An Idyllic Life with Xiao Yi Xian

As soon as Xiao Yi Xian landed, Xiao Chen instructed, "Take a look around Poison Cloud Mountain and gather everything poisonous. We'll set off shortly."

"Leave?"

"Where are we going?"

Xiao Chen smiled. "Is there anywhere you want to go?"

Xiao Yi Xian shook her head gently. "I'll follow your lead, Teacher."

"Then we'll go to Mo City."

As he spoke, Xiao Chen had already started walking.

A puzzled look appeared on Xiao Yi Xian's face.

What were they going to Mo City for?

"Teacher, are we flying straight there?"

"No."

"Then... are we taking a flying Magic Beast, riding horses, or taking a carriage?"

"We're walking."

At this answer, Xiao Yi Xian could not help stopping in her tracks, her pretty face blank.

Walk all the way to Mo City from here?

Surely Teacher was joking?

Only after following Xiao Chen down Poison Cloud Mountain did Xiao Yi Xian seem to awaken from a dream. "Teacher, are we really walking?"

"You can think of it as a cultivation journey on foot, setting out on a whim."

With his hands clasped behind his back, Xiao Chen strolled into the distance. "Xian'er, measuring the mountains and rivers with your footsteps, observing the scenery along the way with your heart set on the Dao, dining on wind and drinking dew, combed by the wind and bathed by the rain-all of this greatly benefits cultivation."

Xiao Yi Xian nodded thoughtfully.

"Cultivation? Why do I feel like you just want some time alone with Xiao Yi Xian?" Little Gold's voice rang out in Xiao Chen's mind.

Xiao Chen ignored Little Gold.

Ten days later.

Torrential rain was falling over a stretch of remote mountains.

The night was dark, and the rain fell so hard that leaves and vegetation rustled beneath its pounding.

In a mountainside cliff was a cave roughly thirty feet across.

It offered shelter from the wind and rain.

Inside the cave, a campfire danced, filling the space with warmth.

Outside, bitter wind and dismal rain brought bone-piercing cold and damp.

"Teacher, I'm afraid we'll have to spend the night here."

Xiao Yi Xian spoke softly.

She sat beside the campfire in a white dress, her dark hair pinned up to reveal her slender, snow-white neck.

"Then we'll spend the night here and continue on our way tomorrow."

Off to one side, Xiao Chen reclined leisurely in a bamboo chair, holding a gourd of fruit juice and sipping it, utterly at ease.

Xiao Yi Xian smiled softly and nodded.

Just then, a sudden rush of air came from the stormy darkness.

When it first reached their ears, it was still far away; the next time they heard it, it was already close at hand.

Xiao Yi Xian's beautiful eyes narrowed as she saw a heavily bearded man striding toward them.

As rain fell onto him, a force shook it off, sending it splashing in all directions.

His presence was formidable, and he carried a heavy purple saber on his back. The moment he approached, an oppressive pressure bore down on them.

An expert!

Puzzlement could not help appearing in Xiao Yi Xian's beautiful eyes.

Why would someone like this suddenly appear in such a remote wilderness on a night of torrential rain?

"Sorry to disturb you both. The rain was too heavy, and I saw firelight flickering here from afar, so I hurried over. I'll leave once the rain stops."

As he spoke, the burly man walked into the cave and plopped down beside the campfire.

Xiao Yi Xian could not help glancing at Xiao Chen.

Yet Xiao Chen was still drinking his fruit juice.

He was clearly ignoring the burly man outright.

So Xiao Yi Xian pressed her lips together and remained silent too.

The atmosphere immediately grew heavy.

The burly man found it rather strange.

He looked at Xiao Chen, then at Xiao Yi Xian. Finally, he shook his head and said no more, leaning against the rock wall and closing his eyes to rest.

In the night, only the wind and rain resounded, along with the popping of the campfire.

Xiao Yi Xian sat there, uncomfortable all over.

She had always had only Xiao Chen beside her. Suddenly having a stranger there, and so close at that, made her feel very uncomfortable.

Suddenly, another rush of air sounded from the distant curtain of rain.

Xiao Yi Xian froze.

Someone else was coming?

The burly man leaning against the rock wall quietly opened his eyes and sat upright. "Don't be alarmed, you two. Whatever happens in a moment, just watch. Don't say anything unnecessary or make any unnecessary moves, lest you get dragged into it."

Xiao Chen, who had remained silent all this time, spoke with an indifferent expression. "If you truly don't want to drag us into this, you should leave now."

The burly man looked taken aback.

He had not expected a youth like this to dare speak to him that way.

But the burly man was magnanimous by nature and certainly would not hold it against a youngster. He laughed heartily. "Don't worry, lad. You definitely won't get hurt."

The burly man instinctively assumed that Xiao Chen must be a young master from some great clan in the Jia Ma Empire.

Otherwise, who would bring a beautiful, delicate maid along on a journey?

Even more absurdly, this wealthy young master was clearly accustomed to luxury-he actually carried a bamboo chair with him...

"You can barely save your own skin, Kong Ruonan, yet you still dare boast so shamelessly?"

A soft, seductive voice rang out in the rainy night.

A graceful figure flew over, blood-red wings fluttering gently behind her.

She wore a red dress, her makeup exquisite and alluring. Even in the torrential rain, she remained clean and dry.

The burly man rose, his imposing figure blocking the cave entrance, and laughed boldly. "So what if I can barely save my own skin? Killing you, You Yingluo, would be as easy as turning over my hand!"

"What if you include me?"

A deep voice rang out, and a dark shadow flashed through the distant curtain of rain.

A figure then appeared beside the woman in red.

The newcomer was equally burly, his face somewhat aged, and he held a pair of enormous scarlet axes, each fully half his height.

He stood beside the woman in red, his face filled with mockery and indifference.

The burly man narrowed his eyes and sneered. "If I go all out, even the two of you together won't be enough."

The man holding the enormous axes snorted coldly.

Because what the burly man said was true.

Watching this, Xiao Yi Xian grew even more puzzled.

Why had so many experts above Dou Wang suddenly appeared?

She could not help looking at Xiao Chen, only to find him reclining in his bamboo chair, holding the gourd of fruit juice in his right hand and staring at the cave ceiling, seemingly lost in a daze.

He did not seem to care about these people's conversation.

Seeing that her teacher did not intend to intervene, Xiao Yi Xian simply stopped concerning herself with it as well. She leisurely turned her beautiful eyes toward the nearby scene, intending to watch the show.

"Brother Xu, as one of the Jia Ma Empire's former Ten Strongest, Kong Ruonan is on par with Hai Bodong. Even I would have to go all out to kill him."

Suddenly, a clear voice rang out.

Another person approached through the curtain of rain in the dead of night.

He wore black robes and held an ink-black spear.

At the sight of him, the burly man's expression abruptly turned extremely grave. "The person behind you certainly thinks highly of me, to have even sent you."

The black-robed man smiled faintly. "If you agree to come with us, Brother Kong, there'll be no need to spill blood."

"Cut the crap. Even if I agreed to go with you, I doubt I'd meet a good end."

The burly man scoffed.

The black-robed man clapped his hands in admiration. "You truly foresee things like a god, Brother Kong. In that case, we can only send you on your final journey ahead of time!"

Boom!

The instant his words fell, a thunderclap suddenly reverberated across the sky.

Everyone fell silent.