"One thousand feathers."
The shopkeep's eyes were glistening from happy tears. Finally! Finally a rich customer! She had encountered so many wannabe buyers who asked the prices of a lot of goods, only to see how their faces sag more and more after each answer. To think that such a little boy had so many feathers on him! One truly must not judge based on appearances.
She happily handed over the dagger to the rich little young master, but it was snagged away by his sour-looking companion instead.
Chu Wanning, "… Mo Ran, what are you doing?"
Mo Ran, "Shidi, this is not right. Why would you buy such an expensive gift for someone from Guyue'ye? For the sect leader, too! Don't you think you are being unfilial to your elders in Sisheng Peak?"
Chu Wanning's lips parted slightly. Whenever he entered a cultivation sect after exiting Wubei Temple, he immediately took a higher position and was never a mere disciple. Was there even such a rule that a sect disciple was not allowed to give gifts to people from other sects? Or was it because it was Jiang Xi, the sect leader himself?
A victorious glint flashed across Mo Ran's eyes when he saw the hesitation on Chu Wanning's face. He folded his arms in front of his chest and started to lecture the innocent little shidi in front of him.
"Shidi, you have to remember that you are a disciple of Sisheng Peak. If you so casually exchange gifts with the Sect Leader of Guyue'ye, how will our Sect Leader think about it? You are making him lose face!"
"..."
"At the very least, you should give something to our Sect Leader, then all elders and then all elder disciples in Sisheng Peak first before you give anything to anyone from other sects, alright?"
Chu Wanning frowned.
Sisheng Peak had one sect leader and twenty elders. Since Xia Sini was the youngest in Sisheng Peak, everyone was either his shixiong or his shijie! Mo Ran's words made sense but at the same time, it was also full of nonsense. Chu Wanning dashed forward to grab the dagger from Mo Ran, but the teenager was too quick. He pulled at Chu Wanning's arm instead. The little boy unwittingly bumped against the teenager's body. Mo Ran circled an arm around Chu Wanning's waist and pressed him against his chest while his other hand held the dagger up above his head.
Chu Wanning hissed, "Give me my dagger back!"
Mo Ran, "Nope. Not until you come up with something for the people in Sisheng Peak!"
"Mo Ran!"
Chu Wanning's tiny claws scratched at Mo Ran's arm but he still could not reach the dagger. The little boy cursed the state of his body in his heart. Angrily, he bumped his head against Mo Ran's chest. Unprepared, Mo Ran tumbled backward and pulled Chu Wanning to the ground with him. The two disciples rolled around on the ground and fell into a nearby lake with a loud splash.
Chu Wanning inhaled a mouthful of water right away and started choking violently.
"Shidi!!!"
Chu Wanning's head was spinning. One moment he was submerged into icy cold water, and the next moment he was dragged out of the water. The cold night air seeped into his flesh and bones and sent a chill throughout his little body.
"AAACHOOO!!!"
Chu Wanning had a cold constitution. He was not good with cold weather at all, let alone with falling into cold water with full clothes.
Although the little shidi took a bath almost immediately, he still ran a fever that night, and it persisted for a week straight. By the time he was fully recovered, only one other person other than him was not done with the exam. Mo Ran chose to skip the exam to take care of Chu Wanning. He did not leave his side for that one week, tending to him day and night. Needless to say, he completely abandoned his training and did not practice making any barrier at all.
The ones who failed the exam would be punished with extra classes. Mo Ran thus humbly knelt by Chu Wanning's bedside on the day of his recovery to beg for his help.
"Shidi, please!"
Mo Ran clapped his hands in front of Chu Wanning.
"Please take the exam with me!"
"..."
He was basically cheating. Chu Wanning would pass with flying colors anyway, with or without Mo Ran. Chu Wanning glared at this shameless shixiong in front of him.
"Fine, but you will return my dagger to me."
Mo Ran looked as if Chu Wanning just stabbed said dagger into his heart.
"..."
"Will you or won't you?"
"Fine, but... After the exam."
Chu Wanning scoffed. Mo Ran's shamelessness knew no bound.
"Fine."
The trial scenarios were different for each of the three groups. All three were illusory realms that were built based on the recollection of past disasters from hundreds of years ago. Those in the defense division were assigned to the illusory realm by the name of 'Domain of Blood River'.
Mo Ran and Chu Wanning came together to the trial cave and were greeted by Miss Twenty who was supervising the trial. They were given a brief introduction about the trial before they were allowed inside.
