Xian Qinglin rubbed the ring on his hand. “Mm! I understand.”
Spatial rings were rare enough even in the Southern Region, a six-cubic-foot one cost eight or nine thousand spirit stones. He obviously wasn’t going to throw it away.
Xu Yifan didn’t say anything else, just waved the demonic plant along and hurried back down the mountain.
Xian Qinglin returned to the cave, sent his spiritual sense probing into the ring, and was instantly startled. Given his standing, he’d never normally come into contact with third-grade or fourth-grade magic tools and pills, but he wasn’t ignorant, he knew, at least in the abstract, that third-grade pills and tools were expensive. Barring some miracle, he’d probably never in his life be able to afford one. Exactly how expensive, though, he hadn’t known, until today, when Second Elder had spelled it out, and the word “expensive” had suddenly taken on a very concrete shape.
Inside the ring were several bottles of third-grade pills, four third-grade array plates, and one fourth-grade array plate. Out in the world, people would fight tooth and nail over any single one of these, even one alone was worth a hundred thousand-odd spirit stones.
Xu Yifan… how could he just give away this much?
Where had he even gotten it all?
Xian Qinglin felt, once again, that he owed this man an enormous debt, his heart uneasy, yet at the same time, there was a small, secret flicker of joy in there too.
Xu Yifan had worried about him. He’d come looking for him.
Lianyun Mountain was so dangerous, and yet he’d still come.
The next day, as Seventh Elder and Second Elder made their way back, they noticed Xian Qinglin seemed much happier than before. It wasn’t obvious, but where there had always been a faint shadow of melancholy between his brows, as if something were troubling him, it now seemed swept clean away.
Seventh Elder asked if something good had happened.
Xian Qinglin startled, then shook his head hastily.
“Then let’s be on our way.” No sooner had Seventh Elder spoken than he suddenly yanked Xian Qinglin behind him, retreating several paces, and pulled a first-grade sword out of his spatial ring.
This was the sword he’d used at the Foundation Establishment stage, after reaching Golden Core, a first-grade sword had become something of a “chicken rib” [1]an idiom for something not worth keeping but a shame to discard jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015894_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015894_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, so he’d left it in his spatial ring. Now that his second-grade sword had snapped, he had no choice but to make do with it.
Second Elder likewise drew out a red whip. The two of them stared ahead, bracing for a fight.
Thick mist hung over the forest ahead, Xian Qinglin’s spiritual sense couldn’t penetrate it at all, and he couldn’t make out a thing inside, but he could feel that terrifying aura.
Second Elder’s face was grim. “Old Seven, should we run?”
Seventh Elder’s expression was no better, wariness filling his eyes. “You think we could outrun it?”
Two spiny-eared wolves, late-stage Golden Core, several feet tall, fur like arrows, bodies as massive as elephants, came stalking out of the forest.
The instant they appeared, the two spiny-eared wolves lunged straight at the three of them.
Spiny-eared wolves were famous for their speed and a mouthful of razor fangs. Seventh Elder, wielding a broken sword, was early-stage Golden Core, Second Elder was mid-stage. Fighting two late-stage Golden Core demonic beasts was brutal work for both of them, man and beast locked in a life-or-death struggle, and from a distance it looked for all the world like a hen and chick scrapping with something far too big for them.
Second Elder and Seventh Elder fought and retreated by turns, blades and swords flashing all around, wolves howling, towering trees toppling one after another under the shockwaves. The Golden Core battle was ferocious, everything nearby was leveled in an instant.
Xian Qinglin hid behind a boulder and so avoided being caught in it.
Second Elder was a formation master, formation masters were notoriously weak in direct combat among cultivators of the same level. Seventh Elder was a full stage below him in cultivation, but clearly far more capable in a fight, he traded a dozen-odd blows with the spiny-eared wolf and was still standing, while Second Elder had already been swept off his feet by a wolf’s tail.
