Unlike humans who would lose their heads to trivial emotions, spiritual beasts would usually judge a situation in a way that prioritized their survival. This was how they preserved their own territories through the rise and fall of celestials and demons, and throughout the age of human cultivators that surged forward like rats.

Lord Fuyao had cultivated the power to own this mountain since he was but a young fawn, fighting blood and tooth to do so, and now he had reigned for three hundred and sixty-one years. At first he was overcome with rage over this filthy plant-beast, however…the other man who arrived to fight alongside the ice user would leave him at a disadvantage.

The poison in his eye burned like insidious, prodding needles. It needed to be cleansed out.

Fulao, no matter how bitter, made the quick decision to cool his temper. Before Cui Luoyang could unleash his next attack, he lowered his head and his antlers retracted to their original shape.

“I cede,” he rumbled.

Cui Luoyang twitched his fingers, pondering before seeming to find his statement believable, then his knives dislodged from the ground flew back towards him. He hopped onto one to fly over.

Song Heqing kept Starlight on Obsidian raised for a few moments before lowering it, but his posture was still taunt.

“What a shame!” said Cui Luoyang. “I could have had made a fortune on rare beast crafting materials…”

Fulao’s pupil flickered to him with warning, and even Song Heqing was displeased.

“Senior brother, do not mock after our opponent has admitted defeat.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re so proper,” Cui Luoyang trotted over to Song Heqing, whistling at the upturned ground and lake of gigantic ice shards. “I’ll have you know that I arrived as soon as possible. So are we really making peace already?”

Song Heqing would be lying if he were to say he didn’t want to kill this beast. However, revenge was not worth endangering both his and Qin Yan’s lives again. Just as he thought this, Starlight on Obsidian shook.

Qin Yan murderously said, “Why are you stopping? We haven’t killed him yet!”

“Hm…” Song Heqing was almost amused. Yes, this one might go berserk again if they continued the battle. “Qin Yan, remember our goal is the wood essence spring?”

There was a pause that denoted confusion.

“Isn’t that why we have to kill him? We can’t trust this big deer to leave us alone while we go there. Plus, he injured your leg.”

“Spirit beasts rarely lie, and Fulao does not want to engage in a risky battle.”

Qin Yan angrily thought on it, and it was true he didn’t sense anymore blood-thirst emanating from Fulao. And he did gouge out his eye. That sure wasn’t gonna grow itself back anytime soon. All in all, it was plenty of retaliation.

“Oh…okay then.” He sulked. “Fine.”

Now that they reached an agreement, Song Heqing spoke coldly to Fulao.

“Let us visit the wood essence spring, then we shall leave your mountain.”

Lord Fulao gave a single nod in assent before going towards the forest. Fog licked at his hooves until his body was concealed in the shredded remains of trees. He would not recover from this humiliation for years to come.

A moment later, a path appeared next to Song Heqing and Cui Luoyang.

Song Heqing went towards it, taking out Starlight on Obsidian to check for damage or bloodstains as he walked. As expected, there wasn’t a scratch, and the blood had been soaked up by the blade and retained its dark and white-speckled luster.

Cui Luoyang caught up and said, “Ah~ what a spoilsport, you don’t let me show off at all.”

Song Heqing did not even bother replying.

“…but really, it’s not my fault I was late! We both know how the fog and disorientation array works. I’m not favored with sensory abilities. Fulao was having me walk who knows where, but once it started clearing, I heard the sounds of fighting and made my way here.”

“It was fortunate that you arrived when you did and broke the balance of power, senior-brother, otherwise Qin Yan and I would have been in a difficult position.”

“It’s my responsibility to protect my shidi¹junior-disciple brother, but CY says it kind of flippantly so I think it works better as short version.” Cui Luoyang strolled along, lightly tugging at the red feather earring he wore with a contemplative expression. “Oh…but where’s junior-brother Qin? Is he all right?”

“In the sword.”

Qin Yan thought about coming out but remembered that he left his clothes on ice lake during the battle and they had since been torn into a billion pieces. Again…

The fog disappeared as the path narrowed, continuing along a thin ridge against the side of the mountain. There was steep drop on the right side, and on the left was a perpendicular wall of rock covered in yellow bellsong flowers. Song Heqing remembered Master Su telling him this was a landmark towards the spring.

Song Heqing was a bit shy as he said to Qin Yan, “I have spares clothes in my interspatial²It's a pretty common magic tool in xianxia and stuff so I thought I could use it. Just a ring with a storage space to poof items inside. ring. Do you want to come out? I’ll make sure that Cui Luoyang doesn’t see anything…”

Actually, Qin Yan was still a bit irked at Song Heqing. To say, just irked enough to tease him.

Thus, he replied, “What about you?”

Song Heqing hesitated. “…what do you mean?”

“Cui Luoyang won’t see me, but you’ll take a good look?”

Song Heqing’s felt as though he was bludgeoned over the head from such a profane remark. He almost fell off the cliff instead of sticking to the path. Usually he was good at restraining his hidden urges, but since Qin Yan mentioned it…his brain had soared into the gutter.

Nobody knows when it would return.

“N-no…Qin Yan, I would never…”

“Never? But, I mean, we’re partners so…”

Now Song Heqing began to imagine a number of things. No, no, stop it! He frantically tried to put halt on the rampant imagery in his mind.

Cui Luoyang suddenly snickered. “Junior-brother, why did your ears suddenly turn red?”

“It’s nothing…!” Song Heqing was partially incoherent. “Quiet.”

Qin Yan’s mood was slowly rising.

