Huang Rong: "…"
Mu Nianci lowered her head and chuckled softly.
After lunch, Chu Yang led out Guo Jing's Xiao Hongma (Little Red Horse). Since Guo Jing hadn't taken it with him, Chu Yang decided to make the most of it and take the horse back home.
The carriage Chu Yang bought from the market had an adult horse hitched to its front, and with Xiao Hongma (Little Red Horse), one large and one small were enough.
Walking up to the carriage, Chu Yang suddenly posed a soul-searching question, "Who among you has a driver's license?"
Huang Rong: "???"
Mu Nianci: "???"
Chu Yang spread his hands, "I can't drive."
Mu Nianci immediately understood and volunteered, "Chu Yang, I've learned to drive. Let me do it."
Chu Yang nodded, feeling no embarrassment.
Although he could learn—driving wasn't difficult—he preferred to lie inside the carriage and sleep.
Huang Rong rushed into the carriage first.
The next second.
"Ah?!"
An incredulous shriek came from inside!
Mu Nianci followed in, somewhat nervously.
As expected.
It was the same shriek again.
"Ah?!"
Both were utterly shocked by the sight before them; the interior space of the carriage was terrifyingly large, almost as big as a small courtyard.
"Oh my goodness…"
Huang Rong's gaze was blank.
Even though her adaptability was strong and she had witnessed Chu Yang's "immortal magic" displayed in Yanjing City, the mental impact of such a miracle was still immense.
Mu Nianci was even more disheveled, looking almost dazed.
Chu Yang pulled open the curtain, poked half his body out, and seeing their expressions, chuckled exasperatedly, "Don't make such a fuss! This kind of thing will happen often in the future. Both of you, wipe the drool from your mouths!"
"Little Chu, are you really an immortal?"
After returning from Yanjing City, Huang Rong had been reluctant to bring up this topic. If Chu Yang admitted it, the distance between them would become as vast as light-years.
During her time away from home, Huang Rong had heard many stories of immortals and mortals falling in love from storytellers, and basically, the endings were always tragic.
Although the stories always depicted mortals falling in love with immortal maidens, wouldn't it be similar the other way around?
Recalling these thoughts, Huang Rong couldn't help but nervously clench her clothes, her small face gradually turning pale.
Mu Nianci had similar thoughts, silently lowering her head, her eyes dim.
Chu Yang didn't notice their unusual behavior. He lay in a perfect Ge You-esque slump on the soft cushion in the corner, yawning, "Thank you for thinking so highly of me. If only I really were an immortal. These are just some minor spells, not as powerful as you imagine…"
Huang Rong became lively again, her eyes sparkling.
Mu Nianci let out a long sigh of relief.
Huang Rong asked curiously, "Little Chu, where did you learn your magic?"
Chu Yang knew what Huang Rong was thinking and chuckled, "Don't even think about it. You can't learn it. This depends on one's physique. Besides me, there might not be a second person in this world who can learn it."
"How can that be?!" Huang Rong stomped her foot in frustration, pulling on Chu Yang's sleeve and starting to act spoiled.
It wasn't that Chu Yang was being secretive, but rather that he was limited by the rules of this world.
The reason Chu Yang was not restricted was because of his Soul Palace.
After letting Huang Rong fuss for a while, Chu Yang reminded Mu Nianci to get going. Huang Rong saw that Chu Yang wasn't falling for her tricks and understood that it was truly impossible, so she sulked by herself.
The map of this world was quite strange: Southern Song, Northern Song, Jin, and Liao were four neighboring countries, while Mongolia and Great Ming stood in opposition further afield.
In between them were countries like Dali, Western Xia, and Tubo.
This journey to Mongolia to obtain the Dragon Elephant Prajna Palm required crossing several countries in one go.
Since it was a long route, Chu Yang naturally hoped to maximize his gains. If he only took one copy of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Palm, it would be somewhat a waste of time.
Therefore, Chu Yang's first stop was Zhongnan Mountain, at the border between Southern Song and Northern Song.
If he remembered correctly, Wang Chongyang had carved a portion of the Nine Yin Manual into the Living Dead Tomb before his death.
As for the upper and lower volumes of the Nine Yin Manual carried by Mei Chaofeng and Zhou Botong, Chu Yang chose to ignore them because they would require a detour.
The Song Dynasty was divided into the Southern Song and Northern Song Dynasties.
The Southern Song's territory was half the size of the Northern Song's and was in confrontation with the Jin Dynasty.
The Northern Song had vast territory, and the opposing Liao Dynasty was equally a behemoth.
The four powers were in a strange balance, with constant friction in recent years.
Southern Song and Northern Song were relatively better; after all, they were brothers from the same root. No matter how fierce their arguments, they were limited to verbal attacks among scholars or arena battles among martial arts experts.
There had never been excessive conflicts along their borders, not escalating to national confrontations. In times of emergency, the two countries would even cooperate in battle to jointly resist enemies.
