Senior Brother's Path

Located millions of miles away from Green Mountain Pass, this place was already sparsely populated. Rolling mountains stretched as far as the eye could see, their overall color a dark, mossy green. The vegetation was dense, with thick, fleshy leaves and stems. The heavy, dark green color seemed as if a thick juice could drip from the leaves. Towering trees stood tall and sturdy, most of them dozens of feet high and thick enough for five or six adults to encircle. They reached towards the sky and stood firm on the earth. Standing on the top of a higher mountain and looking out, the canopies of the trees covered the sky and the sun, layer upon layer, boundless and endless.

Here, demonic beasts roamed freely. Low-level demonic beasts were countless, but occasionally, high-level demonic beasts would also appear.

However, within this vast mountain forest, there was a forest area of several thousand acres where few demonic beasts dared to tread, as if they were afraid of something.

Within this area, there were also towering peaks and dense primeval forests. At this moment, on the top of one of the towering peaks that pierced the clouds, there were magnificent buildings and pavilions, with flowing streams and graceful birds flying among them.

Starting from the mountainside, various pavilions, gardens, bamboo forests, and paths were built in a scattered and orderly manner, clinging to the mountain. Above the mountainside, clouds and mist swirled all year round, circling among these pavilions, bamboo forests, and paths, as if one could reach out and grasp the wind and clouds.

At the top of the peak was a huge platform, astonishingly large, about ten thousand feet in size. The paving stones on the platform were all polished from smooth rocks. Standing on it, one could not see the end at a glance. Behind the platform, above hundreds of steps, stood a magnificent palace. The palace, from the eaves upwards, was already deep in the sea of clouds, and it was unknown how deep it went.

At this moment, inside the palace, two people were talking. One person was sitting on a huge armchair in the center of the palace. The backrest and armrests of the chair were densely carved with many large and small, unknown ferocious beasts. These beasts were either ferocious, or evil, or sinister, all emitting a cold, ghostly light, lifelike, as if they were alive.

The person sitting above had a three-stranded long beard and appeared to be in his thirties. His face was as white as jade, his eyes were somewhat narrow and long, he wore a scholar's crown, and he was dressed in a long green robe. He was tall and slender, giving people the impression of a highly cultivated Confucian scholar. The other person was sitting in the row of chairs to his left, closer to him. This was an old man, about sixty years old, wearing a long black-green robe. He was somewhat thin, with a face like an eagle, and his eyes were extremely cold, emitting a cold light. His ten fingers were withered, but they gripped the armrests of the chair like eagle claws.

The two of them sat in the magnificent hall, appearing extremely small, like two ants in a huge palace.

"Peak Lord, the message brought back by the Azure Falcon released by the enforcement disciples stationed outside indicates that a pile of bones was found outside a suspected cultivator's relic, hundreds of thousands of miles away from here. After using secret methods to detect it, it is indeed the outer sect disciple who defected from our peak seven years ago." The old man said to the middle-aged scholar above, but his face revealed a hateful expression, and his eyes were full of fierce light.

"Oh, a cultivator's relic hundreds of thousands of miles away? Even the Myriad Miles Sound Transmission Talisman cannot be used. It seems that even with the Azure Falcon's constitution as a level two demonic beast, it must have flown for at least dozens of days. Did the enforcement disciples find the items stolen by the defecting disciple?" The green-robed scholar turned his head to look at the eagle-like old man.

"No, only a damaged storage bag was found next to the bones, but nothing else..." The eagle-like old man replied, shaking his head at the end.

"This matter has caused our peak to lose a lot of face in front of the other four peaks. Although what that person took away was only our peak's introductory cultivation method, it is something that only disciples recruited by our sect can cultivate. The introductory body tempering chapter cannot be cultivated by non-sect disciples, especially since it contains basic body tempering formulas that only our sect disciples can know. Otherwise, why would we care about this kind of introductory cultivation method?" The scholar frowned and said.

After thinking for a while, he lightly tapped his long fingers on his thigh a few times and said, "In this way, you send some more of our peak's enforcement disciples over to expand the search area. You can start from the pharmacies, regardless of whether they are mortal pharmacies or cultivator's markets. Check everything. As long as someone has taken away the introductory cultivation method, they may cultivate it. I don't want to see non-sect Qi Condensation stage disciples appearing outside in the future." The scholar said.

"Yes, Peak Lord, that's what I thought too. If we find someone cultivating it, then we will follow the rules of our Enforcement Hall, kill them and then take their souls to feed the Soul-Entangling Silk Worms, making their lives and deaths difficult. Then we will announce it to other sects as a warning to others." The eagle-like old man said, his eyes full of fierce light.

Outside Green Mountain Pass City, in the valley, Li Yan, with the assistance of Military Advisor Ji, diligently cultivated every day. Time passed in this repetition. Li Yan gradually felt that as his cultivation progressed, his teacher's zither music was gradually unable to suppress the heat in his body. Especially in the last two days, he had basically completed his cultivation in a semi-conscious state. He knew that the zither music had begun to lose its effect on him, but for him, this would no longer exist tomorrow, because tomorrow would be the forty-ninth day.

In the early morning, when the sky was still dim, Li Yan pushed open the door and walked out. Then, he began to stroll in the valley. In recent days, he had been disturbed by the restlessness in his chest, making it difficult for him to sleep. In addition, today was also the day he would be cultivating at the pool, so he simply walked around the valley to breathe in the fresh air of the autumn morning. This would at least relieve some of the restlessness in his chest. After about half an hour, he returned to his room. At this time, a woman had already brought breakfast. He simply ate a few bites and then lost his appetite, so he sat cross-legged in the room.

