Currently, Qin Mo and Lin Zizheng were in an area that was still at the edge of Misty Ridge. Perhaps owing to its secretive nature, no one had ever pa.s.sed through there.
Qin Mo cultivated feeling at ease there for a few days. After all, since he'd used a forbidden incantation, the state of his injuries was quite severe and he had yet to fully recover.
A few strands of sunlight shone through the cracks between the leaves and onto Qin Mo's face. Their warmth was exceedingly comfortable.
Qin Mo's long eyelashes moved slightly as he slowly opened his eyes. Standing up, he looked into the distance. Inside Misty Ridge, the sky wasn't visible, however, it was bright out as long as the sun was out.
They had already been there for ten days. Qin Mo frowned. It had already been quite a while since they'd arrived, it was time to go back. That in mind, he s.h.i.+fted his gaze to Lin Zizheng.
At the moment, Lin Zizheng was skillfully roasting meat. Watching his movements, Qin Mo immediately recognised the snake meat in his hand.
At the thought of it, he felt all the more that the sooner they returned the better. Although it was quite delicious, they'd eaten it every day for the last ten days. So despite its delectable taste, they would soon grow weary of it.
Perhaps it was because of the huge python overseeing the area, that all the animals in the vicinity were also kinds of snakes. Qin Mo didn't have any spiritual power left within his body and Lin Zizheng's level of cultivation was too low. Thus neither could leave to hunt elsewhere.
Recalling Lin Zizheng's cultivation, Qin Mo's brow wrinkled tighter. Right now, he had no way of helping him whatsoever. However, he then remembered that it wouldn't be long now before a form of practice would arise that was suited for his five spirit root. Nevertheless, to prevent his own downfall he mustn't intervene excessively.
Noticing that Qin Mo was no longer tending to his own wounds, Lin Zizheng immediately stepped forward smiling and pa.s.sed him the meat he'd just been roasting. Qin Mo's hand was a bit stiff and he spoke with urgency: "We'll depart at once and return to the Sect."
Lin Zizheng paused. Indeed, they had to go back and once they'd returned this person would once again be the aloof and untouchable Yueqing Sect s.h.i.+xiong, not his own s.h.i.+xiong alone. Thinking of it that way, it really was… awful! However, the expression on his face didn't change at all and he said: “Okay!”
He took out some dark green lotus leaves from an unknown location, carefully wrapped the snake meat in them and placed them into his Qiankun bag.
Watching Lin Zizheng's actions, Qin Mo couldn't help but feel somewhat baffled. How much does he like eating snake meat! Leave and take them with you!
Seemingly sensing Qin Mo's confusion, Lin Zizheng patted his Qiankun bag and brightly smiled: “Snake meat is the tastiest!”
Ignoring the sense of discomfort in his heart, Qin Mo nodded and led Lin Zizheng towards the further edges of Misty Ridge. As his spirit power had only recovered up to about the sixth layer, he could no longer use the flying fan. After all, naturally it expended an extremely large amount of power and Misty Ridge was teeming with threats, he had no choice but to carry on cautiously.
After a long interval of walking, Qin Mo and Lin Zizheng were nearing the exit of the Misty Ridge. Suddenly Qin Mo's body stiffened slightly, and he immediately stopped Lin Zizheng from advancing forward.
At the tip of his nose, he could vaguely sense a strange odour. In his previous life, he already had quite a keen sense of smell, but in this life, this ability seemed to have been heightened even more.
Suddenly, they heard a loud commotion. It was the voices of other cultivators.
Qin Mo hesitated for a moment, before finally pulling Lin Zizheng to hide behind a boulder and silently moderated his breathing. Of the two of them, one could scarcely cultivate and the other's spirit power had yet to be fully recovered. Furthermore, in Misty Ridge, where fortunes were unclear, it was nonetheless still quite dangerous.
“Hey, s.h.i.+xiong, there's an injured person here!” One of the younger cultivators seemed to had discovered something. Qin Mo followed his gaze only to find a cultivator clothed in black collapsed on the road, his body bleeding out.
