CHAPTER 1329: I AM BACK

Back at his abode, Yang Qing couldn’t help but take a deep, satisfying breath of the air around him as the tension left his body.

"Home is always best," he joyfully murmured as he took in the sights of his abode in all its splendor. Even the wild grass he had never spared a glance at before, he now admired with the gaze of a doting parent. He bent down, gently cupped a few blades, and took a deep whiff—borrowing a page out of Luo Suyun’s book.

Once he was done, he made his way to the pond where—though he really shouldn’t have been surprised—he once again found the starlight crab knocked unconscious. From the aura left behind, the culprit was none other than Ellie.

Maybe it was because he hadn’t been here for a while, or maybe it was simply the joy of being back, but he found himself laughing at the sight. It made him realize he truly was home.

With a smile on his face, he gently rolled the starlight crab over and healed its injuries, stirring it awake in the process. And true to its reactionary, volatile nature, the moment it regained consciousness it immediately swung at him with one of its claws.

"Hey," Yang Qing softly said as he met the full-force strike of the starlight crab with nothing more than a light tap of his index finger. The blow collapsed at once, effortlessly neutralized like a balloon deflating under a pin.

"Your force has grown," Yang Qing leisurely praised as he patted the starlight crab’s head. It flinched slightly in apprehension at the sight of his palm but relaxed when it felt the touch was a soft pat rather than the punch it had grown to dread, even more so than the sneaky one-shot talon strike that thieving bird often threw at it.

After the pat, Yang Qing returned the starlight crab to the pond, which, thankfully, despite Ellie having been there and knocking out its guard, had not lost a single fish.

Yang Qing curiously looked around, wondering if Ellie had decided to switch targets and steal something else. Knowing her, the untouched fish didn’t convince him for even a second that she had turned over a new leaf and abandoned her thieving ways.

To his dismay, she hadn’t stolen from him at all. Everything of worth she might have targeted was still there. In fact, some things had even increased in number, like the eggs from his rainbow plume pheasants.

"Mmh," hummed Yang Qing with interest as he noticed another addition to his abode that hadn’t been there before—though this one had not been created here.

Still carrying the cocooned Bolin and Zhilan’s hive, Yang Qing made his way to the terrace, stopping in front of one of the round tables where a strange object rested. It was a block of ice about the size of a melon, shaped like an apple—or at least resembling one, given the rough appearance that made it look like the sculpting of an amateur.

The strangeness of the object didn’t end with the mediocre sculpting look or its likeness to a blue ice fruit. At its center, about the size of a pear, burned an orange flame that sometimes shifted from a shapeless blob into a majestic crimson-orange bird with fiery plumage.

"Vermilion ice fruit," Yang Qing murmured in surprise as his eyes lingered on it. "Where did she find such a thing?" he added as he set Bolin and the hive down, then reached for the fruit, holding it gently with both hands.

Vermilion ice fruit, a dual-natured natural dao treasure, contained the perfect fusion of two elements: fire and water. It had countless benefits, such as granting insights into the profound laws that governed the two elements.

For someone like Yang Qing, however, it was the perfect treasure to deepen his understanding of the duality and balancing of opposing natures. The insights it offered would benefit him immensely where his physique was concerned, not to mention that the pure energy it contained was no less than that of a dozen lesser dragon jade crystals from a lesser dragon spiritual vein.

He had no doubt that after successfully refining the fruit and maximizing all the possible advantages it offered, his cultivation base would not only be reinforced but also progress by a considerable margin.

It would not automatically let him break through to the fifth stage, however. Reaching the fifth stage meant crossing the threshold from early stage to middle stage, which—no matter how high his natural talent or how valuable the fruit—was an impossibility at the moment. It had only been days since he broke through to the fourth stage, and he wouldn’t dare attempt such a leap even if the door presented itself. That would be a sure way of ending up with flaws in his foundation due to shallow accumulation.

Even with his cultivation base already stabilized, he would still need to comb through all the insights and experiences his current realm offered until he felt saturated. Only then could he use that understanding and accumulation to sublimate it into a stable pathway leading to the middle stages of the palace realm. The vermilion ice fruit would help immensely in stabilizing that pathway with the insights it offered, along with all its other benefits.

Yang Qing set the vermilion fruit down and reached for the piece of parchment lying beneath it. He was already smiling and shaking his head before he even read its contents, having imagined what the person who left it must have written.

Boss, I enjoyed the fish, especially the jadefin perch and the amber whisker catfish. Make sure to add more for next time. You want to punch me, don’t you? Too bad. Maybe next time, though I don’t think you will have a chance. I am going into seclusion. With all of you in the palace realm, so you and Feng Xin don’t take advantage of me, I will have to reach the stage myself; otherwise, who knows what you two will do, especially YOU.

That weird fruit is yours. I don’t know what it is, but my senses tell me it’s something precious. Given its nature, I feel it’s better suited for you. See? Even I can be thoughtful and generous sometimes. Let me know what it tastes like when we meet. Hopefully, it tastes like dung beetle saliva; otherwise, I’ll really regret giving it to you if it turns out to have some heavenly taste.

A toast to it tasting like dung beetle saliva. Dung beetle saliva... dung beetle saliva... dung beetle saliva...

My work here is done. See you later, shameless boss. Rear my fish well and add some more variety, or I’ll tell everyone you have nightmares about Old Lei. The Beast Tamer Hall has some duskwater lantern fish eggs; maybe try those.

From my radiant silver feathers, your brilliant, wiser-than-you daughter, Ellie.

"Shameless to the end," Yang Qing whispered with a wry smile as he shook his head.

"How can her handwriting be this good... where are the bird scratches?" he enviously murmured, admiring the elegant and graceful script, which was the complete polar opposite of everything Ellie was. He couldn’t figure out how she managed to write so well. It was even better than his—better than most, in fact.

Storing the letter away for later use, Yang Qing looked around, soaking in the atmosphere. A smile touched his face as he muttered, "I am back."