At the exact instant Zhong Yue hit the ground, another Flood Dragon formed from his gathered spirit had already reached Yu Feiyan's side. It suddenly coiled around the girl and unleashed Ride the Thunder Across the Sky, smashing through one great tree after another before barely managing to land.
But Yu Feiyan's soul had already left her body, and with her sea of consciousness controlled by the Inner Demon, she still tumbled head over heels more than ten times upon landing before finally stopping.
Fortunately, although she had never deliberately tempered her body, it was still far stronger than an ordinary person's. She had not been injured by the fall, though several bruised marks had appeared on her fair skin.
The girl was still shaken to the core, terror filling her eyes. The Inner Demon had yet to dissipate.
"Senior Sister, save me!"
Tao Daier's frantic cries came from above. Zhong Yue looked up and saw the red-clad girl flailing as she fell from midair, though her speed was very slow.
"Hmm? This visualization art is quite peculiar. It visualizes clouds."
Zhong Yue looked closely and saw clouds coiling around Tao Daier, slowing her descent. He thought, Elder Pu once said that clouds have cloud spirits. When people worshipped clouds, they would not disperse; over time, they gained spirituality. Senior Sister Tao might be following the path of cloud spirits.
Cloud spirits were ethereal, formless, and ever-changing. They could transform into wind, rain, or thunder; they could soar into the sky or descend into the mountains. They were an incredibly mystical kind of spirit.
Yu Feiyan came back to herself. After all, she was the strongest senior sister in the Women's Court, and she quickly visualized the Fish Dragon, refining the Inner Demon in her sea of consciousness. When she caught sight of Tao Daier falling from above, she hurried over and said, "Tao Tao, I'll catch you!"
Plop.
Tao Daier fell to the ground right in front of her and landed on her bottom, becoming completely dizzy from the impact.
"Senior Sister, you did that on purpose!"
"I didn't."
Yu Feiyan withdrew the hands that had failed to catch Tao Daier and calmly said, "Tao Tao, I really wanted to catch you, but I missed. It was an accident."
Tao Daier climbed to her feet and rubbed her bottom, angrily saying, "You obviously did it on purpose! That wasn't an accident!"
Yu Feiyan secretly glanced at Zhong Yue in the distance and whispered, "I really didn't. I already missed once just now."
"Nonsense! You were embarrassed and afraid of being the only one who looked foolish, so you made me fall too!" Tao Daier said indignantly.
The two girls were arguing in low voices when they suddenly saw Zhong Yue find another massive stone in the mountain forest and hoist it onto his back again, apparently intending to climb to the cliff top. The two girls exchanged a glance and walked toward him.
"Junior Brother Zhong..."
Yu Feiyan was silent for a moment before saying, "Thank you."
Zhong Yue visualized the Flood Dragon and smiled. "It was only right. After all, Senior Sister jumped down without hesitation as well. Senior Sisters, I still need to cultivate, so I won't accompany you."
"Who wants you to accompany us?"
Tao Daier spat, "It's not as if we're drinking!"
Yu Feiyan shot her an annoyed look. "Junior Brother, is this cultivation?"
"That's right. Stepping between life and death, stimulating one's potential, overcoming great fear and terror, and doing everything possible to survive—this is my way of cultivating."
Zhong Yue smiled. "Senior Sister also experienced the space between life and death just now. You should know what it feels like."
"Between life and death..."
Yu Feiyan looked deeply at him. Suddenly, two black wings spread open behind her with a whoosh. She flapped her wings and flew toward the cliff top, saying, "Since you're cultivating, then our battle will have to wait until another day!"
"Senior Sister, you left me behind again!"
Tao Daier stamped her feet repeatedly. She quickly visualized clouds, and her body slowly floated into the air. She flew lazily toward the sky above the mountain cliff and called out to Zhong Yue, "Junior Brother Zhong, we'll come find you to keep us company next time. I'll be going first... Hey! Wait for me! Don't climb so fast! Damn clouds, stinking clouds, can't you float a little faster..."
