49 The Gains

It was the question that Wei Gaoyuan had considered before he left the secret room. He had to answer it after Qiu Mengqin and Liu Xingfei woke up even if Yu Wansu hadn't asked. Anything about senior Lie could never be disclosed, He had already prepared a reasonable explanation.

He'd heard a common expression many times in the stories long ago—the Cultivation Deviation. It was a state wherein the cultivation base became dangerously unstable, causing serious or even deadly internal damage to the body and symptoms of psychosis. People, especially the Unorthodoxer, who succumbed to their Internal Demons, who practiced Taoism Arts or martial arts incorrectly, or who rashly used forbidden arts were all at risk of falling into this state.

(Internal Demon: rather than standard demons or devils, these are a practitioner's negative emotions and other mental barriers which hinder their training or cultivation. Internal Demons, in some cases, can even attack the practitioner from the inside, and failure to adequately resist them may result in the Cultivation Deviation.)

Hence, Wei Gaoyuan showed a still- traumatized look and said, " At that time I thought it must be the termination of us. Yet Tao blessed us, somehow the Unorthodoxer suddenly seemed to fall into the state of Cultivation Deviation. He even killed the Watchman, and his Qi then turned into a complete disorder and burst out…" he just felt he was a perfect storyteller in the teahouse, "following his madness was the gale, screaming everywhere in the secret room… And before the stone door closed, I took the opportunity to bring everyone out as fast as I can…"

"Thanks a million to Tao! You're really really lucky! He must have cultivated a most evil art!" Yu Wansu covered her mouth in shock, her big eyes bigger.

Brother Zhao didn't say anything but just reached out to push the stone door. After a while he said, "I can't budge it!"

Of course you couldn't. Senior Lie had sealed up the whole room. Wei Gaoyuan thought and said, "I guess it's been controlled by that Unorthodoxer, and…to avoid…like his enemies, he might have sealed up himself and the room after realizing his Cultivation Deviation…"

"You might be right. Anyway," brother Zhao nodded, and said, "we gotta go up quickly. I must report everything tonight to the Defensive Officer…"

Moments later, Liu Xingfei finished his breathing adjustment with his internal injuries cured almost a half. He nodded and gave Wei Gaoyuan a cupped-fist, "Thank you for saving me, junior brother Wei, I owe you…"

" Just do not mention it, Brother Liu," Wei Gaoyuan waved his hands quickly, " brothers just never owe each other."

Liu Xingfei nodded and didn't say anything but gave a smile.

...

In the middle of the night, the wind slinking through the mountain was full of chill. The two Captors rubbed their hands in the faint gleams of Light Tubes. Suddenly one said in a low voice, "Be careful! Someone's coming up!"

Swish!

The other one pulled out his cutlass, and later called out, "Head Zhao !?"

Truely, the first to climb up was the brother Zhao, holding the dead Captor with the help of Liu Xinfei.

"Little Nail!!" the two Captors shouted at the same time while seeing their companion's body.

Yu Wansu and Wei Gaoyuan followed, together holding Qiu Mengqin. The two Captors were shocked while seeing the state of Qiu Mengqin and got relieved to learn that she was just in a coma.

Wei Gaoyuan described the experience in the secret room again. With Liu Xingfei adding some details, there was no doubt about it. As for the Cultivation Deviation,if nothing wrong had happened to that ancient Unorthodoxer, how could they had come back alive?

After the Wei Gaoyuan finished, the youngest Captor asked anxiously, "Is there any other discovery? My sister was taken without any news until now… Is she in that secret room?"

"I'm sorry, we didn't find her..." Liu Xingfei shook his head. "We fought with them as we got into the room, and then I got injured and lost consciousness."

Wei Gaoyuan shook his head as well, "There was nobody else in the room except us… She should be kept somewhere else."

Brother Zhao had planned to wait for the reinforcements to go down again for a minute search. Seeing his little brother's great anxiety, he said, "Little Six, Second Old, you two follow me! We go down right now!!"

"Let me go with you," Liu Xingfei said. "I've almost recovered, and might helpful if got an accident."

"Count me in!" Wei Gaoyuan volunteered.

After a brief talk, Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan went down with Little Six to find his missing sister; others waited the reinforcement on the ground.

Apart from the secret room, there was another passageway underground. The three people couldn't enter the room but search around before walked along the passageway. Not walking for long, an entrance to the ground was seen at the end of the passageway.

After climbing to the ground over the entrance, the three looked around and found that they were still in the same woods, facing no mountain walls though.

Little Six did not give up, and started searching around carefully, including Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan. And they finally found several bodies in a large pit, not far from the entrance.

