Chapter 125
Chapter 125: Yu Ruan Ruan Senses the Heaven-Favored One Again
Rong Shu let a trace of unwilling bitterness show as she said: “If anything truly happens, it will not be for cultivators like us at the Qi Refining Stage to decide.”
Liu Kai sighed: “That is true.”
He added, lowering his voice a touch: “Just like now. All four major sects have arrived, and who knows how this ends. In any case, Brother Xu, you and I are only at the Qi Refining Stage; keeping our lives matters more than anything.”
At that, Rong Shu felt a chill within as she thought: [Four major sects?]
A year ago, after encountering a Demonic Cultivator of the Soul Severing Sect in Tranquil Harmony Town, Rong Shu had begun collecting basic information on the demonic sects. In the Southern Wilds today, the most rampant demonic sects numbered five. Soul Severing Sect: they refine souls and drive corpses, a practice not unlike that of beast tamers. Eternal Torment Sect: masters of disguise and infiltration, a demonic sect devoted to intelligence gathering and assassination. Temple of Wrath and Ignorance: rumored to have been a righteous Buddhist Sect branch that later defected, founded its own temple, took up the butcher’s knife, and slaughtered mortals at whim. Jade Cauldron Sect: composed solely of female cultivators, famed for the dual-cultivation method Harvest Yang to Nourish Yin; there are no male cultivators within the sect, only male playthings. Wicked Heart Valley: experts at beguiling the mind; once you sign a Heart Lock with one of their Demonic Cultivators, you become their slave with no room to turn back, your life and death decided at a single thought.
Among the five, Wicked Heart Valley was the most secretive and powerful, hidden in the Northern Coldlands and faintly assuming the posture of leader among the Southern Wilds’ demonic sects. Yet Liu Kai had spoken of “four major sects.” Could it be that in this operation, the ever-mysterious Wicked Heart Valley was not involved?
Rong Shu wanted to know exactly which four sects were here, but she had no way to ask Liu Kai directly. This was clearly common knowledge among the demonic lot; if she asked, she would expose herself.
Once the assignments were handed out, the few Demonic Cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage departed. Watching their retreating backs, Liu Kai’s gaze brimmed with envy and a streak of defiance as he said: “When I reach Foundation Establishment, I’ll get to throw my weight around a little too.”
Rong Shu answered pleasantly: “Brother Liu, once we complete this task and the sect issues rewards, you and I should both advance further.”
He nodded: “Naturally.”
He hesitated, then leaned in after glancing left and right and lowered his voice: “There is still that personal disciple. She may be out of favor, but a personal disciple is still a personal disciple. She should have some Spirit Stones on her, or perhaps a precious treasure. When the time comes, you and I split it evenly.”
Rong Shu smiled and nodded: “Of course.”
By now Rong Shu more or less understood the situation and was ready to leave. She was not truly “Xu Liu,” and this was her first time encountering Liu Kai; the more one spoke, the more likely one slipped. She found a pretext to part with Liu Kai, then left the Hidden Fragrance Pavilion.
Heaven’s Evolution Sect disciple quarters.
Inside a room, a Little Hamster lay in its nest, repeatedly twisting its head to look toward the door. After a few glances, confirming there was no movement, it drooped its head, crestfallen. The Little Hamster felt a bit stifled as it thought: [Why has she not come back yet?]
It looked at its right leg. The injury had nearly healed. Besides Rong Shu treating him, his own self-healing ability seemed unexpectedly strong; by now, walking was basically unaffected.
He could leave right now, but he did not know where he would go, and staying here seemed good enough. Thinking that, the Little Hamster lowered its head again and nuzzled the soft, furry fabric lining the nest. His thoughts wandered. It seemed this was the first person who did not dislike his Little Hamster form. He did not want to leave. Because he did not want things to be like before again…
At that moment, his memory jammed, and nothing would come to mind. Without warning, a bone-boring pain lanced up from the depths of his mind. The Little Hamster clutched his head with both paws and rolled about in the nest. It was not only pain; inside his head there were suddenly some noisy voices as well. Instinctively he disliked those voices. He could not make out what they were saying, only that they were loud and irritating. The instant he heard them, a savage urge surged up uncontrollably from his heart, a desire to destroy everything before his eyes.
