Chapter 35 (Part 2)

“Young Master Song, next door is First Young Master’s small courtyard. The two are only one li apart, and there is an independent passage. Young Master Song may pass through directly…”

The servant introduced the residence and its conditions and facilities with full dedication. Song Yuanxi was very satisfied and handed over a low-grade spirit stone. The servant thanked him gratefully and left happily.

In the afternoon, Ji Wuyi came over and directly said he would take him to the trial tower.

“So soon?” Song Yuanxi was a little dazed. He had thought that he could freeload a welcoming banquet in the evening, casually get to know some of the Ji family’s young people of the same generation, and then have a small gathering where they drank and chatted merrily.

Ji Wuyi smiled and said, “Junior Brother Song is as lazy as ever. The Ji family does not favor holding welcoming banquets. If you want to join the excitement, you might as well go inside the trial tower. It is nothing but excitement in there.”

Song Yuanxi’s scalp immediately tightened.

Ji Wuyi did not wish to say more. He led him left and right until they reached the trial tower’s guardian hall. Inside the hall were stewards dedicated to guarding and registering people. All procedures were complete.

“First Young Master, are you entering the trial tower?” Seeing Ji Wuyi arrive, the steward immediately stood and asked.

Ji Wuyi shook his head and pointed at Song Yuanxi. “Song Yuanxi of Xuantian Sect is entering the trial tower.”

The steward searched through jade slips to verify the quota. After confirming that there was no mistake, he handed a jade token to Song Yuanxi and said in a gentle tone, “Fellow Daoist Song, the trial tower is full of mechanisms. If there is danger to your life, immediately crush the jade token to withdraw. Remember this well.”

Holding the jade token, Song Yuanxi had originally wanted to ask the steward for more information about the inside of the tower, but Ji Wuyi directly pushed him forward and sent him into the line waiting to enter.

“Senior Brother Ji?”

“Junior Brother Song, cultivate in peace inside the trial tower.” After thinking for a moment, Ji Wuyi blessed him again. “Have a safe journey.”

However, the wind was too strong. By the time it drifted into Song Yuanxi’s ears, it had directly become, “May your journey end well.”

Song Yuanxi’s heart instantly went ice-cold. He was one step away from bursting into stormy tears on the spot. Senior Brother Ji was far too heartless!

Ji Wuyi considered the transaction complete. Since the matter was over, he went back on his own to study the art of talismans. Song Yuanxi followed a small Ji family team, moving one step at a time, into the trial tower.

As soon as he entered the tower, what greeted him was yellow sand stretching for ten thousand li, an endless expanse of wind and sand with no end in sight. One small sandstorm after another rose up, and with the slightest carelessness, there was a risk of being buried.

“Fellow Daoist, careful! Hurry and get down!” Someone beside him saw Song Yuanxi standing there blankly in a daze and yanked him downward.

After a whole wave of sandstorms passed, heaven and earth were a hazy yellow, but at least they were safe.

Song Yuanxi sat on the sandy ground, his expression somewhat blank. The companion who had kindly pulled him down earlier looked at his foolish, stunned appearance and laughed. “You’re not from the Ji family, are you? You’re a Xuantian Sect disciple.”

“How do you know?”

“We Ji family members are required to enter the trial tower once a year from the moment we draw qi into the body. We’re long used to it.”

Song Yuanxi was very grateful. “Many thanks, Fellow Daoist, for what happened earlier. I am Xuantian Sect disciple Song Yuanxi. May I ask how I should address you?”

“Ji Wuxing.” Ji Wuxing waved his hand as he spoke. “No need to thank me. It’s merely practiced hands. I’m used to fishing people out.”

What a good person who enjoyed helping others. This person could be befriended!

Only many years later did Song Yuanxi truly understand what the other party had meant by “merely practiced hands.” It was purely because his aptitude was too poor, so his old man had thrown him into the trial tower too many times.

But right now, Song Yuanxi had a very favorable impression of Ji Wuxing. After the two exchanged names, they happily decided to temporarily form an alliance and create a one-man team to work hard at clearing the first floor of the trial tower.

Ji Wuxing said, “This trial tower is sinister as hell. No one knows exactly how many floors it has. The Ji family genealogy records that the ancestor once cleared straight through to the eighteenth floor in one breath. Every Ji family disciple takes the ancestor as their benchmark…”

As soon as Song Yuanxi heard this tone, he immediately became delighted. “Then, Fellow Daoist Ji, how many floors have you cleared?”

