Just below the summit of Little Slaughter Peak, inside a cave abode.
A green-robed youth reclined against a large rock, his right knee slightly bent and a jade slip held in his hand. His eyes were gently closed, his expression mild and peaceful, his posture relaxed and comfortable.
It was Xu Ziqing, reading the jade slip with his spiritual sense.
On the day the Golden Core competition ended, Yun Lie had emerged victorious and received numerous extraordinary treasures. His performance had astonished everyone. It was a sensation that finally showed those who had only heard his reputation just how formidable he really was.
For a time, the name Yun Lie, the Slaughter Sword, stirred waves throughout the inner sect.
Xu Ziqing had happened to be immersed in enlightenment at the time, and had not personally witnessed his senior brother’s magnificent victory. He felt considerable regret afterward. But he heard that among Yun Lie’s prizes, the most important was a precious artifact. Yun Lie could not use it before forming his Nascent Soul; once he did, he would be allowed into the sect’s secret treasury to choose one for himself.
Xu Ziqing was delighted that his senior brother had received such a generous reward.
Afterward, there was also a competition for the Nascent Soul ancestors. But even an idle movement from those experts could produce extraordinary changes in heaven and earth. Merely releasing a little of their force might crush Foundation Establishment cultivators to death. Their tournament therefore was not held in public. Instead, the ancestors used a high-grade precious artifact to fly high into the sky, where they fought one another.
Battles at that level were beyond any intervention by weaker disciples, so many cultivators stopped lingering and returned to their cave abodes.
Xu Ziqing was no exception. He had gained many insights from the Golden Core competition and experienced a period of enlightenment. He needed to enter seclusion to settle and deepen those gains.
After emerging, he found that his meridians had expanded to twice their former breadth and grown more resilient, thanks to what he had learned when examining his senior brother’s inner world. He then visited the Pill Pavilion and Artifact Pavilion, selecting portions of the pill formulas, artifact-refining methods, general principles and miscellaneous knowledge he had long wanted to study, intending to learn them gradually.
He felt pressed for time now. Every spare moment ought to be squeezed for diligent study and cultivation.
Today he was reading a book on the Dao of alchemy, which explained miscellaneous alchemical knowledge in considerable detail.
Pills throughout the world, for example, were divided into levels.
In descending order of preciousness, they belonged to five ranks: Heaven, Earth, Profound, Yellow, and Human. Each rank was divided into high, middle, and low levels, and each level contained many types of pills. Every type, in turn, could be classified as supreme, upper, middle or lower grade. The system was extraordinarily detailed.
Every pill required a recipe in order to be refined.
The materials recorded in these recipes consisted chiefly of spiritual herbs, supplemented by ingredients gathered from birds and beasts and rare objects found throughout heaven and earth. The recipes also prescribed the heat, pill-refining formulas and various procedures. Everything was complicated, yet nothing could be omitted.
Beyond these requirements were the grade of the pill furnace, the kind of pill fire and many other exacting conditions. Only when every step had been properly completed could the pills be collected, and even that required a pill-collecting formula. Pills of higher ranks, such as Heaven-rank or Earth-rank pills, might even call down a pill tribulation. Failure to overcome it would waste all the alchemist’s labor.
Because of these requirements of pill refinement, spiritual herbs themselves were also divided into twelve ascending ranks, similar to the classifications of birds and beasts. Within each rank, spiritual herbs of differing quality were categorized as lower, middle, upper and supreme grade, paralleling the grading of pills.
Such knowledge was boundless as the ocean. Xu Ziqing became utterly absorbed in the jade slips, fascinated to the point of forgetting sleep and meals. With only a bottle of Fasting Pills at hand, he devoted himself entirely to study.
Just as he was savoring what he read, something stirred in his heart. He lowered the jade slip and opened his eyes.
A familiar aura was approaching from outside the cave, pure, quiet and cold. His senior brother must have arrived.
Sure enough, a white figure flashed into the cave a moment later and stood before him.
Xu Ziqing hurried to rise, but suddenly felt a weight upon his body and could not stand. The figure had already seated himself opposite him. Xu Ziqing smiled and gave up the unnecessary effort.
He regarded his visitor warmly. “It’s been many days since I practiced swordsmanship. Has Senior Brother come to supervise my training?”
Yun Lie sat cross-legged with his usual tranquil expression. “You do not cultivate the sword Dao as your primary path. Now that you’ve encountered a bottleneck, further practice will be of no benefit.”
Seeing his senior brother speak so earnestly, Xu Ziqing smiled faintly. He naturally knew this already. That was why he had concentrated on deepening his accumulation and solidifying his foundation. Otherwise, would he have missed opportunities to spend time with Yun Lie and seek his guidance?
If he wanted further gains in swordsmanship now, he would have to travel and perhaps encounter an opportunity. But his senior brother was steadfast and rarely had idle time. If he had come especially to find Xu Ziqing, there must be a reason.
After a moment’s thought, Xu Ziqing stopped joking and said, “Whatever Senior Brother asks of me, Ziqing will obey.”
Yun Lie looked at him and spoke directly. “Tomorrow, accompany me on a journey. Make your preparations.”
Xu Ziqing was startled. “Accompany Senior Brother on a journey?”
Yun Lie nodded. “To offer birthday congratulations.”
Three days from now would be the ten-thousandth birthday of the mistress of Ruyi Immortal Estate. The estate had sent invitations to outstanding disciples from numerous immortal sects and schools, asking them to attend a banquet and join an Immortal Fruit Gathering in celebration.
