乳色吐息无删减片

“A lonely Willow Leaf, swaying gently in the embrace of the wind, loneliness will be my only company for all eternity. Will he, oh will he return?~”

As Xi Shen finish the last lyrics of the song, the colorful flowers that were twirling in the air, faded away as he stop casting the Soul Illusion Art.

Xi Shen then looked down at his little sister to see that she was sound asleep.

Xi Shen would have cooed that she look cute while she was sleeping, if only a bit of drool wasn’t at her lips, threatening to fall on his sleeves.

‘That’s not very ladylike.’

Xi Shen mused in his mind.

His mother’s voice then echoed out, “It seems like she wants to stay here to sleep again.”

While still having his head down looking at his sister, Xi Shen responded, “Doesn’t she always? She comes to our courtyard every time she’s angry with third mother-in-law. We even have a permanent bedroom for her since it seems like she’s always in a foul mood. I wonder what it is this time.”

“She wants to find a suitor for Ling’er.”

Upon hearing his mother\'s words, Xi Shen couldn’t help but quickly raised his head and give his mother a disbelieving look as he said, “Really? But Ling’er is only eight, what would she know about stuff like that? Isn’t she pushing all this responsibility on her way too quickly?”

Xi Shen only saw his mother, shook her head before she said, “It took a lot to convince her to let Ling’er stay here and give her some time to rest.”

Xi Shen had a frown on his face as he looked back down at his little sister. He held the hem of his sleeves and gently wiped the drool from her lips.

Maybe it was because of this that she suddenly stirred in her sleep.

Seeing this Lady Ying said, “You should take her to her chambers to have her sleep properly.”

Xi Shen nodded, and then gently placed his hands under her knees and upper back before he slowly stood up and walked to her room within the house.

After a while, Xi Shen came upon a sliding door, and to open it he slightly released his Divine Will that was disguised as a Sea Expansion Realm expert Soul Sense, before he quickly cast the Soul Diffusion Art to slide open the door and enter.

Even though Sea Expansion Realm cultivators could use their Soul Sense to move objects, most of them would learn a simple technique like this so that they could fine control their actions when lifting objects, instead of doing so rigidly.

After entering the room, Xi Shen placed Li Ling onto the medium-sized bed gently before slipping off her shoes and tucked her into a blanket.

Xi Shen stood over her for a moment with a smile, before he turned to leave.

However, before he could get far from the bedside, his sleeves were grabbed by Li Ling who had stretched her hand from under the blanket.

Xi Shen turned around with a knowing smile on his face as if he had known she wasn’t asleep.

Li Ling already had her eyes open and was pouting slightly. Though when she saw Xi Shen’s knowing smile, her face turned slightly red with embarrassment.

“Yes?”

Xi Shen said with a smile still on his face.

With her tiny voice, Li Ling muttered, “You forgot to give Ling\'er a good night kiss.”

When Xi Shen heard his little sister\'s words he chuckled lightly, but still turned around and lean over to give her a quick peck on her forehead while saying good night.

Li Ling did the same while Xi Shen was about to reach the door, but just before he lift Xi Shen heard Li Ling saying, “Big brother Shen, I wasn’t only mad at mother but that meanie as well.”

Hearing that, Xi Shen turned around and asked curiously, “Do you mean our eldest brother?”

Li Ling responded, “Hmhm, I saw him a few days ago in the Palace and he didn’t look well, so I asked him if he was alright, but he only told me to get away from him. Even though he apologize right after, it still upset Ling’er.”

As Li Ling said that you could hear the pout in her voice.

Xi Shen thought for a moment, then said, “I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’ll talk to him, okay?”

Xi Shen could then see Li Ling nod her head slightly.

With that, Xi Shen left the room before closing the door behind him and headed back to the open area.

There he saw his mother waiting for him with the zither to her side.

She gestured for Xi Shen to sit in front of her and Xi Shen complied.

His mother then asked, “Are you okay?”

Xi Shen knew what she was asking without her explaining any further.

