Come and fight!!!

How to safely wake a cultivator in secluded cultivation.

This was a problem the cultivation world had yet to solve.

Its difficulty was roughly equivalent to this: anyone who found a solution could immediately receive a Nobel Prize in Cultivation.

But without a doubt, any method of waking him would be better than letting Bai Licheng barge in.

There was little time left for him to experiment.

Shen Leyan thought for a moment, called out "Sect Master Lu" twice, and started pinching his cheeks.

"Sect Master Lu, Sect Master Lu? Sect Master Lu! Pause your secluded cultivation for a moment. I have something urgent to tell you!"

His body temperature was much lower than an ordinary person's, and the skin of his face felt like cold jade. Shen Leyan was gentle at first, but when he found that the man showed no reaction whatsoever, he gritted his teeth and pinched harder.

He ruffled his white hair as though he were petting a pegasus.

He tugged his sleeves and pulled his collar.

The man remained like a statue, not moving an inch.

Shen Leyan: "..."

What else could he do? Go up and punch Lu Yuanyi?

[(Lurking, twisting, crawling, going insane!) Lu Yuanyi, please wake up (sobbing). Do you have to cultivate in seclusion right now? (Roaring) Is my Boundless Gate Journey going to end halfway through? (Quietly shattering) Just because I can't figure out how to wake you?! (All hope lost)]

He was quietly falling apart beside the ice bed, clenching his fist and preparing to give Lu Yuanyi a good hard blow, when he looked up and met a pair of fathomless dark-gold eyes.

*[⊙_⊙]*

*[꒦ິ^꒦ິ]*

"Sect Master Lu—you finally woke up—"

Lu Yuanyi looked him up and down. "What are you lurking, twisting, and crawling around for? Unless you have a good explanation for interrupting my secluded cultivation, you'll be scrubbing chamber pots at Beast Taming Peak for at least fifty years."

For no reason he could explain, Shen Leyan felt an aching tightness in his chest. Only when he opened his mouth did he realize his voice was trembling.

"I have something very urgent to tell you. Please don't get too worked up after you hear it."

Lu Yuanyi's expression seemed to grow colder. With a wave, he conjured a thick, ink-black fox-fur cloak and draped it over Shen Leyan's shoulders.

"You know your health suffers in winter, yet you came somewhere this cold. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

The fox-fur cloak was wonderfully warm, stopping his shivering at once.

Speaking quickly and quietly, he recounted what had happened at the Cloud Radiance Sect. "Bai Licheng will probably find us very soon. Sect Master Lu, you can kill him, right?"

Lu Yuanyi fell silent for a moment. His expression barely changed, but Shen Leyan clearly saw icy killing intent surge through the depths of his eyes. Vast spiritual power swept through the cave, coating the entire cavern in a thick layer of ice within moments.

Shen Leyan anxiously watched his expression and the fluctuations of his spiritual power.

After finding no sign that Lu Yuanyi was about to fall into demonhood, he let out a long breath of relief.

The man suddenly lowered his head and reached out to fasten the ties of his fox-fur cloak. Rather than answer his question, he merely said:

"The cold here is harmful to your health. I'll have the Jiangxue Sword take you out first."

Belatedly sensing something wrong, Shen Leyan gave a small, wary struggle. "Sect Master Lu, are you trying to get rid of me because of something?"

Lu Yuanyi held his shoulder with one hand, a hint of helplessness in his cool voice. "...Having an overly clever disciple doesn't seem to be a good thing either. It's just that I haven't finished my secluded cultivation, and my spiritual power hasn't fully recovered."

A bad feeling rose in his heart. For a moment, he failed to notice that the man had called him his "disciple."

"Then... how much hasn't recovered?"

"Thirty percent."

He eyed him suspiciously. "Really?"

[If only thirty percent hasn't recovered, Lu Yuanyi should be able to beat Bai Licheng. He shouldn't need to send me away.]

The man lowered his lashes slightly and calmly continued, "Only thirty percent of my cultivation has recovered."

Shen Leyan: "..."

"Wait, then what are we waiting for? Let's run together!"

Though the snowy mountains stretched endlessly and Bai Licheng would have trouble finding them, his obsession with "killing Lu Yuanyi" meant that even if he had to search those mountains inch by inch, he would find a way to track them down.

Their best option was to leave through the Teleportation Array immediately, escape the Cloud Radiance Sect before Bai Licheng realized it, and come back to kill him once Lu Yuanyi's cultivation had recovered.

Lu Yuanyi looked past him toward the snow swirling outside the cave.

"It's too late."

Against the expanse of pure white, the Other Shore Flowers' bewitching red was especially striking.

The Jiangxue Sword, which had been guarding the entrance, hummed and abruptly returned to Lu Yuanyi's hand.

Shen Leyan couldn't hold back a curse.

