You Shouldn't Have Given Me the Chance

Liu Xiaolou drew the Three Xuan Sword. The Misty Incense Tendon around his wrist poked out its head as well. He slowly headed toward the trees where Wei Hongqing and the others had vanished, stopping with every step, prepared to meet an enemy at any moment.

He walked forward for a while, yet never seemed to reach them, leaving him deeply puzzled.

A chasm suddenly opened beneath his feet. Liu Xiaolou slipped and plunged downward. Startled, he thrust the Three Xuan Sword toward the sheer cliffs on either side, hoping to drive it into a rocky crag. The Misty Incense Tendon on his wrist lashed out as well, seeking to coil around protruding stones or stubbornly growing grass roots on the cliff face.

Yet attempt after attempt failed. The blade always missed the rock crevices, and the Misty Incense Tendon could never find a suitable point to wrap around. He simply spun as he fell toward the bottom of the abyss.

He kept falling...

Falling and falling, yet never reaching the bottom.

Liu Xiaolou suddenly realized that this was an illusion formation.

It was his first time encountering an illusion formation. Lost within the formation's illusory realm, he found the experience strangely wondrous. He wanted to break free, but for the moment had no way to do so. He could only watch himself endlessly plummet toward the unknowably deep abyss below.

Suddenly, a row of crossbow bolts burst through one side of the cliff wall. Their tips gleamed with cold light as they shot straight at his waist and ribs!

Unable to maneuver in midair, Liu Xiaolou could only raise his sword to block them. Yet the crossbow bolts came with tremendous force. Arrow light nearly an inch long flared from each tip; with his cultivation, he feared he would be unable to withstand them.

Was this attack real or false?

In his panic, Liu Xiaolou could not tell. He could only prepare for the worst, desperately pouring true essence into the Three Xuan Sword to withstand the thunderous force of the bolts.

An arm reached out from the cliff on the other side, seized his collar, and flung him sideways toward the wall. Liu Xiaolou saw himself about to slam brutally into the cliff. He shut his eyes, then opened them again—and everything from before had vanished. He was back in the forest, his body hurtling sideways toward a great tree.

At the same time, several crossbow bolts skimmed past him, nearly piercing straight through him!

Wei Hongqing had acted at the critical moment and pulled him out from beneath the bolts.

Liu Xiaolou planted both feet against the tree trunk, borrowed the force to drop down, and saw someone sitting cross-legged before him. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, while fragments of smashed and ruined formation disks lay before his knees.

Who else could it have been but the Western Mountain Hermit?

Liu Xiaolou froze. "Hermit..."

Wei Hongqing and the others had already surrounded the Western Mountain Hermit. Tan Bazhang said furiously, "Xiaolou, the thief we thought we were hunting was him! He guarded the storehouse and stole from it himself, and he even dared to ambush you. You nearly died at his hands! We were foolish enough to keep thinking of ways to save him—what a wolf-hearted, dog-lunged bastard!"

Zuo Gaofeng was even more enraged. Two crossbow bolts were embedded in his leg and arm, their heads wholly buried in flesh as blood streamed down. He was too furious to speak. He raised his twin axes, then lowered them again. After hesitating several times, he ultimately did not strike, instead looking toward Wei Hongqing.

Wei Hongqing asked quietly, "Why did you do this?"

The Western Mountain Hermit had already fired all his bolts. Surrounded by the four of them, he knew there was no way out. He threw an empty jade case to the ground and held a spirit pill spinning in his palm. "I was muddleheaded for a moment. It is too late to say anything now. I only ask that you brothers leave me a path to live. Otherwise, I will destroy this Foundation Establishment Pill!"

Tan Bazhang spat. "Pah! Who's your brother? You dog who forgot righteousness at the sight of profit!"

The Western Mountain Hermit gave a bitter smile. "A Foundation Establishment Pill—how could that be a small profit? If I had been with you back then, I would not have come to this... You shouldn't have given me the chance. You shouldn't have..."

Wei Hongqing stared steadily at him. "Hermit, you are only at Qi Refining Layer 8. Even if you want to take a Foundation Establishment Pill, how could it be possible without ten or twenty years? What use is it to you now? When you reach Layer 10 Perfection, it still will not be too late to seek a spirit pill..."

