Stealthily cultivating in the chaotic world of demons and martial artists
Chapter 187 - 186 Moon Viewing Mountain (Seeking subscription)_1

Chapter 187: Chapter 186 Moon Viewing Mountain (Seeking subscription)_1

Several months later.

Baize Immortal City gradually recovered its former bustle and liveliness.

For cultivators, death was the norm, and as long as Baize Immortal City continued to produce Foundation Establishment Pills, more individual cultivators would soon flock from the three countries, forming the lowest stratum of Baize Immortal City.

And White Peak Mountain did not disappoint, for the rewards given after the battle made every surviving cultivator who had participated beam with joy.

However, amidst this celebration, there was a slight unforeseen element.

It was those cultivators who had initially been pessimistic about Baize Immortal City’s future, who had given up too many assets and then used various means to try to flee.

By now, they were all crying out in regret, wishing they had not made such decisions.

Peach Blossom Pavilion.

"Humph, that man is outside kneeling and wailing again, how utterly annoying!"

Jin Ling returned from the outer door with a face full of annoyance.

"Is it that Dongmen Ying?"

Wei Yixi also showed a look of disgust.

Originally, Dongmen Ying came to sell his shop, and Fang Xi and Ruan Xingling did indeed buy it with their merit from battle.

Then, this man was said to have borrowed a lot of debts and finally scraped together ten thousand merits, exchanging them for a Foundation Establishment Pill.

But what happened next was not right.

Baize Immortal City stood firm, unaffected by the monster beast tide!

In addition, Dongmen Ying took the Foundation Establishment Pill and sequestered himself for three months, yet still failed at Foundation Establishment!

As a result, he was almost driven to death by the Dongmen Family!

Having no other recourse, he could only come to Peach Blossom Pavilion to kneel and beg, hoping that Fang Xi and Ruan Xingling would return the shop to him.

After all, when Fang Xi made the purchase, he had Dongmen Ying transfer ownership at White Peak Mountain; now, that Pill Tool Pavilion real had nothing to do with the other party anymore.

"So that’s how it is..."

Just out from seclusion, Fang Xi found this interesting and walked out of Peach Blossom Pavilion.

He saw Dongmen Ying with hair that had turned white, kneeling by the side of the road.

Upon seeing Fang Xi emerge, he immediately kowtowed repeatedly, "Senior... Please have mercy, and return the family business to the Dongmen clan..."

"Hmm, failed at Foundation Establishment, magic power and vitality both depleted, even cultivation has fallen back to Qi Refining mid-stage..."

The Foundation Establishment Pill could only ensure you wouldn’t die from a Foundation Establishment failure, but other serious consequences like major loss of primordial energy were also possible.

It seemed that Dongmen Ying’s case was particularly severe.

Fang Xi gave a brief commentary and then heard Dongmen Ying’s words, which made him laugh in anger, "When you sold your ancestral property to buy that Foundation Establishment Pill... was it me who forced you?"

"You believed the rumors, or rather... you used the rumors to press the Dongmen Family to give up and sell the ancestral property, and then staked it all on striking for Foundation Establishment... Whether Baize Immortal City would decline or you succeeded in Foundation Establishment, if just one happened, you would have won... But neither occurred, so what’s the use in begging now?"

"Senior..."

Dongmen Ying wanted to say more, but then heard Fang Xi’s icy response, "Also, even though you are kneeling, there is suspicion of you trying to compel me with your status, do you really think Foundation Establishment can be insulted? Even though the Fairy City has its rules against internal fights, you degraded your status and betrayed Baize Immortal City, even if you die kneeling outside Peach Blossom Pavilion or White Peak Mountain, let’s see who would take action for you?"

"Well said!"

With those words, a feathered serpent with six wings descended from the sky.

Following it was a massive hand of magic power.

Slap!

Dongmen Ying was slapped away, falling at the side of the street with blood streaming from the corner of his mouth.

Yuan Feihong jumped down from the back of the spiritual beast, glaring at Dongmen Ying, "You lowlife, Fang does not deign to act against you, but I will! You are not from the Inner City, you have no reason to linger, don’t make me kill you!"

As a member of the White Peak Mountain lineage, he was naturally part of the enforcement team.

Hearing Yuan Feihong speak so, Dongmen Ying finally turned pale as death and fled like a dog that had lost its home.

"Yuan, what brings you here?"

Fang Xi was surprised and stepped forward to greet him.

