A Martial Odyssey Book 3: The Stellar Sanctuary – Chapter 12

Memories

Lele was sobbing as she collapsed in the corner of the dark passage, “I don’t want to be immortal. Why it has to be me?”

“You really have no idea how lucky you are.”

Lele looked up and saw an angelic maiden standing next to her; it was Shen Xingyue! 

Her footings were extremely light. Among the celestial practitioners, her stealth had almost no equal!

Shen Xingyue sighed softly as she sat down next to her, “Lele, we have known for some time now right?”

Lele nodded, unsure what she was trying to tell her. 

Shen Xingyue smiled, “But we have never confided in each other. I am scared.”

This time it was Lele’s turn to be startled. 

She asked, “You will be scared? I don’t believe it.”

Shen Xingyue nodded melancholy, “I am really afraid. I am afraid of death…”

She had grown even more melancholy, “…I am afraid that I will never see Yi Ping again.”

Lele looked up and stared blankly at her. It was because it had touched her nerve; she shared the same fear as Shen Xingyue too!

Shen Xingyue hummed coldly to herself, “You must know that Yi Ping’s present attainment may appear to be on par with me but in fact, he is progressing at a much faster pace than I can possibly catch up. After all, I have to start at the Intricacy Focus while Yi Ping starts off at the Primordial Core. Perhaps in no time, he may even be an immortal practitioner or like Alice is saying, he may be the next Great God.”

She turned around with her eyes beaming with tears, “What if I cannot overcome my heavenly tribulation? Then I will be separated from Yi Ping. I don’t want that to happen. For one thousand five hundred years, from mortal to celestial practitioner…I have already lost him once. I don’t believe in reincarnation. I don’t believe that I can be like you, like Yixian and like Lie Qing, after a thousand years, you can still be reunited with him…”

Lele was startled that the usual aloof Shen Xingyue would be weeping in front of her!

Shen Xingyue wept melancholy, “If I perish and even if reincarnation exists, how long must I cultivate again in order to be in the same place as Yi Ping again? If that happens, will Yi Ping still be able to recognize me after thousands of years have passed?” 

She raised her angelic voice as she wept, “That is why I am determined to be an immortal practitioner, to break away from the limitations of life and death!”

Lele was trembling as she listened.

Shen Xingyue flashed a tearful look to Lele, “You didn’t realize how lucky you are? All you have to do is to wait patiently for Yi Ping. You won’t have to wait too long. But for the majority of us, the waiting will be extremely long!”

Lele smiled weakly as she raised her trembling hands to grasp Shen Xingyue, “Sister Xingyue, don’t be too upset. I know that you are trying to comfort me. I know now that I am wrong. I will pull myself up so don’t you worry, alright?”

Shen Xingyue smiled weakly as she wiped her tears, “Bold words. I am not comforting you…”

Lele smiled, “Whatever!”

At this moment they had heard footsteps approaching and saw that it was Yi Ping, Lie Qing, Ye Yin, Yu’Er and Mei’Er!

They had obviously overheard their conversation.

Yi Ping said quietly, “Lele, Xingyue…is there anything that I can do for you?”

Lele and Shen Xingyue said at the same time, “No!…”

They looked at each other and laughed softly, “Don’t copy me!…”

“Not again!…”

Yi Ping laughed as he pulled them to their feet, “What are two full grown up maidens sitting on the dirty floor for?”

Shen Xingyue hummed coldly, “Because we like and because we enjoy!”

Lele snapped her fingers, “That is right!”

Yi Ping rubbed his nose hard as he seemed to ponder for a while before he looked at Lie Qing, Ye Yin, Yu’Er and Mei’Er, “What do you think?”

Ye Yin responded, “And what do you think?”

Lie Qing laughed mesmerizingly, “It seems that Lele and Xingyue have become friends. I am about to lose a close sister soon.”

Lele protested weakly, “You are still my best sister!”

Lie Qing smiled heartily, “But unfortunately, I am not good in comforting others.”

Shen Xingyue was also protesting, “I am not comforting Lele at all. It is just that you are all so slow!”

Lele nodded, “That…right. You should practice your swiftness skill more often!”

Lie Qing sighed softly, “Unfortunately even if you give me a million years, my swiftness skill still won’t be as good as Xingyue or you.”

Lele laughed, “Go learn from Sister Xian’Er and Sister Youxue. They are experts too! When you are good enough in your swiftness skill, you can come and comfort me!”

Lie Qing stroked her long braided hair as she smiled weakly, “I don’t want!”

Ye Yin groaned softly, “I don’t want either. Why must we comfort you? We should be jealous of you. You should be the one comforting us instead!”

Yi Ping said smilingly, “I am afraid that Ye Yin is right. So what are we going to do now?”

