Pouring wine on sorrow only makes it grow

Bao Zhi flew in the sky above the dunes of Western Desert.

He had his presence concealed. The killer move he used was the improved version of Concealed Human Qi.

Now not only did it conceal his aura by controlling the human qi, but it also considered other aspects like vision, sound and the soul.

He was confident, that nobody could detect him without using at least a rank seven investigative killer move, but he didn't stop to test this assumption.

Occasionally, he noticed people flying the other direction, heading towards the soul beast tide.

They either wanted to capture some soul beasts of slaughter them for the soul cores.

The arrival of the soul beast tide was big event for gu immortals throughout the five regions, an opportunity to gather soul path immortal resources.

But Bao Zhi had no interest in such endeavors, he already possessed enough immortal essence stones for his current needs.

His current target was the location of a certain clan of Western Desert.

He landed at the location his memories told him.

Bao Zhi activated his killer move to scan the place, but there was nothing here.

"The Zheng clan's headquarter is supposed to be here. Why can't I find it?"

He quickly checked for relevant information on Zheng clan in Treasure Yellow Heaven.

"Zheng clan was destroyed over three hundred years ago?" Bao Zhi knotted his brows. "It seems, the favor they owed me will never be repaid."

This wasn't a new occurrence, Bao Zhi had found out that the immortals he knew from his era have all but died of old age or disappeared from the records of history.

Bao Zhi needed to find a way to resolve Hao Meng's problem with his aperture's time flow. If he didn't do that, Hao Meng was likely to fail or get seriously injured by his calamities.

How would he help then Bao Zhi retake his grotto heaven?

With Zheng clan gone, Bao Zhi looked for another clan he hoped to extract a favor from.

He bought some information on Treasure Yellow Heaven before he went looking this time.

"Fei clan is still around. Good, I'll pay them a visit then."

After half a day of travel, he arrived at the oasis Fei clan occupied.

"It seems their headquarter has moved. Not surprising for how much the world has changed." He thought.

After a brief exchange of formalities, an audience was given to Bao Zhi by one of the gu immortals present.

"Fei Shi Feng?" The gu immortal shook his head his head. "There isn't and never was such a gu immortal in our Fei clan." He stated with annoyance, he would much rather be at the soul beast tide than be posted here.

After a round of clarification, the issue became clear.

"You are looking for the ancient Fei clan! That doesn't exist anymore, or we wouldn't claim the name for ourselves. To think there was still someone related to the ancient Fei clan..."

After some probing, Bao Zhi found out the remains of the ancient Fei clan were absorbed by the neighboring Qiu clan.

It was worth to check this lead. But considering how outdated the information from his memories were, Bao Zhi didn't have high hopes now.

Even if he found a Qiu clan gu immortal whose ancestors were from the ancient Fei clan, with which Bao Zhi had a good relationship, this was grasping at straws.

Before leaving, Bao Zhi asked if the current Fei clan could help in slowing down an aperture's time flow.

But the response was as expected, Fei clan did have such a method indeed, but they outright refused to use it on anyone outside their clan.

Such a thing would rarely have happened in Bao Zhi's era. The people of Western Desert had an ingrained and implicit rule to help their kin, it was one of the ways people adapted to the desert's harshness.

Bao Zhi suspected the method of Fei clan's aperture management was flawed, and if divulged to outsiders, it might expose a vulnerability against soul path, putting them at a risk.

Bao Zhi had no choice but to accept their decision and move on to meet with Qiu clan.

If this last option fell through, Bao Zhi had no choice but to attempt to create a method himself that would reduce Hao Meng's immortal aperture's rate of time flow.

But he knew his limits, he wasn't a time path expert, and an improper method would introduce unknown flaws and hidden dangers in a fire path aperture.

This was clearly a last resort option in his eyes.

Bao Zhi didn't know a group of gu immortals were looking for him already, on their way towards Qiu clan as well.

* * * * *

"This person is master's son?" Hao Meng took a moment to compose himself. "Right, I recall him now."

Mo Xuan smiled at him innocently, unsure what was expected of him in such a situation.

"To think that master would entrust his son to me!" A feeling of pride and responsibility washed over Hao Meng at Bao Zhi's level of trust in him. "I cannot disappoint master, I will do my utmost."

"Come and sit with me, friend." He called out, settling Mo Xuan next to him.

