Chapter 377: Jun Xiaomo’s Distress, The Little Packrat’s Appearance

Translator: Minotauruz

At night, Zhuang Lenghui wrote up a situation report, detailing exactly how Ye Xiuwen had arrogantly tortured and killed Princess Linglong and Zou Zilong, completely disregarding the existence of the Zephyr Sect. In so doing, she victimized the Zephyr Sect and condemned Ye Xiuwen’s actions. She firmly believed that anyone who saw her report would be unable to suppress their emotions and repress the urge to tear Ye Xiuwen to shreds, much less Zou Zilong’s master and Princess Linglong’s father.

At the same time, she masterfully wrote herself out of the picture, swearing that she completely unaware about what went on behind her back, stating that everything was already too late when she discovered what had happened – Princess Linglong and Zou Zilong had already perished.

Zhuang Lenghui sent her report back by way of a Messenger Paper Crane. By her estimations, it would take approximately six or seven days for the Peakmaster of the Stoneknife Peak to rush over after receiving the Messenger Paper Crane. This would coincide perfectly with the day that the Rainbow Lotus Flower is expected to bear seeds.

The seeds of the Rainbow Lotus Flower were largely useless to cultivators of the Nascent Soul cultivation and higher. Zhuang Lenghui had detected signs of arriving at the bottleneck of her cultivation, and the seeds of the Rainbow Lotus Flower were perfect for giving her the boost needed to push her through the bottleneck of the advanced-tier Golden Core stage of cultivation and into the Nascent Soul stage of cultivation. This was why she was so determined to seize the seeds of the Rainbow Lotus Flower for herself.

She had initially thought that most people vying for these seeds would be in the Golden Core stage of cultivation and below. To her dismay, Ye Xiuwen had showed up to join the fray, thereby throwing a wrench in her works. Thus, she had thought up the plan to kill with a borrowed knife in order to ensure that she would be able to successfully seize the seeds of the Rainbow Lotus Flower.

Naturally, she could have sent a transmission back and requested reinforcements from her father. However, her father was the Peakmaster of the Phoenixia Peak, and he had his duties to attend to as well. Since she could kill with a borrowed knife, was there really a reason to bother her father?

Zhuang Lenghui’s eyes gleamed brightly as a victorious smile crept up the corner of her lips.

Temporarily shelving the reactions of the King of the Greenwich Kingdom and the Peakmaster of the Stoneknife Peak, we turn to Ye Xiuwen. Ye Xiuwen had sped away from the courtyard with Jun Xiaomo as soon as he released the shackles around her limbs, only stopping when he drew close to the Sunset Mountain Range’s lotus pond.

The Rainbow Lotus Flower’s petals would immediately wither up as soon as it begins to bear seeds. Right now, the Rainbow Lotus Flower was sitting in the center of the lotus pond with its brilliant, vibrant petals in full bloom. Thick spiritual energy hovered about the surface of the pond, creating a somewhat misty scenery, giving the lotus pond an almost otherworldly vibe. It was an amazing sight.

Ye Xiuwen picked a slightly cleaner rock and landed on its surface. Then, he retrieved a rug made out of a spirit beast’s fur and laid it gently on the surface of the rock, before taking his seat.

Jun Xiaomo was still in a deep slumber within his bosom. Earlier, in order to bring Jun Xiaomo away safely without a hitch, Zou Zilong had drugged Jun Xiaomo with sufficient drugs to keep her in a stupor for several hours. Furthermore, Jun Xiaomo’s mind and body had already been incredibly worn out by then. Thus, under the confluence of these factors, Jun Xiaomo remained within a deep slumber all this time.

Ye Xiuwen lowered his head, watching Jun Xiaomo as she slept. The swirling vile energy had begun to fade away, revealing rare traces of warmth in the depths of his eyes.

The old man squatted some distance away, watching his disciple showering Jun Xiaomo with love and affection as he sighed in his heart – Disciple has really tripped up this time. And he’s tripped up to his wife no less.

Sigh, back then, I’d had my fair share of such springtime of love as well... The sprightly old man scratched his head as he reminisced on the past. Alas, the effluxion of time had begun to ebb away at these memories of his, making them all the more scarcer and dearer to him.

