Chapter 5: The Tragic Death of Qier Ling

  In early spring, fine rain falls in a steady patter.

  The fragrance of grass and trees makes people feel refreshed and invigorated.

  Outside the gate of Hongchen Sword Sect, in Cuigu Valley, an ordinary wooden door was slowly pushed open from inside.

  Zhang Hao walked out of the wooden house.

  Spring water ripples, misty rain is hazy. On the mirror-like spiritual field, people in threes and twos are displaying various ordinary techniques to tend to the spiritual field.

  Looking at the hardworking outer disciples on the spiritual field, Zhang Hao couldn't describe what he felt in his heart.

  The rain is gentle and soothing, the breeze is soft and lingering, the smoke from cooking rises slowly.

  Zhang Hao didn't even open an umbrella and just walked into the rain with a steady pace.

  It's been almost a month since I came to this world, and I finally confirmed the fact that I am a traverser. He exchanged all the things that could be exchanged for wine into wine, which is called Baifangquan. It is said that it was brewed with the dew of a hundred flowers, and when you drink it, it's sweet and fragrant, but the aftertaste is long-lasting, like the spring rain in early spring, fine as silk, entering the acupuncture points, quietly invading the five internal organs, making the drunk person enter a state of intoxication.

  Xiaozi thought that Zhang Hao's state was due to the issue of status, after all, he was a true disciple, suddenly demoted to an outer disciple, who could bear it.

  She found that Zhang Hao neither cultivated the spiritual field nor practiced, did nothing, and often lay lazily on the beam of the wooden house, staring blankly at the starry sky, and during the day, absent-mindedly watching the busy green outer disciples.

  Sometimes a person holds a branch and paints, painting strange things that no one can understand.

  Every time he finishes drinking, he sleeps; after eating, he also sleeps. As long as he doesn't do anything or space out, he must be sleeping. It's as if his body can fall asleep leaning against anything.

  Xiaozi still came over with a basket of vegetables as usual, but there was no longer any Baifangquan in the basket.

  As I walked through the spiritual field, I looked up and saw a familiar figure.

  "Brother Zhang!" she shouted from afar. Xiao Qi felt that today's Zhang Hao was somewhat different, compared to the previous few days, he had much less of a decadent air about him.

  "Here you come!"

  Xiaozi listened and found that Shixiong's voice was full of energy, no longer low and weak, obviously he had already accepted the fact of accepting an outer door disciple.

  "Food has arrived for the master."

  "Really? I'm starving."

  Zhang Hao said as he walked over and lifted the lid of the bamboo basket.

  Xiaozi took a look and said, "Today's dish is taken from the Qinglian Pool in the Xianchu Pavilion. It's the Longgu Rice that is passed down once a month to the true disciples. This rice and dish are all cooked in the five-color pot inside our sect's Xianchu Pavilion. Try it and see if you like it?"

  Zhang Hao looked at the rice inside and it was indeed extraordinary, with each grain of rice shining like a pearl, about the size of a longan fruit. A stream of hot air rose up from the bowl, but instead of dispersing, it gathered together to form a white dragon that seemed to be dancing and playing, looking extremely vivid and cute.

  He took a deep breath and inhaled the warm air into his abdomen, and suddenly a warmth spread throughout his body. His meridians, which had been as dry as parched earth, were now nourished by a gentle spring rain, bringing an indescribable sense of comfort.

  A big bowl of rice as large as a dragon's eye, crystal clear and translucent. As soon as it entered his mouth, it turned into a stream of hot air. After eating a bowl of rice, Zhang Hao felt that his strength had increased greatly.

  "What is this?" staring at another bowl with a white and chubby thing like a baby inside.

  "This is a 600-year-old water lotus, with about 300 years of white lotus seeds that have been peeled and recombined in a five-color pot to form a baby-like shape, which can prolong life, rejuvenate the elderly, and remove impurities from the body."

  Zhang Hao nodded and swallowed the lotus seed in one gulp, which turned into a white mist with a hint of cold air as soon as it entered his throat, merging into his body's flesh and blood.

  The last bowl was a bright red soup. Zhang Hao looked at it with disgust, furrowed his brow and pointed, "This thing is disgusting, what is it?"