Ji Wuxing instantly choked and did not answer.

Song Yuanxi thought he had touched on the other party’s privacy, so he changed the subject and said, “Fellow Daoist Ji is a Ji family disciple. Since you must have entered the tower several times, you must be rich in experience. Yuanxi is unworthy and dull in aptitude, so I will rely on Fellow Daoist Ji.”

Ji Wuxing continued to stay silent and even laughed as he changed the subject.

Song Yuanxi’s heart started drumming. Could this person be a white-cut-black type? On the surface, he seemed easy to talk to and get along with, but whenever a crucial question was asked, he pretended to be deaf and mute. Then, thinking of Ji Wuyi’s inconsistent smile, he placed a huge question mark over this newly acquainted Ji Wuxing.

Each with their own thoughts, the two threaded through the sky full of yellow sand and finally found a suitable place to settle before nightfall.

It was a mini oasis. The place was not large, but it was packed full of people.

When Song Yuanxi entered with Ji Wuxing, he clearly felt the rejection of the others. Their rejection of Ji Wuxing was not obvious, but toward him, an outsider, their expressions had it all written on their faces.

“The Ji family treats everyone equally when it comes to rejecting outsiders. They’re like this to everyone. They’re not targeting you.” Ji Wuxing pulled him down to sit and, after thinking for a moment, defended his family.

Song Yuanxi was silent. It would have been better not to explain.

Though the oasis was small, defense was indispensable. He heard that sandstorms might sweep through in the middle of the night, so everyone in the oasis divided themselves into eight directions and took turns keeping night watch and raising the alarm.

Song Yuanxi and Ji Wuxing were assigned to the northeast corner. Apart from the two of them, there was only one other Ji family disciple there.

Ji Wuxing kept watch for the first half of the night. After he finished, he went back to rest, and Song Yuanxi replaced him, together with that Ji family disciple.

The other person was only one person, yet he had to keep watch the entire night. From Ji Wuxing, Song Yuanxi heard that a full night inside the trial tower started at no less than fourteen shichen. The look he gave the other person became quite admiring.

Not showing the slightest hint of exhaustion. This was a ruthless person.

He was different. After eleven shichen, he began to nod off, his whole body sleepy and weak. To hold on, Song Yuanxi could only brace himself and chat with the person beside him.

“Fellow Daoist, how should I address you?”

“How old are you? I see that you’re like me, also around the third level of Qi Refining. You shouldn’t be that old, right?”

“Fellow Daoist, if you don’t say a single word, do you really not get sleepy?”

After Song Yuanxi chattered on and on, the other party finally responded, but it was directly with one sentence. “You’re very noisy.”

“…”

“You’re noisier than Ji Wuxing.”

“?”

“If you keep babbling, I’ll cut out your tongue.”

“!”

Song Yuanxi decisively shut his mouth. At that moment, he was thoroughly awake. While keeping watch, his heart was also on edge as he guarded against the stranger beside him suddenly making a move.

Thirty-six shichen later, the dark night ended, and daylight arrived. The instant the sun rose, the yellow sand beneath their feet retreated inch by inch. Waves surged toward them, and giant billows attacked.

Song Yuanxi saw an endless sea rushing toward them. The seawater seemed to descend from the heavens, its vast torrents drowning everything in its path.

“Hurry and use a water-repelling bead! The seawater is poisonous!” Ji Wuxing’s voice suddenly rang out.

Song Yuanxi rummaged through his storage bangle but could not find a water-repelling bead. He did, however, have quite a lot of waterproof talismans. Treating a dead horse as a living one, he grabbed five, six, seven, eight of them and stuck them all onto himself.

Ji Wuxing had already used a water-repelling bead. Seeing that his companion was still “bare,” he immediately came over to help.

When he drew close and saw the talismans on the other party’s body, he could not help making a sound of surprise. “Fellow Daoist Song, these talismans of yours look very familiar.”

Song Yuanxi looked down and, after recognizing them, said, “These were given to me by Senior Brother Ji.”

“Senior Brother Ji?”