His dead lover could never be brought back to life again. At the same time, after all those years within the Death’s Gorge, his body had already been severely damaged and worn down, and there was no longer any way for him to improve his cultivation any further. That said, the old man had no regrets. After all, he had personally sent news to his lover’s family and accounted for her death, thus fulfilling every last wish in his heart. Right now, he was simply living life to the fullest and taking each day as they came.

He could see a glimpse of his own past through Ye Xiuwen. Like Ye Xiuwen, the old man was similarly a person who could do everything for the sake of the person he loved. This was why he was so willing to do all he could to help Ye Xiuwen cross difficult hurdle after difficult hurdle. After all, he sincerely desired for Ye Xiuwen to have the blessings and favor of life that he was personally unable to have.

It was also a means of penitence and absolution.

As the sun rested warmly on the horizon, it lit the surface of the lotus pond with a fiery-red hue, seamlessly painting a stroke of red from the waters straight through to the sky, idyllic as a beautiful dream.

Just then, Jun Xiaomo woke up. She opened her eyes with a muffled groan, and her gaze was immediately met with a pair of ink-black eyes that appeared so deep and abstruse that they seemed to contain a pair of swirling whirlpools that were ready to devour a person’s soul at any time.

Her heart trembled, and her fingers twitched slightly. She was nearly on the verge of reaching out and caressing that pair of eyes in front of hers.

“Awake? Are you feeling hungry?” Ye Xiuwen adjusted Jun Xiaomo’s hair for her and helped her up to a more comfortable posture.

Jun Xiaomo had never seen such a warm side to Ye Xiuwen ever since she lost her memories. As snapshots of the events occurring just before falling unconscious flowed back into her mind, Jun Xiaomo recalled that she had somehow ended up in the hands of a stranger.

Lifting her hands, Jun Xiaomo touched her own lips slightly, only to discover that the wounds on her lips had already formed scabs. This was a telltale sign that these were not mere figments of her imagination – these incidents had truly just occurred to her.

In other words, Ye Xiuwen had been the one to rescue her from the hands of the stranger.

As that realization dawned upon her, Jun Xiaomo felt an indescribable sensation wash through her heart. It was only after having been forcible kissed by that stranger that she realized how little she despised Ye Xiuwen’s presence and touch. Perhaps there were indeed some traces of disgust at Ye Xiuwen’s territorial behaviour, but she had never despised his presence in and of itself.

Could she really have been Ye Xiuwen’s cultivation companion before she lost her memory? If that’s the case, why would Ye Xiuwen treat her so harshly?

Ye Xiuwen gazed sullenly at Jun Xiaomo as she remained completely taciturn. Slowly, the vile energy in the depths of Ye Xiuwen’s eyes began to roil once more.

“Do you still have lingering feelings for that man?” Ye Xiuwen muttered sternly. The rare warmth in his voice was icing over once again, “Are you saying that it’s not enough for you to have both me and Rong Ruihan, so you still need the Stoneknife Peak’s First-Seat Disciple in your life? Jun Xiaomo, don’t you think you’re being far too greedy?”

“What?” Puzzled, Jun Xiaomo glanced back up at Ye Xiuwen.

Jun Xiaomo’s mind still drew a complete blank when Ye Xiuwen mentioned Rong Ruihan’s name once more. That said, it did cause pangs of pain to echo throughout her heart.

Her heart was empty and vacant right now. She couldn’t understand just why she lost her memory and just what kind of important people in her life she had forgotten all about.

The dazed look in Jun Xiaomo’s eyes stirred the vile energy in Ye Xiuwen’s heart once more, so he barked at Jun Xiaomo ferociously, “There’s no use thinking about it anymore! He’s already dead. I was the one who made sure of that!”

Ye Xiuwen was referring to Zou Zilong here. Unfortunately, Jun Xiaomo’s attention had all this while been on Rong Ruihan, and Ye Xiuwen’s abrasive remark caused a flurry of images to flicker quickly across the depths of her mind, stirring immense pain within her heart – Dead? He’s dead? Rong Ruihan is dead?! ...

