CH 82

The noise in the morning market was in succession, like the drizzles of rain. The people on the streets were talking softly. There were also women with aprons around their waists, holding a tray of soy milk and cookies on top as they walked towards the peach blossoms. Their wrinkles showed when they smiled. With a shrill, dry voice, they spoke, “Dear misters of great fortune and life, after a hard night, come eat and drink some to warm your stomach.”

Lin Suci turned his body, slipped back into Yan Boshen’s clothes. A pair of eyes peeked out and glanced around. The miasma of the peach blossom had faded away, leaving only the peach trees in full bloom with a fragrant scent.

There were a few people standing outside the woods.

Without exception, the remaining people were all panting roughly, battered and exhausted, but from the outside, their clothes had no trace of wrinkles.

Those people were all survivors from other miasma of peach blossoms.

The auntie who was doing breakfast business smiled as she walked up and greeted them enthusiastically.

They had been fighting with the foul-smelling liquid-rotting monsters in the forest all night. Every hour was the tension of a death announcement. Now that they had left that environment, after getting to smell the aroma of soy milk in front of their noses, it was really a great way to let people relax.

Those few people were different from Lin Suci and Yan Boshen. They went in at least twice, and they were also familiar with the surroundings. After getting a set of breakfast by directly paying with spirit stones, they scattered to all four sides slowly.

That breakfast was not for Lin Suci.

At dawn, after the dull bell that announced the end of the night rang, a ball of spirit fell on Yan Boshen’s hands, and it was directly stuffed to Lin Suci to eat.

The spirit ball containing all the spiritual energy of the bewitchment array and the five other people, so it was not a little bit of absorption for him. After having a mouthful of it, Lin Suci was enveloped in spiritual energy, and his body naturally entered a dormant state to begin processing the energy automatically.

He fell asleep and was taken home by Yan Boshen. He was in bed for five whole days. It was not until the sixth day that he absorbed all those spiritual energy and returned his body to normal.

A large amount of spiritual energy diffused into Lin Suci’s body, gradually absorbing and converting into his energy. Those spiritual energies greatly stimulated Lin Suci, and from the sixth day on, he had a breakthrough.

Three days later, Lin Suci successfully jumped into the third stage of Qi cultivation.

That speed was indeed much slower than that at the beginning, but as a person who had damaged his cinnabar field, since improving his cultivation base in that situation was difficult, Lin Suci was already very satisfied.

As a third-level Qi cultivator, it was a bot forced for him to enter the second stage of Peach Blossom Miasma.

At that time, Yan Boshen gave him a sword.

That sword looked familiar to Lin Suci. He held it up and down for a long time, and finally recognized it. It was the sword that Yan Boshen casually tossed to him when they were in Lin Zhixi’s courtyard to rescue the oppressed Bai Qingkong.

The handle of the sword hilt was designed to fit exactly with Lin Suci’s palm. The sword was three feet long. With dark light flowing, a trace of blood on the blade could be clearly seen when he lifted it.

Lin Suci’s face was clearly reflected on the blade.

He touched it with his fingers, and the cold blade was extremely smooth. His fingers slid along the blade to the edge of the blade.

“Be careful!”

It was too late for Yan Boshen to warn him. Lin Suci’s fingers touched the sharp blade, and his fingertips were cut open by the blade’s edge. Blood emerged from the wound.

Lin Suci’s fingertips hurt, and the blood had already stained the blade.

The thread of blood flowed directly back down the tip of the sword, dying the blood fuller, and after a flash of red light, the blood stain was sucked into it by the sword. The blade was restored to its original cleanliness.

Lin Suci stared at his healed fingertips, then looked at the body of the sword. He unexpectedly felt that he was on the body of the sword, and saw the illusion of getting full from eating and drinking?

Fake, fake, fake. It must be fake!

Lin Suci shook his head. After suffering such a light injury, he raised his hand to Yan Boshen’s front, aggrieved, “Boshen, Boshen, look, my finger is scratched.”

The tips of his fingers that healed almost instantaneously did not even leave a trace of blood. Yan Boshen held his fingertips, and pretended to blow on him. After giving him a massage, he asked in a serious manner, “Alright now?”

The cat, who was touched intimately by its owner, nodded proudly.

Lin Suci’s attention was caught by the sword again.

That sword looked very magnificent and new, and it was heavy in his hand, as if there was a powerful force hidden in it.

