“Do not worry about the road ahead, for who under heaven does not know your name?”
Mochou Mountain had a very long history. Yun Heng remembered that this mountain would still exist even after 10,000 years, and it would even become a famous tourist attraction in the cultivation world due to a certain event.
Now, he intended to settle that event ahead of schedule.
Of course, before that, Yun Heng adopted the attitude of making the best of his situation and decided to speedrun the hidden realm of this place first.
After all, once the Mochou village incident was resolved, the next location he and Jiang Keke would visit would require a large number of spirit stones to quickly boost their cultivation.
“Your literary talent is truly brilliant one moment and erratic the next. It’s hard to imagine that such a philosophical poem and that storybook opening you just wrote actually came from the same person.”
Jiang Keke grunted as she set down the luggage. Before she could even catch her breath, she piled up the firewood she had collected along the way and started a fire.
Once everything was done, she collapsed under a tree like her body was falling apart, letting out a series of muffled wails.
After wailing for a while, Jiang Keke began rolling around on the ground, frantically pounding the earth as she cursed her own softheartedness. Then, she began to vent her fury at Yun Heng’s shamelessness…
In the past, Jiang Keke would never have dared to be so arrogant — after all, no matter how down-and-out Yun Heng was, he was still her master.
But now that the two had been away from home and together day and night for five or six years, literally “sharing a bed” every day, their relationship had long since become as close as siblings. Naturally, Jiang Keke had become much more casual.
Unfortunately, Yun Heng didn’t even bother to acknowledge her. As soon as they started resting, he immediately focused all his attention on drawing an array on the ground.
Twilight deepened, and nightingales swept through the sky.
“When did you learn array formations?”
Finding no response, Jiang Keke stretched her neck to lean in and watch.
In her memory, her young master was the “unlearned and idle” type. Forget about arrays that required painstaking study; even if it were just simple seated meditation, he would wriggle his buttocks like a frantic snake.
Unless he was possessed by a ghost, Jiang Keke couldn’t imagine Yun Heng diligently researching arrays.
“Little kids shouldn’t look. You’ll get styes in your eyes.”
Yun Heng offered a casual, dismissive reply. After finishing the final stroke of the array, he blew on it and put away his brush.
“Hmph. Anyway, it’s probably just another one of those low-class arrays for attracting wealth, gathering treasures, or luring the souls of beauties.”
Jiang Keke curled her lip.
Yun Heng had dabbled in these kinds of childish arrays that were popular among commoners before.
Before they ran away from home, Jiang Keke had also played something called “spirit of the pen” with a few of her school friends. It was very simple; even children could learn it.
To her surprise, Yun Heng did not refute her. Instead, he nodded very seriously. “Impressive. You could actually tell?”
Jiang Keke felt like Yun Heng was being sarcastic, but she had no proof.
“I’m not being sarcastic. I really am summoning souls, accumulating wealth, and gathering treasures.”
As if he could see what Jiang Keke was thinking, Yun Heng smiled. “This formation is exactly that kind of three-in-one.”
“…Why don’t you listen to what you’re saying?”
Jiang Keke was speechless.
Since ancient times, almost all arrays had only one type of function. For example, a Spirit gathering array could only gather spiritual qi; a sword array was purely for firing sword qi; and an eight trigrams array was, as the name implied, purely for defense.
A three-in-one advanced array?
‘Could this be some “Three-in-one longevity pill” sold by a charlatan?’
However, considering her master’s style, Jiang Keke didn’t bother to argue because she knew she couldn’t win.
“If we aren’t traveling tonight, I’m going to sleep first. I’m dying of exhaustion…”
Jiang Keke let out a yawn, but before she was even halfway through, Yun Heng suddenly pulled her to his side and covered her mouth with his hand.
“Shhh — keep it down. I can’t beat these ghosts right now.”
Jiang Keke was just about to struggle, but in the next second, her eyes widened larger than copper bells!
*Boom!*
It was like a clap of thunder, yet also like the roar of a giant dragon.
The earth trembled.
A black giant standing at least eighty feet tall hissed and roared as it crawled out from underground. Immediately following it was a giant lizard with three heads.
