Chapter 28 Yanghua Cloud Sea (Fifteen)

Jiang Gu carried the person and strode into the Qingping Peak cave.

In the simple cave dwelling, the nest that Wei Feng had haphazardly built before was still there. Jiang Gu was about to throw the person in when a bloody and mangled hand suddenly trembled and grabbed his front.

Jiang Gu coldly lowered his eyes to look at the owner of that hand.

Wei Feng stared intently at him, his handsome face covered in blood and chapped lips, but his eyes, which shone with an alarming brightness, turned bloodshot the moment they met Jiang Gu's gaze.

"Master... I really didn't steal it this time," the boy, who had been tortured beyond recognition, said hoarsely.

“I know,” Jiang Gu said coldly, “They’re just taking advantage of your loneliness and helplessness to bully you.”

Wei Feng choked back a sob, his hand gripping Jiang Gu's shirt clenched into a tight fist. Blood from his wound trickled down his wrist and into his sleeve, burning him so badly he was trembling all over. "I'm going to kill them... I must kill them!"

Still gripped by the fear and despair of being searched, he desperately wanted to know if he was safe and wished he could stick his whole body to Jiang Gu.

"Scared?" Jiang Gu reached out and supported his back. Wei Feng then hugged his neck tightly. When he smelled the faint smell of blood on Jiang Gu, he seemed to finally escape from that narrow and cramped cage, and gasped for breath.

"I'm scared... Master, I'm scared." Wei Feng closed his eyes, then opened them in terror, feeling as if lightning would strike his back at any moment.

"You're afraid because you're powerless, because you're so weak you can only be slaughtered." Jiang Gu's icy voice rang in his ears, carrying an inhuman harshness and authority. "If you were now at the Nascent Soul Refinement stage, would you still be afraid?"

Wei Feng raised his head and stared at him blankly.

“Wei Feng, I am your master, but I won’t come to save you every time.” Jiang Gu stared at him expressionlessly. “No one will be your support, and no one is worthy of your trust. Crying and hating won’t solve anything. In the cultivation world, the only way to survive is to become stronger, understand?”

Wei Feng gritted his teeth, nodded heavily, and said hoarsely, "Master, I understand."

Seeing this, Jiang Gu stopped talking and placed the man on the pile of hay. He then swiftly tore off the man's clothes. The tattered fabric had long been stuck to the wound. The moment it was torn off, Wei Feng's face contorted in pain, but he endured it without crying out or shedding a tear. He just clutched the hay beside him tightly.

Jiang Gu looked at the bleeding wound and patiently applied a bunch of hemostatic talismans to it. He then used his spiritual power to travel through the wound and examine the patient's body along the meridians. Several of the bones that the patient had recently reconstructed had been maliciously broken again, causing stagnation of spiritual power and damage to the patient's primordial spirit due to the soul search...

The things he had painstakingly nurtured were ruined like this, comparable to how he sacrificed all his Heavenly Rank magic treasures just to block Yao Li's half-move. Thinking of the large portion of his wealth he had given away, Jiang Gu's aura suddenly dropped even lower.

Jiang Gu was in a bad mood, and his methods of setting bones and repairing the primordial spirit were particularly rough. Wei Feng almost cried out in pain several times, but when he saw his master's serious expression and furrowed brows, he swallowed the pain back down his throat.

Master was right; becoming stronger was his only way to survive.

He absolutely cannot continue living like this, in a daze.

However, repairing his primordial spirit was extremely painful. The dry grass in his hands had been crushed into powder. Wei Feng was in excruciating pain. He mustered his courage and grabbed Jiang Gu's clothes. In the end, when he was out of consciousness, he wrapped his arms around Jiang Gu's neck and buried himself in his arms.

In a daze, he seemed to smell a familiar scent, very similar to the scent he had left on that old pervert, but it quickly disappeared, as if it were just a fleeting illusion.

"…………" Cool, round beads pattered all over his clothes. Jiang Gu looked at the unconscious boy and pushed him away in disgust.

Then, with a blank expression, he put the broken collarbone that Wei Feng had misplaced back in place.

Yao Li's Blood-Soaked Fork, with its barbs, nearly shattered Jiang Gu's shoulder blade. The wound on his chest was slow to heal, and Jiang Gu continued to heal until late at night. Only after the bone had healed did he have time to visit Wei Feng.

