Wang Changsheng stroked his chin, which lacked any stubble, and remarked with a pained expression, "Brother Yelin’s growth is just too rapid. Two months ago, he hadn’t even touched a sword, and now he’s going back and forth with Song Lingtian. Although he’s slightly losing ground, he won’t be defeated in the short term... His mana is already approaching the Qi Condensation 1st Layer. Does he really only have a mid-grade Spiritual Root?"
"Why do I get the feeling that if I don’t put in more effort, I’m going to end up in third place?"
Chapter 19: News
The reason for Yelin's astonishing rate of growth was that the medicinal properties of the pearl Xiaobai had fed him previously remained in his body. As he cultivated, his body fully absorbed that power, transforming it into his base of cultivation.
For the time being, Yelin still didn't know exactly what kind of heavenly treasure Xiaobai had fed him; he hadn't found any similar items in the book "Sights and Sounds of the Seeking Dragon Mountains."
Half an hour later, the light mist gradually dissipated, and the number of cultivators practicing sword forms on the training ground increased. Song Lingtian and Yelin simultaneously returned their iron swords to their scabbards.
Yelin bowed respectfully to Song Lingtian to show his gratitude.
"Senior Brother Song’s sword technique is becoming increasingly sharp. I fear it won’t be long before you step into the second realm of the Taixuan Sword Technique: the Lingxuan Realm."
The so-called Lingxuan Realm allowed a practitioner to directly commune with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth through their sword technique, unleashing a terrifying power equivalent to twice their base mana.
Song Lingtian had officially entered the Qi Condensation 1st Layer a month ago. Having been accepted as an inner sect disciple by the Master of Spirit Sword Peak—skipping the rank of chore disciple entirely—he had been taught more advanced techniques. He now enjoyed some fame within the Taixuan Sect, and his status was no longer what it once was.
When he had first joined, Yelin called him Brother Song, but now he had to address him as Senior Brother Song.
Even so, Song Lingtian still came over every few days to spar with Yelin. Yelin’s rapid progress in swordsmanship and footwork was entirely due to Song Lingtian’s guidance.
After sparring for so long, Song Lingtian remained calm and composed, not even a hair out of place, while Yelin was drenched in sweat and panting wildly, his physical body clearly pushed to its limit.
Afterward, Song Lingtian tossed his sword to Yelin and beckoned Wang Changsheng with a finger. With a "whoosh," Wang Changsheng stepped forward, and the two began to fight, a series of crackling explosions erupting between them.
Whenever Song Lingtian finished sparring with Yelin, he would practice fist techniques with Wang Changsheng. This was his way of looking out for his two younger brothers as the leader of the "Longevity Society."
What was truly absurd was that Song Lingtian’s proficiency was not limited to swordsmanship; his fist techniques and footwork were equally impeccable.
Wang Changsheng had also reached the Qi Condensation 1st Layer half a month ago, but when it came to fist fighting, he was still no match for Song Lingtian.
However, Wang Changsheng had been accepted into Thunder Cloud Peak as an outer sect disciple. Possessing a high-grade Spiritual Root, he too had bypassed the chore disciple stage. His specialty was spellcasting, not fisticuffs.
On the training ground, Wang Changsheng was forced into a retreat by Song Lingtian’s "Tiger Roaring Fist."
"Take this! Palm Thunder!" Wang Changsheng shouted lightly.
Suddenly, arcs of electricity danced across Wang Changsheng’s entire body, finally gathering in his palm. He struck out at Song Lingtian. With a thunderous boom, a serpent of lightning shot from his hand toward Song Lingtian.
Unexpectedly, Song Lingtian merely tilted his body casually. The arc of electricity brushed past him, struck the ground, and vanished without a trace. Then, with a single punch, he sent Wang Changsheng flying back a full meter.
The yellow-grade low-level spell "Palm Thunder," which Wang Changsheng had just learned, was loud and flashy, but its accuracy left much to be desired.
