34: Chapter 34 The Cthulhu cheat code has arrived.

From Qingyun Sect to Cangyun City, there were no flying boats for the two to take on the way back, and walking along the official road would take five days.

Xie Feng and Tu Ziguan chose the mountain road.

It was not to take a shortcut; Tu Ziguan insisted that the "True Qi-driven portable individual mobility device" developed by him and Mo Tang needed to test its performance in complex terrain.

Xie Feng asked him what on earth that was.

Tu Ziguan pulled out an iron plate with wheels added, stepped on it, and could run by inputting Spiritual Qi.

"You call that thing a mobility device?"

"I even gave it a name, called Wind Fire Wheels."

"You are not allowed to call it that."

In the end, the two did not step on the iron plate down the mountain, and instead went to find Mo Tang to make two Spiritual Qi-version "motorcycles."

There was no way around it; the two of them could not fly, and they would only be able to fly upon reaching the Fourth Realm.

Hearing that they were going out, Wen Yushu specially delivered two Divine Travel Talismans, saying they were given by his own Elder and didn't need to be returned.

Tu Ziguan asked him why he was so kind-hearted, and Wen Yushu narrowed his eyes and smiled, saying that it would only be useful if the two of them came back alive.

Xie Feng felt that this reason was very sufficient and accepted the talismans.

With the Divine Travel Talismans pasted on the motorcycles, the speed of these new-energy Spiritual Qi motorcycles was truly no joke.

The two walked all the way southeast along the ridge, and the Qingyun Mountains beneath their feet rolled out layer upon layer in the afternoon sunlight, looking as if someone had crumpled a large piece of green silk and thrown it on the ground.

Tu Ziguan adapted after walking for half an hour, and began to hurry along while gnawing on that damned baked sesame cake.

Xie Feng followed behind him on his side.

"Brother Feng," Tu Ziguan said while chewing the cake, "Let me ask you something, have you thought about those five believers in the Black Pine Forest later on?"

"Speak louder, I am blind, and I drive relying on Spiritual Qi and my ears." Xie Feng increased the throttle and caught up from behind. "I have thought about it."

"Then tell me about it."

Xie Feng did not answer immediately, tilting slightly forward as if looking at the road, but there was nothing beneath the hanging gauze.

Tu Ziguan waited for a few breaths and heard Xie Feng say: "Those five people are fine; what I've been thinking about is why they knew that Spell."

"What's the difference?"

"Who those five people are is something the Sect will investigate.

But the summoning Spell in their hands is not something just anyone can get. The Black Goat Young Summoning Technique is a high-grade thing even within the cthulhu mythos system. Where did five people, whose cultivation level is even unknown, learn it from?"

Tu Ziguan swallowed the cake and took a sip of water. "You mean someone taught them?"

"Or someone gave it to them. In addition, there is another matter that I have never figured out."

"What?"

"The meridian-blocking powder."

Tu Ziguan knew what meridian-blocking powder was; Elder Zhao had told him when Xie Feng was unconscious. "You mean the person who poisoned you might be from the Xie Family?"

"That's my guess, but there's no evidence, and there is one thing I've never been able to figure out: before Elder Zhao discovered the meridian-blocking powder, I had a feeling myself."

"What kind of feeling?"

"The feeling of blocked Meridians," Xie Feng said, "but the original owner shouldn't have truly been trash."

Tu Ziguan reacted. "That's right! You felt it."

"Yes. Just a few days after transmigrating, when I tried to circulate Spiritual Qi, I felt it.

What does this prove? It proves that the effect of the meridian-blocking powder was 'abnormal' in my perception. I can compare the difference between being 'blocked' and 'unblocked.'"

"What do you mean?"

"If there is nothing wrong with me, then the original owner is a bit off. Why couldn't he feel it?"

Tu Ziguan was silent for a moment.

The mountain wind blew across from the side cliff, carrying the scent of pine resin and earth.

"Then the question arises, if you can sense the abnormality, how did the person who administered the poison make the original owner unable to feel it? Or rather, what was his purpose when he administered the poison?"

"That is what I want to investigate."

Xie Feng twisted the throttle and rushed past, startling the coachman on a carriage nearby.

