Chapter 174 Misty Rain Pavilion (Part Two)

The Heaven and Earth Pavilion is a magnificent city located in the south-central part of the Moon Gazing Continent. Unlike the city where the Yin-Yang Tower is located, this city is built against the mountains and by the water. Strange peaks and towering mountains hang high in the air, and waterfalls cascade down like the Milky Way falling from the heavens. It is rich in rare and precious herbs and natural treasures, and its spiritual energy is rare in the world.

At this point, more than two months had passed since the chaos at the Yin-Yang Tower.

The flying boat hovered beside a cliff, with a ladder extending down and precisely wedged into the mooring bollard. Several enormous spirit beasts lay obediently on the ground, while hundreds of cultivators lined up on both sides, respectfully watching Xiao Qingyan step off the boat.

"Welcome home, Master."

With something on his mind, Xiao Qingyan waved his hand listlessly and turned to Jiang Gu and the others, saying, "Please settle in my residence for now. I will pay my respects to my father, and then we can discuss this further."

The group naturally had no objections.

After Xiao Qingyan hurriedly left, a young man who looked to be in his thirties came out. He was wearing an elegant blue-purple robe, with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, and a dignified demeanor. He smiled and said, "My name is Han Xie, the steward of the Xiao family. Please follow me, distinguished guests."

Xiao Qingyan's mansion was luxurious and spacious. The courtyard was planted with flowering trees that could only be found in ancient books of Pingze. Heavenly-rank magic treasures were everywhere, and some were even used as ordinary lanterns for lighting. Not to mention the high-level spirit beasts that roamed freely. Even if the entire Jiang family were to gather all the natural treasures in this courtyard, they might not be able to put together half of them.

Jiang Gu and Jiang Xiangyun were assigned to two adjacent courtyards, while Wei Feng and Yao Li were designated as their attendants by Han Xie and assigned to their respective courtyards.

Before leaving, Han Xie left them several jade tokens, saying politely, "If you have any problems, please contact me through these jade tokens, and I will do my best to help you."

He bowed respectfully and then left in a large entourage.

The courtyard was equipped with its own array. Jiang Gu checked it over and found no problems before leading Wei Feng into the room.

As soon as he entered, Wei Feng added another layer of magic array to isolate spiritual energy. "Master, are you about to break through?"

"Yes." Jiang Gu did not deny it.

Before entering the second realm, he used the tribulation lightning to kill Yan Huairan, and his cultivation had already broken through to the mid-stage of the True Immortal Realm. After he devoured Yan Huairan's primordial spirit, his dantian was full of spiritual power, and he was faintly on the verge of breaking through to the late stage of the True Immortal Realm. However, with the trial imminent, he forcibly suppressed it.

As the Pavilion Master of the Heaven and Earth Pavilion, Chu Guanshan's cultivation had reached the early stage of the Great Luo Realm. At that time, even the combined efforts of Wen Ziheng, Luo Xiaoyuan, and Bai Luan, all at the Taiyi Realm, failed to kill him, though he was also seriously injured. Jiang Gu and Jiang Xiangyun resorted to underhanded tactics. First, they used Xiao Qingyan to cover up the injury to Chu Guanshan with the Ink Jade Bracelet. Then, they took advantage of his fatal flaw of only having a primordial spirit to lay a Refining Spirit Array in Thousand Years City beforehand. Later, Wen Xin mobilized the entire clan to make his natal magic treasure, the Blood Bodhi, backfire. With the addition of Wei Feng using all the power of the entire Trial Realm, they finally managed to kill him.

Even so, Jiang Gu and the others, including Wei Feng, suffered severe injuries to their primordial spirits, and after two months of recuperation, there was no improvement whatsoever.

Even though Wei Feng had collected all of Jiang Gu's scattered primordial spirits from the Trial Realm, and the Black Jade Bracelet was constantly repairing them, Jiang Gu's primordial spirits were still riddled with holes, and now was not a good time for him to break through.

If the tribulation lightning arrives, Jiang Gu will only face the fate of having his soul scattered.

Wei Feng's primordial spirit is currently trapped in a puppet shell, and Jiang Gu has ordered him to change his cultivation method, so there is very little help he can receive. Since discovering that Jiang Gu is about to break through, he seems to be more anxious than Jiang Gu himself.

