Chapter Ninety: The Struggle for the Immortal Herb

So that was it. I wonder whether anyone from the Qiong Mountain Sword Sect will take part this time. Lin Feng thought of Zhuang Bufan and Nalan Yan.

“Probably not. Our Southern Sword Alliance has never been on good terms with the Northern Sword Alliance, and the Qiong Mountain Sword Sect is currently led by the Northern Sword Alliance’s盟主...”

Li Jianren trailed off thoughtfully, not finishing the sentence.

Lin Feng nodded. The two of them then drank and ate meat, chatting about romantic and elegant affairs. Li Jianren truly had seen much of the world; he could go from the celebrated performers of the Yan Kingdom’s capital to a princess of the Great Qian Kingdom, then from the Jade Sword Gate, which admitted only women, to the junior sister in his own sect who secretly adored him. He spoke with astonishing flair.

By the time they had eaten and drunk their fill, the heavy snow outside had finally begun to ease. The two of them bought some more rustic provisions and set off toward Orchid Pavilion Town.

When they reached the village entrance, Lin Feng suddenly stopped Li Jianren and pointed ahead to an old pine tree.

Li Jianren squinted. Beneath the tree, a tiny infant with a tender, round face was visible, his hair tied in a single sprout-like tuft. He looked utterly entranced, sniffing again and again as though he could not see the two of them at all. With lips red and face pale, arms like peeled lotus roots, and a bare little belly and bare feet planted in the snow, he stood scarcely a foot tall. He was a baby boy!

The two stared at each other in shock. What baby was this? It was clearly a thousand-year-old jade lingzhi that had taken human form, a miraculous treasure one could encounter only by heaven’s favor.

Suddenly, Lin Feng remembered what Mei Yunqi had said. Could this be the spirit herb he had been seeking?

As the thought arose, Li Jianren immediately forced out a warm smile, took out his wine gourd, removed the stopper, and gave it a gentle shake. A rich fragrance of wine instantly drifted out.

The little spirit herb’s eyes lit up. He ran over and reached out for the gourd.

“Little brother, you want a drink? Here, it’s yours.” Li Jianren bent down, his eyes curving into crescents, and handed it over. The little spirit herb took it at once, and in the same instant Li Jianren seized his arm and lifted him into his embrace.

A look of panic flashed across the little one’s face. He tried to struggle free, but Li Jianren held him tightly. Before he could even wriggle twice, he had reverted to his original form: a human-shaped jade lingzhi crowned with emerald leaves.

“Hah ha ha! Brother Lin, we’ve struck gold! A thousand-year jade lingzhi! One bite is worth decades of bitter cultivation!” Li Jianren was overjoyed beyond reason, hugging the jade lingzhi and hopping about wildly.

“Hey! You brat, give me back my spirit herb!”

The shout startled both of them. Li Jianren’s hand jerked, and the jade lingzhi slipped free with a whoosh. The instant it touched the snow, it vanished underground without a trace.

“No—where did it go? Where did it go?” Li Jianren cried in fury and frustration, throwing himself to the snow and searching everywhere for the spirit herb’s shadow.

On the mountain path, Mei Yunqi changed his form with each step, blowing at his mustache and glaring fiercely as he floated to stand before them in only a few moments.

“Fool! A spirit herb burrows away the moment it touches soil. Have you no strength at all, you wretch? Why was your hand shaking?” Mei Yunqi snorted coldly. With a wave of his sleeve, he formed a hand seal and, ignoring the dark-faced Li Jianren, intoned, “Ten directions dissolve, a hundred paces take shape, search the earth and move the spirit!”

His eyes suddenly blazed with divine radiance, like two beams of light sweeping back and forth over the ground beneath their feet.

“Haha, little fellow, where do you think you’re going?” Mei Yunqi laughed heartily. With a point of his finger, a white streak shot up from the snow and flew into his arms. Another flick of his hand, and the spirit herb was safely stored away.

Lin Feng and Li Jianren were dumbfounded. The treasure they had just secured had changed hands in the blink of an eye. How could this be allowed?

“Cough. Elder Mei, don’t you think this spirit herb should belong to the two of us as well?” Asking an old man directly for something was rather hard to do, but seeing Li Jianren on the verge of exploding, Lin Feng had no choice but to brace himself and speak up.

“Who are you, sneaking out of nowhere like this? Give back that jade lingzhi!” Li Jianren, emboldened by alcohol, instantly changed expression and bared his teeth.

Mei Yunqi lifted his chin, glanced sidelong at Lin Feng with open disdain, and turned as if to leave.

