Inside the cave, Shang Shuangze sat cross-legged with several magical artifacts scattered around him while Xia Yunzhao handed them over one by one for him to test.
“Try this?” Xiao Xia passed him a stone hammer found in one of the Fang cultivators’ storage pouches.
Shang Shuangze took it.
Bang.
The stone hammer exploded and was completely ruined.
“Okay, that one doesn’t work.” Xiao Xia tossed the broken hammer aside. “Then try this.” He handed over the Water-Purifying Gourd.
Shang Shuangze hesitated slightly. The Water-Purifying Gourd was the magical treasure Fellow Daoist Xia used most frequently. If it were destroyed…
“It’s fine. This one is really easy to refine.” Xia Yunzhao had no idea he had just said something that would make every other artifact refiner want to strangle him. “I can make one in fifteen minutes. Hurry and try it.”
Shang Shuangze accepted the Water-Purifying Gourd.
It remained completely intact.
Xia Yunzhao had him try drawing in water and releasing it again. Both worked perfectly.
Next, they tested the Spirit-Binding Rope, Protective Vine Armor, and several others…
Finally, the two looked at one another. They had no idea why, but as long as a magical artifact had been personally refined by Xia Yunzhao, Shang Shuangze could use it!
Xia Yunzhao was invigorated and immediately pulled out pills. “Then try the pills I refined too!” Without giving Shang Shuangze any chance to object, he stuffed several Dew-Condensing Pills and Fasting Pills into his mouth.
Shang Shuangze looked helpless. His throat moved as he swallowed them. He closed his eyes and sensed his body for a moment… Then, under Xia Yunzhao’s tense stare, he gave a slight nod.
Xia Yunzhao immediately jumped up. “They work, right? You can use them?”
Shang Shuangze looked at his smile and nodded again. “Yes. Thank you, Fellow Daoist.”
“That’s great!” Xia Yunzhao bounced twice, then crouched directly in front of him, placed both hands on his shoulders, and looked up into his eyes. “Now you can use magical treasures and pills! You won’t have to worry about that anymore when fighting someone!”
Shang Shuangze saw his own expression reflected clearly in Xia Yunzhao’s eyes and discovered a gentleness even he had not realized was there. “Yes. From now on, any enemy Fellow Daoist cannot defeat can be left to me.”
“What are you talking about?” Xia Yunzhao laughed. “Do I look like the kind of person who calls for help the moment I can’t beat somebody?” He considered it for a moment, then nodded to himself. “Actually, I am.”
The smile at Shang Shuangze’s lips did not fade. His gaze remained fixed on Xia Yunzhao.
Xia Yunzhao noticed none of it. He wandered around the cave. “This is great. Luckily, you’re at Foundation Establishment right now. If I work hard, I can still catch up. If you were still Golden Core, even if I could refine pills and magical treasures, they wouldn’t be any use to you! That Protective Vine Armor is a Level-One magical treasure. It’s barely better than nothing for you. I’ll refine another Spirit-Binding Rope and Water-Purifying Gourd for you! Right, Xiao Qing—”
Xia Yunzhao grabbed Xiao Qing. “Come on, dinnertime! Let’s try to get something with a little more substance this time!”
Xiao Qing bounced indignantly. Its meaning was obvious: Every formula has plenty of substance!
Xia Yunzhao picked up the pile of damaged magical treasures and began stuffing them into its stomach.
Shang Shuangze: …
Nearby, Mingyun was eager to join in. Seeing that its master did not stop it, it quietly floated over and vibrated its blade. Can I taste some too?
“Hmm…” Xia Yunzhao thought for a moment but could not figure out where its mouth was. In the end, he inserted the sword tip into a broken section of one magical treasure. “Can you taste it?”
Spiritual power rippled along Mingyun’s blade… A moment later, it abandoned the magical treasure and floated back dejectedly. That spiritual energy tastes awful. Xiao Qing is amazing. It can even eat something this terrible.
Xiao Qing proudly puffed out its belly and stretched its mouth as wide as possible, swallowing all the broken magical treasures before slowly beginning to digest them.
The sky outside continued growing darker. There was no need to risk going out now. Even though Xiao Xia had only just awakened, he forced himself to rest for several more hours.
