Spring-Gazing Mountain, Azure Dragon Cave

"Do you just keep fighting like this forever?"

Yunqi found it hard to understand.

"Of course not."

Hu Jinliu shook his head. "Let me think. Hmm, there's trouble roughly every ten years, and a proper fight every thirty. As for the odd hundred casualties in between, that's perfectly ordinary. Those don't count. A Lang, you've picked a bad time to come. I wasn't even born when the last fight involving over a hundred stockades happened. Now that we've run into another one, it definitely won't end peacefully."

Yunqi clicked his tongue in astonishment. Hatred like this had already seeped into their very bones and blood.

"I'm not trying to wash our hands of it, but honestly, Hundred Barbarian Mountain starts most of these wars. We're pretty much forced to fight back. We can't just swallow their insults and lose face, can we?"

Hu Jinliu added this by way of explanation.

"Oh? Why is that?"

Yunqi immediately pressed him.

"There's a lot behind it. Let me explain it slowly, A Lang. First, they're always boasting that they're the leaders of the Southern Demon Cult. Leaders, right? If they don't come out and throw their weight around every so often, who's going to respect them? Wouldn't you agree?"

Yunqi nodded.

"Whenever Hundred Barbarian Mountain goes completely mad, they don't do it alone. They drag a whole bunch of people along. Sometimes the Northern Demon Cult even sneaks people down to back them up! And these lunatics don't just fight unorthodox cultivators like us. Once they go mad, they'll fight anyone, Daoist sects, the Chan Sect, you name it. That's why I just told you that even Azure Dragon Cave won't be peaceful."

"Second, I hear that old villain's sickness has flared up again. Both our sects cultivate the Asura Path. Heh, there's also a story that our patriarch and that old villain Green Robe entered a secret vault of the Elder Asura Path together years ago. They split the spoils unevenly, and that's how they became mortal enemies.

"But judging by the outcome, our patriarch got the good stuff. Cultivating our methods is painful, but it doesn't damage our vital energy, and they're extremely powerful. Over at Hundred Barbarian Mountain, cultivation really makes them suffer. Their methods all inflict eight hundred wounds on the enemy at the cost of a thousand to themselves, or even shatter jade and stone alike. But they went wrong at the root, so you can't really blame them.

"I heard people in our sect say that old villain Green Robe was too ambitious. He insisted on cultivating something called Asura Bloodflame, but something went wrong and damaged his Dao foundation, leaving him with a lingering sickness that flares up every so often. Whenever it does, bloodflame starts burning out of his body. Even li dragon blood can't suppress it. Only human blood will do!"

Hu Jinliu told the story with vivid relish.

Yunqi followed along. "So that old villain Green Robe deliberately starts wars to make blood flow in rivers, then uses that blood energy to suppress his bloodflame?"

"Exactly!" Hu Jinliu clapped his hands. "You're clever, A Lang. But that old villain Green Robe is even more ruthless than that! He makes every disciple of Hundred Barbarian Mountain cultivate a method that can channel Asura Bloodflame, then transfers the bloodflame from his own body into every one of them!

"Heh, they dress it up with fancy names. Life-Sacrificing Art, some precious slaughter technique. Sure, normally they can summon the bloodflame planted in their bodies to kill enemies just by mutilating themselves. It's powerful, and it can serve as a last resort to shatter jade and stone alike. But the truth is, wielding a powerful technique beyond your cultivation realm is addictive! If you don't believe me, keep an eye out later, A Lang. Which of those Hundred Barbarian Mountain disciples isn't missing an arm or a leg? They ate those themselves, raw! And once they die, that bloodflame drains every last drop of vital blood from their flesh, then flies back into old villain Green Robe's hands to help bring his demonic cultivation to perfection!"

Hu Jinliu curled his lip as he spoke, his face full of disdain.

Yunqi was surprised too. So this was the demonic path? They truly acted without a single restraint, human in appearance but hardly human at all.

The three men and their dog spent the night in the cave, then prepared to leave the next day.

