Chapter 249: The Withering Of A Beauty
The mysterious master had actually entered the Martial Tower and appeared before Feng Feiyun — this was too surprising.
The group of flames burned brightly and illuminated the dark room, causing Feng Feiyun’s face to gain a shade of red.
He stood up straight with a serious gaze to say: “You are quite bold. Don’t you think that if I open my mouth, the Martial Lord will come right away?”
“Why don’t you try it?” The master’s hand was covered in flames. A red energy floated near these fingers; Feng Feiyun’s blood bracelet suddenly emitted a black light that was crazily entering his wrist.
This was the first time the suppression of the bracelet was activated. A force of millions of pounds suddenly assaulted his arm, causing his veins and meridians to almost break. Moreover, this was spreading throughout his body.
The master wanted to intimidate him into submission, but he naturally wouldn’t just sit there and do nothing.
“Swoosh!” The Infinite Spirit Ring rapidly rotated and six ancient diagrams came rushing out to wrap around his arm. It turned into six layers of armor to stop the power of the blood seal. The two sides began to clash. One side resisted while the other attacked.
“Hmph!” The master reached out and directly crushed the six diagrams into little particles that flew back to the ring.
There was no longer a method to stop the bracelet’s power. Not only did it suppress his arm, it began to spread to all of his body.
Feng Feiyun said: “I was only kidding, do you need to be so serious?”
A true hero could handle a temporary loss. Completely turning against the master right now was too unwise.
“Oh, so you were just messing around!” Each of the master’s words slammed into Feng Feiyun’s chest like the ringing of a giant bell. If it was any other cultivator, they would have died from a heart attack.
Feng Feiyun struggled to protect his heart from the sonic waves and felt his blood churning. This master’s cultivation was too terrifying. Unless he could reach first level Heaven’s Mandate, there was no way of stopping a single move from this master.
Young Noble Flawless and Beiming Tang’s fates were too miserable. Both were done in by this master. One could see from these past events that this person had no kindness, only extremely ruthless means.
The power on his wrist pulled back along with the light from the bracelet. It became plain and returned to its original black color.
“Feng Feiyun, perhaps you have seen Beiming Tang already. Because he ruined my plans, he had to die.” The master’s deep voice was even scarier than an evil ghost.
Feng Feiyun smiled and replied: “I have been very smart recently. I usually don’t mess with matters that I shouldn’t get involved with.”
“But sometimes, if someone wants you to do something, you must do it!” The master continued.
“What do you want me to do?” Feng Feiyun understood the implications.
The master revealed: “Steal an item.”
At last! Xue Wu had mentioned this to Feng Feiyun before. He thought of it as a warning, but he still couldn’t escape right now.
He asked: “What do you want me to steal?”
“One of the nine defining treasures of the Wanxiang Pagoda, the Cloth of Invisibility.” Said the master.
The Cloth of Invisibility was made from the strings woven together by invisible silkworms. It could hide the user completely and conceal even their aura and presence. It was definitely an incredible treasure for sneak attacks or fleeing.
While wearing it, one could easily get close to an expert of the Giant level. Perhaps killing them was even possible.
It was more miraculous than a normal Spirit Treasure. Countless people coveted it, but it was hidden in the Wanxiang Pagoda. Not to mention stealing it, even if it was in front of you, you might not necessarily be able to see it.
This was before even taking into account that such a treasure would be guarded by superb experts. Stealing it was as difficult as reaching for the heavens.
“Impossible, no one can steal this Cloth of Invisibility, not even a cultivator of the Giant level.” Feng Feiyun shook his head.
“Others can’t do it because they can’t even get into the Wanxiang Temple at all. However, as the current successor of the Divine King, you are different. You can enter many forbidden zones and have more privileges than others.”
This was the reason why the master wanted Feng Feiyun to enter the pagoda. His talents were quite great. As long as his performance was better than ordinary geniuses, the top big shots of the tower would naturally take him in as a disciple. This would be a great help for the next scheme.
In order to steal the Cloth of Invisibility, Feng Feiyun’s current special status was necessary.
“I have received a message that the cloth is hidden on the 81st floor of the Spirit Treasure Tower. I will give you three months. If you still can’t get it by then, the blood bracelet on your wrist will begin to suck your blood until there is nothing left.”
“I’m sure you won’t want to taste that kind of torture.” The hoarse voice sounded even more ruthless, like an old ghost bearing its claws and fangs, inching closer to Feng Feiyun in order to drink his blood and devour his heart. Just the voice alone was more than creepy enough.
Feng Feiyun wanted to take action several times while standing there, but he stopped himself. ‘Act all smug right now, you’ll cry very soon.’
