Lin Jiansheng put down Kong Qing and asked, “Where is your home?”
Kong Qing pointed toward the southeast.
Lin Jiansheng nodded and said, “We’re already at the Broken Cliff. This is a place that you’ve lived in for hundreds of years. You must be more familiar with it than us. You can go back by yourself later.”
Kong Qing did not make a sound. He jumped down from the cliff.
Seeing this, Yu Huang also spread her Vermillion Bird wings and slowly flew down.
There was always a layer of poisonous gas shrouding the sky above Broken Cliff. This was the territory of a low-grade demonic beast, the Nightmare Spider.
The last time Yu Huang and Sheng Xiao came to look for Anna, they fell into the poisonous gas barrier. They were wrapped in spider silk and almost devoured by the poisonous spider that swallowed Anna.
However, Kong Qing could easily pass through the poisonous gas barrier and fall into the valley.
A look of surprise flashed across Yu Huang’s eyes when she saw this. She cut through the spider silk with her sword, revealing a passage for people to pass through. Lin Jiansheng carried Yu Huang and directly entered through that passage, and Yu Huang jumped down as well.
As soon as she landed on the ground beneath Broken Cliff, Yu Huang’s palm pressed onto something that felt like a circular arc. She grabbed that thing and raised it to her eyes to take a look. Only then did she realize that it was the skull of an adult.
The skull had long been weathered, and the gray-white bones showed signs of age.
Yu Huang calmly threw away the skull, stood up, and softly called out to the surroundings filled with resentment, “Mentor.”
Lin Jiansheng’s voice came from behind her. He said, “Disciple, I’m here.”
Yu Huang turned around and saw Lin Jiansheng standing not far away from her. She subconsciously walked towards Lin Jiansheng, but before she could get close, ‘Lin Jiansheng’ suddenly turned around and pounced towards Yu Huang.
However, Yu Huang did not panic at all. She calmly pierced her sword through ‘Lin Jiansheng’. Lin Jiansheng instantly let out a shrill scream before turning into a ball of black mist and disappearing into the grievous energy.
Yu Huang blew on her sword and sheathed it. When she turned around, she saw another Lin Jiansheng standing behind her. This Lin Jiansheng had a faint smile on his face and was looking at her with gratification.
Yu Huang stared at Lin Jiansheng for a while before saying with certainty, “You are real.”
Lin Jiansheng chuckled and asked Yu Huang, “How did you manage to recognize that the person wasn’t me at first glance?”
“Because you never address me as your disciple.” Lin Jiansheng usually addressed her as Ah Huang and only addressed her as his disciple to others. The moment the monster spoke, he exposed himself.
“At the Broken Cliff, you have to be vigilant at all times.”
Lin Jiansheng carried Yu Huang and walked to Yu Huang’s side. He sized up everything in Broken Cliff and lamented, “The resentment here seems to have intensified.”
Last year, when they came here, there were no monsters near the cliff. The number of monsters under the cliff had increased, which meant that the resentment under the cliff had also increased.
“Mentor, why are there so many corpses under Broken Cliff? Are they all souls that died unjustly? Then there are too many of them.”
At that moment, Kong Qing’s voice suddenly sounded. He said, “For a few years, there were always planes that threw corpses from the sky. They kept dumping corpses for half a month.”
Yu Huang could only hear Kong Qing’s voice and could not see him. “Where are you?”
Kong Qing was too short. He tried his best to jump high. Only then did Yu Huang see a small head emerging from the grievous energy from time to time. Lin Jiansheng carried Kong Qing up with one hand. He frowned and said, “Why are you so short?”
Kong Qing hugged Lin Jiansheng’s neck and said, “I grow very slowly.”
“That’s true. You’re already more than 700 years old, yet you’re only this tall.” Yu Huang deliberately scared Kong Qing. “You won’t be able to grow taller in the future. At most, you’ll be 1.4 meters tall.”
Kong Qing asked, “How tall is 1.4 meters?”
Yu Huang compared the position of her collarbone and said, “It’s about this high.”
Kong Qing actually laughed happily. “Can I grow that tall?”
Yu Huang was speechless.
Young man, how low were your standards for height?
Lin Jiansheng simply placed the blue shirt on his arm. He was tall and strong, and he carried Kong Qing on his arm. He walked with his back straight.
After a while, Kong Qing suddenly said, “I’ve seen you before.”
Lin Jiansheng was stunned.
Kong Qing stared into Lin Jiansheng’s eyes and said, “Many years ago, I met you here. You made me a jar of sweet potato candy. Do you still remember?”
