Starting Cultivation During a Trip

The Great Moon hung high, and a silver plane streaked through the velvet curtain of night, piercing the clouds as Yujing City below slowly slipped away.

"Where’s your Li Miaoyin? Why didn’t you bring her along?"

On the plane, Ge Shuangxiu glanced at Zhang Fan, who had remained silent all this time, and couldn’t help but ask.

This time, Li Miaoyin was finally gone.

"She’s left," Zhang Fan murmured, gazing out the window.

Last night, he’d asked Li Miaoyin out for a late-night snack, intending to tell her that he was about to leave for Chang’an. But Li Miaoyin replied that she had already left Yujing City.

So sudden—it really was a departure without even a word of farewell.

It left Zhang Fan’s heart feeling unsettled.

"Left? Where’d she go?" Ge Shuangxiu was momentarily stunned, then asked again.

"She had something to deal with at home, had to leave in a hurry," Zhang Fan replied nonchalantly.

That was the explanation Li Miaoyin had given him as well.

"Wife went back to her mother’s house, you should be happy," Ge Shuangxiu teased with the air of an old hand at such things.

"Oh right, I forgot. You two are still in your honeymoon phase."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Zhang Fan shot him a sidelong glance. "Old Ge, you’re the successor of Ancestor Ge for heaven’s sake, why do you gossip like one of the neighborhood aunties downstairs?"

"Can cultivators ever be proper for a change?"

Ge Shuangxiu couldn’t help but chuckle at that. "Why so touchy? ’It’s true what they say, a short parting is sweet as a new wedding night!’"

"By the way, you’re going to Chang’an this time to look for that missing friend of yours?"

As for Li Yishan, Zhang Fan had only briefly mentioned him to Ge Shuangxiu.

Now, with Zhenwu Mountain’s disciple admission ceremony about to start, Fang Changle as a Maoshan inheritor couldn’t get away, Xia Weisheng had returned to Zhenwu Mountain, and the Qi Brothers had gone back to Laojun Mountain. So only Ge Shuangxiu accompanied Zhang Fan. In Qin Ancient Town, Ge had faced three opponents alone and won every match, showing his extraordinary cultivation.

This time traveling with Zhang Fan, he’d serve as a helper—at least someone to watch his back.

"Not entirely." Zhang Fan shook his head.

Beneath Zhongnan Mountain, the Living Dead Tomb—this was merely a clue, an idea, provided by Lou Hechuan.

Zhang Fan couldn’t be certain Li Yishan was there, so he’d have to try his luck; besides, he could check on Qin Ergou, who’d been cultivating at Zhongnan Mountain for a while—who knows how much progress he’d made.

"I’m going to sleep." Zhang Fan leaned against the window and closed his eyes.

"You’re cultivating a Divine Demon Holy Embryo and you still sleep?" Ge Shuangxiu couldn’t help retorting.

Zhang Fan didn’t respond. His breathing grew lighter and lighter, as gentle as a baby’s.

In this moment, his Primordial Spirit turned inward, descending to the deepest part of his Inner Scenery.

Clang... clang... clang...

The night was thick and formless, like an endless abyss hidden within the cosmos. The faint, heavy clanging of chains echoed, the only sound in a world otherwise utterly still.

Then, a mysterious, enormous shadow slowly emerged, its entire being shackled and seemingly fused with the endless night itself.

The Three Corpses Primordial Pill—after many days, Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit had returned here once more, longing to probe the memories of the Three Corpses Daoist.

"You’ve finally returned," a mysterious voice drifted eerily through the darkness.

"’Finally’? You were waiting for me?" Zhang Fan’s tone was grave.

The Three Corpses Primordial Pill was a Primordial Spirit backup born from cultivating the Minor Divinity Splitting Technique. By rights, it shouldn’t even have proper awareness.

Perhaps the Three Corpses Daoist had left more than one [Three Corpses Primordial Pill], but Zhang Fan always felt the one inside him was remarkably unique.

"You succeeded in Divine Fusion, severed the Three Corpses, and thus birthed a mighty disaster—it’s only natural you’d come here, searching for a way to avert catastrophe," the mysterious voice replied coldly.

"You know everything," Zhang Fan said grimly.

"If you know everything," he continued, "then you’re not just a memory anymore."

"Memory can be reconstructed, it can also expand, just like time: existing in the past, but also in the future." The mysterious voice answered him.

"I’m not here to search for some way to dodge calamity, but for a path to break through the tribulation." Zhang Fan’s tone was solemn.

Buzz...

The heavy iron chains clanged once more. The vast shadow in the endless darkness fell silent for a long while before finally speaking: "Calamity can be avoided; tribulation can be broken."

"How do I avert it?" Zhang Fan pressed on.

"It’s too late..." the mysterious voice replied. "Only at the birth of the Three Corpses Calamity is it the optimal time to avert it. Now, no matter what you do, it’s too late."

"It’s already entered this world, and is growing stronger day by day. Its growth pace is more terrifying than you imagine."

"At the beginning—how should one have averted the calamity?" Zhang Fan pressed further, knowing the key to dealing with the Three Corpses Gods might well lie in this method.

"Human Xiao!" The mysterious voice spat out two words.

"Human Xiao!?" Zhang Fan was stunned.

"Through the ages, Human Xiao has always been the Guardian of those practicing the Three Corpses Illuminating Fate. Yet as Human Xiao, one refined a Demonic Aspect..."

"What is a demon?"

"The perverse corruption in people is demon. If man is the yang pole of the Red Dust, demon is the yin pole in the Red Dust."

"Similarly, the Three Corpses are another aspect of the Primordial Spirit."

"Human Xiao is the method for averting calamity." The mysterious voice echoed in Zhang Fan’s ears. He listened in silence, but his brow furrowed deep with worry.

"You must realize by now," the mysterious voice said softly, "to avoid such a disaster, how could there not also be tribulation?"

"Human Xiao is a consumable—no matter how great the price they are willing to pay, they can only avert calamity but not break through the tribulation..."

"Precisely because of this, since ancient times, only three have ever truly mastered the Three Corpses Illuminating Fate."

The mysterious voice paused for a moment, then took on a low, sinister tone.

"You’ve unleashed a terrible disaster. Do you realize how terrifying that thing is? It is the very nemesis of the Primordial Spirit—the great tribulation on the path to becoming Immortal..."

"Three Corpses Illuminating Fate is not a common technique. How many years has it been? For so many years, no Three Corpses Gods have appeared in this rolling Red Dust."

"One day, he will find you, drain your Primordial Spirit. You are him; he is you. From here on, there will be no dividing self from other..."