They were currently in the Three Rivers Gorge area, at the southeastern border between the Miao Borderlands and the Southern Wastes.

Three Rivers Gorge was also the source of the Peach Blossom River. Naturally, there were no peach blossoms to be seen here. Only after the river flowed farther southeast, past Rotten Peach Mountain, and the blossoms on the mountain fell into its waters did the Peach Blossom River surge into the Southern Wastes with peach blossoms covering its surface.

Every spring, when the peach blossoms bloomed, a riverful of blossoms entering the Southern Wastes was the most beautiful sight.

Redwood Ridge's territory lay northwest of Three Rivers Gorge. Rong River Stockade, where Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu lived, was on the outskirts of Redwood Ridge and relatively close to the gorge.

Azure Dragon Cave was even closer to Three Rivers Gorge, only about a hundred li straight north. Like Redwood Ridge, it was a sect that directly faced the demonic cults of the Southern Wastes.

Yunqi now wanted to register his name at Azure Dragon Cave. If there were any command tokens for slaying monsters and vanquishing demons, he would naturally take them. Having a local Daoist sect to serve as his backing, eyes, and ears was far better than acting alone. After all, if he wandered about blindly and some great demon suddenly appeared in an area, he might die without even knowing how it happened.

Lang Shanliu and his nephew Hu Jinliu needed to return to Rong River Stockade to rest and recover. They could have gone straight southwest to get home, yet they insisted on escorting Yunqi to Azure Dragon Cave before doubling back to their stockade.

Yunqi could not talk them out of it, so they traveled together.

Snow was still falling. The flakes had grown smaller, but the ground was already wrapped in a mantle of silver and white.

"That damned old cur! It's cold enough to kill a man!"

Hu Jinliu was grumbling again.

Yunqi remembered what he had overheard and asked, "I heard Brother Lang say that old villain Green Robe summoned this snow. Why would he do that?"

Hu Jinliu spat. "That damned old cur! His whole brood cultivates bloodflame, but they haven't mastered it and can't control it freely. It scorches their hearts and heats their blood, so of course they need to cool down. And the Asura arts, fire arts, and wood arts we cultivate at Redwood Ridge are all vulnerable to cold. Once this snow starts falling, the magical power in our bodies circulates much more slowly!"

Yunqi nodded. So that was the reason.

The White Dragon, however, was not afraid of the cold. Full of energy, he romped through the snow.

"What a fine dog! That family whose lives you saved gave you the king of dogs!"

Lang Shanliu spoke.

Yunqi smiled and nodded too. "He was the one who spotted you first that day."

"What's this White Dragon's name?"

Hu Jinliu asked as well.

"Wait-Wait."

At this, Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu immediately went on alert. "What is it? Where is someone?"

Yunqi froze at their reaction, then quickly realized there had been a misunderstanding. He explained, "The dog's name is 'Wait-Wait.'"

Uncle and nephew both stared blankly. Hu Jinliu was even more blunt. "What kind of name is that?"

Yunqi did not know whether to laugh or cry. "When I first took him away from the stockade, he was so lively and ran so fast that he kept leaving me far behind. I was always calling out for him to wait. After a while, he thought his name was Wait-Wait, and I couldn't change it anymore."

Uncle and nephew exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing. They kept calling "Wait-Wait, Wait-Wait," teasing the white dog.

The two also taught Yunqi quite a few ways to raise a dog, saying that White Dragons were extraordinarily intelligent. By the age of three, they could understand just about anything people said.

They were all strong walkers. Although they had not flown, they were nearly there after traveling through the mountains for most of the day. Since they were heading back, they encountered no one from the demonic sects along the way and reached the vicinity of Azure Dragon Cave without trouble.

It was a stretch of level ground amid the mountains, with another peak rising from its center like a great bronze bell standing on the earth. One look was enough to tell that its terrain made it an auspicious site.

Hu Jinliu pointed at the peak. "That's Spring-Gazing Mountain. Azure Dragon Cave is up there."

Here's the second chapter.

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