Chapter 259: A Familiar Stranger
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Lin Feng extended both his hands as he pinched Xiao Budian’s fair cheeks. “If there were a competition for being shameless, you would definitely win it.”
Xiao Budian hurriedly caressed his poor face and exclaimed, “Come on Master, you must stop doing that. The old people back in my village used to say that pinching the cheeks of young children would explode the bag of saliva in the cheeks. Next time when I grow up, I will still not be able to stop dripping saliva.”
“Who do you think you are kidding? You are already not a young child anyways.” Lin Feng was unfazed. “You are already eleven years old. No matter how hard I pinch, nothing will happen.”
Following whic, Lin Feng continued to nod his head, “And the touch of your cheeks is really not bad.”
Xiao Budian’s face gave away a look of helpless as he stared at the grinning Lin Feng.
Yue Hongyan looked at the master and disciple who were having fun and immediately her angry red brows softened.
Tun Tun and Jieyu were both surprised to see that the extremely powerful Lin Feng and Xiao Budian actually had this side.
“But, I guess it would only be shown during the interaction between master and disciples as well as between the seniors and juniors…” Jieyu thought.
After messing around with Xiao Budian, Lin Feng recovered his Flame Dragon Celestial Armor and retrieved the Hammer of the Yellow Heaven Bell. He handed the hammer to Xiao Budian and spoke, “Retrieve the Green Bronze Crucible of Emptiness.”
Xiao Budian obediently followed Lin Feng’s instructions as his body began to emit a green glow before a crucible split away from his body and landed in front of Lin Feng.
Lin Feng took over the hammer and gave the crucible a light knock.
Immediately, an unbelievable loud sound exploded into the air as Xiao Budian, Yue Hongyan and Tun Tun’s eyes widened.
They could literally see solid sonic waves rippling away from the crucible in a continuous manner.
Wherever the sound waves had travelled, all that was left behind was nothing but destroyed space and void.
Xiao Budian’s eyes glowed with interest, “Such power! The Green Bronze Crucible of Emptiness might have been cultivated with much of the rules of space and void but it would never have been able to pull this off by itself.
Lin Feng smiled, “This hammer was originally the hammer for the magic treasure Yellow Heaven Bell. Because of its activation of the crucible’s potential, the crucible was able to produce such a powerful sonic wave.”
“I shall now hand this hammer over to you. You can think of it as a chance or fate given to you. It would now depend on your fortune to see if you can locate the Yellow Heaven Bell.”
“Thank you Master!” Xiao Budian was initially elated but then an idea struck him. “Master, so what happens if I have attained the Nascent Soul stage…”
Lin Feng scolded him heartily, “You are really good at this… Don’t worry. The Yellow Heaven Bell is a bonus issue. Once you attain the Nascent Soul stage, I will make sure you get a separate magic treasure.”
Xiao Budian was instantly overjoyed, “Thank you Master!”
Lin Feng saw how Xiao Budian could not bear to put the hammer down and thought to himself, “So many disciples… And all of them want good stuff only… It seems that I might need to transform into Santa Claus soon…”
“Now that I have made all these promises, I can only take the pressure as a form of motivation…” Lin Feng thought, “I must also train harder and attain the Immortal Soul stage as soon as possible.”
Riding on Jieyu, Lin Feng gazed at his surroundings while flying and something caught his eye.
He could see that in the middle of the Kunlun Mountains, there was a huge patch of barren ground. The land was not only free from all plants and lives but even the rocks and the mountains were all destroyed.
The stones and rocks were all white in color and powdery, a result of burning at an impossibly high temperature.
Lin Feng roughly gauged the distance and commented, “That place should be the position of Yang Qing’s old sect, the Cloud Water Cave.”
Despite not actually having been there, Lin Feng had heard the rough descriptions of the location of where the Cloud Water Cave was from both Miao Shihao and Yang Qing. By comparing the descriptions of the surroundings, Lin Feng could accurately locate its position.
After signalling Jieyu to land in the middle of the mountains, Lin Feng arrived at the burnt-down Cloud Water Cave and saw a land of tombstones.
Lin Feng did not recognize any of the names engraved onto the tombstones. But the person who had erected all the tombstones did leave his name and he was none other than Yang Qing.
Seeing Yang QIng’s name, Xiao Budian and Yue Hongyan could not help but adopt a solemn disposition as they all knew that this was Yang QIng’s most painful memory.
The most pathetic part was the fact that Yang Qing did not know even know who to look for to seek for revenge.
Xiao Budian was still not really that affected by the sight but Yue Hongyan could not help but reveal an expression of shock as her face darkened when she examined the remaining corpses of within the Cloud Water Cave. She lowered herself as she grabbed onto some of the white rock. Before she could react to it, the white rocks disintegrated into ash in her hands.
It was not because she was using a lot of strength but rather after the intense burning, the rocks were already weaker than either mud or soil.
Yue Hongyan could not help but stare at the ash in her hand as she kept silent.
Lin Feng studied the surroundings as saw that the entire area of a ten-mile radius was all covered in white. He did not turn his head to look at Yue Hongyan but used his mana to communicate with her. He spoke softly, “These were a result of the Kshitigarbha Primordial Fire.”
The Kshitigarbha Primordial Fire was one of the Seven Legendary Primordial Fires. It contained the essence of the Earthly Fire and its flame is green in color. The power of its fire is boundless just like the Earth nature.
