The room abruptly fell into darkness, leaving only the moonlight filtering through the window.
He felt his way under the covers and curled into a ball.
But with so much weighing on the boy's mind, how could he sleep soundly?
He tossed and turned on the heated brick bed like a pancake being flipped, struggling for roughly two hours before he gradually settled down. His breathing grew even, his chest rising and falling slightly.
Cui Jiuyang smiled faintly and stopped paying attention to the sounds next door. Slowly closing his eyes, he gathered his mind, sank his focus into his dantian, and circulated his spiritual power. He continued his breathing exercises, striving to fully integrate the Mountain-Tapping Hammer into himself as soon as possible.
Cui Jiuyang had always been cautious when cultivating Beyond the Pass.
Every night before entering meditation, he laid a formation around himself to conceal his presence, while also forming a hand seal to cast the Invisibility Spell.
This was because, although the demons, ghosts, monsters, and cultivators Beyond the Pass were not necessarily more numerous than those within the pass, far more of them walked among the townsfolk.
Within the pass, most in the cultivation world, whether human or demon, sought quiet places to cultivate in seclusion, in ancient temples deep in the mountains, and seldom entered the mortal world.
Beyond the Pass was different. Cultivators seemed to prefer moving about in public.
This probably had something to do with the region's vast, sparsely populated landscape. Their daily lives were already quiet. If they pursued secluded cultivation single-mindedly on top of that, they might not see another soul all year round, which would be rather too lonely.
Even recluses who lived deep in the mountains occasionally went down to enjoy a little of the bustle of