The disaster in 'Domain of Blood River' took place in the Shuzhong area from three hundred years ago. It was the first Heavenly Rift disaster that came upon humanity, and the cultivation realm was not prepared for it at all. Barrier-making and -mending were considered useless skills and not many people cared to deepen their knowledge in the area. This careless attitude and ignorance were what led to a huge-scale ghost attack upon the mortal realm, during which ghosts and demons ran rampage and blood flowed like river on the ground everywhere.
"Your task is to mend the broken barrier. As soon as you succeed, the exam is considered as passed. Should any of you get injured fatally in the illusory realm during the exam, the exam is considered as failed.
Rest assured, all injuries from the trial will not carry over to reality. Any questions?"
Both Mo Ran and Chu Wanning shook their heads and entered with linked hands.
Entering the illusory realm felt like stepping into a dream. For a moment they felt like falling as the ground under their feet gave in, but then when they regained their footing again, the surrounding has changed completely.
Mo Ran and Chu Wanning landed in an ancient town with a lot of dilapidated houses. A lot of people were gathering in the middle of the street. They were surrounding two young men who were preaching about something on top of a narrow platform.
"Everyone, please listen to us. Please move away from this area as soon as possible. Huge danger awaits you if you don't leave!"
The person who spoke was a delicate teenager of maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. He had a pretty face and a slender body. At that time he looked pretty frustrated and annoyed.
"Pah," an old man scoffed. "You two are nothing more than charlatans. Do you think we were born yesterday? You are just waiting to seize our land!"
"Not at all, Grandfather!" The young man spoke again.
This old man seemed to be having a huge influence in the area, as other people started to nod their heads in agreement when the old man spoke.
"I swear on my parents' grave that our intention is noble...!"
The old man cackled.
"Noble, my ass. Just look at that sect leader of yours. If he cares so much about us, why not help us out with his magical power instead of fussing about ghosts? Pfft. Ghosts. Those who are afraid of ghosts must be sinful by nature."
"That...!!!"
The young beauty wanted to say something in reply, but his companion held him back. The other person was a taller, handsome young man who wore a serious expression.
"Grandfather, our Shizun is trying his best to help. If the townspeople are willing to listen this one time and vacate the area, then we will surely be of more help next time."
The sincere words were unable to touch the heart of the townspeople. Following the old man's example, the people quickly dispersed to return to their daily activities.
Chu Wanning pulled at Mo Ran's hand.
"Let's follow them."
"Alright."
The two teenagers seemed distressed.
"Wen Yuan, don't get discouraged. Let's try another town," the taller one suggested.
"Ye Zhang, this is already the fourth town and they are not taking us seriously! Shizun is relying on us to spread the word, I..."
Ye Zhang rubbed Wen Yuan's head affectionately.
"There, there. There is a limit to what we can do. Shizun understands that it is impossible to change people's minds off the bat."
Mo Ran and Chu Wanning approached the two teenagers. Seeing the two strangers come close, Wen Yuan and Ye Zhang immediately looked defensive.
"Brothers, we came late. Do you mind repeating what you just told the others?" Mo Ran politely requested when cupping his hands.
Wen Yuan and Ye Zhang exchanged confused looks at first, but then Wen Yuan beamed with joy.
"Of course!!" he cried in excitement while grabbing Mo Ran's hand. The corner of Ye Zhang's lips twitched slightly when gazing upon Wen Yuan's hands on top of Mo Ran's.
Wen Yuan and Ye Zhang were disciples of a cultivation sect by the name of Shadow Moon Sect. Their sect leader who was also their Shizun, Grandmaster Wu, was one of the few grandmasters who guarded the heavenly barrier that separated the ghost realm from the mortal realm. A few weeks ago, Grandmaster Wu traveled the land and discovered cracks in the barrier. The biggest one was in the Shuzhong area. There were around ten towns that would be heavily impacted if the barrier happened to break for real.
Grandmaster Wu was working hard to find ways to mend the crack before the barrier broke. Meanwhile, his disciples were sent all around the Shuzhong area to ask the residents to quickly vacate the area and move to a safer area far from Shuzhong.
At that time, there were not many cultivation sects. Cultivators did not interact much with the common folk. They were seen as eccentric people whose role in society was largely unknown. While people like Grandmaster Wu tried to help the common folk with supernatural problems, the majority of the common folk did not encounter supernatural problems and also did not know much about existing ones. They expected to see the cultivators do something more useful, like preventing wild animals from running rampage for example.
