Whoosh!
A streak of blood-light swept across the distant sky, swift beyond compare.
Below it lay endless rolling green mountains.
Then, all at once, the blood-colored escape light slowed sharply, and its gaze fell upon a great mountain ahead.
A rumbling boom rolled out, and the mountain split cleanly in two. A burly man with two horns on his head strode out, lifted his face to the sky, and met eyes with the man in the blood-light.
"Daoist Blood Vulture. It's been a long time."
Daoist Blood Vulture clicked his tongue. "Hanshanque, you're as short-tempered as ever. That mountain never did anything to you."
"The mountain didn't. You did." Hanshanque's eyes turned savage as he fixed them on Daoist Blood Vulture. "Back when I had not yet attained the Dao, you crept up on me and gnawed at my flesh and blood. Don't think I've forgotten that debt for a single moment."
Before the words were out, his thick arms swept together, and two enormous palms materialized in the air and slammed toward Daoist Blood Vulture.
The closing of those two palms carried a force that seemed capable of crushing anything.
But Daoist Blood Vulture only raised an eyebrow and let them strike him.
Bang!
The blood-light burst apart. Once the palms vanished, it abruptly gathered again, and Daoist Blood Vulture stood unharmed.
Seeing Hanshanque about to strike once more, Daoist Blood Vulture spread his hands in exasperation. "Stop, stop, stop. Back then neither of us had taken human form or attained the Dao. Our minds weren't clear—we acted on instinct alone. Why hold a grudge this long?"
Hanshanque ignored him. He reached out and beckoned, and a staff of black jade blended iron dropped into his hand.
Daoist Blood Vulture's gaze sharpened. That staff was actually a True Artifact!
He drew a deep breath. "You stubborn ox, you won't listen to a word. This is an order from Duzhen Hall on Mount Cangwu—do you mean to dawdle until the Monarch punishes you?"
Mount Cangwu. Duzhen Hall.
At those two names, Hanshanque finally stopped.
He shot Daoist Blood Vulture a vicious look, turned, and walked away.
"Don't follow me, or I'll eat you alive!"
Daoist Blood Vulture pursed his lips, unwilling to waste breath on a contest of pride. His escape light rose, still carrying him toward Mount Cangwu.
Below, Hanshanque took one heavy step after another. Every stride carried him ten li, and neither rock nor soil could hinder him in the slightest.
This "shrinking the earth to an inch" was an exceptionally advanced earth escape technique.
Even in the human cultivation world, few could train an earth escape technique to such a level—yet Hanshanque used it without pause, his magic power flowing smooth and unimpeded. That was because this art was the innate demon technique of his clan, the Earth-Shaking Divine Ox.
Step after step, on and on, and Mount Cangwu drew closer.
As he went, his divine sense began to pick up more and more powerful auras around him.
Some were weaker than he was. But others were stronger.
"Is Mount Cangwu going to attack the human sects of the Eastern Desolation again?" Hanshanque murmured.
Beneath the nine heavens, the closer Daoist Blood Vulture came to Mount Cangwu, the lower he flew.
Thus the sights across a radius of several thousand li came into view one by one.
Hanshanque's flickering figure was naturally one of them.
But elsewhere, other top experts of the Million Mountains were also showing themselves.
To the east, eight apes carried a palanquin, drifting with an air of immortality—that would be the old fellow White-Browed Immortal Ape, who held Immortal Ape Peak. Behind the palanquin, two streaks of blue-green light traveled together, wandering in from afar and trailing a fragrance that refreshed the heart. Those must be the Qinghe Twin Beauties. In a mighty river in the distance, waves surged as a magnificent great flood dragon swam upstream, and every low-ranked demon along its path scattered and fled. The Red Demon Flood Dragon had come too!
In just a short while, his divine sense had caught no fewer than five Nascent Soul demon cultivators!
Farther off, black clouds filled the sky, and demonic qi rolled in.
Another one!
