Hidden in the dense foliage, the two peered through the gaps and had a perfect view of the young monk in white and his shiny bald head.
Although Xia Yunzhao had phrased it as a question, he was already certain the young monk would agree. After all, who wanted to stay tied up?
Sure enough, a voice transmission reached his ear the next moment. “I’ll have to trouble you two fellow Daoists.”
Xia Yunzhao raised an eyebrow. He knew there were two of them? This young monk was no simple character!
Although he had agreed to rescue the young monk, Xia Yunzhao did not act rashly. The group below did not have especially high cultivation, with the strongest only at mid Golden Core, but there were many of them and they were scattered out. It would be hard to catch them all at once. If the fight dragged on too long, it could also attract other people, and it would be troublesome if someone decided to rob the robbers.
While Xia Yunzhao was considering what to do, Shang Shuangze suddenly pointed. “Look over there.”
Xia Yunzhao turned to look and immediately smiled. “That’ll work!”
Below the tree, the group was searching for spirit items but could not find anything no matter how hard they looked. They were three teams cobbled together in the first place, so they were hardly united. Before long, some of them started cursing and accusing the others of finding spirit items and secretly hiding them.
The burly man frowned. “Shut up, all of you! If anyone thinks they’re getting the short end of the stick, then leave the group! If you were really so capable, why did you form an alliance in the first place? Now you’re running your mouths. Did you suddenly grow a spine?!”
The people who had been arguing fell silent. Of course they were not capable enough on their own. If they were, they would never have banded together in the first place.
Suddenly, the bushes rustled. A cultivator beside them brightened. “Did someone find a spirit item…” An ugly snake head shot out and nearly came face-to-face with him!
“Mother of heavens!” The cultivator nearly wet himself in fright. “Quick, quick… over here! A Level-Three slaughter beast!”
The cultivators around him immediately swarmed over. A slaughter beast was fine too. Slaughter beasts were worth points.
Then the bushes nearby began moving as well. The cultivator who had just been frightened jumped again. “There’s another one over here!”
Two Level-Three slaughter beasts? That was a lot of points!
Everyone crowded over. The burly man began issuing orders. “Golden Core cultivators, move in! Foundation Establishment cultivators, support from the outside. Don’t let these two beasts escape…”
Behind them, Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze had just landed when they heard that. Xia Yunzhao smacked his lips. “Why does that sound like he’s talking about us?”
Shang Shuangze chuckled. Before the laughter had even faded, he was already flying forward, the silver sword in his hand moving with the agility and force of a dragon plunging into the sea.
The burly man’s group was about to deal with the huge snakes when chaos suddenly erupted behind them. “Who are you… fuck!”
“Boss! Someone’s attacking us from behind!”
“Watch his sword! This sword cultivator is strong!”
Then a bright, pleasant voice rang out. “My palm techniques aren’t bad either!”
The next moment, a blast of palm wind swept over. The cultivators clustered together, along with the two giant snakes in their midst, were all knocked flat.
Xia Yunzhao moved lightly, touching down twice before leaping straight into the middle of their encirclement. He killed the two giant snakes with his palms and pocketed the points. Behind him, Shang Shuangze landed as well, using the sheath of his sword to smack several cultivators into the pile.
With one in front and one behind, the two of them had surrounded more than a dozen people.
The burly man: “…” He flew into a rage. “You did that on purpose! You lured those snakes here too! If I’d known you were hiding here, I should’ve robbed you first!”
Xia Yunzhao agreed. “Exactly.”
The battle ended cleanly. As usual, Xia Yunzhao searched the group for spirit items. To his surprise, these people really had robbed quite a few others. They were carrying more than a hundred spirit items in total, including spirit herbs and spirit ores.
It had been a long time since Little City Lord Xia had experienced that wonderful feeling of striking it rich. These spirit items were not especially high-level, but they were all useful!
Not only that, their team’s score shot upward again, putting them back in eighth place.
As before, Xia Yunzhao made the group withdraw from the competition on their own before returning to the young monk. After untying the vine around him, he smiled and asked, “Master, are you here by yourself?”
The young monk brought his palms together in greeting. “Amitabha. This humble monk is alone.”
Xia Yunzhao thought that he and Shang Shuangze had already been rather bold to enter as a two-person team, yet here was someone who had come in alone. He smiled. “Master, you have remarkable courage.”
“Not really.” The young monk answered frankly, “I simply couldn’t find anyone to form a team with, and I wanted to come in and broaden my horizons, so I had no choice but to enter alone.”
At that moment, Shang Shuangze walked over as well. To Xia Yunzhao’s surprise, he was holding an Emerald-Red Silk-Stamen Flower, which he handed to him.
