In the pitch-black depths of night, in the middle of the wilderness, a corpse waiting to be buried suddenly came back to life. Anyone would have been terrified by a sight like that.
Even now, the villager shuddered as he remembered it. “That man opened his eyes and looked at every one of us. His expression… how do I put it? He had a human face, but somehow he didn’t seem human… He didn’t do anything to us. He just stood up stiffly and ran away. We didn’t dare chase him. Then the next day, people started feeling sick. In the end, everyone collapsed.”
Xia Yunzhao frowned slightly. That description sounds strangely familiar…
The villager thumped his chest. “Thank you, my lords! If not for the two of you, the more than two hundred people in our village would all have died!”
With that, he tried to kneel again.
Xia Yunzhao’s head hurt. He was just about to help the man up when the villager abruptly froze in place. “Huh?”
Shang Shuangze slowly withdrew his hand. “There is no need to thank us again.”
Xia Yunzhao sensed a faint thread of spiritual power leave Shang Shuangze’s fingertip and circle the villager’s body. After that, the man simply could not bend his knees.
The villager stood straight again, brimming with gratitude. “Yes! Yes! Then I won’t disturb the two lords anymore. I’ll go look after everyone else. Please rest well.”
After the man bowed and left, Xia Yunzhao reached over and pinched Shang Shuangze’s fingers again. “How did you do that? Teach me.” Meanwhile he thought, Right. I’m a cultivator now. I need to get used to controlling spiritual energy to do things!
“I merely used spiritual power to obstruct his movement. Like this.” Shang Shuangze raised a hand and tapped the back of Xia Yunzhao’s hand. Xia Yunzhao immediately felt a thin membrane of spiritual power form there, preventing his fingers from moving. The membrane was very weak, however, and broke the moment Xia Yunzhao applied a little force.
Xia Yunzhao copied him, letting spiritual energy flow gradually from his fingertips. Sure enough, a thin membrane formed over his hand as well. After practicing twice more, he had already mastered it.
Shang Shuangze smiled. “Fellow Daoist possesses exceptional intelligence.”
Xia Yunzhao: “…I’ve always thought I wasn’t stupid, but isn’t that praise a little excessive?”
Shang Shuangze merely smiled without answering.
The two had been traveling since morning and then spent the entire day saving people after reaching the village. By now it was already deep into the night. Returning tonight was impossible—even oxen and horses were not worked this hard. So they found an empty house in the village and stayed there.
Early the next morning, Xia Yunzhao opened his eyes and heard Shang Shuangze tell him that all the villagers had awakened and were waiting outside to offer their thanks.
“Huh? They’re all waiting for me?” Xia Yunzhao rubbed his eyes and climbed up. “Let them come in.”
A huge group immediately poured inside. An elderly man at the front led the way and began to kneel.
Xia Yunzhao expertly flicked out spiritual energy to block him, thinking, Good thing I practiced this last night… “The ground is cold in the morning. There’s no need to kneel. Elder, please sit. Is everyone in the village all right now?”
The old man was overwhelmed with gratitude. “In answer to my lord, everyone is fine now. Even the youngest child has awakened.”
He turned and pointed. Xia Yunzhao followed the gesture and saw a child around three years old being held by her father, looking at him with lively eyes that darted curiously back and forth.
Xia Yunzhao instinctively smiled at her. The little girl went “Wow!” and immediately began giggling too.
He turned back. “I’ll leave a vat of spirit water for you. If anyone still feels unwell, let them drink some. But remember, this spirit water is meant for the people of this village. If someone uses strength in numbers to seize it and I find out, I won’t be polite.”
The old man grew solemn. “My lord, rest assured. This old man will stake his own head on it. The water will absolutely be distributed fairly.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded and said to Shang Shuangze, “Everyone’s awake. Let’s go.”
Shang Shuangze nodded, and the two headed outside.
“This…” The village chief hesitated, wanting to keep them and offer some hospitality. But the entire village had been unconscious for a month. Their vegetables and meat had spoiled, and for the moment they truly had nothing suitable to serve their benefactors. He could only watch helplessly as the two walked away.
Suddenly, the little girl ran after them and grabbed Xia Yunzhao’s hem. “Big Brother, don’t go into the mountains!”
