Food Immortal Master

"Ming Qitian. She said her name was Ming Qitian," Pei Ye said, enunciating clearly.

Pei Ye distinctly felt the body on his back react sharply. "She-where is she now?"

"I don't know. It was several days ago. After asking me, she seemed to leave Fenghuai to search elsewhere."

"..." Pei Ye felt the body on his back go limp again.

"Are you trying to find her? She left me a little jade sword."

The man on his back abruptly straightened again. "Why didn't you say so sooner?!"

Pei Ye realized he had once again exposed his paltry knowledge. "Who is she? What good would contacting her do?"

Zhu Gaoyang rolled his eyes. "Save our lives."

Chapter 51: Sending a Message

Pei Ye took out the white jade Sword Talisman. "She said it needs true qi to activate."

"I have some."

"Why wasn't your Meridian Tree swallowed by that Cocoon of Light?"

"Perhaps it can't swallow a Meridian Tree that's taken shape at Eighth Growth." Zhu Gaoyang took the Sword Talisman and examined it carefully, answering offhandedly. "Even if that isn't the case, I have plenty of ways to keep it from swallowing mine. Oh, there's still some of that dragon blood left in my body, too."

"Dragon blood?"

"That ghostly blue liquid filling the blood vessels. The Immortal Platform named it fifty years ago."

Zhu Gaoyang infused it with true qi, and the Sword Talisman slowly began to shimmer with a clear, lustrous light.

He stared at it for a moment. "Oh, it transmits voices."

He withdrew his true qi, canceling the recording.

Infusing it with true qi again, Zhu Gaoyang said, "Qitian... junior sister, I'm-my name is Zhu Gaoyang-"

He stopped, erased it again, and reactivated the Sword Talisman. "Fellow Daoist Ming, my name is Zhu Gaoyang. I'm the foremost-of Dragon Lord Dongting's Sword Lineage-"

He stopped again and fell silent, looking at the Sword Talisman in his hand.

Pei Ye turned to give him a puzzled look. Zhu Gaoyang simply shoved the Sword Talisman into his arms. "You say it."

With that, he sent a stream of true qi into the Sword Talisman.

Utterly baffled, Pei Ye took the Sword Talisman and said, "Miss Ming, this is Pei Ye. Zhu Gaoyang and I are in danger on Xin Cang Mountain. Can you come save us?"

As his hand loosened, the Sword Talisman shot into the sky.

"Hey!" Zhu Gaoyang reached out and caught nothing. "You really..."

"What?"

Zhu Gaoyang was silent for a moment. "That sounded too pathetic."

Pei Ye sneered. "You can't even stand, and you're still worried about saving face."

"Ah." Zhu Gaoyang sighed and said nothing more.

After they had traveled in silence for a while, Zhu Gaoyang suddenly asked in a low voice, "Hey, what does Ming Qitian look like?"

Pei Ye paused. "I didn't see her. We only exchanged a few words through a wall."

"Mm..."

"Who exactly is she?"

"You've never even heard her name. You wouldn't understand if I told you."

"Why are you looking down on me?"

"Do you know Yunlang Mountain, Heart-Severing Glaze, or 'Sword Strategy'?"

"..."

"See?"

Unconvinced, Pei Ye said, "But I know the Crane and Teal Register. Can't you explain it through that?"

"Oh, something that simple and brutal... Ming Qitian is twenty-one this year, and third on the Crane List."

"..."

Simple, brutal things delivered simple, brutal shocks.

Pei Ye now profoundly understood Black Chi's remark that "a firefly can give light, and so can the bright moon." He also began regretting not asking for that "little booklet recording her childhood insights into sword practice."

"Will she come save us?" Pei Ye could not help asking.

Now that he knew the weight carried by the name Ming Qitian, Pei Ye could not help fretting over their chances. After all, whether she came or not would make a difference as vast as heaven and earth.

"That depends on how close you are to her." Zhu Gaoyang laughed.

Pei Ye was speechless. Close, his ass.

Neither spoke again. Zhu Gaoyang, in particular, had forced himself to say so much that he was growing drowsy again.

Pei Ye was also becoming increasingly accustomed to physical abilities on par with Eighth Growth, moving through the forest with ever greater ease.

He gradually began to feel the seed in his abdomen "breathing." With each breath, an energy utterly unfamiliar to Pei Ye kept entering his abdomen to be swallowed by it. This was the profound qi between heaven and earth.

Without that bead formed from accumulated corpses, it could only slowly draw the energy needed to hatch from its surroundings.

Pei Ye could neither stop it nor help it. All he could do was maintain his greatest speed as he raced toward Fenghuai.

Less than two hours passed before Zhu Gaoyang suddenly lifted his head from Pei Ye's shoulder. "Stop a moment."

Pei Ye halted. "What is it?"

"Go ten li north. There's a stream there. We'll wash there before heading west."

Pei Ye followed his instructions. After traveling ten li, he indeed heard rushing water. Emerging from the trees, he saw a clear spring-fed stream.

To attribute this to hearing alone would be a tale from the Arabian Nights. Pei Ye could only put it down to some ability unique to grandmasters, or to this outstanding hero of Great Tang.

