Chapter 192 — The Hidden Wound
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 6
Jin Pingyue did not take them at once. Her gaze turned over the hand held out before her, and suddenly her face lit with a smile. "Sharing your food with me like this—you have no more misgivings in your heart, have you?"
Ming Li frowned and gave a snort, turning his palm over into a fist as if to draw it back. But at that very moment Jin Pingyue's arm shot out swiftly, and to his surprise she caught hold of his hand. "I want them, I want them," she said with a smile.
Ming Li's expression shifted slightly. He looked at Jin Pingyue, then slowly opened his fingers, revealing the wild fruits.
The soft skin of her palm, and far off, a faint, elusive breath drifting through the wind. Jin Pingyue's gaze now seemed suddenly soft as rippling water, flowing gently and lightly, as she reached out slender, white fingers and picked the wild fruits from Ming Li's palm one by one.
Her delicate nails seemed to brush carelessly across the rough skin of his palm—warm, and yet bearing an eerie chill.
She gazed at the man before her, slowly and gently let go of his hand, then smiled and put a wild fruit to her lips. After a few bites she said with a smile, "Very tasty."
Her smile was the most ravishing blossom of that noontide, stirring to the heart.
Ming Li looked at her and said not a word.
Jin Pingyue's smile grew more bewitching still. "What is it? Not a single word—you look like a fool."
Ming Li watched Jin Pingyue laugh behind her hand, his own face betraying nothing. Only after a moment did he suddenly say, "'Purple Radiance Blade' is a weapon of the utmost yin, fierce and malevolent. That you could cultivate it to 'Gathering Yin into the Abyss' and merge it into one body with your own meridians—that is truly remarkable."
"Pop"—the several wild fruits in Jin Pingyue's hand burst in an instant, and before even their juice could splash out, they had been frozen solid by a sudden, eerie blast of yin cold, and fell to the ground.
The gentle smile on Jin Pingyue's face vanished in an instant; her gaze turned to a blade, fixed deep upon Ming Li.
Ming Li, however, seemed not to notice at all, and said mildly, "It is only that although you possess a pure yin constitution and share a natural affinity with the spirit of the Purple Radiance Blade, the cold yin qi within you is too abundant. A solitary yin cannot flourish, yet you insist on cultivating; the yin qi seeps into your body, and your meridians and blood are all injured by it. With this magic treasure your power is surely formidable, but if in the future you wish to advance another layer and take another step upon the path of cultivation, I fear it will be harder still."
Having spoken, he paid no heed to the exceedingly ugly expression Jin Pingyue now wore, turned, and walked away, calling out as he went. The monkey Xiaohui, which had been eating wild fruit off to one side, leaped over, scrambled up onto his shoulder in a few bounds, and he continued striding toward that distant scorched-black peak.
Only Jin Pingyue remained where she stood, watching that receding figure, then slowly raising her right hand and gazing at it in silence. In the sunlight, that pale, slender, and beautiful palm gleamed like translucent jade, yet from its deepest recesses, faint but unmistakable, one could still see a dim, unnatural pale blue, spread like the finest blood vessels through the depths of the muscle's grain.
Jin Pingyue's face was calm as water. Suddenly she gave a cold snort, said nothing at all, and set off straight in the direction Ming Li had gone. As she lifted her foot, she ground the wild fruits that had been frozen into ice blocks heavily to pieces.