Xia Yunzhao smiled and squeezed her plump little fist. “Don’t worry. Big Brother is a cultivator. I’m not afraid of the slaughter beasts in the mountains.”
The child shook her head. “But the mountains are going to get foggy! There’ll be more monsters!”
Xia Yunzhao froze and exchanged a look with Shang Shuangze. The fog in the center of Liancui Mountain had appeared only two or three days ago. How did this child know?
The old village chief laughed. “The child has heard us talking about it lately and only half understands, so she says things like that. Please don’t worry, my lords. There should still be at least half a month before Liancui Mountain’s Mist-Barrier Period. Traveling these days won’t be a problem.”
Xia Yunzhao froze again. “Liancui Mountain’s Mist-Barrier Period? Elder, could you explain in detail?”
“Oh, certainly.” The old man stroked his beard. “Every hundred years or so, a mist barrier appears across the Liancui Mountain Range. When that happens, the entire mountain range becomes covered in dense fog. The mist grows oppressive, and the concentration of spiritual energy rises as well. Once that happens, the outer reaches of Liancui Mountain won’t contain only low-level slaughter beasts anymore. Level-Two and even Level-Three slaughter beasts may appear! It lasts for a full three months. Many spirit items appear only during the Mist-Barrier Period!”
Xia Yunzhao instantly remembered the Hundred-Hunt Trap on the outskirts of the mountain! Of course—if the outer reaches of Liancui Mountain normally contained only Level-One slaughter beasts, why would anyone place a Level-Two trap there?!
Then another thought struck him. If they really could catch so many Level-Two slaughter beasts, shouldn’t those be worth quite a lot of money? He would no longer need to ration his use of the Spirit-Transmutation Art. And with spiritual energy becoming denser, there would naturally be more spirit plants and spirit ores too…
He immediately asked, “How much longer until the Mist-Barrier Period begins? Elder, do you know the exact timing?”
The elder hurriedly replied, “If dense fog has already appeared in the center of the mountains, then only half a month remains before it spreads throughout the entire range.”
Xia Yunzhao calculated inwardly. The fog in the mountain center had appeared three days ago. In other words, there were only around ten days left before the mist barrier arrived. “That’s really strange. Why hasn’t anyone in all of Qingxi City mentioned this?!” If he had known, he would have started preparing much earlier!
Hearing him mutter, the old village chief laughed. “My lord is joking. How long does a mortal live? How could people remember events from a hundred years ago in such detail? I know this much only because our village has always been a village of mountain guardians. For generations, we have guarded Liancui Mountain. Even so, many rules handed down by our ancestors have already been forgotten. If anything, the cultivator lords probably know much more than we do.”
Xia Yunzhao thought that made sense… Then he realized something else. No wonder so many cultivators had been coming to Liancui Mountain lately. They were all here to make a fortune during the Mist-Barrier Period! As the saying went, greater danger brought greater opportunity. The Mist-Barrier Period brought more slaughter beasts, which naturally meant more resources as well.
Forget everyone else—Xia Yunzhao’s own first reaction had not been to flee quickly, but to wonder how he could obtain more resources.
There was no time to waste. He grabbed Shang Shuangze. “Come on! Let’s head back and make a proper plan!”
Shang Shuangze’s brows shifted slightly, and he followed the pull of Xia Yunzhao’s hand.
Xia Yunzhao went at full speed; Shang Shuangze could keep up anyway. “Here’s what I’m thinking. Xu Ziyu is living inside Liancui Mountain now. He just did us a huge favor, so we should notify him first. The lakeside camp needs to prepare early too. The Mist-Barrier Period may bring greater harvests, but the danger rises as well, so it isn’t suitable for mortals to live there. Also, I have a friend in the city who came from somewhere else. He probably doesn’t know about this either, so I need to tell him.”
After listing them, he figured there was nobody else. “Oh, right. I know someone at the camp at the foot of the mountain too. We’ll be passing nearby, so I might as well tell her. It won’t take much effort. What about you? Do you have any friends who need to be warned?”
Shang Shuangze shook his head. Unlike Xia Yunzhao, he did not have so many friends… Strictly speaking, since descending the mountain, the only friend he had made was Xia Yunzhao.
