Chapter 139 - 135: Going Out
After darkness had completely fallen, the group gathered in the open space at the bottom of the slope.
Steward Wang, the cultivator surnamed Zhou, Li Yuan, plus two scouts, made a total of five people. Feng Laoer and the Pill Refiner stayed behind to guard the herb garden.
Li Yuan distributed the Concealing Breath Talismans he had made that afternoon.
The concealing Spirit Liquid was also handed out, and their auras were immediately suppressed.
The five of them stood together, their collective Spiritual Wave nearly seventy to eighty percent weaker than before. It was almost imperceptible when mixed with the night wind.
Steward Wang fastened the Magical Artifact to his waist and scanned the group.
"Let me be clear. This intel might not be real."
He lowered his voice, speaking just loudly enough for those next to him to hear.
"Those previous harassments were meant to wear down our attention and stamina. What if this intel was deliberately leaked to lure us out? They could strike the herb garden while it’s vulnerable, and we’d be on the back foot."
He glanced up the slope toward the herb garden.
"That’s why I’ve set the herb garden’s Array to its highest alert level. Feng Laoer and the Pill Refiner are staying behind. If the Array goes off, they’ll light a signal flare. If we see the smoke, we retreat immediately. We won’t get entangled in a fight."
The group nodded.
"Let’s go."
The five of them entered the woods, following the northern slope of the herb garden.
The mountain forest was pitch-black at night. The tree canopy blocked most of the moonlight, and the loose stones and dry leaves underfoot occasionally made soft crunching sounds. The young scout led the way at the front, his steps light and swift; he was clearly very familiar with the terrain.
Steward Wang and the cultivator surnamed Zhou walked in the middle, with Li Yuan and the scout who practiced a Body Refining Technique following behind.
With the combined effects of the Concealing Breath Talismans and the Spirit Liquid, the five of them had their auras suppressed to an extremely low level. They were almost indistinguishable from a group of mortals as they walked through the woods.
After walking for a while, the terrain in the forest began to change. The gentle slopes gave way to rolling hillocks, with narrow, deep gullies in between. Some spots were so tight they had to turn sideways to squeeze through.
The group’s pace slowed.
The people in front stopped at a narrow gully, waiting for the young scout to cross first and confirm it was safe before following.
Taking advantage of the pause, Li Yuan glanced at the scout beside him.
This man had moved with extreme stability the entire way. His footsteps made almost no sound on the loose stones. When encountering a gully, his body would sink slightly, lowering his center of gravity, and he would cross over with a clean, efficient movement.
’He’s different from Cultivators who rely purely on Spiritual Power-based Body Techniques.’
Li Yuan spoke, his voice hushed.
"You practice a Body Refining Technique?"
The scout turned to look at him and didn’t deny it.
"I’ve practiced a bit."
"A cultivator’s version?"
"Mhm."
Li Yuan was silent for two breaths before asking his next question.
"What exactly is the Qi Blood cycle?"
The scout’s steps faltered for a moment.
He only spoke after a few breaths, his voice very low.
"The Qi Blood cycle means making your Qi Blood complete a full circuit through your meridians, just like Spiritual Power."
He raised his arm slightly, tracing a line in the air before him.
"When Spiritual Power completes a cycle, it leaves the Dantian, travels through the meridians all over the body, and then returns to the Dantian. The principle is the same for the Qi Blood cycle. It leaves the Sea of Qi and Blood, travels a circuit through the meridians, and then returns to the Sea of Qi and Blood."
He lowered his hand.
"The difference is that Spiritual Power naturally flows through the meridians because meridians were originally meant for it. Qi Blood is different; it has to be forced into the meridians. An ordinary Cultivator’s meridians only have channels for Spiritual Power. Qi Blood travels through the blood vessels and fascia. The two follow separate paths."
"If you want Qi Blood to also travel through the meridians, you have to expand the meridians’ capacity so that both Qi Blood and Spiritual Power can run through them at the same time."
Li Yuan nodded.
"Mortal cultivation techniques can’t do that?"
The scout shook his head.
"They can’t."
His tone was certain.
"Mortal techniques train the Qi Blood itself, strengthening the muscles, fascia, organs, and bones. Your Qi Blood gets stronger, you gain physical strength, and your body becomes tougher, but the Qi Blood always follows the path of the blood vessels. It never touches the meridians."
He paused.
"To get Qi Blood into the meridians, you need to use a cultivator’s Body Refining Technique. That’s the fundamental difference between cultivator and mortal techniques. The cultivator’s path uses Spiritual Power to guide Qi Blood to seep into the meridians, letting them gradually adapt to the flow of Qi Blood. After reaching a certain realm of cultivation, Qi Blood can run alongside Spiritual Power in the major meridians, forming a complete cycle."
"What realm?"