"A thing like meridian-blocking powder is not fatal when placed in the Meridians; it just cripples a person. If they only wanted to harm a direct descendant of the Xie Family, there are more straightforward methods. Poisoning, assassination, or at worst, manufacturing an accident would all work."

"It sounds like some kind of punishment," Tu Ziguan said.

"Or fear. Someone was afraid of the original owner—to be precise, afraid of him starting to Cultivate, afraid of him becoming strong, so they blocked his path in advance."

Tu Ziguan stuffed the water skin back into his waist and thought about it.

"Does Xie Tianxiong know?"

"I don't know. He couldn't possibly allow anyone to harm his direct descendant, but he might know something else; otherwise, he wouldn't have thrown me into the side courtyard, and then forcefully recommended me after the first strange encounter I faced after my Transmigration. If he really were the one who made a move, locking me up would have been enough."

"He has a problem too?"

"I don't know," Xie Feng said. "We'll know once we go back and take a look."

The city walls of Cangyun City appeared in view at dusk.

Tu Ziguan stood at the edge of the cliff, looking at the drab city under the setting sun, and let out an exclamation:

"It looks much shabbier than in my memories."

Xie Feng didn't feel much; he had only lived here for a few days before being sent to the Qingyun Sect.

The original owner's memories were over a decade of youth, neither long nor short.

"How is your dad?" Coming to this, Xie Feng also asked about Tu Ziguan's situation.

"That's the original owner's dad! When I transmigrated over, he had already been sick for more than half a year." Tu Ziguan's tone was flat. "I used the Spirit Stones issued by the Sect to get medicine for him, and now he can get out of bed. Above me, there are four older brothers, and below me, there is a younger sister, twelve years old, named Tu Xiaowan."

Xie Feng's blind cane tapped the ground. "Then you go back first."

"No rush. I'll send you to the gate of the Xie Residence first."

"No need."

"I'm not being polite with you," Tu Ziguan said. "I'm just getting familiar with the door so it's convenient to find you later."

Xie Feng did not decline further.

When the two entered the city, the guards guarding the city recognized Xie Feng. Are you kidding me, the person who smashed the anomaly alone in the Martial Arts Arena, who didn't know?

Now that he had returned to the city as a blind young master, who could resist spreading such a heaven-shaking piece of gossip?

By the time they walked to the gate of the Xie Residence, the doormen were already standing on the steps, craning their necks in anticipation.

The gate of the Xie Residence opened facing south, with three front rooms. The middle main gate was usually not opened, and people only used the side gates on both sides.

Today the side gate was open, and old doorman Zhou stood at the door. Seeing Xie Feng's veil, the expression on his face jumped back and forth a few times between "surprise" and "nervousness," finally settling on an unnatural smile.

"The Young Master has returned."

Xie Feng nodded. Tu Ziguan stood beside him, looking over the facade of the Xie Residence.

Vermilion lacquered gates, a pair of stone lions, and a threshold high enough to trip someone to death. Having grown accustomed to the immortal aura of the Qingyun Sect, he felt nothing toward this worldly wealth.

"Then I'll head back first," Tu Ziguan said. "I'll come look for you tomorrow."

"Go ahead, and give my regards to Uncle Tu for me."

Tu Ziguan waved his hand and turned to walk towards the south of the city.

Xie Feng heard his footsteps blend into the crowd on the street, and then was pulled back by the voice of old doorman Zhou.

"Young Master, why have you suddenly returned?"

"A Sect task; I just dropped by to take a look on the way."

Xie Feng stepped through the side gate, his blind cane tapping on the bluestone ground of the front courtyard of the Xie Residence, producing a familiar sound.

The front courtyard of the Xie Residence was much more desolate than before. The flowers and plants were still there, and the corridors were still those same corridors, but there were fewer people.

Xie Feng remembered that in the original owner's memory, the front courtyard of the Xie Residence always had maidservants and pages walking back and forth, and collateral descendants of the Xie Family coming and going, bustling like half a vegetable market.

Now the corridors were empty, with only two old women sweeping the floor squatting in a corner. Seeing him enter, they stood up to bow, then squatted back down, their movements carrying a kind of numbness.

"No, did the family collapse after I left? I remember Xie Tianxiong is a powerful expert of the Fifth Realm Seventh Heaven, right? Why has the family decayed like this?"

