Heaven Awakening Path - Chapter 44

The group of Zhai Feng had left. The students of Xia Feng were also pretty quick with their movements, and soon after, they also began their journey in groups of three-five. Although last night’s affair didn’t have any relation to them, it still caused an air of tension around them. No one could say that they would not suffer a similar incident during the rest of their journey. Their sight-seeing mood, which had been present during the start of the uphill journey, was nowhere to be seen at this moment. Actually, the reason they hurried onto the road was also in order to avoid the delegation of the City Master Mansion. The students who in ordinary times would have loved to get close to Wei Tianqi didn’t wish to provoke trouble for themselves at this moment either.

A whole day passed as they walked on the Mountain Path. Everybody was on the edge, but in the end, they didn’t have to face another incident. During dusk, students began to leave the mountain pass one by one; this spot marked the end of the Xia Feng mountains. At this point, the scenery in front of them began to become wide and clear; it no longer consisted of strange rocks lying on the hillsides, but instead was a boundless stretch of plains. An avenue, that was smooth and stretched perfectly straight up to its far end, was joined at the end of the mountain pass. These individuals, who’d never set a foot outside the Xia Feng region, felt that just a few glances of this avenue would allow them to dissolve their fatigue.

Continue on!

Upon seeing this smooth and perfectly straight avenue, many students decided to continue on without resting at the mountain pass. Apparently, they’d thoughts of continuing their journey during the night.

“What are we going to do?” Mo Lin immediately slumped his buttocks on the ground as soon as he was at the end of the mountain pass. With his physical strength, how could he not feel tired after journeying the whole day? Moreover, he was not someone from Xia Feng region who would feel excitement upon seeing a kind of avenue that could be seen anywhere except in the Xia Feng region.

“You guys decide.” Since Xi Fan had not traveled on his own, he declined to express any opinion of his own. Traversing mountains on a wheelchair is extremely inconvenient. Therefore, for the most of the journey, both he and his wheelchair had been carried by Lu Ping and Su Tang. Yet, at present, both of them seemed as if nothing had happened.

“How can there be no coaches here?” Su Tang said while sizing up her surroundings. Since people coming out of the Xia Feng mountains on a daily basis were extremely low, no coachman would think about coming here. Nothing could be seen there except for a road sign at the side of the avenue which indicated that this was the mountain pass for the Xia Feng region.

“There is a little town up ahead. Spending the night there would be a better choice.” A student of Xia Feng came closer to them and said. He didn’t wait for a single moment after speaking these words and left hurriedly. While he was speaking these words, his companions had also been nervously sizing up the mountain pass because of his such actions, and as soon as he returned, they immediately began to condemn him.

Actually, after yesterday night’s events, many students had begun to have a favorable impression of Lu Ping and Su Tang. However, these two had, after all, offended Wei Tianqi. Thus, none of the students dared to approach them. The student who’d just recently approached them also did it only after making sure that no one from the Wei family was present at that moment. And even after all this, he immediately suffered criticism from his companions. There were many students among them who still wished to curry favor from the Wei family. If someone with such thoughts happened to open his mouth in front of Wei family, there was no saying what would it result in.

Lu Ping and Su Tang were originally about to thank him, but after seeing such an atmosphere, they immediately restrained themselves. They smiled, not minding such things in the slightest.

“Are you just gonna sleep there or come to the small town?” Both Lu Ping and Su Tang turned towards Mo Lin together and asked. Just a moment ago, this guy was just sitting, and the next moment, they found him bluntly lying flat on the ground.

“Small town…..small town….oh, Wang Mountain Town.” Mo Lin seemed to have recalled something. His expression turned resolute and he sprang up to his feet:

“Come, let’s go to the Wang Mountain Town. Shop at the east corner of the street has wonderful prawn congee. I will lead you there.”

By the time Mo Lin was finished speaking, he’d already begun to walk forward in huge strides, causing the left behind Lu Ping and Su Tang to look at other.

“How can he be so much fond of eating?!” Su Tang lamented.

“Pivot’s soul, of course.” Xi Fan said.

