Ling Chuxi saw the light at the end of the tunnel she was stuck in. Mo Kongyuan’s analysis was very logical. The inhibition that the seal in her Qi Ocean created not only sealed the Nine Gloom Absolute Meridians, it could also very possibly be preventing her Battle Qi from progressing, causing her to be unable to find an opportunity to breakthrough.
“Why not I try to break the seal open a little again?” proposed Ling Chuxi hesitantly.
“Wait for now. It is still better to wait for your cultivation to stabilize a bit more before thinking of such a drastic solution.” Mo Kongyuan immediately put a stop to Ling Chuxi’s proposal. The last time Ling Chuxi broke open the seal a little, the power of the extremely cold and gloomy qi that burst forth was still fresh in his memory till now. In order to resolve the effects of that cold qi, he had to use quite a bit of his Qi of True Essence. The surge of cold qi had truly been too domineering, even he could not control it.
If Ling Chuxi made a mistake this time and released a stronger surge of the extremely cold and gloomy qi, even he might not necessarily be able to resolve it.
“All right then.” Ling Chuxi was also caught in a bind about this matter herself. According to Mo Kongyuan’s guess, in order to be promoted, she needed to break open a part of the seal, but once the seal was broken open, she would be unable to withstand the surge of extremely cold and gloomy qi that would burst forth.
What legendary Nine Gloom Absolute Meridians, what treasure trove? It was clearly a ticking time bomb!
Ling Chuxi thought about it for what seemed like half a day and in the end, she concluded that she did not wish to risk her life so easily and forcefully controlled the impulse in her heart to try such a tactic.
The carriage went forward steadily and not long after, they reached the borders. The path passing through the borders was steep and filled with roads encircling tall mountains that while still flat, had narrowed quite a bit. Merchant troops were going back and forth in an endless stream, travelling between the north and south countries. Their carriage also had to slow down to allow the merchant troops passage.
“Miss Ling, why don’t we rest for a bit here?” said Zhou Zhidong in a blunt tone to Ling Chuxi once he came to the side of her carriage.
Seeing the merchant troops made Zhou Zhidong think about how he was also a famed general himself who commanded thousands of soldiers in the northwest, and he suddenly felt really frustrated thinking about how he had to be a bodyguard and butler along this whole journey.
“That sounds good. Let’s rest at the next teahouse we pass and we can also have something to eat there before we set off again.” Ling Chuxi took a look outside. It was midday, with the bright sun up in the sky right above their heads. Ling Chuxi was fine since she was sitting in the carriage, but the guards who were on horseback had sweat dripping down their faces and their clothes were sticking to their backs. As to Zhou Zhidong’s attitude, Ling Chuxi was not too bothered. She understood where Zhou Zhidong was coming from. A general who had killed their enemies was now a butler and a bodyguard, it was only natural that he was unhappy with this arrangement.
Coincidentally, there was a teahouse up ahead nearby. Those merchant troops only placed importance on rushing along their journeys as fast as possible without stopping anywhere so the teahouse wasn’t too crowded. Ling Chuxi already had a similar experience before. These teahouses by the roadside usually also sold rice and dishes. Although they could not be considered exquisite, they contained a lot of wild mountain flavors that were hard to find in the city.
“Stop. Let’s rest in that teahouse up ahead for a bit first,” ordered Zhou Zhidong. A few guards then quickly went towards the teahouse.
Before the guards managed to rush over to inspect the teahouse, a figure jumped out of Ling Chuxi’s carriage with a whoosh and was the first to rush into the teahouse instead to dominate a whole table to himself. Who was it? It was precisely none other than Mo Kongyuan!
The corners of Zhou Zhidong’s lips twitched. He still had yet to know Mo Kongyuan’s identity and along the entire journey so far, he had also rarely seen him coming out of the carriage to take a breather. However, the moment it came to mealtime, Mo Kongyuan was definitely the first to rush to the dining table and always absolutely dominated an entire table all to himself. It was not that Zhou Zhidong was petty in thinking this, but truly there was no other choice. This Mo Kongyuan could truly eat too much. Even Ling Chuxi was unwilling to share a table with him. Being at the same table with him, one shouldn’t even dream of snatching away anything to eat at all! He ate with the manner of a great wind blowing away the clouds, and a might strong enough to swallow mountains and rivers.
Shortly after, the corners of Zhou Zhidong’s lips twitched again. He saw Li Shaoqiu and Jiang Wuhen both following closely behind Mo Kongyuan and dominating another table to themselves. ‘And this Li Shaoqiu still had the cheek to say, “pretend I’m not here”. However, for all these shameless people, when was it during the course of a meal where their actions even the slightest bit slower? When was it when it came to paying bills were their actions even remotely faster? They were obviously only following the envoy out here to beat the autumn wind.’
(1) Beating the autumn wind means taking advantage of a richer party for one’s own gains.