Mo Tianliao asked Qingtong to wait outside of the mountain cave. He quickly went back to find Mingyan.
“This may be the last time I will be here.” Mingyan was sitting by the heavy stone door and was talking to himself in front of it. He took out a pot of wine and two cups from his storage ring. “I’m too old to live until the next time the Taixuan mountain will open.”
The clear liquor filled the two jade cups. Mingyan took one and drank it slowly. Then he took the other cup and swirled it gently with his fingertips.
When Mo Tianliao came over, he just heard this sentence and couldn’t help sighing. It had been more than 8,000 years since the Immortal-Demon war. Now Mingyan should be more than 9,000 years old. The Taixuan Hidden Treasure Cave would only open once a thousand years. Unfortunately, it looked like he really wouldn’t live to see the next opening.
“Shizun,” Mo Tianliao walked over and scratched his head, “do you have any Vermilion Bird’s feathers in your possession?”
Mingyan looked back at him and saw that he must already have seen the jade tablet. He slowly drank all the wine in the cup and asked, “Are you sure you can craft it?”
“The Old Bas… coughs! Aherm, my Shizun’s theory should be right.” He initially wanted to say that no one had tried and proven it right, and it might not be possible. However, after looking at Mingyan’s expression carefully, Mo Tianliao changed his words. “If the White Tiger claw, Green Dragon scale, and the Vermillion Bird feather really have the ability to break the barriers of time and space, then it would not be a problem to find another Wisdom of Heaven and Earth, and craft Xuan Jian to look into the past.”
Mingyan’s ancient eyes that looked like an endless well, rippled and he asked, “Is that really true?”
“Seriously.” Mo Tianliao swallowed his saliva secretly. Just now, Mingyan had hesitated. He must have some Vermillion Bird feathers, but he was reluctant to give them away. In order to deceive Mingyan to give up his treasured feathers, he had no choice but to resolutely guarantee the outcome. After all, his own cat’s ascension depended on this.
Mingyan stood up and looked back at the stone door, “Can you craft it within a year?” The opening of the Taixuan Hidden Secret Cave usually would only last for about eight months. But if he used his own divine spiritual power to support it, its opening could be extended for a few more months.
“Just eighty-one days will do.” Mo Tianliao said. He already had experience in crafting a divine artifact. In fact, a divine artifact was not that difficult to craft, because it was not meant to have the ability to destroy heaven and earth, but it was only meant to be a container that could carry the spiritual wisdom. The key was that there had to be a spiritual wisdom that could be used.
Qingtong stayed on the flying boat, and not long after, he saw Fengsu riding a peacock, stumbling and flying out of the cave.
“Damn it, what type of hell was that place? Fortunately, I could run fast,” Fengsu swallowed a few pills, raised her eyes and saw the cold beauty leaning on the boat. She immediately put the disgusting insects she had seen just now to the back of her mind, adjusted her hair ornaments, and called out in a loud voice, “Qingtong, long time no see.”
The cold eyes swept over her and turned back again. The cat was obviously not interested in her.
The peacock that was trying to flap its wings suddenly turned into a human: “Master, allow me to say a word, you will not be favored by beauties due to your present appearance.”
Fengsu, who was riding the peacock, was thrown off when it turned into its human form, and almost fell down. She immediately used Qi to stabilize herself and then looked down at her body. Her bright red skirt was tattered and stained with the massacred bodies of Chi You insects…… this look, she herself felt disgusted.
“I believe that the White Tiger would not know how to appreciate the deliciousness of an insect carcass.” Peacock raised his hand to pick off an insect on Feng Shu’s skirt, sniffed it, frowned slightly, and flicked his fingers to throw it away.
“Didn’t you say it was delicious? Why not eat it?” Fengsu was so angry that her face turned blue. She angrily kicked at the peacock. His master was injured and couldn’t even walk and instead of carrying her, he directly turned into a human and dropped her. And he had the guts to even mock her! Learning from Shi Di was no good. He only knew how to spoil his demon beast and now look, the result was her demon beast was also showing airs!
“Chi You insects don’t taste good, and, even though I’m a bird, I think it looks disgusting.” Peacock elegantly spread his hands.
“You…” Fengsu was so angry that she couldn’t speak. She floated to the side of the flying boat and pointed to Qingtong and said, “Look at the other people’s demon beasts and look at you…” As she spoke these words, Fengsu suddenly felt something was amiss. As a contracted demon beast, it was not allowed to be too far away from its master, but at the moment, Duantian was nowhere in sight and his cat was still sitting on the boat peacefully.
Her upturned eyes slightly narrowed in speculation. Fengsu stretched out her bright red nails to touch Qingtong, but was blocked by the flying boat’s barrier enchantment. Qingtong glanced at her and snapped his fingers.
“Ka ka ka ka!” Fengsu’s outstretched hand was frozen into a lump of ice.
Fengsu: “……”
“Fengsu, what are you doing?!” Mo Tianliao’s voice suddenly came from behind her, and before Fengsu could turn around, she was knocked out by a huge fire dragon.
Fengsu quickly turned back, brought out her spiritual weapon, and swung away at the fire dragon with the staff: “Duantian, can’t you see it’s your cat that’s bullying me?”
“Didn’t see it.” Mo Tianliao said without a change in his expression. He jumped on the flying boat and held Qingtong, checking him up and down, and was immediately rewarded with a slap.
“Fengsu, do you have any news regarding spiritual wisdom?” Mingyan appeared at the right time, and stopped the two from continuing to fight.
