CH 7

Soon, the lingyao began to take effect . . .

Su Mujin began to tremble gently. Gradually, the trembling grew more and more difficult to withstand. His face turned white, and his forehead broke out in a cold sweat as he seemed to endure an intense suffering. But Su Mujin was stubborn and didn’t let a single whimper escape his lips. He merely clenched his jaw and bit his lip. Right now his only thought was, ‘I absolutely cannot disappoint Shixiong . . .’ 

“Here, don’t bite your lip.” Gu Feng pressed his arm against Su Mujin’s mouth. It vexed him to see Su Mujin in so much pain, but he could only try to ease some of the suffering in this manner.

Su Mujin was unwilling and turned his head away. He would rather stubbornly bear the pain himself to the point of biting his lip bloody than ask Gu Feng to share the burden. Come to think of it, Su Mujin had always been strong. He just feigned timidity and weakness to camouflage this.

Gu Feng suddenly laughed. His original purpose in bringing Su Mujin home had been to look after him, but Gu Feng had finally come to understand that he sincerely cared for that kid. The feeling of having family was truly wonderful. From now on, he would no longer be all alone in this world. For the first time since his rebirth, Gu Feng was elated and felt genuinely at ease.

The spiritual qi at the bottom of the pond suddenly surged. Gu Feng finally stood on the cusp of building his foundation . . . 

Gu Feng gazed at Su Mujin, and saw his complexion slowly recover. Observing his companion’s success, Gu Feng released the tension in his heart, took out a foundation building pill, and swallowed it. His attention was now focused entirely on building his foundation.

The effects of the foundation pill kicked in almost immediately. Soon, Gu Feng felt a fire raging in his dantian, growing ever hotter and larger. Then, a warm current surged through his meridians and spread across his entire body, penetrating deep into the marrow of his bones. After that, it felt as though the streams of energy were cleansing his marrow, and the impurities within his body were continuously discharged.

Upon seeing this, Gu Feng circulated his internal qi, and began to absorb the surrounding spiritual qi with increasing speed. Huge streams swirled around him to form a whirlpool. Within his dantian, the qi that was formerly viscous gradually began to liquefy. After a long while, all the spiritual qi in his dantian had become fluid. Now that his foundation had been built, Gu Feng no longer required meals to sustain himself, and his natural lifespan had increased to two hundred years.

Successful at last, Gu Feng leisurely stretched and let out a deep sigh. Opening his eyes, he caught a glimpse of Su Mujin curiously observing him. Gu Feng sized up the other person. Unexpectedly, Su Mujin had already reached the fifth stage of the qi refining period. That marrow purifying lotus was really something incredible.

“Xiao Jin, have you finished washing your spiritual roots?” Even though he’d already guessed the answer, Gu Feng still wanted to confirm it.

“Shixiong don’t worry, I already succeeded. But . . .” Su Mujin had a subtle expression as he looked at Gu Feng, hesitating a moment before asking: “Shixiong, what’s wrong with you? Why are you suddenly covered in filth?”

“. . . Cough, Shixiong just built his foundation, so all his impurities were discharged.” Although Gu Feng ordinarily had a thick face, but at this moment he felt a little embarrassed. He used a cleansing art to tidy himself straightaway.

“Efjiis? Vtlzlbcu lr jkfrbwf!” Ve Zeplc ujhfv ja Xe Mfcu lc jvbgjalbc. 

Xe Mfcu, “. . .”

I’m almost an adult and just now building my foundation. This little twerp has got to be making fun of me.

“Ofa’r ub. Bffq eq.” Mffilcu tlr rfio-fraffw tjv rerajlcfv j ojaji lcreia, Xe Mfcu ogbralis rqbxf atbrf rtbga rfcafcmfr jcv rkjw jkjs.

Su Mujin was speechless. Shixiong has really become ever more prickly and difficult to predict. 

