Cultivation Nerd: Chapter 372

Chapter 372 - The Old and The Young

It had been days since I met the Blazing Sun Immortal, and I decided to push that matter to the back of my mind. It was more his problem than mine.

Though perhaps I should have waited until I was fully healed before indulging my curiosity.

Still, without the pressure of the Blood Step Immortal looming over me, I could finally do what I wanted, and what I wanted was to indulge in research. A battlefield made for an appropriate research environment. Monstrous beasts would have been better, but I had to make do with what was available.

As for what I was exactly researching? No idea. Perhaps a technique I saw in battle might catch my fancy.

That was how I ended up camping in the middle of nowhere with Jiang Yeming and Tingfeng. We sat on rough wooden logs, staring into a fire I’d lit, while a shoddy-looking stew simmered in a pristine pot. Inside was food made from ingredients I’d pulled out of my storage ring.

How did I know the food would be shoddy? Simple. It wasn’t made by my wife.

Honestly, this alone motivated me to look into helping Fu Yating cultivate again, just so I could take her along next time.

Once the food was done, I took out three metal plates and ladled the brownish soup into each. I tasted mine first and immediately caught the burnt edge of the ingredients.

I glanced at Jiang Yeming from the corner of my eye. She took one bite as well. Her expression didn’t change, but she didn’t take a second.

Tingfeng, on the other hand, ate without hesitation. Nothing ever seemed to bother that boy.

“Usually I’d hunt around here for fresher ingredients,” I explained. “But thanks to Song San, poisoning wildlife with toxins that only affect humans has become popular. So we’ll be stuck with dry rations for a while.”

Jiang Yeming nodded. “I don’t think the ingredients are the only problem.”

She was really living up to her position as my least favorite student.

“It isn’t really that good, but it’s edible,” Tingfeng said.

I sighed, put my plate back into my storage ring, and pulled out a roughly drawn map.

We were on the front lines now. With Song Song’s father gone, I’d decided to take a more proactive role in the war. It wasn’t going to end soon, and people were going to die regardless. So I brought my disciples out here to gain experience. I came along to make sure they didn’t die and to see some interesting Foundation Techniques for myself.

I’d read enough reports to know there were fascinating elements in play, and I couldn’t help myself.

Unfortunately, we hadn’t encountered any enemies yet. We were far from the main camp, acting more as a patrol and elimination unit.

Given how easily stronger cultivators could wipe out weaker ones, it was a bad idea to camp with more than ten people.

This wasn’t modern warfare. The strategies were utterly different.

Even so, I was making a conscious effort to avoid combat with anyone I deemed uninteresting.

“It is strange how we haven’t met anyone yet,” Jiang Yeming commented, glancing at me.

“Not so much a coincidence as a deliberate pursuit,” I told her. “The Azure Frost Sect has cast a large-scale barrier and locked us in. They’re trying to pick us off one by one.”

That part was true. The barrier spanned several miles. Because of its size, it wasn’t especially strong, but it did its job well enough.

“Wait, what?” Jiang Yeming turned toward me, wide-eyed.

I was a little disappointed in her. While I’d been unconscious, she hadn’t pulled off any crazy stunts. As a regressor, I’d expected her to exploit everything and everyone and cultivate like mad. Instead, she’d kept a low profile and progressed steadily.

So far, she hadn’t even stumbled upon any divine treasures or absurd resources that would let her leap forward, like a carp turning into a dragon. 

“Are you just going to ignore me and not explain how we’re encircled?” she asked.

Every day she failed to surpass me in some obvious way, like not sensing the barrier before I mentioned it, her stock dropped sharply in my eyes.

“Where’s the edge of the barrier?” Tingfeng asked. “I want to try cutting it.”

Now that was what I wanted to hear.

Yes, Tingfeng’s idea was stupid as hell, but I liked it. He was willing to try things.

With no one likely to sue for peace anytime soon, we had to make use of the situation and turn lemons into lemonade. 

“Ugh, I’m hanging out with crazy people,” Jiang Yeming lamented, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “One won’t answer, and the other’s an idiot.”

I smiled. She’d been opening up more lately. She got along best with Wu Yan, though sadly her cultivation still hadn’t recovered enough for me to take her on truly dangerous expeditions.

The most annoying thing about her was her mindset, which became clearer the longer we spent together. She was shaped entirely by the future, and I got the sense she looked down on present-day cultivators because of it.

She was the time-traveler equivalent of an ignorant racist, looking down on the people of the past.

I spent plenty of time with Song Song, so arrogance itself didn’t bother me. But arrogance needed something to back it up.

