NOVEL NEXT Chapter 72: Ascending the Mountain
"Mother is still in the lightning seas?" Tianyi asked, disbelief coloring his voice.
Elder Shan nodded. "After discussing with Old Codger Yun, in exchange for taking away the treasure in the center of the lightning sea, Grand Elder Xi would construct a Jade Dew Mist Formation to compensate them. However, I did not expect that Grand Elder Xi to not have returned yet. It seemed that the treasure inside the lightning seas is far from ordinary. Who would have expected such a heaven-defying treasure to form in such a remote place and not be discovered for so long?"
The Jade Dew Mist Formation condensed the spiritual qi into a light green, dew-like mist, hence the name. Its effect was superior to the natural mist formed by the lightning seas. In addition, the Jade Dew Mist was extremely gentle, and it did not discriminate against any type of Spiritual Veins. The Fleeting Mist Sect's disciple growth would no longer be so biased anymore.
Tianyi sighed. Back then, he was only ten years old and a Foundation Establishment Disciple. And now another ten years had passed. He was now twenty, almost half of his memories were that of the Huang Realm now.
As time passed, he would accumulate more memories from his second life. Already, he could feel the memories of his first life grow blurry. In contrast, the memories after he started cultivating, especially after Tianyi entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, were especially clear. At least, the memories relating to the subject Tianyi cared about was incredibly clear.
In another ten years, his identity would be closer to a cultivator of the Huang Realm than a former Earthling. Thinking about this, a melancholic feeling arose in Tianyi's chest. He thought about his mother from Earth, a pang of guilt hammered at his heart.
Right now, he still had the desire to search for Earth and find out the truth. But as time went on and the memories became more and more blurry and inconsequential, would he still actively seek out the truth?
Tianyi remembered the faces of his mother, father, sister, maternal grandfather, and maternal grandmother of his previous life. But the faces of his aunts, uncles, and cousins were already becoming blurry.
"Tsk!" Tianyi grumbled. Now that he actively tried to recall the memories of his life on Earth, he discovered that it was worse than the last time he reflected. When I have the chance, I'm going to have to find a way to store the memory of my previous life.
Although Tianyi felt regretful of his fleeting memories, he could only push his worries into the back of his mind and focus on other matters.
"Senior brother, what are you doing?" Daoyi asked.
Tianyi was standing outside of his guest residence, and all around him were floating materials of all sorts. Most of them were metal in nature, but some were floating spheres of liquids.
"I'm creating a new artifact," Tianyi said.
"Did you have a burst of inspiration?" Daoyi asked. She was clear about her senior brother. When he had no inspiration, progress was slower than a snail's pace. But when he did, amazing things happened.
"Kind of," Tianyi said. "I felt embarrassed that my first guest residence was destroyed when tribulation lightning suddenly struck. So I thought of making a method to deal with it."
Daoyi giggled. As cultivators, they did not need much sleep, especially Tianyi, who was at the Nascent Soul Realm. But he still had a habit of sleeping at least once every two days. The tribulation lightning decided to strike at that moment, destroying the manor that Tianyi was staying at.
It caused quite a ruckus yesterday.
It didn't take long for Tianyi to finish forging the artifact. Rather than forging, it was more akin to assembling pieces. In truth, it could only be considered a quasi-Nascent Soul Artifact. It might be useless in the hands of others, but under Tianyi's control, it could unleash devastating might.
The artifact was a monolithic throne of pure black. It had a back that was over ten meters tall, pure black. It had been shaped from Lightning Caller Earth Metal. The special characteristic was that it attracted lightning; it was a natural lightning rod in other words. For others, it might be ridiculous to use an unprocessed Lighting Caller Earth Metal. But Tianyi already attracted tribulation lightning, so it didn't matter.
The base of the throne was created with Thunder Soaker Iron. As its name suggested, when it came into contact with electricity, it would absorb it, even the color would change as a result.
