The Second Gate

The same hazy mist still swirled all around him, obscuring anything too far away. The mountain peaks flickered in and out of sight through the fog. All was quiet nearby, without wind or sound.

Feisu Chinese Network

Su Ming gazed at the mountain shrouded in mist. This was his second time here, and the second time he had stood in this spot, taking in the strange peak. The thought of the countless bizarre characters and patterns carved across its slopes filled him with awe.

He drew a deep breath and looked down at the pendant on his chest. The black fragment on it had vanished. Pinching himself, Su Ming confirmed once more that he was not dreaming—he had truly appeared here.

He reached into his clothes again. When he saw that the small bottles containing Dust-Clearing Powder were still there, his eyes flickered. He hurried into the mist ahead and soon reached the foot of the mountain. Then he stepped into the passage.

He did not stop along the way. At last, he reached the stone door in the passage. He looked at the fifteen small holes arranged in a circle at the center of the familiar lines carved into its surface. After hesitating briefly, he gritted his teeth, stepped forward, took out a bottle, and poured out a pellet. Pinching it between two fingers, he placed it in the first of the fifteen holes.

The instant his fingers touched the hole in the stone door, Su Ming felt a faint suction abruptly rise from within. It pulled the Medicine Stone from between his fingers.

Su Ming's expression grew solemn, and he remained on guard. He did not know whether his guess was right, nor what would happen once all fifteen holes were filled. But he had thought long and hard about this trip, and a faint anticipation stirred within him.

He did not act rashly. After the first hole absorbed the Medicine Stone, he stared at it intently, but even after a long while, it remained unchanged.

Su Ming scratched his head, then, after some thought, took out another Medicine Stone and placed it in the second hole. He continued in the same way. By the time he had reluctantly put all fifteen Medicine Stones into the holes, his heart was pounding with even greater tension.

"Fifteen Medicine Stones. If nothing happens, they'll all have gone to waste..." Su Ming watched the holes nervously. Just then, soft light suddenly spilled from all fifteen of them.

Su Ming's spirits lifted, and he quickly stepped back. The light around the fifteen holes on the stone door grew brighter and brighter. Then the circles of lines carved across the whole door seemed to come alive, slowly turning. A moment later, they joined together like a vortex and began to spin rapidly.

As the vortex spun, the light from the fifteen holes seemed to be drawn into it, bit by bit. A flowing radiance shrouded the stone door, and a deep rumbling suddenly echoed through the passage, deafening him. Ten blood lines appeared across Su Ming's body. His blood and qi churned, and he instinctively braced himself against the force.

The rumbling continued for a while. Then fifteen wisps of green smoke emerged from the holes, as if the Medicine Stones inside had been turned directly into threads of smoke. As the smoke rose, the enormous stone door began to tremble. A straight crack suddenly appeared down its center.

The crack ran from top to bottom. Then the stone door slowly slid apart before Su Ming, opening at last!

Su Ming's heart pounded. Watching the scene, he was shaken to the core. Only after the door had opened completely did he draw a sharp breath. There was no passage beyond it, but a small stone chamber.

The walls around the chamber were not smooth. Patterns had been carved into them, and there was another tightly shut door in the wall straight ahead.

Small stones embedded in the ceiling and walls gave off a faint glow. A subtle fragrance drifted through the chamber. One breath of it seemed to lift the spirits.

Su Ming's eyes flashed. Cautiously, he walked inside, his gaze sweeping over the walls. In the carved scenes, he saw figures much like those he had glimpsed in the passage: naked, long-haired people refining Medicine Stones in a primitive setting.

The first time Su Ming had entered this place, he had been completely baffled by scenes like these. But now, after successfully refining Powder, and with the knowledge that had appeared in his memory, he could understand much more of what they depicted.

The figures in the scenes were refining different kinds of Medicine Stones. As Su Ming watched, he became absorbed in the carvings. He compared them with his own experience until he seemed completely entranced, losing all sense of time.

After finishing one scene, he would often hurry over to find the next. He had no idea how much time passed. When he had finally examined every carving to his satisfaction, his gaze fell upon the shut door inside the chamber.

This door differed somewhat from the First Gate. It was pitch-black all over and gave off a faint fragrance, as if it had been made from some unusual kind of stone.

It also carried a sense of great weight. Patterns covered its surface, but this time they depicted a huge Wild Cauldron, with strands of smoke rising from it. The image was so lifelike that, as Su Ming stared, he almost felt it was not a carving at all, but a real Wild Cauldron in the middle of refining Powder.

