High Martial World: I Gain Passive Skills Daily-Chapter 53 - 52: Childhood Nightmares, A Song Calms the Storm
This marvelous Spiritual Treasure is called Mist Flower Brocade.
Derived from the idea of seeing flowers in the fog, it can conceal one’s appearance and aura. The Lower Three Grades cannot detect any flaws, and even the Middle Three Grades cannot easily see through it without insight-based Divine Techniques.
It could be said to have resolved Chen Kuang’s urgent crisis.
He could almost predict that once he steps ashore, there would be a flood of wanted notices.
After all, this time he has offended the State of Zhou, the Three Tribulations Sect, the Mystic God Daoist Sect, and even the Martial Saint—all four major powers.
Those among the higher echelons of the secular Court and cultivators must have already received the news by now.
If Chen Kuang were to just walk out unguarded, he might have to return to Celestial Prison in less than half a day.
Now, with this marvelous Spiritual Treasure, he saves a lot of effort.
As for Chu Wen Ruo and her daughter, he wasn’t particularly worried.
With Qingcuo, a top agent who had been undercover for ten years without revealing a flaw, it was certainly easier for them to conceal their whereabouts.
At this point, Chen Kuang took out a small wooden plaque that Qingcuo had given him at the time.
The wooden plaque was an inch square, very miniature.
It bore a single character "正" (Zhèng).
At that time, Qingcuo told him that if he met someone claiming to be the "Earth Official" on the way, it meant they were one of their own, and he could seek their help.
This showed that Huo Hengxuan, besides having the overt power of the Huo Family Army, had also secretly cultivated a hidden, unknown force.
If contact and meeting were needed later, he would probably have to rely on them.
Chen Kuang put away the wooden plaque and placed it along with the relic on the small table, quickly changed his clothes, leaned sideways on the cabin, and sat on the mattress.
He wasn’t planning on trying to hold on any longer, listening to the shallow sound of bamboo poles stirring the river outside, the faint scent of sandalwood lingering at the tip of his nose, and finally, his eyelids began to droop.
Only then did Chen Kuang realize that since he awoke from transmigrating, it had already been nine entire days, almost without any sleep or rest.
On this boundless River of Death, there were no more enemies to disturb him.
He finally let down his guard and sank into a dream.
In the dream, it was the nightmare of his youth.
Around the time Chen Kuang had just entered middle school, his impoverished family situation finally improved, as his father managed some small business successfully, they tore down the old house and built a new one.
However, the house they built within their land was reported for violations by neighboring villagers.
The ones who came didn’t say a word, directing a bulldozer to crash down the walls of his house.
His father was far away in the border town discussing business, his mother tried to argue her case without success, only to be mocked by the informant saying she’d be doomed to live in poverty all her life, unable to live in a nice house.
This woman, who had been gentle all her life, suddenly had red eyes and rushed to protect that wall with wet cement.
With a loud crash, the just-home-from-school Chen Kuang witnessed his mother being crushed to death in the gap between the wall and the bulldozer.
Chen Kuang picked up a nearby shovel and broke a few onlookers’ heads, then he was detained.
His father, after staying up three nights in a row and flying and busing back, succumbed from exhaustion in a taxi without a sound.
When Chen Kuang walked out of the detention center, he was already without a family and expelled from school due to his criminal record.
His only and deepest memory was that night’s dinner, which was tomato scrambled eggs.
Poverty and injustice had been nightmares for Chen Kuang.
It was also why he empathized so much with his original body and didn’t mind the lingering heart knot.
"Fortunately... it is no longer so now."
Chen Kuang slowly opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and with a swift turn, sat up, casting aside the emotions from the dream.
Before his death, he had already avenged himself against his enemies’ family—when they emigrated abroad to live a carefree life.
The nightmare that had entangled him for more than ten years since his youth finally ended when he ate the tomato scrambled eggs he made in front of his enemies’ corpses.
"Huh?"
Chen Kuang checked himself in surprise, realizing that after such a comfortable sleep, he had broken through another aperture.
The second acupuncture point was open.
Now only the last one remained before he could attempt to break through to the Innate Realm!
The "Fetal Breathing Technique" had always been Ceeing on! (slang for performing unexpectedly well)
Chen Kuang felt refreshed, and at this rate, if he could just hide away safely for a few hundred years, breaking through to Saint wouldn’t be impossible.
Unfortunately... someone wouldn’t let him play it safe!
Chen Kuang dressed neatly, lifted the curtain of the cabin, and outside it was still gloomy.
He wondered how long this Inquiry of Death Boat had traveled on the river, as fine drizzle began to fall from the sky.
The fog grew thicker, with the only warmth being from a lamp that illuminated the surroundings like a mirage.
The raincoat fisherman still standing at the bow turned a fish-like eye towards him under the conical hat as he emerged.
"Did you sleep well?"
Chen Kuang smiled and said, "Not bad, thank you for the hospitality, senior apprentice brother."
Wen Si still looked at him, the fish eyes rolling with some curiosity, and said:
"This river had a mystical nature before I came. First-time river crossers, like passing through the Yellow Springs, often dream of their death appearances, as if asking for death."
"Therefore, I felt fated to this river and took its bestowed name."
"What did junior apprentice brother dream about?"
Chen Kuang was startled, so that’s how it was...
He was wondering why he dreamed of those events.
"I had a dream, but it wasn’t about the appearance of my death."
It was not the appearance of this body’s death, but his previous life’s death appearance.
Chen Kuang was pensive.
Could that mean that perhaps this body won’t die?
Or perhaps it’s just impossible to foresee how he would die?
"Junior apprentice brother is truly extraordinary."
Wen Si muttered a sentence, then said, "If there’s anything else you feel is missing, just think about it in your heart, and it will naturally appear."
Chen Kuang raised an eyebrow, it seemed this senior apprentice brother’s boat was a rare treasure itself.
He thought for a moment, then sat at the stern with the Dragon Gum Zither in his arms.
The original score was long lost, but he remembered its contents clearly, though over the years, his original self had hardly touched it.
Since gaining fame and being framed, his original self realized that such outstanding things were not suitable for him and almost sealed away the score, only practicing secretly when he had an itch.
Chen Kuang took a deep breath and plucked the zither strings.
"Zheng—"
The zither’s melody drifted over the river, its lingering sound resonating.
Wind-Calming Melody.
Chen Kuang closed his eyes, rediscovering the body’s familiar melody and calming his mind.
...
Two days later.
The mighty river surged, the wind and rain were like dark gloom.
A small boat swayed between the waves, with a white-clad Zither Master sitting blindfolded at the stern, slender fingers distinct, plucking at the strings, the deep timbre suddenly rose.
"Zheng—"
On the river surface, the zither sound spread out.
In an instant, with the small boat as the center, a strange ripple expanded outward, the invisible power like a giant hand instantly smoothing the waves on the river surface.
Chen Kuang opened his eyes, leaving that mysterious state, his gaze full of surprise and joy.
It worked!
At this moment, a voice of admiration suddenly came.
"Fellow Daoist’s melody is excellent!"
Chen Kuang lifted his head, only to see the dense fog suddenly disperse, revealing a tall Tower Ship ahead, with several cultivators standing on it, their eyes filled with admiration.
Among them was a young girl, dressed in a goose yellow long dress, with black hair and snow-white skin, bright and charming, her black eyes staring unblinkingly at Chen Kuang’s face.
Chen Kuang was startled, feeling vaguely that she looked somewhat familiar...
