Exploring the Mystic Realm

Qi Xianqing looked at the little black lump clinging to Yan Jue’s arms and couldn’t help sinking into thought.

At this point, it was obvious the little thing had taken Yan Jue for its mother.

Yan Jue stroked the black lump’s soft fur and looked up at Qi Xianqing, awkward and embarrassed. “Senior Sister, do you know what this is?”

Qi Xianqing: “……”

Qi Xianqing walked over and bent down to examine the black lump.

Although the little thing hadn’t opened its eyes yet, it was already quite shy; sensing Qi Xianqing’s aura, it trembled and shrank even farther into Yan Jue’s arms.

Qi Xianqing reached out, intending to hold it. The black lump suddenly opened its mouth and let out a tiny, wary whimper, then burrowed straight into Yan Jue’s embrace.

Qi Xianqing: “……”

Qi Xianqing gritted her teeth and smiled. In a soft voice, she asked, “Why are you afraid of me?”

Yan Jue: “……”

Yan Jue: “Because you’re scary?”

Qi Xianqing’s smile faded. She bent down and, ignoring the black lump’s protesting whines, kissed Yan Jue on the lips.

Yan Jue hadn’t expected it and froze for a moment.

After making such a fiercely possessive gesture, Qi Xianqing lowered her head to inspect the black lump, then opened the door and walked out.

Frozen Peach Haven was a courtyard, with bedrooms, a kitchen, and everything else.

Qi Xianqing went into the kitchen, and Yan Jue followed with the black lump in her arms. Although Qi Xianqing’s Qiankun bag didn’t contain much, it had all the basic ingredients. She casually found a few pieces of milk cake and boiled them down. Soon, a rich milky aroma filled the room.

Qi Xianqing held the milk out in front of the black lump to see whether it would eat.

The black lump turned its head away and refused.

Qi Xianqing suddenly remembered something. “The other day, when we searched the Hundred Treasures Pouch, we found a bottle of Spirit-Nourishing Pills. Maybe that’s what it eats.”

Yan Jue immediately had a flash of inspiration. She found the Spirit-Nourishing Pills, took one out, and placed it in front of the black lump.

The black lump sniffed it, then stuck out a tiny pink tongue and rolled the pill into its mouth.

Once it swallowed the Spirit-Nourishing Pill, the little thing, which had never quite been steady to begin with, finally quieted down and fell asleep in Yan Jue’s arms.

Yan Jue put it back into her Qiankun bag.

Yan Jue: “But what if we run out of Spirit-Nourishing Pills?”

Spirit-Nourishing Pills were a very precious kind of pill used to feed spiritual beasts. They were considered valuable because both spiritual beasts and divine beasts could eat them.

That was rare.

Some pills might be delicious to spiritual beasts, but if fed to a divine beast, they would fall far short.

Yan Jue still hadn’t figured out whether this black lump was a divine beast or a spiritual beast, but if it was the egg the Demon Lord had been hatching all along, and the Demon Lord had even prepared feed for it, then this black lump’s identity was still very much up for debate.

Spirit-Nourishing Pills were so precious that if she went out to buy them, she might even draw suspicion about what they were for.

The Demon Lord’s gourd of Spirit-Nourishing Pills would only last ten days.

Yan Jue pinched the bridge of her nose; a headache was already setting in.

“It’s fine,” Qi Xianqing said. “I can try refining some, but I’m not specialized in alchemy, so I don’t know how effective they’ll be.”

Yan Jue’s eyes lit up. She smiled sweetly. “Senior Sister is so nice.”

Qi Xianqing pulled her into her arms at once, then pressed a light kiss to Yan Jue’s cheek. “Have you come up with a plan for the clues you got today?”

Yan Jue blushed and pushed her away. “I’m not telling you.”

She and Qi Xianqing weren’t even on the same team. If she told Qi Xianqing her idea, it would be unfair to her own teammates.

Besides, Yan Jue believed that with Qi Xianqing’s ability, there was no need for her to explain herself anyway.

Then Yan Jue suddenly felt playful. She tipped her chin up and looked at her. “This time, let’s see who gets all three colors of beans first.”

“As you wish.” Qi Xianqing curved her lips in a lazy smile. “If Junior Sister loses this time, you’ll have to promise me one thing.”

Yan Jue blinked. “What thing?”

Qi Xianqing: “I’ll tell you after you lose.”

Yan Jue: “Sounds like you’re very confident.”

She paused. “If you lose, you’ll have to promise me one thing too.”

Qi Xianqing only smiled and said nothing. “Oh?”

Yan Jue: “This time, I absolutely won’t lose to you!”

-

Very quickly, the next day arrived.

The leisure competition and the mystic-realm team competition were held in alternation, so the day after the clues were distributed, the team competition still hadn’t begun.

