Millions of li from Green Mountain Pass, human footprints had grown scarce. Mountains rose and fell in endless succession, their slopes a deep, inky green as far as the eye could see. Vegetation grew thickly, with broad, fleshy leaves and stems; their heavy green seemed ready to drip thick sap. Towering trees stood tall and stout, most dozens of zhang high and so thick that five or six adults together could barely encircle their trunks. They stood like pillars between heaven and earth. Viewed from a higher summit, their crowns blotted out the sky and sun, layer upon overlapping layer stretching without end.
Demon beasts roamed freely here. Low-level demon beasts were beyond counting, and occasionally, high-level ones appeared among them.
Yet within this vast expanse of mountain forest lay a region covering several thousand qing that demon beasts seldom entered, as though they greatly feared something there.
This region, too, was filled with steep, perilous peaks and primeval forest. At that moment, atop one mountain that soared into the clouds, magnificent palaces and elegant pavilions stood in profusion. Water burbled beneath little bridges, and spirit birds wheeled among the buildings.
From halfway up the mountain, halls, gardens, bamboo groves, and paths had been laid out in an orderly arrangement along its slopes. Clouds and mist lingered above the mountainside all year round, winding among the pavilions, bamboo groves, and paths, as though one could reach out and clasp the wind and clouds.
At the summit lay an enormous terrace, astonishingly vast, spanning some ten thousand zhang. Its paving stones had all been polished smooth. Standing upon it, one could not see its end. Behind the terrace, above several hundred steps, stood a grand palace. Everything above its projecting eaves vanished into a sea of clouds, leaving no way to know how far the palace extended into them.
At that moment, two men were talking inside the palace. One sat upon a huge armchair in the center of the hall. Its back and armrests were densely carved with nameless savage beasts of all sizes. Some were hideous, some ferocious, some sinister, and all gave off a cold, eerie gleam. They were so lifelike they seemed alive.
The man in the seat of honor had three long strands of beard and appeared to be in his thirties. His face was white as jade, his eyes somewhat narrow, and he wore a scholar's cap and a long blue robe. His tall, slender figure gave him the air of a deeply cultivated scholar. The other man sat nearby in the row of chairs to his left, below the seat of honor. He was an elderly man of about sixty, dressed in a dark green robe. His frame was somewhat gaunt, his face hawklike, and his eyes were icy, shining with a chilling light. His ten withered fingers rested on the armrests like eagle talons.
Seated within that immense hall, the two men looked exceedingly small, like two ants inside a vast imperial palace.
"Peak Master, the blue harrier falcon released by the enforcement disciples I stationed outside has brought back a message. Several hundred thousand li from here, on the outskirts of what appears to be a cultivator's ruin, they discovered a pile of skeletal remains. Our secret detection method confirmed that they belonged to the outer disciple who defected from our peak seven years ago," the old man told the middle-aged scholar above him. His expression seethed with hatred, and a vicious light blazed from his eyes.
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"Oh? A cultivator's ruin several hundred thousand li away? Even a ten-thousand-li voice transmission talisman would be useless at that distance. Even with the constitution of a second-level demon beast, that blue harrier falcon must have flown for at least several dozen days. Did the enforcement disciples recover what the deserter stole?" The blue-robed scholar turned to the hawk-faced old man.
"No. They found only a damaged Storage Pouch beside the bones. As for anything else..." The hawk-faced old man shook his head as his answer trailed off.
"This affair has already cost our peak considerable face before the other four peaks. What he took was only our introductory cultivation method, but it is reserved for disciples admitted to our sect. Its introductory body-tempering section must not be practiced by anyone outside our sect. In particular, the basic body-tempering formulas recorded within it are knowledge reserved for our disciples alone. Otherwise, why would we bother concerning ourselves with an introductory cultivation method?" the scholar said with a frown.
After considering for a moment, he tapped his thigh several times with his slender fingers, then continued, "Do this: send more of our peak's enforcement disciples there and widen the search. They can begin with medicine shops. Whether they are mortal medicine shops or cultivator markets, investigate them all. If someone took the introductory cultivation method, they may practice it. I do not want qi condensation stage disciples who do not belong to our sect appearing in the outside world."
"Yes, Peak Master. That was my thought as well. If we find anyone who has practiced it, we will follow our Enforcement Hall's rules: kill him, then take his soul to feed the soul-entangling silk worms, denying him both life and death. Afterward, we will announce it to the other sects as a warning to anyone who might follow his example," the hawk-faced old man said, his eyes blazing with vicious light.
In the valley outside Green Mountain Pass, Li Yan trained diligently every day with Strategist Ji's assistance, and time passed in this repetitive routine. Gradually, Li Yan sensed that as his cultivation progressed, his teacher's zither music could no longer suppress the searing heat inside him. During the past two days in particular, he had completed his training in a state somewhere between awareness and stupor. He knew the music was beginning to lose its effect on him. But tomorrow, that would no longer be a problem, for tomorrow would be the forty-ninth day.
Early that morning, while the sky was still barely light, Li Yan pushed open his door and went out for a walk through the valley. The agitation in his chest had made sleep difficult these past few days. Since he would be training beside the pool today anyway, he decided to walk around the valley and breathe the fresh air of the autumn morning. At least it could ease some of the restlessness in his chest. After roughly an hour, he returned to his room. A woman had already delivered breakfast. He ate a few bites, then lost his appetite and sat cross-legged inside.
