I signed a contract with Shen Yuan.
The terms stipulated the following three points:
First, from today onwards, half of the spiritual energy I stored through cultivation in the world would be given to Shen Yuan's true body, the acacia tree.
Second, Shen Yuan could only store spiritual energy in the true body of the acacia tree and could not use it for other purposes.
Third, when I returned to the Nine Heavens, Shen Yuan would return the spiritual energy I had stored in full, and should return an additional thousandth of my spiritual energy as interest. Payment on the spot—no arrears allowed.
As mentioned in the above three articles, if either party violated the terms, they would voluntarily suffer eighty-one thunderstorms and then suffer in the world.
I drew my signature, and he signed his.
Because the word 'Good Fruit' wasn't strictly speaking my name—it was just my appearance—I drew the shape of my mountain and river fruit in the corner of the deed paper: a round fruit. Shen Yuan wrote his name next to my fruit.
And because he had written the deed, he mentioned the terms at the end, and the fruit I painted looked even more ridiculous, as if I had scribbled on a peerless work of calligraphy...
I looked at this fruit and was a little dissatisfied, but Shen Yuan smiled with satisfaction while holding the deed paper. "Very good, very good. Xiao Liangguo is drawn quite vividly."
I coughed lightly. "In any case, the contract is here. You can set up a formation and connect this contract and the red thread to the Nine Heavens."
Shen Yuan followed my words, took a branch, and began to draw a formation on the ground.
The formation was very complicated. He would draw for a while and think for a while, then step on some lines with his feet and draw again.
It looked...
"Aren't you figuring out how to send the red line and deed on the spot?" I sat aside with Velvet in my arms and asked incredulously. "Building a formation now?"
"Well..." He thought while answering my question distractedly. "Isn't it because this situation hasn't happened before? You and I have so little spiritual power, yet we have to send it to the Nine Heavens. The formation must be extremely precise, otherwise it will easily be sent to the wrong place."
I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say. "In the past, I saw that it would take several days for the ancient gods to study a new formation under the tree. Formations are a clever way to harness the spiritual energy of heaven and earth—how can you use a broken branch now..."
"This should work." Shen Yuan threw away the broken branch and looked at me. "Xiao Liangguo, come and take a look."
I blinked, then ran over with the dog in my arms. Standing in front of his formation, I looked left and right... I couldn't see any tricks. I just felt that his formation was finely drawn, and although the lines outlined with wooden branches hadn't been infused with any spiritual energy, the scattered spiritual energy had already begun to gather inside.
I didn't understand, but I knew this formation was somewhat impressive.
"You flower butterfly, you still have some skills." I couldn't help but sigh.
Shen Yuan smiled lightly in response. "You go into the formation."
I put Velvet at Shen Yuan's feet. When I stepped into the formation, I became more keenly aware of the flow of spiritual energy around me. It was converging into the formation under my feet, but the speed wasn't fast. If we just used the power of the formation to connect the red line and the contract to the Nine Heavens, I would probably have to stand here for several hours.
I looked left and right and noticed that the scattered spiritual energy gathering on Shen Yuan's side was a little slower.
"Although I don't know why," I said, "I always feel that the stroke under your feet seems like it should be drawn longer."
Shen Yuan looked down, his eyebrows raised, but he didn't say much. He squatted down and added an extra stroke with his finger where I indicated.
At that moment, the dispersed spiritual energy was like a school of fish drawn by a whirlpool on the seabed, sucked into the formation one after another. With it came wind blowing around me, and even Shen Yuan's hair and clothes were swept about.
Velvet pressed tightly behind Shen Yuan's feet, trying not to be blown away.
I watched the formation on the ground slowly light up white—a manifestation of the convergence of spiritual energy from heaven and earth.
I was very surprised. I looked left and right, then at Shen Yuan, only to see him with his eyes open, looking at me fixedly.
"I don't know why... but this one seems to be working quite well."
Shen Yuan chuckled, then lowered his head slightly. "Yes, it's working quite well."
After he finished speaking, he threw the red thread. The red line was like a snake locking onto its target, entangling my wrist.
The remaining red thread was caught in the wind of the formation and quickly flew out of Shen Yuan's hand. The red line swept into the formation rapidly flew toward the sky. When it reached the end of the red line, the thread wrapped around the contract just signed by me and Shen Yuan and flew straight to the sky with a "whoosh."
