Chapter 39 – Hostility
Day by day time passed while Su Ming continued refining his pills. After many days while Su Ming was cultivating, Xiao Hong returned back to the cave looking tired and disheveled.
Although it looked tired, he had a joyful expression about him, frequently sniffing its right paw sitting there giggling sillily.
When Xiao Hong came back, Su Ming opened his eyes and took a glance at Xiao Hong and his expression turned unnatural as he was unable to help but recall the sight he witnessed a few days back.
Xiao Hong also felt Su Ming’s gaze and turned to look at him before running over and stretched out its right paw at Su Ming, looking very proud with itself as he wanted Su Ming to sniff it as if it was something amazing.
Unsure whether to laugh or cry, Su Ming paid no further heed to Xiao Hong as he once more returned to his cultivation.
Adding those days that passed, a month had quickly passed, and the day that he was going to visit the Feng Zhen Tribe with Grandpa drew closer and closer.
In this short period of time, Su Ming had used up all his Sieved Cloud Leaves but still only managed to refine one more Mountain Spirit Pill, and the failure rate of the pill quickly became something that depressed Su Ming.
Other than with the refining of the Mountain Spirit Pill, his cultivation progressed smoothly. During this period he had stabilized his cultivation in the fourth level of blood condensation and had even managed to create two more blood veins, reaching a total of forty nine now as he also slowly understood the strange technique of the Fire-Mán.
As he progressed, it became much harder to condense the next blood vein, and in the recent days, no matter how hard to cultivated he seemed to be unable to condense any more blood veins. He understands that this should probably be because he is unable to perform the third kindling of his blood flame.
In addition, when night falls, Su Ming would go according to his feelings and try to manipulate the moonlight although the effect was not obvious, he was able to control a shred of moonlight and nothing more.
Although it was only that one shred of moonlight, in Su Ming’s hands, it can become incredibly sharp, even more so than the bone axe, and the most shocking thing which is also the most important fact is that this shred of moonlight could not be seen by Xiao Hong, which according to Su Ming’s analysis would imply that other than himself, no one else would be able to see it.
Early in the morning, Su Ming got up from his cross-legged position and looked around the cave a little. After some time contemplating, he went to put away his cauldron and started to prepare for his trip, after all, he had no idea how long this trip to the Feng Zhen Tribe would be.
On the cave walls were many slash marks densely packed, all caused by Su Ming as he practiced controlling the single shred of moonlight.
After arranging his things, Su Ming walked out of the cave. Xiao Hong who too had long since awoken, chased after Su Ming as he saw that Su Ming was leaving, after leaving the cave it quickly maneuvered its way onto Su Ming’s shoulders seeming too lazy to climb down by itself.
“It is a pity the Mountain Spirit Pill is too hard to refine… … on the second door, under the diagram for the Mountain Spirit Pill there were eight holes, to think I would actually have to give up eight of them… … I really don’t know when I will be able to make eight of those Mountain Spirit Pills……
Whats more, on the second door, there is still the other thing called the Southerner’s Pill i have to make…… and the herbs that it require is something that I had never even seen before, thankfully they were briefly touched on in the diagram Grandpa gave me.” Su Ming stood outside the cave, looking at the sunrise in the distance, he mumbled to himself, while breathing in the cool air.
“Only after I have prepared enough of these two pills will I be able to open the second door…… thankfully the Spirit Seizing Pill is something that is not required for me to make, but this should mean that that pill is even more valuable than the other two!” Su Ming pondered as Xiao Hong who sat on his shoulders got impatient and started pulling on his hair and shrieking.
Su Ming patted the head of his monkey before jumping towards the base of the mountain, the wind whistling past him as his clothes and hair danced in the gust, resulting in Xiao Hong even more tightly holding onto his hair as it shrieked non-stop.
Su Ming’s laughter resounded as he grabbed onto a stone ledge as he descended, steadying himself, he continues downwards, given his current cultivation it barely took anytime before he once more reached the base of this Black Smoke Peak.
