Southwestern Jungle

The man was burly to begin with. With the added protection of stone armor about a palm's breadth thick in front of him, Shen Leyan looked like a scrawny willow standing before him.

The charging stone armor had not been moving particularly fast, and he could easily have dodged it. But two stone hands reached up beneath his feet, gripping his ankles tightly and pinning him in place.

Shen Leyan diverted most of his Spiritual Power to try to shred the stone hands, but his cultivation was an entire major realm lower. In power-fantasy novels, protagonists routinely thrashed opponents two or three realms above them. In reality, however, the little wind Spiritual Power he mustered barely scratched the stone hands.

Still, the man did not seem to be trying to kill him. The impact probably would not be fatal—at worst, it would break a few ribs.

Slow as the stone armor was, it covered the dozen or so meters between them in an instant. Its tremendous earth Spiritual Power carried a heavy, oppressive force.

Shen Leyan instinctively raised his hands in front of himself and formed a shield of Spiritual Power, protecting his heart and other vital areas to cushion the impact.

Following the usual script, he should have roared something like, "Fortunes change—just you wait!" to show some spirit.

The problem was, he was afraid of pain.

Easy, easy, easy, big guy! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow—

"Ting."

A faint sound, as soft as a needle falling onto stone.

The agonizing pain he had expected from being sent flying by the stone armor never came. Shen Leyan's tightly shut eyelids fluttered, and he cautiously opened them a crack.

An ice needle hovered before him, as clear and crystalline as the icicles hanging from eaves in winter, but much smaller. Before the ocher stone armor, which resembled a small hillside, it was no larger than a speck of dust.

Yet that single ice needle pinned the stone armor in place. Ice-blue Spiritual Power swiftly spread through it, freezing it solid. With a bang, it scattered like a clump of snow, reduced to fine dust that the wind swept clean away.

Before the cultivator who had created the stone armor could react, the cloud of dust blinded him. He covered his eyes and rubbed them frantically.

"Ow, fuck, it hurts, it hurts... Who, who the fuck—"

Shen Leyan instinctively looked back and met Lu Yuanyi's dark-gold, phoenix-shaped eyes amid the crowd. Tall and handsome, he stood out among everyone around him.

The two groups of cultivators who had been beating Shen Leyan soon noticed Lu Yuanyi as well.

One hotheaded man stepped forward. "Are you this brat's master or something? What, you want to stand up for your disciple?"

Lu Yuanyi's face remained expressionless. "Please do me the courtesy of letting this go."

"Who the hell are you? Why should we do you any favors—"

With a smack, one of the leading cultivators slapped the hothead across the face and cursed through gritted teeth.

"Shut up! If you want to die, don't drag the rest of us down with you! Didn't you see him act just now? We didn't even sense a fluctuation in Spiritual Power. He's at least at the Nascent Soul realm—we wouldn't be enough for him to crush with one finger, even put together!"

"N-Nascent Soul... Seriously? If he's that powerful, why didn't he stand up for the brat earlier?"

"Are you stupid? He was training his disciple!"

"Th-then what do we do now?"

The leader politely cupped his hands toward them. "We were in the wrong. You are too kind, honored cultivator. Please accept this humble gift as an apology. My brothers haven't seen much of the world and offended you earlier. I hope you will forgive them."

As he spoke, he offered them a wooden box.

Shen Leyan had little experience with the social niceties of the cultivation world and did not know whether to accept it. He stole a glance at Lu Yuanyi from the corner of his eye.

Seeing him nod slightly, Shen Leyan reached out to accept the wooden box and opened it. Inside were several Pills that warded off venomous insects and dispelled miasma. They were not particularly valuable, but they would be especially useful in the Southwestern Jungle.

He cupped his hands toward the cultivators in return. "Thank you for the lesson."

Seeing that they did not intend to pursue the matter, the leader let out a long sigh of relief and left, scolding his brothers under his breath.

With no more entertainment to watch, the onlookers gradually dispersed as well.

When Zheng Ziheng found his junior brother and master, he noticed the awkward look on his junior brother's face. Like a cat with its fur bristling, Shen Leyan wanted to edge closer to their master but refused to take the first step. Zheng Ziheng could not help smiling.

"Master, junior brother—what's wrong, junior brother? I just heard people saying some cultivators were fighting over here. Don't tell me you caused trouble?"

"What do you mean, I caused trouble?"

I was just watching the fun, and Lu Yuanyi tossed me straight between two groups of fighting cultivators! ˃ ˄ ˂̥̥

Zheng Ziheng paused, then a smile spread across his gentle, jade-like features.

"So my junior brother's been wronged. They're selling sugar figures over there. Shall I buy you one?"

"...I wouldn't exactly say I was wronged." Shen Leyan hesitated for a moment.

He knew Lu Yuanyi had only done this because his progress with the Azure Shadow Profound Art was slow. He had wanted Shen Leyan to experience a real fight and gain a deeper understanding of his Wind Spiritual Root and the Azure Shadow Profound Art.

Besides, when things had turned dangerous, Lu Yuanyi had stepped in to protect him and kept him from suffering any serious injuries.

Even without deliberately checking, he could already feel his Wind Spiritual Root operating more smoothly. His Spiritual Power also seemed to move a little faster through his meridians.

His senses were far more attuned to the movement of the wind around him than before.

Zheng Ziheng watched his junior brother frown one moment and lower his head to mutter to himself the next, before suddenly darting toward a little stall.

After a while, he returned with a sugar figure and handed it to their master, looking partly willing and partly reluctant.

His master... actually accepted it.

Zheng Ziheng: "(‧_‧?)"

What had happened between his junior brother and master while they were apart?

The Southwestern Jungle.

Countless mountain ranges joined together here. The hot, humid climate allowed the trees to grow tall and lush, forming a dense jungle that stretched as far as the eye could see.

The local authorities and sects had developed the outskirts of the Southwestern Jungle. Several wooden huts served as shops, providing hunters and cultivators heading deeper into the jungle with medicines, Pills, and even crossbows and Magic Artifacts.

Some reasonably powerful independent cultivators also took jobs here to earn silver.

Cultivators from all over wore different styles of clothing, and regional accents mingled in a lively bustle.

With the antidote and miasma-repelling Pills they had just received, there was nothing they needed to buy. After taking the Pills, they used Sword Flight straight toward the heart of the Southwestern Jungle.

Before climbing onto the Jiangxue Sword, Shen Leyan heard several nearby cultivators discussing them in sympathetic tones.

"Those people must be outsiders visiting the Southwestern Jungle for the first time, right? Don't they know it's dangerous to use Sword Flight above the jungle?"

"Why worry about them? They probably won't get far before those flying Demonic Beasts knock them down and eat them."

Shen Leyan asked curiously, "What flying Demonic Beasts...?"

In front of him, Lu Yuanyi glanced back. "What flying Demonic Beast do you want to eat? I'll knock one down in a bit, and you can roast it."

The cultivators: "〣( ºΔº )〣"