“The spiritual Wisdom of Heaven and Earth, not to mention my subordinates, even I don’t know where to find it.” Fengsu sighed. “But I heard that there is a kind of Sea Soul Stone in the East Sea, which could communicate with people. So it may be a kind of spiritual wisdom. I had intended to go there from Taixuan mountain and have a look at it.”
“Sea Soul Stone?” Mo Tianliao heard this word and immediately perked up his ears, “Then go quickly and make sure to get the Sea Soul Stone within a month.”
“What’s it to you?” Fengsu glared at him. This was her chance to please the Supreme Demon Lord. Why was this Duantian poking his nose in her business?!
“Where is it? I’ll go and get it.” Mingyan waved his hand, signaling the two not to make a fuss.
Fengsu handed the location map of the Sea Soul Stone which was handed by her men to Mingyan.
“If there is spiritual wisdom inside it, this Seat will give you Peach Blossom City.” Mingyan took the map and immediately explored it with his divine sense.
“Thank you very much, Supreme Demon Lord!” Fengsu immediately smiled. She had coveted Peach Blossom City for a long time. It was a city where peach blossoms bloomed in all seasons. The city looked as if it was covered in pink smoke, giving it a very beautiful countenance.
After Fengsu was sent away, Mingyan turned into a green dragon, carried Mo Tianliao and Qingtong back to Mingyan Demon Palace quickly and left them there. Then the green dragon swung its tail and flew to the East Sea swiftly.
Now, time was precious, not a second could be wasted.
“Is there spiritual wisdom in the Sea Soul Stone?” Qingtong poked Taishi, who had turned into dogtail grass.
“This…” Mo Tianliao scratched his head. There was not necessarily spiritual wisdom in the Sea Soul Stone. It was just that the stone was smooth and discernable and could understand human language. It was the most suitable type of material to make the surface of Xuan Jian.
When Mingyan came back, he brought back a large piece of dark blue Sea Soul Stone and gave it to Mo Tianliao along with a Green Dragon scale.
There was no intelligence in the Sea Soul Stone. Mingyan sighed and did not say anything more. He turned around and took them to the inner palace.
Mingyan’s Demon Palace was very vast. They had to go through zigzagging corridors and walk to the deepest part before they could reach Mingyan’s bedchamber. As he pushed open the heavy door, sunlight instantly filled the hall, reflecting the room that was fully decorated in a fire-red color.
It was very different from the imagination of a cold and serious bedroom. There were bright red carpets and gauze curtains hanging here. There were no seats. Above the carpeted steps, there was a high platform, on which a huge cushion was placed. This cushion was full of colorful soft pillows.
The corner of Mo Tianliao’s mouth twitched. He took a look at the unfathomable Mingyan and then looked at the vibrantly colored gorgeous room. It totally did not match with Mingyan’s appearance and temperament.
Qingtong was not very surprised. He had slept here as a child. Naturally, he knew how it looked. This bedchamber had been like this for many years. He slowly stepped onto the high platform, turned into a snow colored kitten, and rolled around on the cushion.
Mingyan smiled faintly and slowly walked up to the platform as well. He sat down on the cushion and raised his hand to smoothen the kitten’s fur. But before he could touch it, the kitten disappeared.
Mo Tianliao, very naturally and quickly picked up the cat to hold it in his arms, not letting Mingyan touch it.
Mingyan laughed helplessly. He looked at the kitten that stayed in Mo Tianliao’s arms with ease, stretching his claws to reach his chin. He slowly lowered his eyes and a floor tile suddenly protruded, presenting a treasure box. The well-defined slender fingers lingered on the treasure box for a long time: “Vermilion Bird Feather, I only have one. If you don’t have 100 percent confidence…”
Mo Tianliao looked at the treasure box. There was only one? It was not as if he had never used unique crafting materials in the world before. He had always thrown it into the furnace without even blinking an eye. But this Vermillion Bird feather seemed to be of great significance to Mingyan, and he really couldn’t just blindly use it up.
“Shizun and Vermillion Bird…” Mo Tianliao was very curious.
Mingyan held the treasure box in his hand and was hesitant to open it: “I and Dan Xi are of similar age. We grew up together from childhood…”
The conversation came to a screeching halt. He didn’t like to talk to others about Dan Xi. Even now, he still didn’t like it. He opened the treasure box, and the dazzling light overflowed from the box. Inside the treasure box that was lined with blue brocade, there lay a gorgeous tail feather. There should be a space array in this treasure box. The tail feather looked as if it was reduced by a lot. Mo Tianliao quickly calculated the array size and estimated that the feather was ten feet long.
Brilliant red, fire-colored feather – it was the real Vermillion Bird’s feather. Even if it had been stored for thousands of years, it was still bright and colorful. In the sunlight, it glowed with a colorful halo, beautiful beyond compare.
No wonder it was so precious to Mingyan. If the world had only one feather left, then that explained Mingyan’s deep reluctance to part with it.
Mo Tianliao was about to reach for it, but Mingyan closed the lid with a snap and said without a change on his face: “Took out the wrong one.”
Then, Mo Tianliao watched as Mingyan took out another treasure box. From it, he took out a red bird’s feather, which was not much different from an ordinary chicken feather. This feather should be the small hair on the neck of the Vermillion Bird. It was similarly vibrant red and had the same glow. But…….
Mo Tianliao looked up at the expressionless Mingyan. Who was the one that said there was only one?
———————
The author has something to say:
Mini Theater:
Carpenter: You said there was ONLY ONE!?
Mingyan: Only one indeed!
Carpenter: Who are you fooling?
Mingyan: I have only one tail feather, one neck feather, one wing feather, one crown, one…….