novelraw Chapter 180 : Hua Yaoyue’s Kindred Spirit
Chapter 180 : Hua Yaoyue’s Kindred Spirit
Chapter 180: Hua Yaoyue’s Kindred Spirit
The voice was impassioned and resonant, but before it could reach the halfway point, it was as if someone had forcefully covered his mouth, silencing him completely.
Ji Yuan hurriedly turned his head and, upon seeing his long-absent Second Senior Brother, felt a measure of joy.
“Second Senior Brother!”
Yun Qianzai struggled to open his mouth, but it was entirely useless.
Immediately after, Hua Yaoyue’s figure emerged from who-knows-where and stepped into the pavilion. “So, you still want to stay here for another ten or twenty years, is that it? How about I just wait until the demonic cultivators’ invasion is over before letting you out?”
“I think that’s a fine idea!”
Feng Zhi Tao’s voice arrived before she herself did.
Hearing this, Yun Qianzai instantly became well-behaved and began shaking his head.
Hua Yaoyue released him, and Yun Qianzai immediately said loudly, “Master, you’re just jealous of my talent!”
“Afraid I’ll steal your spotlight once I’m out.”
“Talent?”
Hua Yaoyue’s gaze swept past Ji Yuan, finally settling on Yun Qianzai.
Just that single glance from Hua Yaoyue made even Ji Yuan’s heart skip a beat… Could it be that Master had figured something out?
Perhaps intimidated by Hua Yaoyue’s stare, Yun Qianzai finally spoke more earnestly. “Master, rest assured, this disciple isn’t foolish. Without absolute certainty, I wouldn’t say such things.”
“So you mean you are still going to say it.”
Feng Zhi Tao muttered from the side.
“Junior Sister, you—!”
Yun Qianzai glared at her and then waved his hand grandly. “In my life, Yun Qianzai has never needed to explain himself to you.”
With that, he summoned his flying boat and departed immediately.
“Hmph, you’ve been wanting to slip away for a while, haven’t you.”
Feng Zhi Tao could easily tell whether Yun Qianzai was truly angry or just pretending. Right now, it was clearly just an excuse to leave.
After all, being confined underground for nearly a year had almost driven him crazy.
Ji Yuan said nothing, but he did take note of the direction Yun Qianzai left in.
His Heaven Pivot Island was to the northwest, but he was heading southwest. Judging from the places he often visited, that direction should be… Four Directions Island?
Was he going to the Formation Hall to show off?
Yun Qianzai was gone, and Hua Yaoyue didn’t care in the slightest.
Having lived for decades, even centuries, if someone really wanted to seek death, then let them.
“Little Junior Brother, what are you doing here with Master?”
As always, Feng Zhi Tao was endlessly curious about everything.
Although Ji Yuan had already broken through, he was currently using the 《Breath Concealment Art》, making his cultivation appear a whole stage lower, so on the surface he still looked like an early Foundation Establishment cultivator.
“I have something I wish to consult Master about,” Ji Yuan said truthfully.
“Oh? What is it? You can ask me too, you know.”
Feng Zhi Tao puffed out her chest proudly.
Ji Yuan just smiled and turned toward Hua Yaoyue. “Master, I heard from the Sect Master Martial Uncle that there are Golden Core-stage demonic cultivators causing trouble in the north, and even the son of a Nascent Soul cultivator from Western Shang has entered our borders.”
“What?!”
Feng Zhi Tao, who had just claimed she could be consulted as well, suddenly leaned forward in shock. “The son of a Nascent Soul? The Three Demonic Sects actually sent in a Nascent Soul’s son? Could it be they’re planning a Nascent Soul-level battle this time?”
Hua Yaoyue, unusually, was not reclining on her soft chair, but instead stood before the pavilion. Her wide sleeves fluttered as the mountain wind whipped her white skirt into a hunting sound.
“Golden Core demonic cultivators making a move is true. As for Nascent Soul combat…”
She gave a disdainful laugh. “Even if all the Golden Cores died, they wouldn’t bat an eye.”
Ji Yuan and Feng Zhi Tao exchanged glances, both remaining silent.
“All right, if there’s nothing else, go back.”
As usual, Hua Yaoyue issued a dismissal order. But this time, Feng Zhi Tao stepped forward and whispered, “Master, I came to bid you farewell.”
“Oh?”
“The Sect Master Martial Uncle has given me a task—he wants me to return to the Western Phoenix Kingdom.”
“Western Phoenix Kingdom? Then go.”
“Mm.”
After the brief exchange, Feng Zhi Tao returned to Ji Yuan’s side with a smile. “Little Junior Brother, do you want to come play in our Western Phoenix Kingdom? This mission is really easy—just recruiting new disciples. It’s basically a vacation.”
