Thus, the five of them ceased their activities.
Xie Ziyin returned to deal with his ruined batch of elixirs, while Shen Hefeng continued attempting divinations.
Yin Xuan simply sat on the ground, leaning against a rock with his eyes closed, his expression serene.
Li Zhuohua glanced at him. Since Lu Santu was being watched over by Senior Brother Yin, she might as well resume her mountain sprinting!
Watching her senior sister whirl away like a tornado, Wen Shuangbai yawned but found herself growing even more awake.
Since sleep was out of the question, she found a nearby rock to meditate upon, simultaneously practicing the second level of the Luminous Spirit Heart Method while reflecting on her progress.
Three months had passed since she obtained the second level of the heart method from Elder Luminous Spirit. But accounting for the two months spent in the Endless House, it had actually been over two years.
During those two-plus years, Wen Shuangbai practiced the heart method as naturally as a dancer stretching daily.
Through relentless repetition, her spiritual bones had been refined to greater purity, her entire body brimming with surging spiritual energy. Moreover, her daily efforts in artifact forging had honed her control over spiritual energy to remarkable precision.
Wen Shuangbai could distinctly feel the power she now wielded.
This sense of personal strength filled her with a deep, unshakable confidence.
Amidst the dense forest of the mountain wilderness, the young woman sat with her eyes closed, her head slightly tilted back, a faint smile playing on her lips.
The wind tousled her loose hair, the green ribbon tying it fluttering in the night breeze.
For the first time, free from any utilitarian purpose, Wen Shuangbai played with her spiritual energy purely for joy.
The discordant notes of a flute drowned out the faint rustling sounds around her.
Soon, the cultivators watching through the Mystic Heaven Mirror saw the rock Wen Shuangbai sat upon being intricately carved into an elaborate peony pattern using her heart method’s spiritual energy.
Even more astonishingly, the base of the rock had been hollowed into nothing more than a slender stem, supporting the entire weight above.
The spectators gasped in awe.
[!!! My heavens, she’s incredible!]
[So this is the power of a Tribulation Crossing Realm artifact forger? Tonight’s revelations are like a knife stabbing my backside—unexpected but unforgettable!]
[Let’s not forget, when Qingling Mountain first joined the competition, all six of them were only at the Enlightened Aperture Realm. Now, except for Lu Santu, who’s still stuck there trying to break into the Void Piercing Realm, the other five have all reached the Tribulation Crossing Realm—two whole realms higher!]
[Exactly! Back then, their overall cultivation was the lowest among the seven great sects. But now they’re second only to the Purple Flame Realm! Catching up to them is just a matter of time!]
[“Only a little behind”? What nonsense! The seven great realms mark the Tribulation Crossing Realm as the watershed—countless cultivators spend their entire lives unable to break through it. I’d say these Qingling Mountain disciples have already peaked.]
[Hahaha, this is hilarious! Dreaming of surpassing our Purple Flame Realm? Keep dreaming! Our Senior Brother Di Qi is a once-in-a-millennium genius of the Mystic Heaven Sect—he reached the Great Vehicle Realm at sixteen and is now just a step away from the Sublime Perfection Realm. And our Senior Sister Yanran has long been at the high stage of the Tribulation Crossing Realm, with the rest of our senior brothers and sisters not far behind. What does Qingling Mountain have to compare?]
[Almost all the mid-to-high-tier demon beasts in this secret realm have been claimed by our Purple Flame Realm—our demon cores are practically overflowing. Meanwhile, Qingling Mountain can only scavenge the scraps we leave behind. How dare you even talk about catching up?]
[If Qingling Mountain manages second place in this competition, it’ll be a miracle. Surpassing us for first? Impossible. The Purple Flame Realm will dominate by a landslide!]
[Why are there so many dogs barking at night? Can’t you mutts go howl in your own kennels? This is only the third round—two more remain. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.]
[Exactly! If you’re so confident about taking first place, why are you always spying on Qingling Mountain’s progress? Seems like you’re scared, huh? Hahaha!]
