284 Dirty Face, Frosty Hair

The slightly warm dawn light illuminated the water at the edge of the plains,giving it a dull luster. Nanke stood at the edge of the water, her indifferentgaze looking forward. She lifted up her right hand, bringing fresh water to hermouth to help the medicine go down. Her two maids attended to her, handing hera wet towel with which to wash her face. After a while, she felt her spirit hadsomewhat recovered, and lightly waved her hand in the air in front of her. Although there was nothing but wetland around them, the Garden of Zhou did nothave many mosquitoes. Her actions were not to shoo something away, but ratherto produce a black curtain. On this black curtain was a rough map of the Gardenof Zhou, as well as several flickering points of light. Those lights were thelife lamps that had been lit by Black Robe, indicating the positions of theirtargets. Two of those life lamps were in the plains. At times, they would be in theeast, then they would be in the west, suddenly teleporting dozens of li. It waslike there was some powerful interfering force that prevented their exactlocations from being found. Those two lights should be Zhexiu and Qi Jian. Theywere already deep within the plains, so if all went as expected, they had nopossibility of survival, so Nanke was not worried. Her gaze was more focused onthe other two life lamps. Those two life lamps were Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng. On that blackcurtain, their two points of light were exceptionally eye-catching. They werevery far away from those several gardens that the human cultivators hadgathered in, and in addition, they had not moved for a very long time. Thisseemed to indicate that the pair already had no more strength to run. It seemedthat the task which Black Robe had assigned to her would soon be complete. At some point, the zither-playing old man had come down from the summit ofSunset Valley and met up with Nanke and her two maids. As he looked at thoselife lamps on the black curtain, he was not as confident and easy-going asNanke. With concern in his voice, he said, "Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng areboth heavily injured, so they shouldn't be able to make it back to thosegardens, but...there are still some human cultivators that have concealedthemselves in the mountains of the Garden of Zhou for all this time, and mostof those human cultivators are at the peak of Ethereal Opening. What will we doif Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng manage to meet those human cultivators whilethey're escaping?" The plan that Black Robe had personally formulated made full use of the Gardenof Zhou's special conditions and geography. He was exceedingly thorough in hisunderstanding of the human cultivators' greed for wealth and merit, and hisgrasp over the human psyche was perfect. All this meant that it was sufficientfor him to sneak only a few demon experts into the Garden of Zhou to throw theentire garden into chaos. If it were not for Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng,then perhaps the Garden of Zhou would have already turned into aslaughterhouse. The problem was that the human cultivators had now caught on tothe demons' plan and the vast majority of them had gathered together. In ahead-on battle, regardless of how powerful the demon experts were, they stillwould not be able to stand up to several hundred human cultivators. Nanke's expression was still as cold as ever. Not bothering to explain, sheonly said, "In their situation, if Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng really didmeet up with some other human expert, they might even die a bit sooner." The water that was being splashed around as Xu Yourong made her way from thatpatch of reeds to the cliff gradually calmed down, then became covered with athin layer of ice. Chen Changsheng's body was soaked by the water, all of which quickly frozeinto ice. His eyebrows and the hair at his temples were dyed with snow, as ifhis hair had grown gray ahead of time. He was already very mature for his age,but now seemed to have grown even more so. Xu Yourong naturally noticed the peculiarities of his body and slightly raisedher brows. She once again took his pulse. She sensed that while the person'strue essence was still as lacking as ever, the wounds on his internal organshad stabilized. It was just that his pulse and breathing were much slower thana normal person's, and she didn't know whether this was because of thisperson's cultivation method or if it was an omen of death. Her vision was still blurred from the poison, so she could only faintly makeout that this person's face was covered with a layer of frost, making him seemrather mature. After a moment of silence, she suddenly stretched out her handand rubbed the ice off his face, then she just stared, not understanding whyshe had just done what she did. Walking into the forest that was bathed in morning light, she noiselesslywalked over those soft and tender fallen leaves. After advancing dozens ofzhang, she stopped and gazed at the distant cliff in front of her. The people of the past had once treaded a path through this forest, and eventhough it was now covered by the leaves, its traces were still faintlydiscernible. It continued forward, then began to curve its way up the cliff,making a 'Z' shape. She carefully placed Chen Changsheng down on the leaves, then took out theTong Bow, pulling the bowstring out in a semicircle and silently aiming it atsome place. The morning wind accompanied the morning light into the forest, but while themorning light was blocked by the tree leaves, making the forest dark and quiet,the morning wind was not sliced into pieces by the tree branches. The gentlewind caressed the hair at the side of her face, which would occasionally brushlightly against the bowstring and yet not make a sound. It was like thegentlest finger lightly pressing down on the bowstring, ready in the nextmoment to explode with a powerful music. A leaf was blown off its branch by the wind. It slowly descended through thatblurry world in front her eyes, eventually resting directly in front of herfeet. Her longbow did not move, her eyes did not blink, her expression was calm andfocused. She only stared at the cliff, at that place devoid of any human life. Just as that leaf rested in front of her foot, an elderly voice sounded outfrom the cliff. "Are you a friend?" Along with this voice, a hand appeared, and around that hand's wrist was agray string. The hand