Deep in the mountains, where dense branches and leaves filled the forest, an open patch had abruptly appeared. Not only was it completely bare, the ground itself had been dug down half a person’s height…
Wei Xuening wiped the dirt from her hands and thought that today she had finally been lucky enough to witness what “digging three chi into the ground” really looked like…
The young cultivator senior seemed very satisfied, a smile at the corner of his mouth. “Not bad, not bad.”
Wei Xuening finally relaxed a little. Then Ying Yanyu, who was apparently born without fear, moved closer and asked, “Senior, do you have a use for these Spirit-Eroding Vines? Nobody wants them, and there are lots in the mountains. I know several places where they grow. Would you buy them?”
Xia Yunzhao’s interest stirred. “Oh? Roughly how much?”
Ying Yanyu gestured. “At least three times as much as what we gathered today.” Seeing that Xia Yunzhao was interested, she added, “If you’ll buy them, we’ll bring the soil underneath too!”
“Sure.” Xia Yunzhao agreed immediately. “Using today’s amount as one portion, I’ll pay one hundred spirit pearls for each equal portion. Just deliver them directly to Wanglai Pavilion in Qingxi City.”
Ying Yanyu brightened. “Thank you, Senior!”
Only after Xia Yunzhao left did Wei Xuening say disapprovingly, “What you did just now was too risky. Fortunately, this senior is easy to talk to. If it were someone else and they thought you were probing their secrets, beating you to death would be the least of your problems.”
“That won’t happen.” Ying Yanyu smiled. “My instincts are never wrong. This senior isn’t someone who kills innocent people indiscriminately.” Then she changed the subject. “So? Do you think we should take this job?”
Yu Fanyang, who had been silent the whole time, said quietly, “I think we can. Spirit-Eroding Vines grow everywhere, and nobody competes with us for them, so we won’t have to clash with other cultivators. We can gather some along the way while we collect other spirit items. There’s no harm in trying.”
Wei Xuening thought about it too. “Fanyang is right. Let’s try once. If it doesn’t work out, we won’t have wasted much effort. If it does, we’ll have another source of income.”
Ying Yanyu planted her hands on her hips. “Exactly!”
＊
Xia Yunzhao hurried home as though his heart had grown wings. After greeting Granny, he immediately dove into his little grass shelter.
His harvest today had been excellent in both quantity and quality. First, he had earned nearly ten thousand spirit pearls selling pills at the underground market. Then he had gotten a stone knife and a miscellaneous book from the neighboring stalls (uh). And now that he had the stone knife, he could finally cut open the Black-Skin Stone Gall that had been collecting dust for ages!
More importantly, Xu Ziyu had given him a pill cultivator’s notebook. That was what Xia Yunzhao valued most from today. His path of alchemy had gone smoothly, but he had only been following pill recipes by himself, so naturally his knowledge lacked a system. Being able to study the experience of a senior pill cultivator was priceless.
Xu Ziyu had also said he could ask questions if there was anything he did not understand. No amount of money could buy that.
Not to mention that Xia Yunzhao had squeezed in quite a bit of spirit-item gathering on the way home too.
The little grass shelter had been cleaned until it was spotless. Four storage pouches hung on the wall, every one bearing the Fang family emblem. Anyone who did not know better might think this was a branch office of the Fang family… Once all the miscellaneous clutter had been stuffed into the storage pouches, the shelter felt much more spacious.
In the center of the floor stood Xiao Qing, palm-sized, head held high and chest out, all three bronze legs drawn taut.
Xia Yunzhao asked solemnly, “Student Xia Xiao Qing, are you ready?”
Rattle-rattle!
Xia Yunzhao: “Good! Time to eat!”
Xiao Qing immediately opened its lid. Xia Yunzhao opened a storage pouch, pulled out a roll of Spirit-Eroding Vines taller than a person, and began stuffing it into the furnace’s belly.
Xiao Qing’s mouth was only palm-sized, yet its belly seemed bottomless. The entire vine roll vanished in one gulp. The progress bar appeared and slowly rose a little.
Xia Yunzhao did not even bother looking. He immediately pulled out another roll.
One person stuffed, one furnace ate. After the Spirit-Eroding Vines were gone, they moved on to the blocks of soil. Each chunk was larger than a millstone, yet Xiao Qing swallowed them without so much as a burp, crunching away with crisp crunch-crunch sounds.
