MJWCATFPITWOC Chapter 20
by Volare“What does Master want from us?” The two bowed before the stone cave. They had just returned from Jitan Village, and night had already fallen.
“It’s good you both returned safely from the Northern Region, safe return is all that matters,” a warm voice echoed from the stone cave, “Was everything in Jitan Village smooth?”
Shen Yucheng was about to reply, but Mo Yifeng interjected, “We traveled from the Northern Region to the border of Jitan Village. When white mist appeared around us, we found the Hundred Question Mirror on the ground. On the way back, Junior Brother wanted to take a look at the bustling market, which is why we were a little late.”
He lied without batting an eye, not even out of breath or blushing.
Junior Brother Shen Yucheng was inexplicably scapegoated. He glanced at Mo Yifeng, who appeared no different from usual. Why not be honest with their Master?
“Very well then.” Master didn’t suspect a thing. Suddenly, he thought of something, “Yucheng, I mentioned some time ago that I would hold a banquet to celebrate for you.”
This prelude was a little familiar, reminding Shen Yucheng of the times when his uncles promised him small trinkets, only to always disappoint him.
“The welcome banquet needs to be postponed slightly, because there’s something I need you to do.” The tone from the stone cave turned serious, and coupled with the dark and quiet environment of the mountain, it was particularly eerie.
In the cultivation world, a secret realm appears randomly every ten years, each time different. This year there’s a new secret realm, and recently each sect has received notification that the location is the Eastern Region, and the secret realm is named “Ling Danbo Realm.”
The secret realm contains different kinds of rare treasures and demon beasts. As the name suggests, this time the treasures are mostly related to reincarnation and the Dao of pills.
The entrance to each secret realm only opens once, estimated to be in the middle of next month. Disciples from each sect need to arrive near the secret realm in advance to wait.
The number of people entering each time is also limited. There are dozens of sects in the entire cultivation world, and after allocating the quotas, each sect only gets a few spots. The Lingfeng Sect has five spots.
The Futian Sect is the strongest sect under the Lingfeng Sect, occupying three positions, namely Fu Lingxuan, Mo Yifeng, and Shen Yucheng.
In fact, Shen Yucheng was curious about who the senior apprentice of the Futian Sect was, but he only heard Mo Yifeng say that he was an extremely detestable person, and then he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
The remaining two spots of the Lingfeng Sect will be selected after the other sects fight to the death for them. Thus, Shen Yucheng felt that being a disciple of the Futian Sect was truly worry-free.
Master told them that in a week, the five disciples would go to the Eastern Region together, ordering Mo Yifeng to remember to forget.
It seemed he was a repeat offender.
However, before leaving, a voice came into Shen Yucheng’s mind, “Yucheng, help me keep an eye on Yifeng.”
Back in the mountain cave, he was still thinking about Master’s last words. Seeing Mo Yifeng return and immediately enter his room, he seemed no different from usual.
What exactly did he want him to pay attention to?
With a week left before departure, Shen Yucheng took the opportunity to use the Imperial Immortal Spring, a reward from the Promotion Examination, to accelerate his cultivation progress.
The experience in Jitan Village was enough for him to stabilize his Golden Core initial stage. Although he hadn’t felt excessive pain in his inner core during those days, he found that the spiritual power of the Golden Core initial stage was still not enough for his extravagant “spiritual power as earth” usage.
He then realized that the Puppet Dao consumed a great deal of spiritual power. If someone had thin spiritual energy, they could probably only control two or three villagers, truly fragile.
Therefore, before the secret realm arrived, improving his cultivation base was crucial. He would not use Puppet Arts unless absolutely necessary, lest he be discovered.
Thinking like this, he went to the Imperial Immortal Spring the next day, not knowing that when he arrived, he would feel the constraints of the Dao Companion Contract. The Imperial Immortal Spring was about five hundred meters away from the mountain cave. It was still early, and Mo Yifeng was definitely still asleep.
It seemed that the distance restriction between the two of them had indeed become greater.
The Imperial Immortal Spring was surrounded by maple trees, and the autumn colors were rich. Red maples danced in the air, and a few floated on the surface of the spring, like a fairyland, making people feel refreshed and at peace.
