What did it mean that "those who peer too deeply into the abyss court ill omen, and those whose wits pry into hidden secrets invite calamity"?
It meant that those who were too clever seldom met good ends.
Curiosity truly could kill!
Cave Master Minglei's expression stiffened as he caught the veiled threat in Luo Chen's words.
He could only force an awkward smile. "Brother Qi worries overmuch."
Luo Chen waved a dismissive hand. "In truth, there is no need for you to speculate so much. Whether to Wind Thunder Gorge or to the Feng clan, I am merely a passing traveler. Why pry into my origins? Besides, if Wind Thunder Gorge could produce a Nascent Soul powerhouse like you, is it not perfectly normal for it to produce another like me?"
With that, he gave a knowing wink.
Catching his meaning, Cave Master Minglei said in a deep voice, "Indeed. Brother Qi was originally a rogue cultivator of our Wind Thunder Gorge. After decades of bitter, secluded cultivation, you emerged to display heaven-shaking methods!"
Luo Chen smiled.
With Cave Master Minglei helping him cover his tracks, his background now had a credible origin.
In his future travels across the Southern Border, he could readily use the identity of Wind Thunder Gorge's Second Cave Master.
Even if someone wished to dig deeper, this layer of concealment would make it unlikely for anyone to connect him to the Eastern Desolation's "Alchemy Grandmaster Luo Chen."
Of course, there would inevitably be holes in such a story.
Yet to Luo Chen, it did not matter.
Just as he said, he was merely a passerby. Once his business was concluded, the rest was inconsequential.
At present, Luo Chen cared far more about another matter.
"When do we depart for Mount Mijie?"
Mount Mijie was not where Cave Master Minglei had previously attended the Southern Border Nascent Soul gathering, but it was the venue for the next such assembly.
Rumor had it that Mount Mijie was also the headquarters of the Fierce Peak Zombie Alliance!
Cave Master Minglei answered immediately, "As soon as I settle the remaining trifles here, we can set out at once!"
"Very well. I shall await your word."
Luo Chen pressed no further. He was confident that after his display of overwhelming might, the man would not dare deceive him.
Cave Master Minglei took his leave.
Luo Chen did not see him off, instead browsing through the large collection of body refinement arts handed over by the cultivators of Wind Thunder Gorge.
These body refinement techniques were not of particularly high rank, but all possessed a distinct Southern Border flavor.
What was that Southern Border flavor?
The answer was self-evident: using a myriad of Gu insects to aid body cultivation.
The Strength Gu previously given to him by Cave Master Minglei was the most fundamental and orthodox among them.
Those offered up by the rogue cultivators below, however, were wildly bizarre.
Some used extreme burdens to crush the physical form and forge formidable endurance, which required the aid of Heavy Earth Gu.
Some forced open the mystical gates of life and death to unleash latent human potential, momentarily bursting with several times their strength; this required Eight Gates Gu of differing elements to unlock the eight gates. Here, the "eight gates" were not the eight gates of Qimen Dunjia, but eight specific acupuncture gates of the human body: qi, blood, deficiency, excess, cold, heat, wind, and dampness. Each gate opened offered a different path of cultivation and unleashed different powers in battle.
There were also techniques for training extreme speed, for tempering inner force...
A bewildering variety, endlessly peculiar.
Many of these paths ran diametrically counter to orthodox body refinement.
Yet Luo Chen read them with great interest. He had not walked an orthodox body refinement path himself, having started with beast-mimicking techniques and gradually advanced down the road of desolate beast body refinement. As such, these strange Southern Border arts intrigued him all the more.
"Crushing the physical frame? With my body's current strength, I doubt any Gu in the Southern Border could exert enough pressure to strain me."
"Opening the mystical gates of life and death? Interesting, very interesting. It shares a certain subtle ingenuity with the Wither-Bloom Divine Restriction I pondered before. I can draw some inspiration from this."
"Inner force? Pass. I don't even know what that stuff truly is."
"This method for cultivating extreme speed is quite intriguing. It seeks to stimulate key acupoints on the soles of the feet with Gu insects, granting the body cultivator supernatural velocity to bridge the mobility gap against regular immortal cultivators. The tier is somewhat low, but the advantage is that the requisite Gu insects have not died out and can be gathered with ease. Besides, my foundation is profound enough that even a modest boost is a worthwhile enhancement!"
...
While Cave Master Minglei handled his affairs, Luo Chen immersed himself in studying the body refinement arts.
Time drifted by, and before he knew it, Luo Chen had been at Wind Thunder Gorge for over a month.
One day.
A figure stood motionless on the vast plain before Wind Thunder Gorge, steady as an ancient pine.
Suddenly!
The black-armored cultivator lifted his foot and took a step forward.
His whole body blurred into motion.
It was not an explosive burst, yet the velocity was astonishing, leaving behind a dazzling trail of afterimages in the air.
Feeling this speed, Luo Chen wore an expression of utmost satisfaction.
