He sighed inwardly, but still offered a reminder. "Never harbor the intent to harm others, but never let down your guard against them."
Then he nodded to Jing Fanyu, who had likewise yet to leave, and flew toward the spacetime rift.
After the white-robed Buddhist disciple's figure vanished into the spacetime rift, Jing Fanyu's eyes flickered. Then he entered the great inheritance tomb.
After a dizzying whirl, before Wu Fei could steady himself, his gaze suddenly sharpened. He flung out the prayer beads in his hand. A dazzling golden light flashed, and the corpse of a ferocious Demon Beast lay on the ground.
He did not know what kind of Demon Beast it was. Judging by its aura, it had been at the nascent soul late stage. Fortunately, Wu Fei was not truly a golden core stage cultivator.
The small world only allowed those below the nascent soul realm to enter. Wu Fei had relied on the wondrous properties of his exquisite heart to suppress his cultivation and get inside, but after entering, he discovered that he could now wield, at most, the strength of the nascent soul peak.
Just then, a peculiar, delicate fragrance curled around his nose. A single whiff relaxed the mind and cleared the head.
Wu Fei's gaze fell on a cluster of vines bearing bright red fruit a short distance behind the Demon Beast's corpse, and his eyes shifted slightly.
Jade Blood Fruit offered enormous benefits for both cultivation and comprehending the Dao. It had not appeared in the cultivation world for a very long time, let alone fruit borne by a Jade Blood Vine over ten thousand years old.
With no one else around, Wu Fei could not be bothered to keep up appearances. He strode over to the Jade Blood Vine, but just as he reached out, his eyelid suddenly twitched.
Wait?!
In the book, shortly after entering the great inheritance tomb, Jing Fanyu seemed to have also encountered a Jade Blood Vine over ten thousand years old. A nascent soul late stage Demon Beast guarded the spirit fruit. With no one around, Jing Fanyu had simply killed the beast and taken the Jade Blood Fruit.
Looking at the Demon Beast's corpse on the ground, which happened to be at precisely the nascent soul late stage, Wu Fei felt a headache coming on. Surely it could not be such a coincidence.
With a slight shift of thought, he immediately sensed the prayer beads' location. His brows abruptly knitted, and he swiftly put the Demon Beast's corpse into his storage ring before erasing several suspicious traces on the ground.
He had only just finished when he sensed a cultivator's aura drawing closer and closer. A moment later, a surprised voice came from behind him.
"Senior Brother Wu Fei?"
Author's note:
Mini theater:
Yin Fan: "This venerable one would never stoop to calling you righteous cultivators brothers."
Jing Fanyu: "Senior Brother Wu Fei!"
Wu Fei simply watched in silence as the protagonist slapped his own face.
Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!
Chapter 4: His disguise nearly slipped
After entering the spacetime rift, Jing Fanyu landed in a lush mountain forest. With no one else around, he realized that the spacetime rift had separated everyone.
The abundant spiritual qi here made his myriad spirits body feel extremely comfortable, and it automatically absorbed the spiritual qi around him.
He had originally only intended to casually sense the demonic qi's location, but to his surprise, it was nearby?
It seemed he truly did share a fated connection with the Buddha Spirit Sect's Buddhist disciple...
An inexplicable trace of pleasure surfaced in Jing Fanyu's eyes, and he swiftly headed toward the demonic qi.
Thick, gnarled vines sprawled unchecked across an entire cliff face, bearing dozens of blood-red fruits the size of fists. The serene, white-robed Buddhist disciple held one in his hand. Against his fair palm, the blood-red fruit lent him a touch of worldly warmth.
Having tidied up the scene before the protagonist arrived, Wu Fei breathed a sigh of relief and turned around with a hint of surprise. "Junior Brother Jing?"
Both men's thoughts stirred.
Wu Fei: Good thing I gave him a tracker.
Jing Fanyu: Demonic qi does have its uses.
Meeting a "friend" in the great inheritance tomb was comparable to encountering an old acquaintance in a foreign land. Wu Fei and Jing Fanyu conversed in perfect harmony.
In a rare show of enthusiasm, Wu Fei invited Jing Fanyu to pick the Jade Blood Fruit with him. Naturally, Jing Fanyu declined.
Wu Fei's gaze was pure. "Since we're friends, we ought to share both blessings and hardships."
Inwardly, he thought, This Jade Blood Fruit belonged to the protagonist in the first place. If I take it all and the rules come looking for trouble again... I might as well drag the protagonist into it with me!
With Wu Fei having gone that far, Jing Fanyu truly could not refuse any longer and could only step forward to pick the fruit with him.
Of the several dozen Jade Blood Fruits, each took half.
"Senior Brother Wu Fei, what do you plan to do next?"
Wu Fei pondered briefly, then said, "After entering the tomb, I had a faint premonition that I should head in that direction."
He raised a hand and pointed southeast. Of course, this was no premonition. It was the direction the protagonist had taken in the original novel, and also where many of the inheritances lay. To prevent his butterfly effect from causing any unnecessary deviations in the plot, Wu Fei directly pointed out the inheritances' general direction.
Jing Fanyu, however, thought Wu Fei had felt a premonition because he shared a fated connection with an inheritance.
"In that case, let's head that way."
The two walked side by side. The serene, white-robed Buddhist disciple stood almost half a head taller than the straight-backed Jing Fanyu.
Wu Fei caught sight of the prayer beads showing on Jing Fanyu's wrist. "My gift last time was rather hasty. Those prayer beads were made from ordinary bodhi seeds. The Buddha Spirit Sect has a Purple-Leaf Bodhi Tree ten thousand years old. Once the inheritance business is over, if you don't mind, Junior Brother Jing, you can visit the Buddha Spirit Sect, and I'll give you a new strand."
Hearing this, Jing Fanyu touched the prayer beads on his wrist and readily agreed. "If I have the chance, I must go and see this Purple-Leaf Bodhi Tree you mentioned, Senior Brother."
The small world was vast. Over the course of the day, Wu Fei and Jing Fanyu encountered no other cultivators. There were indeed plentiful resources, with spirit medicines and herbs over ten thousand years old everywhere, many of them varieties rarely seen in the outside world.
The only trouble was that heavenly materials and earthly treasures always had guardian Demon Beasts. Wary of each other, the two could only use golden core stage methods, inevitably leaving them hamstrung when subduing the beasts.
When they occasionally encountered nascent soul late stage Demon Beasts, they could only "reluctantly" let them go.
Night soon arrived. In theory, since the small world had neither sun nor moon, there should have been no distinction between day and night. Yet when evening came, threads of darkness began encroaching upon the entire small world.
Wu Fei slowly stopped and tilted his head slightly to look overhead.
Jing Fanyu stood beside him, his expression somewhat grave. "Something seems wrong."