Strange Uncle [Thanks to Ally Xiao Hehe]

"I don't know either!" Ji Wenyue said, looking around.

"What? You don't know? How can you not know? If you didn't know, couldn't you have at least left one alive?" Xia Daoming was dumbfounded. His mouth opened like a machine gun, spewing out a barrage of accusations.

"I, I..." Ji Wenyue hadn't expected Xia Daoming, who had been quite friendly and looked at her with "kindness" moments ago, to suddenly start scolding her. She was startled and then lowered her head, feeling wronged.

"You, what about you?" Xia Daoming asked impatiently.

He had been perfectly fine getting lost on his own, and now he had to take care of a pampered young lady.

What good were her imposing curves? A bag of water would be more useful.

Thinking of water, Xia Daoming hurried up the dirt mound.

"I was being chased and ran blindly, so I have no idea where I ended up. Besides, I was worried Uncle wouldn't be able to defeat Liao Min, so I quickly finished him off without thinking too much," Ji Wenyue said, looking up with teary eyes, hoping to gain some sympathy.

It was no use. The desert was vast, and the sun was about to set. If this strange uncle got angry and abandoned her, she'd be in a terrible situation.

After thirty days of roughing it in the desert, Xia Daoming's hair was disheveled, and his beard was unkempt. Though his voice sounded young, he looked rather weathered and old.

His gaze, in particular, was sharp and experienced.

As Ji Wenyue looked up, her chest heaved dramatically.

It turned out Xia Daoming wasn't listening to her at all. He was reaching out and patting down Liao Min.

After searching Liao Min, he moved on to the other five corpses.

Finally, Xia Daoming went to retrieve all six of their horses.

At this point, Ji Wenyue had calmed herself down and voluntarily took down the saddlebags from her deceased horse.

"Uncle, which way do we go now?" Ji Wenyue asked.

"How old are you?" Xia Daoming asked instead of answering.

"Ah, um, I'm seventeen this year," Ji Wenyue replied honestly after a moment of surprise.

"Only seventeen?" Xia Daoming was surprised. His gaze swept over her again.

"Uncle, the sun is setting, where should we go now?" Ji Wenyue asked again, giving Xia Daoming a helpless look.

She was starting to get used to Xia Daoming's erratic way of speaking and his sharp gaze.

"Miss Ji, I'm twenty-four this year!" Xia Daoming replied out of the blue.

"What? Uncle is only twenty-four?" This time, it was Ji Wenyue's turn to be surprised.

Aside from his youthful voice, Ji Wenyue couldn't see anything that made Xia Daoming look twenty-four.

"Do you think it's appropriate to call a twenty-four-year-old man 'Uncle'?" Xia Daoming was speechless at Ji Wenyue's slow reaction.

"Ah!" Ji Wenyue finally reacted and quickly said, "Oh, then I'll call you Big Brother."

"Sigh, it's been many years since I've heard such a young and beautiful girl call me Big Brother," Xia Daoming suddenly became melancholic.

"Ah!" Even though Ji Wenyue came from a prominent family and had seen many situations, being praised as young and beautiful by a man like Xia Daoming made her blush instantly.

In the setting sun, Ji Wenyue's cheeks were flushed, her legs were long and shapely, and her curves were prominent, stirring Xia Daoming's heart.

Youth was truly wonderful!

The setting sun was like blood.

A young man and a young woman, each riding a horse, were heading in the direction where the outlines of mountains could only be vaguely discerned.

The man was also leading a horse.

Several saddlebags hung from the horse's back.

This man and woman were, of course, Xia Daoming and Ji Wenyue.

Horses needed fodder and water.

With the path ahead uncertain, Xia Daoming kept only two horses for riding, one to carry supplies and luggage, and let the other three go free.

As for whether they would live or die in the end, that would depend on their fate.

Along the way, Xia Daoming had a general understanding of Ji Wenyue's situation.

She was from the Ji Family, a major medicinal herb merchant in Li City.

Although she was just a woman, she had shown astonishing talent in alchemy since childhood.

Many incomplete ancient prescriptions left by the Ji Family had been revived through her efforts.

The Evergreen Hall of the Ji Family had also prospered because of her.

Therefore, despite being only seventeen, her position within the family was crucial.

This time, the Ji Family received news from their branch store in Eya City in the northern region, stating that someone had brought a five-hundred-year-old Phoenix Jade Grass for sale.