  "This is a hundred-year-old Blood Mushroom Soup. Many disciples of the major sects can drink this soup every day, but our Red Dust Sword Sect can only have it once a month, and you're still complaining!"

  "Blood mushroom, it won't be poisonous, will it?" Zhang Hao asked with some doubt.

  "After drinking this Blood Demon's Brew, ordinary poisons and venom from snakes, insects, rats, and ants will be unable to harm you."

  Zhang Hao asked hurriedly in a joking manner, "If I drink the blood mushroom and then drink a bottle of crane top red, will I die?"

  Xiaozi looked at Zhang Hao as if he was a monster and said disdainfully, "After drinking the blood mushroom soup, even if you eat ten bottles of rhino horn or a catty of arsenic, nothing will happen to you!"

  Really! Zhang Hao heard and drank it all in one gulp after picking up the bowl.

  A pungent smell wafted in, and it felt as if a flame had ignited inside me. My entire body was instantly covered in fine red blood vessels, which quickly turned a deep black color. Then, a foul odor followed.

  Xiaozi frowned and pinched her nose.

  Even the outer disciples who were sowing seeds in the spiritual fields far away smelled this stench. A burly man with a black face and wearing a raincoat looked at a middle-aged man wearing a conical hat next to him and cursed in a low voice, "Who farted? How smelly!"

  He looked around and saw no one responding, so he quickly raised his voice again and shouted, "Whoever dares to shit or pee in my black old three's spiritual field and ruins my harvest, I'll plug up their asshole and cut off their balls!"

  Hei Lao San finished speaking and began to tend to the spiritual field with a cold hum.

  Zhang Hao immediately turned around and walked towards the back of his wooden house. Behind the house was a pond about three mu in size.

  As soon as he arrived at the pond, Zhang Hao jumped into the water and waited until his dirty body was washed clean. He then climbed out of the pond in a sorry state.

  Xiaozi sat on the rooftop of the wooden house, giggling softly, as the soft rain threads floated down from the sky and bounced off beside her.

  Zhang Hao shook his head, shaking off the water droplets on his body like a wild dog, and burst out laughing.

  Changed into a clean set of clothes indoors, suddenly felt extremely comfortable all over.

  Zhang Hao carefully observed his surroundings for the first time, and from Xiaoyi's words, he knew that the place where he lived was called Cuigou, a spiritual field planted by the outer disciples of the Red Dust Sword Sect, covering an area of 300 acres, with more than 20 outer disciples taking care of these spiritual fields.

  There are five or six such valleys in the Red Dust Sword Sect, and Cui Gu is just one of the smallest.

  On the cliff of the valley, there is a stone ladder leading to the waist of the mountain. Inside are the inner door disciples, the true transmission disciples' place of cultivation. At the entrance, there is a prohibition, only disciples holding a jade token can enter, and inside, white fog envelops everything, making it unclear how many pavilions and buildings are hidden within.

  But his incomplete and vague memory recalled that deeper inside was a grand hall called the Red Dust Hall, where golden statues of ancestors and various spirit tablets were enshrined. Finally, to the southeast, there were two mountain peaks occupying hundreds of hectares of land: one on the east side called Heaven's Sword Peak, and one on the south side called Heaven's Frost Peak.

  Tianjian Peak should be Zhang Hao's peak, and Tianfeng Peak should be Ben Yi Shijie's peak.

  This Red Dust Sword Sect in the Cultivation Realm can only be considered a small, unknown sect, and cannot compare to the great Cultivation Sects of the Sealed Divine Realm. If not for the protection of the Edict of the Old Man of Tian Huang in Tian Huang, all the big and small sects within Tian Huang would likely be instantly erased.

  Zhang Hao also learned from Xiao Zi's mouth that in many Xiu Zhen sects, a single true disciple's mountain peak was as big as the entire Hong Chen Sword Sect.

  This made Zhang Hao full of curiosity about this strange and unknown world.

  Xiaozi saw Zhang Hao change into a clean set of clothes and jumped down from the wooden house, saying: "Senior brother, when did you start learning sword techniques?"

  Sword mantra! Zhang Hao muttered softly to himself.

  At this time, a white light appeared in the sea of consciousness, and the voice of an old man with a kind and gentle tone sounded in the sea of consciousness, "To practice sword kung fu, you must first cultivate your qi!"