To the side and rear of the courtyard where Li Yan lived, there was a small path that wound its way up the mountain to an unknown destination. The path was not wide, only able to accommodate two people side by side, and was paved with fine gravel. On both sides of the path, dark bamboo swayed as before. This Little Bamboo Peak was an ocean of dark bamboo; it was everywhere.
The dark bamboo on both sides of this path was not like the thick, sturdy dark bamboo near the mountainside and Li Yan's residence. Each stalk was only as thick as a finger and a little over a person's height, like tender bamboo and fine willows. A gentle breeze would rustle through the stalks. This was already high up on the soaring Little Bamboo Peak. From time to time, a few white clouds would slowly drift out from these slender bamboo forests, and the next moment they would float into the distance.
Li Yan walked on the small path. The white clouds that drifted out would occasionally brush past his waist and head, then disappear into the slender bamboo forest on the other side of the path, as if he were walking in the clouds and mist.
Li Yan walked as he thought. He had been coming here every few days recently. The place he was going was about twenty li from his dark bamboo courtyard towards the mountain peak. There was a platform there, a good place for practice that he had found a while ago.
Time went back to more than half a year ago. When Li Yan first started cultivating, his progress in both his cultivation technique and immortal arts was quite normal. But after he had been cultivating for about ten days, a series of things happened that he could not understand, or could even be described as strange.
First, the improvement of his spiritual power slowed down when he was cultivating his technique. It often took him several days to make a little progress. At first, he thought this was a normal phenomenon. After all, Lin Daqiao had also told him that the process of practicing was not always smooth, and it was common to encounter bottlenecks. But for a period of time after that, no matter how hard he tried, the growth of his spiritual power was as slow as a turtle crawling. Sometimes, it wouldn't move at all for several days in a row. If he stopped cultivating, his spiritual power would even show a downward trend. This greatly horrified him, and only then did he realize that something might be wrong.
At first, Li Yan thought there was a problem with the cultivation technique. He quickly entered his sea of consciousness, but no matter how he explored the incantations of the True Scripture of the Nether Water, word by word, he couldn't find any problems in the end. After several days of investigation, he still had no results.
Similarly, during this period, his immortal art cultivation also became strange. The "Cloud and Rain Art," which he could originally summon clumsily, began to work sometimes and not at other times. Then, some strange phenomena appeared in the immortal arts he released. A few times, when he finally managed to release the "Cloud and Rain Art," before he could be happy, the raindrops turned a verdant green. After falling to the ground, they rose up in clouds of green mist. After the green mist disappeared, many fine, pitted small holes appeared on the originally hard ground. These small holes were about an inch deep, of varying depths, and clearly looked as if they had been corroded.
Seeing this, Li Yan was a little confused. He carefully cast the "Cloud and Rain Art" again. He wanted to see what this thing was. However, after several consecutive casts, the immortal art could not be released. The moment the spiritual power gushed out, the next moment it was as if it had suddenly disappeared. So he unwillingly cast the immortal art several more times. In the end, he succeeded again, but this time the "Cloud and Rain Art" almost made Li Yan's eyeballs drop to the ground. What fell from the dark clouds was not rainwater, but a patch of eerie blue mist. In a short while, it was about to fill the small courtyard. Li Yan was so scared that he quickly released his spiritual energy to protect his body. This time, his internal spiritual energy did not fail him at the critical moment and really protected his whole body. This made Li Yan feel a little relieved. He quickly took out his waist token, opened the courtyard gate, and fled. He didn't know what this blue mist was. He had clearly cast the "Cloud and Rain Art," so it should have been a shower of rain.
He peeked out from outside the courtyard. After half an hour, the eerie blue mist finally dissipated. When he entered the courtyard, he was at a loss again. The stone table and benches in the middle of the courtyard were gone. The bamboo branches and leaves extending into the courtyard from above were also curled and withered. The few bamboo houses were still intact, but the color of the dark bamboo on the surface had turned a little gray, as if it had lost a lot of its spirituality. The courtyard walls and the formation were fine, which made Li Yan feel a little at ease. But after he walked around the courtyard, his face fell. The spirit stones that supported the operation of the magical formation in the four corners of the courtyard had also been consumed a lot.
