9 A Taoist Temple

The name "Nanli" meant "Li Fire of the south", and Li Fire was actually the name of the kingdom's capital. The village under Immortal Deeds was located in the southwestern part of the kingdom.

During the couple of months that Qin Yi had been here, he visited the cities nearby and obtained some of the information he needed. As far as he knew, there were numerous kingdoms on this continent and Nanli was only a small, remote one. Further to the south lay a great rift valley. No one knew how deep it was, and it was too wide for even birds to fly across. It was hard to tell what was on the other side of the valley, so theoretically, Nanli was the southernmost end of the continent.

Because of its remoteness and the densely forested mountains around it, transportation routes between the kingdom and the rest of the continent had been very sparse. New information seldom found its way to the kingdom, and people here pretty much lived self-sufficient lives. Qin Yi couldn't get much information on the rest of the continent even after probing around. All he was told were some rumors that had to be passed down multiple times before they reached him.

However, it was a place where most people were decent and kind. When the bigger kingdoms on the rest of the continent rose and fell, this remote small kingdom had lasted for generations, as though it was blessed by God. The current king was known as Wude and had been on the throne for 20 years.

Before Qin Yi was told that the siblings' enemy was the master teacher of the kingdom, he never would've thought they were from Li Fire, the capital city. Nanli might be a small kingdom, but it still consisted of quite a few shires. Li Fire and the village were at least two big shires and several small cities apart. He had assumed that they were from one of the big shires at most, but not only were they dwellers of the capital, they were also important enough to confront the master teacher of the kingdom. He could understand why Li Qinglin came all the way here, because the guy had his own plan. Li Qingjun, on the other hand, actually traveled across the kingdom just to look for some immortals that only seemed to live in legends? Didn't she have anything better to do?

"Brother Qin, are you sure you don't need to change horses?"

"Yes. No horse can run fast on such a bumpy road, and a new one wouldn't make much of a difference." Of course, Qin Yi would never tell them that his riding skills were limited to riding slow horses. He would break his neck if his horse started galloping.

"Any horse would be better than this. You're a teenager. Why do you do everything as slowly as an old man?!"

"Qingjun!" Li Qinglin stopped his sister. "Brother Qin wants to keep this horse for sentimental reasons, and that's very admirable. Plus, he's right. The condition of this road isn't suitable for horses to run, so there's no point."

"Hmph! We were so much faster on our way here."

Two teenagers wearing brocade robes and embroidered headbands were riding two fine horses on a mountain path. An old horse was a short distance away behind them, and on its back was a teenager wearing an outfit made of coarse materials. A dirty spiked club hung loosely on the side of the horse and the teenager was casually drinking wine from an old gourd, paying no attention to the strange looks the passersby gave him or Li Qingjun's sneer.

Li Qingjun ignored Qin Yi and heaved a sigh at her brother. "How I wish there were immortals in this world. They can ride the clouds and travel by wind. That sounds so wonderful."

She was mad at her brother before, but now, they were back on friendly terms again. She couldn't help it because she had always been close to her brother. Qin Yi glanced at them and found the girl rather naive. "She's just so gullible."

Li Qinglin didn't discourage her this time. Instead, he smiled amiably and said, "I wish that was true, too."

Li Qingjun said casually, "I bet everyone thinks that way."

The teenager behind them suddenly started singing. "I was in Cangwu this morning, but I'm back here in the evening. In this carefree land, I'm the one setting the rules. My great sword won't stop clanking in its box…"

Li Qingjun looked up at the sky, lost in her thoughts. Regardless of how she felt toward Qin Yi, the guy could always blurt out things that touched her soul.

However, he stopped abruptly after three sentences and Li Qingjun had to ask, "Is that it?"

"Well, the next line says 'I'll only tell the secret to a friend following the same path', and I have no idea why that has to be the case, so I just stopped singing."

Li Qingjun had thought she understood the lyrics, but Qin Yi's explanation only confused her. Ignoring his excuse, she rolled her eyes and asked, "Did you hear it from another travelling cultivator again?"

"How clever. You don't even need me to tell you the answer."

Li Qingjun sighed. "Maybe that was a real immortal."

"Actually, some immortals ride donkeys, too."

The guy sure knew how to kill a conversation. Li Qingjun threw a dirty look at him and couldn't be bothered to comment.

"Qin Yi," Liusu said in his mind. "Where did you hear all these songs, anyway? You're not fooling me with that travelling cultivator crap."

Qin Yi whispered, "It's none of your business."

"You wrote them yourself, didn't you?" Liusu sighed. "I see that you're attracted to that world as well, so why don't you…"

"Shut up, you broken record. I can always look for immortals myself like Li Qingjun did."

