His hand clenched abruptly, the prayer beads knocking together with a faint creak. Wu Fei's eyes were inscrutably dark, a storm brewing within them.
Just then, red light flashed in the statue's eyes, and it spat someone out. All of Wu Fei's emotions instantly withdrew, suppressed so deeply that they could not be detected.
He stepped forward twice to catch Jing Fanyu as he emerged from the statue, his iron-strong arm securing his waist. Once Jing Fanyu stood steady, Wu Fei naturally withdrew his hand. "Junior Brother Jing, have you obtained the inheritance?"
Jing Fanyu froze briefly at the intimate contact. A trace of the touch seemed to linger at his waist, stirring an unfamiliar feeling, but he also knew that Wu Fei had merely meant to catch him and intended nothing else. He smiled gently. "I have. Let's go to the herb garden."
According to Jing Fanyu, after entering the statue, he had found himself in a space resembling the great hall outside. Within it was a strange black iron sphere containing the inheritance of the way of puppets.
At the same time, this black iron sphere could also control all the puppets.
Wu Fei's gaze lingered on the black iron sphere in his hand for a moment, and an odd sense of familiarity suddenly arose...
A moment later, he abruptly froze. This black iron sphere seemed a little like his bonded Spirit Artifact??
"Senior Brother Wu Fei?" Jing Fanyu looked at Wu Fei. A hint of astonishment had appeared on the Buddhist disciple's handsome face, a rare sight indeed.
Wu Fei slowly subdued the surprise in his eyes, his tone turning slightly grave. "Junior Brother Jing, could you let me examine the black iron sphere closely?"
"Of course." Jing Fanyu handed it over.
The black iron sphere was icy to the touch. Wu Fei covered his palm with a layer of spiritual qi, examined it carefully with his divine sense, then returned it to Jing Fanyu. He smiled faintly and shook his head. "I must have been overthinking it."
"Let's go to the herb garden first."
Yet after taking two steps, he suddenly paused again. For some reason, those words from the senior inside the statue abruptly flashed through his mind.
There is only one chance to break the deadlock.
Could it... have something to do with this black iron sphere?
Author's note:
So, the Buddhist disciple's bonded Spirit Artifact is also a ball...
Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!
Chapter 9: A late-night meeting
His pondering yielded no answers, so Wu Fei quietly kept the matter in mind.
When the puppets in the herb garden sensed their presence and tried to surround them, Jing Fanyu controlled them with the black iron sphere, then put them all into his storage ring.
By the time the two emerged from the ruins, the darkness of night was already gradually receding.
Returning to where the wooden cabin had stood last night, Wu Fei looked at the deserted woods before him and paused briefly. "Fellow Daoist Qi and the others..."
"They probably failed to find me, then saw the letter after coming back," Jing Fanyu explained. "I said in the letter that if I hadn't returned by dawn, they should leave without me."
In truth, Jing Fanyu felt that bringing them along was too troublesome. Besides, there were still some things about Wu Fei that he wanted to clear up... so he had intended to use last night's situation as an opportunity to shake the others off.
He had anticipated that Wu Fei and the others would split up to search for him, and had originally planned to find a way to be found by Wu Fei. He had not expected to enter ruins from High Antiquity by accident, or for Wu Fei to be inadvertently transported inside as well.
"I see." Wu Fei nodded. He had not guessed the twists and turns in the protagonist's mind, but he harbored doubts about Liu Yuexuan and the others' departure.
Liu Yuexuan actually left without waiting for the protagonist to return. It seemed something else must have happened after they split up last night...
There was no use dwelling on it. The two continued southeast.
Over the next two or three days, Jing Fanyu suddenly began behaving himself. Even as they approached the true inheritance site, he never appeared as Yin Fan again.
But that did not mean nothing had changed. Now, for instance.
Wu Fei stood beneath a tree, looking at Jing Fanyu nearby. Clear, transparent water flowed past the blue-robed cultivator's fingers, washing a red spirit fruit clean.
"Senior Brother Wu Fei." Jing Fanyu handed the spirit fruit to Wu Fei, his gaze gentle. "I didn't expect to find stone bamboo fruit here."
In places rich in spiritual qi, even ordinary stones contained a trace of it, and stone bamboo trees arose under these conditions. Their leaves resembled green bamboo, and they often bore fruit only once every few hundred years. Aside from containing spiritual qi, the spirit fruit had no other effects, but its flavor was superb.
They were already extremely rare in the outside world. Only in an inheritance tomb with spiritual qi this abundant could one still be fortunate enough to encounter them and taste this seldom-seen stone bamboo fruit.
"Thank you." As Wu Fei reached out to take the stone bamboo fruit, their fingertips brushed lightly. One looked perfectly natural; the other's gaze flickered.
When he ate the stone bamboo fruit, a covert yet scorching gaze would settle on him.
It had been like this for days. Whenever Wu Fei looked over, nine times out of ten, he would meet an innocent, gentle smile.
If the protagonist failed to withdraw his gaze in time when Wu Fei looked back, Wu Fei would ask, "Why are you staring at me like that?"
Jing Fanyu would reply with sincerity in his eyes, "I don't know why, but I feel very relaxed when I'm with you, Senior Brother Wu Fei, and I find myself staring at you without realizing it. Have I offended you, Senior Brother?"
Anyone else hearing these words would surely have found them strange, but Wu Fei adhered to his persona of "a pure Buddhist heart, unversed in worldly affairs" and shook his head with a faint smile. "I don't find it offensive."
This continued until they reached the inheritance site, when it finally became somewhat more restrained.
An area spanning roughly several hundred li was shrouded in strange yellow sand. Anyone who approached would become lost in the sand filling the sky, and even those fortunate enough to emerge could give no clear account of what they had seen or heard.
Such a strange phenomenon naturally attracted many cultivators to stop here.
"Senior Brother!"
Wu Fei and Jing Fanyu's extraordinary looks and bearing drew others' attention as soon as they arrived. One young Buddhist cultivator's eyes lit up, and he flew over with a shout.
Hearing the call, Wu Fei turned around. Looking at the excited Kuzheng, he smiled slightly. "Kuzheng, are the other senior and junior brothers here too?"
Kuzheng said, "I've only run into three senior brothers. I still don't know where the others are..."
"I see." Wu Fei was not overly worried. Even if they could not defeat the Demon Beasts in the small world, they could avoid them. The greatest danger instead came from the cultivators of the various sects, Devil Cultivators, and Demon Cultivators who had entered alongside them.