“A mortal kingdom, you know. You’ve probably never been, have you?”
Ji Yuan remained unmoved, bowing slightly. “Thank you for the kind offer, Senior Sister, but I’ve just received a batch of medicinal herbs and need to refine pills for someone. I’m afraid I won’t have time to go out for now.”
A harmless little lie rolled easily off his tongue.
“All right then.”
Feng Zhi Tao looked a bit disappointed at the refusal, but didn’t press the matter.
Ji Yuan cupped his hands to both sides, signaling his departure.
After he left, Feng Zhi Tao pouted and complained to Hua Yaoyue, “Master, Little Junior Brother never gets close to us, and he never comes to see us either.”
Hua Yaoyue didn’t even turn her head.
Seeing this, Feng Zhi Tao knew Master truly didn’t want to be disturbed, so she left as well.
Once she was gone, Hua Yaoyue went alone to the highest point of Forgotten Worry Island to watch the sunset.
The first thing she noticed about Ji Yuan today was that after his breakthrough, he immediately hid his cultivation. Naturally, this reminded her of her other disciples.
It was for this very reason that she had released Yun Qianzai.
Of her four disciples…
The First Senior Brother was filled with righteous fury and had vowed to kill every demonic cultivator in the world, which was why he stayed in Shang Mountain year-round, always at the frontlines of the slaughter, unwilling to return.
About him… Hua Yaoyue could only say—too much of the righteous path.
Little did he realize that demonic cultivators could never be completely eradicated. Even if the current batch were all slain, without them as a foil, some among the so-called righteous would inevitably be branded as demonic cultivators instead.
To truly end demonic cultivation, there would have to be no cultivators at all in the world.
Vowing to slay all demonic cultivators… She feared that if he ever suffered a single setback in this endeavor, it would be beyond recovery.
Hua Yaoyue had not been silent on this point.
She had said so.
But he had replied that dying on the road to exterminating demonic cultivators would fulfill his wish.
From then on, Hua Yaoyue stopped trying to dissuade him.
The Second Senior Brother Yun Qianzai—his talent was exceptional… Forget it, best not to even mention it.
The Third Senior Sister Feng Zhi Tao…
At first glance, she seemed quite good, with all the grace of a female cultivator. But on closer inspection, her mind was far too restless, like a little girl who would never grow up.
Playful.
Hua Yaoyue had met many such cultivators before.
Such people would live their entire lives happily. Even if life grew harsh, they could still find joy. But the one thing they lacked was longevity in the cultivation path.
Because their minds were too distracted.
Or rather—their ambitions lay elsewhere.
On this point, Hua Yaoyue never tried to advise her either. In life, happiness was enough.
If one gambled away their whole life, only to end up neither advancing in cultivation nor keeping their happiness, it would be a terrible loss.
Only her newly accepted final disciple…
Thinking it over carefully, Hua Yaoyue could sum up her evaluation of him in just four words.
“A kindred spirit.”
Given time, perhaps she might even address him as “Dao Friend.”
“……”
The very first thing Master Ji did upon returning to Misty Island after his breakthrough was to release the Ice Flood Dragon—but still not put it into the Fish Pond.
Instead, he had the Great Toad take it into the Yunyu Marshlands to mingle and stir things up.
At first, the Great Toad naturally refused, but it could not withstand Ji Yuan’s “Dolphin Temptation” technique.
Very soon, the Great Toad was taking this First-Tier Flood Dragon into the water.
Ji Yuan wasn’t worried—so long as they stayed within the Misty Region, it was absolutely safe. If they really went elsewhere, he could still sense the Ice Flood Dragon’s location and call it back.
As for exiling it to the Yunyu Marshlands… that was unavoidable. The Spiritual Dolphins were fine, but this Ice Flood Dragon still preferred eating fish.
A poor man’s Flood Dragon had to take charge early.
The Fish Pond couldn’t withstand its appetite, so it had to be sent out to fend for itself sooner rather than later.
The second matter was cultivation.
Since Ji Yuan’s cultivation had reached the mid Foundation Establishment Stage, his Divine Sense strength naturally had to keep up. Thus, the Meditation Room had to be arranged.
He needed to ensure his Divine Sense far exceeded that of a typical mid Foundation Establishment cultivator.
That way, he could have some sense of security when traveling outside.
Next, there were buildings that could be upgraded.
【Chicken Coop: lv3】
【Upgrade Requirements: Cultivation at mid Foundation Establishment, 50 Middle-Grade Spirit Stones, Chicken Coop made of Corrupt-Firefly Yin Locust (Not Fulfilled)】
The Chicken Coop had been stuck at level 2 ever since upgrading the first time.
There was nothing to be done—the upgrade conditions had a hard requirement of reaching mid Foundation Establishment.