"If only I had a Wild Cauldron like this..." Su Ming gazed at it enviously for a few moments.

Above and on either side of the Wild Cauldron, he saw several kinds of herbs. His spirits immediately lifted, and he studied them carefully. He had come here to see whether he could find the recipes for other Medicine Stones.

To the left of the Wild Cauldron carving was a list of seven herbs. Five of them were clearly used to refine Dust-Clearing Powder. Su Ming had never seen the other two. He studied them for a long while, committing their appearance to memory.

Below this recipe, eight small holes were arranged on the stone door.

To the right of the Wild Cauldron carving was another list, this one of eight herbs. As with the recipe on the left, five of them were ingredients for Dust-Clearing Powder.

Su Ming's eyes lit up when he saw the three additional herbs. He recognized two of them, though they were not commonly found.

As before, there were small holes below the recipe, but there were slightly more than on the left—twelve.

As for the third recipe, above the Wild Cauldron carving, Su Ming's expression gradually turned grave as he studied it. It did not consist of plants, but of three unsettling images.

The first was the scaled tail of a python. The second was the ninth leg of a nine-legged spider. The third was the third finger on the right hand of a pitch-black, palm-sized little man.

Stranger still, there were no small holes beneath this third recipe. It seemed the Medicine Stone was too difficult to refine, so there was no requirement to complete it.

After a moment's thought, Su Ming withdrew his gaze and approached the stone door. He raised his right hand and pressed it against the surface without hesitation. The Wild Cauldron carving on the door immediately gave off a blinding, eerie light that engulfed him.

After a brief moment of discomfort, a wisp of memory once more appeared in Su Ming's mind. He also learned how to refine the three kinds of Medicine Stones, as well as their names.

"Nanli Powder!" Su Ming glanced at the list to the left of the Wild Cauldron carving, then looked to the right.

"Mountain Spirit Powder... And the last one... Spirit-Absorbing Powder!" Su Ming gazed at the strange recipe above the Wild Cauldron carving and murmured to himself.

As Su Ming pondered, the eerie light surrounding him gradually faded. The glow of the Wild Cauldron on the stone door dimmed as well. The instant the light vanished completely, Su Ming's vision blurred. He did not panic; he had been through this once before. Strange howls seemed to ring in his ears. When they faded, his vision slowly cleared. He was back in his room in the tribe.

Su Ming drew a deep breath and immediately went to the door. He moved the chair aside and opened it. Outside, the night remained, stars shining in the sky, all around him still and quiet. A night breeze drifted in, carrying a chill.

Only on the distant horizon, a thin line of light had appeared, a clear sign that dawn was near.

"The passage of time inside and out should be about the same..." Su Ming closed the door, sat cross-legged again, and rested his chin in his hand as he fell into thought.

"The methods for refining these three kinds of Medicine Stones are all different. I've never seen the two herbs in the Nanli Powder recipe, so I can set that aside for now. As for... Spirit-Absorbing Powder..." Su Ming's pupils contracted slightly.

"This Powder isn't made from plants, and the ingredients it requires are far too strange. But according to the memory I gained, the phenomenon that appears once it's refined is astonishing!" Su Ming recalled the figures he had seen in that memory. When they finished refining Spirit-Absorbing Powder, it had seemed to faintly stir the heavens and earth, sending winds and clouds rolling backward. His heart pounded with excitement.

"If I can refine this Medicine Stone, it'll surely be extraordinary! Unfortunately... the stone door doesn't even have holes for it. Clearly, refining this Powder is exceptionally difficult... which is why it has nothing to do with opening this door." After thinking it over, Su Ming had more or less figured things out.

"The only one I can refine for now is Mountain Spirit Powder. Of the three extra herbs, I recognize two... I don't have them on hand, but there must be plenty in the tribe's medicine storehouse."

As Su Ming thought, the sky outside gradually brightened, and a new day slowly dawned.

Although he had gone all night without rest, Su Ming did not feel the slightest trace of drowsiness. This had become especially noticeable after he reached the second level of the Blood Condensation Realm. It was as if he had gained vast stores of energy. Unless he stayed up like this for several days in a row, he would not feel the slightest fatigue.

As dawn broke and the tribe members began their busy new day, Su Ming washed up and headed toward a nearby building made of wood and thatch, surrounded by a fence and guarded at all times by members of the tribe.

Sigh, I didn't write a single word of the actual chapter today... But I did get a lot more of the outline sorted out, and I'm getting more excited as I work on it...

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