Chapter 407 - Changing Plans
After the monkey's cognitive death, with his body still technically alive as his chest continued to rise and fall, I floated closer for a better look.
“I can barely sense his Qi,” I observed.
“Well, a mental death is usually followed by a physical one,” Ni Shi explained. “The body slowly forgets how to breathe and do all those important things.”
“Can you reverse the process?” I asked.
“Yes, but do you want me to? It is a bit of a hassle,” he grumbled.
“Then there is no need,” I shrugged.
Internally, however, I was curious as hell about how it worked.
Despite our "partnership," I didn't want to start pushing the guy into doing things he considered troublesome.
My hand subconsciously drifted toward my chest, feeling the translucent jade construct that was keeping me alive. I could barely feel my legs or anything below my chest, for that matter, since my spine had been shattered.
I had almost forgotten the contraption was even there.
The fight had been distracting.
It was a shame Ni Shi was so overwhelmingly powerful.
Part of me would have liked to see more.
The monkey undoubtedly possessed Foundation Techniques and likely a Core Technique as well. It would have been interesting to watch the two exchange more than a few blows.
Sadly, life rarely gave people exactly what they wanted. For example, I certainly hadn't expected to end up crippled like this out of nowhere.
I turned toward Song Song, and she immediately met my gaze.
Apparently, she had already been watching me.
“Can you imbue some of your blood into me and check whether your brother left behind some kind of delayed poison?” I asked.
The most surprising part of this entire encounter was that Song San hadn't poisoned me. When he stabbed me, I had fully expected some hidden toxin to already be spreading through my body.
Part of the reason I took so long to pursue him afterward was that I assumed I was already dying from something I simply hadn't detected yet.
“Sure,” Song Song agreed without any hesitation.
A fist-sized blob of blood emerged from a small cut on her wrist and gathered above her palm. The blood wriggled like some kind of perverse slime before suddenly shooting forward faster than I could follow.
It pierced straight into my shoulder and entered my body.
“You should work on being gentler,” I muttered while rubbing the shoulder she had just stabbed.
I wanted to make a joke about how nobody would ever marry her if she solved every problem with violence. Unfortunately, Song Song was immune to these kinds of jokes.
“You shouldn't criticize this great lady so much when your life is currently in my hands,” Song Song teased.
Technically, she wasn't wrong. With her blood inside my body, she could tear me apart with a single thought.
“Please finish this quickly, great lady,” I sighed.
Song Song smiled. But she didn't continue teasing me. Instead, her eyes drifted toward the translucent construct wrapped around my chest.
For a brief moment, I caught a trace of guilt in her gaze.
Then it vanished.
“As expected,” she said. “I don't sense any poison inside you.”
That answer made me frown.
If Song San's goal had truly been to kill me, then stabbing me through the back had been the perfect opportunity to poison me as well.
So why hadn't he? Was he planning something else? Or had he simply been arrogant enough to believe that a single strike would be enough?
“He probably wanted your body unspoiled so he could spend some alone time with your corpse,” Song Song said, understanding my train of thought.
“Don't make this weird,” I countered.
Her blood seeped out through the small incision on my shoulder and gathered in her palm before sinking back into her wrist. Her wound closed and healed almost immediately.
“My brother was a weird guy. Who knows what he had planned for your fresh corpse?” Song Song added.
“Song San was a logical kind of guy. I know that much at least,” I shook my head. “The reason he didn't poison me was probably because of the technique he used to get close to me and slip past your perception.”
That made Song Song wince, and the guilty glint in her eyes returned.
“Sorry about that. I should have been more cautious,” she admitted.
“I doubt that would have helped,” I reassured her. “He most likely knew you would notice if he gathered poison for even a split second beforehand. That is why he chose to do it this way.”
Still, I was interested in the technique Song San had used to bypass our senses. It somewhat resembled Song Song's Sky Grade Technique, the Silent Wind Death Sutra, which allowed her to erase her presence.
His version had been weaker. But it also had its own advantages.
Even after Song San had stabbed me through the back, I hadn't sensed who it was.
My first thought had immediately gone to the worst-case scenario. That the Time Traveling Rabbit had somehow returned to finish the job.
Usually, when I couldn't sense someone's presence at all, I simply assumed they were an immortal.
Needless to say, that had scared the hell out of me.
“Also, now that we're talking about this,” Song Song said. “When you die, would you mind if I do some weird stuff with your corpse?”
The question came completely out of nowhere. Whatever I had been thinking instantly evaporated.
My next thought was that she was thinking something bizarrely vulgar. But this was Song Song. That was probably the last thing on her mind. Which meant the real answer was likely much worse.
“What?” I asked, confused. “What would you even do with my corpse?”
Still, I was genuinely curious. Mostly because I couldn't tell whether she was joking.
No, I could tell. I just didn't want to admit the truth.
Reality was too weird.
“My first idea was to embalm you and use special solutions to stop the body from rotting,” she said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “Perhaps I would keep your brain and heart in separate jars, just to have them around.”
I narrowed my eyes. This was worse than I expected.
But Song Song continued speaking.
“Then I could talk to you whenever I needed help brainstorming ideas,” she reasoned. “Sometimes just looking at your face helps me come up with good plans.”
The logical part of me wanted to reject the idea immediately. On the other hand, Song Song had done a lot for me throughout my life, and she would probably continue doing so in the future.
