Training in Seclusion
Mu Yu, Xiaoshuai and the dragon vine broke the peace at Hundred Thousand Mountain, putting the wandering fiend beasts there on high alert.
Boom! A ten-metre tall level six dual-headed crocodile lizard smashed a granite rock on its way to the ground, black blood spilling across the mud.
“We have to braise this one! We must!”
“Nah, let’s steam it; it tastes bitter braised.”
Seeing Xiaoshuai dig his way into the fiend beast’s gut for its fiend spirit, Mu Yu, who was juggling the fist-sized fiend spirit with a cold facial expression, said, “Don’t waste your time. It’s right here.”
“If you steam its fiend spirit in a flying sparrow’s blood, it’ll taste the same as roast duck,” educated Xiaoshuai.
Xiaoshuai snatched the fiend spirit from Mu Yu and then dragged a one-metre-tall flying sparrow out from the bushes. Xiaoshuai started to slice and dice them with his sharp claws while Mu Yu took a seat on a rock to practice Dustfallen Mental Cultivation.
After visiting a desolate Mount Dustfallen, Mu Yu secluded himself at Moyun Mountains for the past year to focus on ascending through the cultivation realms. Even though Celestial Prison had been dismantled and spiritual qi from Third Continent was making its way to Moyun Mountains, Mu Yu predicted it’d take a long time before the spiritual qi’s potency at Moyun Mountains would catch up. As such, he stayed at the outer perimeter of Moyun Mountains to ensure he had access to Third Continent’s superior spiritual qi for cultivation.
Over the last year, Mu Yu gradually developed a fondness for hunting fiend beasts, especially ones stronger than himself. He noticed that, every time he killed, his death qi gradually overpowered his life qi. By the same token, Wood Spirit Sword’s vitality levels dropped, meaning it couldn’t supply him with vitality if he needed it.
“Big Earthworm, pot. I’ll braise its’ thigh.”
Xiaoshuai loved flipping through “Nutritious Fiend Beast Recipes Encyclopedia” during his free time to the point that he could recite the recipes off by heart. Most importantly, Xiaoshuai possessed elite culinary skills that not even the dragon vine could criticise. Mu Yu even regretted not finding Xiaoshuai at Mount Dustfallen sooner so that he could’ve cook for them. Hence, Mu Yu appointed him head chef and let him decide on the menu after they took down high-level fiend beasts. They did take down low-level fiend beasts, too; however, Xiaoshuai and the dragon vine took low-level fiend beasts on without Mu Yu’s assistance. When it came to fetching ingredients such as plants and oil, Mu Yu would fetch them and leave the rest to Xiaoshuai.
“The recipe states that, the smaller the thigh meat is, the chewier it is,” educated Xiaoshuai, dragging the thigh eight times his size without breaking a sweat.
“How, using spiritual energy?”
“Bingo. If I compress the thigh, though, it’ll become unrecognisable,” replied Xiaoshuai, comically frank as always.
Xiaoshuai churned white spiritual qi to his hands and wrapped the thigh up in the spiritual qi, compressing it inside. Because he compressed it, the qi inside the flesh leaked out.
“I reckon you can stop now. Keep going and I won’t even feel that I’m eating meat,” prompted the dragon vine.
Xiaoshuai gave it one last squeeze, reducing the thigh to the size of his head and cheered, “The recipe said it’d be fine once I compressed it to red, yet I compressed it to purple! I bet it’s going to taste even better now. We just need to rinse it with hot water now!”
After Xiaoshuai released his spiritual qi around the meat, the bloody smell intensified despite the flesh not having expanded. He grabbed a pot of boiling water and dropped the compressed meat on and boom! Water splashed everywhere along with fragments of the pot, blowing a hole in the ground. Funnily enough, Xiaoshuai landed in the shrubs way off in the distance as a consequence of being so close.
“What the hell, Rodent?” The dragon vine vigorously blowed on its burning tail.
“Xiaoshuai, are you cooking or making explosions?! We only have two pots left!”
Mu Yu had to run and fetch Xiaoshuai from the shrubs, not forgetting to cover his hand in spiritual energy prior in case he burnt his hand.
“Why did it explode?”
“That’s my question! You trying to make the meat unrecognisable or the pot unrecognisable?”
“How should I know?!” The boiling water didn’t even faze Xiaoshuai. He enthusiastically ran over to the pot to investigate right after getting up. “Oh, man, I forgot to deal with the spiritual energy remaining in its body. That’s why it burst after I compressed it.”
“Idiot. Every time I fire my dragon breath, I have to compress my spiritual energy before I release it. How did you not think of that?” The dragon vine was bouncing off walls.
Mu Yu repeated, “Compress spiritual energy and then release it? Xiaoshuai, you reckon we could come up with a formation to compress spiritual energy and then release it? I’m imagining it’d result in more devastation than an explosion pill.”
“Not unless you have a mouth that can crap like Big Earthworm’s. Otherwise, you can’t compress your spiritual energy,” answered Xiaoshuai, shaking the water off.
“It’s called dragon spirit, not crap, you ignorant rodent.”
“How about if we compressed lightning?”
“That’s… It works in theory! Let’s give it a try. I’ll summon the lightning. You try compressing it with a formation.”
“What happened to the meal? Can’t you two try it after we eat?”
“Big Earthworm, why do you keep talking about food? Are you good for anything else besides eating?” Xiaoshuai jibed self-righteously.
Xiaoshuai and Mu Yu invented a plethora of undetectable trap formations on whims over the past year. Mu Yu considered formations to be his secondary weapon after his swordplay, but he focused on illusion and defence formations because he didn’t think much of offensive formations. Since a lot of formations Mu Yu designed weren’t as practical as Celestial Swords Nine Catalysts, he wanted to use them in conjunction with Celestial Swords Nine Catalysts similarly to explosion pills as Ku Mu once did.
Mu Yu activated Gentle Wind Interlinked Hearts Formation, with Xiaoshuai at the centre. Xiaoshuai struck his signature pose as he spawned his giant blue sword. Mu Yu took control of the sword qi cutting through the air whilst transferring black and white text from his hand to the blue qi. As a result, Mu Yu compressed the ten-metre-long sword down to one hundred centimetres.
Mu Yu then carefully removed his spiritual energy and prepared to make a break for it if necessary. Instead of generating a violent explosion, the blue sword just crumbled into fragments.
“Hmm, where did we go wrong?”
“You two will never get it if that’s how you’re going to do it. When I compress my spiritual energy, I compress it until it’s violently trying to burst. What you’re doing is compressing it and then soothing it. If you control it too much, you’ll never build up enough explosive energy,” enlightened the dragon vine.
“In other words, when we split the lightning sword into pieces, it starts running wild, and I just need to compress it in that moment, correct?” Mu Yu asked.
“But… you’ll ruin the wicked sword I create…” Xiaoshuai griped.
“Cry me a river. Your sword is piss weak compared to my dragon roar.”
“Dragon Vine, cut Xiaoshuai’s lightning sword, then. Let’s try again.”
“Rodent won’t let me chop his sword, though.”
“Xiaoshuai, reduce your output, got it?”
“Fine, fine. This is humiliating,” Xiaoshuai grumbled.
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