“When the blood blade…”

Four words, spoken with tranquil composure and steady calm.

One could not detect even the slightest trace of stronger emotion in her voice, yet the words carried a decisiveness that made listeners feel an involuntary chill in their hearts.

Kunwu’s Xie Buchen was currently the most prominent figure in all of Shijiu Zhou. Qu Zhengfeng had heard his name and reputation, but had never truly met this person. Yet unexpectedly, Jian Chou had some connection with him.

The same exceptional talent…

One couldn’t help but suspect something else.

However, departure was imminent.

Qu Zhengfeng gave her one final look, then unexpectedly couldn’t help but laugh once.

Jian Chou was wondering whether this counted as agreement or not when she raised her head, only to hear the howling cry of a sword. Qu Zhengfeng stepped upon his Haiguang Sword, its deep-sea-like radiance instantly streaking across the sky, leaving a trail of light before disappearing.

Did this count as agreement, or was it mocking laughter?

Jian Chou stood in place, thinking for a long while without understanding.

“Wu wu wu…”

On her shoulder, Little Marten called out twice in confusion, looking toward the distance, then at Jian Chou beside her, extending its tongue to lick her.

At this crucial moment, Jian Chou continued gazing toward the distant sky without moving her head, but her hand moved directly and accurately to block Little Marten’s head.

Little Marten froze, seemingly not expecting its sneak attack to be blocked, immediately becoming both embarrassed and furious.

“Ao wu wu wu wu!”

Jian Chou finally turned her head, looking at Little Marten as it constantly waved its claws at her with bared fangs, and couldn’t help but smile.

She was too lazy to argue with it. There was still a lazy creature sleeping in her sleeve. Looking at these little ones she was raising, what did they all do besides eat? Was there anyone more pitiful than herself in the entire Shijiu Zhou cultivation world?

Jian Chou thought there probably was, but she hadn’t encountered them yet.

The wind already carried the chill of deep autumn. Distant mountains were hazy, near mountains verdant, all bathed in brilliant colors that seemed about to burn out.

The setting sun sank into the deep blue western ocean, making the shadows of the mountain ranges stretch endlessly beneath Jian Chou’s feet.

She carried the Ghost Axe, with Little Marten perched on her shoulder, walking step by step across the low riverbank.

However, when passing a certain burial mound ahead, her steps involuntarily paused.

The Thousand Cultivators’ Tombs before Yashan were not located in any dark place, but rather could be said to be exposed under the open sky. They lacked the deep, cold, spine-chilling atmosphere of ordinary graves, instead emanating an upright and dignified aura.

Every burial mound here seemed to look identical, with perhaps the only difference being the wild grass growing on each mound, some more lush, some more sparse.

None of the burial mounds had tombstones.

The burial mound before Jian Chou’s eyes was similarly nameless.

In front of the wild grass, before the earthen mound, on the slightly damp ground, traces of water remained. An ordinary small wine jar sat before the grave, its contents seemingly reduced to just a shallow layer.

Little Marten looked and twitched its nose, apparently smelling the strong wine fragrance in the air.

Intense, mellow, spicy, intoxicating.

Little Marten’s eyes immediately brightened. It cried out “Ao wu” and pushed with its hind legs, about to leap from Jian Chou’s shoulder.

Jian Chou sensed its intention and grabbed its tail with one hand, pulling Little Marten back.

“Ao wu wu!”

What are you doing again?

There’s something good up ahead!

Little Marten had already leaped out, but now, being pulled back by its tail, it howled in pain!

Don’t bully me just because I’m not an ordinary marten!

Both front claws and hind legs flailed in midair. Jian Chou glanced at it, then at the remaining jar of wine, and simply placed Little Marten back on her shoulder.

“Yashan is my sect’s territory, not a place where you can act recklessly. Let’s go.”

“Ao wu wu wu wu!”

Bullying a marten again! What does your sect have to do with me?

Little Marten roared at Jian Chou twice in fierce displeasure, extremely dissatisfied. However, after these words from Jian Chou, it obediently crouched on her shoulder, only looking back at that jar of wine with drool streaming from its mouth, though it could only swallow it down.

Sigh, so pitiful.

Jian Chou walked through countless burial mounds, finally returning to Yashan.

At this time, Fudao Shanren had no idea that Qu Zhengfeng had already left.

In Jian Chou’s small dwelling, seeing that Jian Chou was worried about her two little creatures and had gone out, they decided not to linger. Shen Jiu was summoned to the Administrative Hall, and little fatty Jiang He, fearing he might be the next one called to do menial work, fled without hesitation.

In the blink of an eye, everyone had dispersed.

