Chapter 43: Are there mice?

Lingxiao Peak’s morning was usually awakened by an extremely violent pounding sound.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Lin Yue was bare-chested, sweat trickling down the lines of his solid muscles.

He was swinging that black iron greatsword, which weighed several thousand jin, doing his extremely miserable “morning exercises” at the edge of the cliff.

Calling it “morning exercises” was generous.

The truth was that Mu Qingxue had kicked him out of bed at dawn and forced him to break rocks.

“Use more strength! Drive from your waist! Didn’t you eat dinner last night?!”

Mu Qingxue, completely lacking in dignity, was squatting on a large green rock.

She held a gourd of wine in one hand, gulping it down while directing the proceedings.

“Peak Master, I really didn’t get enough to eat last night!”

Lin Yue was exhausted like a dog, leaning on the greatsword and gasping for breath.

“That hotpot from last night—you ate two-thirds of it yourself, and Senior Sister packed the rest. I didn’t even get a sip of the soup!”

On the distant veranda.

Chu Wanning, who was meditating, coughed twice very unnaturally upon hearing this.

A faint, barely noticeable blush flickered across her stunning face.

“Less talk, keep chopping!”

Mu Qingxue casually tossed over a spirit fruit, which accurately smacked Lin Yue right on the forehead.

“Your greatsword style is too wild. It has a hint of ‘the great dao is simple,’ but the way you apply force is too rough. Watch closely—I’ll teach you a technique for channeling force from the ‘Lingxiao Sword Art’!”

Lin Yue rolled his eyes.

He had the Demon Emperor’s technique restored by the system, so he didn’t really care for this.

But on the surface, he still put on an act of humble receptiveness.

“Sure thing, Peak Master! See if this move of mine works with a little of your technique.”

Lin Yue took a deep breath.

The Demon Emperor’s true qi inside him circulated in an extremely subtle manner.

He gripped the sword with both hands, not using any spiritual power at all, relying purely on his physical body and absolute control over gravity.

He suddenly swung forward in a horizontal slash!

WHOOOM—

The air wasn’t cut open.

Instead, it was squeezed by the terrifying weight into a visible vacuum zone.

The three boulders weighing ten thousand jin in front of him, the moment they touched the sword wind, silently turned into an extremely fine powder, just like tofu.

No explosion.

No flying rubble.

Only a hair-raising “annihilation.”

Plop.

The wine gourd fell from Mu Qingxue’s hand.

Her originally drunken, misty peach-blossom eyes were now wide open.

Even her breath stopped for a moment.

“This… this move is…”

Mu Qingxue’s lips trembled slightly.

Three thousand years ago.

At the peak of the Eastern Wasteland.

That man in the black robe, arrogant and insufferable, also wielded an unsharpened greatsword.

With this same kind of unreasonable, domineering horizontal slash.

One slash.

Just one.

He had wiped out an army of one hundred thousand demons, along with the entire mountain range, into flat ground.

That man called that move—“Severing Mountains and Rivers.”

“Kid, what did you call that move just now? Who taught you?!”

Mu Qingxue’s figure flickered, and she instantly appeared in front of Lin Yue.

Her eyes were fixed on him, as if she wanted to see through his very soul.

Lin Yue’s heart skipped a beat.

‘Damn it. I swung too hard just now and forgot to hold back. This is going to blow my cover!’

He quickly wiped his sweat and put on an extremely honest and innocent expression.

“Huh? Peak Master, you mean this move?”

“It doesn’t have a name. When I was back in the village, I used to help Widow Wang next door chop firewood. The axe was too dull, so I just had to swing it like this.”

“Chopping… firewood?”

Mu Qingxue was stunned.

“Yeah, it’s called the ‘Wood Chopping Style.’ I figured this big rock was pretty hard, so I thought I’d try using the same force as splitting wood.”

Lin Yue blathered with extreme sincerity.

“Peak Master, did I do it wrong? Should I do it again?”

Mu Qingxue stared into Lin Yue’s eyes.

She looked for a full half-incense stick’s time.

Trying to find a trace of disguise in that clear (and stupid) gaze.

But who was Lin Yue?

The Demon Emperor of his past life—an existence on the level of an actor.

His eyes were as pure as pure could be.

“Hah…”

Mu Qingxue let out a long breath of turbid air, rubbing her temples.

“Impossible… that bastard either ascended to the divine realm long ago or died in a heavenly tribulation.”

She bent down to pick up her wine gourd and smiled self-deprecatingly.

“Looks like I really have been drinking too much. To think I saw his shadow in a cook.”

“Alright, let’s stop here for today.”

Mu Qingxue waved her hand, looking a bit bored.

“Go cook. Your master is hungry.”

Lin Yue, relieved to be pardoned, quickly hoisted the greatsword and ran toward the kitchen.

If he stayed any longer with this old hag at the Divine Transformation stage, even his underwear would be seen through.

However.

A quarter of an hour later.

A series of extremely miserable screams came from the kitchen.

“Holy crap! We’ve been robbed?!”

Chu Wanning and Mu Qingxue heard the commotion and immediately rushed in.

They thought it was an enemy invasion.

But what they saw was Lin Yue, completely devastated, holding up an empty rice jar and two vegetable baskets cleaner than his face.

“Peak Master! Senior Sister!”

Lin Yue wailed with bitter tears.

“Is this Lingxiao Peak a bandit den? Where’s the half a pig I brought up yesterday? Where’s that basket of crisp cabbages? And the ten free-range chickens I was keeping for broth?!”

Mu Qingxue guiltily looked up at the ceiling.

Chu Wanning expressionlessly looked out the door, but her ears turned red.

“Ahem…”

Mu Qingxue coughed very awkwardly twice.

“Well, cultivators naturally have big appetites. Besides, that braised pork you made before—it really went well with wine…”

“Even if it goes with wine, you couldn’t have gnawed on the ginger and garlic too?!”

Lin Yue was losing his mind.

“Even a clever woman can’t cook without rice! How am I supposed to make a meal now?”

Chu Wanning turned her head, her voice still cold, but her tone clearly lacked confidence.

“Then… what should we do?”

“What else? Go down the mountain to buy supplies!”

Lin Yue yanked off his apron.

“Fifty miles outside the sect is the biggest Cloud Sea Market in the cultivation world. I have to go buy supplies today, or else the three of us will be eating the northwest wind on this mountaintop!”

As soon as she heard they were going down the mountain to buy food, Mu Qingxue’s eyes lit up.

“Good kid, that’s the spirit!”

She directly pulled out a bulging storage pouch and slapped it into Lin Yue’s hand with a rich, domineering air.

“This is your master’s private stash! Spend it all!”

Lin Yue opened it and was almost blinded by the gleaming mid-grade spirit stones inside.

This sugar mommy was seriously loaded!

“Peak Master, what do you want to eat? Name it!”

Lin Yue instantly turned into a sycophantic lackey.

“Easy!”

Mu Qingxue started counting on her fingers.

“I want five hundred jin of Blazing Flame Beef—the fattiest cuts! Also ten Eight Treasure Roasted Ducks, and that… East Sea Spirit Jade Abalone—give me a few dozen jin!”

“Oh, and most importantly, wine! Go to the Cloud Sea Tavern and bring me twenty jars of their aged ‘Daughter’s Red’ that’s been cellared for thirty years!”

Lin Yue winced as he listened.

Good grief, this was like going to the market to stock up for a wholesale store.

“Got it, got it.”

Lin Yue turned to look at the ever-silent Chu Wanning.

“Senior Sister, what about you? What do you want to eat? I’ll pick something up for you too.”