I have a panel that reduces proficiency.

Chapter 61 Obsession with the Golden Core

Xuanzhu's eyes darted around, and a very kind smile appeared on her face. She said, "Sister Wanxia, ​​you don't need to call me senior. My name is Xuanzhu, you can just call me Sister Xuanzhu."

Evening Glow's two pigtails swayed as she said, "But my sister said that when you encounter someone stronger than yourself, you should call them 'senior.' Senior defeated the Phantom Vine Serpent, so Senior is stronger than me."

Xuanzhu spread her hands out and waved them in front of the sunset, saying, "How am I better than you? Look at me, I'm so weak I could fall over with a gust of wind. I picked up that snake just now, I didn't kill it. It was just a small snake, it didn't matter who picked it up. If you saw it in the grass, would you dare to pick it up?"

Wanxia glanced at Xuanzhu's fair and delicate hands, but ultimately shook her head firmly and said, "That won't do either. A senior is a senior; the rules cannot be broken."

The evening glow turned her head to look at Fang Shi standing under the ancient tree, and then called out in a clear voice, "Brother."

Xuanzhu's eyebrows immediately furrowed: "Hey, hey, hey, why are you calling him 'brother'? He didn't do anything, he was just standing there panting, and you're calling him 'brother'?"

The sunset turned around and said matter-of-factly, "Because my brother didn't help me."

Xuanzhu's eyes widened. "What kind of logic is this? You call someone who can help you 'senior,' but someone who can't call you 'brother.' No, no, I at least helped you throw away the snake before you called me 'senior.' He didn't do anything, and you call him 'brother'?"

Looking at Xuanzhu in the evening glow, she said earnestly, "He's injured. My sister said that injured people need someone to call them 'brother' so that it won't hurt so much."

Xuanzhu looked at Fang Shi, her brows furrowing slightly, and asked, "Injured?"

She flipped her right hand, her five fingers rapidly pinching between her knuckles, and her clear eyes suddenly widened as she said, "So that's why you were lingering here and wouldn't leave. You were seriously injured. Your little concealment technique is quite good; you almost fooled even this Heavenly Venerable."

Fang Shi did not respond to her.

From the moment the sunset appeared, he had harbored suspicions. Now, hearing the word "sister," he could no longer contain himself and asked, "Is your sister named Chaolu?"

The sunset blinked, then laughed and said, "Brother really knows everything."

She skipped and hopped over to Fang Shi, looked up at him, and said, "Brother, stretch out your hand."

Fang Shi hesitated for a moment, but still raised his bloodied and mangled hands and placed them in front of her.

As the sunset looked down at the ten broken fingers, cracked nails, and peeling flesh, a layer of mist rose in her round eyes.

She didn't say anything, but carefully took out a handful of herbs from the medicine basket on her back.

The herb leaves are slender with faint silvery-white veins along the edges.

Fang Shi recognized it.

Evening primrose, the lowest grade of spiritual herb, is considered too bulky even by adventurous rogue cultivators in the Great Wilderness.

As the sunset glows, it places a blade of grass in its palm, rubs it together, and the silvery-white juice seeps out between its fingers.

She applied the herbal juice to Fang Shi's hand, and the moment the cool sensation spread from the broken skin, the rolled-up flesh began to heal at a visible speed.

The crack closed, the bone fragments returned to their original position, and the broken nail grew back from the root, piece by piece covering the bloody and mangled fingertip.

In just a few breaths, his hands were restored to normal, and even the old wounds in his meridians caused by the cold and the impact of magical power were soothed by a warm force.

This is not evening primrose; evening primrose could never have such effects.

Xuanzhu, who had appeared unnoticed, said, "Don't be so surprised. This place is formed from the obsession of a Golden Core cultivator. For a Golden Core cultivator, bringing the dead back to life and restoring flesh to bones are merely ordinary methods. It's quite normal that the power of obsession is of the same origin as the owner of this blessed land."

Fang Shi said, "Aren't you afraid she'll hear you saying that so bluntly?"

Xuanzhu gestured towards the direction of the sunset and said, "She can't hear it. Obsession will only hear what she wants to hear."

Fang Shi looked towards the sunset.

As the sunset glowed, she carefully used her fingers to spread the last bit of grass juice evenly on the back of his hand, saying, "Brother, it's bandaged. You're alright now."

Fang Shi said, "Thank you, Wanxia. Brother is alright now."

Xuanzhu glanced at Fang Shi's perfectly healed hands, then at Wanxia's concerned face, and said, "That's why I'm puzzled. She won't even call me 'sister,' but she's been applying medicine and bandaging your hands, a brother she's never even met. What exactly is your connection to this Golden Core cultivator's obsession? Indeed, the divination said you could survive here because of this."

