An earthenware pot stood over the fire, the wild venison inside bubbling away and giving off a delicious aroma.
The three-fingered Sword Cultivator was still up on the roof in the cold wind. Master Ming tilted his head back and called, "Hey! Huang Jiu... come down and have some meat!"
With a flicker, the Sword Cultivator Huang Jiu appeared beside the pot like a phantom. His three fingers awkwardly picked up a pair of bamboo chopsticks... then he sighed softly.
Beside him, Lü Bufan chuckled and laboriously held out a little fork with an arm swollen from exertion...
"Hehe, Master Huang... use this!"
Huang Jiu glanced at him, snorted, and took the fork, spearing a tender, fatty piece of venison and eating it.
Master Ming curled his lip. "What are you snorting for? The boy's looking after you and giving you meat. Is that a crime now?"
Nearby, Han Wu held two deer legs and ate with juices flying everywhere, while the legless Du Yuan watched him with a deeply aggrieved expression...
"What? Did that deer offend you? Why are you tormenting its two legs like that... have you got any humanity left?"
Han Wu was deaf and did not hear him.
Master Ming looked at the great vat beneath Du Yuan. "Cripple, the Heart-Piercing Curse has been lifted. Your injuries should be nearly healed by now, right?"
"Nearly. It's all thanks to this vat of Shameless's. Otherwise... hehe..."
Lü Bufan squatted nearby and studied it for a while before suddenly asking, "Master Du, is this vat worth a lot of money?"
Holding a wooden bowl, Du Yuan took a great gulp of broth and grinned, baring his teeth. "Why? Want to steal it and sell it for cash? It's not worth that much. In Great Jin's Capital City, it'd probably only fetch a hundred-odd thousand taels of gold, or a thousand or so second-grade spirit stones..."
"Good heavens... a hundred... thousand?"
"Well? Am I rich or what?"
"Rich, rich... you're amazing, Master Du!"
"Hahahaha..."
Master Ming rolled his eyes. "That belongs to Shameless... you'll have to return it when you're done. This boy will be burning paper offerings, offering incense, and setting up a memorial tablet for Shameless someday... so it ought to belong to him..."
The hulking Han Wu was no longer deaf at that moment and nodded vigorously. "That's right, that's right... it should go to Little Monkey..."
Du Yuan snorted. "Even if I give it to him, can he carry it?"
"I don't want it. Don't you need this vat to heal your injuries, Master Du...? I don't want it, Master!"
Master Ming smiled. "Silly boy. There aren't many good things in Two Realms Village, and you don't even know to grab yourself a little benefit."
Du Yuan said glumly, "All right, all right. Stop those barbed little remarks, you blind man... you just want me to get this brat something good! Right now, at best, he's a low-tier Martial Warrior thug and half a cultivator... what could he use? Any decent weapon weighs over a hundred jin, never mind magical artifacts... a backwash of spiritual energy could kill him! Give it a few years..."
Master Ming nodded. "Then it's settled!"
The Sword Cultivator Huang Jiu sidled over shamelessly. "I could use it! My flying sword is badly damaged... how about melting down this vat to repair it?"
"Get lost! Go find your own materials... keep your hands off my vat!"
Huang Jiu said morosely, "Didn't you and Old Skeleton seal off the area around Two Realms Village, blind man...? Otherwise, I'd have gone out for a stroll long ago..."
Master Ming shook his head. "That flying sword of yours is practically ruined. You can't even ride it anymore. You might as well..."
Huang Jiu said despondently, "You don't understand... it's my life-bound flying sword. A Sword Cultivator's first sword is refined into his heart... if I replace it, I'll never have another flying sword that fits me so perfectly..."
"Then leave it for later. If nothing else works, go beg Old Skeleton... he must have some treasures tucked away at the bottom of his chest..."
"Woof... grrr..."
The old fellows around the bonfire shuddered at the sound...
At some point, the big black dog had entered the courtyard. From a few steps away, he gave a low growl toward the pot.
Huang Jiu and the others hurriedly fell silent. Du Yuan asked the old blind Master Ming through voice transmission, "What's going on? We haven't offended this venerable terror, have we? What does he want...?"
Master Ming smiled without saying a word...
Lü Bufan slapped his forehead and laughed. "My fault, my fault... I was so busy cooking that I forgot to call you! I'll fill a basin for you right away..."
Lü Bufan ran into the house and brought out a fairly large wooden basin. He scrubbed it spotless, then fished out several large chunks from the meatiest part of the deer's back and set them before the big black dog...
"Eat up! I even added salt, and Granny Yu gave me a few medicinal herbs. It tastes pretty good!"
The big black dog walked over beside the bonfire, settled his hindquarters down, and began eating with loud smacks and crunches...
Huang Jiu edged closer to Master Ming and said through voice transmission, "Old blind man, when did he get so friendly with this little brat? Why does that sound send shivers down my spine?"
Master Ming replied, "How should I know? Ever since the boy entered the village, Big Black has been close to him... I can't make heads or tails of it either. Call it a blessing for the boy..."
The next day, Lü Bufan got up early, hugged the smallest stone ball in his arms, and began trudging around the village, huffing and puffing.
Old Skeleton cursed and grumbled as usual, while the big black dog lay beside the stone tablet, sunning his belly...
Granny Yu seemed to have something to attend to. She hurried over to Master Ming and spoke to him, then went to the village entrance and spent a long time giving Old Skeleton instructions... finally, she left with her walking stick.