Despite himself, Daoist Blood Vulture's heart tightened.
"What is Mount Cangwu up to, calling in so many top experts at once—attacking the human sects of the Eastern Desolation? But this time they haven't gathered any real number of low-ranked demons!"
While he puzzled over it, his escape speed carried him swiftly ahead, and he was the first to arrive at Mount Cangwu.
He descended to show respect.
Daoist Blood Vulture reined in his escape light and landed on the broad, empty plaza outside Duzhen Hall, where someone was already waiting.
A robe of white bone dharma-garments, a handsome face, an eerie air.
"White Bone! It's been a long time!"
White Bone Mysterious Snake narrowed his eyes. "I knew you would be the first to arrive. Wherever a war breaks out, you bloodthirsty vulture are always the first to sense it."
Daoist Blood Vulture laughed and did not deny it.
"Come in first. Your lodgings have already been arranged." White Bone Mysterious Snake turned and walked inside, and Daoist Blood Vulture hurried after him.
The two got along reasonably well among the demon experts. It had to do with what they had been before taking human form: one a bloodthirsty vulture that craved flesh and blood, the other a White Bone Mysterious Snake that fed on bone. There was no conflict over food between them, nor were they natural enemies. They had even fought side by side before, with excellent results.
As he followed, Daoist Blood Vulture asked curiously, "The Monarch summoned us all here. What is the urgent matter?"
White Bone Mysterious Snake glanced at him. "It wasn't the Monarch who called you. It was the master of Duzhen Hall. Didn't you read the order carefully?"
Daoist Blood Vulture froze. Of course he had read the order carried by Mount Cangwu's messenger bird.
The signature was [Master of Duzhen Hall].
But had the master of Duzhen Hall not always been Youquan?
And Youquan stood for Monarch Qixia!
But a moment later, it came to him: the old Youquan had only been vice master of Duzhen Hall, and had never used the title of Master of Duzhen Hall.
Daoist Blood Vulture ran his tongue over his jutting lips. "Daoist White Bone, might I ask who the master of Duzhen Hall is now?"
At that question, White Bone Mysterious Snake gave a cold snort, as though he disliked it greatly.
"You'll know when the time comes!" He halted and pointed to an ordinary side hall. "There. You'll be staying here for the next few days."
Daoist Blood Vulture blocked the departing White Bone Mysterious Snake. "We haven't met in so long, and now we finally run into each other. I've just brewed a jar of blood brew. Won't you have a cup?"
Blood brew!
White Bone Mysterious Snake pressed his lips together, clearly tempted.
But in the end he shook his head. "Don't think you're getting anything out of me about that person. You'll understand when you see him. I still have other fellow daoists to welcome."
Daoist Blood Vulture did not press him further. His eyes darted about, and instead of going into the hall to rest, he trailed after White Bone Mysterious Snake, keeping well behind.
From a distance, he watched one demon expert after another arrive at Mount Cangwu.
White Bone Mysterious Snake was not the only one receiving guests. There were also two women.
One had a sultry air and a figure that drew the eye. Daoist Blood Vulture knew her: Heqingzi. Rumor had it she had once betrayed the demons and thrown in with a human sect, and was later dragged back by Lord Qingshuang, master of Zhoukong Hall.
The other had brows and eyes like a painting and a calm, gentle nature.
Her, he did not know well.
Yet every demon expert she received wore a smile, and they even spoke to her with a touch of eagerness. Even an old fellow like White-Browed Immortal Ape went out of his way to cultivate her goodwill.
Seizing a moment, Daoist Blood Vulture stopped White-Browed Immortal Ape and asked about the woman's background.
"You mean Fairy Huamei? Who in the Million Mountains today doesn't know her?" White-Browed Immortal Ape peered at him in puzzlement, then quickly chuckled. "Ah, of course. You're a lone wolf, Blood Vulture. Naturally you've never received her favor."
Daoist Blood Vulture was still confused.