And inside the throne was a system of tubes, and running through these tubes were Volt Absorbing Water. This connected all the different outer components into the core of the throne, a metallic sphere. The sole purpose of this sphere was to absorb the lightning the throne attracted for Tianyi's use.
In other words, this black throne was essentially a glorified battery.
"I'll call it the Thunder Throne," Tianyi said. Battery Chair would have been more apt, but it just wouldn't have been as cool.
Yan Nie walked through the streets of the Pan Kingdom with a complicated gaze. It no longer mattered whether he hid his identity or not. His body exuded a slight pressure that resembled the endless ocean, signifying his cultivation stage at the Spiritual Pillar Formation stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm.
He could see the onlookers, who saw him and his youthful appearance, look at him with veneration.
Had it been in the past before he lost his cultivation, there was no doubt that Yan Nie's nose would have been long pointed towards the sky. But the loss of his cultivation taught him humility.
Yan Nie thought himself unique.
Back on Earth, he had been an ordinary cog of society. But here, with the advantage of his previous life's memory and the superior soul, his cultivation had grown leaps and bounds in comparison to the others. This talent of his what made him think himself worthy of being the Pan Princess' fiance.
That all changed that fateful day.
Spiritual qi was being leaked from his body to an unknown source. It wasn't expelled from his body but mysteriously disappeared. From the ninth stage of the Qi Gathering Realm, he fell to the eighth stage of the Qi Gathering Realm.
From eight to the seventh stage
From the seventh to the sixth
From sixth to the fifth
From the fifth to the fourth
From the fourth to the third
From the third to the second
From the second to the first
In the end, Yan Nie couldn't even be called a cultivator anymore as all the qi in his body completely disappeared, and he became an ordinary mortal. No, it was worse than an ordinary mortal.
Yan Nie had tasted the spotlight and treatment of a genius. In less than a year, he fell from heaven to hell. The people who held him on a pedestal dragged him down and stomped him into the dirt.
People who he thought were his friends turned their backs on him, delivering him even more agony. At first, some stood by his side, but under the pressure of the majority, they abandoned him too. In the end, only his father and Feiyan supported him.
Then a miracle happened.
Yan Nie looked at the ring that hung around his neck with a string. It turned out that the reason why he couldn't contain any spiritual qi was because an immortal was residing inside the ring. Or rather the soul of an immortal.
The immortal gradually absorbed his qi in order to awaken his consciousness. Long story short, Yan Nie took the immortal as a master.
Although Yan Nie's cultivation dispersed, his overall potential increased thanks to his master, Immortal Pillrabbit.
It was only after becoming Immortal Pillrabbit's, Xia Yunli, that he knew he was a frog within a well.
Genius?
Yes, he may be a genius. But that was only the Pan Kingdom. If compared to the whole Heaven Continent, Yan Nie could only be called average.
"That Xi Tianyi that you saw before? That is a true genius. Although he hid it, he cannot conceal his actual cultivation from me. Although at a young age, he had already reached the Foundation Establishment Realm. But his real genius lies in opening his Extraordinary Meridians! Opening even one of Eight Extraordinary Meridians gives a significant advantage! By my estimate, that youngster should have opened at least three Extraordinary Meridians. His future is limitless, and someone the Buzhou Immortal Sect will nurture!"
Yan Nie had been shocked. The child no more than ten was actually a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, a giant in Jingyang City. But he had even opened up the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, something he didn't even know existed.
The pride and contempt that Yan Nie unconsciously created had disappeared. He vowed that he would work harder to make up for his deficiencies.
Immortal Pillrabbit, who saw this, was pleased. Glad that the knowledge of Tianyi didn't discourage Yan Nie but made him work even harder.
As for how Immortal Pillrabbit knew all this?
Naturally, it was because his identity was special. He wasn't an ordinary immortal, but one of the Twelve Zodiacs of the Cultivators Alliance. The Loose Cultivator Alliance couldn't compare to when they had hegemony over the Mortal Continent. However, they were still stronger than first-rate sects.