As for the other two conditions—
Fifty Middle-Grade Spirit Stones… that was a trivial matter.
The “Corrupt-Firefly Yin Locust,” however, Ji Yuan had asked around about—it was a type of Yin-type item, often used by demonic cultivators.
As a righteous cultivator, Ji Yuan naturally couldn’t have such a thing, so he could only look for Bai Piao to, well… “borrow” it.
Since building his Foundation, he hadn’t gone to see him yet.
Then there was the Beehive. For Ji Yuan, the hardest part—the Blood-Disc Venom Bees—was already obtained. Now, he only needed the Queen Bee to break through to become a Second-Tier beast.
Only then could the Beehive be upgraded.
Previously, Ji Yuan had been feeding the Spirit-Devouring Bees with Middle-Grade Spirit Stones, but even so, their growth was still a bit slow.
With the demonic sect invasion imminent, he needed to increase his strength quickly.
If that was the case, then he’d simply have to spend more… after all, Ji Yuan was now flush with spirit stones and didn’t need to be frugal.
So, the next day, during a break in his cultivation, he went to the western side of Misty Island, to the dense forest beside the Grave Mound.
The moment he got close, he could already hear the “buzz, buzz” of the bees.
This was basically a forbidden zone of Misty Island—even the Great Toad didn’t want to come near. Although the Spirit-Devouring Bees could not harm it for now, their buzzing annoyed it greatly.
As soon as Ji Yuan arrived, the bees all swarmed over, circling around him endlessly.
With a sweep of his Divine Sense, Ji Yuan got a rough count.
Not too many yet.
Even counting the immature bees, there were only about 8,000 in total.
He still needed 10,000 to upgrade the Beehive—there was some gap to close.
So, he decided to up the dosage.
Ji Yuan raised his hand and tossed out twenty Middle-Grade Spirit Stones. The moment the bees sensed the stones’ aura, even the bees deep within the forest flew out toward them.
Ji Yuan walked and stopped intermittently until he reached the deepest part of the forest.
In the center, surrounded by several ancient trees, there was a massive hive.
Outside the hive, a Spirit-Devouring Queen Bee about one meter long was beating its wings.
The Queen Bee.
The leader of the Spirit-Devouring Bees.
Facing it, Ji Yuan was even more generous, tossing five Middle-Grade Spirit Stones.
It wasn’t that he was being stingy—it simply could only digest that many at once.
Even then, it would take it four or five days to fully absorb them.
After feeding the hive, the Great Toad returned with the Ice Flood Dragon. Ji Yuan sensed something was off from the sound and immediately summoned his flying boat to intercept them.
The moment it saw Ji Yuan—
The Great Toad went “croak, croak, croak” non-stop, as if complaining.
The Ice Flood Dragon, on the other hand, darted onto Ji Yuan’s body in a flash, coiling around his arm.
Seeing this, the Great Toad stopped croaking, also wanting to do the same.
But its massive body leaped forward, forcing Ji Yuan to dodge.
After listening for a while, Ji Yuan roughly understood the situation—it was simply that the Ice Flood Dragon had run off everywhere after going out, completely ignoring the Great Toad’s orders.
Unable to control it, the Great Toad had returned to let Ji Yuan decide.
Unable to take sides, Ji Yuan gave each of them two Spiritual Dolphins.
And just like that, both quieted down.
Ji Yuan then collected the recent harvest from Tu Yue before returning to his Cave Dwelling for intense cultivation.
With his breakthrough, both pill refinement and talisman crafting could improve again, and he also had weapon refinement still unopened—Ji Yuan felt stretched thin.
In the end, it was simply a matter of not having enough time.
Moreover, once pills or talismans reached Second-Tier upper grade, even the recipes and talisman scripts were hard to acquire—places like Hundred Treasure Pavilion didn’t sell them.
Such items could only be found at auctions.
A single upper-grade Second-Tier talisman script in the hands of a Foundation Establishment cultivator could make them live luxuriously.
At least during the Foundation Establishment Stage, they wouldn’t have to worry much about spirit stones.
Even purchasing a spiritual artifact could be done with a few years of saving.
The next day, however, the Great Toad came on its own to tell Ji Yuan it was taking the Ice Flood Dragon into the water… like babysitting.
Ji Yuan was naturally surprised.
But soon he wasn’t.
In less than a day, the Great Toad returned with the Ice Flood Dragon, croaked its complaints, then stared at him expectantly.
This time, Ji Yuan gave it only half a Spiritual Dolphin.
The Great Toad hesitated, but still ate it.
Another day later, it refused to take the Ice Flood Dragon into the water anymore, preferring to sleep on the island.
Seeing the Ice Flood Dragon had reached late First-Tier, Ji Yuan fed it four or five drops of Ice Soul Cold Dew, then let it go play in the water on its own.
