The Seventh Elder touched the skull Xian Qinglin had kicked. From the density and hardness of the bone, it wasn’t hard to tell that this person had been at Golden Core cultivation before death.
He and the Second Elder spent a good while examining the cave together before finally settling down.
This was likely the den of a Black Bear Beast, though judging by the age and weathering of the bones scattered across the floor, none of them were recent, these creatures had likely died decades ago. There was no trace of a Black Bear Beast’s scent in the cave, so it had either left long ago or was already dead.
Among the bones littering the floor were second-grade demonic beasts, as well as third-grade ones, but what left the Seventh Elder’s and Second Elder’s expressions truly stricken were the several fourth-grade demon beast skeletons.
A first-grade demonic beast rivaled Qi Refining.
Second-grade equaled Foundation Establishment.
Third-grade, Golden Core.
Fourth-grade demonic beasts were on the level of Nascent Soul.
This Lianyun Mountain was likely even more dangerous than they’d realized.
The Second Elder went to check the cave entrance for a moment and came back, transmitting his voice. “Old Seven, something’s off about this place.”
“What is it?”
“Listen carefully.” the Second Elder said.
The Seventh Elder braced himself, trying to sit up. Xian Qinglin supported him, and following his instructions, helped him over to the cave entrance.
Outside, the howling of wolves and roaring of tigers rang out continuously.
But all the sounds came from far in the distance.
The Seventh Elder’s expression shifted at once.
Something wasn’t right.
Those demonic beasts seemed wary of something, not daring to come near this place. Could there be something else lurking here?
The Seventh Elder swept his spiritual sense outward, but found nothing at all.
“Second Senior Martial Brother, should we leave?”
The Second Elder thought it over. “You’re gravely wounded, and I…” he laughed bitterly. “Although I’m at mid Golden Core, I still can’t fight as well as you. Leaving now would really be the worse option. Let’s wait until tomorrow, let’s rest first. This place seems safe enough for now. If there really were something dangerous here, we wouldn’t still be standing around like this.”
“That’s true,” the Seventh Elder found a spot and sat down. “Senior Martial Brother, get some rest quickly.”
Xian Qinglin, at this point essentially as good as blind in the dark, could still sense the Second Elder and Seventh Elder’s tension. “Master? Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” the Seventh Elder said. “Come over here by me.”
His side was clean, far from the bones.
The Second Elder clicked his tongue, thinking to himself how fiercely Old Seven protected this little disciple of his, as if any cultivator on this path had ever been afraid of a few old bones, and yet here he was hiding it, all out of fear of frightening his little disciple.
On the path of cultivation, if you wanted to climb higher, you had to see some blood, kill a few people, otherwise the great Dao would remain forever out of reach.
In the middle of the night, a faint wisp of smoke drifted in. The Second Elder yawned, his head tilting to one side as he fell asleep.
The Seventh Elder’s breathing steadied, seeming to have also lost consciousness.
Something pitch-black hopped in from outside the cave.
Xian Qinglin, sleeping uneasily, felt something poking at his face repeatedly.
He touched his cheek, found nothing there, rolled over, and felt his other cheek poked again.
He opened his eyes, and a voice rang out, sounding through gritted teeth. “You bamboo pole, how can you sleep this soundly.”
Xian Qinglin bolted upright, making no small amount of noise, and yet the Seventh Elder, still meditating, didn’t even seem to notice.
Xian Qinglin looked around but saw nothing. “Xu Yifan?”
“Shh, keep your voice down.”
Xian Qinglin nodded.
“Come outside.” Xu Yifan said.
Xian Qinglin didn’t hesitate for a moment, carefully stepping over the Second Elder and heading outside.
Faint moonlight filtered down through the trees, and a small blade of grass hopped along after him, out of the cave.
A tiny mirror hung from one of its leaves.
“Xu Yifan?” Xian Qinglin looked around several times but saw no one. “Where are you?”
“Right here.”
The voice came from behind him. Xian Qinglin turned around, and still saw nothing at all.
“You’re concealed again?”
“Concealed my ass.” Xu Yifan swore.
“Huh?”
“Here, here, Boss is right here!” the little blade of grass bounced up, its voice milky and childish. “Are you blind or something? So young, and so good-looking too, what a shame it’d be if you were actually blind.”
Xian Qinglin: “…”
Every hair on Xian Qinglin’s body stood on end. Startled, he stepped back several paces, his expression wary.
For a demonic beast to speak human words, unless it possessed an exceptionally high-grade bloodline, it normally had to cultivate all the way to Nascent Soul, or even peak Nascent Soul, before it could refine the beast-bone in its throat.
Once the beast-bone was refined, it could speak human words.
Demonic plants didn’t need to refine any beast-bone, but they still needed to reach Nascent Soul before they could speak human language.
Xian Qinglin’s nerves had already been strung tight, and hearing the demonic plant’s voice so suddenly, he’d assumed he’d run into something else entirely, only relaxing once he saw the bouncing little demonic plant.
He remembered now.
This was that little blade of grass that stayed by Xu Yifan’s side.
“What are you so tense for?” Xu Yifan’s round, plump face appeared in the little mirror.
Xian Qinglin let out a breath of relief, his heart a mix of shock and delight, pounding wildly against his chest, beat after beat, and yet he couldn’t help feeling a touch of disappointment too. “I thought you’d come.”
“I’m still on the flying ship right now,” Xu Yifan said, thoroughly disdainful. “This junky ship flies so slowly. If Master weren’t around, I’d slap on a flight talisman, put on a pair of flight boots, and get there in a single somersault.”
Xian Qinglin, with a private motive, asked, “Why did you come find me?”
