Chapter 154 I Can Fly Too

Ah—

Xu Yan let out a sharp cry.

"If you are scared, just close your eyes," Chu Tianfeng whispered in her ear.

"Mm!" Xu Yan buried her head in Chu Tianfeng's embrace.

Boom!

Boom!

Behind them, Kuang Fei was having another fit, roaring and blasting indiscriminately in all directions.

Without looking back, Chu Tianfeng flew a hundred or so zhang away, rounded a mountain slope, and soared straight into the sky.

Sensing something unusual, Xu Yan opened her eyes once more.

Ah—

Another earth-shattering scream!

"Don't be afraid!" Chu Tianfeng gently patted her arm.

"W-we are flying?" Xu Yan buried her head back into Chu Tianfeng's chest.

"Yes." Chu Tianfeng smiled faintly.

"You can fly?" Xu Yan cautiously opened her eyes.

Chu Tianfeng nodded. "If you want to learn, I can teach you."

"I—can I fly too?" Hearing this, Xu Yan's eyes widened instantly.

"I don't know yet." Chu Tianfeng gently kissed her hair. "I'll teach you later."

They flew through the air for about half an hour. Seeing mountain ranges rolling endlessly beneath their feet, Chu Tianfeng slowed his pace, found a cave at the base of a cliff, and plunged right inside.

First, he spent a little over ten minutes setting up a low-grade defensive array within the cave and crafted a jade slip for Xu Yan so she could enter and exit freely.

Then, he took out firewood, rice, oil, salt, and other supplies to cook some thin porridge. After Xu Yan finished eating, he meticulously used his true essence to help regulate her meridians.

The next day, Xu Yan's injuries had greatly improved, and his own wounds were mostly healed.

It took a little over an hour for him to explain to Xu Yan what cultivation was, what cultivation methods were, as well as spiritual roots, medicinal pills, magical treasures, and the like.

He also took out a little less than the lower half of a Lotus Root of Pure Spirit Mist, sliced it thinly, and had Xu Yan eat all of it.

Not knowing Xu Yan's spiritual roots, he taught her the Five Elements Art as well.

Three days later, he found that Xu Yan showed a strong aversion to the metal, wood, and earth spiritual qi attributes, basically confirming that her spiritual roots were water and fire dual spiritual roots.

He actually possessed basic cultivation methods for the water and fire attributes, but he still preferred the Five Elements Art.

For no other reason than the sheer dominance of the Five Elements Art!

Struck by a flash of inspiration, he removed the parts of the Five Elements Art pertaining to the other three attributes, renamed the technique the Five Elements Water-Fire Art, and instructed Xu Yan to absorb only the heavenly and earthly spiritual qi of the water and fire attributes during her cultivation.

Perhaps Xu Yan was inherently clever, or perhaps the effect of that small piece of lotus root was extraordinary.

In short, Xu Yan's cultivation speed was extremely fast. After just a single day of effort, she successfully broke through to the first layer of Qi Condensation.

Chu Tianfeng helped her awaken her divine sense, assigned her a storage ring, and taught her many basic spells, leaving her to cultivate on her own.

From then on, the two of them stayed cooped up in the cave day and night, practicing their cultivation incessantly without regard for day or night.

Sometimes, Chu Tianfeng would carve out time to accompany Xu Yan for a stroll in the mountains, watching the sunrise or sunset.

Or he would step onto his flying sword, and the two of them would stroll through the sky, gazing at the moon and counting the stars.

Xu Yan felt as if she had eaten honey; smiles graced her face every single day.

Aside from cultivating, she hugged Chu Tianfeng almost constantly, terrified that everything before her eyes was just a dream, and terrified that Chu Tianfeng might fly away.

More than ten days later, she successfully cultivated to the second layer of Qi Condensation.

Perhaps because her spiritual roots lacked several attributes compared to Chu Tianfeng's, she consumed far fewer resources than he did.

Breaking through twice in succession within two weeks, she had only used two Foundation Establishment Pills and two demonic beast cores.

On a certain evening, as usual, after finishing dinner, the two sat embraced on a large tree atop the cliff, gazing at the starry sky and whispering sweet nothings that belonged only to the two of them.

Suddenly, Chu Tianfeng frowned slightly and looked toward another large tree in front of them.

That tree was no different from ordinary trees—about as thick as a person could embrace, over ten zhang tall, with lush foliage forming an umbrella shape, standing quietly in the dusk.

