Three days later, everything was ready. Cultivators from Heavenly Sword Sect and Heavenly Demon Palace set out with Bi Shu, leaving the sect to begin their investigation from Tianshu City, hoping to uncover a second parasitic blood insect.
Jian Dan didn't go to see them off. Partings among cultivators were common. A short closed-door cultivation could last a century or two. There was no need for extra words. They would meet again.
Bi Shu walked between the two teams, her face a little ashen. She didn't dare speak. Surrounded by high-level cultivators, she didn't dare act rashly either.
Jian Mao gave Bi Shu a brief look, then said to Mo Su, "Let's hope we discover something this time."
"Yes. May your words be auspicious."
Mo Su kept his tone even. Outwardly calm, he still grumbled in his heart. Jian Lu Zūnshàng's influence really was something. The mission lead this time was a Unity late-stage peak expert, practically half a step into Mahayana. That alone made him feel much more at ease.
As for the Mahayana Zhēnzūn guarding from the shadows, there was no chance to meet them yet.
The Tianyue Squad from the Battle Hall wore plain clothes, trailing in scattered positions behind Heavenly Demon Palace's group, while Jian Mao Zūnshàng followed invisibly.
Heavenly Demon Palace didn't bother to disguise themselves. With Bi Shu in tow, they looked like an aristocratic party paying visits. They walked and rested, even attended an auction hosted in Tianshu City, met core disciples from several major cultivation clans, and proceeded at an unhurried pace.
They played their roles with patience, treating Bi Shu like the cherished daughter of a great clan out for practical training, surrounded by high-level protectors. Wherever they went, spirit stones flowed like water, drawing many glances. But once people saw the "young miss's" bodyguards, they backed away.
Those with real strength were exactly the people Bi Shu needed to probe. Even so, beneath Heavenly Sword Sect's very nose in Tianshu City, they found nothing.
The whole way, Jian Feng acted together with Heavenly Demon Palace's team, watching Bi Shu closely so he could report back to his own sect at once.
In his ash-gray robe patterned like mist over mountains, Jian Feng's not-yet-recovered silver hair made him look even more like a banished immortal. Mo Su's gaze drifted to him again and again.
Mo Qi and Mo Yi pretended not to notice. They boxed Bi Shu in between them, alert to every movement around them, and politely left the other two some space.
"I brought you that strange flame last time. You still haven't refined it?" Mo Su glanced at the silver hair, unsure. He'd wanted to ask in the guest hall but Jian Feng seemed reluctant to talk after so long apart. Today he couldn't help it.
"I refined it already," Jian Feng replied.
"Then why hasn't your hair returned to normal?"
"I don't know."
Mo Su's brows pinched, then he offered, "At our next stop, let me check. Maybe you haven't fully refined my pure yin qi. That could be the reason."
"It's nothing serious." Jian Feng lowered his eyes, politely refusing.
"Chen Feng, don't brush this off. Pure yin qi is cultivated over years, building up until it erupts. I can't guarantee it won't leave a hidden danger. If it keeps depleting inside you, that won't be good."
"Fine." Jian Feng finally agreed. He had felt a slight sluggishness when circulating his art lately.
Their conversation was all by voice transmission, which didn't affect their vigilance.
The ink-colored pendant at Jian Feng's waist quivered. He scanned it with his divine sense, then said to Mo Su, "Yan Su reports: tomorrow, two major clans in Tianshu City will hold a cultivation-partner ceremony and have invited most clan disciples to attend. Zūnshàng says we can bring Bi Shu along."
"Good. I'll make the arrangements."
That night, with characteristic generosity, Heavenly Demon Palace booked the entire Xianlai Inn.
Once everything was settled, Mo Su went straight to Jian Feng's courtyard. Jian Feng wasn't cultivating. He sat reading a jade slip from the Law Enforcement Hall, keeping up with the latest information.
When Mo Su tapped the restriction, Jian Feng already knew who it was and lifted the ward with a wave. Mo Su stepped into the courtyard. Seeing Jian Feng seated steadily at a jade table, a hint of a smile flashed in his eyes.
They sat. A brief silence followed, but both men felt it at once: the resonance of their qi lines reconnecting.
During the day, they had kept their distance on purpose. Now, a single jade table between them, the pure yang and pure yin in their bodies were stirring restlessly.
Jian Feng realized it too. The two forces were drawing each other in.
Mo Su moved first. He condensed his pure yin qi into fine threads and guided them in from Jian Feng's wrist, letting them roam slowly through his body.
The instant the pure yin entered, Jian Feng's pure yang qi surged, then tangled with it, coiling together as the two energies traveled his meridians.
Jian Feng frowned, then flicked away the excess pure yang, channeling it into Mo Su's body. A grand cycle took shape.
Yin and yang in both men coursed in endless return, reaching a new balance. Jian Feng's silver hair darkened, inch by inch.
An hour later, they separated, calming their qi. The sluggishness inside Jian Feng had vanished.
Mo Su looked at the hair that had returned to gray and smiled.
Jian Feng noticed the change as well. He cleared his throat softly. "Thank you."
"No thanks between us. You're like this because of me. But one cycle of yin and yang won't fully repair the damage."
Jian Feng brushed his gray hair. "It doesn't matter."
"I know you don't care about the color. I worry about your cultivation. In a fight, even a single breath of sluggishness is fatal. You're a sword cultivator. You know that better than I do."
Jian Feng lowered his gaze, lashes casting shadows over his eyes. Mo Su watched him, a little tense, waiting for the reply.
"Then, what do you propose?" Jian Feng lifted his eyes, a barely-there smile at the corner of his mouth.
"From here on, we travel together. If conditions allow, we'll repeat today's cycle. Let yin and yang circulate, repair your losses, and raise both our cultivations. We lose nothing."
"Alright."
Mo Su hadn't expected Jian Feng to agree so readily. Warm ripples moved in his eyes, his smile reaching the corners.
If Jian Dan had been present, she would've grinned like a little fox and said, These two, who's playing whom?
While Heavenly Demon Palace continued on, Jian Dan took a few days to relax. Then Wei Zhengrong arrived with the latest news.
Jian Dan was in her rocking chair, watching Xue Ru finish a round of body-tempering punches, then a hundred sword swings. At the side table, the girl practiced first-grade talisman drawing. With a green bamboo brush on talisman paper, her strokes were steady. In one go, she completed a beginner low-grade Dust-Cleansing Talisman.
Xue Ru held it up, studied it, then frowned. Unsatisfied, she set it down and started a second one.
One sweep of Jian Dan's divine sense told her why the talisman had dropped in grade. On the final stroke, Xue Ru's spiritual power had flagged. She'd nearly ruined it, so it landed as a lower grade.
When the second talisman was done, it had the same problem. Xue Ru frowned harder, scrutinizing the lines.
"Xue Ru, do you see the issue?"
Jian Dan lightly fanned herself and asked.
"Master, the last stroke is wrong, but I can't control it no matter what I try."
===
In this chapter Mo Su and Cao Cangfeng did casual dual cultivation. Where it can be done by touching or connecting part of their body, as in innocent way and then did cultivation together.
If you're curious and want to dive deeper into Dual Cultivation, feel free to check out my glossary on Webnovel. Just head over to my profile and look for the book titled The Xianxia Handbook: A Guide to Cultivation and Beyond. You'll find it covered in Chapter: Physiques, Body, and Its Practice.
I recommend adding it to your library—it'll save you the trouble of searching for it later, and you'll always have it on hand whenever you need a quick reference.