The Mystic Heaven Mirror buzzed endlessly with arguments.
Inside the secret realm, Wen Shuangbai opened her eyes, ready to admire her handiwork, only to nearly jump in surprise.
“Damn it, why’d you sneak up on me?” She glared at Xie Ziyin, who stood idly nearby, his white robes ghostly in the darkness. “Lurking around like some wandering spirit—who are you trying to scare?”
The man shot her an irritated glance and retorted flatly, “What, can’t I come out to admire the moon?”
Wen Shuangbai looked up at the sky.
After heavy rains a few days prior, the night was now clear and studded with stars.
But there was no moon in sight.
She raised an eyebrow. “…Admire the moon?”
Across from them, Yin Xuan, who had been resting against a rock, chuckled. “Hah.”
What a flimsy excuse.
Xie Ziyin: “…”
The man lifted his gaze, scanning the sky stubbornly, but indeed, the moon was nowhere to be found.
He frowned slightly. How could it be missing?
After a pause, he asked, “When was the last time any of you saw the moon in Star Moon Valley?”
Hearing the gravity in Xie Ziyin’s tone, Yin Xuan opened his eyes, then rolled onto his back, hands behind his head as he stared at the starry expanse.
“Strange,” Yin Xuan mused slowly. “There really is no moon.”
Truthfully, none of the six were particularly poetic souls who cared about the moon’s beauty. Ordinarily, they wouldn’t spare a thought for the night sky.
Had Lu Jiayao not been playing his flute in meditation, they’d still be holed up in the cave, each absorbed in their own tasks.
Wen Shuangbai studied the stars, recalling how, upon first entering the secret realm, she’d stood outside the cave after accepting Xie Ziyin’s venomous fang and noticed the moon’s absence.
At the time, she’d been too preoccupied with crossing the Celestial Mountains and finding the Star Moon Divine Tree to dwell on it. Later, after Lu Jiayao fell victim to the puppet curse, she’d forgotten the detail entirely.
Strange. Very strange.
The secret realm’s name, the divine tree’s name—both bore the words “Star Moon.”
So why did Star Moon Valley’s night sky show only stars but never the moon?
Wen Shuangbai murmured, “Have we been too presumptuous in this round?”
Presumptuous in assuming the key to clearing the trial lay with the Star Moon Divine Tree.
Could it be otherwise? Might the answer lie in the words “Star Moon” themselves?
“We need to find a way to reach the sky,” Wen Shuangbai said, squinting at the heavens.
The Purple Flame Realm had slain countless high-tier demon beasts, likely amassing plenty of sacred stones. Meanwhile, with their navigation failing, Qingling Mountain had gained nothing. To avoid falling too far behind, they needed a different approach!
A thought struck both Xie Ziyin and Wen Shuangbai simultaneously. They locked eyes and spoke in unison: “The Celestial Mountains.”
Once the idea took root, Wen Shuangbai immediately hopped off the rock, her eyes bright as she looked at Xie Ziyin. “I’ll go ask Shen Hefeng for a divination!”
Xie Ziyin frowned. “Didn’t his divinations stop working?”
“Maybe not for directions, but surely for gauging fortune or misfortune?” Without waiting for a reply, she dashed back into the cave to find Shen Hefeng.
The man glanced at the stone she had carved, examined it briefly, then casually tucked the peony stone into his storage ring before following her inside.
Yin Xuan laughed at him. "Hahaha."
Xie Ziyin: "..."
---
Shen Hefeng spent a long time divining this hexagram.
It wasn’t until the dawn outside blazed like fire that the signs finally took shape.
"Well?" Wen Shuangbai asked.
The baby-faced Taoist, whose hairline was rapidly receding, stared at the markings on the tortoise shell and lamented, "We're doomed. In all my years wandering the martial world, I’ve never seen such an ominous omen."
"?" Wen Shuangbai leaned in to look.
On the tortoise shell was a mass of black lines forming flames, within which an egg was being roasted, its shell cracked.
Wen Shuangbai opened her mouth, trying to spin a more auspicious interpretation.