At last, the Little Hamster tumbled out of the nest. He lost his footing and crashed to the floor. In the next instant, the hamster’s form vanished, replaced by the figure of a young man of about seventeen. Naked, he lay on the floor, both hands clamped to his head, his expression twisted in pain, and in his half-lidded eyes a faint thread of blood-red light seemed to flicker. His lips moved slightly as he muttered: “Shut up… shut up… too noisy…”
“North… to the north… something… I have to take it back…”
“…”
He did not know what it was he had to retrieve. Only, a sudden, overwhelming obsession rose in his heart, as if driving him onward. He must take it back. But what was it he had to take back? He could not remember anything.
There was a formation laid within the room, one Rong Shu had set up to protect the Little Hamster and to keep him from running off. Yet now, with the young man’s finger tracing lightly through the air, a mysterious Spatial Rift opened. He dove headfirst into the Spatial Rift, and his figure vanished from the room. The formation remained as before, perfectly intact.
At the same time, in the arena of the sect’s Grand Competition, voices rose in the stands: “Junior Sister Yu is incredible!” “She won again, she is truly amazing; I did not even see how Junior Sister Yu won.” “As expected of Immortal Venerable Ze Yu’s personal disciple. Do you think she can make the top three hundred?” “Top three hundred should be fine; the top hundred is a bit iffy.”
On one of the platforms, Yu Ruan Ruan wore a smiling, prim expression as she savored her victory with feigned modesty. [Hurry, hurry, hurry! The heaven-favored one has appeared again, go find him at once!] she heard, as the System urged her frantically inside her mind the moment she stepped down and before she could catch her breath.
She asked at once: “The heaven-favored one appeared again? Where is he?”
The System’s tone brimmed with barely contained excitement as it answered: [He has been to Dragon Ridge Palace… the distance is too great right now. Hurry back first. Only when you are within a certain range can I confirm his exact location.]
Dragon Ridge Palace was where the Giant Spirit Sect had arranged lodging for the visiting disciples. Hearing that the heaven-favored one had been at Dragon Ridge Palace all along, Yu Ruan Ruan could not help saying: “Then why did we not detect him at Dragon Ridge Palace earlier?”
[You are still asking questions here? Get moving. Delay another second and he might run off again,] the System replied, sounding displeased by her doubt.
Yu Ruan Ruan came back to herself, torn: “But I still have one last match.”
There was one stick of incense before her next bout. Going there and back, she feared she would not make it in time. So she sought out Qin Yuan.
Putting on a pitiful look, Yu Ruan Ruan said: “Third Senior Brother, I suddenly remembered something important I left at my quarters. I want to go get it, but my match starts in one stick of incense.”
Qin Yuan responded at once: “What is it? Senior Brother will fetch it for you.”
Yu Ruan Ruan had nothing to fetch; it was only a pretext, and of course she could not let Qin Yuan go alone. She explained with a little cough: “What I mean is, I hope Third Senior Brother can lend me the Azure Sky Falcon to give me a lift.”
Qin Yuan agreed: “All right.”
With the Azure Sky Falcon secured, Yu Ruan Ruan rushed back toward Dragon Ridge Palace. Yet upon arrival, after a round of probing, the System still could not determine where the heaven-favored one had gone. Having made the trip for nothing, Yu Ruan Ruan felt foul-tempered but could not vent it. With the time for her next match fast approaching, she had no choice but to hurry back again.
Rong Shu returned to Dragon Ridge Palace just in time to see Yu Ruan Ruan’s silhouette streaking across the sky. She could not help wondering: by rights, should Yu Ruan Ruan not be over at the competition grounds right now?
That thought vanished the moment Rong Shu reached her quarters and failed to see the Little Hamster. “Yan Yan?” she called several times, but there was no response. Her heart sank. She ransacked the entire room, but the Little Hamster was nowhere to be found. “Strange. The formations in the room are clearly untouched…”
She examined the formations again and again; they were operating normally, with no sign of damage. Besides, it was only a Little Hamster. It made no sense that some expert would go to the trouble of infiltrating just to steal her Little Hamster, right?