Little Six began shivering immediately, regardless of the foul smell, jumped into the pit and picked through the bodies. After a long while he shook his head and murmured, "No…not… my sister… not here...."

"She must be safe… somewhere else!" He jumped out of the pit and began another searching, and didn't stop until dawn, but found nothing else, only the six in the pit.

At dawn, another team of 10 Captors arrived, two at the eighth-level of the Mystery and one even the seventh-level.

The whole group searched throughout the two entrances of underground passage together with the entire large woods yet still found nothing.

Although the anxiety of Little Six didn't reduce at all, they could do nothing else but go back with six bodies, and then issued an official notice: Searching the Missing Girls.

...

It was three o'clock at night. Everyone in Huyang Town had fallen into their various dreams; outside their dreams was the entirely silent world.

In Wei Gaoyuan's room, a candlelight was flaring. He still showed no sign of sleepiness.

At night, he opened the Universe in Bag in the room. In the space of the bag were a notebook, two secret scrolls, a sword, a stone, a bit smaller than the palm, and a waste crystal.

The notebook was Lie Qianshan's introduction to the world of Taoism Followers in his time, over 3000 years ago, whose contents must have been out of date.

The two secret scrolls: SONG OF MAGIN and CHASING WIND SWORD; Wei Gaoyuan had glanced through their introductions; the former was the supreme scroll of Magin Religion, usually held in the lords of religion; it was a set of methods for internal cultivation and a guidance for those from the bottom stage to even the stage of Full Completeness. And the latter was a set of swordsmanship with movement skills.

Fall of Maple Leaf was a Spirit Weapon, that is, the magic sword used by the powerful Sword Taoist in stories. For sure, Wei Gaoyuan was unable to harness it at current stage.

As for that palm-sized stone, he examined it for a few moments but didn't find any useful effects, only feeling very comfortable while gripping it in his hand.

Because Lie Qianshan's division stream of consciousness was no longer in that crystal, Wei Gaoyuan put it away as a memorial.

After inspecting all the stuff in the Universe in Bag, he tried to learn SONG OF MAGIN, still holding the unknown stone in his hand.

When he was running a flow in a full circle according to the scroll and enjoying the comfort in the meridians, the stone in his hand suddenly sent a surging stream of Qi, he couldn't tell what kind of Qi it was, like a torrent pouring into the meridians.

Wei Gaoyuan was startled and quickly adjusted his running speed while sinking this stream of Qi into Dantian. After quite a long while, it was just refined and integrated with his Internal Qi into Dantian. He found that his Internal Qi had increased and strengthened a lot, so he immediately did it in the same way, again and again until dawn…

After finishing a long night's internal cultivation, he tested his gains and was pleasantly surprised to find that his stage had been elevated to the top of the eighth-level!

To have promoted approximately a half of one level in just one night!

He looked again at the inconspicuous stone in his hand, and carefully stored it into the Universe in Bag.

...

Three days later, Qiu Mengqin woke up from a coma, and after her eyes opened up and turned unfocused for a while, she suddenly sat up and showed a look like facing an extremely awful threat.

"Sister, you are awake!" said Yu Wansu in a surprise, who'd sat beside her almost all these days.

"I ... Where am I?" Qiu Mengqin asked, looked still quite weak.

She'd lost too much Yin Essence, and would have already died if she were an ordinary person. Despite her remarkable stage, she was fed many herbs six times a day for three days and just woke up in a weak state.

"Here is Huyang Town, sister, you are safe… We've been so worried about you these days…"

"Junior sister Yu, how did you ... we ... escape from that…?" Qiu Mengqin remembered what happened that day. She didn't want to bring up that Unorthodoxer. No one in the team could feel more horror of that nightmare than herself.

She'd thought that there was no way at all they could escape. Then was there some stronger senior who arrived in time and saved them?

Yu Wansu repeated what Wei Gaoyuan had described that day, and told her that it was confirmed by Liu Xingfei. Also, Qiu Mengqin felt it so lucky and incredible, but they were survived finally anyway.

After a while, Liu Xingfei, Wei Gaoyuan, and brother Zhao arrived. After learning that six girls were dead and the whereabouts of the other girls were still unknown, Qiu Mengqin gave a heavy sigh and decided to stay in Huyang Town for a few days to help find the missing persons.

After some discussion, the four disciples of the East Mountain Sword Clan were split into two teams. Yu Wansu stayed with Qiu Mengqin to help Huyang Town and meanwhile investigate whether there were other Unorthodoxer fellow members in the town; Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan proceeded to finding the Full Moon Flower. If it turned out to be too difficult to obtain, they would come back and ask for sisters' reinforcement.