My Wife Is A Sword Immortal-Chapter 72 - 61: What’s Inside the Furnace?

Chapter 72: Chapter 61: What’s Inside the Furnace?

Zhao Rong bent down to release the cat and waved goodbye.

He pressed down on his hat, stuffed the random objects he had taken out into his bosom, and continued down the mountain with both hands holding the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace.

His footsteps landed on the moss-covered bluestone steps; he dared not walk too quickly, lest he slip.

This winding path through the mountains, hidden within the quiet and lush forest, was a boon to Zhao Rong at this moment because it was seldom traveled. However, looking ahead, the winding trail made him lose sight of the distance, which unsettled him.

The sound of a nearby clear spring was the only disturbance in this tranquility.

Zhao Rong advanced in silence.

...

Suddenly, Gui’s voice rang out in his Heart Lake, and the corner of Zhao Rong’s mouth twitched as he gazed at the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace in his hands; sure enough, the Divine Furnace underwent a change the very next second!

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But to Zhao Rong’s surprise, the Divine Furnace did not become smaller, but larger!

Much larger!

Zhao Rong was shocked, feeling as if a mountain was growing within his grasp.

He leaned to one side, and his entire body tumbled toward the rapid mountain spring on his right. He quickly let go and withdrew backward with a sharp pull, seeking to escape danger. After regaining his balance, he staggered for a moment.

Bang!

Water splashed up, startling a few birds in the nearby woodland.

Zhao Rong stood up, speechlessly looking at the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace that had fallen into the spring, now about five feet in height and width, nearly half his height.

The chill mountain spring that flowed hurriedly from above encountered an obstacle, deviating from its course and spilling over onto the stone steps, dampening someone’s cloth shoes.

Zhao Rong raised an eyebrow, “You call this the size of a fist?”

Gui was still immersed in the shock of the scene he had witnessed upon taking control of the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace with his Divine Sense, and didn’t speak for a moment.

The angrier Zhao Rong became, the calmer his voice, “Sorry, but Zhao’s fist isn’t that big. I can’t hold it, much to your disappointment.”

He took a deep breath, glanced left and right at the winding path up and down, “Get it back to how it was, now!”

Gui collected himself, his voice distant, “Place your hand over it again.”

Zhao Rong, unconcerned about his soaked cloth shoes, stepped forward, slightly bent down to pick up the fallen furnace lid lying beside him, and walked into the water, ready to right the lopsided Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace.

“It won’t take another half hour, will it?”

“No need, just three breaths.”

Zhao Rong’s heart relaxed.

“What are you doing?”

A woman’s voice asked.

The voice was cold and clear,

as if the mountain spring submerging Zhao Rong’s ankles was delivering a bone-chilling coldness to his heart.

Zhao Rong stiffened, and the action in his hands paused.

Beneath him to the left was a woman watching him.

The air in the mountains, which was fresh and comfortable a second ago, now felt dense like mercury in a grave, poured into his mouth and nose.

Zhao Rong’s breath caught.

Leaves rustled quietly, and the spring flowed in silence.

A cool breeze brushed through the green woods, the mountain spring, the bluestone, the ancient furnace, the man, and the woman.

“Speak.”

The woman’s voice shattered like a smashed silver bottle.

She coldly scrutinized the man above, who was bent over, and the tri-legged ancient furnace lying on the pebbles at his feet.

Zhao Rong slightly lifted his gaze, one hand continued to support one ear of the furnace, and the other hand covered the view as he quietly placed down the furnace lid and retrieved a rag from his bosom.

Then, the man turned around to face the woman who appeared at the corner below, playing with a pure white Jade Ruyi in her hands, and said bemusedly:

“Ah, what?”

Lan Yuqing did not repeat her words and took a careful look at the man’s half-concealed face under the hat.

The next second, she suddenly said, “Take off your hat.”

The man was slightly startled upon hearing this, then nodded with a flattering smile. Unseen by the woman, his right foot, submerged in the mountain spring, arched and clawed into the sand and stones.

