Chapter 154: Revisit Old Place

Chapter 154: Back to the Old Haunt

"You can?" Shang Yunduo couldn't help but repeat himself. "I want to put a mark on you."

Pei Jie nodded. "Sure."

Shang Yunduo got excited right away. "Then teach me!"

Pei Jie: "My spiritual power is sealed right now."

Shang Yunduo was stunned. "...Ah, I forgot."

Pei Jie laughed. He knew that would happen.

Shang Yunduo quickly said, "Then teach me when we get into the secret realm. You can't back out."

Pei Jie nodded. "When have I ever backed out of something I promised you?"

"Never, hehe." Shang Yunduo chuckled goofily, and rowed with fresh energy.

The sky darkened and mist rolled in. As he rowed, Shang Yunduo felt a faint force pulling at them. He turned around, and Pei Jie was gone.

The sensation of gripping Pei Jie was still there, but the person was gone.

"..."

He stared at his empty hand, cursing inwardly: What the hell kind of formation is this?

A formation to break up couples?

The oar was still in his other hand, but the boat was gone. He used the oar as a flotation device and continued swimming forward. After swimming for about an hour, the water grew shallower, but the mist grew thicker.

You couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

So, Shang Yunduo simply closed his eyes and moved forward relying only on his spiritual sense.

After all, he had experience with being blind, so he walked steadily with his eyes shut.

The moment he stepped ashore, his spiritual power came back as expected. Shang Yunduo stuffed the oar into his storage pouch, drew his sword, and flew forward.

Charging straight through the mist, cool wind hit his face. Shang Yunduo opened his eyes. The moon shone dimly, and the surroundings seemed somewhat familiar.

After flying a bit longer, he recognized it. Isn't this the place where he used to pick midnight lotuses?!

Flying to the mountaintop, looking at the freshly grown dark lotus leaves in the summit's heavenly pool, it felt like just yesterday.

In the blink of an eye, two years had passed.

The panic and fear from back then were kind of embarrassing to recall now.

"Heh..." Shang Yunduo couldn't help chuckling. While reminiscing, he looked around and quickly found the spot where he used to clean fish and shrimp. The stones he had piled up to make a stove were still there, but grass had grown over the area, burying them.

This was indeed a fairly secluded place.

There were no powerful spirit beasts around, and it was far enough from the central mountain range and the lake of floating cloud flowers.

He just let all the spirit rhinos out. "See if you like it here?"

The spirit rhinos, who'd been cooped up for days, crowded around him, nuzzling and nudging him. Shang Yunduo laughed and patted each of them on the head. "If you like it here, this is your new home! If not, take your time to find one; this secret realm is much bigger than Spirit Rhino Valley anyway."

He grabbed the largest one, which seemed to understand him, and gave them repeated instructions as he pointed at the distant terrain: "This is a secret realm, on the back of a three-legged turtle. It's not the demon realm, nor the human realm. No one's going to come catch and kill you anymore. Still, be careful. Deep water might have powerful spirit beasts. If you run into any, be careful—they know the turf. On land, there shouldn't be anything scary; spirit beasts here are low-level, and you have numbers, so you probably don't need to fear. Oh, and don't go toward the central mountain range—that mountain. The lake there is dangerous. Travel together. Lead them well. If by chance you encounter people coming in, judge the situation and hide if you need to. Hmm… I think that's all I need to say. You can explore at your own pace. Got it? If you do, lead them away. You're free now."

The spirit rhino let out a moo at him, but didn't leave. Instead, it lay down next to him and started grazing.

The other spirit rhinos, just like at Boundary Mountain, scattered around him to graze. Seeing that he had no intention of going for a walk with them, they all stayed close, and soon they were lying down one by one. One little spirit rhino even brought him a flowering spiritual herb in its mouth.

Shang Yunduo smiled and patted it on the head. "You're so thoughtful."

When Pei Jie flew over on his boat, Shang Yunduo was playing his song "Peach Blossom Bus" (Carriage in the Mist) for the spirit rhinos. Surrounded by a herd of spirit rhinos, he looked like a cowherd from a painting.

Pei Jie laughed. "How'd you get here?"

"Senior," Shang Yunduo stood up. "Let's stay a few more days before leaving. Wait until they find a place to settle and no other spirit beasts bully them."

Pei Jie: "Alright."

This also gave them a chance to find a few more medicinal herbs in the secret realm.

After saying goodbye reluctantly, Shang Yunduo and Pei Jie left on the flying boat. The spirit rhinos looked in the direction of the flying boat, looking confused about why he hadn't put them into the spirit beast pouch.

Shang Yunduo was still worried. He flew a long way off, then turned the boat invisible and flew back. He saw the largest spirit rhino leading the others down the mountain into a valley, where they found a sheltered spot and began munching on fruit and grass. Only then did he leave reassured.

Since they were back in the old place, Pei Jie took him straight to the cave they'd lived in before. Two years had passed, and it seemed no one had come here, nor had any spirit beasts visited. Aside from some dust, everything inside was as they left it. The half-finished small drum and the stones placed outside the cave were unchanged.

Shang Yunduo rolled up his sleeves and started cleaning, happily humming a song as he worked.

Pei Jie simply sat in his usual spot from before, watching Shang Yunduo come and go, and somehow remembered every little moment of how they'd been together back then.

The open space near the cave entrance where grass barely grew was where Shang Yunduo used to practice body techniques.

Hearing Pei Jie suddenly laugh, Shang Yunduo looked around in confusion. There was nothing. "Senior, what are you laughing at?"

"Nothing. I remembered you throwing a fit here."

"?" Shang Yunduo was stunned. "Throwing a fit? Me? Impossible!"

