"Could you tell me what happened?" Chen Jin's heart stirred as he thought of Xu Fu's offering of the elixir.
"Don't ask! Leave at once!" The Lord of the Four Seasons sounded anxious. "The seasons are in chaos in this valley. For every moment you stay here, several hours may pass outside. If you delay any longer, you may not be able to leave at all."
Chen Jin's expression changed drastically.
Xu Fu was about to offer the elixir. If Chen Jin missed it because of the time difference, the mission would fail outright.
With no time to investigate the mystery, he cupped his hands toward the cliff face. "Thank you for the warning, Your Excellency! This junior will take his leave!"
Chen Jin didn't dare waste another moment. He carefully put away the seed of [Flick of the Finger, Beauty Withers], then sprang toward the cliff and scrambled up its steep face like a nimble ape.
Chen Jin wasn't the sort of person who took someone's kindness and then simply walked away. He wasn't that shameless. But there was no time now; he could repay the favor after completing the Yanfu Event.
Using both hands and feet, he bounded across the craggy rocks and quickly escaped the strange valley.
When he reached the ridge again, a cold night wind hit him, jolting him awake.
He looked up at the ink-black sky, dotted with stars, and the crescent moon hanging low on the horizon. It was already the dead of night.
"Ren Tu," Chen Jin asked urgently in his mind, "what time is it? How long until Xu Fu offers the elixir?"
Ren Tu's genderless voice immediately replied:
"Walker, judging by the flow of time outside, four days have passed since you entered the valley. After tomorrow's sunrise, the First Emperor will arrive at Langya Terrace, and Xu Fu will offer the elixir of immortality."
"Four days?!" Chen Jin was shaken to the core. A chill ran from his spine to the top of his head.
It had felt as though he'd spent no more than a day in the valley, yet four days had passed outside!
If the Lord of the Four Seasons hadn't warned him, even a little more delay might have caused him to miss the mission deadline!
If the mission failed, not only would all the rewards from this event be wiped out, but the purchasing privileges he had worked so hard to unlock would be erased too. All his efforts would have been for nothing.
A wave of lingering fear swept over him, and he was all the more convinced that the person who had imprisoned the Lord of the Four Seasons was unfathomable.
With danger looming, Chen Jin immediately pushed aside all distractions and decided to strengthen himself at once.
He found a secluded corner, took out the seed of [Flick of the Finger, Beauty Withers], and chose to strengthen the inherited skill [Metamorphosis].
"Strengthening requires 1,000 Yanfu Points and nine Solar Longitude marks from [Flick of the Finger, Beauty Withers], including [Awakening of Insects], [Grain Rain], [Grain in Ear], [Lesser Cold], and [Greater Cold]."
As Chen Jin confirmed his choice, nine streams of rosy clouds burst from the seed in his palm and flowed into his mouth and nose.
A few lines of small text flickered before Chen Jin's eyes.
[Metamorphosis] enhancement complete. Effects: [You can change your form at will. Your transformations are no longer limited to human shapes; you can take on a wider range of living forms and even transform into inanimate matter. No cooldown.] [You can now rapidly metabolize while transforming, allowing you to grow or shrink at tremendous speed.] [When transforming into inanimate forms such as plants, wood, earth, or stone, you can enter a "tortoise-breathing" state, greatly enhancing your ability to conceal yourself.]
Chen Jin used the seed of [Flick of the Finger, Beauty Withers] to strengthen himself again. This time, he chose the skill [Proliferation].
"Strengthening requires 1,000 Yanfu Points and ten Solar Longitude marks from [Flick of the Finger, Beauty Withers], including [Lesser Snow], [Greater Snow], [White Dew], [Lesser Fullness], and [Frost Descent]."
[Proliferation] enhancement complete. Effects: [Proliferation gains a new trait: "Mimicry." When your body is stimulated by a specific type of energy or you analyze the structure of a substance, you can locally imitate its corresponding properties inside or on the surface of your body to counter or adapt to it.] [You can expend energy to regulate your hormone secretion and increase the strength of your organs.] [You can heal another person's physical injuries by sharing your flesh and blood with them. The flesh and blood will lose its vitality once the healing is complete.]
After the two enhancements, only five Solar Longitude marks remained in [Flick of the Finger, Beauty Withers]: [Spring Equinox], [Summer Solstice], [Autumn Equinox], [Winter Solstice], and [Pure Brightness].
Behind the Flesh of Vision inheritance, new options appeared: [Stars Shift Enhancement], [Solar Longitude Enhancement], and others.
This enhancement was probably the greatest improvement Chen Jin had received since entering Yanfu.
He exhaled a breath of stale air, then activated his enhanced Metamorphosis with a thought.
The exposed skin on his body rippled slightly. Its color, texture, and even sheen shifted at high speed. Within a few breaths, it had become almost identical to the mottled rock behind him. Even at close range, he was nearly impossible to distinguish.
With this perfect disguise, Chen Jin became a silent shadow and slipped back to the outskirts of the Shrine of the Four Seasons Deity, now under heavy guard.
He avoided patrol after patrol of elite soldiers and finally hid behind the eaves and bracketed beams beside the main sacrificial hall, where he could overlook the entire altar and still have an easy place to hide and escape from. He lay motionless as stone.
The night deepened, and the dew grew colder.
Chen Jin suppressed every trace of his presence and merged with the shadows of the building. Through a gap in his disguise, he watched the altar below as the final preparations were made.
Everything was ready. All that remained was to wait for dawn and the beginning of a grand spectacle that might set the whole world in turmoil.
The darkness before dawn was the deepest. All of Langya Mountain was cloaked in an almost motionless solemnity.
Even the mountain wind seemed to hold its breath. Only the faint clink of armor from the patrolling elite soldiers regularly broke the silence.
As the first pale streak of dawn split the eastern horizon, a deep, majestic horn sounded from the foot of the mountain and echoed upward into the sky.
The elixir-offering ceremony had begun.
The first thing Chen Jin saw was the three thousand boys and girls who had sailed across the sea with Xu Fu.
They wore moon-white Alchemist robes. Their faces were youthful but expressionless, their eyes vacant. Like puppets pulled by invisible strings, they marched slowly along the main road leading to the shrine atop the mountain, their steps perfectly in unison.
At the center of the procession walked Xu Fu, renowned as the greatest Alchemist under Heaven, carrying a Sandalwood Spirit Box in his hands.
He wore a black Alchemist robe embroidered with golden cloud-script talismans, which shimmered with a mysterious radiance in the brightening dawn.
The procession moved in silence. Only the soft scrape of footsteps against the stone steps rose into an unsettling undercurrent.
Carrying the Spirit Box, Xu Fu led the three thousand boys and girls onto the Altar Plaza atop Langya Terrace. They streamed in silently, splitting off along the ancient, faintly visible carvings on the ground and taking their assigned places.
The three thousand boys and girls quickly and orderly knelt, forming a vast, intricate pattern.
It was as if they had rehearsed it countless times.