WebNovels

Chapter 324 - Point Where All Things Meet

Donning his usual shabby clothes, Zhao Yunxiao stood atop a small hill near Blueflag Mountain, watching at the latter that was currently illuminated by the warm afternoon sun.

He had sent his clone here before, but this was the first time that he was actually admiring the mountain in all its glory.

Blueflag Mountain was definitely not lacking in terms of grandeur, with its snow-capped peak reaching all the way into the clouds. The body of the mountain was a good combination of rocks and greens, giving it a good colour contrast when looked upon from afar.

With it in his sights, Zhao Yunxiao thought back to the verse that he had unravelled from the various manuals left behind by the Untethered Sage.

Duyuan Empire, Thousand Autumn City, Blueflag Mountain to the East.

Snow-capped peak, Verdant trees, Point where all things meet.

The first part of the verse was straightforward enough, clearly meant to lead the reader here to Blueflag Mountain.

As for the second part, that was not nearly as obvious. They were phrases that each made sense on their own, but how exactly were they linked?

Well, there was only one way to find out.

And thus, Zhao Yunxiao began his climb of the mountain.

Since he was already here, he did think about checking out the cave that had been used by the Scarlet Leaf Sect previously, but quickly decided against it. Not just that, but he even specially took the long way around just to make sure that he was absolutely nowhere near the cave.

After what happened to the coalition members, surely the various factions of Thousand Autumn City would have sent people to investigate the cave, be it overtly or covertly. At the same time, those people sent by each faction would surely be keeping tabs on everyone else who was spotted there.

If he were to show up now, that would only serve to draw unnecessary attention to himself.

Because of that, he decided to carve out an entirely new path for himself – one that was rough and unpaved.

Having to bash through the dense vegetation that obstructed his way slowed him down a little, but Zhao Yunxiao did not mind.

No matter how he looked at it, the potential legacy of the Untethered Sage was far more valuable than mere information on the activity of the Scarlet Leaf Sect. He definitely could not risk leaking any information about his intention here, or he could only imagine the level of competition that he would end up facing!

In fact, he even considered giving it up entirely for now, returning in a few months after the attention on Blueflag Mountain had subsided. However, that could draw attention within the Black Tortoise Sect if the sect administrators noticed how he chose to visit the area again.

After all, this place was not exactly the closest to Purple Plum Mountain, and there was also no guarantee that there would be another sect mission in the area.

If he ended up drawing the attention of the sect administrators, that would be even more troublesome to deal with as compared to drawing the attention of those in Thousand Autumn City!

Zhao Yunxiao slowly made his way up the mountain, carefully cutting off the stray branches and vines that blocked his path.

But while doing so, he quickly noticed something amiss about the vegetation here.

They seemed to be emanating a faint ominous aura – one that was strangely familiar.

No, it was not just the vegetation. This aura seemed to permeate through the mountain, as though it was present in the air itself.

Zhao Yunxiao frowned as he suddenly recalled where he had encountered this aura in the past. It was similar to the feeling that he had gotten from Ke Huofen's Essence Reaper.

It was the aura of corruption!

At this moment, he suddenly recalled the words that Ke Huofen had said to the red-haired woman back in the cave.

No one knew when it started, but the aura of corruption suddenly started to grow stronger, eventually reaching the current point in time when it has become dense enough to shroud the entire mountain.

Back then, Zhao Yunxiao Two had stopped at the foot of the mountain where the cave was located, so that might be why he had not been able to sense much of it. But now that Zhao Yunxiao was actually scaling the mountain, he could clearly feel the aura of corruption that Ke Huofen had spoken of before.

It was not nearly dense enough to shroud the entire mountain, but it was definitely not considered faint either.

After all, it was already at a level where the vegetations were showing signs of corruption. The more heavily affected plants had even started to mutate, losing all resemblance to their original appearances.

From altered colours to changed textures and sizes, to straight-up growing odd appendages that often looked more like limbs and tentacles, all sorts of weird phenomena could be seen appearing on the vegetation of the mountain.

