289 If Life Could Be Like the Moment When We First Met Part One

For some reason, Chen Changsheng spoke much slower than usual, as if histongue was tied, making him seem both slow and stupid.  Xu Yourong did not answer him. With great effort, she lifted herself off theground to sit up, then feebly leaned against the cave wall. Then she lifted herhead, this simple action causing her face to pale even more, and looked at thealready dead Bai Hai. She examined his elderly face, speckled with a rainbow ofcolors, in silence.  The previous moment had been the most danger she had ever been in for herentire life. She had discarded the Tong Bow, faked an attack, then inevitablylost, purposely letting Bai Hai capture her. All this was so that she couldhave this Setting Sun Sect elder suck her blood, because only she knew that hertrue Phoenix blood was mixed with the poison that Nanke had implanted withinher last night.  This extremely risky and disgusting plan had really succeeded, but just asshe had thought in that moment of remorse, if Bai Hai had not been pushed awayfrom her neck by that hand at the very last moment, then Bai Hai really couldhave sucked her clean of her last true Phoenix essence blood before dying ofpoison, and then she would really have died.  Thinking about this, she finally turned to Chen Changsheng, her right handdrawing the Tong Bow close to her body. She wore a cold expression, giving offan unapproachable feeling.  This delicate young lady had a cold expression and a noble air seemed to hangabout her, making her seem exceedingly aloof. If this were any normal youth,they would feel ashamed upon gazing at this strange character, and then wouldsecretly be filled with admiration. But Chen Changsheng felt neither of thesetwo feelings. In the capital, he had met with Mo Yu and Luoluo many times andwas very used to this noble and pure atmosphere, so he appeared very calm. Andyet for some reason, he felt like this young lady gave him a very comfortablefeeling, like a spring forest after a rain.  Xu Yourong was somewhat astonished by his calmness, but was also satisfied.Without any movement, her longbow disappeared.  Chen Changsheng stared blankly at her, then recalled some of the words thathad faintly entered his ear while he was unconscious.  This young lady was actually one of the legendary elves?  It was said that countless years ago, there was no vast and boundless oceanbetween the Great Western Continent and the Eastern continent and that theywere connected. Back then, the Great Western Continent was called the GreatWestern Mountain Range. A tribe of spirits once lived in the Great WesternMountain Range, and this tribe married with the demi-humans, leaving behindmany descendants of mixed blood. Later on when the Great Western Continentsplit from the Eastern Continent, these mixed bloods remained on the EasternContinent. Because they had elegant (秀) appearances and swift (灵) movements,they were called the elves (秀灵).  (TL: The actual name of this race is the Xiuling (秀灵), but in terms ofdescription, they are basically elves.) Besides their fresh and elegant appearance, they also inherited a love ofnature from the spirit tribe. The elves were most known for their archery.Every elf was an expert in the bow and arrow. In the war between thedemi-humans and the demons, the elves played an extremely important role, andit was precisely for this reason that they became the demons' most despisedopponents. Finally, two thousand years ago, because of the Wolf Tribe'sbetrayal, the ancestral mountain of the elves was besieged by the demon army.The demi-humans were not in time to save them and the elves were massacred,their race nearly exterminated. Only a few young elves managed to escape fromthose mountains by way of a narrow underground passage.  If the story had ended here, perhaps it would have been for the better, butthe fact was that those elves that had escaped the iron hoof of the demon armysuffered an even more miserable fate. Because of their elegant appearance andenchanting bodies, those elves that could not be brought back to the two banksof the Red River very naturally became the prey for many very powerful figures.Whether it was the nobles of Xuelao City or the human nobles, they all wantedto have the glory of an elf as their slave.  Almost one thousand years ago, when the humans allied with the demi-humansagainst the demons, the miserable fate of the elves finally improved. TheTaizong Emperor issued a decree banning the buying and selling of elves, butmany of the mansions of the aristocracy still concealed many elves. Only whenthe chief princess of the Great Western Continent married the White Emperor andthen established a relationship with the Tianhai Divine Empress did theenforcement of this decree incessantly increase in ferocity, finally leading toa true turn for the better. After several of the great families of the southwere completely exterminated by the Divine Empress for raising and killingdozens of elves, this phenomenon finally disappeared from the human world.  But after experiencing so many years of slavery and torment, the already fewelves became even rarer. At present, the vast majority of the elves livedwithin White Emperor City, while some had crossed the ocean to the GreatWestern Continent. In the past few decades, whether in the capital or WenshuiCity, the figures of elves were very rarely seen.  Knowing that the young lady was an elf, the gaze that Chen Changshengdirected towards her could not help but be filled with sympathy. He thought tohimself, no wonder she, with only a bow and arrows, could enter the Garden ofZhou. At the same time, he felt more relieved at that clear and cold resentmentin her appearance. If he were an elf, he would also not have a good impressionof humans.  He had just woken up and there were many things he did not understand. Hedidn't know how he had ended up in this cave. Last night before he had slippedinto unconsciousness, just what was that light he saw?  He asked, "Did you save me?"  Xu Yourong calmly replied, "You don't need to thank me."  Chen Changsheng did not quite know how to respond. He thought to himself,didn't I just save you a few minutes ago? After staring blankly for a while, heasked, "May I ask who you are?"  