Love Travels through Time (My father who traveled through time and space to cultivate immortality came back to pick me up) - Chapter 43
Chapter 43: Ten Years Later
Following their planned route, Xiang Haikui spent the first five years carrying out a bloodbath against the harmful monsters outside Silver Sand Pass.
Uninhabited zones, toxic miasma areas, forbidden regions—there was no monster she couldn’t resolve by transforming into a flood dragon.
If there was, she simply fled.
When there was nothing left to kill, she went to challenge the ancient mirage demon sealed by the quicksand array.
The result? She was beaten to her knees by the mirage demon and subjected to a thorough round of mockery, leaving Tiankuang so furious it banged against the walls.
Next, Xiang Haikui dragged her entire household southward from Silver Sand, traversing the borders of “Shu,” “Zang,” and “Dian”…
These desolate, monster-infested areas essentially became her spiritual herb garden.
She spent another four years on this.
Yet during these four years, she returned to Silver Sand every New Year’s Eve—partly to spend the New Year with her father, and partly to continuously challenge the mirage demon.
After being beaten to her knees for the fifth time by the mirage demon, Xiang Haikui dropped a harsh threat as she fled in panic.
“Just you wait! I’m going to find a divine beast specifically meant to counter you!”
She then left the Central Continent, crossed the ocean, and smuggled herself into the territory of the Western Continent to find the divine beast she spoke of—an alpaca.
“Can this short-legged camel really defeat the mirage demon?”
Bai Xingxian had asked this exact question the entire way.
After asking, he glanced behind him.
The upper atmosphere of this region was blanketed in toxic miasma, making flight impossible just like in Silver Sand.
He and Xiang Haikui rode horses in front, while his uncle trailed behind on the alpaca.
They could have bypassed it using a flying magical treasure, but the night-luminescent pearl detecting demon power suddenly lit up, signaling demon energy suitable for his uncle to absorb.
They had no choice but to land and investigate.
Xiang Haikui was full of confidence.
“Just trust me.”
The mountain wind howled fiercely; she raised her hand to tuck the stray hairs at her temples behind her ear.
Over the past few years, she had kept her hair shoulder-length, tied up in a casual bun.
When it was a bit longer before, she had tried dressing it up in all kinds of pretty hairstyles, adorning her head with pearls, jade, and hairpins. But during combat, they proved to be far too much of a hindrance.
After riding their horses a bit further, Xiang Haikui suddenly barked, “Stop!”
The sword case strapped to Yin Changli’s back snapped open, and Tian kuang flew out, settling into her hand.
She turned her head and shot Yin Changli a look.
Yin Changli hurriedly tugged at his reins, driving the alpaca forward with a series of clip-clops.
The two horses and two riders flanked him and the little alpaca, encircling them in a protective circle.
“There’s a extremely lethal spell formation up ahead, with at least twenty-odd people laying in ambush, all around Rank 6 or 7 in cultivation,” Xiang Haikui instructed Bai Xingxian.
“There are too many of them, so I might not be able to cover everything. You’re in charge of keeping an eye on Senior.”
Just as the boss had surmised, although the little black snake was steadily recovering, as long as his memories hadn’t returned, his rational thinking grew increasingly absent by the day.
While he hadn’t yet reached the point of weeping over fallen blossoms as she had once anticipated, he had already begun to harbor a softhearted, universal compassion.
Earlier, he had saved an injured little white rabbit and nursed it with meticulous care.
During a brief nap of his, Xiang Haikui roasted it and ate it.
He silently watched Xiang Haikui finish every bite, then gathered the rabbit’s fur and bones, buried them in the dirt, and built a tiny mound for its grave.
After that, things grew increasingly exaggerated: reciting a poem when it rained, playing the zither when it snowed, and feeling a pang of melancholy at the mere sight of autumn frost and falling leaves.
Yet, unexpectedly, this bizarre turn of events proved to be a blessing in disguise—it caused the reservoir in Dao Chen’s Tianren Sword Realm to shoot up rapidly.
“Got it,” Bai Xingxian agreed.
However, after Xiang Haikui had stood with her blade drawn for quite some time, only three people finally flew down from the mountain peak.
