"Brat, what are you thinking about?"
Du Yuan lay lazily on the roof, watching Lü Bufan silently hold up a huge iron ball in the courtyard.
"Nothing much... Will Lian'er be in danger when she goes over to Two-World Mountain?"
Du Yuan curled his lip. "I've never been there. How would I know?"
"Don't you know that cultivator from the Wild Spirit Land who came to take a disciple?"
"I know her, but she won't give me the time of day... That little wench is still as fresh and lovely as she was decades ago! Hehehe..."
Lü Bufan thought for a moment, then hesitated to speak.
"What? Got your heart set on that girl? Why don't you piss yourself a mirror and take a good look? You're a little Third Realm Martial Warrior of mortal flesh, a little First Realm cultivator... An ant like you dares covet someone born with an immaculate body?"
"Do you know that women with immaculate bodies like hers are born to be the private playthings of peerless powerhouses... Even the immortals of the Upper Realm want to harvest their innate spiritual energy through sex! Since ancient times, even making such women empresses has been a waste of heaven's treasures..."
"Hey? Gone mute? Feeling hard done by because that Great Cultivator from the Wild Spirit Land didn't take a fancy to you?"
Lü Bufan set down the huge iron ball, wiped away his sweat, and looked up. "I'm not. I'm just a servant boy who ran away from a brothel... An ordinary mortal! I've never expected to be some born genius or outstanding talent. To have met you masters... To have the chance to become a proud, spirited Martial Warrior, and even cultivate Daoist arts and command a little spiritual energy... I'm already perfectly content!"
Du Yuan propped his chin on his hand and looked at him... "The truth?"
"The truth!"
"Mm, good! A man who knows his own limits... Keep lifting that iron ball. Hold it up and run three hundred laps around the village!"
"You got it, Master Du!"
Lü Bufan lifted the huge iron ball and raced toward the back of the village, scattering sweat along the way...
Granny Yu watched Meng Lian'er walk toward the back of the village with a small bundle in her arms. She hesitated to speak... In the end, she only shook her head.
Meng Lian'er came to the little lake and gazed from afar at that lean yet sturdy figure.
The boy had begun to shoot up, growing taller by the day, his simple topknot held in place with a wooden hairpin.
His bare upper body was tanned dark, and his eyes were always so bright and restrained. Yet they also seemed to hide every thought weighing on his heart...
"Lian'er? Hehe... Congratulations!"
"Senior Du Yuan told you, didn't he?"
"Mm! He said you've found your own destined opportunity. Unless something unexpected happens, you'll become a Great Cultivator in the Wild Spirit Land!"
"The place I'm going to is called Azurefall Lake... Brother Bufan, someday... Someday, once you've made progress in your cultivation, you must come to Azurefall Lake to see me! Aunt said the Wild Spirit Land is very dangerous... You must be careful when you come."
Lü Bufan grinned. "Don't worry! I train really hard. If I become a Seventh Realm or Eighth Realm Martial Dao Grandmaster someday... I'll definitely come see you!"
"Mm, it's a promise!"
Lü Bufan nodded, watching Meng Lian'er approach and gently tuck a bundle into his hands...
"These are a few sets of clothes I made for you. Each one's a little bigger than the last... I was afraid you'd keep growing over the next few years! I don't know how tall you'll end up, so I made the last set much bigger. Don't turn your nose up at them..."
Lü Bufan gently stroked the bundle in his hands. After a long hesitation, he turned, took something from the clothes he had left on the ground, and ran back...
"I bought this for you in town. Don't turn your nose up at it..."
A tiny jade bead hung from a silk cord. Though it wasn't top-grade spirit jade, it was still lustrous and lovely.
The girl fastened the jade bead around her beautiful, swanlike neck... "Is it pretty?"
The breeze off the lake was warm as spring, and a boy gazed at the girl, spellbound.
Beneath Central Earth, the Underground River Ghost Road twisted and wound through an intricate maze. Apart from the Ghostway Gate cultivators who had hidden there for thousands of years, no one seemed able to say when these underground rivers and tunnels had appeared, or when the Ghostway Gate disciples had taken possession of them...
Underground Ferries slipped silently through the underground rivers, carrying cultivators who concealed their identities to conduct one shady deed after another that could never see the light of day...
The deaf Han Wu tilted his head, grinned broadly, and pressed one ear hard against the ceiling...
The blind Master Ming cursed irritably, "You're deaf. What the hell are you eavesdropping for? Can't you stop being a nuisance?"
Han Wu's eyes blazed as he continuously channeled pure martial gang qi into his ear to pick up the sounds coming from the cabin upstairs...
"Hehehe, they even set up a little restraining formation... Interesting, interesting... Oh my, that woman... She's screaming so pitifully, hahahaha..."
It turned out that a pair of illicit lovers had moved into a second-deck cabin. Who knew how they had come up with the idea... They had actually chosen this ferry on the Ghostway Underground River as the perfect place for a tryst, and were enjoying themselves to their hearts' content down here where neither sun nor sky could be seen!
Master Ming waved his hand and laid down a restraining formation, completely cutting off the wails, screams, and pleasurable moans from upstairs... He told Han Wu, who still looked hungry for more, "We'll reach Jingting Mountain in another half day. Think of a way to hide your identity... Rein in all that vicious aura of yours so I can help you..."
Before Master Ming had finished, a gloomy, hoarse voice rang out beyond the cabin. "No boarding a Ghostway ferry midjourney! Where did you come from? Don't court death..."
Han Wu asked in puzzlement, "Someone wants to board the ferry midway? Don't they know the rules, or are they looking for trouble?"