I felt the red thread on my wrist tugging at my flesh, slightly tightening, like flying a kite into the sky.
"Is this done?" I braved the wind and asked Shen Yuan. "How long does it have to fly?"
"The red thread is the connection. When it reaches my true body, the red thread will slowly disappear, and the contract will be completed at that time."
He answered me, and we both looked up at the sky, waiting for the red line above to disappear.
But after I waited for a while...
My neck hurt.
"It won't get lost, will it?" I asked Shen Yuan.
"It shouldn't..."
Shen Yuan's face showed confusion. Although he felt it was somewhat outrageous, he still turned his fingertips, as if picking up a technique, using the wind as a blade. It slid across his fingers, and blood beads solidified on his fingertips. He tapped lightly, and the blood droplets flew toward me, but only landed on the red line at my wrist.
The blood stains were faint. The red line shone slightly, and in the next moment, the red thread released from the sky like a kite string seemed to have immediately found its anchor. It pulled my wrist, turned slightly from left to right, and then...
From top to bottom, the red line gradually became invisible. The feeling of tightening on my wrist disappeared. The wind of the formation gradually subsided, and the light on the ground faded.
The open space in front of the ruined temple returned from hustle and bustle to tranquility.
When everything became quiet, I suddenly felt a slight warmth on the back of my hand. I looked down, and on the back of my hand, a small red flower appeared. The petals spread out one by one, like the finest painter had painted a lifelike acacia flower on the back of my hand—beautiful and warm.
I glanced twice to make sure that the contract was completed, then looked at Shen Yuan speechlessly. "It seems your red line really was lost in the sky before..."
In response, Shen Yuan coughed twice, his voice hoarse. "Eighty-one heavenly thunders are quite powerful."
I stepped out of the formation, and Velvet immediately rubbed against my feet. I picked up Velvet and tilted my head to look at Shen Yuan. "Your face looks a little pale. What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, I didn't pay attention... Subconsciously... I used some spiritual power..."
I thought for a while. "You slipped spiritual power through your fingertips—just this little bit of spiritual power, and you..."
He turned his back and coughed heart-wrenchingly.
I was stunned.
After a while, he stopped coughing, but he also sat on the ground somewhat weakly. Then he looked up at me and said pitifully, "Eighty-one heavenly thunders are really powerful..."
His voice was hoarse, like a donkey that had been grinding grain for three days...
Me: "..."
"It's okay, it doesn't matter. You can take Velvet to play. Remember the key points I told you yesterday." He pointed to the formation next to him. "I'm resting here for a while, and I'll erase this formation while I'm at it. This formation is quite powerful—can't let people with bad intentions learn it."
I was silent for a while. "Okay." I agreed, walked out two or three steps with Velvet in my arms, stopped, and then turned to look at Shen Yuan.
At that moment, Shen Yuan was still sitting on the ground, propping himself up as if enduring discomfort, pressing down the muffled cough in his throat. His eyes were looking at the formation, at the stroke I had asked him to add.
I thought about it and ran back to him with Velvet in my arms.
Shen Yuan blinked and looked up at me.
I squatted down and put Velvet on the ground. "I thought about it." I said seriously. "Although today is the second day, it's also the last day I get along with Velvet, and I know what you taught me, but I'm still afraid that I'm being a little unreasonable."
"So..." Shen Yuan guided me. "What do you want to do?"
"I'll heal your injuries. You should come with me."
Shen Yuan was stunned. I didn't wait for him to say anything more. I raised my fingers, grabbing a little here and a little there in the air, controlling the scattered spiritual energy, then commanding them, filling Shen Yuan's chest.
Just like before, when I healed the knight in black from a distance.
After the scattered spiritual energy was caught by me, they gathered together and turned into light visible to the naked eye, like fireflies on a summer night, and like moonlight on a lake. I drove them all into Shen Yuan's body.
Shen Yuan was a little stunned. He looked at me, his black pupils also mottled by this firefly-like moonlight. He seemed a little distracted.
It's just that I didn't pay much attention to his expression. I was focusing on his chest.
As I paid attention, I noticed that there seemed to be a red scar under the collar of his clothes, which looked like it had been inflicted a few days ago.
I was a little curious, and because I was treating his injuries, the hand that wasn't capturing aura reached up and touched Shen Yuan's collar, then pulled it open.