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “Perfect. The two of us complement each other.”
Since traveling was boring anyway, Xia Yunzhao asked, “Do you think the person who fell into the well might still be somewhere in the mountains?”
Shang Shuangze shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t encountered him.”
Xia Yunzhao said, “Neither have I, but I feel like someone else told me something similar before. I remember… Ah! I’ve got it.” A creature with a human face that behaved like a wild beast—wasn’t that exactly the monster that had bitten Zhong Kai?
Zhong Kai had encountered the monster at the Fangcun Pavilion shopkeeper’s residence, yet this village was far from Qingxi City. That monster could really run if it had traveled this far through the mountains. Or perhaps there was more than one of them?
Xia Yunzhao had previously said they shouldn’t blame every bad thing on the Fang family. Now it seemed he had been too conservative.
Just what in the world was the Fang family doing? Could it somehow be connected to the approaching Mist-Barrier Period?
“Careful.” Shang Shuangze pulled him aside, avoiding a branch overhead.
Xia Yunzhao came back to himself. “Forget it. When the boat reaches the bridge, it’ll straighten itself out. If the sky falls, I’m not the only one who has to hold it up. Let’s prepare first!”
The two focused on traveling and soon returned to the valley where Xu Ziyu lived.
After being disturbed over and over, Xu Ziyu had apparently run out of temper. Without saying a word, he opened the barrier.
Xia Yunzhao laughed brightly but did not even go inside. Instead, he raised his voice and shouted the whole story. Once he finished, he was about to leave when he heard wind whistle behind his head. He instinctively dodged sideways, and more than ten bamboo stalks came flying out of the barrier with a series of clatter-clatter sounds.
Xu Ziyu snorted. “Thousand-Jointed Bamboo is too low in level for me to use anyway. Take it.”
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “Sure. I’m short on it anyway. Thanks!”
Silence came from inside. Presumably, the sharp-tongued, tsundere, yet deeply loyal pill cultivator had no idea how to respond to that.
Xia Yunzhao secretly laughed, stored away the Thousand-Jointed Bamboo, and waved. “Be careful during the Mist-Barrier Period!”
Then he ran off again with Shang Shuangze.
Only after they had gone far away did a reply float out from behind them. “…As if I need you to tell me.”
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze continued toward Qingxi City. When they passed the camp at the foot of the mountain, they stopped to warn Madam Jing as well.
After entering Qingxi City, they headed straight for Wanglai Pavilion.
The moment Xia Yunzhao pushed open the door— Crash! A massive heap of Spirit-Eroding Vines came pouring out.
Xia Yunzhao stared at the sight. “…”
“Oh, you’re finally here.” Du Yan spoke in a strange, sarcastic tone. “Boss, when exactly did our humble shop start buying Spirit-Eroding Vines? How come I, the shopkeeper, didn’t know?”
Xia Yunzhao chuckled. “I borrowed your place to receive some goods and forgot to mention it.” He gave Du Yan a thumbs-up. “Good thing Boss Du is such a nice person and accepted all of them for me. Thanks!”
Du Yan snorted.
Xia Yunzhao grabbed Shang Shuangze’s storage magical artifact at his waist and quickly stuffed all the Spirit-Eroding Vines inside—there was no helping it. His own storage pouches were already full.
Du Yan saw the movement and raised an eyebrow. “And this is?”
“Oh, this is Fellow Daoist Shang. He came with me to bring you some news.” Once the Spirit-Eroding Vines had all been packed away, the doorway cleared. Only then did Xia Yunzhao enter and explain the Mist-Barrier Period. He also repaid Du Yan the spirit pearls Du Yan had advanced for him. The pile of Spirit-Eroding Vines might look enormous, but it was only around twice what Xia Yunzhao had gathered last time, so it cost just two hundred spirit pearls.
“The Mist-Barrier Period…” Du Yan frowned faintly. “I had vaguely heard a rumor, but I assumed it was only ordinary heavy fog. I didn’t realize it was the once-in-a-century event.”
Xia Yunzhao looked at him admiringly. “You’ve opened a shop and run a business in Qingxi City all this time, and you don’t have even one local friend?”
