CH 16

Half a month later. Yunhua Realm, Tianxuan Sect.

Early in the morning, a wave of thunder and calamity resounded from the summit of Zhongling Peak.

Following the sword cultivator, Yan Jiuge, among the new disciples, the medical cultivator, Chu Qi also advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage.

The cultivation speed of the two of them was beyond the comprehension of the other disciples in the same sect. Their talents were insufficient, so they had to work extra hard to make up for it. This event immediately inspired many of the Tianxuan Sect disciples to practice hard.

After Chu Qi passed his thunder tribulation, and his realm was successfully advanced to Foundation Establishment, his whole body seemed to be completely reborn. The capacity of his lingtai point had doubled, and his meridians had expanded by a lot.

Coming out of the seclusion caves in Zhongling Peak, Chu Qi first went to the Medicine Pavilion to greet his shifu, Elder Qingyue, and tell him about his success in building his foundation.

“I saw the movements of the Heavens as you went through your tribulation, this teacher already knows that you have built your foundation. Go down the mountain to play, you don’t need to care for the spiritual plants today.

Elder Qingyue took a look at his little apprentice. He didn’t need to think to know that he was only thinking about going down the mountain to play with that sword cultivator disciple.

During the time when Chu Qi wasn’t in seclusion, his three meals a day were either brought over by that sword cultivator disciple, or Chu Qi would go out to eat with him after morning lectures on Wenjian Peak.

Now that Chu Qi had been in seclusion for nearly half a month, he would definitely run down Zhongling Peak the second he came out.

Being seen through by his shifu, Chu Qi rubbed his nose in embarrassment, “Then, shifu, this disciple will take care of the spiritual plants tomorrow.”

After saying this, Chu Qi bowed and turned to leave, quickly striding away.

Chu Qi really wanted to find Yan Jiuge.

It was the first time in his life that he had built his foundation as a medical cultivator, and he wanted to share the good news with Yan Jiuge.

But it was a pity that Chu Qi’s message to Yan Jiuge went unanswered. He didn’t know if Yan Jiuge was busy.

“I wonder if Ah-Yan still hasn’t come back from his assignment…”

Chu Qi muttered, then hung the identity token back on his waist. Brushing xiao-Bai’s feathers, he said to it, “Xiao-Bai, please take me to Yuxiu Peak first.”

The Xuanji Pavilion was in charge of Tianxuan Sect’s assignments, and was located on Yuxiu Peak.

When the white Luan heard Chu Qi’s words, it raised its head and let out a sonorous cry, indicating that it understood.

When Chu Qi sat down on the white Luan’s back, it spread its wings and took off in the direction of Yuxiu Peak.

Yuxiu Peak wasn’t very far from Zhongling Peak. It took a little more than a quarter of an hour to arrive there.

Chu Qi got off of the white Luan’s back and walked straight towards Xuanji Pavilion. Unexpectedly, he ran into Liu Weiming who was just about to leave.

“Chu-shidi, why did you come to Yuxiu Peak?” Liu Weiming was very surprised when he saw Chu Qi, “Yan-shidi had just left after taking another assignment. Why didn’t you two come together?”

“I’m here to… Liu-shixiong, what did you just say? Ah-Yan was here?”

Chu Qi couldn’t help being taken aback when he heard Liu Weiming’s words. He came to Yuxiu Peak to see if Yan Jiuge had returned from his assignment, but he didn’t expect for him to have left again.

“Yes.” Liu Weiming nodded, seeing Chu Qi’s eyes full of doubts, he was also a little confused, “Didn’t Yan-shidi tell you?”

Yan-shidi and Chu-shidi were normally joined at the hip. Liu Weiming figured that Chu Qi had already known about it.

“I just came out of seclusion today. Maybe I missed the communication from Ah-Yan.” Chu Qi speculated.

After listening to Chu Qi’s words, Liu Weiming told him about Yan Jiuge’s whereabouts, “I heard from the shidi guarding the mountain gate that Yan-shidi came back this morning. After he handed in the task of hunting poisonous spiders, he immediately took on the task of hunting down the Two-Headed Python, and flew away without a moment’s rest.”

“Okay, I got it. Thank you, Liu-shixiong.”

Finding out about Yan Jiuge’s whereabouts from Liu Weiming’s mouth, Chu Qi turned and left Yuxiu Peak without a moment’s delay.

The Two-Headed Python was in the rock forest not far to the east of Tianxuan Sect. It would take sword cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage half a day to reach it on their swords. It would take the same amount of time for Chu Qi to ride the white Luan there.