When he scrambled up, Wang Changsheng was covered in dust, his face slightly pale. It was clear that the "Palm Thunder" had been a massive drain; his Dantian was likely completely drained of mana.
He panted heavily and said, "I give up, I give up! Senior Brother Song is just too strong. You truly deserve to be called the number one genius of the Taixuan Sect this year! Terrifying! Simply terrifying!"
By now, Yelin had recovered his strength, and the three headed to the Gathering Edge Pavilion for breakfast.
Song Lingtian said coolly, "You committed a taboo in your use of spells. A spell attack must be unexpected. Your Palm Thunder condensed too slowly, and you gave me a warning in advance. Even if I hadn’t dodged, Brother Yelin would have been able to as well."
Wang Changsheng chuckled, "I was just worried that the power of the spell was too great—if I’d accidentally injured you, I wouldn't have been able to take responsibility."
Song Lingtian replied with a touch of cold arrogance, "Little Fatty Wang, you are too confident in your spells, and minor injuries from sparring do not violate sect rules."
Wang Changsheng: "..."
Then, Song Lingtian said to Yelin, "Regarding the matter of directly becoming a high-level chore disciple of the Spirit Beast Peak, I have already inquired about it from one of the senior brothers."
Song Lingtian and Wang Changsheng were able to skip the chore disciple phase entirely due to the advantage of their high-grade Spiritual Roots. After all, letting those with high-grade Spiritual Roots spend years doing chores before becoming outer sect disciples would be a true waste of talent.
Yelin, however, only had a mid-grade Spiritual Root. There was no way for him to be promoted directly to an outer sect disciple; he would have to perform chores for a period.
But in the Taixuan Sect, chore disciples were divided into ordinary and high-level.
Ordinary chore disciples were sent to the public areas on the outskirts of the sect to manage herb fields and plant spiritual crops, providing the sect with spiritual herbs and grains to earn contribution points.
High-level chore disciples joined the main peaks early, for example, to tend to low-level spirit beasts and Spirit Insects at Spirit Beast Peak, or to help smelt ore and forge swords at Spirit Sword Peak.
Yelin’s plan was to go straight to Spirit Beast Peak and start working with Spirit Insects. That way, he could eventually secure a legal identity for Xiaobai and Xiaoqiang. Although they had learned secret techniques to hide their auras and shrink their size, they still couldn't be brought out into the open.
Song Lingtian continued, "Every year, there are many cultivators who want to become high-level chore disciples, and each peak has its own assessment process. Spirit Beast Peak tests for patience, perseverance, and spiritual affinity."
"Spiritual affinity is the ability to communicate with spirit beasts and insects. Some people, upon entering the Qi Condensation 1st Layer, have a natural spiritual affinity that allows them to communicate with birds and beasts, though most cultivators do not."
"Cultivators with strong spiritual affinity are naturally suited to raising spirit beasts and insects."
Hearing this, Yelin’s eyes brightened.
"Thank you, Senior Brother, for looking into this for me."
Wang Changsheng asked, "Brother Yelin, are you asking about this because you’re about to break through to the Qi Condensation 1st Layer?"
Yelin nodded slightly. "I feel it will be within these next few days!"
Strictly speaking, only by breaking through to the Qi Condensation 1st Layer could one be considered to have truly entered the world of cultivation. A Qi Condensation 1st Layer cultivator and a Spiritual Root awakener who hadn't reached that stage were two completely different things.
Both Wang Changsheng and Song Lingtian flashed looks of surprise.
Wang Changsheng remarked, "I seriously suspect you’re actually a high-grade Spiritual Root. Your cultivation speed is ridiculously fast... you’re almost catching up to me!"
Yelin laughed helplessly. "If I had a high-grade Spiritual Root, why would I be trying to become a high-level chore disciple? I won't hide it from you—years ago, while I was still in the mortal world, I accidentally swallowed a glowing pearl. I still haven't figured out what kind of heavenly treasure it was."
