Chapter 108 Following Nature

  He didn't know how long he had slept, but Nie Kong was woken up by a urgent and mournful sobbing sound. He struggled to open his still heavy eyelids, and the bright light pierced into his pupils, only then did Nie Kong discover that a golden light had seeped in from outside the window, obviously the sun had begun to set.

  I didn't expect to sleep all the way until afternoon, Nie Kong couldn't help but secretly smile wryly. Last night was truly exhausting, but being able to successfully break through to Jiling Ninth Grade made it all worth it.

  As soon as Nie Kong moved, Hua Mei, who was almost lying on his body, immediately sensed it and could hardly believe her eyes. She was stunned for a moment before reacting, hastily straightening up, wiping away tears with excitement, and her face flushed with excitement: "Uncle, you're awake."

  "Uh-huh."

  Nie Kong lightly responded with a sound, propped himself up on the bed with both arms, and took a glance at his own body. It was densely covered in already congealed scabs, looking like a blood-covered person, indeed extremely terrifying. Last night he should have taken a bath before sleeping, but for a moment he couldn't control it. His gaze fell upon the tearful, rain-soaked eyebrows of Hua Mei, Nie Kong felt very guilty and apologetically said: "Sister-in-law, I've worried you."

  Hua Mei's face turned slightly red with embarrassment, but she kept shaking her small hand and repeated: "No, no, I know Uncle will wake up this time too, he always does." As she spoke, her tearful eyes curved into a crescent moon shape, and her eyebrows sparkled with joyful smile.

  Nie Kong couldn't help but crack a small joke: "Since you know I'm fine, why are you crying so hard that your eyes have swollen up like walnuts?"

  Her eyebrows grew even more crimson, and she lowered her head, muttering: "I... I just couldn't help it." After that, she herself couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter.

  However, thinking of the previous scene, Huā Méi still has a lingering fear. Originally, not seeing Niè Kōng walk out of the room in the morning, Huā Méi didn't think much of it. At noon, when Niè Kōng still hadn't appeared, Huā Méi started to feel a bit suspicious, but having learned from past experience, she was worried that Niè Kōng would again practice with his body exposed like before, so she forced herself not to go in and take a look at the situation, only occasionally coming over to lightly knock on the door a few times.

  By noon, Hua Mei could no longer sit still and forcibly entered the bedroom. There, she saw Nie Kong's entire body was bright red, lying on a bed covered in blood with his limbs splayed out in all directions. The room was filled with a strong, pungent smell of blood.

  At that moment, Huā Méi's heart seemed to have been torn into two pieces, and she felt as if the sky had collapsed. The surroundings were dark and dim. Stumbling and staggering, she ran to the bed and found that Niè Kōng still had a pulse and was breathing. Only then did Huā Méi's heart slightly relax, but tears fell uncontrollably like pearls dropping from a broken string.

  She cried and called out for a long time, but Nie Kong still didn't show any reaction. Hua Mei's heart was hanging in suspense again, fearing that Nie Kong would fall into a deep sleep just a few days after recovering from his illness and never wake up again. It wasn't until Nie Kong opened his eyes that her heart finally fell back into place.

  At this moment, Huamei's hair was disheveled and her face was streaked with tears, making her look even more pitiful. Nie Kong's heart was filled with compassion, and he couldn't help but reach out to gently brush away the strand of hair that had been stuck to her cheek by tears, and then softly wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes.

  Hua Mei didn't expect Nie Kong to suddenly make such an intimate move, and she was instantly stunned, unable to react immediately, simply staring blankly at Nie Kong with wide eyes.

  Until Nie Kong's thumb slid across his eye several times, Hua Mei suddenly woke up, like a small sheep pressed under the tiger's paw. She jumped up and dodged Nie Kong's fingers, looking both shy and flustered, stuttering: "Uncle, I...I'll go boil water for you to take a bath..."

  Watching the slender figure of Huā Méi disappear into the distance, Niè Kōng shook his head and smiled. Recalling her bashful and charming expression from earlier, it seemed as though the tender and delicate sensation still lingered on his fingertips. In his heart, a certain string was lightly plucked by Huā Méi's small hands, making him think that this kind of girl was much better than the two girlfriends he had in his past life. If he could marry her, it would be a pretty good thing too.

