Chapter 142 - 137: Seclusion

Chapter 142: Chapter 137: Seclusion

"Mo Tianxing’s storage pouch was taken!"

Mo Tianxing’s death filled Elder Mo with shock and fury. However, after a quick scan of the area, his heart unexpectedly leaped with joy.

His mission on this trip was to ensure Mo Tianxing’s safety. With Mo Tianxing dead, he bore an undeniable responsibility.

But if he could capture the culprit and bring them back to answer for it, any punishment he received wouldn’t be too severe.

He activated a Talisman and followed its guidance in pursuit.

But he hadn’t pursued for long before his face turned ashen. The Talisman had stopped up ahead.

Looking closer, he saw the ground was littered with all sorts of Magical Artifacts, Talismans, and pills.

This killer was cautious to an extreme degree. Aside from the handful of Spirit Stones, they hadn’t taken a single other thing!

...

In a certain cave, Xu Xiuyun slowly regained consciousness.

Her head throbbed with splitting pain, but the moment she came to, she was startled.

She scrambled to her feet and found herself dressed in an unfamiliar set of men’s clothes. She feared the worst.

But upon closer inspection, she realized she hadn’t been violated. Her storage pouch was still with her, and only then did she relax.

Jiang Zuo was tending a fire nearby, roasting several pieces of beast meat, seemingly oblivious to Xu Xiuyun’s actions.

Xu Xiuyun took a pill from her storage pouch. After swallowing it and feeling a bit better, she looked toward Jiang Zuo.

"I recognize you. I remember your name is Li Dong, Blacksmith Li."

"Thank you for saving me, Blacksmith Li. I owe my life to you."

Xu Xiuyun gazed at Jiang Zuo with a complicated expression.

Black Mountain was the Xu Family’s most important asset. Although Xu Xiuyun spent most of her time in Cultivation, she had visited Black Mountain many times and had seen Jiang Zuo on several occasions. She even knew that the Woodcutter’s Blades he forged were very popular with the lumberjacks.

No matter how she tried, she couldn’t connect the mortal blacksmith who spent his days hammering iron with the man who had killed a late-stage Dao Foundation expert with a single bear hug last night.

But having witnessed it with her own eyes, she had no choice but to believe.

Last night, she had suspected that Jiang Zuo wasn’t a mortal at all, but was merely in disguise.

But now, at such a close distance, Xu Xiuyun was certain: Jiang Zuo was just a mortal. There was no other possibility.

’But can a mortal who practices Martial Arts really kill a Dao Foundation cultivator so easily, just with brute force?’

Especially this Li Dong, who didn’t even seem to have reached the Innate realm.

"Well then, since I saved your life, how do you plan to repay me?"

Jiang Zuo glanced at Xu Xiuyun and asked bluntly.

"I have several thousand low-grade Spirit Stones and a few Magical Artifacts. I can give them all to you."

His blunt question had actually put Xu Xiuyun at ease. She had thought for a moment before making her offer.

"Do you know of any secluded places where the Spiritual Qi is a little denser?"

Jiang Zuo didn’t rush to accept or reject her offer, asking instead without much hope.

’I’ve already obtained the Metal Attribute Cultivation Technique. Now I just need to cultivate it to Grandmaster Great Perfection within a few decades, and then all I have to do is wait for the Cyan Wood Secret Realm to open.’

’I was plenty low-key this time, working as a blacksmith at the foot of the Xu Family’s Black Mountain, but I still ended up being targeted and getting into trouble. Not to mention things like the attack on the Xu Family.’

’It’s making it difficult for me to settle down and cultivate in peace.’

’If I could find a deserted place like that to cultivate, it would be perfect.’

Hearing this, Xu Xiuyun hesitated for a moment before saying, "I do know of such a place. An ancestor of our Xu Family happened to learn of it from a mortal."

"The place is quite remote, and the Spiritual Qi is comparable to the area around Black Mountain. But the location is very small and lacks resources, so our Xu Family has always used it as a sanctuary."

