Chapter Eighty-Nine: Seeking Chen Mu

Spring came and went in the blink of an eye. Before long, the season had turned, and Chen Mu and the others had spent nearly a month and a half in secluded cultivation within the Starridge Mountains. During that time, Chen Mu’s skill in alchemy had advanced astonishingly; he had already become capable of refining second-grade pills.

Over these weeks, he had also refined enough evil qi pills for Zhang Jiudan and Chen Feng, allowing them to slowly reopen their yuan veins. After they switched to the Violet Sky Art given by Rou'er, the pace at which their veins reopened was quite encouraging. They had originally opened the thirty-six Heavenly Dipper yuan veins, and now they had reached forty-nine.

The road ahead was long, but in another two or three years, they would be able to open all one hundred and eight veins.

Of course, this could not be compared with Chen Mu. He swallowed evil qi pills by the handful, and with the black pearl guarding his spirit and healing his yuan veins, he could naturally shorten the time by a great margin.

But others could not. Too many evil qi pills would rot the mind with baleful energy, and they would also inflict severe damage upon the yuan veins. That was why no one else could imitate Chen Mu.

...

Beyond the Starridge Mountains, the Great Xia realm was in turmoil.

With the arrival of a Soul Realm cultivator from the Azure Expanse Dao Sect, the powers of Great Xia were thrown into alarm. The Azure Expanse Dao Sect held a grand celebration for their ancestor, Zhong Tianyao, to mark his emergence from seclusion, and invited the major factions to attend. This was a display of authority; how could the leaders of the various sects and powers dare to refuse?

Yet this show of strength was only secondary. The true intent was that Zhong Tianyao proposed establishing an alliance in Great Xia, led by the Azure Expanse Dao Sect. To found an alliance within Great Xia, not with Great Xia at its head but with their sect in command, already spoke volumes.

The Azure Expanse Dao Sect simply had the arrogance to do as it pleased. After all, when a Soul Realm cultivator stood before you, what could you do?

The imperial house of Great Xia remained silent. In truth, they still possessed a trump card, only one that could not be used lightly. Though Great Xia did not have a Soul Realm cultivator, it did have a bloodline empowerment formation left behind by its ancestor.

So long as they were within the imperial capital and activated that formation, the strength of the Great Xia Emperor could be temporarily raised to a level capable of contending with a Soul Realm cultivator. For that reason, they did not fear the Azure Expanse Dao Sect.

The Azure Expanse Dao Sect knew this, and precisely because they knew it, they intended to unite all the forces and form an alliance, one they had already named the Dao Alliance.

Once the Dao Alliance took shape, Great Xia would effectively cease to exist in anything but name. The Great Xia Emperor could only possess Soul Realm power by cowering within the imperial capital; outside its walls, he would merely be an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator.

Thus, after the Dao Alliance was established, the whole of Great Xia would fall into the pocket of the Azure Expanse Dao Sect. The sect had invited the Great Xia imperial house as well, but whether the imperial house joined no longer mattered.

It was as if they were saying: allowing you to join is a favor. In any case, all the land of Great Xia will eventually belong to our Azure Expanse Dao Sect. Though they did not proclaim themselves emperor in Great Xia, in time the people would naturally learn who the true master of Great Xia was.

So the imperial house remained silent, neither agreeing nor refusing. Yet for Zhong Tianyao’s emergence celebration, Emperor Xiahou Longchen personally attended, and with a most deferential demeanor.

At the same time, Blood Heaven, who had long roamed free and unchecked, learned that a Soul Realm cultivator had appeared within Great Xia and immediately went into hiding.

Zhong Tianyao also heard that a demon had infiltrated Great Xia, and that this being possessed the ability to devour blood and qi. That piqued his interest greatly; perhaps this demon carried some method by which he could further increase his lifespan.

Thus he called upon the various sects and powers to jointly issue warrants for the capture of Chen Mu and Blood Heaven. The public reason for Chen Mu’s warrant was that he had committed too many killings and had old grudges with the Azure Expanse Dao Sect. But only the Azure Expanse Dao Sect itself knew the true reason: the vitality power within Chen Mu.

As for Blood Heaven, though the charges against him were similar to Chen Mu’s, some sects truly wanted him dead as soon as possible. After all, demons were not human, and a foreign race inevitably harbored foreign intentions.

Zhong Tianyao, too, with a degree of curiosity toward Blood Heaven, announced the warrant together with the other sects.

By then, Blood Heaven had already concealed himself among the masses. It seemed he knew some art of transformation, able to alter his appearance at will. That was why he had never been found.

Blood Heaven’s current strength had already edged past Chen Mu at full battle power. His cultivation had reached the complete foundation stage, and his ordinary combat strength had attained the complete Nascent Soul level.