Fortunately, after two days, the Ice Flood Dragon discovered there was a much larger world beyond its little one.
The small Fish Pond could be crossed in moments, but the vast Yunyu Marshlands… even after swimming all day, it couldn’t reach the other side.
Ji Yuan warned it to only play within the Misty Region—no farther.
If it went too far and ran into a high-tier beast or a human cultivator, it would be troublesome.
After cultivating on Misty Island for more than half a month and raising his Divine Sense sufficiently, Ji Yuan decided to return to the Water Dragon Sect to seek Bai Piao’s help.
Before leaving, he didn’t forget to bring the Ice Flood Dragon along.
After nearly a month in the Yunyu Marshlands, it had already developed a very wild beastly nature.
Ji Yuan had watched it fight beasts of the same tier—it was utterly fearless, fighting as ruthlessly as possible.
He guessed this temperament was influenced by the wisp of Dragon Qi in it, giving it a strong killing intent.
Then there was how it behaved upon meeting a Second-Tier beast—
If it couldn’t win, it would curl into a ball and hide in the mud, unmoving, afraid of being discovered.
If it was discovered… it would beg for mercy.
The submissiveness was… rare to see.
Ji Yuan suspected this came from the carp it once was—after all, that carp was often bullied.
And it wasn’t just this—if it managed to escape from a Second-Tier beast, it would return to Misty Island, call the Great Toad, and go kill that Second-Tier beast.
This temperament left Ji Yuan slightly wide-eyed.
‘Not bad—a ruthless one!’
Ji Yuan was already looking forward to seeing what it would be like once it grew into a Third-Tier beast.
The Great Toad guarded the home, while the Ice Flood Dragon followed along.
Ji Yuan headed north all the way. When passing by his own doorstep, he glanced down—Dong Qian’s Fox Moon Island was already shrouded in clouds and mist, its true form obscured.
Seeing her inevitably made Ji Yuan think of Du Wanyi.
By rights, she should be close to breaking through as well.
Once she successfully built her Foundation, Ji Yuan could set aside one more worry and stop thinking about it from time to time.
This time, upon returning to the sect, Ji Yuan still first went to Forgotten Worry Island. After paying his respects to his Master, he turned toward Everything Island.
Now that his cultivation had reached the mid Foundation Establishment Stage, even with the 《Breath Concealment Art》, he could only disguise it as early Foundation Establishment—so the days of Qi Refining were truly gone for good.
He piloted his flying boat down from the sky, landing directly in front of Bai Piao’s shop.
It was still as deserted as ever.
Ji Yuan figured that in several days, he might not even have a single customer—and he couldn’t imagine how Bai Piao kept this shop running.
When Ji Yuan entered, Bai Piao, for once, wasn’t lying down asleep, but was tending to his flowers and plants.
Ji Yuan noticed that compared to before, the shop now had many more green plants. As for those items that once exuded Yin Energy—
Not a single one remained.
In short, the shop had shifted focus.
It now sold spiritual plants and spiritual soil, no longer touching Yin-type items.
“I don’t know which fellow Daoist—oh, greetings, Martial Uncle!”
Bai Piao turned around with a smile, and the moment he caught sight of that deep blue robe, he immediately bent at the waist and cupped his hands in salute. His change in attitude was so quick that Ji Yuan couldn’t help but be impressed.
“Ahem, there’s no need for such formality from a junior.”
Ji Yuan teased him.
The slightly familiar voice made Bai Piao raise his head in surprise. “It’s you, Ji Brother…”
“Hm?”
Ji Yuan frowned slightly, and Bai Piao instantly understood.
“Greetings, Martial Uncle Ji.”
Seeing Bai Piao so quick to take the hint, Ji Yuan decided not to tease him further. He smiled and sat down to the side. “All right, Brother Piao, just call me Ji Brother. Calling me Martial Uncle makes me sound old.”
“Ji Brother is still in the prime of youth—how could you be old? Just a joke, just a joke.”
Bai Piao chuckled, picking up a pot of brewed spiritual tea and pouring Ji Yuan a cup.
“When did Ji Brother reach Foundation Establishment? Such a great occasion, yet you didn’t let me know—so that I could attend your island inauguration and broaden my horizons?”
“It’s been a few years.”
Ji Yuan smiled, glancing around the shop, and asked, “Brother Piao, what’s this about? Could it be… you’ve gone respectable?”
“Shh.”
Bai Piao made a silencing gesture, then quickly went to the door. Pretending nothing was amiss, he looked left and right, and after confirming that no one was paying attention to his shop, he carefully closed the door.
“Ji Brother, you don’t know.”
“This was all a matter of helpless necessity, sigh.”