It was not night, yet neither was it the broad daylight of the outside world.
A thin veil of mist seemed to hang in the air, blurring the distance so that only the faint silhouettes of mountains were visible. The forbidden ground was far vaster than he had imagined.
A foul stench of rot hit his nostrils, and Qin Sang immediately held his breath. Glancing left and right, he saw a foul-smelling mire stretching out ahead, while behind him lay a boundless, gloomy forest.
Gnarled branches crisscrossed the woods, shrouded in heavy mist—whether moisture or miasma, he could not tell—giving the silhouettes of the trees the look of countless vicious ghosts baring their fangs and brandishing their claws.
Upon entering the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground, where one landed was entirely a matter of luck. If one happened to drop straight into a demon beast's lair, one could only curse their fate.
This place seemed anything but welcoming. Qin Sang pondered for a moment before manifesting the wings upon his back. Clouds billowed from the plumage, enveloping his form until he faded into thin air.
Climbing up into a tree, he waited for a short while. When no unusual movement stirred in his surroundings, he silently leapt down and cast the Cloud Escape Technique, sweeping toward the direction he had chosen.
After traveling through the woods without mishap for some distance, Qin Sang arrived at the foot of a mountain. Though not particularly large, by his estimation it appeared to be the highest point in the vicinity.
However, just as he was about to reach the summit, he slipped quietly behind a boulder.
Moments later, another Qin Sang walked out from behind the rock and climbed boldly upward. Yet just as he was about to crest the peak, this "Qin Sang" collapsed with a splash into a pool of water, soaking the earth.
Only after another brief pause did the real Qin Sang emerge from behind the boulder.
The previous figure had naturally been a clone created with the Phantom Shift incantation. To prepare for the Ascension Assembly, he had practiced an extra spell.
With his time and energy constrained, he had not chosen the far more demanding Water-Congealing Barrier or River-Locking Mist.
Even with Phantom Shift, Qin Sang's mastery was far from perfection, and the clone he produced was not entirely flawless. Still, if an opponent failed to look closely, a momentary lapse in vigilance could easily allow him to succeed.
As Qin Sang's cultivation level advanced, his horizons broadened. He had come to realize that every incantation had its own unique utility. A technique like Phantom Shift, which he had once thought rather useless, actually held endless applications; scouting ahead and luring enemies were only the beginning.
Acting with such caution inevitably wasted considerable time, yet in a place fraught with danger at every turn, he had no other choice.
Though the mountain appeared safe, Qin Sang did not lower his guard in the slightest. The expansive view made it ideal for surveying the terrain—a great advantage, but one that came with hidden peril. If anyone else was nearby, they would likely have the exact same thought.
Clasping the Purple Soul Bell in his palm, he kept his spiritual sense primed to activate the Ice Silkworm Armor at any second. Although the armor was only a medium-grade magic tool, deflecting a sneak attack and buying him some precious time was well within its capability.
With his preparations in place, Qin Sang continued channeling the Cloudfall Wings and crept quietly toward the mountaintop. Pausing every few paces to scan his surroundings with vigilance, he took quite a while to finally reach the peak.
A vast panorama suddenly unfolded before him. Within the range of his vision, the terrain proved remarkably bizarre and varied.
To his left lay the border between the mire and the forest where he had just emerged. Both the swamp and the woods stretched out endlessly, with no edge in sight.
From time to time, treetops in the forest swayed, though he could not tell whether something lurked beneath or the wind was stirring them.
The mire was even less inviting. Its fringes were manageable, but its depths looked as though they were boiling, incessantly bubbling with foul mud, beneath clusters of multicolored vapor that were almost certainly venomous.
He could never enter either of those places!
Qin Sang feared that before he even encountered another cultivator, he would end up devoured by the demon beasts and venomous insects within.
After all, the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground harbored demon beasts of the Mortal Demon stage.
Beasts, birds, vegetation, ghosts, and even rocks and inanimate objects—if blessed with extraordinary fortune or granted innate awakening—could absorb the spiritual power of heaven and earth and refine the essence of the sun, moon, and stars. Such entities were known as demons.
The spirits, monsters, and ghosts spoken of in the mortal world were all of this nature.
Possessing only the instinct to seek good fortune and avoid calamity, with their intellect yet unopened, they were called Mortal Demon stage monsters. Some at this stage were quite weak, vulnerable enough for mortals to slay with specialized means.
Yet those with years behind them often possessed considerable intelligence and an assortment of bizarre abilities, proving exceptionally troublesome even to Qi Refinement cultivators.
Those at the peak of the Mortal Demon stage, on the verge of conceiving a demon spirit, possessed strength rivaling cultivators at the thirteenth layer of Qi Refinement.
Once a demon conceived a true spirit and began developing true consciousness, it reached the Demon Spirit stage, comparable to the Foundation Establishment stage of human cultivators.
Fortunately, there were no great demons of the Demon Spirit stage within the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground, though it was said that demon beasts in the late or even peak Mortal Demon stage were present. Even with top-grade magic tools in his possession, Qin Sang dared not provoke them lightly.
The Kuiyin Sect possessed no map of the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground, and Qin Sang had no idea which zone he had been transported to.
He could head in any direction. Only after gathering enough jade tokens would he learn the way toward the core area. Until then, his sole objectives were to survive and seize jade tokens.
Surveying the surrounding landscape, Qin Sang considered his options for a moment before deciding to head right. A sprawling mountain range lay in that direction, carpeted in lush vegetation that did not blot out the sky like the gloomy forest did. Such rugged terrain suited him best.
Having made up his mind, Qin Sang was just about to head down the mountain when he sensed something amiss. He jerked his head up, his gaze locking onto an oriole-like bird in the sky.
The oriole had flown over shortly after he reached the mountain. Since ordinary wild beasts lived in the forbidden ground as well, Qin Sang had merely glanced at it at first and paid it no further heed.
Yet the bird never descended to forage. From the moment it appeared, it had circled the mountain incessantly, patrolling like a hawk, and had looped around the summit several times in particular.
Staring at the oriole, Qin Sang grew increasingly suspicious. Pondering for a moment, he cast his gaze down the mountain, combing through every inch and overlooking nothing, yet found nothing out of the ordinary.
Just as he began to wonder if he was being overly paranoid, the oriole suddenly spread its wings and swooped down the slope. Qin Sang's eyes brightened. Following the bird with his gaze, he saw it land in a patch of wild grass and vanish from sight.
It was a hollow overgrown with person-tall wormwood, exceptionally well concealed.
A moment later, the tall grass swayed, and a figure emerged from within. The oriole perched upon his shoulder, preening its feathers with its beak.
After glancing about in all directions, the person darted rapidly toward the summit.
*Good thing I never put away the Cloudfall Wings.*
Qin Sang could not help but feel grateful for his own caution. He had not expected someone to land so close to him, and a sudden wave of tension gripped his heart.
He had taken countless lives, yet this was the first time he faced an opponent who was also an immortal cultivator.
Hurriedly casting the Qi-Watching Technique, Qin Sang found that the newcomer's cultivation was comparable to his own, meaning there was no need to flee.
Still, immortal cultivators possessed a bewildering array of bizarre methods, and he could not afford to be careless.
Chapter 70