Although Hao Meng was a rank six gu immortal, and Mo Xuan was just a rank one gu master, in his eyes they were of the same seniority due to their relation to Bao Zhi, just at different stages in their cultivation.

"Senior brother, what is this place?" Mo Xuan could finally voice his question that was weighing on his mind while waiting for Hao Meng to leave the Brain Melon formation. "It isn't going to fall apart like that other place, right?"

Hao Meng chucked at this absurd question and shook his head. "This place? This is my immortal aperture." He motioned with his arm.

"Immortal aperture..." Hao Meng tasted these words, mumbling to himself. "My aperture is nothing like this. Senior brother, you are so cool!" Mo Xuan exclaimed, his blue eyes glinting with excitement.

"Hahaha, you can drop the formalities, Just call me Hao Meng." He couldn't help grow fond of Mo Xuan's straightforward enthusiasm. "Since our meeting here is an important occasion, we must celebrate. Don't you think so?"

"Yes!" Mo Xuan agreed readily. "Oh. I know! People drink alcohol when they celebrate." He took out a gourd from a storage type gu. "Here. I drink to your good health, brother Hao Meng!" Mo Xuan gulped the wine like a thirsty traveler. "Ahh-" Then wiped his mouth, grinning.

Hao Meng patted his back. "Slow down brother, you need to savor it properly." As he said this, he too took out a gourd with Soul Mirror Wine inside and took a sip. "Bottoms up!"

Hao Meng lit a campfire in front of them, elevating the atmosphere to a lively and inviting quality.

The two of them talked at length, discussing the matters of life and cultivation, getting to know each other.

"Brother Hao Meng- Hicc! You are so knowledgeable! You can answer every question I have." Mo Xuan praised. "Is this because you are a gu immortal? Or did someone explain it to you like you are explaining things to me right now?"

Naturally, as a gu immortal, Hao Meng knew everything there was to know about gu master cultivation. Still, he could feel, each of the questions posed by Mo Xuan were deep and thought provoking.

"A bit of both. There are things that only become clear after you do them." Hao Meng scratched his head, thinking.

But he felt the words just didn't convey what he meant. He felt like he would need his previous state that Bao Zhi put him into, it must have been him he figured, then he could see with much more clarity and guide Mo Xuan just as Bao Zhi did.

The feeling of that moment was but temporary and fleeting, leaving behind nothing but its aftertaste and the improved killer move before vanishing completely.

Hao Meng and Mo Xuan hit it off really well.

They enjoyed each other's company.

After a long while, Qinyang arrived in the blessed land, she was looking for Bao zhi.

"He left just like that?" Her plans were crossed at once.

She wanted to borrow his help again.

"Oh, what is this guy doing here?" She glanced at Mo Xuan who lay next to the warmth of the campfire, it's flickering orange lights illuminating his round face and dancing across his black hair.

"Master left him here. Now he passed out from drinking too much." Hao Meng grinned, also drunk from the wine he consumed. "I took him as my unofficial disciple. But don't tell this to anyone... No, we were just discussing, yes. We are of the same seniority, after all. I can't just cross my master like that." Hao Meng explained.

"You also know that he's not breathing?" She asked with concern, leaning closer to inspect Mo Xuan.

"What?!" Hao Meng sprung up, as if lightning hit him.

His heart jolted, trying to wake Mo Xuan, but he wasn't waking.

"Oh heavens! How could this happen!" The laid back atmosphere turned to panic at once.

Hao Meng fumbled, he activated his healing immortal killer move.

Gentle flames started to lick Mo Xuan's body, like he was atop a pyre.

"It's not working. Why is it not working?!" He didn't know what to do now.

"What did you give him?"

"We each drank our own-" Hao Meng looked at the two wine gourds and realization hit him. "He must have drank from the immortal wine!"

"Not good. That's an immortal material inside his body, no wonder you couldn't heal him."

"How will I face master? How could I be such a careless and unfilial disciple!" Hao Meng was not thinking clear.

"Hey! Can you do something?" Slap! "Get yourself together. We need to remove the immortal wine from his stomach. Do you have a gu for that?" Qinyang stood as the beacon of reason, directing Hao Meng in this emergency.

"Let me check." Hao Meng activated his investigative killer move to sense the immortal wine. "The wine is gone." He found. "He already started to digest it."

