Chapter 41: The Wonderful Elf

  "Hehe, I have legs too! Run so fast!" Wearing a Lin Xiao's outer gown, Yao Jing spread out her two small legs and jumped around wildly. She was very unaccustomed to the clothes on her body, always running and then the clothes would become disheveled and loose, revealing large areas of pale green skin. Qing Chu hurriedly ran over to stop her and helped her adjust her clothes. When Yao Jing heard Qing Chu's voice, she obediently stood still, 'hehe' laughing as Qing Chu put back on that uncomfortable 'outer layer', then continued to run wildly again.

  Lin Xiao lazily followed behind the two little girls, narrowing his eyes as he gazed at the red flowers and green grass before him, bathed in sunlight. A warm breeze blew over, carrying with it the sweet fragrance of the 'Golden Silk Orchid' that grew on the mountain slope opposite. Lin Xiao let out a comfortable sigh and said softly, "Is this what spring is like on Qiyuan Star? Hmm, it's really nice!" For a moment, he seemed to have returned to Huichun Valley, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with Yaoyue on the mountain. A faint sweetness arose in his heart, and Lin Xiao habitually reached out to grab something beside him, but instead of grasping the soft and delicate small hand from his memories, there was only the empty mountain wind slipping through his fingers. A few strands of grass were blown up by the wind, wrapping around Lin Xiao's fingertips before being carried away into the distance.

  A bit desolate, Lin Xiao sighed softly and said: "You are all dead." He looked at Yao Jing who was running excitedly in front of him, and couldn't help but feel a few more points of envy and jealousy. This lively little demon, her heart was completely free from worries, only filled with innocence and simplicity. She ran to the east and startled a few mountain sparrows, then ran to the west and chased two wild rabbits into a frantic escape, her silvery laughter spreading across the mountain path she had run through.

  Qing Luo followed closely behind Yao Jing, her forehead already beaded with sweat. Qing Luo was worried that Yao Jing would get into trouble again, so she stuck close to her, afraid of what might happen next. But at the same time, Qing Luo's heart was also tied up in Lin Xiao, and as she ran a few steps behind Yao Jing, she couldn't help but turn back to glance at Lin Xiao, only to quickly turn around and continue chasing after Yao Jing again, truly exhausted. Yao Jing continued to pick up all sorts of strange objects from the ground and toss them at Qing Luo, who mindlessly clutched them to her chest, until soon her arms were filled with a large pile of rocks, dirt clods, tree roots, grass, and other odds and ends. Burdened by these cumbersome items, Qing Luo's appearance became even more disheveled as she ran.

  Three people walked along the winding mountain path of Yao Shan, heading towards the exit of the valley for over ten miles. Qing Chu was already exhausted and panting heavily, but before she knew it, Yao Jing suddenly let out an excited cheer and floated up into the air, rushing towards a dense forest of tall black pines by the side of the road. The forest was filled with unusual black pines as thick as a man's waist, surrounded by swirling white mist that condensed the floating spiritual energy into thin layers of fog, nourishing the purple spiritual mushrooms growing on the trees.

  "Yaojing cheered, like a monkey, she jumped onto a black pine tree, her two small legs wrapped around a branch, and her hands had already pulled down a large piece of purple ganoderma from the trunk. With big mouthfuls, she started eating it up. In the midst of '吧嗒、吧嗒' sounds, a piece of purple ganoderma as big as a human head was swallowed by Yaojing in just two bites. She excitedly clapped her small hands and pulled down another piece of purple ganoderma from the trunk, about the size of a washbasin. "Delicious! Delicious! So delicious, Qingchu, so delicious!" Yaojing threw that piece of purple ganoderma at Qingchu with a flick of her hand."

  Qing Yun hastily dropped the handful of miscellaneous items in her arms, and with one hand caught the purple ganoderma, anxiously jumping up and down saying: "Yao Jing~ Xiao Qing~, hurry up and come down! This is a guarded purple ganoderma forest, we can't steal food!"

  "What's with the 'Purple Bamboo Forest'?" As soon as Qing Yue mentioned it, a fierce anger flashed in Yao Jing's eyes. She shouted loudly: "Bad people! They used swords to chop me up and eat all of this Purple Bamboo! Bad people! They used swords to slash at me! Waaah, I want to eat, I want to eat a lot, a lot, and eat it all!" Her body suddenly burst open, transforming into countless green light points that scattered everywhere. Each light point attached itself to a large purple bamboo, which withered away at a visible rate. The spiritual energy and liquid within were rapidly absorbed by the light points. As the purple bamboo withered, the light points gradually became radiant and full of spiritual energy.

