Chapter 122: Recipe

Chapter 122: Recipe

Shang Yunduo had prepared a lot of food, afraid that deep in the demon territory he wouldn't find anything suitable to eat. But to his surprise, the next day, he saw that Lie Qi had also prepared quite a bit, with two bloody demon beast legs hanging from his waist.

Fenger, limited by his thinner wallet, only bought some affordable items that were local specialties near the Dividing Mountain Range, planning to bring them to his younger brother.

Speaking of his brother, Fenger puffed up with pride, boasting that his brother had been astonishingly talented since childhood and could now beat two of him at once.

Fenger: "I wonder if my little brother got selected."

Lie Qi: "Only three are chosen. It's tough."

Fenger: "Did you compete?"

Lie Qi shook his head. "Our Gray Rock clan's internal selection didn't pick me back then. Sigh..."

Shang Yunduo was surprised. Lie Qi's cultivation was quite impressive.

Especially his body techniques; against a human at Mid Foundation stage, he should have more than enough to handle a Mid Foundation human. Yet he failed even within his own clan?

Lie Qi: "But our Gray Rock clan was selected last time!"

The entire Tiger clan only chose three, and one of them was from their clan!

Fenger cast an envious look, then couldn't help worrying about his own brother.

Shang Yunduo sat in a roofless sedan—more precisely, an oversized wooden basin—listening to their chatter.

This cheaper mode of transport among demons was simple and crude: no roof, no doors, low railings. You paid, stepped in, and sat down cross-legged anywhere, like a giant bathtub.

Of course, there were no seats either.

Everyone just found a spot and sat cross-legged.

Though crude, they were strict when collecting spirit stones: counted per person, considered weight and size. If the basin couldn't fit someone too large, or the birds couldn't pull someone too heavy, they'd be refused.

Among them, only Pei Jie paid the normal price. The three sturdy Tiger clan men, all broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, each counted as one and a half persons' worth of spirit stones.

Traveling with them to Triple Mountain was also a small demon cultivator, not even as tall as Shang Yunduo's waist. Shang Yunduo had no idea which clan he belonged to, but he trembled with fear when he saw them board.

Shang Yunduo suspected that if Pei Jie weren't also with them, that little demon cultivator would have jumped off the vehicle and fled.

The driver was a bird demon with white feathers, but many birds naturally have white feathers, so Shang Yunduo couldn't tell if he was old or not.

The coachman wore a large sun-shading hat, was taciturn, and after collecting the spirit stones, he cracked his whip. Two giant eagles flapped their wings and soared into the air, and the basin they sat in shot upward like a pulled radish, shifting from parallel to the ground to vertical in less than a second.

Unprepared, the group tumbled like rolling radishes, almost falling out of the basin. Only the small demon cultivator, experienced as he was, grabbed a handle from somewhere and pressed himself against the railing.

The others quickly used spiritual power to steady themselves. The coachman said calmly, "Never ridden before? Then learn from those two. Once it's stable, it'll be fine."

The three provincial tigers: "..."

Silently, they looked at the little demon gripping the handle, too scared to move, and then at Pei Jie, who had been sitting cross-legged against the wall since boarding, meditating steadily without budging.

"..."

Lie Qi tried to save face: "Normally we ride ground beast carts."

The coachman completely ignored them.

Once they were stable in the air, it was much better—at least the bottom of the basin was almost parallel to the ground. Still bumpy and windy, and easy to choke. If they wanted to chat, it was best to talk with their backs to the wind.

Shang Yunduo secretly transmitted a message to Pei Jie to complain: "No wonder demon cultivators are all so tough. Just being blown by the wind for a day would make even the strong have diarrhea!"

Thinking that they still had three days to fly to Triple Mountain, he felt despair.

Pei Jie found it amusing: "Isn't it similar to sword flight?"

The two birds didn't complain about three days of flying, yet he was already complaining.

