The five hundred kilometer radius area around Grand Cloud Mountain range could be said big or small, depending on the perspective. The topography of the mountain was continuous and complex. Especially since the change in the spiritual energy along the Feng Shui lines was quick and violent, surging in their intersections within the mountain, which caused the mountain environment to become even more unpredictable. Flying over from the sky, perhaps Grand Cloud Mountain didn’t seem vast. However, walking on the ground, in ten days to half a month, one could only go to a corner of the mountain.
Wang Lu has been exploring the Grand Cloud Mountain on foot for a whole week, yet he hasn’t travelled even the periphery of several peaks. On one hand, as the owner, Beast Master School has become even more alert; the number of patrolling disciples of the Beast Master School was more than usual, which brought a lot of hindrance to Wang Lu’s plan. On the other hand, the stupid dog that he assigned to be their guide also landed into trouble. Often it would go around in a circle back to the original place, which caused Wang Lu to waste a full half a day, only for the stupid dog to whimper and innocently said it was lost.
Walking through the Grand Cloud Mountain, Wang Lu used Quan Zouhua’s quasi-immortal beast’s resonance power to find the young immortal beast moon spirit ahead of the Beast Master School. Unfortunately, after a whole week, he discovered that this stupid dog was utterly useless.
Of course, the stupid dog has its own explanation for this.
"Resonance or something should be useful. In the night where there are a few stars and the moon is bright, I can feel its trace on this mountain. I can even lock its general position. However, the opposite party clearly doesn’t want to see us, thus
it deliberately goes into hiding… From the start, the resonance induction is already weak, plus it deliberately camouflages to disguise itself. So I’m also at a loss here."
For the stupid dog’s intelligence level to be able to organize out such coherent words, one could see how crazily anxious it was. Therefore, though helpless, Wang Lu could only fish out the bone marinated in soy sauce from his mustard seed bag to throw it at the stupid dog so that it could happily gnaw it.
After a whole week of trekking through the mountain, this was the result. Wang Lu could not help but knit his brows while inwardly figuring out how to continue the next step.
Meanwhile, the other two people felt no pressure at all. The naive Liu Li greedily enjoyed the mountain scenery. In any case, along the way, Wang Lu would always entertain her with delicious food and drink. She was worry-free and especially carefree in having fun along the way. Obviously, the Immortal Beast and Beast Master School weren’t even in her thoughts at all.
His other companion seemed intriguing. During these several days, senior Xiao Qi and Liu Li happily spent their time talking to each other. Her religious name was Greedy Master Dog Meat (Greedy is homonym with Zen in Chinese). Obviously, she was a connoisseur in culinary delicacy. With Liu Li whose foody characteristics needed not be mentioned, they perfectly matched talking to each other so much that they wished they could swear an oath to be sworn sisters. When the two talked about food, even the Spirit Sword’s best student couldn’t butt in to give his opinion—though he had read more books, the good food that he personally tasted was actually not that many. Thus, he spent more time listening to the other two professionals’ conversation.
However, Xiao Qi’s activity was also limited to this. Besides eating and drinking, she never discussed any other matters. When not talking about food with Liu Li, she just silently followed Wang Lu from behind. Even when the dog Quan Zouhua led them walking in a circle, she appeared nonpluss
ed.
Therefore, Wang Lu asked her, "Seventh Madame, aren’t you in a hurry?"
"Hurry for what?" Xiao Qi asked back, "I have no interest in that immortal beast anyway."
Wang Lu asked, "Don’t you have an absolutely irreconcilable enmity with Beast Master School?"
Xiao Qi spat out, "You’re the one with irreconcilable enmity! Originally, I did see them as not pleasing to my eyes, but these past few days, my interest in them continue to wane. If we can destroy this division, that’s great, but if not, that’s also okay. I’m not like you Master and disciple, what I do might not necessarily have to have a result. The most important thing in life is being happy… or do you want to taste my bowl of noodles [1]?"
Wang Lu said ill-humoredly, "Even if you give me your bowl of noodles, I will not be happy… Alas, without subordinates, everything had to be done by myself!"
