Chapter 110: Dragon and Phoenix, Yin and Yang

　　Being in seclusion in the cave residence was a boring matter that tested a person. They were separated from the world and had to clear away distracting thoughts to comprehend their mind. Yet many things had downsides as well as advantages. The quiet could let people calm themselves, but could also cause them to recall many things that they were not willing to think of, and create mental demons.

　　It was because of this that those who cultivated cared about the mind. If people did not have a correct mind, how could they pursue immortality?

　　With the dragon phoenix cauldron present, Kong Hou and Huan Zhong performing universal paired cultivation made for rapid progress. Some times, when Kong Hou didn’t want to meditate, Huan Zhong would teach her to make seals. Forging and seal-making were almost complementary to each other. Cultivators who couldn’t make seals could not become masters of forging.

　　Kong Hou was focused, and the seals she created were exceptionally good. She advanced quickly. She could master a new seal almost every day, and put them perfectly on talismans.

　　“Aren’t I great?” Kong Hou smiled with slight smugness. “I know, other than divination, I can do anything.”

　　“Yes.” Huan Zhong spread paper on the table. “Then come here and write down the mind scripture.”

　　Kong Hou: “…”

　　“How about not?”

　　Huan Zhong looked at her, smiling but silent.

　　Kong Hou embarrassedly walked to the table and sat down. She lit up an illuminating talisman. Before, when she had been in seclusion alone, she would meditate if she wasn’t sleeping, not like now where she had to write mental scriptures, play weiqi and learn to make seals. She dipped the brush in the ink, and turned to look at Huan Zhong. “Huan Zhong, you are stricter than my master.”

　　Sitting next to her, Huan Zhong straightened her paper. “I am not your master.”

　　Kong Hou’s writing was not especially beautiful. Before coming to Lingyou World, she wasn’t yet ten. She recognized many characters but her strength was average. After coming to Lingyou World, she spent most of her time on cultivation, and not much effort on writing.

　　Usually, her writing was acceptable, but when placed together with Huan Zhong’s, they demonstrated the difference between heaven and earth.

　　After copying for a while, Kong Hou threw her brush away, not even three tenths of the way done, and looked pleadingly at Huan Zhong. “Huan Zhong…”

　　Huan Zhong slowly opened his eyes and said sternly, “Writing is like cultivation—if you do not advance, you retreat.”

　　“All right…” Kong Hou turned and went back to writing. Fifteen minutes later, a plate of spirit fruits was placed in front of her. She looked to the side. Huan Zhong stood beside her, still with a stern expression. “If you are tired, eat a spirit fruit before writing.”

　　Each spoiled child’s parent would always say to be sterner to the child, but then turn and spoil them endlessly.

　　“Huan Zhong, thank you—you are wonderful.” Kong Hou put down her brush and started to eat a spirit fruit. While she kept on trying to slack off in front of Huan Zhong, with him present, Kong Hou advanced rapidly in these several months and reached Mind Activation Stage level eight.

　　If other cultivators of similar age knew of such terrifying growth, their eyes would be green with jealousy. But Huan Zhong and Kong Hou were both geniuses and had no knowledge of a “normal person.” So they didn’t feel this was unusual.

　　“When spirit energy enters the body, try to have the spirit energy flow slower through each meridian point. This way, you can feel the power even better.” After finishing the spirit fruit, Huan Zhong saw Kong Hou really didn’t want to write and started to talk about cultivation with Kong Hou. He and Kong Hou both had pentad spirit bases, so he could teach Kong Hou many things even Wang Tong didn’t know.

　　Kong Hou trusted deeply in Huan Zhong’s words, and would perform obediently each time. The more obedient she was, the more things Huan Zhong wanted to teach her.

　　Maybe it was that the two had been separated from the world for too long, but Huan Zhong and Kong Hou became even closer in their movements. Kong Hou even found, when they were meditating one day, she wanted to reach out and touch Huan Zhong’s Adam’s apple and chin.

　　She finally was on the way to becoming a female pervert. Was this beyond a cure?

　　##

　　Ever since Kong Hou and Huan Zhong went into seclusion, the disciples of Splendid Cloud Sect all sighed in relief, especially those that focused on the sword. Spirit Master Huan Zhong was too powerful. Each time he taught them, they felt that their talent embarrassed Spirit Master Huan Zhong’s teachings. Each time Spirit Master Huan Zhong appeared, they would act as though they were working hard to avoid embarrassing Splendid Cloud Sect.

