Meeting Wu De Again

By the time they returned to Golden Lake Village, night had fallen. The wind swept through the reeds on the lake, making them rustle.

Lin He pushed open the cabin door and set the exquisite food box in his hand on the table. "Come on, come on! Time for a feast!"

As soon as he opened it, the rich scent of roast chicken fat and the savory fragrance of braised beef filled the room.

Su Qiuran had just brought a pot of porridge made with third-generation supreme-grade Green Jade Spirit Rice to the table.

The porridge was as thick as a pot of liquid emerald, with a layer of white Spiritual Qi mist floating visibly over its surface.

"You went into town for household supplies. How did you end up bringing back a feast?" Su Qiuran wheeled herself over, her chopsticks already seizing a piece of the plumpest chicken thigh with speed, precision, and ruthlessness.

"Ran into someone I knew. Shopkeeper Wu from the Drunken Immortal Pavilion." Lin He helped himself too, tearing off the other drumstick. As he gnawed on it, he recounted Shopkeeper Wu's complaints that afternoon about the Li Household's spirit beast going berserk.

"That beast of the Li Household's really went mad?" Su Qiuran swallowed her chicken, a trace of glee at their misfortune flashing through her peach-blossom eyes.

"None of these cultivation lineages are easy to deal with. Good thing it went mad."

After a bowl of third-generation spirit rice porridge, color immediately returned to her face. She set down her chopsticks, closed her eyes, and formed a rather imperfect hand seal in front of her abdomen.

Lin He immediately stood guard beside her, alert.

About an incense stick's worth of time passed.

Pop-

An extremely faint, muffled sound came from inside Su Qiuran. Immediately afterward, a faint ripple suddenly spread through the surrounding air, making the oil lamp's flame dance wildly on the table, almost extinguishing it.

Su Qiuran opened her eyes. A gleam of spiritual light flowed through her pupils, taking two full breaths to fade.

"That did it?" Lin He's eyes widened as he looked her up and down.

"Second level of Qi Refinement." Su Qiuran held up two fingers, unable to suppress the upward curl of her lips. Her usual cool reserve had vanished entirely. "This lady is a proper cultivator now."

"Congratulations, Fairy Su! Felicitations, Fairy Su!" Lin He grinned and cupped his hands. "Then your legs, Fairy..."

Su Qiuran lowered her head and squeezed her unfeeling, crippled legs, sighing. "Still the same. No feeling at all. I'll probably have to wait until my cultivation is higher, or rely on prolonged cleansing with the essence of the moon in the Jade Gourd. No rush."

At that, she suddenly perked up, her eyes shining. "I feel so full of spirit I could beat an ox to death! Where's the rest of that talisman paper? Hand it over."

Lin He hurriedly passed it to her.

Su Qiuran picked up the cheap brush, her gaze instantly turning focused. With her spiritual power circulating at the second level of Qi Refinement, her movements flowed even more smoothly than they had during the day, like drifting clouds and running water. In less than an hour, she exhausted all the materials at hand, leaving three Fireball Talismans on the table, along with one basic Light Body Talisman she had drawn as an experiment.

"All done." Su Qiuran clapped her hands, looking at the finished products on the table. "Let's go. Strike while the iron's hot."

"Where are we going in the middle of the night?" Lin He was taken aback.

"The market!" Su Qiuran looked at him with exasperation, like iron that refused to become steel. "Didn't that old shopkeeper at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion say today that he'd buy unlimited antidote talismans and protection talismans at five Spirit Stones each? If we sell what we have now and pool our money, we can spend it all on advanced talisman paper and higher-tier talisman manuals. These times of war and chaos are the perfect chance to get rich!"

An hour later, on a secluded wilderness path leading to the cultivation market.

The moon was hidden, the wind high, with cold gusts blowing through.

Lin He carried Su Qiuran on his back, both of them covered by the enormous black robe sewn from an old quilt cover. He deliberately hunched over, hiding her completely beneath the loose robe. From outside, he looked like an eight-foot-tall fleshy monster with a huge lump bulging from its back.

In the cultivation world, what people feared was precisely this sort of lunatic: poor, belligerent, and impossible to fathom.

"Hey, don't you think we look like some big-shot villain from a webnovel?" Lin He muttered under the black robe as he walked.

"Less chatter. Watch the road." Su Qiuran, on his back, coldly doused his enthusiasm with a bucket of cold water. "If we run into someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm, one poke will tear right through this shabby black robe."

Lin He curled his lip. Just then, he stopped short. His intuition, tempered twice by the essence of the sun, made every muscle in his body tense instantly.

There was killing intent in the woods to the right.

"Trouble," Lin He said quietly, his hand already reaching for the short-handled woodcutter's blade at his waist.

"How many?" Su Qiuran's voice was barely audible.

"Three. Coming for us."

No sooner had he spoken than three figures darted onto the path ahead. One was tall and thin, the other two short and stocky. Their tattered Daoist robes and greedy eyes marked them as typical bottom-rung bandit cultivators.

With the recent chaos at Green Mountain, scum who profited off the dead and ambushed lone rogue cultivators were as plentiful as hairs on an ox.

