Vessel of Worlds

For cultivators, two short years passed like a white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall—gone in a blink.

In those two years Andy spent little time cultivating the Primal Unity Technique, devoting his main effort instead to secret arts and forging.

His pouch held a wealth of rank-five beast materials—among them a vivid red horn over a chi long, the single crown-horn of some fire-attribute beast recorded in no text at all.

The horn was extraordinarily hard and dense with fire-attribute spiritual power—a fire-crafting material of the rarest kind. Had Andy been a Core Formation cultivator, he could have forged it into a dharma treasure of no small power.

As it was, with quantities of high-grade fire stones to aid him, Andy painstakingly reforged the horn together with his fire-attribute Blazing Heaven Blade—producing a high-grade spirit tool stronger by a clear margin.

The new Blazing Heaven Blade looked little different: the socket for a high-grade fire stone still sat in the hilt near the blade's base. But with its materials so improved, the maximum power it could channel per use had risen sharply, and the force of each strike had grown accordingly.

The blade's substance, too, had subtly changed—even without a stone socketed, the blade itself was now beyond the power of peak-grade artifacts to damage.

The two Blood Soul Pills had likewise finished their tempering and sat ready in his dantian; a single flick of spiritual sense would release the Residual Shadow Flash.

As for the dozen-plus Qi Condensation puppets remaining in his pouch, Andy had armed each with a matching mid-grade spirit tool.

With the Primal Unity Qi, his five years of beast hunting had already taught him numerous applications in attack and defense—on that ability alone, he trusted himself to match any cultivator of his rank. But the Primal Unity Technique's origins were far from ordinary, and it was entangled besides with the Blood Intent Gate young master he had killed. Against every contingency, he dared not use it lightly.

That left the Red Cloud Thirteen Needles as the strongest of his "conventional" weapons. After a stretch of drilling, his hand had grown much surer—he could now lay the Cloud-Piercing Needle Formation in less than half the time his first casting had taken.

Only with preparations this thorough did Andy dare risk himself alone for that Heart-Cleansing Pill.

The appointed day with Yun Mengli arrived. Everything in order, Andy waited quietly on a peak outside his dwelling.

His spirit beast, the Ice-Wind Snake, having consumed a good number of rank-two Dragon Transformation Pills, had finally shown the signs of imminent breakthrough and entered its molting phase. The phase could run long or short—months to years—and it was the critical period of a spirit beast's advancement, best passed at its master's side. Unwilling to leave it alone in the dwelling, he had carefully settled the beast into his spirit beast pouch.

Andy had waited less than half an hour when a streak of pink light appeared at the sky's edge, drawing swiftly nearer.

With eyesight far beyond any mortal's, he made out two women—one in white, one in green—riding a ribbon of pink silk toward him.

Before long, the two white-veiled young women drifted down gracefully before him.

"Mengli greets Fellow Cultivator Zhao. Thank you for waiting."

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"Xiao Ying greets Senior!"

The two removed their veils and made their courtesies.

"Fairy Yun—Miss Xiao Ying." Andy had long since risen, and bowed in return.

"Fellow Cultivator Zhao is my life's benefactor—there's no need for such distance. Call me Mengli, and I shall call you Brother Zhao." The white-clad girl's smile bloomed as she spoke, making her already soul-hooking beauty so vivid it dazzled the eye.

Andy's gaze passed briefly over the two faces. Braced though he was, the sight of Yun Mengli's true countenance still set his heart racing, his eyes dazed for the space of a breath—and inwardly he shook his head at his own composure.

"Twenty years, and Fairy Mengli has grown still more like a celestial—forgive my rudeness. And your cultivation has leapt ahead—late-stage Foundation Establishment already!" Andy covered his fluster with an awkward smile.

The green-dressed girl, watching him, dared say nothing—but raised a hand to hide her smile, her eyes bright with an I knew this would happen look of mischief.

The white-clad girl only laughed, unbothered. "Brother Zhao has advanced to mid-stage himself. And Mengli notices your technique seems utterly changed—your aura is faint and inward-drawn, so unassuming that one cannot even tell its attribute. Truly unfathomable. I suspect Mengli is still no match for Brother Zhao even now."

"Fairy Mengli is too modest. But tell me—how can I be of service? With your present strength, I hardly see where my small abilities could matter," Andy said, his earlier daze swept away, his tone turned serious.

"Mengli does indeed need Brother Zhao's hand. We can speak of it on the way. Rest assured—for you, the matter is no more than the lifting of a finger. And the rewards Mengli promised will be honored to the letter," the white-clad girl said in her soft, measured voice.

Andy nodded. "Then lead the way, fairies."

The two young women replaced their veils and stepped together onto a zhang-long ribbon of pink silk, floating away.

Andy followed on the Wind-Treader Dragon, keeping an easy pace several zhang to their side.

The Wind-Treader Dragon, too, had been reforged—wind-attribute materials added without regard for cost—and its speed now stood far beyond any common flying artifact.

Two years ago, near Island Five of the Outer Star Sea, it was want of speed that had let pursuers catch him and drag him into needless trouble. So he had taken pains to raise the Wind-Treader Dragon's pace considerably.

Thus, though the late-stage Fairy Yun flew very fast indeed, Andy kept effortlessly abreast without ever pushing the artifact to its limit.

After the white-clad girl quickened several times and Andy matched her instantly each time, she said with faint surprise: "Brother Zhao's flying artifact is remarkable—and it seems you still hold something in reserve. How fast is it at full power?"

"You flatter me, Fairy Mengli. At full flight, I couldn't sustain it long," Andy answered, committing to nothing.

Then he sent by voice transmission: "The matter you'd entrust to me—may I hear it plainly now?"

The girl transmitted back: "Impatient, aren't you, Brother Zhao? You'd have to be told sooner or later—so Mengli will tell you now."

"Some years ago, Mengli stumbled upon the cave dwelling of an ancient cultivator. Inside, I learned the dwelling's former master was a female cultivator of considerable achievement in her day. She left behind a cultivation method for women—wondrous beyond the ordinary. But the method's continuation past Core Formation lies sealed behind a restriction, and the jade slip the mistress left says this restriction admits only male cultivators!"

"An ancient female cultivator's dwelling—fitted with a restriction made for men? That is baffling indeed," Andy said, frowning.

"Precisely! Mengli has puzzled over it endlessly, and exhausted every method against the restriction without breaking it. So I could only turn to Brother Zhao," the white-clad girl explained, a thread of helplessness in her voice.

"I'm flattered beyond my station. With the Yun family fairy's renown, male cultivators willing to serve you can hardly be few. Why me, Fairy Mengli?" Andy stroked his chin, thoughtful.

"Ah—you mock me, Brother Zhao. Since the calamity that struck my family, Mengli has lived these years in hiding, scraping by—how would I dare show my face openly? Besides, Mengli never knew many male cultivators to begin with; most were passing acquaintances at best, hardly friends—far less anyone to be trusted with a matter this great." The girl's voice dimmed—then turned abruptly. "But set your heart at ease, Brother Zhao. This matter has nothing to do with my family's calamity. You will not be dragged into it, I promise."

Andy nodded—he had no wish to be tangled in clan feuds. "If it's only a matter of entering the restriction and retrieving the treasure on your behalf, with no other cultivators to face, I'll gladly do my utmost. But I confess my curiosity—why trust me so far? Even the secret of an ancient cultivator's dwelling, you lay before me without reserve."