The female cultivator leading the group seemed to have a soft spot for handsome young men.
Upon landing, she stole several glances at Bai Xingxian before clasping her hands in greeting.
“We are disciples of the Hundred Beasts Sect from Luoqi Peak. Are you three here to capture the fish demon as well?”
So it’s a fish demon. Xiang Haikui clasped her hands to return the courtesy.
“We are rogue cultivators passing through. May I ask if this fish demon has been committing atrocities?”
The female cultivator blinked in surprise.
“You weren’t invited by the City Lord?”
Xiang Haikui replied, “Hmm? We just sensed the demon energy and came over to check it out.”
The female cultivator and the two behind her all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Xiang Haikui listened as she explained: the area beneath their feet was the territory of City Lord Xuelong. The Panlong River ran through sixteen small cities and hundreds of towns, serving as a vital transport artery.
Not long ago, a strange fish demon around grade 8 had suddenly appeared near the gorge, wantonly devouring passing vessels and causing countless casualties.
Given the severity of the situation, the grade 9 City Lord Xuelong had personally come to hunt it down. However, the fish demon lurked deep underwater and refused to come out no matter what. Since the City Lord couldn’t stay on guard indefinitely, he posted a massive bounty, inviting rogue cultivators and sects within the territory to hunt it down.
“Miss, we have already set up our array and waited for over ten days…”
The female cultivator was subtly reminding her of the “first come, first served” rule.
Xiang Haikui quickly said, “Don’t worry, we won’t steal your kill. But after you slay it, would you be willing to hand its demon core over to me?”
“What, if we don’t give it to you, are you going to rob us?”
A youth behind the female cultivator sneered.
This youth wasn’t a hothead who picked fights with everyone he saw; he was simply displeased after seeing his Senior Sister stare at the white-haired handsome man several times.
“I’ll buy it with money,” Xiang Haikui said, ignoring him and continuing to speak with the friendly female cultivator.
“Well…” The female cultivator hesitated.
A grade 8 demon core was exceptionally valuable, worth at least three thousand spirit pearls even for the lowest quality, and these three didn’t look particularly wealthy.
The monk was riding a short-legged camel she had never seen before—silly-looking and devoid of spiritual energy.
As for the female sword cultivator and the handsome youth, their horses were the cheapest mountain-running horses available locally.
“Price is not an issue,” Xiang Haikui added.
She wasn’t short on money.
She bought the cheapest horses simply because they were only riding them for a short distance; bringing them back to Silver Sand would be useless, and she intended to set them free once she got the demon core, not wanting to waste money.
“My, what a big mouth,” the youth couldn’t resist chiming in again.
“A grade 8 demon core for whatever price we set? How about we name a price of a hundred thousand spirit pearls—does that work for you?”
“Junior Brother! Mind your manners!” The female cultivator turned and glared at him.
Xiang Haikui found people like him extremely annoying.
Just as she was about to snap back, Yin Changli spoke up.
“Little Bai.”
Bai Xingxian understood immediately. He patted his cheek and spat out a pouch. Once the small pouch expanded into a large bag, he loosened the drawstring.
As the fragrance of “wealth” wafted out, the eyes of the three from the Hundred Beasts Sect instantly went wide.
The middle-aged man who hadn’t spoken until now clasped his hands toward Bai Xingxian.
“Young master, let us talk this over slowly.”
Bai Xingxian shook his head and pointed at Yin Changli.
“Don’t talk to me. I’m just a servant; all the money belongs to my uncle.”
Holy crap, are monks this rich nowadays? The middle-aged man clasped his hands toward Yin Changli again.
“Master…”
“Don’t talk to me either—talk to her.”
Yin Changli pointed at Xiang Haikui.
“The money is mine, but I am her…”
He paused deliberately for a long moment before reluctantly tacking on two words, “…servant.”
The three were stunned once more, looking back and forth between Xiang Haikui and Yin Changli in disbelief.
Xiang Haikui didn’t bat an eye.
“Yes, talk to me. What I say goes.”
Yin Changli sneaked a glance at her and sent a voice transmission: “Are you not going to scold me for wasting money?”
Xiang Haikui raised an eyebrow.
