Chapter 56: Dead Flowers
“Listen, kid.”
“Your ghost immortal might not be a bad person, but his existence is still quite sensitive, as you probably understand.”
“So whatever you do, don’t tell others about him, especially cultivators, understand?”
Under the night sky, Liu Miao walked back to the city, her mind still dwelling on what the red-clothed sister had just told her.
The snow reflected the cold moonlight, giving the small path through the bamboo grove an intermittent white glow.
This should have been an eerie scene, but as Liu Miao walked the return journey, she found the moonlight surprisingly gentle, illuminating her path.
Was it because she now knew this bamboo grove belonged to the ghost immortal named Luohe?
Thinking of this, Liu Miao’s steps unconsciously became lighter.
Many happy things had happened today.
However, what the red-clothed sister said did make sense.
An ordinary person like herself would run away in fear upon seeing a ghost; if cultivators saw one… well, Liu Miao couldn’t quite imagine what would happen.
But it probably wouldn’t be good.
Luohe had been so kind to her, and she certainly didn’t want to cause him any trouble. She definitely needed to be careful about revealing his existence.
But Flower Boss had also been good to her, and after thinking it over, Liu Miao still felt she should at least tell her about her current state to avoid worrying her.
But she would absolutely not mention Immortal Luohe’s existence.
Yes, that’s what she decided.
Having sorted this out, she gradually entered the city.
It was now deep night, the streets empty, and the flower shop employees had long gone home.
Since Liu Miao had nowhere else to go, Flower Boss had let her stay in the flower shop.
But today, the atmosphere in the flower shop seemed odd.
Liu Miao pushed open the door to find the shelves, which should have been neatly arranged, in disarray, with books and stands scattered everywhere.
Normally they would have put everything away before leaving.
Puzzled, Liu Miao returned everything to its proper place, then suddenly noticed a strange smell.
This smell… she was familiar with it—the flower fragrance from Flower Boss’s flower room.
But why was the scent spreading outside the flower room today? And it smelled somewhat…
With her newly opened meridians, Liu Miao felt she could detect something different in this flowery scent.
The smell made her feel drowsy, hallucinatory, as if she wanted to collapse and sleep deeply, having a wonderful dream…
No, no, this wasn’t the time for sleep.
Flower Boss must be in trouble!
Liu Miao snapped herself back to alertness and rushed toward the flower room.
When she pushed open the flower room door, that thick floral scent hit her face like tangible mist.
But what she saw shocked her even more.
All the beautiful flowers in the room had been uprooted, their stems shriveled and withered like aging old people, exposed to the air.
The entire flower room was splattered with soil, dead flowers lying around like a mass grave.
There were crushed petals, cut stems, and the liquid flowing from them seemed to be the source of this potent, acrid fragrance.
Without a doubt, the flower room was ruined.
This fact deeply shocked Liu Miao.
No one knew better than she how important this flower room was to Flower Boss.
It was never open to outsiders, and even she could only enter when Flower Boss was present.
Whenever she did enter, she would see Flower Boss either carefully watering the plants or gently trimming branches.
That meticulous and endearing tenderness was just like a mother caring for her children.
Occasionally, she would see Flower Boss softly stroking these flowers and murmuring to them.
Flower Boss spent most of her day, month, even year in the flower room.
Liu Miao didn’t know exactly what the flower room meant to Flower Boss, but she was certain of one thing: this flower room was very important to her.
Extremely important.
And now it looked like this…
Liu Miao panicked.
With the flower room that Flower Boss cherished like her life in this state, where was Flower Boss herself?
A strong sense of unease crept into her heart.
At that moment, Liu Miao noticed that these uprooted flowers seemed to have their roots connected, all leading in the same direction.
Following the soil-covered roots, she noticed they actually went straight through a wall.
“…”
Well, Liu Shuishui wasn’t entirely sure if she should do this.
But she still tried to mobilize the spiritual energy that Immortal Luohe had left in her body.
Her manipulation was clumsy and stiff, but she managed. She felt a mysterious energy swirling at her fingertips.
She touched the wall…
The wall vanished like an illusion.
Inside was a courtyard much larger than the flower room.
In its center stood an ancient, enormous wutong tree.
Beside the tree was a rustic wooden cabin. If a disciple from Tianzhen Sword Sect were to see it, they would recognize it as the dwelling at Autumn Lady Sword Gu Jing’s sword peak.
The surroundings seemed deliberately modeled after some place, but Liu Miao didn’t notice these details.
She noticed a figure leaning against the trunk of the wutong tree.
Around her, the soil was still churned up.
Even her white clothes were stained with mud and dust.
In her arms, she held a sword.
To be precise, a broken sword.
Even broken at the waist, one could see at a glance its beautiful design and clear structure.
But what surprised Liu Miao was that all those flower roots she had followed here were now wrapped around the broken sword, as if the sword had nourished them.
And on the faintly visible blade were several spots of dried blood.
The owner of that blood could only be one person.
It was Gu Jing, using this broken sword as a medium, nurturing these flowers with her own blood.
Liu Miao slowly approached her.
She leaned against the trunk, gently cradling the broken sword.
She seemed not to notice Liu Miao’s approach, her gaze fixed on somewhere unknown.
Her expression was numb, carrying an indescribable deadness and emptiness.
Like someone whose soul had been extracted.
“Flower, Flower Boss…”
Liu Miao gathered her courage and walked to Gu Jing’s side, gently shaking her.
Gu Jing didn’t respond.
Liu Miao summoned her courage to touch the broken sword.
But Flower Boss cast her a glance that immediately made her abandon the idea.
“…”
Liu Miao seemed to hear Flower Boss’s muttering.
She leaned closer and barely made out the words…
“This is all I want now, this is all I want.”
“Don’t go, don’t go…”
“Don’t leave me…”
A tear slid down her cheek for a scene and a person that didn’t exist.
She knew all too well that she could no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality.