Mountain Range Calamity

News of Yaan's breakthrough led to a change in the general chatter around the sect for the first time in many months. For someone so young to reach the Innate Qi Realm was truly shocking, but it was also a blessing for the sect.

Even so, this positive news only managed to lift people's spirits by a small amount, for a brief period of time. When he left seclusion and made his way into the core sect's public region, the atmosphere made Yaan fall silent.

After facing the tireless beast tide for so long, people were growing weary and dispirited. Before going out, Yaan knew that thing might be a bit solemn, but the atmosphere after emerging from seclusion for the first time in months was a bit too much.

But, he understood immediately after finding his teacher.

"I can hardly believe it, reaching the Innate Qi Realm at ten years old, it's really amazing." Great Elder Wan sighed in wonder, shaking his head slowly as he carefully examined Yaan's cultivation base.

"But teacher, why does everyone seem so glum? Did something else happen with the beast tide?"

"Indeed." The old man nodded, his expression darkening when Yaan brought this up.

It hadn't been long, but a few of Great Elder Wan's hairs had turned white from the stress since Yaan last saw him. The elder had always possessed an aged appearance, but his hair was previously black. Now, he truly started looking like an old man.

The elder sighed when he thought about everything that had unfolded. He shook his head and explained it to Yaan solemnly.

"Not only is this the largest beast tide, but the greatest calamity that the Heavenly Path Sect has ever faced. Over the last few months, every single one of the nine organisations in the Greenwood Mountain Range has come under assault by the beasts!"

"The entire mountain range?!" Yaan exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock. If that was true, then the beast tide was encompassing nine mountains, each similar in size to Heavenly Path Mountain, spaced a couple of hundred miles apart from one another! This scale was simply so massive that he couldn't even wrap his head around it!

"Indeed. Each attack is being led by a Rank 5 beast. They are seemingly acting individually, separate from one another. However…"

"Is there a more powerful beast behind them?" Yaan frowned when he arrived at this conclusion.

"Most likely, but we can't say for sure. Sigh, if there is such a beast, it is certainly at the peak of Rank 5 of perhaps even Rank 6…if that is the case, I really don't know what we will do."

Yaan's heart started beating faster after hearing that they might be facing against a Rank 6 beast. A Rank 6 beast was not only beyond any of the cultivators in the Heavenly Path Sect, it was beyond any individual in the entire Greenwood Mountain Range!

Thankfully, Rui quickly dispelled his worries.

"There is no way that a Rank 6 beast is attacking. Firstly, a Rank 6 beast would never care about this little mountain range. Secondly, such a beast wouldn't need an army to utterly decimate this entire mountain range. It wouldn't even be a battle, the nine organisations would be wiped out within a day."

Yaan sighed in relief, but Rui ignored this and instead closely scrutinised Great Elder Wan. She noted a hint of pride on his face when he learned that Yaan had improved his cultivation. Mixed in with this pride, she also saw confusion in his eyes…followed by sorrow.

'So he still plans to refine Yaan into a puppet, despite caring for him. If he really goes through with this, it will either shatter his dao heart in regret, or force him onto the demonic way.' The demoness assessed silently.

Perhaps things would have been different under normal circumstances, but Great Elder Wan now understood that their sect lacked the power to protect themselves. He needed more power, not just for himself, but for the sect. For the sake of the sect, he would even sacrifice himself, not to mention Yaan, who he intended to use for his own gain anyway.

At least, he felt a bit better now that he could justify his actions with this 'righteous' cause. Even so, Great Elder Wan had been suffering, since he now understood that betraying his disciple would be truly wrong, even if it was for the greater good. It was even getting to the point that he was struggling to focus during his cultivation…

"I need to go now, Yaan, but you should visit the Treasure Pagoda. Now that you have reached the Innate Qi Realm, you're entitled to choose a treasure, technique, art or spell. You already possess the sword treasure, the Fiend Transformation Technique and the Agile Sword Arts, so I suggest that you choose a spell."

