Journey to Nine Heavens Mountain

Yang Chengzhi felt wronged. He never expected that a glance at a beautiful woman would be the death of him. This was probably the most pathetic protagonist in history!

Unfortunately, he didn't know that he was still immersed in the world of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, lost in its enchantment.

Meanwhile, Zhou Zhuling was also captivated by the world of My Fair Princess. Ziwei and Jin Suo went to the Forbidden City to acknowledge their relatives, while Xiao Yanzi, in her eagerness to help, accidentally entered the palace herself. These engaging stories quickly made Zhou Zhuling fall in love with the book.

It wasn't until evening, as the bookstore was about to close, that the two of them emerged from the worlds within the books, letting out a sigh of relief.

Watching the books they had been reading transform into golden light and fly back to the shelves, they couldn't help but feel a pang of regret: they would have to wait two more days to read this book again.

Tomorrow was the bookstore's usual day off.

However, Yang Chengzhi quickly collected his thoughts, bid farewell to Ma Feifei, and headed back to prepare. He was going to Nine Heavens Mountain to hunt spirit beasts tomorrow, so he needed to use the remaining time to buy some healing spirit herbs at the trading market, just in case.

Zhou Zhuling stayed behind. She walked over to Ma Feifei and said softly, "Does the shop owner happen to be free tomorrow?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Feifei thought, Is she asking me out on a date?

In his twenty-plus years of life, Ma Feifei had never been invited out by a girl before, especially not by someone as beautiful as Zhou Zhuling.

However, Zhou Zhuling's next sentence shattered Ma Feifei's fantasies.

"My father would like to invite you to our residence for a gathering."

Great! So it turns out her dad wants to invite me for a meal, not that Zhou Zhuling wants to date me. I got excited for nothing.

Ma Feifei's enthusiasm immediately plummeted to freezing point. He casually asked, "When?"

Even though his excitement had waned, it was still Zhou Zhuling's father. He had to show some respect, if not for the father, then for the daughter. What if Zhou Zhuling became his wife in the future? Then her father would be his father-in-law! He had to give him some face.

Wait! Why did I say 'wife'? Does that mean there'll be a 'main wife'? Am I going to start a harem?

Thinking this, Ma Feifei felt a surge of happiness.

Seeing Ma Feifei chuckling to himself, Zhou Zhuling felt inexplicably happy. A faint blush appeared on her pale cheeks as she said, "The evening of the day after tomorrow, the Zhou residence will await the shop owner's esteemed presence."

After speaking, Zhou Zhuling gave a slight bow, gathered her skirt, and turned to scurry away with small steps.

From behind, she seemed to be skipping with joy.

"Hey! Miss Zhou, you haven't gotten your Spirit Crystals back yet," Ma Feifei called out from behind.

However, Zhou Zhuling had already run out of the bookstore. With a turn, she disappeared, leaving only a faint, lingering fragrance in the air.

Oh my, could this Zhou Zhuling have fallen for me? Ma Feifei thought gleefully, watching Zhou Zhuling's disappearing figure.

Sigh, it's my fault, my fault. I'm just too outstanding. Ma Feifei sighed, then got up with a touch of melancholy to close the shop door and went to the backyard to chuckle to himself...

Last night, Ma Feifei had a dream.

The dream was strange and beautiful.

When he woke up in the morning, Ma Feifei, uncharacteristically, took a bath and changed into clean robes. He felt refreshed and comfortable all over.

"Where should I go today?" Ma Feifei pondered before leaving the house.

He had pretty much explored Dubian Town thoroughly over the past few weeks. He had also visited the tavern many times, and going again felt pointless.

"How about going to Yuanfang City?" Ma Feifei thought.

Yuanfang City was the foremost major city on the northern border of the Great Chu Empire. It was located two hundred li south of Dubian Town. Yuanfang City governed twelve towns, and Dubian Town was one of them.

Therefore, on the border, Yuanfang City was the gathering center for a thousand li radius. Its prosperity far surpassed that of a small town like Dubian Town.

It was just a pity that Yuanfang City was too far. The two-hundred-li journey would take Ma Feifei at least half a day, and a round trip would take a full day. This meant he could only spend one day in Yuanfang City, which made him too lazy to go.

Moreover, he had a banquet to attend tomorrow evening. If he went to Yuanfang City, wouldn't he be standing up Zhou Zhuling? Such a thing was absolutely unacceptable.

As Ma Feifei was racking his brain for a destination, Yang Chengzhi's arrival gave him an idea.

Yang Chengzhi was passing by. He was just about to leave town when he saw Ma Feifei standing in front of his shop, so he went up to say hello.

"You said you're going to Nine Heavens Mountain to hunt spirit beasts?" Ma Feifei's eyes darted around upon learning of Yang Chengzhi's destination, and an idea surfaced in his mind.

Yang Chengzhi, unaware of Ma Feifei's thoughts, nodded and said, "After cultivating last night, my cultivation broke through to Spirit Master Stage Seven. I'll go into Nine Heavens Mountain today to stabilize my cultivation."

Yang Chengzhi's breakthrough was real, but the reason for entering Nine Heavens Mountain to stabilize his cultivation was a bit of a white lie.

Ma Feifei was surprised by Yang Chengzhi's breakthrough. What surprised him wasn't the breakthrough itself, but the timing and the amount of cultivation gained.

Based on Zhao Xiaodao's first breakthrough, it usually happened after finishing an entire book, often jumping several stages at once. Yang Chengzhi, however, broke through one stage after reading only a portion of the book. This seemed unprecedented.

"Could this book's effect be like this?" Ma Feifei could only guess.

However, Yang Chengzhi's breakthrough had somewhat disrupted Ma Feifei's plan.

