Two Died on the Way

"You, stay. You're coming with us."

The cat-keeping immortal lady seemed not to recognize Lin Shisan.

Without so much as glancing at him, she spoke coldly from above.

"I... I'm going too?"

Lin Shisan looked thoroughly unwilling.

He showed none of the excitement and eagerness of the other Servant Disciples who had been picked.

"Y-yes... of course..."

Lin Shisan hurriedly lowered his head.

He agreed meekly.

Back in the Black Maple Bamboo Forest, the immortal lady had worn that very same look, and it had nearly cost him his life.

His head still hurt a little even now. The terror had sunk into his very soul.

"If there's nothing else, immortal ladies, I'll head back first."

Han Yansong's eyes were hazy with drink.

He said, "I stayed up late last night. I'm going back to catch up on sleep. You lot, keep your eyes open. Don't always make me wipe your asses."

"You..."

The immortal lady who had picked Lin Shisan started to speak, then immediately shut her mouth.

The second immortal lady, who had not spoken at all, glanced out of the corner of her eye at Han Yansong as he staggered drunkenly away.

Then she extended her right hand and pointed into empty air.

An exquisite little paper boat, shimmering with crystalline specks of light, appeared out of nowhere like a tiny toy.

The immortal lady waved the little yellow flag in her hand, and the paper boat flipped over.

As if by a conjuring trick, it became a real sailboat the size of a palm.

Spiritual energy swirled around it, and rosy light shone in every direction.

It swelled as it caught the wind.

In the blink of an eye, the little sailboat grew into a large vessel covering roughly ten square meters.

A Cloud-Shuttle Boat.

The Tai Chi Hall's standard means of transport.

Shaped by a formation and powered by Spirit Stones, it sailed through the air.

But these boats were only found in the outer and inner sects. They were rarely seen in the Azure Cloud Lineage.

Only the steward elders could ride them.

Even then, the Azure Cloud Lineage only brought them out for urgent business.

The Servant Disciples mostly knew of them through hearsay. When had they ever seen one with their own eyes, let alone ridden one?

"A Cloud-Shuttle Boat?"

All the Servant Disciples, including the servant overseers who had not yet left, felt wild delight surge through their hearts.

The chosen Servant Disciples standing right beside it stared, utterly dumbstruck.

Lin Shisan especially-this was his first time seeing such a thing.

A pointing finger conjured a vessel that could sail through the sky. This was the stuff of legends.

His father really had not lied to him. The immortals' methods truly seized the creative power of heaven and earth.

"A Cloud-Shuttle Boat?"

"Mother of mercy, I get to ride a Cloud-Shuttle Boat too! Heh, heh, heh..."

"I really get to ride a Cloud-Shuttle Boat? Am I an immortal now too?"

"Ah... ah..."

A whirlwind suddenly swept toward them.

It scooped up all ten servants, who had been dancing with delight, and swept them high into the air and aboard the Cloud-Shuttle Boat.

Every face went deathly pale, every heart pounding wildly.

The flames of excitement from a moment ago were instantly more than half extinguished.

The one afraid of heights rolled his eyes back and was thrown straight off. He smashed into pieces on the ground and died on the spot.

"Whoosh, whoosh..."

The nine remaining Servant Disciples, Lin Shisan included, felt as though they were treading on thin ice.

They buried what little enthusiasm remained deep in their hearts.

They stood respectfully at solemn attention, no longer daring to make a fuss.

The immortal ladies acted as though they had seen nothing.

They did not even spare them a glance.

The immortal lady holding the little yellow flag waved it again.

With a whoosh, the Cloud-Shuttle Boat left the Greenstone Plaza and soared high into the sky.

Colorful clouds drifted, mist curled around them, and immortal birds wheeled through the air.

It was as though they had entered an ethereal world of fantasy.

The entire journey was remarkably steady, as smooth as walking on level ground.

The sight made the nine Servant Disciples excited again, and they put that brush with death out of their minds.

This is wonderful.

Lin Shisan marveled inwardly.

This is what the world of immortals should feel like.

This is what every cultivator should have.

It strengthened Lin Shisan's resolve to continue cultivating the Nine Heavens True Dragon Art.