There was no such friendliness between Jin and Liao. If it weren't for the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties eyeing them covetously, forcing them to put down their weapons, these generational enemies would have long since bashed each other's brains out. Cooperation was absolutely impossible; at most, they wouldn't kick each other when they were down.
Otherwise, in terms of actual combat strength, the Jin-Liao alliance would be stronger than the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties.
Among the four nations, the friction between Northern Song and Liao was extremely intense, almost a small skirmish every three days and a major battle every five days.
The Northern Song was often at a disadvantage, suffering heavy troop losses.
Fortunately, the Northern Song produced many martial arts experts, especially Qiao Feng, the leader of the Northern Beggar Clan, who led heroes to resist the enemy outside the battlefield.
High-ranking military officers either disappeared or committed suicide, making Liao extremely wary and hesitant to advance their troops on a large scale.
Chu Yang had previously heard the gossip about Qiao Feng's great battle with Hong Qigong at a storyteller's in a teahouse, which ended inconclusively due to Liao troops invading the border and defending the city.
Staying in a small county town, far from the war, he had not yet realized the hardships of the world. But after leaving the city, especially the closer he got to the border, Chu Yang witnessed many unspeakable tragedies.
Although it didn't reach the extent of bodies strewn across fields or cannibalism, he had seen many horrifying scenes of headless corpses floating downstream.
Huang Rong was badly frightened, unable to sleep well for several days and nights, mumbling in her nightmares.
Mu Nianci displayed astonishing maternal radiance at this time.
Not only did she not dwell on Huang Rong's previous rudeness towards her, but she instead gently comforted Huang Rong to sleep every day, and their friendship developed rapidly.
Having seen bodies floating in rivers, everyone dared not draw water from the wild casually, unless it was spring water from the mountains.
Chu Yang got a large water tank, expanded its space with the Immeasurable Expansion Charm, and then filled it with clean water using magic.
However, this made the interior space, which was already full of supplies, even more crowded.
Realizing that the space was insufficient, Chu Yang felt it was necessary to improve the interior configuration of the carriage.
More importantly, sleeping was very inconvenient. Chu Yang was accustomed to sleeping completely naked, and with girls beside him, he could only sleep in his clothes.
A month and a half later, the carriage arrived at a small town at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain.
The three found an inn in the town to rest, and Chu Yang began tinkering with the carriage in the backyard.
After further expanding the interior space, he used Wood Release to create several rooms and added some furniture, turning the carriage into a true "RV."
After resting for a night, the three purchased supplies in town, resumed their journey, and entered Zhongnan Mountain at noon.
Even the strongest sunlight, when it penetrates the layers of mountains, only leaves mottled shadows, adding an eerie aura to the mysterious mountains.
Under normal circumstances, a carriage could not travel on mountain roads, but Chu Yang knew magic and cast a levitation spell on the carriage.
Among the mountains, two horses pulled a floating carriage as if on flat ground, and coupled with Mu Nianci's beautiful appearance in red, it easily reminded people of those popular ghost stories.
Before they even pinpointed the location of the Living Dead Tomb, Chu Yang and his companions had already frightened six or seven young Taoist priests from the Quanzhen Sect who were gathering herbs in the mountains.
"How about we find a place to park the carriage and continue on foot?" Mu Nianci, worried about scaring more people, cautiously suggested, fearing she might displease Chu Yang.
Chu Yang nodded. Anyway, they would have to get out of the carriage once they found the place; the carriage couldn't enter the Living Dead Tomb.
The three got out of the carriage and walked for a while, suddenly realizing that the surrounding atmosphere had become eerie and terrifying.
The sunlight barely penetrated the deep mountains; everything around them was shrouded in mist.
"Little Chu, this 'Dead Tomb' you're looking for, is it dangerous? If any demons or ghosts pop out, you have to protect me!"
Huang Rong nervously clutched Chu Yang's clothes, looking left and right, as if a terrifying presence would rush out of the woods at any moment.
Even Mu Nüxia, who had roamed the martial world for many years, couldn't help but follow closely behind Chu Yang with a frightened expression, her front foot barely a finger's length from Chu Yang's heel.
If a traffic cop came, they would most likely remind her to maintain a safe distance.
"Don't be so nervous, okay? You're making me nervous too!"
Chu Yang reached out and pressed their foreheads, pushing them away exasperatedly, "Your reactions are no different from setting up a death flag in a horror movie. Usually, in such situations, it's the best time for ghosts to appear and scare the audience."
No sooner had he spoken.
A white shadow flew across the sky!
Immediately, a white ribbon brushed past Huang Rong's face!
Huang Rong froze completely.
Her cherry lips twitched.
"Ghost!!! Ahhh!!!"
98. Chapter 98: The Purest Ōtsutsuki Bloodline
98.
The white shadow flickered in the mist, scaring Huang Rong and Mu Nianci badly. The latter directly threw out the throwing darts hidden at her waist.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh~~~