The Violet-Teardrop Bamboo was a first-rank upper-grade spiritual wood, and Mount Purple Bamboo had earned its name for the vast groves of these shimmering stalks.
It was said that deep within the mountain's spiritual vein lay a few specimens that had reached the pinnacle of the first rank, their roots buried deep in the earth, exuding an ancient vitality.
If the sect's main spirit vein advanced to the next tier, those ancestral bamboos might even evolve into second-rank spirit bamboo.
The moment Ji An stepped within the mountain's protective formation, he could feel a crisp, verdant current of wood-element spiritual energy, far purer than in other regions. Even the mana circulating through his body seemed livelier, more eager to flow.
He smiled inwardly. That was because he cultivated the Evergreen Aetherwood Art, a technique that harmonized perfectly with such an environment.
Still, he couldn't help but wonder if he had been too hasty in choosing Chiyan Peak as his dwelling. Perhaps he should have compared the veins more carefully before deciding.
He flicked a transmission sword, sending it streaking toward the mountaintop. Li Lingyu's cave residence was up there. She, too, practiced the Evergreen Aetherwood Art, hence her choice of Mount Purple Bamboo.
Moments later, the clear cry of a spirit crane echoed through the mountain. Ji An looked up to see Li Lingyu soaring swiftly toward him, clad in a pale green dress that rippled like flowing jade.
His own mount, the gray-feathered sand goose, raised its neck and let out a defiant cry in return. Ji An chuckled and patted its sleek feathers. What's gotten into you now, showing off in front of a lady?
Li Lingyu guided her crane to descend, its snow-white wings fanning the air with effortless grace.
Her bright eyes blinked once, a smile curving her lips; dimples bloomed faintly on her porcelain cheeks as she said with playful warmth:
"A few days ago, I did a little calculation and thought you might have already reached Foundation Establishment. Seeing you now, it seems my guess was right.
Congratulations, Junior Brother! It looks like I'll have to return the congratulatory gift I received from you a few years back."
Ji An laughed lightly. "Senior Sister doesn't seem the least bit surprised. Shouldn't you at least ask how I managed to break through?"
Li Lingyu covered her mouth and giggled softly.
"You know, Master has several of the key herbs needed to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill planted in her medicine garden. A few years ago, several of those matured.
She personally refined a batch of pills and rewarded me with one; otherwise, I'd only just be getting mine from the sect this year.
So if Master gave me one, it's only natural she'd save another for you, isn't it?"
Ji An smiled. "Seems we're both rather fortunate, then."
"The others have already arrived," Li Lingyu said, turning her crane with a light tap of her fingers. "Let's not keep them waiting. Come, follow me."
Her robes fluttered as she rose into the air again, like a celestial maiden gliding through the clouds.
...
Half-hidden behind a screen of slender, emerald-green bamboo was the entrance to her cave. The stalks were no thicker than a thumb, each etched with tiny violet droplets that gleamed like tears.
Inside the cave, Du Huaiyuan was busy pulling the clay seal off a large wine jar, and the room immediately filled with a heady, intoxicating aroma.
"Come, everyone! Try a cup of my spirit wine; it can even help strengthen a Foundation Establishment cultivator's mana.
The effect only works the first few times, but still, it's a rare treat!"
Instead of cups, he brought out several large porcelain bowls and filled five of them to the brim. The liquid shimmered a lush green, rippling like the surface of a quiet mountain pond.
Liu Yu chuckled.
"Drinking spirit wine from a bowl, how bold! Though it does seem to lack a bit of that immortal grace."
"Indeed," Li Lingyu and Mu Qingwan both nodded, amused.
Du Huaiyuan grinned broadly.
"What's the point of pretending to be ethereal? In my eyes, drinking under the moon and singing freely, that's the way of immortals!"
He laughed heartily. For him, going ten days without elixirs was tolerable, but three days without a sip of spirit wine, and he'd feel utterly restless.
