Chapter 42
Chapter 42: Invitation to the Ruins, and the Assembly
By the time Zhao Chun returned, the night was deep and still. Only a few stars hung in the sky, scattered without pattern. She stared up for a moment, unable to tell which was the Dipper and which was Sirius.
Hu Wan Zhi had left a message for Cui Cui and returned to Daylily Garden to pack. Zhao Chun’s residence, already quiet, sank back into the kind of silence that could drive a person mad.
But Zhao Chun had long since grown used to it. She pushed open the inner door and stepped inside, her expression steady even as her thoughts churned.
Xu Feng’s words had been a timely reminder: the most urgent thing was her cultivation. Perfecting the sixth level of the Qi Refining Stage would not be difficult. With focused effort, it would come naturally.
After that, if she successfully cultivated the Fire-Forging Furnace Art, her combat strength would rise again.
And there was more. Not long after she visited Xu Feng, Meng Han sent her a letter—specifically addressed to her by name.
In it, he wrote that while traveling outside with Xu Feng, they had stumbled upon the ruins of an old sect. It was there that he had obtained the Rock Jade Stone Root. Now he wanted to invite Zhao Chun along to explore the place more thoroughly.
He was candid: the ruins had once belonged to a small sect, and others had searched it repeatedly. What remained now were mostly items useful only to Qi Refining Stage cultivators—things of no value to him or Xu Feng, but potentially very beneficial to Zhao Chun. With him escorting her, he promised he would bring her back safely.
Zhao Chun’s mouth twitched despite herself. She was the sort of person who seemed to attract trouble wherever she went. Every time, it turned into life and death.
She had survived this far by clinging stubbornly to the belief that great disasters came with great fortune afterward. Still, Meng Han’s confidence did not make her feel reassured. Who knew what kind of absurd danger might be waiting this time?
Even so, she had already made up her mind. Having a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator at her side was not an opportunity she could afford to waste.
When Xu Feng learned she intended to cultivate the Fire-Forging Furnace Art, he urged her to decide quickly—preferably to go to the ruins before starting it.
The old sect had once been a forging sect. There might be techniques or secret methods left behind, something Zhao Chun could chance upon. Meng Han had found a rare treasure there already; it was not impossible that something else had slipped through the cracks.
And forging techniques inevitably touched on controlling fire. If Zhao Chun gained even a fragment of that knowledge, it could benefit her training as a spell cultivator as well.
There was one more matter, larger still, that Xu Feng mentioned in passing—something Zhao Chun had not known until now.
The Southern Domain held countless sects, so many no one could name a precise number. Some were so small that the Sect Master, elders, and disciples together barely added up to a handful—yet they still called themselves a sect.
In truth, the number of sects with real standing was only a little over a hundred. Once every 10 years, those sects gathered at Tun Qi Pool to discuss the Dao. The finest disciples each sect could produce all appeared, and it became a grand event for an entire region. People called it the Hundred Sects Assembly.
And the next assembly was only two years away.
The central debates and trials were dominated by cultivators at the Essence Condensation Stage and the Foundation Establishment Stage. Still, each sect also brought Qi Refining Stage juniors along to broaden their horizons and prepare for the next assembly.
A gathering of that scale—heroes from across the domain converging in one place—set Zhao Chun’s blood alight. She wanted to see it with her own eyes.
Xu Feng chuckled when he saw her expression. “Junior Sister, there’s no need to rush. You entered the Dao only recently. This time, you likely won’t be able to take the field. But with your talent, give it 10 years and you’ll certainly have a place on the Martial Dao Platform.”
Zhao Chun gave an embarrassed laugh. “Senior Brother is teasing. I know that much. Even if I can’t compete, I still want to go and watch—to see what the heroes of the Southern Domain are truly like.”
She could fantasize all she wanted, but she wasn’t going to leap into the Foundation Establishment Stage in two short years.
Xu Feng nodded, thinking it through. “That can be arranged. You’re under Elder Li. At the assembly, each elder may bring five Qi Refining Stage disciples as attendants. If the spots haven’t been decided by then, you can petition the elder.”
Zhao Chun agreed with a smile, but worry knotted in her chest. Working her way into Li Shu’s good graces was no simple thing.
There were 19 disciples under Li Shu, counting herself—every one of them a dual-root talent. On natural gifts alone, Zhao Chun could not compete with her Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters.
If she wanted to win a place, she would have to break through in combat strength—stand out in a way that Li Shu could not ignore.
She quietly gathered information about the other 18 fellow disciples. Under Li Shu, ranking was not fixed by seniority. It had to be fought for.
The first 11 had already entered the Foundation Establishment Stage. Eldest Senior Brother was even at the peak of late Foundation Establishment, already stepping toward the Essence Condensation Stage. From Twelfth Senior Brother onward to Eighteenth Senior Sister, every one of them was in late Qi Refining. Zhao Chun’s current strength barely registered among them.
Twelfth and Thirteenth were out seeking spiritual treasures, clearly preparing to break through as well. That meant the remaining five—Fourteenth through Eighteenth—would likely lock down the five attendant positions without leaving any room at all.
If Zhao Chun wanted to pry one spot free, she would have to enter late Qi Refining herself. And she had only two years.
She drew in a slow breath, then let it out again. After thinking it through, she found her doubt giving way to a fierce, steady confidence.
When she first entered the sect, all she wanted was to become an official disciple within five years. Yet in just two years she had already reached the Inner Sect, her cultivation pressing close to the sixth level of Qi Refining.
Luck had played a role, yes—but it was her relentless cultivation through heat and cold alike that formed the true foundation of her progress.
Now she had dual spiritual roots and the Fire-Forging Furnace Art in hand. If she worked for it, winning in two years was not impossible.
Zhao Chun sat cross-legged on her cushion and exhaled a thin stream of stale breath, settling into meditation.
Spiritual energy drifted around her like water around stone.
Ever since Yue Zuan extracted her wood spiritual root, her cultivation speed had indeed increased. But without wood to balance and temper it, metal and fire energies within her mingled more violently. At times, a sharp, irritable ferocity would rise during cultivation, hot and restless beneath her skin.
Fortunately, the Scripture of True Sensory Insight could smooth the worst of it. With her own discipline layered on top, it had not yet grown into anything truly dangerous.
Yet it could not be ignored forever. If she let it run unchecked, it would eventually cause trouble.
The sixth level of the Qi Refining Stage was a crucial threshold: the merging of upper and lower dantian, the opening and linking of meridians and acupoints throughout the body. Once achieved, a cultivator’s previous efforts no longer remained separate threads. They fed and strengthened one another, forging the whole person into a single, coherent system.
Zhao Chun’s upper and lower dantian were already full. What she needed now was the right moment—the chance to connect the two so that spiritual energy could cycle between them and give rise to mutual generation. Once she succeeded, her flexibility in battle would increase, and many techniques would strengthen as well.
Swift-Stride Sword Method was one example. The upper dantian governed spiritual awareness; the lower governed the body. When the two merged, mind and hand could become one—action following thought, the body moving exactly as her intention moved.
But Zhao Chun had never crossed this threshold before. She did not yet know the key. Xu Feng had only said that when mind and body began to move in harmony, that was the sign the opportunity had appeared.
With that in mind, Zhao Chun thought of a place within the sect. Tomorrow, she would go there.