For the past year, Su Qing's life had been quite uneventful. There was nothing else to do on Flower-Fruit Mountain. Her daily life consisted of nothing more than teasing the sparrows when bored, or occasionally bothering Leng Xiang.
Leng Xiang, however, always seemed to let herself be bullied... This often made Su Qing unable to go too far! After a bit of mischief, she would stop.
Aside from these things, Su Qing spent most of her remaining time cultivating. After leaving the mortal world, Su Qing returned to her days of cultivation in the mountains... For Su Qing, time always passed extremely quickly, no matter where she was.
It was about last month. The Old Monkey also passed away. As an old friend, Su Qing saw him off. She cremated the body and scattered the ashes into the sea. Monkeys don't have a custom of burial, and burying him casually in the ground might lead to hyenas digging him up for a meal. It was better to burn him and scatter the ashes into the sea. It was a different kind of funeral.
Su Qing wasn't overly saddened by the Old Monkey's passing. She merely felt a bit sentimental. No matter where she stayed, she was always seeing off old friends... she truly feared the day she might even see off the sparrows and Leng Xiang.
Recalling this, Su Qing couldn't help but shake her head.
"Leng Xiang is a sword spirit, and I'll find a way to extend the sparrows' lifespans... It's absolutely impossible for me to see them off!"
She couldn't help but emphasize this in her heart. Then she looked up at Leng Xiang, who was embroidering on a stone stool. When Leng Xiang had nothing to do, she wouldn't cultivate; she would just embroider or do some tailoring. Su Qing enjoyed cultivating spells, but Leng Xiang preferred to cultivate aspects of daily life. When she was in the mortal world, Leng Xiang had learned many things.
"Leng Xiang, teach me how to wield a sword!" Su Qing said, looking at Leng Xiang.
Leng Xiang, the sword, had been by Su Qing's side for many years. But when it came to swordsmanship, Su Qing was still the same as ever. Essentially, she knew nothing at all. After all, Su Qing spent most of her time cultivating and hadn't learned swordsmanship. Moreover, Leng Xiang herself could go out and slay enemies, so Su Qing rarely needed to act. However, now Su Qing had nothing to do... so she decided to learn some sword techniques. One reason was so that in future battles, she wouldn't have to rely entirely on Leng Xiang. The other reason was simply because she had nothing to do... And wanted to do something with Leng Xiang!
Leng Xiang paused slightly at her words, then asked Su Qing why she suddenly wanted to learn swordsmanship.
"After all, I can't let you do everything, Leng Xiang! Besides, if I could fight alongside you, that would be wonderful."
"I want to practice swordplay, not to the point of achieving the unity of human and sword! But at least I shouldn't be completely clueless about even a single sword move, right?"
Leng Xiang nodded, put down her work, and said:
"Alright then! If Master wants to learn, Leng Xiang will teach Master a few things!"
"However, I'm not very skilled in swordsmanship myself... I can only teach Master some simple things."
Leng Xiang didn't care what Su Qing wanted to learn; as long as she desired it, Leng Xiang would teach her. Whatever Master wanted, she would do! This had always been Leng Xiang's principle.
"No matter, as long as there's something to learn."
Su Qing didn't mind at all. Anyway, her daily life was so idle; having something to do was better than having nothing at all.
That afternoon, Leng Xiang began teaching her hand-in-hand. It had to be said, the sword was actually quite easy to learn. Furthermore, with Leng Xiang being a sword spirit and able to assist Su Qing in practicing, learning the sword naturally became even simpler. In just a single afternoon, Su Qing had mastered everything Leng Xiang taught her. This speed wasn't particularly fast, but Leng Xiang still felt a bit disappointed. After all, it was a rare chance for hand-in-hand teaching! Moreover, Leng Xiang wanted to teach to the level of unity of human and sword; only then would she feel Master was taught to her satisfaction!
Leng Xiang shook her head, stopping her strange thoughts, and said:
"Oh, Master, I remember finding a hot spring in the mountains a few days ago."
"Master has been practicing swordplay all afternoon, so you must be tired. Why not go there to relax?"
Leng Xiang knew Su Qing's ways of relaxing... she would either hug her and sniff the floral scent, or go take a hot bath. Therefore, Leng Xiang thought Master would probably like hot springs. And, Leng Xiang actually had a few ulterior motives.
Su Qing returned the sword to its sheath, and nodded slightly at her words. Practicing swordplay all afternoon was indeed tiring, and being able to take a hot bath would be wonderful. And hot springs... Su Qing seemed to have never bathed in one in this life!
"By the way, what would it be like if Leng Xiang took a bath? She's a sword spirit, after all. Does she wash the sword, or her sword body?"
"If it's according to what Leng Xiang told me before, she should be washing her spiritual body, right?"
Su Qing thought out of nowhere:
"How about I drag her into the water to try it then?"
Although Su Qing knew Leng Xiang took baths, she had never seen it with her own eyes... so she couldn't help but be a little curious. With that thought, Su Qing shook her head, clearing the strange ideas from her mind. Perhaps it was because there wasn't much to do recently, and she had been quite idle. So, indeed, she had more random thoughts. Always thinking of strange things...
"Although Leng Xiang never blames me for teasing her, it's not good to always bully her... I should know when to stop," Su Qing thought to herself.
"Master?"
"Hmm... coming."
Su Qing nodded. Then she followed Leng Xiang towards the hot spring. Along the way, she casually grabbed the noisy sparrows and took them along. She tricked them, saying she was taking them to make sparrow soup. However, the little ones weren't fooled. After all, in their eyes, Su Qing's worst punishment was merely withholding their snacks. Seeing that they weren't fooled, Su Qing just smiled faintly and didn't continue to trick them. These little guys were quite clever sometimes!
Soon, the hot spring came into view. The hot spring was located on the mountainside, surrounded by several strange pines, crooked yet somewhat beautiful. The hot spring wasn't actually large, only about ten square meters, but this size was sufficient; not to mention two people, even more could fit. The area around the hot spring had already been tidied up, clearly by Leng Xiang... After all, if it hadn't been tidied at all, Leng Xiang wouldn't have called Su Qing over.
Su Qing thought for a moment, cast a spell to conceal the surroundings, and then prepared to take off her clothes and get in. Seeing this, Leng Xiang exhaled a breath and said, "Then Master can bathe first, Leng Xiang will wait outside."
Su Qing shook her head slightly and said, "No need to rush off! You found this place, why should I soak here alone?"
"Besides, bathing alone with a few sparrows is quite boring! Why not stay and chat with me, and perhaps give me a massage?"
At Su Qing's unreasonable request, Leng Xiang paused, seemed to think of something, swallowed, and nodded.
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