Once every vine and block of soil had been eaten, Xiao Qing spat out two sheets of paper. Its lid closed twice as though it had yawned, and it prepared to sleep.
Xia Yunzhao caught the sheets. One batch of Spirit-Eroding Vines was worth two pulls? At present, filling one of Xiao Qing’s progress bars required around five hundred spirit pearls. That meant this one batch of vines contained the equivalent of a thousand spirit pearls’ worth of spiritual energy! And if he saved up five batches, wouldn’t that give him a ten-pull? The three cultivators he had met today looked pretty capable. Hopefully, they could find plenty more Spirit-Eroding Vines.
He looked at the first sheet. 【Level-One Artifact Blueprint: Spirit-Binding Rope. Once deployed, it automatically pursues and binds enemies. Effective against enemies at the tenth layer of Qi Refining or below. Once successfully bound, it will absorb and disrupt the target’s spiritual-energy circulation to prevent escape. Note: Do not use it for anything indecent!】
Xia Yunzhao: …
What indecent thing could you possibly do with a rope?!
He grabbed Xiao Qing’s lid and shook it hard. “Your knowledge has gotten way too mixed up!”
Xiao Qing: Zzzz…
Looking at the required materials for the blueprint, Xia Yunzhao discovered that most were Level-One materials—and, surprisingly, he already had all of them. Not bad. He could refine one later and try it out.
Then he looked at the second sheet: Spirit-Cuisine Recipe: Lingering-Fragrance Cake.
Fine, another recipe… He had just started putting it away with the other forgotten recipes when something felt wrong. Usually, recipes from the gacha simply said “Recipe.” Why did this one say “Spirit-Cuisine Recipe”?
He read more carefully and was surprised. There were food cultivators in this world?
Just as pill cultivators refined pills and artifact refiners refined artifacts, food cultivators entered the Dao through food and specialized in preparing spirit cuisine.
Lingering-Fragrance Cake was precisely a Level-One spirit cuisine.
Xia Yunzhao studied the recipe and clicked his tongue. “Cooking isn’t any simpler than refining pills, huh? It needs quite a lot of ingredients, and even the pot has to be specially refined.” He was curious. What effect could such a complicated dish possibly have?
At the bottom of the recipe, one line stood out clearly: After consumption, the entire body will emit a pleasant fragrance for three days without interruption.
…
Yeah. Better put it away after all.
No wonder there were so many flowers in the ingredients. It was cultivation-world perfume.
Xia Yunzhao took out the stone knife and Black-Skin Stone Gall next. He had studied the stone gall before. Its outer shell was incomparably hard. A magical artifact might be able to smash it, but whatever was inside would probably be destroyed too, so he had not risked it.
He had even asked Shang Shuangze what might be inside. Shang Shuangze explained that Black-Skin Stone Galls formed naturally. When certain spirit items remained buried underground for a long time and the spiritual energy around them could not disperse, it combined with the surrounding ore and formed a stone gall. As a result, practically anything could be sealed inside—magical treasures, talismans, rare treasures of heaven and earth, even spirit pearls or spirit stones…
Xia Yunzhao understood. It was basically cultivation-world amber. He wondered whether he could crack it open and find a giraffe.
He took the stone knife and carefully cut the stone gall in half. The fracture instantly released a burst of scorching energy that triggered the Earthfire Art inside him. Red light flashed, the stone gall split violently apart, and the magical treasure inside shot straight at Xia Yunzhao.
He caught it with one hand. It was a small red banner covered in mysterious, intricate patterns. Merely bringing it close made him feel intense heat. Yet under the response of the Earthfire Art, he felt only familiarity and no pressure whatsoever.
This magical treasure’s compatibility with the Earthfire Art was absurdly good… Xia Yunzhao thought carefully for a moment, then exclaimed, “Could this be… a Li-Fire Banner?”
The Li-Fire Banner was a magical treasure mentioned in the Earthfire Art and one of the treasures most compatible with it. Just as every sword cultivator ought to have a sword, cultivators who practiced the Earthfire Art were practically supposed to carry a Li-Fire Banner.