"I’m naturally here for the rewards... Fang, your pill forging previously also earned you a good amount of merit, and then there were those two Thunder Horn Pythons, second-tier, mid-grade monster beasts."

Yuan Feihong, with a smile, said, "Next-door Fairy Taoling exchanged her merits for a bottle of pills hugely beneficial to cultivation, what would you like to exchange for?"

Fang Xi invited Yuan Feihong into the cultivation room and had Jin Ling serve some Spiritual Tea.

He glanced at the Merit List and then smiled, "I’ll take that ’Earth Flame Crystal’..."

"Oh?"

Yuan Feihong seemed a bit surprised but nevertheless took out a radiant, golden crystal from his storage bag.

"This Earth Flame Crystal is a top-tier material for forging Spiritual Instruments. It seems Fang has his sight set on Fairy Taoling, haha, truly a match of talent and beauty preordained by heaven!"

Yuan Feihong continued to chat with Fang Xi about cultivation matters, sipped a few mouthfuls of Spiritual Tea, and then took his leave.

As he left, he seemed to want to say something.

But in the end, he just sighed softly and said nothing.

...

White Peak Mountain.

Ouyang Zhen was still very busy, even occasionally covering his lips and coughing lightly.

During the monster beast tide, he had operated a third-tier magic treasure across major cultivation boundaries, how could he not pay a price for that?

Moreover, with the inherent danger of war and after fighting intensely for several months, he had sustained numerous injuries and even reached the point of damaging his primordial energy and foundation.

"Fellow disciple, you’ve come?"

Suddenly Ouyang Zhen paused his writing and saw Yuan Feihong.

"Yes, the awarding of meritorious deeds is essentially complete... But many cultivators have declined our recruitment... including Fairy Taoling."

Yuan Feihong reported in full and eventually seemed unable to hold back any longer, "Actually, brother... Fairy Taoling has a good relationship with Fang Xi, and her disciple has also recently succeeded in Foundation Establishment... If she had joined Baize Immortal City, it would have been like adding three Foundation Establishment cultivators... but because of Fang Xi, they have a poor impression of us, showing no intention of becoming guests. This gain and loss, the damage is too great..."

Fang Xi’s growing reputation in pill forging and his feat of slaying a mid-stage Foundation Establishment monster beast with a single sword spread far and wide, and of course, these two brothers were aware of it.

Yuan Feihong’s voice continued, "If back then, we could have..."

"There’s no need to speak further."

Ouyang Zhen waved his hand, his complexion not looking too good.

Although the beast tide had ended, White Peak Mountain and the guest cultivators in the Fairy City suffered heavy casualties and were in dire need of replenishment.

He had not expected to encounter such a situation.

Only after Yuan Feihong left did Ouyang Zhen’s face turn purple, as he suddenly spat out a large mouthful of essence blood, staining the white paper in front of him a thorough red, and murmured to himself, "Could it be... that I was really wrong?"

...

Inside the cultivation room.

Fang Xi played with the ’Earth Flame Crystal’ in his hand, lost in thought.

His choice of this material for artifact crafting was not to curry favor with Ruan Xingling but because it was of use to him.

"There are some treasure patterns that are naturally unsuitable for inscribing arrays, like this ’Vertical Ground Golden Light Treasure Pattern.’... Once moved, the array disperses..."

Maintaining the positions and angles of the array flags and array disk while moving at high speeds was indeed quite difficult for people.

"My Array Taoist cultivation is still too shallow, just a second-tier upper-grade Array Master of a side branch. If it were those who truly rose through strength, even third-tier Array Masters, anything could become an array, and there must be a solution, but I, with my forced application, cannot think of one..."

"This treasure pattern, however, is more suited for forging into an escape-type spiritual instrument... but there are still some difficulties."

Fang Xi casually tossed the crystal, his brows gradually knitting together:

"The pattern is of too high a tier, needing at least third-tier spirit materials to carry... The Earth Flame Crystal is already the highest I can access, merely a second-tier upper-class material... As such, I can only lower my expectations and craft those spiritual instruments that have a limited number of uses!"

"Even so, the requirements for the forger are quite high, at least a second-tier upper-grade Talisman forging master!"

Such requirements might not even be met by Ruan Xingling.

Even if she did meet them, Fang Xi did not dare to look for her any longer.

After all, last time it was merely imprinting a spirit mark, but this time it would be imprinting a treasure pattern, which are completely different!

With her intelligence, she could easily guess that he was hiding something!