Du Yan said indifferently, “Why would I need so many friends to conduct business?” He pointed toward where the Spirit-Eroding Vines had been. “What are you doing with that many?”
Xia Yunzhao raised one finger. “Relax. I’m definitely not using them to hurt people. If anyone else comes to sell some, keep an eye out for me. I’ll take as much as they can bring.” He thought for a moment and said painfully, “I’ll give you a ten-percent commission! How about that? Way higher than the underground market!”
“Keep those few scraps of money yourself.” Du Yan took a gulp of wine. “If anyone comes to sell resources, I’ll ask around for you.”
“Great! Thanks, Brother Du!” Xia Yunzhao naturally grabbed Shang Shuangze and prepared to leave again.
Du Yan glanced at the storage magical artifact at Shang Shuangze’s waist. “Where are you going now?”
Xia Yunzhao waved. “The underground market! We ran into a Sharp-Claw Wolf pack the other day and got more than seventy carcasses. If I don’t clear them out, there won’t be room for anything else in my storage pouches.”
“That many?” Du Yan checked the sky. “It’ll be dark soon. The underground market doesn’t open at night. You won’t be able to sell that many wolf carcasses before nightfall.”
“Then what do I do? Come back tomorrow?”
Du Yan thought for a moment, lifted his wine gourd, and pointed toward a small alley diagonally opposite them. “See the shop with the red curtain?”
Xia Yunzhao looked over. “Yeah. Isn’t that somebody’s residence? They sell things too?”
“That’s an information shop.” Du Yan gulped down more wine. “As long as you can afford the price, you can buy information about anything in Qingxi City. So many cultivators have arrived recently. Go ask whether there’s anyone capable of taking a deal this large.”
“There’s a place like that?” Xia Yunzhao said. Then something occurred to him and he stared. “You live right beside an information shop, and you didn’t even know about something like the Mist-Barrier Period? Cultivators from other places knew! They’ve already come here for it!”
Du Yan merely continued gulping down wine. He did not even need to speak; Xia Yunzhao automatically supplied the thought for him: Why would I bother paying attention to something like that?
There was nothing Xia Yunzhao could do with him. He dragged Shang Shuangze straight across the street. Today had basically become one endless day of running.
The moment he lifted the red curtain, a woody fragrance mixed with the smell of ink drifted out. Once inside, he saw that the little shop was slightly smaller than Wanglai Pavilion. It was hard to imagine that such an unremarkable place could really possess such far-reaching information.
Xia Yunzhao had visited Wanglai Pavilion countless times and had almost never seen anyone entering or leaving this shop, which was why he had never noticed it before.
As usual, there was a counter. Behind it stood a woman who appeared around forty, dressed very simply, her hair wrapped in blue cloth. She looked like an ordinary commoner. Xia Yunzhao sensed her cultivation… and realized he could not see through it at all.
He instinctively glanced at Shang Shuangze. Shang Shuangze tilted his head toward him. “Great Completion of Qi Refining.”
Xia Yunzhao’s heart tightened.
The female cultivator raised her head. “My, what handsome gentlemen.” She looked them over. “Are the two of you here to buy information?”
Xia Yunzhao immediately put on a smile. “Naturally. Why else would we come to an information shop?” He leaned casually against the counter. “Shopkeeper, I have a batch of wolf carcasses to sell. Quite a large batch. I’d like to know whether anyone in the city can take them all.”
Shang Shuangze watched Xia Yunzhao’s expression shift from the vigilance of a moment ago to complete ease without so much as a pause, and a trace of amusement flashed through his eyes.
The shopkeeper picked up a brush. “How large is ‘quite a large batch’? Thirty? Fifty? More than a hundred? What kind of wolf carcasses? And does the customer want to sell to someone local or someone from outside the city?”
Xia Yunzhao answered one question after another. The shopkeeper wrote down several lines and passed him the paper with a smile. “There are three people listed here, and all three need Sharp-Claw Wolf carcasses. Whether you can reach an agreement with them is beyond my responsibility. Five hundred spirit pearls, please.”
Xia Yunzhao clicked his tongue. So expensive!
He placed the spirit pearls on the counter and watched her put them away. Then he suddenly asked, “Since you say this shop can sell any information, what about the Fang family…” He deliberately slowed down and watched her expression. “Can I buy information on the Fang family?”
