Legend of the Great Sage

auties from the painting to pour the alcohol.
When it entered the cup, the fragrance became even heavier, resembling both ink and alcohol.

Li Qingshan tried a sip, and his eyes lit up.
The strange, perfumy taste spread through his mouth.
He felt like his flesh had melted away wherever the alcohol reached.
It did not burn, but it seemed to be much more than that.
There was extremely pure spiritual qi inside as well, so it definitely was not just for savouring.

He drank the entire cup in a single gulp, and even his organs felt like they had descended into chaos.
He shut his eyes and savoured it for a while, refining the cup of alcohol.
Only then did he praise, “That’s some fine alcohol!”

“How’s it? I didn’t lie to you, did I?” Chu Danqing savoured the alcohol slowly.

“No wonder you’ve been cultivating so quickly.
Where did you get this alcohol from?” Li Qingshan asked in wonder.
Even third heavenly tribulation cultivators could not necessarily get their hands on spiritual alcohol like that, and Chu Danqing had said it was not him who brewed it.

“My master gave it to me.” Respect from the bottom of his heart filled Chu Danqing’s face.

“Master Chu left it to you?” Li Qingshan asked.
However, Chu Shidao had already passed away, and he was only a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

。”

“No, it’s another master.”

“You’ve taken on another master! I wonder what kind of senior he is!” Li Qingshan was rather surprised.
He knew all too well how attached Chu Danqing was to Chu Shidao.
He would never take on another master so easily.

“Master will probably come here today.
You’ll know when you see him.”

“Then I’d like to see him.
Come, cheers!” Li Qingshan held back his curiosity and conversed with Chu Danqing.
When he mentioned the various wondrous sights of the Mist province, Chu Danqing became filled with anticipation too.
“I’ll definitely have to travel around in the future and paint all the sights that the nine provinces have to offer!”

“Have you been staying here during the recent years?”

“Yeah.
Master wants me to focus on cultivation and painting.
Even when it comes to those acquaintances from the academy, I can only see them once in a while.
They take my paintings to deal with the locust plague.”

“Hasn’t any locusts come to disturb you?” Li Qingshan asked.
He was located deep within the mountains and forests, but it was not exactly remote compared to the rest of the Green province, but there were actually no signs of any feeding locusts in the surroundings.

“Probably because the Soaring Locust King hasn’t gotten around to here yet.”

“You sure are fortunate to be able to avoid all of the conflicts and live here in seclusion!” Li Qingshan said.

Suddenly, Li Qingshan sensed something and gazed into the distance.
Before he knew it, a figure had appeared on the shore of the lake nearby.
He was dressed in black robes that gave off a hint of navy.
His long hem and sleeves dragged along the pure-white snow, like a trailing brush on paper.

The wind and snow blurred his appearance.
All Li Qingshan could tell was he was a slender man carrying a red, oil-paper umbrella that resembled a maple leaf.
He approached them gradually.

“My master is here!” Chu Danqing stood up to receive him.

。

In the blink of an eye, the man had arrived before the pavilion.
Li Qingshan looked at him carefully.
His face was thin and of classic elegance.
His eyes were sunken, but his nose bridge stood tall and straight.
He gently pursed his thin lips as his long, ink-like hair scattered messily near his waist with curls.

For some reason, he reminded Li Qingshan of those despondent scholars mentioned in ancient poems.
With a sense of destitution and bleakness, he walked through the winter snow, but what he brought was the entire season of late autumn.

As for his exact cultivation, it was instead easier to neglect.
Even if Li Qingshan tried to distinguish it, it was unclear.
Compared to the female servants in the pavilion, he seemed more like a person from a painting.

Li Qingshan suddenly noticed that his eyes were completely white, devoid of irises.
He thought, Don’t tell me he’s blind? No, with my eyesight, I can even clearly make out a mosquito from five kilometers away.
How can his appearance be obscured in my eyes just by some wind and snow?

“Master, this is the Li Qingshan I’ve mentioned.” Chu Danqing introduced him.

“Pleased to meet you.” The man gently shook off the snow on the umbrella as if he was not surprised by Li Qingshan’s cultivation, or perhaps because he was overly dejected and exhausted that he no longer cared about anything in the world.

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“May I ask for your name, senior?” Li Qingshan asked with clasped hands.
He felt rather puzzled inside.
They had clearly never met before, yet why did he give off a bizarre sense of familiarity?

“Mo Wuhen.” The man nodded, keeping talking to a minimum just like before.

TL: The meaning of the name is quite important to the next chapter.
The surname, Mo, means ‘ink’, while Wuhen means ‘without a trace’ or ‘traceless’.

“The surname Mo, or ink, isn’t particularly common.”

Li Qingshan had some understanding with regards to the great cultivators of the Green province, but he had never heard of that name before.
He shuddered inside, suddenly remembering an enemy also with Mo as a surname, the prince of the Green province daemons, Mo Yu.
He could not help but study the man before him closely.
Surely he was not…