Radiant Wish

The night sky above Jinping Mountain suddenly burst into life. A streak of silvery-white light bloomed in an instant, dividing the sky into three. Then a cold wind sprang up, and snowflakes drifted down amid the crowd's cries of wonder.

The wind was biting, and the temperature plunged, driving the people still outside watching the spectacle back indoors at once.

Snow filled the sky, falling in a ceaseless whisper. Fang Lin had followed the traces of "Clear Water" all the way here. As he turned a corner, his gaze passed through the swirling curtains of snow and suddenly fixed on a figure.

Jiang Wangxuan stood on a rooftop, a thin layer of snow already settled on his shoulders.

He seemed to have heard the footsteps. Only after the white mist from his breath dispersed did Jiang Wangxuan speak slowly. "Brother Fang, what do you think of this snow?"

"Brother Jiang! This snow is a good omen."

Fang Lin leaped up and landed steadily beside Jiang Wangxuan, and the two stood shoulder to shoulder. When they looked up, Jinping Mountain before them had quietly donned its winter robes without their noticing.

The mountains and fields were clad in silver, snowflakes drifting like down and laying a blanket of white over the rolling peaks. It was as though the whole mountain had sunk into a long, silent winter dream.

Between two peaks drawing close together, a splash of brilliant color quietly appeared.

At first, it was only a faint glimmer deep within the clouds above the summit. The light slowly spread, silently unfurling over the snow-white peaks.

"I'm afraid this is what Jinping Mountain looked like in days past. Unfortunately, no one else can see it." Jiang Wangxuan felt some regret. The winter scene before them did not truly exist in the present world.

To the ordinary people in the scenic area, the mountain looked much as it always had. It had only snowed suddenly for a short while, and the snow had quickly vanished.

"I didn't expect that 'brilliance' to return to its old home."

Desire flickered in Fang Lin's eyes. "Brother Jiang, do you know the fundamental method of the [Hearth Fire] path, the True Scripture of Cooking Radiance and Returning to the Origin?"

Jiang Wangxuan shook his head and brushed the snow from his hair. "Brother Fang, surely you don't take me for an immortal?"

"The True Scripture of Cooking Radiance and Returning to the Origin is a fifth-grade cultivation method of our [Hearth Fire] path. It leads to a Purple Mansion Divine Ability, Cooking of Ten Thousand Households."

"But if I add a strand of 'Radiant Wish,' formed from the incense offerings of living beings and refined through the passage of time, when I condense the immortal foundation 'Cooking of Ten Thousand Households,' I may also glimpse the Divine Ability 'Cooking the Heavenly Palace' in the future. The brilliance that appeared in the mountain tonight is the 'Radiant Wish' I seek."

Hearing him declare his ambition, Jiang Wangxuan's gaze flickered with surprise. "I didn't expect you to be a seeker of the Dao as well, Brother Fang. Such people are rare even in Lüyu."

With that, he raised a brow slightly. Fang Lin's figure was reflected in his moonlit eyes, as though he were weighing the man before him anew.

"Brother Jiang, my Dao lies right before me. Tonight, I must venture into this mountain!"

Fang Lin's voice was quiet, yet steady as a blade sliding into its sheath, every word falling into the wind and snow.

Jiang Wangxuan casually brushed the snow from his shoulder. "Then let's go. The night is long. Why not head into the mountain and have a look?"

With that, Jiang Wangxuan skimmed over the snow and into the winter night. Fang Lin started, then hurried after him. Jinping Mountain was like a wild beast crouching in the snowy darkness, swallowing both figures in a single gulp.

That night in the mountains, the sudden wind and frost disrupted the balance. When the snow began to fall, a spider demon was clearing away the corpse of a fellow spider slain that day by a cultivator from outside the mountain.

The corrosive miasma had melted the spider demon's flesh into a pool of poisonous blood, but it had left behind a pair of mouthparts and two eyes.

The spider demon that had come to collect the corpse was small and thin, and the silk it spun was a deathly white. Though the clan had pushed it out as cannon fodder, this was also a rare chance to get out.

Their spider colony had lived in this mountain for nearly a hundred years and had always obeyed the clan's iron rules, staying in the caves to eat and work in peace. As long as they left the tourists who came up the mountain alone, they could live very comfortably here.

All of this vast Jinping Mountain, apart from the mountain path outside, was now our spider colony's territory. Even so, the colony did not dare defy that ancestor's blood edict in the slightest.

Though their spider colony was a clan, they were all merely pets raised by the ancestor. The precious plants all over the mountain had to be picked in time. If cultivators from outside saw them, who knew how much trouble that might bring?

Even so, every now and then a few little Embryonic Breathing cultivators came up the mountain in search of immortals and the Dao. The moment they saw the spiritual treasures, they couldn't tear themselves away, and in the end they all went into the bellies of the clan. Cultivators really did taste good!

The corpse-collecting spider demon remembered that the last time it had feasted on flesh and blood was more than ten years ago. Cultivators really were the best food for a spider.

The tourists who came up the mountain had tough, dry meat, and hardly any flavor to speak of. It couldn't work up much interest in them, and eating them would bring trouble besides.

