OLTFMD | Chapter 10

Chapter 10

◎Does what you bite not count as an injury?◎

The next morning, when he opened his eyes and saw the golden light filling the air before him, Shen Ji suddenly woke up.

He flipped out of bed. Seeing that Xie Fu was still sitting motionless in the golden light, he put the gun in his hand back into the warehouse and asked System, “What happened last night?”

System said in confusion, “Yesterday the great villain forced the host to be [beep]ed. I have system spirit rules, so this kind of scene is automatically blocked.”

“...” Shen Ji said, “What happened after dual cultivation last night?”

“Oh!” System remembered that the host had told it to keep a close eye on Xie Fu. “The great villain has been cultivating from last night until now.”

Shen Ji looked at Xie Fu’s face, still cold even while cultivating. “Nothing happened in between?”

“In between...” System thought carefully, bit by bit. “Ah, there was!”

Shen Ji asked, “What?”

System said, “At 2:23 a.m., when the host rolled over, he kicked the great villain. The great villain stopped cultivating and glared at you for two seconds. Nothing else.”

Shen Ji: “...”

He knew he could not count on System at all.

System said, “Right, host, why did you fall asleep last night?”

Shen Ji had thought about that too. “It should have something to do with the heart method.”

After dual cultivation with Xie Fu yesterday, it was already dark. He was just about to sit in meditation and refine it when the spiritual power left behind earlier by Xie Fu while helping him rebuild his foundation, and the spiritual power formed after dual cultivation, merged in his dantian and charged straight into his meridians.

He knew nothing about cultivation, and only judged from the original body's limited memories that this was not a sign of qi deviation, so he let it circulate on its own as it crashed around.

Within the five minutes after that, he lost consciousness in the warm, comfortable feeling that arose in all his limbs and bones.

With his willpower, if it had not been related to a heart method beyond his cognition, he would not have fallen asleep unaware.

Perhaps he heard movement.

Xie Fu also opened his eyes.

Shen Ji sat by the bed and put on his boots. When he got up and saw Xie Fu looking over, he took a set of clothes from the spatial pouch and handed them to him.

“Don’t waste spiritual power. Wear this. It’s about the same as the one I’m wearing.”

Xie Fu frowned and took it.

Shen Ji went on, “It’s from an Azure Phoenix Guard in Minghuang City.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a complete dark blue tight outfit burst apart with a ripping sound.

Shen Ji: “...”

From the flying scraps of cloth, he saw the familiar golden robe land on Xie Fu again.

Fine.

He really did not lack spiritual power. Even the clothes were picky.

But being able to kill only one set of clothes after dual cultivation was already immense progress.

Shen Ji said, “You keep going.”

After saying that, he turned and went out, drew some well water, and washed up.

When he looked up at the sky again, the strange sight in the distance had long since vanished.

Shen Ji set down the wooden basin and tapped the dagger at his waist.

The immortal realm and demon realm were both searching for Xie Fu. He believed that in the not-too-distant future, people from the ghost realm and devil realm would arrive too.

The Snow Realm could greatly block divine sense and spiritual power, and even if it was a live target, this was the most suitable place to hide for now.

It was just that the trap was already set, and he could not keep standing still.

The entire mountain range was too vast. At the very least, he had to get a clear picture of the nearby terrain before he could deal with ambushes.

Shen Ji was just about to go back and tell Xie Fu, but when he turned around he saw Xie Fu stepping over the threshold, and said in a low voice, “Stop!”

Xie Fu lifted his eyes to look at him.

Shen Ji bypassed the trap and walked to the left side of the door. “Go this way.”

Xie Fu swept his gaze over the snow that seemed no different at all, then stepped over as he was told.

Just as he came out, Shen Ji led him through the correct route once. When they returned to the starting point, he emphasized, “Don’t take the wrong path.”

Xie Fu nodded. “Mm.”

Shen Ji asked casually, “Why aren’t you cultivating?”

Xie Fu was brief and to the point. “The effect is minimal.”

Shen Ji was looking at the map System had pulled up. Hearing that, he invited him without much seriousness, “I’m going out for a while today. I don’t know when I’ll be back. Want to come?”

Xie Fu said indifferently, “Fine.”