Unfortunately, Li-Fire Banners were forged from Fire-Washing Cloth and Red-Copper Essence. Xia Yunzhao had neither the materials nor the artifact blueprint, so he had not considered getting one yet.
He never expected the Black-Skin Stone Gall to hand him a finished one directly! What a worthwhile stone gall! That triangular-eyed cultivator really had been a good guy. It was not for nothing that Xia Yunzhao had dug him a pit and buried him.
That reminded him of the Rootless Water the triangular-eyed cultivator had given him too. Who knew what effect that might have?
Xia Yunzhao recited the Earthfire Art’s mnemonic. The Li-Fire Banner responded as naturally as an extension of his arm and instantly grew as tall as a person. A burst of flame surged up, three times larger than before, nearly setting the grass-shelter roof on fire!
He hurriedly stopped the mnemonic and looked at the little red banner in his hand, lips curving upward. The next time he encountered Hard-Armored Bamboo Borers, one wave of this little flag could turn the whole swarm into roasted insects.
Two birdcalls sounded outside. They were not real birds, but the patrol’s signal for changing shifts. Hearing that call meant it was exactly the middle of the Chou hour—around two in the morning.
Xia Yunzhao hurried and took out the Spirit-Binding Rope blueprint and materials. Normally, he would already be sleeping at this time after finishing his cultivation, but too many things had happened today and delayed him.
The Spirit-Binding Rope was not particularly complicated to refine, nor did it require many materials. Xia Yunzhao instinctively wanted to steal a small flame from outside. Then, after thinking, he summoned the Li-Fire Banner again and decided to try using the Earthfire Art.
He had not practiced the Earthfire Art for long and had been afraid of wasting materials, so he had never tried using earthfire for alchemy or artifact refining.
But now that he had the Li-Fire Banner, he felt his control over earthfire had improved again. There was no harm in trying.
He flicked a finger, and a small blossom of earthfire floated out.
Xiao Xia methodically added the materials required for the Spirit-Binding Rope… Earthfire was something he had cultivated himself, and with the Li-Fire Banner strengthening his control, it was actually easier to manage than ordinary fire. It also carried much more abundant spiritual energy.
The downside was that earthfire burned far more intensely. Ordinary materials simply could not withstand its tempering.
Unsurprisingly, the first attempt failed. Xia Yunzhao was not disappointed. He had already found the trick.
Sure enough, the second attempt succeeded quickly. When the flames faded, a length of dark green rope appeared in midair. As though it possessed intelligence, it twisted twice in the air, flew down, and obediently wound itself around Xia Yunzhao’s right wrist.
“Finally done.” Xiao Xia exhaled, threw himself onto the bed, and closed his eyes—
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A tremendous pounding noise shocked Xia Yunzhao awake just as he was about to fall asleep. He shot upright. “Huh? Who’s banging on an iron basin?”
An angry roar came from outside. “Enemy attack! Wake up!”
The last trace of Xia Yunzhao’s sleepiness vanished. Enemy attack?
His first reaction was to grab Xiao Qing and stuff it into his clothes, then throw aside the grass curtain and run out. Plenty of people were already outside, yet nobody appeared panicked. The elderly and children were being protected as they moved toward the rear, while the young and able-bodied rapidly gathered around Chang Haiping and Geng Jingwu.
Xia Yunzhao moved his feet and appeared among them the next instant. “What happened?”
“It’s a pack of Sharp-Claw Wolves.” Xiao Qi answered. He happened to be on patrol tonight and had run back so fast that he had not even caught his breath. “At least seventy or eighty! They’ve been hungry all day and they want to surround our camp!”
“They don’t want to.” Chang Haiping said grimly, “They already have.” She raised a hand and pointed. “Look over there.”
Everyone looked up. Two or three kilometers from camp, dark shapes shifted among the trees.
Xia Yunzhao had no idea how well anyone else could see, but he saw them immediately: pair after pair of beast eyes glowing red. Sure enough!
Geng Jingwu said heavily, “They’re tightening the encirclement. Find a way to break through! Get the children and elderly out first!”
“Yes!”
At their command, the wolf pack seemed to sound its battle horn too. A howl rang out, then another, spreading into a chorus… One Sharp-Claw Wolf after another emerged from the darkness, illuminated by the campfire.
