Chapter Sixty: Cultivating Qi and Refining Spirit

  The sky is bright, it's snowing.

  The white wolf got up early and went out for a walk, bringing back a rabbit in its mouth.

  "Little brother, after dinner, we'll send you back." I said to Hei Fengzi who had just woken up.

  "I want to follow you." Hei Fengzi's eyes stared intently at the rabbit being roasted over the fire by Jin Gang Pao, swallowing saliva nonstop.

  "It's no use, you can't go where we're going." Jin Gang walked over and took out some salt.

  "Why?" Hei Fēngzi pitifully looked at Jīn Gāng Pào.

  "It's too dangerous." Jin Gang said, holding a basin of water that had been melted from snow "You go wash your face first"

  Hei Fengzi took over the basin and wiped it randomly with his sleeve a few times before finishing.

  I took a towel, wet it with water, and carefully wiped her face. The black dirt finally revealed the true appearance of Lushan. She was around 20 years old, had a pretty face, big eyes but no spirit.

  "How old are you this year?" Jin Gang Pao asked, turning his head while roasting a rabbit.

  "Twenty-three and a half." Hei Feng Zi actually said his age with decimals.

  "Where is your home? We'll send you back." I tried to ask her about her background.

  "No home." Hei Fengzi said absent-mindedly.

  "What are you doing here? How's your daily life?" The roasted rabbit in Jin Gang's hands had already given off a fragrant aroma.

  "Wait for him." Hei Fengzi pointed at me.

  "What am I doing?" She was still somewhat clear-headed at this moment, and I took advantage of the opportunity.

  "I'll show you the way." Though he was talking to me, Hei Kuang's gaze didn't leave the rabbit in Jin Gang's hands.

  "Where are you going?" I took a look and it seemed promising, but my tense voice was trembling.

  "Find Master." Hei Fengzi pointed northward.

  "Where is Master?" I grabbed her wrist.

  "In... uh... I forgot."

  “......”

  ......

  "Lao Yu, how did you send her over there?" Jin Gang Cannon pointed at the dead water about seven zhang wide.

  "...this..." The black lunatic looked at the rabbit leg in her hand and was at a loss. She herself couldn't remember how she got here last night. Was she supposed to swim over today?

  "Let Lao Yu go with her, her magic is so powerful that she can protect herself." Jin Gang Pao seemed to have a good impression of this black lunatic and tried to plead for the poor black lunatic standing aside.

  "But she's always dazed and confused, and her magic is unreliable. Following us might not be a good thing for her." This morning, I tried to probe Black Frenzy again in a roundabout way, but she was completely unaware of what had happened last night.

  He and Jin Gang argued about whether to stay or leave for a long time, and finally I compromised.

  "Can you guarantee you'll listen to us?" Jin Gang Pao asked Hei Feng Zi with a serious expression.

  "I'll definitely listen." Hei Fengzi put the rabbit leg in his pocket and wiped his hands on his hem.

  "Lao Yu, you can rest assured, she has guaranteed it." Jin Gang pao smiled and said.

  "Let's go, let's go." I lowered my head and waved my hand, what's the use of a madman's guarantee anyway.

  Looking at this team composed of a dog, a madman and a brainless cannon, I am really crying and laughing. Can such people enter the Kunlun Mountains?

  "Old cow, wait a minute." Not far from here, a small ditch appeared in the distance. I walked forward a few steps and pulled Jin Gang Cannon to give some instructions.

  "Can you do it?" The Golden Cannon turned his head and stared at me.

  "If you want to get to the bottom of things, listen to me. Remember, and walk as usual." I said, intentionally falling back a few steps, watching Jin Gang Cannon lead Hei Feng Zi towards that ditch.

  The ditch is more than three meters wide, and it's not easy for an ordinary person to jump over. I just reminded Jin Gang Pao to use the Wind Movement Technique to cross over quietly, in order to observe Hei Feng Zi's reaction. Because in my memory, Mu Rong Zhui Feng was short and small in stature, so when he used the Wind Movement Technique, he had a peculiar posture that was different from other fellow disciples.