Qinyang cursed in her mind. "Think. Think!" She couldn't let Mo Xuan die, they needed him to live, they couldn't lose Bao Zhi because of him!

"Right! Bao Zhi mentioned, he refined the wine into mortal wine so a mortal could drink it, turning an immortal material to a mortal material." She remembered. "Can you do that?"

Hao Meng racked his brain, but he didn't know a suitable refinement method that could refine the wine. The reason was, because the wine has already spread throughout Mo Xuan's body.

Refining it while keeping the mortal flesh and bone intact... The refinement difficulty was too high!

"I cannot do it! I would burn him to a cinder if I tried. While my ice path method is just a mortal move, it cannot hope to affect the immortal material."

"Let's use the refinement formation then!"

They hurriedly brought Mo Xuan to the level of the Wondrous Inspiration Pagoda where the refinement formation was set up by Wen clan's will of Old Refinement.

Hao Meng extinguished the flames around Mo Xuan that aimed to stabilize his condition. Now his well being hung on the use of this refinement formation.

"Have you used something like this before?" She asked.

"No."

This was an immortal formation, a subformation of an immortal gu house to be precise. One wrong more and its power would grind Mo Xuan's delicate mortal body to mush.

"Then, I will do it. If he dies, we at least tried our best." She decided.

"Wait, why don't we check the recordings. Or ask Jue Shi, he could do it right?" Hao Meng hesitated to let Qinyang use the formation, if Mo Xuan died, he would consider it his own negligence.

Jue Shi appeared at the mention.

"I'm not touching that-" His face turned to disgust. "That thing." He indicated the subformation, simply observing the events with a veil of indifference.

Qinyang had to resort to referencing the footage of Bao Zhi and Old Refinement operating the formation.

"Okay. It goes like this..." She began, and the formation hummed to life with glowing patterns.

Mo Xuan's limp body got fixated in the formation space.

The procedure was akin to trying to crack a nut with a huge boulder. It was very easy to apply too much force and ruin it instantly.

Qinyang operated the formation steadily, her latest experience with her new formation gave her some confidence she could do this.

She couldn't go too fast, or she might lose control of the refinement, but she also couldn't waste time as Mo Xuan's life could slip away at any moment.

"Fuh!" Qinyang wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Hao Meng wanted to help, but he knew he would only interfere. This formation was designed to be operated by one person.

"Guuhhh..." A deep groan left Mo Xuan's body, instantly filling the two of them with hope for his recovery.

"Hold on brother, be strong. Everything will be fine." Hao Meng encouraged under his breath, he clutched his fists tight, wishing there was something he could help with.

"AAAA!" Mo Xuan suddenly started screaming at the top of his lung.

His eyes opened wide. But there was only the whites of them visible, they have rolled back in their sockets.

"Too much!" Qinyang corrected her control immediately.

This continued for a couple of long and arduous minutes.

Mo Xuan suddenly regained consciousness, his eyes darted around in fright, finally landing on Qinyang.

"Mothe- no, the evil lady... What ar-"

Qinyang got startled, momentarily slipping with her handling of the refinement.

"AAAAAH!" Mo Xuan scream again, his body was in spasms of pain. "Help me! Ahhh! The evil lady is torturing me!"

He stared at Hao Meng with pleading teary eyes, begging for his help.

"Brother you must endure. This is for your own good." He forced out the words amidst his guilt, knowing Mo Xuan would die without this procedure.

The refinement process caused intense pain throughout Mo Xuan's whole body, making him wail in agony.

Some minutes later, the intensity of his cries lessened.

Next, after another while his screams started to take a turn, changing in tone as well.

"Ahhh..."

"Aaaahh..."

"It almost sounds like he is enjoying this." Qinyang joked.

"He is probably just getting tired from shouting, or the formation has affected his vocal cords." Hao Meng reasoned.

"Ahhh... Yeees!"

"Don't stop... Aaah!"

"..." Qinyang felt the sudden urge to stop instantly.

By the time the refinement ended, over an hour has passed.

Mo Xuan floated out of the formation.

He lost consciousness again. Laying on the ground and drooling on its tiles. His face had a content expression.

"Let's not speak of this. I leave him to you." Qinyang left.

Hao Meng's hair still stood on end, but he checked on Mo Xuan with an investigative move, just to confirm his state was stable.

"Oh wow!" He noticed a clear difference compared to before.

"Ten-thousand-man soul!"

* * * * *