I'm About to Speed Up

In truth, Jiang Chen had not been sleeping very soundly.

He had sensed someone coming several breaths earlier, but the visitor was too fast and burst straight through the window.

He was about to get up when he was yanked out of bed.

He looked up. The visitor had swordlike brows and star-bright eyes, cheeks as fair as jade and flushed pink, and hair swept high and back beneath the moonlight. Wine haze and Sword Qi seemed to mingle in those shimmering eyes. The sight hit Jiang Chen full in the face with sheer good looks.

It was Li Lingzhou, Xihe Town's prison envoy, who had drunkenly climbed into the pool at Spirit Spring Inn yesterday and drunk his bathwater.

Thankfully, she was an official of the Daqian Dynasty. However nasty her temper, she would not hurt someone for no reason.

Jiang Chen relaxed a little.

Where am I from?

He paused.

Come to think of it, this was the first time anyone in the cultivation world had asked Jiang Chen where he came from.

He remembered the third Plot Simulation of the first main storyline. Only by claiming to be from beyond this realm and revealing that time and space were about to run out had he moved the Thousand-Faced Fox.

He did not answer at once. He calmly put on his gray Rogue Cultivator robe and asked without betraying a thing:

"How did you find me, Prison Envoy Li?"

"You smell different from ordinary people."

"How so?"

Holding a dainty little wine jar, Li Lingzhou lifted her shapely nose and sniffed all around Jiang Chen like a hound.

"So yesterday at the pool, I wasn't imagining things.

"Your spiritual power seems chaotic, as though the five elements were all mixed together, yet it's purer than an ordinary cultivator's. Perhaps half of it is immortal spirit.

"I've met powerful people even I couldn't defeat. Their spiritual power towered like mountains and stretched like rivers and seas, spanning heaven and earth, but it was not as clear as yours.

"It wouldn't be wrong to call yours a half-immortal body."

She got all that from drinking my bathwater?

Jiang Chen was startled.

Last time, it was Tian Mingye's keen perception that had frightened him.

This time, what Li Lingzhou had was beyond perception. It was practically inborn instinct.

He hastily tried to bluff his way through.

"I've long heard Prison Envoy Li has a taste for women. I never expected you to be interested in men too, or to say such feverish things."

But Li Lingzhou cared nothing for what he implied about her tastes. She felt no shame and made no attempt to defend herself.

She simply went on:

"I have a friend who isn't human... Well, let's call her a friend. She suffered an injury that left her womb unbearably cold, and she's been in seclusion for a thousand years.

"My pure-yang spiritual power would hurt her. Your Half-Immortal Physique ought to help, but unfortunately...

"Your cultivation is far too low, and your talent is absurdly poor. How on earth did you manage to cultivate Qi Refining?"

At the words "pure yang," Jiang Chen, having lived through a great epidemic in his previous life, instinctively took a few steps back.

"Your pure-yang spiritual power... What exactly do you mean by that?"

Li Lingzhou froze, then hurriedly brushed it aside.

"That's not important... Right, didn't I just ask where you came from? I nearly forgot!"

"The world is vast, and the four seas are my home. When I woke up, I was already a wandering drifter... Of course, that isn't important."

Jiang Chen turned her own words back on her and asked why she had come.

"Speaking of which, what did you want with me, Prison Envoy Li?"

Li Lingzhou took a sip of wine and let the matter of his origins drop.

"That old Zhang Kai told me you were at the Azure Mist Sect the day the Demon Sect attacked the mountain?"

Jiang Chen nodded.

"I was at the Azure Mist Sect, yes. But my cultivation is shallow and my divine sense weak. I only know the broad strokes."

Li Lingzhou considered this. There was no one else to ask right now.

"The broad strokes will do.

"I'm going to the Azure Mist Sect to collect my money. Luo Qingzhou promised me ten thousand spirit stones to lift the siege.

"The Heavenly Demon Sect fled too quickly when they heard my name, so I never made it in time. That doesn't mean they can pay me less.

"My bottom line is five thousand, at least...

"Come with me to the Azure Mist Sect to collect the debt. One of us plays the good cop, the other the bad cop. Once it's done, I'll pay you a hundred spirit stones. What do you say?"

Five thousand spirit stones, and I only get a hundred?