"I often wonder," he said, lifting his bowl, "why do we cultivators strive so hard for immortality? For eternal life?"
"But what's the point of living forever?" Du Huaiyuan sighed, swirling the jade-green liquid in his bowl. "I can't make sense of it. What's the meaning of immortality earned through endless years of bitter cultivation?
To me, digging up a jar of fine wine a few centuries later and drinking it till I'm drunk, that's far more satisfying than improving one's cultivation."
The rich fragrance of spirit wine filled the air. Ji An chuckled and replied,
"If you want to live long enough to enjoy that vintage, you'd better raise your cultivation. I've heard some spirit wines take centuries to ferment before reaching their best flavor and potency.
Without a longer life, you might never get to taste them."
He didn't know whether longevity had any true meaning, but even if it didn't, one could always find a way to make it meaningful.
In his previous world, a human lifespan barely lasted a hundred years before everything vanished like morning mist.
Here, a Foundation Establishment cultivator could live two hundred years, an Origin Ascension cultivator five hundred, and a Golden Core master a thousand.
If he reached the Golden Core realm, it would be like watching empires rise and fall across the centuries.
In Ji An's mind, lifespan was like a spare elixir, something you might not always need, but when you did, you'd better have it ready.
Du Huaiyuan burst into laughter.
"Hah! Well said, Junior Brother Ji!
Come then, congratulations on your breakthrough! Let's drink to it!"
His eyes gleamed as he lifted the bowl and drained it in a few hearty gulps.
Ji An followed, first taking a small sip. The cool, fruity liquor flowed down his throat like liquid jade, then turned warm and bright in his belly.
A rush of heat spread through his body as the wine's spiritual energy dispersed through his meridians.
He focused inward, sensing the faint strengthening of his mana.
"Good wine," he murmured.
"Of course it is," Du Huaiyuan said proudly.
The wine was strong; after half a bowl, Ji An felt the faint buzz of intoxication. He circulated his cultivation art, refining the wine's spirit energy until his mind cleared again.
With the mood light and the wine flowing, conversation turned to cultivation and techniques.
Li Lingyu, Mu Qingwan, and Du Huaiyuan, all alchemists, began discussing the differences between fire-alchemy and water-alchemy methods, sharing their insights and mishaps.
Ji An smiled, glancing around the group.
"Senior Brother Liu, I just realized I've never asked what kind of craft you specialize in. Would you tell us?"
Liu Yu shook his head slightly. His eyes carried a distant glint, as though reflecting mountains far away.
"I haven't studied any auxiliary crafts," he said quietly.
"I've joined the Disciplinary Hall, taking on missions to hunt down demon beasts and temper my combat skills.
When I was young, I once saw a sword cultivator slice through the skies, his sword-light forcing several mighty demons to flee in panic.
He laughed as he cut them down one by one… I've admired sword cultivation ever since.
I tried learning the sword for a few years, but I never managed to comprehend sword intent, so I had to give it up for now."
Ji An winced slightly. To become a sword cultivator, understanding sword intent was essential, and those with extraordinary talent could grasp it within months, or at most a year.
Du Huaiyuan, overhearing, said with interest,
"In combat, the most powerful techniques are usually those of metal or fire cultivation. What kind of art do you practice, Senior Brother?"
"Blazing Sun Furnace Scroll."
Ji An blinked in surprise. He wouldn't have guessed that the calm, gentle Liu Yu practiced such a fierce and explosive fire-element technique.
In their sect, two fire-element arts led directly toward the Origin Ascension Realm: Crimson Flame Cloud Scripture and Blazing Sun Furnace Scroll.
The former was gentler; Mu Qingwan cultivated it, as it aided alchemy, while the latter was forceful and domineering, emphasizing brilliance and raw explosive power.
Liu Yu paused, then said softly,
"There's really no such thing as the 'strongest' cultivation art. True strength lies in how well one's spells complement their core technique.
Most water-element arts are known for their gentleness, yes, but some flow like raging rivers and crashing waves.