Xiao Qi found it funny. "Who forced you to do things? You and Beast Master School don’t really have any irreconcilable enmity. Even after the scene on that level area and the certain Elder who broke the law and committed crimes by attempting to rob you. Those are something that you can let go, so why are you so persistent?"
Wang Lu actually answered this question seriously, "Since I had decided to do it, I have to do everything in my power to complete it. A professional adventurer does not have a habit of giving up halfway."
"Oh, that explains it." Xiao Qi simply accepted what Wang Lu said at face value, and then nodded. "You two are indeed a pair of Master and disciple, your way of doing things is exactly the same as her. But this is strange, your Master was helpless, she had no other choice but to handle her affair by staking it all, which now has become her habit. However, your aptitude and opportunity all far surpassed that of your Master, so why do you have to stake it all?"
The two people casually talked to each other. However, upon hearing the last sentence from Xiao Qi, Wang Lu’s interest was immediately piqued.
"My Master was helpless? I would like to hear the detail please."
Xiao Qi was taken aback. "You’re her disciple, didn’t she tell you about it?" Then she immediately calmed down. "Indeed. With her temper, she would definitely not say those things to you."
Wang Lu hurriedly replied, "Therefore to open up her dark history, I have to depend on you, Seventh Madame."
Seeing the sparkling eyes of Wang Lu, Xiao Qi was moved; she couldn’t help but find it funny. "Usually you’re not that interested in your Master, but when it comes to her dark history, you immediately assumed an enthusiastic face… Actually, it’s not that big of a deal. I don’t even know much about the details. After all, she and I are just fair-weather friends. It’s just that we have been acquaintances for quite long, so I know quite a lot about her. In fact, since you have been cultivating by her side for so many years, you should’ve already discerned it."
Some of the hidden meaning within her words have already been grasped by Wang Lu, so he nodded to acknowledge it.
"Actually, you can already see the problem from your Immortal Cultivation Method. Take a look at Liu Li here. Her Immortal Cultivation is the ancient heritage of Brilliant Sword Heart, which pays particular attention to the oneness of heaven and humanity [2]. Thereupon, whether walking, sitting, or lying, her whole person seems to be one with her surrounding. See how she walks, every step that she takes has a very different distance, yet none of them not adjusted to the environment. The surrounding spiritual energy blows across her body from the front and pass through her back; the flow is totally unaffected. However, when she really wants to move, the surrounding spiritual energy kilometers away from her would move at her heart’s desire… Of course, this is still far from the highest realm of Brilliant Sword Heart, where the practitioner is basically the embodiment of nature. As for you, when you walk, the distance between every step you take is exactly the same. Except when meditating to circulate the surrounding spiritual energy, your whole person is like a closed sealing, with not one bit of surrounding spiritual energy penetrate you. And the magical power within your body would also unlikely to flow out… What do you think that means?"
Though Xiao Qi has yet to clearly speak out the answer, being clued this far, how could he still not understand?
"Brilliant Sword Heart is an ancient heritage. In ancient times, the world is rich with spiritual energy and opportunities are everywhere. In that time, the cultivators were in high spirit. As long as their aptitude wasn’t too bad, they would still triumphantly progress on the road of Immortal Cultivation. After all, the environment there was too good. Therefore, the methods that were born at the time often emphasize the blending with nature and making use of the environment. As for this Non-Phase Method… it is clearly a method born out of the inhospitable natural environment; at the time of its invention, the master must have been under a great pressure."
If not so, how could ten years ago, when his Master first imparted him the method, she seriously told him that the most important thing in the Immortal Cultivation was to be strong enough!
"However, on exactly what matter it is, I’m also at a loss."
Xiao Qi just shrugged her shoulders. "Can’t guess it? There’re already so many obvious clues. Twenty years ago when I went on experiential learning together with your Master, even I, a simple and straightforward person, have seen a lot of them, yet you can’t see them? Although your Spirit Sword Sect is currently the weakest among the Five Unique of Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, at least two hundred years ago, it couldn’t be said as withered. And more than one hundred years ago, it is known internally that the sect has a golden generation. A hundred or more gifted disciples were so dazzling with their brilliance. It was a second to none scene. The history of that time, perhaps internally, your Spirit Sword Sect won’t tell you about it, but for people who have lived long enough in the Immortal Cultivation World, most of them knew at least a bit."