“This sword looks rather handsome. Boshen, Boshen, where did it come from?” Lin Suci flicked the sword according to what he learned from the past, only to feel that the sword was exceptionally smooth, making him touch the word body with satisfaction.

“I said before that I would make you with a sword.”

Yan Boshen stood on the side quietly and watched Lin Suci trying out his sword. His eyes drooping and his tone of voice lowered a little.

That was three or four years ago.

Lin Suci was in the ninth level of foundation establishment and was almost at a one-step reach before the fusion state, about to step into becoming an intermediate cultivator. He did not have a weapon that he could use, so Yan Boshen decided to personally make him a natal weapon.

When he was at the Cardinal Sect, Yan Boshen went out several times to search for materials.

After that, his Master disappeared. The induction he placed on Lin Suci was broken, which almost drive him wild.

No, he was basically insane at the time. Since he found out the reason, he directly slaughtered the Mysterious Heart Sect.

Those were the most crimson days in the consciousness of chaos. The sky was full of blood, screaming, and struggling, but those could not be exchanged for the peace of Cardinal Sect, the peaceful master, and the alive and well Lin Suci.

Later, with the help of Ruan Linggu and Jing Huilian, he remembered that he still had one thing to do.

Create a sword for Lin Suci that belonged to him.

That sword took him a year. After it was casted, he threw it into the mustard seeds without even looking at it.

After being covered in dust for almost three years, the sword finally had its master.

Lin Suci naturally did not know the reason for that, but when he injected some spiritual energy into the sword to check, he found that it was rich in Yan Boshen’s spiritual energy inside.

Looking at it that way, he knew that the sword must have been made by Yan Boshen.

After all, Yan Boshen said at the beginning that he would personally handle his weapons.

“Thank you, Boshen. This sword is so great, I like it very much!” Lin Suci’s face was full of smiles from ear to ear. He patted his chest with great passion, “When I learn how to make tools, I will make a sword for you too… Oh, no way, your sword is already good enough… Then, I’ll make you a dagger!”

It was easy to get started but difficult to learn. To seriously create a dagger of the Nascent Soul Stage for Yan Boshen, Lin Suci’s cultivation base must at least be a Golden Core.

He tapped his fingers, and found in a daze that there was still a huge gap to get there.

In that way, Lin Suci did not dare to be sloppy at all. He straightened his back with a sword in his hand and was full of enthusiasm, “Boshen, I have to work hard!”

He had to fight hard to be able to step into Golden Core earlier, so he could give Yan Boshen a gift in return.

Yan Boshen’s lips curled, “That’s good.”

At the third level of Qi cultivation, his cultivation base was still too low. That sword was specially made by Yan Boshen for Lin Suci. At that time, he had one more thought. The cultivation base of that sword would change to be compatible with the master’s cultivation base. It was not static, so Lin Suci could use and showcase its strength no matter what was his cultivation base at that time.

Now that he got the sword, Yan Boshen was serious about teaching Lin Suci how to use the sword to start cultivation, and how to fight to control the sword energy.

If Lin Suci was practicing sword skills with Xiao Lan before, then it was a baby playing with rattles. When learning swords with Yan Boshen, he was like being directly thrown into a “sword hole.” Every active attack of the sword would affect him every moment. It was dangerous, and it made him nervous.

However, in that way, Lin Suci’s cultivation base had been greatly improved.

One of the biggest advantages of his sword learning was that in the process, he would not scream pain in any way. Even if he threw his sword, he would coquettishly play grievances, then he would pick up the sword and continue his training. He was a qualified swordsman cultivator.

Yan Boshen felt a little heartbroken to see the distressed kitten.

But, also a little proud.

The small courtyard was no longer enough for the two of them to display their talents. Xu Wuwang directly led them to pile of reefs, places with turbulent waves, and many dangerous places in the sea where monsters and beasts appeared.

One was the natural environment, and second was the growth of monsters and beasts. The two unfavorable factors summed up to make Lin Suci’s process full of extreme difficulties.

Xu Wuwang had no bad intentions, but he was not kind either. He literally shot a demonic beast to death, sat on the corpse of the beast floating on the sea, and had a weed of grass in his mouth. He made a flute out of bones while watching Yan Boshen teach Lin Suci.