  The purple zi zhu on the green trowel fell to the ground, and the green trowel made a bitter face, staring blankly at the green light rain that covered dozens of black pine trees with purple zi zhu. The corners of her mouth twitched, as if she could cry out at any time. Yao Jing's reckless behavior scared Qing Tuo, making her feet cold and her body soft, and she sat down on the ground with a thud. She shouted in a sharp voice, weakly: "Yao Jing, these zi zhu can't be eaten! You can secretly eat one or two, but you can't eat so many! Waa, the medicinal materials on Medicine Mountain are all counted!"

  "Hum! Eat up, eat up, eat up!" A triumphant voice echoed from the green light rain: "I have legs now, I'm not afraid of them chasing me! Hehe!"

  In the pine forest, a loud roar suddenly came: "What kind of demon dares to be presumptuous in the purple bamboo forest? Heaven's thunder, go!" With a loud rumble, a thick red lightning bolt as wide as a bucket fell from the sky and struck towards the light rain transformed by Yaojing. The extremely yang and powerful heavenly thunder was still dozens of feet away from Yaojing, but its overwhelming pressure had already forced Yaojing's light to dim, and the scattered light rain quickly retracted and condensed back into Yaojing's true form. Yaojing stared blankly at the heavenly thunder falling above her head, and let out a terrified wail.

  "Hmm!" With a soft hum, Lin Xiao floated lightly to Yao Jing's side and casually reached out to the heavenly thunder. His fingers moved lightly, changing into dozens of seals in an instant as he touched the thunder. A faint glow of lightning appeared on Lin Xiao's palm, and when the falling thunder met that light, it was like pouring a bucket of water into a vat, being completely absorbed by Lin Xiao with a single gesture. The power of the heavenly thunder surged through Lin Xiao's body, spreading out threads of lightning throughout his entire being. The surging electrical energy finally merged into Lin Xiao's golden elixir, causing a purple glow to fluctuate on its surface. The black tortoise ring surrounding Lin Xiao's golden elixir suddenly flashed with a dark light, absorbing ninety-nine percent of the pure and true yuan that had been transformed from the heavenly thunder.

  "What a wonderful and subtle technique for attracting thunder! It can absorb heavenly lightning to increase one's true yuan, truly a divine method without peer." A voice of admiration came from the depths of the dense forest, a rain umbrella-shaped magical treasure radiating countless seven-colored lights, supporting three yellow-robed old Daoists as they slowly flew out of the forest. The central figure, an old man with a face like a silver basin and a dignified appearance, spoke in a deep voice: "However, every cluster of purple bamboo in this Purple Bamboo Forest has its own number, if those small birds, beasts, small spirits, or monsters occasionally come to peck at one or two, we wouldn't mind too much. But the person beside you, however, is too ruthless."

  Lin Xiao glanced at Yao Jing who was hiding behind him and nodded slightly, saying calmly: "Sorry. It's Yao Jing's fault."

  Yao Jing suddenly poked out her little head, waving her fists and shouting loudly: "Yao Jing is not wrong! They were the ones who used their treasured swords to slash me, slashing me into many pieces, many pieces, many pieces! Humph, Yao Jing just wanted to take a sip of the purple bamboo's spiritual liquid, but you people used your treasured swords to slash me, and didn't even kill me in one slash, instead slashing me into many pieces, many pieces! You Daoist priests are all bad people!"

  Three old Daoists stared at each other in dismay, and one of them suddenly shouted: "You are that patch of moss demon! How did you transform into human form? You little monster don't know the ways of the world. If we really wanted to harm you, when you came to steal the purple fungus, we would have struck you dead with a bolt of lightning. Why just use sword light to drive you away? You're too greedy, you revealed your true body once and hugged a black pine tree, eating hundreds of bunches of purple fungus clean. I didn't use heavenly thunder to execute you, that's already a great mercy!"

  Yao Jing blinked her eyes, tilted her head and frowned: "Really? You didn't use that heavenly thunderbolt on me last time! Hmm, Lin brother, are they really good people?"