Mei’Er laughed jovially, “We have six lovely maidens in this dark passage. So what do you suggest you want to do?”

Yu’Er laughed, “Mei’Er, don’t you put any weird ideas into Yi Ping’s head!”

Mei’Er replied, “Sister, have you forgotten that we are all Yi Ping’s consorts? So what weird ideas are you talking about?”

Yi Ping offered a helpful suggestion, “Maybe that is because I am a weird person?”

Ye Yin laughed softly, “Um, that is so true. Unlike us, only a weird person like you can actually attain the Seventh Cosmos Positioning!” 

Yi Ping touched the Celestial Alice that was on his back, “Hmm, you are saying that Maiden Ziyan is also a weird person?”

Lele immediately interrupted cheekily, “She really is. So you mustn’t see her again! Not ever again! At least not while I am still around!”

Yi Ping was smiling. It was because he knew that she was not serious. 

Ye Yin was smiling enthralling, “Lele, of course Yi Ping won’t be able to see that Maiden Ziyan while you are not around. That is because you will be seeing her in the Immortal Realm!”

Lele was startled, “I don’t want to either! What do you mean?”

Shen Xingyue offered to explain, “That is because Alice is an immortal. Just like Isa, Aiel and the Goddess of Mercy. From what I can surmise, their time here in the Celestial Realm is very limited and it seems that they have taken a hefty price to descend to the Celestial Realm for the Stellar Sanctuary. For this I can imagine there are plenty of other reasons why the Immortals are here. It will seem weird to me if they are simply here to reach the very top.”

Lele hummed coldly as she crossed her arms, “I don’t care for their fluffy reasons and they aren’t following me around in the Immortal Realm!”

Yi Ping and the rest of the maidens smiled weakly when they had heard Lele’s proclamation. 

Everyone was already thinking secretly, “No wonder Lele is able to overcome her divine crisis. She is really not bothered by a lot of things. Her state of divinity is higher than us. The Immortal Realm isn’t a safe place for a new immortal who doesn’t know anything about the Immortal Realm and she doesn’t even bother to consider it…”

Yu’Er laughed softly, “It does seem that Sister Lele doesn’t really need our concern now.”

Mei’Er nodded, “It does appear to be so!”

Lele asked shyly, “Do I look like the emotional type? Maybe you have forgotten that I am the Joyful Goddess!”

Yi Ping patted her shoulder as he muttered, “Lele…”

All of a sudden Yi Ping had held Lele into his embrace and he was trembling!

Lele was totally caught by surprise and she was flustering shyly, “Ping’Er! There are others here…we should wait until there is no one…”

But Yi Ping continued to hold her tightly as he said with a trembling voice, “Lele, you must wait for me…”

Lele rested her head comfortably on Yi Ping’s chest as she muttered dreamily, “I will surely will…or else who will take care of you when I am not around?”

Yi Ping smiled, “Things are not that bad…”

Lele interrupted with a soft smile, “I still remember I am the one that saved you on our very first day!”

Yi Ping smiled weakly, “And I thought that I am the one that saved you instead…”

Lele continued to say, “You are such a greenhorn back then. Do you remember the second battle that we had with Yuan Shao? Back at the foot of the Tranquil Mountains…”

(AMO1 Ch38, 121 Chapters ago…)

Lie Qing, Yu’Er and Mei’Er looked at each other; it was because they were there too!

Yi Ping replied, “I do…”

He would never forget all his battles…

Lele was smiling sweetly to herself, “At that time, do you know that the first person that I want to kill is actually you?”

Yi Ping laughed heartily as he held her even tighter, “If I were you back then, I will probably do the same.”

At that time, Lele had painfully orchestrated an awe striking show of appearance in order to gain the psychology battle against Yuan Shao and the many other powerful opponents that were with him. 

She was hoping to gain a psychology hand for them. It was because their opponents were too strong and fighting was not completely about raw skill or strength. To win the psychology battle would ensure a thirty percent winning rate! 

But Yi Ping had screwed it up!

At that time, she really thought that it was going to be game over for their group! 

Lele shook her head gently as she smiled to herself, “No, you won’t. You lying rascal. You don’t like to do killing. I often wonder how you manage to survive for so long in the martial fraternity, huh? If others want to kill you, you should at the very least retaliate. Sometimes righteousness is not worth a single cent if you are dead. You must at the very least think of your love ones. What will happen to them if you are dead?”

Yu’Er, Mei’Er, Ye Yin, Shen Xingyue and Lie Qing were all standing quietly as they listened; it was Lele’s quiet moment with Yi Ping and they did not want to interrupt them. Moreover, they were all being secretly moved by Lele…

Yu’Er, Mei’Er and Lie Qing were smiling fondly when they had recalled that battle scene as they mused, “Oh Yi Ping, you are so terrible at that time!”