"Hiss." Why was it snowing so early this year? The spider demon breathed a puff of cold mist from its mouthparts, its scarlet compound eyes gazing at the dense forest that blotted out the sky.

Why could it barely even see the stars now? Surely nothing was about to happen?

Over the past two days, the clan's ancestors had died violent deaths in the mountain one after another, and the little spiders in the caves were all frightened. They might lord it over the mountain, but which of them wasn't truly afraid of the tourists coming and going along the mountain path?

Human cultivators could be found throughout the world and across the seas. Their spider colony was merely hidden in the darkness beneath the lamp. Once that ancestor broke through, the whole clan would probably have to migrate, abandoning the mountain.

For the past decade or so, humans had mostly stayed in the cities to the east. A brother fortunate enough to escape and return from scouting there had said that humans had built a gigantic immortal palace in the east, large enough to house hundreds of thousands of people.

No wonder the town at the foot of the mountain had fallen into ruin. They had gone to enjoy the good life in an immortal palace.

An immortal palace on earth! The corpse-collecting spider demon couldn't help indulging in a daydream.

Unfortunately, it wasn't destined for such a life. The ancestor who had died today had been the longest-lived member of the clan, yet even that ancestor had died at the hands of the cultivator who set fires. Our clan was in grave peril.

The corpse-collecting spider demon had made up its mind long ago. After it returned and completed its assignment tonight, earning the last bit of merit it needed as cannon fodder, it would transfer to the westward migration group. At a time when every spider's heart was gripped by fear, it was wise to leave the mountain for a while.

It had survived this long from its beginnings as a premature hatchling in the brood chamber entirely by reading the situation and adapting. Its broodmates, by contrast, had either been eaten by the clan or met their ends outside.

This mountain was so wonderful that one could find plenty of spiritual herbs and fruits just by scratching around in any hole. Eating a single one could let it sleep for ages. What a pity it would be to lose its life.

Unfortunately, heaven did not grant a spider's wishes. A strange hiss carried through the dim, snowy night, and the silk trailing from the spider demon's rear trembled incessantly.

The clan was calling me. Scarlet Blood Qi spread from its body, and with its support, it felt stronger than ever before-and weaker than ever before.

The life force within it was being continuously transformed into powerful Blood Qi. It was the ancestor. She had made her move; she was seizing the life force of the entire clan.

"Kill them and come back alive!"

The ancestor's commanding voice, impossible to defy, exploded in the mind of every spider in the clan. The corpse-collecting spider demon was approaching the clan's cave at that moment, and it heard the sound of great mouthfuls being chewed inside.

Weak presences faded one after another, while others devoured one another and swelled. Its legs backed away of their own accord, and it pressed its compound eyes into the cold earth. It wouldn't look anymore. If it didn't look, everything would be all right.

But in the end, it sadly realized that their clan really was going to be wiped out.

It fled the cave, but it could not escape the ancestor's absolute control over its bloodline. Its reason was slipping away, and its desire to kill was rising.

Snow! So much snow!

Blood, where was the blood?

There, in the temple, in that hot, surging blood. Kill our way over there and eat them, and we can live. The clan will have a future.

In the dim, snowy night, spider spirits and spider demons crawled out of caves and the earth, one after another, and headed toward the forbidden area in the heart of the mountain.

There was no end to them, no end at all!

Jiang Wangxuan and Fang Lin floated in midair, the corpses of the spider colony covering the ground beneath them. In the pitch-dark, snowy night, the dense chorus of the spider demons' hissing made even the usually steady Jiang Wangxuan feel hard-pressed.

"Brother Fang, are you sure it was the bar owner you met, and not a spider demon disguised as a bar girl who bewitched you?"

"Brother Jiang, this really isn't my fault!"

Fang Lin's fire gourd spun wildly in the air, spraying fire for all it was worth. "The owner told me this little temple had been here a long time. He said it was already here when he was a child, and it isn't far from the mountain path outside. I thought it would be a decent place to stay for the night."

"Brother Fang, conserve your strength. I'll handle this!"

The fine talismanic patterns on the surface of the Cavern Spring Talismanic Words Bracelet rippled like water. A thread of blue-green light seeped from its center, then welled out like a spring, slowly taking shape amid the falling snow.

A winding back emerged, gleaming with the dusky hue of Clear Water.

Then a flood dragon's head broke through the light, and the flood dragon spirit opened its eyes. They had no pupils, only pools of green water too deep to fathom.

Fang Lin, who came from an extraordinary background, finally recognized that the object hanging from Brother Jiang's wrist all this time was the "Cavern Spring Talismanic Words Bracelet." How had this ancient Law Artifact come into Brother Jiang's hands?

Could it be that Brother Jiang wasn't studying in Lüyu, but cultivating in a grotto-heaven?

This was also Jiang Wangxuan's first time activating the flood dragon spirit nurtured within the bracelet with all his strength. It was indeed extraordinary. If the "silvery-white moon disk" in his Qi Sea were not supporting the expenditure of his true essence and Law Power, bringing the flood dragon spirit forth would probably have drained more than half of all the Law Power he had previously possessed.

Now, it was time to reap!

When it came to fighting groups, Water Virtue cultivators had the matter well in hand, and those of the Clear Water path were the best among them.