Shang Yunduo thought, Sword flight doesn't go nonstop for three days!

And you can control the speed yourself.

It's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go back. He really missed their flying carriage now.

As for Lie Qi and the other, after getting used to the flying beast cart's speed, they became active, sat chatting for a while, then stood up and paced around the railing.

Demon cultivators could naturally fly, and many used various strange artifacts like humans with their flying swords.

But these two clearly didn't have such flying artifacts. They usually just flew briefly with their cultivation levels. Flying continuously for three days like this was quite exhilarating.

"No wonder those human cultivators love using flying artifacts so much."

"I heard some human sects have flying artifacts as big as a mountain."

"That big?"

Lie Qi whispered: "And they fly steadily."

Fenger: "So delicate."

Lie Qi agreed deeply: "If you don't even feel like you're flying, what's the point?"

Shang Yunduo: "..."

Lie Qi: "Brother Baiyun, why aren't you talking?"

Shang Yunduo thought, how could he say he was that delicate human cultivator? "I... have acrophobia."

Lie Qi and Fenger: "Huh?"

Shang Yunduo: "Never mind, never mind. I'll just read some books."

He took out the newly bought books and started cramming all sorts of common knowledge and anecdotes about the demon realm.

Three days passed in a flash. The beast cart stopped in front of a mountain, merging among the many walking beasts and flying birds. The little demon cultivator jumped off and ran, disappearing in an instant.

But he showed them the way. They followed the direction he fled up the mountain, and halfway up, they could see the only teleportation array nearby.

Shang Yunduo felt the array eyes looked familiar. When he got closer and looked carefully, they looked even more like human teleportation arrays—identical!

He couldn't help whispering to Pei Jie in complaint: "Senior, this looks way too much like the human teleportation arrays, doesn't it?"

Pei Jie: "It was left by humans."

"???" He thought for a moment: "Before the Divide?"

Pei Jie: "Mm."

Shang Yunduo was stunned: "That's incredibly durable!"

Pei Jie laughed: "What are you thinking? Of course they need maintenance and repairs. If something goes wrong, it'll cost spirit stones to find someone to fix it. But the demon race doesn't have many teleportation arrays left."

Shang Yunduo: "Why?"

Pei Jie: "Naturally, because those at the Transformation stage don't need them, and those at the Core Formation stage can't repair them. Finding a human cultivator who can fix them isn't that simple."

Shang Yunduo nodded: "That's true."

It's fine near the Boundary Mountain, but if it's deep in demon territory, even if you offer more spirit stones, they might not be willing to come.

Pei Jie: "Also, teleportation arrays are among the most difficult formations, extremely costly. Ordinary small clans can't afford to build them. If the area is sparsely populated and desolate, maintenance alone could bankrupt a small city. And the ancient arrays capable of long-distance teleportation used very special materials that are long gone in the current cultivation world."

Soon, the teleportation array proved Pei Jie right with its exorbitant price. Not only did it require far more spirit stones than in human territory, but it also explicitly stated that anyone who damaged it would have to fix it, and if they couldn't, they would have to sell themselves to hire someone from the human side.

A demon cultivator protested: "Just a teleportation array, my Sacred Clan..."

The guard demon cultivator said coldly: "Try it."

"..."

The demon cultivators carefully shuffled into the designated spots, barely daring to move, stiff as marionettes, terrified of being hit with huge compensation.

To get to the Four-Corner Tower, they first had to teleport to a place called Clear Wind Plains. Shang Yunduo looked around; almost everyone heading to Clear Wind Plains was from the tiger clan.

Were they going to watch the fun or to take part in the selection? It made him nervous too.

Among the group of tigers, the most relaxed and composed was Pei Jie, who was disguised as a deer. Surrounded by tiger cultivators, he seemed even more out of this world.

