Phoenix Destiny
chapter-51

Yan Wugui woke up the moment sounds of movement was heard in the stone room.

When he saw the bandage on Lu Mingshu's leg, he hurriedly call out, "You should've waited for me if you wanted to change the herbal medicine!"

Lu Mingshu shot a glance towards him, and threw away the tree stick fastened to her fracture. "No need, I'm healed now."

"How can you possibly be healed? Don't throw a tantrum …" Halfway through the sentence, Yan Wugui fell completely silent, as he saw Lu Mingshu stand up, walk a few steps, and even jump up and down a few times.

How could it have healed so fast?! He had personally treated her injuries yesterday with his own medicine. Given his experience, an injury of this degree would require at least three days to recover, and the injured would only be able to move unhindered after another two days. Only one day has passed since yesterday?

"Impossible, impossible." Yan Wugui shook his head repeatedly. "Let me take a look."

Just a day ago, Lu Mingshu could not move a muscle, yet today, not even a trace of an injury remained. After probing a few times, Yan Wugui's conclusion on her leg condition was that it had fully recovered.

When Lu Mingshu saw that he was about to go bonkers, she hurriedly said, "My physique had been special since young, giving me an exceptionally strong recovery capability."

"There's such a physique?!" Yan Wugui was extremely sceptical.

"It's true! Just look at my leg."

With the facts shoved in front of his face, Yan Wugui had no choice but to believe. Given how vast this world was, nothing was too bizarre. Many special physiques indeed exist in this world; some people possessed opened apertures since birth, while others were born with terminated meridians. Thus, it was not strange that a special physique which had exceptionally good recovery capability existed.

Yan Wugui was extremely envious. "What an awesome physique."

What does a practitioner fear the most? Injury! Just look at me ...Holed up in the Jade West Mountain Forest for seclusion training, I had to rest the moment I got injured. Not only did this waste his time, but it was also dangerous.

"Since you have fully recovered, it shall be self-service today!" He was here for seclusion training and not an excursion.

Yan Wugui got up and gathered the leftover ingredients from yesterday to cook noodles. Afterwards, reassured by Lu Mingshu's liveliness, he left.

He informed her before he left, "I have cleared the immediate surroundings of any large ferocious beasts, but I can't be sure if there won't be any little ones further away. Thus, it's best you don't wander off."

Lu Mingshu nodded.

Once Yan Wugui left, she took one of the fire torches on the wall and began walking towards the depths of the cave.

The cave they currently lived in had various traces of previous human inhabitants. For example, the stone bed and stone table were definitely intentionally made. But, with how old they looked, they should not have been made by Yan Wugui.

Although the cave was natural, it seemed like someone had gone into seclusion training here a very long time ago, and coincidentally, Yan Wugui fortuitously chanced upon this place later on.

Lu Mingshu was curious. From the looks of it, Yan Wugui seemed very familiar with this place, and it doesn't seem like he had unintentionally found this beast cave and decided to stay back to cultivate. Where had he gotten hold of this information? Shouldn't the secret of Jade West Mountain Forest be known only to the Nine Jade Palace disciples? If a senior had indeed gone into seclusion training here, that senior should have been from Nine Jade Palace. Or, did some Seven Truths Platform seniors that had infiltrated the Jade West Mountain Forest a long time ago? If this is the case, then the cooperation between Seven Truths Platform and Nine Jade Palace ...

The tunnel was rugged with lots of forks. As Lu Mingshu walked, she recalled the topographic map in her mind.

Once the fire torches burnt halfway, she reached the end of the cave.

The river enshrouded in darkness stood in Lu Mingshu's way. She could not see the opposite bank, and only the gloomy sound of the waves raised by the cold wind reverberated in the cave.

Lu Mingshu stood there for a moment, before turning back.

She now believed what Yan Wugui said – no one would be able to track them.

As she could not perceive what was on the other side of the river, no one would think of her being on this side either.

Forget it, Yan Wugui not only saved my life but even treated me so well! It shouldn't be too much for me to accompany him here for a while. I have no choice but to let Gao Xiang worry about me ...

When she placed the fire torch back on the wall in the stone room, she suddenly paused in her movement. The dim-lighted stone wall was thoroughly covered in engravings buried under traces of dust. She had previously thought it was just corrosion that happened over the years, but looking at it at close proximity, something seemed to be amiss.