  Jin Gang pao walked close to the ditch and slightly raised his foot, stepping over it. Hei Feng zi naturally followed him without any hesitation or intention. As she started, her two feet didn't move, she turned her waist and swung her sleeves, exactly like Miao Yu's sleeve dance Qing Feng.

  From this moment on, I knew that I couldn't call her "black crazy" anymore.

  "Is it Lao Yu?" I and White Wolf crossed over the ravine, Jin Gang Pao asked me in a low voice.

  I nodded.

  "How did she become a lunatic?" The Golden Cannon warmed his hands with hot air, and the snow fell even harder.

  "In the Ziyang Temple, her Soul Controlling Technique can be said to be the most formidable. If she wanted to use Soul Transference to extend her lifespan, it would be as easy as turning over her hand, and there wouldn't be any mistakes at all. As for why things turned out this way today, I reckon she might have used the Lingering Spirit Incantation to maintain her cultivation from back then." I grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed it into my mouth.

  Although they are all purple energy, after a thousand years, Murong Zhui Feng's purple energy is still very strong, while Lingfeng Dao Ren and Chengfeng Dao Ren have obviously dimmed significantly. Although it may be due to the injuries of that year, there is another reason that must be mentioned, which is that whether it is the soul-relocation technique or the rebirth method will weaken one's own true yuan and stored spiritual energy. The only technique that can maintain one's cultivation without weakening oneself and reducing one's spiritual energy is the Yuqi Yanling Jue. However, as the saying goes, "Fish and bear paws cannot be obtained at the same time." There are pros and cons to everything, and the biggest drawback of the Yanling Jue is that it reduces control over the host soul, making it easier to become assimilated and lose one's true nature. Furthermore, because an ordinary person's body cannot withstand the powerful cultivation and abundant spiritual energy of a cultivator, it will often cause the possessed person to die suddenly, so the Yuqi Yanling Jue is also considered an evil technique.

  "Ah~~~~Then isn't she almost dead?" Jingang Cannon had heard me mention the Shifu's Yuqi Thirteen before, so he also knew that people who were subjected to the Yansheng Jue usually didn't live past two centuries.

  "This Murong Zhui Feng must have had some unfulfilled wishes, so he attached himself to this girl and waited for the right moment. When the time comes, she should be able to scatter her magic and leave on a crane. But what I'm worried about is that in her current state, does she still remember what she wanted to do? I sighed and shook my head. It's such a waste of effort to preserve one's spiritual energy, only to forget why you were preserving it in the first place."

  "She's now silly, isn't she affected by the souls of those people she used to possess?" Jin Gang Cannon took out a pack of cigarettes.

  "In the past twelve years, each person can possess at most two periods of time. You calculate it yourself, after so many years, how many people's bodies has she possessed? Can she not be affected?" I lit a cigarette and took a few puffs, feeling much warmer.

  "Then didn't she kill a lot of people?" Jin Gang Cannon pointed at Mu Rong Zhui Feng who was walking with difficulty in the snowy ground wrapped in cotton-padded jacket.

  "The Ling Jue is difficult to transfer, unless the host dies or the practitioner himself disperses the method, otherwise it will not change hosts."

  "What's a host?" The lack of knowledge about Gundam is revealed once again.

  "It's those who are possessed." I pointed at the girl in front of us who was possessed by Murong Zhui Feng.

  "TMD" threw down his cigarette butt and quickly followed up.

  A group of people braved the wind and snow, heading north, although my friend Jin Gang and I had prepared ourselves for suffering beforehand, but now we're still complaining nonstop. People describe mountain roads as difficult to travel, calling them "mountain roads with many twists and turns", but we can't even find any twists and turns because there's no road at all. This godforsaken place probably hasn't seen anyone in years, the dry leaves from the trees are piled up a foot thick, and on top of that is a layer of snow. Walking on it is like wading through deep water, exhausting to death, and we can only manage a few miles a day.

