Supreme Swordsman of the Nine Heavens

Second Realm and Elemental Demons

“What am I cooking up? N-nothing off the sort.”

“Explain your red face,” demanded Xiaoshuai, pointing.

“I need to resort to deceit against you? Don’t put yourself on a pedestal. If it wasn’t for Ku Mu…” Face beet red, Elder Leng changed the topic. “That’s not important right now. Why don’t you spend some more time thinking if you can’t think of anything? You’re dead if you hand in a blank sheet.”

Elder Leng snatched Mu Yu’s answer sheet over and angrily unfolded it. The horrendous handwriting – courtesy of Mu Yu’s laziness but something he claimed to be stylish – took the words out of Elder Leng’s mouth. Once he snapped out of it, he summoned Mu Yu’s pill over and checked it. “H-h-how did you…”

“Not one unnecessary or missing item already? There’s no chance of getting away of cheating in this test, and I’ve kept tabs on him the last few days, so how…” contemplated Elder Leng.

“Did Gramp’s infect you with his stuttering?”

“How did you identify all these?”

“Gramps taught me.”

“He’s way ahead of the curve. You people are just unaware. I’ve inherited all of his teachings as his disciple,” replied Mu Yu, deliberately raising his voice and sweeping his gaze around to remind everyone to respect Ku Mu.

“I know exactly what he’s capable of.”

“Your problem if you don’t believe me. Bring me another pill, and I’ll do it again if you like. If I miss any herb, you win. Don’t pick one with so many ingredients, though. It’s tiresome to write so much.”

Elder Leng stared hard at Mu Yu for a moment then joyously said, “No need. I’m fine as long as you pass. Now you have qualified for the third round. Not too shabby.”

“What exactly are you plotting? Hey, don’t just walk off!” Watching Elder Leng rush off, Mu Yu grumbled, “He’s going to catch these hands sooner or later.”

Mu Yu ignored the derisive looks shot his way as he strutted over to a shady and cool spot to sit. Cai Lie jogged over and asked, “Why are you done already?”

“Oh, you’ve been set free?”

“Last minute cramming doesn’t work. What goes through Shifu’s mind beats me. You haven’t answered my question, why are you already here? It hasn’t even been fifteen minutes. You have three hours for the test. You a fast writer or something?”

“Three hours? Three bloody hours?”

“Ah, whatever. Anyway, since you have time, I want you to meet someone.”

“Who?”

“Just come with me, and you’ll find out.”

Mu Yu flew after Cai Lie to the latter’s residence. Mu Yu thought Cai Lie wanted to let him experience being grounded, but he heard, “Brother Mu Yu!”

Her scent, her arms around him and her voice were too familiar for Mu Yu to have forgotten. Tian Ran was adorned in light green clothing. She hadn’t grown much taller since he last saw her. His lips went from ear to ear.

“I’m so glad to see you here,” said Tian Ran, cheerfully look up from Mu Yu’s chest. “Cai Lie informed me you were here. I thought he was fooling me.”

“And I’ll be going to the realm beyond this one.”

“Really? Yay!”

“Sister Tian Ran, I missed you!” cried Xiaoshuai, climbing out of Mu Yu’s shirt and leaping into Tian Ran’s arms.

“How are you doing, Xiaoshuai? Have you grown more handsome?”

Xiaoshuai was way too busy snuggling up in Tian Ran’s bosom to answer her question. Nevertheless, she went on to question Mu Yu if the rumours spreading were true, to which he nodded.

“Uh, excuse me, but I am thin air?” asked Cai Lie, raising a hand.

“Oh, you’re here, as well, Bro. I missed you,” responded Xiaoshuai.

“Take a hike,” chided Cai Lie.

Tian Ran dropped in to Pill Cauldron Sect with her senior before the scheduled date to travel to Second Realm. Mu Yu thought he progressed fast, but Tian Ran was still a Layer ahead of him.

“We aren’t travelling to the other realm just to cultivate.”

Cai Lie and Mu Yu didn’t follow. Mu Yu queried, “What are you going for, then, an excursion?”

“You two haven’t been told? Ever since the elemental demons went on their rampage at Mist City, they continued to spread mayhem at various cities. According to Shifu, they are searching for something.”

“I heard about that. The last incident I heard was the one a fortnight ago, when they demolished a city and went on a murder spree,” reported Cai Lie. “How does that connect to our trip?”

“My elders believe they have credible evidence the elemental demons have infiltrated Second Realm.”

“They can have Second Realm for all I care. The spiritual qi there is potent, and it’s a desolate place we humans can’t inhabit,” Cai Lie asserted.

Tian Ran: “Our mission is to locate their base there. The ideal outcome is destroying them.”

Mu Yu: “Is Second Realm so important?”

Tian Ran: “No. In saying that, spiritual qi is critical to all living organisms. The potent spiritual qi there makes it more convenient for them to recover their energy. The potential threat goes without saying.”

“Yet they’re assigning the job to a few Nascent Soul Realm cultivators? Wow, they sure think highly of us,” Mu Yu sarcastically vocalised.

Tian Ran: “Nothing we can do about it. The formation can’t transport cultivators above Nascent Soul Realm. My elders claimed we are only on a scouting mission, but they’re also treating it as an opportunity to hone our survival skills. We will be researching ways to improve the formation so that we may send Body Severing Realm cultivators to Second Realm.”

“Now I’ve heard that one before.”

“Scouting? If any mishaps happen, boy… I would prefer not to be performing acts of heroism and valour at Second Realm.”

“Oh, stop it, Brother Cai Lie. You know we’ll be fine,” reproached Tian Ran.

Everyone who travelled to Second Realm would be granted a piece of jade that was linked to the teleportation formation. In case of emergency, crushing the jade would forcibly teleport them back to Third Realm.

“I’m going to focus on finding on herbs I need. As for the elemental demons, I have no experience dealing with them,” lied Mu Yu.

By the time Mu Yu was done answering Tian Ran’s queries on Floating Celestial Island, Cai Lie reminded him to go check the test results since it was over. Mu Yu was confident he could walk away with first place if all went according to projections.

“Wait a second. I forgot about my bet!”

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