The first event of the leisure competition was the food contest.

Five Dragons Square was packed with people from early in the morning. Long tables were set up across the center of the square, and each one was piled high with mouthwatering food.

On the far left were delicate pastries specially bought from the foot of the mountain: sugar cakes glistening with dark red oil, flower cakes carved into all sorts of exquisite shapes, steaming layered cakes and meat pies...

In the middle were meat dishes and cold plates: rich, oily sauced chicken, roasted goose...

On the far right were vegetarian dishes: spicy gourds, tofu soup...

No matter which dish you picked, it was a top-tier delicacy that could make anyone’s mouth water.

Judging disciples in dao robes stood around the square.

And before each long table sat one contestant.

At first glance, it was easy to see that most of the people in this kind of competition were burly men, though there were also a few women of rather sturdy build.

Especially at the edge of the square, where a woman in a gardenia-colored dao robe stood before a long table. She was tall and all muscle, and she cut an imposing figure as she stood there, full of confidence.

The atmosphere on the field was hot and lively.

No one noticed that a slender little girl was sitting among them, staring fixedly at the food on the table with wide, blank eyes.

At last, a man noticed her and said with a smile, “Little girl, this is a food contest, not a tasting contest. We’re competing to see who can eat the most!”

Zhu He remembered Yan Jue’s instructions clearly. She looked up at the man and nodded.

Her sister had now been accepted as a disciple by Elder Yun Zhen.

That meant that although her sister still lived in Watercloud Sect, she was already a disciple of Thunderflame Sect.

So Zhu He only remembered one thing: if anyone asked her later which sect she was from, she had to say Thunderflame Sect.

The man looked at the skinny little girl with her slender arms and smiled faintly. “Then you’d better eat quickly later. Otherwise, Uncle won’t wait for you.”

Five Dragons Square, viewing platform.

Many elders were already seated on the platform. Although the leisure competition wasn’t as exciting as the individual contest, the sect masters and elders who had nothing else to do still liked to come watch.

The sect masters of all the major peaks had arrived.

Yan Yue smiled. “Yun Zhen, your Thunderflame Sect still doesn’t have anyone in the leisure competition this time. I’m afraid the champion will end up belonging to our Watercloud Sect.”

“Yan Yue, mind your words,” Yun Zhen said lazily as she sat on the viewing platform. “I’m only here to watch the fun.”

Xingye Daoist laughed. “Who doesn’t know that Watercloud Sect has sent Liang Yi, their best eater? Who here can compare with Liang Yi?”

Yan Yue covered her mouth and laughed. “Even if we can’t beat you in the individual competition, I’m definitely going to outdo you in this leisure event.”

Yun Zhen idly ate sunflower seeds and ignored her provocation.

She was the very picture of resignation.

Every Five-Dragon Summit had a leisure competition like this. At first, she still had some competitive spirit and wanted to compare herself with Yan Yue, but over time she’d given up on it.

What could she do? Thunderflame Sect was full of women who could fight but not eat; they simply shouldn’t be competing with Yan Yue in this kind of match.

Yan Yue hadn’t even finished speaking when a long, melodious bell sounded.

In an instant, all the contestants on Five Dragons Square started eating.

The moment Zhu He heard the bell, she was instantly enlightened. She rushed to the nearest pastries and devoured several whole plates of osmanthus cakes in one go.

She usually lived with her sister and could only eat Spirit Candle Fruit.

Spirit Candle Fruit was tasty, but how could it compare with this?

Zhu He ate faster and faster.

And even now, she still managed to keep her manners elegant. That was something her sister had insisted on, too. While the burly man beside her stuffed his face until it was slick with oil, Zhu He could still quickly tear the sauced chicken into small pieces and stuff them into her mouth.

Her eyes curved. So delicious.

On the viewing platform, Yan Yue gradually noticed that something was off.

Beside Liang Yi sat a little girl with exquisite manners. Even though she ate very delicately, her speed was astonishing.

In the blink of an eye, she had already eaten from the left side of the table all the way to the right!

Yan Yue: “That’s not right. Who is that girl? I’ve never seen her in any previous competition.”

Yun Zhen yawned and felt like leaving.

She had never cared much for this kind of contest, which offered no chance of winning whatsoever.

In this food contest, Thunderflame Sect had sent only one Jiang Ji, just to make up the numbers.

They were used to losing.

Time passed; in the blink of an eye, it was already noon.

While the burly man beside her still had a pile of vegetarian dishes left uneaten, Zhu He had already finished everything in front of her.

With a crack, Zhu He even ate the table.

The originally hard wooden table was swallowed whole by the girl in one gulp. In an instant, the area in front of her was completely empty; nothing was left at all.

