Mei Qing had never felt such surprise before.
The Five Elements Escaping Techniques were not an easy Daoist skill to control.
Although it was indeed very convenient for escape, it had its shortcomings—mainly its extreme dependence on the elemental energies of the Five Elements.
For example, if you were using the Water Escaping Technique to flee for your life and suddenly encountered a cliff blocking your path, the Water Escaping Technique would immediately fail.
Precisely because of this, Earth Escaping became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escaping Techniques. The reason was simple: the vast earth stretched boundlessly, and as long as your inner energy could sustain you, you could keep escaping endlessly.
In previous attempts, Mei Qing had only used the technique a few times. At that time, his cultivation was shallow, and his energy couldn’t last long. Moreover, the situations hadn’t required him to escape too far, so he had never gone very far.
But this time, with his life at stake and trying to escape the attacks from the demon cauldron and the yellow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his intention, he estimated he had fled at least fifty to a hundred li, before finally stopping the technique and emerging from the ground.
Unexpectedly, just as he stopped the technique and appeared, he found himself standing in a room. Looking around, he noticed the furnishings seemed strangely familiar.
Right in front of him was something so close that he couldn’t see it clearly. Mei Qing slightly tilted his head back and looked carefully, only to be shocked again.
It turned out to be the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the yellow-faced man’s house.
Only then did he realize that although he had thought he had escaped a thousand miles away, in reality, he had only moved from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was simply too great. Mei Qing couldn’t help but gasp in shock. But immediately, he had no more time to wonder why his earth escaping technique had produced such a result.
He heard a chilling wind howling past his ears, and a sinister aura pierced through his body. The malevolent energy that had been缠绕 him earlier had once again entered the room through the broken window. In an instant, a grayish aura tightly enveloped him.
“Mei Qing!” A voice extremely familiar to him suddenly called from behind.
It sounded like Bi Zhen’s voice.
Could it be an illusion? Perhaps after such a long separation, he had simply missed her so much. With this thought, Mei Qing felt a freezing cold energy invade his body. His already limited inner energy suddenly became sluggish, then wildly surged again. Then he felt himself drifting, dizzy and disoriented, not knowing where he was or where his heart had gone.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again. In the dream, Bi Zhen had become even more beautiful—and even bolder. The two entwined together, completely forgetting everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They only desperately sought each other, fully possessing every part of one another. The concepts of Yin and Yang, Dragon and Tiger, Sun and Moon, Lead and Mercury, the proper timing of fire—all went to hell. There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist techniques, no Golden Elixir—only the most primitive, simplest desires and release, and the thick, inseparable affection and love.
Where does Dao exist?
Everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything faded away. The bed vanished; the two seemed to entwine in midair. The room disappeared, and sunlight and moonlight poured down into emptiness. The sun and moon vanished, leaving sky and earth in a chaotic blur. Heaven and earth disappeared, leaving only Zhen’er and himself merged as one. All became silent and still, as though existing within a void without beginning or end, without life, without any trace of spirit. Nothing seemed ever to have been born or perished. Time had no start, no conclusion, no direction. Eventually, even this state appeared never to have existed—Zhen’er vanished, and he himself disappeared as well.
It seemed like he saw something—something that was him, yet not him. Something that had existed, and yet had vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be trying hard to think, seeing many things, understanding many things. Yet he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he had seen, or what he had understood.
This was a dream, he thought.
Then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. Autumn sunlight had already begun to filter through the paper window into the room. Clearly visible on the window was a large hole the size of a bowl, likely caused yesterday by the sinister energy from the cauldron and the subsequent green light.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shivered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully alert. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an unusually familiar and beautifully naked body lying beside him.
“Zhen’er? How… could it really be you?” Ignoring everything else, Mei Qing pulled the beauty beside him close, suddenly overwhelmed with love, not knowing what to say, only hugging Bi Zhen tightly to his chest.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean ‘could it really be me’? Are you hoping it’s someone else?” As Mei Qing moved, Bi Zhen was awakened. Hearing his words, she immediately pouted and nestled into his arms, biting him gently on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He felt his entire body become weightless, tightly holding the beauty in his arms, his heart full and heavy, overwhelmed with indescribable emotion, unable to speak for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting him, she hugged him with all her strength. Neither of them spoke for a long while.