Upon noticing this, Zhao Yunxiao immediately became far more careful while ascending the mountain. He made sure to always cut open a spacious path whenever there were obstructions, even shielding himself with a protective layer of essence energy just in case.

The last thing he wanted was to get some of this ominous aura on himself. Who knew what kind of strange effect that would cause?

That said, he did consider collecting some of these corrupted plants as samples, especially since Gu Qiansi seemed to be busy studying the issue of corrupted plants and animals in recent months.

Bringing a sample back might just help her in her research, but it was too risky.

With his current lack of understanding regarding the power of corruption, Zhao Yunxiao dared not do anything as rash as that.

Otherwise, should something unexpected happen that forced him to abandon his climb altogether, he would essentially be suffering a huge loss in the process of seeking some trivial benefit!

Blueflag Mountain was tall but not unscalable, especially for cultivators like Zhao Yunxiao.

Even while taking extra care in his ascent, it only took half a day before he stepped foot on the snow-capped peak of the mountain. Upon doing so, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but let out a satisfied smile.

It was not visible from below, especially with the thick clouds obscuring the view, but the mountain peak flattened out like a small plateau.

And within this small plateau were surprisingly lush trees that were growing closely together, as though they were huddling together to keep one another warm in this cold and snowy environment.

Of course, Zhao Yunxiao was not smiling because of this imagery, but because the presence of the trees essentially addressed the middle portion of the second verse.

Snow-capped peak, Verdant trees, Point where all things meet.

Now then, what could the last portion possibly be referring to?

That was no doubt the portion linking everything together and providing the final clue to whatever it was that the Untethered Sage wanted to point to.

Zhao Yunxiao did not rush into investigating the area.

Instead, he started putting down array flags by the edge of the plateau, setting up both a killing array and a concealment just in case something unexpected came up.

These manuals authored by the Untethered Sage had already been in circulation for a very long time, so there was no guarantee that he would be the first person to unravel this message.

Who knew if someone had, for whatever reason, set a trap for others who followed the message here?

Thinking back to the worst-case scenario, it might even be a trap that the Untethered Sage himself had set for cultivators of the future generation. Though if that was the case, considering the Untethered Sage's level of attainments, it was unlikely that anything he did here would have any impact on the eventual outcome.

Still, something was better than nothing!

It was only after he had completed the setup of the two arrays that Zhao Yunxiao finally began his investigation proper. He first combed the perimeter of the plateau, slowly working his way towards the centre by circling in from the outside.

The plateau was not too large, so Zhao Yunxiao did not take long to comb the entire area.

His conclusion – there was nothing here.

There was absolutely nothing that he could find on the plateau except the lush trees, supported by grass and soil that had come underneath a layer of snow. Except for the way through which Zhao Yunxiao came, which was at the northwestern edge of the plateau, the rest of the edges fell straight down, forming steep cliffs.

The densely growing trees were concentrated near the southwestern edge of the plateau, leaving the rest of the area as a large clearing. But surprisingly, none of these trees were showing any signs of corruption, much unlike the vegetation that he had encountered on the way up.

Zhao Yunxiao felt a renewed sense of drive upon noticing this, believing that this was a sign that he was on the right track!

He quickly found himself sitting cross legged on the snow-covered grass, watching the small forest in front of him while trying to figure out what he was missing.

Point where all things meet? What was supposed to meet here?

He had already combed the entire area, and there was nothing!

Could it be the ground beneath the trees? That's where the trees met the earth.

Or did he have to count and identify each tree in order to get more clues to work on?

Well, it was not like he had any better idea, so he might as well try!

[Earthen Clone Technique]

The earth rose, forming two earthen clones who quickly got to work.

Zhao Yunxiao remained seated, focusing on controlling the two clones to properly identify each and every tree that was present.

He might have outsourced the work in his garden plot to Lei Wenzhang and Qing Bian, but this arrangement only started long after he took on a job at the Herb Gardens.