Master Ming blinked his clouded eyes and chuckled without committing himself.
After a while, the ferry slowly got underway again.
Knock, knock, knock!
The blind Master Ming grunted. "Who is it?"
"We've reached the dock. Passengers, disembark!"
Master Ming asked in confusion, "Didn't we still have almost half a day to go? Have we reached Jingting Mountain?"
"Get off the boat. Cut the chatter!"
Cursing and grumbling, Master Ming opened the cabin door with Han Wu, only to find a boatman in a tattered gray robe waiting for him with a lurid green Ghost Lantern.
"Follow me..."
The ferry slowly decelerated, and Master Ming and Han Wu followed the boatman to a small deck at the stern.
Han Wu strained his eyes to look outside and saw that the ferry was traveling through a vast underground cavern.
Jagged boulders and pitch-black branching passages surrounded them, while streams of water occasionally crashed down from the cavern roof like waterfalls...
The entire underground world echoed with the roar of falling water and an indescribable, muffled sound that unsettled the mind and filled the listener with agitation.
Master Ming looked up at a stretch of rocky shore beside the underground river and suddenly cursed, "Fuck, where's the dock? Have we reached Jingting Mountain? Are you trying to dump your passengers halfway?"
The boatman suddenly stepped back and swung the Ghost Lantern in his hand... The entire ferry let out a deep, mighty cry, as though it were about to come alive!
A cold, powerful surge of deathly spiritual energy erupted...
Master Ming and Han Wu were sent tumbling out by that immense force, rolling through the air toward the rocky shore!
"Fuck your ancestors! Ghostway Gate... I'm not... done with you..."
In midair, the bedraggled Master Ming grabbed the dazed Martial Warrior Han Wu, who desperately circulated his gang qi to steady himself as they fell toward the rocky shore.
Boom, crash... Dust billowed as Han Wu smashed through several iron-hard boulders before steadying himself. With lingering fear, he looked back toward the Ghostway ferry, which had already vanished into the distant underground river...
"Motherfucker, that was powerful! That ferry was like a fierce beast, as though it could come alive..."
The old blind Master Ming brushed dust and broken stone from his head, then spat twice... "Damned ghost things! A bunch of things that should be dead but won't die... Sooner or later, I'll burn these rotten ferries to the ground!"
Suddenly, a figure wrapped in a hooded robe lit a lurid green Ghost Lantern... The figure stood silently on the shore some distance from Master Ming and Han Wu.
Han Wu fell silent for an instant, then suddenly roared and sprang into the air, hurling a punch at the figure!
A flash of pale golden warrior's gang qi... A tremendous crash! Every boulder within a ten-foot radius of where the figure stood was reduced to powder...
"Han Wu, stop..."
Master Ming called out to stop him, but the airborne Martial Warrior Han Wu roared with blood-red eyes, "It's you! I'll kill you!"
The ghostly green Ghost Lantern flickered, and the strange robed figure reappeared at the edge of the rocky shore, bowing from afar to the two Great Cultivators from Two Realms Village...
"Greetings, Masters!"
Master Ming formed finger seals and chanted an incantation. Several streaks of white light flashed over the Martial Warrior Han Wu! Han Wu gave a muffled grunt, fell to the ground, and began struggling desperately...
"Let me go! You damned old blind man... Let me beat him to death! Let me kill this beast who betrayed his masters, defiled his lineage, and slaughtered his fellow disciples... Ah..."
Master Ming activated the restraining formation he had placed on Han Wu. The white light became shackles that bound the deaf man layer upon layer, leaving him unable to move...
The robed figure raised his head with a smile. "Master Ming is as shrewd and wise as ever. Your unworthy disciple offers his respects!"
Master Ming snorted coldly. "I wouldn't dare. A homeless cur like me wouldn't dare claim a disciple like you... Speak. What do you want?"
"I've come to discuss a deal... I know that if I didn't show myself, Master Ming would never believe me."
Master Ming curled his lip. "Whose hand do you want to borrow to strike at whom this time? Just spit it out. Still, sending out a yin spirit to roam the Ghost Road at night, hiding your head and showing your tail-that does seem your style!"
A fair face emerged beneath the robe, wavering and ethereal... "Master Ming, time is short, so I'll spare you the nonsense! Rescue Huang Jiu and take away half of the Dustless Sword... You need only agree to three things!"
"If you've got a fart to let out, let it out. If we can't reach an agreement, this yin spirit you worked so hard to cultivate will be staying here..."
Old Skeleton lay in front of the Land God Temple, one leg crossed over the other and his lone arm beneath his head. He turned to look at the young Big Black, who was dozing belly-up... "Hey, old friend! Was it fun out there?"
Big Black ignored him.
"What did that brat do? Did you test his character? Just what's strange about him? Why can't even I see through him?"
"Could it be... that boy is that being's... reincarnation?"
Big Black glanced at Old Skeleton, his eyes brimming with disdain and mockery...
"No? I didn't think so either... How could it be... If it were that being, those fucking immortals would probably bring the Three Great Dynasties down on Two Realms Village and flatten us on the spot..."
Lying on the ground, Big Black lifted his eyes and stared blankly at the vault of heaven... A faint sadness and an indescribable chill lingered in his gaze.
Old Skeleton sighed. "Forget it. Whatever's strange about that little bastard, if you won't explain it clearly, I won't be giving him anything good!"
Big Black's gaze once again turned disdainful and mocking...
Old Skeleton said irritably, "I know you look down on the little I have to offer. You're the boss, all right!"