Landed Ashore

One day, two days, three days, four days...

The currents beneath their feet were at times swift, at times sluggish, now narrow, now wide, winding through the terrain. The scenery before their eyes constantly shifted—from mountain ranges to barren flats, then to snow-capped peaks, and onward to dense jungles filled with ancient trees.

Jiang Mingzhe and Azis had already spent several sunrises and sunsets upon the back of the Flying Sky-Centipede Emperor. Most of their dried rations had been consumed, and the water in their gourd was long gone. Disgusted by the unclean water stirred up by the centipede, Azis tied a rope to the gourd and cast it far out into the clear river currents to scoop up drinking water. From time to time, she would also urge the giant centipede to churn up waves, startling fish into leaping out of the surface so she could catch them with her bare hands.

Taking advantage of moments when the giant centipede was off guard, the two would also quickly swap their gloves. While one person steered the beast, the other seized the opportunity to circulate their internal energy and cultivate.

Before setting out, Jiang Mingzhe had packed all the remaining Five-Treasure Flower Nectar Wine in his back basket, and he now brought it out to share with Azis. Over the past few days, Azis had successively opened four acupuncture points, yet she still puffed out her cheeks in frustration, tapping herself on the head and calling herself foolish.

Comparison brought pain; during those same days, Jiang Mingzhe had opened another seventeen acupuncture points. Combined with the twelve he had opened previously and the three opened on the day of merging the poison, he now had a total of thirty-two acupuncture points opened. Aside from the five Conception Vessel points opened at the very beginning, the remaining twenty-seven points were all exclusively of the Metal attribute.

In addition to opening his points, the centipedes he had acquired at Centipede Mountain were all used entirely for merging venom into his points. Yet this time, he did not use the clumsy method of letting centipedes bite his hands and then forcing out the venom. Previously, the Star Palace always used living humans to merge poison, caring nothing for pain or life and death, but Jiang Mingzhe had blazed a new trail, devising a method of merging venom using his own blood, which proved to be even more effective.

After seeing this, Azis fell into deep thought. Lacking Jiang Mingzhe's Innate Poison Physique, if she were to merge poison this way, she would absorb far more toxicity and inevitably suffer from a deviation in her cultivation. However, upon careful reflection afterward, if she feared the excess toxicity, couldn't she simply apply a little less poisonous blood? Furthermore, seeing that Jiang Mingzhe would rather endure pain than harm living humans, she vaguely worried that if she continued to use the old methods to merge poison, it might displease him—though she would never voice this thought aloud, nor even readily admit it to herself.

Later, when she suggested that Jiang Mingzhe merge the venom of the Flying Sky-Centipede Emperor, Jiang Mingzhe replied that he was afraid it would bite off his hand. Azis instantly thought of a brilliant method: excise the venom sacs of the venomous creature, mix them with human blood to create "artificial poisonous blood," and use that to merge the poison!

When she presented this idea to Jiang Mingzhe, he praised her repeatedly for her cleverness. Azis then took up a blade, excised the centipede's venom sacs, and squeezed them into a jade bowl. Jiang Mingzhe slashed his hand to draw fresh blood, mixed it thoroughly with the venom, applied it to his palms, and tried circulating his energy. Sure enough, it worked.

Azis followed suit, excising the venom sacs from all the red centipedes they had previously captured, mixing the venom with her own blood, and gradually merging it into her body bit by bit. Although she was much slower than Jiang Mingzhe, her efficiency was vastly improved compared to her past reliance on other people's blood to merge poison. Overjoyed, she laughed, "At this rate, in two years at most, Zhaixingzi might not even be my match. Haha, I'm going to be the Senior Sister!"

When they were not cultivating, Jiang Mingzhe also told Azis two stories: How Houyi Shot the Suns and Chang'e Stole the Elixir, and How Zhu Bajie Took a Wife, introducing entirely new characters such as Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, and Gao Cuilan.

The more Azis listened, the more she loved the tales. Unable to withstand her endless questioning, Jiang Mingzhe had no choice but to start from the beginning and tell the complete Journey to the West. Having never read the original text, he naturally recounted the television series version. He had already reached the section about the Women's Kingdom. After finishing that part, he struck a coy pose and sang a passage for Azis: "Mandarin ducks roost together, butterflies fly in pairs, the full garden of spring scenery intoxicates the mind..."

Azis had never heard such a poignant and lingering little tune before. For a moment, she looked at him as if he were a heavenly being, exclaiming, "Big Ginger, you truly are a great talent! You can write poetry and compose music as well. Heavens, is there anything you cannot do?"

Jiang Mingzhe had already shouldered the ode of Guanguan Ju Jiu, and adding this Song of Daughterly Affection to his repertoire caused not a single ripple in his calm heart. He smoothly engaged in mutual flattery with her: "Senior Sister is also an exceptionally brilliant woman. Just this innovative method of merging poison—once popularized, how many lives will be saved each year? What do writing poetry and singing songs amount to? This is what one calls boundless merit for Senior Sister."

Azis cared nothing for boundless merit; seeing Jiang Mingzhe's sincere delight, she felt immensely proud of herself. Seizing the opportunity to act spoiled, she urged him to sing the Song of Daughterly Affection seven or eight times in a row until she had completely memorized it before she was satisfied.

As for that kingdom populated entirely by women, Azis felt an intense yearning, launching into a glowing daydream: *If I were the ruler of the Women's Kingdom, I certainly wouldn't want that blockhead monk Tang Sanzang. When the time comes, I'll take this Big Ginger as my royal consort, make him drink plenty of water from the Mother-Child River, and have him give birth to a few chubby babies for this ruler, wah-hahahaha!*

The young girl found the thought more and more amusing as she pondered it. She scooped up a gourd full of river water, forced Jiang Mingzhe to drink a few mouthfuls, and then sank so deeply into her fantasy that she could not extricate herself. From time to time, she cast grotesque, eerie smiles toward Jiang Mingzhe's belly, murmuring, "Royal Consort, why hasn't your belly started growing yet?"