He had observed them before. When the formation was only in the protective function, the luster of the spirit stones would only dim a little after four or five days. But the spirit stones he had just looked at yesterday were not just a little dim now. They were at least three or four parts dimmer. It was obvious that the few spirit stones would not be enough to last until the end of the month. At most, the spiritual energy inside would be completely used up in another ten days or so. Only then did he understand that it wasn't that the courtyard walls were fine, but that there was a formation protecting the courtyard walls. The blue mist had been blocked by the formation, so the spirit stones had also been consumed a lot.
After feeling distressed about the spirit stones for a while, Li Yan also felt a wave of fear. Looking at the dense small pits on the ground and the disappeared stone table and benches, and then thinking about if he had been enveloped in this corrosive rain or eerie blue mist, the ending... the thought of it made his hair stand on end.
After a long while, after calming down, Li Yan still put his thoughts on his strange immortal art. Could it be that the True Scripture of the Nether Water he was cultivating couldn't use these immortal arts? But this thought only flashed for a moment before he rejected it. Dong Fuyi had never said that the cultivation methods of the Gui Water Immortal Sect needed to be paired with special immortal arts. If that were the case, he would definitely have put the cultivation method and immortal arts together in his sea of consciousness.
Then was there a problem with the immortal art itself? Of course not. These immortal arts were the most common immortal arts. This was something that the gray-robed old man who guarded the pavilion, as well as his Eldest Senior Brother and Seventh Senior Brother, had all said. Since it wasn't a problem with the cultivation method or the immortal art, then there was a problem with his own body. The only problem with his own body was that "Fragmented Poison Body."
After figuring this out, he slowly relaxed. He thought for a long time and couldn't help but let out a long sigh. It seemed he had no choice but to go to that chubby master. Otherwise, this matter would definitely not be resolved. Whether he was willing or not, he could only ride his spirit tool and fly to a place in this group of bamboo courtyards.
Half an hour later, Wei Zhongran stood in Li Yan's courtyard. Looking at everything before him, and then at Li Yan, he didn't say a word. He walked to the side of the dense small pits, squatted down, and reached out to touch the small pits on the ground. Li Yan was so scared that he wanted to stop him, because there were still dry, verdant green water stains in those small pits. He had seen how corrosive that rainwater was. But the next moment, Wei Zhongran's finger had already been placed in those small pits, but the green mist that Li Yan had imagined did not rise. After wiping some dry rainwater on his finger, Wei Zhongran looked at it in front of his eyes, then smelled it under his nose. With a twist of his finger, a cloud of green mist rose from his fingertip and disappeared in a flash.
Then, before Li Yan could react, his teacher had already stood up, waved his palm in the air, and then a few strands of eerie blue rose from the white mist of the courtyard wall's formation and quickly gathered towards his palm. Li Yan looked closely and saw that this was the blue mist he had released with his spell before. He hadn't expected there to be any left in the courtyard. But this time he didn't intend to remind him again. Seeing Wei Zhongran's methods earlier, he had already guessed that these strange things he had released with his spell probably posed no threat to him at all. Besides, on the way here just now, he had already described the whole process and result.
Sure enough, after Wei Zhongran sucked the few strands of blue mist into his palm, the blue mist swirled in his palm, as if trying to break free, but it could never escape. Wei Zhongran clenched his palm, closed his eyes, and after a moment, opened his eyes again. When he opened his palm again, the cloud of blue mist was gone. Then he thought for a moment more, and only then did he look at Li Yan.
"This should be the consequence of the Fragmented Poison Body. I have read about it in the classics before. This kind of constitution will form a potent poison in the body. The two potent poisons just now, oh no, it should be said that they are composed of five potent poisons. The first kind of rainwater is composed of 'Phosphorus Smoke Grass' and 'Spotted-Leaf Green Water' respectively. The second kind is composed of 'Blue Tassel,' 'Aconite Leaf,' and 'Purple Lightning Centipede Tail.' It's just that these were originally potent poisons refined from herbs and demonic beast organs, yet you can produce them yourself. I had only seen the terror of the Fragmented Poison Body in the classics before. Today is the first time I have seen it."
Wei Zhongran was not lying. This Fragmented Poison Body had only been cultivated by three people in hundreds of millions of years, and the last one was also tens of millions of years ago. This shows its preciousness. Otherwise, with Li Yan's Miscellaneous Spirit Root constitution, how could he have entered this behemoth of a Malevolent Spirit Sect? Wei Zhongran had only seen some descriptions in the classics before and had never seen it with his own eyes. Seeing it today made him take this disciple seriously. No matter what his future achievements would be, just with this poison art now, he was not to be underestimated. Even a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator might fall for it if they were not careful.
