“Brother Yue,” Qin Cheng sweetly called. In the past month, the duo had long since grown accustomed to calling each other with the simple titles “husband” and “wife” so that it just naturally rolled off their tongues.

“Yes Xiurong,” Hai Yun replied. Qin Cheng’s alias was now Huangfu Xiurong. Naturally, this was also decided by her father.

“You’ve been keeping me in suspense this whole time, where exactly are we headed?” Qin Cheng asked.

“he he… so little sister is curious. However, I can’t tell you right now, because it’s a surprise,” Hai Yun smiled.

However Qin Cheng didn’t blush as expected. Instead she showed a discontented expression of being wronged. To see such an expression on her now mature face made it hard to contain Hai Yun’s joyful mood. The scene was just too cute.

In order to avoid suspicion, the two both altered their facial features using a common elixir Hai Yun concocted. Of course, they changed their heights as well. Naturally, since Qin Cheng had a Samsara Flame Tigress soul which had fused with her soul she could be considered half a transmigrator. So Hai Yun had no qualms about telling her that he was actually the reincarnated alchemist from the Crystal Ocean alchemy sect to explain his alchemy skill.

Although she was shocked for a while she didn’t seem dejected. Hai Yun had anticipated her response to be very violent, or even insisting on killing him to avoid desecration of the original Hai Yun. However she didn’t have nearly as violent a reaction as he had anticipated.

But she did ask him two question. They were the rather troublesome kind. “Are your feelings for me from you, or is it just a lingering emotion from the previous Hai Yun?”

Ah… how troublesome the hearts of women can be sometime.

If he said it was just from the previous Hai Yun and he was only protecting her to make up for the old owners foolishness it wouldn’t exactly be a lie. If she hadn’t had a soul fusion with the Samsara Flame Tigress, he wouldn’t even consider bringing her with him at that time. But to say he didn’t have any feelings for her at all… that would also be a lie. So he could only take on the passive answer.

“Probably a bit of both”. When he originally gave this response he noticed the brief flash of disappointment which passed through her eyes. However he eyes cleared up very quickly before she asked her second question. This one was the real kicker.

“Did you have any girl in heart during your previous life?”

Fuck… Just what kind of questions are these! Hai Yun could only bitterly smile as he was hit with this trumper. The real question was “are you going to lie to me or not?”

“I do. Her name is Qian Mu, and although she was originally just a little rascal, but she never slacked off and was definitely comparable to me in terms of just talent. The reason I want her to be a part of our team is not just because of her talent, but because I truly have wronged her before”.

One could say being reincarnated made him realize what was important. If there was one thing he regretted other than creating the Efficacious Nirvana, it would be that he had been so caught up in alchemy that he hardly bothered with anything else.

Qian Mu had very clearly expressed her feelings when she would constantly pluck samples of new herbs just for him. The amount of herbs she used to bring for him would easily be 3-4 times as much her father collected for his colleagues in the sect. When at the sect, she dedicated tens of hours to being his assistant.

She didn’t even want to be her father’s assistant. Even at the time when both were young and Hai Yun hadn’t even reached the Ancestor Alchemist rank she would still be an assistant for him.

He remembered that time when he broke through the Divine Rank for alchemists and created his first divine elixir. For 72 hours after that he couldn’t even find a trace of Qian Mu. When she appeared, she had officially concocted an Ancestor Rank elixir without any help.

There was an unspoken rule that Divine Ranked Alchemists could only have Ancestor ranked assistants since no one else had the experience and skills required to be of use. Seeing him breakthrough, she rapidly cultivated her soul force just so she could qualify to be his assistant. She had told him that day, “Don’t think you can run away from me so easily”.

This had left a deep impression on him, but when he thought about other than sending her letters of his accomplishments, he hadn’t ever asked her how she was doing. Not even once.

So no matter what, he couldn’t lie to Qin Cheng about this. Because that would also be lying to himself.