The farther Lü Bufan walked, the more exhausted and breathless he became, but he stubbornly held on, dragging himself forward step by step... soon, he was drenched in sweat and swaying on his feet.
The skin on his belly, chest, and both arms had long since been rubbed raw. When sweat seeped into it, the pain pierced straight to his heart.
Lü Bufan stripped down to a pair of baggy shorts and continued barefoot... suddenly, a girl's voice rang out!
"Aunt... who's that? What's he doing?"
Caught off guard by the unfamiliar voice, Lü Bufan flinched. The stone ball dropped with a thud, landing squarely on his foot!
"Ow... that hurts so much!"
Lü Bufan leaped into the air in pain, only for his badly worn shorts to fall straight down...
"You little hooligan! Shameless brat! Have those two lowlife Martial Warriors taught you their filthy ways? Get out of here..."
Furious, Granny Yu swung her walking stick and struck Lü Bufan's pale backside...
Lü Bufan caught sight of a pretty, long-haired girl standing behind Granny Yu. She even seemed to be poking her head out to take a closer look at certain parts of him...
How could Lü Bufan have imagined that a young girl would appear in this village where even birds wouldn't bother to shit? His face flushed crimson as he hauled up his shorts and fled like a puff of smoke...
Granny Yu spat and told the girl, "He's the disciple of a few old fossils in the village. Just an ordinary mortal! His heart isn't bad, though... don't bother with him!"
"Oh... why is he carrying that stone ball?"
"Those two damned old Martial Warriors are helping him temper his body. His foundation is too poor to study advanced martial scriptures..."
"What's his name?"
"Lü Bufan... why do you keep asking about him? None of these men are any good. Stay away from them!"
"Oh..."
The girl went into Granny Yu's house to rest, while Master Ming sat at the courtyard entrance and talked with Granny Yu.
"What a bright, gifted girl... she must have an innate immaculate constitution, right? With talent like that, those Immortal Sects would fight over her! Ah..."
Granny Yu nodded, her face cold. "She does indeed have an Immaculate Body... a fairy born into the mortal world, with beauty unmatched in ten thousand. But in the world as it is now... talent and beauty like hers only invite disaster..."
Master Ming sighed. "She fled all the way here from Northern Qi? Has anyone discovered her whereabouts?"
Granny Yu shook her head. "My younger brother and his wife have only this one precious daughter... this time, they were determined not to let the immortal who took a fancy to her defile her by harvesting her essence! They spent everything they had to escape through the Underground River Ghost Road to Two-World Mountain here in Great Jin... they knew Two Realms Village had strict rules, and they couldn't bear to expose the child's whereabouts either... so the two of them drew the pursuers away outside Two-World Mountain. I'm afraid they may head into the Wild Spirit Land or flee toward the Eastern Sea..."
Master Ming nodded. "A parent's heart is pitiful indeed... I trust your people. If there's no other way, bring the child's parents in too!"
"I'm afraid they won't agree. That girl matters more than their lives to them... to keep her hidden, they might well choose death!"
Old Skeleton suddenly sat up atop the large rock nearby, shook his head, and lay back down...
"Hey! You two... go collect the bodies!"
Master Ming froze. "What do you mean?"
"The man and woman who brought the girl fought a group of Immortal Sect cultivators from Northern Qi. They killed three... the couple were wounded and fled east, with another group still on their heels..."
Granny Yu looked pleadingly at Master Ming, who pondered for a long while...
In the end, he shook his head helplessly. "There's nothing we can do. Guardian City has been keeping a very close eye on Two Realms Village lately. If I take the others out to intervene... first, the child's whereabouts will be exposed, and second, we might walk into their trap. Big Black and Old Skeleton can't readily act again within these three years..."
Granny Yu sighed helplessly. "I understand... things are difficult for the village right now... and I'm useless myself. All I can do is hope the two of them escape with their lives..."
Suddenly, the elusive Huang Jiu appeared beside them, though neither knew when he had arrived... "Granny Yu... I can evade those Immortal Sects' searches and escort the pair for part of their journey!"
Master Ming frowned. Huang Jiu continued, "But I need your pill furnace to repair my flying sword... are you willing to part with it?"
Master Ming lashed out and struck Huang Jiu, snapping, "You shameless bastard! Are you looting a house while it's on fire?"
Granny Yu agonized for a long while, then suddenly reached up and removed a hairpin from her hair...
"I have great use for that pill furnace, so no! But this hairpin contains plenty of spirit stones, along with a dozen or so materials for forging pill furnaces... you'll definitely find them useful! Consider them my payment..."
Huang Jiu accepted the greenwood hairpin, a Mustard-Seed Object. One inspection told him he had struck a fine bargain, and he immediately beamed. "It's a deal! I'll secretly escort them wherever they want to go... rest assured!"
Master Ming nodded. "I won't interfere in your arrangement. Huang Jiu, be extremely careful... if anything happens, we can't leave the village to help!"
"Don't worry! As long as I'm not fighting to the death, no one in this world can easily trap me... I'll go help them now. Granny Yu, give me a token so I can meet the couple in secret and make arrangements!"
Granny Yu gave Huang Jiu a token and a few more instructions. With a flicker, Huang Jiu vanished into the distance...
Old Skeleton curled his lip atop the large rock. "Useless at everything, but first in line to leap about and stir things up! Still, that fellow really is quite good at running for his life."
Inside the house, the beautiful young girl who had been quietly standing by the doorway, shedding tears, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief... she patted her chest, which had only just begun to fill out...
"Mother, Father... wait for me! Sooner or later, your daughter will come back and save you!"