The White Calyx Would Not Die

Lin Suri turned a crimson bead over in his hand, deep in thought.

Wang Chu stood quietly to one side, waiting, not daring to interrupt.

After several breaths, Lin Suri asked again, "Have the wandering heroes Longyue invited, along with the swordsman you found, all settled in?"

"They have. They are staying in the guest rooms of the sleeping quarters.

"Have you seen them? Could you tell the level of their martial cultivation?"

After a brief thought, Wang Chu said, "Jiang Yuan, whom the young lady found, excels in Mountain-Crushing Force. His blood and qi are fierce, and his force qi is silver-white. At the very least, he is a figure of the [Silver Bone] realm."

"As for that swordsman, Zhang Qinglou... he is much stronger still. Golden light flashed from his eyes whenever he glanced about. He possesses both silver-white bones and the solidity of a golden bell. With every breath, the qi he circulated and exhaled was a hazy golden mist... I fear he may be one of those legendary [Golden Body] figures!"

A gleam flashed through Lin Suri's eyes. He gave Wang Chu an approving look. "You actually managed to find a Golden Body figure. Not bad."

Charm flowed between Wang Chu's brows and eyes as she gave a graceful bow. "They came for the Baosu Marquis Residence, and for Young Master's name. Wang Chu would not dare claim the credit."

Lin Suri nodded and waved a hand. "And Wang Kong—since his talent is extraordinary, do your best to nurture him. The ancestral mountain around Yuan River Prefecture has emerged. The Prefecture Lord, the Lu family, Mystic Wonder Abbey, the credit peddler... even my younger sister are all eyeing it like tigers. This is precisely the time when we need capable people."

Wang Chu acknowledged the order and withdrew.

At last, a faint smile appeared on the face of the eldest young master of the marquis residence. He then sat cross-legged to meditate.

Watching all this, Chen Lingxi seemed to see golden light flowing over Lin Suri's body, his aura blazing.

—Like a divine statue cast from pure gold.

Chen Lingxi wanted to look closer, only to discover that the scene within his field of vision had begun to warp, then shatter.

His consciousness returned to his own body.

As his consciousness returned, Chen Lingxi felt as though his head were splitting apart, his spirit utterly drained.

"It seems this divine ability, Sight-Roaming, is related to the strength of my own mind. My grave injuries have yet to heal, and my body is weak besides. I cannot maintain the Sight-Roaming state for long."

He narrowed his eyes in thought.

Liu Changle's snores rumbled like thunder. He had already fallen asleep.

Chen Lingxi set down the incense burner in his hand and sorted through what he had gained from this bout of Sight-Roaming.

"Lin Suri's strange posture, and the rhythm of his breathing..."

He closed his eyes and recalled it, finding it ever more astonishing.

"I remember Lin Suri's posture and breathing rhythm with perfect clarity, without the slightest error.

"It seems that in the Sight-Roaming state, my memory improves. I can almost remember everything at a glance!"

Outside the window, it was already pitch-black, yet fine snow drifted down from the sky.

The leaden clouds showed no sign of parting, only hung lower still!

There would surely be a heavy snowfall tomorrow. Whether it would be an auspicious snow remained to be seen.

But to Chen Lingxi, even though the cold now cut to the bone and snowflakes were blown into the room to land on his face... it still felt wonderful!

"Let me try that strange posture."

Chen Lingxi drew a deep breath. Enduring the agonizing pain rising from his five viscera and six bowels, he arched his back like a bow, suspended his waist and abdomen in the air, and curled his legs into an arc. His left heel pressed against his perineum, while his right ankle hooked behind his left knee...

The posture was exceedingly difficult.

Chen Lingxi endured the pain and practiced for a long while. Only after half an hour did he finally grasp two or three tenths of its essentials.

With his body bent like a bow, he attempted to breathe according to the rhythm stored in his memory...

He began his first inhalation...

It first entered his nostrils, then paused in his throat...

In that instant, Chen Lingxi keenly sensed a faint, mysterious breath flying from the incense burner beside him. As he inhaled, it entered his body!

"It worked!"

The instant that wisp of breath entered him, he felt as though his chest had opened wide. The oppressive heaviness in his chest became incomparably smooth and unblocked.

The agonizing pain in his five viscera and six bowels also eased greatly at that moment.

He tried to sink that wisp of qi into his diaphragm... but the strange posture demanded far too much strength. In only a few breaths, Chen Lingxi was already exhausted. His posture deformed, and he could no longer maintain the rhythm of his breathing.

The wisp of qi in his body immediately scattered and vanished.

"As expected, it is extremely difficult."

Chen Lingxi lay flat on the bed, but an irrepressible smile spread across his lips.

"This really is a breathing cultivation technique! And... that wisp of qi felt far too comfortable."

"The pain in my five viscera and six bowels has also eased considerably."

Continue!

He worked tirelessly, breathing and cultivating through the night.

At first, he could only hold on for two or three breaths. Before the wisp of qi could even reach his diaphragm, he could no longer endure.

Four hours later, Chen Lingxi could already persist for six or seven breaths. The qi entered his nostrils, passed through his throat and diaphragm, and paused in his stomach!

After a night had passed, Chen Lingxi felt refreshed and invigorated, while the pain in his body had lessened greatly.

"And..."

