Chapter 92 - Northbound

“I don’t have the leisure, but thank you for the offer, commander Gu!” The Soaring Dragon Elder was about to ride away on his sword.

With a flash, Gu Yanying blocked his way again. Her smile had already vanished. “Soaring Dragon Elder, you’re already so elderly, so why must you be so vicious against a cat? Ever since the Dark Queen lost her child, she has comforted herself with the cat. Does the Sword Collection palace really plan on waging war against the Umbral Yin sect?”

“Every single generation of our Sword Collection palace has had the mission of purging demons and daemons. All demons, daemons, ghosts, and monsters deserve death!”

The Soaring Dragon Elder said resolutely. He had come to kill the cat daemon, which would destroy the willpower of that ghost woman. And, the cat daemon should be carrying a large quantity of spiritual pills on her; she might even have arcane artifacts. It was tremendous wealth, so how could he simply let this opportunity slip by?

Before he had come, he had made the Divining Elder perform divination. The divination told him that it would all be smooth sailing, and he would be able to settle a grievance through this as well. He basically had complete confidence in succeeding with what he had set out to do.

At the end of this, the provincial lord himself would come out to mediate the two parties. The Umbral Yin sect did not necessarily have the resolve to wage war against the Sword Collection sect either, and why would the two human sects start a war over a single cat daemon?

Gu Yanying’s expression changed. There was a flash of golden light in her eyes, and she sneered. “Since the Sword Collection palace is so impressive, why don’t you go dragon slaying in the Ink sea and go kill the greatest Daemon King of Green province? You all just harass the weak while fearing the strong.”

The Soaring Dragon Elder said, “Our palace master has his plans for that.” Before he had even finished talking, he fused with his sword and shot off as a streak of light. He pierced through the air, moving as fast as lightning.

The golden light in Gu Yanying’s pupils vanished. After hesitating, she did not end up interfering. She only sighed gently. The sword techniques of the Sword Collection palace pursued the utmost limits of the path of the sword and nothing else. Their offensive power was extraordinarily refined. Their strength greatly exceeded what regular Golden Core cultivators could handle.

Unless she had run out of choices, she really did not want to clash with him. Now, all she could do was find the cat before him. She could only hope that her Six Trigrams Divination would work a little, and that Mo Yu could help her out.

In the Boundless mountains, she would know as soon as possible whenever a daemon spotted the cat, so finding her faster than the Soaring Dragon Elder should not be a problem.

After who knows how long, when Li Qingshan opened his eyes again, the cave was pitch-black. The lovely mat and the delicate incense burner had all vanished. It was empty. Everything that happened during the day seemed so surreal.

The waterfall thundered right beside him through the moist air and moonlight. It also seemed strangely tranquil at the same time.

He called Xiao An and made his way out, passing through the curtain of water. A shining moon hung in the sky. Xuanyue sat on a boulder as she looked at the moonlit night. She was enveloped in moonlight as the crescent moon on her forehead glimmered. She suddenly looked back and smiled. “Big Blacko, you’re awake! Let’s set off!”

Li Qingshan blanked out and nodded. Afterwards, she suddenly appeared on Li Qingshan’s head. Her afterimage remained where it was without dispersing even after quite a while.

“What’s this?” This could not be achieved with speed alone.

“It’s Shadow Displacemeownt, you dumbo!”

The voice originated from the top of his head, but when Li Qingshan looked at his reflection in the water, he failed to see her. “And this?”

“Moon Concealmeownt, you dumbo!”

Li Qingshan abruptly understood. It was no wonder that she could flee so far away despite the encirclements, pursuits, obstructions, and interceptions. With instantaneous movements and concealment combined, not a lot of people could catch her. “Can’t you just hide yourself and head north alone?”

“Once I use daemeown qi, I’ll be discovered. Otherwise, why would I take you with meow? Are you going or not?” Xuanyue said impatiently.

Li Qingshan leapt out of the water, gaining his bearings before heading north.

