Yamafu Military Affairs

Chapter 472: Feather

The red sun was hanging far in the sky, and the soft rays of light were shining down, dyeing the thick mist in the mountains and forests with colors and flowing slowly.

Dewdrops rolled down from the grass leaves and vines, splashing the trouser legs of the person who came. It was the Qinhuai River, which was three or five miles deep in the forest.

The vast Taoist song echoed among the grass and trees. Qin Huai found the source of the sound and looked carefully. He discovered that under an ancient tree there was a woodcutter chopping wood with an axe. Every two chops, he would sing a line during the interval between breaths and enjoyed himself.

The woodcutter was wearing a new bamboo hat, dressed in cotton cloth, holding a steel axe, and carrying a hemp rope for fire. No matter how you looked at him, he was no ordinary woodcutter.

Seeing that [A Glimpse] didn't respond at all, Qin Huai took two steps forward and said politely, "Hello, fellow Taoist. I am a casual cultivator who has traveled far from Zuzhou. I came to Penglai Mountain to visit a friend. I wonder if you have ever seen a blue bird girl while cutting wood in the forest all day?"

The woodcutter seemed unaware, and continued to work with his axe and sing, not paying any attention to Qin Huai who was nearby.

Seeing that the woodcutter did not move, Qin Huai raised his eyebrows, reached out his hand calmly, and grabbed the belt around the woodcutter's waist like lightning.

bang~
A ball of ink exploded from the waist of the vivid and lifelike woodcutter, revealing his empty internal organs. After five or six breaths, the chaotic ink solidified again, forming the shape of the woodcutter.

"As expected. The creatures in this Xumi illusion have no spiritual intelligence or entity. Everything is just a reproduction of the scene in the eyes of the painter that day."

Qin Huai sighed, turned around and was about to leave, but found that the woodcutter had already chopped two bundles of firewood, which he swiftly tied up with a hemp rope. He then walked out of the forest with a steel axe in his hand without looking back.

When Qin Huai saw this sudden change, he remembered the legend of the fairy mountain Penglai, and immediately followed him. After crossing mountains and rivers, they came to a cave.

"The mist and clouds are colorful, the sun and moon are shining, what a beautiful Penglai fairy mountain!"

Qin Huai followed the woodcutter and walked across the Cangcui Ridge. When they arrived at the cave, they suddenly stopped and looked to the east.

Beside the cave there is a forest, in which there are thousands of old cypresses and tens of thousands of bamboos. The old cypresses are green and sullen in the rain, and the bamboos are shrouded in mist, creating a breathtaking green in this painting scene which is mostly dark and light ink.

Qin Huai took a look, then turned around and followed the woodcutter, walked towards the Golden Palace and stepped over the threshold.

Penglai Mountain has been a paradise for immortals since ancient times. This cave is not large in scale, but it is well-built, with layers of deep pavilions and towers. Once you enter the palace, there are nine-ridged hip roofs on the top and cloud-stairs and bird-eyes under the eaves, which is very exquisite. Yaotai is built on the north wall. An old man in a green robe with silver hair and a peach wood hairpin inserted diagonally in his hair sits on it, looking extraordinary.

After the woodcutter paid his respects as a disciple to the old man in green robe, he took his leave. However, Qin Huai did not move, but looked at the old man with a deep green mark on his forehead with a scrutinizing look.

The old man had an unremarkable appearance, his hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin, and his green robe was embroidered with cloud patterns and golden feathers. At his side was a sword, which was kept in a green brocade bag. Only a section of the hilt was exposed, but one could already see the carved bird's beak on the hilt.

Suddenly, a loud cry was heard outside the door, the sound of which shook the nine heavens and reached the sky.

"Shu'er?!"

The old man in green robe suddenly opened his eyes, with a look of surprise and astonishment, and a hint of disbelief. Then, he turned into a beam of green light, flew out of the cave, and rushed into the sky.