Li Yan, on the other hand, was shocked in a different way. He didn't know how great this chubby master's divine powers were, but he had just casually taken the rainwater and blue mist that he regarded as a viper and scorpion and dispelled them without a trace. And it didn't harm him at all. Besides, this master could distinguish the components of so many potent poisons just by touch. How powerful and confident was this?
Wei Zhongran thought for a moment more and said to Li Yan, "The occurrence of these phenomena is very normal. It's a problem in the cultivation process of the Fragmented Poison Body. I know a little about this. But for these three great poison bodies, I only understand them. Hmm, how about this, I'll take you to get the records, summaries, and insights of the predecessors in the sect. That is more detailed."
Li Yan was overjoyed to hear that there was a solution. He had now developed an interest in cultivation and didn't want to have his immortal path cut off just as he had entered it.
Next, a spiritual light flashed on Wei Zhongran's body. Without using a flying magical artifact, he wrapped Li Yan and flew into the sky. Only then did Li Yan know that a great Golden Core stage cultivator could carry a person and fly so casually.
They went to the gray-robed old man of Little Bamboo Peak, and then to the treasured collections of Lord Lao Peak and Spirit Insect Peak respectively, and took out a few jade slips and imprinted them into Li Yan's sea of consciousness. Li Yan also learned that the three predecessors of the Malevolent Spirit Sect with the Fragmented Poison Body in ancient times came from these three peaks.
An hour later, they returned. When Wei Zhongran was passing over the handyman department in front, he thought for a moment and landed. The handyman disciples were working. Seeing Wei Zhongran arrive, they couldn't help but all bow their heads. After nodding, Wei Zhongran instructed a few handyman disciples to help Li Yan move another set of stone table and benches. This greatly surprised the group of handyman disciples. They didn't know why Li Yan's status was so important. You must know that for such a small matter, let alone having someone like Li Wuyi and the others come over to say something, even if they just sent a message, they would all rush to do it. Unexpectedly, today it was the Peak Master who came to inform them.
Miao Wangqing, who was sitting in the main hall, also rushed over when she heard the news. Knowing that her master had just come to give instructions on such a small matter, her beautiful eyes flashed as she looked at Li Yan, who knows what she was thinking, which made Li Yan's hair stand on end. This was actually not Wei Zhongran's intention. He was just passing by here on his way back with Li Yan and remembered that the stone table and benches in Li Yan's courtyard had been destroyed. He was afraid that Li Yan was new and unfamiliar with some things, so he just said something on the way.
Seeing that the matter was settled, Wei Zhongran waved his sleeve, and a few more low-grade spirit stones flew in front of Li Yan. This made Li Yan stunned. Wei Zhongran just smiled faintly and told Li Yan to accept them to set up the courtyard's protective formation. Li Yan was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected this teacher to be so meticulous, even thinking of the consumption of the spirit stones for the courtyard's protective formation. But he also knew that he only had six spirit stones now, so he couldn't be polite about this. After thanking him with a salute, he accepted them.
This move made Miao Wangqing beside him even more surprised. It wasn't that the few spirit stones that her master gave were anything special. These few spirit stones were just low-grade spirit stones. Let alone a few, even hundreds or thousands of low-grade spirit stones were just a drop in the bucket for a Golden Core cultivator. What surprised her was that although this master was not stingy, if you didn't go to borrow from him, he wouldn't give a single spirit stone. The Malevolent Spirit Sect was all about letting their disciples live independently and work hard for everything themselves. Only in this way could they cultivate sect disciples who could stand on their own. A cultivator who relied on others would not go far.
This gave Miao Wangqing a new understanding of Li Yan. At least in her master's mind, this little junior brother had some weight.
Of course, Li Yan didn't know that accepting a few spirit stones would make others have so many thoughts. He thought it was a reward from his chubby master, so as a disciple, he just thanked him and accepted it.
Li Yan saw his master's large sleeves fluttering as he left gracefully. He also quickly bid farewell to his Fourth Senior Sister, who was looking at him curiously as if she had something to ask. He had a lot on his mind now and was in no mood to chat about anything. Cultivation and leveling up were what was important.