“There’s a dead man’s cave ten thousand miles to the east; that’s where I gained sentience,” Blood Ginseng said, shaking its roots as if recalling bloody past events.
Qing Feng’s eyes lit up: “That’s the place.” A cave that could allow plants to become spirits surely had abundant Qi.
Passing through a certain valley, Qing Feng suddenly felt the Qi surge within him. He saw Yan Yi, her azure robes fluttering, seated within a formation, her aura having already broken through the Foundation Establishment Realm shackles. He nodded inwardly; the genius of Dan Refining Peak was indeed worthy of her reputation.
“Congratulations, Junior Sister, on successfully reaching Foundation Establishment,” Zhu Jian, guarding the mountain pass, came forward diligently. “It has truly been Zhu’s honor to protect you these past few days.”
Yan Yi’s lips curled slightly: “Thank you, Senior Brother. Next, we should find some late-stage Foundation Establishment demonic beasts to help Senior Brother temper his killing intent and advance to the Golden Core Realm.” With that, she reined in her smile and turned, leaving Zhu Jian to gaze foolishly at her retreating figure.
The mountain wind swept over the broken stones, and Zhu Jian rubbed his sword hilt, nodding: “Junior Sister’s consideration is thorough.”
He looked towards the sky of the Thousand Moon Realm, shrouded by the blood moon, knowing that the time left for them in this trial ground was running out.
Hunting demonic beasts with a pill cultivator was indeed a reliable choice; it allowed them to accumulate Blood Pills for self-preservation and also had powerful sect elders guarding them.
Yan Yi suddenly stomped her foot, crushing a dead branch beneath it: “We agreed to team up, but that sly Qing Feng slipped away so quickly. When I catch him…” A mischievous glint flashed in her eyes, “I’ll definitely report him to Senior Sister Qin Yue and have him run laps around the mountain gate as punishment.”
“He should indeed be taught a lesson, Junior Brother,” Zhu Jian echoed, but as he escorted his Junior Sister into the dense forest, his fist clenched secretly within his sleeve. Neither of them noticed a gray-robed figure, holding its breath, lying prone on a cliff a hundred meters away.
Qing Feng listened to the conversation drifting on the wind, rubbing his numb knees with a bitter smile.
“Ding! New mission: Please host, sleep for one month to increase cultivation.”
The territory of the Beast Taming Sect was comparable to that of the Great Zhou Dynasty. If one truly had to run nine million li, even a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator might break their legs.
He tiptoed back a few steps, then followed the hopping Blood Ginseng into a rock cave. The Qi that rushed towards him was even more concentrated than that of the Chenming Peak main pulse.
“This is much better than risking my life with Senior Sister,” the young man said, sweeping away the bluestone with a flick of his sleeve. The protective spiritual light faintly visible around his body flickered in the gloom.
The Blood Ginseng huddled in the corner, trembling. It truly couldn’t understand this strange person who always slept soundly in dangerous situations.
At the same time, by the cold pond on the west side of the Thousand Moon Realm, Elder Mo’s withered hands were forming a strange magical seal.
The Beast Taming Sect Elder, who was originally refined, was now enveloped in swirling black malevolent Qi. Ancient incantations stirred a bloody vortex on the surface of the pond: “Spirits of the Nine Nether, all spirits return…”
The lake water violently split open, revealing an altar covered in beast-head carvings.
When the moonlight condensed into a pillar of light and poured into the formation’s core, the entire trial ground suddenly trembled.
The sword cultivators who were hunting demonic beasts were horrified to discover that the previously docile demonic beasts now had blood-red eyes. A certain elite disciple didn’t even have time to retrieve his sword before he was swallowed by a demonic lion that had suddenly broken through to the Golden Core Realm.
“It’s done,” Elder Mo stared at the flickering red dots in the light screen, ecstatic joy seeping from his wrinkles. “Kirin Blood Vine…”
He was completely unaware that the ancient forbidden spell he had activated was rewriting the laws of survival in the Thousand Moon Realm.
Another earth-shattering beast roar erupted, and countless demonic beasts surged out from the shadows of the dense forest, rushing towards the Beast Taming Sect disciples like a black tide.
The great demon stood amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, its demonic energy steaming like a blood mist. For hundreds of years, it had countless times touched the brink of breakthrough, only to fail at the last moment.
Although it didn't know why it had broken through its shackles now, the Golden Core had formed, and the pressure of its awakened innate divine ability had swept across a thousand li.
Similar scenes were playing out across the Thousand Moon Realm. Previously dormant peak Foundation Establishment Realm great demons suddenly launched attacks, catching the Beast Taming Sect disciples off guard, and the sky was stained red with blood.
