Obtaining a Treasure

Blood Wuy a thought Little Leopard was merely a ten-year-old child. However clever he might be, he was still only a child. Give him a few benefits and act like a proper master, and he would naturally be easy to keep in hand and order about. What Blood Wuy a never expected was that this child's body housed the soul of a sly, worldly adult. That was his greatest miscalculation.

After leaving the Secluded Valley, Little Leopard felt ravenously hungry and could not help smiling wryly. He went to the stream, intending to roast the extra fawn he had hunted earlier, only to discover that some beasts had already devoured it. All that remained was a pile of bloody scraps and stark white bones, a frightening sight.

"Damn!" Little Leopard cursed under his breath. Rather than eat dry rations as he had yesterday, he went straight into the dense woods to make trouble for the beasts foraging at night. Before long, he emerged carrying a wild boar and returned to the stream. In no time, he had skinned and cleaned it and built a fire. This time, nobody disturbed his meal. After eating his fill at leisure beside the stream, he returned to the cave at Halfway Cliff and regulated his breathing for a while. Feeling refreshed and not particularly sleepy, he recalled Blood Wuy a's attitude toward him that day and dared not waste any more time. He began studying the sword move Blood Wuy a had taught him.

When Blood Wuy a taught him this sword move yesterday, he had not paid it much attention. It was simply too profound, and he had never learned swordsmanship before, so he had only forced himself to memorize it. It was like a first-grade pupil committing the entire solution to an extremely difficult high-energy physics problem to memory. That alone was already quite an achievement. He would never consider what the solution process meant or what each step represented, because he himself understood that doing so was impossible.

Yet Blood Wuy a's actions today were like forcing him to understand the significance of every step in that problem, even beginning to explain it from the fundamentals. But how could that possibly be easy?

An ordinary person would need more than a decade to learn all the knowledge separating the multiplication table from an extremely difficult high-energy physics problem. Of course, child prodigies did exist, but Little Leopard clearly was not one of them. Little Leopard knew that, and naturally, so did Blood Wuy a. If he understood this and still insisted on proceeding, he was either mad or had some other purpose.

But whether he was mad or had ulterior motives, all Little Leopard could do now was study this sword move as Blood Wuy a wanted. Of course, before studying the move, he first had to understand the fundamentals of swordsmanship. Otherwise, all talk of comprehending sword techniques was nothing but a joke.

Reality also proved that he, Zhou Bao, truly had no aptitude for the sword. When Blood Wuy a taught him, he had explained many things quite clearly, and Little Leopard had memorized them all. Yet when he began practicing on his own, he discovered that he could not truly weave them into a coherent whole. He still had to think and practice bit by bit, trying every basic move and every fundamental method of exerting force several times before gaining even a shaky understanding. After struggling like this for four to six hours, weariness finally washed over him. He simply set down the short sword in his hand, lay down, and went to sleep without another thought.

When he woke, it was broad daylight again. He walked to the cave entrance and frowned slightly. Clearly, fewer beasts had come to drink at this stretch of the stream today. Looking up, he saw a large gathering of beasts and birds beside the stream three or four li away. With a turn of thought, he understood what had happened. These beasts and birds of the Vast Cang Mountains were evidently no fools. Little Leopard had killed many of them while they drank nearby over the previous two days, so naturally they had grown wary. Their instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm had driven them away from this spot to drink farther off.

Still, this posed no difficulty for Little Leopard. A few li meant nothing to him. But he could not take things too far, lest he scare all the beasts away and they stop coming to this stream to drink. Then he would have to hunt for food in the dense woods,

which would naturally bring far more danger.

At that thought, Little Leopard was no longer in a hurry to hunt. After these two days, he had already realized that killing ordinary wild beasts offered him no challenge whatsoever. With no challenge, there was naturally no urgency. Instead, the unusual art in the dense woods stirred his interest once more.

Of course, it was not just the unusual art that stirred his interest, but also the Yellow Cloth beneath that little creature's rump.

A magic treasure could really hook a man!

Indeed, with that thought in mind, Little Leopard felt the small porcelain bottle tucked inside his clothes, and a strange smile crossed his lips.

Today, his targets were not merely the Yellow Cloth and the Three Realms Minor Shift, but that little creature as well.

What else could the small porcelain bottle inside his clothes contain but the Soul-Dazing Powder he had made?

Ever since discovering its astonishing potency, Little Leopard had kept it in mind. During his half year and more at the Wu Household, he occasionally bought medicinal ingredients to take back, cooked them into Soul-Dazing Pills, then ground them into Soul-Dazing Powder. Before he knew it, he had made more than a dozen bottles. He had not given it much thought when setting out for home this time. He had simply feared that someone would discover them if he left them at the Wu Household, so he had brought the whole lot with him. He had never expected Blood Wuy a to abduct him midway.

Blood Wuy a was an eighth-rank expert and had abducted Little Leopard for another purpose. It had never occurred to him that Little Leopard might carry something so peculiar, and naturally he had not searched him. Thus, all thirteen bottles of Soul-Dazing Powder remained safely on Little Leopard's person.

