At Immortal Welcoming Pavilion, there was one day of rest each week, on this day, everyone could choose to descend the mountain, read the ancient texts in the library, or even go to the practice arena to train. Ling Xia decided that he would go see Yu ZhiJue and Song XiaoHu in the morning, and in the afternoon, he planned to go find that Snow Flamma.
Ling Xia departed very early in the morning, and on the way, he met quite a few high-level disciples majestically riding magical beasts. Envy bubbled in his heart, and he decided that from now on, he also needed to find an adorable pet of his own
He soon arrived at Deadwood Mountain, and here, low-level disciples like Ling Xia received a rather cold reception. However, he didn't mind it much and very courteously inquired about where Yu ZhiJue lived, but as it turned out, Yu ZhiJue wasn't home.
A male disciple glanced at the dark blue clothes on his body and remarked in a somewhat detached manner, ''Eighteenth junior brother and Nineteenth junior brother should be at the pratice arena. It's normal for them not to come back for days at a time, so it's better if you don't wait.''
Yu ZhiJue was Feng ShuMing's eighteenth disciple, and Song XiaoHu was the nineteenth.
Ling Xia felt a bit crestfallen, ut Deadwood Mountain's practice arena wasn't a place a low-level disciple like himself could freely walk into. He pondered for a bit, then asker the other disciple to borrow a brushand paper, drawing a smiley face and writing crookedly: I'll come see the two of you next time. Even when cultivating, you need to properly take care of your health.
He forcefully stuffed that piece of paper into the door’s gap, but coincidentally, a sweaty Song XiaoHu returned right then. Smiling with a pair of dimples, he distantly spotted Ling Xia and energetically called out, “Elder brother Ling!”
While gesturing excitedly with his hands, Song XiaoHu chattered on about his recent progress, like the things he’s learned and such, after which, he pulled Ling Xia to go find Yu ZhiJue. Ling Xia was completely dragged along at the other’s pace and felt inwardly shocked. In just a few days of not seeing Song XiaoHu, his strength had increased this much!
They quickly arrived at the practice arena, and Ling Xia pulled Song XiaoHu to a stop as he observed the inner grounds, carefully taking in the figure of Yu ZhiJue who was currently single-mindedly concentrating on practicing his swordsmanship. Those his age were most suited cultivating the body and the sword, and others such as elemental energy and psychical energy training was best done after learning the first two.
In a soft voice that carried some worry, Song XiaoHu said, “A few days ago, Ah’Jue left during the period Master had designated for cultivation, and refused to say where he went. Master penalized him to learn a sword technique within 7 days that, I heard a senior brother say, took him 3 months to grasp in the past.”
Ling Xia paused and blinked; this was because of him, wasn’t it? He looked attentively at the Yu ZhiJue inside the arena, at that child’s stubborn, tightly pursed mouth, at his focused gaze, and at the soulwood sword in his hand. As Yu ZhiJue went through the steps of that sword technique, he would always stop at a certain pose again and again, clearly having difficulty executing that move.
The sword that cultivators carried on their back must be made from the spiritual stones that they personally acquired. One’s own essence and blood also needed to be added when the forging was on the cusp of completion, and only after pouring in one’s psychical energy, will that sword acknowledge its owner. Before this, all cultivators used soulwood swords as a substitute.
Yu ZhiJue slowly closed his eyes, going over those moves in his mind. He had memorized every step and form of this sword technique in his heart, but even after practicing countless times, no matter what, he failed to connect them together. He couldn’t help but feel gloomy inside, and even when it was demonstrated previously, Feng ShuMing only did it once... …
How should he connect these two steps that seemed impossible to link?
Yu ZhiJue recalled Feng ShuMing’s movements, and with a flash of inspiration, poured water elementals into the moves that had stumped him. The sword’s tip trembled, its extremely tough body curving in an inconceivable manner, and carried by the momentum, he eloquently split the solid rock in front of him in half with a smooth flip of his body, followed by a beautiful whirl as the sword successfully return to its scabbard.
Ling Xia couldn't help but cheer, ''Nice!''
Song XiaoHu's jaw dropped in amazement, murmuring, ''Ah'Jue's so awesome! Elder brother Ling, this won't do, i haven't learned a single form of this sword technique yet. I also need to properly train!'' In saying so, he already walked inside the arena without any hesitation, resolved to solely focus on practicing his swordsmanship.
