Lü Bufan crouched on the ground, glaring resentfully at an iron ball the size of a wooden bucket before him...
Du Yuan, the cripple, leaned on two small stools as crutches and gave Lü Bufan a sidelong look. "What? You think this iron ball isn't good enough for you? It might not be magnetic essence black iron... but it's still rare hundred-forged refined iron, with geomagnetic essence mixed in! Quit whining... pick it up!"
Lü Bufan pulled a miserable face. "It's not that it's heavy. It's... carrying this thing year after year feels a little..."
"Oh, embarrassing, is it? Want me to forge you a turtle shell to wear on your back instead?"
Lü Bufan scooped up the iron ball and hurried away...
What a joke... Carrying an iron ball around like a dung beetle was embarrassing enough. Was he supposed to turn into a turtle now? How would he ever hold his head up in front of Lian'er again?
The pearl the big black dog had left in Lü Bufan's sea of consciousness seemed to have been asleep all this time... Apart from his improved ability to endure grueling training, his cultivation progressed at the same old sluggish pace.
One day, with Mute off somewhere and the cripple having given him a day's rest, Lü Bufan went hunting alone near Rear Mountain.
Training with Mute had given Lü Bufan a superb flying stone technique. Combined with the physical strength of a first-realm martial artist, he could hit almost anything within fifty paces!
He was still nowhere near Mute's level, but Lü Bufan was delighted all the same.
"Eek, eek... eek, eek..."
Lü Bufan was holding his breath in a hiding spot downwind. Not far ahead, a fat, sturdy muntjac was grazing...
A burst of frantic monkey cries instantly sent the muntjac fleeing!
"Oh, come on... what the hell?"
Having lost his quarry, Lü Bufan looked up to see several golden-furred monkeys clinging to branches with all four limbs, swaying and screeching.
Lü Bufan had a good memory. The tall, blue-faced, golden-furred monkey leading them... immediately reminded him of being bullied by a Monkey King when he had first arrived in the Two-World Mountain region two years ago.
"You? You're here to make my life miserable again?"
The Monkey King bared his teeth, stood on a branch, and thrust his hips in an exceedingly vulgar, cruel, obscene, shameless gesture of insult...
Lü Bufan smiled cruelly, suddenly shook a pebble from his sleeve, and hurled it like lightning...
With vicious, underhanded precision, the pebble flew straight toward a certain vital part of the Monkey King's anatomy!
If it struck, the whole harem of little female monkeys in the mountains would be in danger of becoming living widows...
As expected of the Monkey King!
Even the way he clutched his crotch and howled as he fell looked mighty and imposing...
Lü Bufan held his waist and roared with laughter. "For a gentleman, even ten years isn't too late for revenge! That's what my master taught me... You wicked beast, today I'll just teach you a little lesson! Next time... next time..."
Lü Bufan watched, dumbstruck, as an enormous monkey suddenly leaped from behind the trees, its build fully comparable to Mute's!
The giant monkey's muscles bulged, and a savage gleam shone in his eyes as he stared straight at Lü Bufan.
"I'm done for... So all this time, the one I hit was... the crown prince..."
The giant Monkey King glanced at the smaller Monkey King twitching on the ground, then advanced a few steps, his extraordinarily long arms even more powerful than Mute's... Lü Bufan nearly broke into a cold sweat.
The giant Monkey King narrowed his eyes, then suddenly raised his nose and sniffed carefully... A strangely human look of surprise appeared on his face, and he stood there pondering for a moment.
Lü Bufan was on the verge of wetting himself, forcing himself not to tremble.
He knew perfectly well... Trying to outrun a creature practically equivalent to a Fierce Beast in these mountain woods was courting death!
A strange voice suddenly echoed inside Lü Bufan's head... "Boy! Scared?"
"Master Huang Jiu! Master Huang Jiu, save me..."
"Ah, has all your training gone to the dogs?"
"I-I definitely can't beat him!"
"Then forget it. Kneel down and beg him... Maybe he'll spare your life! What sort of people do you think we are? If you can't even beat an animal, what's the point of a disciple like you staying alive?"
"..."
As though suddenly goaded into fury, Lü Bufan stubbornly stopped asking for help. Instead, he lowered his body, planted his feet, and raised his hands into the opening stance of a fist technique... His gaze settled firmly on the giant Monkey King nearby!
