Chapter 59 The Man I Miss in My Loneliness + Mid-Autumn Festival Mini-Drama: I Will Take You...
The scene was quite comical.
The melody of the xun (a type of ancient Chinese wind instrument) is sometimes high-pitched and sometimes low-pitched. The dragon summoned by it tumbles up and down in the dark clouds, trying to shake off the uninvited guest on its back.
Unfortunately, this trick was too rudimentary for Fu Ming. He had far more sophisticated tricks up his sleeve when he first learned to fly on a sword.
Fu Ming gripped the dragon horn tightly with one hand and soared upwards. Whenever the fairy maiden and the xun player showed any sign of sneaking onto the dragon, he would strike them squarely with his scabbard or kick them down in mid-air. One after another, they fell from the heights, like two unintelligent monkeys being teased.
The villagers below initially cheered them on, but when they saw the two men being brutally beaten, they could only awkwardly fall silent.
Aren't the fairy maidens and the others messengers of the gods? How come they can't even beat this pretty boy who hasn't even grown his hair yet?
Fu Ming was also somewhat surprised by this: These two are far too weak, not even as resilient as his group of dim-witted subordinates.
If the fairy maiden, whose braids had all been undone, could hear their innermost thoughts, she would probably spit out a mouthful of blood.
Come on, try it if you dare!
Even a clay figure has some spirit, let alone a fairy maiden who is used to lording it over others. She hardened her heart, bit her fingertip, fed the silver bell with her blood, and shouted.
"Liu Xian, go and eat him!"
With three rings of the bell, the black snake that had long coveted Fu Ming sprang from the fairy's arm. Its eyes were like golden gongs, and its body suddenly swelled to a hundred times its normal size, opening its blood-red maw to Fu Ming, a maw large enough to swallow ten people at once.
The attack was both fast and slow. In terms of speed, this snake named Liu Xian was much more agile than a dragon. In terms of slowness, in Fu Ming's eyes, its movements were so clumsy that he didn't need to watch it much; he could guess its next move based on his experience alone.
An ordinary-looking knife slid smoothly from the snake's mouth into the back of its head.
Fu Ming simply turned the knife diagonally.
The rain had clearly not stopped, yet a chilling fire erupted from the snake's head, unquenchable by water. The enormous snake writhed wildly in the flames, and within moments it crashed down, turning into a pile of ashes.
"Ahhhhh!" A sharp, mournful scream rang out almost instantly, and the fairy rolled on the ground, disregarding her image, as if she were being burned alive.
Can one share the same senses with a mythical beast?
He had initially thought they were some rogue cultivators with ulterior motives, posing as spirits and parading around. But now it seemed that what they were using didn't resemble Taoist cultivation techniques, but rather beast-taming witchcraft.
According to the True Immortal's Notes, in the prehistoric era, which predates ancient times, there were many shamans who sought divine intervention and entertained ghosts. However, shamanism could only borrow external forces and could not enhance one's own power. As the path of immortality rose, it gradually disappeared and became less common.
Considering that Yun was still replicating the blood pact of servants on his subordinates, Fu Ming's comment was very retro—can we do something from the feudal era?
While Fu Ming was deep in thought, the xun player quietly dragged away the delirious fairy. He didn't want to face Fu Ming, this jinx, so he decided to pass the hot potato to someone else.
Fine, let that person deal with him.
Fu Ming sat leisurely on the dragon's back, letting the xun player finish playing the long and not very pleasant sacrificial melody, and then plunged into the churning clouds with the dragon, finally crashing into a mountain ridge.
There was no pain from hitting hard objects; it was as if one had simply passed through a waterfall curtain and entered a blessed grotto.
Fu Ming glanced around from his vantage point and noticed that the terrain here was quite similar to Boyun Village. Both had winding mountain paths, huge boulders, and a wider lake. The sky was dark and indistinct, neither clearly dusk nor dawn.
This is exactly what he's been waiting for; his intuition tells him that this is where Xiao Huaiyuan is being hidden.
He patted the dragon's head, which was covered with rough scales, using the same motion as petting a dog. After the dragon stopped high in the sky, he jumped straight down from the mountaintop.
Xiao Huaiyuan, your senior brother has come to save you. Aren't you moved?
Now that Fu Ming has activated his Nascent Soul stage account, there's no reason for him to act cautiously or restrain himself.
"Xiao Huaiyuan, are you here?" He cleaved open a door with his knife, and to make sure his junior brother could hear him, he raised his voice to call out to him.
"Xiao Huaiyuan?"
"Junior brother?"
"Xiao?"
No one answered.
This made Fu Ming extremely irritable. Just a few days ago, he wished he would never see Xiao Huaiyuan again in this life, but now that they were really separated, he was as anxious as an ant on a hot plate.
He didn't know what was wrong with him.
Over the next two hours, Fu Ming dismantled every house. There were more bamboo houses here than outside. Pushing open the door, one could find that the contents were still intact, except that the scattered pots and pans were covered with a thick layer of dust.