It was noon now, and by the time he got to the stone forest, it would be almost evening.

According to the usual situation, Chu Qi should just wait for Yan Jiuge to come back at Zhongling Peak or Zaohua Peak.

But after getting no response from Yan Jiuge again, Chu Qi took a deep breath and said to the white Luan, “Xiao-Bai, please take me to the stone forest outside the sect.”

The time since he entered Tianxuan Sect had passed smoothly and peacefully, which almost made Chu Qi forget an important thing.

—In his last life, he and Yan Jiuge completely split just a month after Yan Jiuge established his foundation. Calculating the time now, with how Yan Jiuge built his foundation ahead of schedule, that matter may also follow suit.

Coupled with the fact that Yan Jiuge couldn’t be reached today, Chu Qi felt a little nervous.

Chu Qi didn’t want to quarrel with Yan Jiuge at all.

It wasn’t easy for him to start his life all over again. He wanted to avoid the misunderstandings of his previous life as much as possible.

But it’s rather strange. In Chu Qi’s memory, the reason for their split was very vague. He only remembered that the two of them quarreled fiercely, and that Yan Jiuge nearly made a move against him and Chu Qi cut him out of his life in a fit of anger,

Since his rebirth, he had never fought with Yan Jiuge, so now he shouldn’t repeat the same mistakes… Wait, did Yan Jiuge face him with a sword?

Chu Qi suddenly caught a clue.

In Chu Qi’s impression, except for his mouth being a bit poisonous, Yan Jiuge wouldn’t cross the line like that. During that fight, Yan Jiuge seemed to be a little abnormal.

—

The white Luan flew towards the east quickly, but the sky still gradually darkened.

Looking at the dark clouds gathering above his head, Chu Qi could feel the water vapor in the surrounding environment getting thicker. With such weather, it was surely going to rain soon.

On rainy days, the white Luan’s flight would be hindered.

“Xiao-Bai, find a place to land and take shelter from the rain first.” Chu Qi had no choice but to ask the white Luan to stop.

Fortunately, they had already entered the boundaries of the stone forest, and were close to where Yan Jiuge would be completing his assignment.

As for the specific location, since Yan Jiuge wouldn’t answer his messages, Chu Qi could only rely on a less efficient way to find him.

Within a distance of a hundred zhang1, the identity tokens of Tianxuan Sect disciples could sense each other.

The white Luan hovered in the sky for quite a while as the dark clouds in the sky got deeper and deeper, promising a heavy rain. Only then did it spot a stone cave that was barely big enough for them to settle in.

With a cry of joy, the white Luan circled down and was about to land at the edge of the cave.

“Wait! Xiao-Bai, there’s something in there!”

As soon as Chu Qi’s words of warning fell, the thing that was lying dormant in the dark rushed towards them. It seemed to have a little intelligence, and bit at the white Luan’s back.

“Jiu—!!” 

The white Luan let out a long cry, full of pain.

“Xiao-Bai!” Chu Qi jumped off the white Luan’s back, quickly forming a seal with both hands, and cast a healing spell on it.

A light green brilliance flashed across the white Luan’s wound, but it couldn’t fully recover. The blood coming from the wound was black, and it seemed as if the thing that bit it was highly poisonous.

With the help of the dim light from when he cast the spell, Chu Qi was able to clearly see what it was that attacked the white Luan just now.

It was a Three-Headed Python. The dark vertical pupils were cold, almost the same color as the rock around it, and its scales were slightly blue. The three heads of the snake were all facing Chu Qi’s direction, and the scarlet tongue of the snake heads flicked as they let out a greedy hiss.

The strength of spiritual beasts increases from the lowest Grade One to the highest Grade Four. The strength of a Two-Headed Python in this stone forest was rated at Grade Two, which was a level that cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage could handle. But the Three-Headed Python in front of him now was Grade Three, which was roughly equivalent to a Golden Core stage cultivator.

Really unlucky.

Chu Qi frowned and grasped the hilt of Gui Yin at his waist, thinking quickly of a way to escape.

This Three-Headed Python seemed to have some intelligence, otherwise it wouldn’t have laid here dormant, waiting for them to come down. It had probably seen the white Luan hovering in the sky long ago.

There were two defensive spiritual tools on Chu Qi’s body. One was left to him by Uncle Lin, and the other was given to him by Elder Qingyue. If he could use one of the tools, he may be able to buy enough time to send a message to the Elders of the sect to ask for help.

It would be great if he was still a sword cultivator like he was in his last life.

Chu Qi tightened his grip on his sword. For the first time in his life, he felt that the combat effectiveness of medical cultivators was truly not enough.

