January 10, 2017
East of Mount Teng, on a mountain path.
The sunset glowed on the horizon, its afterglow reflecting on Wang Jiu’s turned face, giving this usually emotionless Sword Spirit a sowhat aloof air of a Golden-faced Buddha.
Seeing the afterglow about to fade, Wang Jiu waved his hand: "Let’s set up camp."
A chorus of groans imdiately sounded from behind.
"Are you serious? We have to stop again?" Shen Qingming’s voice was filled with an air of resigned exhaustion.
In the team, Li Wanqing was also sowhat impatient: "Ugh, how far have we walked today? A hundred li?"
"One hundred and five point seventy-two li, in a straight line," Wang Jiu effortlessly spouted a precise number that left everyone speechless, then proceeded to assign roles, "Today, it’s Li Xinyu’s turn for night watch, Shen Qingming is in charge of the camp and dinner."
"Understood."
"Alright."
The two responses carried the sa tone of exhaustion, albeit differently expressed.
Ever since departing from QingCyan Cloud City, it had been five full days of heading east towards Shen City, with only half the journey completed. Such a slow pace was unthinkable in this era of advanced Immortal Dao civilization.
Excluding those extraordinarily skilled, capable of flying by themselves.
Normally, traveling from a major city like QingCyan Cloud City to another large city, no matter the mountains and rivers in between, only required using a Teleportation Array. Counting the ti to reach the city’s Teleportation Array, queue for security checks, and inspections at the destination, it generally took no more than two hours.
Of course, such convenient service ant extrely high ticket prices, affordable only for the offspring of prestigious families, hence ordinary people usually opted for second-best solutions: flying shuttles or Red Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse, covering distances like QingCyan Cloud City to Shen City would typically take less than a day.
That would be the usual case; due to Shen City and QingCyan Cloud City’s strained relations over the past few decades, even once nearing the brink of war, their direct Teleportation Array had long been shut down, with even flying shuttles and Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse facing more stringent checks, causing longer travel tis.
As for Shen Qingming and her group, they had special reasons for dragging out the journey this long. Rewinding ti to five days ago...
——
January 5, 2018
In the morning, Wang Jiu, Shen Qingming, Li Wanqing, Li Chaolu, and Li Xinyu gathered at the entrance of the Li Family Mansion, each carrying their travel luggage and a trace of excitent, ready to board the Li family’s private flying shuttle to Shen City.
Before departing, Shen Qingming half-jokingly half-nervously complained, "I heard the Li family’s shuttle hasn’t had a budget for upgrades for a while now, so its performance is quite outdated, taking a whole day in the air to reach Shen City."
Li Wanqing added, "Moreover, under so supposed practical-minimalism, the interior furnishings and features are terrible. Last ti I went to Yuqing Mountain, I took a smaller shuttle which didn’t even have a bed; I sat for most of the day, unable to lie down."
Li Xinyu also complained, "And the maids are so perfunctory, they’re old and ugly, and won’t even get you a drink if you ask."
Li Chaolu directly kicked him: "The pretty ones probably got scared off by you, you big-mouthed fatty constantly making indecent requests!"
Shen Qingming concluded, "So we’re supposed to spend a whole day in a cramped shuttle with ugly, chubby attendants? How boring..."
"It really is quite boring." The others unanimously agreed while turning expectant eyes toward a certain matriarch in charge of the Li family budget.
Lu Xin gave a vexed glare at Shen Qingming, the ringleader, and said, "You’re on a business trip; it’s not a vacation!"
Upon hearing this, Wang Jiu suggested, "If you all find it boring, I do have a way to make the journey interesting, provided you strictly follow my instructions. Interested?"
Li Wanqing asked, "Strictly follow instructions? Is it a ga?"
"You could say that," Wang Jiu nodded in agreent.
"Then I’m in," Li Wanqing said, "A ga from the Primordial Era sounds intriguing."
Li Wanqing took the lead, and the others had no objections and joined in.
Once he confird their intentions, Wang Jiu nodded: "Good, then for the first step, hand over your flying shuttle tickets to ."
