The Sunset Mountains

The wine had been poured several times, and the dishes had been sampled one after another. The mood grew livelier by the minute. Ye Yun sat beside Yan Xiao Liu, smiling as he watched everyone crowd around and flatter him. Yet with his keen eye, he caught a fleeting shadow beneath Yan Xiao Liu's boisterous laughter and hearty drinking.

When another wave of toasts came flooding in, Yan Xiao Liu lifted his cup, his smile unchanged, though a trace of gravity showed deep in his eyes. He drained the wine in one gulp, then let out an almost inaudible sigh as he set the cup down.

"Sixth Brother, what's wrong? You got promoted and entered the ranks—that's a huge cause for celebration. Why the sigh?" asked a sharp-eyed constable at once.

At that, the table quieted, and everyone's gaze settled on Yan Xiao Liu.

Yan Xiao Liu glanced around at their concerned faces and gave a bitter smile. "Brothers, entering the ranks... it's a good thing, but it's a hard thing too."

He paused, unconsciously rubbing a finger along the rough rim of his cup. His voice lowered. "You only see that I've become a Ninth Rank martial artist, basking in glory. But do you know? The higher you climb on the martial path, the harder it gets. The resources it takes are a bottomless pit!"

He counted on his fingers. "Ordinary meat to replenish your vitality is nowhere near enough anymore. You need demon beast meat and blood essence rich in pure Essence Qi, pills to strengthen your foundation and nourish your vitality, medicinal baths to temper your sinews, bones, and skin, even specific cultivation manuals to guide your inner breath... Which of those doesn't take piles of silver? And the higher your rank, the more you need, and the stricter the quality requirements! Take the Solid Foundation Pill. Even the most ordinary one costs at least a hundred taels of silver, and it's often impossible to find even at that price."

Yan Xiao Liu's brow furrowed, his eyes clouded with worry for the future. "In a little place like ours, the Essence Qi of heaven and earth is thin, spirit medicines are hard to find, and there are hardly any channels for buying high-grade resources. My salary, along with what little I'd saved before, might barely be enough to stabilize my 9th Rank realm, let alone break through to 8th Rank. That's why so few martial artists in our county have entered the ranks. It's not that they lack talent. It's just... too hard!" He spoke the final three words with crushing weight, laying bare the bitter lot of martial artists at the bottom.

The table fell silent for a moment. The unvarnished truth had dulled the festive mood. Most of the constables present came from ordinary families; they understood the importance of money all too well. Talent and perseverance were essential on the martial path, but without a vast trove of resources to support you, it was nothing but a castle in the air.

Ye Yun nodded, deeply moved. He thought of himself. If he hadn't seized that fortune in banknotes from the Second-in-Command of Black Wind Mountain Stronghold and used it to acquire precious cultivation resources, he couldn't have stabilized his realm in such a short time, much less glimpsed the threshold of 8th Rank. That windfall had truly changed the course of his martial path. He quietly added, "Brother Xiao Liu is right. On the road of martial cultivation, wealth, companions, techniques, and a place to train—the word 'wealth' comes first. That's no empty saying."

A heavy mood settled over the private room, and the convivial clinking of cups felt like a distant memory. Just then, a constable sitting diagonally across from Yan Xiao Liu—Zhao Si, a man who usually said little and had a shrewd look in his eyes—suddenly lowered his voice and spoke with a hint of mystery.

"Sixth Brother, Brother Ye, brothers... since we're talking about 'wealth,' I... happen to know a way to make some money. Maybe... it could solve our urgent problem?"

"Oh?" Yan Xiao Liu's dim eyes lit up, like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline. "Zhao Si, speak up! What's the way?"

"Yeah, Zhao Si, stop keeping us in suspense. If you've got something this good, tell us already!" The others urged him on, leaning forward without realizing it.

Zhao Si warily glanced from side to side, as if afraid someone might be listening through the walls. He lowered his voice until it was almost a whisper. "Right in the Sunset Mountains, just outside our county!"

The Sunset Mountains? Everyone's heart tightened. The endless range, blanketed in dense primeval forest, was a perilous place in the eyes of Chun'an County's people. The outskirts were all right; hunters and woodcutters occasionally ventured there. But the deeper you went, the fewer signs of people you found. They said the mountains hid countless ferocious beasts, and even... things far more terrifying.

Zhao Si licked his dry lips, his eyes gleaming with a mix of excitement and greed. "Plenty of fierce beasts roam the outer reaches of the mountains—Spotted Tigers, Iron-skinned Wild Boars, Green-furred Wolves... They're vicious, but with a few trained fighters working together and taking care, we can bring them down. A whole tiger pelt, boar tusks, wolf sinews and bones... Sell them to the city's furriers or apothecaries, and they'll fetch at least a hundred taels of silver!"

