Chapter 79 Radish & Pork Bone Soup (e)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

At the end of the bout, Shiyu had scrambled off. No one else dared to stop her this time as she and Wen Xian ran away. [1] They got to an area where there was no one around before she summoned Cloud Beast and they flew off. Meanwhile, Mo Yin had been taken away and a high-level physician called in to treat her wounds.

Though many people had watched the fight, most of them agreed that the ending had been very odd. Shiyu must have deployed some kind of magic weapon that turned the odds to her favour. However, neither Feng Luo nor Lin Fan believed that her victory was due to an item.

As they walked home to their villa, Feng Luo pondered upon the issue and said out loud, “It must be that odd spiritual fire of hers,” he remarked. The fire that turned Mo Yin into a human has a distinctive blue colour that was similar to the one she uses to cook spiritual food.

“En,” Lin Fan nodded. He laughed suddenly, “I have no idea where she got the idea from, but if she could master this technique, it would be a great secret weapon.”

She had just stepped into the Core Transformation Stage, but could already make use of her Blue Spirit Fire like this. What would her growth be like in the future?

 

Right this very moment, Wen Xian was also asking himself this very same question.

They were currently winging it, or Cloud Beasting it, away from the Imperial Capital via sky travel. It was quite comfortable on top of the Cloud Beast, like sitting on top of a fluffy blanket. However, because it was speeding along very quickly, they had to lie flat on the beast and make sure to grab hold of bits of it or be blown off by the wind.

From the top of the Cloud Beast, Wen Xuan had a panoramic view of the fields and houses below. To prevent people from tracking them, Shiyu had ordered Cloud Beast to fly high and fast. It’s better to be safe than sorry after the trouble with Mo Yin. Who knows, they might encounter Cultivators on flying beasts aiming to make trouble for them.

[2] At first, the novelty of being in the sky, zooming on a Cloud Beast that was said to be difficult a capture and not worth fighting was all that Wen Xian could think of. How exciting is it to be on a Cloud Beast, ah? To think that his friend Shiyu would have a live Cloud Beast as her mount, how impressive!

Speaking of which, “Hey, you’re pretty powerful aren’t you? How did you escape her sword energy unscathed anyway?”

“I didn’t really escape unscathed. I just don’t have many surface injuries. My spiritual energy is nearly wiped out. I can barely hold up a brick now,” said Shiyu weakly. Of course, her spiritual energy was exhausted because the concentration and spiritual energy needed to compress her spiritual fire into a Fire Bead.

The truth was, she had disappeared into her space when the dust came up, blocking the line of sight of the people around her. [3] The timing was very tricky, but the stress of the moment increased her focus by 10 fold and she simply vanished just before the sword struck. [4] She had actually reappeared a few seconds after that and fell into the stupid hole created by Mo Yin. Luckily, the hastily made Fire Bead did not explode when she fell in, because that would be stupid.

“Then, your last move?” Wen Xian’s eyes were very bright. “Could you tell me about it?”

Ah, yes, that. “I was just betting everything on one trick,” Shiyu did not feel the need to hide this. “I was getting pretty desperate, let me tell you. So I thought I’d try compressing my spiritual energy into a small space and letting it explode. Just to see what happens.”

In fact, it was unexpectedly successful. The only drawback was the sudden exhaustion of her spiritual powers. If the opponent is not defeated with this one move she would be in great trouble. Nevertheless, this was still a great last resort move she could pull out of her sleeve before escaping.

After the fight, Shiyu had to acknowledge the weakness in her fighting skills. Her skill with the dagger was too poor, she was not proactive enough and her lack of combat experience meant that she was stuck reacting rather than properly analyzing her opponent’s ability and fighting them properly. These were all shortcomings she had to make time to fix.

The Imperial Capital was a long way from Qing Shan City. It took her at a month of walking, carriage rides and furtive riding on Cloud Beast to travel between these two cities. Of course, she had made a lot of stops too, but right now speed was of the essence. With Cloud Beast going straight as an arrow, it would probably only take them four to five days to reach Qing Shan City.

In the next few days, neither Shiyu nor Wen Xian let up their Cultivation practice. The scare of being unexpectedly attacked by Mo Yin and the fear of encountering enemies on the way to their destination was great motivations to train. Not to mention, there was really nothing else to do while sitting on top of the Cloud Beast. [5] Shiyu had suffered some minor injuries after her bout with Mo Yin. There were not many physical injuries, aside from the sprained ankle from falling into that stupid hole, but she had to Cultivate and circulate her spiritual energy in order to fix her internal injuries.