Xu Wuwang had watched Yan Boshen teach others once. It was Xiao Lan, his Fifth Junior Brother at the time. Yan Boshen’s kind of teaching was to speak directly with the sword. Regardless of the opponent, it was his type of subject to attack with swordsmanship and sharp sword power. He almost forced Xiao Lan to jump off the cliff. When his sword power was taken back, he finally comprehended what happened.

Xu Wuwang felt that it was normal. His Big Senior Brother was never a normal person with humanity in his heart.

However, when he was teaching Lin Suci…

Xu Wuwang laughed as he watched the excitement and squatted for a day. The next day, he could not go, because he felt that he hurt his eyes if he did follow them.

Lin Suci did not know that his and Yan Boshen’s serious lesson had forced Xu Wuwang away. He was still devoting himself to engrave the energy of the sword with all his heart. He wanted to break through the first level of sword skills.

At the fifth level of Qi cultivation, he was still too weak at that level. Even if he could emit sword’s spiritual energy, the strength of the sword was so weak that it could almost be blown away by a burst of spiritual energy. It had no destructive power.

That kind of swordsman cultivator could not be called a swordsman cultivator at all.

Lin Suci was slumped for several days. He stopped sleeping at night and went to carve rocks in the yard while having his sword with him.

On the huge boulder as big as a human being that was brought to him for his lessons, there was a sword aura deep in the belly of the rock, which was firmly and accurately inserted into it.

Around that domineering sword aura, there were a series of shallow sword auras. Scratches on the rock were thick in the beginning, but thin and light in the end. The sword aura in the middle decreased. Soon, he could not sense the aura of the sword that was inserted in the boulder.

Lin Suci scratched his forehead.

Sweat was dripping.

When he followed Huilian to learn talismans, he had never worked so hard. All he needed to do was to learn the basics of talismans, memorize more about the stereotypes of talismans, and learn the eight divinatory trigrams along with the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) more thoroughly. He did not ask to be a talisman master himself, as long as he could use talismans on usual days, it was enough.

However, sword-learning was not that simple. Every step of a swordsman cultivator was down-to-earth. No shortcuts were allowed.

The moon above his head had been stained with the color of blood, and it would be dawn in less than two hours.

Qian Qian and Wan’er had fallen asleep long ago. The light in the room was turned off, and there was only an Eastern pearl on the left front of Lin Suci in the yard, reflecting light.

Yan Boshen was sitting under the Eastern pearl that was hanging in the air. He was still holding a picture album in his hand. He turned his eyes from time to time, and occasionally looked up at Lin Suci. Without saying a word, he proceeded to lower his eyes.

Those days, when Lin Suci cultivated, he would stay with him until the time he stopped. The two replenish their energy after that.

Whenever Lin Suci was sweating profusely and aching all over, it was a rare opportunity for Yan Boshen.

He could massage Lin Suci’s shoulders, squeeze his back, press his legs, pinch his waist and sit in his arms while bathing. Finally, he would hug the sleepy Lin Suci in his arms to sleep together.

Yan Boshen had not turned over the picture album for a long time. He raised his eyes to look at Lin Suci, who was panting. The corner of Yan Boshen’s mouth was hooked upwards.

The clothes on Lin Suci’s back were soaked.

His arms felt sore, so sore that he could hardly lift the sword.

However, he could not stop.

On the boulder, he was able to leave a very shallow sword aura, even next to Yan Boshen’s sword aura, it was clear that he made progress, like a baby learning to babble.

“Ha!”

Lin Suci made a fierce pierce with his sword.

Those days, he swung his sword a thousand times a day, and he had trained till his muscles had remembered everything about him. That time, even with his eyes closed, he could still be at an advantage.

After the sound of tearing air, the boulder made an inaudible hum.

Lin Suci put his hands on his knees, shaking his head and looking up.

His panting chest rose and set violently. His throat was so dry that he could not even speak.

However, when he saw a steady sword aura on the boulder, his shoulders suddenly collapsed. His exhaustion swept away, and he pointed at the boulder with raised eyebrows. He exclaimed excitedly, “Boshen! Boshen! I did it!”

His voice was very hoarse, and the flow of his voice was a little in segments after not speaking for a long time, but he still could not conceal his excitement.

The young man’s emerald-green eyes were bright in the moonlit night. They were shining with excitement, and the more he spoke, the glimmer they got.

Yan Boshen got up and came over to take a look.