It did not help that Grandmaster Wu was not a very sociable person. He did not even like to interact much with his own disciples beyond classes and teacher-student relationships, let alone with the townspeople.
"I admit that our sect leader is not the friendliest person in the mortal realm, but he means well," Wen Yuan said in his sect leader's defense.
Chu Wanning, "Then, Dashixiong, have you had any success in previous towns?"
The two disciples shook their heads.
"It is always the same. They laugh at us and don't believe us."
Mo Ran, "Brothers, we know a little bit about barrier-making and -mending. Can we meet with Grandmaster Wu? Maybe we can help."
Ye Zhang eyed Mo Ran and Chu Wanning suspiciously.
"You two are cultivators?"
"Hahaha, we are not that good. But we want to help."
Wen Yuan hurriedly said, "Any help is good enough! Ye Zhang, let's quickly go back to inform Shizun!"
Mo Ran and Chu Wanning were thus brought to Grandmaster Wu at the seat of Shadow Moon Sect. Grandmaster Wu was supposedly older than fifty years old, but his cultivation allowed him to retain the appearance of a man who was barely thirty years old.
He was indeed not a sociable person. As soon as he heard that Mo Ran and Chu Wanning knew one thing or two about barriers, he asked them to display their ability on spot. Needless to say, Chu Wanning's skills were so amazing that even Grandmaster Wu widened his eyes in amazement. Mo Ran might be considered average compared to the others in the Defense group, but his skills were still way better than Wen Yuan's and Ye Zhang's combined.
"Very good," Grandmaster Wu praised. "You are both able to create formidable barriers. Does any of you know how to mend cracks on barriers?"
"I can try," Chu Wanning answered.
"I can, too," Mo Ran quickly said.
Chu Wanning threw a quizzical look at Mo Ran. He leaned in and spoke softly, "Mo Ran, you don't know how to mend barriers."
"So teach me, Shidi."
"..."
The heavenly barrier was the same as the one that Chu Wanning meticulously tended to in two lives, only younger by a few hundred years. There were indeed a few visible cracks that Chu Wanning could easily mend with his current level. He taught Mo Ran how to mend the smaller cracks while he himself worked on the larger ones.
Grandmaster Wu watched upon them for some time before he too moved to another section to fix even larger cracks. Chu Wanning observed that his title was well-deserved. The barrier-mending skill was even slightly better than Chu Wanning's. Considering that he managed to achieve that level a couple of hundred years ago, Grandmaster Wu must have cultivated this skill from a young age. It was a pity that this skill was not passed on to future generations.
Chu Wanning never heard about the so-called Shadow Moon Sect or their notable disciples. That only meant one thing. The sect was completely obliterated during this one disaster.
When the sun was about to set, Wen Yuan came to pick them up. He stared at the cracks that Chu Wanning mended perfectly in awe.
"Little brother, you are so good," he praised. "Can you teach me???"
Chu Wanning could not help but ask, "Of course, but did Grandmaster Wu not teach you how?"
Wen Yuan scratched his head in embarrassment.
"He did, but Ye Zhang and I are so bad at it. He must think that we are lost causes, hahahah..."
Chu Wanning ended up sharing with Wen Yuan a few tips on mending barriers before they all went back to Shadow Moon Sect.
The Shadow Moon Sect resided in a few buildings that were connected to each other. Initially, Chu Wanning thought that the sect was one of the largest sects out there, but then Wen Yuan informed him that Grandmaster Wu had been working hard to recruit barrier masters from other sects to help mend the heavenly barrier. Despite the numbers, their skills were unfortunately not very good. Nevertheless, Grandmaster Wu accepted any help he could get.
The Shadow Moon Sect itself was a small sect with only around fifty disciples. When more and more cultivators from other sects came to stay with them, all buildings were utilized as sleeping quarters. Even the corridors were littered with sleeping bags for guests and sect disciples alike to lie in.
The night was extremely cold and the sleeping bags were thin.
Chu Wanning wriggled uncomfortably in his sleeping bag. No matter how he positioned himself, he still shivered from lying on cold tiles.
After some time, two arms shot out from Mo Ran's sleeping bag and wrapped themselves around Chu Wanning's sleeping bag.
"..."
Mo Ran pressed his lips against the top of Chu Wanning's head. Chu Wanning's head was pressed against Mo Ran's warm chest. The little boy froze at first, but he unwittingly sighed from the rare warmth and snuggled closer to Mo Ran when the sleepiness set in.