Shi Ming didn't understand sword techniques and had no interest in them.
He nodded absentmindedly, then pointed at Su Asi and the bodies. "What do we do with them?"
"Bury the bodies here. As for Su Asi—" Deng Jun looked at the man. "Where are you staying? We'll head over and grab your luggage."
"I only came here to scrape a living," Su Asi said pitifully. "I don't have a fixed place to stay yet. I'm all alone, and I don't have any luggage."
Deng Jun scratched his head. "Do you know how to drive a carriage?"
Su Asi looked at the brown pony hitched to the front. "I've driven an ox cart before," he answered honestly.
Deng Jun waved a hand dismissively. "Close enough. This horse is docile."
He was too lazy to drive it himself. After living in luxury for so long, driving a carriage once in a while was an experience, but doing it for hours was just suffering.
Handing the reins to Su Asi, he pulled Shi Ming into the carriage.
Deng Jun began rummaging around the cabin.
Shi Ming peered out through the crack in the door. Once he saw that Su Asi was steering the carriage with a tense but competent grip, he finally spared a moment for Deng Jun.
"I don't drink."
"Seriously, what's even the point of living like you do?"
Deng Jun rapped his knuckles on the pull-out table.
He suddenly lowered his voice. "Shi Ming, you're the mortal corpse of a Great Wizard. That's an incredible identity. Is there really no way for you to start cultivating again?"
Shi Ming froze for a second.
When he first arrived in Yanzhou, those wonderfully vivid dreams had left him harboring fantasies.
Recently, he had even dreamt a few times that he suddenly became the Great Wizard, and the Great Wizard outside was actually the mortal corpse. He dreamt he was simply enduring humiliation for a greater purpose, biding his time while waiting for a single opportunity to smash the Wizard World's restrictions. In those dreams, he led a successful rebellion, turned the tables to become the master, and rose as the most powerful Great Wizard in the world.
But once he woke from those pipe dreams, he knew he had no chance of ever becoming a Priest. All he could do was bury those beautiful illusions deep in his heart, never daring to breathe a word of them to anyone.
Now that Deng Jun had suddenly poked at those hidden delusions, he was briefly at a loss for words.
"There's no way. I'm just an ordinary person," he said. "Haven't you noticed I can't even absorb spiritual rhinoceros?"
Deng Jun leaned closer to him. "You don't have spiritual rhinoceros because you don't have an identity, right? So what if you find a way to get one? From what I can tell, the Priests from the Myriad Ancient Pagoda treat you pretty well. Oh, right, didn't Priest Qian Que come looking for you recently? Why don't you ask him? I feel like he's a really good guy—very kind, and he looks soft-hearted. If you beg him, he might just give you a chance."
Listening to Deng Jun buzzing in his ear only made Shi Ming feel irritated.
"Alright, alright, enough about that. Let's just focus on catching bugs."
They spent the rest of the day traveling along the mountain roads, deliberately choosing routes that were sparsely populated but not entirely deserted.
Whenever they spotted a suspicious location, Shi Ming would scout it out first. Once he found clues, Deng Jun would move in to kill the bugs.
If the bugs were too powerful or too numerous to confidently defeat, they left a signal and waited for the Priests to handle them.
Once the sun set and they could no longer track the bugs, they stopped at the foot of the mountain, preparing to spend the night huddled in the carriage.
As the driver, Su Asi didn't dare enter the cabin. He simply curled up on the carriage frame.
Deng Jun had already lain down, taking up more than half the space.
Shi Ming leaned against the side of the carriage, completely devoid of sleepiness.
Deng Jun's abrupt comments earlier that day had thrown his mind into turmoil.
A part of him harbored hope, but reason told him it was impossible.
The conflict left him endlessly torn, tossing and turning without a wink of sleep.
Giving up, he stood, hopped down from the carriage, and walked into the woods.
Deng Jun noticed him leave but assumed he was getting up to relieve himself, so he ignored it.
