Yang Chengzhi felt he'd been dealt a raw hand. He'd never expected that one look at a beauty would get him killed. He had to be the most miserable protagonist in history!
Unfortunately, he had no idea what had happened. He was still immersed in the world of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, completely enthralled.
Meanwhile, Zhou Zhuling had also been captivated by the world of My Fair Princess. Ziwei had taken Jinsuo to the Forbidden City to find her family, while Xiaoyanzi had gallantly offered to help, only to end up in the palace herself by a twist of fate. The series of amusing events quickly won Zhou Zhuling over.
It wasn't until dusk, when the bookstore was about to close, that the two of them finally emerged from their books with a quiet sigh.
Watching the books turn into golden light and fly back to the shelves, they couldn't help feeling wistful. They'd have to wait another two days before they could read them again.
Tomorrow was the bookstore's regular day off.
Yang Chengzhi quickly put the books out of his mind, said goodbye to Ma Feifei, and went home to prepare. He was going into Nine Heavens Mountain the next day to hunt spirit beasts, and while he still had time, he needed to buy some healing herbs at the market, just in case.
Zhou Zhuling stayed behind. She rose and walked over to Ma Feifei, then asked softly, "I wonder if you'll be free tomorrow, shopkeeper?"
At her words, Ma Feifei wondered if she was asking him out.
In all his twenty-odd years, he'd never had a girl invite him out like this—not to mention one as beautiful as Zhou Zhuling.
But her next words shattered his daydream.
"My father would like to invite you to our home for a visit."
So that was it. Her father wanted to invite him to dinner, not Zhou Zhuling asking him on a date. He'd gotten his hopes up for nothing.
Ma Feifei's excitement plummeted. He asked casually, "When?"
He might not be excited anymore, but she was Zhou Zhuling's father, after all. He had to show him some respect. What if Zhou Zhuling became his concubine one day? Then her father would be his father-in-law, wouldn't he? He could at least do him that courtesy!
Wait! Why had he said "concubine"? Did that mean he'd have a principal wife, too? Was he planning to build a harem?
At the thought, Ma Feifei was positively delighted.
Seeing him smiling to himself, Zhou Zhuling felt inexplicably happy. A faint blush appeared on her pale face as she said, "The day after tomorrow evening, the Zhou Manor will await your arrival, shopkeeper."
With that, Zhou Zhuling gave a slight curtsy, gathered up her skirt, and turned to hurry away in small steps.
From behind, she looked almost giddy.
"Hey! Miss Zhou, you haven't gotten your Spirit Crystals back!" Ma Feifei called after her.
But Zhou Zhuling had already run out of the bookstore and disappeared around the corner, leaving only a faint fragrance in the air.
"Oh my, could Zhou Zhuling have fallen for me?" Ma Feifei thought happily as he watched her disappear.
"Ah, I can't blame her. I'm just too outstanding." Ma Feifei sighed, rose with a touch of melancholy, closed the shop, and went to the back courtyard to chuckle to himself...
The night before, Ma Feifei had had a dream.
It had been strange, but wonderful.
When he got up in the morning, Ma Feifei actually took a bath for once and changed into clean robes. He felt wonderfully refreshed.
"Where should I go today?" Ma Feifei wondered, before he'd even left the house.
Over the past few weeks, he'd explored most of Dubian Town and visited the taverns plenty of times. Going again didn't seem very interesting.
"Maybe I should go to Yuanfang City?" he thought.
Yuanfang City was the largest city on the northern border of the Great Chu Empire. It lay two hundred li south of Dubian Town and governed twelve towns, including Dubian Town.
It was the hub of the surrounding thousand li along the border, and far more prosperous than a small town like Dubian.
Unfortunately, Yuanfang City was too far away. It would take Ma Feifei nearly half a day to walk the two hundred li, so a round trip would take a whole day. That meant he could only spend one day there, and when he thought about it, he couldn't be bothered to go.
Besides, he had a dinner to attend the following evening. If he went to Yuanfang City, wouldn't he be standing Zhou Zhuling up? He absolutely couldn't do that.
As Ma Feifei fretted over where to go, Yang Chengzhi's arrival gave him an idea.
Yang Chengzhi was just passing by. He was about to leave town when he spotted Ma Feifei standing outside his shop, so he came over to greet him.
"You're going to Nine Heavens Mountain to hunt spirit beasts?" Once Ma Feifei learned where Yang Chengzhi was headed, his eyes shifted as an idea came to him.
Yang Chengzhi had no idea what Ma Feifei was thinking. He nodded and said, "After I got back last night and cultivated, I broke through to Spirit Master Stage Seven. I'm going into Nine Heavens Mountain today to stabilize my cultivation."
Yang Chengzhi really had broken through, but the part about going into Nine Heavens Mountain to stabilize his cultivation wasn't entirely true.
Ma Feifei was surprised to hear that Yang Chengzhi had broken through. What surprised him wasn't the breakthrough itself, but that the timing and the increase in cultivation didn't add up!
Judging by Zhao Xiaodao's first breakthrough, people usually broke through only after finishing an entire book, and then they jumped several stages at once. He'd never heard of anyone like Yang Chengzhi, who had read only part of a book and broken through by one stage!
"Could this book's effect work differently?" Ma Feifei could only guess.
But Yang Chengzhi's breakthrough had thrown a wrench in his plans.
"Wait here. I'm going with you to Nine Heavens Mountain today." Ma Feifei turned and went into the bookstore to get some paper and a brush.