“I’ve seen many Pivot’s soul experts. Not many of them are foodies like him, though.” Su Tang said and began to push Xi Fan, following behind Mo Lin.

“It is said that this is also a kind of cultivation practice in the Pivot’s soul.” Xi Fan said.

“Then, this cultivation practice is too convenient.” Su Tang sighed.

The four of them continued with their journey. Surprisingly, during the entire walk, Mo Lin didn’t complain about being tired even once.

“Prawn Congee! Prawn Congee!” This guy was actually cheering as he entered the small town. Lu Pin and the rest two followed behind him helplessly and arrived at a small store at the east corner of the street. Upon seeing the ‘congee’ banner, that was fluttering in the wind, Mo Lin’s entire face was covered with a moved expression.

“Quick, support me in going there.” Mo Lin’s face seemed as if he wanted to kneel. His stamina was finally at its limit. Both of his legs were shivering, however, his mind was still set on eating congee.

Lu Ping helplessly moved forward and supported him. The four of them then began to walk towards the congee shop.

Among the four them, leaving Lu Ping out, all three of them although were not outstanding with respect to Qi’s soul, but had definite realms of first Heavenly Layer or Second Layer with respect to the same. Their sense of smell was far superior compared to that of an ordinary person.

“What a strong smell of alcohol!” Xi Fan said while taking a breath in.

“What’s going on?” Mo Lin’s face seemed a bit confused. His Qi’s soul was at the second Heavenly Layer, stronger than both Xi Fan and Su Tang, so he’d already determined that the source of this alcoholic smell was indeed the shop in front of them. This caused him to raise his head and take a look at the banner of the shop once again in order to make sure that he’d not made a mistake in his tired state. He hadn’t made a mistake, the banner indeed had ‘congee’ written on it.

The four of them, along with their suspicions, arrived at the shop’s front. Immediately afterward, they spotted a female sitting at a table near the door facing towards them. Her long hair was a mess and her complexion was flushed. The table in front of her had no less than six wine glasses lying in an unordered manner. At this moment, her right hand was holding the seventh bottle. She raised the bottle up to her neck and took a gulp, at the same time, her left hand heavily slapped the table in front of her as she shouted:

“My congee!”

“Right away! Right away!” Someone hastily replied from inside the shop.

“Ferocious!” The four standing outside the shop had their eyes opened wide. All four of them had pretty good realms in Infusion’s Soul. They didn’t need to approach the woman to see the wine bottles. This was not Malt Wine which the students of Xia Feng had casually drunk on the mountains, instead, it was a strong wine that is brewed with grains as its main ingredient. The degree of the alcohol in malt wine is about four, whereas the degree of alcohol this kind of wine, is about fifty. An ordinary person can easily get drunk after drinking about a few liangs¹ of such a wine, and at about one jin², one cannot stand without a support. However, the table in front of the woman had six empty bottles on it, which makes it a total of six jins, and she was still drinking the seventh. On top of that, she’d even shouted just a moment ago; such a tolerance for alcohol was truly frightening.

“Is this……an ability of Pivot’s soul?” Xi Fan, as if recovering from a trauma, looked towards Mo Lin and asked. He was specialized in the Essence’s soul. Essence’s soul is related to heart’s emotions and mind control. Hence, a thing such as wine is one of the biggest fear of a cultivator of Essence’s Soul.

“Don’t tell me it’s the Wine Sack mentioned in the legends.” Mo Lin muttered to himself.

“Are you are making things up?” Su Tang said.

“No! This kind of ability exists. If you don’t believe me, ask him.” Mo Lin said and looked towards Lu Ping. The ability shown by Lu Ping when he left behind poison while drinking congee, caused Mo Lin to think that there might be a similar ability to leave behind the alcoholic part while drinking the wine.

“They are two different things, no?”

“Don’t be this serious!” Mo Lin said.

The volume of their discussion was not loud. Clearly, they didn’t wish it to be heard by other people. However, how could they have imagined that this woman, who had already drunk six and a half jins of wine, was not only full of energy, but her ears were also still extremely sharp. She suddenly slapped the table again and glared towards them:

“What can a bunch of little devils understand? Using an ability to drink wine, is just a waste of wine.” Woman reprimanded the four of them.

