THE LEGEND OF SHENLI

CHAPTER 45

     It was the second day and Shěn Lí did not look forward to moving, instead she procrastinated and took a stroll around the Immortal realm. The people who met her were guarded and cautiously curious. One or two looking at her that way wouldn’t have been noticeable, but every pair of eyes looked at her in the same way. It was stifling. She would have preferred if they drew their swords and tried to cut her down; then they could have a proper fight.

After awhile Shěn Lí gave up. She may as well just face the awkwardness head on and go see Xíng Zhǐ.

. . .
To her surprise, the residence had the same layout as Xíng Yún’s in the Mortal realm. The building was bigger with more wings, but was essentially the same. The front yard was grassy with rocks and trees as well as a stone table and some chairs. The back yard had vines and a pond under it. How long ago had it been built? It didn’t look new, but it didn’t look old either.

Compared to Xíng Yún’s old home, it was quite an upgrade, but compared to standards in the Immortal realm, where tiles were made of luminous glass and houses were made from precious wood, this house was extraordinarily plain.

No one was there and the entire place had a quiet deserted atmosphere. Shěn Lí unconsciously dropped her guard and began to relax.

She assumed he kept his memories after being born as a mortal and his mortal courtyard had been modeled after the one here. Thinking about it, Shěn Lí remembered that the formation array in the mortal realm gathered energy from both Heaven and earth. If they were the same arrays then staying here would help clear out the poison in her body.

It wasn’t the poison from the immortal ladies earlier, but was from the battle with the creatures in the temple while she was in the Mortal realm. It was a difficult and insidious poison. Despite her normally fast healing abilities, vestiges of the poison still lingered in her system.

As she strolled around the residence, Shěn Lí couldn’t help but think about a certain someone in white who liked to leisurely sit under the vines while basking in the sun. Perhaps he could only be so laidback and easy-going while bound by mortal coil in the mortal world.

Shěn Lí didn’t understand the high god version of Xíng Yún.

-sigh- It was amazing how much influence a person's identity had on their personality.

Shěn Lí heard the sound of water and realized she had wandered to the pond. Looking at it she saw a fat koi swimming. She raised an eyebrow. “A fish no one feeds can grow so big? The water in the Immortal realm must be amazing.”

She sat down by the pond and flicked at the water with her finger. Out of nowhere a smooth hand reached out from the water and grabbed her wrist. Surprised, she looked up to find a pair of clear eyes looking at her. Silver light flashed and suddenly many more pairs stared at her.

These koi . . . were children.

She was still dazed when one of the children giggled and said, “Big Sister, will you play with us?”

Shěn Lí, still hearing the sound of water, unconsciously shook her head, but hands where already pulling her in.

“Sister, come play!” Their crisp voices were like magnetic charms.

Shěn Lí was pulled to the bottom of the pond before she realized what happened. The pond was bigger than it appeared from the outside. The only light source came from above. Her surroundings got darker as they went deeper.

Shěn Lí had a near innate fear of water, so her heart filled with dread at the sound of water gurgling in her ears. She didn’t panic and tried to swim back up. But the children were playing around her legs, and the motion kept dragging her ankles down. Shěn Lí lost it. The children, with their white teeth and cute faces, looked like ghosts from hell.