…

“Xiurong mei, welcome to the Starry Iron Winged Plains!” Hai Yun shouted out loud as he waved his hands in the manner one does when presenting a landscape.

In front of them, a grassy plain stretched in all directions, with thick yellow green grass blowing in the winds. It was actually quite an interesting view because the duo was on a small mound overlooking the plains which started at the base of the mound. Everything behind them was a forested woodland while everything in front as far as the eye could see was a light green.

Qin Cheng widened her eyes as she gazed across the tall grasses. For a brief moment here red and white pupils changed into the piercing eyes of a tiger. However it went unnoticed to hai Yun as he slightly bowing his head.

However that does not mean it escaped the notice of Si Wang and Xue Yi.

“he he, so this girl really did get that after all,” Xue Yi’s eyes flashed with amusement.

Si Wang’s face however, remained indifferent. Not like you could see her face behind the black veil or anything.

“Brother Yue, what are we doing here?” Qin Cheng asked. Seeing these plains, she had the impulse to run out into the grass and claim it all as her territory, but she knew that her strength was far from sufficient to tame all of the beasts here.

“We are here, to get a mount!” Hai Yun pointed at the sky as he spoke spastically.

“A… mount…” Qin Cheng was very confused.

“Yes, a mount,” Hai Yun nodded his head in affirmation, “The reason these plains are known as the Starry Iron Winged plains is due to the existence of the savage beast, the Starry Ironed Winged Cow. These cows are usually pretty lazy but when they decide to go on a stampede they can flatten a mountain range. That is why these plains are located in the middle of a mountain range. For example where we stand right now, one foot in a forested mountain and one foot in the plains. It is all due to the stampeding of Starry Iron Winged Cows. It is precisely this beast that we have come here to tame!”

“Tame… a cow?!?!?” Qin Cheng was becoming more confused with every passing minute.

“Indeed. Did you know that the interspatial bags everyone uses to store their possessions are actually made using the hides from Starry Iron Winged Cows? Well, I don’t like slaughtering animals and using their stomachs to make myself a bag, so I decided to just catch a cow for myself. It can fly me places and hold all my stuff. As an alchemist, they are the best travelling companion. Especially because they have five stomachs and are capable of digesting all our tested products. That way we don’t accidentally kill people during elixir testing”.

“But… isn’t it cruel to test random potions on animals?” Qin Cheng stared at Hai Yun with widened eyes.

“If it were another animal it would be cruel. Not for the starry iron winged cows though. In fact, they have 5 stomachs. The first stomach is similar to a human stomach, the second stomach is like a large dantian, the third stomach refines poisons, the fourth stomach stores materials and space and the fifth stomach is what stores their iron fart, their most fearsome weapon. Using a screening elixir on our eyes, we can see which stomach the elixir gets to. If the elixir is digested by the first and second stomachs, we can assume it is safe for human consumption. If it gets to the third stomach, we know it isn’t. Since the cow has specialized stomachs, it can actually take the good parts of our elixirs, like the spiritual energy and use it for itself while digesting the poisons in its third stomach. Essentially there are all gains and no losses.

Some of the more intelligent Starry Iron Winged Cows would go and find alchemists to partner up with. Thus, as long as I go and reveal my alchemical skills in a herd of Starry Iron Winged cows, one of them will definitely be willing to partner with me,” Hai Yun explained.

Even though she didn’t know much about the details, according to what Hai Yun explained, Qin Cheng had a brief understanding of this concept. Since Hai Yun planned to get a mount by letting the mount come to him and not cruelly capturing it for personal reasons, she would silently consent.

…

“Brother Yue, we’ve been sitting between these cows for nearly 6 hours and you’ve concocted 5 different elixirs already. Why is it that they are only releasing more poop…”

“That’s because I don’t have any good ingredients so I haven’t been able to concoct anything that displays my abilities as a Divine Ranked Alchemist…” Hai Yun was practically choked to tears.