Chapter 44: Nest

The ten water buffaloes, seeing the battle was over and their services no longer needed, vanished into thin air, returning to the spiritual field.

“How are you? Can you get up?” Mang Gu stepped forward, concerned. Lu Yang’s decisive azure sword strike had thoroughly impressed him.

Although he and Meng Jingzhou had assisted, injuring the tiger demon, Mang Gu suspected that even without their help, Lu Yang’s single sword strike would still have been able to slay it.

Lu Yang consumed a packet of Qi Recovery Powder. His breathing quickly returned to normal, and his aura steadily strengthened. The speed at which this happened was far beyond what a few grains of Qi Recovery Powder could achieve.

“I should have bought Qi Recovery Pills instead; this powder is so dry,” Lu Yang muttered. He activated the Water Condensation Art, and a small ball of water appeared at his fingertip. A stream of water, two fingers wide, extended from the ball and flowed into Lu Yang’s mouth.

“Was that the Size Manipulation spell you just used?” Meng Jingzhou, seeing Lu Yang suddenly shrink and then grow large again, found the technique very familiar. It resembled the Size Manipulation spell used by one of his uncles in the clan.

However, to his knowledge, this particular spell was extremely difficult to cultivate and had a very high prerequisite. It was impossible to master before reaching the Golden Core stage.

“It’s similar, but what I used was the ‘Into an Inch’ spell.”

“Into an Inch?” Meng Jingzhou was utterly perplexed. As a member of the Meng family, he had heard of all kinds of spells, but this ‘Into an Inch’ spell was entirely unfamiliar to him.

Could it be a spell exclusively created by Senior Sister Yunzhi?

When he thought about it that way, it made perfect sense.

“I am Lan Ting, pleased to meet the three fellow Daoists.” Lan Ting gracefully approached them.

“The three of us are disciples of Wen Dao Sect. This is Meng Jingzhou, and this is Mang Gu,” Lu Yang introduced them. Earlier, in the urgency of the situation, he had only introduced himself.

“So it’s Fellow Daoist Meng and Fellow Daoist Mang.” It was clear that Lan Ting was very cultured. She was polite to everyone, and even when dealing with mortals like Qi Wu earlier, she didn’t drive them away. She had simply taken shelter from the rain in the mountain temple herself.

“Many thanks for your assistance, Fellow Daoist Lan Ting. Otherwise, with both tiger demons attacking together, it would have been quite troublesome, and our mission might have failed,” Lu Yang thanked her.

This was merely a polite formality. The three of them still had trump cards they hadn’t used.

“So this was your mission.” Lan Ting didn’t say much more. She had come down the mountain this time to complete a secret mission of her own.

It was just that she was unfamiliar with this place, hadn’t descended the mountain during the day, and encountered a rainy night. She had been looking for a place to stay the night and hadn’t expected to stumble upon such an incident.

“This humble one knows a bit of rune-craft, and the pelts of these two tiger demons look quite good. Would you be willing to part with them and let me have them?”

“Of course,” Lu Yang smiled. “Please let us know if there’s anything else you need, Fellow Daoist Lan Ting, and feel free to take it.”

Tiger pelts were valuable, but compared to the help Lan Ting provided, they were less significant.

Lan Ting shook her head, making no further requests.

Mang Gu had lived in the wilderness with his parents since childhood, and skinning was something he was intimately familiar with. He pressed two fingers together, making them sharper than a butcher’s knife. With a few swift motions, he completely stripped the two tiger pelts.

After receiving the pelts, Lan Ting politely bid farewell to Lu Yang and the other two, and disappeared into the depths of the mountain forest.

Her senior sisters had told her that before her mental fortitude was strong enough, she shouldn’t rashly approach people from Wen Dao Sect, lest she be assimilated.

“Jingzhou, do you want the tiger bones and tiger penis?”

Meng Jingzhou was baffled. “What would I do with tiger bones and tiger penis?”

Lu Yang grinned mischievously. “For potency, of course.”

“Get lost!”