If it were elsewhere, a tiger with a muscular, imposing build and a threatening presence would naturally attract attention. But among tiger cultivators, a deer stood out more than a tiger in a herd of deer. As soon as they stepped off the teleportation platform, they were noticed. Those walking, riding, or chatting—all the nearby tigers looked at him. Even though they were walking together, Shang Yunduo didn't feel a single glance land on the three of them.

After the many tiger cultivators dispersed, leaving just the four of them walking together, someone finally noticed there were three others.

A female tiger demon struck up a conversation first, flashing a seductive wink at Pei Jie: "Hey, are you going into the mountain too?"

Shang Yunduo: "..."

He really wished he could ride that open-top bathtub cart now.

Too bad there wasn't any.

This was already tiger territory. Even the carts were pulled by huge tigers.

Quickly finding a cart to sit in, Shang Yunduo was relieved that these small climbing carts were built for the size and weight of tiger clan members; one cart could seat two. He paid spirit stones and urged them to get moving immediately.

Two huge tigers stretched their paws and yawned, then took the reins in their mouths and ran.

Pei Jie laughed: "What are you running from?"

Shang Yunduo: "I feel like they're looking at you with bad intentions."

Pei Jie: "Naturally, snow deer are on the tiger clan's menu."

Shang Yunduo: "Huh?!"

Shang Yunduo was shocked. He turned his head sharply to look at Pei Jie.

That wasn't the kind of impurity he meant!

But—

"They want to eat you? Demon cultivators eat each other?!"

Pei Jie: "You almost saw a demon cultivator eat a human, didn't you? In their eyes, demons from other clans and humans are no different—both are outsiders."

Shang Yunduo: "..."

His eyes went wide; he was genuinely shaken.

He stared at the swaying tails of the two huge tigers running ahead. His overloaded brain belatedly understood they were tiger clan, and so were the ones pulling the cart. The only difference was that the former could cultivate, while these were demon beasts without sentience, unable to speak, more like animals.

But by the same logic, would human cultivators make ordinary mortals pull carts?!

Of course, this analogy was somewhat inappropriate, since ordinary mortals have no cultivation and can't run as fast as Qi Refining cultivators. But still, they wouldn't catch Qi Refining cultivators and use them as beasts of burden!

In the entire cultivation world, there were so many demon beasts. Why did the tiger clan insist on using tigers to pull carts?

Yet it seemed all tiger cultivators found this normal, perfectly normal.

Shang Yunduo: "Senior, maybe we should just leave?"

Pei Jie: "What's there to fear? I'm not actually a snow deer clan."

Shang Yunduo: "If they knew you were a human, they'd be even ruder!"

Pei Jie: "That's why you're here, isn't it?"

Shang Yunduo was stunned for a moment; a sense of responsibility welled up inside him. Then he heard Pei Jie continue: "The Fire Armor Tiger Clan is also quite mysterious among the tiger clans. You just need to say you're an alchemist and that you're here for the Spirit Rhino. They won't bother your companion."

Shang Yunduo: "…………"

Pei Jie: "Keep your cover; don't slip up."

Shang Yunduo: "..."

Couldn't they just hide, follow secretly, sneak into that Spirit Rhino Valley, steal some Spirit Rhino Shell, and run away?

Since things had come to this, it was too late to escape. Even asking Pei Jie to disguise as another tiger was out of the question.

As soon as they got off the cart, they once again faced curious stares. Pei Jie remained calm, but Shang Yunduo was already numb.

After a few steps, before they could find the competition venue or figure out the competition process, a tall, imposing figure stared straight at Pei Jie and walked toward them.

When he was almost in front of them, he finally glanced at the three of them and then looked at Shang Yunduo, who was walking closest to Pei Jie: "So you're the one who brought that deer here?"

Shang Yunduo looked up at him: "Is there something you need?"

The other arrogantly tossed a storage pouch at him: "I'll buy your deer. Name your price."

Shang Yunduo hurled the pouch back: "How many spirit stones for your head? I'll buy it!"

Author's note:

Yunduo goes berserk: Growl growl~!