The tall, thin man toyed with a short sword, blocking their way with a sneer. "Fellow Daoist, you look unfamiliar. Traveling in the middle of the night must be hard work, eh? How about lending us brothers a few Spirit Stones to spend?"

Under the black robe, Lin He rolled his eyes. People actually use robbery lines this clichéd?

He deliberately lowered his voice and let out a harsh, raspy laugh. "No Spirit Stones to lend... how about lending me your lives?"

"You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit! Get him!" The tall, thin man's gaze turned vicious.

Before the words had faded, Lin He drove hard with both legs!

Bang!

His feet smashed a depression into the ground, sending dirt flying. The inhuman strength of his tempered body erupted in full. Like a maddened black bear, he charged straight at them with terrifying pressure!

"Courting death!" Startled, the tall, thin man hurriedly formed hand seals. A wind blade sliced toward Lin He's chest with a whoosh.

Clang!

The wind blade struck Lin He's robe-covered chest, tearing a gash through the black fabric and exposing the bronze skin beneath. Yet this wind blade, powerful enough to sever a log as thick as a bowl's mouth, struck his body with the sharp ring of metal against stone!

It did not even leave a white mark.

"What the hell kind of body is that?!" The tall, thin man's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. This is a fucking mortal? This is a fucking demon beast forged from iron!

Lin He was already in front of him. With no fancy moves, he swung his short-handled blade in a full arc, bringing it down with enough force to cleave Mount Hua.

Squelch!

The tall, thin man did not even have time to scream before the blow cut him down.

The other two stocky bandit cultivators were scared out of their wits at the sight. Where the fuck did this body-cultivating monster come from?! They exchanged a glance, then scrambled backward on all fours.

Just then, a corner of the black robe's high, bulging "hump" lifted eerily.

"Go." A cool voice came from beneath the robe.

Two yellow talismans flew with unerring precision toward the two bandit cultivators' feet, as though they had eyes.

Boom! Boom!

Violent fire Spiritual Qi exploded instantly! The two supreme-grade Fireball Talismans delivered their full power, blasting the men backward amid repeated screams, their bodies charred black.

Lin He sneered and followed like lightning. His blade rose and fell, finishing them off cleanly with two cracks.

From the first move to the finish, fewer than ten breaths had passed.

Lin He flicked the blood off his blade, then crouched and began looting the corpses with practiced ease. "Broke bastards. All three put together only had three low-grade Spirit Stones, one battered copy of the Qi Drawing Instruction, and two bottles of medicine for bruises and sprains."

Su Qiuran's muffled voice came from inside the black robe. "Even a mosquito's leg is meat. Put it away. We shouldn't linger here."

"I know."

Lin He had just tucked the Spirit Stones into his robe when he suddenly froze.

He whipped his head around, his keen eyes fixing on a dense tree diagonally behind him.

"Get down here. Or I'll chop you down along with the tree." Lin He lowered his raspy voice, his threat brimming with killing intent.

A violent rustling came from the foliage.

A few seconds later, a dusty gray figure raised both hands and slid down the trunk, trembling.

The newcomer was as thin as a monkey, wearing a dingy gray Daoist robe, with his distinctive two-part mustache still above his lips.

It was none other than Wu De, the rogue cultivator who sold old, useless seeds on Cultivation Street.

Wu De's forehead was drenched in sweat. He looked at the three horribly mangled corpses on the ground, then at the terrifying black-robed figure before him, whose body had withstood a Law Technique head-on and whose back concealed an expert in hidden weapons and talismans. His legs shook uncontrollably.

He swore he had only wanted to take a shortcut to the night market to hunt for a bargain. Who could have known he would stumble upon a god of slaughter like this!

Worst of all, this black-robed figure's strength was far too bizarre. Hard as iron in close combat, with higher-tier talismans to bombard enemies at range-he simply left people no way to survive!

If I could make a connection with someone this ruthless...

Wu De was timid, but enormously greedy. His eyes darted about as he forcibly suppressed his fear and squeezed out a fawning smile uglier than a crying face.

"F-Fellow Daoist, please calm down! We're on the same side! Please don't attack! I was just passing through!"

Mustering his courage, Wu De took a small step forward and bowed deeply with clasped hands. "This humble Daoist is Wu De. My respects. To be honest, when I saw you strike just now, you moved with the force of thunder and the speed of wind. I was instantly struck with awe, as though beholding a heavenly being!"

Under the black robe, Lin He tightened his grip on the blade and said nothing.

Seeing that the other party had not immediately cut him down, Wu De secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He lowered his voice mysteriously and switched into swindling mode. "With skills like yours, Fellow Daoist, you're certain to accomplish great things amid this chaos. As it happens, I have a tremendous fortuitous opportunity on hand. Might you be interested, Senior... in making a windfall together?"

Under the black robe, Lin He and Su Qiuran on his back exchanged a glance.

A great fortuitous opportunity?

Lin He sneered and spoke in his raspy voice. "A fortuitous opportunity? From the likes of you?"

Wu De slapped his thigh and said urgently, "Don't doubt me, Senior! Something big has turned up deep in Green Mountain's Mass Grave! The three great lineages have all gone mad with killing, but I know a secret passage no one uses, leading straight into the inner area! As long as you're willing to act, Senior, we'll split the proceeds fifty-fifty. How about it?"