“Qing Zhu, be careful! Pay attention to your surroundings!” Seeing the young cultivator's rash actions, their leader could not help but chide him.
“Its okay, s.h.i.+xiong, this person is from Qingshan Sect. Look at the figure embroidered on his clothes. It's their symbol.” The young cultivator helped the person off the ground, speaking indifferently.
The s.h.i.+xiong also saw the obvious mark of Qingshan Sect and calmed down. However, he continued lecturing him: “Even though he's a disciple of Qingshan Sect, you shouldn't be so reckless…”
“Ah!” Before he could finish, he was interrupted by the young cultivator's yelp. The injured and fallen Qingshan Sect cultivator suddenly open his eyes. They were completely pitch black, the whites invisible. He reached out and firmly grasped the young cultivator's neck.
The young cultivator only had the time to scream before his eyes rolled back and he died foaming at the mouth.
The words the s.h.i.+xiong had wanted to say wedged in his mouth. Seeing the young cultivator's miserable state, his body stiffened. Finally managing to react, he turned and ran. But he didn't get very far before he stopped, locked in place. His mouth incredulously muttered: “It's poisonous.”
The cultivator who'd just a moment ago murdered someone suddenly approached him and ended his life in much the same way.
Thereupon the originally spirited cultivator immediately stood stiff, his head lowered, his arms limp and pressed against his body, motionless.
Suddenly, a dark figure rose covertly from the shadows, quickly coming to face the two bodies on the ground. He hastily picked up the Qiankun bags hung on their waists and carefully inspected them.
The two cultivators were obviously disciples of a large sect. Inside the Qiankun bags, there were many valuable items and on the shadow's face a satisfied smile emerged. Qin Mo only then saw him clearly. His face was one he'd met before; Mingshan Laozu1.
With a wave of his hand, the cultivator who stood frozen disappeared and his own body was slowly enveloped by a black mist vanis.h.i.+ng.
After a while, having determined that Mingshan Laozu was definitely gone, Qin Mo and Lin Zizheng came out from their hiding place.
Looking at the two bodies on the ground Qin Mo's gaze trembled. Having been in this world for so long, it was only now that he truly comprehended how terribly cruel it was. In a single evening, a life could be taken. He was now only at the tenth layer of Qi refining and had yet to reach the foundation building phase. Surely he was too weak.
His hands clenched firmly. Before finding a way to return to his own world, he'd have to preserve his life.
Thinking of this, Qin Mo no longer hesitated, quickly he took out his flying fan and headed towards Yueqing Sect.
Upon arriving, Qin Mo sent off Lin Zizheng at the outer sect and then went straight to the task hall.
Having completed the task of handing over the Jade Peach fruit, Qin Mo looked at the Qiankun bag full of spirit gra.s.s. Thinking again of the large sum of spirit stones he owed to Yundan Peak he frowned and took out much of the precious spirit gra.s.s. He then exchanged it for spirit stones and contribution points which he handed over to Deng Tong at Yundan Peak.
Looking at Deng Tong's brows raise in delight, Qin Mo's heart was rather happy although his expression remained stilted. He hadn't expected to pay off his debts in full in one go. Truly, it was extremely profitable.
Declining Deng Tong's invitation to stay at Yundan Peak, Qin Mo somewhat hastily returned to his Dongfu2 at the top of Yunlan Peak.
At Yueqing Sect, only disciples who had cultivated up to the foundation building phase could have their own Dongfu. Despite Qin Mo only having reached the Qi refining period, as he was the Sect leader's head disciple, he'd received his own Dongfu very early on.
Qin Mo's Dongfu was extremely simple, merely a plain stone chamber. Obviously, neither the former s.h.i.+xiong nor the current Qin Mo were individuals willing to decorate.
Slowly he walked over to the centre of the Dongfu and sat down on the only praying mat in the room. Qin Mo's thoughts were somewhat erratic. He remembered that s.h.i.+xiong had once read that when one's cultivation reached the Mahayana period they could ascend into immortality and would be capable of breaking through the void.
