"Do you know how many experts your Dragon Clan has? Hmm, ones with higher cultivation than you," Zhang Qing asked again. The Black Dragon thought for a moment and replied, "As far as I know, the Dragon Clan has over a thousand in the Daluo Realm, over ten thousand in the Taiyi Realm, and countless numbers in the Golden Immortal Realm." Hearing this made Zhang Qing's heart turn utterly cold. It really was a case of Golden Immortals walking everywhere and Daluo beings as common as dogs.
And that was just the Dragon Clan alone. If one added the Phoenix and Qilin tribes from the same era—goodness gracious, that was simply terrifying! It seemed he had been a bit too arrogant, flying all over the place on the back of a Black Dragon. "Black Dragon, can you make yourself smaller? A body this long makes too big a target." Hearing this, the Black Dragon shrank his body down until he was only two or three zhang long, his dragon head shrinking proportionally, with his two horns neatly shielding Zhang Qing in the middle.
Without stopping, the Black Dragon flew onward. In the distance, Zhang Qing spotted a giant peak piercing the heavens at the edge of the sky, radiating waves of pressure. The Black Dragon had slowed down considerably—not because he was tired, but because he was terrified by the oppressive might. Zhang Qing leaped down from the dragon's head and asked, "Can you take human form?"
Without answering, the Black Dragon shifted his body, transforming into an eighteen-year-old youth with jet-black hair, a well-proportioned build, and a stern expression in his black robes, actually looking quite handsome.
Seeing Zhang Qing looking at him, the Black Dragon proudly tilted his head up and said, "I've been able to take human form for a long time." Zhang Qing paid no more attention to his cocky demeanor and stepped forward toward the tall mountain.
Because he already knew what mountain that was—it had to be Mount Buzhou, formed from Pangu's spine; otherwise, it wouldn't have been suppressing the Black Dragon to the point where he could barely fly.
Zhang Qing tested it out and found that flying himself was also quite strenuous, so he and the Black Dragon walked forward step by step. Though Mount Buzhou looked right before his eyes and Zhang Qing felt he was walking at a decent pace, it took countless sunrises and sunsets before they finally reached the foot of the mountain. The pressure here was already immense, and scales were faintly shimmering across the Black Dragon's skin.
Zhang Qing sat cross-legged at the foot of the mountain to regulate his breath for a while, then led the Black Dragon as they began climbing up Mount Buzhou. Along the way, exotic flowers and rare herbs were countless, and Zhang Qing accepted every single one without turning them down. If nothing unexpected happened, Mount Buzhou would eventually collapse in the future, so rather than letting these good things go to waste, he might as well benefit himself.
Climbing and harvesting all the way, he collected a fair share of various artifact-crafting materials, and on a steep cliff, he even harvested a tea tree exuding misty immortal Qi.
He picked a leaf and chewed on it directly; it actually had the effect of calming the mind and settling the spirit. Zhang Qing dug it up along with a large chunk of surrounding soil and put it away.
He would plant it on his Fangzhang Island when he got back. Beneath the tea tree, he unexpectedly discovered a large chunk of Cyan Sky Stone, which contained an inner space and was the absolute best choice for refining spatial dharma treasures.
Zhang Qing simply stopped right there and used his crude understanding of spatial power to refine that piece of Cyan Sky Stone into several spatial rings and a cyan thumb ring.
He put the rings away and slid the thumb ring directly onto his left thumb. Although its grade wasn't high—possessing only nine restrictive arrays—its space was not small at all, more than enough to hold a few small hills.
After cultivating for a few days to adapt to the pressure here, he continued his climb. Seeing the Black Dragon wearing a look of hesitation as if he wanted to say something, Zhang Qing asked, "If you have something to say, spit it out. You don't need to be so cautious in front of me."
Hearing this, the Black Dragon gave a sheepish laugh and said, "Well, Master, could you spare me a storage ring? Our clan isn't very proficient in the Dao of artifact-crafting, hehe."