Cultivating in the mortal realm had a minimal effect. If Xie Fu wanted to recover his cultivation, aside from dual cultivation, he could only rely on hunting to earn a little meager spirit stones, so there was good reason for him to agree.

But even after truly hearing him agree, Shen Ji still looked at him once more.

Xie Fu also turned his face to look at him. “What?”

Shen Ji smiled lightly.

He had simply thought of his previous relationship with Xie Fu.

Once they had been locked in life-and-death enmity, and now they could calmly go out together. It had to be said, it was a miracle.

This also made him more suspicious of Xie Fu’s intentions.

After all, the impression Xie Fu gave him in the book was definitely not someone with such a high tolerance.

Of course, he did not say any of that out loud.

“Nothing.” Shen Ji picked a route and said to Xie Fu, “Let’s go.”

—

To avoid the Shouluo Village getting into trouble, Shen Ji deliberately chose another direction.

The Wind-Chasing Leopard carried him and Xie Fu racing across the snow. When they reached a stretch of road with a relatively open view, he deliberately took a few extra loops before turning down the slope and putting away the mount to walk.

The boundless, continuous snow mountains were glaring white, and anything that did not belong here had nowhere to hide. It was very suitable for scouting.

Shen Ji and Xie Fu walked side by side, and he took out the binoculars to look toward the distant mountains.

Anyone who dared to come hunt down the phoenix emperor would definitely have a mount with them. Calculated by normal travel pace, they would be able to reach here.

But it also depended on whether they had the courage to charge in headfirst and truly not care about running into Xie Fu at any moment.

He found no abnormalities in his field of view, and Shen Ji was just about to shift away when he caught Xie Fu examining the binoculars in his hand from the corner of his eye, and asked with a smile, “Interested?”

Before Xie Fu could speak, he said again, “This one’s data was adjusted according to my habits. You use it.”

Xie Fu took the monocular binoculars he tossed over and paused, then brought it close to his eyes in his own way.

“How is it?”

Xie Fu said, “Passable.”

Looking into the distance through it, his vision became several times clearer. Far from comparable to his, but it required no cultivation and could still be controlled, so in mortal hands it could be considered a rare treasure.

Shen Ji waved a hand. “If you like it, it’s yours.”

Xie Fu had no special fondness for it, but Shen Ji had already turned away. Chasing it back would be too deliberate, so he only put it into Minghuang Palace, and also slowly moved forward.

The two of them followed the slope and nearly circled halfway around before finally noticing something unusual.

Seeing the scene not far away, Shen Ji raised a hand at once to stop Xie Fu. They both took a step back, tightly pressing themselves against the wall.

Xie Fu frowned.

Shen Ji pressed his index finger lightly in front of his lips, signaling for him not to make a sound for now, then slightly turned his body and looked again toward the front left.

In the snow, glaring bloodstains crisscrossed in disorder.

Of the seven people lying down, six were corpses. The last one, when Shen Ji looked over, also had his head crushed by a woman with red hair.

Red and white streaks seeped from under her foot. The woman snorted with a laugh and ground it underfoot, then pulled out the long spear stuck in the corpse and shouldered it as she walked toward her teammates.

Also a group of five.

Shen Ji retraced his route. “Follow me.”

Remembering his fighting style, Xie Fu lowered his eyes for a moment, then went with him, one in front and one behind, taking a detour to the high ground.

Shen Ji took out paper and pen from the warehouse, recording the figures he calculated along the way. He crouched and moved to the optimal shooting distance, then lay prone on the ground. Seeing that Xie Fu was still standing in place, he reached out and pulled him to sit behind a nearby tree.

“Don’t show your head.”

After he said that, he picked up the binoculars and looked over.

The five people across from them were still standing in the pool of blood, chatting happily. One of them held two different portraits of Xie Fu in his hand, seeming to be comparing them, then threw one bloodstained portrait onto the corpse under his feet.

It looked like the ones they killed were not mortals, but people from the immortal realm with the same goal as them.

Shen Ji was just about to put down the binoculars when, after the other side threw down Xie Fu’s portrait, he took out another one from the spatial pouch.

On it was clearly his face.

Red Phoenix again.

