I kept staring into the bushes for a long time after the beasts were gone. It wasn't until Bai Ye sheathed his sword and walked up to me that I regained my bearings. "Did it say something to you?" he asked.
The question shocked me almost as much as the bixie's talking. He had said it with such calmness as if he wasn't surprised at all by what just happened, and only expected my answer to be affirmative. I nodded with a bit of confusion. "I think it did … Is this something that guardian beasts are known to do?"
"Not particularly guardian beasts, but in places with strong and pure spiritual power flow like this, it is typical for … living beings to feel closer connections to each other." He didn't seem to want to explain in too much detail though. Instead, he knitted his brow. "Did it threaten you?"
"No. It just asked us to leave, and it said that we won't find yazi's venom in its territory." I looked up at him.. "Is that something you're looking for? How did the bixie know?"
For some reason, the thought of Twin Stars returned to my mind, and I wondered if the venom was one of the things he had been looking for in the past years. Why did he need something so dangerous? The yazi was another legendary beast that I had read in books before, and I shuddered at the memory of those bloody stories of their ferociousness. As much as I trusted Bai Ye's power, the thought of him going against such a savage creature frightened me, and I didn't want to think how potent the beast's venom would be.
But contrary to what I thought, his brow knitted further at my response. "Yazi's venom?" He repeated the words as if trying to interpret them. "Yazi is known to have a lethally poisonous bite, though I've never seen the venom mentioned in medicine books as useful for anything else. What would the bixie think we want it for?"
I blinked. "You are not looking for it?" I asked, secretly relieved.
He shook his head. "I wouldn't know how to use it even if I have it. But guardian beasts have their way of telling what a person needs. That's how they know who poses a threat to them and what they have to protect." He eyed me somewhat curiously. "The bixie must've found out from some signs that you need yazi's venom. I don't know how or what you'll need it for, but if that's what the bixie told us, then we should go look for it."
Well, now I only had myself to blame for bringing this dangerous quest onto him. "But the bixie said we wouldn't find a yazi in its territory." I tried to argue.
"Each guardian's territory covers only a small portion of these mountains. We'll search elsewhere tomorrow." He gave me an almost apologetic smile. "For now though … I'm afraid your cool-off time has to be cut short. Bixie's temper is hard to predict. Now that it has spotted us, it's for the best if we don't linger here any longer."
~ ~
The rest of the day passed in more melting heat, though fortunately without more surprise encounters. Once the sun started dipping below the horizon, the mugginess finally subsided. I was delighted at the feeling that I could finally breathe again, and the delight became thrill when Bai Ye led me to a small creek at dusk.
He sure knew all the best hidden gems in these mountains. The water ran crisp and clear over a shallow bed of colorful rocks, chortling merrily in little splashes and sparkles. Mosses draped over the banks, waving softly in the slow current. I walked over and dipped my fingers into the creek. Heavens, this was the coolest spring I had ever felt, and just the feeling of it on my fingertips was enough to chill the steam that threatened to cook me alive.
"The spring water will help wash off your tiredness," he said, though I knew both of us were thinking "sweat" instead of "tiredness". "I can keep watch for you if you'd like to take a bath."
I turned back towards him. "Do you usually run into anyone else here?" I asked, remembering then that we hadn't seen anyone today yet.
"No … Out of all my trips to the Misty Mountains, I had never seen another person around. But it doesn't hurt to be a little cautious."
I tilted my head. He must've been here hundreds of times already, and probably covered every corner of every peak. How could he have not seen others? Does no one else visit these mountains? That was rare for a place with such pure and strong spiritual power.
He read the puzzlement in my eyes. "I wondered that myself as well," he said. "This place is well documented in various historical tomes, but for some reason, it earned a bad reputation. There were rumors that many cultivators who came here never returned, though no one knew exactly what happened or whether it was even real. After a few hundred years, the rumors became a myth that kept the newcomers away."
Another baseless legend then. It was unfortunate that stories like this had stopped too many people from obtaining the best resources they could've gotten in their lives. But I grinned at the knowledge, because a different thought was on my mind. "If you haven't seen anyone in all the countless times you've been here, then I doubt our luck will be that bad today." I stood up. "I'm taking a bath, and you are joining me."
He arched an eyebrow. "Qing-er—"
"And I'm doing all the bathing work this time," I cut off his protest. "We agreed a while ago, remember?"
Before he could argue any further, I sealed his mouth with mine and pulled him forward. With a satisfying splash, both of us landed in the heavenly cool water.
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