Zhang Gan Visits the Mountain

The ancient jade slip was ice-cold to the bone, its archaic aura rushing at him head-on. Xu Yan immediately determined that it was a relic from the Primordial Age.

After only a few glances, he took out his own writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone and began translating the text.

Shen Congyun did not disturb him. He merely stood to one side and closed his eyes to rest.

Several hours later, as the sun was about to set.

A thick stack of white papers lay piled upon the stone table. Xu Yan's gaze sank slightly. He drew a deep breath, then abruptly lifted his brush.

"Lord Shen, it is finished." Xu Yan glanced at Shen Congyun.

The latter strolled over, picked up the papers, and looked through them a few times. A smile touched his lips. "Thank you for your trouble, Young Master Yan."

As he spoke, he flicked his finger and retrieved a black jade scroll from his storage pouch. "This is my family's inherited escape art, Eight-Step Kanlong. This scroll contains the initial chapter, the method for the Aperture Opening and Meridian Surging stages. Once Young Master Yan's cultivation grows and you enter the Five Realms of the Mortal World, come find me at the Dragon Gate in the imperial capital. I shall respectfully present the latter half to you with both hands."

Xu Yan accepted the black jade scroll.

Shen Congyun added, "Young Master, I shall be staying in the courtyard behind the mountain for the next few days. If there is anything you do not understand about this art, you may come ask me. I shall take my leave first."

"Take care, Lord Shen," Xu Yan said.

His gaze followed Shen Congyun until the man left the plum grove. Xu Yan immediately returned to his room and shut the door tight.

After sensing that there was no one nearby, he picked up his brush and copied out the Primordial Script from earlier once more.

He only stopped when deep night had arrived.

"So intricate and profound—it is certainly no ordinary Dao script."

Xu Yan narrowed his eyes and carefully examined the script, tiny as mosquitoes and ants.

The sentences had been scrambled. Setting them in order would take considerable time; no one but an old scholar brimming with learning and versed in ten thousand volumes could accomplish it.

Nor did he forcefully make use of the Human-Snake Ancient Jade. The path of Primordial Script required accumulation over time; it could not be rushed.

At the hour of the dragon three days later, a pale mist drifted through the plum grove, while crimson plum blossoms occasionally fluttered down.

Within it, Xu Yan held the black jade scroll of Eight-Step Kanlong, studying it with rapt attention.

His feet tapped lightly from time to time, turning and weaving in every direction. Spiritual power from his Baihui aperture flowed through the sinews and meridians in his body.

The plum petals on the ground spiraled and danced around him with his spiritual aura. Xu Yan kicked off with one foot, and his Dao body soared sixty yards into the air with effortless ease.

Then, stepping upon the falling petals, his figure crisscrossed through the plum blossom forest. The sound of rushing wind rang without end, and his ink-black robe snapped loudly.

In a blur, he was almost leaving afterimages.

Three-Fold Cloud Dragon!

With a thought stirring in his heart, Xu Yan stepped repeatedly into the empty air. Without controlling any magical artifact, he directly rose more than ninety yards into the sky. Morning mist brushed past him as he looked down upon the magnificent Plum Mountain, his spirits soaring.

"This escape art truly is excellent."

Xu Yan narrowed his eyes and drifted slowly down from midair like a nimble butterfly.

The initial chapter of Eight-Step Kanlong contained only one supernatural escape technique, Three-Fold Cloud Dragon. Not only was it swift, but once cultivated to great mastery, it could carry one more than a hundred yards into the air—enough to cross many small mountains.

This method consumed far less spiritual power than controlling a magical artifact. However, in terms of pure escape speed, it was inferior to the Literary Gold Shuttle.

Over these three days, Xu Yan had practiced this art while also attempting to arrange that passage of script into proper order. He had spent most of his time within the Human-Snake Ancient Jade.

Three-Fold Cloud Dragon was nearly at great mastery, yet he had not managed to straighten out even a single sentence of Shen Congyun's script. Those characters were all exceptionally ancient; some Dao-script passages and doctrines could not be understood through the knowledge of modern Confucian scholars at all.

It cannot be rushed. It cannot be rushed.

