STOTTD | Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Changsheng shook his head. “Changsheng does not know.”

Shen Jibai said, “Maybe the Sage is having a bout of wind disease.”

A Ke: “?”

Oh, right.

Now it was the fifth year of Xianqing, the very year when Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, kept suffering attacks of wind disease, so severe that he could no longer see, and could only hand over government affairs to Empress Wu to handle.

But what use was it to look for Linghe Zhenren? Was he supposed to refine pills to cure the illness?

“Did the daoist master say when he would return?”

Changsheng shook his head. “didn't say.”

Shen Jibai said, “If that is the case, why not go to the quiet room and wait first?”

“All right.” A Zhou said, “We can also go to the library and look through the books to see if there are any related records.”

After speaking, she lowered her head. “Junior brother wants to come together?”

Changsheng shook his head. “Changsheng still has morning lessons to attend, so I won’t accompany senior sister there.”

“All right then.”

After parting from Changsheng, the two of them went together to the quiet room. Passing through the main hall, they headed straight for the library at the back, each searching the bookshelves on one side for books.

After flipping through several books, they were all scriptures and records. A Zhou walked back one row, and suddenly heard a heavy object falling behind her.

Following the sound, she looked over and saw Shen Jibai dragging his belly with one hand and covering his mouth and nose with the other, as if he were having morning sickness again.

Because as soon as he entered the room he took off the fox-fur cloak, and only wore a thin, loose lanshan inside, while his belly had already stretched the fabric at his abdomen so there was not even a single wrinkle, so at this moment one could clearly see the round, bulging belly protruding outward from time to time.

It was just like... the child inside was pounding on the belly, and every time it struck, it forced a bulge out of the skin.

This kind of strange situation was something she had seen for the first time. She froze for a moment before stepping forward, placing two fingers over the bulging spot.

Before she could find out anything, Shen Jibai brushed her hand away and took a step back to create distance.

“What are you doing?”

With his movement, the bulge shrank back in, and his belly became round and smooth again like a balloon, with no further abnormalities.

And his expression also returned to its usual cold sternness, as if everything just now had been an illusion.

A Zhou frowned. “...A Zhou seems to know now.”

Shen Jibai: “?”

She lowered her eyes to look at the round, protruding belly. In just this short while, it had grown several more circles, looking like a pregnant woman about to give birth.

“It seems to be the black qi of Shiqi Ling.”
The more she thought about it, the more reasonable it felt, and she nodded again and again. “This also fits its vindictive nature.”

Shen Jibai said, “It is indeed a mass of black qi. As for whether it belongs to Shiqi Ling, that cannot yet be determined.”

“Why is Shen Shaoqing so certain it is black qi?” she asked with a hint of doubt.

“Of course it is because I saw it,” Shen Jibai frowned and asked back, “Could Lingyun Jun not see it?”

“You can see it?” A Zhou widened her eyes in shock slightly, and a strange feeling immediately rose in her heart. “Opening the heavenly eye has a time limit. After one night, A Zhou could no longer see it. How can Shen Shaoqing still see it?”

Shen Jibai shook his head. “I don’t know.”

She bit open the injured finger again, opened the heavenly eye, and indeed saw a mass of black qi hidden in Shen Jibai’s abdomen.

This was strange.

A mortal body could not endure black qi invading the body at all. The three fires would certainly weaken. Light cases would be like Tan Nu, unable to get out of bed, and severe cases could even cost one’s life.

But aside from feeling a little unwell when he was having morning sickness, Shen Jibai looked perfectly normal at all other times, with no sign of discomfort at all.

Her gaze gradually moved upward to his shoulders, then to his brow. A Zhou slightly narrowed her eyes.

This person had no three fires.

No wonder the black qi of Shiqi Ling entering his body could not hurt him at all, and could only gather in his abdomen to cause trouble. No wonder he could come and go in the main room without being tainted by even a trace of black qi.

He simply was not human.

But there was no demonic aura around him at all, and every situation was no different from a normal person. Then what exactly was he?

A Zhou could not help frowning.

“How is it? Did you see something?” Seeing her serious expression, Shen Jibai could not help asking.

“Shen Shaoqing’s 八字, A Zhou still needs to calculate it before knowing how to deal with it.”

Hearing this, Shen Jibai’s expression changed slightly, and he looked over very warily.

