章 71: What might've happened back then

"Aww, man! And here I thought that we were hitting off quite well!" I sighed.

"You asked me questions. I answered. There's nothing more than that." Liling replied.

"Then why don't you give a reply to my other question as well, huh? It wouldn't take half the time that our entire chat took." I sounded desperate at this point.

"Ha… Freaking hell! Fine. Will you leave after hearing that?" She asked.

Finally! All the persuasion worked! I'm simply happy about my efforts.

"Okay, cool. I'll leave upon hearing it." I assured.

"Good. Listen, you know how the Noncho village is attacked by bandits, right?" Liling asked.

"Yea."

"They are not really the major reason for people migrating from this place. They played a factor, of course. However, the major reason was always this book." She replied.

"What the? Why did a skill book cause people to leave?" I was genuinely curious about this.

"You see, this book… It's more of a curse than a blessing. However, since it was basically a Tao sect relic, it was revered. It was originally in the former sect head's possession, but he never tried learning it until someone made fun of the sect." She explained.

"For such a petty reason?" I was dumbfounded.

When you expect something serious from this world, it always gave me the exact opposite. What a weird swerve!

"Well, it might seem like an idiotic thing to do. However, imagine this. The sect meeting, called in by the imperial palace, who rarely do stuff like that. It's a pretty prestigious event. Tao sect, who got a chief seat because they were still the major sect, even on the verge of collapse. And in a place like that, someone makes fun of your inability to produce talents. The head was furious about it and tried learning the skill book." She spoke in a deep tone.

"Wait, why are you talking like it's some taboo shite?" I asked.

Like, learning a skill book isn't that rare of an event. And if it's something as special as this one, people would just jump into learning it. What's so weird about it?

"The first elder. He specifically asked the Tao sect members not to learn the skill. He never explicitly told the reason. But the old fart should have. If he did, many people wouldn't have died." Liling sighed.

"Die? How did people die learning a skill?" I asked.

I have never seen any character dying because they learned a skill.

"You see, the criteria for the Seventh heaven's healing skill is that you would need a lot of Qi. If the Qi is not enough, the skill would instead suck out your life force." She explained.

"Well, if that's the case, people could heal themselves even if it sucks their life force, right?" I asked for the umpteenth time.

"Ah, you're mistaken there. The skill can 't replenish life force. It could only heal you to a certain point with your Qi. Giving back your youth isn't something that's possible for the skill." Liling replied.

"I see." I nodded my head vigorously, waiting for her to continue.

Seeing that I wasn't asking any questions this time around, she continued. "So, our head tried learning it. Only then did we learn of the truth. He died learning it. The skill sucked his entire life force, and a tree grew out of where he was." She spoke as she looked towards the sky.

"Then why did others try to learn it then?" I asked.

"Well, they thought that the head died because he wasn't that strong. So, their assessment was that only the strong could lead the sect and in order to be one, they had to learn the skill." She explained.

"Ah, now it makes sense."

"Every single one of them died. The people got all scared about it. They didn't want to die anymore. They thought that the book was cursed; the land was cursed. Those people held a meeting and entrusted the book to me because I'm the only outsider bastard of this sect and no one gave a damn about me. Thus, I got stuck here with this goddamn book." She sighed as she ended her tale.

"Damn, that's sad. They basically abandoned you." I tried being compassionate.

"Well, I was already abandoned once after my birth, so it didn't hurt my sentiments. I'd like to kill them though, if I get to meet them again!" She said nonchalantly. However, I could see the fury in her eyes.

After that conversation, both of us stayed silent for quite some time. I was processing what she said. With this, I came to a conclusion about what might've happened in the next two years in-game.

Some random event with a massive danger—most probably the bandits, since they were the primary focus in the plot with Liling, might've happened. Like, literally thousands of bandits might've tried to attack her, much like what they did today, and she fought them valiantly.

However, she might've injured herself gravely in the process, and this gave a chance for the bandits to escape. I don't think effective medicinal herbs are found here. Even if it did, an injured person couldn't drag herself to find them.

So, she might've stayed by the skill book, which slightly healed her. Instead of picking out medicinal herbs, she instead relied on the skill book after seeing the effects. This would explain her sudden old age, since her life force got sucked out in the process and also her newfound reverence towards the skill book. She actually survived it when no one else in the clan could. I guess it was the brave soul thing she talked about. Or else, her QI capacity was slightly better from the others.

Anyway, that still doesn't explain how she died so easily in the hands of the bandits or how the bandits recognized her even after this sudden old age. I guess there are some plot holes in the story.

"So, after hearing the story, you may not wanna try learning the skill. I understand. However, it's yours now. Even if you don't learn the skill, just keep it by your side and protect it until you can pass it onto someone." Liling had a sad look on her face, as if she cheated me into taking it.

However, for me it was quite the opposite. "No. I'm gonna learn it!" I proudly proclaimed.