“Hiss—!”

As if noticing Chu Qi’s hesitation, the Three-Headed Python moved its snake-like body, wriggling and rushing towards him first.

Shing—!

Gui Yin was unsheathed, and Chu Qi swung the sword almost instinctively. His spiritual power poured into Gui Yin through his palm, activating the ancient runes engraved on the sword.

At that moment, Gui Yin trembled.

A sharp white sword energy condensed and slashed towards the Three-Headed Python.

The Three-Headed Python did not expect that a medical cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage could produce such sword energy. At that moment, its three heads twisted in unison, trying to turn around to avoid the sword energy.

Boom—!!

The sword energy was just barely dodged by the Three-Headed Python, and dug deep into the stone behind it, leaving behind a large gash. The stone cave, which was originally small, became a passageway that went through to the other side.

Taking advantage of the time when the Three-Headed Python turned around to dodge, Chu Qi held up his sword, “Xiao-Bai, you shrink down in size and I will carry you.”

The white Luan’s wings were injured and he couldn’t fly at the moment. There wasn’t any time for detoxification or treatment right now, so he could only have it shrink down into his arms.”

The white Luan followed his suggestion and shrank down into a palm-sized white bird, quietly curling up in Chu Qi’s hands.

After grabbing hold of the white Luan, Chu Qi jumped down from the cave.

“—!!!” At this moment, a flash of lightning burst across the sky.

The dazzling light immediately illuminated this desolate and barren stone forest.

Underneath those dark rocks, numerous Two-Headed Pythons hissed coldly, their reptilian eyes staring in Chu Qi’s direction.

“…”

This Grade Three Three-Headed Python not only had intelligence, but was also able to command all the Grade Two Two-Headed Pythons in the surrounding area. This place was full of them.

There was no other way.

With deep eyes, Chu Qi took out the defensive spiritual tool from his qiankun bag, intending to send a message to the Elders of Tianxuan Sect to ask for help.

Weng!

Just as Chu Qi was planning this, Gui Yin in his hand trembled, as if it had sensed something.

BOOM—! After the lightning passed, the sound of thunder came nearly three breaths later, seemingly shattering the world.

At the same time, a scarlet sword light flashed before Chu Qi’s eyes, and a mighty sword intent followed like a shadow, wrapped in a fierce and oppressive killing intent.

This sword intent cut off the heads of the Three-Headed Python in one swoop.

Crash!!

They were severed at the heart, and the body of the Three-Headed Python fell powerlessly onto the stone floor.

The murderous aura left behind made the remaining Two-Headed Pythons flee out of fear that they would be next.

However, the person who had unsheathed their sword still didn’t stop.

The brilliant sword light cut apart the dark rocks, chopping down one after another of the fleeing snakes.

The foul-smelling blood of the beasts filled the stone forest.

After the thunder, a humid and heavy rain arrived.

There was the sound of rainwater crashing wantonly against the barren rocks. The water mixed with the thick blood on the ground and carried it into the cracks in the stone. There was not a clean place to stand in this place.

Ten steps away, a black-clothed boy holding the Long Yin sword had his back turned to Chu Qi. The murderous aura on his body still hadn’t faded and his cold and stern figure was as sharp as the spiritual sword in his hand.

The icy rain fell on his body, soaking his robe. At some point, all the protective spiritual power and defensive spells worked into his robe had been worn away.

“Ah-Yan.”

Recovering from the accident just now, Chu Qi walked towards him quickly, raising his hand to cast a spiritual technique on him to block the rain.

The white light from the spiritual art fell on Yan Jiuge’s body, but it was reflected and disappeared without any effect.

Seeing this, Chu Qi was taken aback.

He paused his steps, and put xiao-Bai into a spiritual barrier that blocked the rain. Chu Qi freed up his hands before moving closer in Yan Jiuge’s direction.

Putting his palms together, Chu Qi stood on tiptoe to stretch his hands over Yan Jiuge’s head and block the rain. 

After completing this action, Chu Qi remembered that he still had a lot of things to ask Yan Jiuge, such as why he couldn’t get in contact with him, or why he ran out to complete these assignments without resting…

All his questions disappeared the moment Yan Jiuge raised his eyes and looked at him.

Different from his usual deep, black eyes, at this moment, Yan Jiuge opened a pair of dark golden eyes that were full of hostility and never-before-seen murderous intent.

Chu Qi had never seen Yan Jiuge like this. It was like he was suffering from a qi deviation. Anyway, something was very wrong.

