Chapter 17: Small Actions

In fact, this was a really inexplicable journey… because every day they would set off at night, and during the day they would choose some random place in the wilderness, sleep in the open, eat and sleep, and then set off again at night.

I exaggerated when I said every day. In fact, it was only two days.

But two days can also reveal a lot of problems. At least I don’t see any intention of change in them.

During these two days, my master and I didn’t have much to talk about. After all, it was unrealistic for us to have in-depth communication under the watchful eyes of seven or eight pairs of eyes.

The movement was relatively convenient, and the wounds were carefully tended to. At least in this somewhat hot weather, there was no wound infection… However, occasional pain was unavoidable, but after getting used to the pain, it became numb.

Days passed like this. I don’t think I’ve ever had a day like this in my life, a day without thinking at all. Eat when you eat, sleep when you sleep… When it’s time to go, you just go.

I don’t know how I got into this state. If I have to ask for a reason, it should be because the master was by my side. I wanted to completely rely on myself for once, and it felt good! My intuition told me that I should do this, although I felt that this intuition was strange.

The speed of nighttime travel is naturally not as fast as daytime travel, because at night, the visibility is poor and the speed of the car is not as fast as during the day. Moreover, the roads they chose were all remote roads, and some of them were even about to be abandoned… There were no vehicles to be seen, and I didn’t know what this meant.

Does Yang Sheng need to be so timid? After all, as long as the cultivators follow certain rules, the government is generally unwilling to get involved.

However, since I didn’t want to think too much, I didn’t bother to think about why. The days of camping in the wilderness were also good, because although these people behaved strangely, they were not hesitant to enjoy it. The tents were also very comfortable to set up, and the food was also very good. I lived quite comfortably.

Even if it was slow, in two days, the car reached the border of Sichuan. Here, it was even more remote, and we still slept outdoors… Soon, the third day was coming to an end.

For dinner, we had some caviar. I admired them for remembering to be extravagant at a time like this, but I wasn’t used to eating that stuff, so I swallowed it whole, just to fill my stomach. Because I only had a hunch that something was wrong with the master today, and others couldn’t feel it, but I could, the master seemed to be preparing for something.

When he thinks habitually, he always likes to pinch his fingers, and this action has appeared many times today.

After dinner, these people began to take turns sleeping, and they also urged me and the master to go to sleep… According to their habits, they must not leave until after 11 p.m. They are always sluggish during the day. When we go to sleep, these people who are guarding us can take a nap or something… So they are especially eager to urge us, and naturally they don’t care if I and the master can sleep or not.

There are many snakes, insects, rodents and ants in the wild fields of Sichuan. Moreover, in such weather, these creatures are even more active… Snakes, insects, rodents and ants are all fine, but mosquitoes are the biggest obstacle to sleeping outdoors. Nothing works against mosquitoes, which makes me miss the bamboo tube that the snake repellent gave me that year.

The powder inside really had miraculous effects. After so many years, there was still some powder left inside. Unfortunately, my master and I left in such a hurry that I didn’t have the chance to take it with me.

I was so annoyed by the mosquitoes that I couldn’t sleep at all. However, those people who were wrapped up tightly seemed to have transcended the realm of ordinary people and didn’t care about these things at all. In short, I didn’t see any special reactions from them.

“Damn, some guys stink so bad that even mosquitoes hate them.” I cursed in a low voice, but my heart was even more irritated. Even the wounds were aching faintly. I simply got up and sat in the tent.

“Why are you out? Go back to sleep.” I heard someone talking outside the tent.

It must be one of the guards. Then I heard the master’s voice: “You want to be lazy, and you can force people to sleep? There are so many mosquitoes in the mountains, I can’t sleep, I have to come out and smoke a pipe.”

In the past two days, Master has been very “honest,” calling us to eat and sleep. This is the first time this has happened.

I couldn’t sleep any more when I heard this. I also had a vague premonition in my heart, so I also went out of the tent. As soon as I came out, I heard one of the men say, “Why did you come out too?”