Wei Feng had been thrown into the bird's nest, but somehow the other person had snuggled up to him, curled up in a ball, and was still tightly gripping his sleeve.

"Wei Feng, get up," he said.

The sleeping person suddenly woke up, sat up in a panic, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jiang Gu, and stammered, "Master, I've finished healing my injuries, cultivated for a while... and fell asleep."

Jiang Gu had treated his internal injuries easily; they were at most superficial wounds. He healed very quickly, but he was too exhausted from cultivation and couldn't hold on no matter what. He hung his head as if he knew he had made a mistake.

"It's easy to feel sleepy after your primordial spirit is injured, it's nothing to worry about." Seeing this, Jiang Gu patiently explained.

Wei Feng silently breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiang Gu, however, had no time to sleep and repair his primordial spirit. He looked at the sky outside, stood up, and said, "It's time to set off."

"Master!" Wei Feng quickly stood up after him. "I have something to tell you."

Jiang Gu looked at him indifferently.

“I…I am actually the Divine Kite Shark you’ve been looking for. A year ago, after the strange phenomenon in the sky, my body suddenly started acting strangely. My bones were constantly itchy, and no amount of medicine helped. I checked some ancient books and they said that the scales of the Divine Kite Shark could cure all diseases, so I overestimated myself and went down the mountain to look for it.” Wei Feng spoke quickly, afraid that he would get impatient. “Half a year ago, I went to the Chaolong Secret Realm and encountered an old pervert who wanted me to be his furnace…He kept dragging me into an illusion to torture me and accelerate the ripening of the Fire-Separating Pill, saying that he would come to collect it in seven days. Now there are only three days left.”

After he finished speaking concisely, he looked up at Jiang Gu with a worried expression, "Master, I'm sorry, I've been keeping it from you all this time."

“The Jiang family is indeed looking for the Divine Iris Shark,” Jiang Gu said. “The scales of the Divine Iris Shark and the Fire-Separating Pill are treasures of heaven and earth. The skin, flesh, and bones of the Divine Iris Shark are all excellent materials for refining magical artifacts. I have been searching for it as well.”

Upon hearing this, Wei Feng turned pale and took half a step back. "Master..."

“But you are now my disciple.” Jiang Gu’s tone was calm, as if he were saying something perfectly normal. “It is my duty to protect you.”

Wei Feng stood there, stunned, as if surprised and incredulous. He couldn't be sure if Jiang Gu's words were true or false, but Jiang Gu's expression was so calm that he couldn't have any doubts.

“Master, you actually knew as early as when you saw my wings on the back mountain… right?” Wei Feng stared straight at him and asked. Jiang Gu hadn’t been surprised at all when he revealed his identity.

"Let's go." Jiang Gu didn't answer his question. He walked to the door, glanced back at him, and frowned, saying, "Aren't you coming?"

Wei Feng quickly followed, "Master, where are we going?"

"I'll sell you to the Jiang family for a reward." Jiang Gu walked forward without looking back.

Wei Feng hesitated and stopped, but seeing that Jiang Gu ahead showed no sign of stopping, he gritted his teeth and ran after him, calling out, "Master, wait for me!"

Jiang Gu subtly curved the corners of his mouth into a smile.

The summer breeze was long and soft, rustling the dense leaves. A few bees hovered over the wildflowers by the roadside. Wei Feng dodged to the side, his clothes barely brushing against the petals.

Wei Feng looked up at the person walking in front of him, but could only see the other person's tall and cold back. He was filled with doubt and unease, but dared not speak rashly.

"Ask whatever you want," Jiang Gu's voice came from the front.

Wei Feng felt a sense of relief and quickly took two steps to stand beside him, his voice still hoarse. "Master, why did you suddenly come back?"

The faint scent he could smell while unconscious still bothered him, but he wasn't sure, because it wasn't the first time he had hallucinated from the pain. Just the thought of that old pervert's scent appearing on his master, even if it was a hallucination, made him feel extremely disgusted, as if his master had been desecrated by that pervert.

Jiang Gu raised his hand and untied the illusion, revealing the red rope wrapped around Wei Feng's neck. "This thing is formed from my heart's blood. If you are in danger, I will sense it."