“To check a demon or evil thing, do you still need to read the 八字?”

“Of course!” A Zhou lied without changing expression.

“Shen Mou has been in the Dali Temple for many years, I’m not so easy to fool.”
After speaking, he took a book from the shelf, lowered his head, and flipped through it, with no intention of speaking further.

A Zhou pretended to sigh. “Why does Shen Shaoqing just not believe A Zhou?”

Shen Jibai turned his head over. His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something. But the next moment he covered his mouth and dry-heaved a few times.

A Zhou immediately lowered her eyes to look down, and sure enough saw another bulging lump.

“If it is the black qi of Shiqi Ling causing trouble inside the body, A Zhou does have a way to solve it.”

Shen Jibai looked over with a trace of suspicion.

A Zhou shrugged, looking as if whether he believed it or not was up to him. “The black qi inside Tan Nu’s body was also driven out by A Zhou, but A Zhou won’t force it. Shen Shaoqing can decide for himself.”

Saying this, she walked back to the row of antique shelf from before and continued flipping through the books, without any intention of paying him any attention.

Shen Jibai silently endured for a while, then also continued flipping through the books, no longer speaking.

The room fell silent, so quiet that only the sound of pages turning could be heard, and it was oddly fitting for the name of this courtyard.

After a while, another dry-heaving sound came from ahead. A Zhou slightly shook her head, thinking to herself, clearly there is a way to treat it, yet you refuse to believe it and insist on suffering there, holding on with your life.

Such a twisted personality.

The book in her hand was about some uncommon minor spirits and monsters, and it was quite interesting. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor reading with great focus when she heard footsteps in the room. The sound came closer and closer, and in the end stopped in front of her.

Lifting her head, she saw Shen Jibai clench his jaw, his face somewhat pale, his voice also deeper by several degrees. “I wonder what method Lingyun Jun has?”

Couldn’t hold on any longer, right?

A Zhou thought this.

“Let me state this first, A Ke needs to draw a talisman for exorcism on Shen Shaoqing’s chest, so... wearing clothes is not very convenient.”

At the sound of this, Shen Jibai was slightly dazed, and suddenly remembered what she had said by the bed in the morning.

So she was not lying.

His thin lips pressed together lightly, as if hesitating.

A Ke did not say more either, and continued lowering her head to read, looking as if how to handle it all depended on him.

After a long silence, Shen Jibai still did not speak, but he also did not leave. He just stood there quietly, lowering his eyelids, his ten fingers sometimes clenching and sometimes loosening.

Until the dry-heaving sound came again, A Ke’s patience ran out. With a sharp snap, she closed the book and stood up to leave.

“Where is Lingyun Jun going?”

A Zhou did not stop walking. “To get the props!”

Shen Jibai: “Props?”
Shen Jibai: “What are those?”

＊

After placing a bowl of cinnabar, a bowl of glutinous rice, and a bowl of clear water in front of Shen Jibai, A Ke said, “These are exorcism props.”

Shen Jibai still only half-understood. “?”

After dipping the brush in cinnabar and drawing the healing spiritual talisman, A Ke put down the brush and looked up. “Everything is ready, you can undress now.”

Shen Jibai: “……”

A lone man and a lone woman, in the same room, undressing and removing clothes. No matter how you hear it, it would make people imagine all sorts of things.

He struggled for a moment, and then the abdomen again transmitted a sharp pain. This time it was even stronger than any before, painful to the point that he could no longer suppress it. His ten fingers clenched tightly around his sleeves, the fingertips turning fish-belly white, and even the color on his face faded by more than half.

“It’s just undressing and drawing a talisman, not like we’re going to do anything. Is that really necessary?”

Shen Jibai gritted his teeth. “It is the black qi in my body... fighting.”

A Ke slightly raised her brows, looking as if she did not understand. “Fighting? Two things struggle, that is fighting. Who is it fighting with? The five organs and six viscera?”

Shen Jibai lifted his eyelids and said, “Very well, vice minister.”

A Ke: “?”

Probably because he was in too much discomfort, his body leaned back against the wall, his eyes half-closed as he tilted his head up. The clear jawline drew a very beautiful curve, and his fair neck was dotted with fine beads of sweat. He looked extremely sexy, and extremely abstinent.