"What a fine rank-three Godspeed Gu. It actually provides an enhancement even to my current physique."
Over the past few days, Luo Chen's contemplation of that speed-enhancing art had yielded modest results.
After experimenting, he found that his ordinary travel speed had indeed received a substantial boost.
It was slower than the explosive burst of his self-created fire escape technique, but that fire escape placed a heavy burden on his magic power.
Cultivating this "godspeed" method imposed no such strain; the only expenditure was a rank-three Godspeed Gu.
Such Gu insects were easy to purchase, readily available both within Wind Thunder Gorge and in the outside world.
He could stockpile a large batch. When one was exhausted, he could simply replace it with another.
"This trip to the Southern Border has not been in vain!"
"Of the four moves in *Wind, Moon, Thunder, and Cloud Tread the Immortal Path*, I have fully perfected three over the years, leaving only Cloud Treads without progress. Now that I have acquired this method of divine speed, I might be able to incorporate it."
Luo Chen was quite excited.
He placed immense value on mobility.
For fleeing with his life, he had his extreme fire escape technique.
In combat, whether it was the explosive force of Thunder Kick, the relentless density of Wind Leg, or the erratic deception of Moon Step, he had virtually no shortcomings.
Only the long-distance traversal of Cloud Treads remained slightly deficient.
This method of divine speed could indeed help make up for it.
Just as he was pondering the possibilities, a streak of escaping light arrived from the distance, flying straight toward Wind Thunder Gorge.
Passing over the vast plain, it banked around and headed toward Luo Chen.
Without needing divine sense to scan, Luo Chen recognized the newcomer by sight alone—it was Cave Master Minglei.
"Matters settled?"
Cave Master Minglei looked somewhat unnatural, but nodded nonetheless.
"All settled. In a few days, I can accompany you to Mount Mijie without any lingering worries."
At this point, he deliberately shifted the subject and looked at Luo Chen with curiosity. "Brother Qi, are you practicing movement techniques?"
Luo Chen chuckled. "Indeed! As you know, the greatest disparity between us body cultivators and Nascent Soul powerhouses lies in escape techniques. Although high-tier body cultivators can close the gap in explosive bursts, that is only momentary speed. In terms of endurance, we still fall short."
Cave Master Minglei nodded, gazing at Luo Chen with admiration. "Brother Qi did not expose any such shortcoming during the prior battle. Have you made another breakthrough?"
"Indeed!" Luo Chen did not conceal it, admitting it freely before tossing out a sudden proposal. "Earlier, when you faced Feng Buyan, your movement technique was grand and imposing. How about we have a little contest?"
Cave Master Minglei blinked, inclined to decline.
Yet beneath Luo Chen's eager gaze, he ultimately agreed.
"Let us have a brief bout over the distance back to Wind Thunder Gorge!"
With that, both men stood quietly.
A leaf fluttered downward, and by tacit understanding, both moved at the exact same instant.
Luo Chen stepped forward just as a burst of lightning flashed beside him. When the light reappeared, Cave Master Minglei was already far ahead.
Luo Chen chuckled, activating the Godspeed Gu fused to his body in tandem with his own movement speed to give chase.
At blinding speed, even though Cave Master Minglei's form flickered like lightning, Luo Chen actually overtook him from behind.
Luo Chen even had the leisure to observe the other man's footwork.
That had to be the Flashing Thunder Art Cheng Bai had mentioned; it was indeed a profound movement technique.
However, one could tell he had only recently crossed the threshold of mastery, falling far short of grand attainment.
Thus, even Luo Chen's baseline speed was enough to overpower him.
Furthermore...
A moment later, Luo Chen came to a halt at the entrance to Wind Thunder Gorge, turning around to wait for Cave Master Minglei.
Two breaths later, Cave Master Minglei pulled up.
He offered a helpless smile. "In the end, I still cannot compare to Brother Qi!"
Luo Chen waved his hand and asked curiously, "Cave Master, I noticed a glaring flaw in your Flashing Thunder Art!"
Cave Master Minglei stiffened, then turned solemn. "Please enlighten me!"
Luo Chen spoke without reservation. "Though I have never practiced your art, in combat it should emphasize the transition between stillness and motion. Moving like silent lightning, with thunder echoing in your wake only after you have struck, catching the foe entirely off guard. Yet both when you initiate the movement and when you reappear, your actions are far too fierce, stirring up too much commotion. Once an enemy grows accustomed to your footwork and tracks you with divine sense, it becomes trivial to seize upon the gap during your magic power transition and pin you down."
Hearing this, Cave Master Minglei's mouth parted slightly in disbelief.
He had never imagined that Luo Chen could see through the core flaw after a mere casual race.
The true essence of the Flashing Thunder Art was precisely that.
It mimicked the lightning and thunder of the natural world.
Light and shadow flickered in complete silence.
By the time the enemy heard the thunderous boom caused by the magic power's release, the caster should already be striking at their weak point to claim victory.