At daybreak, Xia Yunzhao flipped out of bed and immediately went to inspect Xiao Qing.
All the magical treasures in Xiao Qing’s stomach had been digested. The entire furnace was still snoring away.
Beside it lay two freshly drawn sheets of paper.
Xia Yunzhao picked up the first.
【Level-Two Artifact Blueprint: Flowing Cloud Shoes】!
His eyes immediately lit up. This was the first Level-Two artifact blueprint he had ever obtained!
He looked at the formula more closely. It required more than twenty different materials. Apart from a small portion of Level-One materials, most were Level Two: Wind-Walking Spider Silk, Hanging-Silk Leaf, Wind-Spirit Rabbit fur, a section of Ironwood Heartwood… It also required carving Lightness Runes.
Xia Yunzhao did not know runes. But that was hardly the biggest problem. Of the more than twenty required materials alone, he lacked over ten.
Thinking about it carefully, Xiao Xia already had quite a few formulas for which he could not gather all the materials. Besides the Flowing Cloud Shoes and Seven-Star Ring, there was the Lingering-Fragrance Cake and that Low-Level Defensive Formation Diagram.
He had drawn that formation diagram during his very first ten-pull, and he still had not used it.
He was still short on materials… Fine. Today he was going out to scrape the land bare!
Shang Shuangze walked over just in time to see Xiao Xia pointing toward the fifteen storage pouches lined up along the wall and shouting, “I’m filling all fifteen storage pouches today!”
Shang Shuangze: …
Xiao Xia cleared his throat and looked at the second sheet. The instant he did, he made another surprised sound. “A treasure map?”
He had already been tricked once by Du Qianshan’s treasure map, and now another one had appeared? Fortunately, this came from the alchemy furnace. It probably would not be fake.
Then he studied the route.
The destination was quite far.
Even traveling at his and Shang Shuangze’s speed, it would take at least two days to get there from their cave residence. Going there and back would mean about five days.
Xia Yunzhao weighed the choice inwardly.
Go, or not?
In the end, he hardened his resolve.
Go!
Now that he had stepped onto the cultivation path, how could he spend all his time fearing wolves ahead and tigers behind? Cultivators with profound cultivation could soar through heaven and burrow into the earth. Was he supposed to stay curled up at home forever?
Besides, who else possessed his luck, with a friend he could trust beside him? If he did not dare take even this much of a gamble, he might as well stop cultivating and go to Qingxi City to work odd jobs.
So he immediately called, “Shang Shuangze, we’re going out for five days this time. Pack everything we’ll need.”
An answer came from the other side.
Xia Yunzhao smiled. Shang Shuangze really did seem to have never once told him no.
After they prepared to leave, Shang Shuangze released an enormous sphere of spiritual power that sealed off the entrance to the valley. He explained, “If anyone enters, I will sense it.”
Xia Yunzhao almost wanted to laugh. Shang Shuangze could not learn spells. The Earthfire Art, sealing arts, and similar techniques were all impossible for him. So whenever anything happened, he simply released spiritual-power spheres of varying sizes.
Then Xia Yunzhao thought again. To reach his current cultivation despite those circumstances, apart from extraordinary talent, the only explanation was sheer tenacity.
Shang Shuangze had no idea what Xia Yunzhao was thinking. He simply took out the Spirit-Seeking Compass. “Seek spirit items?”
Xia Yunzhao nodded enthusiastically. “Mm-hm. I’m leaving that to you.”
Shang Shuangze was not very expressive, but Xia Yunzhao could tell he was interested in the Spirit-Seeking Compass. Or rather, he seemed interested in every magical artifact. He could study one Water-Purifying Gourd for an entire night, probably because he had never had the opportunity to use these things before.
Points of light appeared across the compass. Xia Yunzhao concentrated. “Today we’ll keep moving in the direction of the treasure map. Oh, and we have to watch for traces of Wind-Spirit Rabbits. I need their fur. Also, we said we were going to grow spirit herbs outside the cave, so don’t forget to collect spirit-plant seeds…”
The breeze stirred the mist and carried his voice farther and farther away until it faded.
