Rumors

Achoo!

Shen Yuan, who had just gotten out of the car, could not help sneezing.

Rubbing his slightly sore nose, Shen Yuan felt somewhat puzzled. Having already entered the Essence Refinement realm, he could circulate his Breathing Method through a full cycle and become immune to heat and cold. Catching a cold was simply impossible.

"Could someone be talking about me?"

He casually muttered to himself, then paid it no mind and headed straight for his rented home.

Wen City, where Shen Yuan lived, was a typical resource-based industrial city. It had begun developing because of a massive coal mine, with numerous factories built around it until a city eventually took shape.

But like most resource-based industrial cities, Wen City lost its vitality once the massive coal mine was depleted. Vast swathes of abandoned factories and residential districts were left behind in the old city, while the city's center of gravity shifted entirely to the new district.

Shen Yuan had moved into this part of the old city three months ago. The main reason was that housing here was cheap; for just a few hundred yuan, he could rent a small detached courtyard.

Though the location was somewhat remote, that was no problem at all for Shen Yuan, who had no need to travel.

Moreover, since the surrounding factories had been abandoned for more than a decade, there was no industrial pollution, and the old district's environment was actually quite pleasant. Even the abandoned mine nearby had shown faint signs of renewed life over the past ten-odd years.

Passing through a secluded alley, Shen Yuan walked toward the little courtyard that covered barely over a hundred square meters.

Unlocking the rusted padlock, Shen Yuan pushed open the gate. Before him lay a ground paved with gravel and a wooden corridor with a rather antique charm, green vines winding across it.

On the left side of the courtyard stood a luxuriant jujube tree. Beneath it was a square stone table, its intersecting lines forming a Go board.

However, Shen Yuan did not know how to play Go, so the board carved into the stone table was of no use to him.

Casually tossing down his backpack, Shen Yuan sat before the stone table. His mind settled into the familiar surroundings, gradually relaxing.

During the past few days in the Cloudmist Mountains, Shen Yuan had seemed relaxed and at ease, but in truth, his nerves had been taut the entire time.

Especially after what had happened in the Falling Cloud Grotto-Heaven, the supreme power that had erased every living thing within that Grotto-Heaven far surpassed Shen Yuan's understanding, pushing his mental strain to its limit.

Only after returning to this little courtyard that belonged to him could Shen Yuan truly relax.

Sitting before the stone table, Shen Yuan's breathing gradually became long and deep. The Cloudmist Breathing Method seemed to merge with his tranquil state of mind, giving off a mysterious rhythm.

Second by second, time passed. The entire courtyard seemed to sink completely into stillness.

After an unknown length of time, a crisp sound like shattering glass rang out within Shen Yuan's heart. The mysterious rhythm brought forth by his Breathing Method began spreading in all directions, and spiritual energy started continuously gathering within a radius of more than ten meters.

The leaves of the jujube tree rustled in the courtyard, while the pothos along the corridor swayed in the breeze. By instinct, living things actively accepted the spiritual energy gathering around them.

When that spiritual energy followed the rhythm of the Breathing Method and merged into the grand circulation within Shen Yuan's body, Shen Yuan slowly opened his eyes.

A cold glint flashed through the clear black-and-white eyes on his handsome face, and in that instant, the breeze in the courtyard became a killing autumn wind.

The branches swayed, and countless leaves fell with the wind. The leaves that had just drifted from the branches were stained with a dusky yellow hue that did not belong to this world.

Yet it all lasted only an instant. When the cold glint faded from Shen Yuan's eyes and peace returned, everything seemed as though it had never happened.

"Finally, I broke through!"

Shen Yuan let out a long breath, a smile appearing on his face.

After experiencing the events of the Falling Cloud Grotto-Heaven, the Cloudmist Breathing Method he had practiced for a full half year had finally helped him make a breakthrough, successfully advancing from the early stage of the Essence Refinement realm to the middle stage.

The main task during the Essence Refinement realm was actually to accumulate and strengthen one's essence, preparing for the subsequent refinement of essence into qi. Thus, there was not much difference between the early and middle stages.

