Chapter Eighty-Seven: An Unexpected Encounter with a Youth (Please Subscribe)

No pursuers appeared on the road.

Perhaps the unrest within the temple had not yet come to an end, or perhaps it was due to the concealment wrought by the Netherworld Yin Talisman.

In any case, Lu Qian did not dare relax for even a moment.

Most of the time he rode atop a paper bird; when rain and thunder came, he mounted a paper horse. When he was truly exhausted and could no longer endure it, he would slump into a palanquin and close his eyes for a brief rest.

But most of the time, he kept moving without pause.

With his true energy endlessly replenishing him, Lu Qian managed to cover fifteen hundred miles in a single day at his peak.

Fortunately, he cultivated the Dark Maiden True Water; otherwise, he truly could not have held out for so long.

He ran for a total of six days.

More than seven thousand miles in all.

By then, he had reached the outermost edge of the Nether Pass Temple’s sphere of influence.

With a sharp crack, the paper palanquin crumbled into ash.

Lu Qian sat down by a stream, his feet soaking in the water. Thirsty, he simply plunged his head in and gulped greedily.

Green fur had grown all over his body, fully three feet long, so that he looked like a giant green ape.

After drinking, he immediately sat cross-legged to regulate his qi, closing his eyes in meditation as his true energy slowly recovered.

It was not until nightfall.

The sky darkened, and a full moon, round as a silver disk, hung high overhead.

Pale moonlight fell upon him, breaking into tiny motes of radiance that sank into his body.

The Yin Moon Water-Gathering Method drew in the essence of sun and moon, gradually restoring his vital energy.

No one knew how long passed before the green fur on his body slowly fell away.

Lu Qian’s face was still a withered yellow, like that of a dried corpse.

But it was only an ordinary depletion of blood and vitality; that posed no challenge to a pill master.

He took out a packet of ginseng and blood-tonic powder from his Heaven-and-Earth pouch and swallowed it at once.

Before long, color returned to his face.

“Hm? This blood-tonic powder actually works on body cultivation.” Lu Qian raised an eyebrow.

The scale of the blood-refining technique in his sea of consciousness had risen by one notch.

Lu Qian turned his inner vision upon himself.

This time, it was not the sea of consciousness.

It was the lower dantian in his abdomen.

Three inches below the navel, besides the reservoir of Dark Maiden True Water, there was now a drop of blood.

Dark red and rounded, it looked like a pellet.

This was a blood seed.

A blood seed was formed from the essence blood of a fish-dragon.

Depending on the cultivation art one practiced, the nature of the blood seed would differ as well.

Lu Qian cultivated the Nine Heavens Moonlight Blood-Refining Art.

Using the power of moonlight to nourish the blood seed, and absorbing moonlight as well, could increase the progress of the technique.

Thus, the blood seed also carried a trace of moonlit nature.

Even when Lu Qian operated his body-tempering art, the color of his hair and the crescent in his pupils showed similar characteristics.

This blood seed should perhaps be called a Fish-Dragon Moonlight Blood Seed, or a Fish-Dragon Chasing-Moon Blood Seed.

It was said that there were also techniques which absorbed other things: flame, yin energy, blood, and so on.

Body cultivation, as the name implied, was the forging of the body, tempering the bloodline through various means.

Thus, the same blood could condense into blood seeds of different functions.

If Lu Qian had cultivated a different art, the ability awakened might also have been different.

He continued his meditation.

While regulating his breath, he contemplated the plan ahead.

He would certainly have to flee. After all, he had killed the man’s son and wife; such a grudge was far too deep.

It would not be enough unless they chased him to the ends of the earth.

But even fleeing required direction. Now that he had reached the border of Nether Pass Temple’s territory, he could not allow himself to merely escape one tiger’s den only to enter a wolf’s lair.

There were also the dangers he had encountered along the way.

Lu Qian still remembered the massive two-headed serpent that had suddenly appeared two days earlier, its bloodthirsty maw wide enough to swallow a house.

