Illusory formations weren’t something Shen Yi had never experienced. But for one to leave a martial artist of his realm this dizzy and reeling was a first.
A strong wave of nausea washed over him, and he found himself instinctively drawing several deep breaths. Did the cave estate’s master have to vomit first thing every time he came home?
“Hoo.”
Shen Yi shook his head and steadied himself, then looked ahead in some surprise.
He’d thought he might see a grand mountain manor, or perhaps some elegantly appointed stone estate or immortal grotto. But he truly hadn’t expected to be looking at a soaring great mountain — lush and green, cool mountain winds blowing. Apart from the absence of any living thing stirring, it was no different from the wild, deserted hills outside.
This counted as a cave estate?
“Damn it all, the transport formation’s malfunctioned!”
There were a dozen-odd others nearby, no few of them looking all around, searching for their companions.
“What’s the rush? One entrance is as good as another.” A cultivator wreathed in golden light shot the speaker a cold glance, and under the pressure of his formidable aura the rest fell silent.
By rights, having come in through the formation, they ought to have been sent to the cave estate’s main hall. Perhaps long years without repair had left the formation faulty, resulting in the present situation. But for a pack of cultivators come to hunt treasure, they’d have had to search all over regardless — where they started made no difference. It even happened to let them avoid the Xuanguang Cave party.
“Senior Xiang speaks sense.”
Someone hurriedly squeezed out a smile in agreement, but his eyes drifted, of their own accord, toward the woman at the man’s side.
The Xiang siblings were quite renowned. Both Mixed Origin powerhouses — and word had it the two had a thing besides. No need to rush, of course; easy to say when your back doesn’t ache.
“The rest of you, come with me.”
Xiang Tianxiong, carrying a faint air of arrogance, gave his orders outright, heedless of what anyone thought. Then he looked over at the ink-robed young man in the distance and mused a moment. “That young friend — as I recall, you seem to be on your own. My sister and I have been through no few cave estates; we’ve a bit of experience, you might say. Why not come along and act together with us.”
It wasn’t quite as high-handed as the way he’d treated the others, but there was no note of inquiry in his voice either.
Shen Yi glanced at Qinghua beside him. He found that, for all her impassive face, the foolishness in her eyes couldn’t be hidden. Clearly, she’d never dealt with a cultivator’s cave estate either.
“Mm.”
Shen Yi dipped his chin lightly, and didn’t refuse. Best of all if the man really had some experience; and if he had none at all, he’d do well enough to scout the way ahead.
At this, the Xiang siblings exchanged a smiling glance. A quiet, even-tempered cultivator was always the easier sort to handle. The others’ faces brightened too. Had it been only these two Xiang-family Mixed Origin Grandmasters, what chance would the rest of them have had? Only with one more outsider present who could match them did their own lot stand to snatch a mouthful of soup on the sly.
At a juncture like this, no one was in the mood for idle talk. Soon, led by Xiang Tianxiong, they set off out of the mountains.
Mixed Origin Grandmasters could certainly take to the air, but that too spent one’s qi, and in a place like this, the slightest gap might well be the difference between life and death. Besides, flying up in the sky made too obvious a target, and easily courted needless trouble.
Shen Yi followed unhurriedly at the rear — only to feel, for no clear reason, a good many threads of aura-connection welling up within him, some faint, some strong. Sensing the nearest strand, he simply halted his steps and drew a little away from the crowd.
A moment later, a large, vivid red flower came into view, its petals thick as flesh, faintly closed.
“That’s blood-sap spirit-grass. Outside it would pass for a decent treasure medicine, but in a cultivator’s cave estate it’s treated no better than a weed, left carelessly on the mountainside… The truly good things, though, are usually kept under guard — hard to just take directly.”
A fair-skinned, delicate-featured scholar sidled up. He held a booklet and brush in his hands, and said with a smile, “Don’t take offense, Grandmaster — I only came in to broaden my horizons a little.”
“My thanks.”
Shen Yi tore off the fleshy flower with an idle hand and tossed it into his storage treasure. What he’d really wanted was to test whether those connections were the treasure-hunting talent he’d once come by, chancing to swallow a demon core. He hadn’t expected they truly were. Only, these things didn’t sound worth much.
He closed his eyes, feeling out the strongest of the auras, and found it happened to lie in the very direction they were all heading.
“Guarded? By what, usually?”
