Chapter 14: Daoist Friend, Please Stay
Wu Bo descended on his flying sword, landing at the entrance to an unnamed valley.
Under a natural arch formed by towering ancient trees, a few colorful butterflies danced in the sunlight.
In his hand, the blood jade glowed with an increasingly intense red light—proof that the Hong family's young lady, Hong Yuechan, or rather Chen Xingcai as she was now called, was somewhere within this valley.
"What a strange place…" Wu Bo muttered.
The moment he stepped into the valley, he felt his spiritual power slow slightly, as if he had passed through an invisible barrier. He immediately formed a defensive seal and looked around warily, but aside from a few sparrows chirping in the branches, everything appeared normal.
"An illusion?" He shook his head, tucked the blood jade into his sleeve, and followed the streamside path deeper inside.
The valley's spiritual energy was shockingly dense. The stream was clear to the bottom, and wildflowers bloomed in abundance along the banks. As Wu Bo walked, he found himself inwardly impressed—this place looked ordinary, yet everywhere carried a subtle air of the extraordinary.
Even the arrangement of the flowers, the direction of the flowing water, and the distribution of the birds seemed to faintly align with some profound formation.
"Rustle—"
From the bushes ahead on the right came a sudden sound. Wu Bo stopped instantly, his right hand secretly pressing a thunder talisman, his left forming a sword seal.
A massive gray bear lumbered out from the shrubs, a still-flapping fish clamped in its mouth.
When its eyes met Wu Bo's, it froze. The fish slipped from its mouth with a wet plop onto the ground.
Man and bear locked eyes, the air between them seeming to freeze.
Wu Bo's pupils narrowed. This seemingly ordinary gray bear had spiritual energy circulating around its body, and—using his qi-viewing technique—he was jolted to discover it was at the Return to Origin Realm!
A bear demon of such a level… pretending to be an ordinary beast?
He quickly formed a Daoist salute and called out, "Daoist friend, please stay! I am—"
Plop.
The fish hit the ground completely. In the next instant, the massive beast, weighing at least five hundred jin, turned tail and bolted, its speed so great it kicked up a trail of dust behind it.
Wu Bo's outstretched hand froze in midair, his old face twitching. This reaction… something wasn't right.
"Could this bear demon be the pet of the cultivator family that saved the young lady? Or perhaps it was the demon clan who rescued her back then?" he murmured to himself, then gave a dismissive snort. "Demon clan or not, the Hong family has a Saint Realm powerhouse! Beneath Saint Realm, all are ants."
With that, his figure blurred into a streak of gray as he gave chase.
"Bear Daoist up ahead! I mean you no harm!" Wu Bo called out, his voice echoing through the valley. "I only wish to inquire about a child named Chen Xingcai!"
If he hadn't shouted, it might have been fine. But the moment he did, the fleeing gray bear's speed surged by another thirty percent, its thick legs moving so fast they left afterimages—like a ghost was chasing it from behind.
"Damn it!" Wu Bo's beard bristled in anger. He was at least a half-step Longevity Realm cultivator, a man of rank in the Hong family, yet today a mere bear demon dared treat him with such disregard?
Forming a seal, he summoned his flying sword. With a sharp whoosh, it appeared in front of the bear, cutting off its path.
The gray bear skidded to a halt, nearly slamming its face into the sword's edge. It reared up on its hind legs, raising both forepaws to its chest with a look of pure panic—like an unfortunate fool caught red-handed in an affair.
Wu Bo finally had the chance to properly study this strange bear. The Return to Origin Realm cultivation was no illusion, yet the creature before him… its gaze was so clear it bordered on stupidity, and a thread of drool still hung from the corner of its mouth.
No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like an ordinary beast without the slightest spark of intelligence.
"You…" Wu Bo's brows knotted tightly. "What are you playing dumb for?"
The gray bear tilted its head and let out a muffled awooh, then scratched its belly with a paw, putting on a perfect act of I don't understand human speech.
A vein pulsed on Wu Bo's forehead. He felt his intelligence had never been so insulted. "You're already in the Return to Origin Realm! If you're just an ordinary bear, then I'll eat dirt standing on my head! You're a demon beast!"
The moment the words demon beast left his mouth, the gray bear's demeanor changed entirely. Its eyes went wide, its fur stood on end, and it actually spoke, "You're the demon beast! Your whole family's demon beasts!"
Its voice was rough, tinged with a heavy local accent.
Wu Bo was about to respond when he noticed the bear suddenly shiver, as if remembering something terrifying. Its presence deflated instantly.
Dropping back to all fours, it began sniffing the ground like nothing had happened, though its eyes would occasionally dart up to sneak a glance at him—like a child caught doing something wrong.
"…" Wu Bo felt a wave of helplessness wash over him. He had roamed the cultivation world for centuries and seen all manner of scenes, but never anything like this.
"Enough!" he barked, the thunder talisman in his hand flaring with dangerous purple light. "This is my last question—do you or do you not know Chen Xingcai? If you don't answer honestly…"
The gray bear's ears twitched. Suddenly, it looked past Wu Bo's shoulder, a flash of schadenfreude in its eyes.
"If I'm not mistaken, you just said… the name Chen Xingcai?"
At that moment, a calm voice sounded from behind.
Wu Bo's hair stood on end. For someone of his half-step Longevity Realm cultivation to not even sense another's approach—
"Who's there!?"
He spun around instantly… and his pupils contracted.
Before him stood a young man with strikingly handsome features, yet an aura so ordinary it seemed completely mundane.
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