Chapter 687 — Fishing the Sun on a Hook, and Binding It Again
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
But swift as it was, the Dragon Qilin could not catch the great red kun. After all, that was a divine fish that had cultivated at the Old Angler's side for who knew how many years, while the Dragon Qilin was not yet grown, a beast still in its juvenile form; that it could not match the great red kun's speed was only natural.
The Dragon Qilin sprinted at full stretch for half a day, its endurance frightening; even so it was so worn out that white foam flecked its mouth, and still it could not catch the great red kun.
Even so, Shen Mu was startled and delighted. To run at full stretch for half a day was something even he would find hard to do; he could travel day and night for tens of thousands of li, even hundreds of thousands, but to sprint tens of thousands of li at full stretch in a short time would leave him utterly spent.
Clearly, now that the Dragon Qilin had slimmed down, its endurance had grown much greater too.
Ahead, the great red kun stopped and flew slowly along. The Dragon Qilin hurried to catch up, and the Old Angler turned his great head and laughed. "Not bad at all. Come aboard."
The Dragon Qilin shrank its body and leaped onto the great red kun's back, and Shen Mu and Yan Jingjing jumped down.
The Old Angler looked the Dragon Qilin up and down and praised it: "Truly splendid. A beast like this, not yet grown, can carry a deity and run so fast — what will it be like when it's grown?"
"Carry a deity?"
Shen Mu and the Dragon Qilin were both bewildered. Yan Jingjing said sheepishly, "Half a year ago I finished my Spirit Bridge, and my primordial spirit leaped to the gates of the Heavenly Palace."
The Dragon Qilin was startled and blurted out, "I carried a deity on my back all this way? I'm so strong! Sect Master, I'm so strong — I want extra rations!"
Shen Mu was startled too. He automatically filtered out the request for extra rations and said, "Little Sister Jing, have you been cultivating by means of the Dawn Boat? Your cultivation has advanced so quickly — might there be a problem?"
The Old Angler said, "There is certainly a problem. Solitary yin cannot generate, lone yang cannot grow. Her cultivation has advanced so fast that the harm is great; her foundation must be thoroughly reinforced."
Shen Mu said hastily, "How is it to be reinforced?"
The Old Angler looked at the space between his brows and smiled. "There is something in your body that can suppress the erupting pure-yang qi within her and steady her foundation. Only, we must see whether you can bear to part with it."
"What is there in my body?" Shen Mu asked doubtfully.
Yan Jingjing's cheeks flushed scarlet, and she said bashfully, "Is it dual cultivation? The Clan Chief said that dual cultivation can balance the qi of yin and yang..."
"Where has your mind wandered to? That Clan Chief of yours, of the Sun-Herding Clan, is another ignorant fellow — a bucket not full, half a bucket sloshing."
The Old Angler shook his head. He laid two fingers on the space between Shen Mu's brows, rubbed them there, and gave a light pull, drawing a thread of pure-yin qi out of the spirit treasury of Shen Mu's primordial fetus. "This thread of pure-yin qi — it must have been a gift to you from a god or demon, no? Just give this thread of pure-yin qi to the little girl, and it will do. Can you bear to part with it?"
Shen Mu smiled. "I met a dead god of the Shanghuang era, and he gave it to me. So long as Little Sister Jing can be well, what would I not part with?"