''... ...'' Ling Xia chuckled and shook his head. These two kids were so similarly obstinate and competitive, truly rivals ordained by fate.
Yu ZhiJue must have heard his voice earlier because he slowly walked on over,but for some reason, his gaze kept darting off to the sides. Perhaps due to having just exercised, his cheeks also carried an unnatural tint of rouge.
Ling Xia looked at him and smiled, ''Ah'Jue, your swordsmanship earlier was very beautiful.''
Yu ZhiJue shot him a glance, and then turned his small face away as if he didn’t care at all, using a white handkerchief to wipe the sweat on his forehead. Only, the base of his ears had started to turn red as he somewhat urgently asserted, “Something easy like that? A piece of cake!”
“Of course! I just knew you were the strongest!” Ling Xia generously praised. Feng ShuMing enforced a strict education, but with kids, they needed to receive a lot of compliments too, and beating them down with severity and nothing else could easily lead to the development of personality defects.
Sure enough, in the face of his praise, Yu ZhiJue blushed ever more deeply, and although he forced himself not to smile, it was obvious that he was very happy.
Yu ZhiJue turned to vigilantly study Ling Xia's body, his complexion gradually returning to normal, and asked, ''Have your wounds healed? How come you're here today?''
''...Yes, they've healed.'' Ling Xia felt that that humiliating experience will probably become a shame that'll haunt him for the rest of his life, so he hurriedly changed the topic and joked, ''Wasn't it Ah'Jue who was pining for me to visit? Naturally, i immediately came over when i had the time.''
Yu ZhiJue's cheeks immediately flushed again as he denied with some awkwardness, ''When have i ever pined for you to come?''
Looking at this fumbling action of trying to cover up a lie yet making it all the more obvious, Ling Xia really wanted to continue his teasing, but afraid of angering the other, he changed the topic. The two of them stood and chatted for quite a long time, and only after it was past noon, did Ling Xia leave.
Relying on his memory, Ling Xia found where he previously roasted fish and stealthily relit a new fire.
A fire elemental magical beast, the Snow Flamma‘s setting was a glutton who loved to eat fish, and even though it looked very cute, in actuality, it‘s very dangerous. Because the Snow Flamma’s elemental attribute was the same as Song XiaoHu’s, it held an innate feeling of intimacy towards him. However, the result of the first examination showed that no relatively pure fire elementals were detected in Ling Xia’s body, so it’s hard to say whether that Snow Flamma will appear again.
Ling Xia had specifically carried a few different seasonings with him, and after butchering two fish and cleaning out their internal organs, he evenly smeared on various spices, striving his utmost to roast these fish as fragrantly as possible to lure out that Snow Flamma.
A level-7 magical beast’s vigilance was very high, and although Snow Flamma were not classified as attack-type magical beasts, it will only approach those with familiarity and confirmed to be safe. The subtle tightening of a stranger’s muscle, the quickening of one’s breath, and even a single unintentional glance could cause it to raise its guard.
Therefore, Ling Xia tried to think carefree and happy thoughts to relax himself, and he slowly began to treat this as a camping experience, unconsciously sticking a piece of grass in his mouth and humming a song. Carrying hints of enjoyment, he propped his chin up and half reclined in the grass, all while roasting his fish.
Bit by bit, the fish’s fragrance emanated outwards. Ling Xia certainly didn’t expect to succeed in attracting the Snow Flamma on his first try, thus he calmly and leisurely started eating while flipping and roasting the other fish before him.
At the moment he finished eating the first fish and only one remained, a flicker of movement appeared at the top of a tree. Ling Xia lifted his head very naturally, and when the first thing he saw was a snow white tail swaying back and forth, he couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
The Snow Flamma’s pair of big, amber eyes stared at the fish in his hand, entranced, as its ears trembled at both sides of its head. Its two snow white front paws aimlessly scratched at the bark, evidently struggling in restraining its desires.
Ling Xia very generously raised the last fish up in the air and offered, “Here you go.”
Immediately, a flash of white appeared before his eyes, and Ling Xia’s hand became empty. He lifted his head and saw that currently, the Snow Flamma’s mouth was firmly clamped onto that fish. As a fire elemental magical beast, it wasn’t afraid of the heat, so gripping the fish with two plump paws, it started eating with gusto, chewing and swallowing even the bones. Its tail wagged back and forth behind it, clearly satisfied to the extreme.
