“Zhong Shan, are you going to train this morning?” said Tianling-er as soon as she saw Zhong Shan wake up, stretch and climb out of bed.
“You can get my bag and grab something to eat.” said Zhong Shan.
“Okay.” Said Tianling-er nodding, as she brought out Zhong Shan’s bag.
From inside, Zhong Shan retrieved a small container and pa.s.sed it to Tianling-er, and for himself, he just took out the pre-made meat jerkies.
Inside the small container were Tianling-er’s favourite cakes, her osmanthus cakes.
Grabbing an osmanthus cake, Tianling-er started eating happily, so much so that when she finished, she even licked her fingertips. She had a face full of contentment just like last time on the mountain, when Zhong Shan made his usual stuff, and once Tianling-er had some, she wouldn’t stop talking about it.
“So delicious, Zhong Shan, is every outsider as amazing as you? Not only do you know how to make beds but also osmanthus cakes!” asked Tianling-er whilst eating.
Looking at Tianling-er, Zhong Shan shook his head and chuckled. He didn’t answer.
“Oh yeah, let’s test your sense of direction, it’s your first time out here after all. Let’s see… Which direction is the Kaiyang School?” asked Zhong Shan as he watched Tianling-er
“Probably that direction.” said Tianling-er as she licked her fingers. She pointed in a direction somewhat begrudgingly as if not wanted to release her finger from her mouth.
After she pointed, Tianling-er went and grabbed another osmanthus cake.
“Yup.” Nodded Zhong Shan. Confirming that Tianling-er’s sense of direction is actually pretty good.
Zhong Shan is pretty fast when it comes to eating food, gulping down pieces of meat, quickly demolishing his breakfast, whilst Tianling-er just continued to eat her osmanthus cakes. While she ate, Zhong Shan gathered their things and prepared to leave.
When Tianling-er finished eating, Zhong Shan also finshed preparing.
“Let’s go.” said Zhong Shan carrying his machete.
“Okay.” said Tianling-er stepping on her red silk and flying.
The two people headed towards Zhong Shan’s manor, moving quickly.
For the whole journey, the two of them have killed some monstrous beasts, and as for their inner cores, Zhong Shan collected all of those.
On the thirteenth day, at the peak of a mountain, the two of them beheaded a leopard monster, and afterwards, Zhon Shan dug out its inner core.
“Zhong Shan, these inner cores are useless, unless they’re from high level beasts, even if you turn them into pills they won’t be even as good as three hundred year old herbs, so what’s the point of collecting them?” asked Tianling-er.
“Maybe they’ll have some use in the future” Zhong Shan said
When it comes to these magical items, although not much is known, it’s better to have them than not because maybe they’ll have some use in the future.
Digging out the inner core and stowing it away, Zhong Shan marvelled at the scenery around him.
Afterwards, they arrived back at that area with the evil aura and inside there’s a secret spring, where he obtained the Demonic Body Toning Method. Not far from the mountain valley is where he buried his Luminous Pearl, and looking at Tianling-er, Zhong Shan didn’t plan to retrieve it. That’ll come in the future.
There was still a couple of days left of trekking. A couple days later and they would completely enter his territory.
“Let’s go, we’re almost out of the mountains.” said Zhong Shan.
“Really? We’re really about to enter the world of the mortal people?” Tianling-er exclaimed excitedly.
“Careful, there are freezing crows here, last time, they nearly got me. Let’s just pick up our pace and hurry out of this area first.” nodded Zhong Shan with a serious tone in his voice.
“Okay.” nodded Tianling-er
As such, the two of them sped through the mountain quickly.
Zhong Shan’s fastest speed up and down the mountain, even with his Wind Chaser Boots, couldn’t compare to Tianling-er who just flew through the canyons.
“I’ll fly ahead, hurry up a bit.” laughed Tianling-er. Still on her red silk, she flew off.
Zhong Shan continued sprinting. As soon as he arrived at the base of the mountain.
“Caw ~~~~~~~~~~~”
“Caw ~~~~~~~~~~~”
Two cries from the freezing crows caused Zhong Shan to immediately lift his head. Upon inspection, Zhong Shan’s heart skipped a beat, he knew that misfortune would soon come.