With that, Great Elder Wan jumped gracefully onto his flying sword, before flying down the mountain with an air of elegance, to once again battle against the unrelenting beast tide. Yaan watched as he left, then turned and headed towards one of the few core sect buildings that he was yet to explore.

The Treasure Pagoda was a well guarded pagoda with four different floors, with each floor holding a different level.

Spiritual treasures could be found on the bottom floor. Yaan was already familiar with spiritual treasures, since he already possessed one such treasure - the sword which his teacher had given him to fight against the beasts.

On the second level were techniques, methods designed to assist with cultivation and breakthroughs. The Fiend Transformation Technique and the Heavens Beginning Technique were examples of these.

On the third level were martial arts like Yaan's own Agile Sword Arts. There were also arts pertaining to other weapons such as the spear and bow, as well as bare-fisted arts.

The fourth and highest level held the sect's spells. There were different levels of spells, but all spells would be heavily guarded by any organisation. A sect could sometimes possess its own unique spells, so they would never divulge this information to outsiders.

"Oho, disciple Yaan, I have been expecting you."

Yaan briefly glanced up at the towering pagoda draped in red silk banners and lanterns, then lowered his eyes and smiled back at the old man who greeted him with a kind smile.

This old man was was actually just a Qi Temple Realm elder, but he was one of the strongest elders below the great elders. His name was Elder Juseph, and he was known for his carefree attitude, but also his firm strictness towards the pagoda rules. He would never accept a bribe, nor would he give preferential treatment to any disciple; everyone needed to follow the rules properly here. It was probably his fair and just attitude that allowed him to maintain his position in the Treasure Pagoda for so long.

"Greeting, Elder Juseph. I would like to visit the fourth floor." Yaan clasped his hands, not daring to disrespect this old man. Elder Juseph wasn't actually the head of the Treasure Pagoda, but he was the second in command and was always stationed right outside of the pagoda. Getting on his bad side could mean being shooed away from the Treasure Pagoda, which would make Yaan's life in the sect more difficult in the future.

Yaan didn't realise it, but this Elder Juseph would never treat him poorly.

'A talent like this hasn't been seen for generations in the sect, his prospects are beyond my imagination. My old life is coming to an end no matter what, so the best I can do is assist the younger generation.'

Elder Juseph was 179 years old, and he could feel that he would at most live for another few years. When he saw Yaan's young and vital spirit, he felt somewhat envious.

Yaan was personally led through the pagoda by Elder Juseph, up until they reached the 4th floor.

Each stair case was expertly crafted from black obsidian. It had a very sturdy feel about it, as if destroying this place would be impossible even if he tried. It made Yaan realise that the sect highly valued the contents of the Treasure Pagoda, increasing his anticipation towards this trip.

Yaan was now an Innate Qi Realm cultivator and a revered disciple of the core sect, but this didn't mean that he could take anything he wanted. Each floor of the pagoda was split up such that the sect members could only enter if they possessed a certain level of cultivation.

He stepped into the first room on the 4th floor. The weakest spells in the Pagoda, those suitable for Innate Qi Realm cultivators, were kept in this level. Yaan was only able to enter this segment, but even if he did look through one of the other areas, he would be unable to learn the spells, since they were meant for higher realm cultivators.

This place was much smaller than he had imagined, only storing 18 different scriptures. Upon seeing Yaan's confusion, Elder Juseph laughed. He had witnessed such a scene many times before.

"Spells are all rare, even to a sect. What you see here is already many hundreds of years of accumulation."

Yaan nodded slowly. Seeing that he understood, Elder Juseph went on.

"You may choose one spell, but unfortunately, you cannot take the spell scriptures away with you. If it's something that can be learned right away, then you may stay in a training room until you have learned it. If you are unable to learn the spell right now, feel free to leave and come back later."

Yaan nodded slowly as he made his way across the room. Each of the spells was inscribed upon a thin leather scroll. Beneath each scroll was a bronze plaque, detailing the use and effect of the spell.

"As expected, these spells are all trash."

Yaan paused when Rui's voice sounded in his mind, then continued examining the various spells, deciding to ignore her snide remark.

