun Xiaomo had sat by the window of the carriage, staring blankly at the passing scenery with an emotionless look on her face. The only two people in the carriage were Jun Xiaomo and the sprightly old man. They hardly knew each other, and there was therefore no impetus to break the silence with each other either. The atmosphere within the carriage was thus incredibly stifling.

Ye Xiuwen’s master had forced him to take the reins of this horse carriage as well. After all, Ye Xiuwen’s master was already an old bag of bones, and such hard labour was naturally not suitable for someone like him. On the other hand, Ye Xiuwen was young and strong, and there was no one more suited to taking the reins than he was.

As for Jun Xiaomo, the old man had time and again assured Ye Xiuwen that he would be keeping a close eye on her, and nothing would go wrong.

Ye Xiuwen was initially reticent to agree to the old man’s arrangement. He knew that he would never be able to set his heart at ease unless he personally looked after Jun Xiaomo. Otherwise, if Jun Xiaomo took the opportunity to slip away, where was he going to go about looking for her?

That said, he was also aware that whenever he was around Jun Xiaomo, she would always glare at him with a vindictive look in her eyes, causing the hatred in his heart to burgeon and the vile energy to begin roiling and swirling in the depths of his eyes. In order to prevent another unwanted outburst of emotions on his part, Ye Xiuwen knew that it was also in both their best interests for him to leave the carriage itself and take the reins so that both of them could take the time to ease their minds.

Unfortunately, Ye Xiuwen’s worst fears became an eventuality. As Jun Xiaomo gazed out at the passing scenery, her eyes suddenly rolled back without any warning, her neck slumped, and her head slammed heavily onto the table within the carriage, landing with a sickening, loud thud.

“Disciple-in-law!” The old man had never expected Jun Xiaomo to pass out just like that, and he immediately hurried over to Jun Xiaomo’s side, attempting to help her back up. However, someone else beat him to it. In the blink of an eye, Ye Xiuwen dashed straight back into the carriage and pulled Jun Xiaomo into a warm embrace, glaring threateningly at his master at the same time.

The old man rubbed his nose sheepishly, muttering in his heart – Disciple, do ye really have to be so overprotective? Do ye really think that yer master would make a move against his own disciple’s wife? How could ye think so lowly of yer master?

After glaring intimidatingly at his master, Ye Xiuwen turned his attention back towards Jun Xiaomo’s body. Over the last few days, Jun Xiaomo would always glare at him with hateful, vigilant eyes whenever he drew close or attempted to embrace her, tensing up her body as though a cornered animal that felt threatened by an impending danger.

Ye Xiuwen hated such a reaction from Jun Xiaomo. She had lost her memory, but he hadn’t. Previously, Jun Xiaomo would always linger by his side joyfully with eyes curled into beautiful arches. Back then, he could tell that the depths of her eyes were invariably filled with trust and reliance on him. It was a marked change from what it was right now, where she would view him as an existence almost akin to an archnemesis.

Yet, despite all of that, Ye Xiuwen did not think that he was the problem at all. He stubbornly maintained that Rong Ruihan was the problem, so his mind was constantly dwelling on the notion that he absolutely had to keep Jun Xiaomo by his side so that she would have no further opportunity to go out searching for Rong Ruihan.

Ye Xiuwen was so mired by his jealousy that he completely overlooked the fact that Jun Xiaomo had already lost her memory – how was she to go about looking for Rong Ruihan in the first place?

Right now, Jun Xiaomo lay motionless in Ye Xiuwen’s bosom, completely limp and devoid of energy as though she were nothing more than a humanoid puppet. She was incredibly “obedient” right now. At the very least, she no longer glared at Ye Xiuwen with the usual looks of indignation and vigilance she did. However, it was at this moment that Ye Xiuwen discovered that such “obedience” did not bring him any joy either.

“Tsk, tsk. Look at that. I’ve already warned ye about this earlier. If ye continue to torment her like that, something was bound to happen to her sooner or later. Look at yer wife’s condition now. Look at how haggard and sallow she looks. Are you really going to continue tormenting her like that, until she becomes nothing more than a living corpse by your side?” The old man snorted coldly, attempting to yank his disciple back to his senses with the shocking truth.

“Enough.” Ye Xiuwen interjected coldly. His eyes were filled with a deep, abstruse gleam as he hugged Jun Xiaomo tightly in his bosom.

It had only just dawned on his just how thin and haggard Jun Xiaomo had become. The clothes she wore on a day to day basis were slightly on the looser side, sufficient to conceal the thin and pallid shape of her body.

For some strange reason, this realization made Ye Xiuwen feel as though his heart had just been pricked by a needle. In fact, it felt as though the needle was stabbing deeper and deeper with each beat of his heart, afflicting him with the maximum pain possible.

Have I been wrong all this while? This was the first time such a thought occurred to Ye Xiuwen after sticking obstinately to his ways for more than a month.

He placed his hand gingerly on Jun Xiaomo’s wrist, sending a thread of spiritual energy coursing through her meridians and Dantian, probing about for potential problems.

He discovered no issues with Jun Xiaomo’s meridians and Dantian, yet her pulse remained incredibly weak. In fact, it was as though her heart would stop beating at any moment now.

Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows, and his heartache became that much more apparent to him.

“Master, something appears to be wrong with her body.” Ye Xiuwen glanced sullenly at the sprightly old man. The vile energy in the depths of his eyes had subsided even more.