“Qlatlc atlr wjceji jgf rbwf mbwwbcis erfv rxliir. Zjrafg atfw jr delmxis jr qbrrlyif.” Cr rbbc jr atf akb bo atfw uba bea bo atf qbcv, Xe Mfcu tjcvfv Ve Zeplc j ybbx. Klwf kjr bo atf frrfcmf, jcv cba j wbwfca rtbeiv ub ab kjraf.

“Yes, Shixiong.” Su Mujin began to cultivate in earnest. He was genuinely interested in these skills.

Seeing Su Mujin make progress, Gu Feng felt satisfied. He himself had no time to spare, so he opened his storage ring, removed the two black mineral artifacts, and began to study them.

Those artifacts felt smooth to the touch, and had a rustic charm. Gu Feng tried to assemble them, and they did indeed fit together perfectly. Even though they appeared to be made to slot together, why weren’t they merging into a single piece? Am I missing something important? Do I need to inject spiritual qi? 

Gu Feng began to pour spiritual qi into the artifacts. As soon as he did this, he felt the artifact hungrily suck up the energy, and his qi was soon drained dry.

Gu Feng reacted after the fact. He hurriedly assured Su Mujin that there was no need for concern, and jumped into the spiritual pool. Circulating qi in a frenzy, he guided it into the artifact, but it absorbed the qi like it was a bottomless pit. The spiritual qi at the bottom of the tarn rushed over toward Gu Feng, dwarfing even the massive rush from when he had built his foundation.

Some time passed as Gu Feng mechanically absorbed spiritual energy and passed it into the artifact. Without him being aware of it, half a month had passed. Just as Gu Feng felt he couldn’t hold on any longer, the two halves of the artifact finally completely merged into one. Suddenly, it barged right into Gu Feng’s spiritual consciousness and he immediately became aware of a wealth of information within his spiritual consciousness, and dramatically passed out in a blaze of glory.

Meanwhile, Su Mujin had been sitting on tenterhooks by the side of the pond the whole time. Although his shixiong had told him there was no cause for concern, it had been half a month and there was neither hide nor hair of Gu Feng. Surely he hadn’t met with an accident? 

Thinking of that possibility, Su Mujin couldn’t sit by any longer, and decided to jump into the tarn to search for Gu Feng. It wasn’t long before he saw Gu Feng lying still and silent on the bottom of the pool. Su Mujin was so frightened that his heart nearly stopped. He urgently rushed over, gathered up Gu Feng, and swam to the surface.

Coming out of the water, Su Mujin checked for Gu Feng’s breath. Still breathing, thankfully Shixiong is okay. After using an art to dry Gu Feng off, Su Mujin began to cultivate. Otherwise, he’d remain too weak and be unable to assist his shixiong.

When Gu Feng finally woke, three days had already passed. Just as he regained consciousness, he became aware of a person rushing toward him and throwing themselves into his arms. What the hell? Gu Feng was dumbfounded.

“Shixiong, the past few days you scared me nearly to death. I was so worried you’d never wake up again.” Su Mujin nestled in Gu Feng’s embrace, and his voice choked up as he began to cry. 

Gu Feng, “. . .”

Gu Feng silently despaired. Despite his past experience, today he was a domineering and tenacious man. What kind of demeanor was he supposed to show this loudly wailing child? After adopting Su Mujin, it seemed that Su Mujin’s true disposition had veered toward that of a young girl. Where had Gu Feng gone wrong?

Wait, how did this frightening sense of remorse suddenly arise?

“Hey, I’m alright. Don’t waste time crying. You should be cultivating instead.” Gu Feng wiped away Su Mujin’s tears, and patted his back. 

Regardless, he himself picked up this kid — who else was there to coax him? Such a clingy child. What a hassle!

Su Mujin obediently released Gu Feng and went back to cultivating. He felt his face begin to flush anew, and his heart beat rapidly. It was true, Shixiong must have poisoned him once again. How rude!