“Old Mei, that’s not right. You just drank my Immortal Drunk wine, and now you’re pretending not to know me?” Lin Feng’s face also hardened as he said coldly.

At that moment, Li Jianren was already raging so hard that steam seemed to pour from his seven orifices. With a surge like a gust of wind beneath his feet, he suddenly lunged at Mei Yunqi.

“Old man, return the jade lingzhi!”

A faint trace of guilt had at least briefly touched Old Mei’s conscience, but he only hesitated for a moment before Li Jianren yanked his beard. The two of them began shouting and flailing in confusion. Mei Yunqi swung out a palm and sent Li Jianren flying, his body arcing high across the sky before crashing down into a distant village.

“Mei Yunqi! That was too ruthless! I never thought you’d look so kindly and old, only to have such a vicious heart!”

Lin Feng watched coldly from the side as his Black Ink-Extending Sword flashed out of its sheath in an instant.

“You want to die? How dare you move against him!”

A voice suddenly rang out from the long-silent Li Chi.

“Hm? You want to test yourself against Old Mei too?” Mei Yunqi also looked at him sidelong.

“Yes!” The sword was already drawn; he could not possibly retreat now. How could he show weakness?

Mei Yunqi clicked his tongue, then suddenly let out a cold laugh.

“Binding Law!”

In an instant, the winds and clouds changed. Whether it was the snowflakes drifting gracefully through the sky, Lin Feng in the posture of striking, or the pitch-black Black Ink-Extending Sword floating in the air, everything came to a standstill.

Lin Feng’s eyes widened. He could even hear the flow of his own blood, yet he could not move a single step, not even blink. Naturally, he could not speak either.

“Young man, if Old Mei were not in a good mood, you’d already be dead. I have guarded this spirit herb for seven years. Shouldn’t there at least be some order of first come, first served?” Mei Yunqi chuckled, looking up at the vast mountain range. “Plowshare Mountain is so large, and yet there is only this one thousand-year jade lingzhi. At last, Old Mei has truly had his day.”

“Shameless old thief! You robbed us of our spirit herb, and you still have the nerve to speak so grandly. Take this!”

Li Jianren, covered in dead grass and mud, arrived riding his sword. His green light suddenly shifted, one sword becoming two, both thrusting toward Mei Yunqi’s forehead and heart.

“Parlor tricks.”

Mei Yunqi smiled faintly and swept his sleeve. In one motion he took those paired mother-and-child swords out of the air.

“You—who exactly are you?” Li Jianren cried in shock.

“Mei Yunqi, hehe. You juniors know no respect for your elders and still dream of coveting what is in Old Mei’s pouch. Is that even possible? I am, by nominal age, one thousand and eighteen years old, I have survived six heavenly tribulations, and I am well versed in the arts of heaven, earth, and the five elements. Not to mention the two of you—even that old rogue Lu Buping must give Old Mei three parts of deference.”

Mei Yunqi still wore a slight smile.

“This spirit herb is of immense use to me. How could you two possibly be allowed to waste it by eating it at random?”

“One thousand and eighteen years old! Six heavenly tribulations! You, you... you are a six-tribulation wandering immortal!”

Li Jianren was shaken to the core, and even his fingers began to tremble.

Though Lin Feng could not speak, shock filled his eyes as well. He recalled a story Zhuang Bufan had once told him: the Bloodfiend Ancestor, a three-tribulation wandering immortal slain by an expert of the Seven Kill Pavilion, was already beyond the power of even the sect masters of several major factions. And yet they had actually had the audacity to snatch a human-shaped jade lingzhi from this six-tribulation wandering immortal before them. Was that not like stealing meat from a tiger’s mouth, or plucking teeth from an elephant’s jaw?

Cultivators in the late Soul Separation stage feared failing their heavenly tribulation, so they would disperse their cultivation, cast off their physical bodies and spiritual power, and enter seclusion to rebuild as wandering immortals. Every so often they had to endure the torment of thunder tribulation; if they survived, their cultivation would soar. If they failed, they would likewise vanish into ashes. Such beings existed only in legend, but their strength was certainly far beyond that of any Soul Separation expert. After all, age and experience were there for all to see.

Just as Lin Feng was inwardly regretting everything and lamenting his own recklessness, something entirely unexpected happened.

Li Jianren suddenly wiped his face with both hands, then let out a wail and threw himself toward Mei Yunqi, tears and mucus streaming down his face.

“Master! I finally found you...”

“Brother Jianren, you really are shameless,” Lin Feng could not help but admire him to the core, silently repeating to himself, “More like that, more like that...”