Xu Yourong was somewhat stunned, and only then did she understand that he didnot recognize her—it must be known that on a normal day, no matter where shewent, she would always be recognized. This was because her temperament was sounusual, but even more importantly, because she was born beautiful.  This had nothing to do with narcissism, it was an objective fact. The entirecontinent regarded her as the number one beauty, and even the demon nobles ofXuelao City had no objection to this.  She wanted to ask, could it be that you don't recognize me? But then sheremembered that before she entered the Garden of Zhou, she had exchangedappearances with one of the priests of the Thirteen Divisions of RadiantGreen...because she did not want to meet that guy.  Upon thinking of that guy, she felt even more exhausted, and softly said,"Can you walk?"  Chen Changsheng's injuries had not yet recovered. He had just woken up andhis body was weak all over, but he did not want to be a burden and so he said,"Yes."  "Very good, then you'll carry me." Xu Yourong calmly added, "You are notallowed to abandon me."  Chen Changsheng once again stared blankly, thinking to himself, so originallyit had this meaning. He circulated his true Qi to confirm his situation, thennodded his head.  He did so very reluctantly. It was not that he was not willing, but thesituation of his body was simply too terrible.  Xu Yourong knew very well the current status of his body, but she gave nowords of consolation or encouragement. In her view, those cliché encouragementswere meaningless wastes of strength.  "I've lost a lot of blood. I'm very weak," she added.  Chen Changsheng thought to himself, when I woke up, I just happened to seethat old freak sucking your blood, but back then you had a very calm look inyour eyes. Moreover, that old freak soon died from the poison in your blood.It's very obvious that this was a trap that you laid for him. For you to saythis to me right now, what's the meaning behind it? Another thing is, just whydid that old freak want your blood anyway? Xu Yourong recognized that he was confused and said somewhat helplessly, "Ithink it's too disgusting."  Puzzled, Chen Changsheng asked, "And then?"  Xu Yourong said, "I don't want to remember that scene, but also I'm ratherweak and I'm about to pass out."  With these words, she did not give Chen Changsheng any chance to protest orask questions. She straightforwardly closed her eyes, then leaned against thecave wall and passed out.  Chen Changsheng was caught rather unprepared by this unexpected change. Afterthinking it over, he felt that what this young lady had said was tooreasonable, so he had no choice but to accept.  He did not immediately take her away, as he still had to steady his breathingand recover his strength. He also had to carefully examine his body. Last nighton the lake at the other side of the cold pool, he had battled with those twodemon women for a long time, and his internal organs had suffered severeinjuries. He did not want to carry this young lady out of the cave and thenimmediately spit up blood and die.  When the mind arose from the sea of consciousness to the outside, this wasthe spiritual sense. When it went in the opposite direction, this wasMeditative Introspection.  He saw the lake outside his Ethereal Palace, but it was different frombefore—that sphere of water formed by the lake water was mixed with lots of iceand emitted a frigid air. This made the Spirit Mountain upon which the EtherealPalace sat appear unclear. Occasionally, a strong wind would blow across,causing some of the ice to slowly descend. After who knows how long had passed,the wasteland was covered with a shallow layer of white.  Last night during his battle, he had burned up nearly all of his true essenceand that mantle of snow over the wasteland had melted into nothing long ago.And he could not sense his Fated Star in the Garden of Zhou, so he worriedabout being unable to recover his true essence. When he saw this scene, itwasn't sufficient to say that he was pleasantly surprised. Only, why was thelake around his Ethereal Palace so cold?  His spiritual sense passed through the icy surface of the lake and proceededdeeper, then… he saw something that deeply moved him.  A thin Black Dragon was peacefully sleeping in the lake, ceaselesslyreleasing its Qi. The Qi was so cold and so pure.  Only then did Chen Changsheng realize that this was just like that first timehe underwent Meditation in the underground space and self-immolated; the BlackDragon had once again saved his life. The coldness emitted from deep within thedragon soul helped him recover his true essence and lower his pulse,simultaneously ceaselessly healing the countless cuts on his internal organs.Compared to back then, though, the Black Dragon now was many times smaller. Itscurled-up body in the lake was just like a snoozing child and was very cute.  The Black Dragon was right now a mere spiritual soul. In order to save him,it had inevitably paid an enormous price, causing it to be in such a deep sleep.  Without it, he would probably have already died. He looked at the jade ruyithat had appeared on his hands in silence.  Afterwards, he looked at the unconscious white-clothed girl leaning againstthe cave wall. He did not know what had happened last night, but he couldroughly guess that if it were not for her, he would also have already beendead. The girl was an elf, and although it was said that humans and demi-humanswalked separate paths, he had always been close to demi-humans. Even if thisgirl had not saved his life, he still would not have abandoned her, not tomention the current situation.  Only, how would he carry her away? After he recovered some of his strength,he kneeled down by the white-clothed girl. He extended his hands and tried outa few positions, but he always felt them to be inappropriate. At this tensemoment, he was not like some pedantic old virtuous nobleman, worrying about thedifferences between sexes. It was just that he really did not have muchexperience in this aspect—should he grab her by the belt and carry her out?Support her by the arm and travel together? Carry her horizontally in hisbosom? In the end, the simplest method was the most reliable. He brought her upto his back, and then his two hands grabbed her thighs.