The snow in the mountain’s forest was as soft as ever, compacting it as he ran, Su Ming ran into the distance intending to return back to his tribe. However, when he ran into a fork in the road, he slightly hesitated as his stride stalled.
From the start Xiao Hong had been sitting comfortably on Su Ming’s shoulders, constantly intoxicating itself in the scent on its right paw, but seeing Su Ming stop it became slightly surprised.
The path on the right was the route towards the tribe, and the path on the left… … as Su Ming gazed at it, he remembered that this was the path to the Wu Shan Tribe.
“Going to take a look should be fine too…… Xiao Hong, have you seen Bai Ling before? Oh, thats right you should not have seen her before. Want me to bring you to have a look?” Su Ming softly uttered.
Xiao Hong’s eyes widened yet it did not utter any words as it sat there scratching its face.
“Fine then, since you want to see her, I’ll bring you out further this time to have a look.” Su Ming came up with an excuse to justify his journey as he smilingly patted Xiao Hong’s head. As Xiao Hong was showing its displeasure Su Ming dashed towards the road on the left.
As dusk fell, the sun in the distance released a bright red glow as it descended into the horizon, Su Ming had arrived at the place where he had last part ways with Bai Ling. Squatting there he could see the outline of the Wu Long Tribe, he could see the people moving about in the tribe, yet he was unable to spot that certain white outline.
After some time, Su Ming quietly thought to himself, he did not know what his heart felt, all he knew was that he felt that Bai Ling was very pretty, from the time he was small till he grew up she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen and he just wanted to have a few more glances at her.
Deliberating slightly, he silently sat there without rashly acting, looking at the quickly darkening skyline and the fading sunlight, his eyes flashed as he took a few quick steps forwards, quickly advancing without lowering his guard, he approached the Wu Long Tribe, only he did not dare get too close, after all this was not his Wu Shan tribal grounds, if he were to be detected, things could get dangerous.
Although his Wu Shan Tribe and the Wu Long Tribe did not have enmity between them like with the Hei Shan Tribe, their relations were not exactly peaceful either, if their members were to run into each other outside, they would still be hostile, not to mention if Su Ming were spotted wandering so close to the Wu Long Tribe.
“Sigh, I should not be doing this.” Su Ming sighed, as he quietly advanced, stopping only about a thousand Zhang away from the tribe. For the Su Ming who grew up in his tribe and had been wandering about the Wu Shan gathering herbs, he had run into many Hei Shan Tribe members and as such developed a sense of caution and alertness as he grew up which became somewhat instinctual to him.
(A Zhang is a measure of distance which is equivalent to about 3.33m)
He had seen a lot of bloodshed, although it was mostly from the hunters in his Tribe, as a child, he had already gotten used to seeing bloodshed, in fact he had even killed people before.
On this front, even Lei Chen was inexperienced.
Therefore although his heart wanted him to be able to catch a peek at Bai Ling, his subconscious instinct made him choose to only approach when it was dark and only advance so far.
Squatting there, his eyes searched through the Wu Long Tribe grounds in front of him, eventually a decisiveness appeared in his eyes, without hesitation, he turned around and quickly distanced himself from the Wu Long Tribe grounds.
But as he started running, Su Ming felt his hairs stand as he felt that he had been noticed by someone even stronger than the two brutes he had previously run into.
As he ran, he fiercely turned as he covered his head with his hands, his body like a ball as he held Xiao Hong in his embrace as he lept into the air.
In this instant, a piercing roar resounded in the sky as a huge three Zhang spear flew out over the Wu Long Tribe fence, flashing past Su Ming, it landed on the ground beside him with a bang, sending all the soft snow nearby in the air.
The powerful blow sent shock waves in all directions, thankfully Su Ming’s alertness allowed him to avoid the attack, using the momentum from the blast, his body lunged forwards full speed.
“Thinking of escaping?” A cold humph came from the distance, as a youth in hemp cloths and long hair chased over with a sharp gaze.
As Su Ming looked back, a flash of terror filled his eyes.