“Looking for you!” Xu Yifan’s mouth ran ahead of his brain, and the moment the words left him, he realized something was off. Seeing Xian Qinglin’s brow seem to lift, his face immediately fell, and, displeased but stubborn, he added, “I’m going to save my Seventh Uncle-Master and my Second Uncle-Master. Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not because of you that I came.”
Xian Qinglin smiled. “Mm, I know. Are you still angry?”
“About what?” Xu Yifan didn’t immediately recall.
Xian Qinglin looked at the little mirror. “About what happened last time, are you still angry? I didn’t mean anything else by it that time. I wasn’t mocking you.”
His heart felt anxious and at a loss inside. “I’m not in league with Senior Martial Brother Gu and the others. There’s nothing between him and me at all.”
In that instant, Xu Yifan felt the gloom that had been lodged in his chest sweep away entirely.
He coughed once, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably curling upward. He leaned in closer, his round, chubby face filling the whole mirror.
Xian Qinglin’s fingertips tingled, and he found himself unconsciously leaning closer to the demonic plant too.
Xu Yifan noticed a bit of redness and swelling on his forehead, as if he’d bumped it, and changed the subject. “You’re hurt?”
His forehead really did ache a little, probably from when the shockwave of the explosive talisman had knocked him over. Xian Qinglin touched it, it wasn’t too painful, nothing compared to injuries he’d taken before.
“Just a minor injury. It’s nothing.”
“You’re really pathetic.” Xu Yifan said. “Is Seventh Uncle-Master okay?”
Xian Qinglin said, “Master’s injured. We’re in a cave right now.”
“Uncle-Master’s hurt? What about the Second Elder?”
“The Second Elder’s fine.”
Xu Yifan had already noticed the cave looked pitch dark. “What about everyone else?”
Xian Qinglin shook his head. “Don’t know. After the array broke earlier, the Second Elder and Master told them to flee first.”
Xu Yifan asked, “Then why didn’t you flee?”
Xian Qinglin’s face flushed deep red, and he lowered his head, saying nothing.
The demonic plant glanced back and forth between the two of them. “Boss, that’s kind of hurtful to say. The pretty little beauty didn’t flee precisely because he’s too weak to keep up, why do you turn into such an idiot the moment you’re facing a pretty face? Although, Boss, weak as the pretty little beauty is, he’s still a bit better than you. He’s almost at Qi Refining ninth layer now, while you’re still stuck at sixth layer. Tsk tsk tsk, truly pathetic. Hanging around with you is starting to embarrass even me.”
Xian Qinglin: “…”
Xu Yifan: “…”
This beastly little thing.
He shot the demonic plant a vicious glare before turning back to Xian Qinglin. “Did you see the ring that Momo has on him?”
Whether it was his imagination or not, Xian Qinglin noticed the moment Xu Yifan said this, the little blade of grass seemed to stiffen. He hadn’t noticed any ring, and was about to speak, when the demonic plant suddenly burst into tears.
“Boss, oh Boss! I’m so sorry, Boss!”
Xu Yifan’s temple twitched. “Are you wailing at a funeral or something? What’s with the shouting.”
The demonic plant sobbed. “Boss, I’m so sorry.”
“What did you do?”
“I, I lost the ring.”
“What?” Xu Yifan’s face darkened instantly, and he roared too.
“You lost it? How could you lose it? Damn it, you good-for-nothing troublemaker.”
Watching the little blade of grass trembling and sobbing, seemingly terrified, its voice sounding like a young child’s, Xian Qinglin felt a pang of sympathy and was about to plead on its behalf, when Xu Yifan’s eyes rolled, and he snorted.
“Xiao Momo, tell me honestly, did you really lose the ring? Or did you secretly pocket it for yourself?”
The demonic plant’s crying cut off abruptly, its voice suddenly weak. “It, it really got lo-lost! How could I possibly pocket it for myself? Momo has the cleanest hands around [1]兩袖清風, literally “two sleeves of pure wind,” an idiom for someone incorruptible with nothing to hide jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015893_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015893_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.”
Xu Yifan spread his hands. “Is that so! What a shame then.”
“Shame about what?”
“I was originally planning, if you completed your mission well, to reward you with ten candy beans when you got back. But now, well, forget it, it’s not like there was anything valuable in that ring anyway. Just some talismans and array plates, that sort of thing. Oh! And a few pills too, but those pills, hah, they’re only meant for humans to eat. If a demonic plant or beast ate one, it would, hehehe~”
The demonic plant’s leaves drooped, looking utterly wilted, and it asked, unwilling to give up hope.
“What would happen if it ate one?”
Xu Yifan opened and closed his hand, smiling. “It would just go boom, and explode.”
“Ahh~” The demonic plant was thoroughly terrified now.
Xian Qinglin watched as its palm-length vine tip suddenly swelled up, then spat out a ring, the little tip curling around the ring and delivering it to his hand.
“Boss,” the demonic plant bounced up and down a couple of times, brimming with energy. “I was just messing with you before! I didn’t lose the ring at all, I gave it to the pretty little beauty. See, look, delivered it right into his hands myself. Mission complete, you owe me ten candy beans when we get back.”
“I owe you ten smacks, more like it.” Xu Yifan said bitterly. Even trying to pocket its own family’s things, what a twisted little mind, no wonder it had gotten struck by lightning the moment it was born.
A thing like this deserved every strike it got.
“That’s not fair,” the demonic plant started throwing a tantrum, rolling around on the ground. “I want candy beans, I want candy beans.”
Xian Qinglin looked on, somewhat dumbfounded, finding this little blade of grass rather amusing, just like a human child.
“Don’t mind it. Use whatever’s in the ring however you need, there are healing pills in there, give one to Uncle-Master.” Xu Yifan said, looking at Xian Qinglin. “Once I find you later, give the ring back to me. Don’t lose it, okay? It’s quite valuable.”
References[+]