Fang Shi had a vague idea in his mind, but he didn't intend to tell Xuan Zhu everything right now. He said, "I don't know, I'm a little confused too."

Xuanzhu didn't speak, but just tilted her head and looked at him, her eyes filled with disbelief.

After tidying up the medicine basket, Wanxia said, "Brother, come home with me. Sister will be so happy to see you."

Xuanzhu immediately stepped forward, pointed to herself, and said, "What about me? What about me, sister?"

The evening glow turned around, bowed respectfully, and said, "If you wish to accompany me, senior, I will gladly welcome you."

Xuanzhu turned her head, glared at Fang Shi, and said, "It's not fair! It's not fair! She's so friendly to you, but she addresses me so formally as 'senior'!"

Fang Shi looked at her and said, "Are you a child? Nothing in this world is equal. If you don't want to come along, then stay behind."

Xuanzhu raised her chin and said, "In this world, inequality is the basis of equality, and discord is the basis of harmony. How do you know I, the Heavenly Venerable, won't go? I, the Heavenly Venerable, am determined to go!"

For the rest of the journey, the sunset, like a sparrow released from its cage, led the way, chirping incessantly.

She pointed to an ancient tree in the distance that blocked out the sky, saying that it was the oldest banyan tree in Luofu Mountain. A three-legged golden toad once lived in the heart of the tree, and every full moon night it would spit out a golden pearl. Whoever found it could make a wish.

He then pointed to a clump of purple-flowered vines by the roadside and said that it was a purple cloud vine, whose fruit was sweeter than honey, but the monkeys in the neighborhood always picked all the fruit before anyone else could.

Every now and then, someone would point to a leaf or a stone and rattle off its name and story as if it were a treasure trove.

It was as if, in her words, Mount Luofu was not just a forest, but a blessed land filled with rare and precious treasures.

Fang Shi walked behind her, and finding a gap between them, asked, "Wanxia, ​​were your names chosen by your elder sister or by your parents?"

As if she hadn't heard, the sunset continued walking forward, muttering that the stream in the mountain ravine ahead could reflect a person's past and present lives.

Fang Shi asked again, but she still didn't turn around, as if the words he had just asked hadn't even reached her ears.

Xuanzhu walked beside him, her hands behind her back, and said, "The Heavenly Venerable Benben said there's no need to test it. Obsessions will only accept what they're willing to accept. She won't say anything else unless it's a crucial moment."

Fang Shi thought to himself: Isn't this just like those games I played in my past life? The NPCs' dialogue is fixed. If the triggering conditions are not met, asking anything is useless. You can only follow the plot.

The moment I stepped out of the mountains, the world changed dramatically.

Just moments ago, it was a summer night, the moonlight was bright, and the chirping of insects filled the air.

At this moment, it was daytime overhead, with leaden clouds hanging low and goose-feather snowflakes falling in a flurry, covering the entire mountainside in a layer of pure white.

Fang Shi turned around, and the ancient trees of Luofu Mountain behind him were swallowed up by the heavy snow. The moonlight on the branches had long since disappeared, leaving only the mountain covered in silver, which gleamed coldly in the gray sky.

Xuanzhu tilted her head back, and a few snowflakes landed on her eyelashes. She blinked but didn't brush them away.

"A single thought creates a single realm, a single emotion creates a single world. This is not due to changes in the seasons, but rather to shifts in one's attachments. Summer brings joy, winter brings sorrow; attachments flow and the four seasons follow. A single thought of joy or sorrow for a Golden Core cultivator is a world entirely within the realm of an ordinary cultivator."

Fang Shi suddenly felt a jolt in his heart and asked, "Winter is sorrow? What can be sorrowful?"

Before Xuanzhu could answer, Wanxia, ​​who was walking ahead, suddenly let out a heart-wrenching cry of grief: "Sister—!"

Fang Shi looked in the direction of the sound.

In front of a dilapidated wooden house, a girl who looked exactly like Wanxia was being kicked to the ground by a tall man.

Chaolu curled up in the snow, her thin body kicked and rolled twice, snow covering her face and body.

The man stepped on her hand, which was bracing itself on the snow, and she let out a muffled scream. Her ten fingers convulsed in the snow, but she couldn't pull them out.

"If you don't pay the rent, get the hell out of here!"

Click!

The sole of my foot rubbed against it again.

The sunset rushed forward, grabbing the man's ankles tightly with both hands, trying to lift his foot off Chaolu's hand.

But the man's legs were like a wooden stake driven into the snow, completely still.

"Please, please, please don't step on my sister! We have to pay the rent tomorrow, and my sister has already prepared the medicine. Really, the medicine is in the house, and we can get the money right away! Please, please have mercy on me, I'll kowtow to you, I'll kowtow to you!"

The man impatiently lifted his leg and kicked the sunset away.