"But artifact crafting is really not my forte... Should I instead study the Taoist of the Talisman? Hmm, this treasure pattern is quite compatible with talismans... the ’Vertical Ground Golden Light Talisman,’ perhaps? It feels very promising!"

Unfortunately, even though he had control over Chen Ping’s nearly third-tier talisman heritage, he had not paid much attention to it.

His own proficiency in talismans had always been around the first tier.

After all, having to cultivate, forge pills, research arrays, and occasionally venture into Fragment Worlds had already taken up too much of Fang Xi’s energy, leaving him unable to further cultivate the Taoist of Talismans.

"I’ll make a note of it... and put it off for now..."

Fang Xi rubbed his temples.

Even after developing Divine Consciousness, which made cultivators comparable to prodigies, it was still very difficult to raise the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation to a certain level.

His current proficiency in arrays was completely through underhanded methods.

As for his pill crafting proficiency, it was only around the second-tier middle-class level.

And his puppet crafting was even more pathetic, barely reaching quasi-second-tier.

The rest were even more lamentable.

However, in reality, such proficiencies had already surpassed many old Foundation Establishment cultivators who had lived for more than a century.

...

Going back a little in time.

Moon Viewing Mountain.

This mountain was the ancestral land of the Song Family of Yue Country, with a low-grade third-tier Spiritual Vein!

One ancestor of the Song Family moved the entire clan here, and then, generation after generation, the Song Family members toiled to turn this place into their stronghold.

A moonlight-like radiance always enveloped the main mountain of Moon Viewing Mountain, and within the glow, one could vaguely see the scenery of a bright moon hanging high and silver wolves galloping and howling.

Low-grade third-tier—Sky Wolf Howling Moon Array!

This array stood atop a third-tier spiritual vein, integrating with the earth vein and forming its own world. Overseen by Ancestor Song, who was not only a second-tier Array Master but also at the peak of Foundation Establishment, even Core Formation ancestors would find it hard to break through!

"Patriarch... disaster has struck!"

On this day.

A streak of light flew in haste, revealing one Foundation Establishment middle-aged cultivator with an ominous look.

He made quick steps into Moon Viewing Mountain City and approached the hall, holding a flying sword messenger in his hand.

"What has happened?"

Song Zhongjie, the patriarch of the Song Family, who had a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation, turned into a streak of light, appearing before the middle-aged cultivator.

"Big brother, news from Baize Immortal City informs us, Old Jiang has appeared in Baize Immortal City, breaking the beast horde, slaying the third-tier Monster King, Golden Crowned Thunder Roc... The beast calamity in Baize Immortal City is thus resolved."

"This..."

As Song Zhongjie held the flying sword messenger, his divine sense swept over it, and his expression involuntarily shifted, "Then what about the third-tier Demon Pill?"

"Such matters can only be discussed between the two Core Formation ancestors, how would outsiders know?" the ominously faced Foundation Establishment cultivator replied with a bitter smile, "But in the worst-case scenario, Mysterious Heaven Sect might produce a Jia Dan cultivator!"

"Damn it!"

Song Zhongjie crushed the flying sword messenger in his hand: "Could it be that the ambitions of several generations of the Song Family will ultimately be impossible to realize in our generation?"

Originally, Mysterious Heaven Sect was struggling, with Old Jiang nearing his end.

Yet Ancestor Song still retained a hint of potential to break through to Golden Core.

If a day came when Old Jiang exhausted his lifespan and passed away, Sitting and Transforming, while Ancestor Song successfully formed his Golden Core, the Song Family would become the leading family in Yue Country, able to swallow up all the resources and influence of Mysterious Heaven Sect!

This was why the nearby immortal cultivation forces would usually give the Song Family some face.

But now... should Mysterious Heaven Sect produce a Jia Dan cultivator, things would change.

The Mountain Protecting Array of Mysterious Heaven Sect would only be stronger than the Sky Wolf Howling Moon Array! A Jia Dan would always have diviner skills than someone at the peak of Foundation Establishment.

Even if Ancestor Song successfully reached Core Formation, the most they could do was share Yue Country with Mysterious Heaven Sect.

"How is the ancestor faring?"

The ominously faced Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Song Family asked another question, "Now that Mysterious Heaven Sect has a successor, I fear Old Jiang might go for a mutual destruction with us!"

"No need to fear, as long as we firmly defend the Great Array, we will be safe..."

Song Zhongjie exhaled a suppressed breath, only he knew that Ancestor Song had not only been in seclusion all year round but also hadn’t dared to leave Moon Viewing Mountain City for decades!