Wang Lu actually hasn’t heard much about this. In his ten years of cultivation, this was only the second time he descended the mountain for experiential learning, and the first time was just a short time. He hasn’t had enough high-level contacts and thus never really heard of the concept of golden generation.
However, at this point, he could probably guess the follow-up to that.
From a hundred or more people in that golden generation, only ten people of the Heavenly Sword Hall were left. Obviously, Spirit Sword Sect has suffered through an unusually tragic blow, which prevented them from saving nine out of ten of their genius disciples. The more frightening thing was… perhaps even the Masters and Sect Leader at the time have also paid with their lives.
For other sects, whether they were among the Five Unique or first-rate sect like Myriad Appearance Sect, in addition to those who posed as Sect Leaders or Elders, their sects probably have some hidden cultivators who practice in seclusion. They were usually several generations higher than the Sect Leader and the Elders. And more often, the number and strength of these supreme Elders were directly embodied in the sect heritage.
However, Spirit Sword Sect didn’t even have a single supreme Elder. Above Feng Yin, all were already within the ancestral hall, with not a single living person existing, which formed an exceptionally eye-grabbing fault.
Now, it seemed that it was all the result of that catastrophe.
And his Master Wang Wu, in order to survive during that catastrophe, invented the Non-Phase Method. When his Master said the most important thing in Immortal Cultivation was being strong enough, she wasn’t playing a hoodlum character, but rather words from the bottom of her heart.
Perhaps in many people’s eyes, this set of method that covered only defense and survival seemed ridiculous. However, a century ago, when the golden generation almost entirely went extinct, Wang Wu with mediocre spirit root actually survived. Those talented geniuses were dead while the living Wang Wu could scourge the world. Which one was better here, one would know it in a glance.
Then, like what Xiao Qi said, his Master loved to stake it all in handling her affairs, it was not because she was hardworking and diligent but purely because, if she didn’t stake it all, it would spell a dead end for her.
In this way, his Master was sincerely a pitiful person… However, a pitiful person must have a hateful place. Of the ten Heavenly Sword Hall Elders, the remaining nine were straight people, and only her constantly stoop lower and lower; it was clear that this person has this innate tendency.
Thinking to this, he heard Xiao Qi sighing. "Your current generation of Spirit Sword Sect disciples is truly blessed."
Wang Lu furrowed his brows. When he was about to open his mouth, he suddenly saw Xiao Qi tensed up.
Before long, a feminine, icy, unpleasant voice came from behind.
"I’ve finally found you."
Turning around, Wang Lu saw a gray-robed brown-faced man. The man seemed to be around thirty or forty years old, well into the middle-aged, yet his eyes seemed to exude the vicissitudes of life… Though Wang Lu couldn’t accurately judge his cultivation base with his eyesight, he knew that for a cultivator to appear not that young like that, the man should’ve been cultivating for more than hundred years.
The man, even with a smile on his face, did not have a trace of friendliness in him. Behind that man stood a petite girl dressed in a wide cloak and veiled face and head... However, the hood was topped up with the girl’s two pointy ears. Her stature and figure looked especially familiar.
She was exactly the peak Jindan Stage cat-eared girl that they saw a week ago.
Being caught up by Beast Master School people, Wang Lu frowned, and then the Sword of Mount Kun naturally appeared in his hand. His cultivation base was still not high, thus he simply couldn’t protect himself from the Jindan Stage expert. However, if coupled with his sword defense, even Jindan Stage expert needed to spend some time to break it.
And that time should be enough for Xiao Qi to open the escape door.
However, that browned faced man actually said, "We have no malice."
[1] This is a line that appeared in many Hong Kong TVB soap opera.
[2] The theory that person is an integral part of nature.