In the following days, Li Yan first consolidated the introductory chapter of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art. It was only after confirming that he had truly passed the introduction that he began the formal cultivation of the first layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art. But this time, he did not ask for Pingtu's help again. Instead, after experiencing that tearing pain again on his own, he completed the requirements of the first layer's strange posture.
Li Yan also began to slowly familiarize himself with some of the characteristics of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art. Once he had passed the first three sentences of the introductory chapter's incantation, that bone-deep pain had disappeared. But after formally cultivating the subsequent parts of the first layer, it once again greatly exceeded Li Yan's expectations. Every time he cultivated, that intense pain that directly pierced his soul would appear. This made Li Yan's heart tremble involuntarily before every cultivation session. Now he finally understood why when he had seen Gong Chenying in the Spirit Plant Garden before, she was always in a tight-fitting outfit, constantly drenched in sweat. With such a painful cultivation process for this art, not fainting was already good enough, let alone just sweating. This was probably the reason for this body refining art's domineering nature. Without harsh cultivation, how could there be a rich reward?
Another thing that could make Li Yan slightly happy was that ever since he had formally completed the cultivation of the introductory chapter of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, even if he failed in the subsequent cultivation, those incantations and strange cultivation diagrams would no longer be forcibly erased from his memory. The brain-piercing, fainting-inducing sensation was finally gone.
The days passed one by one like this. Li Yan often shuttled between the secret room in the secret realm and his own small courtyard. His daily cultivation tasks were fully scheduled: the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, the True Scripture of Gui Water, the coordination of the Fragmented Poison Body with immortal arts, and so on.
He had now cultivated the first layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art to the initial stage, which was considered a formal entry. But he was still a long way from the mid-stage of the first layer.
With the effect of the rich spirit qi in the secret room, the True Scripture of Gui Water was steadily advancing toward the mid-stage of the tenth layer of Qi Condensation. Li Yan estimated that he could probably cultivate to the Great Perfection stage of the tenth layer of Qi Condensation in about a year. At that time, he could try to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage. Pingtu had also told him that with the cultivation methods of the Five Immortal Sects, the certainty of reaching the Foundation Establishment stage was usually relatively high. Without a Foundation Establishment Pill, there should be a thirty percent chance. Don't underestimate this thirty percent probability; it was already very amazing. If this news were to be released to the outside world, it would cause countless cultivators to go crazy and would also arouse the curiosity of many cultivation sects about the Five Immortal Sects.
One must know that out of a thousand Qi Condensation stage cultivators, there might not be even one who could successfully establish their foundation. Since ancient times, how many cultivators had had to live with regret for the rest of their lives, spending their short decades in depression, turning into a handful of yellow earth with the regret of being unable to establish their foundation? Therefore, if someone said there was a ten percent chance of establishing a foundation, that was already a blessing from heaven, and it was only possible with a lot of preparation. How could it be like Li Yan, who already had a thirty percent chance without the assistance of medicinal pills? If this were to be known, it would truly be the envy of countless people. It would be strange if he wasn't captured and soul-searched.
As for the Fragmented Poison Body, as his realm improved, there were faint signs of it splitting again. Li Yan estimated that it should be on the day he successfully established his foundation that the Fragmented Poison Body would undergo a mutation.
As for immortal arts, Li Yan knew too few of them. The ones he currently knew were just a dozen or so common introductory immortal arts. He really needed to find some immortal arts to use. However, Pingtu had also told him that many of the Five Immortal Sects' immortal arts could only be cultivated after establishing a foundation. It was fine to learn some ordinary immortal arts in the Qi Condensation stage. The reason why Li Yan had not yet cultivated any of the Gui Water Immortal Sect's immortal arts was probably because Dong Fuyi had cast a spell on him, making him unable to see them in the Qi Condensation stage, to avoid him being too distracted. However, Li Yan still planned to go to the Treasure Pavilion to take a look after a while. He still had one free opportunity to learn a mid-grade cultivation method or immortal art that he hadn't used.
