Mountain Master

The Qian is three unbroken lines, the Kun is six broken lines, The Zhen is an upward-facing basin, the Gen is an overturned bowl...

A rune between Zhu Jiusi's brows flashed repeatedly before finally vanishing completely into his body.

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Eight Trigrams: Gen Trigram!

Only now did Zhu Jiusi realize what kind of rune had merged into his body.

In the previous round, many people had merged with runes; thousands of Great Daos could condense into runes.

Music, food, calligraphy, characters, painting, blades, swords...

But the Innate Eight Trigrams runes stood above all these; they were axiomatic!

No one knew where the Innate Eight Trigrams came from. It was only known that everyone who merged with an Eight Trigrams rune was a supreme powerhouse on the Journey Survival.

Every person who merged with an Eight Trigrams rune held a special status.

Zhu Jiusi only knew of two: the Kan Trigram's Water Monarch and the Li Trigram's Phoenix King.

Now, there was a third: the Gen Trigram's Mountain Master.

Zhu Jiusi looked at the Scroll, his gaze fixed on the two characters: [Mountain Master].

A line of text slowly emerged.

[Mountain Master: Merge all things into one's own body.]

Looking closer, there was no further information, yet he vaguely and hazily understood what the Mountain Master was.

Simply put, with the Gen Trigram merged into his body, the Mountain Master currently had only one function.

He could absorb basic resources to strengthen his physical body.

In other words: metal, stone, and wood were his spirit stones, his cultivation resources.

And this absorption, Zhu Jiusi could sense, had no upper limit.

As long as he was given enough basic materials, he could become strong enough to punch a hole through the heavens and earth.

But there was also a major drawback—the time it would take to transform into human form would likely be greatly delayed. At the same time, the difficulty of spell cultivation would double!

Zhu Jiusi was stunned. Even if he had known this result beforehand... he would have summarized the laws and merged with the Gen Trigram without the slightest hesitation!

Was physical cultivation or spell cultivation important? Was a human form or beast form important? Staying alive was what mattered!

The only problem was that the pressure of the Journey Survival was too great, and it would be hard to find a fellow daoist to relieve that pressure while in the form of a pig.

No matter! If all else failed, he would just find a pig demon; it was said that pigs had much longer periods of joy!

Excited, Zhu Jiusi took out a stack of stone (5 units). Acting on instinct as he looked at the stone, he opened his mouth and inhaled, and the stone transformed into an earthy-yellow light that he swallowed.

He closed his eyes to perceive, but felt nothing special.

He hopped around, running and sprinting back and forth, but felt no sense of becoming stronger.

Zhu Jiusi: "?"

He took out two more stacks of stone and swallowed them the same way, closing his eyes to carefully sense, but still felt nothing.

He unfurled the Scroll to look at his attributes, but they had not changed at all.

Refusing to believe it, Zhu Jiusi simply took out all his stone and opened his mouth to inhale.

17 stacks of stone turned into red light and vanished. There was still a pile of stone on the ground, but he could no longer consume it.

An inexplicable feeling rose in his heart.

He had consumed enough stone; he now needed metal and wood.

Zhu Jiusi took out all his metal and wood and opened his mouth to inhale.

The metal turned into white light, and the wood into green light, both being swallowed into his belly like a whirlwind.

100 of each.

Then, a sense of satiety welled up from within his flesh; every cell felt as if it had been fed to the brim.

Feverish, violent! He now desperately wanted a rake; he could rake thirty acres of land in one breath!

Putting away the materials on the ground, Zhu Jiusi gulped down half a gourd of water, shook his body, and charged into the night, pushing against the repulsion.

His blood and qi were in an uproar; if he didn't expend the strength in his body, he felt he would be blown apart.

Run!

He smashed through the repulsion and ran all the way!

Every muscle in his body was mobilized.

The harder he exerted himself, the stronger the repulsive force coming from the mountain path became. The stronger the repulsion, the more it consumed the power erupting within him.

A virtuous cycle, excellent!

Without that repulsive force, simple running wouldn't be enough to burn off this power.

Zhu Jiusi ran more and more smoothly, and it wasn't until he had run for a full hour that the power in his body finally lightened.

