The person who delivered the item said, “You will have to wait for the sword. It is too large for us to deliver. Gu Xiaojun is still figuring out a way!” Upon saying that, he descended the mountain without turning around to bid farewell. Wen Leyang wanted to send them off but he was occupied…
The moment the rubber sack was opened, the air in the entire Wen family village suddenly changed. It was not a change of temperature or quality of the air. It was a gush of chaotic and agitated sensation that suddenly flooded everyone’s chest and messed up Qin Zhui’s force of the knife. Within the smell that was released from Ning Jiao’s corpse, the portion of the world that was built by his knife could no longer declare the shape of the world.
It had been almost twenty days since Ning Jiao’s death but there was not a trace of decay on the corpse. On the neat wound around its head and neck, not a single drop of blood was seeping out. Just like when he just died, the jelly-like blood coagulated around the wound within the thick blood vessel.
The four family elders each conquered a profound skill in the Art of Poison. Amongst them, Second Elder Wen was the most skilled in the Art of Refining Poison. Upon seeing Ning Jiao’s corpse, his initially gloomy and vicious appearance that persevered through time turned into a silly joy. He continuously rubbed his palms together. His gaze was filled with greed. He suddenly squalled once and jumped in between the corpse and the few other family elders. Stretching out his hand, he shamelessly pushed them away, “No one is allowed to fight for this, this is all mine, all mine!”
Before Second Elder Wen’s voice died away, an alarming cry echoed from the outside of the village abruptly. An old man that was almost the same age as the four Wen family elders, staggered and dashed into the village. His entire body almost slumped onto Ning Jiao’s corpse and repeatedly chanted as if he was sleep talking, “This is all mine, all mine!”
Behind the old man that had just dashed into the village earlier, a smiling Taoist priest with a stalwart figure followed. Ji Fei had returned.
The moment Ji Fei entered the village, he was immediately startled. His hands turned, his left hand flipped out a paper talisman as his right hand flipped out the flying sword. However, the expression on his face soon turned from vigilant into puzzlement. Wen Leyang was having a swift and vigorous battle with the enemy, yet the rest of the people disregarded them and were all gathered around Ning Jiao’s corpse absent-mindedly.
The fat monk Shui Jing walked in light steps as he welcomed Ji Fei. He explained the course of events to Ji Fei. The old monk’s eyes turned brighter. When he roughly understood the situation, he slapped his thigh abruptly in realization, then he shouted in rage towards the fighting troop, “Wen…uh that person, kill this unreasonable person who is here to fight for Nineteen!”
Qin Zhui roared like a tiger once. His Tang knife waved about in an even fiercer manner, yet his posture was getting messier. He had only understood about the process of Force-Hide recently. After he fought hard for a night, his life vitality was almost exhausted. As Ning Jiao’s corpse was exposed in the village, even though it was nontoxic and tasteless, the Poison of Chaos’ power that was accumulated throughout its lifetime had already spread into the air. Qin Zhui’s Force-Hide must be destroyed before it could be established. To Qin Zhui, Ning Jiao’s appearance was akin to an additional mountain that firmly pinned onto his Force-Hide. He almost needed to exhaust all his strength to strike once. It did not take long before his strength was almost exhausted.
Finally, at the last chop of Qin Zhui’s knife, he lied flat with his back on the ground. Wen Leyang laughed in slight embarrassment. He ran over to the old demon rabbit Bu Le and asked for a potion that was commonly used by cultivators to enhance body’s resistance and nourish primordial energy and also to restore body strength. He fed it to Qin Zhui before he laughed, “Ning Jiao’s corpse disturbed your supernatural power, the result of our battle is a draw!”
Qin Zhui nodded, “It is a draw, you are the one who said that!”
Wen Leyang burst out laughing, “That is correct. Shall we fight again when you have regained your strength?”
Unexpectedly Qin Zhui shook his head strenuously, “I will not be fighting you anymore, I will wait for Nineteen’s injuries to heal before I directly fight her!” He became smarter, managing to understand the secret of success within one night’s time.
