Chapter 555: Fellow Daoist, do you have a girlfriend?

　　Translator: GodBrandy Editor: Kurisu

　　When their fingertips touched, Song Shuhang’s complexion quickly changed.

　　It’s bad!

　　“I can feel it, it’s coming!” Song Shuhang muttered to himself.

　　What he felt was coming was the peculiar feeling of the appraisal technique activating!

　　Senior Sister Ye blinked her eyes and looked in puzzlement at the convulsing Song Shuhang.

　　“Senior Sister Ye, quickly dodge!” Song Shuhang shouted.

　　But without waiting for Senior Sister Ye to move to one side, Song Shuhang’s body spurted out blood like a fountain! As if that wasn’t enough, the blood spurted out even more violently than before!

　　Senior Sister Ye gently waved her hand, and an invisible barrier blocked all the blood heading in her direction.

　　“Dammit! So painful!” Song Shuhang said as he suppressed his voice so as to avoid screaming in pain.

　　But in the next moment, blood spurted out of his mouth as well. “Blech~”

　　Although wounds appeared all over his body earlier too, it was his first time vomiting blood! Just what kind of secret was Senior Sister Ye hiding? The wounds Shuhang received when he appraised her were even more serious than the ones he received while appraising the ‘human puppet’ and the ‘size-reducing purse’ back then.

　　Song Shuhang gritted his teeth and activated the ‘healing technique’ on his ancient bronze ring. The wounds he received the previous times were all superficial and he could recover from them within a few minutes, but the ones he received this time were somewhat serious. Such being the case, he decided to use the ‘healing technique’ engraved on the ancient bronze ring, something he could use only a limit number of times each day.

　　The radiance of the healing technique covered Song Shuhang’s body and started to heal his wounds.

　　However, the wounds on his body were quickly splitting open soon after healing. As if that wasn’t enough, more and more new wounds were continuously appearing. The price to appraise ‘Senior Sister Ye’ had been incredibly high!

　　In addition, the appraisal technique had activated all of a sudden.

　　Song Shuhang hadn’t wondered about Senior Sister Ye’s background or identity, neither he had considered appraising her. Such being the case, why had the appraisal technique suddenly activated on its own?

　　Song Shuhang had vomited a lot of blood. In his current state, he wasn’t even able to take a medicinal pill to treat his wounds.

　　Very soon, he started becoming dizzy due to the excessive loss of blood and his eyelids got very heavy.

　　Senior Sister Ye was temporarily at a loss. But just as she returned to her senses, she quickly performed a hand seal and used a healing technique on Song Shuhang’s body. The level of the healing technique she used was way higher than the one on Song Shuhang’s ancient bronze ring.

　　Under the effects of the healing technique, the condition of Song Shuhang’s body quickly stabilized. The wounds started to recover slowly and weren’t reopening.

　　Senior Sister Ye asked, “Do you feel a little better now?”

　　“Yes, I feel much better now. Thank you, Senior Sister Ye,” Song Shuhang said.

　　Earlier, he really felt as though he was at death’s door!

　　Just as he was speaking, runes flashed through his eyes and gushed out of his eye sockets like running water, dashing toward the well-read girl in front of him. Under normal circumstances, the runes would fall on Senior Sister Ye’s body and form the picture of a clock. Afterward, the hands of the clock would turn counterclockwise.

　　But what happened this time was somewhat different.

　　When the runes gushed out of his eyes and fell on Senior Sister Ye’s body, they directly entered her body, and only at that time did they transform into a clock. During the whole process, Senior Sister Ye was completely unaware of the changes happening right next to her.

　　After a short moment, the runes finally returned to Song Shuhang’s eyes.

　　All the information related to Senior Sister Ye’s appraisal were directly delivered to Song Shuhang’s mind.

　　The master of the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion, Fairy Chu… ***—*

　　Only this piece of information was conveyed to Song Shuhang’s mind. The following series of asterisks implied that the appraisal wasn’t too successful.

　　The master of the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion, Fairy Chu?