“Even if we dare to offer a hundred thousand pearls, they wouldn’t dare take it.”
Pulling out that much money without blinking meant they couldn’t possibly be ordinary people.
“Still, don’t do this next time, Senior. If we run into someone bold enough to actually take it, we’d be taking a massive loss.”
Yin Changli tugged gently at the soft wool on the alpaca’s neck, saying with utmost caution, “It wouldn’t matter even if they took it. If a matter can be settled with just a little bit of money, there’s no need for you to waste your breath.”
Over the past ten years, watching her rush to and fro, braving mountain fires and seas of blades to gather demon energy for him, his heart had ached beyond measure.
Yet the things he could do for her were far too few.
Pouring tea, serving water, making beds, folding blankets, wiping the sword case, sewing and mending, boiling water and cooking meals…
Little Bai was a wonderful teacher, but that was as far as it went.
“Oh! Right!”
The middle-aged man snapped back to reality. Just as he was about to bargain with Xiang Haikui, an explosion suddenly resounded up ahead.
Everyone turned their eyes toward the source of the noise, only to see a massive, inverted bamboo basket appearing on the river’s surface.
The fish demon had triggered the spell formation set up by the Hundred Beasts Sect.
The bamboo basket was the manifestation of the array’s power.
The female cultivator’s face paled in horror.
“It’s here!”
With a slight tap of her toes, she leapt several dozen yards away.
“Miss, let’s talk later!”
The middle-aged man and the youth chased after her as well.
BOOM!
Another explosion!
The bamboo basket shuddered violently under the impact.
Disciples of the Hundred Beasts Sect flew out, surrounding the basket in a circle; joining their index and middle fingers, they chanted incantations under their breath as the bamboo basket burst into radiant light.
Before long, the basket suddenly fell quiet.
Had the fish demon escaped, or was it dead?
While continuing their chants, the group exchanged glances before looking up at a single individual.
It was the elder leading the team.
The elder knit his brows.
“Strengthen the array!”
Upon being reinforced, the bamboo basket indeed began to vibrate once more, yet it stopped again soon after.
“Strengthen it further!”
“Stop strengthening it!”
Xiang Haikui leapt down from her horse, holding her sword in a reverse grip and propping Tian kuang behind her back.
Hastening forward, she stopped by the riverbank and shouted, “It’s using your array to break its own seal!”
This fish demon must have been sealed before and managed to escape, yet still harbored items like sealing nails embedded in its body that it couldn’t pull out itself. With its power constrained, it had deliberately devoured humans here to draw out the Hundred Beasts Sect’s array, intending to leverage the array’s energy to force out the sealing nails within its body.
“It’s definitely not just grade 8! Once those sealing nails are extracted, things will become truly troublesome!”
The elder frowned.
Dealing with demon beasts year-round, his sect understood that the possibility she described was entirely plausible.
However, the compass in his hand that measured demon energy clearly indicated that the fish demon beneath the bamboo basket was growing weaker and weaker.
He demanded, “How do you know?”
Xiang Haikui replied, “My sword told me.”
When the fish demon first appeared, Tian kuang hadn’t reacted at all; but as they strengthened the spell formation, Tian kuang began trembling more and more violently.
A member of the Hundred Beasts Sect piped up, “They might just be trying to steal the demon from us! If we abruptly withdraw the array, we’ll suffer a backlash, and this demon will fall straight into her hands!”
Having witnessed the other party whip out a hundred thousand pearls without blinking, the middle-aged Daoist refuted, “Junior Brother, isn’t your vision far too narrow? What you treasure as a prize might not even be worth a second glance in their eyes.”
The elder remained silent.
Seeing the elder hesitate endlessly, Xiang Haikui charged forward directly with her sword drawn.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
The elder waved a strand of spiritual energy toward her, which transformed into a flying blade to intercept her.
Xiang Haikui slashed it apart in a single strike, the fiery line drawn by her sword tip dazzling and blindingly sharp.
Leaping high into the air, she dived downward, piercing a hole straight through the bamboo basket!
A wave of violent aura shot out from the hole.
Immediately after, the bamboo basket vanished, and the disciples of the Hundred Beasts Sect suffered the array’s backlash, tumbling backward as they flew several dozen yards through the air.
