Ye Xiuwen had instinctively used the last of his strength to toss Jun Xiaomo back up to the surface. His heart had barely considered the consequences.
There was only a single notion in his mind - and that was that Jun Xiaomo must not fall down into the Death"s Gorge with him.
The winds rushed past his ears with a swoos.h.i.+ng sound as the light at the end of the crevice grew further and further away. A shrill, heartrending cry rang out after him - "Martial brother!!!"
Ye Xiuwen grimaced.
Little martial sister is going to be extremely upset for a while, isn"t she? I guess it"s going to be like when she thought her little packrat had died.
Perhaps my little martial sister is going to cry again… But he knew that there was no way he could console her this time.
Bearing these regrets on his heart, Ye Xiuwen stared vacantly at the light at the end of the crevice as it grew smaller and smaller, until it had become nothing more than a slit. Then, just as the light vanished completely, Ye Xiuwen also slowly shut his eyes.
……
After some time, Ye Xiuwen finally regained consciousness once more. He had been roused to his senses by the waves of excruciating pain coming from within his body.
…I"m still alive?
Ye Xiuwen lifted his head, but he could no longer see the light at the end of the crevice. This was testament to the fact that he was now an incredible distance away from where Jun Xiaomo had been. There was no way Jun Xiaomo could still be visible to him now.
A sense of disappointment swelled up within his heart. Yet there was also some measure of relief and joy.
He was relieved that he was still alive. He was relieved that there was still hope that he could return. Ye Xiuwen knew that with Jun Xiaomo"s character, there was a good chance that she might do something silly when she realized something bad had happened to himself.
Perhaps she might even jump in after me…
It had to be said that Ye Xiuwen thoroughly understood Jun Xiaomo"s character. If not for the fact that her parents had arrived in the nick of time, Jun Xiaomo might very well have done what Ye Xiuwen had suspected.
Ye Xiuwen sighed lightly as he collected his thoughts. Then, he began to observe his surroundings.
…A net?
Ye Xiuwen had just noticed that he was lying on a ma.s.sive net. There were even some black shadows and silhouettes on this net, but he could hardly make out what those ent.i.ties were.
This net was incredibly malleable and springy, and it was the sole reason why Ye Xiuwen had not fallen to his death.
Ye Xiuwen struggled to sit up. Then, he gnashed his teeth as he painstakingly crawled to the end of the net… Along the way, he b.u.mped into some discolored, graying bones - both of humans and of spirit beasts.
This ma.s.sive net looked like it was something used for hunting preys or harvesting asuras.
Ye Xiuwen perked up his senses as he probed about vigilantly with his divine sense. His entire body was tensed up and ready to react for combat at any time.
Fortunately, he managed to get to the edge of the net uneventfully.
Ye Xiuwen finally heaved a sigh of relief as he climbed out of the net and landed on firm ground. He was still deep within the depths of Death"s Gorge, and his surroundings were completely filled with darkness. Not a single ounce of light penetrated this area.
"Ungh…" Ye Xiuwen groaned again as he clutched at his heart.
He had begun to show signs of a breakthrough since a little while ago. Unfortunately, this process of breakthrough had been forcibly shelved and interrupted by a series of unfortunate encounters. Right now, Ye Xiuwen"s meridians and Dantian were already bursting at the seams with the clas.h.i.+ng, chaotic spiritual energy leaping about within his body. He was at grave risk of imploding and dying if he did not quickly find a safe place to stabilize his body and breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage of cultivation.
There might not be enough time to look for a suitable safe haven anymore. Ye Xiuwen thought to himself, as he decided to resolve matters where he was. He began to retrieve several formation diagrams from his Interspatial Ring. After he set up these formation arrays around his location, he immediately sat cross legged and shut his eyes.
Such a series of actions was incredibly dangerous. But push had come to shove, and he could no longer put off to a later time the stabilizing of his body"s condition and his breakthrough.
The defensive formation arrays began to glow with a faint, blue light within Death"s Gorge. Ye Xiuwen"s heart had initially been palpitating uncontrollably. But when he adopted his meditative posture and began to sort out the chaotic energy within his body, his heart gradually began to calm down once more.