Song Lingtian realized, "So that’s it! Brother Yelin, you are truly a person of great fortune to have accidentally swallowed a heavenly treasure... My family’s imperial treasury doesn't even have many of those. My father keeps them under heavy guard to offer to the Foundation Establishment cultivators in the sect. He wouldn't even let me smell them, let alone eat them."
Chapter 20: Heavenly Demons, Earth Demons, and Human Demons
Song Lingtian said with some envy, "So that’s it! Brother Yelin, you are truly a person of great fortune to have accidentally swallowed a heavenly treasure... My family’s imperial treasury does have a few, but my father keeps them under heavy guard to offer to the Foundation Establishment cultivators in the sect. He wouldn't even let me smell them, let alone eat them."
Wang Changsheng was also envious to the extreme: "Treasures that gather the essence of the sun and moon are hard to buy even with money. Brother Yelin, your Aura of Destiny is heaven-reaching!"
Accidentally swallowing a heavenly treasure was neither common nor rare in the cultivation world.
It was common to hear such rumors and stories, but if one were to investigate, among the tens of thousands of disciples in any major sect, there were few who had actually consumed one in the mortal world.
Heavenly treasures were generally guarded by powerful demonic beasts, or they were the crystallized mana of a demon itself. To eat one, one had to first slay the beast.
And what power did a mortal have to do that?
Only those with explosive luck might stumble upon a beast that had died of old age or perished for some other reason.
Yelin’s story was half-true, half-false, a cover to hide the abnormality of his rapid cultivation speed.
Although Yelin only had a mid-grade Spiritual Root, he had discovered more uses for the Insect Emperor Ancient Ring. For instance, he could cultivate the wasteland inside that space, planting flowers, grass, and trees. As long as he consumed Spirit Stones, they would grow several, or even dozens of times faster than in the outside world.
If he could grow ordinary plants, he could grow spiritual herbs and medicines!
However, Yelin currently had no seeds for spiritual herbs. Once he became an outer sect disciple, his resources and range of activity would be much larger, allowing him to conduct more experiments in that space.
Yelin had even borrowed three Spirit Stones from Wang Changsheng for his experiments, using his own cultivation as the excuse.
Today was the full moon. In a private room at the Gathering Edge Pavilion, the three exchanged information about the sect. Rather than three, it was mostly Yelin listening, as he had no secrets that were useful to Song Lingtian or Wang Changsheng.
Song Lingtian said, "Yesterday, a patrol team in the Seeking Dragon Mountains cavern was ambushed by the remnants of the Demon Brake Sect in league with the Earth Demon race. The Foundation Establishment cultivator leading the Taiji Sect team was killed in action, and none of the fifty Qi Condensation cultivators survived; their deaths were exceptionally gruesome. Our Taixuan Sect also had over ten inner sect disciples in that patrol, and they all perished."
"Beyond that, within our Great Xuan Dynasty, the chaos caused by demons and evil cultivators is increasing. Every day, thousands of commoners die at their hands, and thousands more are kidnapped, their fates unknown."
"The activities of the demon sects are becoming more frequent. The alliance between the human demons and the Earth Demons is now a settled fact—this is unprecedented. The high-level figures of the three great sects are all considering strategies to deal with it."
"I believe that in the near future, an Immortal-Demon War in the Seeking Dragon Mountains cultivation world is inevitable!"
Wang Changsheng’s face turned slightly pale upon hearing this. He cursed, "Damn, what bad luck. An Immortal-Demon War breaks out once every five hundred years on average, and it just happens to fall on our generation—right when we’ve just entered the cultivation world! If a war really starts, we’ll all be sent up as cannon fodder!"
"The three of us wouldn't even make a ripple if we were thrown into the maw of that war. If billions of Earth Demons break out of the caverns, the cultivation world of the Seeking Dragon Mountains will be scorched earth, and the mortal world will become a purgatory!"
Yelin now understood very clearly that demons were divided into three types: human demons, Earth Demons, and Heavenly Demons.