Meanwhile, in a deep cave, Qing Feng was curled up on a bluestone, sleeping soundly according to the system’s mission. Only the crimson vines that abruptly emerged from the rock crevices glowed with an eerie red light, twisting and growing, emitting a faint ‘crunching’ sound like bones breaking.
In the Dan Refining Peak’s storeroom, the disciple on duty was yawning and dozing off. Hundreds of disciple jade tokens on the wall suddenly shattered one after another, and spiderweb-like cracks instantly covered their surfaces.
“This… this is a catastrophe,” he scrambled out of the storeroom, his robes drenched in cold sweat.
Dan Refining Peak exploded into chaos in the dead of night. The meditating Pill Cultivation masters were all startled awake, their usually composed faces now ashen. When they saw the jade token fragments falling like rain, one elder even accidentally dropped his pill furnace, sending sparks flying everywhere.
“Where are these children?” The Seven-Colored Divine Bird carried the Chenming Peak Lord through the air, his black Daoist robe fluttering in the night wind. The Peak Lord, who had always been aloof, now had a grim expression.
Even if the fallen were not core disciples, the simultaneous shattering of ten jade tokens was an unprecedented calamity in three hundred years.
Elder Yao Jin’s Adam’s apple bobbed: “They were all sent to the Thousand Moon Realm for training. The protectors should have been…”
“That peacock Zhao Xuan?” The Peak Lord interrupted with a cold laugh. “He loved to show off when he was young, his sword light had to be dazzling when fighting enemies, his mount had to be beautiful. It serves him right to be stuck in the Nascent Soul Realm for a hundred years.”
With that, he flicked his sleeve and turned: “Go quickly to Heaven Sword Peak to demand an explanation. Saving lives is paramount. Every medicinal herb on Dan Refining Peak is precious, let alone living pill cultivators.”
As Yao Jin bowed to accept the order, he saw that Yan Yi’s jade token was already covered in cracks, and his fingers in his sleeve were almost drawing blood.
The Seven-Colored Divine Bird let out a long cry in the night sky, carrying a mighty procession of pill cultivators straight towards Heaven Sword Peak, like a meteor streaking across the blood-red firmament.
“Thank you, Sect Master.”
The elders from various peaks whose jade tokens had shattered turned pale, transforming into streaks of light and rushing straight to Heaven Sword Peak.
“Dan Refining Peak lost more than ten disciples?”
Li Wei, who was cultivating the Yin-Yang Grand Dao with his Dao companion, trembled all over, almost crushing the sound transmission jade talisman in his hand. The Thousand Moon Realm trial had been passed down for thousands of years, and never had so many cultivators been lost, let alone the precious medical cultivators of Dan Refining Peak.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from the Nascent Soul Realm sword cultivator’s forehead. Elder Yao Jin’s furious roar pierced through the clouds: “Immediately open the Thousand Moon Realm to save them.”
“Of course,” Li Wei uncharacteristically didn’t mind the commanding tone of the other party.
Although with his sword cultivation methods, he was confident he could suppress three pill cultivation elders simultaneously.
However, among the forty-nine peaks of the entire Beast Taming Sect, only Dan Refining Peak could bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh on bones. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable would respectfully treat a Nascent Soul Realm pill cultivator as an honored guest.
As sword light tore through the sky and a hundred-zhang sword qi slammed into the mountain wall, an ominous premonition suddenly arose in Li Wei’s heart.
“Boom!”
The stone wall rippled strangely, but the entrance to the secret realm remained motionless.
“Elder Li, how do you explain this?” Yao Jin’s eyes were bloodshot, her fingers almost digging into her palms. Yan Yi, the once-in-a-century prodigy of Dan Refining Peak, was still inside the secret realm.
“This… this…” Li Wei was surrounded by several pill cultivation elders when he suddenly heard a sound of breaking air from behind.
Chenming Peak Lord Qin Heng arrived on his sword with Grand Elder Zi Yun, and his direct disciple Qin Yue’s frosty sword qi had solidified.
As the sword lights from various peaks converged like meteors, Li Wei finally understood: the danger of being cornered in his cave by seven Dao companions back then was less than one ten-thousandth of the current situation.
The unprecedented anomaly in the secret realm, the surging undercurrents of sect disputes—none of this concerned Qing Feng at the moment.
Qing Feng calculated that he would be able to leave once the time was up, but he had no intention of sleeping. The crimson vines that abruptly emerged from the rock crevices glowed with an eerie red light.
