Inheritance

He had stuffed encrypted cultivation methods into poems and miscellaneous notes that would spread far and wide...

Qin Yi tried to dissect this behavior from every angle, yet he could not arrive at any reasonable explanation.

To filter people?

Thinking honestly, if not for those prerequisites, even if he had obtained the Disrupted Scripture or Nine Songs alone, he would never have connected them to cultivation methods, much less tried to extract a method from them.

What decent person would look for mathematical formulas in Three Hundred Tang Poems?

And even if there were such people, what could the authors gain from it?

How could they precisely locate these people and bring them under their control?

If they could not, then it would become a calamity sweeping across the world.

This free-range style of preaching would inevitably lead to social unrest. The violent impact of individual power was more direct than any ideology. The entire world would slide toward the anarchic collapse of ritual decay and music ruin faster than anyone expected.

By then, Qin Yi figured he might even be hailed as a sage.

After all, as long as his survival was not threatened, Qin Yi had always been a good person who held himself to strict standards.

So,

What was the purpose of those who wrote these books?

Qin Yi could not understand it, especially that former emperor of Great Qin who had written Nine Songs.

Was he rebelling against himself?

Or had this cultivation method itself been left with a backdoor, or perhaps...

At that thought, Qin Yi directly cut off his train of thought. Continuing would require too many wild leaps, all baseless speculation. He returned his focus to reality and looked at the girl walking half a step ahead of him.

The two walked beneath the shade of the forest. Withered yellow leaves carpeted the entire path, and last night's rain had yet to dry, making it muddy and slippery.

The bushes were thick. Qin Yi raised a hand and pushed aside a branch, then broke the silence with a soft laugh.

"Big Sis, are you really that happy?"

Ruan Su immediately turned back at his words. Her disheveled black hair drew an arc through the air as she nodded vigorously.

"Mm!"

Qin Yi let out a soft breath and shook his head.

"There's no need. I promised you that as long as my brain illness got better, you..."

Halfway through, he realized he was once again habitually suppressing his elder sister's sense of self. He swallowed the latter half of those suppressive words and casually changed his phrasing.

"...our lives will slowly get better."

"..."

Ruan Su blinked her eyes and pressed her lips together. The hand hanging at her side instinctively reached to take his, but some inexplicable hesitation made it circle awkwardly through the air before touching the short blade at her waist.

Qin Yi saw it, but he did not take her hand. He only deliberately asked,

"Hey, Big Sis, do you like that blade so much?"

Ruan Su pursed her lips, gently stroking the leather sheath. She nodded and said softly,

"This is good... It should be sturdy, it won't break..."

Qin Yi lowered his gaze slightly.

The reason he had made Ruan Su use an axe before was purely because they were poor. Their meager household could not withstand his elder sister's fighting style.

She simply relied on overwhelming strength to smash through everything.

Ordinary swords would need to be reforged after one or two uses.

But axes were different. If the edge went dull, it could still be used as a hammer. If the handle broke, they could just find a suitable branch in the mountains and fit it in.

Still, compared to an axe, Ruan Su was actually better with a blade. After all, she had systematically trained under Uncle Peng Jun.

As he thought this, Qin Yi suddenly said,

"Try it."

"Mm?"

Ruan Su looked surprised.

Qin Yi pointed at the short blade hanging at her waist, then casually patted a small tree beside them.

"Meng Peijiu's background isn't simple. What she gave us should not be ordinary, but we'd better confirm it first. Use this tree. It's about two inches thick, probably just right."

At his words, Ruan Su obediently drew the blade at once, though she looked somewhat hesitant, as if reluctant to do so.

This was a rare gift from Xiao Yi.

Qin Yi rolled his eyes and said irritably,

"A blade is meant to be used when you give it to someone. When there's a chance later, I'll give you an even better one—"

Whoosh—

Before the final note of his words faded, the blade had already drawn a streak of cold light through the damp forest!

