Lan Bei Er and Hong Yao Yao called for the horseman (or kirin man) with the heavenly carriage to pick us up before dropping us off at the edge of Crimson Forest.
"Ah shit, here we go again," the horseman said when the reddish leaves of Crimson Forest came to view. "This feels like the third time in less than 35 chapters that we are going to this damned place. Can't we change places and go somewhere else already?"
Did the dude just break the fourth wall?
"Hopefully it'll be the last time we have to come here," Chi Yan said, rubbing his hands together and creating sparks inadvertently. "I'm also getting sick of this damned place. But unfortunately, it has a connection to me. Whether it's True Fire or the Nine Yang Divine Energy, it has all the things that are beneficial to my esoteric fire arts."
"And apparently the patriarch, Bai Yao Cai, wants to make use of my experience in the Crimson Forest to help him get a rare beast spirit part," I said with a sigh. "It's not that I want to come here, but the more I come here, the more entwined my destiny becomes with this place."
"Don't worry, we'll go somewhere else after this," Lan Bei Er promised. "I'll make sure the White Herb Sect doesn't send you here again."
"Oh, I don't mind coming here once in a while," I assured her. "There's no doubt that there's plenty of useful beast spirit parts, relics and fire-type techniques in this place. I was hoping for some variety once in a while."
"You'll get your chance." Hong Yao Yao was grinning. "I already have the next destination planned. You should look forward to it."
I stared at her dryly. "What makes you think we'll follow you there?"
She simply laughed. Shaking my head, I turned to He Shan Jie. "What about you? Why are you coming along on this trip? Forgive me for being presumptuous, but you don't seem like you are a practitioner of esoteric fire arts or any type of fire techniques."
"No offense taken," the bald, dark-skinned cultivator assured me with a smile. "For you are correct in assuming so. I am not a practitioner of the fire arts, unlike Senior Chi Yan. I actually practice the esoteric earth arts."
That made sense. The qi I sensed from him appeared to be the earthly kind. His physique gave off a calm, gentle but sturdy impression similar to the firm ground underneath our feet. It was very different from the hot, aggressive fiery aura that emanated from Chi Yan.
"Eh? Are you here for a spirit artifact then?" Lan Bei Er asked. He Shan Jie shook his head, his expression kind and gentle.
"No, Mrs. Hei. I'm here for the same reason as you are – to provide support." He nodded at Chi Yan, who was broodily staring out of the window of the heavenly carriage. "If I were to assist Senior Chi Yan this time, he has promised to aid me in a future endeavor."
"What sort of endeavor?" I asked, genuinely curious. It was difficult not to like He Shan Jie. He was open and friendly, unlike the other two – one being a hotheaded edgelord and the other being a scheming imp.
"I'm not sure yet. I guess we'll find out when the time comes." He Shan Jie's smile turned mysterious. I knew better than to press him for details. Instead, I nodded.
"Depending on what we find, we should hopefully be able to split the rewards between us."
"Perhaps so, but I'm not sure if the ruin will have anything I want. I'd rather wait for Senior Chi Yan to help me in the future to get what I truly desire."
"We're here," the chauffeur announced before I could ask further. I broke away from the conversation and glanced at the Crimson Forest, which was becoming very familiar by now. Once the kirins and the carriage landed, I opened the door and disembarked before helping my wife down. I didn't extend the same courtesy to Hong Yao Yao – not that she needed it. She was practically flying out before ether Chi Yan or He Shan Jie.
"How do you know them?" I asked, suddenly realizing something. Hong Yao Yao smiled enigmatically.
"A cute lady like myself has many connections. Otherwise how will we be able to earn favors from others?"
"I'm not sure you should be calling yourself cute."
"Excuse me?! What's that supposed to mean?"
"No, I mean…people should be more humble, I guess?"
Chi Yan didn't pay attention to our bickering. Without even a glance at the heavenly carriage or us, he was already stalking into the woods. I bowed to the chauffeur who had brought us here and thanked him. He grinned and waved his hand.
"Always a pleasure, young master."
He actually used the term Gu Ye, but I doubt non-Chinese readers were going to care about the intricacies of different forms of address. Basically it was a more respectful term for son-in-law. Nu Xu, for example, was used to refer to a son-in-law who married into his wife's family, and they were usually looked down upon for…reasons unknown. Don't ask me, there were so much about my ethnic culture I didn't understand because I was born not in Hua Xia but some other country whose predominant language was English
Why do you think I was recording my adventures in English? It was my first language, not Chinese.
Anyway, I didn't pay too much attention to the different forms of address. After watching the heavenly carriage disappear skyward, I turned and followed Chi Yan and the rest into the Crimson Forest. I made sure to keep my wife close to me, so as to protect her if we got attacked by spirit beasts. In any party, the healer was the most important member. If she was taken down first, then the whole party was basically screwed.
As it turned out, I didn't have to worry.
Between me, Chi Yan, Hong Yao Yao and He Shan Jie, we took care of any spirit beasts that dared attack us. In fact, most of them cowered and hid away the moment they detected Chi Yan's presence. Apparently he had been to Crimson Forest many more times than I had, and the denizens here had learned to respect and fear him.