“Eh?”

The four of them blankly stared.

She could hear their conversation and also knew about abilities, this should mean that she was also a cultivator, no?

“What realm…?”

This was the question every cultivator would instinctively ask himself after running into another cultivator. However, in the end, the four of them had to look towards each other.

“Cannot perceive…..”

Since they cannot perceive didn’t imply that the individual in front of them didn’t have any perception. Most of the times it implied that they couldn’t perceive because the latter’s realm was higher than theirs. For instance Wei Ming; they couldn’t perceive his realm either, which means that guy was likely to have some strength.

“Eh, Wei Ming!”

Lu Ping suddenly said. They were thinking about Wei Ming just a moment ago, however, never did they expect that the guy would actually show up in front of their eyes. He’d entered the Congee shop through the side door. His brows were creased and face was disgusted:

“What’s with this strong smell of alcohol?”

By the time he said these words, his vision was already on the woman. Though, the woman didn’t even give him a passing glance.

“Congee coming!” Just at this moment, the owner of the shop personally carried a bowl of congee from the kitchen to the woman’s table. His entire shop was drowned in a strong alcoholic odor and one of his tables was completely messed up with empty wine bottles, however, it seemed like these things weren’t affecting him in the slightest.

However, Wei Ming was not happy at all. He quickly moved in front of the owner and said:

“With such a strong alcoholic smell, how are we going to eat?”

“If you can’t eat like this, please wait for a few moments.” The owner smiled and did a polite gesture towards Wei Ming.

Still as before, Wei Ming only had his brows creased, however, he was extremely angry in his mind. If it had been the Xia Feng region, not a single individual would have dared to say such words to him. However, this area belonged to Zhi Ling region, not Xia Feng.

Even if this owner knew the fame of the twelve Guardians of the Xia Feng region’s City Master Mansion, he wouldn’t possibly think that the individual in front of him is the Guardian ranked two among the City Master Mansion’s Guardians, Wei Ming.

Wei Ming decided to teach a lesson to this shop owner. His mood was not particularly good today.

He moved his arm and was just about to raise his hand, but surprisingly, before his hand could even move a single centimeter, it had already been grabbed, by that woman who looked like a drunk with her drowsy eyes and flushed cheeks.

“Youngsters of nowadays, why are they so undisciplined.” The woman seemed to be muttering to herself. Astonished Wei Ming immediately tried to apply strength and break free, however, he didn’t expect that the woman would suddenly jerk his hand upwards. It seemed as if all the strength he’d applied to break free had been exerted upon his own body.

Wei Ming was blasted away; from inside of the shop, to its main entrance, and then finally crashing onto the street outside. He raised his head with difficulty and was instantly greeted with four astonished faces. Surprisingly, Lu Ping and the rest were also here.

However, they didn’t seem to have much desire to appreciate his misfortune. Simultaneously, with even more astonished faces than just a moment ago, all four of them turned their heads towards the woman.

“You can’t drink congee because of the alcoholic smell?” The woman was looking towards the Wei Ming who was still on the ground.

Wei Ming’s face was also covered with astonishment. If, even at this point, he couldn’t recognize how formidable this woman was, he didn’t deserve to be called as the brains of the City Master Mansion.

“There is no smell of alcohol here. Open your mouth.” Woman said.

“What are you…….” Wei Ming could only speak these three words before the woman tilted the bowl in her hands, and the boiling congee directly dropped onto his mouth and face.

“I offer this congee to you. You need not thank me.” By the time woman finished speaking, a bowl full of congee had been poured on Wei Ming. She casually threw the bowl and it fell down straight into the embrace of the shop owner. Subsequently, she raised the bottle of wine in her hand as a greeting towards the owner, gave a quick glance to Lu Ping and the rest, and left with a swaying and tilting figure, for Lu Ping and the rest to look at.

1. 16 liangs = 1 jin
2. 1 jin = 0.5 kg