"Is that the Five Elements Mountains?"
In a forest dense enough to blot out the sky, a white-robed cultivator stood on a tree branch, gazing through the gaps between the leaves toward five distant mountains—and the sacred mountain soaring into the clouds at their very center.
With Luo Chen's discernment, even across several hundred li, he could see through the contours of their feng shui and the circulation of their earthly qi.
The Five Elements Mountains, true to their name, each corresponded to one of the five elements.
Encircling Mount Shenyuan, they were protected by it while also nourishing it.
As the five qi circulated, they supplied Mount Shenyuan with an abundance of heaven-and-earth spiritual qi.
In a way, this method of nurturing a spiritual land bore some resemblance to the Azure Pill Valley's "Five Peaks Shrouding the Valley," though on a vastly superior scale.
From his left shoulder, Black King's muffled voice sounded: "Seven years ago, the Five Elements Divine Sect returned to their former site and reopened their mountain gates, recruiting disciples en masse. Though far from back at their peak, their vitality is slowly recovering. I heard that Sect Master True Person Shenhuo selected ten Golden Core disciples for focused cultivation, intending to produce several Nascent Soul cultivators for the sect within a century. Not only that..."
Listening to the intelligence Black King had gathered over the years, Luo Chen could sense just how much effort that fellow Shenhuo had poured into the sect amidst the ruins waiting to be rebuilt.
In the past, he might have admired how sound those measures were.
Now, there was only a cold sneer.
"Heh."
With that laugh, Luo Chen turned to leave.
Black King was somewhat surprised. "Master, aren't you going to cause trouble for that old scoundrel?"
Certain things went unsaid, but Black King knew them well, and Luo Chen understood them clearly in his heart.
Back then, the three Great Demon Emperors had joined forces to attack Luo Chen; it had by no means been without rhyme or reason.
Though each had cited personal pretexts—for the Void Gathering Flower, to vent anger for Ao Kuang, to avenge a father and brother...
How could such reasons have coalesced into a coordinated ambush purely by coincidence?
Huang Man had long since fled deep into the Million Mountains; where would he have received advance word to lay an ambush for Luo Chen?
Bi Zheng had been in the Five Elements Domain, pinned down by the Five Elements Divine Sect; how could he have cast off his restraints and crossed tens of thousands of li to strike?
Someone had to have schemed and acted as the intermediary between them!
And that person's identity had been exposed the moment the daylight faded and the dark figure emerged.
Perfected Shenyuan!
Luo Chen could not be mistaken. Even though his attention had been drawn away by Qingshuang back then, Perfected Shenyuan's hurried appearance and panicked flight remained fresh in his memory.
Now, with the enemy right before him, he simply turned and walked away. How could Black King not be curious?
After all, his master was hardly a magnanimous person.
A great wind swept through the woods, rustling the pines like rolling waves.
The white-robed cultivator's unbound black hair fluttered in the wind, a grim edge curling at the corner of his lips.
"Rest assured, that day will come!"
With that, he departed without a backward glance.
To the current Luo Chen, his wariness of Perfected Shenyuan had grown less and less.
Previously, he might have only managed to exchange a few moves with him.
Yet after switching back to cultivate his natal art and reaching the fifth layer of the Nascent Soul stage, relying on his diverse array of means, he was confident he could fight him on equal terms.
Even so, Luo Chen was still not entirely certain he could eliminate him for good.
Perfected Shenyuan was not like Huang Man and the other Great Demon Emperors; he was a human Nascent Soul cultivator of immense seniority whose cultivation was profoundly deep.
Crucially, cultivators of the Five Elements Divine Sect were famous across the Eastern Desolation for their vast repertoire of techniques.
Five-element spells were at their fingertips, and countless treasures were theirs to command.
Even Qingshuang had failed to capture him back then, and while Patriarch Hehuan and Monk Huiping had both perished on Mount Cangwu, Shenyuan alone had survived. That alone was testament to how formidable he was.
Luo Chen would either not act at all, or strike with thunderous force to cut him down without leaving any future trouble.
Now was indeed not the right time to make a move.
Still, giving him a few headaches would be easy enough.
***
Inside Mount Shenyuan.
Sect Master True Person Shenhuo led ten Golden Core cultivators into the cave abode of the Supreme Elder.
"Senior Brother, these are the ten disciples I carefully selected. Every one of them has remarkable aptitude and robust magic power."
"More importantly, they have all weathered the human-demon war; their dispositions are peerlessly resilient!"
"If we invest more resources into cultivating them, they will surely have hope of reaching the Nascent Soul realm!"
The three essentials of immortal cultivation: disposition, aptitude, and karmic fortune.
For ordinary people, one had to weigh which was more important.