Within moments, Ye Xiuwen entered a mysterious realm where he could "see" how the chaotic spiritual energy within his body had gently been sorted out and appeased as they began to course smoothly through his meridians and enter his Dantian.
His Dantian appeared to be filled with thick, roiling mist, while each strand of spiritual energy appeared to be distributed evenly throughout the s.p.a.ces within his Dantian. It was almost as though each of these strands of spiritual energy were living peacefully and in complete harmony with each other.
Just like that, Ye Xiuwen meticulously directed each strand of energy within his Dantian and meridian for two whole days, until every single strand of spiritual energy had found its own place and calmed down completely. There, the spiritual energies would gently course along in harmony with all the other strands of spiritual energy within Ye Xiuwen"s body.
At that moment, Ye Xiuwen could feel that his Dantian and meridians were extremely bloated and slightly stinging as a result of that.
This was a symptom of storing slightly more energy than what the full capacity of Ye Xiuwen"s body had allowed. This was the reason for his breakthrough, and it was also the best sign that he was ready for a breakthrough.
Ye Xiuwen"s heart quivered slightly. Then, he began to direct all of the strands of spiritual energy lined up in his meridians into his Dantian.
Slowly, under the perfusion of fresh spiritual energy, his Dantian began to shudder. Slowly, the mist in his Dantian began to grow denser and denser as the energy within his Dantian grew increasingly more corporeal.
As the spiritual energy gradually flowed from his meridians into his Dantian, his body automatically drew fresh spiritual energy from its surroundings back to replenish the spiritual energy within his meridians. In turn, this spiritual energy was once gradually directed to flow back into his Dantian. Thus, his meridians continued to experience a state of perpetual bloatedness, while the mist in his Dantian only grew thicker, and thicker. Then the mist within the Dantian began to swirl harmoniously in the same direction…
Just like that, Ye Xiuwen remained in this state as time flowed by incessantly. It might have been an hour, or it might have been days, but finally, Ye Xiuwen experienced what felt like a splitting sensation within his Dantian. Moments later, a large tremor rang out as though something had just exploded within him! Ye Xiuwen"s mind drew a complete blank. However, before he could react to the situation, the spiritual energy within the surroundings began to rush madly into Ye Xiuwen"s Dantian and meridians.
This feeling was vastly different from before. At this moment, Ye Xiuwen no longer experienced that bloatedness in his meridians and Dantian. Instead, it was replaced with what seemed like an insatiable thirst to swallow up all the spiritual energies in his surroundings. It was as though his Dantian and meridians had expanded several folds all at once.
In fact, this was not a mere illusion on Ye Xiuwen"s part. This tremor was a telltale sign that he had successfully broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage of cultivation. This was the moment when his Dantian, his meridians, and even his bones, flesh and muscles all experienced a qualitative transformation.
If one were to compare the size of Ye Xiuwen"s Dantian and meridians in the past to a small lake connected to a few streams, then Ye Xiuwen"s present Dantian and meridians would be like raging rivers opening into an entire vast ocean. The amount of spiritual energy that could be stored in his body was a far cry from what Qi Mastery cultivators could store.
Once Ye Xiuwen had calmed himself down, he began to inspect the condition of his Dantian and meridians. He discovered that a whirlpool like liquid vortex had appeared within his Dantian. All of the spiritual energy that coursed through his body would gradually flow through this vortex within his Dantian before being dispersed throughout the rest of his body once more.
This vortex was the primary difference between Foundation Establishment cultivators and Qi Mastery cultivators. Then, when a Foundation Establishment cultivator broke through to the Golden Core stage of cultivation, the vortex within his body would further shrink and compress into a solid, round, golden core.
According to the cultivation texts and ma.n.u.scripts, the liquid vortex within the Dantian of Foundation Establishment cultivators would generally possess the same colour as the affinity of one"s spiritual root. For instance, a wood-based spiritual root would give rise to a green-coloured vortex; a lightning-based spiritual root would give rise to a yellow-coloured vortex; fire would be red; earth would be brown; water would be blue, and so on and so forth. Ye Xiuwen"s spiritual root was of the wind affinity. Logically speaking, it should be slightly translucent colour, just like the colour of a small creek.
However, the liquid vortex within Ye Xiuwen"s Dantian was surprisingly a gold coloured vortex.
Gold? Why is it gold?