Even if the electric shocks hurt so much he wished he were dead, even if he had to hover on the brink of death again, it did not matter.

At least he would have fought for it. At least he would have done right by himself.

Time passed, second by second.

After about the time it took two incense sticks to burn, Lin Shisan and the others saw a great mountain.

It towered into the clouds, its slopes sheer as though cut by a blade.

The whole mountain was white, an ocean of snow stretching everywhere.

Yet it was still autumn in the Azure Cloud Lineage where Lin Shisan lived, and they wore shorts and short shirts at midday.

Here, everything was already blanketed in snow.

A world in a grain of sand, a heaven in a flower.

Their clothes were thin and their cultivation low, so they could not help shivering.

Several Servant Disciples had lips purple with cold, and frost coated their heads and noses.

Even the breath they exhaled turned to ice.

"Hand out the Flame Pills. One each."

Lin Shisan did not know whether the cat-keeping immortal lady had done it on purpose.

She actually handed the little bottle to him.

"Yes, immortal lady. I obey."

Lin Shisan respectfully accepted the little bottle with both hands.

There were nine translucent, reddish Spirit Pills-exactly one for each of them.

They were about the size of peanuts.

Simply holding them brought a pleasant warmth.

Once swallowed, they immediately sent a surge of heat through their bodies.

The cold from a moment ago vanished in an instant.

But their dantians grew burning hot, as though they had swallowed sticky, scalding rice balls.

The heat made them want to spit the pills out, but the pills clung fast inside them and would not come out.

"Ah... I'm burning to death!"

They lost another Servant Disciple.

This time, they did not even hear a sound.

Flames flared in an instant, and the man turned to ash.

The remaining eight feared for their own lives, turning pleading eyes toward Lin Shisan, who had just been appointed overseer.

Hadn't this been supposed to be a cushy assignment? Why were deaths unfolding before their eyes, one after another?

As for Lin Shisan, his whole face was as red as a monkey's backside. Heat scorched his body as though he were about to catch fire.

His cultivation was the lowest, and he was the youngest.

Yet he gritted his teeth and refused to make a sound.

He had no intention of following the last man's footsteps, thrown away without so much as a sound to be heard.

Still, his eyes involuntarily slid toward the cat-keeping immortal lady.

She just made me acting overseer. Surely she won't watch me burn to death without lifting a finger.

Right?

"If you don't want to burn to death, circulate your true qi."

The cat-keeping immortal lady spoke coldly again.

Lin Shisan hurriedly circulated his true qi.

It really worked. In only about ten breaths, the scorching heat inside him vanished completely.

Seeing this, the other seven Servant Disciples naturally followed his example and immediately began circulating the Tai Chi Heart Method.

Only then did they escape the fate of burning to death.

By now, all eight Servant Disciples, especially Lin Shisan, were filled with fear and horror.

These two were no immortal ladies as beautiful as celestial maidens. They were man-eating demons who killed without blinking.

All of them instinctively kept a safe distance from the women.

They even took the initiative to distance themselves from Lin Shisan.

From beginning to end, the immortal lady holding the little yellow flag had not said a single word.

Like an ice sculpture, she gazed indifferently into the distance.

After about another incense stick's worth of time, the Cloud-Shuttle Boat swayed and sailed into the snowy mountain.

This was the Tai Chi Hall's fifth peak, Jade Maiden Peak.

The mountain lived up to its name. Almost everyone here was a female disciple.

The Tai Chi Hall called them jade maidens.

This was probably the real reason Chen Yang envied Lin Shisan and the others. The place was filled with heavenly beauties.

Even if a man died beneath their skirts, the trip would not have been in vain.

Only Lin Shisan and the others secretly swore that they would never come to Jade Maiden Peak again, even if someone beat them to death.

"All right. Wait here."

After disembarking from the Cloud-Shuttle Boat, Lin Shisan and the others entered a hall.

It was utterly silent, without a single sound.

There was only the nervous breathing of the few disciples.

The scenes from their journey still flashed before their eyes.

They were truly afraid now.

Two had died on the way alone. Who knew how many more would die now that they had landed?

So the work they were doing was a matter of life and death.

It seemed that from the moment they stepped aboard the Cloud-Shuttle Boat, their fates had no longer belonged to them.