Hours passed, and soon turned into days.
There was little more than a day left before the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain closed.
During six days of searching, Aotian explored the entire cavern with his avatars and discovered many herbs, from Core-Tier—miraculously surviving—to Formation-Tier.
The number of skeletons was astonishing. By estimating the visible remains, Aotian calculated that at least one hundred thousand dragons had fallen there. Perhaps many more lay beneath those waters, whose depths he could not see.
Since the energy of the Dew of the Dragon's Lament was extremely potent and violent, the divine sense of avatars at the Golden Core level shattered the moment it came into contact with the golden liquid mixed with blood.
Even so, merely seeing all those skeletons was enough to cause chills.
The profit in herbs was excellent. Most skeletons bore none, but even if only 1% did, it was still a great many herbs.
Unfortunately, in the end, aside from the north—where the danger was far too great—Aotian explored everything and found not a single herb capable of improving the quality of his spiritual roots, leaving him helpless.
He even considered leaving the cavern to spend the last day searching outside. If his theory was correct, the herbs found on the skeletons must have belonged to the dragons themselves and, somehow, germinated on their bodies. He became even more convinced when he found artifacts fallen among the bones.
If he was right, unlike outside—where ordinary herbs could mutate over thousands or even millions of years, creating new varieties of spiritual herbs—inside this cavern the herbs would be limited to what the dragons had possessed when they died. And if they hadn't had herbs that improved talent, and none had the luck to sprout upon their skeletons, Aotian could only lament.
At least, aside from this bad news, the elders' expedition wasn't entirely fruitless, and the gains were not limited to excellent herbs.
[Name: Yáng Shī (Meaning: Master Yang)
Position: Outer Elder (Alchemy Pavilion)
Cultivation: 6th Level Golden Core (Host's Realm)
Body Cultivation: 1st Level Golden Core (Host's Realm)
Position Skill: Heart of Nature
Affiliation Skill: Alchemy Affinity
Position Bonus: Accelerated Growth (4 uses per day)]
A smile appeared on the main body upon seeing the avatars' progress.
In that environment filled with powerful energy, they circulated cultivation techniques nonstop throughout the exploration, and the advancement was immense. It wasn't just the intensity of the energy, but also its special properties, which made it even better than pills, though it also shared the same disadvantages.
Realizing how beneficial that energy was, both for cultivation and body refinement, Aotian did not fail to circulate the refinement technique alongside the cultivation one. Although this reduced the efficiency compared to focusing on only one, he didn't care. For him, having avatars exploring both body refinement and normal cultivation was an excellent result and valuable experience for when the main body followed that path in the future.
Slowly, over these days, he saw the avatars' supreme Golden Cores grow from the size of a shelled walnut to that of a golf ball, nearly doubling in diameter.
But one must not underestimate such growth. After all, the energy contained in a 6th level core is eight times greater than that of a 1st level. In other words, each avatar could now cast eight weakened synthesized Nascent-Tier spells or pour all the energy into a single, far stronger one. This represented a tremendous increase in strength, and the quality of the energy had also improved, further strengthening their power.
'Haah… if only I had a way to bring this liquid out, it could greatly aid both me and Rihai in our body cultivation. Not to mention the Golden Tiger also needs it, now that I can create the evolution pill for him and he'll be able to cultivate again,' Aotian thought with a sigh.
The Dew of the Dragon's Lament was extremely potent and violent, and so the common storage rings Aotian possessed could not contain it without exploding from within. This was a problem for all who came to the lake. Unfortunately, from what Aotian discovered, no one in the Beiyan continent had been able to remove the liquid so far. Furthermore, the formations of the Dragon Lake also seemed to forbid taking it away.
'Well, knowing the control nodes of the formation, taking the liquid away wouldn't be a problem. The only issue is that I don't have a powerful enough container. If Bao Wuji could enter without drawing the attention of the entire central continent, this wouldn't be difficult. It's a pity that…' He was thinking regretfully, but then froze.
His eyes widened as the idea struck him.
'Wait… before, he couldn't, and the danger was fatal, but now, with Lei Yun's knowledge, could it be he can enter silently?!'
The more he reflected, the more feasible it seemed. Without hesitation, he created a new mission.
[Mission: Infiltrate the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain
…
Participant: Bao Wuji
Danger Level: Slightly Dangerous]
Upon seeing this, he immediately stood and slapped his forehead.
'Damn it, why didn't I think of this earlier! Bao Wuji has been outside the mountain for almost two days already. I wasted so much time.'
Thinking irritably, he shifted focus to Bao Wuji, who was outside the mountain, watching seven captured and unconscious Nascent Soul cultivators while stroking his beard.
In recent days, he had read the minds of all the ancestors, sparing none. After all, those old men had lived too long and committed too many evils. Therefore, Aotian showed no mercy, even after managing to synthesize a Nascent-Tier Soul Search technique, which allowed him to read their minds completely without killing them.
[Soul Sovereignty: Nascent-Tier Soul Search Technique.
Description: An extraordinary technique that allows reading, manipulating, and erasing memories.
Requirement: High-level spiritual control, Nascent Soul cultivation or higher.
