Not long after, the two arrived at Huqiu Village.
Huqiu Village was a small hamlet with, at most, about ten households. Built on a dirt hill, the village was damp due to the abundance of bushes and trees, and the houses were all so small they looked like homes for dwarves.
Upon arriving at Huqiu Village, Su Yun shouted loudly.
"Master Hu! Brother Flower Fox! Su Yun is here!"
Su Yun was about to run forward excitedly, but Qiu Shuijing hurriedly grabbed his hand to stop him.
Surprisingly, Huqiu Village had been reduced to ruins. Houses had collapsed, and the corpses of fox spirits were visible here and there.
Only then did Su Yun seem to smell the blood, and his face turned pale.
"Su Yun, stay calm. If your mind is in chaos, you will lose your sense of direction."
Su Yun bit his lip firmly, trying to calm himself. Before long, he quickly regained his composure.
Qiu Shuijing was quite surprised that Su Yun could recover his calm so quickly. Then again, despite being blind, Su Yun was a child who had survived alone for six years in this Tianshi Enclosure, teeming with monsters. He possessed a mental fortitude strong enough not to panic even if the sky were to fall.
Su Yun gently pulled his hand free from Qiu Shuijing's grasp and walked slowly into Huqiu Village. When his foot touched something while walking, he knelt and felt around with his hands. What his hands touched was none other than the corpse of a fox spirit.
At first, Su Yun was greatly flustered that what he felt was the corpse of a fox, not a human. However, he did not cry or scream; he simply sat there silently and mourned the death.
A moment later, Su Yun stood up unsteadily, fumbling through every corner of the now-ruined Huqiu Village to find the corpses of other fox spirits. Qiu Shuijing merely watched him pitifully.
It took quite a long time for Su Yun to gather all the corpses of the fox spirits in Huqiu Village into one place. However, Qiu Shuijing did not help. He simply watched silently until Su Yun laid the last corpse on the ground.
Su Yun looked at Qiu Shuijing calmly and asked.
"Teacher, which one is Master Hu?"
When Qiu Shuijing guided Su Yun's hand to Master Hu's body, Su Yun gently caressed Master Hu's face. A heavy silence covered the surroundings.
After a while, Su Yun's trembling voice broke the silence.
"I only just realized that Master Hu was a real fox. Still, Master Hu was a truly good person. He taught me books, and how to write... I was slow-witted, so I would forget and make mistakes every day, but Master Hu never got angry with me..."
Su Yun continued to mumble with a dazed expression.
"I thought all the classmates I studied with were humans too... Brother Flower Fox is fourteen, and Fan is six..."
Qiu Shuijing looked at Su Yun with a pitiful expression and said.
"Su Yun, judging by the looks of it, it seems to be the work of those people who came to the Ghost City last night."
"Teacher. I can remember those people's voices."
Before anyone knew it, Su Yun's voice had become calm, as if nothing had happened. His complexion also seemed serene, as if he had already regained his composure. Seeing Su Yun like this, Qiu Shuijing felt both pity and a complicated mix of emotions.
"When I was doing business, I heard them talking as they passed by me. I can remember every single one of their voices."
Just then, a rustling sound came from behind the bushes over yonder. A moment later, a few fox spirits, covered in blood, looked around and revealed themselves.
"Su... Su Yun..."
Recognizing Su Yun from afar, the fox spirits staggered toward him. While sharing a tearful reunion with Su Yun, the fox spirits looked at Qiu Shuijing with eyes filled with fear.
In fact, until recently, while the fox spirits might have been unfamiliar with humans, they did not fear them. However, after experiencing the merciless massacre last night, they couldn't help but feel fear toward humans.
"Brother Flower Fox! You were alive!"
Overcome with emotion, Su Yun embraced the fox spirit Flower Fox.
Su Yun approached the trembling fox spirits and calmed them down like a big brother. The fox spirits naturally leaned on Su Yun. The reason the foxes could rely on Su Yun so quickly was that, having known each other for six or seven years, they already knew his mature temperament and magnanimity.
"This morning, people from the city barged in here. They said they couldn't find any good items in the Ghost City... so they might as well get rid of some monsters, and tried to kill us all. Master Hu tried to step in and stop them, but..."
Su Yun, who had been listening quietly, asked Flower Fox again.
"Brother, do you remember those people's faces?"
Flower Fox shook his head and said.
"I didn't get a good look because I was in a hurry to take the younger ones and run away, but one of them was very beautiful. They were young and wearing red clothes. Real fire came out of that person's body and attacked us. A Phoenix bird flew around inside the fire and attacked..."
When the fox spirit finished speaking, Su Yun suddenly prostrated himself before Qiu Shuijing and bowed.
"Teacher, please give me your teachings."
Qiu Shuijing gazed steadily at Su Yun, who was prostrated on the ground, and asked.
"I can teach you, but do you have money?"
Su Yun stood up and took out a few bloodstained coins from his pocket, spreading them out to show him. They were coins he had picked up while searching for the fox spirits' corpses earlier.
When Qiu Shuijing picked up a single coin from Su Yun's palm, Su Yun handed all the remaining coins to Qiu Shuijing and said.