The spiny-eared wolves were a male and female pair. Seeing that Second Elder’s opponent wasn’t much use, the female wolf turned and doubled back to help the male take on Seventh Elder instead.
Xian Qinglin waited for his moment, just as one of the wolves leapt into the air to pounce at Seventh Elder, he hurled an array plate at it. “Rise—”
The array plate activated instantly, a beam of blue-green light shooting from it, forming an enormous inverted bowl of light in midair that trapped both wolves inside.
What Xian Qinglin had thrown was a third-grade kill formation, once a kill formation triggered, it meant business. The moment the two wolves were caught, the formation immediately loosed a hail of countless sharp arrows at them. The arrows came thick and fast, the wolves howled in pain, but late-stage Golden Core demonic beasts had hides like cast iron, that third-grade kill formation would have turned Second Elder or Seventh Elder into something resembling a beehive, yet the wolves only ended up torn and bleeding, still able to snarl and claw at the formation.
Just as the formation looked like it was about to give out, Xian Qinglin threw another talisman into the kill formation.
A deafening boom rang out, the ground itself seemed to ripple underfoot. Seventh Elder and the other two nearly lost their footing as thick smoke billowed up ahead.
Before the smoke had even cleared, Seventh Elder saw chunks of flesh scattered across the ground ahead, the two spiny-eared wolves had been well and truly blown to pieces.
One strike had instantly killed two late-stage Golden Core spiny-eared wolves, whatever talisman Xian Qinglin had finally set off must have been third-grade, no, possibly even fourth-grade.
Second Elder was still stunned, about to ask Xian Qinglin exactly where he’d gotten so many third-grade array plates and talismans, when he saw Xian Qinglin dash forward and start frantically gathering up the pieces of meat.
The flesh of a late-stage Golden Core demonic beast was hugely nourishing all over, even the hide and bones were treasures, useful for forging tools.
He wondered if Xu Yifan would like it.
Xian Qinglin thought.
With pills, protective array plates, and talismans on hand, the three of them finally made it out of the inner reaches of Lianyun Mountain. Along the way they’d run into demonic beasts four times, always second-grade or third-grade, Second Elder still shuddered to think of it, no wonder Lianyun Mountain was called the graveyard.
Just as their array plates and talismans were about to run out, Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder finally found the three of them.
Seventh Elder boarded the airship and found no other disciples. “No sign of anyone?”
“None.” Sixth Elder shook his head.
Lianyun Mountain was vast beyond measure, they’d searched it for a full half month and found no one besides the three of them.
“Ah…” Second Elder sighed.
It seemed likely most of the others had met a bad end.
If not for those array plates and talismans, the three of them probably wouldn’t have made it out either.
Fifth Elder slammed his fist on the table, furious. “This time our sect lost or wounded some thirty inner-sect disciples. Whoever was behind this was utterly ruthless, when I get back I’ll have the Sect Master investigate this properly. If it really was Ma Xiang’s doing, I won’t let him off.”
Foundation Establishment pills weren’t cheap, raising a Foundation Establishment cultivator, if not exactly at great cost, was no easy feat either. Losing dozens of Foundation Establishment disciples in one go was no small blow to the sect.
Xian Qinglin found himself restless.
He was certain this had been Ma Xiang’s doing, if he hadn’t gone to that recruitment drive, then…
Wracked with guilt, he went and found Seventh Elder and told him about Ma Xiu, though he didn’t give Xu Yifan away, he only said that someone had saved him and blown Ma Xiu up.
“Master, it’s all this disciple’s fault for causing you trouble, dragging you all into this.” His face was full of shame.
Seventh Elder shook his head. “This matter did start because of you, but at the root of it, it’s not your fault. You were a victim too. Ma Xiu deserved to die, blame no one else. If he hadn’t died, you would have. Go back and cultivate harder, don’t dwell on it.”