  Lin Xiao glared at Yao Jing, gently patted her head, and nodded: "The three Taoist priests are good people. You stole so many purple mushrooms, they just drove you away with sword light. If they used thunder or true fire to deal with you, you little demon, would have been turned into powder." Shaking his head, Lin Xiao took out the jade card representing his identity as a tribute and flashed it at the three old Taoists: "Lin Xiao, is a tribute of the Yuan Zong Tianji. The purple mushrooms Yao Jing ate can be considered as my allocated medicine!"

  "Lin Xiang is here to pay respects!" The three old Daoists' eyes lit up suddenly, and they floated down from the umbrella-shaped magical treasure, rushing hastily to Lin Xiang's front. They said with courtesy: "So it's actually Lin Gong! Haha, no wonder you can help this moss demon transform into a human shape by absorbing the essence of all kinds of spiritual medicines. Haha, Gong's great name has been heard by us three poor Daoist brothers for some time now. Unfortunately, we have duties to attend to and couldn't leave Yao Shan, otherwise we would have gone to ask for your teachings long ago."

  Three old Taoists surrounded Lin Xiao, taking turns to ask him about the methods of planting medicinal materials, refining medicine power, and condensing pill medicine. Lin Xiao only selected a small part of the content from the Da Luo Dan Jing and mentioned one or two sentences, which made the old Taoists so happy that they almost treated Lin Xiao as their own master and worshipped him. The old Taoists took turns asking questions, and before they knew it, more than an hour had passed. Qing Chu and Yao Jing were already bored to the point of squatting on the side counting the ants on the ground, while the three old Taoists still tightly surrounded Lin Xiao, constantly asking for advice on various pill-making knowledge.

  It was easy to get rid of the three old Taoists who insisted on pulling Lin Xiao into the black pine forest to offer tea. Lin Xiao, carrying Qingkuang and Yaoying, almost fled in a hurry from the Purple Bamboo Forest. The three old Taoists stood on a rock, watching Lin Xiao's back, still waving their arms: "Lin Gongpu, if you have time in the future, come to this purple bamboo forest for a walk! Yaoying little girl, all eighteen medicine mountains in this purple bamboo forest are managed by poor Taoist brothers. If you want to take medicine, just come! We can report losses of over 10 million catties of medicinal materials every year!"

  Lin Xiao and Qing Yun rolled their eyes, while Yao Jing was extremely moved, turning back to glance at the three old Daoists with a gaze full of emotion, her eyes narrowed in a blissful smile: "They're all good people! Ah, good people!"

  Qing Yue looked at Yao Jing with a sullen expression, his voice cold and angry: "Just been chopped into pieces, heard there's food, and was taken away by someone?"

  Yao Jing let out a "heh heh" laugh, turned her head to Qing Yun and smiled: "Qing Yun is also a good person! Better than them!" Yao Jing's big eyes sparkled, looking exceptionally pure and lovely. Qing Yun let out a "hee hee" laugh, her big eyes curved like crescent moons, and she reached out to gently pat Yao Jing's head. Yao Jing smiled sweetly, imitating Qing Yun by stretching out her hand to gently pat Qing Yun's shoulder. The two little girls stuck together tightly, jumping up and down as they followed Lin Xiao's back.

  Lin Xiao turned his head slightly, using the corner of his eye to glance at the two little girls. A sense of unprecedented peace and warmth slowly reverberated in his heart. This comfortable peace and warmth did not weaken even when he returned to his refining room and saw the furnace with the discarded elixir. He suddenly realized that he had grown fond of these two little girls, not like his fondness for medicine, but a kind of affection from an elder to a younger generation, or an older brother to a younger sister.

  Looking at the furnace of waste elixir residue, Lin Xiao's face actually revealed a faint and gentle smile. The deacon who was standing in front of Lin Xiao with his head hung low also felt the openness and warmth in Lin Xiao's heart, and they quietly lifted their heads, just in time to see the gentle smile on Lin Xiao's face, which had always been as cold as stone. The deacons, who were worried about being scolded for the failure of the elixir, were affected by Lin Xiao's smile, and one by one, they also started smiling.

  "It's just a waste of one furnace of elixir, no big deal." Lin Xiao shrugged lightly and said calmly: "The basic spiritual elixirs we've been refining for the past month are enough to use. Everyone is also tired, let's take a few days off and then start another furnace refinement."

