Free Web NovelChapter 660: Chapter 252: Purple Mansion
Shen Wen’an took out two blank Jade Scrolls from the Storage Bag, preparing to copy the cultivation technique from the Dao Seal Jade Carving in front of him.
Li Qing was drinking fine wine alone, then seemed to feel that drinking one cup at a time was not satisfying enough.
He placed the Jade Cup aside and directly picked up the wine pot for a big gulp.
By the time Shen Wen’an finished copying the two Dao Seal Jade Carvings, Li Qing had already drunk the wine in the pot.
"Hmm... Fellow Daoist Shen, do you have any more of this Spirit Wine?"
Shaking the empty wine pot in his hand, Li Qing felt a bit unsatisfied.
Seeing this, Shen Wen’an smiled and shook his head, then directly took out a jar from the Storage Bag.
He was not a connoisseur of wine himself and only brought a little of the Spirit Wine brewed at home, just to have something to offer to likable cultivators he might meet.
"Since Fellow Daoist Li likes it, this jar of Cloud Water Brew is yours."
Having received the Seasonal Jade Carvings of [Chushu] and [Xiaoxue], he didn’t have anything very valuable to offer in return, so if the other party appreciated an inexpensive jar of Spirit Wine, he couldn’t be stingy.
Li Qing, hearing this, happily stored the wine jar in his Storage Bag, and then commented, "Your wine is indeed good, but lacking the richness that comes with age, not quite mellow enough."
"If aged for several hundred years, it would have a different taste when drunk."
Shen Wen’an nodded with a light smile.
The wine-brewing technique was passed down from his father, Shen Yuan.
As for the lack of mellowness, the Shen Family’s wine-making tradition barely spans a hundred years, and the Spirit Wine he brought was aged for less than a century, so it naturally couldn’t be considered mellow.
"Speaking of wine, I suddenly recall a mysterious brew from years ago, whose rich fragrance seems to linger still between my teeth..."
Li Qing spoke with a face full of delight.
Shen Wen’an, seeing this, was a bit curious: "What kind of Jade Dew leaves such a delightful aftertaste, Fellow Daoist?"
Li Qing came back to his senses, shook his head with a complex expression.
"It must have been around two hundred years ago..."
"When I reached the Fetal Breathing Perfection Realm, I wandered around the Return Sea Cliff, seeking an opportunity to break through to the Golden Core."
"I stumbled upon a small floating island at sea, sensing a faint and obscure wave of spiritual power on it, and guessed there might be rare treasures, so I went over to explore."
"Can you guess what happened?"
Li Qing had an odd expression.
Facing his gaze, Shen Wen’an slightly shook his head and remained silent.
Li Qing continued, "I thought there were no other beings on the island. As I was carefully searching for the strange treasure emitting that fragrance, I was unexpectedly ambushed by a monkey."
A monkey?
Shen Wen’an was somewhat surprised: "Was that monkey a Demon Beast?"
Li Qing slightly shook his head: "That creature couldn’t be considered a Demon Beast at first, as there was no Demon Essence fluctuation on it."
"And I was sure it never cultivated, it was just an ordinary monkey."
"At first, it threw stones at me, but I paid it no mind."
Picking up a Spirit Fruit from the desk, Li Qing took a bite and laughed: "For a mighty Great Demon at the Fetal Breathing Perfection Realm like me, why bother with an unrefined beast?"
"But to my surprise, during my search for rare treasures on the island, the little thing followed behind me, not too close and not too far."
As the story unfolded, Shen Wen’an also noticed something unusual.
"At that time, you were a Fetal Breathing Perfection Realm Flood Dragon; your aura alone would scare off ordinary beasts and even the Great Demons of the same realm. How is it that this monkey... was it special?"
"Hey!"
"I also found it strange at that time, which is why I didn’t eliminate it right away."
Li Qing threw the Spirit Fruit into his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed before saying: "The most fascinating part comes after."
"During breaks from treasure hunting, I would occasionally sit cross-legged and cultivate, breathing in the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi."
"The little creature remarkably mimicked my actions."
"Later, I found a Profound Spirit Fruit on the island and spent several months refining it."
"When I awoke, I was astonished to discover the little creature had already introduced Qi into its body and reached the Qi Cultivation Third Layer!"
Hearing this, Shen Wen’an showed a look of disbelief.
For a demon beast to step onto the path of cultivation, it was an extremely difficult task.
Ordinary demon beasts take a hundred years to introduce Qi and another hundred years for Fetal Breathing; subsequently breaking through to the Golden Core depends heavily on their innate talent and bloodline.
Li Qing’s monkey could transform from an unrefined creature to a Qi Cultivation Third Layer demon beast in a few months, an incredible feat indeed.
"What happened afterward?"
"Later..." Li Qing showed a hint of regret.
"After refining the Profound Spirit Fruit, I was eager to breakthrough to the Golden Core, so I left it with some basic Breathing Techniques."
"I intended to return to the island after achieving the Golden Core to properly teach the little one and thereby find a companion in the vast sea."
"The little fellow offered some mundane wine it brewed from the island’s wild fruits."
"I didn’t think much of it, placed it in my Storage Bag, and hurriedly left."
Standing up slowly, Li Qing said with a hint of sorrow: "After narrowly escaping death numerous times, and finally achieving the Golden Core Dao, I rushed back, only to find the island had vanished."
"I searched every corner of the sea within a thousand miles but never found a trace of it."
He sighed heavily and mockingly smiled and shook his head: "I suppose...the little one and that island might have been caught in a fierce battle between some mighty demon beasts and sunk to the bottom of this endless sea..."
After hearing all this, Shen Wen’an was filled with a sense of melancholy.
He could see that Li Qing truly appreciated the little monkey.
"The mysterious brew I mentioned was the wine crafted by that little creature."
"After combing through a thousand-mile sea and finding no trace of it, I thought of the wine it gifted me back then, intending to bring it out for nostalgia."
