Wu Ming stayed at the Luohuang Mountain group's lodgings until nightfall.
Besides discussing the details of their next steps, Yi Yi and the others also taught Wu Ming several practical spells for exploring the Moli Immortal Mansion, within the limits of their authority. They also helped him circulate the Guili Art to digest the day's rich gains... Seven Li Yao Echoes had brought him within a hair's breadth of breaking through to the fourth stage of Qi Refining.
Once the other matters were settled, Wu Ming returned to the neighboring courtyard and relayed the conclusions he had just reached with Yi Yi and the others to Liu Sanlang, who was about to turn in for the night.
The young master of an Aristocratic Clan came instantly wide awake, leaping out of bed and letting out a heartfelt exclamation.
"Burp!?"
Soon after, Zhang Miao hurried over when she heard the news. She, too, was shaken by Wu Ming's grand ambition and let out a heartfelt exclamation.
"Mmm..."
Wu Ming was at a loss. "How can you get a nosebleed from that, too?!"
Zhang Miao hastily explained, "I'd just taken a pill to replenish my qi and blood. I was halfway through circulating my energy when I rushed over, and it got a little out of whack... I definitely wasn't imagining things about you and Yi Yi and Han Gang..."
"Enough, don't say another word." Wu Ming cut her off coldly. "In any case, those are my thoughts. Naturally, I can't make this decision on my own. We all have to agree before we can put it into practice. If any of you have doubts or difficulties..."
Before he could finish, Liu Sanlang replied firmly, "Brother Wu, why say such a thing? When I gave you the token, I placed absolute trust in all your judgments... Besides, you know what the Moli Immortal Mansion means to me. If there's a chance to break the stalemate that has trapped the Moli Immortal Mansion for centuries, I've always been willing to pay any price!"
Wu Ming then turned to Zhang Miao.
The young woman looked a little bashful and murmured, "I... I don't want to leave you two on your own..."
Wu Ming's eye twitched. "I'll take that as a compliment."
And so, the matter was settled. Liu Sanlang and Zhang Miao each went to bed with their minds full of thoughts, tossing and turning before they finally fell asleep. Wu Ming, meanwhile, hurried to catch up on his evening studies. After a short rest, he woke promptly at four the next morning, bright-eyed and ready to welcome another day of routine...
After that, for several days in a row, everything proceeded in orderly fashion.
The eight of them set out together in the morning. By Qingjing Lake, they taunted the monsters into attacking. The five from Luohuang Mountain unleashed their life-burning formation and slaughtered them in a chaotic frenzy, leaving the key kills for the three youngsters. When things were about to turn perilous, they switched the formation to the Divine Wind Formation and returned to the Grey Plains in one fell swoop.
It was usually no later than noon. After a simple rest in town, they would enter the Immortal Mansion once more in the afternoon. This time, they generally avoided large battles, luring enemies with blood into the mist and hunting at random.
They kept busy until evening, returning exhausted and then digesting the fruits of their efforts.
They peeled memories from the echoes, sorted them into categories, and compiled them... Then they cross-referenced the information with what had already been made public about the lost Qi Refiners, corroborating the details and establishing their identities. Once they had exhausted all the information they could mine, they refined the echoes with the Guili Art to rapidly improve their cultivation.
Three days later, Wu Ming advanced to the fourth stage of Qi Refining without the slightest suspense, and the fifth stage no longer seemed so far away. On the fourth and fifth days, Liu Sanlang and Zhang Miao followed close behind, each breaking through in turn.
The three of them had only begun cultivating a few months earlier, making their progress truly astonishing. But Gray Plains Town was bustling with people and never short of talented eccentrics. With the Zhuoquan Immortal Fate approaching, the Grey Plains were especially a mixed bag, so few people paid them much attention.
It wasn't until the tenth day that someone finally noticed something strange.
These few... Weren't they working a little too hard? They'd been going out every day for ten days straight, without a single break. The few Immortal Guiding Envoys among them were one thing—they had secret arts of their own and weren't afraid of the Tribulation of Lost Li. But what was with those youngsters? Were they willing to throw their lives away for a little training?
Then, under the astonished, bewildered gazes of a handful of onlookers, Wu Ming and the others stepped into the Moli Immortal Mansion once more.
This time, their destination was no longer the shores of Qingjing Lake, but the Peach Blossom Spring beyond the layers of mist.
The Tribulation of Lost Li was drawing near, and strange signs had gradually begun to appear on the three youngsters. Even He Lu had used every talisman art she knew, but she still couldn't dispel them. Clearly, they could no longer focus on farming monsters... So although they weren't fully prepared, this journey into the depths was unavoidable.
According to Yi Yi and the others' past experience, the paradisiacal land they encountered from the second layer onward was actually a perilous place of monstrous evil. The villagers were warm and hospitable. As soon as they spotted strangers, they would greet them curiously.
Then the people they greeted would split apart on the spot.
For centuries, Qi Refiners had used only two methods to venture deeper. The first was to avoid the villagers' notice as best they could and find a safe path, passing through a garden of blossoms without a single petal clinging to them.
The second... was naturally to draw their blades and carve a path, slaughtering the entire village before anyone could make a sound.
Neither approach was easy. The people of the Peach Blossom Spring seemed harmless, but every last one of them had impressive cultivation! Foundation Establishment cultivators and even stronger ones were not uncommon!
Now, under Wu Ming's planning and direction, Yi Yi and the others had prepared a third way.
Standing at the edge of the dense fog, Wu Ming narrowed his eyes and gazed at the village in the distance.
Three snow-white Spirit Talismans hovered over his head, firmly keeping his mind intact. Beside him, Yi Yi and Han Gang gripped his arms tightly, as though either of them could take his place in death at any moment.