His original work was about Yang Chengzhi's story. If Yang Chengzhi had finished The Legend of the Condor Heroes and then made a major breakthrough, Ma Feifei could have credited it all to the book, which would have made it easier to embellish when he revised the story.
But now Yang Chengzhi had suddenly advanced before finishing the book. That was something Ma Feifei couldn't ignore. As the author, he needed to understand the changes Yang Chengzhi had undergone while reading The Legend of the Condor Heroes.
So Ma Feifei decided to follow up on the matter in person.
Yang Chengzhi was puzzled by Ma Feifei's sudden decision to go with him to Nine Heavens Mountain. He thought Ma Feifei was a mysterious person, but although he was curious, he knew better than to ask.
Before long, Ma Feifei came out with paper and brush. The two set off together for Nine Heavens Mountain.
Along the way, Ma Feifei asked Yang Chengzhi all sorts of questions, trying to get information out of him without being too obvious.
For example, what he thought of The Legend of the Condor Heroes.
What state of mind he was in while reading it.
Whether his body had changed after reading it.
And so on—questions about Yang Chengzhi's experience reading The Legend of the Condor Heroes at the bookstore. Once he'd asked enough, Ma Feifei had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
Yang Chengzhi's experience while reading was much like everyone else's: he could feel spiritual power fluctuating. But unlike the others, he'd also practiced the breathing and energy-circulation methods and the meditation techniques described in the book. This had increased his cultivation speed by more than a third. On top of that, as time passed, the spiritual energy in his body had reached a critical point, which was why he'd broken through to Spirit Master Stage Seven the previous night.
"So the benefits of The Legend of the Condor Heroes come from its cultivation techniques?" Ma Feifei mused as he took notes.
If that was right, then Yang Chengzhi was in for a huge haul. The Legend of the Condor Heroes was full of techniques! There was the Nine Yin Manual, the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, One Yang Finger, the Toad Skill, and countless others.
"But the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms probably aren't much use..." Ma Feifei thought of this world, where people could fly through the sky and split mountains with their palms. The Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms were far too weak here.
For the past few months, with war between Qin and Chu looming, the road from Dubian Town to Nine Heavens Mountain had been anything but peaceful.
The main problem was the crowds. One hundred and fifty thousand Great Chu soldiers were stationed at the front. Though those soldiers were the ones fighting, the civilians supporting them numbered several times more. They were known collectively as the logistics corps.
This logistics corps numbered over five hundred thousand. Every day, they transported supplies from Yuanfang City to the front lines along a route that branched off from the road between Dubian Town and Nine Heavens Mountain.
Hundreds of thousands of people traveled back and forth every day along a road barely five meters wide. They also had to transport all sorts of supplies, large and small, and the route was guarded by soldiers. It was easy to imagine how difficult it was to make one's way through such a massive crowd.
Of course, you could fly over it. But the ability to fly required at least the Spirit Sect realm, and even then, you needed a spiritual artifact to manage it.
Anyone below the Spirit Sect realm had to stay on the ground and walk.
Yang Chengzhi was only at Spirit Master Stage Seven, so he obviously couldn't fly. As for Ma Feifei... he probably couldn't even release spiritual energy from his body. He had cultivation but didn't know how to use it.
Useless!
Oh, right!
At that thought, Ma Feifei suddenly realized he was going to hunt spirit beasts with Yang Chengzhi. That sort of thing always came with some risk. He might have the cultivation of a Peak Spirit Master Stage Nine, but he'd never been in a fight! What would he do if they ran into danger?
Ma Feifei got cold feet. Someone as outstanding as him was better suited to sitting behind a desk. Let the lower-class people handle all that fighting.
But if he didn't go, he wouldn't have any material to write about.
After thinking it over, Ma Feifei decided to go anyway. At least he'd have Yang Chengzhi, a Spirit Master Stage Seven, there to protect him, wouldn't he?
"Brother Yang, which layer of the mountain should we enter?"
Yang Chengzhi kept walking. When he heard Ma Feifei's question, he thought it over before replying, "How about the third layer? The spirit beasts there are all at least level four."
Nine Heavens Mountain had a strict system of levels: the farther in you went, the higher the level of the spirit beasts. They said the deepest layer, the ninth, was a vast region inhabited by only one spirit beast. No—that beast was no longer called a spirit beast. Cultivators on the Azure Dragon Continent called it a divine beast!
That divine beast had lived in Nine Heavens Mountain for over thirty thousand years and had never been subdued. They said every Spirit Saint who entered had died.
In the outermost first and second layers, the spirit beasts were mostly level one, two, and three. Those areas were suitable for Spirit Adepts and cultivators who had just entered the Spirit Master realm to hunt spirit beasts.
Starting from the third layer, farther in, level-four spirit beasts began to appear, and their levels increased as you went deeper.
Yang Chengzhi had been to Nine Heavens Mountain several times before, always hunting spirit beasts in the third layer. Though he'd advanced this time, he wasn't rash enough to enter the fourth.
Hearing Yang Chengzhi say they'd go to the third layer, Ma Feifei breathed a sigh of relief. He'd heard the stories about Nine Heavens Mountain and knew roughly what level of spirit beasts appeared in the third layer. After comparing that with Yang Chengzhi's strength, he decided he'd be safe.
The entire time, Ma Feifei never counted the cultivation of a Peak Spirit Master Stage Nine he supposedly possessed...
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