Food Immortal Master

Beyond hearing, there were also smell, touch, and even intuition.

Together, these perceptions gave each person a unique silhouette in his mind.

The young boy who depended on him, as he depended on the boy, was upright and light on his feet. He smelled clean, but not in the way of a slender scholar. He was robust, his body brimming with warmth; every time he approached, he was like a little sun.

The woman called Xing Zhi always made sounds with a distinct rhythm of pauses. Her footsteps were half a beat quicker than everyone else's, and her speech was crisp, fast but clear.

She was sharp and sensible, always placing herself and others exactly where they belonged. Like a fresh, brisk, yet orderly breeze, she was the sort of person he very much enjoyed dealing with.

Ming Qitian, on the other hand, was immensely powerful.

Every sound she made was calm and steady, perfectly at one with her bearing. If an enemy hoped to find an opening through her sounds, it would be utterly impossible.

Setting aside that most obvious impression and considering only her as a person, she was very quiet, very clear. She was not short, and her figure was well proportioned. If she also had delicate, lovely features and liked wearing pale robes, her overall bearing would be somewhat like... Ying Suyu's.

But Ying Suyu was a little clumsier, lacked that peace and conviction that came from within, and was more prone to emotional swings. In short, Ying Suyu could not compare to this woman... in martial arts.

Chang Zhiyuan was an old man with loose, relaxed footsteps. He was probably not short, and his body was sturdy rather than stooped. For an ordinary man without any cultivation, he made remarkably few little movements. His voice was gentle yet forceful, sometimes stern and severe. He was one of those rare people whose inner and outer selves matched.

Now those relaxed footsteps approached him. Something was set down with a clank, then, amid the rustle of clothing, came a relieved groan and sigh.

The source of that sigh moved from high to low-oh, what he had just set down was a stool or something of the sort, and now he had sat on it.

"Is it going to rain?" he rasped in greeting.

"Yes. The sky went dark very suddenly." The gentle, elderly voice came from his left. "Brother Yue, we haven't had a chance to chat. Forgive the question, but you're young Pei's..."

"Not your elder brother. I'm actually much younger than you. Little Ye and I aren't related. We just live together."

Silence fell beside him. Yue Muzhou guessed the man was staring in surprise at his hideous, grotesque appearance-shriveled hands, thin, withered arms, every part of him looking impossibly old.

But this appearance did not signify old age. It signified life running dry; old age was merely the reason most ordinary people's lives ran dry.

"I'm sixty-two this year. May I ask how old you are, younger brother..."

"This year, I..." Yue Muzhou drifted for a moment. It was a question he had not answered in a very long time. "I should be fifty."

"..." The man beside him drew a heavy breath, then fell silent again.

He was thinking of a new topic.

It's really nothing, Yue Muzhou thought. We can keep talking about it.

"I heard what sounded like fighting over there just now, but it's gone quiet again." His voice grew worried. "I don't know whether Fenghuai can weather this."

"It'll be difficult," Yue Muzhou said.

"Ah..." The old man let out a long sigh. "It happened too suddenly, and things escalated far too sharply. A few days ago, we thought one Eighth Growth cultivator would be enough to settle everything. Then Commandant Jing arrived, along with a grandmaster from the Divine Capital. It should have been foolproof, yet suddenly they were all caught in it."

"From that point onward, the scale of the incident leaped beyond anything we had anticipated. There simply wasn't enough strength in all of Bowang Prefecture. Deputy Prefect Xu rushed here with his men and sent to the Divine Capital for help as well."

"But the letter was sent near dusk yesterday, and before noon today, the enemy had already arrived." The old man sighed again. "If only they'd come a day later... even half a day?"

The pear tree rustled as the wind picked up. Something thin and light landed on his hand. Yue Muzhou raised his trembling hand and pinched it, feeling out a long, peach-shaped leaf.

"Or fifteen days later would do..." he murmured.

But just then, the rustling changed slightly, as though a sharp scraping sound had mingled with it.

Yue Muzhou tilted his head to listen closely. He had not misheard. Amid the wind, rain, and swaying tree, there was a faint scraping. The sound held a familiarity he had not heard in a long time, like metal against-

Suddenly, the sound shifted into a piercing screech, loud and unmistakable. Beside him came the sound of a stool being kicked. Chang Zhiyuan must have sprung to his feet.

-metal against bone.

The sound came from beneath the pear tree.

Yue Muzhou knew a monster was pinned there. Had the sword now been pulled out?

Wasn't someone guarding it?

Sure enough, a jumble of sounds soon rose from that direction. A fight was taking place. Then, almost immediately, came a rush of wind and the sound of a body crashing into a side room-one of them had been thrown away.

He felt the old man beside him seize his arm, trying to drag him away.

Of course, he could not move him, and it was already too late.

Heavy footsteps sounded before him. The monster was very tall, its breaths long and deep, its body carrying a chill.