Each person took out the hand-written private shuttle tickets Lu Xin had just prepared—with neat and elegant handwriting featuring their nas, adorned with cute patterns and stamped with Li Fengyun’s private seal—and handed them to Wang Jiu, only to be astonished as Wang Jiu burned the tickets to ashes in front of them.
"What?!" Lu Xin gasped in shock, having spent a whole hour crafting four perfectly presentable private shuttle tickets!
Unfazed by the destruction of others’ artistic efforts, Wang Jiu calmly stated, "Alright, next, we’re going to walk there."
"Walk?!"
Wang Jiu chuckled: "Yes, doesn’t it sound exciting?"
——
For the following five days, they reluctantly trekked through the mountains between QingCyan Cloud City and Shen City.
Initially, this kind of hiking adventure proved quite fun for the young group; while enjoying the scenery, they chatted about youthful topics, daydreaming about possible experiences in Shen City... However, by the second day, boredom began to set in.
Not every mountain path boasts a view, nor can every topic sustain conversation endlessly, especially given Wang Jiu’s unusually strict standards for hiking. They had to remain vigilant the entire way, wary of enemies which would never actually appear, with nurous camp-setting rules that were tedious and stringent, instantly stripping the joy from the journey.
"Li Xinyu, during night watch, you must constantly maintain focus—not too concentrated, yet not too scattered. The best thod is to ditate using a specific technique... Shen Qingming, dinner is the essence of night-ti rest; it shouldn’t be too extravagant, wasting ti and energy, but also not too slipshod like you are right now! Cooking rice half-done like this is akin to serving kid rice!"
Shen Qingming protested, "There’s ready-to-eat Drunken Immortal Tower takeaway, why must I cook it myself?"
Wang Jiu replied, "The Drunken Immortal Tower won’t always be open, nor will takeaways always be available; you must learn to cook in the wilds anyti, to quickly replenish nutrients and relieve stress during warti."
Shen Qingming remained defiant: "I have the Immovable Tyrant Body; I don’t need to fuss over food."
Next, Wang Jiu tossed over a clod of dirt: "Eat it."
"...I was wrong."
Wang Jiu explained: "Firstly, your Immovable Tyrant Body is far from capable of absorbing external nutrients directly from the earth. Secondly, for high-realm cultivators, fine cuisine is an indispensable way to relieve ntal stress, so cook your rice diligently, and don’t keep associating yourself with strange foods—aside from perverts, no one enjoys kid rice."
"Enough already!" Shen Qingming fud, "You promised to make the journey fun; that’s why we handed over the flying shuttle tickets and trusted you to organize everything. But after hiking over a thousand li through the wild, you’re telling this is fun?!"
Wang Jiu pondered for a mont, saying, "Honestly, I’m not really sure, but when I arranged itineraries for the Jiu Immortal Venerables, even though my plans were a thousand tis stricter than what you’ve experienced, they’d still say it was quite fun."
"Was it because they feared your strength?"
Wang Jiu replied, "I never use force against my own."
"...Who was it that killed tens of thousands?"
Wang Jiu responded, "Those thousands weren’t my own, and though they were human, I never judge sides by race—racial discrimination is not a good thing."
"Am I supposed to praise you for that?! Anyway, since you didn’t threaten them, if they directly told you your plan was boring and painful, what would you have done?"
Wang Jiu thought for a while: "Of course, I would find a way to make the journey interesting to correct the previous issues, like adding so physical training before bed to improve everyone’s sleep quality, or designating more Night Watchers to reduce the ntal load on each one."
"...I see."
Wang Jiu asked, "So, considering you all found the past five days of hiking very dull, I..."
"No, no, no, Ah Jiu, you’ve got it wrong! We didn’t find it boring at all; quite the opposite, we can’t wait to see what’s next! The journey from QingCyan Cloud City to Shen City feels all too short under your arrangent, leaving us reluctant to part with it..."
"Oh, in that case, great, let’s take a detour; I believe there’s a place worth visiting on the way."
"You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?!"
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