Chapter 23
Xian Jian Feng stood like a statue, the smile on his face stiffening and beginning to twitch. His facial expression slowly changed as if he had just seen something both horrifying and incredible.
While he stood motionless, the women in his harem began whispering about the woman with the white veil. "Hey, do you know where that woman came from? She's Qin Lou, right?" one of the girls in a yellow robe asked.
"Yeah, she was once a genius of the Snow Wind School, but due to some accident, she became trash and can't improve her cultivation."
"But she's still a primary-stage Gold Core Realm cultivator. I don't think she's trash."
"She may be, but she's unable to use her spiritual Qi anymore and is too weak to be considered a Gold Core," said a girl wearing a white robe as she walked toward the group. The girl, who seemed to be a student of the Snow Wind School, had a fresh face and long hair tied in a bun. She gave a malicious sneer as she looked at the disappearing figure of Qin Lou. This was a common reaction, as many students at the Snow Wind School held a grudge against Qin Lou for having defeated them in the past. This girl was one of them.
"Hello, sisters! My name is Shan Su, a student at Snow Wind School. I hope you won't associate yourselves with that trashy woman. You'll just ruin your reputation and regret it," Shan Su said, her face full of false concern.
"Who is Qin Lou, really? Her background is so mysterious," one of the girls asked.
"Ha, ha. Let me tell you who she really is," Shan Su said, glancing at the handsome features of the still-stunned Xian Jian Feng, a small blush appearing on her face. "Qin Lou was once my friend... but she tricked me into hiding her cultivation level. She is just an adopted daughter of two mortal farmers. I discovered that when she was born, she was already at the middle-stage of the Body Refining level. But no matter how much of a genius she was before, her power level now is only that of a middle-stage Core Forming Realm. So you don't have to be scared of her." Shan Su said with a smile.
When Xian Jian Feng's face changed and began to show a horrified look, everyone was dumbfounded. He subconsciously looked at them with disgust in his unfocused eyes.
"Too ugly... Very ugly..." he muttered.
"Brother Feng! That's too much! Why are you calling us ugly? Just because you saw a beauty, you'll call us ugly now?" one of the women shouted, looking hurt, her eyes beginning to tear up. She had always considered herself a beauty, so being called ugly by the man she liked hurt her heart.
The same expression was on everyone's faces, and Shan Su had an incredulous look on her face. She couldn't believe he called these women ugly. She thought perhaps Qin Lou had given him a love potion or cast a love spell.
"What? Oh, no... No... I... I... didn't mean you, my darlings," Xian Jian Feng said, as if waking from a stupor. "I mean, that girl Qin Lou... She... she looks so hideous. She has a large burn mark on her face and many wounds all over. Gosh... it's too horrible." He hugged himself, a shiver running down his spine.
Seeing his reaction, the women felt elated that their man hadn't called them ugly but became curious at the same time. They now knew why she always covered her face with a veil.
But Qin Lou didn't mind what these people thought of her. For now, she was satisfied, having discovered how people reacted to her face. Since she found that it could stun someone for so long, she could use it as a defensive weapon someday. With a satisfied look, she entered her room and began to prepare for the start of the inter-school activities the next day.
Meanwhile, at the Mountainside
A lone figure of a young man wearing a bamboo hat and strange goggles walked toward a huge mountain. When he saw the mountain from afar, he became curious and wanted to check it out. But when he was about three kilometers away, he stopped. A curious look appeared in his eyes from behind his goggles. He saw cultivator auras inside the mountain, and it seemed there were many of them. Judging from the position of the people inside, he deduced that the mountain might not be real but an illusion.
He decided to investigate the formation to see if he could find a way in. He walked around for a while, slowly studying the flow of Qi. After checking the formation, he was dumbfounded. It was a Level 7 Illusionary Great Formation. With his current understanding, he was unable to open or even disrupt it. He also found a secondary defensive formation inside: a Level 7 Force Shield. This would be a great challenge for Shin Jiao's current knowledge and understanding of formations. But if he could learn from it, his knowledge would jump to a new level.
Without a second thought, Shin Jiao began to study the formation and its patterns. After a day, he still couldn't figure out the crux of it. He wanted to give up, as a Level 7 formation was truly too difficult for him at the moment. The senior who set it up might be a master and very meticulous. But just as he was about to give up, he noticed a slight energy reading on a small, inconspicuous stone. It was an ordinary rock on the ground, but the energy it emitted was minuscule, like a thin thread. If he hadn't formed his 31st sphere in his dantian and been able to use spiritual Qi, he would have had a hard time finding that fine strand of Qi.
Upon discovering the Qi strand, Shin Jiao could now see how the formation worked. Although it took him some time to figure out the formation and see its weaknesses and strengths, he now understood a little about it. After doing this, he still couldn't remove or even open the formation, but he could make a small hole or crevice as an entry point, but only for a window of about five seconds. After that, the breach would forcefully close, and if he were to be trapped, he would be instantly disintegrated.
The next day, Shin Jiao rose from inside a tree hollow, where he had spent a day making at least 30 formation flags and 25 runes. After resting and regaining some of his used energy by absorbing demon cores, he stood up and approached the far western part of the mountain, a path no one would ever take, as it was near a cliff. He set up a formation to counteract the defensive and illusion formations. After almost half a day of calculations and setup, Shin Jiao stood in the middle of it. All he needed to do was throw the two flags and two runes into a specific area to activate it.
