Cause and effect

Ten years since coming to the island, eight years seeking the Dao.

Though trapped in his shackles, Meng Yuan had still gathered a great deal of information.

For instance, a certain youth had been born to a farming family and picked up a small pill bottle while hoeing a field. Unexpectedly, the bottle turned out to be a relic of an immortal cultivator. From then on, the youth soared to the heavens and slaughtered his enemies' entire households.

Or another youth whose family had fallen on hard times, whose fiancée had even come to break off their engagement. Unexpectedly, he picked up a ring containing the remnant soul of a mighty cultivator. From then on, the youth soared to the heavens and slaughtered his enemies' entire households.

Or yet another youth, so poor he could not afford to eat, who still scraped together a few steamed buns to offer a mighty cultivator. Unexpectedly, the cultivator gave him a spatial treasure. From then on, the youth soared to the heavens and slaughtered his enemies' entire households.

Of course, these were all vague, elusive tales, and they had happened many years ago. There was no point dreaming of seizing their fortune and opportunities.

Besides, through exchanging letters with Li Nineteen and chatting with Xin Li over the years, he had learned much about the Starsea Alliance's Main Mountain and the world outside. He had even noted down many of the rises and falls in material prices on the futures markets.

As for coastal waters, storms, and the like, those went without saying.

"Come." Huo Old Freak pulled Meng Yuan into his cave abode.

Chaolong Mountain was not particularly tall or imposing. It resembled a dragon, and Huo Qiushi's cave abode lay on the dragon's back, where the Spiritual Qi was richest on all of Deer Island.

Meng Yuan normally lived in a thatched cottage in the Pear Grove. This was his first time entering Huo Qiushi's cave abode.

The cave abode was cramped, with another small door inside. Beyond that door stood a bookshelf.

Moving the bookshelf aside revealed a cave.

They entered and walked for a quarter of an hour. It grew increasingly damp, and they actually saw many broken stalactites.

The farther down they went, the darker it became, without so much as a piece of fluorite to light the way.

After another quarter of an hour, they finally reached a spacious cavern, where someone sat cross-legged.

Dressed in black, with black hair, an exceptionally pale complexion, and a pretty face still carrying a little baby fat, she was none other than Du Xingyi.

Meng Yuan looked past Du Xingyi into the distance and saw a Bronze Gate at the far end.

The gate was tall, intricately wrought, and imposing, with dragons carved upon it.

And before that gate, Meng Yuan saw something somewhat familiar.

It was a Bronze Candle Stand shaped like two dragons playing with a pearl, with a tiny flame resting upon that "pearl."

The sight inevitably reminded Meng Yuan of the Immortal Mausoleum back home.

There had been one of these in the Immortal Mausoleum too, identical in design, only this one was taller and its flame brighter.

What connection is there between them? Were they left by the same person?

Through his dealings with Fairy Xin Li and others, Meng Yuan had learned that cultivators of this world often withdrew from society as death approached, choosing a cave abode and leaving their possessions for someone worthy to take.

These were what people called ruins.

Some ruins were perilous and uncanny, where rash intrusion meant death; others offered trials and rarely harmed anyone.

Deer Island had risen from the seabed three hundred years ago, while the Immortal Mausoleum had experienced an earthquake three hundred years ago... could the two be connected?

Meng Yuan touched his shoulder, inevitably thinking of Peach Blossom Face.

Huo Old Freak rubbed his hands together, looking at the Bronze Gate with a rare expression of greed.

"The Weaving Maiden has toiled hard. Is this garment finished?" Du Xingyi asked.

"Not finished, but barely usable." Paying no heed to Meng Yuan's presence, Huo Old Freak began airing his grievances. "You bestowed a wondrous method upon me, Fairy, but insisted on choosing him. Poor aptitude, too many schemes, and wary of me from the moment he came up the mountain. When I put my heart into teaching him, he calls me Master so sweetly; when I don't teach him anything, he goes off pondering all sorts of other things. You have no idea-these past two years, he hasn't put his heart into cultivation. All day long, he holds a brush and writes all sorts of nonsense."

Then Huo Old Freak asked, "Fairy, could I find a few more people to practice this Wedding Garment Secret Method?"

Du Xingyi scoffed. "Have you never married off a daughter?"

"What do you mean?" Huo Old Freak asked in confusion.

"Huo Old Freak." Meng Yuan could not bear to watch any longer. "What decent woman wears a wedding garment eight or ten times? It's worth the most the first time she wears it. You can't even manage being a woman, yet you want to wear a wedding garment!"

Rather than taking offense, Huo Old Freak said, "You really are clever! If I had a daughter, I'd certainly marry her to you!"

Full of admiration, he said, "Look, junior sister. He has an excellent temperament. He's known all along that I'm plotting against him, yet he remains perfectly composed."

"He doesn't fear death," Du Xingyi said.

"Indeed. I've never seen him afraid of anything." Huo Old Freak agreed wholeheartedly, then asked, "But why did you ask me to bring him here, junior sister? Do you want to wear the wedding garment too?"

