Days passed, and the avatars continued their exploration.
With Mu Luyin as chauffeur, the journey to the center of the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain was relatively quick, even with the avatars' occasional stops to hunt beasts.
The girl kept an expression of helplessness as she watched them do this. Normally, unless it was an extremely rare and special herb, noble cultivators like her would not bother to seek them out. After all, their sects and powers could easily provide such resources when needed.
The focus of young nobles from the great powers of the continent, when they entered, was almost always on the opportunities present in the mountain's center, and so they tried to get there as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, due to what had happened this time, she could not go on alone without the help of those mysterious men who had aided her. Otherwise, she would already have considered abandoning them to arrive earlier and try to find opportunities to enhance her strength.
Whether Aotian noticed her helplessness and impatience or not, he showed no sign of caring. He simply guided her through the avatars and explored calmly.
His goal this time was not tied to finding inheritances, opportunities, or increasing his strength. If he managed, great; if not, he would not actively seek them.
His true focus was to find herbs that could enhance the quality of his spiritual roots. From the knowledge he had obtained through Soul Search on cultivators, such herbs were extremely rare and could appear anywhere in the mountain range, not much different from what he already knew.
Therefore, since entering, he had not let a single Nascent-Tier herb slip by, as all herbs capable of improving qualifications belonged to that level or higher.
After seven days of exploration since the mountain's opening, he had already collected nearly seventy different herbs of that Tier, which was impressive. All of this was due to the fact that he knew exactly where to look for the best materials, since Bao Wuji had used his treasure radar.
In addition to these, he had also found one or two hidden Formation-Tier herbs along the way with the radar, but he had not approached them. Though he was not certain if they were truly guarded by fifth-level Shadow Beasts, he did not want to risk the lives of his avatars to test it.
"We are about to enter the central area." Mu Luyin's voice carried a hint of relief as she spotted the enormous mountain ahead, rising as if it touched the heavens.
The Shadowfallen Burial Mountain was a vast mountain range, and at its center rose the greatest of them, also known as the main mountain.
At this moment, the young Lei Yun stood at the ship's edge, looking down with indifference, his hands clasped behind his back.
Gu Jian, the outer elder of the treasure pavilion, approached and stood beside him.
The boy did not move nor react, only remained silent, even as he felt the presence at his side.
Through his avatar's vision, Aotian became intrigued by the young man.
'This boy has some kind of problem… he's far too mysterious, far too self-assured, and far too indifferent for his age. Despite his cultivation not being very high, he's still quite young, so his talent is relatively good. But the strangest thing is that he seemed to want to set up formations earlier when I saved them, and he pulled out some Nascent-Tier materials, which is completely odd, considering his cultivation level… could he really be able to create formations of that level?'
He reflected with both curiosity and caution.
'If it's true, then either he's a super genius in formations—which would still be strange, since it's necessary to comprehend the operation of Nascent Soul energy to establish such a formation, something that can only be acquired upon touching that realm—or else… he's an old monster occupying a young body.'
Aotian's eyes, in his main body, narrowed.
'It can't be that he has a system, right?! I'd kick the bucket if there were a second system in this world… system, there isn't a second system in this world, is there?'
The thought made him anxious, and he immediately called and questioned his system, which most of the time remained silent.
Ding!
[The system's existence is unique. The host does not need to worry.]
Aotian was surprised by the direct and useful answer from the system, which usually claimed to know nothing. But in any case, the certainty it conveyed relieved him greatly.
Not that he believed himself the only one deserving of a system, but he feared that a powerful system might fall into the hands of someone who could become a threat to him and to his loved ones in the future.
Fortunately, it seemed he could avoid such worries in this regard.
'Thank you, system, I feel greatly relieved to hear that.' He did not forget to express his gratitude.
Aotian had set a few self-imposed rules as a reincarnator, and the first of them was:
Rule No. 1: Do not mistreat the system. Be polite.
And he followed that rule strictly.
After shedding that concern, he returned his focus to Lei Yun.
'Then, this boy must be an old monster, which would fit with his indifference and calm… or else he had some kind of great opportunity.'
'If he really is an old monster, from what I know, when a Nascent Soul cultivator or higher steals someone's body with their soul, they need only a short time to recover most of the cultivation they lost. There may be greater or lesser compatibility issues with the new body, but the realm still rises very quickly, which does not seem to be the case with this boy.'
'Therefore, if he is an old monster, most likely it's the old reincarnation trope… some powerful cultivator who died, passed through samsara, and was reborn with his memories. If that's the case, and I manage to recruit him as a disciple, wouldn't the gains from feedback be incredible?!'
At this thought, his eyes shone, imagining the possibilities.