  He casually recited a dan formula, letting everyone remember it. Lin Xiao turned around and headed towards the refining room, saying as he walked: "Prepare the medicinal materials according to this formula, and next time we open the furnace, try to refine some higher-level spiritual pills." Refining pills was also a good way to cultivate one's skills. For others, refining pills was a laborious task, but for Lin Xiao, it was indeed a shortcut to increasing his cultivation - after all, he had a pure fire-based physique. The rolling dan fire was just what he needed to supplement his progress.

  A group of Taoists nodded and dispersed, Lin Xiao had been crazily refining the elixir for over a month, they were really exhausted. It was rare for Lin Xiao to give them a few days off, so they were happy to take good care of their bodies.

  One night without incident, Lin Xiao finished his evening studies and fell into a deep sleep, relaxing his mind.

  On the second day, early in the morning, Lin Xiao was about to get out of bed when he found his body pressed down by a thick layer of soft objects. His body couldn't move at all. Lin Xiao was shocked and struggled to turn his head, looking around with difficulty. Only then did he discover that his entire room was filled with thick layers of moss. Not just covered, but packed to the brim, the whole room was stuffed with large clumps of moss. The moss, which had a strong medicinal fragrance, had also piled up on his body to a thickness of about half a foot. The moss had woven itself into a large net, fixing Lin Xiao firmly to the bed like a fish in a net.

  Lin Xiao looked around vaguely, and struggled with his body. As if sensing Lin Xiao's movement, the moss in the room moved at the same time, and a lazy voice came from somewhere: "Hmmm... don't move! Hmmm... Ah, Brother Lin smells so good!"

  Lin Xiao recognized it was Yao Jing's voice and hastily called out: "Yao Jing, you, quickly let me out!"

  The thick moss moved again, and Yao Jing lazily hummed: "So fragrant... I really want to eat Lin Ge too... Ba Ta, Ba Ta, delicious, delicious!"

  Although Lin Xiao knew that Yao Jing was talking nonsense, Yao Jing's words still scared him to the bone. He struggled hard and shouted loudly: "Qing Chu ~ Qing Chu ~ quickly come and get Yao Jing out of my room! What on earth did this little monster eat yesterday? How did she grow so big?"

  Lin Xiao clearly remembered that the Yao Jing in the pool yesterday was only about half the size of a thumb, how did it become so big overnight? This thick and heavy, layered moss must have been accumulating for ages.

  A panicked voice came from outside: "Woo... Brother Lin, I'm also unable to move. Yaojing has filled this place up completely, woo... I really can't move."

  Lin Xiao's nose was crooked with anger, he struggled hard to move his body, but where could he move? Except for the area around his head, which still had some space, his body was packed tightly by Yao Jing. Lin Xiao struggled for a while and found it was futile, so he shouted loudly: "Yao Jing! The heavenly thunder has fallen!"

  Muttering incantations in his mouth, Lin Xian concentrated his spirit and condensed a small amount of heavenly thunder energy in the bamboo forest several feet outside the Jing She.

  A loud rumble, Lin Xiang's condensed Heavenly Thunder energy suddenly burst forth. The power of this wisp of thunder was not great, only blowing up a few bamboo leaves on the ground, but the sound was astonishingly loud.

  "Wahhhhhh~~~~~ Save me~~~~~ The heavenly thunder has come!" A shrill cry pierced the air, echoing throughout the entire temple. Streaks of green light rapidly flashed and swirled, filling the temple's moss-covered walls with a 'rustling' sound that grew smaller and smaller. Finally, with Lin Xiao's sharp cry, Yu Jing's bare body tightly covered her ears with both hands and suddenly fell into Lin Xiao's arms.

  Lin Xiao was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. He grabbed Yao Jing's neck and flung her to one side, smashing into the wall of the nunnery with his head, shouting loudly as he rushed out, soon disappearing from sight.

  Yao Jing looked back at Qing Lü standing at the door with a surprised expression, furrowed her brow and asked: "Qing Lü, am I that scary?"

  The green-skinned goblin tilted its head, rolled its eyes and let out a soft sigh: "Yeah... it's really scary!"

  "Huh?" Yao Jing looked at Qing Tuo with a wronged expression, her mouth pouting, and tears just flowed out.