Human demons were humans who practiced demonic arts—cruel, murderous, and possessed of boundless desire, stopping at nothing to seek immortality.
Earth Demons were a race of subterranean Asuras. They were natural destroyers and devourers, fond of farming humans for their blood and flesh.
Heavenly Demons were demons from the Outer Domain Starry Sky. They were bodiless, formless masses of spiritual consciousness. They loved to devour human negative emotions and possess human bodies. The Outer Domain Starry Sky was infinite, and thus the Heavenly Demons were also infinite.
Among them, human demons were the most common, followed by the Earth Demon Asuras, while Heavenly Demons were the rarest.
But in terms of danger, Heavenly Demons were at the top of the list. Wherever a Heavenly Demon descended, nothing survived; every living thing became their target for possession. Each descent left thousands of miles in deathly silence.
Earth Demons were second in danger. The underground world was as vast as the surface, and their numbers were in the billions. If human cultivators lost their suppression of the cavern entrances and the Earth Demons surged up, mortals would become their farmed food. They were extremely strong, extremely vicious, extremely cruel, and extremely bloodthirsty!
Human demons were the least dangerous. At the end of the day, they were still human and would not exterminate the common people; they needed mortals as a foundation so their legacy wouldn't be broken. The countries controlled by demon sects were called "Demon Nations."
Historically, human demons had always stood in opposition to both Earth Demons and Heavenly Demons.
But now, the human demons of the Seeking Dragon Mountains had gone mad enough to ally with the Earth Demons. For the righteous paths of the Seeking Dragon Mountains, this was undoubtedly terrible news.
Wang Changsheng said, "I have some news you might not be aware of. Perhaps to deal with the current crisis, the three righteous sects will all modify their sect rules. They will intensify competition among disciples, increase investment in cultivating them, and communication between disciples of different sects will become more frequent."
"I heard from my father that some elders have already suggested that disciples fighting and killing each other should no longer violate sect rules. In other words, our days ahead might not be as comfortable as they are now!"
"Of course, this proposal is too radical to be fully adopted; otherwise, we’d be no different from the demon sects. Most likely, they’ll adopt parts of it—for example, killing a fellow sect member will no longer carry the death penalty, but be replaced by other, milder punishments."
Yelin’s expression changed slightly, while Song Lingtian looked thoughtful.
In the two months Yelin had been in the Taixuan Sect, he hadn't seen a single fight to the death among disciples. Everything relied on strict sect rules that no one dared to break. In this environment, it could be said that cultivators lived very comfortably with little pressure.
Conflicts between cultivators were usually resolved by the Taixuan Sect’s law enforcement team, which arbitrated based on morality and reason—whoever was right, was right, and whoever needed to pay, paid.
It was a world of righteousness and logic.
But if the rules were changed, when conflicts arose, the cultivators would have to settle them with their fists. Whoever was stronger was right—the law of the jungle.
The environment would change completely!
Song Lingtian said coolly, "Whether the rules change or not, we must improve our strength as quickly as possible. I believe that in the future, each of us will face the challenge of the demonic path directly. Just as Little Fatty Wang said, if you’re weak, you’re just cannon fodder. You’ll die without leaving a ripple. If you’re strong, at least you’ll have the ability to protect yourself!"
"If we can survive the Immortal-Demon War, we will all achieve something!"
Chapter 21: Breaking Through to the Qi Condensation 1st Layer
After the gathering at the Gathering Edge Pavilion ended, the three bid farewell and went their separate ways.
Under Yelin’s envious gaze, Song Lingtian stepped onto his flying sword and soared gracefully into the clouds. The round and chubby Wang Changsheng, still a bit awkward with sword flight, didn't dare fly too high, leaving the pavilion in a wobbly, zig-zagging motion only a few dozen meters off the ground.
Flying on a sword was one of the basic abilities of a cultivator, a true immortal skill that Yelin yearned for.
However, he couldn't do it yet.
Only by stepping into the Qi Condensation 1st Layer, possessing the mana of a strong horse, could one use that mana to steer a flying sword and bear the weight of several hundred pounds into the sky.
