Second Senior Brother He LingSober and calm, the gaze of the man in black clothes swept over him and immediately moved away, but then landed on the tortoise lying on the ground nearby. He lowered his eyes and said: “My tortoise disappeared for four days. I heard he was staying with you.”
Wen Jing slowly stood sideways. He covered his ice-cold privates, feeling somewhat distressed: “Yes, he’s been living here.”
The clothes at his feet were soiled with sweat and mud. They were unfit to be worn.
Clean clothes…….
Hanging behind Jun YanZhi on a bamboo pole, they fluttered in the wind.
Jun YanZhi looked at the large tortoise: “Has he caused any trouble?”
Embarra.s.sed, Wen Jing gave a hollow laugh: “He’s very sensible and hasn’t done anything to cause trouble… … senior brother Jun, on the bamboo pole behind you, there’s a set of clean clothes. Could you… …”
Before he finished speaking, a light grey set of pants and jacket flew over to him. Wen Jing promptly gave his body a cursory wipe, put on his pants, and fastened them tight, his heart relaxing.
Jun YanZhi’s gaze settled on Wen Jing’s body. He smiled faintly and his lips moved as if he would speak but ultimately said nothing. He leisurely squatted down and picked up the large tortoise: “… Many thanks for your care, I’ll be taking him back.”
He had a gentle face simple and elegant as a cloud. Behind his slender figure, mist curled into the air. It was like he was a ninth level immortal….
Wen Jing hurriedly corrected his expression, saying: “Farewell senior brother Jun.”
The man in black clothes holding the large tortoise flew into the sky. Turning around he glanced back and slightly raised an eyebrow: “Until we meet again.”
The large tortoise still looked vaguely distracted, but briefly moved his four small legs as he looked at Wen Jing.
The youngster followed the man’s figure with his eyes into the distance. Gradually the setting sun vanished within the clouds and in the end the sky grew dark.
♦
It was half a month later, late autumn. The ground gradually became hard. Wen Jing, Mo ShaoYan, and Gu JinPing, very busy almost every day harvesting produce from the garden for storage, held a small meeting.
Liu QianMo was also present holding a cup of tea as he listened to their discussion.
Gu JinPing, the oldest, cleared his throat to speak: “We’ve harvested wax gourds, kidney beans, sweet potato leaves, string beans, yams, chinese cabbage, and haricot. There aren’t many kinds of fruit, only pears, hawthorn fruit, and peaches. The three storerooms are full. If we are economical, we should be fine for the winter.”
“The spirit gra.s.s?”
Gu JinPing said: “The only kinds we planted was the spirit gra.s.s used to refine Yellow Dragon pill and Gold Marrow pill. Both have already been harvested, a total of 148 plants. I’m afraid the rest will be left to spend the winter in the garden.”
Liu QianMo nodded his head: “Spirit gra.s.s takes three to five years to mature, you’ll have to keep careful watch over it.”
Gu JinPing said: “For the next thing, do you want us to take turns taking care of the seedlings in the vegetable garden?”
Liu QianMo was about to answer when Mo ShaoYan very slowly said: “Eldest senior brother, don’t listen to him, he’s just feeling lazy.”
Gu JinPing angrily said: “How am I lazy? We don’t have much work to do. Eldest senior brother do you see that? You see how he talks to me?”
The corner of Liu QianMo’s mouth twitched: “What JinPing said makes sense. In three years is the peak examination. You should take advantage of these winter months to practice hard. Try to raise your cultivation at least two layers. Next spring I will evaluate your progress.”
Gu JinPing went blank thinking of his plan. He regretted his earlier words: ” …We still need to tend the seedlings.”
Mo ShaoYan said slowly: “What did you say?”
Gu JinPing got angry: “You shut up.”
Liu QianMo said: “In that case, you three should take turns tending to the seedlings. First Jin Ping, second ShaoYan, third Lu Jing, and so on. The remaining time you are forbidden to goof off, each will cultivate in their respective houses.”
The three nodded: “Understood.”
Since then, Wen Jing only needed to go to the vegetable garden every third day to tend the seedlings. He had a lot of free time. In another month, his cultivation showed faint signs of breakthrough to the sixth level of Qi Refining. It was a pity his innate comprehension was average and so his progress in practicing his techniques was rather slow.
This day, Wen Jing had recently gone out only to see drifting snowflakes and a vast expanse of whiteness.
Winter was finally approaching.
In the open s.p.a.ce was a thin layer of snow. Crouching there was a large black tortoise sh.e.l.l, the head and four limbs were pulled inwards.
Wen Jing didn’t know if the tortoise was able to tolerate the cold so he picked him up and brought him into the house, placing him on the bed.
The tortoise’s head and legs came out and his black eyes attentively watched Wen Jing as he proceeded to wrap him in a blanket.
That tortoise stayed for ten days, almost half a month, yet Jun YanZhi failed to appear. Wen Jing treated the tortoise as his pet and sometimes held him while sleeping.
This afternoon, it was once again Wen Jing’s turn to care for the seedlings in the garden.
He wrapped the big tortoise in a quilt and left behind a dish of corn kernels before he left.
Just as he arrived at the garden, he entered to see a mess.
Almost twenty percent of the spirit gra.s.s had been eaten. Remnants of green leaves were everywhere. Standing in the middle was a small golden beast still devouring away while making happy noises.
Wen Jing’s face turned ashen, without thinking, he rushed into the kitchen to grab the vinegar. At this time it was winter. The water within the bucket had frozen. He used great effort to melt the ice and poured a bottle of vinegar in.
The small golden beast smelled the vinegar and lifted its head to look around but lured by the spirit gra.s.s it again bowed its head as it resumed eating. Carrying the bucket, Wen Jing slowly approached and ruthlessly splashed the contents out.