Wu Ming himself was bringing every ability to bear, doing all he could to preserve his understanding and reason... And at last, in that Peach Blossom Village, he found the target he needed.
An elderly scholar with white hair was standing by a small river at the edge of the village, staring at the fish in the water. He looked utterly ordinary, yet possessed cultivation at the early stage of Foundation Establishment.
"That scholar."
The next moment, Wu Ming's vision went black. Black blood seeped from his right eye, and pain pierced his heart. Along with the pain came a violent distortion of his memories. It felt as though that single glance had already carried him a great stride into the abyss!
Fortunately, the anchor spikes the Luohuang Mountain cultivators had secured to him were strong enough to steady his mind and keep him from losing himself.
"Take this." He Lu pushed another pill into Wu Ming's mouth, one that healed injuries and dispelled poison. It quickly began to relieve his injuries, and then...
At the same time, Yi Yi and Han Gang each pushed their Mana, qi and blood, and spiritual sense to the limit, like roaring furnaces swelling with power.
Once He Lu had tended to Wu Ming's injuries, she stepped forward and smoothly joined them, forming the classic Tri-Origin Formation of Luohuang Mountain.
The next moment, all three vanished.
Two black-clad, masked figures stepped forward to take over from the trio and guard Wu Ming.
About half a minute later, Yi Yi and the others reappeared before Wu Ming, as though they had dropped from the sky.
But in just half a minute, the three of them had been left in a wretched state. Their Mana was muddled and polluted, their qi and blood depleted... Yi Yi's entire face was swollen, his eyeballs bulging out. He looked just like a corpse that had died once already.
But the brutal price had brought a reward. Han Gang now held the white-haired Foundation Establishment scholar in his hands. The man was unconscious.
"Do it." The low, urging voice came from Wu Ming's Art-Sealed Wax Pill. Without the slightest hesitation, Wu Ming summoned the Yan Mountain Sword Head from his back and thrust it forward.
In an instant, flames sprang up along the blade, its light dazzling. It was an outer-sect sword art from Luohuang Mountain, lending the thrust even greater force... and allowing it to pierce the scholar's brow with difficulty.
The next moment, a tide of sound surged through Wu Ming's mind!
Compared with the shapeless Li Yao on the outermost layer, the people of the Peach Blossom Spring on the second layer contained an entirely different volume of information! The old scholar was clearly an important figure in the village, and the echo inside him was like a storm!
Everyone's hearts were in their throats.
This was the most dangerous part... According to Wu Ming's plan, the simplest and most effective way to truly venture deeper into the second layer was to find someone familiar with the place, kill him, and seize his echo.
But this path was a deadly gamble, with nine chances in ten of dying.
Unlike the Li Yao Echoes on the outermost layer, the weight and pressure of the echoes from living beings on the second layer were more than ten times greater. Over the past centuries, there had been no shortage of Qi Refiners who killed someone on the second layer, only to have their minds contaminated by the person's echo and lose themselves on the spot!
The Guili Art of Luohuang Mountain had actually come into being by chance to deal with this contamination.
Killing the locals was easy. Digesting their echoes, however, was as difficult as reaching the heavens. For centuries, almost no one had ever managed to extract any useful information from the echoes of the second-layer inhabitants.
But Wu Ming believed that if they established a sufficiently sound framework of understanding beforehand, then the more abundant the information, the more it would help erase the barriers between them! It would shatter the wall known as "strangeness"!
Just because no one had done it before didn't mean he couldn't. The first-completion records of every Immortal Mansion had all been built on countless things "those who came before couldn't do"—until someone finally did them.
And now, Wu Ming was about to accomplish what no one before him could!
"Kid, you'd better hang in there." As Han Gang circulated his energy to heal his injuries, he gritted his teeth and channeled some of his strength into Wu Ming.
At the same time, Yi Yi, who had been injured the most, also placed a hand on Wu Ming's shoulder.
"Wu Ming, don't let all our effort go to waste..."
He Lu shook her head with a wry smile and stepped forward as well.
"We've already paid for this with one life. Don't waste it."
As if their voices really had reached Wu Ming's mind, the next moment, the young man opened his bloodshot eyes, his gaze brimming with joy.
"I knew I was right. I understand now... This [Qinghe Village] is no longer an unfamiliar place!"
The instant the words "Qinghe Village" passed from Wu Ming's throat through the Star Conch and reached everyone's ears...
The scene before everyone's eyes seemed to blur. Regardless of their cultivation, they all experienced a brief moment of dizziness.
It was as if some invisible barrier, one that no one had ever tried to break in centuries, had finally shattered.
At the same time, the faint gray mist that had appeared around Wu Ming, Liu Qi, and Zhang Miao naturally dispersed.
The Tribulation of Lost Li, which had nearly arrived, vanished without a trace!
Then, covering his bleeding right eye, Yi Yi transmitted through the Star Conch.
"Good. We've confirmed all our theories... Let's get out of here first."
Not long afterward, when the group saw the Blazing Feather Flag beyond the dense fog once more, they truly felt as though a lifetime had passed... and felt a surging passion welling in their hearts, too powerful for words!
There was truly hope of breaking through this Heavenly Absolute Immortal Mansion!
Then, after crossing the boundary between the Immortal Mansion and the Grey Plains and stepping onto the hill again...
Wu Ming's eyes widened in disbelief.
At the foot of the hill, beside the dirt road, a young woman in plain clothes stood with a small pack on her back, like a stubborn little tree. Her face, round as a jade disk, bore the awkwardness of a country girl arriving in a bustling town, along with worry for her junior brother setting off on a long journey.
...Senior Sister?
Senior Sister!?
Before you continue