If Gu Feng knew Su Mujin’s internal dialogue at this moment, I’m afraid he’d spit up blood in anger. But right now he had no time to spend understanding Su Mujin, because he was completely engrossed in digesting the information in his spiritual awareness.

Gu Feng was delirious with delight. He had stumbled upon a Celestial grade cultivation manual, which was the highest classification for cultivation materials. He was extremely excited, for this cultivation technique required one to cultivate all five spiritual roots, and seemed to be custom made for Gu Feng! 

The cultivation manual was titled ‘Spirit-Devouring Celestial Method.’ Using this technique, all five types of spiritual qi could be absorbed without aftereffects. It was common knowledge that if a person wanted to make use of lingyao, they usually needed an alchemist to refine it into a pill before it could be consumed. However, after practicing the aforementioned technique, Gu Feng could now directly consume lingyao without experiencing adverse side-effects. There was just one downside to this cultivation method — when absorbing qi, one must carefully balance all five of the elements, or else risk a gruesome death.

That wasn’t even an issue for Gu Feng. He could use the abundant qi in the spiritual tarn to fuel his cultivation, as it already contained all five elements in equilibrium. At long last he could see his wish for revenge begin to come within reach.

He had previously planned for the two of them to build their foundations first, and then he would take Su Mujin to a secret realm to gain experience. But now he could see there was no need. Based on his memories, a secret realm containing spiritual ruins would open up in five year’s time.

In ancient times, immortals had perished within those spiritual ruins, leaving behind their hermitage. Only cultivators who had yet to reach the nascent soul period were qualified to enter. His previous incarnation had been in closed door cultivation when the spiritual ruins had appeared, so he had missed out on the opportunity. It was rumored that within the ruins were myriad lingyao, cultivation manuals, and treasures of the highest rank. Of course, such incredible gains also came with great danger. Previously, nearly all the cultivators in the foundation building period who had entered the ruins failed to gain anything, and not a few golden core stage cultivators also perished. But, if a cultivator managed to obtain one of the treasures within and come out alive, then their future was boundless. 

Gu Feng hadn’t originally planned to take Su Mujin to the spiritual ruins because he couldn’t guarantee that he had the capability to achieve the cultivation stage of golden core within five years, and it was far too dangerous to allow Su Mujin to go alone. But with this cultivation method, it would be a piece of cake for him to reach the golden core stage within that limited time frame, so now they could proceed with entering the spiritual ruins.

“Xiao Jin, for the next five years, we’ll stay here and cultivate. I’m going to go out and buy some supplies. Now that your gege is rich, is there anything you’d like me to get for you?” Gu Feng felt elated to the point that, as he was speaking, he began to float off the ground.

“Gege?” Su Mujin’s attention was completely focused on this single word.

“What? Is there a problem? We’re not strangers, so you should be calling me gege already!” Gu Feng dispensed with decorum in his excitement, his speech becoming more and more unrestrained. 

“N-no, it’s not a problem . . . I don’t need anything. Gege should leave now so you can return as soon as possible.” Su Mujin felt extremely vexed, as the impairment caused by his poisoning seemed to be hindering him more and more frequently.

Gu Feng didn’t insist. It was clear that Su Mujin would be fine on his own for a bit. In order to prevent the recurrence of last time’s awkward incident, Gu Feng left in a rush, quickly purchasing what he needed before instantly returning. He didn’t want to remain in the outside world a second longer than necessary.

“Here you go. Cultivation manuals, various pills — including a foundation building pill — are within. Gege treats you well, eh . . .” Gu Feng spoke as he tossed a storage ring to Su Mujin.

“Yeah . . . Gege treats me the best.” Su Mujin pounced on Gu Feng and hugged him. He spoke directly into Gu Feng’s ear, deliberately emphasizing the word ‘Gege.’ 

Gu Feng’s face turned red. This kid! Why was he always pulling this sort of bathetic stunt?

In a flash, five years passed by while they cultivated . . .