“Since ancient times, no one who achieved great things on the cultivation path has ever kept perfectly clean hands. Sometimes, to seize some heaven-sent treasure, brothers turn on each other, and there’s no shortage of people who’ve killed their own fathers, mothers, sons, or friends for it.”
“In this world, human life is worth less than straw. Cultivators must not only wrest their fate from Heaven itself, but sometimes must also fight other cultivators over heaven-sent treasures, and once it comes to a fight, whose hands stay clean? Some things, you’ll understand in time.”
Xian Qinglin nodded. “Yes, this disciple will remember Master’s teaching.”
Xu Yifan, listening outside, couldn’t help but curl his lip. Blaming the victim, Xian Qinglin was awfully good-looking, but his head wasn’t screwed on quite right.
Whoever’s fault it was, somehow it always ended up being his own.
Although, to be fair, he did feel a bit guilty himself.
But in a kill-or-be-killed situation like that, was he supposed to just sit there and let Ma Xiu run off for reinforcements instead?
When Ma Xiang saw the group return in one piece, his face immediately darkened, though the moment Second Elder looked his way, he switched at once to an expression of concern.
“Second Elder, Seventh Elder, you’ve finally made it back. If something had happened to you two, I’d have been the one left holding the blame.” As he spoke, he shot Sixth Elder a pointed glance.
Sixth Elder was livid. “What are you implying, you scoundrel? That I’d pin the blame on you? Whether it’s your fault or not, you know perfectly well in your own heart.”
Ma Xiang looked at him. “Know what? Baseless accusations, don’t you dare slander me.”
“You—”
“Enough.” The Sect Master, seated at the head, spoke. “All you junior brothers have had a hard journey, go rest first.”
Second Elder’s brow furrowed. “Sect Master.”
The Sect Master rubbed her temples and waved a hand, clearly unwilling to say more. “Go on. The sect will get to the bottom of this and give you an explanation.”
With that, Second Elder and the others had no choice but to head back. But just as they turned to leave, Sect Master Lan Xue spoke again. “Old Six, Old Seven.”
Lan Xue and the other elders had trained under the same master, in their youth she too had been an inner-sect disciple of Xianhao Sect. But unlike Great Elder and the others, Lan Xue, Sixth Elder, and Seventh Elder had all come from the very same teacher.
Sixth Elder, puzzled, asked, “Is there something else, Senior Sister?”
“I hear you’ve taken on a disciple?” Lan Xue asked.
“Mm.”
Lan Xue smiled lightly. “Should we hold a formal ceremony, then? Seeing as he’d be your first disciple.”
Sixth Elder glanced at Seventh Elder. Seventh Elder didn’t want the fuss, but Senior Sister had a point, first disciple and all. “Then let’s follow the sect’s customary rites.”
“Good, I’ll have it arranged for you.” Lan Xue said.
Seventh Elder cupped his hands and bowed. “Many thanks, Sect Master.”
Xu Yifan had been waiting in the cave dwelling for quite a while before Sixth Elder finally returned.
“Master, what did the Sect Master say?”
“She said she’d look into it.” Sixth Elder’s face was full of indignation. “That Ma Xiang, seeing Senior Sister shielding him, got even more insufferable on the spot, it made me so angry. Oh, right, Senior Sister said she wants to hold a formal master-disciple ceremony for you and Xiao Lin, get yourself ready.”
Xu Yifan’s brow creased slightly. “Didn’t you say before you weren’t going to bother with it?”
“I was thinking it’d be too much trouble not to bother, but then I thought, when Senior Disciple Brother and the others took on disciples earlier, your uncle-master and I both gave gifts. If we don’t hold one ourselves, wouldn’t we just be losing out with nothing to show for it? That’d be a real loss.” Sixth Elder’s eyes lit up, looking at Xu Yifan with excitement. “Might as well be a bit of trouble! Hold it once, and who knows, the two of us, master and disciple, might just make a fortune.”
Xu Yifan’s eyes lit up too. Why hadn’t he thought of that? This ceremony was definitely worth holding after all.
References[+]