After this sect tournament, the Sect Master had selected outstanding disciples below Nascent Soul to attend and present gifts on the sect’s behalf. Twelve of the delegation would be Golden Core Perfected Ones, while the combined number of Essence Transformation and Foundation Establishment cultivators could not exceed another twelve. The Sect Master personally chose the twelve Golden Core cultivators, and each of those perfected ones could nominate one junior candidate. These places were not freely assignable, however. Every junior had to be chosen from among the participants who qualified for the Hundred-Person Competitions of the Foundation Establishment and Essence Transformation stages, lest the Wuling Immortal Sect lose face in another sect’s territory.
Hearing this, Xu Ziqing understood something. “Is Senior Brother one of the twelve perfected ones?”
Yun Lie nodded slightly. “I lead the delegation. You will come with me.”
Xu Ziqing felt a surge of delight.
He had spent almost a year in the Wuling Immortal Sect but had not truly seen the wider Qingyun Great World. His swordsmanship had reached a bottleneck, and now he had an opportunity to encounter other sects. How fortunate!
Better still, he could travel with his senior brother, precisely as he wished. That Yun Lie had thought of him during such an important event made him both grateful and happy.
Once his excitement subsided, Xu Ziqing grew curious. “What exactly is this ‘Immortal Fruit Gathering’?”
If the Sect Master was sending so many talented disciples, surely it was no ordinary banquet.
Yun Lie proceeded to explain.
The Immortal Fruit Gathering was indeed an extraordinary event, but before explaining it one had to understand something about Ruyi Immortal Estate.
Ruyi Immortal Estate was a school established by women, where women held the highest position. Its inner sect admitted only female disciples. Men were not barred from the outer sect or the many affiliated clans and minor sects, but their standing remained beneath that of the female inner disciples. Within the inner sect, the only men permitted to stay for extended periods were Dao companions who had married into the estate or cultivation cauldrons serving its female disciples.
The estate counted among the major sects, though it was only third-rank. Every two or three generations, one or two people from the estate ascended, while two or three Great Ascension experts stood guard in each generation. This allowed it to flourish in peace.
The “immortal fruit” was the fruit of a divine tree growing in the estate’s forbidden grounds. It was called the Posuo Fruit. When consumed by a Golden Core cultivator at the peak of the late stage, it offered an eighty-percent chance of breaking through and forming a Nascent Soul in one leap!
Ordinarily, even a perfected one at the peak of late Golden Core had only a twenty- or thirty-percent chance of advancing smoothly. A Nascent Soul Pill could raise that to fifty percent. But the Posuo Fruit increased the chance to eighty percent! Unless someone suffered the worst conceivable luck, success was almost assured. Its effects were simply astonishing!
The Posuo Fruit matured only once every five thousand years and bore a mere thirty-six fruits at a time. Yet those thirty-six fruits were practically the equivalent of thirty-six Nascent Soul cultivators, an immense force for any sect.
In theory, possessing such an extraordinary fruit might bring disaster upon the estate, for the treasure itself could inspire covetousness. Even with Great Ascension experts keeping order, someone might be tempted to risk everything to steal it. But the first mistress of the estate had issued a decree at its founding. Of the thirty-six fruits, twelve belonged to the estate’s own disciples; six were set aside for successive mistresses to cultivate relations with other powers; and the remaining eighteen were distributed during the Immortal Fruit Gathering held once every five thousand years, to establish good connections with outstanding talents.
Only through this tactful arrangement, combined with the deterrent of powerful experts, had the estate continued from generation to generation.
This particular Immortal Fruit Gathering happened to coincide with the estate mistress’s great birthday. It was a fortunate coincidence that made the birthday banquet an even grander event.
When Yun Lie had finished explaining, Xu Ziqing felt fascinated. “Since the Posuo Fruit is so remarkable, Senior Brother must do his utmost to obtain one. It would improve your chances when you form your Nascent Soul.”
He did not doubt Yun Lie’s ability to advance on his own. But something could always go wrong on the difficult immortal path, and who could predict a stroke of appalling ill fortune? Better to make ample preparations beforehand than be caught unprepared at the decisive moment.
Yun Lie nodded slightly. “The Sect Master also intends for us to obtain as many as we can.”
Xu Ziqing smiled. “Then there will certainly be a fierce contest among outstanding talents.”
Indeed, countless gifted cultivators across the world possessed extraordinary talent and profound accumulations. Yet because of the difficulty of forming a Nascent Soul, they remained at the peak of late Golden Core for years, wasting their limited lifespans and sometimes wearing away their ambition until one mistake led to another.
With such a naturally formed spiritual fruit to aid them, how many would rush forward to fight for it!
The following day, Xu Ziqing completed his preparations and went to meet Yun Lie at the peak summit.
Behind him, a magnificent male eagle beat its wings, casting a shadow across half the sky. It was Chonghua, now several times larger than before. Each of its outstretched wings extended more than a zhang, and it possessed an imposing, majestic bearing.
After lying upon the platform watching so many tournament matches, Chonghua had unexpectedly broken free from the limitations of an ordinary bird and advanced into a first-rank demon beast. Although its rank was low, its innate minor divine ability had improved enormously. With the bloodline of an ancient Great Peng within it, its speed had increased considerably as well.
Even if nothing else, Chonghua was now quite suitable as a mount.
Xu Ziqing looked up at Yun Lie and smiled. “Senior Brother Yun, Chonghua has grown so much. Why don’t we let him carry us on this journey?”