Not long after, a few knocks sounded outside the door. Li Yan opened his eyes when he heard the sound and opened the door. It was Chen An and Li Yin. The two of them respectfully saluted him. Chen An said, "Young Master, the master has instructed us to place the bronze furnace by the pool."

"Then thank you both." Li Yan nodded to him. Since entering the valley, Li Yan had had very little contact with others, basically only the woman who delivered food and these two people. These people were usually very respectful to him. He was very unaccustomed to it at first, but after a while, he slowly got used to these courtesies.

After the two of them carried the bronze furnace out, Li Yan followed them out of the room. Soon, Chen An and Li Yin placed the bronze furnace not far from the pool. The two of them pushed the bronze furnace back and forth to make sure it was stable before turning around and walking towards Military Advisor Ji's second cultivation room. At this time, the door of the cultivation room was tightly closed. It seemed that Military Advisor Ji had already entered it. The two of them stood there and waited, without saying a word.

Li Yan stood in front of his room and did not talk to the two of them. He just stared blankly at the bronze furnace by the pool, lost in thought. For some reason, looking at the bronze furnace and the pool, he suddenly thought of the senior brother he had never met. If he remembered correctly, that senior brother seemed to have died suddenly a little over a month after entering the valley. The words "a little over a month" kept repeating in his mind. "Forty-nine days" was also less than two months. Was it just a coincidence? He fell into deep thought.

"Young Master, Young Master, the master is calling you!" A few calls interrupted his thoughts. He looked up and saw Li Yin walking towards him, calling him softly as he walked. In the distance, Military Advisor Ji was already standing by the pool, and the familiar bronze basin was already placed on the bronze furnace.

He didn't know how long he had been thinking about it. Li Yan shook his head gently, as if to throw away those thoughts that were coming to him, and then calmed his mind and walked over there. Chen An and Li Yin quietly retreated from the valley when they saw this.

Military Advisor Ji, dressed in a wide black robe, stood not far from the bronze furnace with his hands behind his back, staring blankly at the bronze basin. He seemed to be talking to himself, but also to Li Yan, "It's the last day, it's the last day. Can you succeed?"

Although his words were very soft, Li Yan heard them very clearly in this quiet valley, and his heart became even more uneasy. But thinking that things had come to this point, he didn't say anything more and walked to the bronze furnace in a few steps.

The mist on the bronze basin today was not the cyan-black mist of the previous days, but a pure black mist, so thick that it seemed like a substance, constantly churning and surging. Li Yan looked at the bronze basin. The liquid inside was surging, and the thick juice was like boiling ink. He could no longer see the herbs inside, only gurgling black bubbles constantly rising and bursting, rising a burst of black gas, and then merging into the surging pure black mist above, making it even thicker. Then, countless small black bubbles densely emerged from the bronze basin, forming large black bubbles that rose and burst, rising a burst of smoke, over and over again. Obviously, the medicinal power was many times stronger than before.

Li Yan took a deep breath, stood in position, and stretched his hands into the dense black gas that gathered but did not disperse. Immediately, a huge force, greater than ever before, surged towards his hands. Similarly, ten strands of black gas drilled into his fingers, but these ten strands of black gas were by no means as ethereal as the previous ones, but were several times thicker, as thick as a substance, like ten iron bars inserted into his fingers. Li Yan felt a bone-piercing pain in his fingers, like a surging wave coming in, wave after wave. His whole body trembled, he clenched his teeth, and he kept groaning. However, the surging pain spread along his fingers, all the way up his arms, and began to sweep through every part of his body. If it weren't for the cultivation of the previous few dozen days, it was estimated that he would have fainted from the pain with just this one blow.

Military Advisor Ji stood aside and watched Li Yan like this, expressionless, only occasionally raising his eyebrows a few times, revealing the uneasiness in his heart. He stared at Li Yan like this without moving.

Time passed little by little. After about two cups of tea, Li Yan was already looking weak. In the constant muffled groans, he had slowly retreated several steps, retreating to the edge of the pool. At this moment, Li Yan had no thoughts in his mind, and even the thought of running his cultivation method had been lost. However, the strands of thick black gas seemed to no longer need the guidance of the cultivation method. They were forcibly pouring in on their own, and then traveling through his meridians. At this time, his skin was black, his face was distorted and swollen, and black gas appeared on his face, which was extremely terrifying.

Li Yan felt the breath in his body rushing around, and his body was as uncomfortable as if it was about to explode. He felt countless hot air currents burning his internal organs to ashes.

He barely maintained a trace of clarity, turned his head to look at Military Advisor Ji, and opened his mouth with difficulty, "T-T-Teacher, disciple, disciple..." He could no longer continue to speak the words behind him. Bursts of breath collided again in his body, causing him great pain.

Military Advisor Ji still stood in the same place, motionless, expressionless.

Li Yan's vision gradually blurred, and his body swayed. After a few breaths, he fell backwards, falling into the pool behind him. However, the ten strands of thick black gas still firmly pulled on his fingers. After his body fell into the pool and sank downwards, they still hovered, spitting out and swallowing uncertainly on the surface of the water, like living pythons.

After Li Yan fell into the water, a chill came over his head, and then the chill on his body increased greatly. Li Yan was slightly more awake. At this time, all he could see in front of him was the sparkling pool water. Looking upwards through the surface of the water, he could vaguely see the figure on the shore that was refracted by the surface of the water and somewhat distorted, but motionless.

Li Yan was still sinking towards the bottom of the pool. Even though the cold pool water began to choke into his mouth, it could not stop the chaotic and hot air currents in his body. The consciousness in his mind became more and more blurred. When the last trace of clarity remained, he gave a bitter smile, "This, is this the path that senior brother walked?"