  At first, the white wolf was lively and ran around everywhere, chasing rabbits and catching hares, busy but happy. Later, we inadvertently discovered the tiger's footprints, to ensure safety, I restricted the white wolf's movements.

  "Lao Yu, if we keep going like this, we won't make it to Kunlun Mountain. We'll have to die here first." Jingang Cannon leaned on a tree branch and shook off the snow from his body.

  These more than ten days of trekking have left me and Jīn Gāng Pào exhausted. At first, we still had some cheap food from Bái Láng, occasionally eating some wild game. Later on, I didn't dare let Bái Láng act alone anymore, so our food became a problem. Three people plus one dog's mouth can't be sewn up, and along the way, my backpack has become much lighter.

  "Yes, we can't go on like this. We need to find a place to rest for a while and wait for the snow to stop." The biggest obstacle to our journey right now is still this endless snow and biting cold. For the past few nights, we've been camping out in the wilderness, and both I and Jin Gang Cannon's hands and feet have already shown signs of frostbite.

  "It would be best to find a cave, start a fire, and if possible, roast some larger game. The past few days of running around were still bearable for Jīn Gāng Pào, what he couldn't bear was eating compressed biscuits for several days."

  "Yes, let's boil some more hot water, make a cup of coffee, and get a good sleep by the fire." Coffee contains caffeine, which has a similar effect to nicotine in cigarettes, both can refresh the mind, so I actually bought quite a lot before departure.

  "Let's hurry up and go, while it's still light to see if we can find a place to rest. Her shoes are soaked again." Jin Gang Cannon pointed to Murong Zhui Feng not far away. The hardships on this road made the two of us feel overwhelmed, but this thin and weak girl was biting her teeth and holding on, without hindering us at all. When we first entered the mountain, Jin Gang Cannon and I were well-prepared, each with two sets of clothes and two pairs of high-top military boots, while Murong Zhui Feng wore only ordinary black cloth shoes, not even cotton ones. Her feet were too small, she couldn't wear our shoes, so Jin Gang Cannon and I could only let her wear several pairs of socks, and at night we took turns helping her dry her shoes that had been soaked by the snow water.

  In the blink of an eye, the white wolf running in front unexpectedly gained something - a hapless field mouse was pinned under its paws. It ran over to me with the mouse in its mouth, seeking praise and reward.

  "My god, this wild taste is a bit too strong." Jin Gang pao plucked the vole from the white wolf's mouth.

  "This is good enough, what's the point of having a bicycle?" I borrowed a phrase from Zhao Da Sheng.

  "Lao Yu, can this thing be eaten?" The field mouse in Jingu's hand was not quite dead yet, with a sly and cunning look, its mouth pointed, and it still had two small whiskers.

  "You can!" I sneered and took a step forward.

  "Lao Yu, how much farther to the second breath?" Jin Gang cannon picked up its tail and examined it for half a day, finally throwing away that unlucky field mouse, and quickly followed up.

  "Judging from the terrain, it should be thirty miles due north, but I don't know why we can't see that yellow aura from here." The second aura on the Cold Mouse Map was yellow, and the route guide read: "Three hundred miles beyond the remnants of the cold, the Yellow Mansion Cave Heaven seems to have immortals."

  "Alas, unfortunately this guide got lost first, otherwise we could ask her." Jin Gang Pao sighed with a bitter smile.

  Murong Zhui has been subdued since the day he showed off his divine power at the Dead Water Pond, and even forgot how to recite spells. He even forgot about leading the way, and just followed us with his head down, not even reminding us when we took a wrong turn several times, as if he had really forgotten.

  "Hurry up and see if we can find a better place to settle down before it gets dark." I shook my head, lowered my head and took steps.

  Another ten miles, dusk is approaching again.

  "Wow, we hit the jackpot again! Look at this huge cave!"

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