Xi Shen replied, “Mother I’m fine, even though I can’t cultivate Qi, I can still become a Soul Cultivator.”

Even though Xi Shen said that he still saw that a sad look was prominent in his mother’s eyes.

She then said, “With your Supreme-grade soul, I know that you can become a great Soul Cultivator one day and prove that this path isn’t useless, but I do have to admit that Qi Cultivation is just as important. If a person only focused on Soul Cultivation and neglected Qi Cultivation they would only live the short life of a mortal. As a mother, how can I stand to see my only child grow old and die while I remain in this world?”

Tears well up in Lady Ying’s eyes as she looked at Xi Shen.

“If only I could pass on the Divine Star Diagram to you, then with its mystical nature you would be able to cultivate just fine. For your situation that cultivation method is perfect for you but…”

His mother’s words trailed off as turned her head away slightly and dabbed at the corner of her eyes with her sleeves.

Seeing this, Xi Shen’s heart felt like countless needles were stabbing into it.

He didn’t think about how his mother would take the news of him not being able to cultivate since it was something he could easily fix and had already done so, but his mother had probably been thinking about it for the past few months in worry of him living the life of a mortal.

Xi Shen clenched his fist and thoughts about revealing his cultivation came to mind, however, those thoughts were quickly squashed and he decided to tell her something else so she wouldn’t worry about this anymore.

“Mother, the truth is, I’m not worried about not being able to cultivate Spiritual Qi. In this world, there are other paths towards the Great Dao, not just one from Qi Cultivation. One of such paths is external cultivation. I’ve read in the library about the possibility of tempering your body to the point that you can become indestructible and undying, even from old age. So mother doesn’t need to worry about me growing old, Shen’er isn’t going anywhere.”

Hearing her son’s hopeful and reassuring words, lady Ying felt happiness flood her heart, but she still said, “Shen’er, I heard that the path of becoming a Body Practitioner is extremely dangerous. You would have to put your body through immense pain and even then, you’ll have to cultivate twice as hard to have the same progress of a Qi Cultivator that only cultivates once. Are you sure you want to go down that path?”

Xi Shen didn’t want to lie to his mother that he couldn’t cultivate, but he absolutely needed to keep his Dao Foundation a secret for now. Even if his father was the Emperor of the Maple Continent, people finding out he could cultivate something as abstruse as time would only lead to greedy people coming after him lift and right. Not just people on this continent, but the others as well.

Well, this was his mindset now. In the future, worrying about making enemies would be the least of his troubles with the power he would have then.

And besides, he wasn’t lying when he said he would focus on cultivating his body. For normal cultivators, they chose Internal Cultivation as their main priority and External cultivation secondary.

But for Xi Shen’s case, he needed to get his Spiritual Physique in balance with his Heavenly Physique, so cultivating his body’s strength to the extreme was a requirement for him, not an option.

To reply to his mother’s words, Xi Shen put on a confident expression and slightly bang his chest with his fist while saying, “I’ve already made up my mind, and a man never goes back on his words!”

Seeing how Xi Shen was displaying a brave front, a weight that had been on Lady Ying’s shoulder ever since she had gotten the news he couldn’t cultivate, was lifted abruptly.

No longer wishing to have this sad mood in the air, Lady Ying teased her son, “Oh look at you calling yourself a man. I guess with my baby boy Shen’er’s fourteenth birthday coming up he’s growing up to be a man. Mother is going to feel sad when you eventually get married and move out to start your own family. Just remember to come visit mother when you have time, I want to see my grandkids after all.”

A bemoaning expression was seen on Lady Ying’s face as she held her cheek and spoke.

Xi Shen upon hearing his mother\'s words, had his eyes widen slightly before he nervously asked, “Ma-married? Grandkids? Mother, I’m only turning fourteen, aren’t you thinking a bit too fast?”

*******

~Fun Fact~

I wrote a few lines for the Falling White Snow and the Lonely Willow Leaf song, but I didn\'t post it in the previous chapters or here since that would seem like I\'m just trying to fill up the word count.

See ya!! ~waves gb~ word count: 1622