By the time Zhong Yue climbed to the cliff top, Tao Daier was still floating around halfway up the mountain. The black-clad Yu Feiyan, however, had already vanished without a trace and had probably gone far away.
"Flight arts are indeed marvelous. By visualizing clouds or birds, one can fly. Flying by riding thunder is certainly fast, but it consumes a great deal of energy, and it is not as nimble as flying with wings. When the next lecture comes, I'll see if I can learn a flight art."
He could sense that a flight art was extremely important to both upper-court disciples like him and Qi Warriors. It was useful not only in battle but also for traveling in daily life.
Whoosh—
With the massive stone on his back, Zhong Yue leaped off the mountain cliff. Passing by Tao Daier on the way, he had already spent more than half an hour climbing down the cliff and back up again. The red-clad girl was still struggling to float slowly toward the top.
The gale raised by Zhong Yue's fall blew the girl lower and lower, making her cry out in alarm.
Not long afterward, Zhong Yue climbed up the cliff again with the massive stone on his back. Tao Daier once more cried out for him to slow down.
"Zhongshan Clan, if you dare jump past me again, I'll never forgive you!"
The red-clad girl had once again been blown more than a hundred zhang downward by the hurricane created when Zhong Yue jumped off the cliff. Finally enraged, she said angrily, "If you do it again, I'll tell Junior Sister Ting that you harassed me and make sure you suffer!"
Zhong Yue carried the massive stone past her once more and earnestly said, "I truly have nothing to do with Senior Sister Ting."
Tao Daier leaped onto his back, beaming. "Carry me up, and then I'll believe you two have nothing to do with each other."
Zhong Yue felt that she had added hardly any weight at all. Knowing that the girl was light, soft as if boneless, and was also visualizing clouds to reduce her weight so that he would not be unable to carry her, he thought, Senior Sister Tao is quite considerate. She even followed me down the cliff just now. With such a kind heart, it's no wonder she has such a beautiful voice.
"Senior Sister Tao, why don't you sing me a song?" Zhong Yue suggested.
"I'm not singing."
Zhong Yue pretended to throw her down. The girl hastily wrapped her arms around his neck in fright and said, "I'll sing, I'll sing! You're such a horrible person. I really don't know what Junior Sister Ting likes about you!"
On his back, Tao Daier sang softly and melodiously, performing a song in a clear voice. The song echoed through the empty valley, ethereal beyond compare. Before the final note had even faded, Zhong Yue had already carried her to the cliff top.
Tao Daier sat beside the lake, her little feet stirring the water, the song still lingering on her lips.
Zhong Yue jumped into the lake at Horse-Drinking Platform and washed away the sweat and grime on his body. The singing was like the girl's fingertips brushing over his soul, carrying away the weariness of both body and mind.
The setting sun leaned beside the horizon, while evening clouds hung between heaven and the mountains. The afterglow illuminated the girl beside the lake and the boy within it. Several leisurely one-horned horses wandered over and lowered their heads to drink.
The song grew even more ethereal. Tao Daier carried her shoes and stepped across the water beside Zhong Yue. After a while, the singing slowly faded, its lingering notes circling in the air. The red-clad girl waved to him from afar before walking into the mountain forest.
Only after a long while did Zhong Yue awaken from the girl's beautiful singing, only to find that she had already gone far away.
"Dragon Travels Ten Thousand Miles!"
Zhong Yue shot into the air from the water. His spiritual power erupted, and a Flood Dragon coiled around his body as he skimmed across the lake like an enraged dragon bursting from the water, churning up enormous waves. He crossed Horse-Drinking Lake through the air in a few strides and headed toward the upper court.
In the span of a single day, his cultivation had undergone earth-shaking changes. Not only had Suihuang become more solid and its image clearer, but his sea of consciousness had also expanded repeatedly. It now covered a radius of three hundred mu!
His body was filled with explosive strength. In a very short time, he could manifest his spiritual power and transform it into an incomparably powerful attack!