Amplified by spiritual power, Bai Licheng's voice reached them inside the cave. "I was wondering what little bug had the gall to follow me through the Teleportation Array to Myriad-Fathom Cliff. So it's Sect Master Lu's disciple."

His tone was brimming with delight, carrying a frightening hint of madness.

"I should thank you. Without you leading me here, it would probably have taken me much longer to find this place. You've also saved me the trouble of hunting you down to finish the job after killing Lu Yuanyi—I wonder, if you die before his eyes, will he fall into demonhood?"

As Bai Licheng finished speaking, Other Shore Flowers blossomed across the cave's stone floor and steep walls.

Myriad-Fathom Cliff was rich in spiritual power, but wherever the Other Shore Flowers bloomed, they seemed to drain that power dry, leaving only an ominous aura of death and blood-red petals in riotous bloom.

A cluster of flower buds was about to brush his ankle.

A streak of frost abruptly cut it in two.

The Other Shore Flowers let out a shrill, ghastly scream.

Lu Yuanyi shielded him behind his back. "It's one thing to be disobedient normally, but you're still refusing to behave at a time like this—wouldn't it have been better to leave earlier?"

"Didn't you hear him? Even if I weren't here today, he'd still hunt me down to finish the job." Shen Leyan asked quietly, "About how long would it take for your spiritual power to recover to seventy percent? No, fifty!"

"There's no way to be sure. It could take as little as an incense stick's time, or as long as several days."

[Isn't... isn't that like pulling an SSR in certain gacha games? It's all down to luck.]

He thought back over everything that had happened since he transmigrated into this world and felt that he had absolutely nothing in common with those lucky bastards who hit the jackpot in a single pull.

But there was no other option now.

"Then hurry up and meditate to recover your spiritual power. The Jiangxue Sword and I will hold him off."

A trace of wariness had still lingered in Bai Licheng's eyes, but at those words, he burst into unrestrained laughter. A hint of hatred spilled into his soft, shrill voice.

"Lu Yuanyi... this disciple of yours is exactly like you were back then. Just as arrogant. With that pitiful cultivation, you think you can stop me?!"

Shen Leyan said, "With your pitiful cultivation, didn't you still dare to run wild in the Cloud Radiance Sect?"

Bai Licheng gave a mocking chuckle. "Don't bother with such foolish attempts to stall."

His umbrella abruptly left his hand. Several dark openings appeared on its canopy, and blood-red petals shot toward Shen Leyan like rain.

Bai Licheng had no intention of wasting words, and Shen Leyan stopped wasting his breath as well. Unleashing the Azure Shadow Profound Art, he summoned the Jiangxue Sword with one hand. Not daring to hold anything back, he drove his wind spiritual root to its limit, poured in every bit of spiritual power in his dantian, and slashed out a pale-blue sword phantom.

The Other Shore Flower petals rapidly withered as they struck the sword phantom, but within a few breaths, the phantom seemed to be corroded by those petals. It faded from solid to insubstantial, about to vanish altogether—

A majestic dragon's roar rang out, and the Jiangxue Sword's spirit surged forth.

The dark-gold flood dragon coiled inside the cave and breathed out, blocking every remaining Other Shore Flower petal!

Bai Licheng snapped his umbrella closed, his voice dripping with mockery beneath his copper mask.

"A little disciple with such pathetic cultivation and a flood dragon that willingly degraded himself into a sword spirit actually think they can stop me."

The Jiangxue Sword had drained every last trace of spiritual power from Shen Leyan's dantian. The boy's face had grown several shades paler, looking as white as paper against the ink-black fox-fur cloak.

Yet his eyes shone with pinpricks of starlight.

"...An evil cultivator who betrayed his sect and clings to life as the demons' dog thinks he's qualified to say that?"

"Lu Yuanyi certainly found himself a sharp-tongued disciple—your spiritual power is exhausted. If you keep forcing more into the Jiangxue Sword, I won't even need to lift a finger. Your spiritual root will probably shatter, your dantian will be destroyed, and you'll become a cripple."

Bai Licheng's soft voice carried both anger and malice.

"Going from a heaven-blessed prodigy to a cripple who can't cultivate... wouldn't that be worse than death, hmm? And what expression would Lu Yuanyi wear when he saw it—"

His voice cut off. The oil-paper umbrella in his hand blazed with light, and the sea of Other Shore Flowers surged toward Shen Leyan like a tidal wave, filling his vision!

This was no longer a probing attack, but an all-out strike prepared well in advance!

Against the sea of Other Shore Flowers, the flood dragon's breath was as futile as an ant trying to shake a tree. The sword spirit could only shield Shen Leyan with his body while transmitting his voice to him.

"Brat, hurry up and run—"

Bai Licheng laughed wildly, his figure moving through the sea of Other Shore Flowers like an evil specter.