　　What kind of relationship is there between Senior Sister Ye and Fairy Chu?

　　And what’s the deal with the censored part of the appraisal?

　　Song Shuhang gasped for breath, and in the next moment, everything before his eyes turned black. Immediately after, Song Shuhang fell loudly to the ground and lost consciousness.

　　Just an instant before fainting, several pieces of information were transmitted to his brain in rapid succession. It was the text after the long series of asterisks.

　　Fairy Ye Si. She is also known as the ‘Sobbing Beauty’ and ‘Miracle Tears’ of the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion. She treats others kindly and loves reading books. She is also known as the ‘Living Library’ of the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion. She perished in the—

　　Unfortunately, the following piece of information was cut off due to Song Shuhang losing consciousness!

　　“Blech~” After he fainted, Song Shuhang spat out another mouthful of blood.

　　Along with his consciousness fading, the appraisal technique also switched off.

　　After the massive loss of blood earlier, without anyone noticing, a small part of Song Shuhang’s blood had converged into his pocket.

　　In there, the enlightenment stone and Lady Onion’s root were soaked in his blood, the latter slowly starting to grow up as though she had received some kind of tonic.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Around two hours later.

　　Song Shuhang finally regained consciousness.

　　Of course, he was able to wake up this quickly only thanks to Senior Sister Ye’s magical technique.

　　“Fellow Daoist Path-seeking Scholar, what happened earlier? Why did you start spraying blood from all over your body? Moreover, so many wounds suddenly appeared…” Senior Sister Ye asked in puzzlement.

　　Song Shuhang forced a smile and said, “How can I explain it… you can regard it as the backlash of a magical technique or something like a curse activating.”

　　He himself was not sure how the appraisal technique worked. Therefore, he found it quite difficult to explain it to others.

　　“The backlash caused you to spurt blood from all over your body? Just what type of magical technique is this?” Senior Sister Ye asked in puzzlement. “If you want, you can describe to me the technique a little. After all, I’ve read many books about magical techniques. Therefore, I can perhaps find a way to resolve your problem.”

　　Senior Sister Ye had read many books about magical techniques and accumulated a vast amount of knowledge that could perhaps come in handy. In addition, for unknown reasons, she had knowledge of several magical techniques that she herself had never heard of before!

　　“Of course, if it’s a special or secret technique, you shouldn’t casually reveal it to others. That’s common knowledge,” Senior Sister Ye also added.

　　Song Shuhang slightly nodded. It was a secret technique he’d obtained somewhere in the Time City. Moreover, even he himself was not clear how to describe its functions to others.

　　But since Fairy Ye Si was a kindhearted person and was also known as the ‘Living Library’ of the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion, perhaps it was worth it to give it a try and explain the situation to her.

　　“I’m not sure how to properly explain things, either, but it’s a skill that can ‘appraise’ items. The only problem is that it makes me spurt blood from all over the body as a price for the appraisal. Moreover, it has been out of control since the first time I’ve used it.” Song Shuhang vaguely described the effects of the magical technique to Senior Sister Ye.

　　Senior Sister Ye pondered for a moment, but even she who was known as the ‘Living Library’ of the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion had never heard or read about similar symptoms.

　　Things such as appraisal techniques existed in the world of cultivators. For example, some ocular techniques could observe the goods in details and be even more effective than microscopes or similar items.

　　There were also magical techniques that could allow one to determine the age of an item through the appraisal of the chemical elements, as well as other several techniques of this genre. But there wasn’t any appraisal technique amongst the ones Senior Sister Ye knew that would make the user violently spurt out blood whenever it was used.

　　Senior Sister Ye shook her head and said, “I haven’t heard of a magical technique with such symp— ah?”

　　But right at this time, she had a sudden enlightenment! She had actually heard of a magical technique with similar effects somewhere!

　　…But the problem was that she couldn’t recall where.

　　Given the powerful memory of cultivators, it should be normally impossible for such a thing to happen. In that case, was it possible that she had only quickly glimpsed at the content of the book describing those symptoms?

