Chapter 47: The Wind And Moon Cross The Rivers And Seas (Part 9)
Yan Yi: “…”
He recalled the scene he had seen in the Fuyu Mountain mansion—Bai Chunsheng sitting on a bench, swinging his legs while looking into a mirror.
With his glossy, innocent eyes, the soft white feathers, his lack of threat, the flat and rounded, bright yellow-orange beak, and the webbed feet that seemed more fit for swimming than walking.
Hmm…
There was almost no resemblance to the White Phoenix at all.
To avoid hurting Bai Chunsheng’s confidence, Yan Yi tactfully responded, “So, what do you think we should do?”
Bai Chunsheng shook his head and said, “Well, if I pretend to be human, it’s not impossible…”
He blinked at Yan Yi. “Otherwise, I could be Ye Jingnian, and you can just pretend to be my servant?” After spending so much time with Yan Jingqiu, Bai Chunsheng had gained a lot more courage. In the past, he might have thought about it, but he would never have said it aloud.
He was about to give some reasons to make his suggestion more convincing when Bai Chunsheng suddenly remembered something.
“Ah, damn it. Ye Jingxing is a sword cultivator.” He suddenly recalled this detail.
Ye Jingxing was a late Dao stage sword cultivator. Even if he had lost his memory and his cultivation had regressed, his swordsmanship would still be intact, meaning he could still easily perform sword moves and techniques, just like Yan Yi now.
But Bai Chunsheng wasn’t a sword cultivator. He had a sword—an amazing one, the Jinghong Sword.
Using a sword and actually cultivating swordsmanship were two different things. If Ye Jingxing had any living friends, relatives, or enemies, they’d probably know right away that Bai Chunsheng was an imposter if they tried his swordsmanship.
Bai Chunsheng sighed, unwilling to accept the regret, and muttered, “Hmph, I guess you’ll have to go instead.”
When he saw Yan Yi’s gaze slowly turning toward him again, Bai Chunsheng snapped, “What are you looking at? Focus on your swordsmanship, and don’t let anyone outperform you.”
“Oh,” Yan Yi said.
Due to the continuous eruption of the underground volcano, Tian Nan City was shrouded in a gloomy mist. With the city being sealed off and the mist filled with a large amount of fire-based spiritual energy, Tian Nan City seemed like an isolated island trapped in the sea.
This had nothing to do with Bai Chunsheng and Yan Yi.
The bloodline crystal created by the Blue Dragon was very effective in treating Bai Chunsheng’s injuries, but full recovery was still not an easy task. The two had been in secluded cultivation in a steep cliffside cave for nearly half a month. In that short time, Yan Yi’s new sword unexpectedly melded well with him.
A few more days passed, and Bai Chunsheng received some good news. His cultivation had previously fallen to the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul stage due to the damage to his bloodline, as his meridians had become like an open funnel. In just a few days, it had deteriorated.
Now, with his bloodline healing, the gaps in his meridians were barely sealed. After some more time, if he could go to the Spirit Realm or the Middle Realm, where spiritual energy was pure and undisturbed, the spiritual energy that had been lost could quickly be replenished.
Since Bai Chunsheng had successfully recovered most of his cultivation, and seeing that there were no better opportunities to be gained in the Shattered Stone Mortal Realm, he planned to return to the Middle Realm sooner rather than later.
World gaps existed in every corner of space, and one could travel through them anytime and anywhere.
There were, however, two conditions. First, the cultivator traveling through the world gap must have at least reached the Nascent Soul stage. This was the minimum cultivation level required to open a passage to the world gap and protect the body from being crushed and obliterated by the world’s repulsive forces. Second, when using a world gap to travel, one could only land at designated places in the target world, as defined by the arrays in the gap. It was not possible to freely choose a destination at will.
In some ways, ascending from the Nascent Soul stage in a small world to a grand world was of the same nature as using a world gap to traverse worlds.
The barriers of the grand world were extremely thick, and it was not something that could be crossed with just the physical body. This was also why Bai Chunsheng and Yan Yi could rely on crossing the barrier to reach the Shattered Stone Mortal Realm, but neither of them planned to return to the grand world through the adjacent small world.