At a conservative estimate, its body was 200 feet long. It was the kind of existence that could send Jiang Keke flying with a single swipe of its tail!
The poor, helpless little pagegirl nearly fainted on the spot from terror.
She was only at a minor Qi Refining Stage. She had never seen, or even heard of, such a spectacle!
Weren’t the ghosts in storybooks always things like the black and white terrors, asuras, rakshasas, or ox-head and horse-face? Although… although those were also very scary, how could there be ones this big???
Was this even right?!
“The cultivation world is much larger than you imagine.”
Yun Heng kept one hand over Jiang Keke’s mouth while the other held her steady. While preventing her from moving recklessly, he secretly channeled spiritual qi into her.
“Don’t listen to King Zhao boasting about how large his kingdom is. In reality, it is just a tiny piece of land among our human race cultivators.”
“Outside our human territories, there are also the demon race and the dragon race… It’s safe to say that there is nothing you won’t see in the cultivation world, only things you can’t imagine.”
Yun Heng added, “But don’t worry. I’m here.”
Jiang Keke turned her head to look at Yun Heng with stiff, jerky movements. Gazing at her master’s calm and gentle expression, she suddenly felt much more at ease.
In truth, there was half a sentence Yun Heng didn’t say: besides those three races, there were also the “demonic cultivators” derived from non-native practitioners, commonly known as “extra-terrestrial demons,” whom everyone despised.
The “demonic cultivators” of this world were quite special. They were a secret known only to a small number of top-tier experts.
Ordinary citizens and even ordinary cultivators might never see one in their entire lives — because in every previous invasion of the extra-terrestrial demons, all cultivators except for the top experts had died.
The good news was that there were nearly 300 years until the next invasion. As long as Yun Heng could avoid all the mistakes of his past life, Jiang Keke would never have to see those demonic cultivators, who were each more disgusting than the last.
After the giant ghost and the lizard ghost tested each other for a moment, they fell into a frantic slaughter.
Jiang Keke found it strange. Why weren’t these two ghosts attacking them? Could the array her master had drawn earlier really be that powerful?
But before she could think deeper, Yun Heng’s chatter, as noisy as a sparrow, reached her ears like a demonic chant.
“Hey, let me tell you, I suddenly remembered a story I saw a long time ago.”
“They say that in… uh, in a kingdom to the south that is much more backward than ours, there are human races with black skin who particularly like to do some rather unspeakable things with lizards, pythons, and the like. One storybook described it like this, let me give you a snippet…”
Listening to Yun Heng’s sudden “storytelling session,” Jiang Keke had countless complaints but nowhere to vent them — what choice did she have when her mouth was covered?
But whether Yun Heng did it on purpose or not, after this ordeal, Jiang Keke didn’t feel afraid at all anymore.
In fact, watching the battle while listening to Yun Heng’s story felt somewhat like watching a shadow puppet play?
No, let me look again.
It’s still so weird.
“Pfft. Ahahaha…”
Jiang Keke tried to endure it again and again, but in the end, she couldn’t hold back and let out a laugh.
Strangely enough, Yun Heng seemed to have timed it to the second, releasing her just as she laughed.
This terrified Jiang Keke. She hurriedly covered her own mouth with both hands and looked at Yun Heng, who had suddenly stood up and was rolling up his sleeves, with a face full of resentment.
“What. Are. You. Doing?”
Jiang Keke lowered her voice, whispering her scolding loudly.
“Hmm?”
Yun Heng looked back and blinked, seemingly puzzled. “Didn’t I already tell you?”
Jiang Keke stared blankly.
“The array. The array.”
Yun Heng felt helpless, thinking his little pagegirl was perhaps not very bright. He had no choice but to explain it to her once more. “My array is a three-in-one advanced array —”
He pointed at the two ghosts who had fought until both were wounded. “Soul summoning.”
Then he pointed at himself. “Wealth accumulation.”
Finally, with a mysterious smile, he pointed at Jiang Keke. “Treasure gathering.”
Jiang Keke’s expression blanked.
For some reason, she suddenly felt a chill run through her body.
It felt very much like… she was about to be sold by her young master very soon.