A ghostly shadow drifted out of the youth's body, cackling weirdly. Liang Yan let out a cold snort, and a banner flew out from his palm. The banner fluttered briskly, releasing plumes of black qi that tightly encircled the ghostly shadow.
The ghostly shadow struggled violently within the black qi, yet failed to break free, and was ultimately swallowed by the black qi.
Liang Yan stowed the banner, waved his hand, and cast out a streak of fiery light, burning the corpse in the cave dwelling to clean ash.
In the surrounding cave dwellings, cultivating disciples were disturbed. They opened their cave doors and walked out. Having witnessed the entire scene, they bowed to Liang Yan, swept indifferent gazes across Qin Sang and the others, and casually returned inside to continue cultivating, seemingly long accustomed to such sights.
In the empty cave dwelling, nothing remained but a pile of ash, which was swept up into smoke by the subterranean wind and scattered into the canyon. All the youth had left behind were scratch marks raked across the stone floor.
Liang Yan led them down seven or eight flights of stone steps to a row of cave dwellings and said, "This row of cave dwellings has no occupants. Pick whichever one you like and begin your arduous cultivation. Martial Uncle Yue delivers a lecture on the Dao once a month at the end of each month. If you have any questions regarding your cultivation, remember to ask Martial Uncle Yue then."
Everyone remained silent, staring absentmindedly into the pitch-black cave dwellings. Had similar scenes played out inside them as well?
Seeing this, Liang Yan smiled faintly. "What, scared by such a minor scene? If you don't want to die, remember what I just said: you must first use your spiritual sense to suppress the Yanwang and make it completely submit before entering the Yin Baleful Gorge to absorb yin baleful qi. The Yanluo Banner is exceptionally potent, so you must rein in the greed in your hearts and absorb Soul Pills within your limits. Never give the Yanwang a chance to break free. Otherwise, it will turn on you, and not even an immortal could save you—that junior brother just now is a cautionary tale! Remember this well! Remember it well!"
With that, Liang Yan mounted his flying magic tool and departed.
Qin Sang and the others exchanged glances; having little to say to one another, each chose a cave dwelling. Just as Qin Sang was about to step inside his, Tan Jie's voice transmission suddenly reached his ears: "Brother Qin, what do you think of this Yanluo Banner?"
Qin Sang paused in his steps and turned his head to see Tan Jie standing before the entrance of an adjacent cave dwelling, looking fraught with worry.
Seeing Tan Jie's expression, Qin Sang knew he was likely frightened by the scene just now. Having witnessed the terror of the Yanwang long ago, Qin Sang knew that without the protection of the jade Buddha, he would have ended up in the belly of a Yanwang himself.
Still, aside from the risk of backlash from the Yanwang, Qin Sang had not discovered any other hidden perils in the Yanluo Banner throughout his cultivation thus far.
With that in mind, Qin Sang transmitted a voice reply to caution him: "Brother Tan, according to Senior Brother Liang Yan, more than a thousand Kuiyin Sect disciples rely on the Yanluo Banner to cultivate, so its wondrous effects have surely been proven long ago. However, the secret technique carries immense danger; we must exercise extreme caution from now on."
Tan Jie nodded, said nothing more, and walked into his cave dwelling with a heavy heart.
Shutting the cave dwelling's heavy stone door, Qin Sang sat down on the stone bed and put on the Warm Yang Bead. Even without spiritual power driving it, the bead radiated warmth that gradually dispelled the chill from his body, though it could not drive away the chill deep in his heart.
Judging people by their words and actions, Liang Yan's unhesitating cremation of the body and the indifferent expressions of the onlookers made Qin Sang realize that in the Kuiyin Sect, even the lives of sect disciples differed little from those of mortals outside—both were treated like weeds.
Perhaps only by breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage could one attain any real standing.
Qin Sang believed that with the jade Buddha's protection, he had no fear of backlash from the Yanwang, and standing out among his fellow disciples should not be difficult. What he feared far more was having someone notice anything amiss about him.
Though Martial Uncle Yue forbade fratricide, what if the one killing to seize treasures was a Foundation Establishment cultivator?
...
The cave dwelling remained as crude as ever.