Xia Yunzhao stared at the inconspicuous little flower, the corner of his mouth twitching. “…There really was a spirit item here?”
The Emerald-Red Silk-Stamen Flower was a Level-One spirit item. It was very rare, but also nearly worthless because it had almost no use. Its only useful feature was the beautiful color of its stamens, which could be used to dye clothing.
And because only the stamens could be used for dyeing, coloring a single batch of cloth required more than a hundred flowers. The thing also looked perfectly ordinary and was difficult to spot. Over time, many cultivators had even forgotten such a spirit flower existed.
If the young monk really had sensed an Emerald-Red Silk-Stamen Flower, then his ability was almost impressively useless.
The young monk caught Xia Yunzhao’s expression and looked slightly innocent. “This humble monk does not know any method for sensing spirit items. Those fellow Daoists simply refused to believe me.”
Xia Yunzhao: “…Huh?”
The young monk smiled shyly. “This humble monk is merely rather lucky. I can usually stumble across quite a few spirit items just by walking around.”
Xia Yunzhao: “…” This young monk might look pure white, but cut him open and he would definitely be black inside!
* * *
Inside a magnificent great hall, an enormous projection at the center displayed scenes from the Heaven-and-Earth Secret Realm. At that moment, it was showing Xia Yunzhao’s location.
Several figures sat nearby, their bodies shrouded in golden light so their faces could not be seen. One of them said, “Why is there a disciple of the Liuli Pure Land Sect inside? Don’t they usually keep themselves apart from worldly affairs?”
Another person replied, “He’s only a junior disciple. There’s no need to pay attention to him.”
A stiff voice said impatiently, “Why haven’t they made their move over there yet? They aren’t planning to wait all five days, are they?”
“No hurry. They’ll come eventually.”
“Shuixi Pavilion has disciples inside too. If something happens…”
“So what if it does? Their disciples aren’t the only ones in there. No matter how fierce Shui Mingyue is, even she has to listen to reason!”
“The heavy bait has already been cast. What happens next will depend on their fortune…”
* * *
Facts proved that the young monk had not been boasting about his good luck. He really was lucky.
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze had walked for half a day without finding a single spirit item. They followed the young monk around at random and soon found an entire patch.
This was not the outside world. In this strange forest, finding spirit items growing together in a patch was extremely difficult!
Xia Yunzhao immediately rubbed his hands together and prepared to harvest the spirit herbs. “Master, how about our two teams split them half and half?”
The young monk was very generous. “This humble monk only wished to enter and broaden his horizons. I do not care about the result. Fellow Daoist, please take them.”
Xia Yunzhao brightened at once. “Then I won’t stand on ceremony. Thank you for your kindness, Master! Once I refine them into pills, I’ll give you half!”
With that, the two of them immediately began harvesting. Before long, they had picked the place clean of spirit herbs.
“Not bad, not bad. Twenty-three Jade-Marrow Lingzhi. That’s enough for three furnaces of pills!” Jade-Marrow Lingzhi had mild medicinal properties and nourished the meridians. It could be used to refine pills for internal injuries, making it especially useful inside this secret realm.
After putting the spirit herbs away, Xia Yunzhao looked up. “It’s getting dark. Let’s go find a cave for the night.”
Two tall mountains flanked the forest. Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze had gone up to look around earlier and found the spiritual energy on the mountains even thinner, with fewer spirit items and slaughter beasts than in the forest. That was a disadvantage during the day, but at night it became an advantage. The mountains were perfect for spending the night.
The three chose the mountain on the left. On the way up to the mountainside, they saw several glimmers of light. Evidently, their two teams were not the only ones who had decided to spend the night here.
At a time like this, it was even more important to avoid misunderstandings, so Xia Yunzhao and the others chose a cave far from the other lights.
With a quick hand seal, firelight sprang up inside the cave.
“Master, you don’t mind if I refine some pills, do you?” Xia Yunzhao asked, though he had already taken out Xiao Qing and set it on the ground.
The young monk tactfully nodded. “Amitabha. Please do as you wish, Fellow Daoist.”
Xia Yunzhao took out the day’s harvest, sorted everything one by one, and began refining pills.
They had gained quite a haul that day. First, they had robbed a group of more than ten people and obtained over a hundred spirit items. Then they had followed the young monk around for half a day and gathered plenty of spirit herbs. With so many materials on hand, there were many kinds of pills Xia Yunzhao could refine.
He mentally sorted through his pill recipes and began with two furnaces of Five-Qi Convergence Pills.
Spiritual energy was scarce in this secret realm, so pills that replenished qi were absolutely indispensable.