Notes: This technique can perform Soul Search without killing, but it significantly weakens the target's soul. Memory manipulation can be undone if third parties with high cultivation intervene, or if powerful emotional fluctuations occur. Erasing memories of targets with cultivation far greater than the user carries the risk of the memories returning; otherwise, it is permanent.]
The technique was far more impressive than Aotian had imagined it would be. Although it had a few flaws, it still exceeded his expectations—after all, it was only a Nascent-Tier technique, not a Taboo-Tier one.
And, of course, even though he could spare them, he did not. He read the minds of those ancestors for his own benefit, but only because he knew they had done evil. Showing no mercy was simply the consequence of them never having shown mercy to others, so Aotian carried no mental burden for what he had done.
If they had been good people, no matter how tempting, Aotian would never have done something so invasive and cruel as a Soul Search. Unfortunately for them, they weren't.
As for those seven Nascent Soul cultivators, they were precisely the ones he had spared at the beginning, since he discovered through the memories of the others that they did not seem to be bad people.
Aotian already intended to spare them, but at the time he was still considering how to do it. After all, he did not want his face imprinted in the minds of enemies. He didn't know if people from the central continent would hunt him for what he had done, but he preferred to leave fewer traces to be found.
Before, he thought of perhaps taking them and forcing them to remain in the Infinite Dao Sect until the dust settled, or simply releasing them somewhere far away from the continent.
Now, however, he could erase his face and his actions from their minds, and he didn't hesitate to do so.
He left only the knowledge that they had been captured by an enemy, nothing more. In the end, he inserted a message in their minds stating that those twelve ancestors had died, so they would better understand the situation and not act recklessly.
Aotian felt more at ease this way.
He avoided killing good people, even if they were enemies, while at the same time keeping his face hidden. Thus, cultivators from the central continent could only deduce, from the battle at that sect against the twelve ancestors, that a Void Refiner had been involved.
And where else would there be Void Refiners besides the central continent? Then let them search there and leave Aotian and his sect in peace in the desert continent.
As for divination techniques? Aotian had already received feedback from a Mahayana and knew they could only be touched by communicating with the laws and the Heavenly Dao—something even Mahayanas struggled to do. Although he did not receive feedback about common sense, theories and cultivation perceptions were still included, which is why he had knowledge of these things.
With that resolved, he removed the formation imprisoning those people and left them in a more hidden place until they awoke.
Having done so, he turned and immediately headed toward the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain.
There, before the red entrance gate, the Golden Core cultivators of the twelve powers were still guarding those with slave seals, who sat on the grass waiting.
Although the guards were confused about the sudden disappearance of their companions, they did not dare leave.
Likewise, the captives also saw the Nascent Soul guards vanish, but they neither dared flee nor rebel. After all, they bore slave seals in their bodies and could not remove them alone.
Ignoring them for now, Bao Wuji, hidden in the void, approached the barrier and began cautiously probing it.
As his energy penetrated, he soon began to sense the control nodes, but then felt the barrier circulating energy in that area, trying to locate the energy Bao Wuji had inserted. Taking a deep breath, he quickly camouflaged his energy.
That was the soul of the formation. When treasures and arrays reach Nascent-Tier or higher, they can already nurture souls and consciousness. Normally, they were fragile, pitiful, and stupid.
But this mountain's protective formation seemed powerful, which made sense. It was a Void-Tier formation, likely nourished for millions of years by the central continent, and its strength was beyond doubt.
'It seems very aggressive, unwilling to let anything in or out of the formation beyond its control. I think even knowing the control nodes, this consciousness would still block anyone. I must be discreet,' Aotian thought, his gaze heavy and serious.
Bao Wuji slowly explored the control nodes, and even with his Mahayana-Tier knowledge, the formation caught small lapses, turning more and more of its attention toward him.
He paused for a moment, waiting for its attention to fade. Despite being intelligent, such consciousnesses were not as shrewd as humans; otherwise, even without certainty, they would have already raised an alert merely on suspicion.
Failing to detect anything wrong, Bao Wuji felt the formation's attention recede.
With that, he smiled, for he now had the control nodes in hand.
Although he could attempt to seize full control of the formation now, with his current proficiency, the matrix's consciousness would still be able to resist for quite some time and, during that period, would send signals of alarm to the central continent, bringing countless problems to Aotian.
Proof of this was the mission indicating that trying to take control was fatal.
Leaving that aside, Bao Wuji abandoned the void, revealing his real body, though keeping his figure invisible so that outsiders wouldn't see what he was doing.
Since this was a Void-Tier formation, it would easily detect anyone creating ripples in the void, so he couldn't enter by hiding there—it was safer to enter with his body, camouflaging his own aura.
Thus, he began advancing cautiously and slowly inside the formation, without drawing attention. He had to activate a few nodes along the way to open a path, but he did it carefully and slowly, and thanks to his formation knowledge, he did not alert the consciousness.
An hour later, sweating nervously, Bao Wuji managed to get inside and sighed in relief.
'That was intense and gave me a headache. Fortunately, I trained my mental resistance a lot by reading so many memories, or else I would have made mistakes and created problems for myself.'
Aotian thought, a little weary.
But reflecting on the fact that he had managed to enter, he felt reinvigorated, and a broad smile spread across his face.
'Very good. The real hunt begins now, and it will be a race against time.'
Time until the mountain closed: 34 hours.