Even Xia Yunzhao felt his scalp prickle. This was his first time seeing so many Sharp-Claw Wolves. The species lived in packs, but an ordinary group numbered only twenty or thirty. With this many here now, four or five packs must have gathered together!
What exactly happened in the mountains? Why are so many Sharp-Claw Wolves appearing here?
There shouldn’t be any shortage of food in the mountains right now!
Slaughter beasts possessed no true intelligence, but their combat instincts could not be underestimated. The wolf king saw at a glance that the humans were preparing and immediately gave an order. Several wolves in the vanguard charged!
There were traps around the camp. Five wolves fell into them at once, and three were injured. Even so, another five still broke through!
Geng Jingwu led people to surround two, while Chang Haiping and her group surrounded another two. The final wolf nimbly avoided them both… then thud! Someone sliced through its neck with one palm, and it dropped.
The fastest runner died the fastest too.
Xia Yunzhao flipped through the air and landed, his face devoid of its usual smile for the first time.
The wolf king met his eyes and sensed that he was the hardest human to deal with. It let out another long howl. This time, more than twenty wolves charged—
Xia Yunzhao gritted his teeth and swept out a ribbon of earthfire, blocking half the pack. He threw himself alone into the other half. Two streams of spiritual energy burst from his palms, and in a single exchange, two wolves collapsed dead.
He knew perfectly well that without his direct control, the Earthfire Art could not hold the other wolves for long. He had to finish this quickly…
Suddenly, a child’s cry came from behind. “Granny!”
Xia Yunzhao’s heart jolted. He snapped his head up, saw what was happening, and instantly became furious. Damn it! These rotten wolves even know how to feint east and strike west!
On the surface, they were engaging the camp’s people head-on, but in reality, they had lured all the young and able-bodied fighters forward and sent more than ten wolves to ambush the elderly and children in the rear!
On the other side, Granny stepped in front of the children and dodged Fourth Aunt, who was trying to pull her away. She raised her walking stick and drove it accurately and ruthlessly into a wolf’s eye! Her East Mountain people had always lived against the mountains. Granny might be old now, but in her younger days she had killed wolves and slain tigers herself!
Even for slaughter beasts, the eyes were a weak point. The Sharp-Claw Wolf was instantly blinded and gave a pitiful whine—but there were simply too many wolves. Another immediately replaced it and lunged toward Granny before she could pull back her staff—
Xia Yunzhao cried out in alarm, “Granny!” Ignoring everything else, he turned and rushed toward her, firing a cluster of ox-hair needles at the wolf. The Black Tube gave a low whooo as though it could sense his urgency.
At that exact moment, the wolf king moved.
From the very beginning, it had judged Xia Yunzhao the most difficult person in the entire human camp. So the moment Xia Yunzhao’s attention was drawn toward Granny, it did not hesitate. It leapt into the air and lunged straight at him!
Xia Yunzhao gritted his teeth and thought, I’ve got Thousand-Mechanism Bamboo Armor. I’ll let you have one bite first!
The situation was so urgent that time seemed to freeze. The stars and moon stood motionless; life and death hung on a single instant—
Suddenly, a silver sword flew in from the horizon with overwhelming force and plunged hard into the wolf king’s flank!
A white figure followed. A long, powerful hand closed around the hilt. One thrust, one upward flick—the wolf king’s belly was ripped open. It howled miserably and dragged its half-dead body back toward the pack.
The moment Xia Yunzhao saw that familiar figure, his heart dropped with a splash back into his stomach. He had reached Granny too and cleanly killed several wolves nearby.
Shang Shuangze nodded once to him. Spreading both hands, he released a sphere of spiritual power. It expanded in the wind, growing to the size of a house in an instant and enveloping all the elderly and children in protection.
Xia Yunzhao finally relaxed. He ran over and slapped Shang Shuangze’s still-raised palm. “I take the left, you take the right. Don’t let a single one get away! I’m skinning every last one of them!”
Shang Shuangze froze and lowered his eyes toward his hand.
The people in camp were still fighting desperately. Many had not even noticed Granny had been rescued; they were focused only on killing the Sharp-Claw Wolf in front of them at any cost… Then they saw a silver sword spin outward, circle once through the wolf pack, and leave a whole swath of wolves collapsed behind it.
Everyone stared.