When Ling Xia laughed and stood up, that Snow Flamma instantly placed its front paws in a defensive pose. Ling Xia paid it no mind, going by himself to the river’s edge and jumping down, off to catch more fish in the water. He knew that Snow Flamma were very proud and finicky; the more you tried to get close to it, the further it would retreat, but the more you ignored it, it would conversely approach you instead.
He quickly caught two more fish, used a small knife to carefully cut and wash them clean, and then took out all sorts of seasoning packs, coating them on one at a time. However, when he was about to add prickly ash, a single paw reached over and very bluntly swatted that package away. Ling Xia was caught off guard, so in the blink of an eye, all the prickly ash powder spilled onto the ground.
Ling Xia gaped at the Snow Flamma with some astonishment, and it promptly revealed two tiny canines while retreating backwards, eyes faintly filled with the annoyance of making a mistake. Ling Xia was immediately delighted, and after calming his expression and lowering his head, continued his previous actions without batting an eye, abandoning that spice.
Looks like this Snow Flamma doesn’t like the taste of prickly ash…
The Snow Flamma stayed on guard for a long time, but seeing that Ling Xia didn’t spare it another glance, huffily retracted its claws and sat back, licking the aromatic remnants on its paws while staring at the fish in Ling Xia’s hand, drooling. It truly loved fish that was cooked, but its owner was too lazy, had terrible cooking skills, and also forbid it to descend the mountain. In the early years, it would go down and steal food, and had been ruthlessly punished for it. Who knew how long it’d been since it last ate something delicious… …
Ling Xia skewered both fish on a single tree branch, returned to the campfire, and squatting down, carefully began turning and roasting the fish in his hands.
A delicious smell gradually emerged. That Snow Flamma watched on anxiously, impatiently turning in circles and dripping so much saliva that the only thing separating it from a puppy was a few hungry barks. As soon as Ling Xia indicated that he was done cooking, the Snow Flamma instantly rushed over, its mouth accurately snatching the food and landing further away. In just a few bites, it swallowed an entire fish into its stomach, giving Ling Xia quite a shock.
He immediately remembered that one couldn’t discern the appetite of a magical beast purely from its body size. If a Snow Flamma wanted to, it could eat many times its weight all in one go with zero problems.
However, by the time the Snow Flamma had finished eating the second fish, Ling Xia had started to clean up the campfire in preparation to leave the mountain. Right now, the sky was starting to turn dark, and furthermore, he definitely didn’t believe that this gluttonous Snow Flamma would accept him so easily. Things like this had to be steadily developed step by step.
The Snow Flamma saw him putting out the fire and promptly revealed a dissatisfied expression. It spat the fish head in its mouth off to the side as its round, amber pupils abruptly morphed into dangerous slits.
“Tomorrow, I’ll bring more food tomorrow,” Ling Xia promised, shivering in his heart and swiftly unveiling a slight smile. Emphatically pointing to the bottom of the mountain, he continued, “I’ll bring you something different tomorrow.”
That Snow Flamma’s pupils instantly returned to its previous cute, round state, obviously understanding. It carefully looked at Ling Xia’s face, then nimbly and lightly leapt onto a tree, vanishing with a swish of its tail.
When Ling Xia returned, he first went to the kitchens to seek help since he and the people here have already become pretty familiar. The head cook was an ordinary non-cultivator, and because Ling Xia wasn‘t like the other disciples who always acted in an arrogant or domineering manner, treating him politely and courteously instead, he had a very favorable impression of Ling Xia.
In the past few days, in order display their consideration and care towards the new disciples, the higher ups had handed out this month’s pay in advance. Ling Xia secretly slipped a few energy coins to the head cook and whispered, “Uncle, I hope I can trouble you to bring me back a roasted chicken when you go purchase food.”
Straightaway, the head cook uncle readily agreed. How was this task difficult? There were frequently disciples who would request him to bring them this or that, and in the many years that he’d stayed here, he had yet to see such a well-mannered and considerate child!
By noon the next day, the head cook uncle indeed brought back one of the city’s famous roasted chicken for Ling Xia, and despite being firmly wrapped in a lotus leaf, its savory aroma filled the air. Ling Xia hid it inside his room, and after he finished with his afternoon work, brought it up the mountain.
He arrived at the familiar spot, unwrapped the lotus leaf, and a mouth-watering fragrance rapidly spread outwards.
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