The giant Monkey King hesitated, then suddenly widened his eyes and let out a deep roar at Lü Bufan...
"Come on! I'm Lü Bufan of Two Realms Village! I'm not afraid of you..."
The first-realm martial artist Lü Bufan adjusted his breathing and leaped high... A fist wrapped in martial gang qi slammed down toward the giant Monkey King, who stood three or four heads taller than him... His momentum swept forward like a rainbow!
In the woods, Huang Jiu carried Lü Bufan in his single arm. Lü Bufan's clothes were in tatters, his body covered in wounds, and his face bruised and swollen...
"Useless! Absolutely useless... You couldn't even beat a monkey! Why don't you drown yourself in your own piss?"
Barely breathing, Lü Bufan raised his head and answered, "Master Huang Jiu, that monkey was so strong... He seemed even stronger than Master Han Wu!"
Huang Jiu scoffed. "Heh... Han Wu could crush a thing like that with one finger! A mere monkey equal to a Fifth-Realm Martial Warrior, without even an innate demonic art..."
"What?"
Lü Bufan looked up at Huang Jiu. "Fifth realm? I've only just reached the First Realm bottleneck... Master... do you... have any humanity at all...?"
Realizing he had let it slip, Huang Jiu coughed and said stubbornly, "Is the fifth realm so impressive? Below the sixth martial realm, the Wilderness Realm, they're all ants!"
"Master Han Wu... must be stronger than you, right?"
"A crude Martial Warrior... How could he compare to a Sword Cultivator like me, with earth-shattering killing power, coming and going like the wind in effortless style?"
"Master Han Wu has ten fingers, so he could kill ten fifth-realm demonic monkeys like that... You, though... looks like you could only kill three!"
Huang Jiu said ominously, "You little brat... With that sharp tongue, you really do sound like a brothel lackey..."
Lü Bufan continued courting death... "How about teaching me a skill, Master Huang Jiu?"
"What do you want to learn, you little bastard?"
"I always used to lose at Rock-Paper-Scissors... How about teaching me Rock-Paper-Scissors, Master Huang Jiu? Master said your movement speed was unrivaled under heaven... Just rock, scissors, and paper!"
Huang Jiu spread his three remaining fingers and looked down at Lü Bufan on the ground... Through gritted teeth, he said, "Fine! Today... I'll teach you how to throw paper first!"
Waves of miserable screams suddenly erupted from the quiet forest...
"Smack... ah! Smack, smack... ah... smack... ah! Master Huang Jiu, I was wrong... smack... smack, smack... ah..."
After quite a while, Han Wu took over carrying Lü Bufan home. By now, Lü Bufan's head had thoroughly swollen into a pig's head.
His eyes were swollen to slits, blood streamed from his nose... and his face was covered in slap marks, each bearing only three finger impressions.
Han Wu said in his rumbling voice, "You're quite something, boy! You nearly drove that pretentious bastard Huang Jiu mad... I haven't managed that in all these years!"
Lü Bufan hung his head without a word. Only drops of blood from his nose fell onto the lush green grass.
First realm, second realm... The days passed, and Lü Bufan broke through. Yet he still raced around the village carrying an even larger iron ball.
From time to time, Lü Bufan would go to Rear Mountain to spar with that Monkey King.
According to Huang Jiu, however, he was actually taking fruit to bribe and flatter the giant Monkey King. Lü Bufan never admitted it...
Meng Lian'er grew ever more stunningly beautiful, her gentle nature touched with slyness and stubbornness... Huang Jiu had once been hired to visit her parents, but had failed to find them.
Apparently, the couple had sailed out to sea, heading for some unknown islands.
The Immortal Sect never relaxed its blockade of Two Realms Village.
No one else escaped the world under the Immortal Sect's control and reached Two Realms Village.
"Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles. Boy, it's time you went out, saw the world, and questioned your own heart."
Lü Bufan put down his book and looked at his blind master. "If I leave, what will you do, Master?"
Master Ming smiled. "Big Black is here, and so is Old Skeleton... The Immortal Sect wouldn't dare attack recklessly. What's there to worry about?"
Lü Bufan lowered his head and remained silent for a long while.
To be honest, he was beginning to miss Liuzi.
He wondered how Liuzi was doing in Huqi Town. Great Jin's borderlands were growing quieter, and the townsfolk were growing poorer. Liuzi was already sixteen, old enough to pay the head tax and perform corvée labor.