As Xu Xiuyun spoke, her voice grew somber.

The Xu Family had prepared this escape route for themselves, but besides her, it was likely that none of the other family members who knew of this place had managed to get out.

Her father had sacrificed his own life to ensure her escape.

Normally, Xu Xiuyun would never reveal such a location to an outsider.

But Jiang Zuo had personally killed Mo Tianxing right before her eyes to save her, and he hadn’t been the least bit disrespectful toward her.

’He’s clearly an upright and principled person,’ she thought. After a brief hesitation, Xu Xiuyun decided to tell him.

"Then let’s go there!"

Jiang Zuo said immediately. This was a truly unexpected delight.

"Alright. I’ll go change my clothes!"

Xu Xiuyun nodded. She had already been planning to go there to cultivate until she broke through to the Divine Body Realm.

Heading into the depths of the cave, Xu Xiuyun changed into a set of clothes she had stored in her pouch.

Alone in the darkness, with no one else around, Xu Xiuyun thought of her clansmen who had died so tragically last night, of her parents and brothers. The tears she had been holding back finally began to fall.

However, she quickly wiped her tears away and walked out as if nothing had happened, handing the clothes she had changed out of back to Jiang Zuo.

"Let’s go."

Jiang Zuo nodded.

He had heard Xu Xiuyun crying, but in his hundred-plus years, he had seen so much of life, death, sickness, and old age that he had grown somewhat accustomed to it.

Xu Xiuyun stepped out of the cave, got her bearings, and led Jiang Zuo southwest.

Worried about being discovered, the two didn’t dare use a Flying Magical Artifact. They could only travel on foot through the mountains, which was much slower.

Traveling like this, with starts and stops, for over half a month, the two finally arrived before a valley.

"We’re here. This is the place."

"The Spiritual Qi around the valley isn’t very dense, but the valley itself seems to form a natural Spirit-Gathering Array. The Spiritual Qi inside is much richer than outside, but you wouldn’t notice it without personally stepping in."

Xu Xiuyun led Jiang Zuo into the valley.

As Jiang Zuo entered, he immediately sensed that the Spiritual Qi inside was indeed comparable to the Xu Family Marketplace.

Inside the valley was a large lake, with many trees growing along its shore.

As a place for seclusion, it was quite a good spot.

On their journey, Jiang Zuo and Xu Xiuyun had talked a fair bit. He had learned that she also planned to continue cultivating the Yin Yang Sect’s Charming Woman Yin Heart Scripture in the valley.

According to Xu Xiuyun, with Mo Tianxing dead, she would no longer face any major problems cultivating the Charming Woman Yin Heart Scripture.

She had a remarkable talent for this type of Cultivation Technique. As long as she cultivated to the Divine Body Realm and went to the Western Divine Continent, there was a high chance the Celestial Sound Sect would accept her.

Jiang Zuo understood Xu Xiuyun’s thinking.

The Xu Family had been annihilated, and she was the sole survivor.

Although her talent was formidable, she still needed a suitable Cultivation Technique.

If she switched to a different Cultivation Technique, who knew how many years it would take before she had a chance at revenge.

But as long as she could enter the Celestial Sound Sect, revenge would be within her grasp!

Jiang Zuo still knew nothing about Cultivation, so he naturally had nothing to say on the matter.

As long as she didn’t interfere with him, everything else was negotiable.

The two began to build their own houses by the lake, preparing to settle down.

But Xu Xiuyun had never built a house before. She spent a great deal of effort chopping a pile of wood, but when it came to actually constructing the house, she had no idea where to start.

Still, she was a determined person, so she tried her best to recall the shape of a house and began to build.

Jiang Zuo, on the other hand, was an old hand at this. In just a few moves, he had built a large, sturdy wooden cabin.

He walked over and saw Xu Xiuyun’s creation, which looked more like a dog kennel, and found it an eyesore.

