Shi Jian: I Said I Flew High, and He Asked If I Was Cold!

Shi Jian agreed. What was more, he was quite satisfied in his heart that Liu Xiu had not gone in secret, behind his back, to the place the female ghost had spoken of. "Master, I'll go find a carriage..." Liu Xiu spoke. Shi Jian shook his head and refused the suggestion, and Shi Shaojian said with disdain, "How long would a carriage take..." With that, Shi Shaojian headed first into an empty alley to one side. Shi Jian followed close behind. Liu Xiu put on a look of surprise, followed them, and asked, "Master, are you planning to take me over there with the cloud-riding art?" "Mm. But it isn't the cloud-riding art. It's only the sky-flight art..." Shi Jian gave a slight nod, quite satisfied with the look on Liu Xiu's face. Very soon, though, that satisfaction was gone. A few seconds later. Above the Ninth Heaven. Faint azure lightning circled Shi Jian's body. Hands clasped behind his back, he flew toward Lianshui Town. Behind him were a yawning Shi Shaojian and a curious-faced Liu Xiu. "Huh? A spiritual-power body ward? Master, you used spiritual power to ward me and Senior Brother!" Liu Xiu let out a soft sound of surprise, gazing curiously at the transparent round barrier before him, one that could not be seen unless one looked carefully. "Mm? Not bad. It is indeed a spiritual-power body ward! How did you know?" A trace of surprise showed in Shi Jian's eyes as he turned his head slightly to glance at Liu Xiu, rather taken aback that Liu Xiu knew he had used spiritual power to ward the two of them. "The books said so..." Liu Xiu explained that, without spiritual power protecting the body, one would certainly meet with the low temperature and the lack of oxygen at high altitude. Then he looked with some curiosity at Shi Jian, who had no barrier of spiritual power before him. "Master, flying this high, don't you feel cold?" "...This master is already untouched by cold or heat!" The corner of Shi Jian's mouth twitched as he answered Liu Xiu, who was concerned about whether he was cold. Honestly, this feeling... was truly strange! For the first time, someone had asked him if he was cold! And besides—you say I fly high, but why do you have to ask if I'm cold? Isn't the thing you're paying attention to a bit too strange?! "Oh, oh, Master's awesome. Master, do you feel short of oxygen? Like difficulty breathing, dizziness, and blurred vision?" Liu Xiu asked curiously, and as he spoke he explained the low-oxygen air at high altitude. Shi Jian was silent for a moment, then said with a twitch at the corner of his mouth, "This master does not feel short of oxygen..." "Oh, oh, Master, have you done hard-body training?" "???" Bewilderment flashed across Shi Jian's face. He did not quite understand how Liu Xiu's question had suddenly jumped to hard-body training. Then he heard Liu Xiu say, "Master, our flying speed right now is about one hundred kilometers an hour, right? Mm, that's four hundred li a shichen!" "Right!" Shi Jian blanked for a moment, a thread of astonishment flickering through his eyes. Shi Shaojian, beside Liu Xiu, was even more puzzled as he asked, "Junior Brother, how do you know? Did you guess it?" "I didn't guess it. I calculated it." Liu Xiu answered. Seeing the blank looks on Shi Jian and Shi Shaojian, he pointed down toward two places on the horizon where lamplight shone, facing each other from far away. "Wuyue Town to the east, Lianshui Town to the west. The two towns are forty li apart, and the Lianshui River lies right between them, twenty li out. From the moment we started flying, I began silently counting my own heartbeats..." "...From Wuyue Town to here, my heartbeat count was one hundred and eighty. In a calm state I have about seventy heartbeats a minute. Even if my heart rate rose and fell when we first took off, the error shouldn't be too large. One hundred and eighty heartbeats is roughly three minutes..." As he spoke, Liu Xiu paused and pointed at the land below. "Three minutes, and we've just reached the halfway point from Wuyue Town to the Lianshui River. It's still ten li ahead to the Lianshui River. In other words... we used three minutes to fly ten li... One hour is sixty minutes, so our flying speed is about one hundred kilometers an hour!" "..." "..." Setting aside Shi Jian's expressionless face and the dullness in his eyes, Shi Shaojian was utterly stunned, staring at Liu Xiu as if he had seen a ghost. Wait. Were scholars from the provincial capital