"Yan Nie, you don't know this, but the glory days of the Cultivator Alliance was supreme. We were like mortal emperors. The treatment we enjoyed was no less than the Buzhou Immortal Sect! Alas, we were ousted by the Saintly Scholar School." Immortal Pillrabbit shook his head in sadness, his silver-white hair swayed with his movements.
"Even after we were forced to leave the Mortal Continent, we have never given up on reclaiming our title as one of the Three Hegemons of the Huang Realm!" Immortal Pillrabbit's eyes were unprecedently bright, as ambitions filled his chest.
"Alas..." He shook his head. "Even after we left the Mortal Continent, the Saintly Scholar School pursued us. On the surface, we no longer interacted, but both sides used various means to hinder the other in the dark. I, too, became cannon fodder in the cold war between the Saintly Scholar School and the Cultivator Alliance. I didn't expect the Saintly Scholar School to scheme at the crucial moment when I prepared to enter the Seamless Realm, and that I would have a knife plunged into my back."
Yan Nie saw the unbearable sadness within Immortal Pillrabbit's eyes. His master must have experienced something tragic for him not to even be able to conceal it.
"Let's speak of other matters. After you reached a certain realm, you should find a way to travel to the Earth Continent." Immortal Pillrabbit said, the previous sadness disappeared as if it was an illusion.
"Why?" Yan Nie asked.
"Before I perished, my bosom friend, Immortal Thunderbull, had a mission he had to accomplish in the Earth Continent. He is an Immortal Monarch, so the Saintly Scholar School should not be able to scheme against him so easily. If you had his help, your cultivation would be smoother. But crossing the endless seas is an issue that we can't ignore."
Since then, Yan Nie had been finding ways to travel to the Earth Continent. Legend had it that the Three Hegemonic Sects each had a teleportation formation that could transport people into any of the three continents. But even if it was true, it was a pipe dream for Yan Nie to use it.
Yan Nie distanced his these needless thoughts. Tomorrow he would ascend the Fleeting Mist Sect for the Ten Year Agreement. He couldn't afford to distract himself now.
Although he had the teachings of an immortal, he had to rely on himself in the end. Everything Yan Nie gained was through his own hands; he had to fight for every advantage he had. This gave him many experiences, but also because of this, he would not underestimate Pan Lanyue, who was meticulously groomed by the Fleeting Mist Sect.
The day Yan Nie ascended up the Fleeting Mist Sect, the sky was cloudy and dark even though it was daytime. The sun's light had been blocked, leaving only a glimmer of light.
"Halt, who goes there!"
The two Gate Guardians stopped Yan Nie outside of the domain of the Fleeting Mist Sect. Although they asked Yan Nie to identify himself, their eyes flashed in recognition and surprise at Yan Nie's Foundation Establishment cultivation.
"I am Yan Nie. I have come here to fulfill the Ten Year Agreement."
"So it's you. The former fiance."
Leaving those biting words, the two Gate Guardians allowed Yan Nie to pass. Yan Nie showed no change in expression at them and calmly stepped through.
Step by step, he climbed the stairway towards the dueling platform. No blockade or disciples interrupted him. It was quiet to the point of eerieness, but Yan Nie continued without any fluctuations of emotion.
When he reached the top, Pan Lanyue, dressed in pink robes, stood within the arena, waiting for him. Her long dress fluttered in the wind, creating the image of a carefree fairy waiting for the rain.
Suddenly, lightning descended.
Yan Nie turned his attention towards where the lightning struck. It was a familiar face if a bit more mature. Xi Tianyi sat upon a monolithic throne, a carefree smile upon his face even as another bolt of lightning struck him. Yan Nie felt an instinctual fear towards the lightning, but he steeled himself and looked away.
His opponent was Pan Lanyue. At this very moment, nothing else mattered.
Not the descending lightning, not the disciples giving him unkind looks, not the Sect Master of the Fleeting Mist Sect. Only Pan Lanyue was worthy of his attention at this very moment.