A wave of comfort spread through his limbs and bones.

Zhu Jiusi looked toward the Scroll.

[Life: 31]

Life had increased by 1.

Zhu Jiusi: "..."

He had swallowed 100 of every basic material and exhausted his strength running for over an hour, yet his Life only increased by 1?

This was far worse than a Life Nourishing Pill!

Zhu Jiusi examined the Scroll carefully.

[Path Seeker: Zhu Jiusi]

[Dao Title: Master of Cloud Stack Cave]

[Identity: Mountain Master, Tier 1 (1%)]

[Status: Normal]

[Nature: 5]

[Life: 31]

A progress bar had appeared after "Mountain Master." His Life had increased by 1, and the progress was only at 1%.

Zhu Jiusi had never seen a Mountain Master before, but he had encountered a Water Monarch in the previous round. They had shared a one-night stand.

At that time, Zhu Jiusi had already been in Journey Survival for a long while, and his Nature and Life were both over 200, while the Water Monarch had just entered Tier 3.

Yet, Zhu Jiusi couldn't even block one of her hands; that time, he had been forced as well... he simply couldn't resist.

Therefore, for existences like Mountain Masters and Water Monarchs, the Life gained per tier was likely different.

If a Tier 1 Mountain Master only increased Life by 100, perhaps Tier 2 would be 200 or even more?

Zhu Jiusi's heart suddenly burned with heat. He glanced at the materials in his inventory.

Stone x130, Wood x138, Metal x133.

There wasn't much left; if he encountered a Mountain God Temple, it wouldn't even be enough for the initial renovation.

But... it was only the fourth day. Given his luck, he would likely have to wait until the protection period was almost over to find a Mountain God Temple. That would be enough time to collect renovation materials.

Swallow!

Zhu Jiusi immediately made up his mind. He took out all his basic supplies again.

He opened his mouth and devoured them.

The materials turned into three streams of light and entered his mouth. That feeling of being stuffed to the brim returned once more.

But Zhu Jiusi didn't start running immediately; instead, he stared at the remaining materials in astonishment.

There were more!

Last time he swallowed 100 of each, but this time he had swallowed 110 of each!

The required materials had increased!

Zhu Jiusi suddenly felt a sense of crisis—a Mountain Master was likely a bottomless pit for resources!

He might not be able to afford to sustain himself!

No wonder the Water Monarch he met in the previous round, who was clearly terrifyingly strong, had been dirt poor. She had even taken advantage of him.

It was likely that Path Seekers who had fused with the Eight Trigrams, like Mountain Masters and Water Monarchs, all relied on external resources to cultivate.

Four days had passed, he still had two Myriad World Announcements left, and he had only saved up a little over 200 of each basic material... and now they were all gone in an instant.

What made Zhu Jiusi even more uneasy was—was the second time requiring 10 more of each material than the first, or was it a 10% increase?

The results would be completely different!

Just thinking about the future requirements made his boar body go limp.

He didn't dare to think any further, put away the remaining supplies, and feeling the heat in his body, he stepped back onto the path.

On the endless, winding mountain road, a Mountain Boar was struggling to trot along.

Hng-hng~

Hng-hng~

The Mountain Boar's muscles were trembling all over; he had clearly reached his physical limit.

Finally, after running past a stretch of muddy road, the bloated, stuffed feeling in his body gradually faded.

Life +1

It was finally finished.

Zhu Jiusi felt dizzy and lightheaded, his body pushed to its absolute limit, his feet unsteady. He stumbled and fell toward the side.

After staggering a few steps, he felt himself collide with something, and as he managed to lift his head, he realized he had crashed into an ancient temple.

Before him stood a Mountain God statue with a stern expression, holding a scroll in its hands.

Seeing a pig crash in, the statue actually spoke.

"The Great Dao is difficult to seek; does the Path Seeker require protection? I can bless your lair."

Zhu Jiusi: "..."

Zhu Jiusi: "!!!"

The Mountain God Temple he had been searching for for days had appeared out of nowhere.

The Mountain God Temple could upgrade his lair, but—he had no materials right now!