Shen Yuan was pulled slightly off-balance by me, but he still steadied himself.
His expression became a little surprised. "You..."
"What is this injury?"
Before he could finish asking, I interrupted him, pointed to a willow-shaped scar under his collarbone, and asked, "It looks quite fresh."
Shen Yuan was silent for a moment, looking a little helpless, and finally settled down. He tilted his head slightly and said with a smile, "You hurt me."
I was shocked and released his collar. "Don't spit blood! When did I hurt you here?"
Shen Yuan said aggrievedly, "You hurt me here on the first day you came to the Nine Heavens."
"I only slashed your face! And..." Speaking of this, I paused. "My hand slipped... and split your true body."
Shen Yuan nodded. "The scars on the true body manifest here."
Me: "..."
"Xiao Liangguo, will you treat this injury?"
"Of course I won't treat it." I said firmly. "The previous debt was already written off when you said unlucky things to me over and over again. I don't care about this injury."
In fact, I couldn't treat it.
The spiritual energy I could grasp now couldn't heal wounds struck by heavenly lightning.
So I added, "I can't heal wounds caused by your eighty-one heavenly thunders. I'm just addressing your cough this time—it should be resolved. For the rest, don't expect too much."
"Heh..." He smiled. "Okay... The aura you captured... is warm enough." He said, raising his hand to grab the light condensed in the air.
Seeing that he had failed several times, I told him, "You can't grasp it. I've been practicing this ability on the Hidden God Tree for many years, relying on it to compete with my 7,999 brothers and sisters every day. For you to see and capture them like I do would take tens of thousands of years."
Shen Yuan listened to my words and, as expected, didn't reach out to grab them anymore. He just looked at me, tilted his head slightly, and asked, "It sounds like you used to have a lot of competitive pressure."
"Wasn't it..." Mentioning this, I sighed a little. "Everyone is desperately growing toward the sun. No one is wrong, but the aura is limited... After all these years, my biggest wish is to grow up quickly and mature quickly."
"Mature, and then what?"
"Then I can become a seed, and I can grow into a tree."
Shen Yuan laughed at me. "The little fruit wants to be a tree."
"You were born a tree, of course you don't understand. In the Divine Realm, the Hidden God Tree would take root in a very open place. There were no other Hidden God Trees to compete with. The aura was all its own, and the Ancient Gods would also take care of it. When I become a tree, I'll no longer have to live so deprived and anxious every day." I said, sighing again. "It's a pity I'm not mature yet..."
...I was stuck in the pace of this task of correcting my love-brain!
Rounding up, I was being caught up by the person in front of me!
Thinking of this, I raised my head fiercely and glared at Shen Yuan, but without thinking, I crashed into a pair of deep pupils.
Rarely, Shen Yuan didn't have a smile on his face. He looked at me through the light, and I also looked at him through the points of light. "What's wrong?" I asked.
He blinked and lowered his head slightly. "Nothing..." He thought for a while and said, "I feel a little sorry for this fruit."
Sudden words. I was a little stunned when I heard them. "What's there to feel sorry about..."
"In the Ninth Heaven, you sat against that little acacia tree in that orchard, writing down your work in your small notebook every day, day and night, not daring to rest. Was it all because you were thinking of yourself taking root and growing like a big tree?"
My hand stopped in the air, forgetting to continue grabbing scattered spiritual energy for him.
After a while, the mottled light between us disappeared, and we only looked at each other through the transparent air.
"Hey..." I lowered my head and looked at my heart, only to feel a strange warmth there. I raised my head to look at Shen Yuan again. "You... How do you know?"
"Well..." Shen Yuan thought for a while. "This is probably called empathy."
"Empathy..."
I murmured a little nervously...
I turned my head to look around, my head circling in a big loop across the sky and ground, until I was sure that there was no "death punishment" falling, and I was certain that this empathy had nothing to do with love.
Then I touched my heart with confidence. "It's a bit strange."
"What's strange?"
"I'm a little moved, because it seems... you understood me."
"That little Good Fruit." Shen Yuan asked me with a smile. "Do you feel that you have a little bit of a connection with this world now?"
I looked at Shen Yuan's curved eyebrows, and for a while, I even wanted to nod sympathetically to him.
I seemed to have a little bit of a connection with the people of this world.
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