Yet for disciples of prestigious sects with sufficient means, having all three was a given—none could be lacking.
At this moment, True Person Shenhuo had brought these people to request that karmic fortune from the Supreme Elder.
Shenyuan's deep, fathomless gaze swept across the ten disciples.
Old and young, male and female, their vigor and spirit were indeed unlike ordinary Golden Core cultivators.
Using this as a foundation to strive for the Nascent Soul stage held great promise.
He took out a storage pouch and casually tossed it to Shenhuo.
"Take it!"
Delight showed on Shenhuo's face, and he hastily received the storage pouch.
Yet when his divine sense probed inside, his brow furrowed.
"Senior Brother, isn't this a bit too little? Leaving aside the Five Elements Divine Pills, when it comes to the spiritual marrow most crucial for breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage, how is there only one portion per person?"
For cultivators of Nascent Soul upper sects, methods to break through to the Nascent Soul realm were not limited to the so-called Nascent Soul Formation Pills.
They often developed diverse auxiliary items tailored to their own cultivation characteristics.
Take the renowned Hao Yang Three Yi Qi of the Dongyang Sect, or the Infant Green spiritual wine of the Dieyun Sect... Their effects might not be as simple and direct as a Nascent Soul Formation Pill, but when paired with each sect's cultivation arts, they were hardly inferior.
For the Five Elements Divine Sect, it was the relatively common yet scarce Five Elements Spiritual Marrow.
It was an essence extracted from various heavenly treasures containing single attributes, transformed through the Divine Sect's secret technique; it provided superb auxiliary effects for cultivators practicing the Divine Sect's arts when breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.
This was why the Five Elements Divine Sect, despite having been founded much later than many ancient sects in the Eastern Desolation, had produced several Nascent Soul True Persons in the same generation.
At its peak, it even possessed a magnificent lineup of five peak masters plus a Great Cultivator!
However, the secret technique for transforming the spiritual marrow had always been held exclusively by Supreme Elder Perfected Shenyuan; those below merely supplied the raw materials.
This was why Shenhuo, having temporarily assumed the position of sect master amidst turbulent times, still had to come specifically to beg Shenyuan to cultivate disciples.
He lacked the spiritual marrow!
Faced with his junior brother's dissatisfaction, Shenyuan snorted coldly.
"The Five Elements Spiritual Marrow is of great use to my cultivation, and I have already consumed quite a lot over the past century. To have even these ten portions, are you still not satisfied?"
At his cold snort, everyone fell as silent as cicadas in winter.
Those under the greatest pressure were almost driven to their knees.
Shenhuo gritted his teeth and persisted, "Senior Brother, it truly isn't enough!"
"You..."
Shenyuan was about to berate him—had his junior brother lost his mind?
Suddenly, he felt a jolt of trepidation in his heart!
He froze for a moment, and his colossal divine sense suddenly expanded outward.
Ten li, a hundred li, a thousand li... At its limit, it stretched across nearly ten thousand li, enveloping nearly half of the vast Five Elements Domain.
Yet, he found nothing.
Slowly retracting his divine sense, Shenyuan could not comprehend where that premonition had come from.
Turning his gaze back toward his still-insistent junior brother Shenhuo, a sneer suddenly arose in his heart.
Could it be because he had explained his own condition to him that day, giving his junior brother improper notions?
Did Shenhuo believe that he could never break through to the Soul Formation stage and had begun walking toward his end, and had therefore come to demand the Five Elements Spiritual Marrow—so vital to Shenyuan's own cultivation—just to nurture the sect's future?
Yet what did the sect's future have to do with him, Shenyuan?
Right now, only breaking through to the Soul Formation realm could bring him back from the brink of death.
Furthermore, he had given enough to the Divine Sect in his lifetime. Why should he continue to sacrifice in his old age?
These people never knew when to be satisfied!
The corners of Perfected Shenyuan's lips slowly curled upward, and an unfathomable surge of magic power, deep as an abyss and vast as an ocean, gently rippled outward.
Tremendous pressure enveloped the cave abode.
Anyone inside immediately felt as though a great mountain were pressing down and the heavens were collapsing upon them, making it impossible to steady themselves.
Shenhuo's face changed drastically; he even sensed a hint of murderous intent.
With a thud, before anyone else could fall to their knees, he was the first to prostrate himself before Shenyuan.
"Senior Brother!"
"We won't ask for it anymore!"
"We don't want it anymore!"
Shenyuan looked down at him, and his terrifying aura vanished in an instant.
"If you ask, how could I refuse?"
"Just now, I was merely testing whether their disposition was truly as fine as you claimed. Looking at them now, they are indeed dragons and phoenixes among men, far better than you."
"Here, take these forty portions of spiritual marrow. Added to the previous ten, that makes five portions each."
