Volume One: The Dragon Rises from the Wilderness Chapter 111: Destined Across a Thousand Miles

The next morning, while Yu Ye was still sitting in meditation and practicing his breathing techniques, Meng Qingqing came to knock on his door, urging him to set off.

The two left Gaoliang Town.

According to the map, they would reach Huazhou Town by the sea in three to five days. As for how to cross the ocean, they would have to figure that out once they arrived.

July was sweltering. Even in the early morning, few people were to be seen on the road. After walking for a while, Meng Qingqing glanced around, then suddenly leaped into the air and began to travel at high speed using a light-body technique.

Yu Ye, dressed in his usual coarse linen tunic and wearing a bamboo hat, walked along the dirt road, taking in the scenery with a sense of ease. Yet, in the blink of an eye, she had left him dozens of yards behind. Watching her retreating figure, he felt somewhat helpless and had no choice but to quicken his pace to catch up.

That woman had truly changed.

When they set off this morning, she was no longer dressed as she had been the day before. She had changed into a moon-white dress, and even her embroidered shoes were white. Combined with her beautiful features and slender waist, she was a sight to behold. However, her cold words and arrogant demeanor kept people at a distance. Or perhaps, she hadn’t changed at all; she had simply returned to her true self.

In the mountains, the two chased one another. Meng Qingqing did not care about the surprise of passersby; her petite figure was as fast as the wind. Yu Ye seemed unable to keep up, consistently lagging dozens of yards behind.

By evening, Meng Qingqing finally stopped. She stood on an uninhabited ridge. A figure hurried toward her, looking somewhat disheveled.

A faint smile appeared on Meng Qingqing’s face, but she turned away, sat down cross-legged without haste, and closed her eyes with a composed air.

"Hoo—" Yu Ye leaped onto the ridge, breathing heavily.

Relying on her fourth-level Qi refining cultivation and her proficient light-body technique, Meng Qingqing naturally found such a long journey effortless. Yu Ye, however, had spent the entire previous night practicing the "Heavenly Prohibition Technique" and the Seven-Kill Sword Qi, as well as studying arrays and escape arts. He had just wanted to rest and meditate in the morning before being urged to leave. Running for five or six hours straight had left him utterly exhausted.

That woman was clearly making things difficult for him, though he did not know why.

Yu Ye caught his breath and looked around. The forest surrounding the ridge was dark and desolate, with no one in sight. The hot wind still pressed in on them, offering no relief. Yu Ye found a spot on the ridge to sit, two yards away from Meng Qingqing.

He flipped his hand and took out three small flags. These palm-sized flags were crafted from beast hide and bone, inscribed with runes and arrays. Yu Ye muttered an incantation and tossed them. The flags flew off and vanished in an instant. He then pinched a magic seal, but there was no reaction.

"This array is useless after all..."

As he muttered to himself, he suddenly saw Meng Qingqing wave her sleeve. A faint, semi-circular glow shimmered into existence, covering an area of about three yards and shielding them both inside. The summer night's heat was immediately kept at bay.

At the same time, Meng Qingqing spoke: "The array is not useless; your incantation was wrong. It seems you are not as clever as you think!"

"Thank you for the guidance," Yu Ye said sincerely.

She continued, "Do not mention to my senior brother that I taught you this array."

"This..." Yu Ye was not a disciple of the Daoist sects, but he knew their rules. It was no small thing for Meng Qingqing to pass on the arrays she excelled at. But since it had come to this, why keep it from her senior brother?

"Promise me!" Meng Qingqing sat with her back to him, her tone brook no argument, revealing a hint of a young woman's stubbornness.

"Very well." Yu Ye had no choice but to nod.

Everything that had happened during these days of traveling with Meng Qingqing had unexpectedly become a secret between them. He carried the burden of a promise to keep this secret hidden from others.

It couldn't be hidden from the Jiao Shadow, though—she knew everything!

Meng Qingqing fell silent. Yu Ye secretly sighed in relief, took out a spirit stone, calmed his mind, and began his breathing exercises.

Three days later.

Two figures stood upon a reef. Before them, the waves churned with a rhythmic roar; in the distance, the sea and sky merged into one.

Yu Ye crossed his arms, letting the sea breeze hit him. He could not help but close his eyes, his heart unsettled by the rising and falling of the tide. Back in the snowy winter, he had been in the northern lands of the Great Marsh, feeling the biting wind and the cold, lonely path of cultivation. Now, at the end of summer, having crossed ten thousand miles to the southern coast, the urge to spread his wings and fly surged within him once more.

Meng Qingqing stood with her hands behind her back, gazing into the distance. Her flickering eyes held a trace of unease. For a disciple of the Great Marsh Daoist sects, the lands beyond the sea were dangerously unpredictable. Whether this journey would bring fortune or disaster, none could say.

Dozens of miles west along the coast lay a small seaside town: Huazhou Ancient Town.

The town was old. Historical records called Huazhou the "Ancient Town of the Stone Dragon," named for the ancient Stone Dragon Ridge upon which it sat. The ridge resembled a giant dragon, complete with head and tail. The ridge connected to the sea, and the dragon’s head had stone vents leading to the seabed; when the air rushed through, it would whistle like a dragon's roar, accompanied by rising mists, as if the stone dragon had come to life. Thus, the town earned the name "The State of the Transforming Dragon."