Wei Feng reached out and touched the red rope, remembering that it was a restriction Jiang Gu had placed when he first forced him to cultivate. However, he had resisted it so much that his master never used it again, to the point that he had almost forgotten its existence.

He noticed the same red string on Jiang Gu's right wrist and a sudden surge of inexplicable joy welled up in his heart. It was as if some tangible bloodline had connected him with his master. His master cared for him so much, and he was determined to be filial to his master in the future.

Jiang Gu then cast another illusion, and the two red ropes disappeared from Wei Feng's sight.

"Thank you, Master," Wei Feng said cheerfully.

Jiang Gu glanced at him and met his bright, sparkling eyes, as if the torment he had just suffered had been left behind.

Someone who only remembers the good things but not the bad.

He originally planned to leave Wei Feng at Yanghua Sect to lure the snake out of its hole and probe the background of Qingdu and that mysterious person, but he did not expect Wu Hezhi and Xie Fuxue to be so impatient and take action against Wei Feng while he was away. He had overestimated these people.

Now that relations have broken down, it's not appropriate to leave Wei Feng alone at Yanghua Sect. If he returns and shows his face, there's a good chance someone from the Jiang family will find out and use it to cause trouble. Taking Wei Feng with you would be much easier.

Who would have thought he would dare to bring the Divine Kite Shark to the clan meeting?

The starting point of the teleportation array was bustling with activity. Jiang Gu rented the smallest flying boat with spirit stones, and Wei Feng next to him couldn't help but say, "Master, why don't we buy a bigger one?"

"No need," Jiang Gu rejected his suggestion.

Wei Feng was somewhat afraid of him and dared not say anything more. In the end, he obediently sat in the narrow flying boat.

Soon the flying boat entered the teleportation array. Wei Feng's cultivation level was not high enough before, so he rarely had the opportunity to ride the flying boat through the teleportation array. Moreover, he could not cultivate in the teleportation array, so he curiously leaned out the window to look outside.

Outside the speeding airship, the magical energy of the array twisted and turned into colorful vortexes. Just as he was about to stick his head out to look again, he was suddenly grabbed by the collar and pulled back.

"The spiritual energy outside will tear your head apart." Jiang Gu suppressed his impatience. "Sleep to nourish your spirit."

"Yes, Master." Wei Feng nodded obediently. The flying boat was very cramped. Jiang Gu sat opposite him, so he had to lie down on the bench, resting his head on his arm and closing his eyes.

The aisle was very narrow; you could touch the other person just by raising your arm. And sleeping in front of an elder or teacher made Wei Feng feel uncomfortable all over. After lying there for a while, he turned around and faced away from Jiang Gu. After a moment, he still felt awkward, so he lay back down. After a few breaths, he turned to face Jiang Gu again, scratched his stomach, and secretly squinted one eye at Jiang Gu.

"..." Jiang Gu half-closed his eyes, pretending not to see.

Wei Feng thought he was meditating, so he quietly sat up. The hems of their clothes got tangled together, so he reached out his paw to pull them apart and gently put them back in their place. He then shuffled to a corner, curled up in a strange position for a while, but then felt uncomfortable. He went back to the window and looked at the vortex for a while, then yawned sleepily, lay down on the chair, and fell asleep.

He was half-lying on the bench, one arm dangling in the aisle, his face pressed against the back of the chair, his long eyelashes casting a shadow on his fair face, and a tiny luminous pearl clinging to his cheek.

They can cause more trouble than ten Utau.

Jiang Gu slowly opened his eyes and drew hundreds of talismans on Wei Feng to ensure that the aura of the mermaid kite on his body was completely covered.

The luminous pearl, seemingly about to fall, was extremely irritating. Jiang Gu unleashed a bit of spiritual power to crush it, but the flying boat jolted as it switched formations, causing the gathered spiritual power to instantly disperse and splatter onto Wei Feng's face.

Snap!

Wei Feng shuddered in fright, scrambling to his feet from the chair. After a long moment of stunned silence, he covered his face and looked at him in alarm, "Master, someone hit me!"

Jiang Gu said without changing his expression, "The flying boat is rocking because of spiritual energy spilling in from outside."

He spoke with such certainty that Wei Feng immediately breathed a sigh of relief, reached out and rubbed his flushed cheeks, and silently moved away from the window, like a frightened little animal.

Jiang Gu's eyebrows twitched slightly, and he felt somewhat relieved.