Chapter 42: Hong Xian Uncle-master

The beast garden was very peaceful, showing no sign of chaos.

On one side of the third team's camp, two new camps were under construction, with disciples busy as beavers. Entering the third squad's camp, a large group of male and female cultivators sat together chatting, with more female cultivators than male, while the laborers prepared food.

Seeing the team captain return, the disciples burst into applause, especially the female cultivators whose clapping was the most enthusiastic; Wei Yuning's brave rescue of the female cultivator Hai Yan had been spread by many and was known to all.

"What's the situation? Have all the fellow cultivators of the Qing Luan Sect come?"

"Of course it's for safety!" Qiu Hu the female cultivator walked over, pulled him to sit at a low table, which had roasted meat, wild fruit, and spiritual spring water. With Qiu Hu entertaining Wei Yuning, the others chuckled and sat back down.

"Has Uncle-master Hong Zhi not returned yet?" Qiu Hu the female cultivator looked doubtfully toward the camp gate.

"Ah! They still haven't come back? I thought they had returned already!"

"You weren't with them?" Qiu Hu exclaimed in surprise.

Wei Yuning didn't know how to explain, organized his thoughts, and then said: "We were together originally, but then I ran too fast, they lost track of me, and I got lost!"

Qiu Hu quickly blinked his eyes and asked: "Since you got lost, how did you come back?"

"This... is another story altogether; I ran into... a kind-hearted loose cultivator who brought me here!"

Although I think you're lying, it doesn't matter; as long as you're back, that's good!" Qiu Hu pursed his lips, handed Wei Yuning a roasted beast leg, and said, "The dipping sauce is gone; do you have any?"

I don't have any either; I gave all the stock to Elder Xu Ye to study the techniques!" Wei Yuning said.

Qiu Hu smiled and said nothing. Qiu Hu is low-key and dislikes idle chatter; after confirming his dual-cultivation partnership with Wei Yuning, he quickly slipped into the role, but Wei Yuning could sense an intangible, unspoken barrier between them.

After all the running around, Wei Yuning's stomach was indeed hungry, and he began eating and drinking heartily. He planned to rest a bit, then go check that stone house; one purpose was to look for Hong Zhi and his companions, and another was that his movement skills had greatly improved, so even if he met an enemy, he could flee even if he couldn't defeat them.

Suddenly he thought of a question: "Why haven't I seen Uncle-master Yun Yan?"

The uncle-master said she went out for a walk, and we don't know where she went!" Qiu Hu furrowed his brows, "But I guess... the uncle-master might have been injured!"

Wei Yuning was about to ask "How do you know?" when he read the answer in Qiu Hu's eyes—she knew he had discovered her cultivation was fake. Wei Yuning had actually been avoiding thinking about this issue; Qiu Hu the female cultivator concealed her appearance and cultivation, mixing into the Qing Luan Sect, surely for some ulterior motive. Yet he also felt Qiu Hu wasn't a bad person; more importantly, he wasn't a member of the Qing Luan Sect, nor even of this world, so why bother worrying about the sect's affairs? Thus he had deliberately ignored the matter.

But as the person involved, Qiu Hu certainly wouldn't forget this. So far, only Wei Yuning has seen her true appearance; if he isn't an idiot, he can certainly guess that her cultivation is also hidden, after all Qiu Hu had once sent him a mental transmission. Wei Yuning doesn't know what Qiu Hu is thinking, but he can feel her trust in him.

"Did the Daoist Ye Lang injure her?" Wei Yuning's first thought was that "heretic cultivator."

"It's possible, but when we were sparring I was also nearby, and Ye Lang was clearly no match for Uncle-master Yun Yan!" Qiu Hu also had no clue.

Wei Yuning felt a surge of joy; although this Qiu Hu female cultivator's cultivation was not low—at least at the Heartbeat stage—she probably, like Steward Hong Zhi, couldn't identify the heretic nature of Daoist Ye Lang.