Li Yan spent his days busy. During this period, he had sent several messages to Gong Chenying, but she had not replied to him at all, as if she was in a long seclusion. And Li Wuyi had also begun a long seclusion. When Li Yan went to the main hall to receive his monthly spirit stones, Wei Chituo had told him. After Li Wuyi got the "Dustless Pill," he had begun to prepare in all aspects to break through to the Golden Core. This seclusion was to restore his body to its peak, and then he would begin to break through to the Golden Core realm in one go.
As for Yun Chunqu, after he came out of the secret realm and rested for half a month, after his body had fully recovered, he had actually dragged Wen Xinliang and Lin Daqiao, who had just come out of cultivation, to venture into the Hundred Thousand Mountains. He would probably have to train for a period of time before returning to the sect.
Although Miao Wangqing was not good at fighting, she was not a slacker when it came to cultivation. Otherwise, how could Wei Zhongran have taken her as a direct disciple? After she handed over her tasks to Wei Chituo, she also chose to go into seclusion.
In this way, with Wei Zhongran and his wife, who had been in seclusion for more than half a year, the entire Little Bamboo Peak became even more deserted. Only Wei Chituo, with Ouyang Ping, Zhang Que, and Miao Wangqing's green-robed female disciple, Feng Moxin, and a group of handyman disciples were handling matters. The number of people on the front mountain became even scarcer.
During these days, Li Yan had also gone to the platform on the back mountain to practice immortal arts several times.
One evening, Zhao Min came by moonlight. She seemed to have lost some weight and appeared even colder. The meeting between the two was not as awkward as Li Yan had imagined. After nodding to each other, they sat on the platform as before, looking at the round moon and the distant mountains, talking softly, a sentence here, a sentence there.
For some reason, Li Yan always felt that Zhao Min's words were even fewer than before. It was often Li Yan who spoke first, and then she would reply with a sentence, or not reply at all, but sit at the edge of the platform, her gaze fixed on the distant black mountains under the moon, as if trying to see everything there.
That one encounter, in the middle of the night, as the stars shifted, the two of them slowly ran out of words, but neither had any intention of going back. They just sat quietly, looking at the starry sky above their heads, accompanied by the cool wind. The night was cold with heavy dew...
Just before dawn in the east, Zhao Min stood up. She still didn't speak. After nodding slightly to Li Yan, she faced the first ray of dawn, stepped on the dewdrops on the grass blades at the edge of the platform, which were like the tears of a departing lover, and flew away, her white dress as white as snow, her sleeves riding the wind...
Li Yan sat on the platform for a long, long time. It wasn't until the sky was bright that he stood up and walked toward the bamboo forest path he had come from. The early morning sun cast his shadow diagonally on the bamboo forest path. It was very long, very long, making the path seem very narrow, very narrow, so narrow that it could only accommodate a single figure...
Time was like the sunlight between the bamboo leaves, visible but untouchable. Every day, it sprinkled down through the mottled gaps in the dense bamboo leaves, making time green, making the years seem like yesterday. The only thing that seemed to have changed was the light and shadow on Little Bamboo Peak.
Another month passed in the blink of an eye. On this day, Li Yan had just teleported back from the secret room in the secret realm when the sect token at his waist began to flash with a shimmering red light. Once the sect token was in the secret realm, it could no longer send messages. The secret realm was a small world. Besides those two passages, probably only the round rhomboid crystal on Li Yan's body could transmit back and forth.
Seeing this, Li Yan immediately sent out a wisp of Divine Sense into the token. A moment later, Li Yan withdrew his Divine Sense, a thoughtful look on his face.
There were several messages in the token, all from Lin Daqiao. He had returned to the sect last night, but Li Yan had gone to the secret realm yesterday afternoon, so he naturally had not received the messages.
The content of the messages was to tell Li Yan that he and the fifth senior brother were going to the trading city tomorrow and to ask Li Yan if he wanted to go with them. The other messages after that were urging Li Yan to reply.
"Trading city?" Li Yan pondered for a short while. He had long heard of this kind of market formed by cultivators, but he had never been there. Let alone going to the trading city, Li Yan had never even left the Malevolent Spirit Sect in all these years.