Jiang Chen said coldly:

"The Azure Mist Sect was the first stop on my cultivation journey, my beloved mother sect. In the two years since I joined, the stewards of every peak and my fellow disciples have treated me well..."

Li Lingzhou immediately knew where this song was going and cut off his plea for more money.

"How about two hundred spirit stones?"

Jiang Chen was not so easily fobbed off.

"No matter how much you collect, I want ten percent. That's how you keep me motivated, wouldn't you agree?"

Li Lingzhou shot him a sideways glance.

The kid was good-looking and carried himself well. Add his half-immortal body, and he might be quite skilled at winning women over. Keeping him around might help her make a grand entrance.

"Fine. I'll call it practice for the team. You're not bad, kid. Stick with me from now on, and I'll make sure you rise to wealth and glory."

I can rise to wealth and glory without you, Jiang Chen thought.

Still, if this woman truly was that strong, sticking with her might keep him safe.

After all, he was only at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, a tadpole among cultivators. He needed the care and protection of a big-frog boss.

He had waited ages for the main storyline to appear, to no avail. He might as well go back to his mother sect with Li Lingzhou. Perhaps he could even make a little money.

As for whether he would stick with her, he would have to see her strength and character first. If she refused to pay what she promised, why the hell would he follow her?

With that thought, Jiang Chen cupped his fists.

"I'll accompany Prison Envoy Li back to the Azure Mist Sect."

"Let's go."

They set off at once, their two swords flying side by side.

"By the way, what's your name?"

"Cao Mengde."

"That name doesn't sound good, and it doesn't suit you. Do you have another?"

Jiang Chen paused. He had to admire the woman's instincts.

"Jiang Chen."

Li Lingzhou tipped back her head and gulped down wine. A faint ripple crossed her expression.

"Dust falls into a river and vanishes in an instant. Clear and unburdened... Not bad. Whether Jiang Chen is your name or not, before me, you're Jiang Chen."

I'm supposed to call myself whatever you tell me?

Oh, my name is Jiang Chen anyway. Never mind.

"If that will set Prison Envoy Li's mind at ease, then from now on, this junior shall be called Jiang Chen."

Li Lingzhou had not expected this kid to be so considerate on top of his handsome looks.

"Get on my sword."

"All right."

Jiang Chen put away his perforated disciple sword and leaped onto the tail of Li Lingzhou's.

Though her blade was narrow and cramped, Jiang Chen stood straight as a pine, keeping his distance from Li Lingzhou, who disliked men.

Li Lingzhou thought he was a little too confident.

"I'm about to speed up!"

With that brief warning and no time for Jiang Chen to prepare, she suddenly accelerated her sword.

Fortunately, Jiang Chen was ready.

He had already employed Metal Element Spirit Control beneath his feet, pinning them firmly to the blade.

He channeled Wind Element Spirit Control around himself as well, holding steady against the wind.

Li Lingzhou sipped her wine, ready to laugh at Jiang Chen before using a thread of binding spiritual power to hang him behind her.

When she turned, she found he had steadied himself.

Not with an immobilizing spell or spiritual pressure to hold his form, but with simple Spirit Control?

Her wine jar hung in midair. Her handsome face went still for a long moment before she asked bluntly:

"Who taught you Five-Element Spirit Control?"

Jiang Chen owed his Five-Element Spirit Control to Chen Gongxing's jade slip and True Person Guiqi's Demi-Immortal's Book.

Unfortunately, both were in Liyue at the moment.

He could hardly say that outright, so he spread his hands.

"Don't you just need hands for Spirit Control? Why would someone have to teach me?"

Li Lingzhou's face stiffened. She had roamed the cultivation world for so many years, never imagining a mere Qi Refining cultivator could show her up like this.

She pretended not to care and spread her hands too.

"Why control spiritual power at all? Mine knows what I want. It flies on autopilot."

Jiang Chen glanced at her flying sword.

It really was flying itself!

This woman's spiritual power was unusual too. Perhaps it had something to do with her Liquid Golden Core.

Jiang Chen stood respectfully behind Li Lingzhou.

The heavy scent of wine mingled with an elusive fragrance from her body, faint and ethereal, like the moon hanging high above. She seemed unlike any mortal female cultivator.

His gaze drifted down to her thighs...

Who would have thought someone so lean would have such thick thighs?

Thick enough to wrap his arms around.