“Audacious!” Infuriated beyond measure, the elder was about to capture Xiang Haikui when the needle on his demon-measuring compass snapped completely.
Shocked to the core, he instantly realized that Xiang Haikui had been speaking the truth.
He hurriedly shouted, “Flee, quick!”
By now, Xiang Haikui had returned to the bank.
Glancing back, her eyes widened involuntarily.
What kind of demon was this?
She saw a small boy, roughly two or three years old, sitting sideways on the back of a black catfish.
His buttocks and the fish’s back seemed to have grown together, resembling a grotesque sort of merman demon.
The little boy’s mouth was split open all the way to his ears, and he was casually tossing a large pearl in his hand.
The fish’s mouth suddenly spat out a stream of bubbles, sucking in everyone nearby who hadn’t managed to run away in time. A cluster of transparent bubbles wrapping around people bobbed up and down on the river surface.
The little boy let out a cold sneer, flinging the pearl in his hand toward one of the bubbles.
Trapped inside that bubble was a wolf—presumably a spiritual beast belonging to one of the disciples.
Once the large pearl entered the transparent bubble, it dispersed into countless tiny pearls that flew back and forth. It looked like a two-colored lottery machine; by the time it stopped, that spiritual beast had been punctured into a sieve.
The people trapped inside the bubbles were scared out of their wits.
This fish demon was slaughtering the chicken to warn the monkeys!
Xiang Haikui’s eyes lit up with abnormal brilliance.
“Senior, you’re in for a treat—this thing is bound to be extremely nourishing.”
Yin Changli looked deeply concerned.
“Be careful, it won’t be easy to deal with.”
“No worries! The sealing nails in its body haven’t been completely extracted yet. Besides, I just happen to hard counter it!”
Flood dragons never feared fish—a natural bloodline suppression existed between them.
“Take this!” she shouted loudly, drawing the fish demon’s attention so it wouldn’t hurl more pearls into the other bubbles.
Leaping into the air, she raised her sword and slashed down at it!
The fish demon spat out a bubble, locking her in with a crisp pop.
Like everyone else, she landed on the river surface with a heavy plop.
The crowd’s hope ignited in an instant, only to be dashed just as quickly into total ruin.
Everyone felt thoroughly disgusted inside—she had looked like a high-tier master, but turned out to be scrap metal after all.
Yet in the next moment, the female sword cultivator inside the bubble was suddenly enveloped in a black glow. As the black light dispersed, a massive black flood dragon emerged!
Looking thoroughly startled, the fish demon hurriedly threw the pearl from its hand.
The pearl bounced off her scales with a flurry of loud crackles.
The flood dragon’s body continued to expand, and the bubble stretched right along with it until it was finally burst open by the dragon.
As the flood dragon snapped its jaws toward the fish demon, the demon also swelled several times in size—not only attacking with its tail, but the child on its back also transformed the pearl into a long spear.
The dragon and the fish wrestled into a tangled heap in midair, dragon and fish scales scattering in a shower. Finally, the flood dragon used her sharp claws to tear the fish demon in two.
Yet, after the fish demon died, the flood dragon seemed to go mad, slamming her head against the mountain peak so violently that the rocks shattered and crumbled!
Once the bubbles around everyone vanished, they fled in panic to dodge the falling debris.
At that moment, a string of Buddhist prayer beads flew out and hooked onto the flood dragon’s horn. Only then did her frenzied actions slowly cease. After circling once in midair, she landed on the bank and reverted to her human form.
Xiang Haikui kept her eyes closed, remaining motionless.
Tiankuang plummeted from the sky, embedding itself diagonally into the stone pile in front of her.
Yin Changli stepped forward. The prayer beads above her head flew back into his hand, turning into a pristine white umbrella.
He held the umbrella over her. Soft strands of spiritual energy floated beneath the canopy, resembling a fringe of tassels.
Only after a long while did Xiang Haikui open her eyes.
Yin Changli switched hands to hold the umbrella, taking out a handkerchief embroidered with a sunflower to wipe the sweat from her temples. “This loss of control seems more severe than last time.”