Besides, it wasn't like I would care what happened to my body after I died.
“Sure. I don't mind,” I shrugged, ready to move on from this deeply concerning topic.
“I mind.”
The words cut through the conversation.
Wu Yan had spoken.
Not mumbled, not quietly, but clearly, and her voice carried a firmness that immediately drew everyone's attention.
She was glaring directly at Song Song.
The intensity in her eyes felt almost foreign. Wu Yan was not normally an aggressive person.
“If you desecrate teacher's body, I will kill you,” she said.
Woah. That escalated quickly.
“I would rather nobody fight over my corpse,” I said.
Personally, I would prefer it if my dead body wasn't the reason Song Song and Wu Yan ended up trying to kill each other.
Whoever won or lost that fight didn't matter. They were both important people to me.
Wu Yan didn't even acknowledge my words.
Oddly enough, I was proud of her for that. It was nice to finally see her standing on her own two feet and making decisions for herself, even when they went against what I wanted.
“You can have the heart,” Song Song reasoned. But the look on her face made it abundantly clear she hated this compromise.
That only made Wu Yan angrier, and substandard killing intent began leaking from her.
“I also agree with teacher,” Tingfeng said. “Song Song's idea is crazy. But that is no reason to fight to the death over a corpse.”
Neither woman paid him any attention.
While that was happening, I noticed Ye An staring at me.
I turned to meet her judgmental gaze.
What the fuck with that look?
Why were you judging me?
Judge them. It's not my fault they're weird!
“I think Liu Feng will live long enough that this kind of question won't matter,” Jiang Yeming intervened.
You just jinxed me. Still, thanks, my regressor disciple. Now we could continue pretending the conversation around the Time Traveling Rabbit never happened.
The rest of the team likely assumed Jiang Yeming possessed some sort of powerful divination technique. Perhaps even a Sky Grade one.
I knew better. Unfortunately for Jiang Yeming, her situation was the same as Tingfeng's. Both Wu Yan and Song Song were currently living in their own worlds.
Seeing that she couldn't help, Jiang Yeming turned toward me. Her gaze drifted to the construct wrapped around my chest.
“How are you going to deal with that?” she asked.
“My heart isn't actually destroyed, so the situation is still better than the worst-case scenario,” I replied.
That immediately got Song Song and Wu Yan to stop arguing.
Good. Better to focus on the present than start planning for my eventual death. We had much bigger problems to deal with.
“But there are still a few things we need to handle first,” I continued, finally getting everyone on the same page. At least on the surface. “So you two need to stop bickering for no reason.”
Song Song opened her mouth, clearly preparing to argue. I interrupted her before she could begin.
“Anyway, Song Song, I need you to do something important.”
She immediately nodded.
“I need you to return to the Blazing Sun Sect and use your authority to obtain a Tier 6 Regeneration Pill. After that, go bring Fu Yating and my children out of there.”
I wasn't entirely sure whether I had become one of those so-called Heaven's Favorites with irregular luck. But I had no desire to test that theory around the Blazing Sun Immortal.
I still remembered his reaction when speaking about Hu Jin. The man despised Heaven's Favorites. Which was understandable.
From an immortal's perspective, those people were usually walking calamities.
“Also, Jiang Yeming is coming with you, so make sure she returns alive,” I added.
As for the greatest threat to Jiang Yeming's life? Obviously Song Song. So this was less an order to protect Jiang Yeming from outside dangers and more a warning directed at Song Song herself.
I had to send Jiang Yeming because she was gentler with certain things, and this involved my family.
But there was still more to do.
I turned toward Ye An.
“As for you, take Wu Yan and go retrieve Song San's daughter from Greengrass Town.”
Ye An raised an eyebrow. “His daughter?”
“Yes.”
Poor girl. Song San had probably left her in some random orphanage before wandering off again.
The guy clearly didn't care about her.
She was just a baby. A completely innocent child who had ended up with Song San as her father. Just thinking about her situation and how much she must be struggling made my heart ache.
Ye An nodded, but her icy brows knitted into a frown as she asked, “How are we going to find her?”
“Song Song, does your bloodline-search Foundation Technique still work when trying to find your niece?” I asked.
“Of course,” Song Song replied, clenching her hand into a fist.
When she opened it again, a small arrow of blood floated above her palm, pointing toward a distant direction.
“This should do it,” Song Song said.
Ye An nodded and encased the blood arrow inside a hand-sized translucent box of ice.
“Also, make sure to match the age with what Song San told us. The girl should be around the same age as my kids,” I explained. “Song Song has many other siblings who never became cultivators. Who knows if any of them had children during their visits to Greengrass Town.”
“Understood.” Ye An nodded.
“Also, be careful. This could be a trap Song San left behind. The so-called daughter might be a poison bomb,” I warned, just in case.
Greengrass Town... I would probably never go back there. How is my gate guard friend doing? Sadly, we would likely never meet again.
Then I turned toward my last disciple, the bald Tingfeng.
“You're going to keep me company. Ni Shi and I will find some nearby mortal towns and hire workers to build us a place to call home in these mountains,” I said with a smile.
I looked toward the Misty Mountains. The mist had grown noticeably thinner, and the array was close to breaking down completely. There were clearly other protections hidden throughout this place, things I couldn't properly sense no matter how carefully I observed.
The plans I had made for the future had completely changed.
It was time to start moving things forward.