The bucket of vinegar water spilled all over the body of the small golden beast.
The small beast immediately bellowed and jumped up.
The vinegar water made its exterior itch intolerably, as if several thousand ants were biting away. It was extremely painful. Receiving this kind of torment, it cried out in distress as it tumbled about before heading towards Wen Jing with the desire to bite him to death.
Wen Jing didn’t dare be careless. He dashed away from the vegetable garden with all his strength.
He ran for a long time before the small beast weakly fell with a ‘bang‘ on the hard ground.
Wen Jing found a rope and firmly tied it up on the spot.
“The gathering spirit beast has a golden body. Its exterior is hard and it has an extreme fear of vinegar. Splashing it with diluted vinegar water will cause an intense itch and then later it will lose consciousness. It is a pity that few people know this. Even Wu Ying, it’s owner, had no knowledge of this.”
—— excerpt from《A Calamity for All Living Things》chapter fifteen.
Just as he finished tying it up, from the distance came the voice of a man: “Eight Winds, come!”
Wen Jing dragged the gathering spirit beast, placed it in the secret cellar of the vegetable garden, and gave it a fierce kick.
“Eight Winds? Let’s go!” The man outside waited for a long time but didn’t see even the trace of a person. He calmly entered the vegetable garden, “Eight Winds! Have you had enough?”
Wu Ying looked around but didn’t see the figure of the small golden beast. He only saw a youngster standing before him.
Young, only thirteen or fourteen years, thin and st.u.r.dy, he had an attractive appearance.
His thin lips were tightly pursed, although he seemed a little tense, his gaze was cold and firm.
Wu Ying’s brows gathered: “Have you seen Eight Winds?”
Wen Jing nodded his head: “I saw him, I also captured him.”
Wu Ying sneered: “Only you? You caught him?”
Wen Jing coldly returned his gaze and sneered back: “You can believe it or not.”
Wu Ying doubtfully frowned, and shouted again: “Eight Winds”, but there wasn’t any response. With an ashen face he asked: “What did you do with it?”
“It’s not dead yet, but I can kill it.”
Wu Ying had raised this spirit gathering beast for several years. He had only used it to gather spiritual energy to help form his foundation but this person was threatening to kill it? In the hollow of his palm a ball of spirit energy began to give off a white light as he said threateningly: “Return Eight Winds to me!”
Wen Jing ran away as he cried out: “Your spirit beast has eaten a huge amount of our spirit gra.s.s! Refund our money first!”
Wu Ying shot off a ray of spirit energy at Wen Jing, hitting the edge of his foot and smashing a block of stone to pieces.
“Return my Eight Winds!”
“Pay back the money! A total of 212 spirit stones! You refund our money and I’ll return your Eight Winds!”
Wu Ying, angry and resentful said: “I will not!”
Wen Jing thought to himself: ‘This scoundrel is as poor as dirt. He probably doesn’t even have 20 spirit stones. Doesn’t even have the money to buy spirit gra.s.s but comes over to bully us. I’ve never seen such a shameless person.’
With a ‘bang’ his shoulder was. .h.i.t with a burst of pain. Wen Jing dropped to the ground.
Wu Ying angrily came up to him: “Eight Winds?”
Wen Jing coldly clutched his shoulder: “You find him yourself.”
Wu Ying anxiously rushed around the vegetable garden trying to find it but nowhere did he see a trace of the gathering spirit beast: “Will you say it? If you don’t I’ll immediately burn your vegetable garden!”
With a shout, the hay on the ground caught on fire.
Wen Jing felt somewhat afraid: If this garden was burned, then what would Hui Shi peak eat this winter? However if he showed weakness now, this Wu Ying would surely continue to take advantage of them.
He steeled his heart: “Then burn it, better burn this garden up and me with it. No only will you not recover your gathering spirit beast, you also will be burning someone of Hui Shi peak. A crime of murdering a fellow sect member!”
Staring at him, Wu Ying’s complexion was pale. The intense blaze spread rapidly almost reading the storeroom.
Just then, a whistling wind arrived, flying into the garden. Abruptly, a burst of sudden rain fell from the sky and extinguished the fire with lightning speed. A single dark gray figure stood at the side of the two individuals and coldly said: “Who set this fire?”
This man was tall, looked about 25 or 26 years old. His profile was as sharp as a knife. He coldly scowled.
When Wen Jing had just joined the peak, Liu QianMo had brought him around to meet everyone. He hurriedly spoke: “Second senior brother, this Wu Ying set the fire to burn our vegetable garden!”
In a fit of rage at Wu Ying’s actions, the man in grey’s palm slashed by Wu Ying.
“Ah——”
Wu Ying screamed and fell to the ground, his complexion deathly pale. The bone of his shoulder was shattered.
“Second senior brother He Ling had a variant wind spiritual root, a callous temper, and didn’t tolerate listening to anyone’s nonsense. If he met someone he didn’t like he would immediately beat them up. He had caused numerous disturbances while acting for Hui Shi peak. Learning from painful experience, Liu QianMo made him cultivate in seclusion so as to avoid him meddling in other people’s business.”
—— excerpt from《A Calamity for All Living Things》chapter fifteen.
Wen Jing dazedly looked at He Ling only to see him smash downwards again with another palm strike. He was uneasy.
Authors notes: None
Translators notes: The turtle was an it until they actually started talking about him and since it sounded weird I decided it was a he. Leaving the gathering spirit beast an it for now though.
I have a bad habit of looking at recipes and mentally planning meals but never following through on it. I would probably die of starvation if it weren’t so uncomfortable to go hungry.