Chapter 16

After seeing the strange fish in the stone trough, Wu Mian was taken aback. Gui Bu Gui thought he didn't recognize the strange fish and was about to show off his knowledge, but unexpectedly, Wu Mian turned to look at him and said two words: "Ying Yu."

"Huh? You recognize Ying Yu?" Gui Bu Gui looked at Wu Mian with great surprise, then, relying on his seniority, continued, "I didn't expect you to be so young and yet have some knowledge..."

Wu Mian glanced at Gui Bu Gui, who shivered and instinctively took a step back, changing his words to, "...quite knowledgeable."

Wu Mian ignored him and turned to continue watching the Ying Yu hiding in the corner of the stone trough. These feathered strange fish originally lived in the Yangshui River on Gui Mountain and were not native to the Central Plains. They only appeared in ancient texts like the "Classic of Mountains and Seas." Wu Mian had seen them a few years ago when the First Emperor of Qin had just unified the seven states. At that time, Korea presented two pairs of Ying Yu as rare treasures. The alchemist in charge claimed that there was a formula for an elixir of immortality that used Ying Yu bone marrow as an ingredient. The First Emperor, without a second thought, granted the Ying Yu to the alchemist. However, during the slave testing, a small incident occurred: the slave who took the elixir made from Ying Yu bone marrow bled from all seven orifices and died on the spot. Such an elixir naturally could not be given to the First Emperor. Fortunately, there were too many elixir formulas circulating at the time, and the death of a slave was not a rare occurrence. However, in the heart of the alchemist in charge, the loss of two Ying Yu was more regrettable than the death of two slaves.

Over the next thirteen days, Wu Mian and Gui Bu Gui stayed in the cave. To prevent the Witch Ancestor from leading people up the mountain to search for Wu Mian, Gui Bu Gui set up several mind-bewitching formations at the cave entrance. Although his ability to use magic was sealed, setting up a few small formations was not a problem. As long as the Witch Ancestor did not come personally, no one would discover the situation inside the cave.

The remaining issue was food and drink. The food they had brought was taken away by Lin Huo. While Gui Bu Gui was setting up the formations, Wu Mian found some wild fruits nearby. He had also planned to catch some rabbits and other game to roast as dry rations, but he was worried that the Witch Ancestor would organize the local Miao people to search the mountain, and the smoke from cooking would expose their hiding place. In the end, he gave up. However, these wild fruits would not last long. Although they would not starve to death, the feeling of hunger was no different from that of ordinary people, and the remaining days would be spent enduring it.

Gui Bu Gui had practiced abstaining from food and drink, which is why he could survive for over a hundred years. On the third day after the wild fruits were finished, when Wu Mian was almost starving, Gui Bu Gui started talking about his most glorious past: "Let me tell you a story to ease your hunger. Back then, I was invited by the king of Chu to bless the newborn prince. At the banquet, the king of Chu personally accompanied a hundred or so feudal lords. The wine that night was quite good, rich and fragrant. A hundred or so lords came to toast me, but I didn't get drunk. The food was also excellent; the bear's paw was stewed in fish broth, soft and fragrant. There was also roasted deer meat, a whole deer roasted over charcoal, with a rich aroma and oil dripping from the corners of your mouth. And that fish... What are you doing?"

The more Gui Bu Gui talked, the hungrier Wu Mian became. Finally, he could no longer bear it and slowly walked to Gui Bu Gui. Before he could react, Wu Mian slapped him, causing Gui Bu Gui to spin around and hit his head on a stone protruding from the cave wall, fainting.

After four or five hours, Gui Bu Gui slowly woke up. He looked at Wu Mian dazedly and, after a while, remembered what had happened: "Why did you hit me again?"

Wu Mian was so hungry he could barely stand up. He leaned against the cave wall and said fiercely, "If you keep talking about your past feasts, I'll bite off your arms and legs and eat them. Since you are immortal, the lost flesh will grow back quickly!"

Gui Bu Gui was stunned, blinked, and said with a bitter face, "You don't know, I've also suffered in the past. When I was young, my arms and legs were injured and infected, and flies laid maggots in my wounds..."

"Shut up!"

"..."

By the eighth or ninth day, Wu Mian gradually adapted to the feeling of hunger. During this time, a group of Miao people entered the cave and circled around. Wu Mian held the dagger Lin Huo had left him, ready to fight, but Gui Bu Gui was gesturing to him, indicating that the people who entered could not see them and telling Wu Mian not to act.

Sure enough, the Miao people walked right past Wu Mian, treating him as if he were invisible. After looking around, the leader said a few words and led the group out of the cave. Wu Mian had stayed in the Miao village for a few months and understood from their conversation that the white-haired man was not there and that he would not dare to stay after offending the Witch Ancestor.

After this group of Miao people left, no one else entered the cave. Wu Mian endured the days in the cave, feeling the strength he had lost returning.

Gui Bu Gui was looking at him with a strange expression. Wu Mian turned to look at him, and as their eyes met, a bolt of electricity flashed in Wu Mian's hand. Gui Bu Gui's face changed immediately, and he turned to run towards the cave entrance. But before he could take a step, he heard a "sizzle" behind him, and a bolt of electricity hit his back. Gui Bu Gui fell to the ground, trembling for a while before getting up and said to Wu Mian with a bitter face, "Do you have to do this to know your power has returned?"

Wu Mian let out a long breath, walked to Gui Bu Gui's side, and smiled, a rare occurrence. "Let's see if you dare to show off in front of me again." He then walked past Gui Bu Gui, swaying, towards the cave entrance.

Watching Wu Mian's back, Gui Bu Gui silently made a "tch" sound and said to the air, "Old man Xu, did you plan all this?"

After Wu Mian left the cave, his eyebrows suddenly raised, and he pinched his thumb and index finger together. A spark of electricity shot out from his fingers, turning into an electric arc and striking a nearby bush. A wild rabbit fell out of the bush, twitched a few times, and then lay still.

Wu Mian walked over, picked up the dead rabbit, and threw it to Gui Bu Gui, who had just come out of the cave. "Start a fire and roast the rabbit. Remember, make it taste like bear's paw."

Four days later, at night, by the large pool below the waterfall, an old man and a young man with white hair appeared. The old man was pacing around the pool, as if looking for something, while the young man with white hair held a stone trough filled with strange fish. If there were any experts present, they would recognize the fish as the Ying Yu from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas." The stone trough, along with the water and fish, weighed several hundred pounds, but the young man held it as if it were a paper box, showing no sign of effort. The two had visited the nearby Miao village earlier in the day, but strangely, they found no one in the village.

These two were Gui Bu Gui and Wu Mian. They were supposed to go down the mountain the previous night, but as they approached the foot of the mountain, Gui Bu Gui suddenly stopped Wu Mian. He tilted his head, as if something was bothering him, and said, "That's not right. We've been down here for so long, and I expected to encounter some Miao people setting up checkpoints. Not seeing anyone doesn't seem like the Witch Ancestor's style."

Wu Mian also sensed something was off and said, "You mean they set up an ambush below?"

"Maybe," Gui Bu Gui squinted and looked towards the large pool, continuing, "Or perhaps something has changed on the Witch Ancestor's side, and they can't spare the time to deal with us."

Wu Mian couldn't stand his calculating expression and said with a sidelong glance, "Just say it, what do you mean?"

"Let's go back and check," Gui Bu Gui, seeing Wu Mian's expression, took a few steps back, calculating the distance to avoid Wu Mian's reach, and said, "Let's go back and check... maybe we can find some advantage."

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