Shaking his head, Jiang Zuo came over and built the cabin for her.

Xu Xiuyun could only watch, her face flushed red.

Her blush wasn’t from embarrassment. Rather, she was wondering if someone like her, who wasn’t even as capable as a mortal, could truly avenge her family.

And so, the two of them settled down in the valley.

Jiang Zuo had spent far more of his life living in the wilderness than in towns. Even with an extra person around, he didn’t feel any inconvenience.

Xu Xiuyun, however, was in an environment completely different from what she was used to, and at first, she found it extremely difficult to adapt.

But driven by her powerful desire for revenge, she quickly forced herself to get used to it.

Once she had acclimated, Xu Xiuyun also found the time to observe Jiang Zuo in secret.

She was curious why Jiang Zuo was so powerful, and why a mortal like him would be looking for a place with dense Spiritual Qi.

But she soon discovered that Jiang Zuo usually just cultivated a Martial Arts Cultivation Technique. Beyond that, he was an excellent cook, and the food he made looked delicious.

Even from a considerable distance away in her cabin, she could still smell the aroma of the food Jiang Zuo was cooking outside.

Xu Xiuyun had Fasting Pills on her, enough to last for a fairly long time.

But after they had lived in seclusion together for a while and had grown more familiar, one day when Jiang Zuo greeted her and asked if she wanted to eat, she finally couldn’t resist and joined him for a meal.

And after that, Xu Xiuyun never ate a Fasting Pill again.

Whenever Jiang Zuo was eating, as long as she wasn’t in the middle of Cultivation, she would come over on her own, without waiting for him to call her.

Jiang Zuo didn’t say anything about it. After all, it was just a matter of making a little extra rice.

Xu Xiuyun cultivated diligently in the valley, with no intention of leaving.

Jiang Zuo, however, needed large quantities of suitable metal ores for his Cultivation of the Golden Qi Jade Body Skill.

Besides that, there were also things like salt, oil, rice, and vinegar.

Every so often, Jiang Zuo would go out to the nearest Marketplace to buy necessary supplies.

His Blood Qi Avatar had previously located the hidden storage pouch, and Jiang Zuo retrieved it during one of these trips.

Xu Xiuyun also occasionally needed things. Since she didn’t want to go out, she would ask Jiang Zuo to purchase them for her.

Xu Xiuyun felt quite bad about this and wanted to help out in some way.

But in the valley, aside from cultivating and eating, there was basically nothing else to do.

Xu Xiuyun tried to help with the cooking, but after just one attempt, Jiang Zuo impatiently shooed her away.

Xu Xiuyun could only run off with a red face, never bringing up the topic of helping again.

「In the blink of an eye, several years passed.」

The two of them lived together in the valley like this for several years.

Xu Xiuyun’s progress was still very fast. Her Cultivation was already approaching the Perfection of the late-stage Dao Foundation realm.

In three years at most, she could attempt to break through to the Divine Body Realm.

Once she advanced to the Divine Body Realm, she could leave this place and head for the Western Divine Continent.

But Xu Xiuyun was somewhat horrified to find that when this thought occurred to her, she felt a trace of reluctance to part with Jiang Zuo.

’A father figure?’

Xu Xiuyun thought about it carefully and felt that she might have come to see Jiang Zuo as a father figure.

Jiang Zuo looked younger than her father, Xu Yuelin, but he was exceptionally mature and steady. He took care of her in their daily life, just as if her father were still alive and looking after her.

If Jiang Zuo knew what Xu Xiuyun was thinking, he would definitely tell her that she was mistaken.

While Jiang Zuo did take care of Xu Xiuyun, for him, it was all just a matter of lifting a finger.

As for going out of his way to cater to her feelings, she wasn’t that important.

「Three more years passed in a flash.」

One day at dinner, Xu Xiuyun suddenly announced, "I’ve reached the Perfection of the late-stage Dao Foundation. I’m going to rest and build up my strength for a few days, then break through to the Divine Body Realm."