At the beginning, he had the lack of consistency. His hands would tremble, and the sword aura would gradually float away. He never had the sword aura that a complete swordsman cultivator should have. That day, on the huge boulder, there was an extra smooth, non-hesitation, a decisive sword aura.

That was the sword aura that a swordsman cultivator should have.

Resolute, ruthless, full of fortitude to kill.

Lin Suci cultivated that sword aura for three whole months, and finally succeeded in the sixth stage of Qi cultivation.

Lin Suci took the sword back into the mustard seeds, and his whole body collapsed. He lay directly on the ground, looking up at the blood-red moon in the sky, and sighed comfortably, “This little master that I am is really talented and smart. It was destined to be the path of the strong, but I completed it in the end. In this world, everything must have had the surname cat.”

Yan Boshen endured his smile. He carried Lin Suci, who was paralyzed on the ground, and led him into the room with a push on the door. He asked, “Whose little master are you?”

“I’m your little master.” Lin Suci was accustomed to spreading out his hands, waiting for his owner to serve him.

“Since you raise me, you should know that all cats are masters. They must be greatly taken care of.” Lin Suci was still joking at Yan Boshen when he was being squeezed into the bathtub. He folded his hands on the side of the lotus leaf bathtub, and he was relieved in his heart after succeeding in cultivating sword aura. At the moment, he was relaxed and his mouth was still cheeky,” Come, give your master a bath.”

Yan Boshen stripped off his clothes and followed him into the tub with a straight face. Relying on Lin Suci’s ignorance of those, he generously took advantage of every moment with him every day.

Yan Boshen was very sophisticated in serving the cat. He scrubbed Lin Suci, which made Lin Suci felt so comfortable that he was literally enjoying every wash with his eyes closed. The whole cat was not moving, as if it was almost melted.

The clean kitten was too lazy to put on clothes. He was wrapped in a large towel by Yan Boshen. Lin Suci, who was lazy to the bones, snapped his fingers directly, and his body rose into the air, flying to the bed, and went straight into the blanket.

The hard-worker, who was raising the little master, was still working hard to deal with the aftermath.

It was not easy as it seemed to serve a little ancestor.

Fortunately, that little ancestor still had conscience. He slept soundly at night, so he could give Yan Boshen a chance to earn a little extra salary.

While cultivating Qi, Lin Suci followed Yan Boshen into the bewitchment array for the second time.

That time, their venue was the Qianyue (Thousand Moon) Hall.

Xu Wuwang also said that if Lin Suci could not go to the ring, then he could refuse. The ring was apparently very unfriendly to young cultivators who were immature in mind.

Even Xu Wuwang, who was accustomed to bloody scents, would frown as he reminded Lin Suci tactfully. Lin Suci naturally understood the seriousness of the situation. He was not the rebellious kind, so he would not go against what others say, especially when he was still at the stage when his dear life deserve protection.

The Qianyue Hall gave Lin Suci a good first impression.

There was a lakeside pavilion that could accommodate dozens of people. It had mural paintings, long corridors, low chairs, and a layer of veils hanging from the hall. If nobody mentioned that he was in the bewitchment array, he would only think of the place as a leisure benefit for the gathering of scholars.

Lin Suci’s skin tightened after experiencing the Peach Blossom Miasma though.

He honestly shrank into Yan Boshen’s clothes, and looked around in the darkness.

That was Yan Boshen’s second quota. The people he would meet were not as obvious as those who came for the first time. Those who went in once were silent and quiet.

There was a gust of wind outside.

The moon was in the sky.

The hour had arrived.

The sound of flapping wings was dense. The birds were constantly crying, and the sky was black.

In the huge hall, only Yan Boshen and Lin Suci were left.

It seemed that nothing special had happened, just like how they first came. Lin Suci covered his mouth and nose at the moment when the first bell rang. He even closed his eyes tightly.

After waiting and waiting, there was no foul smell. He opened his eyelids tremblingly.

The Qianyue Hall was still the Qianyue Hall. The only thing that changed was the top of the hall, which was clearly gone.

The sky was densely packed with countless moons, overlapping and reappearing.

The flying birds in the sky were like locusts, with endless sharp and ear-piercing sounds.

Based on the contract, Lin Suci was still in his cat form. He could not use his newly-learned sword skills to deal with that ‘Poison’, so he could only continue using his talismans.