Shen Yucheng dipped his hand into the spring water, which was warm. Such a beautiful place, no wonder practicing here could yield twice the results with half the effort.
Without further delay, he took off his outer robe and entered the spring, beginning his meditation, bringing his foundation from this period to the next level.
.
Mo Yifeng slowly opened his eyes, covered with a thick quilt that was unsuitable for the season. Despite this, it still couldn’t retain the temperature underneath. The warmth seemed to dissipate on its own, and even using more warming magic tools couldn’t stop his limbs from becoming cold.
After waking up, he tossed and turned in bed for a while but still couldn’t fall asleep, so he got up. Since waking up in Jize Village, his body had been like this, probably because he had exhausted his spirit in the Time Dao, affecting his physical body in reality.
He seemed to have responded too hastily yesterday when Master asked questions, hoping he hadn’t been discovered.
Coming to the entrance of the mountain cave, the autumn wind greeted him, and even a slight breeze made him feel cold all over. Suddenly, he noticed that Shen Yucheng’s paper door was open. His figure was long gone from the room, but the restrictions of the Dao Companion Contract wouldn’t allow him to go too far.
Thinking of this, he recalled the scene in the Time Dao where Shen Yucheng controlled hundreds of villagers at once, and couldn’t help but smile. The Puppet Dao was indeed powerful.
If only Shen Yucheng would obediently let him study it.
But the image of the two of them kissing flashed through his mind, and his fingertips covered his thin lips, immediately feeling the cold air in his body disappear without asking.
.
Autumn leaves fluttered down, covering the entire courtyard of the Lingfeng Sect. In the end, the two selected to go to the Ling Danbo Realm were Shi Wen from the Li Gui Sect, and unexpectedly, Cai Ji, a disciple of the Liu Jia Sect.
Rumor had it that the Cheng Family had already pulled strings, trying to secure this year’s secret realm spot for their son, but Cheng Mufei was punished at the Punishment Cliff. Thus, the benefits fell to Cai Ji, the Cheng family’s well-connected young master.
Before departing, Cai Ji didn’t forget to make a threat to Shen Yucheng, saying that winning the secret realm this time was a certainty for him.
Only then did Shen Yucheng learn that the secret realm, which occurred once every ten years, was actually a competition between all the sects in the cultivation world. On the day the secret realm opened, pre-prepared sect magic tools would be placed inside, recording in real-time the treasures each disciple obtained, as well as the number of illusions they broke and the demon beasts they defeated.
In addition, the ability data of this year’s disciples would be collected for analysis, and finally, an annual list of young disciples’ abilities would be compiled.
To ensure the authenticity of abilities, disciples whose cultivation base was above the Nascent Soul stage had to take the cultivation suppression pill, reducing their cultivation base to the peak of the Golden Core stage before entering the secret realm.
However, there were few disciples in the cultivation world who broke through to the Nascent Soul stage in their youth, so this rule was mostly aimed at the talented disciples of the Futian Sect. The Lingfeng Sect had long been accustomed to this, the champion still belonged to them, of little importance.
Shi Wen was excited to be able to enter the secret realm again with Shen Yucheng. After meeting, he chattered endlessly. Yan Quanye complained in his mind that he was too noisy, but only Shen Yucheng could hear him.
Fu Lingxuan didn’t say a word, only glancing at Shen Yucheng when they first met, and then no longer speaking.
“Yucheng, is something wrong with Senior Brother Mo?” Shi Wen was one year younger than Mo Yifeng and should have called him Senior Brother, but because he regarded Shen Yucheng as a brother and confidant, he ignored the age difference and directly called him by his name.
Shen Yucheng saw that Mo Yifeng was flying on his sword as usual and didn’t notice anything unusual. He thought about how Mo Yifeng stayed in his room until it was time to leave this morning. Could it be that he hadn’t gotten enough sleep?
However, he didn’t ask immediately, just kept it in mind.
Sword cultivators flew on their swords, while others who didn’t have swords used magic tools instead to fly.
Shen Yucheng received compensation from Master for the Hundred Question Mirror, which was a bracelet-shaped flying device. Injecting spiritual power into the bracelet would form transparent blocks under his feet, allowing him to fly freely on top, with the speed varying with spiritual power. It was a highly customizable magic tool.