“Senior Brother Ji Wuyi.” Song Yuanxi paused as he spoke, then asked with a smile, “Your name is Ji Wuxing, and my senior brother’s name is Ji Wuyi. Is there some relationship?”

Only then did Ji Wuxing remember that his older cousin seemed to have returned from Xuantian Sect. He had heard that his cousin had brought back a fellow junior brother, whose cultivation was not high but whose background was quite deep.

“So you’re the backdoor case they were talking about!” Ji Wuxing’s impression of Song Yuanxi rose at once, and he became even more enthusiastic. “What a coincidence. I was also stuffed in through the back door by my dad.”

Song Yuanxi was instantly speechless and found it hard to respond.

Ji Wuxing, however, was full of desire to talk. “My relationship with Cousin Ji Wuyi is close. Our fathers are blood brothers. Cousin Ji’s father is the Ji family head, and my father is the Ji family’s First Elder…”

After the other party prattled on for a while, Song Yuanxi felt somewhat dazed. He had met the Ji family’s First Elder before. That was an elder who did not smile or joke at all. His speech and actions were even more stern. Ji Wuxing was actually the First Elder’s child?

“What’s with that expression? You don’t believe me?” Ji Wuxing instantly read his face. He grabbed the person beside them and shouted anxiously, “Ji Shaoqing, you tell him!”

Ji Shaoqing, who was the person who had kept watch together with Song Yuanxi earlier, directly threw a knife-like glare at him, forcing Ji Wuxing to let go.

Ji Shaoqing looked at the two people opposite him and tossed out one line. “One fool.”

Then he turned and left.

“You Ji family people really do have personalities,” Song Yuanxi said with emotion as he watched Ji Shaoqing’s back.

Ji Wuxing quite agreed. “Ji Shaoqing is from a collateral branch of the Ji family. His father is the cousin of the cousin of the cousin of my father’s cousin. He has a double spiritual root physique. At only fifteen, he is already at the third level of Qi Refining. Barring any accidents, he will definitely reach Foundation Establishment by fifty.”

So it turned out to be another Ji family genius!

A double spiritual root physique. Presumably, his talent value was not bad either. Ji Wuyi was in the Ji family’s first tier, so this Ji Shaoqing should also be in the first tier.

Song Yuanxi had always admired academic overachievers. Since Ji Wuxing and Ji Wuyi were cousins, he immediately became somewhat curious about what kind of genius cultivator this companion beside him was.

Who would have thought Ji Wuxing would say, “I’m trash. A five-spiritual-root physique. Bottom of the Ji family.”

That tone could be called open and frank. That expression could be called natural. There was not a single trace of awkwardness.

As fellow five-spiritual-root trash, Song Yuanxi had adapted for many years but still could not be as calm and composed as Ji Wuxing. For a moment, he said in astonishment, “Fellow Daoist Ji, your mentality is really good.”

Ji Wuxing waved his hand, not caring much. “Say it enough times and your skin gets thicker. Five spiritual roots are pretty good too. No matter how badly I cultivate, my dad won’t scold me for being lazy. At most, he sighs that my aptitude isn’t enough and that I’m innately deficient. But my dad still dotes on me quite a bit. Every time, he opens the back door for me and lets me enter the trial tower to cultivate.”

With the Ji family First Elder’s identity, arranging for his own son to freely enter and leave the trial tower was still very easy.

Ji Wuxing’s spiritual roots were so poor that there was not even anyone who objected.

“Hey, Fellow Daoist Song, didn’t you also enter the trial tower through the back door? What spiritual root physique do you have?” Ji Wuxing asked casually.

Song Yuanxi was probably infected by him. The little bit of embarrassment in his heart vanished without a trace, and he smiled simple-mindedly as he said, “What a coincidence. I’m also five-spiritual-root trash.”

“Aiya, we two really are fated!”

“We are quite fated. Let’s stop Fellow Daoist this and Fellow Daoist that. Just call each other by name.”

“Excellent! I’m eighteen this year. Song Yuanxi, how old are you?”

“I’m fifteen. Ji Wuxing, you have to call me big brother.”

“Brother Xi?”

“Xingxing!”

The two stared at each other for a long time, then burst into loud laughter. Shoulder to shoulder, they walked forward together to meet the ten thousand waves of seawater about to arrive.

No one had expected that the faint thread of fate at the beginning of the trial tower would, in the end, become a friendship unto life and death.

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