In the medical cultivation method he’d read, there were some spiritual healing techniques that could alleviate insanity and clear one’s mind, but it was a technique that only Golden Core medical cultivators could perform. Chu Qi had only just built his foundation, so he didn’t know if it would be successful.

Chu Qi chanted the obscure spell in his heart and focused on Yan Jiuge’s condition, praying for success.

However, as the spiritual technique gradually condensed and took shape, it was once again bounced away before it could reach Yan Jiuge.

Chu Qi pursed his lips, “Ah-Yan, can you still hear me? The spiritual defenses on your body should be used to avoid the rain, not deflect my healing spell, otherwise it won’t have any effect. If you don’t say anything, I’m going to hold your hand.”

Using physical contact as a means to transmit spiritual techniques was also a means of medical treatment. Most importantly, this method wouldn’t be blocked by the body’s spiritual defenses.

“…”

Yan Jiuge didn’t respond, but his brows furrowed deeply, and some struggle appeared in his dark golden eyes.

When Chu Qi saw this, he knew that his consciousness was also in chaos. If it wasn’t resolved soon, it would cause even bigger problems.

He didn’t bother to ask Yan Jiuge’s opinion. Chu Qi reached out to grab Yan Jiuge’s hand that wasn’t holding his sword.

The boy’s fingers were cold, and probably because of the rain, his palms were a little wet.

But when Chu Qi took his hand, he realized that there were hideous wounds covering his palms. Blood mixed with rainwater was flowing from it.

Because of Chu Qi’s actions, Yan Jiuge seemed to have regained some consciousness. He lowered his head and looked at his palm.

Slash—!

A flash of sword energy condensed out of thin air and cut open Yan Jiuge’s palm like he had done thousands of times before. 

The new injury was superimposed on the old one, and the pain made Yan Jiuge sober for a moment.

“Ah-Qi…” His voice was unbelievably hoarse.

“Don’t hurt yourself anymore, I’ll help you. Ah-Yan, trust me.” Chu Qi spoke anxiously and quickly poured his spiritual power into Yan Jiuge’s hand.

This time, the healing technique finally fell on Yan Jiuge.

The hideous and jagged wound on Yan Jiuge’s palm healed, but Chu Qi’s spiritual power was still inside, trying to find Yan Jiuge’s meridians and help him calm his chaotic mind.

At the Foundation Building stage, it was a bit difficult to use the medical skills best suited for the  Golden Core stage. The spiritual power in Chu Qi’s body was almost spent. In the end, it was impossible to maintain the spiritual technique, so he stopped.

When Chu Qi raised his head and met a pair of black eyes, he couldn’t help but be pleasantly surprised, “Spiritual techniques are really useful. Are you feeling better?”

Yan Jiuge squeezed Long Yin, and forcibly suppressed the evil qi remaining in his body. After making sure that he wouldn’t lose control again, he looked seriously into Chu Qi’s eyes, “I’m better now. Sorry, I was a little out of it just now.”

After completing his duties to the Yan family, Yan Jiuge hurried back to Yunhua Realm without stopping. Unexpectedly, the sect assignment he randomly chose at that time was to hunt down poisonous spiders. When Long Yin spilled blood, the evil qi in his body leaked out through the killing intent of the sword.

Knowing that the situation was serious, Yan Jiuge found an excuse and left Tianxuan Sect, hoping to return after regaining consciousness. Moreover, he withdrew all his defensive spiritual power, relying on the pain from his injuries to restore some clarity.

The only thing that he didn’t expect was that Chu Qi would come to look for him.

Thinking of this, Yan Jiuge couldn’t help but be afraid. What if he had hurt Chu Qi while he was out of control?

“Next time, if you see me like this, stay away from me.” Yan Jiuge said with lowered eyes.

“Why should I stay away from you?” Chu Qi was puzzled as he took out medicine from the qiankun bag. He had just treated Yan Jiuge, and his spiritual power was exhausted.

Yan Jiuge was at a loss for words, “…”

Couldn’t he tell that the backlash from the evil qi made him into something scary?

Chu Qi hadn’t finished speaking yet as he popped a spiritual pill into his mouth. His cheeks were puffed up as he continued, “On the contrary, you should have come to me earlier. I’m a medical cultivator! I can treat you.”

Yan Jiuge was taken aback.

Just now, he was only concerned with suppressing the evil qi, and he didn’t notice that Chu Qi’s spiritual power had also passed into his meridians. The gentle spiritual power was healing the meridians in his body that had been eroded by the evil qi. As the pain faded away, only peace remained.