Fudao Shanren simply stood outside Jian Chou’s door, eating chicken legs with one hand while flipping through a small booklet with the other, even moving his chair outside.

Yashan gradually sank into darkness amid the growing pile of chicken bones at his feet.

Atop Lingzhao Peak, in the Guihe Well, the cranes had flown away, leaving only a large white goose that was now beginning to doze.

A dark shadow tinged with faint crimson light, as if about to devour the surrounding darkness, streaked across from a distance.

Hearing the howling sound, Fudao Shanren quickly looked up and immediately complained: “You’re coming back far too late! Look, it’s almost completely dark! You made your master guard the door for you – how terrible!”

Jian Chou landed and stood before her “home,” originally with a smile on her face, but the air happened to be filled with a greasy, fragrant smell of chicken legs that wasn’t faint at all.

Following this smell, Jian Chou looked down.

A small booklet seemed to have been casually thrown on the ground, tattered and worn with unknown contents, and surrounding this booklet were…

Chicken bones everywhere!

The corner of her mouth twitched, and the smile on her face gradually disappeared.

Jian Chou slowly said: “Thank you for guarding the door for your disciple, Master…”

She’d rather not have such a “door guard”!

Fudao Shanren naturally saw Jian Chou’s disgusted expression and seemed somewhat embarrassed. He bent down to pick up the book, then simply swept his foot and shouted: “Go!”

All the chicken bones on the ground flew up into the air!

In that instant, watching the afterimages of those bones left in midair, Jian Chou was finally speechless.

Truly worthy of being an elder of Yashan, truly worthy of being a figure renowned throughout the Central Domain!

Just this skill at throwing garbage toward his sect – Jian Chou couldn’t match it even if she tried her best.

Having done all this, seeing that Jian Chou’s doorway now looked much cleaner and more pleasant, Fudao Shanren proudly raised his eyebrows and smiled.

“Nothing to say now, right?”

“…”

Indeed, nothing to say.

Jian Chou was helpless.

Fudao Shanren stuffed the small booklet into his greasy sleeve and asked: “You went to find just one little marten – how did it take so long?”

“I encountered Senior… Junior Brother Qu is there.”

A slip of the tongue, nearly making an error, Jian Chou quickly corrected herself.

Fudao Shanren was surprised: “Him?”

“Junior Brother Qu seemed to leave directly without bidding farewell to Master.”

Qu Zhengfeng’s thoughts were quite interesting. Indeed, no one had ever stipulated that leaving required farewells, but hearing these words still sounded strange somehow.

Jian Chou reported truthfully – she couldn’t let others remain unaware that Qu Zhengfeng had already departed.

Fudao Shanren fell silent for a long while upon hearing this, then suddenly cursed: “I’ll skin him alive when he returns! Does he still have me, Shanren, as his master in his eyes? Thinking that just because his cultivation is about to surpass mine, he can become my master? Dream on! Ah ah ah ah, I’m so angry!”

“…”

Without this reminder, Jian Chou would have almost forgotten about this master’s peculiar cultivation level.

Though she wanted to ask what realm Master had regressed to now, thinking it might touch a sore spot, Jian Chou restrained herself.

“Master, when Junior Brother Qu left, he saw through your disciple’s cultivation at a glance and said he had already reached the fifth realm of ‘Human Vessel’ Body Refinement…”

“Pah!”

Fudao Shanren nearly choked on his saliva. He stared wide-eyed at Jian Chou, hardly believing the words she spoke.

“He told you?”

Immediately, Jian Chou frowned: “From Master’s tone, it seems you’re quite familiar with Junior Brother Qu’s cultivation.”

“Ahem.”

Fudao Shanren quickly looked around, hemming and hawing for a long time before speaking: “Well… I can still see a little, but you know I haven’t been at Yashan for three hundred years. I have no idea when he cultivated this. It was only after you mentioned it that I remembered. He must have also found the Body Refinement technique in the Scripture Pavilion. To think he’s reached the fifth realm – no wonder he’s become so formidable…”

The “Human Vessel” Body Refinement method.

The first layer uses spiritual energy to shape flesh and blood, the second layer uses fire to temper tendons and bones, the third layer uses jade essence to nourish the five organs and six viscera.

Jian Chou had just completed the first three layers, her current realm called “Heavenly Organs, Earthly Viscera.”

Now she could rely on her body’s strength to defeat Qi Shaofeng, who had just formed his Core Formation but wasn’t particularly strong yet. However, there were still six more realm levels waiting for her.

The fourth layer embeds spirit pearls into the joints to ensure their resilience, called “Intersecting Pearls, Connecting Jade.”

The fifth layer was Qu Zhengfeng’s current realm, using black wind that could corrode human flesh, tendons, and bones to carve the body, called “Black Wind Bone Etching.”