"Old White-Brow, tell me properly."
White-Browed Immortal Ape smiled kindly. "Fairy Huamei's cultivation isn't high. She only condensed her Nascent Soul in the last two years. But her standing on Mount Cangwu—and indeed in the whole Million Mountains—is very high. Because she is a superb pill refiner, and she can refine pills that let the young of our clans take human form ahead of time, setting our juniors on the orthodox path of cultivation early."
Pill refinement!
The moment he heard that, Daoist Blood Vulture's eyes lit up.
For demons, unless a clan has some natural advantage, the hundred arts of human cultivation are all very hard to master.
That gentle, mild-mannered female demon was actually a formidable pill refiner!
No wonder her status was so lofty!
The old White-Browed Immortal Ape had a vast host of monkey descendants under him, and that clan was highly intelligent—their only limit was their ape bodies. With Fairy Huamei's Shape Transformation Pills, they could break free of that constraint and develop with astonishing speed.
He thought of the eight young apes who had carried White-Browed Immortal Ape's palanquin; they were now walking behind in human form. Clearly they had already received Fairy Huamei's boon—no wonder old White-Brow was so genial toward a fairy whose cultivation was far beneath his own.
Daoist Blood Vulture sighed with feeling. "Truly worthy of Monarch Qixia. She can even raise up a master pill refiner."
But White-Browed Immortal Ape only stroked his beard and smiled.
"Blood Vulture, there you're mistaken. Fairy Huamei didn't learn from the Monarch. Her teacher is the master of Duzhen Hall!"
"What!?"
Daoist Blood Vulture was taken aback all the more.
Mount Cangwu's name had spread through the Million Mountains for over a thousand years.
But to be honest, for most of that millennium its momentum had been held down by the Demon Court founded by the ancient demon Di Tian.
Only after Di Tian fell, and Monarch Qixia personally wiped out the Mingyuan Sect, did Mount Cangwu truly rise to dominance.
And so a great number of top demon experts had been drawn to submit to it.
It was only then that the demon experts discovered how utterly different Mount Cangwu was from ordinary demon powers—how extraordinary.
The demon cultivators on the mountain, whether in strength, in cultivation methods, or in treasures and demon arts and all the other means of battle, stood far above experts of the same rank elsewhere in the Million Mountains.
Even compared with the true-transmission masters of the human holy lands, they were not the least bit inferior.
But Daoist Blood Vulture had never imagined Mount Cangwu could boast such strength in the dao of pills as well.
"Just what sort of being is the master of Duzhen Hall?" he murmured, a trace of longing in his eyes.
…
Seven Nascent Soul demon cultivators made up the first group to reach Mount Cangwu.
They were all relatively close by, so they had set out the moment they received the order.
Over the next half year, a dozen-odd more Nascent Soul demon cultivators arrived at Mount Cangwu, one after another.
Yet through all of it, the mysterious master of Duzhen Hall never appeared, and every scrap of information about him was kept locked away by the demons of Duzhen Hall. Some didn't dare speak of it; some simply didn't wish to.
And so the master of Duzhen Hall remained behind the curtain.
Then another half year passed, and three Great Demon Emperors descended on Mount Cangwu together.
Only then did the assembled demon cultivators lose their patience completely.
To leave so many experts waiting for nothing—wasn't the master of Duzhen Hall far too arrogant?
…
Deep within Duzhen Hall, at its very heart, the doors of the cave residence were shut tight.
Luo Chen sat cross-legged inside, dense spiritual qi surging endlessly into his body.
His magic power was growing rapidly.
A hundred years ago, he had comprehended the Water Origin and, through an accident, his cultivation had surged to the ninth layer of Nascent Soul. Since then, Luo Chen's realm had scarcely changed.
For one thing, roaming the Qingming to capture firmament qi left him no time to cultivate. For another, refining Crimson Firmament Sword Qi drained a great deal of magic power. But above all, his realm had climbed too fast back then, and he had not dared chase further progress. So he had kept suppressing it, kept tempering that suddenly swollen magic power.
