It took a few seconds for Ye Chenxue to reply but eventually, she didnwith a smile on her face.
"It remains sealed for now," Ye Chenxue replied, her voice steady. "The mutation of the core is stabilizing, but the seals placed by my former master require time and a steady circulation of blood essence to fully dissolve. For now, I do not need it. The physical foundation is stronger than it ever was and for that alone, I’m forever in your debt."
Lu Feng nodded approvingly. He then awkwardly shuffled, holding the white linen tightly around his torso as he moved along to the far corner of the carriage where Han Lin had neatly stacked their few remaining items and rucksacks salvaged from the blast. He desperately needed to get properly dressed; standing around in a moving carriage wearing nothing but a bedsheet didn’t exactly scream ’master investor.’
Furthermore, their helpers were beginning to look at him very weirdly. The pot-bellied loan shark was eyeing his pristine, unblemished skin with a mix of jealousy and intense suspicion, wondering how a boy could survive a carriage detonation without a scratch.
But the female counterpart was worse.
As Lu Feng reached for his rucksack, he caught her reflection in the polished wood of the carriage panel. The woman was staring intently at his bare shoulders and the deep, rich colors of his eyes. While her male companion was busy looking out the side window to check the convoy’s progress, she was subtly biting her lower lip, slowly licking her lips with a hunger that had absolutely nothing to do with his gold or pills.
Lu Feng cleared his throat, pulling his spare black robe from the bag. It was definitely time to put some clothes on. ’She is creepy!’
After getting dressed, Lu Feng quietly sat at one corner of the carriage without making a sound, his consciousness focused inwardly on himself so he could take note of the internal changed he’d undergone while being unconscious and well... he noticed quiet a few.
~~~~~~
Slowly but surely, the vibrant afternoon had melted into a quiet night time, leaving only the steady footsteps of the iron-hooved bulls and the occasional creak of the heavy mahogany frame of the carriages being pulled by the bulls to break the silence of the road.
Lu Feng sat entirely comfortable now, having properly dressed behind a makeshift partition of wool blankets. He wore a simple, dark traveling robe that fit his slightly altered, more filled-out frame with an effortless elegance.
One of the changes he noticed was the Dantian that he had now come to possess. With every breath he took, he could feel the Primordial Chaos Bead in his abdomen rotating at an almost imperceptible and unbothered pace, silently anchoring his newfound existence as a cultivator.
’I am now a cultivator, right?’ He asked himself.
Around them, the convoy had fallen into a deep, collective slumber. At the far end of the spacious carriage, the pot-bellied loan shark was letting out a series of low, wet snores, his fleshy head resting heavily against the plush velvet headrest. His wife lay curled beside him, though even in her half-conscious state, her foot occasionally twitched in Lu Feng’s direction.
When he noticed this, he frowned. ’What in the heavens is wrong with her?’
The rest of the passengers across the long line of connected carriages had similarly surrendered to the night. According to the transport maps, if the bulls maintained this steady, relentless pace, they would arrive at the rugged gates of Crimson Vale City in exactly two days.
Lu Feng turned his gaze to Han Lin, whose eyelids were drooping heavily, her head nodding off every few seconds as she tried desperately to remain awake and alert at her master’s side.
"Go to sleep, Han Lin," Lu Feng whispered, his newly deepened voice carrying a soothing, absolute weight that left no room for an argument. "You’ve run a marathon across this convoy today and I am grateful for that. I will keep watch with Chenxue."
Han Lin didn’t have the strength to fight her exhaustion. She murmured a faint, obedient reply, curled into a corner of the velvet bench with a wool blanket tucked around her shoulders, and was asleep within minutes.
With Han Lin out cold and the greedy couple deep in their dreams, only Lu Feng and Ye Chenxue remained awake beneath the dim, flickering amber light of a single glowing stone fixed to the ceiling.
They began to discuss, their voices dropping into hushed, barely audible undertones. The presence of the sleeping loan shark and his wife made their dialogue intentionally vague; neither of them was foolish enough to speak openly about their grand designs or specific abilities when a pair of greedy ears could twitch awake at any moment.