The man raised his right hand, which held a rag between two fingers, and pinched the low brim of the hat. He hesitated for a moment, then forcefully flipped it upward, revealing his entire face in an instant.

Lan Yuqing stopped fidgeting with the Jade Ruyi in her hands and squinted her eyes, intently focusing on the man’s smiling face.

A moment later.

She frowned slightly.

She stepped onto the stairs and approached the man standing next to an overturned ancient furnace, one step at a time.

Zhao Rong saw the woman coming closer and closer, his smile becoming more “obsequious.” His foot that was digging into the ground was now deeply embedded in the sand and stones such that his whole body leaned slightly to the right. However, since he was “respectfully” bowing, it was not noticeable.

From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the gap in the dense woods to his right, silently estimating the distance. His right hand, holding the rag and hat, rested on the ear of the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace. He extended a finger and touched the surface of the furnace, holding it there for more than three breaths.

Gui asked whether to take back the furnace. Zhao Rong silently thought to wait a bit longer.

He didn’t know if he had been found out, as hope and resolution intertwined in his heart.

So he waited, for any expression, no matter how subtle, from the unknown woman, whose cultivation level he couldn’t gauge. He would immediately make up his mind to either run or stay.

But this woman kept an expressionless face all the while. She kept her eyes forward and didn’t look at him, which made him even more uneasy.

As the woman drew nearer, Zhao Rong’s mind tightened like a string of a musical instrument, becoming tenser and tenser.

The sound of her footfalls hitting the stone steps rang out one after another, causing Zhao Rong to absurdly feel as if they matched the rhythm of his own heartbeat.

Thump, thump, thump…

Finally, when she took a step beyond, they were only three meters apart—a distance that felt like an unspoken boundary to Zhao Rong.

Zhao Rong made up his mind, signaled to Gui with his words, and in the next second, he planned to seize the furnace and leap out, bursting into an escape, diving into the gap in the dense forest without any hesitation, not knowing what awaited him below…

The woman took another step.

Zhao Rong squinted his eyes but then suddenly widened them, frantically calling a halt in his mind.

Because a clear, cold voice had risen once again.

“What are you doing washing the furnace here?”

Lan Yuqing turned her head slightly and asked, then glanced at the man’s ordinary face, his servant attire, and the furnace that had fallen into the water.

“In response to the fairy maiden… The incense ash inside this furnace was soaked with cat urine last night, I don’t know which immoral wild cat did that, and the smell is a bit too heavy… Alas, today is a day of rest, and Steward Chen from the palace had us move it out here to clean. Ah, you smell it, there is still a bit of scent, just can’t wash it off… Another brother went down the mountain to get some charcoal ash, that thing should…”

Lan Yuqing saw the servant man in front of her fumbling with the rag in an awkward and reserved manner, explaining as he took a few steps forward, opening his arms as if to prove something to her, with a cat-like odor emanating from his body.

She frowned, turned her head, and covered her mouth and nose, “Don’t come any closer! I understand.”

Having said that, she quickened her pace, walking past the man and the furnace in the water, and went up the stairs to leave.

Zhao Rong stood with his arms wide open, holding the rag and hat, his face assuming an innocent look as he watched the Daoist nun depart. As her silhouette disappeared around the corner, he stood silently for a while, then blinked, shrugged, put the hat back on, exhaled lightly, and returned to the side of the furnace.

“Sorry,” it said.

Zhao Rong raised an eyebrow.

First time, huh.

“No matter, let’s leave quickly now. This path isn’t as safe as I thought it would be,” he said.

Zhao Rong took another look in the direction where the unknown Daoist nun had vanished. Then, bending down, he gripped the ears of the furnace, preparing to right the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace that had tipped over, “Right, take it back in quickly, it’s too big for me to carry like this.”

“I can, but at most I can only shrink it back to the size it was at the beginning—one foot,” it replied.

Zhao Rong asked curiously, “Why is that?”

Gui’s voice was deep with implication, “Because… it’s in the midst of alchemy.”

Zhao Rong felt a chill in his heart.

He quickly righted the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace and looked inside.

It was completely empty.