Xiang Haikui sank her breath into her dantian and let out a long sigh. “It’s alright, I guess.”
She was currently at the peak of grade 6, and Tiankuang had already entered its fifth tier.
Tian kuang’s power grew stronger by the day, but its drawbacks became equally pronounced.
Her demonic nature was beginning to manifest, making her prone to impulses, loss of control, and violent outbursts.
It was almost terrifying to think about: Tian kuang had nine tiers in total, and it was only at the fifth. What would it be like if she cultivated further?
She wouldn’t end up inheriting the dragon race’s infamous “lustfulness,” would she?
After all, so many species in this world carried dragon bloodlines. What did that prove? It proved there was nothing under the sun the dragon race wouldn’t try to sleep with.
Placing her hand over her dantian, she spat out a round bead from her mouth.
“See? I told you it’d be super nourishing. This fish demon’s core has already condensed into a soul essence… Little Bai!”
Bai Xingxian ran over and popped open the snake jar.
The little black snake was no longer frozen, though its body was still a bit stiff. It only needed the demon core placed inside for it to absorb the energy on its own.
“How is it?” she asked Yin Changli.
“How much more do you need to reach thirty percent recovery?”
“Just a little bit more,” Yin Changli felt out his inner state and replied.
Xiang Haikui massaged her temples. The boss had been saying “just a little bit more” since half a year ago, and no one knew just how much that “little bit” actually was.
“Let’s go then. Once we head back to Silver Sand and finish off the mirage demon, that should do it.”
Xiang Haikui waved to the people from the Hundred Beasts Sect.
“You can take the fish demon’s corpse to the City Lord to claim your reward. Since I took the inner core myself, I won’t be giving you money.”
The two horses and the single alpaca then departed from the riverbank.
Before leaving, Bai Xingxian glanced back at the group.
“With Little Kui transforming like that, they’ve probably recognized you.”
Xiang Haikui frowned.
“Probably not.”
Jingwen’s duel challenge had indeed made her famous across the Central Continent back then.
However, that fame only lasted for two or three years before she was eclipsed by Xiang Tianqing.
Ten years ago, Jingwen had taken two disciples at once.
Jing Ran was aggressively courted by major factions in the royal capital, yet over the past decade, he had stayed in the Sword Dao Academy and barely stepped outside.
He never participated in any competitions, big or small.
Rumor had it he suffered a setback during cultivation that damaged his sea of consciousness. Xiang Haikui had sent him several letters without receiving a reply. Just as she was about to rush to the royal capital to visit him, news spread that he had engaged in a debate over the Dao with a senior scholar and argued the man to tears. Only then did she put her mind at ease.
It wasn’t surprising—her senior had been a law major. Though she had never seen him join a debate club, his debating skills were bound to be sharp.
Xiang Tianqing, on the other hand, drew far more attention than her upperclassman.
She was like Conan: wherever she went, trouble followed.
Every time others were unable to cope and the situation escalated, she would step in—bam—and resolve it perfectly.
Xiang Haikui was certain that someone from her hometown must have crossed over again.
Moreover, as Xiang Tianqing’s reputation grew brighter, another narrative began to circulate.
Back then, the Sword Venerable had issued the duel challenge merely to show respect for Xiang Tianqing; Xiang Haikui was just a free extra tacked onto the deal.
This narrative shared almost the exact same playbook as the rumors targeting her when she first arrived in Silver Sand, claiming she was her father’s concubine.
Xiang Haikui was utterly speechless.
Couldn’t the Meng family target her with a new tactic for once? Talk about disrespecting your opponent!
After they had traveled far into the distance, the canyon quieted down.
A dark figure materialized, pulling out a voice transmission talisman: “Third Master, this monster is ruined. There’s no need to lure the Eldest Miss to Xuelong City anymore…”
A voice came from the other side of the talisman: “…”
The man in black said indignantly, “Third Master, this Xiang Haikui has to be eliminated. Over the years, she’s been hunting monsters everywhere—she must have figured out our plan! There’s no other explanation!”
These rare species that Third Master had spent countless efforts to cultivate were slaughtered by her before they could even fully mature.
Out of the eight released in total, she had already brutally wiped out seven. It was enough to make anyone burst with rage!