Yu Ye and Meng Qingqing walked through the streets. The shops were filled with seafood, dried goods, and local specialties he had never seen before. The passersby were diverse in dress and appearance. The atmosphere was peaceful and serene, a stark contrast to the northern lands.

Meng Qingqing headed straight for an inn. Yu Ye followed, munching on a few fruits he had tucked into his robe.

Nanze Inn. There were several inns in town, but Meng Qingqing seemed to have a preference for this one. She handled everything—negotiating with the innkeeper and arranging their rooms. Yu Ye, happy to be idle, wandered around while eating his fruit until he found his room.

The inn featured a tavern facing the street, a large courtyard in the center, and two-story wooden guest rooms in the back. The structure was antique, the paint peeling, and the stairs creaked underfoot. The rooms upstairs, however, were spacious and bright. Pushing open the flower-patterned windows, one could overlook the town and face the sea—a beautiful view indeed.

The ridge upon which the town sat truly resembled a giant dragon lying across the bay. In the bay, a row of wooden boats was docked. Could those small, two or three-yard fishing boats really make a long voyage across the sea?

He decided to rest for a while before planning further.

Yu Ye closed the door and took off his bamboo hat. Finding a water jug and basin, he washed his face, kicked off his boots, and sat on the bamboo bed. His toes and arms were covered in grime, and a layer of dust coated his clothes; if thrown into a crowd, he would be indistinguishable from any common laborer.

He took out the three small flags, thought better of it, and put them away. If another cultivator passed by, a single sweep of their divine sense would reveal the array. The flags were useful, but they made it easy to track his movements.

He pulled out a spirit stone, ready to meditate, when he paused, lost in thought. His divine sense could reach thirty yards; even through the walls, he could see into the courtyard. A woman in white was walking out of the inn alone...

At dusk, Yu Ye woke from his meditation, feeling refreshed. While mortals could not live without two meals a day, cultivators could not live without spiritual energy.

He stepped out of his room and donned his bamboo hat. Only he, Meng Qingqing, and a few merchants stayed on the second floor of the wooden building. More than half of the dozen rooms were empty. Meng Qingqing had been gone for two or three hours and had yet to return.

That woman had become quite mysterious.

Yu Ye went down to the tavern, ordered a few seafood dishes, tasted them briefly, and then paid the bill. By the time he stepped out of the inn, night had fallen. Lights flickered in the streets and alleys. In the bay below the ridge, fish lanterns were being lit one by one.

Yu Ye followed the street downward. A moment later, the bay came into view. The distant sound of the waves, the flickering fishing lights, the shimmering water, and the cool sea breeze made him feel at ease. The dock, built of large stones piled by the water, was cluttered with old fishing boats and nets.

As Yu Ye stepped onto the dock, he saw someone on the bow of a fishing boat cooking a meal.

"Uncle!" Yu Ye called out.

The man cooking was middle-aged and smiled, "Young man, how can I help you?"

"Does your boat go out to sea?"

"Haha, if a fishing boat doesn't go to sea, how else would I catch fish?"

"Oh, does it go to Qizhou?"

"Qizhou? Young man, you're joking. Qizhou is ten thousand miles away. The sea route is long, the winds are high, and the waves are fierce. How could a small fishing boat survive such a journey?"

"You know of Qizhou, Uncle?"

"I've heard of it, but I've never been."

"Never been?"

"You can ask around—who in this fishing port has ever been to Qizhou?"

"Oh..."

Yu Ye was deeply disappointed. He cupped his hands in a gesture of thanks and wandered aimlessly along the dock. He remembered Mo Can saying he had taken a boat from the Huazhou dock to cross the sea. Yet, here he was, and no one had ever been to Qizhou. As he had seen, the tiny boats couldn't handle the rough seas, let alone make a long journey.

*Sigh.* After all that trouble to reach the coast, he had thought crossing the sea would be imminent. Instead, he had no leads at all.

Yu Ye felt as if he were in the dark. He had no heart to admire the night view of the bay. Instead, with his head bowed and hands behind his back, he turned to walk back the way he came. He would ask around at the inn. If there were no ships between Qizhou and the Great Marsh, where did those Qizhou cultivators come from? High-level Foundation Establishment experts might be able to fly on swords, but Qi refining cultivators didn't have the ability to fly across the vast ocean.

"Yu Ye—"

Just as he was feeling depressed, a figure in white blocked his path.

Meng Qingqing?

She had been gone all day, and now she suddenly appeared, no longer cold as she had been the day before. Her expression was gentle, and her voice was soft.

"I’ve been looking for you everywhere. What are you doing here?"

"Looking for a boat to cross the sea!" Yu Ye answered truthfully.

Someone laughed nearby: "Haha, this fishing port is full of mere mortals. Coming here to look for a ship to cross the sea is like asking a blind man for directions or climbing a tree to catch a fish!"

Yu Ye looked toward the voice. Twenty or thirty yards away, on the stone stairs leading to the ridge, stood two familiar figures. Yu Xin was one, but the critical person was the one who had just spoken.

Yu Ye suddenly felt as if the world had gone dark again.

"Brother Yu, it is fate that we meet again after ten thousand miles. Tao Feng offers his greetings..."