With Xie Fu not here, the Red Phoenix spiritual venerable, one of the phoenix clan’s five great elders, had no qualms. The order now might already have changed from assassination to open killing.

Shen Ji glanced at Xie Fu.

Originally this situation was very unfavorable to his circumstances, but with this phoenix emperor whom the four realms were seeking revenge against, the Red Phoenix branch’s pursuit was truly nothing more than a nuisance.

He put away the binoculars, took out the sniper rifle from the warehouse and set it up, then aimed downward at the target.

Xie Fu could tell the mortal had changed to another weapon.

Unlike when he was in Shen Ji’s arms, this time he was observing from an equal perspective. He could clearly see Shen Ji’s profile, his expression cold and focused, completely unlike usual.

His breathing was shallow, both hands steady as a rock, even his voice lowered by a few degrees.

“I’ll count to three. When you hear the gunshot, follow me.”

Shen Ji did not wait for Xie Fu’s response and counted down in a low voice.

“Three, two, one.”

Bang!

The supersonic bullet burst out of the barrel!

Shen Ji did not hesitate. He immediately put away the gun and stood up, retreating first toward the slope.

He had not gone far when his gaze turned slightly grave.

Hearing the sound of something swiftly approaching from behind, he did not have time to turn back. He grabbed Xie Fu beside him, pulled him into his arms, and leaped out.

At the same time, the long spear thrown from the foot of the mountain crashed to the ground!

The crimson-black fire ignited on the spear shaft surged wildly into the wind and exploded instantly!

Shen Ji was still in midair, affected by this overbearing force of impact, and was heavily sent flying together with Xie Fu!

When they fell into the snow, driven by his instinct to save someone, he subconsciously shielded Xie Fu’s back of the head and rolled down the slope toward the foot of the mountain.

Xie Fu was tightly restrained by his single arm, almost unable to move, burying his face at the side of Shen Ji’s neck. He was not stained by a single bit of ice and snow, only the warm pulse beating beside his ear.

It was not until they stopped in a safe area that Shen Ji remembered the one in his arms was not an ordinary civilian who needed saving.

But there was no time to care about that in a critical moment. He supported Xie Fu and got up, then turned to look at the firelight still raging on the mountain top and summoned the Wind-Chasing Leopard with a raise of his hand.

“Go.”

This squad on the other side was stronger than the five people they had encountered four days ago, and their reactions were faster than he had expected. They could not meet them head-on.

Shen Ji went back along the original route, then halfway turned toward the pine forest on the other side of the high ground.

Xie Fu looked at the messy footprints on the ground.

Shen Ji had been circling here just now. Presumably it was for this moment.

Shen Ji had already occupied the highest point in the shortest possible time.

The other side had not arrived yet. He sat down with his back against cover, opened the medical kit, and treated the burns on the back of his hand and wrist.

Fortunately, his protective gear had blocked the greatest part of the attack. Only when he shielded Xie Fu did a thread of phoenix fire brush him. At first he did not pay it any mind, but he did not expect that in such a short time, the wound would spread in a circle, tinged with fine, searing pain.

“The yin evil entering the body, no amount of mortal medicine will be of any use.”

Shen Ji looked up at Xie Fu. “You know how to treat it?”

Xie Fu had only then seen the fine scratches on his face, likely torn by branches when he rolled down from the mountain top.

“Why did you save me?”

At this moment, the unrestrained sound of charging came from the distance.

“What?”

Shen Ji’s attention shifted. He did not hear what he said clearly. After hastily bandaging his wrist, he set up the gun again. “Forget it, we’ll talk when we get back.”

Hearing this, the stance of Xie Fu’s hand that had been rising fell back down. The golden light at the tip of his finger dissolved, and he did not say anything else.

Shen Ji was looking toward the distance.

The pursuing squad consisted of four people.

The red-haired woman at the front was the primary target he had just failed to snipe.

The one who took the bullet for her should be the second person he had aimed at on the same line. Either dead or injured, otherwise they would not have been abandoned by the other four.

While he was taking aim, the four mounts stopped.

The crisscrossing footprints temporarily interfered with their judgment. It was the best time to strike.