"Then I'll go and see it. Besides, apart from the first time when Eldest Senior Brother flew me roughly over the other four peaks, I'm only slightly familiar with Little Bamboo Peak and Lord Lao Peak. I don't even know where the sect's main gate is. Back then, even when I entered the sect, I was brought in by Yu Yiyong and the others while I was unconscious. What's more, those dozens of storage pouches and the items in them really need to be dealt with."
At this thought, Li Yan looked outside the cultivation room. It was already bright daylight, early in the morning. He might not be too late.
He quickly sank his Divine Sense into the token and sent a message to Lin Daqiao, telling him that he had been cultivating from yesterday until now, and asking if they had already set off. If not, then to take him with them.
Not long after, the token flashed with a red light. Li Yan hurriedly sent out his Divine Sense. Then, a smile appeared on his face. He was quite timely. Lin Daqiao had just left Little Bamboo Peak with Wen Xinliang. If he turned back now, they would wait for him at the mountainside on the front mountain.
Seeing this, Li Yan immediately stood up, pushed open the door, and walked to the resting room. Besides Miao Zhengyi's large storage pouch and several hundred flying swords hanging from his waist, the other dozens of storage pouches were all placed there.
Looking at the densely packed storage pouches hanging from his waist, Li Yan gave a light laugh and strode out of the courtyard gate.
Outside the courtyard gate, Li Yan directly took out a flying sword and stepped onto it. He soon arrived at the handyman department on the front mountain, in front of that dark green passage outside the bamboo fence. Under the respectful gazes of a group of handyman disciples, Li Yan retrieved his flying sword and slowly walked into the passage.
Walking on the small path, looking at the dark-colored passage formed by the black bamboo above and on both sides, those green light crystal dots were still flowing and moving. It made him feel as if he was back when Li Wuyi had first brought him to Little Bamboo Peak, still that feeling of walking in a bizarre and motley world. Since that time, Li Yan had always flown directly up into the sky when leaving Little Bamboo Peak, and had never walked this front mountain path again. Looking at the starry passage around him, Li Yan felt as if a lifetime had passed.
Soon, the light ahead became brighter and brighter. At the end of the small path, amidst the sound of the rustling sea of bamboo leaves, two figures were standing there.
Looking at the approaching Li Yan, Lin Daqiao smiled and waved at him. Wen Xinliang, on the other hand, had his arms crossed, leaning against a black bamboo, looking at Li Yan with a ghost of a smile.
Li Yan quickened his pace. As the light before him brightened, he had already left the bamboo forest passage. He first bowed to Wen Xinliang. "Greetings, Fifth Senior Brother." Then he also bowed to Lin Daqiao. "Greetings, Seventh Senior Brother."
"Heh heh, Little Martial Brother, I saw your dazed look just now. Are you thinking of the time when you first entered the sect? Our Little Bamboo Peak doesn't have a main gate, unlike the other four peaks which all have mountain-protecting formations, and you must enter through the main gate. This passage is actually the simple main gate of Little Bamboo Peak. Every one of us entered the sect from here. It's a kind of ceremony, I suppose. But after entering, for convenience, everyone just flies out from anywhere. Today, it just so happened that Daqiao and I received your message just as we were flying off the peak. We were close to this place, so we landed here to wait for you. It seems to have made you a bit nostalgic," Wen Xinliang said, speaking before Lin Daqiao could, his words seeming to have seen through Li Yan's thoughts.
Li Yan was stunned. He really hadn't known what Wen Xinliang had said. Back then, Li Wuyi had just brought him over, and that was that. It turned out there was such a story. Walking this path again today, he really did feel as if a dusty memory had been awakened. He immediately bowed again.
"Thank you, Fifth Senior Brother. Your junior brother really didn't know. Eldest Senior Brother didn't explain it that day either. It turns out this place is part of the initiation process. I have been taught."
"Alright, alright, why are you two so long-winded? Let's go now. The journey is not short," Lin Daqiao finally couldn't help but interject. As he spoke, he stepped forward and put an arm around Li Yan's shoulder. Li Yan did not dodge, but looked at Lin Daqiao with a smile.