Another heavy snow fell, drifting across heaven and earth. Liu Xiaolou and Lord Xingde were traveling along the main road to Ink Mountain, each carrying a sack on their back, filled with the various refining materials they had gathered.
"There has been rather a lot of snow this year." Lord Xingde watched the snowfall, which showed no sign of stopping, with some concern. "They say heavy snow foretells a bountiful year, but if it comes too often, farming households cannot bear it. Heavy snow can crush roofs."
"Do cultivators like you also concern yourselves with farming?" Liu Xiaolou asked.
"Cultivators cultivate the Heavenly Dao. It encompasses not only Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, mountains, rivers, wind, and rain, but also the hardships of common life, the retribution of good and evil. If one cares only for the former and fails to see the latter, then one's Dao is incomplete."
Liu Xiaolou pondered for a long while, then nodded. "Your words are as precious as gold and jade, Senior. This junior will remember them well."
Before long, the wind and snow gradually ceased, revealing the true colors of heaven and earth. The mountain shadows ahead looked like a painting, like pale ink dissolving into mist.
After nearly a month of arduous travel, they had reached the final stage of gathering materials: finding the trigger medium for the formation.
Illusory realms arose from the hearts of those who entered them, appearing in accordance with their thoughts. They differed from person to person, each unlike the next. Yet to trigger an illusory realm, the formation's master had to "set it in motion," and that required a medium—the triggering item of the formation disk.
To refine an illusory-realm formation disk, its master needed conception and imagination: to devise a scroll of imagery and merge it into the disk. Whatever served as the trigger medium would broadly set the tone for the illusions manifested within the realm.
After turning it over and over in his mind without coming up with any particularly good idea, Liu Xiaolou simply chose the side courtyard in Zhou Manor where he had met Seventh Mistress Zhou.
There was a moon gate, side rooms, emerald bamboo, pavilions, strange rocks, and a pond. The pond could serve as the abyss, while the strange rocks would be the profound stones, perfectly matching the original intent of the Lin Yuan Xuan Shi Formation's diagram. Of course, this composition belonged only to Liu Xiaolou; after these elements were incorporated, the scenes stirred in each person's heart would differ, though the above elements would all appear.
Their trip to Ink Mountain was to obtain Ink Mountain Profound Stone and Ink Pool Spring Water.
"Ink Mountain Profound Stone possesses spirit, and so does its spring water. This spirit is not the spirit of spiritual power, but temperament and soul—the charm of things. There are countless famed mountains beneath heaven, and no few mountain stones and spring pools with spiritual nature, but I alone am especially fond of Ink Mountain's waters and stones... You will understand when you see them."
Ink Mountain was not high, yet it had many perilous natural passes beyond the reach of ordinary people. Still, in its delicate refinement, it possessed another kind of charm. Lord Xingde led the way ahead, pressing deeper into the mountain. Some mountain paths had ceased to be paths at all, and even Liu Xiaolou found them difficult to traverse.
They came beneath a Mountain Hollow, where a three-foot waterfall and spring stream burst into countless fragments of jade upon a stone platform, then splashed down into a secluded pool. Its tinkling, chiming sound was indeed brimming with spiritual charm.
The profound stones Lord Xingde needed lay at the bottom of the secluded pool, and its spring water was no ordinary pool water either. They would likewise have to descend to the bottom and seek the dewdrop-like spirit jade at the spring's source.
Yet neither of them entered the pool. Instead, they stared across it. On two protruding rocks in the pool opposite them sat two fishermen in straw rain capes, one higher and one lower.
Ordinary people rarely came to such a secluded place, much less sat there peacefully fishing. They simply did not know what cultivation these two possessed.
"Are there fish in the pool?" Liu Xiaolou asked softly.
"There are, and they are quite plump," Lord Xingde answered with certainty.
"But would anyone really come all the way to such a remote place just to fish? It feels strange."