“Master, why don’t you hide your primordial spirit inside mine? That should temporarily prevent the tribulation lightning from coming.” Fearing that he might disagree, Wei Feng added, “If you’re worried, you can use your spiritual power to isolate your primordial spirit. I will absolutely not cross the line.”

Jiang Gu did not agree, but said calmly, "You don't need to worry about these things, I have my own way."

Wei Feng was skeptical, but when he asked about the method, Jiang Gu stopped talking and instead continued meditating to heal his injuries.

He reasonably suspected that Jiang Gu's idea wasn't a good one either, after all, given his master's ruthlessness, even leaving him alive was considered a solution.

In the middle of the night, Jiang Gu, who was meditating, slowly opened his eyes.

He looked down and saw Wei Feng curled up with his legs and his arm as a pillow, sleeping peacefully beside him. Perhaps afraid that he would leave, Wei Feng had placed several spirit-activating arrays around him so that he could be woken up by any movement.

Jiang Gu easily bypassed the formations and quietly left the room.

The person who was fast asleep suddenly opened their eyes, turned into a wisp of mist, and followed after them from a distance.

Jiang Gu was not familiar with the Xiao residence, and it took him a while to get out of the complicated formations. Then, he rode the wind to the sky and found a secluded spot with weak spiritual energy in the clouds and mist of the mountains to land.

With a bright moon and few stars, and the chirping of insects, he casually opened a cave dwelling, set up multiple layers of barriers, and spread his divine sense around the cave. Only after confirming that no one was around did he throw out the Heavenly Pool from his storage bag.

But they didn't notice the hazy white mist hidden in the cracks between the stones close to the ground.

He had dug this Heavenly Pool before leaving the Jiang family, and had kept it hidden within his flesh and blood. He hadn't touched it when feeding Wei Feng the magic weapon, keeping it as a precaution for any eventuality.

Wei Feng blended seamlessly with the mountain mist, becoming almost indistinguishable from it. This was a method he had devised during his trial realm for escaping and saving his life, which he had never revealed to anyone, not even Jiang Gu. He was certain that Jiang Gu had not noticed it.

He stared intently at Jiang Gu's movements, and saw Jiang Gu standing in front of the pool, reaching out to unbutton his clothes. Before Wei Feng could even feel excited and overjoyed, he saw the jagged white bones on Jiang Gu's shoulders and back and the rotting wounds in his waist and abdomen, and his breath caught in his throat.

With Jiang Gu's cultivation level, such external injuries could be completely repaired with spiritual power, unless his primordial spirit was extremely weak. However, when Wei Feng recalled the events of the past two months, he never noticed anything unusual about Jiang Gu. Although his primordial spirit was severely injured, Wei Feng always felt that he was in complete control and at ease—except for the time when Jiang Gu went out to borrow spirit stones right after killing Chu Guanshan.

In the past, when cultivating on the flying boat, he had never seen Jiang Gu use spirit stones to set up formations for assistance. However, on that occasion, Jiang Gu unexpectedly used spirit stones and even went out to borrow them. Wei Feng believed everything Jiang Gu said about cultivation, so he naturally accepted his statement at the time. But Wei Feng suddenly remembered that in the entire battle to kill Chu Guanshan, Jiang Gu was always the one with the lowest cultivation level.

However, his intelligence, ruthlessness, and even unscrupulousness effectively concealed his shortcomings in cultivation. Nevertheless, cultivation is the most fundamental factor in combat. Yet, he managed to kill Chu Guanshan with his mid-stage True Immortal cultivation and even brought Wei Feng out of the Trial Realm unharmed. He was probably already at his limit on the flying boat, which is why he was so easily tackled onto the bed... What was he doing at that time?

He was testing Jiang Gu's sincerity, and was throwing a tantrum at him half-heartedly.

Wei Feng stared intently at his body covered in wounds, finding it hard to believe that he had endured these injuries for over two months before finally finding the opportunity to come out and heal. He never exposed his weaknesses to anyone.

Wei Feng watched as he immersed his entire body in the pool. The milky white water was instantly stained red with blood, and the sound of burning flesh echoed in the silent cave. Jiang Gu simply lowered his eyes and frowned slightly, with fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead and the tip of his nose.