As evening fell, a commotion came from outside the camp; Wei Yuning rushed out to see, and Hong Zhi had actually returned, with two extra people besides the original group: one was a tall, sturdy man with dark, shiny skin, and the other was a young man pinned under his armpit.

Although his skin was dark, the sturdy man had a dignified appearance—lion nose, tiger mouth, silkworm brows, leopard eyes—and wore a dark red robe; if not for the unique cloud-hidden sect's spirit-butterfly pattern embroidered on his robe's collar, Wei Yuning would have thought he was Zhang Yide.

The young man wore a tattered gray robe, his eyes tightly shut, his eyebrows extremely long—it was unclear whether he was asleep or awake. Wei Yuning's face changed dramatically; though faint, the sulfur scent emanating from the young man was the smell he had been chasing for a long time.

"Eh, Yuning, you're back!" Hong Zhi saw Wei Yuning and his face lit up with joy. Ye Lang, Zi Ya, Zi Feng, and Jiu You—the four of them—also looked surprised, though their expressions weren't friendly, the subtext seemingly saying: 'You little brat, you're actually still alive!'

"Yes, Uncle-master, I'm back! Who is this person?" Wei Yuning diverted Hong Zhi's topic, pointing at the unconscious young man.

Hong Zhi didn't answer Wei Yuning's question, but he beckoned him with a hand gesture to follow, and then several people entered an empty room inside the camp.

"Haha, you must be the disciple who released the sect's alarm talisman, right? Not bad, not bad—you actually caught a demon cultivator! When we return to the sect, I'll help you ask the sect head for a reward!" The dark-faced big man set down the person he'd been holding under his arm, then laughed loudly at Wei Yuning.

Wei Yuning was still hesitating how to respond when Hong Zhi laughed and said: "This is Senior Brother Hong Xian, at the early stage of Fusion, an earth-rank war general of the Yun Yin Sect's mountain patrol team. He happened to pass through the northern foothills of Guest Coming Peak, saw your alarm talisman—too bad, by the time he arrived you had already left—but he captured this person in the stone house, knocked unconscious by entangling vines."

"Greetings, Uncle-master Hong Xian!" Wei Yuning hastily bowed, thinking: 'This uncle-master's cultivation is impressively high; a disciple of the Hong generation has actually become a Fusion-stage expert, which is two major realms above his same-generation peer Uncle-master Hong Zhi.'

"Uncle-master Hong Zhi, how did you find that stone house?" Wei Yuning asked, puzzled.

"After we lost you, we walked a stretch more, still couldn't find you, and also sent out a sect alarm talisman; coincidentally, Senior Brother Hong Xian saw it. After we regrouped, we followed the senior brother to the stone house. I remember you saying that the entrance to the lair of the abductors of female cultivator Hai Yan had a stone table and two stone stools—only then did we realize we had actually stumbled upon the right place by sheer luck." Hong Zhi finished, unable to keep from laughing.

"I see," Wei Yuning also laughed, "but this guy looks perfectly normal—how could he be a demon cultivator?" This sentence was Wei Yuning's probe; aside from the faint sulfur smell he'd detected, he saw nothing abnormal, and he really wanted to know how other cultivators distinguish demon cultivators.

"This is the terror of demon cultivators. Normally, a demon cultivator can train like an ordinary cultivator. When they unleash their demon body, their power surges severalfold, leaving peers of the same rank no match. If it weren't for the fact that he was entangled by your vines, he probably wouldn't have revealed his demonic nature, and Senior Brother Hong Xian wouldn't have happened to capture him." Hong Zhi said this, then suddenly turned his gaze toward Daoist Ye Lang, his eyes like cold ice.

"Daoist friend Ye Lang, we've known each other for years; though not bosom buddies, we're still friends. Today, dare you swear to heaven that you and this Fei Hu cultivator were secretly close, yet you truly didn't know he was a demon cultivator?" A murderous chill emanated from Hong Zhi's body, making Wei Yuning involuntarily shiver.