"Master Hu did not chase me away even though I was human, and taught me for six years. Teacher, can't you teach my classmates together with me?"
Qiu Shuijing pondered for a moment, then, as if having made a decision, returned the money Su Yun had given him and said.
"Did Master Hu accept money from you?"
Su Yun shook his head.
"Then I will not accept money either. If I accept money from foxes, wouldn't I become less of a person than Master Hu? I do not need tuition fees from the foxes."
Su Yun and the surviving fox spirits buried Master Hu's corpse and the corpses of the other fox spirits in the ground. Su Yun did not cry, but all the other fox spirits wailed loudly.
Having finished the burials, they headed to the Village School where they used to study.
"How long have you all studied? Did Master Hu teach you the Sage's Breath Nurturing Method?"
"I studied for six years," Su Yun answered.
"I studied for seven years, and these children studied for two or three years," the fox spirit Flower Fox answered.
Qiu Shuijing looked over Su Yun and the four fox spirits and said.
"The Sage's Breath Nurturing Method is indeed a traditional Qi cultivation method passed down through generations, but it is a very old method, five thousand years old. In this era, something is already outdated after ten years; you have been studying something far too behind the times."
Qiu Shuijing shook his head and continued speaking.
"What I will teach you is the Great Furnace Transmutation Method (Honglu Shanbian Fa), the most basic cultivation method among the academics taught at the capital's official academy."
The Sage's Breath Nurturing Method was a cultivation method that boosted vitality in a simple way; while easy to start, it was difficult to advance to deeper levels. On the other hand, the Great Furnace Transmutation Method was a cultivation method where one regarded one's body as heaven and earth, harmonized the Yin and Yang energies within the body, and then burned that harmonized energy through one's body to boost vitality. It was somewhat complex to learn, but the effects were certain, and the speed of mastery was much faster than the Sage's Breath Nurturing Method.
Qiu Shuijing began to teach them how to absorb essence from the sun and moon, how to regard their bodies as heaven and earth, how to harmonize Yin and Yang energies, and how to burn those energies.
Although they had received teachings from Master Hu, the foundation of Su Yun and the fox spirits was too shallow. Furthermore, since the Great Furnace Transmutation Method was inherently profound and difficult, it took them six days to even grasp the basics, despite being taught by a master like Qiu Shuijing.
Because the fox spirit Flower Fox originally had a foundation in the Sage's Breath Nurturing Method, his learning speed was the fastest. The other three fox spirits also picked it up quickly, while Su Yun was the slowest.
Since Su Yun could not see, Qiu Shuijing had to manually correct each of his movements while teaching. Therefore, his speed of mastery was inevitably slow. However, Su Yun was so bright and wise that if taught one thing, he understood ten. Thus, although his learning speed was slow, the depth of his cultivation was the deepest.
Like any other dawn, Su Yun and the fox spirits were performing Tu-Na (breathing exercises) while facing the rising sun. At that moment, Qiu Shuijing, who was supervising them from the side, felt as if a small sun were rising nearby. Looking closely, the energy was coming from the direction where the fox spirit Flower Fox sat.
'Although Flower Fox is a monster, his aptitude is excellent and his comprehension is quick... He has already achieved the First Star.'
Once one masters the First Star, they can accept the essence of the sun to temper their body and vitality. Flower Fox had achieved the First Star in just five days. This was an excellent result, even compared to Qiu Shuijing's previous disciples.
The other three fox spirits were also making fast progress and seemed likely to achieve the First Star before long.
Qiu Shuijing, pleased with the fox spirits, examined Su Yun's condition and frowned slightly.
In fact, Qiu Shuijing thought that despite the obstacle of blindness, Su Yun would do well because he was a bright and wise child. But looking now, his progress was unexpectedly too slow.
'I must have expected too much from Su Yun. Even a fox spirit achieved the First Star in this short time...'
However, there was one thing Qiu Shuijing did not know about Su Yun.
Whenever Su Yun tried to circulate his vitality, strangely, various scenes appeared before his eyes. He saw scenes in his mind as if seeing illusions, not with his actual eyes. He saw a massive Heavenly Gate, and also a towering Heaven-Facing Tower. And behind that, he saw an endless, wide ocean.
And what was even stranger was that the Heaven-Facing Tower was sucking in Su Yun's vitality. There were eight holes in the Heaven-Facing Tower, and those holes sucked Su Yun's vitality as if swallowing it. That was the reason Su Yun had not yet achieved even the First Star of the Great Furnace Transmutation Method.
Su Yun thought this phenomenon was a natural part of curing his eyes, so he did not inform Qiu Shuijing about it. Consequently, Qiu Shuijing simply came to think that Su Yun's progress was slow.
After finishing the morning class, Qiu Shuijing suddenly felt the urge to leave this place. Perhaps it was because Su Yun had fallen short of his expectations. In truth, Qiu Shuijing was a private tutor and had to teach the children of noble families in the north, so he couldn't spend his time indefinitely here in the Tianshi Enclosure.
read more on brightnovels.com