“Moreover, that night clouds were heavy and the moonlight was faint. Yet the moonlight entering the formation was as strong as daylight. I once heard my master describe the Twilight Sword of the Nanli Sword Master, which is most powerful at dusk when day and night intersect.”
“Are you saying that just a bit of moonlight subdued an evil spirit that had been entrenched for years, and that Brother Wuxi’s cultivation might surpass the Sword Master of Nanli Jingtian?”
“I only have 300 years of cultivation and have never seen the Twilight Sword in action, so everything is just speculation. But there is one point, the most important point…”
“What?”
“Think carefully, we’re all cultivators. What’s the difference between me, the disciples of the Meng family, and your Brother Wuxi?”
They have compassion, but Shu Wuxi has nothing in his heart?
No, no, no, that’s definitely not what Jiang Wuchao meant!
If not that, then what else?
Lu Xiaochan’s eyes lit up. “Oh! You all carry swords with you, but Brother Wuxi’s hands are empty!”
“Correct. Most famous swords in the world are forged from the spiritual remains of ancient magical beasts. At the very least, they’re made by capturing a magical beast and infusing its essence blood into mystic iron. When activating a sword formation, it can condense spiritual energy. The sword is the bridge between us and the spiritual essence of this vast world. But Shu Wuxi drew moonlight into the formation without using a sword at all, which means his cultivation level is likely approaching the realm of ‘great power’!”
“After ‘great power’, isn’t it the realm of ‘removing power’, where one doesn’t need to borrow power and can create from nothing, becoming a true god…”
Lu Xiaochan was stunned.
Jiang Wuchao shook his head. “No, no, no. If there were true gods in this world, how could we not sense their divine might and miracles?”
“But you know who he is, right? There are very few people in the world who can reach his level. If not the Sword Master of Nanli Jingtian, could it be the Sword Master of Xiyuan Jingtian, Haofu?”
Jiang Wuchao smiled. “You know quite a bit.”
“It was all told to me by Shu Wuxi.”
“Which other sword sects did he mention to you?”
“That’s it. He said after the fall of the Dongxu and Beiming sword masters, there were no successors.”
Jiang Wuchao smiled. “Beyond the four directions, there is still Tianyi.”
“Huh?”
“Alright, alright. If he doesn’t want to tell you, why bother asking? You just need to know that with him, you have nothing to fear. Even if your spiritual light leaks out and attracts evil spirits, he will help you resolve everything.”
“What? Where did I have spiritual light leaking?”
“Why do you think the evil god entrenched here risked everything to lure you and Shu Wuxi to save me? If an evil god could devour a cultivator’s core essence, it would be far more useful than absorbing hundreds of years of evil desires.”
Lu Xiaochan suddenly remembered that back at the inn, when Ren Erniang was possessed by an evil spirit, she also came to seduce him. It was Shu Wuxi who taught him to form a core and conceal his spiritual energy.
And this time, the evil god in the ancient tree also called him “Immortal Child.”
Lu Xiaochan rubbed his hands and asked, “Brother Jiang, can you see my spiritual energy?”
“I only think you’re good-looking. With my 300 years of cultivation, I haven’t reached the level where I can see the spiritual energy on your body. For an evil spirit to be revered as an evil god and intimidate hundreds of people, it must have been feeding on evil thoughts for at least over 300 years.”
“I just didn’t expect these villagers to still worship it!”
“What’s strange about that? People in the Demon City all worship the evil god Chaos. You need to be careful, don’t let them catch you and refine you into a demon pill to offer to the evil god.”
Lu Xiaochan shuddered. At this moment, the Immortal-Locking Ribbon on his wrist gave a strong tug. It was Shu Wuxi waiting outside, getting impatient and calling him out.
“Well then, Brother Jiang, rest well. We’ll meet again.”
“Until we meet again!”
Lu Xiaochan walked out of the house. After trying to climb onto Lushu’s back for a while without success, he couldn’t help but give Lushu a pat.
“Are you deliberately holding your neck high, not letting me get on?”
“Hmph! Hmph!” Lushu wanted to sweep Lu Xiaochan with its tail, but remembering how last time it tried to sweep him and ended up having its tail cut off by Shu Wuxi, it didn’t dare move this time.
“What are you grunting for! You’re not a pig!”
