Chapter 30: Move Closer

Chapter 30: Move Closer

After three more days and six more stings, Shang Yunduo was already familiar with the routine—where to stand, the escape route, how to efficiently cover his face, and he got more and more skilled.

Not only was he used to it, the Fire Cloud Bees were too. As soon as they saw him, they got triggered, buzzing angrily and charging out before he even approached. The shaky beehive even got to skip the smashing step.

Shang Yunduo rushed up to the mountaintop in one breath. The croaking sounds instantly stopped. He looked toward the sound and saw a two-meter-long green snake slither into the grass and several toads jump into the water.

“...”

Was he really that hated by frogs and snakes?

“What are you daydreaming about? Are you not hurting anymore?” The Fire Cloud Bees had already chased him to the mountaintop, but Shang Yunduo was still leisurely watching the scene.

“Oh!” Shang Yunduo also jumped into the water. After the swarm of Fire Cloud Bees finished their routine cursing and left, he climbed out of the water and even caught a fish.

Pei Jie: “...”

Shang Yunduo: “Senior, how about we grill the fish?”

Pei Jie closed his eyes and continued meditating: “Suit yourself.”

Shang Yunduo climbed ashore, wrung out his clothes, touched the new lump on his swollen arm, and said, “It seems less painful than before.”

Pei Jie grunted in response.

Was it because he had gotten immune from getting stung so much, or because of the medicine he had been taking these past few days, or maybe because he had lumps on top of lumps and his skin had gotten thick and tough?

Shang Yunduo: “Once I'm completely immune, I'll go into their nest and grab some honey!”

Pei Jie couldn't be bothered to answer.

Since he didn't say anything, Shang Yunduo took it as tacit approval and assumed this plan was feasible.

He wondered what Fire Cloud Bee honey tasted like.

Shang Yunduo pulled out a dagger, crouched by the water, knocked the fish unconscious first, then clumsily scaled and gutted it, tossing the entrails into the water.

Before the entrails could sink, other fish swam over to eat them.

Shang Yunduo rinsed the dagger and fish clean, picked up some stones to build a simple outdoor stove, then used the Flame Control technique to tend the fire by hand, grilling the fish and the small shells he had gathered as medicine.

No salt, no seasoning, but it was still better than grinding everything, shell and all, into a bowl of medicine.

Since he could eat this way and Pei Jie didn't object, it was clear that the first time he hadn't needed to eat the shells at all!

He wasn't deficient in calcium!

The hens at his great-aunt's place only ate shell powder when they laid soft-shelled eggs!

When the fish turned golden and the closed shells opened up, Shang Yunduo stopped the fire, picked up the grilled fish, and sat down next to Pei Jie. “Senior, do you want some fish?”

Pei Jie: “No.”

“I didn't burn it today.”

“Eat it yourself.”

“Oh.” Shang Yunduo took a bite of fish to fool his mouth, then put down the delicious grilled fish. Without waiting for Pei Jie to urge him, he picked up the bowl of medicine beside him, pinched his nose, and chugged it. Then he quickly took two more bites of fish, pried open the shells, stuffed the meat into his mouth, and chewed.

Once the food's taste mostly covered up the medicine flavor, he could finally enjoy his lunch.

Whether it was because the secret realm was rich in spiritual energy or because the Midnight Lotus grew in the pond, these fish, shrimp, and shellfish all contained some spiritual energy and tasted great—tender and sweet. Even someone like him, who rarely cooked, could make them delicious.

After finishing the fish and shells, he pulled out two more fruits and munched on them. By then, the bitterness had mostly faded. Finally, he popped a candy in his mouth, finishing his medicine routine.

Shang Yunduo sprawled on the grass, propped up on his hands, and let out a satisfied sigh of accomplishment.

Smelling the barbecue smell still in the air, the frogs started croaking again, whether out of fear or protest.

The Midnight Lotus in the water had all been eaten by him, and he had even gnawed off a section of the roots below. They weren't good at all. With the addition of the Midnight Lotus roots, his medicine had become thicker and darker, like drinking ink every day.

At least he didn't need to use too much at once; a single section lasted quite a while.

It wasn't like he was digging up all the roots, so why were these toads protesting so much? They were biting the hand that fed them—he had just helped scare away the snake for them!

Shang Yunduo picked up a stone and threw it toward the loudest croaking. With a splash, it got quiet.

“Senior, I want another fish.”

Pei Jie: “Mm.”

Shang Yunduo responded and went down to catch another fish.

This was one thing he liked about being with Pei Jie. Although Pei Jie didn't eat himself, he didn't bother Shang Yunduo about eating, and seemed to even encourage him to replenish his strength and spiritual energy through eating—unlike the Taiyuan Sect, which prohibited this and that.

