Ink Blade Chapter 65 (Part 1)
Translated by Sylver
Chapter 65.1 To Support Wind and Snow (part 1)
In the season when the vast snow covered the Jiuzhong Palace, it’s hard for Mo Ren to stay awake. As per Chu Yan’s instructions before he left, the Medicine Hall gave him a large amount of pain-relieving drugs to minimize the pain during the poison attack.
Mo Ren was obedient, swallowing bowls of bitter medicine. He had nothing much to do now, and could only lie in bed, drifting in and out of sleep. Occasionally when he woke up, Qiu Jin would help him sit up and look out the window for a while, looking at the peaceful and serene Jiuzhong Palace, the lonely winter bird flying across the sky, and the thin layer of snow falling on the tip of the distant mountain.
He was waiting for Chu Yan to come back.
But the return home was indefinite.
Until later, the time of clarity gradually shortened, and the medicine could no longer alleviate the pain of his poison attack.
It’s unknown whether it should be called a blessing in disguise, but fortunately, Mo Ren was used to this kind of torment in his previous life.
In those years in the Side Hall, his limbs were broken, and a little effort would cause heart-wrenching pain. Coupled with the backlash of the Dark Hall’s early martial arts on his body, it left him with a sickly and fragmented body. There were also Bai Hua’s instigations and the Side Hall servants’ adding insult to injury. What was even harder to bear was the heart-wrenching pain of watching the master go astray with his own eyes.
…Those days when life was worse than death were all endured. Now being taken care of with warm beds and good medicine, although painful, it didn’t seem too hard to bear.
On the contrary, the bystanders couldn’t stand it at first. Mo Ren knew that Qiu Jin was crying behind his back, and he had heard Lin Yun’s sigh of self-blame and powerlessness. Occasionally he couldn’t stand it and wanted to comfort him, but it seemed that he couldn’t do it right.
The more he comforted, the more upset people got. After several times like this, the guard resignedly shut up.
One deep night, he woke up in a cold sweat, panting and enduring the pain, his convulsive fingers tore the blood-stained pillow towel he had vomited.
Qiu Jin and Ying Yu lit the lamp to watch over him. In the second half of the night, Ying Yu held his hand and cried breathlessly, saying, “Elder brother, if you really can’t stand the pain, why don’t you, why don’t you…”
Mo Ren knew what Ying Yu wanted to say. He weakly raised his hand and patted the young man’s head. He forced a smile in his dissipating eyes and said weakly, “Nonsense. The Master wants me to wait for him to come back.”
The Master wants me to wait for him to come back. And there’s that unfinished obsession.
Life was like melting snow under the sun, and like sand flowing through fingers, grinding in the rotation of day and night.
He was still waiting.
Later on, Mo Ren’s sleeping time went from one or two days to three to five days before he could barely wake up once, until he himself could not distinguish between clarity and sleep.
He was still waiting.
Until one deep night. Clouds cover the moon, and the wind and snow howl.
Accompanied by a shudder that swept through his body in the dark, Mo Ren suddenly woke up from his sleep.
The light in the room had long been extinguished, the bed curtain was hidden in the pitch black, and Mo Ren on the bed was curled up in the quilt, panting heavily, with cold sweat rolling down his pale cheeks.
“…Cough…Cough…”
His limbs, cold as if frozen, were trembling minutely. Mo Ren was dizzy and only felt a dull pain in his chest, difficulty in breathing, looking like a dying man.
Is he… Not going to make it?
Was it the final flicker of life that woke him up? To wake up and take another look at this cold world?
No…No.
There were hurried voices outside the door, and Mo Ren heard Qiu Jin’s anxious voice. Anxiety was like a drum, pounding on his heart. Mo Ren held his breath, he somehow managed to stumble and lean against the wall, his single garment was cold, but he was numb and didn’t feel much, just moved step by step to the back of the door—
“What, what about the Palace Master!?”
It was Qiu Jin who rarely lost her composure, her voice choked with tears.
What?
Mo Ren stared blankly with his eyes wide open.
The Master…it was news about the Master. But why was Qiu Jin anxious, why was she crying?
Another person’s voice belonged to Ying Feng, the steady and reliable shadow guardian of the Jiuzhong Palace, but his voice was hoarse at the moment. “The Palace Master insisted on going to snatch that medicinal flower, and this strange object has the effect of advancing internal strength and prolonging life, many people in the Jianghu also became greedy…”
“The Palace Master is also worried about Guard Mo, not to mention unwilling to give in, not even daring to delay the time for negotiation, he picked up the sword and left, not listening to what anyone says.”
What were they talking about?
Mo Ren’s vision was going black in waves.
“We have been fighting in the South Xinjiang Poison Insect Cave for three days, and only the Palace Master alone fought with countless masters of the Jianghu with his seriously injured body. Fortunately, Young Hero Xu and Shuijing Tower Master helped, and we managed to stabilize the situation.”
“But the Palace Master’s injuries are too serious, a large amount of blood loss and the exhaustion of internal strength, his life is already hanging by a thread…I…it’s our incompetence.”
There was a buzzing sound in Mo Ren’s head, and the world turned upside down in an instant. He thought: No. It couldn’t, it couldn’t be…like this.
He couldn’t stand up all of a sudden. When he fell, he hit the cabinet, Mo Ren couldn’t help it anymore, he arched his back and coughed violently, blood drops fell from his fingers onto the ground.
The door opened from the outside, he gasped lowly in a disheveled state and looked up, meeting Qiu Jin and Ying Feng’s astonished eyes.
Qiu Jin was originally holding a small lantern outside the door, but now the lantern fell to the ground. “Elder Brother Mo!? My God, how are you…”
She was frightened and rushed over to help him, but Mo Ren squeezed out the last bit of strength, and suddenly grabbed the maid’s arm.
His eyes were red, and he spat out word by word through his teeth. “Where is the Master?”
Ying Feng hurriedly pulled down the quilt from the other side of the bed and wrapped it around Mo Ren’s thin shoulders, speaking quickly in a low voice, “Guard Mo, don’t be anxious, your body…”
“——Ying Feng!!” Mo Ren suddenly raised his eyebrows and shouted angrily, “Where is the Master!?”
The guard’s neck was taut, his pale lips still had traces of blood, and the depths of his sharp eyes seemed to be stirring up the light of swords and knives. Who would have thought that a patient who was still lying in bed with a weak breath in the early morning could squeeze out such a momentum from that body.
Ying Feng and Qiu Jin were both shocked by the sudden outbreak of Mo Ren, and then they both turned their heads away in disappointment.