While it might not be up to the level of the plant-obsessed Gu Qiansi, Zhao Yunxiao's proficiency in the art of herbalism was actually at a rather advanced level. In his head was the detailed information on hundreds of thousands of plants and spiritual herbs, allowing him to identify many of these trees with a few simple glances.

Armed with this newly gathered information, he slowly formed a mental map of the trees, allowing him to picture just how the trees were spaced out and try to identify any possible patterns from there.

Were there any special messages hidden in the arrangement by species? Or perhaps an array with nodes that lay hidden within a particular type of trees?

No.

In that case, what about sorting by height of tree, colour of tree, colour of fruits, colour of flowers, size of tree, size of leaves, size of...?

One by one, Zhao Yunxiao eliminated the different hypotheses in his head, unable to find any patterns whatsoever. No matter how he looked at it, the trees were growing in a completely random manner.

Even when he tried to forcibly feed in patterns to explain the existing arrangement, he simply could not think about how to proceed from there.

Huu-!

Zhao Yunxiao let out a long sigh of resignation as he stood by the edge of the plateau, closing his eyes despite facing the beautiful orange rays painted across the sky canvas by the setting sun.

The view was beautiful, but the person's heart was not there to appreciate it.

It had already been three full days since he first arrived at the plateau, and he had made absolutely zero progress.

At this rate, it might begin to become tricky to explain his continued absence. It might be better to return to the sect soon, and come back again when an opportunity arose in the future.

Damn it! Was he really so talentless that even when such a rare opportunity fell into his lap, he was still unable to make use of it?

Had it been any of the core disciples, they would probably have figured things out by now, wouldn't they?

Or perhaps he should return with Lu Zhiying when an opportunity arose in the future. She might not be on the level of a core disciple just yet, but her talent and fortune were undeniable. Someone like her might just be able to unravel the mystery behind these cryptic verses left by the Untethered Sage.

Well, there was no reason to force things.

Of course, he would keep trying his best in the future. But even if he ended up not being fated to claim this inheritance, then so be it.

Who knows?

Perhaps someone had already gotten to it long ago, or perhaps it was not even an inheritance in the first place!

It was not like he needed the inheritance to succeed anyway. As long as he continued working hard, he would definitely be able to achieve his dream one day!

That's right, he had given it a shot, but there was no reason to keep being stubborn about it. It was now time for him to face reality once again – to head back to Purple Plum Mountain and start working hard.

Having made his decision and starting to think about the journey back, his mental map of the lush trees started zooming out, expanding to cover the entire snow-capped plateau... the entire Blueflag Mountain... Thousand Autumn City... and finally the entire northern region of the Duyuan Empire to include Purple Plum Mountain...

At this point, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but furrow his brows.

Wait, could it be...?

In his head, the mental map continued to expand southwards, rapidly creeping out to eventually cover the entire Duyuan Empire.

And then he saw it – a smooth curved line that perfectly connected everything through the centre point.

Duyuan Empire, Thousand Autumn City, Blueflag Mountain to the East.

Snow-capped peak, Verdant trees, Point where all things meet.

From the centre of the vast Duyuan Empire to the centre of Thousand Autumn City, to the centre of Blueflag Mountain, to the centre of the plateau, to the centre of the group of densely packed lush trees – a single curved line connected them all to form a shape that resembled a withered plant.

More importantly, the distance from point to point actually decreased at the exact same rate as well.

Following the same rate of decrease and extending the curved line accordingly, it was not difficult to determine where the next point should be.

Zhao Yunxiao's eyes shot open, and he quickly rushed over to the next calculated coordinate. This brought him straight to the southwestern edge of the snow-capped plateau.

But once again, he was stuck.

The exact position that he had calculated was actually just past the edge of the plateau, which led straight down in a steep fall.

...Was he supposed to take a leap of faith here?

At the far bottom was nothing but rocky ground, without even any signs of vegetation to break the fall. If he were to fall from such a height, even a cultivator like himself would not be able to get out unscathed!

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