"What is it?" Seeing Chu Tianfeng's unusual behavior, Xu Yan asked casually.

Chu Tianfeng shook his head, locked his divine sense onto the tree, and transmitted his voice: "Come out!"

The tree's canopy trembled slightly, and a very faint, humanoid grey shadow suddenly darted out, flying outward.

Swish!

With a flash of his figure, Chu Tianfeng swiftly flew into mid-air, his flying sword drifting beneath his feet.

Seeing this, the grey shadow was so frightened that it hurriedly accelerated its escape.

With a gentle tap of his toes, Chu Tianfeng flew ahead of the grey shadow in the blink of an eye, blocking its path.

The grey shadow attempted to flee again, but before it could even start moving, it saw a streak of fire rapidly hurtling toward it, terrifying it to the point of trembling and daring not to move rashly.

"Were you a martial artist in your past life?" Chu Tianfeng asked.

Clearly, the grey shadow was a ghost, and from its movements, it was evident that it had been a martial artist during its lifetime, and its cultivation level was not low either.

"Y-yes," the ghost trembled as it spoke.

"Which sect do you belong to? What are you doing here?" Chu Tianfeng asked again.

"I—I am from the Heavenly Master Sect. I was ordered to come find, to come find..." At this point, the ghost looked at Chu Tianfeng with trepidation.

Chu Tianfeng came to a sudden realization, thinking to himself that this Heavenly Master Sect truly refused to let go like a lingering ghost, actually dispatching little ghosts everywhere to search for him.

"Where is your sect located?" A flash of ruthlessness crossed the corner of Chu Tianfeng's eyes.

The two sides were already at loggerheads; if the opportunity arose, he wouldn't mind paying them a visit.

"We..." The ghost stammered.

With a movement of Chu Tianfeng's divine sense, the fireball floating in front of the ghost suddenly leaped forward!

"I—I'll talk..." The ghost shrieked in terror. "Our sect is in Lanyu County, Yushan Town, An City."

"How strong is your sect? How many Yuantian realm experts do you have?" Chu Tianfeng asked coldly once more.

"Our sect has three hundred and twelve people, one hundred and thirty-two divine souls. Originally there were four Yuantian experts, but shortly ago, Elder Mo Wanian went missing, so now there are only three," the ghost replied.

"Still three Yuantian experts?" Hearing this, Chu Tianfeng frowned slightly. "Aside from Kuang Fei, who are the other two? What are their exact cultivation levels?"

Never had he imagined that the Heavenly Master Sect would be this powerful, still boasting three Yuantian realm experts.

"Sect Master Yu Shigui is at the early Yuantian realm, and Supreme Elder Yu Zuhui is rumored to be at the peak Yuantian realm," the ghost answered honestly.

Chu Tianfeng pondered for a moment, suddenly feeling something was amiss, and raged, "You actually dare to lie! I recently ran into Li Yuanfeng from your sect, and he seemed to be an early Yuantian expert as well."

"No, I'm not lying!" The ghost quickly defended itself. "Our Heavenly Master Sect has a pool of divine water. Many divine souls did not reach the Yuantian realm during their lifetimes; they only ascended to it after death."

Chu Tianfeng had a sudden epiphany. He guessed that the so-called divine water was the Soul-Nourishing Spring, and its scale must certainly not be small. With the Heavenly Master Sect monopolizing such a resource, no wonder they dared to raise so many little ghosts!

"Anything else to add?" Chu Tianfeng's divine sense locked tightly onto the ghost.

"D-don't kill me!" Sensing the killing intent emanating from Chu Tianfeng, the ghost screamed in terror.

With a wave of Chu Tianfeng's right hand, the fireball immediately lunged at the ghost.

Before the ghost could even make any reaction, it was utterly annihilated into ashes.

Afterward, Chu Tianfeng drifted back to the original large tree and flew to Xu Yan's side.

"What was that thing?" Xu Yan asked out of curiosity.

"A little ghost," Chu Tianfeng gently kissed her cheek.

Had it been half a month ago, Xu Yan would never have believed it.

However, ever since she began learning cultivation under Chu Tianfeng, she had heard plenty about spells and immortals, and she was no longer afraid of ghosts at all.

"You killed it?" Being naturally kind-hearted, Xu Yan felt a slight trace of reluctance.