Shu Wuxi came to Lu Xiaochan’s side, knelt down on one knee, held Lu Xiaochan’s foot, and lifted him up.
At this moment, Jiang Wuchao had just walked out of the house and saw this scene.
He knew clearly that with Shu Wuxi’s cultivation level, he would naturally be aloof and solitary, yet he could lower his head with ease in front of Lu Xiaochan. It was evident that Lu Xiaochan was not ordinary to him.
Lu Xiaochan steadied himself, took the medicine bottle from his waist, pulled off the cap, tilted his head back and took a gulp of wine. “Let’s go!”
Jiang Wuchao looked at that wine bottle and paused.
There seemed to be a pair of crickets frolicking on the medicine bottle, vivid and lifelike.
He remembered Ling Nianwu once mentioning to him that when he first met Lord Liche, Lord Liche carried many bottles and jars. These bottles and jars didn’t contain immortal pills, but soil that had gathered spiritual energy from all directions. He planted immortal herbs in these bottles and jars, carrying them wherever he went, nourishing them with his own spiritual energy.
Only at his waist, there was a medicine bottle. It was one of the three magic treasures of the orthodox medical sect, Tailing Pavilion – the Tailing Zhenyuan. It was originally a divine tool connecting all water sources in the world, but Lord Liche was quite willful. Whenever he traveled to a place, he would fill the Tailing Zhenyuan with the local wine, saying he wanted to concoct an immortal brew that could intoxicate cultivators with thousands of years of cultivation.
And on that medicine bottle, there was carved a pair of moving crickets.
Could it be that Lu Xiaochan was…
Jiang Wuchao immediately lowered his head, performing a grand immortal’s salute, until the figures of Shu Wuxi and Lu Xiaochan were completely out of sight. Only then did he straighten his back.
Lu Xiaochan, riding on Lushu’s back, suddenly thought of something and quickly tugged on the Immortal-Locking Ribbon.
“Brother Wuxi! That evil god said I have spiritual energy in my body! Brother Jiang also told me to be careful of people from the Demon City capturing me to refine into a pill! Do I really have spiritual energy in my body?”
“Mm.” Shu Wuxi responded casually with just a sound.
“But… Since I was born, I’ve only learned one thing – begging! Where would I get spiritual energy from?”
Lu Xiaochan tilted his head, utterly perplexed.
“Say, if evil spirits keep coming along the way, wanting to eat me, what should we do? Won’t I become like Monk Tang’s flesh?”
“Monk Tang’s flesh… what is that?” Shu Wuxi asked.
Lu Xiaochan choked for a moment. “You… you haven’t heard the story of Monk Tang and the Monkey King?”
“No.”
“Let me tell you, Monk Tang is the reincarnation of the Golden Toad Boy from heaven! That…”
“There’s no Golden Toad Boy in heaven.”
“…This is just a mythical story, just listen! It’s because this Monk Tang is the reincarnation of the Golden Toad Boy that demons and monsters all want to eat a bite of Monk Tang’s flesh. They wouldn’t need to cultivate, they could directly become immortals!”
“Then where is Monk Tang now?” Shu Wuxi asked.
“Huh?”
“I’ll go catch him, you can eat his flesh, then you can become an immortal sooner.” Shu Wuxi stopped walking and stood beside Lu Xiaochan.
Lu Xiaochan could imagine that Shu Wuxi was being utterly serious at this moment.
“I… I’m not a demon or monster, why would I eat Monk Tang’s flesh?”
“This way you can improve your cultivation faster, and I won’t have to keep waiting for you.”
“…”
Lu Xiaochan suddenly felt a bit touched.
“That Monk Tang doesn’t exist, it’s just a folk myth! The point is, look, I’m like Monk Tang now! The evil spirits are like demons and monsters! Monk Tang had the Monkey King with his fiery eyes to see through worldly demons and protect him, what can I do? Can you teach me how to hide my spiritual energy?”
“For that, you first need to reach the realm of ‘entering the power’, experience all things in the world, establish connections with them, then you can naturally guide the spiritual energy into your dantian.”
“How long does it take to learn?”
“At least seventy to eighty years, at most two to three hundred years, or you may never learn it.”
Lu Xiaochan immediately drooped like a frost-bitten eggplant.
He wasn’t a diligent person, and estimated that the two to three hundred years scenario would be his fate.