A five-hundred-year-old Phoenix Jade Grass was no small matter. The branch store manager's ability to identify herbs was limited, and he was afraid of making a mistake. Moreover, the price of Phoenix Jade Grass was extremely high, beyond his authority to decide, so he sent someone to report to the owner.

The Ji Family attached great importance to the five-hundred-year-old Phoenix Jade Grass and immediately dispatched an elder of the Fifth-Rank Martial Master level to accompany Ji Wenyue to Eya City.

Unexpectedly, the two of them were ambushed and attacked by their northern competitor, Hundred Herbs Hall, midway.

Under the desperate containment of the clan elders, Ji Wenyue managed to escape, but she was eventually caught. If she hadn't encountered Xia Daoming, not only would many of the Ji Family's precious alchemy recipes have fallen into the hands of Hundred Herbs Hall, but Ji Wenyue herself would have been placed under house arrest by them and forced to work as unpaid labor.

"Where did you get this miraculous protective talisman?" Xia Daoming asked, taking out the talisman that looked like paper but wasn't, his expression grave.

"This protective talisman is an heirloom passed down from our Ji Family's ancestors. There aren't many left now. Because of my special status within the family, I was granted two," Ji Wenyue said, her gaze fixed intently on the talisman in Xia Daoming's hand.

Xia Daoming promptly put the talisman away, tucking it close to his body, and continued, "Then where did your Ji Family get these protective talismans? Could it be that gods and demons truly exist in this world?"

"I don't know if they specifically exist, but cultivators definitely do."

"Cultivators?" Xia Daoming's heart skipped a beat, and his mood became exceptionally heavy.

He once yearned for the free and unfettered immortal life described in legends, the kind where one could "travel to the northern seas in the morning and the southern mountains by dusk."

But this world was already dangerous enough. He had finally managed to gain some strength for self-preservation, and with the system by his side, as long as he didn't court disaster or court death, and developed steadily step by step, becoming a Great Martial Master, or even a Martial Dao Grandmaster, wouldn't be a dream.

Once he became a Martial Dao Grandmaster, in these chaotic times, dominating a region would surely not be a problem.

At that point, he could host grand feasts at home every day, and when he felt like it, he could throw out a few small fortunes. Just thinking about it made him feel motivated.

But if terrifying existences like cultivators existed in this world, even if he became a Martial Dao Grandmaster, he would still be an ordinary mortal. A single spell from them could easily crush him.

This contrast was like a plunge from the heavens!

"That's right. According to legend, cultivators are a group of mysterious figures with incredibly miraculous, almost divine abilities. Our Ji Family's ancestors once befriended a cultivator.

Many of the recipes in the Ji Family's Evergreen Hall are said to have been passed down from this cultivator. Of course, the protective talismans were also gifts from that cultivator, but after generations of use, very few remain," Ji Wenyue said, her gaze drifting towards Xia Daoming with a hint of wistfulness.

Xia Daoming pretended not to notice and asked, "What happened to that cultivator later?"

"Later, for some unknown reason, that cultivator stopped appearing, and there was no news of them at all," Ji Wenyue replied.

"Are there any cultivators in Li City?" Xia Daoming asked.

"Cultivators are transcendent and ethereal, mysterious and elusive. They rarely appear in the mortal world. Even if there were, people at my level wouldn't know," Ji Wenyue said, her eyes revealing a touch of reverence and longing.

"Mm," Xia Daoming nodded, his feelings conflicted.

On one hand, he didn't want cultivators in Li City, as it would greatly increase unknown dangers. On the other hand, he hoped there were cultivators in Li City, as it might give him a chance to embark on the path of cultivation.

However, Xia Daoming soon shook his head with a self-deprecating smile.

Why think so much?

His greatest reliance right now was the system and martial arts. Naturally, he had to find a way to improve his martial arts cultivation and make full use of the system.

This way, regardless of whether he had a chance to cultivate, he could at least protect himself and establish a foothold in this mortal world, rather than ending up like his master, Qiu Zhiheng, who was killed by someone due to a single misstep.

"Right, when I fought with Elder Liao just now, his internal energy was very peculiar. It could penetrate my body through my palm. What's going on?" Xia Daoming quickly shifted the topic to Elder Liao.

This was what he needed to focus on and understand the most right now.