Tingfeng existed. Wu Yan too, both around her physical age and both more impressive. It wouldn’t take them more than a decade to surpass whatever idealized image of cultivation Jiang Yeming carried in her head.

Recently, I’d taken on a loose leadership role on the warfront against the Azure Frost Sect. With me around, the chances of running into someone we couldn’t handle were close to zero.

Back when I lacked power, sensory reach, and reliable information ruts, stumbling into someone who randomly tried to kill me was inevitable. Now, though, I had reached a certain level. My senses had sharpened considerably. For cultivators at the same stage, sneaking up on me was difficult, though still dependent on elements and specific techniques.

On top of that, I had several controlled beasts spread across the area.

Even so, this sensory network wasn’t where I wanted it to be. Song Song could still slip past it with ease. But for most situations, it was more than sufficient.

Either way, even if Jiang Yeming was some kind of hundred-year-old monster from the future, she was still my disciple. And it was my responsibility to teach her caution.

Maybe I should arrange a few “unlucky” encounters for her, have enemies conveniently “slip” past my sensory range.

No. I probably wouldn’t even need to orchestrate anything. The people on the other side were intelligent too. They could probably cook up something. Even if the Azure Frost Sect’s front wasn’t as brutal as the others, that didn’t mean it was harmless.

They weren’t sending their best to die here. And honestly, that only reinforced my suspicion: the Azure Frost Sect wanted the other sects to bleed themselves dry before stepping in to take everything.

Unlike some leaders, the Azure Frost Sect Master clearly had foresight. Not that the others lacked it, they simply didn’t care enough about the younger generation.

Ironically, it reminded me of my previous world. Old people sending the young to die in wars fueled by greed.

The Blazing Sun Sect was weakened, yes, but everyone knew that trying to wipe us out and seize our territory would come at a heavy cost.

I sighed, a plan slowly taking shape in my mind.

Jiang Yeming suddenly stood up and kicked Tingfeng square in the chest, sending him flying backward.

Huh?

I sensed the disturbance underground a second later and grabbed Jiang Yeming by the scruff of her clothes, hurling her back to rejoin her fellow disciple.

But in that brief instant, it was already too late for me. A light-blue array bloomed around my position, thorny ice vines bursting forth and lashing toward me. I immediately erected my own square jade array, sealing myself inside before the vines could reach my flesh. Instead, they wrapped around the barrier, scraping and tightening against it like coiling serpents.

The ground bulged grotesquely in two places before tearing open. Two serpents erupted from beneath the earth, their deep, dark eyes cold and unblinking. Slowly, the creatures opened their mouths, slackening their jaws far wider than their size suggested. With a wet, nauseating sound, two figures were forced out. One from each serpent. A blue-robed young man and woman spilled onto the ground, their bodies slick with saliva. The woman’s face twisted into a terrible expression, a mix of shock, humiliation, and barely restrained panic.

But when she saw me trapped, her expression visibly brightened.

“Damn you monstrous bastard, why the hell do you have such a wide sensory range and keep it constantly active? With it erratically expanding at random intervals, trying to catch people off guard. What kind of paranoid psycho does something like that? Do you even sleep?” said the woman.

“Senior sister, please, there is no need to complain in front of the enemies. It makes us come off as very weak,” the male disciple said.

“Hey,” she snapped, turning toward him. “I had to spend eight hours inside a snake's stomach, so long that my skin started burning and if it wasn't for using Qi to protect myself I would have begun being dissolved by now. Unlike those century-old virgin hags back in the sect, I have a plan of getting a boyfriend and giving this love thing a try in the future.”

“Oh? Then, can you tell me about how it feels to interrupt the Azure Frost Sect's virginity cultivation technique? That is something I'm very interested in,” I interrupted their little comedy sketch.

The woman in blue robes turned toward me, trying to wipe the mucus from her hands, only to smear it into something squishy, sticky, dry, and deeply unpleasant. She cringed. Even so, she tried to maintain a cold expression while staring at me. Unfortunately for her, her wet, mucus-plastered hair clung to her scalp, making her look like a bald alien. It completely undermined the intimidating presence she was aiming for and somewhat dulled the impact of how cleverly they had slipped past my sensory range.

“What makes you think you will live through this?” she asked, then glanced at the two disciples of mine outside the barrier and winced.

“Fuck,” she cursed. “Thank god I tried to be extra and attack when you were close with your disciples, or you might have been able to escape.”

“Nope,” I said. “Even if I had been alone, I would have likely been caught.”

“Stop trying to wind us up,” she said.

“I’m being truthful. Your plan was quite good,” I said, genuinely. “While I had time to push my disciples away, that didn’t mean I had enough time to stand up and escape myself.”