Zhang Qing directly took out a freshly refined ring and tossed it to the Black Dragon, who was so delighted he thanked him repeatedly. He had long wanted to possess a storage dharma treasure; his mastery of the art of heaven and earth in his sleeves wasn't very good, and he couldn't store many things. It seemed that following a master wasn't entirely a bad thing after all.
As they climbed higher and higher, the pressure they faced grew greater. Gradually, the Black Dragon could no longer keep up with Zhang Qing's pace, so Zhang Qing had no choice but to let him stay in place to cultivate and adapt, while he himself continued upward.
Zhang Qing would also stop to meditate and cultivate for a few days after every stretch he climbed, but his cultivation level not only failed to rise—it actually dropped. His cultivation had now descended from peak Taiyi Golden Immortal to the mid-stage.
Yet, far from being worried, Zhang Qing was actually overjoyed. This was because he was using the pressure of Mount Buzhou to consolidate his foundation; his current combat power could take on three of his former Taiyi Golden Immortal self.
This gave Zhang Qing even greater motivation to climb Mount Buzhou. Not only were there good things to harvest, but he could also increase his strength—what a truly wonderful place!
Faced with such oppressive force, other living beings instinctively chose to stay away, which benefited Zhang Qing and the Black Dragon. Alas, the Black Dragon's cultivation was still a bit too low. He would just have to let him follow slowly behind; how high he could climb depended entirely on his own fortune.
One day, just as Zhang Qing awoke from his recovery, he suddenly felt waves of rich Xiantian spiritual Qi emanating from beside him. Following this surge of spiritual Qi, Zhang Qing slowly approached the edge of a deep well.
Inside, the milky-white Xiantian Qi had condensed into liquid. Zhang Qing tidied himself up, summoned the Chengying Sword into his hand, leaped down, and plunged his entire body into the deep well to begin absorbing and cultivating.
It wasn't just Zhang Qing doing the absorbing; the Chengying Sword in his hand also drew streams of Xiantian spiritual Qi into its blade, making the sword body even stronger. The Xiantian Spiritual Treasure, which originally had twenty-seven restrictive arrays, unexpectedly spawned two additional arrays—and these two arrays didn't require Zhang Qing to divide his focus to refine them at all.
Not bothering with it, man and sword absorbed for goodness knows how long. When the very last drop of Xiantian spiritual Qi was absorbed, Zhang Qing sat cross-legged at the "bottom of the well," quietly sensing the changes in his body.
His cultivation realm remained at the mid-stage Taiyi Golden Immortal, but his physical body had grown several times stronger, in no way inferior to the Daluo Realm physical body he possessed back in the Chaos. This place must have been formed from Pangu's spinal marrow, and the spiritual Qi had not yet completely dissipated, so he might as well consider it his good fortune.
Stowing the Chengying Sword back into his Dantian to continue nurturing it with his Chaos Sword Qi, Zhang Qing used his hands and feet to climb out. He turned around, bowed deeply toward the "wellhead," and then resumed his upward climb.
One day, Zhang Qing arrived at a valley. This valley was actually guarded by a Xiantian formation. Zhang Qing tried blasting it with a punch, but the formation didn't even twitch; he knew he couldn't break this Xiantian formation.
He had no choice but to turn and walk away. What he didn't know was that after he turned away, a middle-aged man in gray cloth robes and a woman with a snake's lower body opened their eyes inside this Xiantian formation.
The woman asked, "Big Brother, how did that person outside just now compare to you in cultivation?" The gray-robed middle-aged man replied, "I am not as strong as him. The day you and I awoke, we were protected within this Xiantian formation. Little Sister, cultivate as quickly as you can and strive to break this Xiantian formation soon so we can go out and see the world outside." With those words, the two closed their eyes and resumed their respective cultivation.
Meanwhile, Zhang Qing had frozen in front of an object for quite a long time. In the valley before him, there were no other exotic flowers or rare herbs, not even a single ordinary blade of grass; right in the center stood only a single gourd vine radiating misty spiritual Qi.
Could this be the legendary Xiantian Gourd Vine of the Primordial World? Following the vine downward, he saw a lump of earthy-yellow breathing soil piled at the base of the gourd vine, radiating waves of earth-elemental power.