Two people stood in the peach grove outside the bamboo courtyard: Lu Feiyuan and Yun Huai.
"Fellow Daoist Lu, Fellow Daoist Yun." Wu Fei walked over.
The two greeted Wu Fei as well, and they began talking.
Yun Huai asked, "Where is your junior brother, Fellow Daoist Wu Fei?"
At the mention of Yin Fan, Wu Fei's gaze softened slightly. "My junior brother is still resting. He hasn't woken yet."
Lu Feiyuan noticed nothing, but as a woman, Yun Huai was more sensitive to matters of affection. Noticing the Buddhist cultivator's reaction when Yin Fan was mentioned, she asked with a faint smile, "Forgive my presumption, but are you two like my husband and me?"
Like Yun Huai and Lu Feiyuan?
Wu Fei's eyes flickered slightly. He shook his head and said, "Fellow Daoist Lu, you were once a Buddhist cultivator. Have you heard of the Innate Exquisite Heart?"
At this, Lu Feiyuan paused, looking at Wu Fei with some surprise. "Could it be..."
"The Innate Exquisite Heart grants an inherently perfect and flawless state of mind. It gives rise to neither heart demons nor attachments, and naturally, neither romantic love."
All of this was true, of course, but only for the original Wu Fei. Now, constrained by the Heavenly Dao, Wu Fei could only say this outwardly.
"I see. I misunderstood." A trace of apology entered Yun Huai's smile, but inwardly, she sighed. This Buddhist cultivator seemed free of desire, but the Devil Cultivator in the bamboo house might not be...
"It's quite all right." Watching the peach blossoms flutter through the grove, Wu Fei asked, "These peach trees don't seem to contain any spiritual qi?"
"That's right." Hearing his puzzlement, Lu Feiyuan explained, "It's spring all year round here. Although the peach blossoms contain no spiritual qi, they bloom constantly. It has been this way since Yun Huai and I appeared here."
Wu Fei nodded slightly. In that case, the peculiarities of these peach trees likely had nothing to do with the two of them.
Just then, soft footsteps sounded behind him.
He turned to look. The newcomer was Yin Fan.
"Senior Brother Wu Fei, fellow Daoists." Yin Fan seemed to be in a good mood.
Cultivators rarely slept, but for some reason, he had fallen asleep last night. When he woke, he was still clutching the red silk Wu Fei had used to blindfold him, while Wu Fei was already gone from the bed opposite.
After greeting Yin Fan, Lu Feiyuan and Yun Huai returned to the bamboo courtyard first.
Once only Wu Fei and Yin Fan remained in the peach grove, Wu Fei looked at him, a hint of teasing flashing through his eyes before vanishing. "Did you sleep well last night, Devil Venerable?"
Yin Fan nodded, then approached and leaned against the peach tree opposite Wu Fei. "Only now have I learned that the Buddha's Chosen can also help one sleep..."
"From the way you put it, Devil Venerable, you make it sound as though I'm not human, but a stalk of spirit medicine that aids sleep."
As he spoke, Wu Fei raised a hand and snapped off a peach branch overhead. Several petals drifted down with his movement.
"I never said that." Yin Fan raised his eyebrows slightly.
Wu Fei smiled faintly without replying and lowered his gaze to the flowering branch in his hand. After a moment's thought, he circulated his cultivation method, coating both hands with a thin layer of spiritual power.
Seeing this, Yin Fan could not help watching intently.
At first, nothing happened when the spiritual power touched the peach branch, but gradually, an inexplicable suction began emanating from the branch in his hand.
Wu Fei's gaze sharpened slightly. With a thought, he coated his palms with dense spiritual power to test it.
Sure enough, the suction from the peach branch grew stronger and stronger. Only after all the spiritual power coating his palms had been sucked dry did Wu Fei release the branch.
A trace of surprise and uncertainty appeared in Yin Fan's eyes. "What's going on?"
"The peach trees here can absorb spiritual qi, yet contain none themselves..." Wu Fei mused, turning to ask Yin Fan, "Then where is the absorbed spiritual qi being sent...?"
There could only be one place!
Both looked down at the ground beneath their feet, then retreated out of the peach grove in unison.
Author's note:
Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!
Chapter 19: Seeking Vengeance
After exchanging a glance, Wu Fei once again circulated spiritual power in his hands, while demonic qi surged in Yin Fan's palm.
They struck at the same time. Mahayana Stage spiritual power and demonic power formed a powerful hurricane, which swept up earth mixed with countless petals while carefully avoiding every peach tree.
A moment later, calm returned. The displaced earth and peach blossoms formed a small mound in one corner of the grove.
At last, the secret hidden underground was revealed: an enormous formation spread beneath the entire peach grove, with every peach tree serving as a formation node.
"So there was a formation hidden down here," Yin Fan said.
Wu Fei examined the formation. "The peach trees serve as its nodes, as well as conduits for spiritual power."
Only, he did not know what purpose this formation served...
"Look there." Yin Fan pointed to the center of the formation.
There was an empty space at the formation's center, resembling...
"Why does this look a little like the black iron sphere we obtained from the inheritance tomb...?" Yin Fan mused, then abruptly looked toward the Buddha's Chosen beside him. "It looks even more like..."
"Like the Silent Dust Pearl." Wu Fei voiced what he had left unsaid, growing increasingly certain that this place was connected to the Buddha Spirit Sect. Perhaps what his master had concealed from him was related to this.
Then he summoned the Silent Dust Pearl. The perfectly round golden pearl radiated a faint pressure as it flew above the center of the formation, slowly descended, and settled into the empty space.
It fit perfectly.
The instant the Silent Dust Pearl slotted into place, a dazzling blue light flashed from the center of the formation, followed by a ring of blue ripples spreading outward.
Once the entire formation glowed with a soft aqua-blue light, all the peach trees at its nodes turned into clouds of dust at the same time. The formation suddenly flared, and two illusory figures appeared at its center.
They were Lu Feiyuan and Yun Huai.
"Fellow Daoist Lu, Fellow Daoist Yun..." Seeing them, Wu Fei seemed to sense something. He turned to Yin Fan and said, "We're about to be teleported out."
The two remnant souls were the final part of the formation.
The moment he finished speaking, blue formation patterns lit up beneath his and Yin Fan's feet. Seeing this, Yin Fan did not wait for Wu Fei to act, but grabbed his Buddhist prayer beads and wound them around his own wrist.
A trace of warmth flashed through Wu Fei's eyes. Just before they were teleported away, he glanced at the two people at the center of the formation, only to discover that, nestled together now, their expressions were somewhat different from before.