Jun Xiaomo wasn’t sure just why the notion of Rong Ruihan’s death would trigger such a powerful response in the depths of her heart. She tried hard to latch onto some of the images that were quickly flickering about, yet everything appeared incredibly blurry. It was as though whenever she attempted to focus on a single one of these images, that very image would simply dissipate from the depths of his heart without a trace.

By the time Jun Xiaomo managed to collect herself from the situation, she realized that tears were already streaming out of her face.

Ye Xiuwen flicked his sleeves angrily, shooting out a massive burst of energy into the distance which cleaved and ravaged through the woods, leaving a massive path of destruction in its wake.

With that, he tossed Jun Xiaomo onto the rock, and leapt into the air, leaving her behind.

It suddenly dawned on Ye Xiuwen that if he continued to stay by Jun Xiaomo’s side any longer, he might very well end up killing her one day before taking his own life just so that they could be together in death, once and for all. Thus, he decided to temporarily leave Jun Xiaomo before he did something truly irreversible.

The sprightly old man stood up from where he was and clapped off the grass on his hands. Sighing with resignation, he quickly set up a defensive formation array around Jun Xiaomo, before giving chase after his unfilial disciple.

Sigh. A master worries most during his disciple’s courtship. The old man had been handling the dispute between Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo so much that he had almost become as though a nanny to his disciple.

Jun Xiaomo sat up slowly where she was. It took her quite some time before she finally managed to collect herself once more.

She wiped off the tears strewn all over her face. Her heart was plagued with distress and weariness.

Jun Xiaomo was distressed by the fact that Ye Xiuwen’s emotions would fluctuate between extremities without any warning at all; and she was weary of how lost she would remain if she couldn’t regain her memory – where did she come from? What was she trying to do?

If not for the child in her womb forcing her to keep herself together, she might well have crumbled to bits and pieces by now.

As time passed, Jun Xiaomo discovered that her initial hesitance about this child had already developed into expectancy.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

No matter what it was, the child was undoubtedly hers – they were related by blood. Whenever she found herself at her wits’ end, she would think about how helpless the child in her womb was, and she would once again be reinvigorated to press on.

Squeak squeak... All of a sudden, Jun Xiaomo noticed a bright light flicker by in front of her eye, and a furry ball shot straight into her bosom in the very next moment.

Somewhat curiously, Jun Xiaomo lifted the little ball of fur in front of her and began to examine it, muttering aloud, “You seem like a little demonic packrat!”

Squeak squeak squeak! The furry little packrat waved its claws about, and its beady black eyes were gleaming with tears of joy from their reunion. Unfortunately, it was difficult for a person to understand a rat. No matter how much it squeaked, Jun Xiaomo was unable to understand just what it was trying to say to her.

Squeak squeak squeak! Squeak squeak squeak! ...

If one were to translate that, it would mean, “Xiaomo, Xiaomo, I’m your little packrat, yo! Have you already forgotten all about me? I’m hurt...”

Faced with the puzzled look in Jun Xiaomo’s eyes, the little packrat curled itself up into a ball and began to gnaw on its own claws.

He had been afraid of the possibility that Jun Xiaomo would be unable to recognize him if he had appeared before Jun Xiaomo in human form, so he elected to appear in his present form, as a little packrat. How could Jun Xiaomo have forgotten about him in his present state?

Yet, for some strange reason, Jun Xiaomo noticed that the little packrat appeared to be hurt. Her heart melted slightly, and she picked up the little packrat and nuzzled it in her bosom as it stroked her hair, “I’m sorry. It appears that I’ve lost a large part of my memory, so I’m not sure whether you knew me from somewhere before, or how you’d appeared by my side. Regardless, would you like to stay by my side until we locate your master, hmm?”

Squeak squeak? The little packrat looked up in bewilderment, only to gaze into a pair of eyes that were both warm and soft, yet somewhat dazed and confused. In that instant, the little packrat’s heart constricted with pain, so it nuzzled its cheeks on Jun Xiaomo’s palms lovingly.

So you’ve lost your memory?

That’s fine. Since that’s the case, we can get to know each other all over again.

When he had mistakenly consumed the Shapeshifting Fruit and landed himself in a predicament, Jun Xiaomo was the one who had protected him. This time, it was his turn to return the favor and protect Jun Xiaomo instead.