"When I breathe and circulate qi, my skin seems to faintly give off a green glow, blazing hot, as if my body had become refined iron in a fire, being tempered by flames..."

The Chen family was a scholarly household. Chen Lingxi knew very little of the so-called martial path; he only knew that some people in this world could easily stand against a hundred men... or even a thousand!

"I have heard that among martial wanderers, an ordinary mortal body must be tempered a hundred times before it becomes iron! This is the [Iron Body]! With one punch, one can kill an ox or horse..."

He could not hide the excitement in his heart.

"With this wondrous method, so long as I cultivate diligently every day, I may yet have a chance to break free from this cage!"

But then, from the corner of his eye, Chen Lingxi caught sight of the packets of herbs on the table.

His heart instantly turned cold.

"That Steward Zhao uses official slaves like us to test medicine. Now, only Liu Changle and I are still alive!"

Worry rose within Chen Lingxi. "Judging by how I was before, if I take another dose of medicine, I will certainly die.

"If I do not die, I will definitely draw Steward Zhao's attention."

In his mind, he recalled Steward Zhao's sinister gaze.

"That old fox is suspicious by nature. When he returns and discovers that I have changed so suddenly, he may subject me to brutal torture."

"I still need... to break this deadlock. At the very least, I cannot test medicine again in the future."

Chen Lingxi drew a deep breath. In his mind echoed the words Wang Chu, the steward of the southern courtyard, had spoken during yesterday's Sight-Roaming.

"Yunhe Commandery Princess often visits the Baosu Marquis Residence to study flower arranging with the young lady..."

"Flower arranging..."

A sharp gleam flashed through his eyes. "It seems my life is not yet meant to end!"

Flower arranging!

In the memories he had recovered, in his previous life, he had spent six years studying this craft. He had sought instruction from countless masters, and in the end, used this skill to win over a noble patron who would determine the achievements of his entire life!

"Two lifetimes differ, yet there are similarities too."

His gaze turned toward the window.

The wind and snow gradually intensified, yet the old locust tree stood unmoving within them. Not even its finest twigs trembled.

At the corner of a wall not far away, several wintersweet branches bloomed, snow covering them from head to toe.

"Old locust tree, wintersweet... not enough..."

Chen Lingxi got out of bed, pushed open the door, and walked through the snow before the rear-facing rooms.

After more than ten breaths, Chen Lingxi suddenly crouched down.

Lowering his head, he reached out and brushed away a layer of fallen snow, only to discover a white calyx.

It had been completely buried beneath the snow before this. Only the flower bud at its very tip poked a tiny blue-white point above the surface.

Whenever the wind and snow swept past, it swayed and trembled, yet it still bloomed stubbornly, stubbornly... refusing to die!

"The wind and snow are cruel, but the white calyx does not die. The wintersweet does not die. Neither do I... die!"

Chen Lingxi muttered to himself.

Snow fell for two nights.

The marquis residence's garden resembled an unfinished ink-wash painting.

The water in the residence's pond had frozen, and snow had fallen atop the ice. It was flat, white, and vast, impossible to tell where the paths ended and the water began.

Even in winter, the marquis residence's garden was neither monotonous nor desolate.

Old plum trees beside the lake, wintersweet in the shade behind the artificial hills, nandina beside the stone paths, nandina by the pavilion, Chinese holly beneath the walls, wintergreen hedges throughout the garden... dozens of winter flowers bloomed in rivalry, beautiful beyond measure.

Within the hexagonal pavilion with its sweeping eaves in the garden, Lin Longyue, the marquis residence's young lady, wore a scarlet cape of monkey-fur felt. Snow covered her hood, making her face appear all the fairer.

Yunhe Commandery Princess sat opposite her, dressed in a silver squirrel-fur jacket and holding a hand warmer.

She did not look at the snow. Instead, she gazed at several plum blossoms not far away. "These plum blossoms have bloomed beautifully. They have more spirit than the few pots in the warm chamber of my courtyard."

Lin Longyue smiled lightly. "How could plum blossoms in a warm chamber withstand wind and snow? These trees in the courtyard are different. The colder it gets, the more they insist on blooming."

As she spoke, she rose and walked to the field's edge, broke off a wintersweet branch in fullest bloom, then casually plucked several red nandina berries. She wound them onto the plum branch with fine thread, turned, and handed it to the princess.

"If placed in a vase, both this wintersweet and these red berries would be excellent."

Yunhe Commandery Princess accepted the plum branch and lowered her head to smell it. Its faint, cold fragrance seeped into her heart and lungs.

With calm eyes, she gazed at the plum blossom. "The favored noble ladies in the palace are fond of flower arranging, yet you and I cannot seem to make anything of it.

"I heard that the young general of the Sun-Holding General's Estate not only shoots a superb hand of trick arrows, but is also highly skilled at arranging flowers in vases. The flowers he arranges are said to be breathtakingly beautiful... Tell me, a general's stock, yet skilled in such an elegant pursuit—how strange."

Lin Longyue shook her head.

"Consort Chun likes flower arranging, and so the whole Great Li realm has begun to follow the fashion. Even those old pedants in court have to know a few poems and essays critiquing flower arrangements... what is strange about that?"

"After all, no one in court does not... admire Consort Chun's Mirror Listening Art."

Admire?

Yunhe Commandery Princess thought, It should be fear.