　　“Wait a moment, I think I’ve read about similar symptoms somewhere!” Senior Sister Ye rubbed her brows and, somewhat uncertain, said, “The only problem is that I can’t temporarily recall in which book I’ve read this information!”

　　Actually, she was unsure whether she had read about it in a ‘book’. The knowledge about these symptoms had appeared in her mind very suddenly, just as though it wasn’t originally part of her memory.

　　“Really?” Song Shuhang said happily.

　　“Fellow Daoist Path-seeking Scholar, if you don’t mind, how about looking for that piece of knowledge together? I’ve brought several books with me as I came to the room in this passageway. Many of them contain information about theoretical knowledge and use of magical techniques. Therefore, we can look through the material and try to see whether we can find a case that is similar to yours,” Senior Sister Ye said.

　　“Thank you, Senior Sister Ye. But can I really read the books you have here?” Song Shuhang asked. After all, the content of all the books here present was related to cultivation.

　　In the outside world, even ordinary and widespread techniques such as the ‘Flaming Saber Technique’ were worth several spirit stones of the Third Stage and the content of the books Senior Sister Ye brought here was surely more valuable than something like the Flaming Saber Technique.

　　Senior Sister Ye nodded and said, “Now that I think about it, it’s indeed a problem.”

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Thereupon, Senior Sister Ye started to rummage through the ocean of books all alone.

　　“Right, I’ve already found your companion through a magical technique related to the shifting passageways of the Time City. I used the aura on the bandages to lock her position. It will take just a little bit to lead her here where we are,” Senior Sister Ye said while quickly flipping the pages of the book she was holding.

　　“Thank you, Senior Sister Ye!” Song Shuhang said gratefully. Now that Chu Chu was also safe, he could be at ease.

　　Afterward, he squatted on one side, really itching to take a look at the book Senior Sister Ye was flipping through.

　　Senior Sister Ye looked really happy while sitting amidst the ocean of books and flipping through the various books.

　　He would have really liked to squat next to her and rummage through that huge amount of books… but it was a pity that he didn’t have the qualifications to read the books present here.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Senior Sister Ye rummaged through the ocean of books for a long time.

　　Then, she suddenly asked, “Fellow Daoist Path-seeking Scholar, to which sect do you belong to?”

　　“I don’t belong to any sect or school. I’m a loose cultivator,” Song Shuhang said with a smile.

　　“Eh? A loose cultivator?” Senior Sister Ye couldn’t help but glance at Song Shuhang. Cultivators had their own methods to determine the age of a person. Therefore, she could easily tell that Song Shuhang wasn’t even twenty years old yet. Nevertheless, he had already reached the Second Stage Third Dantian ‘Dragon Claw Dantian’ Realm. Moreover, the color of his mental energy was bronze. It was a sign that the strength of this mental energy had reached the Third Stage Realm already.

　　“Fellow Daoist Path-seeking Scholar, how about joining the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion then?” Senior Sister Ye’s eyes lit up as she asked this question.

　　“I thank Senior Sister Ye for her kind intentions… but I’m afraid I won’t be able to join any sect or school in the near future,” Song Shuhang politely refused.

　　“Ah, it’s such a pity. If you were to join us, the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion would surely put a lot of effort into training someone as talented as you,” Senior Sister Ye said with a smile.

　　Song Shuhang laughed bashfully. Actually, his natural talent was very average, and he had missed the best period to practice as well. Therefore, he wasn’t a genius or anything.

　　Senior Sister Ye had completely immersed herself in the ocean of books, incessantly flipping the pages of the various books.

　　While she was calmly flipping through the books, Song Shuhang was squatting on one side and looking at her, somewhat bored.

　　Since he had nothing to do, Song Shuhang started to quietly practice the ❮Steel Hands Technique❯ and the ❮Immovable Body of the Buddha❯.

　　“Right, Fellow Daoist Path-seeking Scholar. Do you have a girlfriend?” Senior Sister Ye suddenly asked out of curiosity.