Chapter 46: Premonition
"A premonition? Something bad is going to happen?" Li Qi frowned, then asked, "Is your premonition accurate?"
"Not... not very accurate. It's just a sudden feeling, but I think it must be signifying something. I was a fifth-rank cultivator before I crippled my cultivation, so my premonitions usually have some basis," Shen Shuibi said meekly.
Fifth Rank!
Li Qi was speechless, choking on his words.
Good heavens... just who is Lady Luofu? Even one of her maidservants was fifth-rank.
One day, I too will reach fifth-rank!
Li Qi gritted his teeth, then returned to normal.
He pondered for a moment, then responded, "Better safe than sorry. Let's go; we won't stay here."
Although he had spent the day building good relations specifically to be able to lodge in the village for the night and avoid sleeping in the mountains in the cold, if there was real danger, then sleeping in the mountains was indeed better.
Li Qi was always a decisive person. When he said go, he went. He immediately led the old horse, took Shen Shuibi, bid farewell to the villagers, and set off on their journey.
The old horse said nothing. Although he was very weak and old, he didn't hesitate when told to set off, actively nuzzling Li Qi.
"The old horse asks if you want him to carry your things on the way. Although he can't run very far, he's fast," Shen Shuibi immediately translated.
Li Qi pondered for a moment, then nodded: "That's best. Old Horse, carry us for about two hundred li, get us far from here, then find a secluded spot near water to rest."
The old horse neighed, immediately crouching down to let Shen Shuibi and Li Qi mount.
Li Qi held the backpack in his hands and sat in front. Although there was no saddle or stirrups, the old horse knew how to adjust to bumps, making the ride easy, and he wouldn't fall off.
The reason he didn't carry the backpack on his back was because Shen Shuibi needed to sit behind him. Although she was once a fifth-rank powerhouse, she had lost all her cultivation and was no different from a delicate young lady. She couldn't maintain a stable stance, was short in stature, and couldn't hold onto the horse's neck if she sat in front, so she could only sit in the back and cling to Li Qi's back.
After these arrangements, the human, the rabbit, and the horse finally set off.
The old horse was old and frail, and his injuries were far from healed, but he was a dragon steed after all. Carrying two people plus luggage, he still moved as swiftly as a dart, with clouds of mist rising from beneath his hooves. It wasn't so much running as it was flying.
However, the cloud mist was thin and weak, only allowing him to lighten his body, not to truly fly.
But it still greatly broadened Li Qi's horizons.
What a fast horse! And when he flew, with the cloud mist providing cover, there was no wind at all, no bumps, and he didn't even need flat ground. The old horse could leap ten zhang, and ordinary mountain ravines couldn't stop him at all.
Aside from the old horse occasionally stopping to rest, the journey was very peaceful. The old horse's speed was quite fast. They had set off when the sun was setting, but before it even got dark, they had already traveled over one hundred and eighty li and found a pond.
"Alright, let's stop here," Li Qi observed the surrounding terrain and decided on their resting place for the night.
The old horse quickly let them down, panting heavily.
It was evident that the old horse was covered in sweat from exhaustion, his body temperature had risen and he was almost sticking out his tongue.
Making him carry two people and gallop continuously for one hundred and eighty li under these circumstances was truly a challenge for him.
Seeing this, Li Qi picked up the pot he usually used to cook rice cakes, filled it with water from the pond, and splashed two basinfuls over the horse, which finally brought the old horse's body temperature down.
Then, Li Qi filled the pot with three or four jin of beans, sprinkled in some coarse salt, mixed it with water and placed it in front of the old horse, who was lying on the ground: "Eat, replenish your strength. Oh, and don't spit in the pot; I'll still need to use it later and I eat from it too!"
The old horse neighed, nodded repeatedly, rubbed his face against Li Qi, and then buried his head, happily munching on the beans, occasionally taking a bite of fresh wild grass. Li Qi figured he had put in just the right amount of salt. Then, Li Qi turned and walked over to Shen Shuibi.
"Miss Shen, do you still have that premonition now?" he asked cautiously.
The old horse couldn't run anymore. Traveling over a hundred li in a straight line on this kind of mountain road was already the limit for his old and injured body.
If that feeling still lingered, they would need to make other preparations.
"It's much weaker now; it seems we've avoided it," Shen Shuibi said, closing her eyes and sensing for a moment.
Li Qi nodded: "That's good."
Having received a definite answer, he still felt somewhat uneasy, but it was getting late. After the old horse finished eating, he planned to retrieve the pot, boil some rice cakes and after eating, continue to study the Zhu book in his mind.
"Yesterday, I read about discerning cloud Qi. Perfect, the cloud mist under the old horse's hooves earlier was also cloud Qi. Let me see... the book says..." Li Qi flipped through the Zhu book in his mind.
The book stated: "One discerns auspiciousness and misfortune from the five colors of clouds, observes signs of drought and flood, abundance and desolation, and by observing the twelve winds, one perceives the harmony of heaven and earth, and the anomalous and auspicious distinctions."
According to this statement...
"At the two solstices and two equinoxes, observe the color of the clouds: green signifies insects, white signifies mourning, red signifies war and famine, black signifies water, and yellow signifies abundance..." Li Qi mumbled the text from the book, trying to observe the celestial phenomena by combining it with reality.
He looked towards the sun.
He watched for a long while.
It seemed there was nothing special.
Could diviners really discern good and bad fortune from the color of clouds?
Perhaps... his perspective was wrong?
Thinking this, Li Qi activated his Qi observation vision.
Then, his vision suddenly cleared!
The Taiji was boundless, primordial Qi refined, Earth Qi generated, Heaven Qi entangled, mists below and fog above, poisonous Qi steaming!
In this vast mountain range, he hadn't noticed it before.
There was actually miasma and poisonous Qi!
"Has it entered my body?" Li Qi looked at his own body.
He then saw a torrent of qi surging within his body, keeping the external poisonous qi and miasma isolated.
These Qi were varied: some were life Qi, some ying(nutritive) Qi, some wei(defensive) Qi, and some blood Qi.
But these things formed a wall-like presence, firmly resisting external elements.
"Is it immunity? Or something else?" Li Qi noticed these things for the first time.
Why hadn't he seen them before?
What was the reason for this?
As he pondered, he continued to focus on his body.
He found that although the poisonous Qi and miasma were resisted, some could not be.
Li Qi carefully identified those he couldn't resist. Combining this with the knowledge from the book, he put in great effort and finally distinguished that they were actually cold Qi and heat Qi.
Cold Qi and heat Qi...
In other words, his sensing of cold and warmth, getting sick from it, suffering heatstroke, or catching a cold from cold Qi entering his body, was it all because of these?
A thought suddenly struck him.
He looked at the rabbit, Shen Shuibi, crouching not far away.
"Sure enough..." he sighed.
This rabbit, apart from the weak ying Qi and wei Qi on her body, he couldn't see anything else.
But all other Qi such as heat Qi, cold Qi, poisonous Qi, miasma were all completely isolated from her.
Shen Shuibi, impervious to hot and cold, unaffected by myriad poisons...?
(Chapter End)