Once she was at a good shape again, Shiyu decided to try suppressing her Blue Spiritual Fire into Fire Beads again. It turned out that she had been very, very lucky when she compressed her spiritual fire in her fight with Mo Yin. Someone must be looking out for me, thought Shiyu ruefully as her 10th attempt at compressing her fire resulted up in another mini explosion, causing Cloud Beast to shudder in fear.

Both Wen Xian and San Pang were huddled in the furthest corner away from Shiyu.

Shiyu ignored them, muttering to herself, “Why did it work at that time but keep failing now?” She frowned at the blue spiritual fire leaping on her fingers.

She tried one more time. Flaring the fire into a small flaming ball on her palm and gradually reducing the Blue Spirit Fire from the size of a human head to something smaller. When the fireball was the size of her fist, she tensed, focusing all her attention onto the fire. In the previous 10 attempts, this was when the fire went out of control.

San Pang and Wen Xian realized this too and clutched each other closer. Even Cloud Beast has slowed down, clearly making sure not to jar Shiyu into accidentally causing an explosion on its back…

Shiyu stared at the dark blue fireball in her hand, trying to recall the exact situation when she had desperately made the first one while fighting against Mo Yin. She had compressed her fire, she had been desperate to not let Mo Yin see what she was doing so she had wrapped the fireball with her Spiritual Energy… that’s it! Spiritual Energy!

The sudden epiphany struck her and she immediately focussed her Spiritual Energy onto her palm, coaxing it to wrap around the fireball. [6] It flowed and twisted among the flames forcing the dancing fire into a smoother shape, gradually tightening and squeezing the fire down, making it smaller and smaller until it was the size of her little finger.

Her fingers trembled. [6] Wen Xiang and San Pang flinched. The little bead rolled in her palm. It felt hot, but otherwise just like an ordinary little pretty bead. Oh, and she could still feel a connection between herself and the bead. All she had to do was mentally prompt it and the bead would explode with a bang, just like the time with Mo Yin. [6] She smiled. Her companions cringed.

“Is it done?” Wen Xian’s eyes were very large as he stared at the bead. “Can I touch it?”

“Be careful, it’s a little hot,” Shiyu said, and she threw the bead at him.

Wen Xian and San Pang yelped, both leaping to catch the bead in case it explodes on impact. [7] Cloud Beast made a little rumble of distress at their antics.

Mo Yin’s tragic end with the explosive bead was still fresh on their minds.

While Wen Xian and San Pang studied the Fire Bead, Shiyu focussed her energy on making a second bead. [8] Since she could not practice her knife work here, she might as well improve this very useful life-saving move while she has the time. This time, she used less fire and managed to complete the Fire Bead much sooner. Though it was the same size as the other one, the blue was less deep. Elated by her second success, Shiyu made a third and fourth bead until her Spiritual Power was exhausted.

She continued making Fire Beads, carefully, of course, since lower chances of failure did not mean zero chances of failure. What was most gratifying about this experiment was seeing the water droplets around her Dantian, which had shown no change ever since she reached the second stage starting to take on a hint of gold. Once the droplet turned golden, she would have reached the 1st Level of Core Transformation Stage.

Time passed as the people on Cloud Beast did their best to Cultivate and pass time in their own way. Finally, through the mists and clouds, Shiyu caught sight of the vast Spiritual Beast Mountain Range. They were close to Qing Shan City now.

How is Grandpa? [9]

Is he still doing alright?

Let me not be too late!

 

[Gumihou: Hurry, Shiyu!]

 

[1] Adjustment of Information: The information re getting on Cloud Beast was given later, moved upwards for logistical reasons.

[2] Added More Details because Cloud Beast! Wen Xian gushing over Cloud Beast on our behalf

[3] Added More Details: Re secret space trick. Gumihou has so many questions, but chief among them is how do you decide when to disappear into your space in that split second? By the time Mo Yin’s sword struck the ground, you would have been struck too. Unless Mo Yin’s sword aura gathers dust? However, if anime is anything to go by, sword aura is supposed to give out energy, this means repelling dust.

Someone did not think through this trick.

[4] Additional Information to Expand the previous action: I made Shiyu fall into the hole. Then give more information on why her trick was not discovered.

[5] Additional Information for Transitional Purpose: Added details re Shiyu’s injury, and mention the hole she ‘fell’ into.

[6] Additional Information for Dramatic Purposes: added more information to slow down the narrative for the bead making and use San Pang and Wen Xian’s reaction to cause drama.

[7] Additional Cloud Beast Detail: Because Cloud Beast has feelings too!

[8] Added More Information: Because might as well. Added information on the colour of the bead. You really do not want to mistake a high power Fire Bead with a firecracker bead, right?

[9] Structural Change: Split one paragraph into 3 for dramatic purposes

 

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