His injuries were recorded in his meridians, and none of them could be healed by medicine or spiritual techniques. For so many years, there was no other way but to wait for his injuries to heal on their own.

But now, it seems that Ah-Qi’s spiritual technique could actually heal these injuries.

A look of surprise appeared in Yan Jiuge’s eyes.

Seeing his expression, Chu Qi mistakenly thought that he didn’t believe in his own strength, so he made an excuse for himself, “What’s with that face? Alright, ba, I’m only in Foundation Building now, so it’s still a little hard to use advanced healing techniques, but I will become more powerful in the future.”

When he went back, he had to continue to practice hard so that he wouldn’t be caught off guard like this again.

Chu Qi thought to himself.

Hearing Chu Qi’s words, Yan Jiuge smiled. Restraining his surprise, he nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll wait for Ah-Qi to become more powerful.”

As for the fact that Ah-Qi’s spiritual powers weren’t ordinary, he would gradually understand in due time.

“However, how did you know I was here when you were out of it just now?” When Yan Jiuge was like that, he didn’t even answer his messages, but he was still able to arrive at the critical moment, which surprised Chu Qi a little.

“Gui Yin and Long Yin have an affinity for each other.” Yan Jiuge explained slowly, “It probably came from the sword energy.”

“So it’s like this.” AS expected of spiritual swords refined from the same materials. It turned out that there was such a wonderful connection between them.

A look of amazement flashed in Chu Qi’s eyes.

After eating the spiritual pill, Chu Qi’s spiritual power recovered a bit. Seeing that Yan Jiuge was sober again, he let go of his worried heart. He turned around and went back to pick up the white Luan that he had placed on the ground and inspected its injury.

The wound had healed, but ordinary techniques couldn’t eliminate the residual poison. To detoxify the snake venom, he had to remove the snake gall from the Three-Headed Python and go back to refine the antidote.

“Ah-Yan, let’s go back.” Chu Qi said to Yan Jiuge, “Just now, xiao-Bai was bitten by the Three-Headed Python and there’s likely some remaining venom that needs to be treated. I’ll have to refine the antidote with the snake gall.”

With a swift slash of sword energy, Yan Jiuge took out the snake gall from the Three-Headed Python’s corpse and put it into a jade box before handing it over to Chu Qi.

Afterwards, Yan Jiuge let go of Long Yin in his hand. Activating a technique, the sword body of Long Yin doubled in size, making enough room for two people to be able to stand on the sword and fly.

Yan Jiuge lifted his eyes and looked at Chu Qi warmly, “Get up. I’ll take you back to the sect on my sword.”

“Ah?” Chu Qi didn’t immediately move when he heard these words, but hesitated, “This isn’t good. Long Yin is your natal spiritual sword….”

A sword cultivator’s natal spiritual sword couldn’t be casually used to carry others. Chu Qi, who was a sword cultivator in his previous life, knew this very well.

“You’re not just anyone.” After Yan Jiuge said this, he urged under Chu Qi’s confused gaze, “Get up quickly. It’s already dark and raining heavily. Your white Luan is also injured and can’t fly. If you take a leaf boat to go back, you won’t return until tomorrow morning.”

He makes sense.

Chu Qi thought for a while. He was a medical cultivator and couldn’t control the sword, and he really didn’t have other flying spiritual tools to take him back.

Setting aside the awkwardness in his heart, Chu Qi carefully stepped on the blade of Long Yin.

This spiritual sword, which was so imposing in Yan Jiuge’s hands, was very quiet now. There was no dissatisfaction with Chu Qi standing on it.

If a spiritual sword was unwilling to carry someone other than their master, they would vibrate and hum when others stepped on it.

Seeing that Long Yin didn’t dislike him, Chu Qi was a little relieved.

Yan Jiuge, who was half a head taller than him, also stepped on Long Yin behind him. He gently wrapped his hands around his shoulders, as if preventing him from falling off, and used his spiritual power to place two layers of barriers around the spiritual sword.

“Stand firmly. We’re going back.”

“Okay.” Chu Qi nodded, thinking that he had also flown on a sword before, so he wouldn’t fall that easily.

However, this was the first time that Yan Jiuge took him to fly on his sword.

Thinking of this, Chu Qi’s mood was a little delicate.

A moment later, Long Yin carried the two of them into the air.

The spiritual barrier blocked the heavy rain and cut them off from the outside world.

Between the gray sky and the earth, the brilliance of the spiritual sword was like a meandering shooting star, heading in the direction of Tianxuan Sect.

[1] Unit of distance measurement. Equal to 10 chi or approximately 3.58m (11ft, 9in)