"It's the 'Dragon-Seeking Classic.'" Zhu Gaoyang stripped off his clothes and tossed them into the water, then submerged his whole body in the stream to let the current wash over him. Fresh and old blood alike drifted away in fine strands.

"Surveying the land and discerning its yin, yang, wind, and water-that's our old trade at Dragon Lord Dongting." He raised his head from the water and smiled. "Learn the 'Dragon-Seeking Classic,' and the mountains and rivers for a hundred li will seem to lie before your eyes. What do you think? Want to join our sect? Our earlier deal still stands."

Pei Ye followed his example and sank into the stream. Ignoring the offer, he asked, "Will this help?"

"There's no guessing what tracking methods those two grandmasters have, but Qiongqi memorized our scents. At least it'll help against him."

They quickly washed themselves several times. Pei Ye fished out his clothes. "What about the smell on our clothes?"

"We're throwing them away."

"Huh?"

Even in such peril, the idea of running through the woods bare-assed while carrying another bare-assed man was still rather hard to accept.

But when he turned his head, his eyes went wide. Zhu Gaoyang actually pulled two sets of clothes out of his abdomen!

One was an exquisite white outfit; the other, a coarse cloth tunic.

They dressed. Sitting on a rock beside the stream, Zhu Gaoyang pulled a small pouch out of his belly and beckoned Pei Ye over.

Pei Ye walked over in bewilderment, his eyes widening at the strange tools inside the pouch.

As noon approached, Pei Ye was still racing through the mountain forest.

After nearly twenty-four hours of fighting and running, his belly was utterly empty. Ordinarily, his legs would long since have weakened and his vision dimmed, but the ghostly blue liquid within him kept supplying everything his body needed. Pei Ye remained remarkably vigorous.

Just then, Zhu Gaoyang raised his eyes, bright and keen beneath his fringe, and lightly patted Pei Ye's shoulder. "They're here."

Only a few breaths later.

Amid the dappled shadows of the trees, two purple-clad figures flashed past like lightning, moving so fast they left a trail of falling leaves in their wake.

Before such speed, the boy's swiftness, like a teal or falcon and on par with Eighth Growth, seemed no more than a tortoise's crawl. The man on his back still slumped groggily against his shoulder, only opening his weak eyes at the boy's frantic calls.

The Purple-Robed Man gave him no time to react. He raised his hand, and blistering heat erupted in an instant, like flames fallen from the sun. The two fleeing figures were blasted apart.

"World-Illuminating"-whether it was a spiritual scripture or a profound scripture remained unclear. Even during the purge fifty years earlier, the Immortal Platform had failed to find its original text, and to this day its records remained full of great blank spaces.

Yet the technique the Purple-Robed Man used was indeed among the few the Immortal Platform had recorded. Its name was "Bing Fire."

This was no probing opening move, but a killing strike delivered in earnest. More than a dozen nearby trees were instantly blasted apart and carbonized.

The results did not disappoint either. Gravely wounded, Zhu Gaoyang had no room to resist from the boy's back. His white clothes flew in charred tatters as he was hurled to the ground, his fate unknown.

The most important target was, of course, the boy carrying the seed. The two Purple-Robed Men were about to approach him when the lesson they had suffered the previous night suddenly warned them.

Both turned back. They would not again let the more dangerous man lie on the ground playing dead-even if he very likely was dead.

Chapter 52: Counterattack

The Purple-Robed Man raised his hand, scorching profound qi gathering once again. Another strike of "Bing Fire" was about to land on the "corpse."

Sure enough, the "corpse" could no longer keep up the act. He raised his hand a moment later, but Sword Qi like snowflakes and threads of frost erupted before the "Bing Fire."

The Sword Qi stretched into fine, resilient strands like silkworm silk. As it swept toward their faces, it seemed to ripple in the wind, soft, warm, and smooth to the eye. Yet no one would doubt its sharpness.

The other Purple-Robed Man stepped forward to block the attack for his companion.

Just then, the wind behind them suddenly tightened. Turning, he saw the boy spring toward him, veins glowing ghostly blue, his fist driving straight at the center of the Purple-Robed Man's back.

But even a full-force punch on par with Eighth Growth was like a child's before a top grandmaster. The Purple-Robed Man spared one hand and caught the fist that could have split a tiger's skull.

In the next instant, the Purple-Robed Man could have blasted him into a heap of flesh. But he was, after all, the host of the divine seed. With a gentle tug, the Purple-Robed Man sent profound qi surging into him, locking his meridians and joints.

Only then did the downpour of Sword Qi arrive. The boy's interference had accomplished nothing, and Zhu Gaoyang's attack, delivered under grievous injuries, was distinctly weak. The Purple-Robed Man intercepted it without much effort.

The other unleashed "Bing Fire," and searing heat exploded again. The white-clad figure had already leaped high into the air and raised his hand, his next strike seemingly fiercer still.

But suddenly, an indescribably sharp sense of danger came from behind their waists. Both Purple-Robed Men felt their hearts and lungs constrict. Turning together, they saw the immobilized boy draw a gleaming sword from his abdomen.

What a swift sword!

What a beautiful sword!

What a powerful sword!