Sky High, Days Distant, Figures Mistaken; Orioles, Swallows, and Blossoms Ask the Zither Slave

Cold Palace Imperial Realm, Barren Mountain.

Barren Mountain lived up to its name. Not a blade of grass or tree grew there.

As far as the eye could see, there were only jagged rocks and rugged sand. The entire mountain range lay buried beneath ceaseless gale-driven clouds of dust, making one wonder whether a civilization had formed within.

Deep within Barren Mountain, where no one dared set foot, Yue Gongli was desperately condensing a physical body.

Yet he had used up every sacred medicine A-Si had given him, and his body still failed to take shape.

"This is going to be a huge problem!"

Yue Gongli was on the verge of collapse.

This was the three hundred and sixty-eighth time he had failed to condense a physical body.

The medicines A-Si had thoughtfully prepared had run out as early as the eighteenth attempt—A-Si had even thoughtfully assumed he would fail seventeen times!

How absurd was that?

But reality was always capable of being even more absurd.

Could it be that his talent truly was lacking, or that Heaven wanted him dead, which was why it would not allow him to condense a body in this land where laws were broken?

"Lecherous Old Daoist, you must have tampered with this, haven't you?!"

Yue Gongli roared at the sky, wishing he could rush back to the Holy Spirit Continent and hack that damned thing into eight pieces.

Back in the Relics of the Gods, when Dao Qiongchang had kindly helped him forge a physical body, he had guessed that bastard must have left a backup plan behind.

Sure enough, after returning to the Holy Spirit Continent, Yue Gongli did not even dare remain in the Central Region. He had immediately returned to the Cold Palace Imperial Realm to save his own life.