Chapter 75
Chapter 75: Preparing to Reach the Moon
Ji Xuan Yin frowned. “Even Ling Jiang—who reached the Late Third Realm—never managed to refine a Tai Yin star fragment. With her groundwork, she still failed. And we’re only Qi Induction Realm cultivators… I’m afraid we’d be risking our lives.”
Her fingers tightened on Ji Fei Guang’s sleeve. “Brother, I don’t want you to take this risk.”
“The Sect Master already values you,” she rushed on. “Once you reach the Third Realm and compete for the Holy Son seat, you’ll be rewarded with a peerless treasure. Then you can refine your life-bound treasure and your immortal path will flourish. Why rush it?”
Ji Fei Guang had been leaning against the stone wall. Now he sat up, and her grip slid off his sleeve.
“Xuan Yin.” His voice was calm, almost gentle. “The immortal path is a one-way road. If you don’t move forward, you fall behind. The road to the heavens has always been a graveyard of bones.”
“Brother…”
“Xuan Yin, if I hesitate now,” he cut in, gaze steady, “then when another chance appears later, will I tell myself the same thing again?”
He lifted his chin slightly. “Heaven has handed it to me. Why shouldn’t I take it?”
“Master taught us to act steadily and think things through.”
“Which means preparing well before you move,” he said, “not stopping just because there’s danger.”
Ji Xuan Yin’s almond eyes widened. She puffed her cheeks, crossed her arms, and flopped down beside him, turning her head away. “Why is it always these grand principles? I’m sick of hearing them.”
“I can’t argue with you,” Ji Fei Guang said, a trace of amusement in his tone. “And I can’t talk you out of it.”
She snorted. “Now you’re swearing ‘Heaven has given it’ like it’s guaranteed. For all you know, you won’t even get close to a Tai Yin star fragment. Our two sects have explored this place again and again, and no one has ever made it through those layers of illusions.”
Ji Fei Guang’s mouth curved. His eyes sharpened, sly in a way that made her stomach sink.
“Those illusions are brutally hard. In the past, none of the heavenly prodigy disciples from either sect succeeded.”
He paused, then said lightly, “But Xuan Yin, the True One Yuan Sect took in a new inner sect disciple this year. Her name is Jiang Yun Jiang.”
Ji Xuan Yin frowned. “Her?”
“She only just reached mid First Realm, and it was with pills. Her spiritual sense is only a bit stronger than most cultivators.” Ji Fei Guang’s smile didn’t change. “So why do you think I found a way to leak news of Ling Jiang’s inheritance to her on purpose?”
Ji Xuan Yin’s breath caught. Understanding landed like a stone.
“Because she carries an innate divine ability,” Ji Fei Guang said. “The Heart-Bewitching Eye.”
Ji Xuan Yin’s eyes lit. “The Heart-Bewitching Eye ranks 9,123rd on the list. When activated, it can restrain illusions. Brother, you want to borrow her ability to find a chance inside the illusion trial?”
Her excitement faltered into suspicion. “But she studies under True Lord Tian Bai, and she’s top-tier talent. Why would she let you use her?”
She turned, eyed him up and down, and wrinkled her nose. “With your looks? Honestly, even at the Spring Breeze House, I wouldn’t pick you—not even at half price.”
Ji Fei Guang’s patience snapped. He clenched his fist and rapped her hard on the head.
“Ow!” Ji Xuan Yin yelped, instantly shutting up.
“I have my own way,” he said through his teeth. “When the time comes, I’ll give her some benefits and send her off.”
—
In the green woods, moonlight lay quiet, and insects chirped in the dark.
In a place where moon essence gathered, everything looked ordinary at first glance. Yet if a cultivator examined it closely, they would see that beneath the cover of a formation, countless vines had woven the ground into an airtight net.
At that moment, the vines withdrew in a sudden wave and burrowed underground, revealing what had been hidden within.
Moonlight condensed into 36 golden threads around a girl’s waist. One by one, silvery-white seeds of moon essence, olive-shaped and coldly luminous, sank into her forehead.