A Ke stared at the Adam’s apple rolling up and down once, took a deep breath, and thought to herself, this spot must be very good to bite.

After spacing out for a moment, she suddenly heard, “Lingyun Jun also does not believe what Shen Mou says.”

“No, A Ke believes it.” She said, “So, vice minister, excuse me.”

As soon as the words fell, A Ke pulled off the fastening at Shen Jibai’s waist, and parted his collar, looking at the chest muscle that was exposed for a moment.

Tsk, this chest muscle is pretty good!

“What are you doing!” Shen Jibai suddenly grabbed her wrist.

“Vice minister, if we don’t exorcise it soon, I’m afraid this black qi will be breaking out of its shell.” Her other hand pointed at his belly.

Shen Jibai lowered his eyes to look, and saw a bulge on his belly, moving back and forth across the skin of his abdomen, as if trying to find an exit and burrow out.

He loosened his grip, turned his face away in embarrassment, and said nothing more.

A Ke took that as his tacit agreement, immediately bit open the not-yet-healed wound on her fingertip, and used the cinnabar to draw an exorcism talisman on his belly.

The talisman glowed with a faint golden light, soaked into the skin, and became a cinnabar tattoo.

She夹ed the yellow talisman between two fingers, silently recited the incantation for the healing spirit talisman, and the yellow talisman suddenly ignited.

A Ke stuffed the talisman paper into the bowl filled with well water, then carried the porcelain bowl to Shen Jibai’s lips, and suddenly smiled.

No matter how you looked at this scene, it felt like she was the vicious supporting female lead taking advantage of the male lead’s weakness to force-feed him poison.

Shen Jibai had seen Tan Nu drink the talisman water, so he did not refuse. He took it and drank it all in one go.

Putting the bowl onto the bookshelf beside them, he suddenly slightly furrowed his brow and asked with a suspicious expression, “What is Lingyun Jun smiling at?”

“Did A Ke smile? No!”

His voice turned colder, sounding chillier by the second. “Why not have Lingyun Jun look in a mirror?”

A Ke knew that it was not appropriate to smile at this time, since it would easily be misunderstood as taking pleasure in his suffering.

A Ke tried to press down the corners of her mouth, but no matter what she did, she could not suppress it. She could only stiffen her neck and continue denying it. “Aiya, it must be that vice minister saw wrong!”

Turning around, she picked up that bowl of glutinous rice and moved it in front of Shen Jibai, reminding him, “The black qi invaded Tan Nu’s whole body, so when A Zhou hits his belly, he will not feel pain. But for Shen Shaoqing’s situation, A Ke is not sure. If it hurts, bear with it for now.”

Her serious look did make Shen Jibai feel a bit more at ease, but he still felt uncomfortable all over, so he turned his face away again and urged, “Then let us finish this quickly.”

With sword-finger gestures, she tapped lightly on his brow, slowly moved down to the philtrum, then tapped the Bifeng acupoints on both shoulders, and finally slapped Shen Jibai’s belly with one palm.

He immediately lowered his head and dry-heaved.

The bowl of glutinous rice in front of him instantly turned black, like grains of ink.

The belly, swollen like that of a pregnant woman, was like a balloon that had lost its air, slowly shrinking back in.

After putting the props back into the tray one by one, A Ke held the tray in one hand. As she turned around, her fingertip brushed vaguely across his chest.

Shen Jibai slightly frowned and looked over, but only saw a back that had already walked out of the corridor.

“Lingyun Jun.”

Shen Jibai’s voice came from behind.

A Ke’s heart panicked for a moment and she quickly sped up her steps, pretending not to hear.

“Please wait, Lingyun Jun.”

It was just a touch, wasn’t it!

She stopped walking and gave a guilty explanation, “A Ke’s hand slipped just now, hehe. Shen Shaoqing should not take it to heart.”

There was a moment of silence behind her before he said, “...It is not that.”

Then what was it?
Could it be that he noticed she had been sneaking glances at the chest muscle the whole time while drawing the talisman!
Since it was already undressed, what was wrong with looking!

Shen Jibai: “...The abdominal bulge is still there.”

A Ke: “?”

A Ke hurriedly turned around, and sure enough saw that the belly which had just subsided was now swelling up again, like a new bride pregnant for three months.

A Zhou: “??”
What is going on!
Twins!