117: Chapter 116: Demon Attack 117: Chapter 116: Demon Attack Hou Niao’s injuries healed remarkably quickly, a consequence of the nature of the wounds he had sustained.
Three days later, he was moving about freely and did not need to spend much time meditating or lying in bed to recover.
He was currently at a stage between Mortals and the extraordinary, still clinging to many mortal habits, such as eating and drinking heartily.
He needed energy now, and his demand was significant.
It would peak before he reached the Grain Avoidance Realm, and then, the fasting would self-seal.
After more than two months of cultivation, he could distinctly feel a drastic change in his appetite; it was as if his stomach was a black hole that could never be filled, no matter how much food was put into it.
This was painful in West Mang Mountain because the food in the Treasure Gourd barely allowed him to indulge.
Now that he had arrived at Yinyue Castle, he found an environment where he could feast to his heart’s content.
Like now, in a breakfast shop within the castle, where he stacked three tiers of steamed buns so high.
These were not the small buns found in city eateries.
In the wilderness fortresses, no one cared about delicacy; the primary goal was to be well-fed.
Thus, they served large buns, ten in each tier, totaling thirty beef buns in three tiers, causing even the accustomed stout shopkeeper to twitch at the sight, fearing that another indulgence might lead to trouble.
With such eating habits, he needed to eat four or five times a day.
He was pleased with this change because it meant he was on the right track.
Both of his dantians were becoming full, having gone from thirty percent to sixty percent capacity.
At this rate, he might have a chance to break the Quanzhen Sect’s record for the shortest time to advance through the Essence Building Realm, although this was only a possibility.
The sixty days of effort in West Mang Mountain had earned him a thousand Soul Beads, a number that Yellow Immortal could never provide.
However, he suspected that the fellow did not collect these Soul Beads in West Mang Mountain; the environment there was unsuitable for a member of the Demon Clan like Yellow Immortal, who didn’t excel in martial prowess.
There must have been another way.
The thousand Soul Beads had significantly reinforced the stability of the Soul Realm structure.
Now, when he practiced drawing in the Heaven and Earth Spirit Mechanism, there was rarely any need for the spiritual power to replenish the Purple Mansion Vortex.
It was a case of reaping the rewards of his efforts, no longer troubled by energy loss.
The Essence Building Realm cultivation was now on the right track.
Over the past two months, he had never ceased tracking the beeswax.
At night, he gathered Soul Beads, and after his daytime cultivation, he would release a tracking dog to search for the scent of beeswax.
Unfortunately, despite two months of searching, he found nothing.
He didn’t know if it was because of the heavy rain or if the substance simply never came through this area.
Finding the beeswax wasn’t his main task, though.
It would be great to find it, but it didn’t matter if he couldn’t.
Taking advantage of the time to recover from his injuries was a perfect opportunity to focus on his cultivation and fill his stomach in the process.
Yinyue Castle was a medium-sized fortress, home to about a thousand people.
They had their reasons for choosing this location to build their fortress; superficially, it was dangerously close to the Yinling tomb cluster in West Mang Mountain, but in reality, the location’s proximity meant that the Demon Clan rarely ventured here.
And considering that Soul Ghosts were not particularly interested in mortal souls, this place ended up being relatively safe compared to other human fortress settlements in the Yinling Wilderness.
A fortress of a thousand people could hardly be described as bustling.
Its sole street had few shops, which often closed when their owners had to work in the fields.
The people lived half as shopkeepers, half as farmers.
The local populace was simple, and there were no particularly remarkable individuals.
Beautiful, Heavenly Immortal-like women – everyone worked daily to survive, endured wind and sun, and took up arms to protect their homes.
Such an environment was not conducive to maintaining good skin; rather, it aged them prematurely compared to ordinary people, which was actually the harsh reality of the entire Yinling Wilderness.
Ruan Yuanyuan was a beauty, thanks not only to her inherent attributes but also her constitution as an Energy Induction cultivator, which made her look more radiant than ordinary people.
This was the transformation wrought by cultivation, something ordinary mortals could not learn and beyond the help of cosmetics.
He had seen Captain Ruan again, who was holding a basket but he didn’t know what it contained.
She walked briskly, her face glowing with the hue of spring.
Despite the cold weather, her cheeks were rosy, not from the wind but from an inward joy.
He sighed inwardly; this was not something he could control, so he had to stop at simply pointing it out.
He could understand the despair of a woman, still a female cultivator at that, trapped here with absolutely no hope to speak of, not just in cultivation but also in personal marriage; being a cultivator, even the lowest level one, how could one possibly set one’s sights on those rough men and crude husbands within the fortress?
Just like how he, Hou Niao, when in Fufeng City, also numbed himself with work, unwilling to tie himself down with marriage and starting a family?
Cultivation makes them consciously or unconsciously isolate themselves from the mortal world, hence the concept of withdrawing from or entering the world, because they no longer consider themselves part of it.
If one encounters a man one admires then one should bravely pursue him without worrying about the consequences, regardless of how potentially cruel it might be, regardless of the lack of results, regardless of whether one is battered and bruised in the attempt, they should have no regrets… Does he have any right to stop this?
One cannot stop others from pursuing their dreams of hope!
This matter can’t actually be blamed on Tideng Monk; he was passive and just so happened to be in need, could this be what is called fate?
Hou Niao was very glad he was not the young monk.
If he didn’t have the Purple Mansion Vortex, if the team leader had expressed her affections for him, could he have rejected her?
I am a disciple of the Demon Sect, and I shall act with the reckless abandon that befits the Demon Sect, he reminded himself not to interfere any further, this was the end of it.
After nearly ten days of indulgence, his injuries had fully healed, and even the dead skin had sloughed off like a molt, to be replaced by new flesh.
He felt it was time to leave.
There was no need to discuss with anyone; to Yinyue Castle he was the esteemed patrolling sir, and to Tideng Monk they were nothing but strangers to each other, with no one to hinder the other, and indeed he hadn’t visited the monk during these ten days, nor had the monk come to visit him, maintaining their status as strangers.
He didn’t want to see the monk to avoid awkwardness.
He went straight to the fortress’s elderly Huang Lao’er, who was also regarded as the decision-maker of Yinyue Castle now,
“Are you leaving, sir?” Huang Lao’er’s expression was a bit abnormal.
Hou Niao regained the demeanor fitting for a patrol, “Speak frankly, no need to hesitate, after all, I have been looked after here.”
It wasn’t a matter of life-saving grace; when he jumped into Yinyue Pond he was already safe, he would have been fine without help from Yinyue Castle, hence he said looked after instead of owing gratitude.
It was essential to make this clear, for it was important to a cultivator, not to get messily entangled everywhere.
Huang Lao’er nodded and bowed, respectfully saying: “I apologize for the offense; it’s , a few days ago some members of the Demon Clan came to drink water from Yinyue Pond, and when they saw our people washing clothes and sifting rice by the pond, they accused us of polluting the water of Yinyue Pond; they threatened that one day they would drive us away from here, and now considering the time, I’m afraid they might come in force…”