She took out her broken sword and scraped off the dust, gradually exposing the genuine appearance of the engravement underneath.

Once all the dust traces had been scraped off, Lu Mingshu's breath was taken away. The wall was covered in sword scars!

This is a … sword technique!

It had the same sequence of movements as Cloud-treading Sword Technique Manual, although it was multiple times more brilliant. She quickly made a comparison in her heart; she had seen Yi Jiao use the Goddess Cloud-treading Sword Technique. Hence, she could distinguish some differences between the two. From the looks of it, it seems to be a sword technique derived from the Goddess Cloud-treading Sword Technique.

"Could it be …"

Nine Jade Palace wasn't divided into clans but into lines. The technique manuals used in each line came from the heritage left behind by Founder Song, but each line had their own variation of the techniques. Take the Line of Willow Woods as an example, their techniques deviates closer to the cold yin. Hence why a single look from Martial Granduncle Zhuo would make one feel a chill all over their body, which was personally experienced by Lu Mingshu.

As for Lu Mingshu herself, as a disciple of Liu Jizhen, she could be considered from the Line of Shengyang. However, with Liu Jizhen's current troubled heart, he had practically never taught her. For now, since she was still in a lower realm, she studied the foundation Cloud Treading Technique Manual and had not learnt the expanded technique of the Line of Shengyang.

Although Lu Mingshu had no idea which line this set of technique manuals belonged to, she could confirm that this definitely came from a Nine Jade Palace line!

So the person who had stayed here for seclusion training a long time ago should be a senior from Nine Jade Palace? As for Yan Wugui, it is very likely that he got to know of this place through somewhere. He might have no idea of the sword technique here, or it goes against his own technique, which is why he hadn't learned it.

Speaking of techniques, Yan Wugui's technique was in itself strange. Seven Truths Platform was similar to Nine Jade Palace – the weapon it mainly used was the sword. However, Yan Wugui used a knife.

In the evening, Yan Wugui came back.

His harvest today was considerably better; he had hunted a Purple-horned Deer.

As he was skinning the hide, Yan Wugui said, "This hide is not bad, I'll keep it to make you a pair of shoes."

"You know how to?" Lu Mingshu's three views were refreshed yet again. It was one thing to do some needlework, but it was definitely not easy to make a shoe.

"I've seen others do it; it's not hard." he then continued, "we can simmer the antler into an ointment, as for the deer meat … How about roast venison for dinner?"

"I can't eat too much of it, right?" The Purple-horned Deer was a Harmonization Realm beast.

"It doesn't matter! I have a secret recipe!" Yan Wugui fished out a handful of grass while beaming, "Once you have my tea later, I guarantee your meridians will unclog and your body will never burst open from clogged meridians."

The fat-filled, tender deer meat, sizzled as it was roasted. It was unknown how Yan Wugui did it, but the meat was roasted oh-so-perfectly; it was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The moment Lu Mingshu bit into it, the fragrant oil spurted out into delicious goodness. Lu Mingshu could not resist and ended up eating a lot.

The tea brewed by him was also very effective– slightly bitter-sweet; it went really well with the roast venison. After drinking it, it felt like the grease had never been there in the first place.

Once they had eaten their fill and drank enough to quench their thirst, they went back to the stone room. When Yan Wugui saw her standing before the stone wall with her head lifted in silence, he curiously asked, "What's wrong?"

Lu Mingshu pointed. "There is a set of sword techniques here."

Yan Wugui brushed his gaze over the stone wall disinterestedly. "Oh, it should be from your senior from Nine Jade Palace. You can learn if you're interested."

Lu Mingshu looked at him. "You're not interested?"

Yan Wugui said, "The route taken by your Nine Jade Palace is completely different from my martial path, so what's the point of me learning this?"

A light flashed through Lu Mingshu's eyes but she remained silent.

The room was enveloped in absolute silence as the two did their own business.

Lu Mingshu looked at the sword technique attentively, racking her brain. One could clearly tell from the scars that this sword technique was created by that senior while in seclusion training. There were repeated strokes from the beginning to end, the idea was in a jumble in the beginning, while by the end it gradually perfected itself.

She looked at the sword technique countless times and remembered it by heart. Suddenly, she asked, "Brother Yan, can I go out tomorrow?"