The sixth layer uses lightning to temper the body, strengthening all bones and flesh, called “Walking Thunder, Running Lightning.”

In the Killing Red Small Realm, Jian Chou had completed the second and third layer cultivation through fortunate coincidence. Now she needed to find suitable spirit pearls to embed in her joints, connecting her previously strengthened bones and flesh, hence called “Connecting Jade.”

Spirit pearls should be quite easy to find, so the fourth layer shouldn’t be difficult for Jian Chou.

However, the fifth layer had stringent requirements.

Black wind – this name sounded ordinary, but it was something that ordinary cultivators feared upon hearing.

This wind blew from deep underground, sometimes scorching like fire, cold like ice. When it blew, it was like steel knives scraping bone and thin blades cutting flesh. Those with weak bodies, when blown by black wind, might be left with only a skeleton, dying on the spot.

Throughout the lands of Shijiu Zhou, places with black wind were extremely rare. Where they existed, they were invariably dangerous places among dangerous places, basically all located where ordinary cultivators couldn’t reach.

Therefore, Jian Chou’s major difficulty for future cultivation, aside from accumulating spiritual power, was finding a place where black wind existed.

For Qu Zhengfeng to find such a place and complete the fifth level of Black Wind Bone Etching, setting aside prejudices, Jian Chou had to say “admirable.”

Since Fudao Shanren was also present, Jian Chou simply asked: “Your disciple has now reached the third layer of Body Refinement. The fourth layer is mild and manageable, but reaching the fifth layer makes it difficult to find a place where black wind exists. Throughout Shijiu Zhou, Master knows best – where exactly can such a suitable Body Refinement location be found?”

Since Qu Zhengfeng could find it, she should be able to as well.

Jian Chou looked at Fudao Shanren, who began to think.

His two eyebrows knitted together as he stroked his chin, muttering: “Such places do exist, but they’re all very far away. The Northern Domain’s Chan Buddhist Forest and the Yin-Yang Sects should have them, and the Southeast Demon Domain should as well – I’ve been there. But those places are too far for you. There are only two years left until the Left Three Thousand Small Assembly, and I made bets with those two fools from Dragon Gate – can’t delay. This way, I can only find you a closer place.”

Indeed so.

Regardless of whether Jian Chou practiced Body Refinement or not, or how her Body Refinement progressed, she would have to participate in the Left Three Thousand Small Assembly in just over two years.

If she went too far away, first, given Jian Chou’s current cultivation level, she wasn’t strong enough to traverse Shijiu Zhou freely – there might be dangers. Even if the departure was safe, she might not return in time.

To truly cultivate, she had to find a closer place.

Jian Chou was somewhat worried: “Are there no such places in the Central Domain?”

“…Let me think…”

Fudao Shanren tapped his temple with his fingers and began pacing on the mountainside.

One step, two steps.

He discovered his memory was somewhat fuzzy.

Having been away from Shijiu Zhou for three hundred years, everything that had happened here seemed to have vanished into corners with time.

Fudao Shanren needed to exert great effort to recall even one detail of his past cultivation.

Thinking and thinking, he suddenly cursed: “That fool Qu Er has truly bad intentions! Since he said he reached the fifth layer, he must have found a suitable Body Refinement location, and recently too. If he told you directly, why would I need to think myself to death right now?”

“…”

How could Qu Zhengfeng possibly tell her the location?

Jian Chou hadn’t thought of this, but regarding the grievances between herself and Qu Zhengfeng, it was better to remain silent.

She touched her nose and coughed: “If there’s no place, I suppose I could cultivate the later realms first…”

A white eye.

Fudao Shanren rolled it at her without hesitation, and couldn’t help but scold: “Do you think people set cultivation realms for you so casually? Black Wind Bone Etching leaves special patterns on a cultivator’s skeleton with endless benefits. The next realm is lightning body tempering – if you’re lucky, something different might appear. First wind, then lightning – absolutely cannot be wrong.”

“Is that so?”

Jian Chou suddenly remembered that in the Killing Red Small Realm, she had once endured lightning body tempering while opposing that Lightning Spirit Pearl.

“Then… what if lightning body tempering happened first?”

“Cold salad.” Fudao Shanren couldn’t help but mutter, “Why do you have so many questions?”

“…Your disciple once accidentally underwent lightning tempering.”

Jian Chou finally “confessed.”

At this moment, Fudao Shanren felt that the ground beneath his feet seemed somewhat slippery.

He supported himself against the mountain wall to barely stand steady: “Say that again?”

“Your disciple stumbled into lightning body tempering, though it was probably different from the ‘Human Vessel’ method.” Jian Chou spoke hesitantly.