“If only Yue and the others were here,” Lu Qian sighed.

When he fled, he had not thought to bring them along. He did not know whether they were alive or dead.

If they were within a hundred miles, then as their master, Lu Qian could still sense them.

But he had already run more than seven thousand miles; whether they lived or died, he no longer knew.

Yue was ruthless and sharp; she would be well suited to help him manage people.

Xi Yue had high talent; if properly trained, she too would be a useful helper.

Then he would not need to show his face in public, and all the tedious matters could be handed to others.

“I should find a few more temple soldiers another day,” Lu Qian thought.

He had no demon blood on him at the moment, so he would need to find another way.

“What if I try using my own blood?” A flash of inspiration struck him. After drawing blood into his body, he could count as something of a half-demon anyway.

Though using his own blood to forge temple soldiers felt a little strange.

At that moment, a rustling came from the woods.

He had just been about to avoid the newcomer when his heart suddenly stirred.

He sensed that the person was short, about fifteen or sixteen years old.

A thought flashed through his mind, and he leaped up onto a nearby tree branch.

Soon after, a youth in coarse cloth crept furtively to the stream.

Seeing no one around, the boy let out a breath of relief.

“Ha!”

He took a horse stance and practiced his martial arts with earnest precision.

Quick and nimble, he leaped and sprang about now and then, like a spirited monkey.

With a bang, he drove a fist into a tree trunk, leaving a crater the size of a clenched hand.

After finishing, he withdrew his power.

At that moment, a faint white light appeared by the stream.

“Could this be the kind of chance encounter found in books?”

The boy’s eyes lit up, and he hurried forward.

In the reflected water of the stream, a strange image appeared.

A pitch-black world, and the Yellow Springs flowing since ancient times.

In the Yellow Springs lay a yellow flood-dragon, its nostrils faintly fluttering, its golden pupils blazing with divine light.

The wondrous sight left the boy utterly dumbfounded.

“What is your name?”

“Xie Han! ... Who exactly are you?” the boy blurted instinctively, then suddenly realized that a Taoist in black robes was standing on the surface of the water.

“I am the Fish-Dragon Daoist. Since you can actually see the Dragon Lurking in the Yellow Springs Diagram, you are indeed fated with me.”

The light reflected from the stream fell upon the black-robed Taoist’s face, mottling it in shadow and glow, making him seem profoundly mysterious.

“Are you an immortal?” Xie Han’s eyes shone.

“Of course.”

Lu Qian lifted a hand and pointed. A beam of light shot out.

With a crash, the great tree from moments ago was instantly split into two.

Only after such a display did Xie Han believe him. The boy was also absurdly trusting, and he poured out his own circumstances in full.

Xie Han was the illegitimate son of the master of the Mighty and Heroic Escort Agency, ranked third among the children.

He was called the Third Young Master, though this young master lived worse than a servant.

Although he had a separate courtyard, it was located on the outer edge of the escort agency and was looked down upon by everyone.

“An escort agency?” Lu Qian’s heart moved. “You’ve traveled to many places?”

“Of course. Within several hundred miles, there are branches of the Mighty and Heroic Escort Agency everywhere. There isn’t a place we haven’t been.”

So that was it. This escort agency was worth a visit.

Besides, he also needed to hide among ordinary people.

In this world, the divide between immortals and mortals was extremely severe.

Not to mention common folk; even the rich and powerful, through an entire lifetime, might at most encounter a loose cultivator who knew a few crude tricks.

Those with any real cultivation at all would not set their sights on ordinary mortals.

Thus, hiding among common people was an excellent choice.

Thinking of this, Lu Qian looked at the boy, who trusted him without the slightest doubt, and said, “When I return, within two months your martial arts will surely reach great success. By then, I will see that the servants who bully you are each taught a lesson.”

“Thank you, Immortal.” Xie Han knelt down in excitement.

Perhaps it was mental suggestion, but Xie Han believed every word without hesitation.

This boy had an unusually strong hunger for power and ambition, and he was worth cultivating.