The external form of the world gap was a massive city gate, with a long, long road paved with cobblestones that seemed to stretch endlessly, with no clear origin or end in sight. Beyond the main road were dense, web-like, narrow paths carefully connecting to the main road leading to the city gate.
Apart from these roads, the rest of the space was enveloped in a grayish darkness, an endless void.
The space where the Yan family’s secret realm drunkenly vanished overseas had some similarities to this.
Bai Chunsheng transformed back into his original form and was cradled in Yan Yi’s arms, who had disguised himself as an ordinary sword cultivator.
As Yan Yi created a rift leading to the space between worlds, he stepped into its domain. A narrow path that could only accommodate one person stretched beneath his feet. As they walked along this path, they gradually approached the main thoroughfare leading to the massive and imposing city gates.
On the main road, Bai Chunsheng could see more and more narrow paths branching off, each ending with a cultivator attempting to pass through the barrier.
Because of this, the main road became increasingly crowded.
Some people looked extremely odd, and only a few appeared normal.
For high-ranking cultivators, every step in their cultivation was as difficult to cross as a vast chasm. Unable to improve their cultivation further, these cultivators often resorted to training body-strengthening techniques to increase their combat power. Compared to cultivation, appearance became less important. Moreover, for some cultivators who had been stuck at the Nascent Soul stage for a long time, a terrifying and dangerous appearance was often seen as beneficial.
Most of these cultivators were at the Nascent Soul stage, and Yan Yi only saw a few cultivators at the Dao stage.
There were many cultivators heading to the grand world, and as they got closer to the city gates, queues began to form.
The line was long. Yan Yi took a glance and observed a few cultivators at the front of the queue.
He saw a few cultivators in the Dao stage standing under the city gates, all wearing iron masks. They were likely disciples sent by several major sects to maintain order.
The cultivators in line carried identification tags engraved with their personal information. After scanning their details on the spirit stone panel next to the passage’s magic formation, they could choose a spiritual realm they were allowed to enter. After submitting the required spirit stone fee, the corresponding formation would light up, and they could simply walk through to complete the crossing.
Sitting nearby were several Dao cultivators tasked with verifying whether any criminals who were extremely dangerous or had committed heinous crimes were among those attempting to cross.
The moment Bai Chunsheng saw the iron masks, he felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. He started to regret and wonder whether there was a flaw in his originally flawless plan that he hadn’t noticed.
—He had already concealed his aura, and there should be no issue.
Please, please, Yan Yi, don’t lose your mind.
There were many people ahead of them, and Yan Yi stayed silent for a while.
In the past, when they had traveled through the gaps in the world, Yan Yi had “persuaded” the cultivators managing the formation arrays, allowing him to enter and exit the world gaps. It was the first time for Yan Yi to calmly watch everyone in harmony, lining up patiently to cross over.
Curious, he glanced at the identity token in his hand and transmitted a voice message to Bai Chunsheng, asking, “Does everyone have an identity token like this?”
“Of course,” Bai Chunsheng softly rested on Yan Yi’s shoulder, observing the endless line of people behind them.
Bai Chunsheng continued, “Except for those cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage making their first journey through the world gap, actually, the first-time cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage use a different passage than we do. At the end of their first crossing, there are people from the Treasure Gathering Pavilion who will integrate their identity information — even the cultivators themselves might not know all of their details.”
“These cultivators have been practicing a technique since they entered the Dao, a technique that seems to make money multiply automatically. They are everywhere,” Bai Chunsheng briefly explained about a sect Yan Yi might not have heard of, “Just tell them I’m confused and that you fed me spirit medicine. Only cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage with spiritual awareness have identity tokens, and that’s the only way we can cover up.”
“Did you have one before?” Yan Yi asked.
Bai Chunsheng almost laughed out loud. “Me? Of course, I did. How could I not?”
It’s just that now he was most likely wanted, so he couldn’t use it.