By the third day of the Mist-Barrier Period, even more cultivators had entered the Liancui Mountain Range.
More and more people fought viciously over treasures, the smell of blood hidden beneath the dense fog.
Some cultivators would obtain a treasure one second and not even have time to celebrate before someone killed them with a single slash the next.
Cultivation was a path against heaven. A cultivator did not even need to take the wrong road; one moment of carelessness was enough to cost a life.
Xiao Xia paid no attention to other people’s conflicts. Whenever he encountered fighting, he took a wide detour. Along the way, he still managed to gather plenty of spirit items.
“This treasure point is a little far off. It’s about twenty li away from our route. Should we go?” He hesitated.
Shang Shuangze thought briefly. “At our speed, going twenty li out and back would take roughly fifteen minutes.”
“When you put it like that, it suddenly doesn’t sound far.” Xia Yunzhao considered it. “Then let’s go quickly and come straight back.”
The distance itself was secondary. The real problem was that finding direction in the fog was difficult. If they lost their way, retracing the route would waste even more time.
Though the treasure map looked ancient enough that it probably had no expiration date…
The two headed toward the treasure point twenty li away. After traveling only five li in that direction, they sensed a scorching wave of fire-attributed spiritual power.
“Whoa. Definitely something good!” Xia Yunzhao pulled Shang Shuangze into a run. “My Earthfire Art is already moving on its own. It likes this!”
Shang Shuangze made a sound of agreement. “Scarlet Berries.”
They approached and saw mature Scarlet Berries glowing red among a field of jagged rocks.
Fortunately, it was the Mist-Barrier Period. Otherwise, that red glow would have been visible from a mountain away.
Abundant fire-attributed spiritual energy poured from the berries, warping the surrounding air with heat.
Xia Yunzhao was eager to try. “I read how to harvest Scarlet Berries in the Compendium. One method is to wrap them in spiritual power and pluck them directly. The other is to draw them over with a fire-attributed art!”
Shang Shuangze moved aside. “Try it.”
That was exactly what Xia Yunzhao wanted. The Earthfire Art inside him was already restless. The moment he loosened his control slightly, flame emerged from his fingertips, and the ripe Scarlet Berries hanging from the branches began to tremble—
Suddenly, Mingyun shot from its sheath. The sword sliced through the white fog like a bolt of silk and blocked Xia Yunzhao’s face. A tiny red bird appeared from nowhere, its sharp beak striking directly against Mingyun’s blade—
It had been aiming for Xia Yunzhao’s eye!
Xia Yunzhao’s reaction was not slow either. He flipped backward and fired the Sleeve Dart he had obtained from the Fang cultivator yesterday. It was considerably stronger than his old Black Tube!
The tiny bird was even faster. In the blink of an eye it vanished, and several red fireballs appeared inside the fog and flew toward them.
Both men dodged. Xia Yunzhao asked, “What slaughter beast is that?”
Shang Shuangze said, “Level-Two Firecloud Lark. Fire attribute.”
Xia Yunzhao immediately remembered what Du Yan had once told him. Even among slaughter beasts of the same level, those possessing an attribute were stronger in battle.
He immediately asked, “Can you beat it?”
“Naturally.”
“Will you get hurt?”
Shang Shuangze considered that. “Probably not.”
Only then did Xia Yunzhao relax. He patted his Thousand-Mechanism Bamboo Armor, darted behind a rock, and waved. “Go wild! You’ve got this!”
Shang Shuangze did not know whether to laugh or sigh. He turned, stood with sword in hand, and looked calmly into the air. “If you do not come down, I will harvest all your Scarlet Berries.”
The Firecloud Lark hiding in the fog seemed enraged by his words. It released an angry cry, its feathers bursting into flame as the tiny figure dove like an arrow!
Firelight tore through the thick fog.
At the end of that streak, a narrow sword stopped it.
This was hardly Xia Yunzhao’s first time watching Shang Shuangze fight, yet every time, he still could not help thinking how beautiful it looked!
Shang Shuangze’s sword techniques were never flashy. They were usually the simplest possible movements, yet each thrust struck from the most unexpected angle.