The shopkeeper’s smile did not change. “Customer, you need to tell me what information. Different information has different prices.”
Xia Yunzhao studied her smile for a moment and judged that she probably had no connection to the Fang family. He smiled too. “Fair enough. Right, there’s another piece of information I want. A friend of mine recently encountered a monster in the mountains. It had a human face but didn’t look human, and apparently it bites people and carries poison. Do you know anything about a monster like that?”
The shopkeeper smiled. “That information is rather complicated. You can pay a deposit first, and I’ll give you the information once I’ve sorted everything out. However, since you paid so readily just now, I can give you one piece of information for free.” She continued with a smile. “Recently, many treasure hunters entering the mountains have disappeared. There are fewer and fewer treasure hunters at the camp below Liancui Mountain, and many no longer dare enter the mountains. I even heard that Boss Kang, who travels between the camp and Qingxi City, is planning to organize a merchant caravan and go elsewhere. He’s currently gathering information and buying horses.”
Xia Yunzhao’s first reaction was: So the merchant caravan that wanted to buy the big white horse belonged to Kang Xinghuai! His second was: Treasure hunters have been disappearing lately? No wonder it seemed like he had not encountered one in the mountains for a long time, while cultivators had become increasingly common.
After leaving the shop, the two headed toward the addresses written on the information slip. The information shop had been quite conscientious and provided very detailed information. The first cultivator was a body cultivator who needed Sharp-Claw Wolf flesh, blood, and bone powder for tempering. His cultivation was around the seventh layer of Qi Refining, and he was currently staying at an inn inside the city.
They had barely reached the inn when Xia Yunzhao heard Shang Shuangze make a quiet sound of surprise. He immediately asked, “What is it?”
Shang Shuangze indicated the area ahead.
A crowd had gathered there. Someone said bitterly, “Lord Wei Tu, you’ve already broken three support pillars in my establishment. If one more breaks, my inn is going to collapse!”
Then a booming voice answered, “What are you afraid of? If the building collapses, I’ll build you another! Besides, didn’t I bring over wood to prop it up?”
The innkeeper looked utterly miserable.
Wei Tu? Xia Yunzhao raised an eyebrow. Wasn’t that exactly the cultivator he was looking for? He hurriedly squeezed through the crowd… Good heavens!
The cultivator was wide enough to make three Xia YunZhaos. He stood there like a pillar connecting heaven and earth, covered in thick, sharply defined muscles. His arms were terrifyingly huge. Xia Yunzhao finally understood what people meant by a man whose arms were broad enough to race horses across!
So this was what body cultivators looked like. He’s enormous!
Despite his size, the man was remarkably vigilant. The moment he sensed Xia Yunzhao looking, he turned around. His voice boomed like a great bell. “Does Fellow Daoist need something?”
Xia Yunzhao looked around again. Sure enough, three of the inn’s four load-bearing pillars had snapped, and three tree trunks even thicker than the original pillars had been stood upright in their place in a chaotic attempt to support the structure. Leaves and twigs were scattered everywhere while several attendants swept the floor with long-suffering expressions.
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “I have some business I’d like to discuss with Fellow Daoist. Why don’t we find somewhere private?”
The huge man stood up. “Come to my room.”
His room was on the ground floor—which made sense. If even load-bearing pillars could not survive him bumping into them, stairs certainly would not.
The three entered. Only then did Wei Tu notice Shang Shuangze behind Xia Yunzhao. He hurriedly cupped his hands. “Senior.”
Shang Shuangze simply stood behind Xia Yunzhao, appearing to let him take the lead.
The two of them thoroughly confused Wei Tu. He scratched his head. “What exactly do you two need?”
Xia Yunzhao went straight to the point. “I heard Fellow Daoist is buying Sharp-Claw Wolf carcasses?”
As he spoke, he released one wolf carcass. “Would this quality suit you?”
Wei Tu reached out and drew the carcass into his hand. A wolf weighing several hundred jin looked like a dead mouse in his grip as he casually turned it over. After a moment, he nodded. “Not bad. Fresh, intact, and little spiritual energy has dispersed. The fur has some burn marks, but I don’t need the hide anyway, so that doesn’t matter. If they’re all this quality, I’ll pay one thousand spirit pearls each. If you have more than fifty, I’ll add another hundred per carcass.”