This is because, in the sky, Tianling-er was on one end of her red silk, but on the tail end, the two freezing crows perched.
“Caw~~~~~~~~~~~”
“Caw~~~~~~~~~~~”
In the mountains, umpteenth freezing crows flew around Tianling-er, each one of them spewing cold mist and charging at Tianling-er. She continued to bat her red silk around to fend them off.
These freezing crows weren’t even worth her time, yet she was enjoying the battle thoroughly, however, at the same time, Zhong Shan was sweating profusely from fright.
This is because, Zhong Shan discovered that more and more freezing crows were gathering around Tianling-er. Also, as the number of freezing crows increase, so too does their power, one after another a more powerful crow appears.
The frost breaths were much stronger than before, also the crows in the sky were continuously cawing, calling for its brethren.
Originally quite happy, Tianling-er suddenly began to worry, because she could also see that there are more and more freezing crows arriving slowly, as if they couldn’t keep up. From the south there was a ma.s.sive number of freezing crows flying towards to her.
“Come to me!” Zhong Shan shouted towards Tianling-er, as he moved towards her.
Tianling-er can fly, the freezing crows can fly, she killed this many crows and just wants to leave?
“Caw~~~~~~~~~~~”
“Caw~~~~~~~~~~~”
A huge number of freezing crows charged at Tianling-er, how could they just let her leave? Endlessly spewing frost breaths, causing Tianling-er’s descent to be obstructed.
The freezing crows are usually very weak as they can only spew frost breath, and normally they wouldn’t be a problem for Tianling-er, however, there are a lot of relentless crows, and that number is increasing.
There are so many of them that descending the mountain isn’t even an option for Tianling-er anymore. She’s blocked by crows in every direction, with a large number of frost breaths attacking her, as though a cage of ice and snow suddenly appeared around her.
Although, surround Tianling-er is really completely ice and snow, with countless freezing crows spewing their frost breaths, causing Tianling-er’s path down the mountain to freeze.
“Why are there so many?” she asked whilst fighting, but her tone also held a hint of crying from frustration, obviously being the first time she’s met this kind of situation.
In her panic, she waved her red silk frantically every which way, with numerous crows covering her up.
Gradually, Tianling-er has been completely surrounded by crows, she couldn’t see outside at all. Tianling-er could feel that there were crows in all directions: above, below, left or right, it was all crows.
“Caw~~~~~~~~~~~”
“Caw~~~~~~~~~~~”
The crows cawed whilst they spewed their frost breaths. Their caws made Tianling-er panic even more, at the same time, Tianling-er’s body was completely covered in white frost, with more and more frost breaths collecting on her body. So much so that her two feet started to feel numb. At that moment, Tianling-er felt like she had been abandoned by the world, incomparable helplessness, incomparable fear. Her eyes also became bloodshot as though she had been crying.
“Rarrrrrgh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~”
Wallowing in helplessness, Tianling-er suddenly heard Zhong Shan’s battle cry.
That loud howl was like a wakeup call, as though shaking Tianling-er’s entire body, the helplessness from earlier all but vanished in that instant. Hope, Tianling-er had incomparable hope, Zhong Shan had come to save her.
At that moment, all the tears that she held back finally poured forth. She turned her head looking towards the direction where she heard Zhong Shan’s voice.
An opening in the prison of crows that held her moments before had also been made by Zhong Shan.
With a slash of the machete, wreathed in murderous intent, he beheaded three crows. Zhong Shan’s eyes were bloodshot red, filled with capillaries and his body was also in a similar state as Tianling-er, covered in frost.
Zhong Shan used his Demonic Body Toning Method, causing his skin to thicken a lot, and only after he completed the technique did he charge in. Even so, he felt unbearably frozen.
Seeing Tianling-er’s emotional state when she saw him, Zhong Shan also hardened his resolve and although his entire body was being battered by the crows’ frost breath, in the end it would be worth it.
At that moment, Tianling-er’s body was largely frozen.
Zhong Shan charged ahead, with one sweep, hugging Tianling-er and her red silk in his arms.
The opening he made earlier had now been filled by more crows. Where Tianling-er was alone before to face this dire situation, now the two will face it together.