As long as he became an immortal, there was the possibility that he could tread through the void and return to his own world. However, at the moment the furthest anyone had cultivated under the entirety of the blue sky was the Nascent Soul phase.
Having read the original work, Qin Mo was well aware that there was more to this world than what was under the blue sky and that in the worlds beyond, naturally, there were people whose cultivation was even more advanced. Therefore he was convinced that so long as he persisted, he was bound to succeed one day. Qin Mo as a matter of course, overlooked the possibility that perhaps even after ascending and stepping through the void, he might still not be able to return to his world.
Wis.h.i.+ng to realise this even a bit, Qin Mo felt even more firmly resolved to improve his cultivation. What he wanted to do now was to retreat into secluded cultivation.
But before that, he first wanted to send some medicinal pellets to Lin Zizheng. Qin Mo touched the Qiankun bag at his waist. He'd been too hasty in leaving and had forgotten to hand the first-rate pellets he was carrying over to him. Generally, cultivators went into seclusion for several years at a time, and he was, naturally, no exception.
Recalling this, Qin Mo immediately stood up and headed in the direction of the outer sect.
Just outside Yunlan Peak, he was pa.s.sed from time to time by an occasional rus.h.i.+ng disciple. They all wore expressions of either joy or excitement on their faces and were all hurrying to the same location.
Qin Mo flashed a suspicious glance, after all, he wasn't sure what was going on. Another young disciple pa.s.sed by his side. Having seen Qin Mo he seemed to somewhat stiffly conceal the excitement on his face and respectfully addressed: “Good s.h.i.+xiong.”
Qin Mo replied with a gentle “En”. The disciple clearly hadn't antic.i.p.ated the ever cold s.h.i.+xiong to actually answer and once again couldn't help but reveal an excited expression. Cheerfully he spoke: 's.h.i.+xiong, Yueqing Sect has opened this month's Square market, you won't go take a look?”
After he finished speaking, he saw that Qin Mo's brow had wrinkled. Believing he'd said something wrong, the disciple hurriedly took his leave and quickly withdrew.
Through the disciple's remarks, Qin Mo recalled that today was the official opening of Yueqing Sect's monthly Square market.
The market was located at the back of Yueqing Sect and was started, mainly, to sell or exchange spirit gra.s.s, medicinal herbs, weapons and other cultivation items.
Although it was run by Yueqing Sect, it wasn't exclusively for its disciples and cultivators from other sects could also sell or buy wares. Additionally, as Yueqing Sect was close to the Misty Ridge, there was always the chance that some valuable items would arise at the market.
This in mind, Qin Mo stopped, considering it for a moment and then prepared to go take a look at the Square market first before going to pa.s.s the medicinal pellets to Lin Zizheng at the outer sect.
The author has something to say:
Hah, My hand just accidentally slipped and added a comment fine. So don't blame me for being biased. No matter which younger sister, leaving comments, not leaving comments, lurking silently watching, I love you all!
Ended up disappearing for longer than I'd intended, however, I'm back with news. So Cherry and I are taking on another Xianxia BL project so I do recommend it to those who have enjoyed The Transmigrated Senior Martial Brother so far. The first chapter will be out in a few days and I'm trying to figure a schedule for updating but I think we'll manage. So far from what I've read in Chinese, it's really well written. It'll be posted soon in our Projects page and I'll be working on getting up a page for it on Novel Updates soon. All in all, it's great to be back. ヾ（〃＾∇＾）ﾉ♪
-Bean
1So in Chapter 4 we met the poisonous puppeteer Mingshan Laogui (冥山老鬼). I mentioned that this was prob his t.i.tle, well, I think this person is probably him but the author just calls him Mingshan Laozu (冥山老祖). But I am not 100% certain so I'll leave this footnote here and edit later if it's ever cleared up.
2Dongfu: (Immortal's Cave) the abode of a cultivator, a cave where spiritual energy is abundant.