'Although I am not sure about his character, I can recruit him first and receive the feedback. Later, I can make a judgment with Lie Zheng. If he turns out to be an evil person, I just need to cut off his head and prevent a powerful evil cultivator from rising again.'
'If I succeed and he really was some kind of supreme immortal in his past life, I'll be rich!'
With his plans made and excited about the possibilities, he did not hesitate to control Gu Jian.
Looking at the boy calmly at his side, he spoke:
"Have you thought about our previous offer? Do you want to join our sect? We are very strong and have many benefits for disciples. And when leaving the mountain, your safety will be guaranteed," he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lei Yun glanced sideways at him, thoughtful.
"The man you said would come to rescue you… has he already arrived?" he asked, his gaze pensive.
Nearby, Mu Luyin also turned her eyes toward him, curious.
Gu Jian nodded.
"Yes. Although he was busy, he merely frightened the twelve ancestors outside, forcing them to flee for their lives, and killed only one. But he is already about to deal with the rest," he replied with a shrug.
Aotian decided to be honest, even though he was basically declaring that Lei Yun would not have much trouble leaving, even if he refused, since the ancestors had already been handled.
The reasons were simple.
First, because if he really were an old fox, he would probably only agree to join at the very last moment—after leaving and confirming the situation outside.
Second, he thought that the boy, even if he was an old monster, did not seem like a bad person, so his recruitment attempt was sincere. He hoped to have such an excellent disciple in the future, one who would greatly facilitate the sect's missions, and for that, it was better not to lie or deceive.
Lei Yun narrowed his eyes, becoming serious as he pondered his options after hearing Gu Jian's words.
But someone was not as calm as he was.
Mu Luyin rose from the ground with a stern face. In recent days, she had already recovered greatly from her injuries and exhaustion, and her appearance seemed much better.
Her expression, however, was not serene, and her brows were furrowed.
"Brother Yun, they are deceiving you. Don't believe them. It is impossible for any message to enter or leave the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain, and even if it were a powerhouse at the Void Refinement stage, it would still be impossible. Perhaps only those mighty Tribulation Transcendents could have a chance—and even then, it would trigger alarms and draw the entire central continent here. So there is no way they could know so clearly about the situation outside," she said firmly.
If before she had held some good opinion about those men, now that image had fallen greatly upon seeing them lie, trying to trick her Brother Yun.
She now saw them as potential enemies and traitors, though not with absolute certainty, since they had saved her earlier.
Gu Jian looked at her, slightly surprised.
"Young lady, I am not lying. The means of our sect are beyond your imagination," he spoke firmly, without blinking, showing that he was being sincere.
Although Aotian felt a little embarrassed by those words, he did not want the others to misunderstand.
Besides, he was surprised by the facts she had revealed. The cultivators from whom he had extracted information with Soul Search knew that messages could not be sent by any means they possessed, but even they had no idea that not even realms above Nascent Soul could succeed. Had he known, he might not have spoken so directly.
Aotian believed the girl was not lying. From the memories of those cultivators, the Mu family was almost like a guardian of the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain, acting on behalf of the Liu family. And Mu Luyin, as the future leader of the Mu family, certainly knew much more than the others.
And just as he believed her, surprisingly, Lei Yun believed them.
"Luyin… I believe they are not lying," he suddenly said to her.
While they had been speaking before, he had carefully observed the expressions of those people.
To his eyes, Gu Jian did not seem to be lying or deceiving when he said those things.
But upon hearing Lei Yun's words, Mu Luyin grew anxious.
"Brother Yun! I'm not lying. You may not know this, but the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain is actually a massive seal—created to imprison a fragment of an immortal and unimaginably powerful creature called Shadowfallen, who nearly destroyed the world in ancient times. Even after it was finally defeated, it couldn't be killed. So, the combined forces of the world cut it into pieces and sealed them in different locations—one of them being the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain. Since then, the seal has been reinforced for ages by humanity's greatest powers. It's nearly infallible."
She grew distressed seeing her Brother Yun not believe her, and quickly revealed the history behind the mountain, a secret that very few in the entire Lingxi world knew, in order to convince him.
Not only did Lei Yun arch his brows at that revelation, but so did Aotian.
In his main body, after processing the information, he rolled his eyes hard and snorted angrily, recalling that what he had guessed earlier seemed to have been right on target.
'Damn! I knew these cultivators were crazy! They really put people to play around in a mountain that seals a creature capable of destroying the world! Great, excellent! Very smart! I want to punch someone!'
Thus, under Aotian's urge to pull out his own hair, and with distrust rising on all sides, the little princess Mu's ship descended to the foot of the central mountain, where both danger and opportunities grew exponentially.