As he pondered this, the sound of hurried footsteps came from outside the plum grove. Xu Yan immediately put away the black jade scroll.

The visitor was a Confucian scholar from the academy, one tasked with patrolling the mountain.

Upon drawing near, he panted lightly and bowed to Xu Yan. "Master Yan, a Daoist has come seeking an audience outside the mountain. He says he is Zhang Gan of Daque Temple and has some acquaintance with you."

"Zhang Gan?" After thinking for a few breaths, Xu Yan recalled him—the Daoist who had set up a stall at Huanglong Immortal Market last year, seeking someone to translate a text.

That Breathing chapter of the Hunyuan Dao Formula was still lying in Xu Yan's storage pouch.

Xu Yan said, "Bring him here."

A stick of delicate incense burned atop the desk in the side room.

Zhang Gan wore a green Daoist robe covered in dusty grime, filthy and travel-stained, his expression weary.

He sat across from Xu Yan, gulped down a mouthful of tea, then clasped his fists. "I have come to visit so abruptly. I hope Young Master Yan will forgive me!"

Xu Yan waved a hand and went straight to the point. "Brother Zhang, what brings you here? Do you need someone to decipher Primordial Script again?"

"Yes, and no."

"What do you mean?"

As he spoke, Zhang Gan took out a piece of sheepskin parchment from his storage pouch. A simple line map of Mang Mountain had been drawn upon it.

He seemed lost in thought and paused for several breaths, apparently sensing whether anyone was outside the courtyard.

Then he spoke earnestly. "Young Master Yan, I wish to ask you to leave the mountain and accompany us to an ancient repository. There are many passages of script and sealing formations there that we cannot unravel. You know that I offended a scholar-official of the imperial capital's Literary Pavilion. Many Confucian scholars and cultivators versed in such script are unwilling to help us."

"Us?" Xu Yan raised a brow.

"My fellow senior and junior brothers and sisters of Daque Temple. They will be entering that ancient repository with me this time," Zhang Gan replied.

"Could the ancient repository you speak of be the ruins left behind by that great sect of the recent antiquity, the Hunyuan Sect?" Xu Yan asked thoughtfully. When Zhang Gan nodded, he continued, "How far is it from Shangyin?"

"About three thousand li..."

Seeing Xu Yan frown, Zhang Gan hurriedly said, "Please rest assured, Young Master Yan. We will certainly protect you well! Among my fellow disciples, three have reached the Spirit Bridge realm, while seven are at the ninth level of the Breathing stage. The ghosts, fiends, and strange creatures there will be no match for us at all!"

The outer thousand li of the Ten-Thousand Mang Mountains was an absolutely safe region, at most inhabited by ordinary wild beasts.

Further in, however, it became dangerous.

The strange creatures, ghosts, and fiends one read of in tales of the uncanny would begin to appear. Deeper still lay the lairs of demonic beings with attained Dao, camped out in strongholds.

If someone with cultivation at Xu Yan's Aperture Opening and Meridian Surging level entered, he would likely be eaten so thoroughly that not even his bones remained.

Seeing Xu Yan frowning in consideration, Zhang Gan's expression tightened. Afraid Xu Yan would refuse, he spoke again. "Young Master Yan, this Hunyuan Dao Repository has emerged for the first time. At present, aside from my fellow disciples and me, no other Daoists know of it. There must be countless heavenly treasures within, as well as inherited Daoist tomes. If Young Master Yan is willing to accompany us, you may gather the heavenly treasures as you please, and freely browse the Daoist books in the ancient repository!"

He truly had no other choice. Zhang Gan had offended an Inner Cabinet civil official in Dragon City several years ago, and that official was also a favored guest of a prince's estate.

Ever since then, no one in the region had been willing to help him decipher or translate texts, avoiding him as though he were a plague.

After weighing the matter back and forth, Xu Yan's expression settled half an incense stick later. He lifted his eyes and said, "I will accompany you on this trip."

At those words, Zhang Gan was instantly overjoyed. He said respectfully, "Young Master Yan, when shall we depart?"

"Then... we leave at once." Xu Yan rose from before the desk.

Without another word, the two descended the mountain and headed southeast.