Qin Feng was not afraid that it would run out of energy before he could reach his cave, although it was clear that it was running a little low. After all, he had used a good bit of it earlier, before he started his run, to awe the trio of idiots earlier at the Medicine Hall.He would have set the puppet aside, he decided, once he was back in the formation. That should allow it to absorb the power that it needed to function from the same. Of course, if anyone from the School realized that he was draining one of the School"s alarm systems for his own benefit ...
Qin Feng snorted to himself, as he pulled out the talisman that he had gotten from Elder Ming. And quietly triggered it, even as he walked into his little hut in the medicine fields. The old man would think that he was the one making the arrangements, to let Qin Feng slip in and out of the School grounds. Which would be enough to make him keep an eye out for the younger man.
Surely that would be enough to keep anyone from finding out what he was really doing, when he was shut inside his little hut. Of course, that meant that he had very little time, to do what he had to do!
He hurried into the back of the simple little room where he slept, and pulled the bed aside, revealing the hole in the wall behind it. Slipping inside it, he carefully stepped over the lines of the formation that took up almost every inch of s.p.a.ce within the little hidden room, and sat the puppet down in the middle of it. After he had taken off his pack, and left it in a corner of the same, of course. He didn"t forget about that!
Then he began the ritual - just twelve lines that he had memorized by heart. It was an old spell, and he doubted that there was anyone in all of the Southlands who would recognize it. What it did was to separate his consciousness from the puppet that he was wearing, and cast his ... What was the best term to call it? He had considered Soul and Spirit, but still haven"t decided how he wanted to name that part of him.
It was no more than a shred of his consciousness, but it was the part of him that allowed him to understand, and interact with other people. Without it ...
The puppet fell lifeless at once, as Qin Feng"s consciousness flowed back into his true body. The same one that he had hidden deeper inside a storage cave that lay behind the hut. One that was surrounded by all the medicines that he had harvested from the medicine fields.
Which should be enough to mask the scent of the herbs that he had just brought back.
Well, it would have, if he didn"t have those special cases that he received from Fu Lai Medicine Hall, he reminded himself, as he blinked his eyes open. And took a deep breath. He still knew what was going on with his true body, of course, while he was in the puppet. So it had been a simple thing, to pretend to be doing his Breathing Exercises, while he was away.
Although it was a bit of a lie, to call it a pretense. The body was doing that, and consuming its energy while it did that. Even though his consciousness was not altogether present. So it did get tired. Which was probably why he yawned, the moment that he was back inside it.
Qin Feng grinned as he looked down at himself, even before he started to rise from his cross-legged, lotus position. This was much better than the old body that looked and felt like a pickled prune! His younger body was much, much better!
The face of the same was rather handsome, although there was something about the set of the eyes and the natural curl of the lips that gave it a certain devious air. And his skin was as fair and as smooth as a woman"s too. Something that he had taken pains to work at, with the medicines under his hand.
But it simply would not tan, so he had given up a short while back, and accepted the fact that he would always look like a pretty-boy.
Still, the body was tall for his somewhat tender age of sixteen, and the frame was respectably robust, for all that it was rather slim. Nothing that would give anyone the impression that he was effeminate. And his hands were suitably toughened, to lend credence to the story that he was working hard in the medicine fields.
All in all, he was content with a body like that.
He shook his head then, and reminded himself that he had other things to do, other than admiring or feeling sorry for himself. And quickly stepped out of his so-called Secret Cultivation Spot, to retrieve the goods that he had brought back from the City, as well as cover-up the other secret that he had in the house.
He returned to his little hidden room, and quickly checked up on the puppet. But it looked none the worse for wear, and was sitting down quietly in the heart of the lines etched into the ground. A soft chant triggered the formation, feeding the same with the energies that he had stolen from the talismanic barrier.
Content that he had done everything that he should, he pushed his flimsy-looking bed back into position after he picked up his pack again. Then he reached into the same, to take out a single stalk of the Purple Blood Gra.s.s that he had prepared earlier, and put the rest away in another hole, under another corner of the hut.
Only then did he tidy up his clothes, and changed his shoes to a pair that carried the dust from the medicine gardens. If anyone caught him with the single stalk of Purple Blood Leaf that he was carrying then, they would just believe that he had stolen the same from that restricted area. As for the rest of the goods from the City, they could wait until he had more leisure to deal with them.
Once he was content that they were unlikely to be discovered, he checked his somewhat pungent robe again, and left for the Elders" Residence. It wouldn"t do to smell to fresh, since he was supposed to have been working in the fields all day.
It was time to deal with Elder Ming Guanhe!
* * *