The old man sighed in his heart – It seems that whoever hung the bell on the tiger’s neck must untie it. Disciple has gone mad because of Jun Xiaomo, and it seems that Disciple is recovering also because of Jun Xiaomo. I just hope that this recovery would continue.

As the old man mulled over the matter in his heart, he instructed, “Make way for me. Let me have a closer look at her.”

Ye Xiuwen refused to give way. However, as a compromise, he tilted his body slightly, allowing the old man to draw closer to Jun Xiaomo for the purposes of a closer examination.

After cursing Ye Xiuwen in his heart for being overprotective, the old man made his way beside them, stretched out his arm and placed his fingers on Jun Xiaomo’s wrist.

As soon as the old man placed his fingers on Jun Xiaomo’s wrist, Ye Xiuwen subconsciously squinted his eyes at the old man.

“Don’t stare at me like that. If I don’t do this, how would I know what happened to yer wife? Your master isn’t a god.” The old man rolled his eyes at Ye Xiuwen as he made a snarky remark.

Ye Xiuwen finally shifted his gaze away, alleviating the pressures of his overbearing stare on the old man’s body.

Then, the old man sent a thread of his spiritual energy coursing throughout Jun Xiaomo’s body. At the beginning, he did so somewhat indifferently. However, as time went on, the old man began to furrow his brows, and the expression on his face grew increasingly sullen.

“Is there really a problem with her body?” Ye Xiuwen noticed the change in the old man’s appearances.

“The last time I’d checked the condition of yer wife’s body, I’d only noticed that she was pregnant. However, it seems that I’d overlooked another problem.” The sprightly old man collected his spiritual energy and looked solemnly into Ye Xiuwen’s eyes as he genuinely queried, “Do ye know that she possesses an acquired demonic body?”

“Acquired demonic body? I think she’s mentioned that before.” As Ye Xiuwen responded, the vile energy in the depths of his eyes began to swirl once more, “It’s He Zhang. He Zhang was the one who had changed the disposition of her body. If not for the fact that He Zhang is already dead now, I would make sure that his life is no worse than death itself!”

The old man solemnly explained, “Things are going to be a lot more complicated if she possesses an acquired demonic body.”

“What’s going on?” Ye Xiuwen’s heart was plagued with a deep sense of unease.

“As ye would know, the main difference between a demonic cultivator and a spiritual cultivator is the fact that one absorbs demonic energy, while the other absorbs spiritual energy. These are two fundamentally and diametrically opposed types of energy that will never be able to exist in harmony together. Disciple-in-Law possesses an acquired demonic body, which means that her body can only absorb and contain demonic energy. In other words, spiritual energy is to her an existence that is akin to a poison – her body is still able to handle small amounts of it, but things will get problematic when the amount of spiritual energy within her body increases. Disciple, ye’ve impregnated her with a child that thrives on spiritual energy. The fetal energy within her body is filled with spiritual energy. As the fetal energy grows and congeals into human form, it will naturally require more and more spiritual energy to be drawn into yer wife’s womb. I’m sure ye can understand just what kind of damage this will cause to her body.”

“In other words, the fact that the child’s constitution is different from that of her body is what’s causing her body to react with such intense rejection?” Ye Xiuwen sought to clarify the nub of the issue.

“It’s exactly that.” The old man muttered as he sighed, “Back then, it was the same for yer master and his wife. I’m a spiritual cultivator, but she’s a demonic cultivator. Our child happened to possess a different constitution from her body, and her body sought to reject our child as well. Then, as the fetal energy congealed and our baby grew in her womb, the rejection grew so intense that it even began to threaten her life.”

As he explained these matters, a trace of grief and heartache flickered across the depths of the old man’s eyes, “Finally, when push came to shove, and she was perpetually in a state of comatose, I finally made the unilateral decision to abort the child. Even though the loss of a child was painful, yer master couldn’t bear the thought of losing his wife... Unfortunately, the news of this incident dealt my wife a heavy blow when she woke up. No matter how much I tried to placate her, saying that we can attempt to have another child that would not attract the same kind of rejection from her body, she was unable to bring herself to forgive me.”

“I’d thought that the passage of time would lessen the impact of this incident on my wife’s heart. Unfortunately, it was far more serious than I thought. Her mind and body collapsed before she could think things through, and she perished. I’m not even sure she forgave me before she passed on.”

As the old man recounted these facts, tears began to stream out of his eyes, filling every crevice between the wrinkles on his face. He looked at Ye Xiuwen as he solemnly added, “This is why Master had reminded ye time and again never to take yer wife for granted. If ye truly love her, ye would respect her opinion and her belief, and not unilaterally decide things for her without consulting her feelings. Take heed, Disciple, before ye repeat yer master’s mistakes and lose yer loved ones.”

Ye Xiuwen’s pupils quivered slightly, and he lowered his head and fixed his gaze on Jun Xiaomo’s ashen, pale face once more. His heart was incredibly stifled right now.

“Then, what must we do right now? Do we have to abort the child?” Ye Xiuwen placed his hand gingerly on Jun Xiaomo’s abdomen and immersed himself in the faint warmth that was emanating from the other side. The fact that he was soon to be a father had finally sunk in for the first time.

Unfortunately, was this opportunity to become a father about to be lost almost as suddenly as it had appeared?

This notion stabbed straight through Ye Xiuwen’s heart like an awl, afflicting him with such heartache that even his breathing began to grow ragged.