"Let us watch first."
They waited like that for half an hour. The fishermen across the pool did not catch a single fish, much less acknowledge them. They merely exchanged occasional glances, casting sidelong looks at Liu Xiaolou and Lord Xingde for a moment.
Liu Xiaolou was observing them as well. Only when the pool water splashed and another person emerged from below did the two fishermen reel in their lines and pull that person ashore.
They were not fishing at all. They were clearly holding the fort above, ensuring that the person who had gone underwater could return safely.
"Can you tell their cultivation, Senior?"
"It is hard to say. After all, we have not crossed hands to test each other, and some people are accustomed to concealing their cultivation..."
The three men opposite finally spoke. "You two intend to go underwater?"
Lord Xingde cupped his hands. "Indeed. What guidance do you three have for us?"
One of them asked again, "Have you come for the profound stones at the bottom of the pool?"
Lord Xingde said, "Precisely."
The man who had emerged from the pool opened a dripping snakeskin sack and poured out several fist-sized stones. The stones were grotesquely shaped and hollow within, like embroidered balls.
"One spirit stone each. Pick whichever one catches your fancy. No haggling!"
Lord Xingde cupped his hands again. "We will go underwater and choose stones ourselves, so we need not trouble you three."
"If everyone went underwater to pick stones, Ink Pool would have been fouled long ago. Mention it no further. Either choose from the profound stones my brothers selected, or the two of you can turn around and go home."
Lord Xingde frowned. "Ink Mountain belongs to all beneath heaven. I have never heard of any sect or powerful faction claiming Ink Mountain as its own. What you three are doing seems improper."
The other side sneered. "You must not have come here for a long time, have you? How ignorant and uninformed! Since the beginning of this year, my two brothers and I have built a dwelling upon this mountain and named ourselves the Three Heroes of Ink Mountain. This Ink Pool is where we have made our home, and my brothers have the final say here!"
This was the most common sort of privately claimed cave abode in the Rogue Cultivator world. Yet the mountains and forests claimed by other Rogue Cultivators were either holdings their patriarchal generations had fought to establish, recognized by the surrounding Rogue Cultivators and even acknowledged by great sects and major schools, or places no one else valued enough to fight to the death over.
For people like the three opposite them to forcibly claim a place frequented by many as their own cave abode, then openly profit from it, was truly rare.
Lord Xingde asked curiously, "What real abilities do you three possess, that you dare claim Ink Mountain as your own?"
The men opposite immediately laughed. "It is simple enough. My brothers and I will guard this place. If you have the ability, drive us away. If you do not, then do not blame my brothers for being discourteous. You want to descend into the pool and still climb back out safely? Where in this world is there such a good thing?"
Lord Xingde glanced at Liu Xiaolou and gave him a meaningful look.
Liu Xiaolou thought for a moment and asked quietly, "This junior goes underwater, while Senior holds the fort above?"
"Incense," Lord Xingde said indistinctly.
Only then did Liu Xiaolou understand his meaning, and he could not help giving a bitter smile. "The weather is poor today, the wind is strong, and we do not know their foundations. It cannot be used."
Using bewildering incense required several conditions. First, a narrow space was best, so the incense would not disperse easily. Second, the targets should preferably be as immovable as mountains, not walking about. Third, the other party's cultivation could not surpass the incense user's by too much, or the effect would be negligible. If all three conditions were met, the incense would work at its best; otherwise, it depended on the circumstances.
Against these men calling themselves the "Three Heroes of Ink Mountain," the conditions for using it were clearly not met, so Liu Xiaolou could not make a move.
Lord Xingde considered it and found it true enough. It seemed they could only force their way through, so he issued one final warning—only for the Three Heroes of Ink Mountain to warn him in return.
A battle of techniques was unavoidable. Lord Xingde sent a ray of light flying into the air, and within that light was the formation disk he had refined himself—the Five Paths Six Emotions Formation.