Lin Jiansheng revealed a shocked expression. He stared at the youth on his arm and asked in bewilderment, “You’re that… little black baby?”
After Lin Jiansheng broke through to become a Level 7 Purifying Spirit Master, he had been stuck at a bottleneck for twenty years. In order to break through, he had barged into the Broken Cliff alone thirty years ago and stayed there for five years.
In the fourth year of his stay in the Broken Cliff, he met the little black baby.
The little black baby was a monster. At that time, he had just condensed his body and torso. His face did not have any specific facial features, and only had a small black mouth that was like a bottomless pit.
Lin Jiansheng called him the little black baby.
The little black baby seemed to like Lin Jiansheng very much and would always follow behind him. He did not know how to speak, so whenever Lin Jiansheng spoke, the little black baby would listen very seriously.
The little black baby was very good at imitating. He liked to imitate Lin Jiansheng’s every word and action. Before the little black baby turned into a human, he had already learned human speech and actions.
There was a period of time when Lin Jiansheng was injured and could not go out. He sat in the cave and studied some array formations and incantations. As he was engrossed in his research, he suddenly heard the sound of demon beasts flapping their wings outside.
Lin Jiangsheng leaned on crutches out of the fan, then saw a scene that made him laugh.
The little black baby was holding a honeycomb that he had stolen from a tree, and a group of demon beast bees that looked like bees but were even more ferocious than bees were chasing the little black baby.
As the little black baby ran, he bit the honeycomb and sucked madly. He didn’t want to waste a single bite, even if his face and buttocks were swollen by bites from the demon beast beast bees.
Lin Jiansheng couldn’t bear to watch any longer, so he used his psychic power to chase those bees away.
After being saved, the little black baby glanced at Lin Jiansheng from afar. Then, he wolfed down the honeycomb in a few mouthfuls before walking towards Lin Jiansheng.
He raised his head and looked at Lin Jiansheng. Lin Jiansheng thought that he was thanking him.
Lin Jiansheng squatted down and leaned his face close to the little black baby. He heard the little black baby burp loudly. The burp carried a sweet smell of honey, and Lin Jiansheng hurriedly retreated.
At night, the little black baby quietly approached Lin Jiansheng and silently stuck out his butt for Lin Jiansheng to see.
Lin Jiansheng looked at the swollen butt and felt a sense of pity for this little monster for the first time. After Lin Jiansheng applied medicine on the little black baby, the little black baby sat together with Lin Jiansheng to roast the fire.
Lin Jiansheng asked him, “Is that candy that delicious?”
The little black baby tilted his head and looked at Lin Jiansheng, as if he was pondering over what Lin Jiansheng meant by his words. Lin Jiansheng smiled, and his broad hand gestured the shape of a honeycomb in front of him. Then, he brought the honeycomb to his mouth.
The little black boy recognized the gesture and understood what he meant. He nodded vigorously.
Lin Jiansheng stared at the little black baby for a moment before suddenly saying, “You may only be able to live here for the rest of your life, but I’m leaving. Before I leave, let me give you a gift.”
Lin Jiansheng took out all the sweet potatoes that he had saved for the little black baby. He made a jar of thick sweet potato syrup for the little black baby and placed them in a glass jar before giving it to the little black baby.
“When my injuries are healed, I’ll be leaving. Little fellow, you have to eat this jar of candy sparingly. Once you finish eating it, there won’t be any left.” The little black baby used its black fingers to dip and take a bit of the syrup. It sucked on its fingers with its small mouth, and suddenly, a pair of eyes appeared on its black face.
It was a pair of incomparably dark green and sparkling clear eyes, like a clear spring in the forest.
Recalling the past buried deep in his memories, Lin Jiansheng felt a little dazed. When he looked at Kong Qing’s face again, he realized that Kong Qing looked a little like him.
Kong Qing was naturally like him. In the process of becoming a human, he had only seen Lin Jiansheng.
Kong Qing was a monster. He wasn’t human.
However, because of Lin Jiansheng, he had made himself like a human, and his heart was beating.
Lin Jiansheng’s throat bobbed, but he couldn’t speak.
Kong Qing smiled sweetly at Lin Jiansheng and said, “I finished that jar of sweet potato five years ago.” He had eaten a jar of sweet potato syrup for 25 years and was very thrifty.
After a pause, Kong Qing said, “I went to the town outside to buy it, but I couldn’t buy the kind of sugar you made for me.”
Kong Qing smiled innocently. “Can you make me another can of sugar when we leave this time?” he said.
“… Okay.”