Millions of li away from Green Mountain Pass, this place was already rarely visited by humans. The mountains rose and fell in continuous ranges. The overall color of these endless mountains was a dark green. The vegetation was thick, the leaves and stems thick and broad, so dark green that it seemed as if a thick juice could be squeezed from the leaves. The towering giant trees were tall and sturdy, most of them dozens of zhang high and so thick that five or six adults would be needed to encircle them. They stood like pillars supporting the sky. If one were to look from the top of a higher peak, the canopies of the trees would block out the sun, layer upon layer, stretching endlessly.
Here, demonic beasts roamed freely. Low-level demonic beasts were countless, and occasionally, high-level ones would also appear.
But in such a vast mountain forest, there was a forested area of several thousand qing (TN: A unit of area, roughly 6.67 hectares) where few demonic beasts dared to tread, as if they were afraid of something.
In this area, the peaks were also high and perilous, and primeval forests were everywhere. At this moment, on the top of one of the peaks that soared into the clouds, there were actually magnificent jade palaces, pavilions, and towers. Small bridges and flowing water emerged, and spirit birds flew among them.
From the middle of the mountain upwards, various pavilions, gardens, bamboo forests, and paths were built in a scattered but orderly fashion against the mountain. Above the halfway point of the mountain, clouds and mist swirled year-round, lingering among these pavilions, bamboo forests, and paths, as if one could reach out and grasp the wind and clouds.
At the very top of the peak was a huge platform, astonishingly large, about ten thousand zhang in size. The paving stones of the platform were all polished from smooth rock. Standing on it, one could not see the end. And behind the platform, up several hundred steps, stood a magnificent palace. The palace, from its eaves upwards, was already deep in a sea of clouds, and it was impossible to tell how far it extended.
At this moment, inside the palace, two people were talking. One was sitting on a huge armchair in the center of the palace. The back and armrests of the chair were densely carved with many large and small unknown fierce beasts. These beasts were either ferocious, malevolent, or sinister, all emitting a cold, dark light, so vivid they seemed alive.
The person sitting on the chair had three long strands of beard and looked to be in his thirties. His face was as fair as jade, his eyes somewhat long and narrow. He wore a scholar's cap and a long green robe. His figure was slender, giving the impression of a deeply cultured scholar. The other person was sitting in a row of chairs to his lower left, close to him. This was an old man, about sixty years old, dressed in a blackish-green long robe. His figure was somewhat gaunt, his face like a hawk's, his eyes incomparably cold, emitting a chilling light. His ten fingers were withered, yet they gripped the armrest of the chair like eagle's talons.
The two of them sat in the magnificent hall, looking extremely small, like two ants in a giant palace.
"Peak Master, a message brought back by a Qingyao Falcon released by the law-enforcing disciples stationed outside reports that a pile of bones was found on the outskirts of a suspected cultivator's ruin tens of thousands of li from here. After using a secret method to detect it, it has been confirmed to be the outer sect disciple who defected from our peak seven years ago," the old man said to the middle-aged scholar in the head seat, but his face was full of hatred, his eyes shooting out a fierce light.
"Oh, a cultivator's ruin tens of thousands of li away? Then even a Ten-Thousand-Li Voice Transmission Talisman would be useless. Even with the constitution of a second-level demonic beast like the Qingyao Falcon, it must have flown for dozens of days. Did the law-enforcing disciples find what the defecting disciple stole?" the scholar in green turned to look at the hawk-like old man.
"No, only a damaged storage pouch was found next to the bones, but as for the other things..." the hawk-like old man replied, shaking his head by the end.
"This matter has already caused our peak to lose a lot of face in front of the other four peaks. Although what that person took was only our peak's introductory cultivation manual, it is something only disciples recruited by our sect can cultivate. The body tempering chapter of the manual cannot be cultivated by non-disciples of our sect. In particular, the basic body tempering formula recorded in it is something only our sect's disciples can know. Otherwise, why would we care about such an entry-level manual?" the scholar said with a frown.
After thinking for a moment, his slender fingers tapped a few times on his thigh. He then said, "Do this. Send some more of our peak's law-enforcing disciples over. Expand the search area. You can start with the apothecaries. It doesn't matter if they are mortal apothecaries or cultivator's market squares, investigate them all. As long as someone has taken the introductory manual, they might cultivate it. I don't want a Qi Condensation stage disciple who is not from our sect to appear in the outside world in the future."
"Yes, Peak Master. This subordinate was thinking the same thing. If we find someone cultivating it, then according to the rules of our Law-Enforcement Hall, we will kill them and then feed their soul to the Soul-Entangling Silk Worms, making them suffer in both life and death. Then we will announce it to the other sects as a warning to others," the hawk-like old man said, his eyes filled with a murderous light.
Outside Green Mountain Pass, in the valley, Li Yan, with the assistance of Strategist Ji, cultivated diligently day after day. Time passed in this repetitive cycle. Li Yan also gradually felt that as his cultivation progressed, his teacher's guqin music was gradually unable to suppress the heat in his body. Especially in the last two days, he had basically completed his cultivation in a half-conscious, half-dazed state. He knew that the guqin music was starting to lose its effect on him. But for him, this would no longer be a problem tomorrow, because tomorrow would be the forty-ninth day.
In the early morning, when the sky was still dim, Li Yan pushed open the door and went out, then began to walk around the valley. The frustration in his chest had made it difficult for him to sleep these past few days. In addition, today was the day he would cultivate at the pool. So, he decided to walk around the valley, breathing in the fresh morning air of autumn. This would at least relieve some of the frustration in his chest. After about half an hour, he returned to his room. A woman had already brought breakfast. He took a few simple bites and then lost his appetite. He sat cross-legged in his room.