Coincidentally, Chen Mu’s cultivation had also broken through to the complete foundation stage during this same period. However, even if he activated the Bloodburn Shift, his combat strength would still be a small realm below Blood Heaven’s, at most the late Nascent Soul level.

And that late Nascent Soul level was not even his normal strength; it could be maintained only for the brief span of a single stick of incense. Such was the gap between him and an old monster like Blood Heaven, who had seized another’s body.

Still, whether it was Chen Mu or Blood Heaven, neither dared emerge openly and make enemies of all Great Xia. They could only keep themselves hidden.

At this moment, Zhong Tianyao was searching everywhere for Chen Mu. With his lifespan nearly exhausted, whether he might continue living in the future now depended entirely on the vitality power in Chen Mu’s possession. Zhong Tianyao would stop at nothing to find him, yet Chen Mu had vanished as though into thin air.

Later, Zhong Tianyao recalled that Chen Mu had been accompanied by several spirit beasts, and the place most famous for such creatures could only be the Starridge Mountains.

But what sort of place were the Starridge Mountains? Deep within them lay forbidden ground for humankind. Spirit beasts and humans were mortal enemies, at least on the Yuan Yao Continent.

So how could they have hidden away in the depths of the Starridge Mountains? Yet when one considered Chen Mu’s ability to subdue spirit beasts, the people of the Azure Expanse Dao Sect could not help but think in that direction.

Since the ancient war between the righteous path and the demonic cultivators left both sides grievously weakened, no one had possessed the power to venture deep into the Starridge Mountains and explore them. Naturally, the depths of the mountains became a forbidden zone that humans could not set foot in.

Only the outer Starridge Forest had become a paradise for cultivators to hunt and challenge themselves in, but that was merely the outskirts, only a fraction of the mountains’ true extent. For this reason, Zhong Tianyao remained deeply wary of the mountain depths.

Still, since he had found a lead, he planned to inquire in the towns near the entrance to the Starridge Mountains about Chen Mu and the others.

Sure enough, in a small town not far from the Valley of Observing Stars, at the point where one entered the Starridge Mountains, spies from the Azure Expanse Dao Sect discovered information suggesting that Chen Mu and the others had gone inside. According to the descriptions of their appearance, they really did seem very similar. It was said that Chen Mu often remained inside for a very long time before coming out, hardly like someone entering to adventure and hunt spirit beasts.

After learning this, the people of the Azure Expanse Dao Sect were already seven or eight parts certain that Chen Mu and the others were hiding within the Starridge Mountains. Moreover, according to the local residents, Chen Mu seemed to have been active in this very town before.

Indeed, the secret of Chen Mu’s Flesh-Regenerating Pill had first been exposed here. Back then, Meng Rushan bought one in this town to treat his grandfather’s internal injuries, only to discover its mysteries. That was the very origin of the destruction of Chen Mu’s sect, the expulsion of his father, and the imprisonment of his elder brother.

Once Zhong Tianyao learned that Chen Mu had indeed entered the Starridge Mountains, he immediately began weighing the pros and cons. So long as Chen Mu had not hidden too deep within, their Azure Expanse Dao Sect could still go in and investigate.

What he feared most now was encountering a fourth-tier spirit beast within. If he truly ran into one, then even if he did not die, he would be severely wounded before managing to escape. And with his remaining lifespan, such injury would mean death was near.

He did not have much time left. To survive, he could only make a trip into the Starridge Mountains.

Zhong Tianyao brought no one with him. The sect master of the Azure Expanse Dao Sect had only just seized a new body and had not yet recovered his strength, while the deputy sect master and the other elders were too weak to be of any real use even if brought along.

As for the imperial house and the other sects, that was even more impossible. He did not want the secret of the vitality power to leak out. So Zhong Tianyao entered the mountain range alone.

He used his divine sense to scout the way, searching through the vast, dense forest for traces of Chen Mu. The deeper he went into the mountains, the heavier his heart became.

Because this meant Chen Mu really had gone deep into the mountain range. He was able to survive in there, and not only survive, but survive while bringing others with him.

For a mere foundation-stage cultivator to accomplish such a feat was simply beyond belief. These mountains swarmed with spirit beasts that attacked on sight; he was deeply curious how Chen Mu had managed it.

Along the way, he pressed straight forward, exploring every place his divine sense could reach. In order to save time, he slaughtered many spirit beasts and did not detour around them as he pushed deeper into the mountains.

With Zhong Tianyao’s arrival, Rou'er, who had been by Chen Mu’s side guiding his cultivation, immediately sensed something was wrong, for he had already felt Zhong Tianyao’s aura drawing near from far away.