After a long time, they gently released each other and looked at one another, suddenly speaking at the same time: “How did you get here?”
They both spoke the same words at once, and both burst into laughter. Then they simultaneously said, “You go first.”
These two sentences were perfectly synchronized, spoken and ended at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise, then suddenly burst into laughter together. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed at the corners of her eyes, and as she laughed, she felt her body pressed tightly against Mei Qing’s, unintentionally stirring some reactions again. Immediately, she blocked Mei Qing’s wandering hands and playfully scolded, “Don’t mess around. You go first. I want you to go first!”
Though both insisted, naturally the woman would have the final say. Mei Qing’s hands roamed freely, taking full advantage, until Bi Zhen, in her playful anger, finally gave in. Then he briefly recounted his experiences after leaving the capital city—arriving in Yongping with no results, then seeing Tian Niu singing, and later visiting Shi Mengzhu in Gangli.
“Yeah, as soon as you saw that pretty girl singing, you lost your soul, staring like a stone waiting for a husband on the balcony, and couldn’t help chasing her home,” Bi Zhen said casually, as if it didn’t bother her. “Ah, poor Old Master Shi, reduced to being a cover for some lecher’s butterfly-chasing escapades. Who is this person? Who is he indeed?”
“Ah? Could it be…,” Mei Qing suddenly realized, exclaiming in shock, “you were that magician?!”
“Oh, that Mei young master’s eyes were all on the pretty girl, how could he have any attention left for me, an old hag with a yellow face,” Bi Zhen looked around playfully, pretending to sigh in self-pity. “I almost bumped into you several times, nearly giving myself a big bump on the head, but you just ignored me completely.”
“Erm… well, it’s mainly because your disguise skills are so amazing,” Mei Qing, sensing the rising jealousy in the room, quickly flattered. “I mean, with my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally I couldn’t see through your masterful transformation.”
“Really? Then why did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, as soon as you came in the door, you pulled me onto the bed and took advantage of me… hmmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry-like mouth, revealing a row of white, sharp teeth gleaming menacingly.
“Don’t, don’t, don’t. It wasn’t me—it was that evil cauldron’s sinister energy that hit me, causing me to faint. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so naturally we share a spiritual connection,” Mei Qing hastily interrupted, only now realizing the faint ache from the bite mark on his neck.
“Oh, right,” at Mei Qing’s words, Bi Zhen immediately forgot her teasing, her face full of concern. “How do you feel? That cauldron yesterday was extremely evil. When it touched you, it disappeared. Where did it go? I don’t even know what it was. Are you okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly turned his spiritual sense inward. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious small cauldron, which had vanished, was now stably resting in his lower dantian. His already formed Golden Elixir now sat neatly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with true energy, which had already become liquid, thick and almost congealed. Under the illumination of the sun and moon, it emitted a purple halo, filling his body with swirling energy. Sweet dew-like true energy dripped slowly from the half-cavern where the sun and moon energies met, drop by drop falling into the cauldron, gradually condensing onto the Golden Elixir.
In just one night, the Golden Elixir had grown noticeably larger. Mei Qing could even vaguely sense that he was approaching the threshold of the Qi Cultivation stage.
Puzzled, Mei Qing quickly relayed the situation inside his body to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after listening, also looked surprised and said, “Judging from your condition, you’re indeed nearing the stage where the Embryonic Spirit appears and the cauldron is replaced. But you only condensed your Golden Elixir not long ago—how could you advance so quickly? Moreover, replacing the cauldron is something that should naturally occur within one’s body. How could you have an actual cauldron entering your body? This is truly strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing had long grown accustomed to the various strange phenomena within his body, becoming numb to them. “Since you were that magician, secretly following me all along, you already knew my whereabouts. Why did you ask me how I got here? Rather, tell me how you managed to get here!”
“Ugh, who followed you? How would I know where you came from? Don’t change the subject! I won’t tell you unless you explain everything clearly! Ahhh, no cheating… always taking advantage after pretending to be dead… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted, blushing and pouting.
“This is called surviving great calamity only to receive great blessings. It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing grinned mischievously.
“Cough cough, dear apprentice, it’s actually quite late. Perhaps you two lovebirds should take a break first?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
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