Thanks to him, our journey was largely unimpeded. We proceeded toward the ruin without any major obstructions. It took us a few days to reach the ruin on foot because of how deep inside the Crimson Forest it was. Even when we camped out in the woods, the spirit beasts didn't dare approach us. They remained wary of Chi Yan even when he was sleeping.
The spirit beasts also appeared to be cautious of me too. I caught a glimpse of fiery ape poking its head out from a bunch of leaves, only to catch sight of me. Its eyes went wide, it thrashed about before grabbing onto a branch and swinging the hell out of there.
I didn't know I looked that scary…
We reached the ruin after almost a week of traveling. It was far deeper inside the Crimson Forest than the True Fire ruin, and so the spirit beasts that we encountered steadily grew stronger. However, even the likes of the Red Python fled from us.
"This territory is close to the Ruby Rhino's," Hong Yao Yao informed me, her eyes glinting mischievously. "After we're done with the ruins and retrieved whatever treasures or opportunities it might have, you can immediately go hunt your Ruby Rhino."
"Sounds like a plan," I replied. Then I stopped when I caught sight of a massive monument. He was guarding a stone archway, his head and hands raised to the sky, his pose frozen in an attacking stance. An archer, holding a bow and aiming his arrow at the heavens.
That was strange. Archers normally weren't known for guarding temple complexes, castles, tombs or other structures that eventually turned into ruins. And the sword was respected more than the bow, so I found it odd they didn't craft a statue of a swordsman instead.
I wasn't kidding. 99% of cultivation story characters used swords instead of any other weapons, and most of them would boast about how swords were the superior weapon, the most powerful or strongest weapon among all armaments. You know, it's always about Sword Qi, or the Sword Sovereign, or how One Sword Rules All, or the Everlasting Sword God, or Sword Emperor…you get the picture. Apparently most cultivation story authors were obsessed with swords. I might often say don't confuse reality with fiction, but fiction had a significant effect on reality – thanks to these authors romanticizing and idealizing swords as the ultimate weapons, people in reality ended up believing the gibberish they read and raised monuments and other art forms praising the sword.
However, looking up at the noble visage of the archer, I couldn't help but feel that the sculptor respected this particular warrior a lot. The amount of detail and painstaking effort that went into bringing his marble features to life were clear for all to see.
"What are you doing? Hurry up! We're not here for sightseeing."
As impatient as ever, Chi Yan was already stomping through the archway and into the ruin.
"Sorry about that," He Shan Jie apologized, holding a hand up to his chest, his fingers pointing upward. "Forgive my senior's easily irritable nature. He has a good heart, but he finds it awkward to honestly express his feelings."
"Yeah, I know," I said, remembering how easily Chi Yan gave up on the True Fire and allowed Hui Ying to take it, despite all the effort he had expended in fighting his way through hordes of spirit beasts that dwelled on the mountain.
"Be careful," Hong Yao Yao warned as we followed Chi Yan into the ruin. "The place is infested with powerful elemental spirit beasts."
No sooner had the words left her mouth when there was an explosion in the interior of the ruin. Fires surged to life, dancing about before curling and coalescing into multiple humanoid shapes. It took a while for the flickering flames to solidify, but when they finally did, they resembled blazing ghosts, their figures seemingly intangible. Yet the heat they emanated was real.
"Fire djinns," Hong Yao Yao said. "High level elemental spirit beasts who specialize in fire. Be careful, physical attacks don't normally work on them."
She had just finished her sentence when my Abyssal Edge sliced through one of them. Black qi detonated across its flickering flame and consumed it, causing the poor fire djinn to shriek faintly before it vanished from existence.
"So we just need to use qi attacks," I said as I executed another Shadow Sword Strike.
"These are just small fries," Chi Yan said dismissively while punching another fire djinn. His own ruby flames flowed out and incinerated them, either overwhelming their supposedly incredible resistance to heat and fire or consuming them, incorporating their fires into its own to grow larger.
"Stay close to me," I instructed Lan Bei Er, swinging my sword to hack another fire djinn apart. I was about to shout a warning to Hong Yao Yao, but it turned out that she could take care of herself. Pink butterflies swarmed around her, forming a protective screen. Any fire djinn that charged at the butterflies found themselves blown apart by the volatile pink qi that composed the tiny but many fluttering shapes. I then turned to check on our last teammate, but He Shan Jie appeared perfectly capable of handling himself as well.
He slammed his palms together, gathering an enormous amount of earth qi. The ground shook violently before rising. I was only able to spare a few seconds' worth of a glance, but what I saw impressed me.
He Shan Jie had just summoned a golem. Even though it seemed to be constructed entirely out of rock, its bulk was suffused by an earthly brown qi. Silently lumbering forward, it pulverized a couple of fire djinns who were too slow to get out of the way. Even though physical attacks didn't have much effect on their tangible bodies, the brown qi that surrounded the golem's fists flooded over the flailing elemental spirit beasts and smothered them, draining their vital flame qi away into nothing.
That was so cool.
Feeling emboldened by the skills and strength of my new teammates, I charged into the fray, black qi billowing from my blade and carving apart the horde of poor fire djinns.