Xia Yunzhao was delighted. That price was much higher than what he would get at the underground market! He smiled. “Quantity won’t be a problem!”
With that, he emptied every wolf carcass from his own storage pouch. The smell of blood instantly filled the room. Then he reached for the storage magical artifact at Shang Shuangze’s waist and emptied those carcasses as well.
Wei Tu watched him do this and suddenly understood. “So the two of you are Dao companions.” Then he saluted Xia Yunzhao. “Forgive my earlier discourtesy, Senior.”
Xia Yunzhao: ?
He hurriedly waved both hands. “Uh, no. We’re just friends. Purely friends.”
Wei Tu continued scratching his head in confusion. “You… freely use this Senior’s storage pouch, and you’re purely friends?”
“…” Xia Yunzhao awkwardly withdrew his hand. “Sorry. I didn’t realize storage pouches carried that much symbolic meaning in your cultivation world.” He immediately changed the subject. “Count them. There are seventy-seven complete Sharp-Claw Wolf carcasses.”
Wei Tu lowered his head and counted. “The number is right.” Then he began taking out money. “That comes to eighty-four thousand seven hundred spirit pearls. No need to fuss over the odd amount. I’ll round it to eighty-five thousand. Here!”
Xia Yunzhao’s hand trembled slightly as he accepted the spirit pearls. What a good person. What an incredibly good person! Eighty thousand spirit pearls! Since transmigrating, Lord Xiao Xia had never seen this much money!
He put the eighty thousand-plus spirit pearls into the storage pouch he had just emptied. And wow, the thing actually felt heavy! His heart instantly felt secure!
Wei Tu packed away the wolf carcasses and said cheerfully, “Finally bought enough wolves. That completes half the reason I came to Qingxi City. I won’t see Fellow Daoist out. I’m going to cultivate peacefully for a few days and wait for the Mist-Barrier Period.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded somewhat dazedly. “Sure, cultivation is good! Um… want me to give you a few pills?”
A quiet laugh came from beside him.
Xia Yunzhao’s ears heated. He abruptly snapped out of his spirit-pearl trance and cleared his throat. “Ah, nothing.” He put on a solemn expression. “Fellow Daoist Wei, cultivate properly. If I run into any other slaughter-beast carcasses suitable for body cultivation, I’ll sell them to you next time!” Please don’t die halfway through! It’s incredibly hard to find a customer this stupid and rich—no, a customer this generous with his money!
Wei Tu looked bewildered. “Ah. All right.” Inwardly, he thought Qingxi City really did have simple and honest customs. Even Fellow Daoists who had met him by chance cared this much about his well-being.
After leaving the inn, Shang Shuangze watched the corners of Xia Yunzhao’s mouth rise higher and higher. Not even a trace of his earlier worry about the Mist-Barrier Period remained. Shang Shuangze smiled. “Satisfied?”
“Very, very satisfied!” Xia Yunzhao patted his storage pouch. “These spirit pearls are enough to raise me at least two minor realms!” Then he remembered something and gave Shang Shuangze a strange look. “Speaking of which, why does your cultivation world do this too?”
Shang Shuangze tilted his head. “Do what?”
Xia Yunzhao huffed. “See a short sleeve and immediately imagine a bare white arm, then marriage, then Dao companions…” He looked up. “Why didn’t you tell me storage pouches were that important? If you’d told me, I wouldn’t have touched yours.”
Elio’s Notes: Xia Yunzhao is joking about the tendency to leap from one tiny clue to increasingly far-fetched romantic conclusions—seeing a short sleeve, imagining the bare arm beneath it, and somehow ending up at marriage and Dao companions.
“That is not actually the reason,” Shang Shuangze said calmly.
Xia Yunzhao: “Hm?”
Shang Shuangze looked leisurely ahead. “Naturally, anyone can touch a Level-One storage pouch. But storage magical treasures at Level Two and above require a divine-sense imprint. Nobody except the owner can use them.” He paused. “Unless the owner opens the divine-sense imprint for that person.”