But the overwhelming sense of foreboding radiating from the hexagram was palpable even to her, an artifact cultivator.
She turned to Shen Hefeng and said seriously, "Shen Hefeng, Xie Ziyin wasn’t wrong—you really have lost your touch."
"I may be directionally challenged, but my divination isn’t flawed," Shen Hefeng muttered mysteriously, counting on his fingers. "This hexagram suggests burial in flames. The road ahead will be treacherous, fraught with peril, and far from optimistic."
"However," the Taoist added, "the egg isn’t completely shattered, meaning there’s still a sliver of hope."
Their journey so far had been anything but easy.
Wen Shuangbai wasn’t overly concerned. To her, divination didn’t dictate life or death.
She had sought Shen Hefeng’s reading in hopes of avoiding misfortune.
Pondering, she asked, "You said there’d be fire?"
Shen Hefeng: "Yeah."
That made it even stranger.
When they first faced the Sky-Piercing Mountains, they had considered burning the entire forest down to clear a path.
But the trees and vines of the Sky-Piercing Mountains were impervious to ordinary flames.
Meaning this fire wouldn’t be ordinary.
"We have to try. What if it works?" Wen Shuangbai said. "In that case, let’s leave someone behind to play it safe."
As the saying went, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
If everyone was eliminated, their sacred stones would reset to zero. So, they couldn’t all take the risk together. Someone had to stay behind in the secret realm, surviving until the end.
The others would attempt to climb the Sky-Piercing Mountains to uncover the mysteries above.
If they encountered mortal danger, they could crush their Sacred Summoning Tokens to exit the Holy Tower immediately.
The real question was—who should stay?
The five of them exchanged glances.
Shen Hefeng looked at Lu Jiayao, who had stopped playing his flute and was now fully immersed in breaking through to the Void Piercing Realm. He grinned. "Let’s leave Lu Santu!"
But then he realized—the other four were all staring at… him??
Shen Hefeng: "???"
Xie Ziyin didn’t hold back. "Stop looking at others. You’re the clown here."
Yin Xuan smiled gently. "Lu Santu’s flute music is quite important to us."
Li Zhuohua, never one for tact, said bluntly, "You can’t even guide us anymore. You’re useless coming along."
"Besides, Lu Santu’s luck is good. Having him around puts my mind at ease," Wen Shuangbai added, patting Shen Hefeng without a shred of reluctance. "You’re on your own in the secret realm. Good luck, bye-bye."
That said, Wen Shuangbai believed the safest place in the entire secret realm was beneath the Star Moon Divine Tree’s massive hollow.
So, they escorted Shen Hefeng back, shoved him into the pit, then carried the meditating Lu Jiayao on his rock as they retraced their steps.
Shen Hefeng cursed as he picked himself up from the pit and vanished into the weeds. Settling down, he closed his eyes, attuning himself to the flow of heavenly energy, trying to restore the disrupted cosmic balance.
Though this was beyond his current realm, his heartless friends had a point.
You had to try. What if it worked?
---
Just before Wen Shuangbai’s group reached the Sky-Piercing Mountains, Lu Jiayao successfully broke through and awoke.
Wen Shuangbai, chewing on a fasting pill, turned to Xie Ziyin and mumbled, "See? I told you he’d wake up in time."
The man’s luck was no joke!
A cultivator in deep meditation couldn’t be carelessly moved.
Afraid of disrupting his breakthrough, the four had carried Lu Jiayao’s rock like a palanquin, inching forward with utmost caution.
Yin Xuan looked at Lu Jiayao and sincerely congratulated him. "Junior Brother Santu, you’re finally awake."
But Lu Jiayao had something even more exciting to share than his ascension to the Void Piercing Realm.
He leaped off the rock and lunged at his dear teammates, his tenor voice ringing with joy. "Aaaah! You chose me over Shen Hefeng! I’m so happy! You guys are the best!"
Wen Shuangbai, Xie Ziyin, and Li Zhuohua sidestepped in unison.