The fair-skinned scholar watched his rough, forcible plucking and, unable quite to hold back a laugh, said, “Roughly, things set up precisely to fend off figures like you, Grandmaster — some formation or puppet, so you can’t just harvest it in passing.”
“…”
Shen Yi opened his eyes and said nothing.
He’d been thinking that with a treasure-hunting talent, he might be able to act alone. But if he ran into those gaudy, elaborate contraptions, brute fists might not be able to smash a way through. At the thought, he looked over. “You know a great deal about these things?”
The scholar said bashfully, “A little, a little.”
Shen Yi withdrew his gaze, a plan taking shape in his mind.
Just then a cold rebuke came from a distance. “Who gave you leave to wander off?”
Xiang Tianxiong came walking up with the others, eyes fixed on the scholar, and said with displeasure, “Rash and reckless, no sense of the rules.”
“My apologies! It won’t happen again.”
The scholar hurriedly nodded and made his apologies. The others wore faintly odd expressions — the words were plainly meant for someone else’s ears. Sure enough, once Xiang Tianxiong finished, he shot Shen Yi an offhand glance, then turned and stepped off down the mountain again.
“Uh.”
Once the crowd had gone some way off, the scholar clutched his brush at a loss and forced a smile. “The Grandmasters from outside are all so fierce…”
Outside?
Shen Yi’s expression didn’t waver, and he too started walking, taking the little scholar along to keep drifting through the woods, going to have a look at any aura not too far off.
“…”
The little scholar worried about being scolded, but the Grandmaster before him, who scarcely seemed to speak, gave off a feeling more dangerous than the last one. He had no choice but to obediently explain the uses of the various treasure medicines on the man’s behalf. Inwardly, though, he was thoroughly puzzled. Did this young Grandmaster truly not worry that someone else might beat him to the good things?
Though they rode no clouds, this crowd all had cultivation to them, and in a mere half-hour they’d walked out of that stretch of unbroken mountain range.
Whether by coincidence or not, the Xiang siblings led the way ahead along a route exactly matching the auras Shen Yi sensed — not the slightest deviation.
Soon a stretch of sloping ground appeared before them. But the scene below that slope left everyone stunned for a moment.
On the ordinary flat ground, there was, of all things, a “moat” some ten zhang wide. What it protected was no city, but a tiny little medicine hut. And what flowed within it was no water, but eerie waves of fire — plainly blazing flame, yet thick and viscous, flowing like slurry, wholly unlike magma. More like a fire dragon coiled within.
Ten zhang across — never mind a Mixed Origin Grandmaster, even a Threshold-realm martial artist could leap it. But as that stifling wave of hot air surged toward them, Xiang Tianxiong halted his steps without the slightest hesitation. Then he looked back, picked one man at random, and said blandly, “You. Go across and try.”
“Try… what?”
The black-bearded fellow blinked. When he grasped the other’s meaning, his whole face drooped like a bitter gourd. What kind of joke was this — who knew what strangeness lay within? Besides, even if he made it across and brought something back, was he going to get to tuck it into his own pack?
Xiang Tianxiong said nothing more; the golden light on his body only thickened a shade. The posture of it sent the faces of everyone behind him abruptly changing.
“I’ll give it a try, then.”
The black-bearded fellow hastily backed down, cursing endlessly to himself, but still went step by step toward those waves of fire. His body was drawn taut — at the first sign of anything amiss, he could whip straight back around. He made ready, then unleashed a movement art with all his strength, his whole person turning to a wisp of breeze and vanishing from where he’d stood.
Ten zhang across, a single step away. But when he reappeared, his face was all shock and bewilderment.
His whole body had appeared above the waves of fire, limbs thrashing desperately, yet the movement art he knew so intimately had, in this instant, lost all effect. His aura was sealed off entirely, and he could only watch, helpless, as he plummeted downward. Then a blaze of flame swallowed him whole — not even a cry escaped before all went still again.
Plip.
The little scholar and Shen Yi, each with a snow-white fruit in hand, happened to come up onto the slope from the distance just in time to see this scene play out.
The scholar’s fruit dropped to the ground, and he rushed hurriedly down the slope. “Don’t go forcing your way across like that!”
Shen Yi took a bite of his fruit and chewed it slowly, sweeping an idle glance over the Xiang siblings.
(End of Chapter 256)