“I will send a master thief to help you, I hope that you won’t disappoint me too much.” The master guffawed freely.
“Pop!” The flames floating in the air all extinguished. Everything disappeared as the master left. He was just like a divine dragon with a tail that couldn’t be seen. No one could see through him. [1. A visual idiom of a great dragon so big that you couldn’t see the tail, only the head. It is usually a positive description of someone powerful and mysterious.]
“Three months, not too long, not too short. What a headache, why does he want to steal the Cloth of Invisibility?” Feng Feiyun furrowed his brows while contemplating. More than ten different possibilities came up in his head, but they were eliminated one by one. It would be quite a mistake to judge the mysterious master using common sense.
This person made Feng Feiyun feel an impending crisis because he couldn’t see through him.
“Clatter.” Slow footsteps came about.
Feng Feiyun relaxed his mind. The stone door was pushed open. Under the flickering candlelight, a supreme beauty walked inside. Her body was swaying like a weak willow tree blowing in the wind. She had changed into a white scholarly dress. This was the uniform for Wanxiang disciples. After putting it on, she looked even more intelligent and graceful.
She was still wearing a thin veil while the usual bun on top of her hair was let down. Clearly, she had just washed her face. There were still several beads of water dripping down her soft and silky black hair. It was much prettier than any other woman’s hair.
Feng Feiyun had to channel his phoenix soul again to barely resist her charm. Other men would have already kneeled below her feet the moment they saw this appearance of hers.
“Hongyan, you are still awake?” He could smell the sweet fragrance of her body that was like the colorful begonia in March.
“I’m… I’m afraid of the dark!” She inserted the candle she was carrying into a bronze sconce. Her features became even more enchanting under this faint light, but it also carried a purity so no one would have any dirty thoughts towards her.
Feng Feiyun had never considered himself to be a perfect gentleman, but he really didn’t have any evil thoughts at this moment. He considered her as a friend and would never force her to do anything against her whim.
That’s right, most girls alone in a strange environment would be afraid of the dark. Even though Nangong Hongyan had been living at a brothel, she didn’t have any cultivation and was a frail woman.
He was in no mood to train either. The mysterious master being able to come into the Martial Tower made him feel uneasy as well. This person was truly frightening. He could only take it one step at a time right now.
“I’ll stay with you.” He walked forward and gently touched her moist hair. She then leaned against his chest. Only by doing so was she freed of worries, as if she had found a safe harbor for both her body and mind.
He brought her back and stood guard next to her until she fell asleep before going back to the chamber to train his saber art.
After training for seven days in a row, he was trying to understand the final part of the first slash. Today, he was at ninety percent mastery, only one level away from complete comprehension. At that point, he could train the second slash that was even more powerful.
However, he was missing that final bit of essence of the first slash.
During these seven days, Nangong Hongyan would occasionally come to see him. Sometimes, she made some cakes and played the zither while he was eating. It was full of harmony and laughter like a pair of childhood sweethearts.
She would also bring fruits and carefully peel them before feeding him herself. According to her, this was the only thing she could do to help him.
The cultivation path was truly too monotonous. Sometimes, one would sit down for hundreds of years. The moment they came out, the whole generation would have changed. Most of their friends would be dead. Only a few would be left, but most of them would probably be in isolated cultivation as well.
This was a mental test for cultivators. Those who couldn’t withstand this kind of vicissitude and loneliness would eventually drive themselves insane.
If one could have a friend or a companion to the top of the cultivation path who understood them, that would be an incredibly wonderful thing!
“Hongyan, can you really not cultivate?” Feng Feiyun wanted to lead her on this path so that her ‘beauty’ wouldn’t wither along with her age. [1. Hongyan means beauty. They used her name here for the word beauty. It is a more archaic word used mainly in literature.]
Her slender fingers left the zither’s strings as she gently sighed: “How could I not want to cultivate? However, someone has told me that my body does not have a single strand of spirituality. My dantian cannot be changed, so I can’t even reach the spirit realm.”
Those who were able to embark on the cultivation path all had a certain aptitude. It required their body to have some spirituality that could channel spirit energy throughout their body.
However, the majority of people didn’t have this type of body. Those who could cultivate were very few in number.
Although Nangong Hongyan was blessed by the heavens with a fairy-like appearance, the heavens was also jealous of this, so her body had defects. She could never step onto the path of cultivation.
A beauty ages fast just like the withering of a flower!
Regardless of how wondrous she used to be, a mortal woman would slowly grow older ten years later. One hundred years later, she would return to the earth and disappear from the world altogether.