Rong Shu also considered that the Little Hamster might have snuck out on his own. But she could not figure out how he could have slipped out without alerting or damaging the formations. She muttered under her breath: “That little rascal would not be so heartless, would he?”
They had agreed he would let her pet him. His injuries were mostly healed, so… had he simply run off now?
Rong Shu searched all through Dragon Ridge Palace. Dusk crept in, and still she found no trace of the Little Hamster. She did not search outside the palace. At present, as a personal disciple, she had already drawn the eyes of some Demonic Cultivators. By day those people might rein in their impulses a little. At night, it was not so safe outside. She could only wait until morning to search beyond Dragon Ridge Palace.
Back in her room, looking at the little “furniture” she had just bought, she could not help feeling dispirited. Tidying as she fretted, Rong Shu grieved softly: “I have not even finished today’s thirty rounds of petting. Such a loss.”
The Little Hamster had bolted. Even so, cultivation could not stop. After putting away the Little Hamster’s things, she pressed down her thoughts and sat to cultivate. Originally she had planned to slow her wind element cultivation and let her metal and earth elements catch up so she could break through together. But with the undercurrents surging in Cloud Link City, she needed an extra card in hand. If she pushed her wind element to the peak of the Qi Refining Stage, then at a pinch she could break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage in time and gain another measure of strength.
At first light the next day, Rong Shu rose. Before the day’s bouts began, she hurried out of Dragon Ridge Palace to search for the Little Hamster. Walking on, she came to the fork in the road where she had first met him. She glanced about, then took two items from her Storage Pouch: a small tuft of hamster fur stained with blood, and a Tracking Talisman.
The hamster fur was something Rong Shu had deliberately collected while tidying the night before, and the blood on it belonged to the Little Hamster. The Tracking Talisman was a low-grade Talisman she had found on the black market. Its tracking conditions were rather harsh. It required both the target’s blood and hair, and the target had to be within five li or the Talisman would not take effect. Finally, it had a usage time limit: only one stick of incense. When the incense burned out, the Tracking Talisman would be rendered useless.
Upper Realm, Northern Region.
On a mountain peak that pierced the clouds, a gray figure swept in from afar and halted before a stone gate. He was a gray-robed old man, back slightly bent, looking for all the world like an ordinary old man at the village gate, yet a terrifying cultivator’s aura radiated from him. This was an elder of profound cultivation.
After a moment, the stone gate opened, and a refined-looking middle-aged man flew out. Seeing him, the gray-robed elder stepped forward and said: “Patriarch, the Soul Lamps of Elder Hai and the others who went to the lower realm have all gone out. Do we need to send more to the lower realm?”
A cold light flashed in the middle-aged man’s eyes. The wound on his chest, recently treated, still seemed to ache faintly. He answered in an icy voice: “No. Even if that little beast flees to the ends of the earth, in the end he will return.”
Because here was something he must take back.
The gray-robed elder hesitated and said: “That little beast has neither memory nor cultivation. The forbidden art regresses him to childhood for a ‘rebirth.’ If he dies during that period… will the clan’s years of effort not be wasted?”
The middle-aged man waved a hand and said: “Ting’er and Huang’er have already fused their spiritual roots. The vessel’s mission is complete. If he dies, he dies.”
Hearing this, the gray-robed elder ceased to press the point and sighed instead: “It is only a pity for the ferocious beast bloodlines in his body. The clan spent countless hardships to gather them over the years. If we had captured him then, the successfully fused bloodlines could have served the clan…”
“Merely a defective product. Lost is lost,” the middle-aged man said, expression cold and impatient, before shifting the topic: “There must be no error with Ting’er’s bloodline fusion.”
The gray-robed elder answered quickly: “Rest assured, Patriarch. After so many years, we have accumulated considerable experience. We will not let the young lord suffer the slightest harm.”
At that, the middle-aged man’s features eased a fraction as he said: “Mm.”
“…”