Not terrible with his fighting skills. Yi Ping was already on par with the top exponents in the martial fraternity already. But he was just too greenhorn and totally lacked the cunning to win over his more crafty opponents! 

Lele gave Yi Ping a gently kick, “But you have proved that with righteousness in your heart, you can still triumph over the despicable…”

She added quietly, “Do you still remember…”

“I am an icy divine star from the heavens. Can you hear…the light stirring of my heart…do you know…what stirs my heart…you have awakened my emotions and filled my lonely life. Our hearts have exchanged intricate with each other…can you see the transparent mirror in my heart…”

Yi Ping muttered, “Yes, I remember…”

At that time, she had silently unblocked all the forbidden celestial channels in her body and had raised her Divine Celestial Force to the highest level. To protect Yi Ping, she was willing to sacrifice her own life to resort to the use of the Heavens Earth Sundering Skill of the Divine Celestial Force…

But the timely intervention of Lie Qing and Yunzi stopped her just in time…

Or she would have turned into star dust!

Until today, Lele had never told Yi Ping of this secret skill that she possessed!

She muttered, “Maybe I should keep it this way…”

Yi Ping asked softly, “What is wrong, Lele?”

Lele shook her head, “Nothing. In the future, you must take good care of yourself and not to be reckless anymore, alright?”

Yi Ping sighed softly, “I will…I will…”

Lele smiled gently, “So the greenhorn has grown up at last. You must remember this. Raw strength can only get you to a certain level of advantage but will never give you the edge against equally powerful opponents. Your opponent can only be defeated only if you respect them as opponent. So don’t be too nice or soft against them. Always harden your heart against them!”

Yi Ping muttered, “I will remember…”

Lie Qing was secretly anxious!

It was because Lele had suddenly said plenty of sensible things which were not the norm!

It was as though she was planning something and she shuddered at the thought of it!

Even though they were now close sisters but she could never guessed what was on Lele’s mind. In a sense, even though her Invincible Divine Force had grown in strength, she could never know how her divine skill fared against Lele’s Celestial Force. The last fight that they had resulted in a draw!

It was because she knew that Lele would never show hand all her cards on the table, making it hard for her to gauge Lele’s true strength and state of divinity…

Because Lele always exerted that invisible psychology barrier, none of the maidens had any confidence in winning against her if a fight were to start between them! 

It was not that they did not try to have any friendly duel with Lele but Lele’s fighting style was simply hit and run. To conclude a duel with Lele would probably take hours and extremely tiring!

Lie Qing had to point to her all the time, “Lele, we are all exchanging pointers and not fighting with real weapons. Can’t you duel for real?”

But Lele would always ignore everyone and continued to execute her own usual fighting style as though she could not afford to lose, earning her the nickname of Loser Lele from Mei’Er. 

In the end, no one really wanted to exchange pointers with her anymore. 

The purpose of exchanging pointers was to improve their skills and levels but it was something that Lele would always seem to be disinterested! 

Lie Qing stole a look at Ye Yin the Ascension Goddess; she was the complete opposite of Lele. She did not like to move and would rather be on the defensive all the time!

No one enjoyed someone who was always on the defensive and seemingly picking up their strokes on the sly! 

Needless to say, no one really wanted to duel with Ye Yin either! 

The only person that was interested to duel with everyone was Yi Ping!

He was really interested to fight whenever he could and did not mind losing. 

All the maidens were patient with him even though they knew that Yi Ping was trying to pick up their intrigue skills! 

Lie Qing said gently, “Ping’Er, it is unfair that you are only hugging Lele. Do you remember how you sacrifice your Divine Dragon Pill to revive me?”

Yi Ping nodded, “I remember…”

Ye Yin was stunned, “The Divine Dragon Pill!”

After hearing from Lele and Lie Qing, Ye Yin was even more convinced of Yi Ping’s righteousness and she was emotional aroused. It was because Yi Ping was the man that she was waiting for all these years. She really wanted to know everything about Yi Ping and what he did! 

Yi Ping had gathered all six of the maidens closely together into his embrace as he muttered, “I was such a greenhorn back then…”

Mei’Er teased him, “You still are now!”

Shen Xingyue smiled angelically, “Quick, share with me. I want to know all of Yi Ping’s awkward moments!”

Everyone started laughing, including Yi Ping!

Yi Ping had only one word to defend himself, “Unfortunately, I am not a greenhorn anymore!”

“Greenhorn! Noob!” 

If anyone was looking their way, they seemed really blissful as they laughed and chatted for a long time…