Every household has a shrine or altar, but the object of worship is not a statue of a god, but a strange stone that is neither perfectly round nor smooth, with a pitted and uneven surface.
There was no one here. There was no one, no one, no one, no so-called divine doctor, no missing elders or disciples of the Tianyan Sect, and no Xiao Huaiyuan. Besides this, there was something else that was extremely strange.
There is no sun here.
Fu Ming floated high into the sky and looked around. Apart from the tribulation clouds that followed, he could not see anything else in the blue-purple-black sky.
This time, perhaps Heaven knew of his act of saving people, and treated him with extreme gentleness. As soon as he arrived at Boyun Village, the tribulation lightning merely made a show of striking his side, unlike before when it tormented him to death.
The system is right. Although the tasks are a bit rigid, accumulating merit is indeed helpful for overcoming tribulations.
Just then, a tiny bolt of lightning struck the lake.
By the way, didn't Xiao Huaiyuan disappear in the pond? That might be the key.
Upon receiving the prompt, Fu Ming instantly dispelled his levitation technique and drew his sword with tremendous force.
Bang!
This strike concentrated two-tenths of Fu Ming's power, causing water to explode repeatedly, revealing a huge cavity inside.
A transparent barrier separated the murky, dirty water, and Fu Ming lit a flame in his palm, finally able to see what was beneath. It turned out that the bottom of the lake contained a perfectly sealed fortress cast in bronze.
He entered through the low, arched gate of the fortress, where he was immediately enveloped in pitch-black darkness. It was more like a prison than a fortress.
The darkness was oppressive, and the heat was intense, causing even the fire-elemental talisman to break out in a sticky sweat. Whenever they tried to light their way, they were attacked by skeletons that appeared out of nowhere. They weren't particularly difficult to deal with, but there were simply too many of them to kill them all.
Fu Ming, who could only see with his divine sense, became increasingly certain that this prison and the entire Boyun Village were definitely the work of Lord Yun. Even the locks and room styles were the same as those in the Ghost Market, making them hard to miss.
Thick layers of blood and mud, scattered human bones, scratch marks and chain marks.
He hacked open cell after cell, but couldn't find the person he wanted to see, leaving Fu Ming somewhat numb. He hadn't been this unsettled when the Ghost Market mission was on the verge of failure.
Perhaps it was because he knew back then that there would always be someone behind him clearing away obstacles, so he wasn't too lonely.
He missed Xiao Huaiyuan, Fu Ming had to admit.
He didn't know how long he had been searching when suddenly, several bright white figures, like fresh snow, pierced his vision. The hands, feet, and necks of these people were chained to the room with steel chains, and they were wearing the uniforms of the Tianyan Sect.
Fu Ming had complained countless times about the bright colors of the Tianyan Sect's uniforms, which made them so conspicuous on the battlefield that they were like sitting ducks with extremely poor concealment. But now, he finally understood the designer's intention.
"Xiao Huaiyuan, are you inside?" Fu Ming's tone was filled with undisguised excitement.
The other person was also delighted: "S-senpai?"
These words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Fu Ming's head. The several haggard faces that turned around were youthful yet resolute; they were the first few Tianyan Sect disciples to disappear in this incident.
Alright, he's a fellow disciple, so saving him is a good deed.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...
Fu Ming counted the heads, but a few were still missing. Wait a minute, weren't ten disciples supposed to be missing?
He directly grabbed one of the disciples with clearer eyes and asked, "Why are three disciples missing? Where is the elder?"
"Elder Mo and his two senior brothers and sisters... were captured by several masked men. Sect Leader Xiao arrived many days later. After hearing about this, he broke free of his restraints and followed the masked men to a certain place."
The disciple hesitated for a long time. Seeing that Fu Ming's expression suddenly darkened the moment he saw them, he was unsure of Fu Ming's stance and could only reply cautiously.
"Senior, are you here to offer assistance? May I ask what business you have with the sect leader?"
He recognized this person; he was the most clever of the disciples who accompanied Wan Jianfeng when they went to the Tai Xuan Mountain mine.
“I am Xiao Huaiyuan’s… friend. I recognize you. Your master is Xu Yan, isn’t he?”
Fu Ming took a deep breath, gently patted his shoulder, and softened his tone: "Good lad, tell me which direction they were taken, I'm going to settle accounts with those masked men."
The other disciples, who had been lifeless and dazed, slowly came to life upon hearing this. They spoke haltingly, their voices stiff as if they hadn't spoken in a long time.
A female cultivator patiently advised, "You are the only one we have seen who was not brought in here by someone else. If you are still free to move around, you should leave as soon as possible."
"Spiritual power cannot be used here, and there is no spiritual energy."
“The masked men would patrol every so often and then arrest people and take them away.”
"The rogue cultivators in the other rooms, as well as disciples from other sects, have all been captured."
"None of them will come back."
...
They were talking all at once, their words piled up so much that it was almost impossible to hear them clearly.