With powerful mana, one could not only fly on a sword but also use mana to lift their own body—the ability to walk on air.
However, at the 1st Layer of Qi Condensation, this ability was abysmal. The flight speed was extremely slow, and it consumed so much mana that it couldn't be sustained. Usually, cultivators didn't use this ability.
But it was enough to keep a cultivator from dying if they fell from a great height.
Currently, Song Lingtian lived at Spirit Sword Peak, cultivating the sword path. Because of his exceptional talent, he was already somewhat famous within the Taixuan Sect. With the resources tilted toward him at Spirit Sword Peak, his strength was growing by leaps and bounds.
Wang Changsheng practiced spells and also received considerable attention from the peak master at Thunder Cloud Peak. Combined with his wealthy family background, he never lacked for Spirit Stones or pills, and his cultivation grew rapidly.
Only Yelin was the most pitiable. He still lived in the reserve chore disciple dormitory, had no one to rely on within the sect, and had only a mid-grade Spiritual Root. He could integrate into the "Longevity Society" circle mainly because Song Lingtian and Wang Changsheng found him mysterious and possessing extraordinary potential.
If he were just a truly ordinary mid-grade Spiritual Root cultivator, even if they were neighbors, they wouldn't have looked after him so much.
Yelin was very clear on this point.
Yelin walked alone along the shaded path. A light breeze brushed by, and the Taixuan Sect remained quiet and peaceful.
On the training ground, fellow disciples were training diligently, exchanging fist techniques, footwork, and sword skills...
On the road, cultivators were in groups, chatting and laughing, very harmonious.
But all of this was built upon the existing sect rules. Once the rules were changed, all of this would cease to exist. It was foreseeable that the Taixuan Sect would become oppressive and bloody.
And if the rules didn't change, how could flowers grown in a greenhouse fight against the brutal alliance of Earth Demons and human demons?
Therefore, Yelin also believed that the sect rules were about to change; the Taixuan Sect was in for a shake-up!
He clenched his fists tightly.
"Song Lingtian and Wang Changsheng are good to me, but we are just friends. They can't resolve every problem I have. To gain a foothold, I must have sufficient strength myself!"
"I must survive the Immortal-Demon War!"
Yelin absolutely did not want to be cannon fodder in the upcoming war. He had always been the type of person who wanted to hold his fate in his own hands.
In the mortal world, he wanted to change his destiny so he wouldn't be a slave or a peasant.
In the cultivation world, he also wanted to change his destiny so he wouldn't be cannon fodder!
He had to become strong!
Although Yelin had always wanted to become strong, at this moment, the desire was stronger than ever!
Returning to his dormitory, a small white snake with scales climbed out of Yelin’s left sleeve, and a pitch-black mutant cockroach with huge pincers crawled out from his right cuff.
These were Xiaobai and Xiaoqiang after using their shrinking technique.
To protect Yelin, they usually lurked in his clothes to deal with any potential danger. Because they had learned the secret techniques from the Insect Emperor Ancient Ring, unless a Foundation Establishment powerhouse was close to Yelin, ordinary Qi Condensation cultivators couldn't detect anything abnormal.
Xiaobai and Xiaoqiang returned to their normal size.
Yelin stroked Xiaobai’s python head and then Xiaoqiang’s smooth shell.
"From here on out, we will face many challenges. One wrong step and we might perish. To survive, we have to work hard together!"
Xiaobai said, "We will definitely survive. We will protect our master well and not let the master suffer a single bit of harm!"
Xiaoqiang also chirped to agree with Xiaobai.
Yelin said, "That won’t do. Not only can I not die, but you cannot be harmed either. You are both my precious little darlings that I’ve raised!"
As he spoke, Yelin drew his sharp iron sword and lightly sliced his fingers, leaving two small bloody wounds.
Xiaobai and Xiaoqiang began to drink Yelin’s blood.
"Eat more, get your fill..."