The Firecloud Lark might have been agile, but it was nowhere near as fast as his sword.
In less than fifteen minutes, Mingyun was already pressed against the Firecloud Lark’s body. Sword light burst out, piercing its heart. The flames went dark, and the red corpse dropped from the air.
Xia Yunzhao immediately emerged from hiding. “Shang Shuangze, you’re amazing! I thought the two of you would fight for a while. Are you the strongest person in Foundation Establishment or something?”
Shang Shuangze put away his sword and answered mildly, “There is always someone stronger.”
Satisfied, Xia Yunzhao stored the Firecloud Lark’s carcass and activated the Earthfire Art again. This time, nobody interrupted him. One Scarlet Berry after another shook loose from its branch and flew over in an orderly line.
Xia Yunzhao could not resist—or perhaps he simply knew Shang Shuangze was beside him—and used the Earthfire Art to melt five Scarlet Berries immediately. The little flame inside him grew slightly stronger.
Scarlet Berries really were extremely compatible with the Earthfire Art!
Xia Yunzhao opened his eyes, put away the remaining berries, and carefully examined the shrubs. Then he asked, “Is this one of its seeds?”
Shang Shuangze leaned closer. “It should be. Scarlet Berries mature once every ten years. The Firecloud Lark must have guarded them for many years. Perhaps some berries from the previous harvest were not eaten and left seeds behind.”
Xia Yunzhao brightened and carefully searched the Scarlet Berry patch, ultimately finding more than ten seeds. “Too bad storage pouches can’t hold living things. Otherwise, we could dig up a mature plant and bring it home. That would save a lot of trouble.” Seeds could be stored in a pouch, but not for too long; their vitality would slowly fade as well.
Shang Shuangze kept watch around them and said, “There are storage pouches capable of holding living things. Spirit-plant pouches, spirit-beast pouches, and the like. They are simply expensive.”
The instant Xia Yunzhao heard the word expensive, he instinctively covered his money pouch. “…Forget it. I’ll wait until I draw the blueprint and refine one myself!”
He had probably grown too accustomed to refining pills and artifacts. Whenever he thought about purchasing a finished product, he now felt vaguely cheated…
After dealing with the Firecloud Lark, the two encountered no real danger along the rest of the road.
Perhaps Shang Shuangze’s combat ability was simply too strong. Ordinary Level-Two slaughter beasts that encountered him died in a single exchange.
Only now did Xia Yunzhao finally understand how relaxing it felt to have someone “watching his back.” He no longer followed the treasure-map route quite so rigidly. If the Spirit-Seeking Compass indicated something only a little way off course, he went over to take a look.
Because of that, by the afternoon of the second day, every storage pouch Xia Yunzhao carried was already full. He began stuffing things into Shang Shuangze’s storage space again.
Whatever level Shang Shuangze’s storage space was, it seemed bottomless and satisfied Xia Yunzhao’s hoarding instincts perfectly.
“One, two, three… All right. Twenty-three Green-Antler Deer and sixteen Black-Patterned Oxen.” Xia Yunzhao patted his hands and rehung the storage magical artifact at Shang Shuangze’s waist, using it even more naturally than Shang Shuangze himself.
They had just encountered a herd of Green-Antler Deer fighting a herd of Black-Patterned Oxen. How could Xia Yunzhao ignore an opportunity like that? He immediately decided to become the fisherman who profited from two sides fighting. After the battle ended, he leapt straight into the field and collected the spoils from both parties.
Afterward, he even smiled and said, “I heard venison tastes pretty similar to beef. Should we try some tonight?”
What else could Shang Shuangze say?
He could only say yes.
After clearing the battlefield, Xiao Xia compared their location with the treasure map. “The destination is just ahead. I wonder whether there’ll be some kind of guardian beast…” Then he turned around and looked back.
Shang Shuangze waited a moment. When Xia Yunzhao said nothing, he asked, “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.” Xia Yunzhao smiled. “I was just thinking people really do have to go out and see the world. It took traveling this far for me to realize Liancui Mountain is unimaginably huge. I always thought I lived in the outer reaches. Now I realize I was only living on the outer edge of the outer reaches.”