Shen Yucheng was not aware of the value of this item. If Shi Wen hadn’t been so excited that his hands trembled after seeing it, he wouldn’t have known that this magic tool was a top-grade spiritual artifact called Jade Stone Wings.
After flying for half a day, they realized that Cai Ji, who had been in the lead, was gone. Looking back, they saw him gasping for breath a hundred meters behind.
.
They traveled for a day and a night, arriving at the town on the border of the Eastern Region in the early morning.
The group stayed at an inn nearby, each in their own room. Their rooms, from left to right, were Fu Lingxuan, Mo Yifeng, Shen Yucheng, Shi Wen, and Cai Ji.
Shen Yucheng wasn’t too tired, so he quickly sat cross-legged to cultivate after returning to his room. At this time, a voice said, “Are you addicted to cultivation? You’re either sleeping or cultivating all day. You’ve been practicing all week since we returned from Jitan Village, trapping me in that garbage spring, suffocating me.”
Yan Quanye gradually manifested a physical form. A few days ago, at the Imperial Immortal Spring, Shen Yucheng discovered that Yan Quanye was different from the Azure Scale Lion. He could freely enter and leave the human world. Perhaps this was the privilege of an Earthbound Spirit.
But it also made him annoying, constantly clamoring to go out and play.
Shen Yucheng closed his eyes, secretly ordering Yan Quanye to shut up, but the room was only quiet for a short while before the other party became so angry that his face turned red, desperately demolishing the house, smashing the guest room into a mess.
However, how could Yan Quanye compare to Shen Yucheng, who was known as a demolition king in the slums when he was a child, causing a lot of trouble for the aunts and uncles.
These small actions were just minor disturbances in his eyes, not worth mentioning.
Suddenly, the noise of demolition stopped abruptly. Yan Quanye put his ear against the wall, “Shen Yucheng, there seems to be movement next door.”
“This is an inn, it’s normal to have sounds, right?”
“No, it sounds like someone fell to the ground.” Yan Quanye thought that he was a spirit and could pass through walls, so he poked his head, half his face piercing into the next room. Fortunately, non-contractors couldn’t see him, otherwise it would be truly frightening.
Shen Yucheng was still meditating. After not hearing Yan Quanye hum for a long time, he raised his eyes. “Shen Yucheng, your little lover has fallen to the ground.”
What nonsense.
Shen Yucheng looked over. The room Yan Quanye had entered was Mo Yifeng’s. He frowned and stood up, “What do you mean? Mo Yifeng fell to the ground?”
“Yeah, he’s been lying on the ground for a quarter of an hour.” Yan Quanye just came back, “Could he be dead?”
“Slap—” As soon as the words fell, Shen Yucheng’s figure disappeared, the room empty, the door wide open.
.
The door was forced open. Shen Yucheng’s eyes met Mo Yifeng’s, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, putting on heavy clothing.
The two looked at each other, Shen Yucheng spoke first to ease the awkwardness, “I, uh, heard a sound from your room just now, are you okay?” He secretly planned to beat Yan Quanye half to death when he returned to his room later.
Mo Yifeng wasn’t in high spirits, wearing his clothes, “This is an inn, it’s normal to have sounds, right?”
“…” Sounded familiar, Shen Yucheng was speechless.
Seeing that Shen Yucheng was okay, Mo Yifeng waved his hand, signaling him to go back, he needed to rest.
At this time, Shen Yucheng noticed that the temperature in the room was quite high. He had only been in here for a short time and his temples were already wet with sweat. He looked around and found the firewood that the inn had prepared for the cold winter was burning fiercely.
Looking at Mo Yifeng again, why was he wearing a thick robe in the refreshing autumn?
It seemed that something was indeed wrong. Master had asked him to pay attention to Mo Yifeng, it was their conversation after returning from Jitan Village.
He also remembered when Master asked about the village, Mo Yifeng was eager to respond first.
Shen Yucheng stared at Mo Yifeng’s bedding, which had already been changed to a cotton quilt. A suspicion filled his mind. Mo Yifeng was about to get into bed, holding the bedding, Shen Yucheng quickly walked to the bed, grasping the other’s hand.
Only for a moment, Mo Yifeng quickly withdrew his hand, but Shen Yucheng still felt it.
An icy, bone-chilling cold.