Not long after, there were a few knocks on the door. Li Yan opened his eyes at the sound. When he opened the door, it was Chen An and Li Yin. They gave him a respectful salute, and Chen An said, "Young Master, the Lord has instructed us to move the copper brazier to the side of the pool."
"Then I'll trouble you two," Li Yan said with a nod. Since entering the valley, Li Yan had had very little contact with others, basically just the woman who brought his meals and these two. These people were usually very respectful to him. At first, he was not used to it, but after a while, he slowly got used to these etiquettes.
After the two of them had carried the copper brazier out, Li Yan also followed them out of the room. Soon, Chen An and Li Yin had placed the copper brazier not far from the pool. They pushed it back and forth a few times to make sure it was stable, then turned and walked towards the second room, Strategist Ji's cultivation chamber. At this time, the door of the cultivation chamber was tightly closed. Strategist Ji must have already gone inside. The two of them stood there waiting, without a word.
Li Yan stood in front of his room, not talking to the two of them, just staring blankly at the copper brazier by the pool. For some reason, looking at the copper brazier and the pool, he suddenly thought of the senior brother he had never met. If he remembered correctly, that senior brother seemed to have died a violent death just over a month after entering the valley. The words "over a month" flashed repeatedly in his mind. "Forty-nine days" was also less than two months. Was it just a coincidence? He fell into deep thought.
"Young Master, Young Master, the Lord is calling for you!" A few calls interrupted his thoughts. He looked up and saw Li Yin walking towards him, calling out to him softly as he walked. Further away, Strategist Ji was already standing by the pool, and the familiar copper basin had already been placed on the copper brazier.
He didn't know how long he had been standing there thinking. Li Yan shook his head slightly, as if to shake off the jumble of thoughts, then collected himself and walked over. Seeing this, Chen An and Li Yin quietly left the valley.
Strategist Ji, in his loose black robe, stood with his hands behind his back not far from the copper brazier, staring blankly at the copper basin. He seemed to be talking to himself, and also to Li Yan. "The last day, it's the last day. Can you succeed?"
Although the words were very soft, in the quiet valley, Li Yan heard them very clearly, and his heart grew even more uneasy. But thinking that things had already come to this, he said no more and walked a few steps to the copper brazier.
Today, the mist above the copper basin was no longer the blackish-green of the past few days, but a pure black mist, so thick it seemed tangible, constantly churning and surging. Li Yan looked into the copper basin. The liquid inside was already boiling, a thick juice like boiling ink. He could no longer see the herbs inside, only gurgling black bubbles constantly rising and bursting, releasing puffs of black gas that then merged with the surging pure black mist above, making it even thicker. Then, countless tiny black bubbles would surge up from the copper basin, forming large black bubbles that would rise and burst, releasing another puff of smoke, repeating the cycle. It was obvious that the medicinal power was many times stronger than before.
Li Yan took a deep breath, got into his stance, and stretched his hands into the thick, cohesive black mist. Instantly, a force far greater than any he had ever felt before surged towards his hands. Ten wisps of black gas also drilled into his fingers, but these ten wisps were not the ethereal fine threads of before, but several times thicker, so dense they were almost tangible, like ten iron rods being brutally inserted into his fingers. Li Yan felt a pain that pierced his very marrow, like a huge wave crashing over him. His whole body trembled, he gritted his teeth, and groaned continuously. But the surging pain spread from his fingers, racing up his arms and beginning to ravage every part of his body. If not for the dozens of days of cultivation before this, he would probably have fainted from the pain of this one blow.
Strategist Ji stood to the side, just watching Li Yan, his face expressionless. Only the occasional twitch of his eyebrow revealed his inner turmoil. He stood there motionless, just staring at Li Yan.
Time passed bit by bit. After about the time it takes for two cups of tea, Li Yan's expression was already withered. Amidst continuous groans, he had slowly retreated several steps to the edge of the pool. At this moment, Li Yan's mind was blank. He had even lost the thought process to circulate his technique. But the thick, heavy black gas seemed to no longer need the guidance of his technique and was forcibly pouring into him on its own, then coursing through the meridians in his body. At this time, his skin had turned black, his face was distorted and swollen, and streaks of black gas appeared on his face, looking extremely terrifying.
Li Yan felt the qi in his body running rampant, his body feeling as if it were about to explode. He felt countless scorching hot airflows about to burn his internal organs to ash.
He barely maintained a trace of clarity, turned his head to look at Strategist Ji, and said with difficulty, "Tea... Tea... Tea... Teacher, disciple... disciple..." He couldn't continue. Another wave of chaotic qi surged through his body, causing him immense pain.
Strategist Ji remained standing where he was, motionless and expressionless.
Li Yan's vision gradually blurred, his body teetering on the verge of collapse. A few breaths later, he fell backward into the pool behind him. But the ten thick, heavy black wisps of gas were still firmly attached to his fingers. After his body fell into the pool and began to sink, they still swirled and writhed on the surface of the water, like living pythons.
After falling into the water, a wave of coldness washed over Li Yan's head, and the coldness on his body also increased greatly. Li Yan became slightly more clear-headed. At this time, his vision was filled with the shimmering water of the pool. Looking up through the surface of the water, he could vaguely see the figure on the shore, distorted by the water's surface, yet motionless.
Li Yan was still sinking into the pool. Even as he began to choke on the icy water, it could not stop the scorching hot airflow rampaging through his body. His consciousness grew more and more blurry. In his last moment of clarity, a wry smile formed. "So, this is the path my senior brother walked."