"A single portion can already shorten ten years of labor; five should be more than enough. I also developed a secret art that, when taken alongside it, allows the three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit to reach a state of perfect balance. Take that as well!"
As he spoke, another two storage pouches flew before Shenhuo.
His face deathly pale, Shenhuo gingerly raised his head, glancing at his senior brother before daring to take the pouches.
"Senior Brother, I..."
"I am weary. Withdraw!"
Shenhuo nodded, and clutching the precious resources he had begged for, led the ten disciples out of the cave abode.
Only after descending Mount Shenyuan did he realize his back was drenched in cold sweat.
Turning around, he looked at the ten disciples.
Shenhuo remained silent for a long moment, then smiled wryly.
"Just now, I made a fool of myself before you."
One of the female disciples stepped forward and said, "The Sect Master's benevolence is etched into Yaohong's heart!"
Ever since Qi Emei lost to Shalongzi on the Battle Arena, she had devoted herself to bitter cultivation upon her return, and had now reached the sixth layer of the Golden Core, standing as one of the ten Nascent Soul seeds selected this time.
She spoke plainly: "The Supreme Elder's divine might is beyond measure. The Sect Master suffered humiliation solely for our sake; how could that ever be a joke?"
The others chimed in one after another, finding nothing shameful in Shenhuo's kneeling and begging just now.
They all knew right from wrong.
Shenhuo smiled with gratification, looked over the three storage pouches, and divided the various resources equally into ten shares before handing them to the group.
When it came to the final secret art meant to accompany the cultivation of the spiritual marrow, he hesitated.
His senior brother, Perfected Shenyuan, was a genius of heaven-sent talent. Not only was his cultivation realm exalted, but he was also adept at codifying treatises and scriptures.
Of the vast sea of spells and cultivation arts across all ranks in the Five Elements Divine Sect, more than half had been created by Senior Brother Shenyuan in his earlier years.
Yet he had never heard of or seen this particular secret art.
When had it been developed?
If it had been created long ago, why had he never brought it out for the disciples to study?
If he had created it over the past century, keeping it hidden made sense, but had his senior brother truly had the leisure for that during these past hundred-plus years?
For a time, he fell into deep contemplation.
A male disciple asked, "Sect Master, what about that secret art?"
He snapped back to reality. "Wait a moment. Let me return and examine it first, then transcribe ten copies before giving it to you all. There is no rush."
Understanding, the disciples pressed no further.
Yet they all held immense anticipation for the Supreme Elder creating another secret art—one specifically concerning Nascent Soul formation.
The hundred and fifty years of the human-demon war had shown them their own insignificance.
The Golden Core Revereds who once stood high above the masses had been no different from mantises trying to stop a chariot before the surging tide of beasts.
Only by achieving the Nascent Soul could one take command of their own destiny!
That secret art was their hope to alter their destinies in short order!
***
"Master, aren't you going to take a look at the Hehuan Domain?"
"Over there?"
"Yes. Our battle practically wrecked half of the Medicine King Domain, making it unsuitable for a Nascent Soul upper sect to manage in the short term. So Sovereign Jiuling took the Nine Spirits Sect to the Hehuan Domain. Only they were a bit slow to get there. Back then, the demon beasts occupying the Hehuan Domain seemed to have received some news and all retreated at once. Many rogue cultivators and minor factions in the Eastern Desolation caught wind of it and rushed in beforehand to take a gamble. By the time Sovereign Jiuling arrived with his people, although they managed to secure the fourth-rank spiritual vein, they couldn't very well drive everyone else out of the other territories."
That battle back then had indeed been catastrophic.
To the Medicine King Domain as a whole, the damage had not been catastrophic, as the battlefield had centered around Luo Chen himself.
However, the battlefield had been situated from the start right upon the former mountain gates of the Medicine King Sect.
That was where the main vein of the fourth-rank spiritual vein lay.
In a melee pitting three Great Demon Emperors alongside Luo Chen and Sovereign Jiuling—five titans comparable to Great Cultivators—no matter how stable the fourth-rank spiritual vein was, it could not withstand such an impact.
Perhaps in the future the Medicine King Domain would become a sanctuary for rogue cultivators, but it was truly no longer suitable for a Nascent Soul upper sect to be stationed there.
Hearing of this state of affairs, Luo Chen pondered for a moment and slowly shook his head.
"Forget it!"
"In that battle, Jiuling fared no better than I did. Just because I could recover quickly doesn't mean he could as well."
"Visiting him now would serve little purpose beyond seeing his weakness and disrupting his convalescence."
"We shall meet again at the peak!"
The deeper one's cultivation and the stronger one's physique, the slower one recovered after suffering grave injuries.