After that, he refined two furnaces of pills for external injuries, two furnaces for internal injuries, and one furnace of detoxification pills.
From time to time, medicinal fragrance drifted from the cave, drawing several teams over to investigate. But after catching sight of the sharp sword qi radiating from the cave entrance, they did not dare come over and cause trouble. They retreated far away instead.
Night had also fallen over Duxu City. The crowd in front of the Voice-Transmission Wall had not thinned at all. Many people intended to stay awake all night and keep watching.
Although Group D, No. 666 often shot into the top ten, it would fall back out again after a while, so not many people had paid attention to them before.
With the first day of competition over, the top ten had basically stabilized. They were all teams from major sects, and naturally those teams drew the most attention.
But now, most teams had found places to rest under their leaders’ direction. Xia Yunzhao’s group stood out instead.
One cultivator said, “That young pill cultivator is incredible. I’ve never seen anyone refine pills that quickly!”
“That’s not all. Look at his pill recipes. I was watching carefully. The two furnaces of pills he refined for external injuries used two different recipes!”
“Same with the pills for internal injuries! He’s so young, yet he knows so many pill recipes. I wonder what inheritance he obtained.”
“Could he be a disciple of some major sect?”
“Not impossible…”
“Everyone, if anyone finds out that young pill cultivator’s name, don’t forget to tell the rest of us. We can all go ask him for pills later.”
“Exactly, exactly!”
After finishing his pills, Xia Yunzhao looked at the remaining spirit-ore materials and thought for a moment, but chose not to refine any artifacts.
It was not because he was afraid of exposing a trump card. There was simply no need for artifact refining right now. Skills were meant to be used, of course, but they should be used when they actually mattered.
The three closed their eyes to rest, though none dared sleep deeply. The night passed in the blink of an eye.
Early the next morning, the moment sunlight crept into the cave, all three woke at once. Listening carefully, they could already hear people moving in every direction.
Xia Yunzhao opened the rankings and was surprised to discover that after one night, they had fallen to twelfth place again.
Apparently, some people had secretly kept grinding through the night.
That was extremely unwise. No one knew what was hidden in this forest. So far, the highest-level slaughter beasts they had seen were only Level Four, but no one knew whether Level-Five or even higher-level slaughter beasts might be lurking here.
This was, after all, a fragment of a Heaven-and-Earth Secret Realm. In a complete Heaven-and-Earth Secret Realm, never mind Level Five, even Level-Eight slaughter beasts could exist.
At night, visibility was poor and cultivators’ combat strength fell, while slaughter beasts became stronger. Hunting then was practically gambling with one’s life.
If it were up to Xia Yunzhao, he definitely would not choose that method.
The problem was that he wanted to win.
Xia Yunzhao looked up at Shang Shuangze, then at the young monk, thinking.
At first, he and Shang Shuangze had chosen to kill slaughter beasts. But after killing too many, their killing aura became too strong, and slaughter beasts would smell them from afar and keep their distance. They encountered fewer and fewer beasts, which was why they had rescued the young monk and switched to gathering spirit items. Gathering spirit items was easy, but they were worth few points, so their rank climbed slowly and other teams could easily overtake them.
Now Xia Yunzhao had only two paths left. One was to ambush other teams. Robbing people was certainly much faster than accumulating points bit by bit on their own. The other was to search for a Myriad-Phenomena Spirit Stone.
But they had already searched the forest for an entire day without detecting the slightest unusual fluctuation of spiritual power. The Myriad-Phenomena Spirit Stones had to be hidden extremely well. They definitely would not be easy to find…
Just then, a voice suddenly called from outside, “Mingche? What are you doing here?!”
Xia Yunzhao instinctively looked up. A five-person team was walking toward them. All five were female cultivators dressed in matching blue magical robes.
As they approached, a wave of water-attributed spiritual power washed over them. Xia Yunzhao immediately understood which faction this team belonged to.
Sure enough, the next moment the young monk, Mingche, smiled and said, “Fate brought me together with these two fellow Daoists, so we have been traveling together.” He then introduced both sides. “These are fellow Daoists from Shuixi Pavilion, and these two are unaffiliated cultivators.”
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze stood and exchanged greetings with the five fellow Daoists.
The female cultivator leading them was named Shui Bingchan. She glanced at Mingche, then said very directly to Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze, “I smelled medicinal fragrance coming from your cave. Is one of you a pill cultivator? Could we trade for some pills?”
Xia Yunzhao immediately understood that they had followed the medicinal fragrance here. He smiled. “What would you fellow Daoists like to trade?”