Qin Yi instantly shut his mouth and stood where he was, expressionless.

He had not even seen it clearly.

He had only vaguely caught a fleeting afterimage.

What was going on?

If Ruan Su had just slashed at him, he might only have reacted after his head flew into the air. Yet when she killed that male ape ten days ago, he had still been able to see her movements clearly.

Had her strength swelled again during these days of recovery?

How could it be so fast?

Had Ruan Su reached a stage of physical development?

Or was it because of the Spirit Resonance he had previously poured into her body?

Or perhaps because of the injuries she had suffered earlier?

Ruan Su clearly had not expected it either. Blinking, she lowered her head to look at the hand gripping the blade, then belatedly lifted her eyes in excitement.

"Xiao Yi... My strength got bigger again..."

Her hoarse voice rang through the forest, accompanied by the rustling crash of the little tree falling and dragging down branches from the canopy.

Qin Yi silently glanced at the tree's neat severed stump, then looked at the short blade in his elder sister's hand, which bore no sign of a rolled edge.

Seeing that Qin Yi said nothing, Ruan Su instinctively stepped forward, wanting to share her excitement.

Qin Yi immediately and instinctively stepped back.

Ruan Su: "..."

Qin Yi: "..."

A drop of dew slid down a leaf in the canopy.

Qin Yi continued walking forward and sighed, his childish voice saying,

"Big Sis, before you get used to your strength, remember not to touch me. Sleep in the small bed at night too, and don't touch any porcelain or similar things at home for now."

Ruan Su sheathed her blade and hurried after him, her face beaming. She was not discouraged in the slightest by what he had said. Xiao Yi's reaction just now had instead made her inexplicably happy.

"Oh, oh... Okay..."

Qin Yi noticed the change in her mood, but had no intention of interfering, because this was exactly what he wanted to see at this stage.

For Ruan Su, who had fallen into a state of inferiority and obedience, the best solution was not verbal affirmation and encouragement. The essence of that behavior was still him projecting his own value onto her, which would only deepen her dependence on him.

Letting Ruan Su become better on her own was the optimal solution.

Directly transferring the clothes and short blade he had fleeced from Meng Peijiu to his elder sister had been intended to cultivate her confidence by strengthening her martial power.

His idea in finding medicine for her throat and face was similar. Ruan Su had never shown it, but Qin Yi knew she was deeply ashamed of the acquired flaws in her body, especially when facing him.

Qin Yi would not stop walking for Ruan Su,

But he would appropriately find ways to let her keep pace with him.

Still...

Qin Yi glanced at the girl walking ahead, as well as the hand holding onto his sleeve, and gently shook his head.

His elder sister truly was a monster.

Her ability to correct her own sense of self was astonishingly fast.

Thinking of this, Qin Yi suddenly recalled the question he could not understand and asked,

"Big Sis, there's something I want to ask you."

"Mm?"

Ruan Su turned back in confusion, her voice hoarse. "Wh...at?"

Qin Yi asked casually,

"You've probably read that copy of the Disrupted Scripture I wrote at home, right?"

"That... cultivation method?"

"I mean the full text."

"Um... You... found out?"

Ruan Su looked a little embarrassed as she muttered softly.

At the time, she had wanted to study why she could not cultivate, but she had not figured it out.

Qin Yi had no intention of blaming her and continued asking,

"Why do you think those authors stuffed encrypted cultivation methods into literary forms that would spread far and wide?"

Ruan Su furrowed her brows, seeming not to understand.

Qin Yi did not pressure her and guided her instead.

"Just give any answer. Go with your feeling."

The warm autumn sunlight spilled through the branches scattered with falling leaves, shining upon the brother and sister. Their footsteps rustled as they walked some distance through the woods.

Ruan Su suddenly spoke.

Her voice was hoarse,

And carried a trace of uncertainty.

"Could it be... so that... the cultivation methods... could be passed down?"