A white-scaled, blue-horned True Dragon coiled beside her. It snapped its eyes open—vertical pupils like frozen blades—and then, with a single smooth motion, its body flowed into a dragon mark along her right arm.
Shao Heng woke with it.
The cultivation session had felt unusually long, so long that the restless heat from her recent battles had been washed clean. She drew a slow breath, and for a moment, a rare trace of confusion lingered at the edge of her mind.
Then she steadied herself and checked her qi sea and dantian.
The yellow sprout had grown several sizes without her noticing. Counting carefully, she now had 593 cauldrons of spiritual power—only a step away from late First Realm.
She took out the timing talisman she’d set before entering seclusion.
Eighty-three days.
“Nearly three months…” Shao Heng let out a quiet breath of relief.
Once a cultivator entered deep meditation, time lost its weight. If she’d dragged this out until the secret realm ended and missed the moon ascent, she would have been furious.
In her mind, Ao Chuan yawned so loudly she could almost see him stretching.
“Ahhh. That seclusion was way too long.”
His voice perked up, smug as ever. “I’m almost at peak First Realm. Why haven’t you broken into late stage yet? Don’t let me leave you too far behind. One day I’ll flip things around and be in charge!”
He punctuated it with a self-satisfied laugh. “Heh. Heh!”
Shao Heng didn’t bother to get angry. She put away the formation plate and drew her aura back in until it lay smooth and quiet.
“You’re only riding your bloodline and repeating what your ancestors said,” she replied, unhurried.
“According to ancient records, starting from mid Third Realm, living beings begin to comprehend Dao rhythms and rules. We of the Human Clan might take a little over a hundred years to break through a minor stage. But you demon cultivators—even heavenly demons—probably need three or four hundred years.”
She let the words settle, then added, “Why are you talking like you’ll only live a few hundred years?”
“Are you scared that when I reach Late Third Realm, you’ll still be stuck circling around the Fourth Realm, too embarrassed to keep living?”
Ao Chuan snorted, twice, choked by indignation.
Humans were born weak compared to strange races with natural gifts. Yet humans were also the best at catching up—spirit and flesh fused tightly, granting an edge in understanding Dao and rules.
Otherwise, with the five regions locked in endless conflict and countless races contending, how could the Human Clan alone dominate the Eastern Domain?
Ao Chuan fell quiet for a while. Then, awkwardly, he asked, “So… where are you going now?”
The golden threads at Shao Heng’s waist had vanished as her breathing settled. She stood, stretched her limbs, and answered, “I’m setting out for Grasping Moon Mountain.”
“This seclusion lasted nearly three months. Ji Fei Guang said the altar would open in the final month for the moon ascent, to search for Ling Jiang’s inheritance. But they won’t wait until the last moment. They’ll definitely build the yin altar early.”
“So I’ll go observe first,” she continued. “Then I’ll decide what to do.”
Her gaze cooled as she laid out the reality. “Ling Jiang’s inheritance is full of danger. Besides the layers of illusions Ji Fei Guang mentioned, there will be plenty of other threats.”
“I don’t have the sect’s prior exploration information. The best choice is to slip into the Ji siblings’ orbit. If I don’t find a way to connect with them now, am I supposed to hope that when I show up later, they’ll treat me like an honored guest?”
Ji Fei Guang had invited her because her spiritual sense was outstanding—and because she was only mid First Realm, with little chance of competing with him for the inheritance. It had never been some warm story about hitting it off.
“The silk map I got doesn’t mark Grasping Moon Peak,” Shao Heng said, more to herself than to Ao Chuan, “but that’s fine. I still have about a month to find it.”
She tightened her sleeve and stepped forward.
“And I refined all my Shattered Moon during seclusion. Now I still need to gather the three materials required to ascend the moon.”
The later it got, the more cultivators would loot the place, and the fewer Shattered Moon would remain. Yet Shao Heng didn’t feel troubled.
“Besides,” she added, voice steady, “during nearly three months of seclusion, my cultivation method kept drawing in moon essence on its own. The Grand Expansion Spirit-Refining Art used it to temper my spiritual sense.”
“It split again.”
Her eyes flicked up, bright and clear.
“Now I can form eight threads of spiritual sense.”