Only Yin Xuan, too lazy to dodge, was caught in the hug. He tilted his head and patted his junior brother’s head, admitting honestly, "Well… I kind of regretted it after we set out."
He should’ve picked Shen Hefeng—at least he wouldn’t have needed carrying.
Nearby, Wen Shuangbai asked curiously, "How did you know what happened?"
Lu Jiayao immediately launched into a breathless ramble. "Of course I knew! I heard everything! I wanted to chime in so many times, but I held back—it’s been torture keeping quiet these past few days—"
The others: "……?"
They resumed their journey in silence. Li Zhuohua even hoisted the giant rock onto her shoulder.
Yin Xuan blinked and reminded her softly, "No need to carry it anymore. Junior Brother can walk on his own now."
Li Zhuohua declared, "I know. But I want to carry it!"
"……" Yin Xuan thought for a moment, then asked earnestly, "Then… Junior Sister Zhuohua, can I ride on it?"
Li Zhuohua shrugged. "If you don’t mind falling off."
So, Wen Shuangbai watched as her senior brother climbed onto the rock and lay flat, remaining perfectly still no matter how much it jostled.
She opened her mouth, then closed it, sidling up to Xie Ziyin instead. "I feel like everyone I’ve met since coming here is… a little unhinged."
Xie Ziyin, having left most of his pills with Shen Hefeng, was now busy replenishing his stock. Without looking up, he replied, "Why would you assume you’re normal?"
Wen Shuangbai: "……"
Her smile vanished as she stomped on his foot.
Xie Ziyin: "."
……
With Lu Jiayao awake, the group moved much faster, reaching the Sky-Piercing Mountains in half an hour.
The trees here resembled metasequoias—straight trunks with few branches, making them nearly impossible to climb.
After some thought, they decided to test whether they could fly up on their swords.
Lu Jiayao and Shen Hefeng were of similar build, so Wen Shuangbai handed Shen Hefeng’s set of vine-tree attire to him. Once all five of them were clad in the wooden suits, they made their way to the towering Skyreach Tree at the very edge, its peak piercing the clouds, and each leaped onto their swords.
Li Zhuohua’s Glowing Rainbow Sword was broader, so Wen Shuangbai boarded first.
Lu Jiayao tried to follow, only to be shoved aside by the tallest vine-tree figure among the five.
Lu Jiayao: "…"
Shaking his massive tree-head, he went to find his senior brother, Yin Xuan.
Once ready, a red and a silver sword shot into the sky, soaring upward without hesitation!
Through the narrow eye-slits of the wooden suit, Wen Shuangbai watched as they ascended higher and higher. The uneven treetops of the Skyreach Mountains receded below them, and the view ahead grew increasingly vast.
Yet, just as they reached an altitude equivalent to a dozen stories, the Glowing Rainbow Sword abruptly halted mid-air!
Li Zhuohua poured all her strength into it.
Under normal circumstances outside the Sacred Tower, she could have executed hundreds of aerial flips through the clouds with her swordcraft. But here, no matter how hard she tried, the Glowing Rainbow Sword refused to budge.
Moreover, as she pushed her sword-control technique to its limit, she distinctly felt an identical force rebound from an invisible barrier in the air.
The Glowing Rainbow Sword wobbled unsteadily—then plummeted straight down.
The silver sword, trailing behind and waiting for the red one to surge ahead, deftly swerved to avoid the collision.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Like a shooting star, the Glowing Rainbow Sword crashed into the ground, carving out a massive crater.
Trapped inside the cumbersome vine-tree suit, Wen Shuangbai was jolted senseless, her vision swimming with stars.
She lay in the dirt, catching her breath, and was about to roll over to unlatch the back panel and crawl out—
When another tree-suited figure suddenly rolled onto her, pinning her down.
With a crisp crack, Wen Shuangbai clearly heard her wooden leg snap under the weight.
Slowly, she lifted her gaze through the tiny eye-slits, meeting the gaze of the tree now crushing her.
Wen Shuangbai: "…"
Xie Ziyin: "…"