"Unfortunately, I only learned my first spell at the Qi Temple Realm, and I never bothered learning any spells suitable for Innate Qi Realm cultivators later on in my cultivation. You're quite lucky in this regard, not many cultivators get the chance to learn a spell immediately after entering the Innate Qi Realm. Many sects don't even bother teaching spells to Innate Qi Realm members, instead insisting that they increase their realm before wasting their time on spells."

Given that Rui couldn't teach him anything of use, Yaan carefully browsed each scripture. He listened to her assessment of each spell, which she based on the descriptions laid out on the bronze plaques. Even though these descriptions were merely summaries, this was somehow enough for Rui to understand and compare the spells without needing to read through the hidden spell scroll itself.

'Water-drop Slash - The liquid Innate Qi forms a blade around the weapon, allowing the cultivator to reach further than they would otherwise be capable of.'

'Bronze Skin - The Innate Qi forms a defensive metallic layer around the outside of the body, turning the skin bronze in colour. High defensive power, but rapidly draining on Innate Qi.'

'Exploding Fire Palm - The Innate Qi is compressed into a single point on the palm, then burned abruptly and exploded outwards. Generates a powerful strike, but drains all of the cultivator's Innate Qi instantly.'

Out of the 18 spells before him, Rui only considered these three to be worth learning. Even then, she still thought that they were too weak.

Out of these three spells, Water-drop Slash was the most suitable for Yaan. It was unfortunate that he didn't yet fit the requirements to practice this spell, so he could only leave now and return after refining more liquid Innate Qi within his dantian.

The Water-drop Slash Spell required Yaan to wrap his sword in a layer of Innate Qi. In order to accomplish this, he would need at least 100 drops of liquid Innate Qi. Since he had only recently ascended, Yaan's dantian held just a single drop of liquid Innate Qi, which was far from the requirement to cast this spell even a single time.

At the Innate Qi Realm, progress was made by refining massive amounts of atmospheric Spiritual Energy into liquid Innate Qi in the dantian.

When they first entered the Innate Qi Realm, a cultivator only possessed a single drop of liquid Innate Qi. Moving onto the early stage, this drop grew into a pond, then the pond into a lake by the mid stage, and the lake into a sea by the late stage. By the time they reached the peak stage, the amount of liquid Innate Qi in the cultivator's dantian would develop into an entire ocean.

To properly utilise the Water-drop Slash Spell in battle, Yaan would need to reach the early stage, developing a small pond of liquid Innate Qi. If he tried to use this spell before that point, then he would immediately exhaust himself after a single use, which was far too dangerous.

However, he soon encountered a problem.

Right now, the elders were kept busy, dealing with the ever-growing army of spirit beasts and demonic beasts. Because of this, the sect lacked the time to deal with the surrounding mortals within their territory. This meant that the influx of mortal prisoners had steeply declined. As such, Yaan felt stuck…without prisoners to slaughter, how was he supposed to cultivate properly from here on?

"The previous situation was never going to last forever. It was already very good that you could reach the Innate Qi Realm whilst taking so few risks." Rui didn't seem at all phased by this development, much to Yaan's surprise.

"Then where am I supposed to obtain Slaughter Aura from now on?"

"By killing beasts, of course."

Yaan's eyes widened as he thought back on his prior experiences with the beast tide. He remembered that he was able to recover his Innate Qi more rapidly by refining the Slaughter Aura which was released from the beasts cut down by his sword. Equally, he could use this Slaughter Aura to refine more liquid Innate Qi, thus progressing his cultivation!

"Besides, your need for Slaughter Aura has become much more extreme now. The number of mortals that you would need to execute to reach the peak of this realm is in the tens of thousands. You have had it easy until now, but there's no such thing as an easy path to power in this world. If you want to obtain something in this life, you need to fight for it."

Yaan listened to Rui's words and sighed helplessly. In her eyes, the opportunity to kill prisoners who were unable to resist was like receiving a free meal. His mental suffering and ongoing moral dilemma were just side-notes to the cold-hearted demoness.

Sometimes, Rui was so merciless and indifferent to it all, that he couldn't even find the words to refute her.