Yet even such interesting days could not be perfect in every aspect. The primary issue was the three bodily urgencies.

Urination was relatively easy to resolve. Although the space on the back of the Flying Sky-Centipede Emperor was limited, they could at least divide it into front and back. The person in front was forbidden to turn around, while the person in back seized the moments of turbulent waves and strong winds to let loose. The sound was masked by the rushing water, and the scent was instantly swept away by the headwind. With a thick enough skin, they could completely pretend nothing had happened.

Defecation, however, posed a massive problem. No matter how close Azis felt to Jiang Mingzhe in her heart, she could not possibly perform such a majestic feat right in front of him. Even with Jiang Mingzhe's thick skin, he had no desire to openly relieve himself.

Fortunately, both of them possessed a certain level of internal energy; eating a little less and suppressing their digestive tracts was not too difficult.

Thus seven days passed, and both of them had grown a circle thinner. Jiang Mingzhe had spent a long time frequenting banquet circles and, although youth had spared him from gaining weight, he still carried some surplus fat. Having thinned down from this ordeal, his jawline had become as sharp as carved stone, his facial features grew even more three-dimensional, and his physique turned increasingly lean and athletic. His already striking appearance was elevated to even greater heights, causing Azis to frequently gaze at him in a daze.

As for Azis, who was already somewhat slender to begin with, this weight loss made her look as though a strong gust of wind might blow her away. Her large eyes appeared even larger, transforming her once cheeky and resourceful look entirely into one of touching, pitiful vulnerability.

Jiang Mingzhe felt they could no longer drift like this; they had to go ashore. It was time to relieve themselves and eat properly, or Azis would genuinely turn into a flat sheet of paper. He reckoned that his internal energy had greatly advanced over the past few days, while the giant centipede was currently weak and listless. Combining their two strengths, a battle might not end in defeat.

Having made up his mind, just as he was about to discuss it with Azis, a restless, shrill cry suddenly came from the basket behind him.

Azis exclaimed happily, "Ah, that troublemaking thing has finally woken up!"

During the battle at Centipede Mountain, the little monkey had displayed divine might, single-handedly intimidating all the venomous insects on the mountain until its belly was stuffed to bursting. Probably no bee-monkey since the dawn of its species had ever eaten as much as it had. In particular, everything it consumed consisted of rare and deadly venomous centipedes; it had extravagantly eaten only the most toxic heads until it simply could not bear the load and fell into a deep sleep, only waking up just now.

Whether the little monkey had cultivated blessings of eating in a past life, the moment its eyes opened, it caught the scent of the Flying Sky-Centipede Emperor. To it, this was a delicacy of a lifetime, and its eager craving was ten times more intense than when it had first encountered the Six-Winged Iron Centipede.

The giant centipede's antennae were tightly gripped in Jiang Mingzhe's hand at that moment, which paradoxically saved it from being instantly paralyzed by the little monkey's cries. However, it still sensed the presence of its natural predator and suddenly went wild, its dozens of long legs flailing wildly just as they reached a bend in the river, crashing straight toward the shore.

Jiang Mingzhe and Azis had taken turns steering over the previous days and had remained safe throughout, so they had inevitably let down their guard. Unexpectedly, the giant centipede suddenly went berserk, flinging them both off balance. They crashed into each other and tumbled down from the centipede's back.

The giant centipede flicked its golden whiskers, regaining its freedom, and instantly prepared to flee. Unfortunately, the little monkey's shrill cries continued unabated; before the centipede could dash even three meters, its entire body trembled and it went completely limp.

Azis laughed heartily and tossed a small knife to Jiang Mingzhe, calling out, "Cut out its venom sacs and squeeze the venom to mix with your blood; that should be enough to merge the poison."

With that, she darted into the dense jungle like a wisp of smoke—most likely to use the latrine.

Jiang Mingzhe stepped forward with the blade, pinned down the giant centipede's two massive fangs, and forced his way through the hard shell with a series of crunching snaps, skillfully twisting and pulling them free.

Behind each of the fangs was connected a bluish-black sphere the size of a date—these were precisely the centipede's venom sacs. The two sharp, blackened fangs of the centipede were not actually teeth at all, but mutated forelegs, with the venom sacs growing just behind them. Once the forelegs pierced a victim's flesh, venom could be continuously injected.

The moment the venom sacs were out, the little monkey's cries grew even more urgent. Ignoring it, Jiang Mingzhe found a jade bowl, squeezed out the venom, bled himself into it, and then tossed the two deflated venom sacs to the little monkey, telling it, "Don't let this centipede's large size fool you; it doesn't actually have much venom. Just make do with these."

The little monkey grabbed them, sniffed them, and seemed to find the portion lacking. Yet with its intelligence, it could never comprehend human methods, so it could only stuff them aggrievedly into its mouth and slowly begin to chew.

Seeing that it had no complaints, Jiang Mingzhe chuckled, crossed his legs, applied the blood, and began merging the poison.

The venom of this Flying Sky-Centipede Emperor was both highly toxic and immensely potent. Jiang Mingzhe had to bleed himself several times over, taking the better part of the day, before he managed to fully merge it all into his body.

When he opened his eyes, Azis had already returned. She looked at him with envy and said, "The Innate Poison Physique is truly peerless. With so much venom, if it were me, I wouldn't finish merging it even in a month."

Then, a look of excitement appeared on her face as she said, "Big Ginger, just now I saw a young girl catching a whole bunch of venomous snakes. Shall we go rob her?"