Before becoming Lin Feng’s disciple, Yue Hongyan was cultivating in the way of the Apocalyptic True Flame, which was a mutated subset of the Kshitigarbha Primordial Fire. It was not as strong as the primordial fire but it was much easier to cultivate and control.
“Since the last time I met him, Zhang Lie had already cultivated the pure Kshitigarbha Primordial Fire .” Yue Hongyan took in a deep breath and composed herself but her little clenched fist was still trembling with unease.
Lin Feng spoke in a reassuring voice, “There might not only be one person in the world which can manipulate the Kshitigarbha Primordial Fire. Calm youself down.”
Yue Hongyan looked down and replied, “Yes Master.”
He might have said that but Lin Feng knew himself that the unfortunate destiny that Yue Hongyan and Zhang Lie shared had a good chance of extending to this incident.
When it came to Zhang Lie, unless he had attained the Immortal Soul stage, Lin Feng would not even deem him as someone worth taking note of. Because with his current power, he was pretty much unparalleled at the Nascent Soul stage.
It was one year ago when Yue Hongyan and Kang Nanhua had last seen Zhang Lie. At that point of time, ZHang Lie was at the middle level of the Nascent Soul stage. The chances of attaining the Immortal Soul stage in such a short period of time was essentially zero, even with the help of many fortuitous encounters and the power of the Heavenly Cosmic Ray World.
After all, there was a limit to everything.
But Lin Feng’s nonchalance did not mean that his disciples were carefree about it. Holding onto the powers of the Kshitigarbha Primordial Fire and the mana of the middle level of the Nascent Soul stage, Zhang Lie was a very real threat to Lin Feng’s disciples.
This was especially true for both Yue Hongyan and Yang Qing who were not only easy targets for Zhang Lie but also people who had offended him.
“Regardless of whether it was Zhang Lie or not, what would be the intent of destroying the Cloud Water Cave?” Lin Feng furrowed his brows. “If there were no grievances or vengeance involved, then there must be some form of motivation by some interests.”
Thinking about this, Lin Feng’s face darkened, “A small sect like the Cloud Water Cave will not be in possession of anything that a middle level Nascent Soul stage cultivator will need. Other than Yang Qing’s Grand Moon Primordial Water, I really can’t think of anything else…”
If it was really for the Grand Moon Primordial Water, his objective would not have been met.
Lin Feng smiled to himself, “Regardless of who you are, you better not mess with me.”
Leaving Xiao Budian and the rest at where they were, Lin Feng took a stroll among the mountains as he pondered on this matter.
As he strolled on, he suddenly stopped his footsteps.
Lin Feng’s awareness and sensitivity of his surroundings were now largely improved as he could sense movement and circulation of mana of a rather large area. In fact, he was already aware of the presence of a few cultivators in the vicinity of the burnt-down Cloud Water Cave. But because they did not possess any abilities which were worth noting, he could not be bothered with them.
But now that he knew that there was someone spying on him, Lin Feng began to take interest in that.
On the peak of a neighbouring mountain, a young girl dressed in green stuck her head out from the outgrowth carefully as she monitored Lin Feng’s movement.
She had a gold-digging mouse which was about palm-size big on her shoulder. It whispered next to her ear, “Feng Ling, that guy has a familiar aura.”
“Oh?” The young girl exclaimed, “How can it be familiar? I can’t even sense any rippling of mana from him.”
The gold-digging mouse’s whiskers twitched, “I can’t be sure but it just feels familiar. I also can’t sense his mana but I just feel that his scent is familiar.”
“Oh, got it!” The little mouse’s ear shot up, “About a year ago, it was also in Mount Kunlun, the Avīci Infernal Gale!”
Hearing what it just said, the girl seemed to have recalled as well, “Oh it’s that guy!”
Despite being quite a distance away, the entire conversation was audible to Lin Feng. It was a good moment spent rummaging through his memory before he finally burst out into laughter after recalling who the person was.
There was a time not too long ago when Lin Feng first came into the Kunlun Mountains. He was looking for Mount Yujing but was denied by the Heaven-Revolving Purple Clouds. Hence, Lin Feng had set off to look for the Gaia Jade to allow the then incomplete Heaven and Earth Mirror to produce sufficient Central Wutu Divine Light.
During his search for the Gaia Jade, Lin Feng could vaguely sense that someone was tailing him. And that someone had already attracted the troublesome disciples of the Aeolus Sect. But after retrieving the Gaia Jade, the Avīci Infernal Gale happened and Lin Feng quickly left. And very soon, he had forgotten everything.
Never in his wildest dreams did he expect himself to meet the person tailing him again. “So it is this little brat… How lucky of her to be able to escape the Avīci Infernal Gale with her Foundation Establishment stage powers…”
Both of them were aware of each other’s existence back then but strangely, they had never really met one another.
Lin Feng shook his head and laughed as he made a mental note that it had already been ten years since the incident (because of the Heavenly Cosmic Ray World), and hence, could not even be bothered with it. Now with the huge disparity in their abilities, he was even more disinterested in settling any of these old feuds.
However, the girl dressed in green, Zhuge Fengling obviously thought otherwise. She grinded her teeth as she stared at Lin Feng with much hatred, “Haha! Now that we meet again! Let’s settle both the new and old scores!”
The gold-digging mouse on her shoulders shrieked, “Fengling, don’t tell me you are thinking of…”
Zhuge Fengling grinned slyly, “Yup, that’s totally what I am thinking of doing.”