A gleaming blood hole ripped through his collarbone, the rotting flesh slowly giving way to new flesh. The broken bones on his exposed shoulder were slowly healing. Jiang Gu closed his eyes slightly, and a black jade bracelet flew from his wrist, hovering above the pool, slowly repairing his nearly rotten primordial spirit.

Wei Feng couldn't describe the feeling in his heart. He was annoyed by his own slowness and ignorance, and also angry at Jiang Gu's bravado and composure. Heartache and annoyance felt like countless sharp thorns wrapped around him. The stench of blood in the air was so strong that it made it hard for him to breathe.

Jiang Gu was too powerful in his heart. Even though his cultivation level was now much higher than Jiang Gu's, Jiang Gu was still omnipotent and unshakable in his heart. He was someone he would always need to follow and look up to.

Master is omnipotent; Master always has a way.

But only now does he vaguely realize how much Jiang Gu has sacrificed because of his calling him "Master".

Jiang Gu was guiding the black jade bracelet to repair his primordial spirit when he suddenly sensed a strange fluctuation of spiritual energy. Just as he was about to open his eyes and gather his divine sense, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in his sea of ​​consciousness. He subconsciously frowned, "Wei Feng?"

Wei Feng's spirit instantly appeared before him, his dark eyes gazing intently at him. "Master."

"Get out." Jiang Gu was very dissatisfied with his behavior of trespassing into his sea of ​​consciousness, and even more surprised that he hadn't noticed him following him out.

"I'll heal your wounds," Wei Feng said in a low voice.

"No need," Jiang Gu coldly refused.

However, in the empty cave, damp mist filled the air above the pool, and countless black ghost patterns emerged from the water, wrapping around Jiang Gu's body and meticulously covering his wounds, isolating him from the powerful and domineering Heavenly Pool water. The cold and slippery touch made the person with his eyes closed frown tightly.

In his sea of ​​consciousness, Wei Feng's primordial spirit had already dissipated into mist, but his voice was still close to Jiang Gu's ear, sounding sad and pleading, "Master, I really can help you heal. By the time this broken bracelet heals your primordial spirit, eighty lightning bolts will have struck you. Master, please, I don't want to lose my master so soon after I've just gained freedom."

"..." This was quite an exaggeration. Jiang Gu was about to reprimand him when he felt a blurry sensation in his mind. His expression hardened. "What did you do?"

"Ghostly markings...aphrodisiac." Wei Feng, feeling a little guilty, rubbed his primordial spirit against the back of his neck, softening his voice as he said, "The effect of my primordial spirit...is more effective than my physical body, Master, please believe me this once, okay?"

An unprecedented, unfamiliar yearning surged forth, overwhelming his strong will and clear mind. Jiang Gu's jaw tightened, and he gritted his teeth to keep his voice from trembling, "Wei, Lin, Ming."

Wei Feng shuddered in fright, lowered his head and licked the deep, bone-revealing wound on Jiang Gu's collarbone. With a determined heart, he took Jiang Gu's extremely weak primordial spirit and dissipated it into a thick mist.

Jiang Gu's primordial spirit was already outwardly strong but inwardly weak. Wei Feng tried his best to suppress the surging desire and carefully repaired the wounds on the primordial spirit. He was even afraid that Jiang Gu would get angrier, so he didn't even dare to take form in his sea of ​​consciousness.

In the vast and boundless sea of ​​consciousness, two wisps of mist, one golden and one black, blended together intimately, indistinguishable from one another.

In the Heavenly Pool of the cave, the man entangled by ghostly markings frowned, a faint blush rising on his icy handsome face, which he forcibly suppressed. He pursed his pale lips, his wisps of hair on his forehead dampened by the mist, and the muscles in his arm resting on the edge of the pool suddenly tensed, with veins bulging on the back of his hand from excessive force.

Several sticky, cold ghost patterns wrapped around his neck, lingered for a moment at his lips, and then slid down his smooth, firm arm, transforming into a large, black hand that forcefully separated his five fingers and clenched inside.

The moonlight slanted into the cave, disturbing the mist filling the pool.