“I’ve turned twenty before I knew it...”
It had been four years since he left home.
Standing atop a rugged, jagged rock formation, Wang Yu gazed toward the Three Mountains of Xuan Gu. Even today, Liu Jinxian and her group had not yet returned from the underground palace.
Recalling the Foundation Establishment corpse demon that had rushed toward the [Moon-Condensing Palace] at the end of it all, he felt a momentary pang of hesitation. *Could they have died down there?*
It was hard to say for the others, but Liu Jinxian certainly had life tablets or soul lamps held by her father, and perhaps even trump cards provided by Core Formation cultivators.
If she had truly died in the underground palace, "Perfected Bi She" would surely have personally visited the Xuan Gu Mountains; yet, half a year had passed without a trace.
Perhaps they were trapped; that seemed a more likely possibility.
Since the three had failed to appear, Wang Yu made a trip to the Xuan Gu Mountains. He discovered that over the past six months, a group of cultivators who had already reached the peak of the sixth layer of Qi Refinement had used the power of the Xuanjing Flowers to break through to the seventh layer.
The Five Yin Peak and the Gu Poison Peak had gained a total of eight newly promoted late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators. When Wang Yu approached under the cover of the Night-Hiding Incantation, they were gathered in the abandoned camp between the three mountains, discussing something.
"Senior Brother Situ and Senior Sister Liu have been missing for over half a year. We cannot wait any longer."
"Fellow disciple, impatience won't solve anything."
"Indeed. For some reason, the pit Senior Sister Liu descended into has been blocked by a massive amount of fallen rock. I have already dispatched men to excavate and clear it."
"At most half a year, and it will surely be cleared."
"Dig, dig, dig—dig my ass!" A newly promoted seventh-layer Qi Refinement disciple from Gu Poison Peak slammed the table and stood up, glaring at the Five Yin Peak disciple. "After Senior Sister Liu went down the hole, Situ Hong went looking for Gu Zhengshun and hasn't come out since. They must have gone down to seek opportunities as well. I think you're just stalling for time for Situ the sex slave!"
The man's words were shocking, instantly drawing furious glares from the Five Yin Peak disciples. Someone said in a sinister tone, "I think you aren't worried about Liu Jinxian's safety, but your own."
"What do you mean by that?" The Five Yin Peak disciple narrowed his eyes.
"Whatever you think it means. I heard Liu Jinxian likes to use Gu insects to control the male attendants she takes a liking to. Don't tell me... you're one of them too?"
"Hahahaha!"
"You little pretty boy, how dare you slander Senior Brother Situ!"
"You—!"
In just a few sentences, a serious conflict erupted, escalating directly into personal attacks.
Not far away, Wang Yu was leaning against a wall, listening intently. He let out a suppressed chuckle before quickly composing himself.
The disciples from Sky Corpse Peak brought by Gu Zhengshun had never emerged from behind their concealment formation. With the conflict between the other two peaks, the meeting ended in a bitter, unresolved state. It had nearly turned into a brawl.
However, both sides had organized their own teams. On the Five Yin Peak side, Situ Hong's long absence had allowed power to be seized by the newly promoted seventh-layer Qi Refinement cultivators. They claimed to be searching for people, but in reality, they were coveting the secrets beneath the earth.
The Gu Poison Peak side, however, was genuinely desperate to save their people. The inner disciple had not lied: Liu Jinxian had not only used Gu insects to control all the late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, but even the elites of the mid-stage Qi Refinement were under her control. Having gone half a year without the soothing influence of Liu Jinxian's spiritual energy, the Gu insects within them were becoming increasingly violent. Once they fully awoke from their slumber, some of them would face a gruesome death. They were truly desperate!
Consequently, they immediately dispatched a large number of personnel to search for naturally occurring caves, hoping to find a new route.
The Five Yin Peak disciples, meanwhile, were dutifully excavating the mountainside.