Without a large sum of silver to bribe the tax collector, Liuzi would probably end up like those other impoverished youths, sentenced to double labor and chained up in the mountains to mine for the authorities...
Many died of sickness and starvation within a few years.
Master Ming smiled. "Go and have a look. You've already reached the second martial realm's bottleneck. Once you enter the third martial realm, the Qi-Containing Realm, you can formally step into the first realm of Qi Refiners, the Qi-Unifying Realm..."
Lü Bufan asked in confusion, "Master, hasn't it always been impossible to cultivate both the Dao and martial arts? Why can I do it?"
Master Ming smiled. "Why does a little brat like you think so much? Haven't I told you? Your Martial Dao cultivation is different... It's only meant to strengthen your sinews, bones, qi, blood, and flesh!"
"As for Qi Refiners cultivating the Dao and seeking immortality... We've walked too many paths, too tangled and varied, yet never found a true road to the summit. So... we hope you can become a different kind of Human Race Qi Refiner!"
"And then?"
Lü Bufan looked calmly at his master.
Master Ming smiled. "And then... we don't know either. Just follow your true heart... You'll still have to choose your own path ahead."
Lü Bufan lowered his head and fell silent for a while...
"Master, what happened to the five senior brothers who fought their way to the Eleventh Guardian City with you masters back then?"
Master Ming's expression stiffened for an instant before he answered, "Four died in battle..."
Lü Bufan raised his head. "Did the one who survived... join the Immortal Sect?"
Master Ming smiled, then closed his eyes and nodded.
Lü Bufan said, "I know my aptitude doesn't compare to even a fraction of those four senior brothers'... But I'm certain of one thing. I won't be like that other senior brother... betraying my masters and joining the Immortal Sect!"
Master Ming smiled and patted Lü Bufan's head without saying anything.
Lü Bufan was going to visit his only friend, so he did not intend to stay away from the mountain for long.
After packing a small bundle, Lü Bufan lifted the great iron ball again and sprinted ten laps around the little village.
Panting and drenched in sweat, Lü Bufan nevertheless felt comfortable from head to toe, his spirits bright and vigorous.
A beautiful young girl, like a willow putting out fresh shoots and flowers just forming buds, walked beneath the village's great banyan tree and smiled at Lü Bufan in the distance.
Lü Bufan wiped away his sweat and raced over.
"These are clothes I altered for you. Auntie doesn't have many old clothes left. They're not very well made, so please don't mind..."
Lü Bufan accepted the little cloth bundle and looked up. "Lian'er, how's your breakthrough going?"
Meng Lian'er's expression dimmed, and she shook her head. "Auntie asked Grandpa Old Skeleton... but Grandpa said, why be in such a hurry? Is higher cultivation necessarily a good thing?"
Lü Bufan thought for a moment. "Then just stay here in the village. If nothing else... I'll help you find your parents and bring them back someday!"
Meng Lian'er smiled. "My father is a Fifth-Realm Martial Warrior, and my mother is a cultivator about to break through the sixth realm... How long will it be before you can rescue them?"
Lü Bufan instinctively glanced back at the great iron ball he had left at the village entrance...
"Probably... a few more years..."
Meng Lian'er pressed her lips together. "Brother Bufan, be careful on the road! The Immortal Sect's people don't listen to reason. Whatever you do, don't let them find out you're from Two Realms Village... Come back soon once you've found your friend."
"Mm!"
That evening, while tending the fire, Lü Bufan cautiously said to Master Ming, "Master... what if... what if..."
Rocking in his bamboo chair, Master Ming said, "It's all right. If you find your friend and want to bring him back, you may... But... think it through. Would bringing him here really be good for him? Besides, the karma of Two Realms Village weighs too heavily... He may not have that destined connection."
Lü Bufan was silent for a long while, then nodded...
"I'll remember, Master. I'd like..."
Master Ming smiled, rummaged beneath his backside... and tossed over a small cloth pouch...
"Take it! These things are useless in the mountains, but outside, they're enough for an ordinary fellow to live peacefully for a lifetime."
Lü Bufan opened it and found a pouch of gold and silver.
"Thank you, Master!"
"Don't thank me. It's a loan. You'll have to repay it..."
Lü Bufan pulled a miserable face, wondering how many pairs of his master's underpants he would have to wash, how much game he would have to hunt, and how many meals he would have to cook before he could clear the debt...