If a cultivator masters such a water art to the level of cascading heavens and roaring tides, even fire cultivators can be completely suppressed.
In the end, it's just that metal and fire cultivators tend to have more immediate destructive power."
Ji An smirked.
"Heh, Senior Brother, are you trying to comfort me? You don't have to. I'm quite aware of my limits."
Du Huaiyuan burst into hearty laughter. He himself cultivated a water-element technique, after all.
Liu Yu smiled faintly and continued,
"The reason I joined the Disciplinary Hall to hone my combat skills was to prepare for the Tri-Sect Tournament.
I don't practice any auxiliary arts; I rely entirely on hunting demon beasts and completing missions to sustain my cultivation.
If I can win a few matches for the sect during the tournament, the rewards, contribution points, pills, spirit tools, and so on will make my cultivation much more stable."
In the western continent, three great sects had jointly established Azurecloud Immortal City, but disputes over the distribution of its benefits had arisen.
To avoid open conflict, the patriarchs of each sect had agreed long ago that every sixty years they would hold a friendly competition, the Tri-Sect Tournament, to decide the disputed shares of influence and resources.
Ji An raised an eyebrow.
"How many years until the next tournament?"
Only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage or higher were eligible to participate, so he'd only recently heard about it from Ye Changqing, who wasn't entirely sure about the schedule.
That his master had never mentioned such an important matter likely meant she didn't think a humble spirit farmer like him needed to know.
When the rules were first drafted, all three sect founders had been Origin Ascension cultivators. Perhaps they feared that if they personally fought, tempers might flare and things would get out of hand, or that losing would be too humiliating.
So they had agreed that the battles would be fought by Foundation Establishment disciples, divided into three brackets: early, mid, and late stage, and with limited use of talismans to ensure fairness.
Liu Yu replied calmly,
"The next Tri-Sect Tournament will be held in eighteen years, and our sect's internal selection will take place three years before that, in fifteen years.
By then, I should have advanced to the third level of Foundation Establishment. Securing a slot in the early-stage group shouldn't be difficult."
His tone was steady, his smile confident, and clearly, he had great faith in his own strength.
Mu Qingwan smiled as well, her eyes glimmering faintly.
"Our master's disciples have never been known for their prowess in combat. If Senior Brother can compete in the tournament, it will bring honor to our master's name."
Liu Yu shook his head lightly.
"Merely participating doesn't bring honor; winning does.
If I go up there and get beaten senseless, Master will probably scold me for disgracing her in front of everyone."
Everyone burst out laughing, Mu Qingwan covering her lips as her laughter rippled through the hall like a silver bell.
Ji An, smiling faintly, thought to himself that by the time of the tournament, he should also be qualified to compete. With the stone tortoise continuously absorbing spiritual qi for more than a decade and his own diligent practice, he had a good chance of bringing his combat techniques to perfection.
Once the laughter died down, Liu Yu's expression grew more serious.
"Fellow brothers and sisters, don't neglect your combat training while you cultivate.
A few days ago, a senior brother returned from a frontier outpost, reporting that he had captured a demonic cultivator. The Disciplinary Hall is taking the matter very seriously.
While we're preparing for the coming Demon Calamity, those great fiends are also infiltrating and undermining human sects."
There were always some cultivators who, craving greater power, refined the blood of demon beasts into their own bodies, replacing human blood with beast blood.
Their organs and bones gradually transformed, and through long years of tempering, they gained the monstrous strength and resilience of beasts, eventually even the ability to take on a beast form.
But in doing so, they lost their humanity. Their minds grew feral, their instincts bestial. Only a handful could maintain a shred of clarity in their souls.
These so-called demon cultivators had once wreaked havoc across the cultivation world. The human sects had eventually united to exterminate them, forcing the survivors to flee into the monster territories, where they joined hands with powerful demons.
Since then, "demon cultivator" has become synonymous with traitor to humankind, the very definition of a human turncoat.
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