"Lu Yuanyi! More than half the Cloud Radiance Sect's disciples are dead or wounded! The heads of the elders from several main peaks are hanging on the mountaintop of Cicada Song Pavilion!

As sect master, you've already failed to protect them. Are you now going to let your disciple and sword spirit die for you too?!

Back then, to help you become sect master, my father went so far as to destroy my cultivation and exile me to the bitter desert of the Northwestern Territory to fend for myself—are you pleased with this grand gift I've brought you in return?!"

He was trying to disrupt Lu Yuanyi's concentration with those words!

If something went wrong while he circulated his cultivation technique, he might be unable to recover his cultivation—or, worse, fall into demonhood!

Shen Leyan didn't know where his sudden ferocity came from. He violently forced his dantian, and the invisible shackles representing his cultivation bottleneck shattered!

He immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

It felt as though awls, axes, and blades were stabbing and hacking at every organ in his body. The pain was unbearable, nearly making him pass out.

"Lu Yuanyi, your disciple has forced a breakthrough. He's probably ruined himself—are you still not going to act?!"

"Fuck you, you goddamn bastard!"

Dizzy and dazed, Shen Leyan raised a hand to wipe his mouth, coating it in blood. He hadn't cleared all the bloody froth from his throat, leaving his voice somewhat muffled.

"I'm still fucking alive and well—what bullshit are you spouting?!"

Although every bone in his body hurt and his head was spinning, at least his spiritual power had replenished after the breakthrough, becoming much denser and more abundant.

He sent a stream of spiritual power into the Jiangxue Sword and spat out another mouthful of blood.

This time, his chest felt a little better.

He reached out. As though sensing his intent, the sword spirit turned into a streak of light and returned to the Jiangxue Sword. The frost-cold blade settled into the boy's hand, blood staining his lips as his robes snapped in the wind.

"Sect Master Lu doesn't need to act. I'll kill you first."

Bai Licheng said coldly, "You overestimate yourself."

The sea of Other Shore Flowers rose into towering waves. The cave's stone walls seemed unable to withstand the tremendous impact of spiritual power and began to tremble violently.

Outside, the wind and snow intensified, surging toward the Jiangxue Sword.

Outside the Boundless Gate.

Heaven and earth changed color, and thunder rumbled through the skies.

Every disciple of the Cloud Radiance Sect looked up in shock at the distant sky, where black clouds churned like ink. They couldn't help whispering among themselves.

"Anything that causes a phenomenon like this can't be ordinary..."

"With such a huge disturbance, could someone in the sect be breaking through to the Mahayana stage and about to undergo tribulation lightning?!"

"Surely not... all the elders and disciples are here watching the disciple acceptance ceremony today. Who could be undergoing tribulation lightning?"

On the stone steps, several elders were equally astonished. After discussing it without reaching any conclusion, they all turned toward Lu Yuanyi.

"Sect Master Lu, with your wealth of knowledge, might you..."

Before the elders could finish, the Boundless Gate on the seventh training platform suddenly began to distort.

One moment it became a square, the next a circle, and then it twisted into a tangled knot.

The Boundless Gate had been refined from a Mind-Peering Demon's demon core and retained a portion of the demon's intelligence.

For some reason, the Mind-Peering Demon Core inside that Boundless Gate began wailing.

"Stop fighting! Stop fighting—boohoohoo—if this keeps up, it'll violate the Heavenly Dao! I'll get struck dead! Boohoohoo—"

The Cloud Radiance Sect disciples: "(⊙o⊙)"

The elders: "(´°Δ°`)"

"Sect Master Lu, just what... has Shen Leyan experienced inside this Boundless Gate?!"

For it to terrify the Mind-Peering Demon so badly and cause a heavenly phenomenon, could it be... something capable of changing the course of this vast world?

But how could a little disciple in the Qi Refining stage possibly do that?!

Deep currents swept through Lu Yuanyi's eyes as he spoke calmly. "Close Shen Leyan's Boundless Gate... ahead of time."

Bang—

The boy's back slammed hard into the cave wall. Every bone seemed to have been knocked out of place. Blood rose in his throat, and stars danced before his eyes.

Had the Jiangxue Sword not caught him in time, he might have passed out on the spot.

Blood dripped onto the stone floor in strings of beads, mingling with the scattered Other Shore Flower petals until it was impossible to tell which was brighter.

Bai Licheng had sent him flying with a single move.

The gulf between their cultivation levels was like an impassable chasm.

He gasped for breath, gripping the Jiangxue Sword with both hands and trying to push himself upright.

[I started showing off way too early. I can't beat him at all!]

*[꒦ິ^꒦ິ]*

Holding his oil-paper umbrella, Bai Licheng walked toward him step by step.

"An ant, yet such a nuisance... go on ahead and wait for Lu Yuanyi on the road to the underworld!"