"Okay, I need to be fast. I only have about five seconds. Here goes nothing," Shin Jiao said as he quickly threw the flags and runes into their places.
A low hum, audible only to him, echoed. A man-sized crack appeared in the huge mountain formation, and Shin Jiao immediately dashed in. Once inside, he realized something was wrong. He hadn't calculated the distance between the illusion formation and the defensive formation, and because of this, he needed to travel about 300 meters as quickly as possible within the short five-second window. Seeing this, cold sweat trickled down his back as a great sense of danger filled his senses.
"Holy crap! Ahhh..." Shin Jiao suddenly used the burst speed of his enchanted shoes and dashed toward the exit. As he ran, time seemed to stand still as he used all his abilities to escape his predicament. As his figure approached the exit, the opening suddenly began to collapse, meaning the crevice would close instantly. Shin Jiao closed his eyes, letting fate decide his life, as he was already at his fastest possible speed.
"Zap!"
Upon hearing the closing sound, Shin Jiao felt a little happy, but then, all of a sudden:
"Umph... Thump..."
With a thumping sound, Shin Jiao found himself hitting something or someone and falling down. Luckily, he stopped abruptly, feeling that he was outside of the crevice. But he felt that someone was below him. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was on top of something smooth and soft. The pleasant aroma of a flowery scent filled his senses, almost drowning him in blissful harmony. He unconsciously breathed in deeply, as if not wanting to forget the heavenly scent.
Then he suddenly heard a silent whimper, which jolted him back to reality. When he lifted his gaze, he found he was on a woman's ample bosom, no less than Cherry Lao's, but she had a different scent. Shin Jiao quickly jumped up, not wanting to offend the woman, who wore a white veil over her face. Even though he couldn't see her eyes, he felt her glaring at him, and he could tell tears were forming in her eyes.
"I'm really sorry! I was just passing by and was curious about this mountain. I didn't know there were people here," Shin Jiao said frantically, lying without batting an eye.
The woman remained silent. She quickly got up and used a simple wind spell to dust off her robe. Then she turned her head to Shin Jiao and was suddenly stunned. Shin Jiao immediately understood what was going on. She couldn't see his cultivation aura, and judging by her reaction, she found out he was a mortal. Shin Jiao sighed deeply to himself.
"This mortal aura thing will always cause me more trouble. I think I need to find a way to emit a small amount of cultivation aura," he thought.
"You're... you're just a mortal, right? But how did you... How were you able to pass through here?" she asked with a confused voice.
Shin Jiao was stunned when he heard her melodious voice. It was like listening to an immortal goddess, making him feel blissful.
"This woman not only smells good, but her voice is like an enchanting song that can mesmerize one's soul. This is not good," Shin Jiao thought, as his defensive flags suddenly went up.
"Um... sorry about... what happened a while ago. I was just in a rush to get out as the crack seemed to be closing," Shin Jiao explained.
The woman stood there in silence, but after sensing that his expression and words were true, she just nodded. She waved her hand, and the basket full of medicinal herbs on the ground flew up into her hand. She turned around and was about to walk away when Shin Jiao, waking from his amazement at her control of the wind spell, called out.
"Ah, excuse me! My name is Shin Jiao, and I'm a little lost here. Can you help me?" he asked with a sincere tone.
The woman didn't reply and just pointed in a direction. Seeing her cold demeanor, Shin Jiao gave up asking and just followed where she pointed. But before he walked away, he cupped his fist and nodded. "Thank you."
Shin Jiao went on his way, not minding the woman's cold attitude anymore. After walking for a few steps, he discovered something strange: a thin trail on the ground. Feeling an ominous foreboding, he quickly turned around and put on his goggles. He then saw the aura of a tiny Level 4 snake—a Stealth Viper. According to Gubu's records, it was a very small beast and one of the top 100 most venomous snakes. Upon seeing the beast silently approaching the woman, Shin Jiao quickly made his move. Using his fastest speed possible, he dashed and grabbed the viper's head in an instant before it could strike.
Hearing the noise, the woman suddenly turned back and saw Shin Jiao holding a struggling Stealth Viper. "You! That... that's a Stealth Viper. How did you...?" she said, stammering as she quickly stepped back.
Shin Jiao exerted a small amount of strength and killed the viper. He unconsciously threw it inside his ring, which made the woman gasp.
"How could you have a storage ring? You're not a cultivator," she asked in confusion.
Shin Jiao didn't want to explain anything else, as he didn't want to make more mistakes and expose his secrets. "Um... anyway, this is my thanks for showing me the direction. Be careful next time, okay? And you really have a lovely voice." Shin Jiao said, feeling gratitude toward the woman despite her cold attitude.
Shin Jiao then turned around and began to walk in the direction she had pointed. The woman seemed to hesitate but then clenched her fist. She wasn't an ungrateful woman. After being saved by him, she already had a good impression of the young man, and she knew that if he walked in the direction she pointed, he would be apprehended by the protectors.
"Wait!" she said in a low voice.
But Shin Jiao heard it and turned around with a knitted brow. He didn't know why she had called out, but her voice was truly too pleasant to brush off. The woman, seeing that he had stopped, walked calmly toward him.
"Follow me." She then walked in another direction, and Shin Jiao followed, curious as to why she had decided to help him.