Xingye Daoist stroked his beard and exclaimed in wonder, “That girl is like a flame. Others are like goats grazing on grass, but she’s a prairie fire. Strange indeed.”

Mu Zhongzi, the Five Dragons Sect Master of Mystic Escape Sect, cast a look at Zhu He without any particular expression.

Beside him, Jingang Sect’s Youlong Elder turned his head and quietly said something to him.

An attendant disciple walked over to Zhu He and asked her something in a low voice.

Zhu He gently wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and stood up. “I’m from Thunderflame Sect!”

Yun Zhen spat out a mouthful of tea.

Everyone: “……”

-

Once the first day of the leisure competition ended, everyone began preparing for the team competition that followed.

In the afternoon, warm sunlight spilled across the floor of the room.

Yan Jue sat at the table and slowly spread the secret note in her hands out before her.

After two days of thinking, she now had her own interpretation of the note.

The clues given by the Five Dragons Sect wouldn’t be so simple; otherwise, the successive rounds of clues wouldn’t be able to eliminate people.

That was how Yan Jue had figured it out when she saw a tiny temple marked on the map.

Yesterday, when she saw the small print under Manjushri Bodhisattva in Du Ying’s room—Homage to the Great Wise Manjushri Bodhisattva—Yan Jue had suddenly thought of something: the south in the poem could be linked to “homage.”

And on this map, the only thing associated with the word south was that tiny, unremarkable temple in the north.

This entire mystic realm had been transformed by a powerful being. If there happened to be a tiny temple marked in the north, it would be far too abrupt.

Of course, Yan Jue wouldn’t grow smug just because she’d found something.

She knew very well that if she could find it, then others definitely could too.

As for whether “when spring returns, how many branches will bloom,” they would still have to go to that temple first to know.

Very quickly, the next day arrived.

Five Dragons Square was still as crowded as it had been the day before.

For many people, the individual competition at the Five-Dragon Summit was merely a formality. It tested hard power, and they weren’t likely to place especially well.

But the team competition was completely different.

All the Five Dragons disciples gathered around Five Dragons Square, each of them eager and ready to try.

An elder with a kind face and benevolent expression, dressed in a dazzling purple-red dao robe, gave a speech from the high platform in Five Dragons Square. Accompanied by a string of melodious bells, a blinding light suddenly appeared above the square.

The halo was pale blue, bright enough to make everyone unable to open their eyes for a moment.

About half a cup of tea later, the light gradually dimmed.

What appeared before everyone’s eyes was a circular entrance to the mystic realm.

“This is the Five Dragons Mystic Realm specially opened for this competition,” the elder said with a smile, clapping his hands. “You may now enter the mystic realm and explore a new world.”

Before he’d even finished speaking, streaks of rosy clouds surged across the sky, and the disciples on the square all raised their magical artifacts.

Everyone poured toward the entrance like a tide.

-

The mountains rose and fell in endless layers.

The moment Yan Jue entered the mystic realm, she immediately drew her immortal sword Drifting Ice and descended to the ground.

The azure sky was still filled with ever-shifting multicolored clouds. Aside from a few teams that had no intention of seriously searching for beans and had descended as soon as they entered, just like Yan Jue’s group, all the colored clouds were flying toward the south.

Yan Jue looked up at the streaks of rainbow light in the sky and couldn’t help but sweat a little.

Everyone was heading south; the treasure hunt in the mystic realm had practically turned into a race.

The scene was especially grand.

Duan Luxi had been urged down by Yan Jue the moment they entered the realm, and she stepped onto the forest floor covered in leaves with some confusion. “Junior Sister Yan, how long are we supposed to stay on the ground?”

Yan Jue wasn’t in a hurry. She climbed slowly up a tree and picked a gray true fruit from it.

Then Yan Jue stretched out her right hand and plucked another jade spirit fruit.

After all, this was a mystic realm; there were many natural treasures one could never see outside.

Although Yan Jue had been to a real mystic realm before, the Five Dragons Mystic Realm here was somewhat unremarkable by comparison, but she still intended to make good use of it.

Yan Jue jumped among the trees, secretly peering at the map through the leaves while picking fruit and heading north.

Gradually, the others disappeared from sight.

Li Jia watched from below the tree, growing more and more anxious. “Senior Sister Yan, but everyone else went that way. Are we really going the right way?”

Huang Yi also frowned. “Could Senior Sister Yan not be taking the team competition seriously because she got third place in the individual contest?”

Du Ying hurriedly said, “You two should stop talking. Yan Jue will always have a way.”

At the moment, in Du Ying’s eyes, Yan Jue was a godlike existence, so naturally she wouldn’t allow anyone to speak carelessly.

Yan Jue sat in the tree and slowly folded the map closed. “We’re going north.”