With his Pure Yang spiritual root, did he even need potency enhancement? If he became any more potent, would his body even be able to endure it?

“Keep these two tiger demons; they’re important evidence for our mission’s completion.” Lu Yang took out his identity jade pendant, rubbed it with his thumb, and the two tiger demon corpses were instantly stored inside the pendant.

The jade pendant could also function as a storage ring.

“Let’s go. The female tiger demon made quite a commotion when she came, knocking down many trees. We can follow the traces she left in reverse, and we should be able to find their lair.”

The two tiger demons had occupied Pine Mountain for many years, so they were bound to have a den.

The heavy rain had no effect on the three of them, as any rain-warding spell would keep them dry.

Following the fallen trees and cracked boulders, the trio soon found the tiger demon’s lair.

It was a three-meter-high cave, pitch-black inside, making it impossible to see anything.

“Does anyone have a torch?” Mang Gu asked. Nothing could be seen inside the cave, and there might be traps.

He had read in books that these eerie caves were perfect for setting up mechanisms, like stepping on a loose brick by accident, causing arrows from the walls to pierce someone like a beehive.

Or a sudden release of poisonous gas that could kill people.

At the very least, rolling boulders could crush people to death.

“Who would set up so many traps in their own home? Are they afraid of making it too easy to go home?” Lu Yang was speechless. He felt that Mang Gu always let his imagination run wild in the strangest ways.

That being said, a torch would definitely add to the atmosphere of exploration.

Outside the cave, rain poured down heavily. Inside, the three of them, holding a torch, discover treasure—the thought of that atmosphere was exciting.

“Who just carries a torch around?” Meng Jingzhou quipped. They were cultivators; why use a torch when they had fire manipulation spells?

“You need to open your mind,” Lu Yang said, taking out a fried dough stick. A spark lit it, and the entire fried dough stick immediately burst into flames.

It looked like it would burn for quite a while.

Lu Yang held the burning fried dough stick without fear of heat, looking quite pleased with himself.

The cafeteria food truly was versatile. Besides being edible and useful in combat, it could also serve as a torch.

Mang Gu suddenly understood. Indeed, he could always learn something by following Brother Lu.

Lu Yang, holding the lit fried dough stick, walked at the forefront. Mang Gu and Meng Jingzhou followed closely behind.

There were no traps as Mang Gu had imagined.

Only a wild beast’s den.

Rare treasures from merchants, classical texts from scholars, martial arts manuals from warriors…

These items did not need to be handed over to the sect, and were considered their spoils of war.

“Jewelry and antiques…” Among the three, Meng Jingzhou was the most knowledgeable, so he was in charge of identifying the origins of these items.

“A teacup from a hundred years ago, not worth much.” For cultivators, a hundred years was merely a fleeting moment, like a white steed flashing past several cracks. Any random item in their homes could easily be centuries old.

In the cultivation world, antiques were the most worthless items; only mortals valued them.

“A rusted iron saber. Why would a tiger demon keep this, to grind its teeth?” Meng Jingzhou shook his head.

Lu Yang thought to himself, “Don’t look down on a rusted iron saber. One cut from this could give you tetanus, believe it or not?”

“Xiangxing Quan? I remember this being a folk martial art that mimics animals, right?” Meng Jingzhou flipped through a few pages, found it uninteresting, and tossed it to Lu Yang.

Lu Yang, however, was somewhat interested, and planned to practice it in a few days when he had time.

“Words of the Sages…” Meng Jingzhou sneered repeatedly. “What use are the Words of the Sages to two beasts? They’re still beasts, aren’t they?”

The Words of the Sages was an introductory text for Confucian cultivators, recording the earnest teachings of the sages. Mang Gu had memorized its contents and possessed a deep understanding of them.

Mang Gu put away the Words of the Sages. It wasn’t that the book was particularly valuable, but its status was extraordinary. It deserved to be carefully preserved.

This was out of respect for the sages.

“Hmm? There’s a letter here. Is it addressed to the tiger demon?”