Shen Ji shifted his target to the burly man farthest from the red-haired woman and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Having had experience once already, after firing the gun he immediately pulled Xie Fu up onto the Wind-Chasing Leopard and sped downhill.

Sure enough, another towering wave of scorching heat slammed down behind them!

After losing two teammates in succession, the other side’s rage this time was even more intense than before.

Shen Ji made a huge circle and went around behind the three of them. When he fired again, he found that from head to toe the other side was wrapped in spirit barriers, not leaving him the slightest flaw.

He could not help but silently sigh.

Competing in spiritual power, he definitely could not win.

The other side was guarded against him in every way. Continuing to stalemate would just waste time.

Shen Ji put away the gun and turned back, only returning to the first scene to collect the eight spatial pouches no one wanted from the ground into the warehouse, then took a long detour back to their residence.

Before entering the courtyard, Xie Fu suddenly said, “Spirit stones.”

Shen Ji stopped. “How many?”

He did not ask why. Xie Fu only said, “All of them.”

After seeing more of it, System had become audacious, and was getting more and more blunt, “The great villain is way too black-hearted. These are spirit stones you earned with your life on the line!”

Life on the line?

Hearing that description, Shen Ji laughed once and casually threw the spatial pouch to Xie Fu.

His needs and Xie Fu’s were different. One spirit stone could be used for several days.

There were still just over a hundred left in the warehouse. For now, that was enough.

Besides, with Xie Fu’s personality, he could not possibly open his mouth to him for no reason.

Xie Fu took the spatial pouch and used two fingers to draw spirit stones from within, laying them one by one outside the courtyard, forming a circular outline.

System suddenly understood. “The great villain is setting up a formation!”

Shen Ji asked, “What formation?”

System said, “It’s been identified. A concealment-type formation. It can hide this whole courtyard. Outsiders won’t be able to see it even if they walk past.”

Shen Ji asked Xie Fu, “Why didn’t you set it up three days ago?”

Xie Fu did not answer.

He injected spiritual power to activate the formation, took back the spatial pouch, and said to Shen Ji, “Come here.”

System rubbed its hands together. “Is it dual cultivation? Host, the great villain must have gotten a taste for it, lusting after your body, so he’s paying more and more attention to you to win your favor, so he can do it again!”

Shen Ji said, “Read more normal books in the future.”

“What’s not normal about this...”

Amid System’s quiet muttering, Shen Ji turned and walked into the inner room.

When he entered, Xie Fu had just finished gathering his power.

On the ground, two nearby formations were emitting a faint glow, their spiritual power abundant.

System introduced it at the right time, “This is a spirit-gathering array.”

A spirit-gathering array?

Looking at the two formations, Shen Ji had already vaguely realized what Xie Fu wanted to do.

Xie Fu waved a hand slightly. “Sit.”

Shen Ji walked to the opposite side of him, lifted his robe and sat cross-legged, then asked directly, “You’re helping me heal?”

“Mm.” Xie Fu said, “Hand.”

Shen Ji raised his injured right hand and found that the wound had worsened a little more.

Xie Fu lifted a spirit stone to float between the two of them. He pointed two fingers at the spirit stone, using the ownerless spiritual power to cover Shen Ji’s dark, shrouded wound and clear away the yin evil aura within it.

Shen Ji looked at him.

Xie Fu’s tone was as cold and indifferent as always. “You were injured by risking your life to save me. This merely makes us even. No need to think too much.”

Shen Ji smiled. “Is that so? What about the injury I got from saving you last time?”

Xie Fu raised his eyes to look at him. “This one time only. Where did the last time come from?”

Shen Ji raised an eyebrow and pointed at the scar on the back of his hand. “Does what you bite not count as an injury?”

Xie Fu’s breathing became heavier. His expression suddenly turned cold and hard. He shot Shen Ji a cold look and no longer paid attention to his nonsense.

Shen Ji suppressed the smile at the corner of his lips.

This phoenix, Xie Fu, was sometimes very split.

When holding a grudge, wanting to kill him was real.

After the ceasefire, being able to genuinely set aside the grudge and help him cultivate and heal was also real.

It was a pity that his personality was also truly unpredictable.

Under specific conditions, not caring about his wishes was even more real.