　　Now, without the mysterious and powerful Spirit Master Huan Zhong present, they felt their swords were lighter, the sky was bluer, and their days were better.

　　Ling Hui looked at the lazy disciples on the field and turned to say to Wu Chuan, “Eldest Shixiong Wu Chuan, I feel these disciples need a teacher like Spirit Master Zhong Xi so they will be hard-working.”

　　Wu Chuan glanced at the disciples. “Let them go. If all disciples of Splendid Cloud Sect are hard-working, I will laugh even in my sleep.”

　　Ling Hui glanced at Wu Chuan’s sword. She thought of those rumors outside that Wu Chuan Shixiong was inferior to Cheng Yi Shixiong and hated those people for gossiping. Fortunately, Wu Chuan Shixiong and Cheng Yi Shixiong did not care about such things. Otherwise, it would affect their relationship. Thinking about this, she couldn’t avoid showing some of her thoughts on her face. “Those people outside are really not appropriate. Cheng Yi Eldest Shixiong has Mind Manifestation cultivation, but our Splendid Cloud Sect’s sect eldest…”

　　“Didn’t you just say that Qing Yuan Shishu wanted something?” Wu Chuan interrupted Ling Hui. He took Ling Hui to the treasury which had seal formations outside it. If the two didn’t have the life tokens of apprentices, they would have been thrown out by the seal formation.

　　“The Nine Turns Secret Medicinal Cauldron.” Ling Hui grimaced. “In this month since Gui Ling joined Moon Perching Peak, Master has been in a bad mood and exploded several cauldrons of pills. But when he is out, he still has to pretend nothing has happened.”

　　Wu Chuan took out the sect master’s token and then turned to look at Ling Hui. “Shimei, I forgot. Qing Yuan Shishu took the Nine Turns Secret Medicinal Cauldron a few days ago. Did you forget?”

　　Ling Hui said with a shocked expression. “Took it away—how is this possible?”

　　Wu Chuan, who usually was emotionless, suddenly smiled. A sword flashed in his hand and Ling Hui was forced by the sword energy in the center of a formation, unable to break free.

　　“Of course it is impossible.” Wu Chuan stood by the formation and looked coldly at Ling Hui. “Because the Nine Turns Secret Medicinal Cauldron is not used for making pills.”

　　The rumors always centered around how powerful the Nine Turns Secret Medicinal Cauldron that Elder Qiu Shuang forged was, so powerful that when people used it to make medicinal pills, they could more easily make better pills. But only the apprentices of Splendid Cloud Sect knew that the Nine Turns Secret Medicinal Cauldron was not a pill-making cauldron, but an automatic cooking pot that Elder Qiu Shuang had made. If one put two spirit stones inside it, it would heat up on its own and cook the vegetables and meat placed in the pot.

　　When it snowed, the elders and peak masters liked to use this pot to cook hotpot and drink a little wine.

　　These little hobbies were not known by others, but the apprentices were impossible not to know.

　　This person was not Ling Hui Shimei. With Ling Hui Shimei‘s personality, she would not mention Mind Manifestation cultivation in front of him and what other people were saying. She appeared to want to fight injustice for him, but was actually sowing discord between him and Cheng Yi.

　　Even more importantly, Ling Hui was Qing Yuan Shishu‘s apprentice. She would not tell outsiders about Qing Yuan Shishu‘s little private tempers.

　　Among the peak masters, Wang Tong Shishu had the highest cultivation, and Cheng Yi was Wang Tong Shishu‘s eldest disciple. If he and Cheng Yi were at odds, it would easily elevate to become a conflict between the main sect and Moon Perching Peak. In their generation, the most talented Kong Hou Shimei was also a disciple of Moon Perching Peak, and she was on good terms with Spirit Master Zhong Xi of Radiance Sect. If there was a conflict, it wouldn’t be minor.

　　“Speak—who are you? Where is Ling Hui Shimei?” Wu Chuan took out a message bomb and threw it into the air. When it exploded, all of Splendid Cloud Sect would see it.

　　In the middle of the formation, “Ling Hui” could not believe that she was recognized so quickly. In order to copy Ling Hui’s walk and voice, she had stayed for five whole years in Harmonious City. Each time Ling Hui left the mountain, she would do her best to stay behind Ling Hui and mimic her. Before coming to Splendid Cloud Mountain, she had drunk illusion water and done her best to get Ling Hui’s heart blood for today. Who could have imagined she would fail through lack of a final effort.