In such a long time, he would have long been refined into a pill.
“Can’t I?” Shu Wuxi spoke up.
“You can’t what?” Lu Xiaochan asked listlessly.
He felt his fate was bleak.
“Be your Monkey King, if you’re Monk Tang.”
Lu Xiaochan was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and smiled.
“Xiaochan, why are you smiling?”
“I’m not Monk Tang. Because Monk Tang couldn’t identify demons and monsters, he was compassionate towards everyone, so he always distrusted the Monkey King who constantly protected him. Think how hurt the Monkey King must have felt, so you shouldn’t be the Monkey King either. I don’t want you to be hurt.”
“Alright.”
“I think I’m quite fine as I am.” Lu Xiaochan took out the flask from his waist and took another sip.
“You looked especially nice when you smiled just now.”
Shu Wuxi said these words in such a cold voice that Lu Xiaochan almost choked on that mouthful of wine.
“But, not being able to hide one’s spiritual energy is really troublesome!”
Lu Xiaochan suddenly had a sort of “this humble one was born beautiful, please don’t have designs on me” sassy feeling.
“Xiaochan, open your mouth.”
“Ah—”
As soon as Lu Xiaochan opened his lips, Shu Wuxi flicked something the size of a soybean, emitting a faint silver-blue light, into his mouth. Lu Xiaochan gulped it down in one swallow.
He instantly felt refreshed throughout his body, full of vigor and vitality.
“What was that?”
“I refined that evil god. It had wandered the world for over a thousand years, doing evil everywhere. Its refined spiritual energy can increase your cultivation by ten years.”
“Wow! Really! I didn’t know this was possible!”
“Mm.”
Lu Xiaochan calculated in his mind, if Shu Wuxi refined a dozen or so evil gods for him, would he be able to immediately break through to the ‘entering the power’ realm?
Wait, where could they encounter so many evil gods in a journey of just over ten days!
What a daydream!
The two of them walked on like this, and after four or five days, they completely left this stretch of mountains and arrived at a prosperous town.
When they reached Mian City, it happened to be the Lantern Festival.
Colorful lanterns were hung everywhere, and clusters of fireworks rose into the sky, exploding.
Shu Wuxi walked forward without paying any attention, while Lu Xiaochan, sitting on Lushu’s back, tilted his ear and listened very carefully.
This place was completely different from Lushu Town, with richer flavors and sounds.
“Brother Wuxi! Brother Wuxi! What are those crackling sounds?”
Shu Wuxi only replied. “I don’t know.”
“Huh? How could you not know?”
Haven’t you lived for a very, very long time?
Lu Xiaochan’s good-looking face came in handy, as a little girl carrying a lantern smiled and said, “Young master, those are fireworks! After they’re lit, they rise into the night sky and then burst into big flowers of all colors!”
“Thank you!” Lu Xiaochan gave her a big smile.
But before the lantern girl could speak again, Shu Wuxi raised his wrist and pulled forward, causing Lu Xiaochan to suddenly flop onto Lushu’s back.
Along the way, people kept looking at Lu Xiaochan.
“This young master is so handsome!”
“He looks like a little immortal from a painting!”
Lu Xiaochan wiped his nose. Someone even gave him a flower lantern, just because he looked good.
It was a little white rabbit lantern. Lu Xiaochan held it in his hand, extremely happy.
At this time, Shu Wuxi stopped in front of them. There was someone selling masks.
“Come one, come all! Take a look! All kinds of masks! We have Monk Tang! And the Monkey King! General Juan Lian! Marshal Tian Peng!”
“Give me a Monk Tang mask.” Shu Wuxi handed three copper coins to the vendor.
Lu Xiaochan was surprised. “Brother Wuxi, you also want to wear a mask for fun?”
“It’s for you to wear.”
Hearing this, Lu Xiaochan quickly shook his hand. “I don’t want Monk Tang! I want the Monkey King!”
The vendor immediately smiled when he heard this. “All children love the Monkey King!”
Lu Xiaochan took the mask Shu Wuxi gave him, put it on his face, and swung the white rabbit lantern.
“How did you think of buying a mask for me to wear?”
“They were all looking at you, and their eyes were full of lust.”
“…”
Oh no, is this brother going to pluck out people’s eyes again?
What should I do?