This time, Shang Yunduo caught a pouchful of shrimp. He didn't know how to grill shrimp, so he took out the pot he'd used before for veggies and boiled them.

Pei Jie probably liked shrimp. The first time he had invited him to eat fish and shrimp, Pei Jie had only tried the shrimp.

But that time, the pot hadn't been cleaned well, and both the fish soup and shrimp had a bitter taste. Pei Jie only took one bite before stopping, his expression pretty much the same as Shang Yunduo's when he took his medicine.

See? He had no problem force-feeding him medicine, but when it came to himself, he couldn't stand the bitterness.

Shang Yunduo scrubbed the pot several times, boiled water in it a few times to get rid of the bitterness, and scrubbed again until he couldn't smell any bitterness, then boiled water to cook the shrimp.

Shang Yunduo enthusiastically promoted again: “Senior, the shrimp today isn't bitter. Would you like to try some?”

Pei Jie: “Eat it yourself.”

Shang Yunduo: “It's really not bitter.”

He peeled one and tried it. The shrimp meat was even better than the fish!

Sweet and delicious!

“Delicious!” Shang Yunduo set aside a plateful for Pei Jie and wolfed down the rest.

Wasn't this better than medicinal pills?

As a Qi Refining cultivator, he hadn't reached the fasting stage yet, yet everyone he met seemed able to live on air.

He didn't know about others, but for him, cultivation was cultivation, and physical strength was physical strength. Since learning Body Tempering, the difference had become even clearer. Drawing in Qi and meditating didn't take away his hunger; in fact, it made him even hungrier.

Every time he finished training with Pei Jie, he was so hungry his stomach felt like it was sticking to his back.

Seeing that he had finished, Pei Jie gave him back the remaining half plate.

Shang Yunduo: “Aren't you hungry at all?”

He'd rarely seen Pei Jie take any pills.

Pei Jie said, "Everyone has a different cultivation method. Nourishing yourself through food is also a way to cultivate. Eat yours, and if it's not enough, go hunt more."

"Oh." Shang Yunduo was confused. When had he started cultivating like this? Was it from that Body Tempering technique?

After eating his fill, rinsing, and returning to the cave they were crashing in, Shang Yunduo had another piece of candy to make sure there was no bitterness before sitting across from Pei Jie to serve as a tool.

Shang Yunduo arranged himself in a meditation posture, moved closer, then closer still, until his knees knocked against Pei Jie's, then he pulled back a little.

Pei Jie looked at him.

Shang Yunduo laughed sheepishly and said helplessly, "Senior, why don't you just sit on my lap?"

Pei Jie didn't speak or respond.

Shang Yunduo said, "Or I can sit on your lap. If we're this far apart and have to make out all night, my neck will ache, and my lower back will hurt too."

Pei Jie: "..."

Under Pei Jie's gaze, Shang Yunduo edged forward again and finally stretched one leg out to rest it beside Pei Jie's waist.

He really couldn't stand it anymore.

He wondered how other people practiced Dual Cultivation. There's no way they do it like this—sitting face-to-face meditating, having to kiss for a long time, and Pei Jie sitting ramrod straight, making him lean in from way over there. He wasn't a snake! He was the one being forced into this, yet it seemed like he was the eager one. After a whole night of training, Pei Jie was refreshed while his own waist and neck were about to snap.

Pei Jie didn't move, so Shang Yunduo grabbed his shoulders and shifted his butt forward again, scraping against the welts from the red bee stings on his leg and letting out a pained hiss.

Pei Jie stifled a laugh.

Shang Yunduo covered his face with practiced ease and said resentfully, "Senior, when will this swelling finally go down?"

Pei Jie said, "Once the toxin is exhausted, it will naturally be fine."

Shang Yunduo said, "How about this: next time something like this happens, at least let me cover my face first, okay? It's you looking at my face and me looking at yours. What's the benefit for you if I get disfigured?"

He tightened the cloth covering his face and added, "Now we look even more like two masked bandits, a real pair."

Pei Jie listened for a while, got annoyed by his chatter, so he tilted Shang Yunduo's chin up and kissed him.

Shang Yunduo instantly froze.

Hey, why doesn't he ever give any warning?

They kissed for a while with his neck craned, and then Shang Yunduo slowly relaxed.

Pei Jie's lips were cool, or maybe it was because Shang Yunduo's fire-attributed body ran too hot. Even through the two layers of cloth, he could feel their temperatures and breaths gradually converging. His mind wandered, and he forgot to meditate, earning a tap that made him quickly refocus.

It was indeed much more comfortable when they were closer to his lower back and neck, but he couldn't keep a proper meditation posture. With one leg bent and the other crossed, he soon started wondering again how other people did it when they kissed.

Was kissing really that tiring?

Then why do couples always like kissing each other so much?

