"I am Wan Zhaolu."
"Chu Fu's medical ingredient."
The moment those words left her mouth, silence fell all over the mountain. If the gingko tree Tian Yisong had eyes, he would be closing them in shame and sorrow at this moment.
Nevertheless, he still retracted all his spiritual senses and limited them to only his immediate surroundings. An act equivalent to covering one's eyes and ears, almost closing all of his five senses.
'To think a mighty flood dragon of perfected Divine abilities had to bow his head to a lesser cultivator just because of the difference in background.' Tian Yisong lamented, his heart filled with guilt and bitterness, 'If it wasn't for me, master would have been free to roam the world everywhere, go wherever he wanted...'
But it was only for a moment.
Tian Yisong quickly stabilized his mind. As a disciple, he cannot let his Master sacrifices go in vain. He spread out his spiritual senses again, but the scene he "saw" shocked him.
It was his master, the flood dragon, reared there, dumbfounded. The feedback from Tian Yisong's spiritual senses scan told him that every crease, every muscle that made up that expression were all done on genuine reflexes, as if to show the flood dragon's genuine emotions.
It was an expression of shock and disbelief.
'Master was… shocked? Or was he surprised? What could possibly be the cause?' Tian Yisong pondered.
Others might not know, but he, Tian Yisong, knew his master best. Though he was not sure of the flood dragon's habits, he was well aware of his Master's temperament.
'The only time I had seen him so shocked was when he received a decree from that True Monarch, delivered by True Daoist Chu Fu!'
Tian Yisong paused, finding the problem with this situation, 'But what could possibly be as shocking as a True Monarch's decree!?'
Tian Yisong instantly went on high alert, his spiritual senses spread out in all directions, scanning every nook and cranny of the mountain warily.
But he found nothing.
Birds flew over the sky, the wind blew past softly against his gingko leaves and many other gingko trees under the mountain. The pond beside him was still like usual, the stone table still had three cups with one empty, one half filled and one full.
There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
'No, there was something!'
Tian Yisong turned all his spiritual senses to the person before him, the only human on this entire mountain.
There she stood dressed in men's clothes, appearing calm and composed. This woman was neither tall nor short, standing at one hundred seventy centimeters. She had long dark hair that was tied into a ponytail with two strands of bangs covering her forehead. Because of her beautiful face that exudes fierceness and fighting spirit, and her flat chest, she appears as a young man with a pretty face.
If not for Tian Yisong's higher cultivation and his mastery over observation arts, he might have not seen through her with just looks alone.
'No, impossible… It's her?' The gingko tree belatedly realized that the source of his Master's abnormality was this female human in front of him.
'No, don't tell me-' Tian Yisong's train of thought was cut off abruptly by an earth shaking roar.
"Absurd!" The flood dragon roared.
The ground beneath them shook, pieces of earth broke, shards of stone shearing off the slopes, completely breaking off from the mountain. Rain clouds gathered, storm blotting out the sky. The only light source was a pair of emerald draconic eyes that stared intently at the female human.
The gingko tree glowed faintly with green light. The green light exuded warmth and restored vitality. If one were to look carefully, one would notice that the human girl was also covered in green light.
'If I hadn't reacted in time, this girl would be long dead!' Tian Yisong thought with relief and unease.
Looking at the girl now, she was really on the brink of death.
Wan Zhaolu closed her eyes, grasping for breath. Her clothes were damped with sweats.Her hair that was tied into a ponytail came loose. Her beautiful face was deathly pale, blood flowing down from eyes and nose in four unsightly streams.
She forced the blood that rose up back down her throat, metallic taste lingering on her tongue. Despite her injuries, she still opened her eyes to look at the flood dragon.
'To think… to think the difference between us was this huge!' Wan Zhaolu realized with despair.
She had initially thought the distance between each realm would get bigger and farther, but not this far.
As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, she possessed a Dao Foundation that could suppress lower cultivators with not much effort. It took only a breath to kill a Mortal Transformation stage cultivator, only slightly but more effort to kill a Qi refining one.
When that True Daoist Chu Fu had brought her here from the Starfall battlefield in a blink of an eye, she had thought she understood the gap between them.
But it turns out she did not understand them at all! She did not even know what their minimum and maximum was like, merely a roar from this flood dragon already killed her ten times over. If not for the gingko tree's timely protection, she would have been long dead.
She turned around in shock, fully realizing her situation, 'Senior Yisong is a Golden Core cultivator!'
This came as a great shock to her.
Fifteen years ago when she was brought here by that True Daoist Chu Fu, she was merely an early stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, freshly out of the cave for breakthrough!
When she had achieved her breakthrough, True Daoist Chu Fu had appeared in her cave dwelling without wind or sound, bypassing all the protective arrays provided by the military. He stood there like a ghost, beckoning for her to come with him or else her entire clan would die without a burial place.
She had obediently complied back then, already resolved to die. It was just that she didn't expect the delay to be this long.
'In front of a Golden Core cultivator, all my secrets are laid bare, my defenses meaningless. I can't even commit suicide even if I wanted to… Perhaps only with Sword Intent can I have a slight chance of resistance.' Wan Zhaolu understood with perfect clarity of the grim situation she was in.
She felt her Sword Intent rising from her upper dantian to the space between her brows. But she stopped herself and retracted her Sword Intent.
'Unless absolutely necessary, I should not resort to violence. Forget winning, just successfully escaping with my life only has a one percent chance of success, and that's me with Sword Intent.' Wan Zhaolu pondered from all sides, 'No, I should use my Sword Intent to threaten them with suicide if they changed their words and harm my family.'
Just as she was pondering her course of actions, she suddenly heard a gentle voice of a young man pleading, a voice she was very familiar with.
"Master, please calm your anger!" Tian Yisong spoke with sincerity, his voice carried by his Divine ability, sending a breeze of cold air that refreshed the mind and provided comfort.
The flood dragon stopped in track, its expression frozen on its face as if stupefied.
But it was only for a moment.
The flood dragon brandished its sharp claws and swept its tail in anger, turning back to its cave mansion, leaving behind only a sentence:
"Tell that True Daoist Chu Fu that if he wanted his pill so much he can make one himself!"
The flood dragon left these words behind before it slithered away and slammed the gigantic doors of the cave mansion shut.
Bang!
The gigantic double doors were slammed shut with a bang, leaving one human and one tree standing, dumbfounded.
They seemed to look at each other, finding the confusion in the other's heart.
A thought rang through their minds simultaneously.
'What was that?'