"Heh… Immortals aren't that easy to run into, and only a handful people are lucky enough. Ever since… well…"

It then started to equivocate again, which Qin Yi had gotten used to. He tilted his gourd and poured the wine all over the spiked club.

Everyone wanted to become an immortal and roam the world freely.

But they should be honest about it!

"Brother Qin," Li Qinglin suddenly said. "The weather is changing. I think rain is coming."

Qin Yi looked up at the sky as well. They had been riding all day and it was about evening time now. Dark clouds were gathering in the sky in the distance, and the sky looked gloomy. It really was going to rain.

"The next town is at least a two-hour ride away, and I don't think we'll get there in time." Qin Yi had travelled outside the county just to get to know this new world, so he knew his way around here. "There's a Taoist temple on the mountain to our right. It's not far and we can stay out of the rain there."

They turned their horses and quickly headed for the path on the right.

The sky was getting darker. When they saw the eaves of the temple through the gaps of the branches, the dark clouds were already above their heads. They jumped off their horses in unison and ran toward the temple, dragging the horses behind them. Watching Li Qingjun from behind, Qin Yi was amazed because she didn't look like a spoiled rich kid at all. Instead, she reminded him of a chivalrous woman who was used to traveling the world on her own.

"Brother Qin." Li Qinglin had been leading the team, but he stopped abruptly and asked hesitantly, "Is this temple unoccupied?"

Qin Yi shifted his gaze from Li Qingjun's back, looked around, and was a little alarmed.

The last time he was here, there were people residing at the temple. It was already very dark outside, so if there were people inside, candles would've been lit by now. However, the temple remained very dark, and all he heard was a deafening silence.

The branches swayed in the autumn wind, and a leaf would fall out and twirl in the air every now and then. He seemed to catch a faint stench in the air as though he was in a deserted graveyard.

"I was only here a month ago, and it was occupied then." Qin Yi clutched the spiked club. "There might've been some accident. Be careful…"

Before he could finish, heavy rain started pouring down. Li Qingjun drew out her long spear and kicked the front gate open.

All was quiet inside. Everything was covered in dust, and a giant spider web was hanging over the figurine. It seemed that no one had lived here for a while. There was also a dead rat on the ground, which could probably explain the stench. Li Qingjun let out a breath of relief. "I think they've moved away, that's all."

Li Qinglin casually swept the dust away and fetched a praying mat to start a fire. He smiled and said, "It's quite common to find a place like this when you're travelling."

Qin Yi scratched his head in embarrassment and realized that the salacious scenes that happened in deserted temples in movies or stories didn't seem so right. With so much filth around the place, how could one bring themselves to do it?

When Li Qinglin went to fetch some food from his sack, Qin Yi heard Liusu's voice in his head. "Something's wrong with this temple. Be careful."

Qin Yi walked out of the temple, pretending to relieve himself. He then whispered, "What's wrong?"

Liusu said, "I think a demon is hiding outside the backdoor."

"Have you sensed its demonic energy?"

"I'm too weak to do that," Liusu said. "But would you find such a gigantic spider web in your house after it's been deserted for only a month? It just doesn't seem normal to me. I think there's a demonic spider of sorts here and your sudden arrival has startled it, so it's hidden away…"

Qin Yi's stomach lurched. "If that's the case, this demon should be a lot more spirited and powerful than that tiger. The two of them probably won't be able to handle it. I have to warn them…"

"Don't! I told you I couldn't sense its energy. You'll be completely humiliated if I'm wrong."

"…"

"Don't worry. Since it's hidden away, it probably doesn't want any trouble. The Li siblings have those fierce long spears and a very righteous energy about them that the demon won't recklessly provoke them. It's just that spiders hate noise and they don't like it when their webs are damaged. So as long as you keep quiet and leave the web alone, you'll be fine."

Qin Yi sighed with relief. "Good. Luckily, those two aren't the jumpy type."

However, the first thing he saw when he got back inside was Li Qingjun holding a stick and directing it at the spider web.

Shocked, Qin Yi rushed to her side and grabbed her by the arm. "What do you think you're doing?"

Li Qingjun turned around and glared at him. "That's the question I should be asking you! Can't you see this giant spider web? It's so creepy!"

"Well, what I mean is that a young lady like you shouldn't be doing this. Let me do it."

Li Qingjun didn't insist when he took the stick. She then headed for the back door.

Qin Yi grabbed her again. "Where are you going?"

Li Qingjun slowly lowered her head, and her face was expressionless when she stared at the big hand on her wrist.

Qin Yi realized that holding her wrist like this was highly inappropriate. Turning around, he saw that the look on Li Qinglin's face had turned very strange. He had no choice but to release her. "It's dark and stormy. Don't go out alone. It's dangerous…"

Before he could finish, a group of people rushed into the temple, shouting, "We can stay out of the rain here!"

Qin Yi smacked his own forehead.