"So fast!"

Qin Huai's heart trembled, and he immediately activated the [Instant] acceleration, spread his cloud wings, and followed.

On top of the pen peak that stood tall and clear, two green lights, one large and one small, collided with each other, revealing two figures, a man and a woman.

Qin Huai looked closely. The woman had dark clouds on her head and shoulders, and no makeup on her face. She wore a thin pleated green silk skirt and a feather jacket embroidered with white background and beads and gold edges. She was pretty and elegant, with a decent appearance.

"Talk about Nanzhi?"

Seeing the person he was looking for appear before him in the form of a person in the painting, Qin Huai crossed his arms and looked suspiciously at the ordinary-looking old man in green robe.

"Is this old man the elder of Miss Tan's peer?"

"Yes, Nanzhi's counterpart is called Ji Shu, a talented person in the Penglai Bluebird Clan. He left Penglai more than a hundred years ago and traveled to the Ten Continents and Three Islands. Later, due to his lack of cultivation, he was trapped in the Wind Valley of Yanzhou and could not leave. The many bluebirds in Penglai should have thought she was dead. After Nanzhi started the incident, he escaped with the cultivation of a demon king (three thousand years of cultivation), returned to Penglai, and found the current Bluebird Clan leader Ji Yu, intending to complete the requirements of the Yanfu incident and practice the exclusive magical powers of the [Bluebird] Clan."

Tan Song, who had been accompanying Qin An on the island beach, came to Qin Huai at some point and continued to talk to himself: "But on the night when Nanzhi arrived in Penglai, the three sacred mountains disappeared strangely without a trace, as if they had evaporated from the face of the earth."

As soon as Tan Nanzhi arrived in Penglai, the three sacred mountains disappeared.

The causal relationship between the two is intriguing.
Qin Huai thought for a moment and said, “Mr. Tan, do you mean that Miss Nanzhi’s arrival caused the disappearance of the three sacred mountains?”

Tan Song nodded, looked at the two people reminiscing in the air, and said slowly: "Although Ji Yu has not reached the realm of heavenly demons (four thousand years of cultivation), he is also the mountain master spiritual officer left by the Emperor of Heaven to guard Penglai in the mortal world. He is at least at the peak of the seventh palace. Once he transforms into a Dharma body, it will be a headache for the six-level officials to walk. But even for him, it is impossible to move mountains and fill the sea and hide his traces overnight. Similarly, there are no peerless heavenly demons with four thousand years of cultivation on the other two sacred mountains, so I think that something else must have targeted Nanzhi, which caused the three sacred mountains to disappear overnight."

"That shouldn't be the case. If Miss Nanzhi didn't trigger any additional Yamabu events, how could the [Golden Summoning Order] in her hand become ineffective?"

Qin Huai thought about it and asked tentatively: "Could it be that some force is hindering her actions and preventing her from returning to Yama?"

"I thought so too. Hou Tu said that the moment Penglai disappeared, Nanzhi's ninja land fell into a state of disconnection, and the communication with the mother crown was completely cut off, so even she could not find Nanzhi's exact location."

Tan Song looked across the Hundred-foot Dark Sea and far away at the Qionghua Waterside Pavilion on Fangzhang Island where a dragon was dancing. He sighed and said, "This kind of situation has happened before in our guild, and the final outcome of staying and walking was not good. After thinking it over again and again, I finally put down my old face and asked Mr. Qin to be my lobbyist. Please come and lend me a hand."

Qin Huai looked at Qin An who was throwing fish food on the edge of the cliff and said comfortingly: "Mr. Tan, you are too polite. You are Mr. Qin's good friend. There is no reason for me not to come."

"However, if there really was a mastermind behind the scenes who went to great lengths to take the three sacred mountains away, then why was Ze Yu, who painted the painting [Hidden Three Mountains], still able to stay on the Guixu Sea without being taken away with them?"

(End of this chapter)