Qin Sang, who had been meditating cross-legged on a prayer mat, suddenly opened his eyes. He gently pushed open the stone door of his cave dwelling and caught a fleeting glimpse of a slender figure vanishing into the mist of the Yin Baleful Abyss. Judging by the back of the figure, it was Shi Hong, the senior martial sister who had entered the sect alongside him.
Qin Sang had already been at the Kuiyin Sect for a month. At the end of the previous month, Martial Uncle Yue had delivered a sermon on the Dao. Qin Sang had asked about the doubts that had puzzled him for years, and finally learned why his bottlenecks had appeared and disappeared so erratically.
It turned out that for immortal cultivators, every breakthrough in realm was a hurdle. If one lacked sufficient aptitude, being stuck for eight or ten years without breaking through was completely normal.
Furthermore, at the third, sixth, and ninth layers of the Qi Refinement stage, the physical body and spiritual sense underwent slight transformations, making the bottlenecks even firmer and the hurdles far harder to overcome.
Each of these three hurdles was harder than the last. But Soul Pills not only accelerated cultivation speed, they also aided in breaking through bottlenecks, which was why Qin Sang had progressed so smoothly thus far.
Of course, the difficulty of passing these minor hurdles could not compare to the bottlenecks of the Foundation Establishment stage or Core Formation stage.
Among Qi Refinement cultivators, fewer than one in ten succeeded in breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and that was assuming one could reach the tenth layer of Qi Refinement in the first place, as not everyone had the chance to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill.
A Foundation Establishment Pill was a spiritual medicine that helped overcome the Foundation Establishment bottleneck, raising the probability of a breakthrough.
Those with superior natural gifts, such as a single spiritual root, naturally had no need for a Foundation Establishment Pill. But for the vast majority of cultivators, even the slight increase in chance provided by the pill was priceless.
Yet in today's cultivation world, spiritual energy was thin and spirit herbs were exceedingly scarce. Ancient elixirs whose effects rivaled the Foundation Establishment Pill could no longer be concocted due to the lack of herbs, and their recipes had now been lost to time.
As a result, even among disciples of immortal cultivation sects, not everyone could be granted a Foundation Establishment Pill.
If breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage was already this difficult, cultivators who successfully formed a core were even rarer; in the entire Kuiyin Sect, there were only three Golden Core Masters.
Cultivation was truly a single-plank bridge crossed by ten thousand charging steeds.
After learning of all this, Qin Sang felt disheartened for days. Even if by some stroke of luck he could break through to Foundation Establishment, and by some fluke cultivate to the peak completion of Foundation Establishment before his lifespan expired, he would still have virtually no hope of forming a core.
Thinking back to the bold declaration he had made before the Eldest Princess, he realized how laughable it was.
Yet Qin Sang quickly pulled himself together. Only someone who had died once understood the terror of death and the beauty of being alive. Giving his all was the only path; even if death proved unavoidable in the end, he would die without regrets.
Over the course of the month, he had restrained himself from entering the Yin Baleful Abyss to absorb yin baleful qi. Once his remaining Soul Pills were exhausted, he focused on practicing incantations, waiting a full month until Shi Hong finally became the first to suppress her Yanwang and enter the Yin Baleful Abyss.
Shi Hong possessed dual metal-wood spiritual roots, her aptitude unmatched among the seven who had entered the sect together, so it was hardly surprising that she was the first to suppress the Yanwang.
After returning to his cave dwelling to wait a little longer, Qin Sang took out his baleful-warding pouch, activated it with spiritual power, draped it over himself, and leaped into the Yin Baleful Abyss.
The baleful-warding pouch also possessed the ability to aid aerial movement. Paired with the Sky Soaring Technique, Qin Sang's body drifted downward slowly like a falling leaf.
The deeper he went into the Yin Baleful Abyss, the more baleful qi mingled with the mist, growing heavier and more bitterly cold. Near the bottom, it was as pitch-black as ink, resembling dark clouds surging incessantly within the abyss. In the howling subterranean wind, ghostly shrieks could faintly be heard, as if countless evil spirits were clawing to surge up into the mortal world and wreak havoc upon mankind.
Chapter 63