On the other side, Xia Yunzhao raised a hand. The Spirit-Binding Rope flew out, snaked nimbly across the camp, and caught four or five wolves together in one bundle. He swept the Li-Fire Banner in his hand, and red flames erupted from the ground beneath the bound wolves, burning them all to death.
Earthfire, after all, burned beneath the earth.
One white figure and one blue-green figure descended on the pack like King Yama himself arriving at the door and began slaughtering wolves without restraint.
The wolf king had excellent survival instincts. Seeing that more than half the pack was already dead or wounded, it immediately tried to lead the rest away. Unfortunately, the initiative no longer belonged to it.
Xia Yunzhao snorted. His hand seal changed and the Li-Fire Banner rapidly enlarged. He gripped the pole and struck it against the ground. A vast field of earthfire erupted across the area ahead, harvesting the lives of the remaining wolves.
The camp abruptly fell silent. Only the whoosh-whoosh of burning flame remained.
After a moment, Xiao Qi dropped to the ground with a thump. “…I’m exhausted. I really thought we were going to die this time.” Then he lifted his face. Against his soot-blackened skin, two rows of teeth flashed white. “Thanks, Brother Xiao Xia.”
That seemed to remind everyone. Voices rose from every direction. “Thanks, Brother Xiao Xia!”
Even Fourth Aunt laughed and added, “Thanks, Brother Xiao Xia!”
Xiao Xia did not know whether to laugh or cry. When Geng Jingwu and Chang Haiping came over, he hurriedly asked, “How is everyone? Anyone hurt?”
Chang Haiping had not yet caught her breath. Wolf blood dripped steadily from her hair as she answered roughly, “A few people got hurt. Nothing serious.” She patted herself, meaning: We had the Protective Vine Armor. It worked.
Xia Yunzhao nodded in relief. When Shang Shuangze came over too, he said, “This is…” and paused, considering how he should introduce him.
Geng Jingwu said, “No rush. Everyone’s exhausted tonight. You two rest first. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded wearily. He really was exhausted. He had refined artifacts in the first half of the night and killed wolves in the second, and the spiritual energy in his body was completely drained.
They were all his own people, so there was no need to stand on ceremony. He grabbed Shang Shuangze and headed back. “The camp’s a mess. Just squeeze into my place with me for one night.”
From the moment Shang Shuangze appeared, he had been killing wolves and had not managed to say a single word. Now he had been dragged into the grass shelter and still had not managed to say one. Xia Yunzhao pushed him onto the bed, collapsed beside him, and fell asleep on his own, without even remembering to take Xiao Qing out.
Shang Shuangze saw movement at Xia Yunzhao’s chest. Xiao Qing jumped out by itself, crept catlike over to the pillow, and sat there obediently. Its meaning was clear: This spot has belonged to me since ancient times. Don’t fight me for it.
The corner of Shang Shuangze’s mouth curved. He lay down as well, still fully dressed.
＊
The next morning, Xia Yunzhao woke from deep sleep and felt that the blanket had been so warm last night. He had slept wonderfully, and there had even been a faint fragrance of plants and grass.
Opening his eyes, he found himself on the inner side of the bed, with Shang Shuangze resting on the outer side. Both Xia Yunzhao’s hands were clutching the broad hem of Shang Shuangze’s robe and pulling it over himself like a blanket. As for the actual blanket, he had kicked it all the way down to his feet.
Shang Shuangze was already awake, half reclining against the headboard. Xiao Qing and Mingyun lay beside their pillows, apparently having some kind of heated discussion judging by the intense bzz-bzz-bzz of their vibrations. Shang Shuangze looked relaxed, his lightly callused fingers slowly stroking Xiao Qing. Sunlight slipped through gaps in the grass shelter and outlined the straight bridge of his nose.
Xia Yunzhao instantly felt refreshed. “Morning!”
Shang Shuangze replied, “Morning.”
Xia Yunzhao caught one of his fingers and examined it. “Cultivators get calluses too? Can’t you remove them?”
Shang Shuangze’s finger moved as though he wanted to withdraw it, but then did not. “They’re from childhood. I never deliberately removed them.”
Xia Yunzhao released him and showed him his own hand. “I have one too. Mine is from childhood as well, except I got it from writing.”