Ji Fei smiled as he walked over. He had already understood from Shui Jing the course of events earlier. He first congratulated Wen Leyang repeatedly. The expression between his brows was truly joyous. He continued, “There are only three persons that are in charge of the Painting Town, the mayor Leyang Shoujin and his two sons. The old man and his youngest son are dead. Leyang Wen never returned home during the whole period of time and there were only some ordinary disciples in Painting Town. I have already left behind a message, requesting him to contact us upon returning.”
Wen Leyang suddenly recalled something. He turned around and spoke to Qin Zhui, who was cultivating his power to dissolve the potion’s power, “When you are done recuperating, I have something to ask you.”
Qin Zhui nodded, “Alright…what are we having for breakfast?”
“When I first returned from Beijing, I was pondering about Ning Jiao. That was why I paid a visit to the Mount Pan of the Tianjin Municipality.” As he was saying that, Ji Fei stretched out his finger and pointed towards the old man that was lying on the ground while using his hands to gently stroke a dead snakeskin repetitively, “I have invited the old man Gongye here. Even though the rogue cultivators’ capabilities are slightly inferior to the Five Blessings, when it comes to the discussion of refining weapons and crafting swords, nobody else is worthy except the Gongye family!”
It became clear to Wen Leyang that Ji Fei was late for almost twenty days before returning from Beijing to Sichuan because he went to invite someone. Ning Jiao’s entire body was filled with treasures. There is a need for assistance from a master cultivator capable of refining weapons.
The old demon rabbit Bu Le also gathered over and laughed as he chimed in, “Ji Fei has handled matters pretty well this time! Even though the Gongye family’s mysticism skill of refining weapons and crafting swords have only existed and inherited for the past few centuries, it is not overrated to say that none of the cultivators under the heaven can be comparable to them. Whenever we, the master cultivators of the Five Blessings in the right path, find some good materials, we will seek for his help to craft weapons. However…the compensation that his family seeks…”
Ji Fei laughed in an incredibly proud manner, “Compensation? The moment the old man Gongye heard of the Ning Jiao, he was only afraid that we would not be asking for his help to craft weapons. Why is there a necessity for compensation?”
The Gongye family’s Art of Crafting Weapon had been passed down for generations, but the good materials in the world were limited. The person with the surname Gongye only had his hands full of good skills, yet he could never find a way for him to fully display his skills. Hence, when he heard that the Wen family had received the corpse of Ning Jiao, he immediately followed Ji Fei and came, just like when a Guqin player that was gifted with the ultimate tune who heard that the ‘Green Damask’ (Translator’s note: an extremely rare and ancient model of Guqin (a musical instrument)) had reappeared in the mortal world, he must play the instrument regardless. In the past, the Guqin player had refused to perform if he wasn’t paid generously. However, for such a rare instrument like the ‘Green Damask’, he was willing to dissipate his fortune just so he could play a song on it.
As expected, before Ji Fei’s voice died away, the old man Gongye had already jumped in front of Wen Leyang. The eyes of the old man that was as sharp as a knife in the past were filled with eagerness and anticipation, “Give Ning Jiao to me…I don’t want anything else, the treasures that are refined will all be given back to you!”
Before Wen Leyang could speak, Second Elder Wen shouted in rage as he ran over, “Give it to you? Do you think the Wen family needs you to refine our weapon? Which Art of Poison are you skilled in?”
The old man Gongye was furious, “Refining poison? I will simply catch a pit viper and…” Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Ji Fei who covered his mouth…the old man Gongye’s face was red with rage. He struggled strenuously to free himself from the old monk Ji Fei’s hand as he stared at Wen Leyang and said, “If I were to poke at you once, don’t you move at all!”
Wen Leyang was stunned. He did not understand the old man Gongye’s intention.
The old demon rabbit Bu Le shoved Wen Leyang, “Just follow the great master Gongye’s instruction, he will never harm you!”
Gongye nodded. He did not attempt to justify himself but he walked in great strides to the front of Ning Jiao’s corpse. He used his hands to fumble about meticulously on the surface. Second Elder Wen raised his brows and was about to speak, but he was pulled aside by the First Grandfather that was laughing.