  If it were the previous owner of this body, such a rebellious and unorthodox idea would never have emerged. Although Nie Kong still calls Huamei "sister-in-law", he doesn't really acknowledge her relationship with Nie Xuan in his heart. At that time, Huamei was only brought in to ward off evil spirits, and the wedding ceremony hadn't even been completed when Nie Xuan died.

  Moreover, Nie Kong was influenced by his physical memories, but he didn't truly immerse himself in them, and he didn't have much sense of identity with his current self. In his eyes, Hua Mei was just a woman who had started living as a widow before she was even married, and it was only natural that he would think this way about her.

  "Let things take their natural course."

  Suddenly, Nie Kong found himself having so many thoughts in an instant, and he couldn't help but laugh. He immediately calmed down and began to circulate the Five Stars Shift Technique to regulate his breath. After sleeping for so long, Nie Kong's body still had a lingering aftereffect that wasn't weak, and he needed to perform one or two "Nine Revolutions Golden Needle Techniques" to completely eliminate it...

  ……

  The search was conducted very vigorously, with the Nie family and the Lingbao Pavilion joining forces, either openly or secretly, to turn the entire city of Jiyang upside down, but they still couldn't find that pale-faced, hoarse-voiced, medium-built, twenty-year-old guy who spoke in the local dialect of Jiyang.

  This big move, on the contrary, made those small and medium-sized families in Jicheng City suspicious. As for the imperial family of the Dacheng Empire, the spies sent to Jicheng City were like sharks smelling blood, and they quickly reported this matter to their superiors. As a result, in the following days, many new faces appeared quietly in Jicheng City, and some families who knew the Nie family came to visit under various pretexts, trying to probe what kind of person that guy was? It actually caused a big stir between the Nie family and the Lingbao Pavilion, making a huge commotion.

  As the root cause of all this commotion, Nie Kong didn't have the slightest awareness of being the mastermind.

  In the morning, I went from home to the training ground, using red sandalwood and spinning top for practice. In the evening, I returned home from the training ground, and time quickly passed in this dull back-and-forth movement. Before I knew it, more than ten days had quietly slipped away through Nie Kong's fingers.

  With two large bags of medicinal herbs, Ziluohuanlingxiang that little guy was happy like a pig, eating and sleeping every day, only to display "Yao Ding Huan Shen" once every night, in conjunction with Nie Kong to refine the spiritual medicine. By October 13th, Nie Kong's pet backpack had thirteen more bottles of Rejuvenating Dew.

  Six of them were the medicinal herbs refined by Nie Kong in his first year, and the other seven bottles of medicinal herbs were taken out on the eighth day. For now, Nie Kong could only temporarily put away the Rebirth Dew.

  After realizing that the city of Yancheng was getting busier, Nie Kong didn't even go to buy a withdrawal device and a spiritual card. After all, no one knew if someone would find him based on these two things. In order not to expose the existence of "Purple Luo Phantom Fragrance", Nie Kong could only be more cautious.

  At present, Nie Kong only needs to concentrate on cultivating with all his might and bring out the medicine cauldron as soon as possible. With that little guy's transformed medicine cauldron, he can then get a small medicine cauldron to carry around, so he won't have to explain how he refines medicine in his belly, even if his identity is exposed it will be of no importance.

  By then, there was already a Nie family supporting it from above.

  Bang!

  Another "flower explosion" was launched, and a large piece of dazzling green light burst out from the spiritual pattern on the surface of the red birch tree. After practicing in front of the red birch tree for an entire afternoon, Nie Kong looked like a drowned chicken that had just been fished out of the river, his whole body dripping wet. As the sun set over the western mountains, Nie Kong didn't linger any longer and wiped the sweat from his forehead as he prepared to head home. However, just as he reached the edge of the forest, Nie Kong was stopped by a familiar voice:

  "Nie Kong, the Nine Elders want to see you!"

  Behind him, Nie Qingfeng, with a full beard and mustache, opened his mouth and laughed triumphantly...

  ……