Ye Xiuwen"s heart was slightly perplexed.
Just then, an enraged voice broke apart his train of thoughts, "Ye li"l brat! Ye dare to steal all of yer ancestor"s golden spiritual energy? How dare ye?!!"
Ye Xiuwen"s eyes widened. In the next moment, he noticed a black shadow fiercely rus.h.i.+ng towards him. He swiftly retrieved his Frostburn Sword from his Interspatial Ring and slashed out at the black shadow. A ferocious sword intent that was far stronger than before swept towards the black shadow.
"Tsk tsk. Yer reflexes ain"t too shabby!" The voice rang out in the dark. Ye Xiuwen could not see the appearances of this person speaking right now. The only thing he knew was that this voice sounded incredibly ancient.
He was immediately reminded of old man Chi, but he knew that it was not the same person. Old man Chi had already brought his newfound disciple and his family members back to his clan. There was no way he would be here right now.
Within a few moments, Ye Xiuwen had exchanged hundreds of blows with the owner of the ancient voice. At the beginning, he sought to observe his opponent"s actions and thus adopted a more defensive stance. As time wore on, he began to s.h.i.+ft his stance from defensive to offensive as he began to take the initiative to launch attacks at his opponent.
Yet this hardly meant that his opponent was now on his backfoot. In fact, it was exactly the converse. Through their exchange of blows, Ye Xiuwen could somehow tell that his opponent was incredibly strong. At the very least, he was not someone that a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment stage like him could deal with.
Most importantly, he could not sense any killing intent coming from his opponent. Even though his initial bellow had been terrifying, the tens of moves that he had exchanged with his opponent had told him that his opponent was intent on correcting his offensive posture instead.
Ye Xiuwen possessed an incredible talent for cultivation to begin with. Otherwise, he would not have been earmarked as the Frozen Sword Sect"s Chosen Disciple since young. Right now, given that an expert was willing to personally give him instructions on his techniques, of course Ye Xiuwen would gladly hold fast to this expert"s teachings and learn what he could.
Gradually, he began to experience a breakthrough in his understanding of his sword technique.
"Mm, mm, not bad, not bad. Ye"ll do fine." After a few hundred moves, this hidden expert finally concluded.
I"ll do? I"ll do what?
Several questions flashed across Ye Xiuwen"s mind. Yet in the next moment, Ye Xiuwen felt a dull pain coming from his neck, and he immediately pa.s.sed out.
When he finally regained his consciousness, Ye Xiuwen discovered that his surroundings had completely changed. It was no longer that dark and dank rock surface within Death"s Gorge that he had earlier been at. Instead, he was now in a room that was filled with the aroma of various herbs. This room was brightly illuminated with sunlight. Its brightness and beauty lightened Ye Xiuwen"s mood and brought joy to his heart.
Could that expert have rescued me and brought me back to the surface?
As soon as this notion crossed his mind, he could no longer suppress it. He hurriedly got to his feet and rushed to the door eagerly as he hoped to catch a glimpse of what was outside.
"Hey! Ye dank li"l kid, whatcha doin" runnin" about like that? Don"t ye know how amazin" this bed is? My heart aches that it"s wasted on ye!"
An old, ancient voice reverberated in the room. Just as Ye Xiuwen was about to look for where this voice had called out from, an old man slowly strode into the room.
The old man noticed that he had already got out of bed, and he glared straight at Ye Xiuwen with an annoyed expression on his face.
Ye Xiuwen could not understand what was going on right now.
"Please, may I ask if it was this senior who had saved me?" Ye Xiuwen respectfully gave the old man a fist and palm salute as he asked.
"Hmph! Do I look like a kind man to ye?" The old man raised an eyebrow and glanced at Ye Xiuwen as he responded with another question.
Ye Xiuwen grew taciturn. He was unsure how he ought to go about interacting with this old man.
"Ye d.a.m.n brat. Yer no fun, ye know? At least, yer not as fun as that li"l gal in yer memories." The old man complained as he stroked his beard.
"You saw my memories?" Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows.
"What"s the matter? Can"t I? I"ve gotta check yer personality before accepting ye as a disciple, don"t I?" The old man glared at Ye Xiuwen once more.
Ye Xiuwen: ……
Accepting as a disciple?