Because although this entire situation was bad luck, it did prove one thing, and that was that he wasn’t useless. First, he escaped Fulao by himself and was able to find Song Heqing. Second, he gave that dumb deer what it deserved when he was in Starlight on Obsidian. Sure, Qin Yan knew he had a long way to go, but he was a little proud of himself! Oh, besides the fact he almost lost his head to rage.

But that was only a slight personality flaw. Right?

Qin Yan poofed out of Starlight on Obsidian, and Song Heqing, still un-recovered from his previous fluster, somehow used his ultimate protagonist abilities to seamlessly remove clothing from his storage ring and cover him.

Within a second Qin Yan was fully clothed.

Cui Luoyang raised an eyebrow then smiled widely at Qin Yan. It was a little creepy.

“I was worried after we got separated. Good thing you were able to find junior-brother Song! Lord Fulao is truly a dangerous beast, but as long as he were there to protect you, I knew it would work out.”

This ‘who was protecting who’ was literally what Qin Yan and Song Heqing just had a quarrel about. Cui Luoyang truly had a barbed tongue whether or not he intended to…

Qin Yan clenched his hand. “Yeah. I guess.”

Song Heqing also gave Cui Luoyang a glare like he was thinking about shoving him off the cliff.

But in the end the three went along the path.

The bellsong flowers swung back and forth in the breeze, chiming with tones like wind chimes. Qin Yan was sandwiched between the other two, and fixated his gaze to the gash on Song Heqing’s leg.

“Stop,” said Qin Yan.

Song Heqing and Cui Luoyang were immediately on guard.

“What’s the matter?”

Qin Yan stepped forward and knelt down next to Song Heqing. He let his fingers turn into the softest vine tendrils and put it over Song Heqing’s gash to clean it.

“Y-you…” Song Heqing’s stiffened and flushed. “…thank you. You didn’t need to do this…”

“Yes I did.”

Qin Yan had no healing abilities, sadly, so he opted to rip off some of his new and lavish clothing to tie a bandage over Song Heqing’s leg to stop the bleeding.

Were there bandages in Song Heqing’s interspatial ring? Yes, there certainly were, but Song Heqing was not going to say anything about it now.

Qin Yan had a very serious expression as he said, “Okay, we can continue now.”

The path meandered upwards until the distinct gurgle of water reached their ears. Qin Yan turned a bend and was the first to see a shallow pool -more like a puddle- with glistening and smooth oval stones colored amber and jadeite green. Bubbles spouted up along the surface effervescently from the underground water that fed the spring. There were patches of smooshy³Alternative spelling of 'smushy'. Why? I don't know. moss⁴ I love mosssss and colorful little butterflies flitted about.

Qin Yan’s mouth was watering as he sensed the Qi in the air. It was saturated with dense wood Qi of a purity of unbeknownst heights. His eyes seemed to glaze over as he succumbed to his natural eggplant instincts.

Um…it might be a puddle, but the most scrumptious-looking puddle he’d ever laid eyes upon!

It didn’t help that he felt starved after the previous battle. Qin Yan became something like a voracious dog that snapped at whatever scrap fell off the table. Even Song Heqing who would have usually predicted Qin Yan’s actions was too distracted with the previous happiness of Qin Yan treating his wound.

So a tragedy was about to occur…

Qin Yan was at the edge of the spring instantly, he reached a hand down to cup some water and lifted it to his mouth…and drank a whole bunch…needless to say, this puddle water was most delicious...

Song Heqing’s eyes widened in alarm before he rushed over and slapped the remainder of essence water out of Qin Yan’s hand, but it was still too late.

**Frustration +17—

“Qin Yan, what did I tell you⁵Refer to ch. 37 when SH explicitly told him NOT to drink the spring water directly?!” Song Heqing was furious and worried at the same time. “Spit it out!”

But Qin Yan had long swallowed. He seemed stunned for a moment by Song Heqing’s voice. After all, he had not yelled at Qin Yan once until now. Then he was dizzy as though drunk and stared down at the spring again.

What about another drink…

Song Heqing forcefully hugged Qin Yan’s body to hold him back. He was reminded of Qin Yan mindlessly eating the centipede and didn’t know what to say until Qin Yan struggled against him and the word “Naughty!” slipped out unintentionally.

Cui Luoyang had an indifferent expression as he watched the scene unfold.

“Sheesh…” 

It was only a sip, but everything was whirring and buzzing inside Qin Yan. It was as though he had consumed 1000 instant-effect energy drinks. His meridians pulsed and throbbed painfully. His breath turned thin and light until he coughed up a dark green liquid.

Song Heqing’s face distorted. 

Qin Yan, too, was muddled. “Oh…right…my blood is green…”

In the next moment he poofed back into Starlight on Obsidian.

Alas, it had not been long since he poofed out of it…

Song Heqing immediately drew out the blade. The metal was vibrating, it began to turn hot and glow greenish.

If this caused an injury to Qin Yan’s core…however, Song Heqing couldn’t help until he found a secure place to enter mediation, and they still needed to leave this mountain as soon as possible.

Cui Luoyang grabbed Song Heqing’s shoulder, snapping him out of his panic.

“Hey, we specifically discussed the power of the essence spring, so if Qin Yan dared take a drink it means he knew it wouldn’t kill him. That or he likes to court death. Anyway, it’s clear he’s got a high capacity for Qi. It’ll be fine.”

“One can’t be certain.” Song Heqing had a rushed tone. “Apologies, but Qin Yan and I will find a place to rest a few days. Once we descend Fulao Mountain, senior-brother can go ahead and return to the sect first.”

Cui Luoyang smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t report this incident with Fulao to the Grandmaster.”

Song Heqing nodded with a hint of gratefulness. He still gathered a few drops of wood essence from the spring, then the two descended the mountain and parted ways.