The Cloudmist Breathing Method was originally a Foundation Establishment method. Now that Shen Yuan had officially entered the middle stage of Essence Refinement, the effect it could exert had become negligible. As for using the Cloudmist Breathing Method to break through into the Qi Transformation realm, that was even more impossible.

Fortunately, Shen Yuan had already obtained the subsequent cultivation method. For the next period of time, he could formally cultivate the Violet Cloud Qi Refining Method. His cultivation speed would surge for a while, and breaking through into the Qi Transformation realm would not be difficult.

After witnessing the tragic state of the Falling Cloud Grotto-Heaven, Shen Yuan had developed a sense of urgency about improving his own strength.

He had inherited the position of Falling Cloud Sect Master. No one could be certain whether the calamity that had befallen the Falling Cloud Grotto-Heaven would affect him as well. Before he truly encountered that calamity, he had to obtain enough strength to protect himself.

Shen Yuan was about to rise and return to his room to begin studying the Violet Cloud Qi Refining Method when a low rumble suddenly came from his stomach. Only then did he remember that he had barely eaten anything all day.

And counting the days he had spent in the Cloudmist Mountains, Shen Yuan had only eaten compressed food he had prepared in advance. He had not had a proper meal at all.

Advancing in the Essence Refinement realm did not rely solely on spiritual energy. Part of it also required replenishment through external food.

Shen Yuan had once found legends regarding ancient cultivators. In an age where spiritual energy was scarce, some heaven-defying genius who entered the Essence Refinement realm could not obtain supplementary spiritual energy from the outside world and had no choice but to consume vast amounts of ordinary food to replenish their essence. There were even legends of someone devouring an entire ox in a day.

However, the spiritual energy of Shen Yuan's modern era was far from scarce enough for that, though replenishing himself with food was still necessary.

Returning to his room and glancing at the empty old-fashioned refrigerator, Shen Yuan turned and left the courtyard. He casually shut the gate and headed toward the market.

There were not many people on the streets of the old district. Even at the market, he saw only elderly people buying groceries for dinner, with hardly any young people in sight.

As Shen Yuan deftly selected vegetables from the stalls, the middle-aged women running them chatted in fragments about household matters. Then, suddenly, something one of them said caught Shen Yuan's attention.

"Did you hear? Someone saw a dragon over by the old mining district."

As soon as she said that, it immediately stirred the interest of quite a few old men and women, and everyone began discussing the topic.

"You mean what happened the night before last?"

"A few unemployed little punks heard there was an ancient tomb beneath the old mine, so they ran over in the middle of the night to rob it. They were scared half to death, and after coming back, they told everyone they met that they had encountered a dragon."

"You used to work at the mine, and you actually believe something like that?"

"You can't put it that way. Look online—strange things have been happening everywhere lately. Some people said they saw an ape king as tall as a small mountain in Changbai Mountain, while others photographed a nine-headed serpent at an abandoned nuclear power plant in Yingzhou.

Even the Cloudmist Mountains, only a few hundred kilometers from here, seem to have had something unusual happen. The Southern Pacification Marquis's Residence dispatched the Southern Pacification Army to seal off the Cloudmist Mountains, yet there's barely any news about it online.

If my second grand-aunt's biological nephew weren't a staff member at the scenic area, I definitely wouldn't have known about it either."

"So with some things, it's better to believe they exist than to believe they don't."

At first, Shen Yuan had listened to the old men and women's conversation merely for amusement. In the more than half a year since moving into the old district, he had heard all sorts of rumors about the old mining district every few days.

At the beginning, Shen Yuan had even thought some exotic treasure might truly have emerged in the old mining district. He had sneaked into the mining area one night and waited for half the night without finding anything. After that, he had grown used to it.

But when he heard one of the old men declare with utter certainty that the Cloudmist Mountains had been sealed off, Shen Yuan froze slightly.

This was the first time he had heard that the Southern Pacification Army had sealed off the Cloudmist Mountains, and judging from when the military blockade began, it had happened shortly after he left the Cloudmist Mountains.

Recalling his experiences in the Cloudmist Mountains, a bold thought rose in Shen Yuan's mind.

The Southern Pacification Marquis sealed off the Cloudmist Mountains... could it have something to do with me?