That chill drew closer and closer, nearly touching his skin. Yue Muzhou felt almost his entire body steeped in it.

Its breath was already blowing against his face, just as cold. Then a faint sting touched his abdomen as something pressed against it.

As though answering that touch, something stirred within his belly. Suddenly, Yue Muzhou felt an urge to... devour.

Chapter 80: The Ending

North Bridgehead.

As Pei Ye walked toward the County Office, he frowned and turned to the final two pages.

He was no longer thinking about what the Immortal Lord sought. Another suspicion raised by this story was occupying his entire mind.

He looked closely.

The Prince of Zhenbei Residence.

Xi Wuchou lay sprawled on the ground, drawing back all his true qi, quietly experiencing the boundless darkness and successive waves of agony, along with the faint flow of a spring in the distance, like the sound of a flute.

Suddenly, he felt a force dragging his body. He lifted his head and heard the girl panting with exertion.

His tongue had already rotted away entirely. Using true qi to produce his voice, he said, "If you want to live, run. Don't bother with me."

That voice, like a vicious owl's cry, startled the girl so badly that she nearly let go of him.

Only after realizing he was speaking did she say, "You saved me. I have to save you."

"I didn't save you. You're still going to die," Xi Wuchou said. "I just didn't like it, and couldn't be bothered to put up with it."

"Aren't you afraid of dying?"

"No."

"...Whatever you say, you saved me." The girl sounded stubborn. At last, she dragged him over and propped him against a wall, then went around in front and hoisted him onto her back.

Xi Wuchou discovered that the girl was surprisingly strong.

"You're so light," she said.

After more than a month without food or drink, of course he was light-not to mention that a considerable portion of him had been cut away.

Xi Wuchou felt a little hope return. "Take me to the courtyard wall. I'll get you over it."

"No need," the girl said.

She was injured too, but her steps were still swift. Reaching the wall, she quickly searched back and forth, finally parting a patch of grass to reveal a narrow hole at its base.

She stuffed Xi Wuchou into it first, then pushed from behind, squeezing him out.

Xi Wuchou gritted his teeth against the agony of sand and stones scraping every wound on his body. At last, he was squeezed through. The girl nimbly wriggled out after him and took him onto her back again.

"We have to get out of the city," Xi Wuchou said.

"Mm." Panting, the girl carried him toward the edge of the city.

They threaded through dark alleys until they finally reached the city's edge. By now, the gates had long been shut. The girl set him down and searched along the wall, feeling her way.

Xi Wuchou could not quite suppress a laugh. "You've got a hole here too?"

"Hmph."

At last, the girl found the right spot. Her hurried footsteps stopped, and she moved aside a plank, only to freeze suddenly.

Xi Wuchou sensed the atmosphere turn rigid. "What is it?"

"It's... it's been sealed up." The girl's voice trembled a little.

"Put me on your back," Xi Wuchou said.

"Where are we going?" The girl hoisted him onto her back again.

Xi Wuchou channeled true qi into his hand and gripped the clothes on her back. "Nowhere. Cover your mouth."

Bewildered, the girl freed one hand to cover it. The next instant, her body shot off the ground.

The moment a scream escaped her, she stifled it herself. Her body hung in the air with a heart-stopping sense of weightlessness.

They practically shot straight into the clouds. In the blink of an eye, the city wall was beneath her feet. She even had time to look back-half of Yin City lay within her view, looking pitch-black and not as large as it usually seemed.

When her feet touched solid ground again, a small grove lay before her.

She turned back. The city wall was behind her now.

The girl froze for only a moment before immediately running forward.

After passing through the grove and running a while longer, Xi Wuchou gradually heard the deep, steady sound of water-the Coldgrass River.

There was a house beside the river. The girl set Xi Wuchou down and quietly climbed inside-her movements were quite practiced-then stole a large laundry tub and a wooden board.

She put Xi Wuchou in the tub, then handed him the board. "Drift downstream. There are villages farther along. Maybe you'll meet someone kind."

Xi Wuchou paused. "All right. Then you run upstream. If we split up, we'll be harder to catch."

But the girl shook her head. "I'm not running."

"...What?" Xi Wuchou's heart clenched.

"I was only bringing you out. My mother and little brother are still in the city. If I run, they'll suffer for it."

"You saved me! Even if you go back, they won't spare your mother and brother!"

"Then I'll die with them. I can't leave them behind." The girl's voice remained stubborn. "Besides, didn't you just say I was going to die anyway?"

"That was before. Now you-"

"Enough, great master."

Xi Wuchou anxiously tried to persuade her again, but the girl gave him a push, and the wooden tub drifted down the river.

Her voice quickly went from right beside him to somewhat distant. "Thank you for earlier! I'd... never flown before."

The water murmured and the reeds swayed gently. The Coldgrass River was not particularly turbulent; its swiftness was steady.