After finding this cave at Halfway Cliff to shelter in, Little Leopard had dug a hole inside as a precaution and buried all thirteen bottles of Soul-Dazing Powder. His original intention was to use this strange powder to ambush Blood Wuy a when he finally had no other options, earning himself a sliver of hope for survival. After witnessing the little creature's peculiar abilities yesterday, however, he had begun considering how to subdue it. Early this morning, he dug up one bottle of Soul-Dazing Powder and brought it along. He intended to lure the little creature out at the clearing and then knock it unconscious with the powder, killing two birds with one stone.

Using such a method against a little chipmunk was somewhat underhanded, but Little Leopard did not care. He was no renowned expert, merely a poor wretch abducted by a demonic disciple. What did being underhanded or otherwise have to do with him?

Having made up his mind, Little Leopard wasted no time and headed straight into the woods. Since he had traveled this route yesterday, it was familiar enough, and the distance was not great. After walking a little over ten li, he crossed the slope and reached the clearing below.

The journey went smoothly, with no encounters with venomous insects or savage beasts. When he reached the slope and looked down, he saw that the Yellow Cloth was still spread on the cave floor, but the little chipmunk was nowhere to be seen.

Where has that little creature gone? Has it gone foraging?! The thought had barely formed when he heard a faint "pfft!"

Not good! He reacted quickly, holding his breath as he darted down the slope. Only after running a dozen or so zhang did he stop. Still shaken, he looked back and saw the little creature crouched on a branch, squeaking at him and making faces.

"You certainly aren't afraid of strangers!" Little Leopard smiled wryly to himself and devised a plan. He sprang up and lunged at the little creature. Just as yesterday, it crouched motionless on the branch, waiting to activate the Three Realms Minor Shift and escape when Little Leopard came to grab it. Excitement glimmered in its eyes, as though it adored this thrilling game.

This time, however, it did not realize that Little Leopard had no intention of grabbing it at all. When his hand came within about a foot of it, he lightly flicked a fingertip, sending out a trace of colorless, odorless Soul-Dazing Powder.

Strictly speaking, Soul-Dazing Powder was white, but Little Leopard used very little, just a tiny pinch hidden beneath his fingernail. When he released it with a pulse of internal energy, it dispersed on its own. How could it remain visible?

Although the little creature possessed spiritual intelligence, its mind was exceedingly simple. It thought this game of catch and escape was tremendous fun and had never encountered such an underhanded fellow or such a peculiar trick. Thus, when Little Leopard's hand came within a foot of it, it remained completely unguarded. Even when he flicked out the Soul-Dazing Powder, it paid no attention, merely waiting to shift away when his hand was about to seize it.

But after that pulse, Little Leopard's hand stopped half a foot away. A trace of confusion flashed through the little creature's eyes, and it wondered what the person before it was up to. Suddenly, it felt heaven and earth spinning around it. Its body stiffened on the branch, and then it dropped with a thump.

His scheme successful, Little Leopard smiled and reached out to catch the little creature before it hit the ground.

"Heh heh, you troublesome little creature. What good is all your cleverness? You still ended up drinking my foot-washing water!" Looking at the plump little fellow in his palm, Little Leopard's smile grew increasingly smug.

With a swift movement and two bounds, he entered the cave beneath the rock. He gently set the little creature on the ground and picked up the Yellow Cloth from the floor.

Without the little creature, the Yellow Cloth was no different from ordinary cloth, and Little Leopard encountered no resistance when he picked it up.

"It's so tough!" Holding the Yellow Cloth before his eyes, Little Leopard gave it a gentle tug. Although he had not exerted much force, he could clearly feel the resistance transmitted through his hands. Presumably, even if he used all his strength, he would have difficulty tearing it apart.

It looked like cloth, but in fact it was not. Only after holding it did Little Leopard discover that its main material was a strange, fine-textured animal hide. He could not tell whether it came from a beast, a bird, or some other exotic creature.

Examining the hide, he found it was only the size of a handkerchief and triangular, resembling a flag. A large pattern was engraved at the center of the triangle. It looked like a decorative motif, yet also like a rune, and even more like a strange design. Little Leopard turned it over and over for quite some time without finding anything unusual. He then tried channeling internal energy into it, but several attempts all failed. Contact with his internal energy produced no special change in the yellow hide; it remained merely a piece of yellow hide. Afterward, Little Leopard tried several other methods, even the legendary "blood recognition" method: just like in the novels he had read in his previous life, he dripped his own blood onto it. Yet the blood slid off onto the ground as though it had landed on oilcloth, and the yellow hide still showed no reaction.

After studying it for a long time without any results, Little Leopard helplessly stuffed it inside his clothes. He glanced at the little creature, still fast asleep at the back of the cave, and could not help smiling. Then he went over to the cave wall and began studying the Three Realms Minor Shift.