Shui Bingchan flipped her hand, and a strange stone appeared in her palm. “We found this stone on the mountain. At first, we thought it was some strange spirit ore, but later discovered that carrying it attracts slaughter beasts. With your strength, you two should have noticed that the slaughter beasts in this secret realm are different from the ones outside. Kill too many, and the rest start avoiding you. But with this stone, they’ll keep coming to you, so you can kill them without worrying about running out.”
Xia Yunzhao’s mouth fell slightly open. He had not expected something this useful to be hidden on the mountain!
Shui Bingchan asked, “Pretty good, right? Can you give us a few extra pills for it?”
Xia Yunzhao found her personality rather entertaining and nodded. “Of course. I’m just curious. If you give this stone to us, aren’t you worried our score will surpass yours?”
Shui Bingchan looked toward the sky. “What’s there to fight over for first place in this lousy competition? Just listen to the rewards. Either you’re free to attach yourself to some major power, or you can make one request of Qianyuan Sect…” She curled her lip. Remembering that this was Qianyuan Sect’s territory, she ultimately stopped short of saying anything too outrageous. “They’re just dangling pie in the sky. If I didn’t have to consider Shuixi Pavilion’s reputation, I’d have taken my junior sisters into a cave to sleep ages ago! Sleep for five days, then leave right on time!”
Behind her, several junior sisters looked toward the sky at the same time. Their senior sister was excellent in every way except that she had absolutely no filter. Fortunately, her cultivation was high enough that she did not need to worry much about getting beaten up.
Xia Yunzhao: “.”
He did not dare laugh. He was one of the people who had swallowed that enormous pie.
Shui Bingchan tossed the stone into his arms. “Fellow Daoist Xia, can you give us some qi-replenishing pills? Any grade is fine. Pills for treating injuries would be even better. We ran into a Level-Four slaughter beast yesterday, and my youngest junior sister was injured.”
“No rush, no rush.” Xia Yunzhao smiled instead. “I have plenty of pills. As many as you need. Fellow Daoist Shui, don’t hurry. Why not hear me out first?”
“Oh?” Shui Bingchan looked him up and down, then looked at Mingche. The young monk gave her a shy smile. “Fellow Daoist Xia is a good person.”
Shui Bingchan visibly relaxed. “All right. Let’s hear it.”
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze exchanged a smile. “Since Fellow Daoist Shui is here representing Shuixi Pavilion, even if you don’t care about taking first place, you can’t exactly let the other sects outdo you, right? I know Fellow Daoist Shui dislikes trouble, but I have a method that takes very little effort and can harvest a huge number of points. Would you be interested in working with us?”
This was what people meant by a pillow arriving just when you were getting sleepy. The moment Xia Yunzhao saw that stone, he felt as though he had once again received help from the Heavenly Dao(?).
Almost instantly, an excellent idea came to him.
After he explained the plan, even Shui Bingchan could not help nodding. “Not bad. That really won’t take much effort.”
Xia Yunzhao continued, “We’re a little short on people right now. If you know other fellow Daoists, you can bring them over to cooperate too. Just keep the total under twenty people.”
Shui Bingchan nodded. “We ran into some fellow Daoists from Yunmeng Marsh yesterday. They seemed decent. I’ll go find them now. We’ll gather more of these stones while we’re at it.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded. “Perfect. I’ll make preparations too.”
The group split up. It was not until Shui Bingchan and the others had left that Mingche asked in puzzlement, “Fellow Daoist Xia, there is one thing about the plan you just described that this humble monk does not understand.”
Xia Yunzhao looked at him curiously. “What is it?”
Mingche carefully repeated the plan. “Fellow Daoist means to use the power of talismans to amplify the stone’s effect, draw all the slaughter beasts over, then place traps along the routes they must take so that we can harvest points. Is that correct?”
Xia Yunzhao nodded. “That’s more or less it!”
Mingche asked seriously, “This method requires a large number of magical artifacts. Where are we supposed to find them? Does Fellow Daoist know an artifact refiner who entered the secret realm as well?”
Xia Yunzhao: “Well, about that…”
Mingche continued, “And the talismans? Do we need to find a trustworthy talisman master?”
Xia Yunzhao: “Mm…”
Shang Shuangze’s laughter came from beside him. Xia Yunzhao quietly reached over and pinched his arm.
The laughter stopped. Xia Yunzhao spread his hands. “Master, I can’t really explain it clearly right now. Why don’t you just watch?”
Mingche’s eyes widened slightly. “Rest assured, Fellow Daoist. This humble monk will watch carefully.”
Xia Yunzhao: “…”
Sometimes even Xia Yunzhao could not tell whether this young monk was secretly black-bellied or simply naturally so.
