Chapter 95: You can Turn Back Now!

'This place…' Le Fang Ling thought as she  looked around the place they had arrived.  The pungent smell of the place entered her nose.

'Seriously stinks like hell!!!' she wanted to cut off her nose to block the smell of the place.

Wine, dead and rotten rats, blood, sweat, maybe cow poops and who knows what else were mixed in the smell that she smelled.

She had been breathing in the sweet morning air of the village with sweet smell of the grapes still lingering in the air but now, in a blink of an eye, she was here! In this filthy place! Out of nowhere!

"Are you not going to follow me?" Master Yi Feng stooped on his tracks and turned behind to look at Le Fang Ling who was staring around at the place they had  arrived.

"Or are you going to return back from here?" he eyed her with a smirk on his face while stroking his beard. He hoped she would say yes.

He was more than sure that the young girl wouldn't be able to handle the amount of stench and filth this place gave off. Well, he also hoped she would turn out a little different and won't back away from her words.

But no matter what thought he had in mind, in the end all of the things depended upon the words she was going to speak.

"NO!" Le Fang Ling replied without waiting for him to continue further. The smell or the sore sight she was seeing now was not going to make her back down this easily.

"Hmm…" the old man hummed for a bit as he looked at her run towards him with the snake girl.

"Then bear with the smell or find your own way to protect your nose," he said in a solemn tone as he gave a sharp turn and started to walk.

'Host, I have provided a barrier that can cut off the outside smell.' She looked at Le Fang Ling who was scrunching her nose in disgust.

'You can stop holding your breathe." She said with a little bit of snicker seeing her puffed up face and red eyes.

Hearing a message from Nagina, Le Fang Ling removed the fingers that were pinching her nose and cautiously sniffed.

"It's not that smelly like before!" she exclaimed in surprise.

A new skill unlocked? She thought about probability of this happening at random time such as this.

Nevertheless, she was happy when she did not have to breathe in that filthy air anymore. She could not help but take a deep breathe.

"Pfft, are you a dog or what?" She showed an uncanny smile as she looked at her host, giving a light pat on her back.

"A big doggy," Nagina narrowed her eyes as she smiled showing her two sharp fangs that somehow looked cute in her face.

"A big doggy huh?" Le Fang Ling mumbled under her breathe.

"Yes!" A joyful smile covered her face as she thought about  her host with fluffy dog ears and a bushy wiggling tai.

"Well, I did lick you clean last night.." he voice trailed off as she winked at Nagina.

"Does that count as one?"  She leaned in sideways and whispered in her ears in a low and soft voice as she emphasized on each of the words.

"...."

A heat rushed over her neck, ears and skin as the memories of the last night came rushing back to her.

"Y-You.." she wanted to reprimand her but her voice did not have her back. She stuttered as she tried to speak and instead of words, only a nonsensical gibberish left her mouth.

Seeing her beet root red, Nagina held her wrist and smiled feeling satisfied and happy.

"Alright, I won't tease anymore," she rubbed her silver hair lightly and smiled.

"Let's go."

…..

"Umm, master why are we here?" Le Fang Ling asked as she followed after him.

"You will see soon." He answered her without even bothering to look back at her.

'Stupid, make her go back this instant! You know you are going ot regret this!' his soul once gain cried to him for the nth time today.

"Hmm…" She hummed lightly as she observed her surroundings. The place they were currently at was a not so prosperous place. Looking at the one storied old and traditional  houses made up of bamboo, stone and mud, she could deduce the poor living condition of the people here.

Well, the locals living here not that well off either. She could only see old men and women lying on the courtyard of their house looking listless.

The place was dirty and unhygienic hence resulting in the bad stench of the place. There were flies and insects that were flying around.

"This place looks not so nice to look at," she made a remark while shaking her heads at the sight of the undeveloped life of the people. whether it was this world or her won world back, poverty never left people.

She clutched her hands looking at the damned life of the few people around and at her own helplessness that she was reminded of.

"Anything wrong?" Nagina asked upon sensing the slight unease on Le Fang Ling. She also has grown sensitive to slight change in the surrounding around her.

Upon hearing her name, le fang Ling shook her head as she snapped back to the reality itself.

"It was nothing that you should be concerned about," she smiled gently at Nagina.

"En," Nagina nodded her head. She knew better than anyone to not ask further than on this matter.

All three of them walked in a silence for a while when Le Fang Ling noticed that they were moving father from the residential area and moving towards a dark place which somehow gave off a weird and sinister feeling.

"Are you sure this is the place where you are taking my test?" She asked, unable to hold in her question anymore.

Looking at where they were walking in, it was no wonder she came up with that question.

The old man stopped walking and nodded his head.

"Yes," he answered.

"Or are you saying you will rather turn back now instead of walking with me?" he looked at her sharply.

"I can do that too if you want to back out now." He seemed eager to take her back more than the girl itself.

Le Fang ling, who did not even had a chance to make herself clear: "..."

"No master, I choose to follow you to the end of the world." she said with a determined smile and an unyielding eyes. Her entire being was not going to retreat back after coming this far.

'T.T'

Master Yi Feng once again drank back his nonexistent tears as he cursed himself for showing his real identity to her.

He let out a long sigh and asked her, " Do you not have your own master?" 

"No, I am new and I am still trying to fix things…" she gave a brief smile as she unconsciously placed her palm on her stomach. She could feel the fluctuation of qi within her dantian that once again reminded her of her condition.

She had more or less learnt to keep them under control and also control the qi absorption in her body, but she still fell short at it.

Master Yi Feng noticed the subtle moments of her arms and hands. He narrowed his gaze at her stomach as he thought of something.

"There is Elder Lin who has been helping me but she is not my master yet." She said.

"And Elder MO said he has something for me.." her voice trailed off as she recalled about the sort encounter with Elder Mo of the library.

"Elder Lin and Elder Mo?" he repeated their names feeling a little surprised.  Well, he was indeed taken aback by the  familiar names.

It had been a long time since he had talked like this with another cultivator and also someone from the eternal blossom sect.

"What is that old man doing?" he clicked his tongue in displeasure when he remembered the  wrinkled face of a man.

"Whom did you mean by that?" Le Fang Ling asked with a curious look. There were way to many older people with beard stroking habit that she was lost as she tried to think who he could have meant.

"Grandmaster Lan," he said with a slight nostalgia and slight anger that was evident  in his tone.

"Hmm..about him?" Le Fang Ling was lost in thought for a while. She had not met him apart from the time he came to take her.

That was the only time she even talked with him.

"If I had to say then, he is doing pretty good considering the last time I met him." Le Fang Ling said.

"Hmm…I will take your words for it then." The man nodded his head.

"here we are!" He finally stopped walking as they approached a thatched house with a locked doo from the inside.

"Hmm, there is something going on inside there.." Nagina could hear sound of laughter and cheers coming from the house no matter how much soundproof it was.

Same was for Le Fang Ling who was alert upon seeing the heavy dark door.

"Your knees went feeble?" Master Yi Feng smiled in a scorning look as he watched her stand guard.

"No, master." Le fang Ling immediately denied.

"This student is simply being careful." She said as she sharpened every senses of her to her fullest.

"Hah, we will see about that." He chuckled as he pushed open the door with his index finger, making it open with a loud bang.