Yet as he performed it now, both the start and the arrival produced immense disturbance.
With the sharp perception of a cultivator's divine sense, a foe with even slight familiarity could easily pinpoint the flaw and slip out of his range of attack.
Had Luo Chen merely brought this up in passing, Minglei might have dismissed it as armchair theory.
Yet just yesterday, someone had seized upon that very flaw!
Cave Master Minglei said bitterly, "Brother Qi has sharp eyes. It was precisely because of this flaw that the Demonic Buddha Juening broke through our encirclement and escaped."
Ning Yuzhuo had not been in the Southern Border for long, but he had already forged a formidable reputation.
Namely, the Demonic Buddha Juening.
Luo Chen paused. "You crossed hands with Ning Yuzhuo?"
"Not just me—we did!" Cave Master Minglei sighed. "Remember the condition Feng Buyan asked of me earlier in exchange for his concession?"
Luo Chen nodded.
"Yesterday, that condition was fulfilled. At his invitation, I joined forces with him to besiege Demonic Buddha Juening. The monk had already been ambushed by Feng Buyan's Gu insects, yet even so, under our joint encirclement, he still charged straight through my flank and got away. He succeeded purely by seizing upon the flaw in my movement technique."
Luo Chen marveled at the news.
He had not expected Ning Yuzhuo to possess such keen discernment, spotting the flaw in Cave Master Minglei's technique just as quickly as he had.
Even more unexpected was that Feng Buyan, who had fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Ning Yuzhuo just days before, would turn on him and recruit others to strike him down.
Southern Border cultivators were truly as fickle and untrustworthy as the rumors claimed!
He inquired into the details, and Cave Master Minglei recounted the full story.
Feng Buyan had previously invited Ning Yuzhuo and Daoist Yang to attack Wind Thunder Gorge, promising handsome compensation.
When the gorge remained untaken, Daoist Yang departed despondently, too ashamed to demand his fee.
Ning Yuzhuo, however, refused to let it go.
Furthermore, because his cultivation had gone awry, several members of the Feng clan in the Songtao Mountain Range were harmed in the aftermath.
Only then had Feng Buyan lost his patience and moved against Ning Yuzhuo.
It sounded reasonable!
Yet it made no logical sense!
Luo Chen remembered clearly that when Feng Buyan negotiated the gorge's territory with Cave Master Minglei, he had already demanded Minglei's assistance as a condition.
At that point, he had not yet had a falling out with Ning Yuzhuo.
Therefore, Feng Buyan had clearly intended to turn on Ning Yuzhuo from the very start, only fabricating those convenient excuses afterward.
"Fascinating!"
Luo Chen offered a brief smile, and nothing more.
He cared nothing for their dog-eat-dog squabbles.
Now that matters were settled, it was time to depart for Mount Mijie.
As the stronghold of the greatest force in the Southern Border aside from the Life and Death Gate, intelligence there would surely flow most freely. Perhaps he could find clues regarding the Demonic Heart Gu Emperor there.
After agreeing to set out three days later—once Cave Master Minglei had recovered his magic power—Luo Chen turned to return to his cave dwelling.
Behind him, Cave Master Minglei hesitated, yet could not resist calling out:
"Brother Qi, do you perhaps know of a way to remedy this flaw in my Flashing Thunder Art?"
Luo Chen halted and looked back.
"I do not possess the original scripture of the Flashing Thunder Art. How could I help you remedy it? If you lent it to me for perusal, I might find a solution. Of course, only might; I make no guarantees."
Cave Master Minglei hesitated once more.
Seeing his reluctance, Luo Chen shook his head and returned to his dwelling on his own.
On the mountain trail, Cave Master Minglei clenched his fists with lingering frustration.
Under the pressure of a formidable enemy, he had chosen a sacrificial method to save time, slaughtering his subordinate Cheng Bai to forcefully accelerate the growth of a Formless Gu larva.
Only through this had he achieved rapid mastery of the Flashing Thunder Art.
Yet he never imagined that a hastily acquired technique would carry such an obvious shortcoming.
Even so, handing over the Flashing Thunder Art—which he had spent a fortune to acquire—for Luo Chen to study was something he could not bring himself to do.
It was not merely a matter of material value; their relationship had simply not reached that degree of trust.
If the other man truly mastered his technique's weaknesses, his life and death would truly be placed in another's hands.
Compared to Luo Chen, he preferred to trust himself.
"I shall refine it slowly. Perhaps I can discover a solution on my own!"
Carrying these thoughts, Cave Master Minglei returned to his cave dwelling to meditate and replenish his magic power.
Three days later.
Two streaks of escaping light flew out of Wind Thunder Gorge, circled briefly in the air, and sped south.
At the same time, throngs of cultivators across the Southern Border mobilized, converging upon Mount Mijie.
Across a Southern Border where dark currents had surged for centuries, the winds and clouds began to stir.
Chapter 939