Following the movement, Shang Shuangze noticed the faint callus still remaining on Xia Yunzhao’s right middle finger. “That must have been hard.”
Xia Yunzhao looked at him and suddenly laughed. “Don’t always be so serious. You look incredibly easy to fool.”
A shout came from outside. “Brother Xiao Xia, are you awake? If you are, come out for breakfast!”
“Coming!” Xia Yunzhao sat up, only to hear Shang Shuangze say, “I wouldn’t.”
Xia Yunzhao blinked. “Wouldn’t what?”
Shang Shuangze said, “You wouldn’t lie to me. And if someone would lie to me, I wouldn’t believe them.”
“Don’t be so confident, Fellow Daoist.” Xia Yunzhao joked. “You got robbed not that long ago.”
Both of them knew exactly what had happened in that robbery, and both laughed.
“Right.” Xia Yunzhao led Shang Shuangze to the lake to wash up and asked, “Did you come specifically to find me yesterday? Have you found a Level-Two pill cultivator?”
Standing one step behind him, Shang Shuangze watched his reflected face on the water break beneath falling droplets and reform. “No. I have searched every nearby city. I planned to go farther away next. I came yesterday precisely to say goodbye.”
At the words say goodbye, Xia Yunzhao’s heart gave the faintest tremor, like a small stone dropped into a lake, raising one tiny ripple.
“I see…” Xia Yunzhao ignored that slight discomfort and thought on Shang Shuangze’s behalf. Then he suddenly clapped his hands. “Right! I just met a Level-Two pill cultivator! Why don’t I ask him for you? I don’t know him well, but he seems pretty helpful. Maybe he’ll agree.” He considered it. Helping catch a fraud still counted as being helpful. No problem at all.
Shang Shuangze answered almost immediately. “All right. Thank you, Fellow Daoist.”
“Brother Xiao Xia!” Xiao Qi ran over. Now that his face had been washed clean, an enormous bruise was visible across it and one cheek was badly swollen. Fortunately, he had no other injuries and merely looked funny. He did not care in the slightest and had been running around camp all morning, making everyone who saw him want to laugh.
Xia Yunzhao was startled too. “You didn’t hurt the bone, did you? Does it affect eating?”
“Nope.” Xiao Qi grinned foolishly. “No bone injury. It’ll be fine in a few days. Breakfast is ready over there. They told me to call you and your friend.”
Shang Shuangze gave a slight nod in thanks.
Xiao Qi rubbed the back of his head. Naturally, everyone could tell that Brother Xiao Xia’s friend was a cultivator. But since he was Brother Xiao Xia’s friend, they would treat him as a friend too rather than as some so-called “cultivator lord.”
The camp had already been cleaned up. Even the bloodstained ground had been covered with fresh earth. The central bonfire was burning again, with long plank tables arranged beside it.
Xia Yunzhao really was hungry and hurried over. Meat covered the tables from end to end, all Sharp-Claw Wolf—steamed, roasted, pan-fried, deep-fried, every cooking method imaginable.
Xia Yunzhao stared. “An all-meat feast? Aren’t we being extravagant?”
Fourth Aunt laughed. “Those wolves wanted to eat us, and now they’re on our table. Of course we’re going to eat our fill.”
Granny beckoned him over.
Xia Yunzhao ran to her. Granny looked kind and gentle, with none of the ferocity she had shown while stabbing a wolf’s eye with her walking stick the night before. She inspected him for injuries, checked his complexion, and made sure he had slept well.
Once she had examined him carefully, she held his hand and said something to everyone. The entire group burst into laughter.
Xia Yunzhao immediately asked, “What? What? What did Granny say about me?”
Everyone only laughed and refused to explain.
Unable to get an answer, Xia Yunzhao pulled Shang Shuangze down beside him and picked up a wolf leg, preparing to start gnawing. Then Shang Shuangze said, “Granny was probably speaking one of the languages of the northern tribes.”
Xia Yunzhao froze. “You understood her?” He looked proud. “What did Granny say about me? There’s one word that sounds really familiar. Granny says it about me all the time! She was definitely praising me!”
Shang Shuangze nodded and deliberately slowed his speech. “Granny said that Fellow Daoist eats well and sleeps well, like a little pig.”
Xia Yunzhao: …