Shen Ji looked at the wound that was healing and also closed his eyes, refining the spiritual power that kept pouring in from the spirit-gathering array.

—

He did not know how much time had passed when he felt the spiritual power wrapping around the back of his hand slowly withdraw. Shen Ji opened his eyes and looked across.

Xie Fu formed a hand seal and withdrew his power.

The unknown number of exhausted spirit stones fell to the ground and rolled aside.

“I have already cleansed the phoenix clan’s fire seed inside your body. For external injuries, you can recover on your own.”

Shen Ji pressed the left arm that had once been pierced through. As expected, there was no longer any stabbing, bone-deep burning pain.

He was just about to speak when Xie Fu raised a palm and waved it lightly, the golden light stirred up by the motion brushing across his face.

A slight itch crawled across his face. He reached up and wiped it, but there was no abnormality at all.

Shen Ji did not take it too seriously. “Thanks.”

Xie Fu watched him get up, then looked at the spirit-gathering array still on the ground and again pointed two fingers at his dantian.

“You have already built your foundation?”

Shen Ji let him do as he pleased. “Built my foundation?”

Xie Fu’s spiritual power traveled through all of Shen Ji’s meridians and discovered that not only had he already built his foundation, his meridians had also all broadened, much improved from yesterday.

Yesterday.

Xie Fu withdrew his hand.

He remembered that before he had finished rebuilding Shen Ji’s foundation, he had been burdened by instinct and dual cultivated with Shen Ji, and he had not made a move afterward either.

The heavenly spiritual cauldron does indeed absorb spiritual power during dual cultivation, but if it were to reach the point of impacting a realm as Shen Ji had, it could only be done if one utterly disregarded one’s own body and entrusted all cultivation to the other person to control.

Xie Fu looked at Shen Ji, his gaze shifting slightly.

Shen Ji said, “Is there a problem?”

Xie Fu only said, “Your foundation has just been established. It still needs to be stabilized.”

Shen Ji sat back down again.

He could not see where it needed stabilizing, so he simply cultivated according to the original body's memories.

By the time the moon was high overhead.

He suddenly frowned.

A burst of severe pain suddenly erupted from his dantian, quickly spreading to his entire body. Numbness and unbearable, prickling itch followed close behind, spreading in the blink of an eye!

System hurriedly said, “Medicine! Host, you forgot to take your medicine today, hurry and boil it!”

There was no time to boil medicine.

Shen Ji recalled the scene of Xie Fu treating his injuries, and raised his hand to form a seal.

Rich spiritual power, guided by him, condensed in his palm.

Across from him.

Xie Fu suddenly opened his eyes.

A streak of golden light flashed in his eyes, reflecting the mark on his forehead as it shifted from faint to deep.

“What is that?”

Hearing System’s puzzled voice, Shen Ji had not yet looked over when a familiar binding sensation wrapped around his waist and back. The tip lightly brushed across the side of his face, soft yet forceful as it entangled with him.

Shen Ji: “...”

Xie Fu was forced awake, suppressing an urge that was about to ignite at the slightest touch.

He swept past the spiritual power in Shen Ji’s palm, lifted his eyes to meet Shen Ji’s, and anger also began to rise in them.

Author’s note:

Shen Ji: ...

Xie Fu: ...

System: Great!

—

Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or gave me nutrient solution during the period from 2022-08-05 17:57:55 to 2022-08-07 17:44:05!

Thanks to the little angels who threw landmines: Su Yun, Mo Xinyao, Chen Shaorong, Bai Ri Zuo Meng ing, Xiao Yu Paopao, 1 each;

Thanks to the little angels who gave nutrient solution: Yan Er Jin 125 bottles; Piaomiao Guhong 100 bottles; Chen Shaorong, Pan Yu, czszzs 40 bottles; cub Ya. 20 bottles; Su Yun, 44840858, xyr 10 bottles; An, Gu Ye 5 bottles; S. 2 bottles; Nuli Futeng de Houlang, Xue Ying, Wei Xi, Yuesefu fu fu, Xinyue, Maomao11, Duheng, Nian Qing, Jiujiu, Datuan Shan Wang Rulai 1 bottle each;

Thank you all very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!