The entire Liancui Mountain Range stretched over a thousand li and contained an unknown number of peaks. Even the saying circulated around the mountain-foot camps—that Liancui Mountain’s outer reaches contained only Level-One and Level-Two spirit items—was wrong, merely the tiny corner visible to mortals with limited horizons.
The true outer reaches were so vast that probably not a single person had ever walked across all of them. What they could see was merely one toe of an enormous giant.
“Let’s go.” Xia Yunzhao withdrew his gaze and continued forward.
＊
Meanwhile, roughly twenty or thirty li from the treasure-map destination, inside a valley…
A one-eyed cultivator smiled ingratiatingly. “Boss, what do you think of this place I found? There’s a whole patch of Spirit-Gathering Grass in this valley. The entrance is narrow, and people can hide on both sides of the cliffs. The moment someone comes inside, we can throw magical treasures down from above. Guaranteed lambs walking into a tiger’s mouth! Then we rob the robbers!”
The cultivator he called Boss was large and bald, with a row of ordination scars across his head. At that moment, however, he was holding a sheep leg and eating until grease coated his mouth. When he spoke, bits of meat sprayed out. “Rob the robbers?”
Judging from his aura, this wine-and-meat monk was actually at early Foundation Establishment!
The one-eyed cultivator immediately nodded. “Exactly! Think about it. Liancui Mountain has so many treasures right now that every cultivator’s storage pouch is stuffed full. Why should we search the mountains ourselves when robbing them is faster?”
Before the boss could respond, several nearby cultivators nodded.
“One-Eye has a point.”
“I can’t stand picking spirit plants. They’re too delicate. Use too much force and it’s wrong; too little and that’s wrong too! I vote for robbing people!”
“But how do we get them to come inside?”
“Gentlemen, do you see this patch of Spirit-Gathering Grass?” The one-eyed cultivator smiled darkly. “Plenty of cultivators have sensing cultivation methods or sensing magical artifacts for locating spirit items. With this huge patch of spirit plants sitting here, are we afraid nobody will come? The cultivators who know how to sense treasure are exactly the ones carrying the most spirit items!”
Several muffled mmph-mm sounds suddenly came from behind.
The one-eyed cultivator paused, then immediately smiled again. “Which brother caught us some fat sheep?”
“What fat sheep? Just a few little bugs in early Qi Refining.” Another cultivator spoke dismissively. “There was something wrong with those three. Everyone else was gathering spirit plants, but they were digging up Spirit-Eroding Vines—and even excavating the soil underneath. I didn’t like the look of them, so I grabbed them. Once we finish here, we can sell them as human cauldrons and still make a few spirit pearls.”
Elio’s Notes: 炉鼎, literally “furnace/cauldron,” refers here to a person exploited as a cultivation resource, commonly through coerced dual cultivation.
One-Eye looked back. Sure enough, they were merely three low-level female cultivators. He immediately relaxed. They should not interfere with his plan… and he resumed his ingratiating smile.
＊
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze arrived at a shallow riverbank. The riverbed had almost completely dried up, leaving only one thin stream of water flowing through its center.
Xiao Xia carefully compared it with the treasure map. “Huh. It seems to be here.” The riverbanks on either side were slightly higher than the bed. At a glance… it was not that there was nothing. There were at least several lowest-level spirit herbs, but not much else was visible.
Xia Yunzhao closed his eyes and sensed carefully. He frowned. “There seems to be spiritual energy…”
Shang Shuangze nodded. “It is very chaotic.”
“A formation?” Xia Yunzhao thought briefly, then took out the Glow Moss they had gathered the previous day. Glow Moss was a raw material for Illumination Talismans. When alive, it produced only a faint glow in darkness to protect itself. Once harvested and processed, however, the light became much brighter and remained clearly visible even beneath daylight.
Xia Yunzhao had always been diligent. He had already processed all the Glow Moss, and now each clump in his hand looked like a tiny ground lamp.
He crushed the Glow Moss. Bright powder scattered through the air, fell, then was caught by the wind.
The nearly invisible breeze swept the powder into recognizable patterns…
Sure enough, the shape of a formation emerged.