"Depends on the technique." The scout held up two fingers. "For most cultivator Body Refining Techniques, reaching the Great Success stage is usually enough. Of course, the more abundant your Qi Blood and the wider your meridians, the lower the requirement. If you have enough Qi Blood, you might be able to force a cycle through the major meridians even if your cultivation is a little lacking."
Li Yuan grunted in acknowledgment but didn’t press further.
’A cycle through the major meridians.’
’He’d noticed a key phrase.’
’The man had said *major* meridians—the main channels and thick branches. That didn’t include the tiny, minor ones.’
’The condition for making the Strengthening Grass permanent was a cycle that permeated *all* meridians.’
’*All* meridians, including the minor ones.’
’This requirement was on a completely different level than a normal Qi Blood cycle.’
’It was already impressive for a typical Cultivator to achieve a Qi Blood cycle through the major meridians; that was the level of someone who had reached Great Success in a cultivator’s Body Refining Technique. But the Strengthening Grass required Qi Blood to travel through every single meridian in the body, not even sparing the minor ones.’
’The difficulty was several times higher.’
Li Yuan didn’t ask any more questions. He quickened his pace to catch up with the group ahead.
The scout didn’t say anything more either, and the two continued onward in silence.
After walking for about half an hour, the group slowed down.
The young scout leading the way raised his left hand, made a fist, and gave a signal to those behind him.
Halt.
All five of them stopped in their tracks.
The young scout crouched down, peered ahead for a few breaths, then turned his head and whispered two words.
"We’re here."
Li Yuan peered past his shoulder.
Ahead lay a wide valley. Moonlight filtered through a break in the clouds, vaguely illuminating the terrain at the valley’s entrance. The cliffs on either side were not particularly high and had gentle slopes. The valley floor was scattered with boulders and shrubs of various sizes.
The entire area was vast. It stretched for several li from side to side, and its depth was impossible to see.
Li Yuan took the Spirit Detecting Disc from his storage pouch, infused it with Spiritual Power, and extended its sensory range to the maximum.
Feedback appeared on the disc’s surface.
Faint fluctuations of aura.
Not just one or two, but a whole field of them.
Throughout the entire valley, extremely faint Spiritual Qi fluctuations were drifting about. The concentration was so low it was almost unnoticeable without the Spirit Detecting Disc. But they were spread out over a vast area, like a thin layer of fog blanketing the valley floor, stretching from the entrance deep into its recesses.
It didn’t seem like the aura of a Cultivator. A Cultivator’s Spiritual Qi fluctuations have a core and a direction, but these fluctuations had no clear source, as if they were seeping out of the ground.
Nor did it seem like a Demon Beast. A Demon Beast’s Spiritual Qi fluctuations are murky and chaotic, whereas these were extremely faint but uniform.
Steward Wang also sensed something was wrong. He raised the Spirit Detecting Disc in his hand a little higher, his brow furrowed.
"There are fluctuations everywhere,"
he said in a hushed voice, glancing across the valley floor.
The young scout, still crouching in front, added in a low voice,
"These fluctuations weren’t this obvious when I came during the day. Maybe the concentration of Spiritual Qi changed at night, or someone set something up in the valley."
The scout who practiced the Body Refining Technique stood nearby. His gaze swept back and forth across the valley floor a couple of times before he spoke in a deep voice.
"Can’t tell if anyone’s here. The area is too large; sensing from the outside isn’t enough."
Steward Wang was silent for a few breaths, then put away his Spirit Detecting Disc.
"We’ll split up and investigate."
He pointed to the cliffs on either side of the valley entrance.
"Teams of two. Move inward along the cliffs on both sides of the entrance. Don’t go down to the valley floor; stay up high. Each team will advance one li and then stop. No matter what you find, don’t engage. Come back and report first."
He looked at Li Yuan.
"You and Old Zhao are a team. Take the right side."
Then he looked at the young scout and the cultivator surnamed Zhou.
"You two take the left. I’ll wait here at the entrance. If anything happens, pull back."
The cultivator surnamed Zhou nodded and headed toward the left cliff. The young scout followed him, and their figures quickly disappeared into the shadows of the shrubs.
Steward Wang crouched down behind a large boulder at the valley entrance, his eyes fixed on the valley floor.
Li Yuan took two steps toward the right cliff. The scout Steward Wang had called Old Zhao followed, his steps silent.
The two of them crept along the edge of the right cliff, moving deeper into the valley.
Underfoot were loose rocks and low shrubs. An occasional soft crunching sound was mostly covered by the night wind and the distant chirping of insects.
The moonlight flickered on and off overhead as the faint Spiritual Qi fluctuations in the valley below continued to drift within the range of the Spirit Detecting Disc.
After walking for a few hundred yards, Li Yuan slowed his pace.
He raised the Spirit Detecting Disc and looked at it again.
The density of the fluctuations was higher here than at the valley entrance.