Pei Jie pointed further away. "Right there, the day it rained."

"...Uh" Shang Yunduo suddenly remembered the time he beat out a tune in the rain, and Pei Jie responded with a sword dance.

The bitterness of that day still seemed to hang in the air, suddenly flooding back.

Shang Yunduo couldn't help puffing out his cheeks. "I wasn't throwing a fit."

He would never forget that day for the rest of his life.

Pei Jie: "Then what was it? Composing a tune to curse me?"

"No! I wasn't!" Shang Yunduo's face flushed red, and he said, annoyed and embarrassed. "I was playing something else!"

"The one that sounded nicer?"

"...Mm..." Shang Yunduo leaned closer, took a deep breath, and then exhaled heavily. "The second one was me saying I like you!"

But Pei Jie didn't know—back then, he hadn't even had the courage to sing the words.

Thankfully, those troubles are far behind us.

Pei Jie was speechless.

Shang Yunduo said, “Really!”

Pei Jie thought back to the tune from that day and deliberately teased him: “Saying it while throwing a tantrum?”

Shang Yunduo: “No way?!”

He paused, then sang out loud as his past self: “I’d rather swim against the current, nestle by your side~ If that’s not a confession, what is?”

Pei Jie: “The first one you played wasn’t this one.”

Shang Yunduo: “…”

Pei Jie: “Beautiful scenery like…”

Shang Yunduo let out a cry, jumped up, and lunged at him: “Stop it! Forget it! Forget it!! The mark! You said you’d teach me how to leave a mark!”

Pei Jie was shaken so hard he could barely breathe.

Only after Shang Yunduo had sung “The Water’s Edge” three times for Pei Jie, making up a few lines for the parts he forgot, did Pei Jie finally teach him how to leave a mark.

There were many types of marks. Besides the soul mark between Dao companions that he wanted to learn, Pei Jie also taught him those for master-servant relationships, master-spirit beast bonds, equal contracts, restraint marks, and so on. He also taught him how to secretly leave marks on others without being discovered—for those with higher cultivation than his own, those with lower cultivation, and what type of mark was best for spirit beasts.

Just hearing the theory made Shang Yunduo's head spin; after studying all night, he still felt he was running low on brainpower, reminding him of his early days learning formations.

Seeing him nearly dazed, Pei Jie stopped teaching and had him focus only on the Dao companion mark for now, recording the rest on jade slips for him to learn slowly later.

When Shang Yunduo finally succeeded in leaving a mark on Pei Jie, he suddenly felt that Pei Jie appeared much more distinct in his eyes, as if it had upgraded from 1080p to 4K, making everything else look like a mere backdrop.

So this was how Pei Jie had always seen him?

Shang Yunduo suddenly felt he had been ungrateful back then for minding Pei Jie placing a mark on him—it was clearly a sign of attention!

After canoodling with Pei Jie for a good while, he praised from the bottom of his heart how handsome Pei Jie looked to him. But before he could finish his heartfelt compliments, Pei Jie interrupted and shooed him out of the cave. Shang Yunduo had to just scribble down the list Pei Jie dictated and go gather herbs. He also took a detour to the valley to see how the Spirit Rhinos were settling in.

They were still in the same valley as yesterday, though they had moved a dozen miles east. They seemed to be in good spirits. Confirming no injuries or illnesses, Shang Yunduo didn’t disturb them and turned his flying ship to gather herbs.

Though he had only lived in the secret realm for a little over a month, returning to this place felt like coming home. Now with higher cultivation, he flew faster, and within one morning he gathered all the herbs he could. He left behind any that were out of season or too young, planning to look elsewhere or buy them later from human cities.

With nothing else to do, and Pei Jie busy making jade slips, telling him not to return before dark, Shang Yunduo had an idea. He decided to check out the red sand beach where the Fire Sand Scorpions lived.

Back when King Lingxi self-destructed, even from that far away, his arm guard had been knocked askew. The next time he repaired it, he could add a sand bed to enhance its fire attribute.

He could also catch Fire Sand Scorpions—sell 'em for spirit stones and also help rid the big turtle of pests.

Having made up his mind, he identified the direction and flew along the river, wondering if he might pick up some artifact or weapon fragments along the way.

Before he had flown even half the distance, Shang Yunduo suddenly sensed two auras colliding, followed by a spirit beast's roar from afar.

Huh?

Were beasts fighting?

He sent out his spiritual sense—a third-order beast?

Thinking back to when he first arrived in the secret realm, even a second-order beast had terrified him. And since most beasts in the realm had Water Spirit Roots, which countered his own element, he'd have run the other way at the sight of a third-order beast back then. He wasn’t familiar with these third-order beasts.

Since he encountered one, Shang Yunduo decided to go check out the commotion and see if there were any rare herbs near its lair that he hadn’t come across before.

But just as his flying ship approached, Shang Yunduo sensed a third aura.

Faint and hidden, with very weak spiritual energy and presence. If he hadn't been paying attention, he'd have thought it was a little animal perched on a tree… In short, it was very familiar.

Shang Yunduo quietly switched to his Illusion Art and looked at the big tree sticking out from the cliff edge. Sure enough, there was a human form!

With that familiar tree-clinging pose and the way it swayed in the wind—an old friend!

Author’s note:

Pei Jie: “The first tune you wrote for me, ‘Beautiful scenery like…’—what was that line?”

Cloud (facepalming): “I forget! Totally forgot!”

Also: “I’d rather swim against the current, nestle by your side,” originally goes, “I’d rather swim against the current, nestle by her side,” from “The Water’s Edge.” Taking advantage of the fact that Senior had never heard that song, Cloud quietly changed the lyrics.