As a result, a massive amount of manpower from the Three Mountains of Xuan Gu was deployed elsewhere, leaving fewer than a hundred people to manage the daily affairs of the mountains.
Wang Yu's mind began to race.
Knowing that the underground palace ruins held secrets, combined with a Nascent Soul-level inheritance jade slip like the [Lunar Nether Eye], he reasonably suspected that the ruins might not be the site of a mere Core Formation-level ancient sect.
What if it was merely a branch sect?
Just as the Inverse Spirit Blood Sect occupied the four provinces of the Crimson Kite Demon Domain, with each provincial capital serving as a branch location and their standing forces being at the Core Formation level.
If this truly were the ruins of a branch of an ancient Nascent Soul sect, there would be many more clues to find in ancient history.
Furthermore, before the Three Mountains of Xuan Gu were established, this area had been inhabited by cultivation families. Now, they had become the "earth-bound spirits"—ghostly farmers of the Xuan Gu Mountains. They might possess knowledge regarding the underground palace ruins; that was another lead.
With Liu Jinxian and the others trapped in the palace, their remaining followers were falling into disarray. If no progress was made soon, a chaotic battle was inevitable.
The more he thought, the more Wang Yu wanted to go down and investigate. But his rationality held him back.
"Wait a little longer. There might be new developments. There is no need to rush for immediate gain or loss."
***
Time flew by.
The seasons rotated—winter passed, spring arrived, and the summer breeze gradually descended. In this northern region of Feng Province, being close to the Endless Ice Plains, the scent of summer was hard to feel.
The season when the bone-wood bloomed had arrived once again.
June of the following year.
The Xuanjing Flowers that bloomed last year were only a fraction of the total; this year, another batch of bone-wood had produced buds, but the quantity had decreased significantly, to only one-third of last year's amount.
Moreover, because Liu Jinxian and the others had taken all the late-stage Qi Refinement experts with them, the numbers were noticeably insufficient this year.
The Bone-Screeching Lions and the Corrupt Poison Bee swarms were both first-tier peak nuisances. For the eight newly promoted late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, a one-on-one fight was difficult because while their realms had risen, their techniques and magical tools had remained stagnant. They could only rely on mid-grade magical tools to fight, which drastically reduced their efficiency. They struggled even to clear the mountains of the beasts crawling out from underground!
With the flowering season imminent, everyone was anxious.
A second meeting was quickly convened.
"Regarding the cooperation, have you reached a decision?" a cultivator from Five Yin Peak spoke first.
It was a matter of necessity. The Xuanjing Flowers could assist in Spirit Refining; they were useful for breaking from the third to the fourth layer, and from the sixth to the seventh layer of Qi Refinement. For late-stage Qi Refinement disciples, they could even help pre-condition spiritual energy to be semi-True Yuan, which was of great help for future Foundation Establishment.
Therefore, no matter how they calculated it, there weren't enough flowers. There were simply too many people.
Now that the leaders were gone and the middle management had risen, even the bottom-tier cultivators could benefit from the effects of the first-tier Xuanjing Flowers. After this second harvest, the lowest-ranking members of the Xuan Gu Mountains would at least break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refinement.
The Gu Poison Peak disciples frowned deeply. Someone said, "We are naturally thinking of cooperating, but the problem is that there has been no movement from Senior Sister Liu's side. If we delay any longer, people will die in vain within half a month."
This was a practical reality. Several disciples from Gu Poison Peak were as anxious as ants on a hot pan; they could not delay any further. In the face of life and death, the Xuanjing Flowers were secondary.
Hearing this, the Five Yin Peak disciple revealed an expected smile and said, "How about this: since you haven't found a new route, then use the path we have excavated."
"You dug it open?!" A Gu Poison Peak disciple stood up abruptly, his voice filled with surprise.
"Naturally. We have been digging for nearly a year to reopen this path. It's just that something unexpected happened below."