“But you don’t like me plucking out their eyes, so I can only give you a mask to wear, so they can’t see you.”
Shu Wuxi’s voice was cool and clear, so serious that Lu Xiaochan wanted to laugh.
“Brother Wuxi, have you heard this saying – you see lust in others’ eyes because you have lust in your own heart?” Lu Xiaochan was purely trying to tease him.
“I can have it, but others absolutely cannot.”
Although it was bustling and noisy around them, Lu Xiaochan heard it clearly.
What can you have? Don’t say it’s lust!
You can eat recklessly, but don’t speak recklessly about things you don’t understand, brother!
Several more explosive sounds rang out in the sky, and Lu Xiaochan heard waves of admiration from the surrounding crowd.
They were all praising how beautiful this year’s fireworks were.
Unfortunately, Lu Xiaochan couldn’t see any of it.
Shu Wuxi stopped and asked, “Do you want me to take you to a high place?”
“What for?”
“You can hear more clearly.”
Lu Xiaochan was slightly stunned, his heart warming.
“Okay! Take me to a high place to listen to the fireworks!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Shu Wuxi tightened the Immortal-Locking Ribbon. Lu Xiaochan’s body lightened, suspended in the air, and when he landed, they were already on a rooftop.
The wind blew past his ears, carrying various fragrances.
“You can sit down now, slowly.”
Shu Wuxi’s voice sounded beside his ear.
Lu Xiaochan squinted his eyes and smiled, deliberately reaching out to grab Shu Wuxi beside him. He knew that at this height, Shu Wuxi definitely wouldn’t punish him for grabbing him once.
Sure enough, Shu Wuxi’s arm only trembled slightly, but he still allowed Lu Xiaochan to press on his forearm through his clothes as he sat down.
Although he couldn’t see the beautiful scene of the fireworks, Lu Xiaochan imagined various colorful scenes in his mind.
Shu Wuxi sat beside him, very quiet, as if he didn’t exist.
Lu Xiaochan felt like this was all a dream.
He thought he was destined to be alone, that one day when he fell ill and couldn’t move, with no strength to beg, he would curl up in a corner where no one could see him and stop breathing.
But Shu Wuxi appeared, and he was different from everyone Lu Xiaochan had ever known or experienced.
He didn’t lie, he rarely spoke, but he was very careful about every step Lu Xiaochan took and every bite of food he ate.
This suddenly made Lu Xiaochan very curious about the person Shu Wuxi had said he was always waiting for. How good must that person be to make Shu Wuxi wait for so long?
“Hey, Brother Wuxi.”
“What is it? Are you hungry?”
Lu Xiaochan laughed. “In your heart, do you think all I do is sleep and eat?”
“And watch the excitement and meddle in other people’s business.”
“Then let me ask you a question, and you can consider it as me meddling. The person you’ve been waiting for, what kind of person are they? Tell me about them, maybe I’ll recognize them if I come across them in the future.”
Streams of fireworks shot up into the night sky, bursting open with a whoosh, the bright light casting Lu Xiaochan’s smiling face in various colors.
“He… is someone I can never understand.” Shu Wuxi’s voice, amidst the successive “boom boom” of the skyrocketing fireworks, was tinged with the flavor of mortal life.
“What don’t you understand? Tell me, I’ll help you analyze. Maybe you’ll understand then!”
Lu Xiaochan tugged on the Immortal-Locking Ribbon, causing Shu Wuxi’s wrist to lift slightly.
“Back then, I was about to break through a major barrier. He was sent to watch over me, to prevent me from becoming possessed.”
Lu Xiaochan hugged his knees, looking in Shu Wuxi’s direction. Although he couldn’t see anything, he knew Shu Wuxi was facing him, looking at him.
“Haha, you’re so powerful. If you really become possessed, you’d surely be even more formidable. How could he possibly keep you in check?”
“He constantly complained about being bored, wanting to go down the mountain. He said I was too cold and not treating him, a guest, well.”
“Wow, wasn’t he there to look after you? Wouldn’t his constant complaining disturb you? What if he annoyed you into becoming possessed?”
“I thought perhaps I really wasn’t treating him well enough, so I agreed to be a bit nicer to him.”
“How nicer?”
Lu Xiaochan wondered if it was the same way Shu Wuxi treated him now.