Out on the frame, Su Asi was sleeping soundly, completely unaware that Shi Ming had left.
Shi Ming wandered along the mountain path. Whenever he hit a steeper slope, he had to use both hands and feet, dragging himself up by grabbing weeds and vines.
He remembered watching Deng Jun ascend the mountain earlier today.
Using his movement techniques, Deng Jun had bounded into the air, casually tapping off a tree trunk twice to soar to the top of the cliff.
Shi Ming couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. "And I'm still daydreaming about being a Great Wizard. I'm not even a spirit practitioner, and I don't know a lick of martial arts."
Deng Jun simply didn't know the whole truth.
Shi Ming had actually asked Priest Qian Que why a mortal corpse like him couldn't possess an identity.
Priest Qian Que had told him that, according to the rules of the Wizard World, Shi Ming wasn't even considered a person.
Plants, animals, or even inanimate objects could serve as elements, but they could never become spirit practitioners, let alone Priests.
That was when Shi Ming had lost all hope. He wasn't even human; how could he possibly find the power to defy the laws of heaven and earth?
Shi Ming let out a long sigh, feeling like he was just tormenting himself over nothing. Wouldn't it be better if he just went back to how he used to be, keeping his mind empty?
Just as he was about to turn back, a voice suddenly echoed above his head.
"Do you want to become a Priest?"
Shi Ming didn't panic. Protected by his Undying Halo, he always maintained his composure when faced with sudden surprises.
He raised his head, calmly looking upward.
Up in the branches of the thick tree beside him sat someone he didn't recognize at all.
However, the man's voice sounded incredibly familiar—and unusually pleasant to the ear.
"Are you—Xiao Suo?"
Xiao Suo was leaning back into the fork of two thick branches, looking as if he were taking a nap.
The moment Shi Ming took two steps forward, Xiao Suo hurriedly warned him, "Stop right there. Keep your distance. Don't come any closer, or I'm going to run into terrible luck again."
Shi Ming stopped in his tracks, but then he started rummaging through his clothes.
He was trying to find a signal to alert the nearby Priests that the Black Robe Xiao Suo was here.
Watching Shi Ming stand boldly right in front of him, getting ready to report him, Xiao Suo was speechless.
"I'm right here. Do you honestly think you'll be able to send that signal?"
"Oh." Thinking it over, Shi Ming realized he had a point and stopped searching. "Do you need something? If not, I'm leaving."
He needed to hurry back and report to the Myriad Ancient Pagoda that Xiao Suo had appeared in Yanzhou.
Xiao Suo chuckled. "I think you're the one who needs something. I overheard your conversation. You certainly don't look like someone who is completely free of desires."
Shi Ming frowned. "A dignified Black Robe, eavesdropping on our conversation."
"We can be considered old acquaintances. Isn't it perfectly normal for me to eavesdrop on you?"
"Who are you calling an old acquaintance?"
Xiao Suo knew Shi Ming was actually referring to Shaman Ming. He smiled. "I'm an old acquaintance to both you and him. Besides, didn't you ruin my plans before too?"
Xiao Suo let out a deep sigh. "Ah, to think I nearly killed Li Ban back then. But because I was worried about the bad luck clinging to you, I let him off the hook. Now look at him—he's become a Star Glow Priest. Give it enough time, and the White Robes will gain another leading figure."
Xiao Suo had casually killed and spared many people over the years, but letting Li Ban live was his biggest regret as of late.
Ever since he spared Li Ban, his own luck had turned incredibly strange, fluctuating constantly between good and bad. It gave him an ominous feeling, as if things were slipping out of his control.
However, Li Ban wasn't his goal today.
"I came to see you just to ask one question," he said. "You're obviously the clone of a Great Wizard, yet you can't even become a spirit practitioner. That must be incredibly frustrating, right? Tell me, do you want to become a Priest? The kind in black clothes?"