Chapter 57: 57: It Should Be Illegal To Be Hot AND Cool

“We have to find the weak point,” Yan Mingqing explained with a light shrug, looking around. “Well, the more accurate description is a ‘Qi node’ but it's pretty much just a weak point.” 

“I see...” Lin Songmei murmured, looking around the illusory realm for a... weak point. 

There wasn’t any. 

Well, Songmei didn’t see any. For one thing it probably would’ve defeated the purpose if it was out in the open, but it didn’t hurt to look around... 

“I’m assuming it's pretty easy to destroy once you find it, yeah?” Songmei asked, unslinging her bow. “So what if I just shoot randomly? I’m assuming it's small though, so the chances I hit the spot are slim.” 

“Slim beyond imagination,” Mingqing sighed, shaking her head in exasperation. “If we were just stronger we could just break this directly, instead we’ll just have to settle. Give me a moment.” 

Watching Mingqing close her eyes and concentrate, Songmei couldn’t help but wonder what Mingqing meant by “we’ll just have to settle.” 

Settle for what??

However, being a cultivator that was... competent, Songmei noticed that Mingqing wasn’t just standing there with her eyes closed doing nothing. Songmei could feel Mingqing’s Qi spreading through the area. It had a distinct... coldness to it. After cultivating beside Mingqing all this time, Songmei could recognize the feeling without even blinking, it was like second-nature!

Deciding to just wait though, as it would only make it more difficult if she was also probing the area with her Qi, Songmei sat down, staring up into the sky while waiting. 

Knowing Mingqing, it wouldn’t take long anyway. 

Hum, Hum... 

From what she had heard from Xueli and Mingqing, Songmei had found out her own Qi was apparently... very... nature-like. A rarity in the Starlight Lake Sect that, for the most part, practiced water and star-like arts.  

Before Songmei could take her train of thought further though, Mingqing’s eyes fluttered open as she pulled out her sword. 

“You were wondering what I meant by settle, right?” Mingqing teased, seeing Songmei sitting on the ground with a confused look. 

“I was confused, yeah...” Songmei nodded, shifting her sitting position to sit cross-legged. “Also, confused on why you pulled out your sword...” 

Mingqing couldn’t have already found it could she?

Songmei was pretty sure it would’ve taken Mingqing at least ten minutes... 

Shutting her mouth though, Songmei watched on, her eyes widening as Mingqing let out a reassuring laugh, a faint mist that seemed to twinkle gathering around her sword. “Constellation Sword Art... The First Star of the Ram.” 

Walking forward to a nearby tree, Mingqing looked back towards Songmei with a lighthearted smile as her golden eyes turned to crescents. “I meant that we’d have to settle for... this.” 

Stabbing her sword deep into the tree as a gust of wind picked up and blew by, Mingqing grinned towards Songmei as the world flickered around them before beginning to shatter like glass. 

Stunned, Songmei’s head swiveled in every direction with a wonder-filled smile on her face, watching the illusory realm crumple around them.

Songmei was... glad that she was sitting. 

Leaning back onto her hands, Songmei turned away, hiding the pink tinge that had creeped up on her face as her legs melted like jelly. 

Mingqing wasn’t supposed to be hot AND confident... 

‘It’s fine, it’s fine...’

Taking a few deep breaths to gather herself, Songmei pushed herself up as the illusory realm finished falling apart around them, the shards of the world tumbling to the ground like a sad child’s dream. 

“You’re back,” Han Youhong called out without looking up from his terminal. “I was so bored while waiting that I started playing the bricklaying game...” 

“Have you been waiting long?” Songmei asked, trying to make her mind change its focus. 

...

It wasn’t working. 

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Damn Mingqing was hot sometimes... Well, maybe not only sometimes. 

ARGH. 

It all started after that one time in their apartment when they first got to Westriver... 

Why? Why... Why??

... Mingqing’s golden eyes were really nice though... 

“Not too long, twenty minutes maybe?” Han Youhong shrugged, interrupting Songmei’s train of thought while closing the game, having wrapped up the orders for his brick-making factories. “It’s chill, I kinda just stumbled my way out of it without even noticing...” 

“Ahhh...” Songmei murmured, nodding along, very much so processing everything that Han Youhong was saying with 100% clarity. 

“Shall we get going then?” Mingqing asked, offering a hand to Songmei who was still on the ground. “And you okay? You seem a little out of it...” 

Grabbing Mingqing’s hand and pulling herself up, Songmei blinked a few times, reorienting herself. “Y-Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Totally fine.” 

Han Youhong, standing there with a dead-stare, shook his head, letting out a small sigh under his breath while pulling out some more lychee jelly. Songmei was... not fine, anyone with a functional pair of eyes could tell what was going on in her head. The only issue was that the only person without a functional pair of eyes seemed to be... Mingqing. 

‘Maybe Mingqing’s just distracted by how much she thinks Songmei is cute or hot or whatever goes on in these two lovebirds' brains...’ 

Meanwhile, congratulating herself in her mind on how well she did to hide her thoughts and how fast she recovered, Songmei continued to walk along, holding Mingqing’s hand as usual. “So just a little more and we’ll be at the first ravine?” 

“Just a bit more, yeah,” Mingqing confirmed, having pulled up a map on her terminal once more. “I know we’ve both seen pictures, but I’ve heard that in person, the ravine looks much more impressive.” 

“It does,” Han Youhong acknowledged, another lychee jelly disappearing into his mouth. “I came into this area a while back through a different route that didn’t pass by the... spread-through-excrement drug plants. So... look forward to it, it’s probably just past the trees up ahead.” 

Pushing forward with a little more excitement after Han Youhong had said that, the group quickened their pace a touch, pushing through the branches and leaves, passing through to a... ledge. 

Not a dangerous, sheer drop one that was one step past where the trees ended, to Songmei’s relief. 

The ravine though, was... crazy. 

Songmei, of course, already knew what the ravine looked like, she wasn’t dumb, she looked at pictures after she was curious. 

But in person... It was... crazy. 

From the pictures, there was already a sort of... grandiosity to it. A ravine that stretched in both directions as far as the eye could see. A deep scar in the ground, a relic from a past battle. 

The ravine was wide, it was deep, it was... menacing. It was every word that Songmei could think of. 

On a more humorous note though, it was a little like the earth was spreading its buttcheeks.... 

From the ledge where they were, Songmei and the others could see the bottom; it was... very far. However, it wasn’t too cramped and had a path carved out. 

That was... the actual way to traverse this area too. 

There weren’t many good options of going up and down the ravine though, the only real option that Songmei and others had was to... jump. 

Another problem then arose, though. The walls of this ravine were uhmm... 

How to describe it... 

Rough. 

Rough like “if it was horizontal people would suspect something because why the frick was it so spiky to an unnatural degree???” 

So, therefore, here the three of them were, all kinda just... sitting, chilling for a bit as they admired the view in a warm silence.