Before long, several knocks sounded outside. Li Yan opened his eyes at the sound and went to open the door. Standing there were Chen
An and Li Yin. Both bowed respectfully to him, and Chen An said, "Young Master, His Excellency has instructed us to move the copper furnace beside the pool."
"Sorry for troubling you both," Li Yan said, nodding to him. Since entering the valley, he had had little contact with anyone besides the woman who brought his meals and these two men. They always treated him with great respect. At first, it had made him uncomfortable, but over time, he had gradually grown accustomed to their courtesies.
After the two men carried the copper furnace outside, Li Yan followed them out of his room. Chen An and Li Yin soon set the furnace down a short distance from the pool. They pushed it back and forth to make sure it was stable, then turned toward the second room, Strategist Ji's cultivation chamber. Its door was tightly shut; presumably, Strategist Ji was already inside. The two men stood there waiting without a word.
Li Yan stood outside his own room without speaking to either of them. He merely stared absently at the copper furnace beside the pool. For some reason, the sight of the furnace and the pool suddenly reminded him of the senior brother he had never met. If he remembered correctly, that senior brother had died suddenly a little over a month after entering the valley. The words a little over a month flashed through his mind again and again. Seven times seven, forty-nine days—that was less than two months as well. Was it merely a coincidence? He sank into thought.
"Young Master, Young Master, His Excellency is calling you!" Several calls interrupted his thoughts. Looking up, he saw Li Yin approaching, calling softly as he walked. Farther away, Strategist Ji was already standing beside the pool, and the now-familiar copper basin had been placed atop the furnace.
Li Yan had no idea how long he had stood there thinking. He gave his head a slight shake, as though trying to cast off the thoughts crowding into it, then steadied himself and walked over. Seeing this, Chen An and Li Yin quietly withdrew from the valley.
Dressed in a loose black robe, Strategist Ji stood a short distance from the copper furnace with his hands clasped behind his back. He stared blankly at the copper basin and spoke as though to himself, or perhaps to Li Yan. "The final day. It is the final day. Can you succeed?"
His voice was quiet, but in the stillness of the valley, Li Yan heard every word clearly, and his unease deepened. Still, considering that matters had already reached this point, he said nothing more and walked the few steps to the furnace.
Today, the mist above the copper basin was no longer the dark blue-green vapor of previous days, but pure black, so dense it seemed almost solid as it roiled ceaselessly. Li Yan glanced into the basin. The liquid churned within, its thick juices like boiling ink, and the medicinal herbs were no longer visible. Only black bubbles kept swelling with a bubbling gurgle, bursting and releasing wisps of black vapor. These rose and merged with the surging black mist above, making it denser still. Then countless tiny black bubbles welled up in the basin, gathered into larger ones, swelled, burst, and sent up another cloud of vapor. The cycle repeated endlessly. Clearly, compared with before, the medicine's potency had increased by an unknown
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number of times.
Li Yan drew a deep breath, took his stance, and extended both hands into the dense black vapor that gathered without dispersing. Instantly, an immense force unlike anything he had felt before surged wildly toward his hands. As before, ten streams of black vapor bored into his fingers, but these were nothing like the drifting, threadlike wisps of earlier days. They were several times thicker and so dense they seemed solid, like ten iron rods driven savagely into his fingers. Pain that pierced to the marrow crashed over him like a surging wave. His entire body shuddered. He clenched his teeth and grunted repeatedly, but the fierce pain spread from his fingers, swept triumphantly up his arms, and began to engulf every part of his body. Without his previous several dozen days of training, that single onslaught would likely have made him pass out from the pain.
Strategist Ji stood nearby watching Li Yan, his face expressionless. Only an occasional twitch of his eyebrows betrayed his inner unrest. He remained motionless, staring at Li Yan.
Time crept past. After roughly the time it took to drink two cups of tea, Li Yan looked utterly drained. Grunting continuously, he had slowly retreated several steps until he reached the edge of the pool. By then, his mind held no thoughts at all; he had even lost the awareness needed to circulate his cultivation method. Yet the thick streams of black vapor seemed to need no guidance from the method anymore. They forced their way into him on their own, then coursed everywhere through his meridians. His skin had turned black all over, his face was twisted and swollen, and streaks of black vapor appeared across it, making him a terrifying sight.
Li Yan felt the energy rampaging inside him, his body in such agony that it seemed about to burst. Countless currents of scorching heat felt as though they were burning his internal organs almost to ash.
Clinging to a thread of clarity, he turned his head toward Strategist Ji and struggled to speak. "T-t-teacher... your disciple... your disciple..." He could say no more. Another bout of energy battered wildly through his body, plunging him into unbearable agony.
Strategist Ji remained motionless where he stood, his face expressionless.
Li Yan's vision gradually blurred, and his body swayed on the verge of collapse. A few breaths later, he toppled backward, face up, into the pool behind him. Yet the ten thick streams of black vapor remained firmly tethered to his fingers. Even after his body fell into the pool and sank beneath the surface, they continued to coil above the water, extending and contracting like living pythons.
As Li Yan fell into the water, a chill enveloped his head, followed by an intense cold spreading over his body. He regained a little clarity. Rippling pool water filled his vision. Looking upward through the surface, he could dimly see the figure on the bank, distorted by the water's refraction, yet utterly motionless.
Li Yan continued sinking into the pool. Even as the icy water began choking its way into his mouth, it could not stop the scorching currents rampaging through his body. His consciousness grew ever hazier. With the final thread of clarity remaining to him, he gave a bitter laugh. "So... this was the path my senior brother took?"
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