The Boundless mountains were like a huge dragon, stretching from the south-west to the north-east. It spanned thousands of kilometers, and it was filled with dense forests and dangerous cliffs. It was a restricted zone to humans.

Li Qingshan had gazed at this mountain range for over a decade, yet this was the first time he had ventured so deep into it. The vegetation was thick. Towering trees spanned as far as the eye could see. The crowns that reached towards the sky wove together firmly, hiding the sky. Only because the trees were bare from the winter that some rays of moonlight managed to make it through them. It seemed even more serene and quiet.

As he was afraid of making too great of a disturbance and being discovered, which would affect their plan of escaping, Li Qingshan did not walk particularly fast. However, due to his enlarged size, he would easily traverse several meters with each step, so he was not particularly slow either.

Although he was a nerd who had remained holed up indoors in his previous life, he had yearned for the life of a traveller from time to time. In his current life, this dream finally came true, even though it was rather strange how it came true. He admired the scenery of the mountains as he travelled, so he did not feel bored.

He was not bored, but Xuanyue was bored out of her mind. She constantly mumbled to herself, “You’re so slow! You’re so slow!” She would leap from the top of his head to his left shoulder, and then to his right shoulder, squeezing on with Xiao An and teasing him.

Xiao An disliked her behaviour very much, so he also fled from her on Li Qingshan. The two of them were very light, but to Li Qingshan, they still felt like two monkeys dancing around on him. After a while, he lost his patience. “Both of you, settle down!”

“How dare you talk to your meowster like that! Xuanyue smacked Li Qingshan’s head.

Li Qingshan roared out and suddenly sped up, rushing forward with startling speed.

“Dumb Big Blacko, forget about it. I won’t bully you anymore.” Xuanyue rubbed Li Qingshan’s head and giggled. Her bell-like laughter rang through the forest.

When she was bored, she would search all over Li Qingshan. Very soon, she discovered the Cursive Sword Calligraphy hidden in his thick, scarlet hair.

Before Li Qingshan could stop her, or perhaps any attempt at stopping her was useless anyway, she had unfurled the painting scroll. There was a flash of light, and Xuanyue leapt in fright from the sword moves and sword intent. She patted her chest to calm herself down and played around with the Cursive Sword Calligraphy. She was just like Li Qingshan when he originally found it, also confused by it. “You even have something like this! This is a spiritual artifact that only humeowns can use! You’re pretty meowsterious.”

Li Qingshan said, “That’s mine.”

“What’s yours is also meowne. Speaking of which, who would ever want a low quality thing like this? You have no idea how meowny arcane artifacts and treasures your meowster has seen. It’s just a spiritual artifact.” Xuanyue returned it to Li Qingshan with a swing of her hand before playing around with the scholar wood tablet. The edges of the wooden tablet had already become burnt, so it did not seem very special at all. “And what’s this? It doesn’t have any spiritual qi at all? And the craftsmeownship is so bad as well. South An, what does that meowan?”

Since when did she grab it!? Li Qingshan checked his waist, and as expected, it was empty. Before he could even say anything, Xiao An had already extended his hand to steal it back. Xuanyue would never let him succeed, so she dodged him with a slight twist. Xiao An did not give up, so Xuanyue immediately dodged Xiao An a few more times.

“You didn’t become so frantic even when I grabbed that spiritual artifact! Tell meow what this is for, and I’ll give it back to you!”

Li Qingshan stopped Xiao An. “That’s a promise.”

“What promeowse?” Although Li Qingshan was reluctant to tell her, he knew she would never give up until her curiosity was satisfied. “I promised to send him home. His home is in the south.”

Xuanyue was surprised. “I couldn’t tell, but you’re quite nice to your pet!”

“He’s not my pet!”

“Take it!” Xuanyue tossed the wooden tablet to Xiao An, and he stowed it away preciously. Then she leapt onto Li Qingshan’s head and protracted her claws, carving something onto his horn.