Once the formation’s location was revealed, everything became simple. Shang Shuangze thrust his sword forward. The formation, ancient and already badly damaged, cracked instantly. The riverbank collapsed, and mud and sand poured outward carrying a broken vessel with them.
Xia Yunzhao floated lightly upward and landed beside the wreck. “This ship has such a strange shape.”
Shang Shuangze followed. One glance was enough. “A Floating Ark. A travel magical artifact.”
“So it flew through the sky.” No wonder Xia Yunzhao had never seen a vessel shaped like this before. “It’s pretty big. Let’s go aboard and look around.”
“Careful.” Shang Shuangze flicked his sword and removed a talisman from the cabin entrance. “That is an Alarm Talisman. Entering without permission would trigger a warning.”
Xia Yunzhao watched the talisman fall away and turn to ash. He nodded. “We’ll be careful.”
The rotten cabin door could no longer withstand even the slightest pressure. Xia Yunzhao pushed it gently, and the entire thing fell off. He simply removed the door completely and set it aside.
The inside was dark. They entered through the opening and reached the lowest level of the Floating Ark. The vessel had three floors altogether, with the deck at the top.
Xia Yunzhao took out several more pieces of Glow Moss to illuminate the surroundings and entered the first room. “Ah, so much spirit rice. Too bad it’s spoiled.”
This room seemed to have served as a kitchen. It contained large amounts of spirit rice, fruit, and vegetables. When the vessel was intact, there had probably been a preservation formation here too. Unfortunately, the ship had been damaged for who knew how long, and the formation had naturally failed long ago.
Xia Yunzhao picked up a handful of spirit rice and inspected it regretfully. Not a trace of spiritual energy remained. Even Xiao Qing would not eat it.
After circling the room and finding nothing useful, he immediately headed for the next.
There were only two rooms on the lowest level: one resembling a kitchen and another resembling a warehouse. Xiao Xia found several pieces of intact ore inside the warehouse, all reasonably valuable.
Finally, the two climbed the stairs to the second level.
The second floor had four rooms, apparently living quarters.
One of them still had a functioning formation!
Xiao Xia sensed it and exclaimed, “This formation seems to be gathering spiritual energy?”
Shang Shuangze identified it after a moment. “A Low-Level Spirit-Gathering Formation. It can assist cultivation.”
“There’s something this good?” Xia Yunzhao immediately rubbed his hands together. “I’m moving it to our house!”
Then he dragged Shang Shuangze toward the other rooms. “Let’s see if any of them have another one. We can each have one!”
Shang Shuangze said, “I cannot use Spirit-Gathering Formations.”
“You can’t even use formations?” Xia Yunzhao stared. “You mean before meeting me, you couldn’t use anything that assisted cultivation?”
Shang Shuangze nodded.
Xia Yunzhao opened his mouth. A moment later, he lifted his face and looked at him sincerely. “Shang Shuangze, you’re amazing. If you ascend someday, you’ll definitely become a legend of the cultivation world. You’ve never taken a single shortcut!”
Shang Shuangze did not know whether to laugh or sigh.
Xia Yunzhao returned to digging out the formation. He worked with extreme care and nearly exhausted himself before finally moving the entire thing into Shang Shuangze’s storage magical artifact. Whether it would still function after being taken out again remained to be seen.
Unfortunately, only this room’s formation remained usable. The Spirit-Gathering Formations in the other three rooms had already broken down.
They did find other resources. Most were Level One, and the few Level-Two spirit items had degraded into Level-One resources after losing spiritual energy. Altogether, everything was worth only seven or eight thousand spirit pearls.
The two continued up the stairs to the deck.
The deck was much brighter and covered beneath a thick layer of soil.
Xia Yunzhao muttered, “If there’s nothing good up here either, I’m never trusting another treasure map…”
The words had barely left his mouth when Shang Shuangze stepped in front of him. “Something good has arrived.”
“Hm?” Xia Yunzhao was just raising his head when a long-handled axe came chopping down through the air. A humanoid figure seemed to materialize from nowhere in front of Shang Shuangze and was stopped by his sword.
Xia Yunzhao blinked, immediately retreated to clear the battlefield, and stared at the figure’s features.
“Is that… a puppet?”