this formidable? Shi Shaojian murmured inwardly! Seeing this, Liu Xiu went on, pointing at the night herons passing beside them. "Besides, to make sure the result was accurate, I used the cruising speed of this flock of night herons to check the figures and remove the error from the high-altitude tailwind. The two results were almost exactly the same. It can't be wrong." At this, Liu Xiu looked curiously at Shi Jian, whose mouth hung slightly open and whose expression was a bit blank. "Master, you're at one hundred kilometers an hour now. Bird droppings in the air... ahem, the fine little things falling from birds in the air would hit a person like a slingshot stone. That's why your disciple asked whether you'd trained in hard-body training. After all, Master, it seems you aren't using spiritual power to protect yourself, right!?" "..." "..." So this was what a person who had studied in the provincial capital was like? Shi Shaojian murmured inwardly, while Shi Jian secretly regretted even more why he had not sent Shi Shaojian to study in the provincial capital back then too! "Hm? Master? Did I calculate it wrong?" Seeing that Shi Jian said nothing, Liu Xiu asked in puzzlement. Shi Jian stayed silent. He wanted to say that he was still checking how Liu Xiu had worked it out. But, so as not to lose... he only gave a slight nod without a word, his mind calculating wildly. "Mm. You're not wrong..." The one who's wrong is me. I never should have taken you as my disciple! Shi Jian grumbled in his heart. All at once, he felt that foolish son of his... disciple was better after all. At least Shi Shaojian had never asked him this many questions. "Oh, oh, so long as it isn't wrong. So, Master, can you do hard-body training?" Liu Xiu asked curiously. He was still very curious about hard-body training. "...No!" Shi Jian was sparing with his words. And just then, a blob of bird dropping happened to fall right in front of him. The faint azure electric arcs over his body gathered with a whoosh, and he put on, for Liu Xiu, a performance of thunder arts blasting bird droppings. "..." Oh. Then I've got no problem! Liu Xiu curled his lip, then asked curiously, "Master, when will I be able to fly? Also, can I fly lying down like this?" Liu Xiu raised his right fist high, successfully advancing to Superman Liu. The sight left Shi Jian silent for a breath before he gave a slight nod. Even if you flew upside down, it would be fine! "Oh, right. Master, do you have super vision? Like, when you look at things normally, do their movements all seem very slow to you..." Liu Xiu went on asking. The reason for the question was simple. Shi Jian flew so fast that, by rights, he ought to have super vision. Otherwise, when Shi Jian was flying, his eyes could not keep up with the things he was using as reference, and his inner ear could not keep his balance. He should have passed out long ago. Even if Shi Jian did not pass out, he should long since have been like a headless fly and, because his reactions could not keep up, crashed into something and gone down. "..." You talk so much! For the first time, Shi Jian felt that Liu Xiu vexed him even more than Shi Shaojian did. Still, he opened his mouth and answered. It was just that the speed rose a tiny little bit. Liu Xiu arched a brow at the flight speed that had suddenly shot up. Right after that, his brows drew in a little. For no other reason than this: he had discovered that his master still did not seem to fly as fast as a civilian airliner! My master isn't using his full strength? Liu Xiu looked at their present speed of about four hundred kilometers an hour, and at Shi Jian, who had only half the speed of a civilian airliner. No way. His master couldn't be flying slower than a civilian airliner, could he? He muttered in his heart, and then went on asking aloud. He had barely asked a few questions before they reached the destination! Lianshui Town. Outside the town. In a little wood. Shi Jian brought Liu Xiu and Shi Shaojian down to land. The moment they landed, he took the lead. It was not that he did not want to answer any more questions. The main thing was that he had suddenly remembered he still had not done tonight's evening liturgy. Yes. That was it. His evening liturgy was not done! He wanted to finish the business quickly and hurry back! Liu Xiu asked no questions. He only stated the location the female ghost had spoken of. And so the three of them walked toward the place the female ghost had indicated.