Mingche truly did have questions, so he watched very seriously. Xia Yunzhao sat down again in the place where he had refined pills the night before, then took out the spirit-ore materials.
Mingche’s eyes immediately widened. The next moment, Xia Yunzhao began refining artifacts.
A short while later, one magical artifact was finished.
Another short while passed, and the second magical artifact was finished.
Another short while passed, and runes appeared on the artifacts.
Mingche: “…”
And he was already being restrained. Outside, in front of the Voice-Transmission Wall, someone had already screamed, “Fuck! Comparing yourself to other people really can kill you!”
The shout made someone who had not been watching Xia Yunzhao’s screen jump. “What’s wrong with you?! Did a slaughter beast bite you? Why are you howling?!”
The cultivator pointed at the screen and could barely bring himself to keep watching.
They had seen plenty of people who cultivated both artifact refining and talisman arts, but who had ever seen someone cultivate alchemy, artifact refining, and talismans all at once?! Were you born inside a time formation and raised there your entire life?!
“The wind at the mountaintop is so strong! So strong!”
Xia Yunzhao refined every last material he had in one go. After thinking for a moment, he used the leftover scraps to refine a Spirit-Seeking Compass.
The Spirit-Seeking Compass could normally locate spirit items at Level Two or below, but Xia Yunzhao was no longer what he once was. With a small modification during refining, he made it capable of locating spirit items at Level Five or below.
Holding the compass, he gave Mingche a bright smile. “Master, your luck is good. With this Spirit-Seeking Compass, we’ll definitely find even more spirit items today. We’ll stockpile plenty of magical artifacts today, and tomorrow we can harvest a huge number of points!”
Mingche: “…”
He practiced Zhiguan Chan and had traveled the world on his master’s orders, observing how all things moved and how human hearts changed. Despite his youthful face, he had already spent more than fifty years traveling through the world. Yet he had never encountered anyone so… so… how should he put it? This Fellow Daoist Xia was simply far too unusual!
Elio’s Notes: Zhiguan (止观), often translated as “calming and contemplation,” is a Buddhist meditation framework pairing mental stilling with contemplative insight. Here it is the name of Mingche’s Chan practice.
That afternoon, Shui Bingchan indeed returned with the fellow Daoists from Yunmeng Marsh. Meanwhile, Xia Yunzhao and his two companions had, just as expected, found a large quantity of spirit items.
There were so many spirit items they could not carry them all, so Xia Yunzhao actually refined a storage pouch on the spot.
Yunmeng Marsh was an alliance of unaffiliated cultivators. According to legend, Yunmeng Marsh’s founding ancestor had ascended to immortality as an unaffiliated cultivator. Pitying the unaffiliated cultivators of the world, who had nowhere to belong, little access to inheritances, and were constantly bullied by sect disciples, he established an alliance of unaffiliated cultivators at Yunmeng Marsh, the place where he himself had cultivated.
After that, countless unaffiliated cultivators followed him there, and Yunmeng Marsh became one of the major powers.
But this power was quite different from the others. A bunch of unaffiliated cultivators had gathered together, yet they did not go looking for trouble. As long as nobody bothered them, they were perfectly happy playing among themselves.
Yunmeng Marsh and the Liuli Pure Land Sect, one in the east and one in the west, could practically be called the two most laid-back major powers in the world.
As for this Qianyuan Grand Competition, Qianyuan Sect had specifically sent Yunmeng Marsh an invitation. Yunmeng Marsh could not keep refusing, so it sent one team.
As a result, that team radiated the weary aura of people forced to clock in for work. They had absolutely no ambition, and every inch of them said, “Good enough is good enough.”
Xia Yunzhao checked their team number against the rankings. The guys were outside the top hundred and looked more relaxed than anyone had a right to be.
Yet the moment they heard Xia Yunzhao’s plan, the Yunmeng Marsh cultivators became interested. “Now that sounds fun! Hey, Fellow Daoist Xia, this plan can steal other people’s slaughter beasts too, right? Can we draw over the slaughter beasts from the northwest?”
Xia Yunzhao nodded hesitantly. “We can, but is there any need? The slaughter beasts in this eastern area alone should be enough for us to kill.”
A Yunmeng Marsh cultivator clenched his fist. “Of course there’s a need! Lingxiao Palace took over the northwest. Those people are acting like they’re outside, drawing a circle around the place and claiming all the resources inside! I can’t stand them!”
Xia Yunzhao fell silent for a moment. He finally understood. So even these major powers schemed and bickered with one another! Shuixi Pavilion looked down on Qianyuan Sect, while Yunmeng Marsh hated Lingxiao Palace. Was that it?