There was an ancient time when Houyi shot the sun (后羿射日hòu yì shè rì: A mythological Chinese archer who shot nine of the ten suns to save his people, because it was too hot to live), but now, it was the kitten’s turn to shoot the moon by drawing his bow.

‘Thousand moons’ was just an imaginary number, but in the time frame, the number of moons needed to be shot down would determine the strengths of the six cultivators in the bewitchment array.

The bright moons in the sky looked white and flawless. An arrow shot out, and the white moonlight was torn apart. A group of blood-red bats came out screeching as they dashed towards the archer.

Lin Suci skilfully threw out the talisman. Using the tortuous environment in the hall to deal with the bats, he took some time to prepare his magic circles, and a lot of effort to get rid of the bats.

The second time was much more dangerous than the first time.

Fortunately, he made improvements.

That time, Yan Boshen did not help Lin Suci like how he did in the forest. He did not help Lin Suci in the second time. Only in Lin Suci’s third round, when Lin Suci was attacked left and right, and he was unable to repel the danger, he would retreat.

Lin Suci survived till the third ring of the bell by virtue of his ability.

After the fourth bell rang, his strength was not enough. Just after shooting a moon, before he could barely see what was exiting, he was taken back into Yan Boshen’s clothes.

The person who came in for the second time was a little bit more powerful than the first time. Every time the bell rang, it meant that a powerful person had died in the formation, supplementing their spiritual energy in it.

Lin Suci was a Qi-cultivating kitten. The only thing he could do after the fifth bell ringing was to lie on Yan Boshen’s chest and watch him methodically shoot the moon, arrow by arrow. Yan Boshen could obviously wipe out those beasts in one swoop easily. However, in order to give Lin Suci a demonstration, he slowed down, suppressed his cultivation base, and changed the method to show him the actual combat operation.

The sixth time the bell rang, the roof above their heads came back.

Five or more people stood in the hall of dozens of people.

Not far from the lake, an old woman who had boiled fish soup came with a smile and brought thick soup. With a local dialect, she greeted the people for breakfast.

The familiar behaviour of having breakfast.

That time, Yan Boshen took a bowl of fish soup, gave the old woman some spirit stones, and got a spoon. He sat in the hall with the cat in his arms, and fed spoonful of fresh fish soup to Lin Suci.

“Senior, did you bring a demon pet?”

Unexpectedly, someone came to strike up a conversation.

Lin Suci was a little surprised, and almost did not swallow the fish soup.

Cultivators, who usually went in and out of the bewitchment array, would not be good people. Everyone had a layer of skin to fake their own identity, trying not to communicate with other people.

After all, they were the winners of every stage. Who knew when they would meet again?

Not being hostile to the other party was already the peace they have worked hard to maintain. How could anyone take the initiative to strike up a conversation and expose themselves?

Lin Suci looked up.

It was a person wrapped in a black cloak. The figure was a little thinner, and not tall. A graceful figure was faintly visible under the broad cloak.

Was it a woman?

Lin Suci admired the person.

After going in once, he knew how dangerous it was. If a female cultivator, who had fewer natural resources than male cultivators, could win from a group of people and become the last king, then she was not a simple one.

She must be more outstanding than male cultivators.

Truly awesome.

However, Yan Boshen ignored the woman and continued to feed Lin Suci fish soup.

No matter how powerful the female cultivator was, she was still an outsider. The fish soup was theirs, so Lin Suci only had a short pause, and opened his mouth to continue drinking the fish soup.

“Senior, I don’t have any bad intentions. I just want to make a few deals with Senior.”

The female cultivator put on a businesswoman’s posture. She spoke very kindly, not at all angry because of Yan Boshen’s slow treatment.

Yan Boshen continued to feed Lin Suci fish soup.

The appearance of refusal made the female cultivator a little helpless. She opened her mouth and suddenly saw Yan Boshen carefully rubbing Lin Suci’s mouth. Her eyes lit up.

“Senior’s demon pet is really cute, can Junior touch it?”

That time, Yan Boshen finally gave her attention.

“No.”

The empty fish soup bowls were all placed in the hall. When the people left, the old woman collected them by herself.

Yan Boshen was no exception. After putting down the bowl and wiping Lin Suci clean, he put him back in his arms, and said to the female cultivator who was unknown to the details, “He is not a demon pet.”

“Huh?” The female cultivator smiled stiffly.

Yan Boshen patted Lin Suci’s back. His every word was extremely serious.

“He is my cultivation partner.”