One of the sentimental people started wiping away tears as she spoke, choking back sobs as she said, "Senior, could you please pass on a message to my master, Elder Gu? Your disciple is unfilial and has been making her angry. From now on, just pretend you don't have a disciple like me."
Another person inspired by him also began to leave a will.
"I...I've actually been in love with Junior Sister Lin from the Surveillance Department for a long time. I never expected that I would die far from home before I even had a chance to express my feelings. Senior, you can..."
He sniffed hard, then swallowed the words he was about to say.
"Sigh, it's better not to tell her. It would be too bad to upset her for no reason."
Fu Ming didn't know what to say to comfort these young people.
Unfortunately, I'm not a guest of honor of the Tianyan Sect. Putting aside whether I can return smoothly, it's also a question of whether I will be ganged up on and driven out by the people of the Tianyan Sect after I return.
Moreover, the spiritual energy here is suppressed, and he cannot disregard Xiao Huaiyuan's life and flee on his own.
Alright, let's talk about something happy instead.
"I cannot agree to that, because—"
Fu Ming drew his sword, flames rising from its blade. His strike was as swift as lightning, instantly severing the steel chains!
“I will take you all back without leaving a single one of you, including Xiao Huaiyuan.”
Knock knock.
It seemed that some disordered footsteps had been drawn by their commotion.
The masked patrolmen are coming.
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A message from the author: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, my darlings!
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, many lanterns of various shapes and sizes were hung on the bare branches of the Zhangmen Peak, which had lost all their leaves. They included lotus flowers, pomelos, double fish, white rabbits, and all the popular styles in the market.
The jade pot shone brightly, its red light dazzling, truly a scene of great prosperity. Xiao Huaiyuan, a boy returning from his evening class, was somewhat bewildered. Had he gone to the wrong place?
He quickly realized whose work it was.
There is a difference between mortals and cultivators; entering the Dao means severing the ties of the mortal world. Logically speaking, cultivators should not celebrate these worldly festivals, but his senior brother just doesn't care about these things and loves to mingle with mortals, which is why he always brings all sorts of fancy trinkets to the sect leader's peak.
Don't let those old fogies in the Jingshi Hall find out. The young but mature Xiao Huaiyuan climbed the steps and skillfully applied a layer of confusion magic to the lantern.
Back inside, Xiao Huaiyuan discovered another surprise Fu Ming had left for him.
A big white rabbit.
Lively and energetic, he darted around in his and his senior brother's room, with a bamboo tube hanging from his hind leg.
Xiao Huaiyuan grabbed the rabbit's ears, opened the bamboo slip, and saw that it was a note left by Fu Ming: "It's bad, junior brother! Your senior brother has turned into a rabbit. Please take care of me."
A simple crying face was drawn in the lower right corner of the sentence, making Xiao Huaiyuan almost lose his usual serious expression.
He thought to himself, "Do you think I'm stupid? How can a person turn into a rabbit?"
He wanted to wait for Fu Ming to come back and see how his senior brother would cover up his clumsy lie, but he waited and waited, and still did not receive an explanation from Fu Ming.
A day later, the rabbit pooped on Xiao Huaiyuan's pillow.
Two days later, Xiao Huaiyuan made a cage by hand and put the guilty rabbit in it.
Five days later, Xiao Huaiyuan had grown to like the rabbit that had chewed through the wooden cage, but Fu Ming still hadn't returned.
Could it be that Fu Ming really turned into a bullying rabbit? But how could his senior brother possibly be like that? Xiao Huaiyuan still didn't believe it.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. His senior brother was finally carried to the sect leader's peak by the people of the medical peak, his eyes closed and unconscious. There were countless wounds on his waist, legs and arms, and the blood that kept flowing out stained his white clothes deep red.
They said that in order to rescue his fellow disciples trapped in the Rakshasa Ghost Nest, his senior brother had accepted the quest with the most casualties on the quest list, which is why he was so badly injured.
Xiao Huaiyuan leaned down, pressed his cheek against Fu Ming's, and asked in a low voice, "Senior brother, why did you specifically leave a rabbit on the sect leader's peak?"
Fu Ming was stunned by the rebuttal. He stared at the chandelier on the ceiling for a long time before he remembered what had happened so many years ago.
“I was going on a long trip at the time, and I was worried that you would be lonely during the Mid-Autumn Festival, so I bought a big white rabbit at the market to keep you company. It was that simple.”
Having experienced Xiao Huaiyuan's various methods, he no longer believed any of the nonsense the guy uttered, and had no idea what he was up to this time.
"...Why are you suddenly bringing this up in bed? Is it because autumn is coming soon?"
He immediately knew the answer.
Because Xiao Huaiyuan took out a fluffy little thing that looked like a rabbit's tail, and looking further back, there was a thread attached to the bottom...
Lively, energetic, and enthusiastic, this mischievous creature is just as destructive as a real rabbit.
"Senior brother, didn't you say you turned into a rabbit? Then show me."
Xiao Huaiyuan said this.
"It's not this rabbit transformation!" Fu Ming, who was forcibly transforming, silently cried out in his heart.
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