The small, thin body rolled several times in the snow, the medicine basket falling off its back and the herbs scattering all over the ground.

She lay prone in the snow, unable to get up for a long time.

The man bent down to pick up the medicine basket, filled it with herbs, and walked into the snowstorm, cursing as he said, "Two good-for-nothings, their parents are dead and they still cling to my territory. If they can't pay their rent, they should go to the mountains and feed the wolves."

Fang tried to move, but found that his body was unresponsive.

Xuanzhu stood beside him and said, "It's no use. This is part of an obsession. If obsessions were so easy to dispel, they wouldn't be obsessions."

Fang Shi stared at the two sisters huddled together, shivering in the snow. Was this how the story was going?

He had never found the game mechanics so disgusting.

Chaolu got up from the snow, her hand, which had been trampled and turned purple, hanging limply at her side. She staggered over to Wanxia and pulled her up from the snow.

The sunset was covered in snow and tears, and her forehead was scraped, with blood mixed with snowmelt flowing down.

Chaolu wiped her face with her sleeve. Neither of the sisters spoke; they simply hugged each other, head to head, shoulder to shoulder, like two fledglings huddled together for warmth in a blizzard.

"Are you two alright?"

Fang Shi quickly walked to the two sisters and squatted down.

He gently picked up Chaolu's hand, which was bruised and purple from being stepped on. The hand was so swollen that its original shape was almost unrecognizable. The five fingers were curled up in the palm, and the blood at the knuckles had congealed into a dark purple color. There was also a bloodstain on the back of the hand caused by the sole of the boot.

He didn't say much, he just placed his palm on it.

Wanxia turned her head, a smile blooming on her face, which was covered with snow and tears, and said, "Brother, it's alright, Wanxia is alright."

Hearing the noise, Chaolu turned around. Her eyes, identical to those of the evening glow, widened in surprise when she saw Fang Shi. She asked, "Brother?"

Wanxia nodded vigorously, her voice still trembling with tears, and said, "Sister, it's right, it's brother."

Chaolu was silent for a moment, then a smile identical to the one on her face, which was exactly the same as the sunset, appeared, and she said, "That's right, it's my brother."

Fang Shi did not respond.

He held Chaolu's hand with one hand and covered Wanxia's chest with the other. The magic power in his dantian flowed slowly, passing through his palms into their two slender bodies.

Humans are born from the heavens and earth, and their essence is spiritual energy. The power of magic is the essence of spiritual energy. When it enters a wounded place, it returns to its original place. What is broken will be continued, and what is damaged will be restored.

This is recorded in the *Ling Shu Su Wen*, and all cultivators are familiar with it.

However, when the magic power entered the two women's bodies, it vanished without a trace, like a clay ox sinking into the sea.

Chaolu's bruised hand showed no signs of swelling going down, and her two thin bodies were still shivering in the snow, unable to feel even a trace of warmth.

Sunset said, "Brother, it's...it's alright..."

'

Before she could finish speaking, she couldn't hold back any longer. She instinctively clutched her chest, curled up in pain, and her whole face scrunched up.

Xuanzhu walked up from behind, glanced down at the huddled shape of the sunset, and said, "It's no use."

"The wounds caused by obsession cannot be healed by spiritual energy. For obsession is not a physical injury, but a matter of the heart. If the knot in the heart is not untied, even with the power of rejuvenation, it is like throwing a stone into water, creating ripples but ultimately doing nothing to heal."

Fang Shi withdrew his hands from the two sisters.

Chaolu's bruised hand was still swollen, and Wanxia clutched her chest, her breathing becoming shallow from the pain, yet she still managed to force a smile at him.

He said, "Isn't there any other way? Since the Golden Core cultivators set up this place as an exit for their obsessions, isn't it so that those who come after them can make up for their regrets?"

Xuanzhu stood to one side with her hands behind her back, and the snowflakes fell on her hair, accumulating a thin layer of white.

"Who knows what Jin Dan is thinking? Her thoughts are beyond our comprehension."

Wanxia smiled at Fang Shi and said, "Brother, don't worry, I'll handle it."

She turned to look at Chaolu and said, "Sister, since we have no money to pay and no medicine to make it, I will go to the depths of Luofu Mountain to find the Frost Grass."

Chaolu's expression changed drastically. She grabbed Wanxia's wrist and said, "Are you crazy? The snow outside is so heavy, the snow in the deep mountains is up to our knees! Besides, there are monsters lurking deep in Luofu Mountain. A few days ago, that hunter from the third level of Qi Refining next door went in and never came out again. You're only at the first level of Qi Refining, how are you going to go? What are you going to take!"

Wanxia's expression turned serious, and for the first time, her youthful face lost its smile. She said, "But sister, I don't want to stay at the first level of Qi Refining for the rest of my life."

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