Bai Chunsheng sighed inwardly. In the past, he had never used the world gap passages. The transmission arrays from the Treasure Gathering Pavilion were much more convenient and widespread, allowing him to go directly back to the White Bone Mountains of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect.
Yan Yi’s voice was full of confusion. “Why don’t I have one?”
Bai Chunsheng couldn’t help but laugh loudly. It was such a funny situation that he pretended nothing had happened and started pecking at the feathers beneath his wings, awkwardly covering up his laughter.
He couldn’t exactly tell Yan Yi that even if he had the token, Bai Chunsheng would trick him into losing it, could he? And, fortunately, Yan Yi had even lost his token now.
If Yan Yi had managed to produce Yan Jingqiu’s token, the cultivation world would definitely tremble again. If he were taken back to the Yan family by Yan Jianhang, his recovery would likely be just around the corner, and Bai Chunsheng would be done for.
Bai Chunsheng thought for a moment. He had now become capable of lying without batting an eye. Casually, he said, “You probably lost it yourself.”
“Why ask about it? It’s not useful anyway.” There was a genuine hint of reproach in Bai Chunsheng’s tone.
Yan Yi, understanding what Bai Chunsheng meant, recalled the bits of information he had occasionally let slip in the past. He must have been on some kind of list long ago. In such circumstances, the identity token, which should represent his status, was more of a burden and had probably been carelessly tossed into some corner he didn’t remember.
Yan Yi didn’t know whether to sigh in regret or accept the fact that he was indeed that kind of person. He could vaguely tell that Bai Chunsheng seemed reluctant for him to know about his past identity. But, trusting his Dao companion, Yan Yi didn’t dwell too much on it.
This was probably the reason why Bai Chunsheng had initially been so angry and reluctant to associate himself with Yan Yi.
— They must have had an argument.
As Yan Yi thought about it, he couldn’t help but gently pat Bai Chunsheng’s back, wanting to comfort him.
Bai Chunsheng was extremely quick-witted, swiftly turning his head to try and bite Yan Yi’s hand.
Yan Yi dodged it.
He casually pulled his hand back and responded indifferently, “It’s nothing. I’m just occasionally curious about what I was like in the past.”
Bai Chunsheng seemed to mumble something under his breath, but then quickly realized that Yan Yi had extraordinary hearing, so he immediately changed it to a quiet sob. He continued to rest on Yan Yi’s shoulder, watching the cultivators in the queue behind them.
As the people ahead of them grew fewer, the line moved faster.
Approaching the gate where they would be checked, Bai Chunsheng started to feel nervous.
He anxiously pecked at his feathers and nuzzled closer to Yan Yi’s chest, fearing that someone might recognize his true identity.
After all, he was Bai Chunsheng of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect!
In a state of deep inner turmoil, Bai Chunsheng both didn’t want anyone to recognize him and bring trouble, yet rationally, he knew that his heroic and mighty appearance would likely make any knowledgeable cultivator realize who he was, making it a very real possibility.
Behind Yan Yi stood a beautiful female cultivator dressed in a dark green palace gown. She had a pair of bull horns on her head, her eyes were gentle, and her figure was round and full.
She had been following behind Yan Yi for a long time, and while Bai Chunsheng was observing the cultivators behind, she was observing Bai Chunsheng in front.
Unexpectedly, Bai Chunsheng locked eyes with her for a moment.
In that instant, Bai Chunsheng seemed to see swirling thoughts in her eyes.
The female cultivator pointed at Bai Chunsheng and stammered in surprise, “Th-this is…”
Bai Chunsheng nervously thought, Here it comes, just as I expected!
The female cultivator said, “Wow, such a white little duck.”
A hint of longing and delight appeared on her face as she continued to speak to Yan Yi, “I’ve never seen a bird or beast with feathers like this in the spirit world I grew up in. This is the first time I’ve seen such a well-behaved and cute demon beast. Can I touch it?”
Bai Chunsheng: ???!
“No,” Yan Yi said.
He quickly rejected her request.
Author’s note: Bai Chunsheng: Hmph! So uncultured!
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