“Different my ass!”

It was all lightning body tempering – what difference could there be?

Fudao Shanren felt like steel couldn’t be made from iron, with an impulse to beat her to death: “You deserve to be an unlucky child! That you didn’t die counts as great fortune. After Black Wind Bone Etching, you’ll have to practice it all over again!”

Practice it all over again…

All over again…

Thinking of the agony of lightning coursing through her body, like drilling into her heart, Jian Chou immediately felt the urge to clutch her chest. If she had known this would happen, why did she act then?

Seeing her looking like she was about to be crushed by this blow, Fudao Shanren snorted coldly: “Now you know you were wrong? This is what you get for not listening to your master.”

“Master, did you say anything before?”

Jian Chou looked at him plaintively.

Fudao Shanren glared: “Say it again, you poor wretch, say it again! Your master even prepared spirit pearls for Intersecting Pearls, Connecting Jade for you. Say it again and believe it or not, I’ll throw them to feed the dogs rather than give them to you!”

Eh?

He prepared spirit pearls for her?

Jian Chou was somewhat surprised.

Fudao Shanren crossed his arms with an expression of “now you know what a good, caring old man your master is.”

He said proudly, “Your master has a small treasury. Just focus on cultivation, and make sure to defeat that Zhou Chengjiang!”

Oh.

So that’s how it was.

Jian Chou smiled knowingly, then slowly considered the scene of her shameless master calling her a “poor wretch,” and began contemplating the possibility of deliberately losing this match and splitting the profits with Zhou Chengjiang afterward.

Fudao Shanren had no idea Jian Chou had already begun plotting mischief, thinking she was moved to speechlessness by his kindness. He waved his hand: “Alright, the sins you’ve committed, you’ll bear yourself. That place with black wind – your master has already thought of it. Six hundred li west of Yashan, past Baiyue Valley, there’s a mountain called Gathering Medicine Peak. Years ago, at the cliff behind the mountain, I vaguely saw black wind emerging from a cave – the ancients called it Black Wind Cave. But that was hundreds of years ago. Black wind itself appears and disappears – after all these years, I’m not certain it’s still there.”

Speaking, he stroked his chin.

“However, since that fool Qu Zhengfeng found a place, he probably didn’t leave the Central Domain’s bounds. After you complete the fourth layer cultivation, you might as well check this place. If you’re lucky, it should still be there. If not, you’ll just have to accept fate and wait for future opportunities when your master can seek more distant places for you.”

Jian Chou listened and silently nodded, remembering the name “Gathering Medicine Peak.”

She wondered – after reaching the fifth layer, could she match Qu Zhengfeng?

Yashan’s moon slowly climbed the mountain peak, hanging high above Huanqiao Peak. The huge shadow of the Yashan Sword fell across Lingzhao Peak.

This day happened to be the fifteenth.

Jian Chou decided to enter seclusion.

Fudao Shanren gave her a bunch of spirit pearls, very generously letting her cultivate with peace of mind.

Cultivating the fourth layer wasn’t as painful – it was similar to the third layer in some ways.

Elbows, knees, ankles…

At each joint, Jian Chou embedded spirit pearls.

Sometimes she would fail and the spirit pearls would shatter, but as she progressed, Jian Chou became increasingly skilled, able to control the proper strength so that the joint’s cartilage could directly absorb the spirit pearls’ power, forming jade pearl-shaped protection.

The final spirit pearl was actually at the throat bone, no longer just at the joints.

At Jian Chou’s fingertips, the last spirit pearl showed a faint blue color, only the size of a pigeon’s egg. She closed her eyes and slowly brought this spirit pearl near her throat bone, holding her breath.

Vaguely, she heard a “click” sound. After the special technique circulated, the spirit pearl sank directly into Jian Chou’s neck, as if instantly becoming incorporeal, with only a round pearl-like shadow flashing briefly at her throat bone.

Opening her eyes again, Jian Chou finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Though she couldn’t see it, she could still feel that her entire body, from flesh to joints, had completed a full “armoring.”

So then…

What would Black Wind Bone Etching be like?

Jian Chou rose from her meditation cushion and slowly walked to the door, pulling it open.

Another golden full moon illuminated all of Yashan.

Cold air flowed in from outside. The late-night frost was heavy, covering the ground in snow white. Even the vines near Jian Chou’s door were already covered with a layer of white frost.

It was probably almost winter.

This seclusion to cultivate the fourth layer of “Human Vessel” had taken her an entire month.

Stepping out of the room, Jian Chou thought there wasn’t much time left.

Before the Left Three Thousand Small Assembly, there were still two years. She should go west of Yashan, past Baiyue Valley, to Gathering Medicine Peak.

It was time to set out again.