"I don't know." Du Xingyi was not displeased. She knew this much: "I merely have a faint feeling."

Huo Old Freak froze, then exclaimed in surprise, "Has your opportunity for Foundation Establishment arrived, junior sister?"

"Yes. All these years, I've been searching for a way to break through the impasse here. I never expected my opportunity for Foundation Establishment to lie here as well." Du Xingyi raised her eyes, her black gaze turning toward the Bronze Gate. "But the candlelight blocks me. I cannot advance in the slightest."

"Can this little shrimp help?" Huo Old Freak spread his hands. "Even Uncle-Master Dong couldn't do anything. Can he?"

"He may be of no use, but since he's on Chaolong Mountain, he must come here once." Her face pale, Du Xingyi said, "How could an opportunity for Foundation Establishment offer no path to life? I have a feeling that this time, I need an outsider's help. Even if it isn't him, someone else may yet come."

By now, Meng Yuan was no longer a greenhorn. He knew what they meant by an opportunity for Foundation Establishment.

When a Qi Refining cultivator reached the ninth level and then attained perfection, a feeling would arise in their heart. This was an opportunity for Foundation Establishment.

That opportunity might lie in an object, an event, or a person. So long as it came to fruition, Foundation Establishment could be achieved.

If it failed, attempting Foundation Establishment again in the future would be far more difficult.

Seeing Du Xingyi stare at the gate, Meng Yuan knew that her opportunity lay inside, while she herself was barred outside.

For a moment, Meng Yuan marveled at the strangeness of fate.

Ten years ago, Meng Yuan had come to the island.

Eight years ago, Meng Yuan and Du Yueyi had fallen in love. After his sister-in-law-to-be took a cudgel to the pair of mandarin ducks, she had dumped him on Chaolong Mountain, where he had even been taught the Bright Garment Art.

Today, his sister-in-law-to-be's opportunity for Foundation Establishment had arrived, and Meng Yuan happened to have seen this candle stand before and possessed a way past it.

As Meng Yuan pondered this, his heart suddenly grew restless and unsettled, as though the Soul-Tracking Thread had been tugged. His mind filled with a confused clamor, like someone muttering beside his ear.

The Soul-Tracking Thread's ten-year term was up. There was no need to wait any longer.

Eight years ago, Du Xingyi had given Meng Yuan hope.

Eight years later, Meng Yuan would give Du Xingyi hope as well.

With that thought, Meng Yuan stepped forward.

"Stop!" Seeing Meng Yuan's distracted state, Huo Old Freak hurriedly caught hold of him. "Don't die without even knowing what killed you!"

"Do not stop him," Du Xingyi said.

"But..." Huo Old Freak hurriedly stamped his foot, saying in anguish, "I've raised this child for seven or eight years!"

"It's fine. Your garment won't tear."

Du Xingyi stared at his retreating figure. Step by step, he had actually crossed the boundary and entered the forbidden ground illuminated by the candlelight.

His steps merely slowed a little and his body swayed, but he did not stop walking.

Soon, Du Xingyi saw him stop before the Bronze Candle Stand.

"..." Du Xingyi now understood. Her opportunity for Foundation Establishment did indeed lie within the Bronze Gate, but she needed this man as the guide.

Yet eight years ago, she herself had sent this man to Chaolong Mountain and signaled Huo Qiushi to teach him the Bright Garment Art.

This man's path of cultivation had long since been severed, and it was Du Xingyi who had cut it off with her own hands, who had personally pushed him into the abyss.

"You..." Inexplicably flustered, Du Xingyi felt an involuntary flush rise to her face. "Hurry and extinguish the flame!"

Du Xingyi watched him place his hand over the flame, seemingly unafraid of its burning heat, then turn his head to look at her.

"Xingyi, you won't even call me brother-in-law." He wore a smile, as warmly familiar as a brother-in-law speaking to his wife's younger sister.

He smiled at her, as though he were merely waiting for her to call him brother-in-law before granting every request his sister-in-law made.

"Say it!" Huo Old Freak kept urging her from the side, even more anxious than Du Xingyi. "Why are you standing there in a daze? One 'brother-in-law' can buy you a future in Foundation Establishment! Forget brother-in-law, you could even call him Father!"

"I..." Du Xingyi clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, but still could not force the words out.

Then Du Xingyi saw her unearned brother-in-law ignore the candle stand, walk past it, and approach the Bronze Gate.

"What's going on?" Huo Old Freak froze, then stamped his foot in anguish. "My garment! My garment! I said we shouldn't let him near it, but you insisted... my new garment, which I've spent eight or nine years weaving!"

Huo Old Freak dared not approach, yet he was frantic. All he could do was turn in circles, shouting and yelling.

"This is..." Du Xingyi frowned, her pale face rendered even more deathly white by the dim firelight. That man was slowly being swallowed by Netherflame.

Soon, Du Xingyi felt that elusive opportunity for Foundation Establishment grow ever more ungraspable, then vanish like smoke in the blink of an eye.

She murmured, "The cause sown yesterday bears fruit today. Cause and effect, cause and effect..."