"Mm." Sensing her thoughts, Chu Tianfeng kissed her hair again. "Toward enemies, one cannot show any mercy."

Xu Yan smiled brightly and leaned against Chu Tianfeng's shoulder.

"Let's go!" Chu Tianfeng gently wrapped his arm around her waist. "Rest well today, and early tomorrow morning, I'll send you back first."

With both of their injuries healed, he had long wanted to send Xu Yan back, but Xu Yan had pleaded with him repeatedly, and coupled with her extremely low cultivation level at the time, he hadn't felt completely at ease.

"What about you?" Xu Yan asked softly.

In truth, she knew better than anyone that she couldn't stay by his side forever.

His cultivation level was still quite low; he could barely protect himself, let alone look after her. Staying by his side wouldn't help him at all and might even drag him down.

"I still need to stay for a while to look for a few spiritual herbs in the surrounding area," Chu Tianfeng stretched lazily.

The spiritual qi of heaven and earth in these mountains was quite good, and he wanted to search the vicinity to see if he could find the two spiritual herbs, White Sweet Flower and Gengqin.

His cultivation had been growing too slowly lately, stuck stubbornly at the peak of the first layer of Foundation Establishment. Clearly able to see that barrier, he had continuously failed to break through due to the lack of a Foundation-Condensing Pill.

Knowing his situation relatively well, Xu Yan didn't say much more upon seeing this.

The two returned to the cave and slept in each other's arms until dawn.

Early the next morning, they got up, had breakfast, tidied up slightly, and flew back to that precipitous cliff.

Speaking in soft, gentle tones, Xu Yan recounted the process of falling down the cliff that day, leading Chu Tianfeng to realize that she had been unconscious right here for three whole days and nights!

Seeing the blood-stained nylon rope at the bottom of the cliff, a pang of heartache struck Chu Tianfeng, and he pulled Xu Yan into a tight embrace.

"Amitabha!" Unexpectedly, just as their lips met, a booming Buddhist chant resounded abruptly from beside them.

"Master, it's you!" Xu Yan turned her head, looking in pleasant surprise at an old monk running toward them.

Holding Xu Yan's hand, Chu Tianfeng walked over to a patch of weeds and reached out to collect all the scattered parcels and items left lying there.

Before long, the old monk hurried up to them. With white eyebrows and a white beard, he turned out to be none other than Master Wuyin!

"Benefactor Chu, I trust both of you have been well." Master Wuyin pressed his palms together and bowed to Chu and Xu.

"Were you waiting here for me?" Chu Tianfeng had actually spotted the old monk early on, but he wasn't afraid.

Although the opponent's cultivation and combat power far exceeded his own, his evasion skills also far surpassed his adversary's.

"That's right!" Master Wuyin kept his hands in front of his chest. "Benefactor Chu possesses an excessively heavy killing intent. Over the past half year, you have successively eradicated the Salt Society, raided the Grave-Robbing Sect, wreaked havoc in the Lijia Realm, and caused a disturbance in Peach Blossom Valley. Every single incident is truly appalling. Though unworthy, this old monk wishes to invite Benefactor Chu to stay temporarily at Wuxin Academy. The boundless power of the Buddha will surely be able to dissolve the demonic nature in Benefactor Chu's heart."

"Master, please forgive—" Xu Yan wanted to say something, but Chu Tianfeng waved his hand to interrupt her.

"Old monk, why can't you tell right from wrong?" Chu Tianfeng sneered. "I did indeed kill a few petty scoundrels, but those were all people who deserved to die."

"Amitabha! All living beings are equal; there is no one who deserves to die," Master Wuyin frowned slightly. "How can Benefactor Chu judge people's lives and deaths based solely on your own personal preferences?"

"Enough talk." Chu Tianfeng pulled Xu Yan close and slowly executed a spell formula. "If you insist on seeking justice for them, bring it on!"

"Benefactor Chu, this old monk respects your exceptional talent in weapon crafting and is unwilling to harm you. I hope Benefactor Chu will not make things difficult for this old monk," Wuyin said, glancing at Xu Yan by his side.

With both Chu and Xu appearing simultaneously at the cliff, he finally understood that Xu Yan's bracelet had most likely been crafted by Chu Tianfeng.

"Old monk, you are truly naive!" With a wave of his right hand, Chu Tianfeng's flying sword shot fiercely out of his storage ring.