They spoke in words akin to code, keeping the details broad but the intent clear.
"Once the gates of our destination are behind us," Lu Feng murmured, leaning forward slightly, "our first priority is stability. We will secure a small private estate. It will be somewhere away from the main merchant sectors where eyes are too frequent. A quiet courtyard with thick walls."
Ye Chenxue nodded, her clean, porcelain features casting sharp shadows under the amber lamp. The transformation from the slave pens was complete, but her eyes still held the sharpness of someone who’d led others before. "A secure area will allow for proper meditation and cultivation. According to the reports, Crimson Vale is a border territory; the local law enforcement there is highly transactional. If you have the coin, you can buy absolute silence."
"And you will need a few new garments," Lu Feng
added with a faint, knowing smile, gesturing vaguely to the plain, oversized tunic she had borrowed from Han Lin. "A tiger doesn’t hide its stripes in a sheep’s wool forever. You should wear clothes that suit your posture."
He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly as he checked the subtle, dense aura radiating from her skin. Thanks to his system’s deep scanning functions, he could see the state of her core perfectly. "I will also look into acquiring certain... supplements. Rare resources to further strengthen your foundation and push your current cultivation level higher."
Ye Chenxue’s fingers twitched against her lap. She knew exactly what kind of "supplements" he was referring to. He meant cultivation pills.
Right now, her newly evolved Heavenly Frozen Sea Dantian was a vast, deep ocean, but it was currently sitting at the second level of the Blood Condensation Stage.
To break through to the next major realm, she needed to accumulate a monstrous amount of pure, icy energy to climb all the way to the ninth level.
Ordinary cultivation would take months, if not years, given the seals still fading in her meridians. But with Lu Feng’s terrifying, inexplicable access to high-tier pills, that timeline could probably be shattered into weeks.
"The ocean requires many rivers to fill it," she replied vaguely, her dark eyes locking onto his mismatched irises. "But the current currents are stable. I believe I can handle a rapid influx if the quality is... pure."
Lu Feng nodded, keeping his own cultivation completely out of the discussion. He didn’t breathe a word about the black-hole-like bead sitting in his stomach or the fact that he was currently trying to figure out how to navigate his own rapid evolution without causing another localized disaster.
Ye Chenxue, however, wasn’t going to let the afternoon’s mystery slide entirely. She leaned in a fraction closer, her voice a ghost of a whisper. "You speak of strengthening me, Young Master Lu. But you have yet to explain the nature of your own... sudden ailment. Why did your body reject its own energy so violently this afternoon? Why did you pass out?"
Lu Feng leaned back, crossing his arms with a look of casual nonchalance. It was time for a partial lie. A cover story that would satisfy her knowledge of the world without revealing the existence of his 10,000x system.
"The world believes I am a failure who cannot hold Qi," Lu Feng said smoothly, his deep voice carrying a faint trace of amusement. "The truth is a bit more complicated. My body holds too much. What you witnessed this afternoon wasn’t a failure, nor was it an illness. I was simply forcing a massive, sudden influx of energy back down. I was trying to stop myself from breaking through too quickly by absorbing too much Qi. The explosion was merely the consequence of that restraint."
Ye Chenxue stared at him, her breath catching slightly in her throat. To force a breakthrough back down with such violence that it disintegrated a solid oak carriage—and to survive the consequence without a single scratch—implied a level of physical control, strength, and a very powerful spiritual sea to strengthen his mental fortitude that she couldn’t quite fathom.
His answer reinforced the protective shroud of mystery around him, convincing her further that Lu Feng was probably an ancient soul or a hidden monster hiding in plain sight.
"A dangerous game," she murmured, her respect for him deepening. "To fight the heavens’ intent requires an iron will."
"The heavens can wait their turn," Lu Feng replied dryly.
Their quiet discussion continued for another hour, mapping out the finances as well as residential options to pick from after their arrival at Crimson Vale.
However, just as the conversation began to drift toward the specific mercenary factions ruling the underbelly of Crimson Vale, a sudden, violent sensation rippled through the carriage.
SCREEECH!