"The lecture ends here. I hope all of you gain something useful from this, and more importantly, I hope you return alive from the Chilong Secret Realm."
Jian Dan gave a final word to the disciples seated in meditation before her.
She hadn't even walked out of the Lecture Hall when several Gold Core Zhēnrén who had been listening blocked her path. Tao Chengfeng was the first among them.
"Shan Zhēnrén, what is going on here?"
"No need to worry. I've given them a small opportunity. Whether they gain anything from it depends on their own fortune. If you're uneasy, you may stay with me and help keep watch."
Upon hearing that, Tao Chengfeng silently stepped to the side and began monitoring the state of the hundred or so disciples within the hall.
"As expected of a cultivator who came up from the rogue path," remarked Zou Zhēnrén of Sword Peak with a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Shan Zhēnrén gave them a vivid lesson today."
"You flatter me. These are just hard-won experiences. After suffering enough losses, anyone would learn to be cautious."
Several other Zhēnrén nearby were clearly curious. It was no small matter for one person to guide more than a hundred disciples into simultaneous meditation. Shan Zhēnrén clearly possessed real skill.
Meanwhile, in the lower realm, Du Yanran was sailing across the sea, accompanied by Zheng Da, the one who had once saved her in Shennongjia.
Back during her Foundation Establishment, Du Yanran had failed due to an inner demon. She had hallucinated her own death, slain by Jian Dan's sword, and the failure had nearly ruined her cultivation. In desperation, she used the only Foundation Establishment Fruit from her spiritual field and finally succeeded. Afterward, she began wandering the world, hoping to reclaim the fortunes she and Jian Dan had once found in their past life.
But without Jian Dan to absorb the danger and shield her from misfortune, her progress stalled. With her cultivation stuck at early Foundation Establishment, there were many places she dared not go. In the end, she was forced to give up, resentful and unwilling.
After suffering repeated failures at several fortune sites, Du Yanran made up her mind. She would find Jian Dan and use her again as a stepping stone. Unfortunately, since Jian Dan had vanished, Du Yanran lost all trace of her. The jewel box she had once soaked in Shadowgrass essence, meant to track Jian Dan, eventually turned up in the hands of a collector from Fasilan.
The collector knew only that a woman named Jian Dan had consigned it for auction. Nothing else.
Du Yanran even visited the Zhao family in the capital. But Zhao's father had already fallen from power. He now survived on the stock shares Jian Dan had left him.
Qian Yi had finalized her divorce from Zhao Mufeng and taken Zhao Zihan with her, along with half his wealth. Zhao Zihan, having no attachment to the family, left without hesitation and moved abroad with his mother and sister, Ziyu. Zhao Mufeng's family had completely fallen apart.
Du Yanran spent effort and means to piece together everything Jian Dan had done over the past year in the capital. What she discovered left her uneasy. A growing sense of dread crept in, and she immediately rushed toward the desert's heart, where she and Jian Dan had once discovered a teleportation array.
But when she arrived, she found only a dull, lifeless formation.
Desperate, she inserted a rare spirit stone she had painstakingly acquired. The array lit up, then dimmed after just three breaths. It shattered completely before her eyes.
Furious, her body shook and the black aura on her forehead grew thicker.
With no other options, she turned to mad cultivation using the spiritual plants stored within the magnolia pendant. She hoped to reach ascension before her resources ran out. But she knew it was futile. This was the Dharma Ending Era. No cultivator could ascend through accumulation alone.
Still, she refused to give up.
Through extensive searching, and thanks to Zheng Da's help, they discovered a mysterious region in the Southern Ocean where spatial rifts appeared sporadically, briefly connecting to other worlds. Du Yanran took the risk and sailed to sea, hoping to find a path to another realm. Even if it was a low-level one, as long as she could cultivate, she believed she could ascend.
Back at the Lecture Hall, Jian Dan was casually exchanging pleasantries with the other Jīndān Zhēnrén when a sudden surge of spiritual energy erupted within the hall. Someone was breaking through.
Sweeping her divine sense across the room, she found it was the shy young man who had first answered her question. He was now advancing to late Foundation Establishment. Clearly, he had a stroke of luck—but the breakthrough was disrupting those around him.
Without hesitation, Jian Dan tossed out a formation disk to isolate the space, then generously scattered some low-grade spirit stones within it to support him. After all, they were somewhat fated.
But this was only the beginning.
One after another, waves of spiritual fluctuation followed. Some cultivators completed their breakthroughs before she could even finish setting down isolation arrays. As they opened their eyes, looking slightly dazed, they quickly realized what had happened and respectfully took their leave from the hall.
In total, more than twenty cultivators achieved breakthroughs.
Even those who didn't advance visibly showed signs of improvement. All who emerged from meditation bowed deeply to Jian Dan in gratitude before departing.
Lü Se, who had remained nearby the entire time, was utterly stunned. He could barely believe his eyes. Listening to a single lecture and gaining cultivation—this Shan Zhēnrén was no ordinary person.
If he had known, he would have squeezed in to listen too.
Without delay, he sent a transmission talisman to his clan uncle, Lü Zhēnrén.
Within half an hour, news of Shan Yunzu Zhēnrén had spread across every outer peak with access to the information network.
Just then, a message talisman flew to Jian Dan and unfolded automatically before her:
"Shan Yunzu, report immediately to the Law Hall of the Inner Peaks."
===
[Notes]
The fates of Jian Dan and Du Yanran are deeply intertwined, as if written into the same thread of destiny. In the earlier chapters, this connection became unmistakable. When Jian Dan faced her heart demon during the trial, she found herself locked in a vision where she struck down an illusion—one that took the form of Du Yanran.
At the very same moment, far from the trial ground, Du Yanran was in the midst of establishing her foundation. During that pivotal breakthrough, she experienced a sudden, vivid vision of being cut down by Jian Dan's blade.
What Jian Dan saw as an illusion, Du Yanran felt as a wound in spirit.
Neither of them could have known, then, that their cultivation paths had briefly collided across distance and consciousness. It was more than coincidence—their trials echoed each other, overlapping in time and meaning. One confronted an inner demon, the other crossed a threshold. And in that shared moment, their lives brushed against each other in a way no ordinary bond could explain.