As soon as he reached the house, he heard a scream full of pain. It was coming from Chensha's room. Fearing some trouble, Ling Yun immediately rushed inside only to find a wounded Chensha struggling to apply salve on his shoulder.

  Seeing Ling Yun Chensha's face turned red with embarassment. There was a minute of awkward silence. Then Chensha coughed once and asked in a serious tone to establish some semblance of control.

  "Ling Yun, I told you not to come into my room without permission."

  "Oh I was just minding my own business when I heard someone screaming like a little girl. Hmm, so it was brother Chensha." Ling Yun replied with a teasing smirk which infuriated Chensha more.

  "LING YUN!!!" Chensha threw his pillow at Ling Yun which he laughingly dodged listening to Chensha cursing him for not respecting his elders.

  Chensha was a born in a family of peasant farmers. He was the only one in his family to be born with a spiritual root, albeit a low grade one. Among his five siblings all male he was the second youngest.

  To further his cultivation like Ling Yun he had also left his family. Due to similar paths both felt a sense of camaraderie between them. In the beginning Chensha was the one who had helped Ling Yun in his adjustment in his job at the tea shop.

  After Chensha's anger subsided, Ling Yun offered to help him which Chensha reluctantly agreed. There was a big cut on the back of his left shoulder. Ling Yun started carefully applying the salve.

  "Are you fine? How did this happen?"

  "It's not that bad. While returning from the forest, a wolf got me from the back. I was just careless."

  Chensha clenched his teeth to prevent further cries. Unlike Ling Yun who remained in his room, Chensha actively hunted in the forest alone putting his life on the line.

  "By the way congratulations on reaching the fourth realm. You've been working hard secretly huh."

  "Thank you but reaching fourth realm is not that big of a deal."

  "It is to me." Chensha replied with a bitter smile. Chensha though he was older than Ling Yun by three years was still stuck at the third realm of Qi refining.

  It was due to having a lower grade spiritual root. Not only that, Chensha never had a master to guide him nor did he possesses excellent cultivation techniques.

  Born in secular lands to mortal parents, his whole cultivation journey was just blindly searching in the dark. Still he preserved onwards not giving up. For this Ling Yun had great respect for Chensha.

  "Still you shouldn't be satisfied with that. We lone cultivators should never stop moving forward. We who were born with a spiritual root should never squander the opportunity to walk on the path of immortality. Everything else is worthless.

  "Ling Yun work hard to reach Foundation Establishment realm."

  Chensha smiled at him dispelling his gloom. The smile caused a flicker of guilt in Ling Yun's heart. Chensha had a pride of being a lone cultivator with no background thought Ling Yun to be the same as him.

  But in truth, Ling Yun was being guided by Brahma, who Ling Yun believed to a celestial being unlike Chensha who was a self made man. But some secrets should forever remain secrets.

  Ling Yun had countless times pleaded Brahma to somehow help Chensha which were met with her scoff.

  "Trash will always remain trash. You should also put some distance so the stench doesn't stick with you."

  "Yes, you're right. I'm also going to the Myriad Beast forest. Do you have some advice?"

  "Hmm. Since you are alone stick to the outer edges of the forest. Don't even think of going deep, you'll die immediately. Also be back before the sunset.

  "The forest is very dangerous in the dark. Not only the wild beasts but also the- Uhmmm, just hurry back."

  "Thanks for the advice, brother Chensha." Ling Yun was about to leave the room but he remembered the promise made to little Hua.

  "Umm, brother Chensha do you have a lover right now?" Chensha froze for a second then looked at him like he had lost his mind.

  Heavens, this is so awkward.

  "Lover? Are you making fun of me?"

  Ling Yun hurriedly waved his hands infront of him. "No brother Chensha. These days I have been thinking about romance so I wanted to know your thoughts on love."

  "Love, huh." Ling Yun found Chensha staring out the window. His eyes seemed a bit dazed like he was watching the past not present.

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  "When I was your age, you know I had some feelings for a girl in my village. She was the vegetable shopkeepers daughter. We were childhood friends."

  It was rare for cultivators to talk about their past. Ling Yun waited with bated breath for him to continue but Chensha was silent, lost in the memories of the past.

  "So what happened brother Chensha, were you rejected?" Ling Yun interjected with a teasing tone which shook Chensha from his stupor.

  "No she also loved me. I left my village because I realised that some things were more important in this world than love."

  "Then after achieving success will brother Chensha go back to get her?"

  "There is no point. By now she must be married to my eldest brother." Chensha replied bitterly. His face was scrunched up in a grimace.

  Looks like I hit a nerve.

  "Forget about her brother Chensha. Let's keep cultivating and be swarmed by immortal fairies. Why settle for village girls, let us dream big. Hahaha." Ling Yun jested in order to cheer him up.

  "Also if nothing works out, brother Chensha could marry little Hua and inherit the shop. Little Hua has already been charmed by you, you sly dog."

  "You!! Stop sprouting such rubbish. Like hell I will marry that little girl!"

  Chensha frowned then thought for a bit before giving him a serious reply. "Running the Jasmine Dragon with little Hua would be quite nice. She's got a good heart and may grow into a beauty in the future. An easy life of a tea shop owner without any troubles is quite a fortune."