A hundred taels! Quite a few of the constables sucked in a breath, their eyes shining. How much was their annual salary, after all?

"But that's not the real prize!" Zhao Si said, his voice full of temptation. "What's truly valuable are the demon beasts that have entered the ranks!"

"Demon beasts that have entered the ranks?" Ye Yun furrowed his brow. He'd heard that beyond ordinary beasts were strange creatures that had gained intelligence and learned to cultivate by absorbing the essence of the sun and moon or the Essence Qi of heaven and earth. Those were demon beasts. Once they entered the ranks, even the lowest First-Order Demon Beast far surpassed ordinary beasts in strength, rivaling a human martial artist of 9th Rank, or even stronger. They often had strange abilities, too.

"Exactly! First-Order Demon Beasts!" Zhao Si affirmed. "Their fur, bones, claws, teeth, even their flesh and blood—and their cores, if you're lucky enough to find one—are all treasures! Any one of those things could fetch at least a thousand taels of silver from a discerning merchant house or a martial artist in urgent need of cultivation materials. If you hunt a rare species, the price will climb by leaps and bounds!"

He paused, his voice brimming with longing for wealth. "And there's more! How many exotic flowers and herbs are hidden in those remote, untouched forests? Hundred-year-old ginseng, Vermilion Fruit red all over, Moon Viewing Grass that glows at night... Those are spirit medicines that can bring the dead back to life and restore flesh to bare bones! If we're lucky enough to stumble across one... heh, we'd get rich overnight. They're worth more than gold! There'd be enough resources to support Sixth Brother's cultivation all the way to 8th Rank, 7th Rank, or even higher!"

The scene Zhao Si painted unfolded before them like a scroll splashed with gold dust. Fierce beasts, demon beasts, spirit medicines... Each word meant heaps of silver and another step toward greater strength. The gloom brought on by their lack of resources vanished in an instant, replaced by a feverish desire for adventure.

"Let's do it! Fortune favors the bold!"

"Right! Better to take a chance in the mountains than sit here worrying!"

"Sixth Brother, you're 9th Rank. You're just the man to lead us! If we stick together, what have we got to fear from those beasts?"

"With a 9th Rank expert like you in charge, we're sure to come back with a full haul!"

Everyone was fired up, their blood boiling. They turned to Yan Xiao Liu with eager anticipation. He was even more tempted. The prospects Zhao Si had described struck right at the deepest source of his longing and anxiety. If he could secure resources in the mountains through his own efforts, wouldn't the shackles on his martial path fall away? Flames reignited in his eyes. He slapped the table. "Good! Brother Zhao Si, this news couldn't have come at a better time. I think we should do it!"

Ye Yun raised his cup, but his gaze seemed to pass through the amber liquid and return to that rainy night when he'd fought the Second-in-Command of Black Wind Mountain Stronghold to the death. Blades flashed, blood and flesh flew, and every breath tasted of rusty blood. Every block numbed his arms, and his life had hung by a thread... It was under that unbearable pressure that he'd truly mastered his newly acquired power, stabilized his realm, and even touched the chance to break through.

Theory was shallow compared to practice. In the end, martial cultivation had to be tempered at the brink of life and death before you could truly make power your own and forge your realm solid as iron. The Sunset Mountains were certainly dangerous, but they could also be an excellent whetstone. Besides, resources... were something both he and Yan Xiao Liu badly needed.

Ye Yun looked at Yan Xiao Liu and the eager faces around him, then spoke clearly. "On the martial path, stand still and you fall behind. The mountains are dangerous, but they hold opportunities too. Since Brother Xiao Liu is willing and we're all in this together, then let's do it."

"Excellent! If we all work together, we'll be fine!" the others cheered.

Amid the excited chatter and noisy plans about what to prepare and when to set out the next day, Ye Yun's gaze casually swept across Zhao Si, the one who'd made the proposal. The instant Ye Yun agreed to join them, Zhao Si's mouth seemed to twitch upward, incredibly quickly. It wasn't simple happiness or smugness, but something... like a hunter's strange smile when his prey finally stepped into the trap. It vanished in a flash, so quickly Ye Yun might have thought he'd imagined it, but a flicker of wariness stirred in his heart, like a pebble tossed into a still lake, sending ripples across the surface. This trip to the Sunset Mountains was probably about more than just the fierce beasts and spirit medicines they could see.