“I can’t sleep, so I’m going to have a smoke.” As he said this, I walked over to the Master.

As a result of this commotion, Liu Shengwang came out of his huge tent, and the two guys who were guarding us immediately stopped talking and looked at Liu Shengwang instead.

The Liu Shengwang had enjoyed the caviar that night and seemed in a good mood. He looked at me and the master coldly and said lightly, “After you finish smoking, go to sleep. Everyone is tired from the long journey, so don’t make trouble for each other.”

“Hey…” Master laughed, without taking a position, and casually found a dry place to sit. He began to take tobacco leaves from the tobacco pouch on the pipe, roll them up carefully, and start filling the pipe.

I squatted next to the master and lit a cigarette. I don’t know why, but I was always a little nervous.

Liu Shengwang didn’t seem to care. In his eyes, the two of us were just sealed guys, and we didn’t have any ‘dangerous objects’ on us. In his eyes, we couldn’t turn the world upside down, but he didn’t move either. Instead, he took two steps forward, within five meters of me and the master, and looked at us.

Then he said casually, “If you want to work with the Holy Ancestor, this journey is also an opportunity to show your loyalty. Don’t do anything that shouldn’t be done, and don’t ruin each other’s mood. Otherwise, you may not even have a chance to survive.”

As he spoke, the King of Liu Sheng began to look at his hands again, his neatly trimmed fingernails and long, powerful fingers, as if these hands gave him infinite confidence, confidence in his own strength.

The master didn’t say anything, didn’t even look at him, but carefully filled his pipe with tobacco, then tapped it a few times to make sure it was packed properly, and said, “Is that all? You’re going to smoke a whole bag of tobacco? You’re in a hurry, but you won’t be able to smoke it twice. By the time you get there, it might be gone.”

It sounded like he was talking to himself, or perhaps he was responding to Liu Shengwang.

However, Liu Shengwang was clearly not very interested in smoking, and he ignored my master’s words. He just stood less than five meters away from us, looking at us lightly, and kept fidgeting with his hands.

My master took out a fire and lit his pipe. He closed his eyes and took a deep, intoxicating drag, and the smoke rose again… But at that moment, I was holding a cigarette, and I froze for a second, then immediately lowered my head to smoke.

Of course, I didn’t dare to show too much of a difference, and I was even glad that the Liu Shengwang was so absorbed in admiring his hands that he didn’t notice my surprised expression. Although it was only a flash, it would be terrible if something bad happened.

Why did I do that? It was just because of the smell of the tobacco! Yes… the rising smell was indeed the smell of tobacco, but it contained an indescribable peculiar smell mixed in. I don’t know what this peculiar smell is for, at least it doesn’t seem to have any effect now.

I was thinking that if I hadn’t grown up with my master and become accustomed to, and even attached to, the smell of the tobacco he smoked, I would never have studied tobacco leaves and would not have been able to smell that the tobacco leaves were not right.

This is not even the kind of tobacco leaf that my master usually smokes, it’s just ordinary tobacco leaf. But why does it have that smell? Ordinary tobacco leaf doesn’t have that smell.

My sluggish brain, which had been ‘resting’ for three days, began to work at full speed from this moment on. I always felt that the mystery of everything was in this tobacco… I still held the cigarette in my mouth, taking a few puffs to calm myself down. In fact, beads of sweat had already appeared on the palms of my hands, due to the nervousness.

Fortunately, the hot weather also helped me hide my sweaty face, so it wasn’t too hard to explain.

Everything was still calm until a man over there suddenly shouted, “Fuck, this guy really has some guts!”

Liu Shengwang turned around and saw one of his subordinates, who had just run out of the tent with a wriggling, colorful poisonous snake in his hand… He casually pulled the snake in half and then threw it away.

He kept on cursing, but Liu Shengwang turned his head without paying any attention.

The master continued to smoke his pipe, very slowly… and I was thinking, is that guy really human? The snake looked like it was nearly two meters long, and it wasn’t thin, so how did it just snap?

Everything seemed very quiet.