  "But- " Chensha's eyes took a steely look. "The fire of ambition still burns bright inside me. As long as it's burning I refuse to compromise.

  "No matter what I have to sacrifice, I will keep on moving on this path."

  Ling Yun could feel the resolve radiating from Chensha.

  Sorry little Hua, big brother tried his best. Maybe I should buy some sweets to console her.

  *****

  "You should be careful with that trash." After leaving the room, Brahma told him.

  "Trash, you mean brother Chensha. How many times I have told you to refer to him by his name instead of these insults."

  "I apologise, the names of talentless trash get automatically filtered by my mind."

  Ling Yun no longer felt angry at Brahma for insulting Chensha. He had tried his best to correct her but the prideful woman remained unfazed.

  Nowdays he only half-heartedly tried to correct her sometimes and quickly gave up after her refusal to change.

  "Okay so what about brother Chensha?"

  "That talentless trash is also liar. The wound on his back was not caused by a wolfs fangs but by a sword."

  Ling Yun froze upon hearing this. He was expecting something stupid again but it turned out to be serious.

  "Maybe brother Chensha was attacked by some thug. There are plenty of lowlifes that come to this village. He lied so not to worry me."

  Hearing his weak explanation Brahma gave him an unimpressed look. She sighed and then said, "My only job was to tell you. What you do is upto you."

  Ling Yun pushed out the disturbing thoughts out of his mind, but the image of Chensha's serious gaze with his eyes burning with resolve refused to leave.

  *****

  After taking a dagger and a big bag to collect plants, Ling Yun finally entered the forest. He only had few hours before sunset so he should get moving soon.

  "Open your third eye now." Brahma was carefully paying attention as it was Ling Yun's first adventure.

  "Om." With a flash of pain in the middle of his forehead, the world turned black and white for a second. Then colour returned.

  It was a bizzare sight. Ling Yun could clearly see the tree infront of him but also it's soul. The image of the soul and the tree both overlapped causing him to take a moment to get used to it.

  "Now extend your soul sense as far as possible. Feel your limits but don't try to overextend."

  Ling Yun closed his eyes and extended his soul sense. He kept on going further and further till it reached a radius of 20 li. In the densely packed forest he could accurately sense all life. From the smallest blade of grass to the dangerous demonic beasts.

  The number of demonic beasts increased the deeper he sensed inside the forest. With all his preparations complete, Ling Yun started exploring the forest.

  A few hours passed as Ling Yun continued toiling hard. Whenever he sensed even a mortal wild beast he would immediately rush in the opposite direction. But his gains were very few due to being overly cautious.

  Many times he had to give up on spiritual herbs due to the presence of beasts near them. Furthermore, very few spiritual plants grew near the outer edge of the forest.

  He had only got a couple of spirit leaf grass. Spirit leaf grass was used for making low grade fasting pills. The money he could get by selling his harvest wasn't much.

  Should I go further inside or turn back?

  Unsatisfied by his gains, Ling Yun carefully ventured deeper into the forest. He tried to sense again and suddenly his eyes lit up.

  Jackpot. It's the fire spirit grass.

  Once one of his uncles had discovered some fire spirit grass in the wilderness and was so overjoyed that he threw a feast in the clan. Unlike the spirit leaf grass, the fire spirit grass was extremely valuable.

  It was an important ingredient in refining fire spirit pill which increases the affinity to the element of fire. Cultivators who practiced flame arts would go crazy for it.

  Also it was very rare it made it very costly.

  Ling Yun could scarcely believe his fortune. He sensed the surroundings and found the area to be suspiciously empty. Except for the cluster of fire spirit grass, he couldn't sense another soul.

  Upon seeing the place, he gasped. In the forest there was a circular area which as bereft of any vegetation. At the centre of it was a big hole maybe leading to some underground tunnel.

  Ling Yun could sense an ominous feeling coming from the hole in the ground but his soul sense told him that there was no beast here.

  Why is everyone avoiding this area? Is it a trap?

  "It must be the lair of a second rank demonic beast."

  Brahma spoke out cutting through his confusion. She has been silent throughout the whole trip letting Ling Yun do as he please do her suddenly speaking surprised him.

  "The ground surrounding it is dead so the beast must be the type that uses poison. Hmm since you can't sense it, it must be away."

  "Then why is no beast plundering his layer?"

  Brahma gave him a teasing smile. "Demonic beasts are stupider than you, Ling Yun. They wouldn't dare to invade the layer of a second rank demonic beast.

  "Also it must have left its essence here to fool other beasts. The ominous presence you feel is the from the aura of the essence. Most cultivators and demonic beasts could never know about it's absense.

  "So do you recognise the greatness of 'Third Eye' technique? Hmm Ling Yun?"

  Tchh. I hate when that woman is right.

  "Yeah, yeah Third Eye Is the greatest divine art."

  The smug woman started laughing at his sullen look. After her laughter subsided, Brahma asked, "Now what are you going to do? Go inside the pit for treasure or back to your room."

  "You already know my answer. No more only playing safe. I'm not afraid to embrace the danger."

  With a last sweep of surroundings with his soul sense, Ling Yun jumped into the pit.