Gongye touched all the way from the snake’s neck to the snake’s tail. After almost an hour, his eyes suddenly brightened as if he had discovered something precious. He shouted at Second Elder Wen, “Look carefully!” Following that, his entire person fell limp akin to a soft noodle.
Wen Leyang followed behind Gongye. He thought that Gongye was intoxicated by the special poison of Ning Jiao. His ten fingers were akin to dancing, drumming lightly onto the area about seven feet from the snake’s tail. Every knock that was delivered by his finger, the nearby snake’s scales rippled akin to water. The faster Gongye knocked, the scales’ ripples grew swifter as well. Following that, everyone widened their eyes in amazement!
On Ning Jiao’s back, an ordinary-looking scale was following the rhythm of Gongye’s finger dance. It was struggling strenuously as if it was attempting to struggle itself free from the shackles of its body. Gongye’s forehead was densely dotted with sweat. His fingers danced around in an even faster speed and finally with a scraping noise that made one’s gums sore, the scale on Ning Jiao’s back stripped itself away from Ning Jiao’s corpse in an extremely strenuous manner, akin to bearing tons of weight!
However, that piece of Ning Jiao scale did not drop onto the ground. The scale’s root was still connected to a fine and long sting. The scale was just like a laborious butterfly. Urged by the finger dance, it dragged the long sting with great efforts, inch by inch, as it pulled out the bone sting diagonally from the corpse.
The sound of the bone sting scraping against the corpse was akin to a divine sword that had never appear in the world for millenniums, slowly unsheathed itself and was pulled out.
Finally, the bone sting that was almost three feet long was completely plucked out by the scale while the old man Gongye too squalled, “Young fellow Wen, be sure not to move!” His body suddenly leaped up as he grabbed the bone sting. Under the witness of everyone’s dumbstruck expression, he followed the top-down direction of the leg bone and stabbed the long sting into Wen Leyang’s left leg.
The bones and meridians in Wen Leyang’s body had been remolded. Let alone knives and swords and poisonous stings, he could completely bear the explosion of an ordinary treasured weapon. However, with the bone sting, whether it was his tough skin or firm muscles, all were turned into tofu pulp. There was utterly no room for him to resist, the bone sting had already penetrated into his leg.
The few elders of the Wen family, the First Uncle, Bushuo, Buzuo, Ji Fei, Shui Jing and the rest simultaneously roared in rage. They swayed their bodies in preparation to pounce towards the old man Gongye.
Only the old demon rabbit was still smiling. He stretched out his hands and blocked himself before Gongye. He burst out with roaring laughter, “Stay calm and don’t be reckless!”
Gongye completely disregarded the people of Wen family. His eyes were staring firmly into Wen Leyang as he asked with a concerned expression, “How is it, how is it…”
Wen Leyang’s expression was peculiar. Such a long bone sting was stabbed from his thigh all the way to his ankle. If the person that was stabbed was the three-inch nail Wen Bushuo then it would be troublesome. Aside from the snake’s scale, the entire bone sting was buried into his left leg but he did not feel any pain.
It was as if the long sting was alive. Along with his breathing, the long sting slowly expanded and contracted. Every time it expanded slightly, Wen Leyang could sense clearly that a portion of blood that was circulating in his left leg was sucked away by the bone sting. Moments later, the bone sting contracted and returned his poisonous blood.
Facing the old man Gongye’s repeated urging, Wen Leyang gave a forced smile as he answered, “It is not painful, it is swelling again…”
The old man Gongye’s expression was slightly relaxed but he was still nervous, “Excellent! Anything else besides that?”
Wen Leyang gave out a ‘huh’. He did not know what to say at this point, his tone of speaking sounded as if he was probing. His left leg was straightened as he moved his body, “Besides that, I can’t bend my leg…”
The old man Gongye was stunned for a moment before he reacted to the situation. He scolded furiously, “Nonsense, the Ning Jiao’s sting is in your leg, of course, you can’t bend it anymore! I am asking you if it is…exchanging blood with you?”
Wen Leyang hastily nodded.
The old man was elated as he laughed out loud, “Young fellow, you are a great creation, very great indeed!”