Now a hundred years had passed, and his ninth-layer Nascent Soul realm was utterly stable.
And now, with the aid of a fifth-tier spirit vein, his cultivation had once again begun to rise before his very eyes.
Yet Luo Chen did not actually care much about this gain in magic power. What he cared about was something else.
A fifth-tier spirit vein naturally draws in spiritual opportunity.
That much he had known before.
What he had not known was how vast a quantity of spiritual opportunity a fifth-tier spirit vein draws.
Within one, refining magic power, turning thoughts over, even comprehending the true intent of a law—all of it came many, many times faster than in the outside world.
Spiritual opportunity is the finest aid a cultivator can have for comprehending the true intent of a law and entering a state of sudden enlightenment. Even advancing to the Spirit Transformation realm requires a great deal of it.
It is present everywhere, yet hard to find, and only in tiny amounts in heaven and earth.
Only a fifth-tier spirit vein, where spiritual qi is thick to the extreme, can naturally draw in great quantities of spiritual opportunity and hold it there.
The moment he entered this Duzhen Cave Residence, Luo Chen—bearer of the Crimson Eyes and Golden Pupils—understood why advancing to Spirit Transformation required a fifth-tier spirit vein.
With spiritual opportunity this abundant, a Nascent Soul cultivator had more than enough to take that final step!
For a full year Luo Chen lived there, casting aside all distraction and entering bitter cultivation.
It was not only his magic power that grew; he had even entered a state of sudden enlightenment once.
That time, he had felt golden flames surging around him, and a realization blending life and death, reincarnation and rebirth, filling his heart.
In the end he grasped nothing from it, but after leaving that state, his mastery of his own Nirvana Holy Fire had risen greatly.
Luo Chen guessed that if he had succeeded then, what he comprehended might have been the "Nirvana True Intent" within the Law of Fire.
Just as years ago he had used the Wither-Bloom True Fire to comprehend the Wither-Bloom True Intent, so now, with Nirvana Holy Fire at his side and spiritual opportunity granting him enlightenment, comprehending the Nirvana True Intent would be only natural.
It was only a pity that this law's true intent seemed too powerful, too high in order, and Luo Chen had fallen short at the last step.
"Three thousand great daos, countless laws!"
"Every law holds a different true intent."
"From the most basic power of origin, to changes of true intent sharing an attribute but differing in nature—if one comprehended them all in the end, would that not mean truly attaining the Dao?"
Luo Chen was quite certain that the Nirvana True Intent and the Fire Origin shared the same attribute; both belonged to the Law of Fire. One was merely higher in order, the other foundational.
Set within the Law of Wood, the relationship was the same as between the Wither-Bloom True Intent and the Wood Origin.
And so that conjecture had come to him naturally.
Suddenly his thoughts stirred, and he reached out. A message talisman flew in from outside the cave residence, igniting without any wind and releasing Huamei's calm voice.
"Teacher, everyone on the demon cultivator roster has arrived."
Luo Chen understood. He snuffed out the talisman, changed into the Hundred Feathers Robe that marked him as master of Duzhen Hall, and stepped out of the Duzhen Cave Residence.
Outside, Fairy Huamei stood waiting, watching him with a gaze both gentle and adoring.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"It's no hardship. Huamei has already gained so much from Teacher's teaching of pill refinement. Doing a small errand for Teacher is nothing."
Luo Chen smiled and shook his head at this disciple he had picked up so cheaply. "Where are they now?"
Fairy Huamei hesitated, then quietly explained the situation with those demon cultivators.
When she finished, Luo Chen's sword-like brows lifted slightly.
"Dissatisfied with me, are they?"
He gave a soft laugh. The man in the feathered robe swept out his wide sleeves and walked calmly toward Duzhen Hall.
Chapter 1061