Not everyone possessed a desolate beast physique that had undergone nirvanic rebirth like Luo Chen's.
Besides, once he returned this time, word would inevitably reach the Mingyuan Sect before long. He wouldn't even be able to stay at home for very long, so why bother bidding farewell to a friend?
Luo Chen reflexively raised a hand to touch the hidden droplet pattern between his brows; his magic power stirred, and he vanished into the boundless sea of clouds.
***
Upon Motian Cliff.
Halfway up the mountain.
A graceful figure sat on the jade steps before the palace, her expression sorrowful and her eyes listless, lost in thought.
Her gaze wandered aimlessly into the distance, where a large black tiger leaped and scrambled through the hills with remarkable agility.
Two people sat upon it, laughter and cheerful voices drifting continuously from their direction.
Anyone listening could discern the pure joy within.
A moment later, the great black tiger leaped, landing upon the jade square and charging toward the young woman with vigorous strides under the control of a frail boy.
Reaching her, the boy tugged sharply on the reins, and the great tiger came to an abrupt halt.
"Mother, I can control the big tiger now!"
The boy vaulted down recklessly, startling the woman out of her reverie.
"Lingxi, what are you doing!"
Unexpectedly, a wing extended from the great tiger's flank, gently supporting the boy as he slid down smoothly.
Only then did Qin Yuanjiang, still seated on the black tiger's back, say with a smile, "Martial Aunt Sima, there is no need to worry. I specially modified this puppet so Lingxi could control it even without spiritual power."
A mortal without spiritual power able to control a graded puppet—such a thing would shock countless people if word got out.
Yet from Qin Yuanjiang's mouth, it sounded utterly ordinary, far less important to him than the boy's fleeting joy.
Sima Huiniang opened her mouth, then said in a low voice, "The sect's construction actually needs you more right now. There's no need to waste your effort on such unnecessary things."
Qin Yuanjiang looked down at the boy, his expression carrying a hint of melancholy.
"It isn't unnecessary. It just reminds me of my childhood, when my father bought me small puppets to play with; seeing how much I loved them, he decided to send me to the Luoyun Sect to cultivate."
"Lingxi isn't well-suited for orthodox cultivation methods, so I thought the way of puppets might be another option for him to embark on the immortal path."
"Besides, this child Lingxi..."
As he trailed off, a lonely look settled across his face.
If his pregnant wife hadn't died during that Luoyun Sect internal strife, he would have had a child of his own by now.
Sigh...
"I'll take my leave first. If you need anything, Martial Aunt can just call for me."
Seeing the sky darken, Qin Yuanjiang took the initiative to say his goodbyes.
Sima Huiniang naturally would not detain him. She walked a couple of paces to see him off, then let him go.
Turning back, she saw her son still excitedly tinkering with the big black tiger and couldn't help letting out a sigh.
Hearing the sigh, Luo Lingxi ran over curiously and took his mother's hand.
"Mother, I heard them say that once I turn twelve, I'll be able to cultivate. I'll be able to fly through the sky, burrow into the earth, and do anything like they do. Is that true?"
Sima Huiniang's face abruptly darkened. "Who told you that? Who are 'they'?"
Luo Lingxi pouted his lips; he didn't cry, but he didn't dare ask any further.
Whenever cultivation came up, his mother reacted this way every single time.
Seeing her son's aggrieved look, Sima Huiniang lovingly scooped up his frail body.
"Lingxi, how about we don't cultivate, all right?"
Luo Lingxi turned his head away and said stubbornly, "No!"
"You!"
Sima Huiniang flared with anger.
Luo Lingxi whipped around and glared at her. "Are you going to hit me again? I heard them say my father is amazing, the most powerful person in the world! If you hit me, when Father comes back I'll definitely tell on you, and he'll surely beat you!"
As he spoke, the little boy wriggled out of her grasp and ran toward the palace interior.
Running, he shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Sister Mingyue, Mother is going to hit me again!"
Sima Huiniang clenched her fists, then slowly relaxed them.
His father was indeed a formidable man.
If he learned his son was being mistreated, he probably would beat her!
Yet, cultivation...
The woman shook her head and sat back down dejectedly on the steps.
Lingxi could not cultivate. Absolutely not.
At the very least, before his father returned, she would never dare let him cultivate.
Otherwise, the consequences would be unpredictable.
"Husband, if I had known what you intended back then, I wouldn't have wanted this child."
"Giving birth to him only brings him suffering and misery; it would have been better had I borne it all alone."
Sima Huiniang was both furious and heartbroken, muttering "Husband" with increasing frequency.
When will you come back?
Beneath the moonlight, a figure approached, treading on the moonbeams.
The woman stared blankly at the white robe, feeling as if she were in a dream.
Chapter 890