The Western Mountain Hermit shook his head. "Then it will be too late. How difficult is it to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill? I am already fifty this year. By the time I reach Layer 10 Perfection, I will be at least sixty. Where would I find the time to seek a Foundation Establishment Pill?"

Tan Bazhang roared, "So what? You betrayed your brothers? You wanted to swallow it all by yourself?"

The Western Mountain Hermit ignored him and instead said to Wei Hongqing, "Hongqing, leave me a path to live. Let me go, and you can keep the Foundation Establishment Pill. How about it?"

Seeing Wei Hongqing hesitate, he added, "You know I still have a niece in Yongshun who has not yet grown up. Her parents passed away long ago, and she relies on me to raise her. If I die..."

Wei Hongqing said, "I promise you, I will raise her to adulthood."

The Western Mountain Hermit cried out, "No! I do not need you to raise her. I will raise her myself. I want to live! Promise me and let me go, or I will destroy this spirit pill!"

He laboriously twisted his body, bringing the Foundation Establishment Pill in his palm to his mouth as he nervously kept the others from approaching.

"Don't come over! None of you come over!"

"Tan Bazhang, step back! Step back, or I'll swallow it!"

"Brother Zuo, I'm sorry. It was my fault to shoot you twice. I will surely compensate you in the future!"

"Hongqing, leave me a path to live..."

The others all retreated several steps. He suddenly remembered something and shrieked as he turned toward Liu Xiaolou. "Xiaolou, move back! Get back, quickly! Don't come near... Stay far away from me... Far away..."

But it was already too late. His body swayed twice. His head felt heavy and his feet light. In his panic, he tried to stuff the Foundation Establishment Pill into his mouth, but his hand and mouth missed their positions. The pill fell from the corner of his lips and landed before his knees.

He still tried to pick it up, but suddenly felt a chill at his neck. The world spun around him, turning several times in succession, until from among the treetops he saw white clouds drifting leisurely across the sky.

Just as that senior said all those years ago, was I truly fated never to reach Foundation Establishment? The Western Mountain Hermit had one final thought. His consciousness swiftly blurred, then finally dispersed.

Zuo Gaofeng had struck. He wiped his axe on the Western Mountain Hermit's body, smearing away the blood, and said viciously, "That's for shooting me!"

Wei Hongqing stepped forward, picked up the Foundation Establishment Pill, returned it to the jade case, and tucked it into his robes.

Zuo Gaofeng and Tan Bazhang both stared at the jade case. Only after it was put away did they sigh together, then search the Western Mountain Hermit's corpse. They found two spirit stones, a formation manual, several small gold ingots, and piled them together with the magical crossbow mechanism and its bolts.

Wei Hongqing said, "You may divide these things among yourselves."

Zuo Gaofeng was the oldest among them and had the highest cultivation, so he did not stand on ceremony. He first took the magical crossbow mechanism and bolts. "Brother Tan, brother Liu, this item is useful to me, so I will not be polite."

Tan Bazhang flipped through several pages of the formation manual, then turned them faster and faster. Shaking his head, he stuffed it into Liu Xiaolou's arms. "This thing makes my head spin just looking at it. I cannot understand it, and it is not to my liking. I'll take the spirit stones and gold. This book is yours."

On the path of cultivation, even specializing in a single discipline was exceedingly difficult. Most cultivators were unwilling to divide their attention among other arts, much less formations. Besides, this formation manual did not contain any profound secret of formations; it was merely a minor illusion formation. That was why neither Zuo Gaofeng nor Tan Bazhang chose it. Truth be told, they were somewhat taking advantage of a younger junior.

Liu Xiaolou had been staring at the formation manual all along. What he had experienced within the illusion formation had greatly amazed him, and he was extremely eager for this manual. But he had the least seniority and could only choose last. Fortunately, his wish had finally been fulfilled. He secretly made up his mind that if he lacked the talent and could not master formations, he could still trade it for money—but could it fetch him even one spirit stone?

A signal arrow suddenly rose in the distance. Wei Hongqing said joyfully, "Guard Lu Zi'an's corpse. I'll be right back!"