　　Seeing “Ling Hui” remain silent, Wu Chuan’s expression grew cold. A disciple came to the door. He ordered, “Go immediately to Daybreak Cloud Peak and see if Ling Hui is present.” He looked coldly at the person in the formation. “If you only took Ling Hui’s heart blood, I will let you die easily. If something happened to Ling Hui… you will regret what you did today.”

　　“Ling Hui” glared at Wu Chuan. “How did you discover me?”

　　Wu Chuan ignored her.

　　“Ling Hui” continued to ask. “How did you discover I was not Ling Hui?”

　　Several golden lights came from the sky. Heng Yan and the peak masters all arrived. Qing Yuan looked at “Ling Hui” trapped in the formation, his expression growing ugly. “Someone pretended to be Ling Hui and came in?”

　　Ling Hui was a medicinal cultivator and not skilled at fighting. But she had authority among the apprentices, and so pretending to be Ling Hui was a good tactic. Qing Yuan understood this and started to worry about Ling Hui’s safety.

　　“Report, Ling Hui Shijie is unconscious in her cave residence doorway. Her heart is wounded—someone seems to have taken heart blood.” The disciple who went to find Ling Hui quickly came back and reported urgently.

　　“Sect Master, I will leave this to you; I have to go back and heal her.” Qing Yuan immediately flew towards Daybreak Cloud Peak.

　　Happy that Ling Hui was not in danger, Wu Chuan sighed in relief. It appeared this person didn’t dare to kill inside of Splendid Cloud Sect. Each disciple had their main life token in the sect. If a disciple passed away, the main life token would become dim, and the disciples guarding the tokens would immediately discover it.

　　“You came near the sect treasury—what did you want?” Wu Chuan suspected that “Ling Hui” had been sent by the evil cultivators.

　　“If I tell you what I want, will you tell me how you discovered my disguise?” The likely evil cultivator still persisted in asking this question.

　　“Speak.” Wu Chuan said coldly.

　　“I want the Heaven and Earth Harmony Five Elements Dragon and Phoenix Yinyang Cauldron,” the evil cultivator said. “Our lord is going to marry the beauty of the evil cultivator world.”

　　Wu Chuan frowned. “Who told you the dragon phoenix cauldron is in our sect?”

　　The evil cultivator said, “A book from two millennia ago mentioned the dragon phoenix cauldron. Our lord speculated according to the clues that the dragon phoenix cauldron may be here.”

　　“We do not have something like this.” Wu Chuan stabbed the evil cultivator through her spirit platform. Putting away the sword, he said, “Master, put this evil cultivator into the prison.”

　　Heng Yan nodded. “Yes, yes, prison.”

　　“Wait.” The evil cultivator whose spirit platform was destroyed panted. He spat out a mouthful of blood and stared unwillingly at Wu Chuan. “You haven’t told me how you discovered my disguise.” As the person most skilled at disguise among the evil cultivators, he did not accept his loss.

　　“Did I promise to tell you?” Wu Chuan raised an eyebrow, his expression slightly disdainful. “Tsk.”

　　Seeing him like this, the evil cultivator was unable to endure the unwillingness in his heart any longer, and spat out several mouthfuls of blood before fainting.

　　“Just this kind of mental fortitude. What future do you have among the evil cultivators?” Wang Tong kicked the evil cultivator and had a disciple drag the evil cultivator away. He turned and said to Heng Yan, “Shixiong, I am going to see Ling Hui Shizhi.”

　　“Master, a few days ago when organizing the treasury, I found a book with records on the dragon phoenix cauldron saying it helps people interlink their feelings and be of one mind. The lord of the evil cultivator world came for this?”

　　“Interlink their feelings?” Heng Yan’s expression became strange. “It is not for promoting paired cultivation?”

　　“This is a great tool for partners in paired cultivation. You are correct.” Wu Chuan saw Heng Yan’s expression grow stranger. “Master, what is it?”

　　Heng Yan looked at his apprentice, his eyes anxious about the future.

　　Splendid Cloud Sect was likely to end in his hands because the peak master of Moon Perching Peak would kill the sect master.

　　Translator Ramblings: Oh Heng Yan.