held a wooden plaque, upon which an extremely complexsect insignia was drawn in vermillion red. The insignia was drawn with somesort of strange paint. Even from such a distance, she could clearly feel thedry heat coming off of it. All the human cultivators that entered the Garden of Zhou would possess thegray string. The sect insignia on the wooden plaque was evidence of identity.It was only a simple action, but it contained many meanings and did as much aspossible to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings. From this detail, onecould tell that the owner of this elderly voice was exceedingly cautious. Xu Yourong could barely make out a blurry image and could not see any details,but the calm expression on her face certainly did not show it. She felt anintense vigilance from that voice, then she thought of the usual practice ofthe Garden of Zhou and the bloody battles that would usually take place. Sheremembered that her clothes were stained with blood, and decided that it waseasy for there to be a misunderstanding, so she said, "Not an enemy." At their first meeting, they naturally could not be friends, but that did notmean they were enemies; this was the reasoning for her choice of words. After a moment, a man walked out from the direction of the cliff. With hiswhite hair and elderly face, he must have been at least a hundred years old.While both his expression and pace seemed to be calm, it was not sufficient tohide his wariness. Although he had walked out, the right hand hanging by hiswaist held a magical artifact, ready at any time to take action, and hemaintained what he considered a safe distance between himself and Xu Yourong. The distance had been very carefully chosen so that it would make both him andher feel safe. If he was not a senior who had experienced many years oftribulations in cultivation, he would have definitely not displayed such anexquisite sense of propriety. Xu Yourong felt the aura that the man took no effort to conceal, and yet wasnot purposely emitting. From this aura, she could confirm that this old man wasa peak level Ethereal Opening expert. Her mind grew tense, but the expressionon her face relaxed. She let go of the bowstring and gripped the longbow as she said, "May I askSenior for his distinguished name?" The rules of the Garden of Zhou had always been bloody and violent, andmoreover, the cultivators who were not in the three gardens and remainedconcealed in the mountains were often experts. They were more inclined towardsthe treasures and legacies of the Garden of Zhou. To meet with this sort ofperson, perhaps there might be a fierce battle. It was even highly probablethat the person did not know of the demons’ presence in the Garden of Zhou! So she very calmly and directly continued. "Demons have infiltrated the Gardenof Zhou. We were injured when they ambushed us." This was still an explanation, but this explanation had an additional meaning. The demons that infiltrated the Garden of Zhou were inevitably strong, butthey needed an ambush to inflict injuries on her, so this meant that she wasalso strong. Whether or not that old man had come to the conclusion she had wanted him tocome to from her seemingly careless explanation was a mystery, because it wasvery obvious that this old man was just as she had guessed. From the time hehad entered the Garden of Zhou, he had hidden himself away in places that wererarely visited, purposely avoiding contact with other cultivators. Up to thispoint, he did not know that demons had entered the Garden of Zhou, so uponhearing her words, he was very shocked. "How did demons get into the Garden of Zhou?" The old man was very surprised, but he did not show any fear. As he looked atthe gray string on his wrist, he sneered, "No wonder so many strange thingshave been happening." It was very obvious that he had already found the treasure he had been lookingfor on his treasure hunt, and so had attempted to light the gray string anddepart, only to be met with failure. Xu Yourong did not explain, because the plan of the demons was toocomplicated, and there was no need to. The old man turned his gaze to Chen Changsheng on the fallen leaves behindher, his entire body covered with frost, and asked with some astonishment, "Isthis person your companion?" Xu Yourong shook her head. "I don't recognize him. I just happened to see himbeing attacked by the demon experts and luckily rescued him." "At such a time, to still remember to save others. Little girl, you're notbad." The old man looked upon her with admiration, then said, "Anyways, where didyou two intend to go?" Xu Yourong replied, "The human cultivators are currently gathered at threegardens. I originally intended to take this fellow daoist there, but because myinjuries are too heavy, I can't go very fast. It would take me at least half aday to get there, and I worry that the demons will catch up. I didn't imaginethat I would meet up with Senior. I would trouble Senior to let other fellowdaoists know and have them come over to rescue us." The old man evidenced his disapproval on his face and declared, "As a fellowcultivator, I will send you there. How can I leave you here to face such risks?" Xu Yourong replied, "The demon experts that infiltrated the Garden of Zhou arevery strong. With Senior protecting the two of us, I'm afraid.. ." These words had endless meanings, but it had a good intention. The old man smiled. "If this was outside the Garden of Zhou, then I reallymight have to be careful, but within the Garden of Zhou, I don't think thosedemon experts will be as strong as you think they are." His smile was very free, his expression calm and easy-going. His eyes werewarm and bright, and as he said those words, he seemed extremely confident. Within the Garden of Zhou, a peak level Ethereal Opening expert should be anexistence without rival, so this old man's self-confidence had a basis. For some reason, Xu Yourong did not tell the old man that the demon expertsthat had entered the Garden of Zhou were even more frightening than the averagepeak level Ethereal Opening cultivator—nor of the terrifying presence of Nanke. She looked at him with curiosity and admiration, asking him, "May I ask whoSenior is?" The old man replied, "My last name is Bai, my first name is Hai. I'vecultivated within the Setting Sun Sect for more than two hundred years. It'snot very often that I leave the sect, so you most likely have not heard of me." Xu Yourong seemed somewhat at a loss, as if she was rather perplexed by thisname.