Come to think of it, all the men and women he was close to were single, so he had no reference at all.

Are TV dramas all lies?

"Ah!"

"Focus. Calm your energy. Do you want a Qi Deviation?"

"..."

Shang Yunduo simply squeezed his eyes shut and imagined kissing his calico cat back home. That calmed him right down.

A moment later, Pei Jie opened his eyes and looked at Shang Yunduo, who had finally settled down, with a somewhat relieved expression.

Sigh...

The next morning, Pei Jie was back to the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining.

After checking his meridians, Shang Yunduo was covering his face with his usual skill when he heard Pei Jie say he didn't need to get stung anymore.

Shang Yunduo said, "Not going? I'm done?"

Pei Jie said, "You still want to go?"

Shang Yunduo quickly said, "No! I don't want to! Not at all!"

He wasn't insane!

Shang Yunduo said, "Senior, where are we going then? To pick the Floating Cloud Flower?"

Pei Jie said, "Mm."

Hearing this, Shang Yunduo perked right up. This miserable life of getting stung and taking medicine was finally over.

The carriage headed toward the central mountain range. Pei Jie handed him a demon beast hide.

Shang Yunduo opened it and saw characters that looked familiar yet different.

"Another demon race technique?"

"Yes. Your meridians are mostly recovered. As long as you don't get injured within the next half year and don't suddenly drain your spiritual power, you can cultivate normally."

"Oh." Shang Yunduo could feel that himself. Even saying he was at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining felt more solid.

But...

Shang Yunduo tucked the hide away and asked nervously, "Senior, why do you always make me practice demon race techniques? Am I... a demon?"

Pei Jie looked at him in surprise. "You don't know whether you're human or demon?"

Shang Yunduo's mouth twitched. He thought to himself, I really don't know.

But if "Shang Yunduo" were a demon, his cultivation level wouldn't make sense.

Demons need to undergo a lightning tribulation to transform into human form. By then, their cultivation would be at least equivalent to a human cultivator's Golden Core or even Nascent Soul stage. How could they be in Qi Refining?

Besides, a long-established sect like Taiyuan, no matter how lax, wouldn't let a demon infiltrate their ranks, especially since "Shang Yunduo" was an inner disciple.

He couldn't be a demon, so...

"It's not because you think I'm too dumb to learn advanced techniques, so you made me learn the simpler, more brutish demon techniques, is it?"

Pei Jie stared at him for a moment, then suddenly laughed. "Mm, you're very self-aware."

"..."

Shang Yunduo glared at him, thinking, I'm not stupid. That demon race's Body Tempering technique is much harder than Taiyuan Sect's Flame Control and Sword Flight Art, and didn't I master the first level in just a few days?

"Is it because of my Pure Yang Constitution?"

He remembered that Su Ziyuan had also learned a bit of demon race techniques, but he wasn't sure if it had anything to do with her constitution, since plenty of human cultivators and demonic cultivators secretly learned demon race techniques too.

Besides, "demon race" was just a general term used by human cultivators. They were divided into many subgroups—those that flew in the sky, swam in water, or walked on land—with differences among them sometimes greater than between some demon races and humans. They even occasionally stole cultivation techniques from each other.

Pei Jie said, "I've shown this cultivation technique to many people."

Shang Yunduo felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. "Oh."

So he wasn't the special one after all.

Pei Jie continued, "Many demon cultivators couldn't understand it, either."

"Huh? Demon cultivators?" Shang Yunduo perked up again, surprised. "Senior, do you have demon cultivator friends?"

"No, I have no friends," Pei Jie replied.

Shang Yunduo: "..."

"There's only one who barely qualifies, and he's already dead," Pei Jie added.

Shang Yunduo: "... Oh."

He wanted to ask what happened, but Pei Jie didn't seem interested in talking about it, so he awkwardly steered the conversation back and acted as if nothing had happened. "Then... Senior, you still know demon cultivators?"

"How else would I have demon race cultivation techniques?" Pei Jie said.

Shang Yunduo: "Oh..."

That made sense, but something about it sounded strange.

Were they talking about the same kind of "knowing"?

Before he could think further, Pei Jie said, "First, try to see what you can see."

"Alright," Shang Yunduo replied.

He unrolled the hide and asked curiously, "What cultivation technique is this?"

Pei Jie: "...The Illusion Art."

Shang Yunduo: "..."

Did he just make that up on the spot?

Speechless, Shang Yunduo pointed at the most conspicuous line at the top, clearly the title, and said, "Senior, I can't read characters, but I can count. There are five characters in the title."

Author's note:

Yunduo: Something's definitely wrong.

So what's the most wrong?

A: The origin of the technique.

B: How many characters are in the Illusion Art.

C: The posture for Dual Cultivation.

D: (Please add your own.)