Inheritance

Stuffing encrypted cultivation techniques into poems and miscellanies that would spread far and wide...

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

To screen people?

If he searched his own heart, then without those prerequisites, even if he had obtained the Disrupted Scripture or Nine Songs alone, he would never have connected them to cultivation techniques, much less tried to extract techniques from them.

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

And even if there were such people, what would the authors gain?

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

If they could not, then it would be a calamity sweeping across the realm.

This free-range style of preaching would inevitably bring social unrest. The violent impact of individual power was more direct than any ideology; the entire realm would slide toward the lawless collapse of ritual decay and music ruin faster than anyone imagined.

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

After all, so 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 Great Qin's former emperor who had written Nine Songs.

Was he rebelling against himself?

Or did the technique itself contain a backdoor, or perhaps...

At that thought, Qin Yi cut off his train of thought. Continuing would require too many wild leaps, all groundless conjecture. He turned his attention back to reality and looked at the girl walking half a step ahead of him.

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

The undergrowth was dense. Qin Yi raised a hand and pushed aside a branch, then broke the silence with a soft laugh.

"Sis, are you really that happy?"

Ruan Su immediately turned around. Her loose black hair traced an arc through the air as she nodded hard.

"Mm!"

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

"There was no need. I promised you that as long as my brain ailment improved, you..."

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

"...our lives will gradually get better."

"..."

Ruan Su blinked, her lips pressing together. The hand hanging at her side instinctively reached for his, but for some inexplicable reason, hesitation made it circle awkwardly in midair before she touched the short blade at her waist instead.

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

"Hey, Sis, do you like that knife that much?"

Ruan Su pursed her lips, gently stroking the leather scabbard as she nodded and said in a small voice,

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

Qin Yi lowered his eyes slightly.

Back then, he had made Ruan Su use an axe purely because they were poor. Their meager household could not withstand his sister's fighting style.

Pure brute force smashing through everything.

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

Axes were different. If the edge went blunt, it could still be used as a hammer. If the handle broke, they could simply find a suitable branch in the mountains and fit it in.

Still, compared to an axe, Ruan Su was actually better with a knife. After all, she had systematically learned from that uncle Peng Jun.

As he thought about it, Qin Yi suddenly said,

"Try it."

"Mm?"

Ruan Su looked surprised.

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

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

Hearing that, Ruan Su obediently drew the knife at once, though she looked somewhat hesitant, as if she could not bear to do it.

This was a rare gift from Little Yi.

Qin Yi rolled his eyes and said irritably,

"Things like knives are meant to be used when they're given to you. When there's a chance later, I'll give you an even better one—"

Whoosh—

Before the last note of his sentence had fallen, the blade had already swept through the damp forest in a streak of cold light!

Qin Yi instantly shut his mouth and stood there expressionlessly.

He had not even seen it clearly.

He had only vaguely caught a glimpse of an afterimage.

What was going on?

If Ruan Su had slashed at him just now, perhaps only after his head flew off would he have been able to react. Yet when his sister had killed that male ape ten days ago, he had still been able to see her movements.

Had her strength swelled again during the days she had been injured?

Why so fast?

Had Ruan Su's body reached the stage of development?

Or was it because of the spiritual essence he had previously poured into her body?

Or because of the injuries she had suffered before?

Ruan Su had clearly not expected it either. She blinked and looked down at the hand holding the knife, then raised her eyes in belated excitement.

"Little Yi... my strength got bigger again..."

Her hoarse voice rang through the woods, accompanied by the rustling crash of the little tree toppling and dragging down branches overhead.

Qin Yi silently glanced at the little tree's cleanly severed trunk, then looked at the short knife in his sister's hand, which bore no sign of a rolled edge whatsoever.

Seeing that Qin Yi was not speaking, Ruan Su instinctively stepped forward, wanting to share her joy and excitement.

Qin Yi immediately took an instinctive step back.

Ruan Su: "..."

Qin Yi: "..."

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

Qin Yi continued forward with a sigh, his childish voice speaking up.

"Sis, until you get used to your strength, remember not to touch me. Sleep in the small bed at night too. And don't touch things like the porcelain at home for now."

Ruan Su sheathed her knife and hurried after him, smiling brightly without the slightest dejection at his words. Little 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. 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 approach was not verbal affirmation and encouraging talks. The essence of that behavior was still him projecting his own value onto her, which would only deepen her dependence on him.

The optimal solution was for Ruan Su herself to become better.

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

Finding medicine to treat her throat and face came from a similar thought. Ruan Su had never shown it, but Qin Yi knew she was deeply insecure about the acquired defects of her body, especially when facing him.

Qin Yi would not stop walking for Ruan Su,

but he would find appropriate ways to let her keep pace with him.

However...

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

His sister really 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 spoke.

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

"Mm?"

Ruan Su looked back at him in confusion, her voice hoarse. "Wh... what?"

Qin Yi asked casually,

"You've read the Disrupted Scripture I wrote at home, right?"

"That... cultivation technique?"

"I mean the full text."

"Um... you... found out?"

Ruan Su muttered softly, somewhat embarrassed.

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

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

"Why do you think these authors stuffed encrypted cultivation techniques into literary forms that would spread widely?"

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 gut."

Warm autumn sunlight filtered through branches laden with falling leaves and spilled over the brother and sister. Their footsteps rustled as they walked some distance through the forest.

Ruan Su suddenly spoke.

Her voice was hoarse,

carrying a trace of uncertainty.

"Was it... to... pass the cultivation technique... down?"