Xie Feng didn't stay long in the front courtyard. He walked west along the corridor, bypassed the main hall, passed through a moon gate, and entered the western subsidiary courtyard. This was the residence of the direct descendant, featuring three main rooms with a small courtyard containing a jujube tree.

The original owner lived here for sixteen years until he was moved to the side courtyard.

The door of the western subsidiary courtyard was half-open. Xie Feng pushed it open and poked his blind cane inside.

The courtyard was covered with fallen jujube leaves, unswept.

Xie Feng stood in the courtyard, the shadow of the jujube tree falling on his shoulders.

Footsteps came from behind. Hurried, heavy, rustling as they stepped on the fallen leaves.

"Feng'er."

Xie Tianxiong's voice.

Xie Feng turned around.

No, you're making me feel so estranged? 'Feng'er' is already out? What am I, 'I am sand'?

He couldn't see Xie Tianxiong's face, but he could hear things from his voice. It was a bit hoarser than in his memory, with a trace of an unsuppressible tremor at the end, as if he were nervous?

"Dad." Xie Feng nodded, while thinking to himself: Aside from the Sect Master, calling someone else dad is really quite unaccustomed.

"Why have you returned? What about the Sect side?"

"A task; I just dropped by to take a look on the way."

Xie Feng briefly mentioned the matter of the Sect task, omitting the Black Pine Forest and only saying that the Sect sent him back to investigate the remaining anomalies around Cangyun City.

Xie Tianxiong was silent for a few breaths.

You're pondering how to talk to me, right? After all, I don't even believe this excuse of mine myself, let alone dropping by to take a look—if I hadn't dropped by to set the house on fire, that would already be pretty good.

Xie Feng bantered in his mind, the corners of his mouth curving slightly upward.

In those few breaths, Xie Feng heard his breathing change rhythm, speeding up by a beat first, and then deliberately slowed down, as if he were adjusting something.

"Your eyes."

"Gone."

Xie Feng answered very quickly, too quickly for Xie Tianxiong to take over the conversation, blocking everything else back with a single word.

It wasn't that he didn't want to chat; it was that he didn't want to chat with Xie Tianxiong.

"The side courtyard where you lived three years ago, I had people clean it up. The main rooms here have never been touched, and your belongings are all in the side courtyard."

No, can't you pretend to be a loving father for a little longer?

Xie Feng thought inwardly, but his spoken answer was completely different.

"I understand. Thank you, Father." His blind cane tapped the ground, and he turned to walk in the direction of the side courtyard.

Xie Tianxiong did not speak.

The blind cane tapped past the moon gate of the western subsidiary courtyard and returned to the side courtyard.

This was the far west of the Xie Residence, right next to the back garden wall.

Calling it a courtyard, it was actually just a small patio enclosed by three low rooms, without even a single tree.

The original owner had lived here for three years, while Xie Feng had lived here for two or three days.

Upon testing out a single-line Aptitude, the original owner was driven out of the western subsidiary courtyard, turning from a direct descendant into trash, moving from the main rooms into the side courtyard.

Xie Feng pushed open the door of the side courtyard, the door hinges making a dry, creaking sound.

The blind cane tapped familiar objects in familiar positions: the couch on the left, the table on the right, and the wooden box at the foot of the couch.

And that ceiling beam he saw when he transmigrated.

"Wishing to buy sweet osmanthus and carry wine together, it is ultimately unlike the wanderings of our youth."

Xie Feng suddenly felt that he had quite the literary youth demeanor, opening his mouth to first pull a move of a literary plagiarist.

He sat down by the couch, leaned his blind cane against the wall, and his brain began to spin.

Xie Tianxiong's reaction was even more off than he had anticipated.

It wasn't indifference; Xie Tianxiong had always been indifferent to him.

Today was no exception.

But today there was something extra; Xie Feng heard a hint of fear in Xie Tianxiong's voice.

"Strange, he is a Fifth Realm expert, why can't he even hide his emotions well? And how could I hear it?"

Afterwards, feeling his chest heat up slightly, Xie Feng began to understand the flavor of it.

"The Golden Finger given by Lord Cthulhu?"