"Wait for me. I'll go to Nine Heavens Mountain with you today," Ma Feifei said before turning and going back into the bookstore to get paper and pen.

His original work was about Yang Chengzhi's story. If Yang Chengzhi had broken through significantly in one go after finishing The Legend of the Condor Heroes, it would have been fine. Ma Feifei could have attributed all the credit to the book and made the writing smoother.

But now, Yang Chengzhi had suddenly leveled up, and even before finishing the book, this had to be taken seriously by Ma Feifei. At the very least, as the author, Ma Feifei needed to understand all the changes that Yang Chengzhi experienced while reading The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Therefore, Ma Feifei decided to follow up closely.

Although Yang Chengzhi was puzzled why Ma Feifei suddenly decided to go to Nine Heavens Mountain with him, he found Ma Feifei to be a mysterious person. So, despite his confusion, he wisely asked nothing.

Soon, Ma Feifei came out with paper and pen. The two set off together towards Nine Heavens Mountain.

Along the way, Ma Feifei kept probing Yang Chengzhi with questions.

For example, his thoughts on the book The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

His state of mind while reading The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

What changes occurred in his body after finishing The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

And other questions related to Yang Chengzhi reading The Legend of the Condor Heroes after arriving at the bookstore. Once he had clarified everything, Ma Feifei had a general understanding.

Yang Chengzhi's experience while reading was similar to others; he could feel the fluctuations of spiritual energy. However, unlike others, Yang Chengzhi had also practiced the breathing and energy circulation techniques from the book, as well as the meditation and focus arts, which increased his cultivation speed by over thirty percent. Not only that, but as time went on, the spiritual energy within his body reached a critical point, which allowed him to break through to Spirit Master Stage Seven last night.

"So, the benefits of The Legend of the Condor Heroes are its cultivation techniques?" Ma Feifei mused as he jotted notes on paper.

If his speculation was correct, wouldn't Yang Chengzhi be making a fortune? There were so many cultivation techniques in The Legend of the Condor Heroes! Like the Nine Yin Manual, the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, the One Yang Finger, the Toad Stance, and countless other miscellaneous arts.

"But it seems like learning the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms wouldn't be very useful..." Ma Feifei thought about this world where people could fly and move mountains, and where palms could shatter rivers. Techniques like the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms were still too weak here.

In recent months, due to the impending conflict between the Qin and Chu nations, the road from Dubian Town to Nine Heavens Mountain had become unsafe.

The main issue was the sheer number of people and prying eyes. With 150,000 Great Chu soldiers ahead, although it was 150,000 soldiers fighting, the number of civilians supporting them had multiplied several times over – commonly known as the logistics corps.

These logistics troops, numbering over 500,000, transported supplies from distant cities to the front lines daily. The route they took happened to be a branch of the road from Dubian Town to Nine Heavens Mountain.

With hundreds of thousands of people traveling back and forth daily, on a road no wider than five meters, transporting all sorts of supplies, and with military escorts along the way, it was imaginable how difficult it would be to pass through such a massive crowd.

Of course, you could fly over, but the ability to fly required at least Spirit Sect realm, and even then, you'd need spirit artifacts to barely stay airborne.

As for those below the Spirit Sect, it was best to just walk on the ground.

Yang Chengzhi, at Spirit Master Stage Seven, naturally did not yet have the ability to fly. As for Ma Feifei... he probably couldn't even project his spiritual energy externally; he had the cultivation, but unfortunately, he didn't know how to use it.

Useless!

'Oh, right!'

With that thought, Ma Feifei suddenly realized that he was going to hunt spirit beasts with Yang Chengzhi; such an activity usually involved a certain degree of risk. Although he had the cultivation of Peak Spirit Master Stage Nine, he had never actually fought before! What if they encountered danger then?

Ma Feifei lost his nerve. He felt that someone as excellent as himself was more suited for an office job. Fighting and killing should be left to those lower-class individuals.

But if he didn't go, he wouldn't have any material to write about.

After some thought, Ma Feifei decided to go and see. At least he had Yang Chengzhi, a Spirit Master Stage Seven, to protect him, right?

"Brother Yang, we'll be entering Nine Heavens Mountain shortly."

Yang Chengzhi, who was walking, heard Ma Feifei's question. After some thought, he replied, "How about Stage Three Mountain? The spirit beasts that appear there are all Level Four and above."

Nine Heavens Mountain had a strict hierarchical division. The deeper one went, the higher the level of spirit beasts. It was rumored that in the deepest part, the Ninth Stage Mountain, a vast area, housed only one spirit beast. No, it wasn't called a spirit beast anymore; cultivators on the Azure Dragon Continent called it a divine beast!

This divine beast had resided within Nine Heavens Mountain for over thirty thousand years and had never been subdued. It was said that all the Spirit Saints who entered had perished.

In the outermost Stage One and Stage Two Mountain regions, there were mainly Level One and Level Two/Three spirit beasts. These areas were suitable for Spirit Users or cultivators who had just entered the Spirit Master realm to hunt spirit beasts.

Moving deeper to Stage Three Mountain, it became the habitat of Level Four spirit beasts, and so on, with the levels increasing further in.

Yang Chengzhi had been to Nine Heavens Mountain several times, always hunting spirit beasts within the Stage Three Mountain range. Although he had leveled up this time, he did not rashly choose to enter Stage Four Mountain.

Therefore, when he heard Yang Chengzhi mention Stage Three Mountain, Ma Feifei breathed a sigh of relief. He had also heard the legends of Nine Heavens Mountain and had some idea about the level of spirit beasts found in Stage Three Mountain. Calculating Yang Chengzhi's strength, he felt his safety was assured.

From beginning to end, Ma Feifei had not factored in his own cultivation of Peak Spirit Master Stage Nine