"Tomorrow, continue cultivating!"
Kindling Child spoke within his sea of consciousness. "If you want to surpass Heavenly Phenomenon Mother, slow and leisurely cultivation won't do! What you're doing now is still far from enough. Only when you achieve these three words—crisp, fierce, and unyielding—will you have reached the entry level of sensing spirits!"
Zhong Yue asked, "What do you mean by crisp, fierce, and unyielding?"
"Power must be crisp. The instant your fist touches the enemy's body, your strength must erupt completely, destroying everything in its path!"
"Your spirit must be fierce. Your heart must harbor the will of a fierce tiger, like a dragon descending the mountain. Your spiritual power must surge, and your visualization of gods and demons must be completed in an instant!"
"Your soul must be unyielding. Your soul must be like a sharp spear—able to bend but never break. When your soul moves, it can perform Soul Sacrifice on an object weighing ten thousand jin; when your soul is still, it is like the Heavenly Emperor seated in the central hall, with no evil able to stir!"
Kindling said calmly, "Only after reaching this step will your foundation be considered solid, and only then will you have the capital to contend with Heavenly Phenomenon Mother."
Zhong Yue drew a long breath and said solemnly, "Good! Tomorrow, I'll continue cultivating!"
"Grandfather, today I met a young man who was cultivating. He told me that there was great fear and terror between life and death."
Beneath Sword Gate's Golden Summit, in a great hall supported by a Lingzhi Mushroom cliff, the black-clad Yu Feiyan respectfully asked an elderly white-haired man seated cross-legged, "He said that by stepping between life and death, stimulating one's potential, overcoming great fear and terror, and doing everything possible to survive, one could cultivate with twice the result for half the effort. What exactly is this space between life and death? Is it truly a cultivation method?"
The white-haired old man was the patriarch of the Youyu Clan, a man of extremely high standing within Sword Gate. Upon hearing this, he opened his eyes in surprise. "Between life and death? There's actually someone who uses such a method to cultivate?"
"There really is such a cultivation method?" Yu Feiyan asked in astonishment.
"There is. But it exists only in hearsay."
The patriarch of the Youyu Clan said solemnly, "This cultivation method is too extreme—extremely dangerous, extremely rapid, and with an extremely high mortality rate. Thus, very few people cultivate this way. Between life and death, one life and one death stand opposed to each other. Succeed, and you live; fail, and you die. Among those who have cultivated this way, however, the vast majority have died. In the past, some in Sword Gate also used this method, but they all died."
Yu Feiyan was startled. "They all died?"
The patriarch of the Youyu Clan nodded. "This cultivation method is only useful for establishing the foundation. It is effective for the Out-of-Body and Soul Sacrifice realms, but it has no effect on Qi Warriors. Qi Warriors can ascend to heaven and descend into the earth—how could it be so easy for them to enter the space between life and death? Those who do not become Qi Warriors have too few means of protecting themselves and may die from the slightest carelessness. Thus, this foundation-building method is called extreme and is strongly discouraged. However, I heard that our former Sect Master used this method back then to forge an incomparably solid foundation. But that is only a rumor and cannot be taken as fact..."
Yu Feiyan's eyes flickered. Seeing her gaze, the patriarch of the Youyu Clan felt a chill in his heart and shouted, "You must not learn this method! Your becoming a Qi Warrior is already set in stone. If you cultivate this way, the slightest mishap will result in death, and you'll gain nothing for what you lose!"
The next day, Zhong Yue returned to Horse-Drinking Platform. From far away, he saw a red-clad girl sitting beside the lake, with a black-clad girl standing beside her.
"Hey, hey! Zhongshan Clan, what kind of trick is this for picking up a little heifer?"
Kindling grew excited and said eagerly, "Pass it on to me, quickly pass it on to me! Once I find the next Kindling inheritor, I can teach it to him!"
----Monday's ranking battle is coming, and I urgently need recommendation votes. Brothers, sorry for the trouble—Pig bows in thanks!
Before you continue