Du Ying: “It’s fine, it’s fine. Trust Old Yan.”

Yan Jue: “……”

The pressure suddenly became enormous.

Yan Jue’s reading of the map was very accurate, and before long she had arrived at a temple in the north.

The temple had been built in a very remote place, the whole structure hidden by grass and trees.

Pines and cypresses stood in clusters; the winding path led into secluded depths.

Yan Jue suddenly pushed open the temple gate. A cloud of dust tumbled down, and she coughed from the choking air.

Inside the temple, the light was dim. Only a single thread of sunlight shone through a damaged section of the eaves, forming a straight line.

The sunlight fell on a great Buddha statue missing one hand. Cast in gold, the Buddha looked benevolently toward the gate.

The Handless Buddha.

Yan Jue’s pupils contracted sharply.

There was a tree in the courtyard, and it was full of red beans.

Li Jia’s eyes went wide. She hurried over. “Are those red beans the thing we’re supposed to find this time?”

Yan Jue immediately made a shushing gesture.

Li Jia quickly covered her mouth.

Yan Jue: “No.”

“These red beans are just ordinary red beans. But the clue given by the sect made it clear that the red beans are actually made from Spirit Stones; that’s what we need to find.”

The other four all frowned. “Then what do we do?”

Red beans grow in the south, and when spring comes, how many branches bloom.

Yan Jue had always felt that this poem wasn’t just a treasure-hunt clue; it was also hinting at some kind of emotion.

Yan Jue walked beneath the red bean tree and looked up.

A beam of sunlight poured down from the sky, and Yan Jue narrowed her eyes slightly.

Through the branches heavy with red beans, she seemed to see...

Something written on the wooden beam beneath the eaves over there.

It had to be viewed from this upward angle through the red beans to be seen!

Before Huang Yi and Li Jia could react, they saw Yan Jue flash upward and leap straight to the rafters.

Yan Jue hung upside down from the beam and took down that piece of wood.

Painted on the wood was the hand of a Buddha, its fingers pinched in a graceful orchid-hand seal.

Yan Jue put the wood back in place. “Dig!”

Everyone immediately understood and took out their magical artifacts, frantically digging at the soil beneath the red bean tree.

Although they still hadn’t fully grasped Yan Jue’s meaning, Huang Yi and Li Jia both suddenly thought the same thing.

Senior Sister Yan was amazing!

Because they were worried someone would notice something was wrong and come over, everyone moved especially fast.

Yan Jue couldn’t tell whether it was just her imagination, but the sunlight over here seemed a little stronger than elsewhere!

The soil beneath the red bean tree was as hard as iron, and the sun was blazing. Before she knew it, Yan Jue was drenched in sweat, and both her arms ached fiercely.

By the time the earth had been dug two chi deep, there was suddenly a clang. Du Ying’s whole body jerked, and she said softly, “I hit something!”

Yan Jue no longer cared about the dirt. She jumped straight into the pit and took out the bronzed severed hand.

When she entered the temple earlier, Yan Jue had already noticed the old Buddha’s severed hand. This severed hand happened to be the left hand, and it matched the missing hand of the ancient Buddha exactly.

Before Yan Jue could even feel happy, she heard a burst of footsteps from over there.

“Senior Sister, are the red beans really here?”

Yan Jue: “……”

All five people on the scene were startled.

A cry erupted in Yan Jue’s mind: Not good!

She clutched the severed hand tightly to her chest and flew up to hide on the rafters over there.

In the time it takes to say it, several slender figures entered the temple.

Qi Xianqing wore a pale blue layered skirt and walked unhurriedly at the back of the group with her hands behind her back.

Zhou Leng was a little puzzled by Qi Xianqing.

Everyone had already received the clues the day before, and at first they had planned to follow the crowd to the pine woods in the south to take a look.

But Senior Sister had said to go north.

Everyone was used to trusting Senior Sister, so naturally whatever Senior Sister said was what they did.

Qi Xianqing had clearly seemed confident of victory from the very beginning.

And yet, now that they were almost at the temple, she insisted on making them wait outside before going in.

Zhou Leng told Qi Xianqing what she was thinking. “Why?”

Qi Xianqing smiled. “If there’s manual labor to do, of course we should let someone else do it for us first before going in.”

Yan Jue, hiding on the rafters and drenched in sweat: “……”

Damn it! What a vicious woman!

She was absolutely not handing over the Buddha hand to her today!!

TL Note:

“Red beans grow in the south, and when spring comes, how many branches bloom (红豆生南国，春来发几枝)” = a Tang poem line; red beans symbolize longing for someone far away.

“orchid-hand seal (兰花指诀)” = a finger pose used in Chinese opera and dance, with the fingers pinched like an orchid. Google for images.