The closest one to Yashan was this Black Wind Cave near Flying Heaven Town.

To be crazy enough to use “black wind” for body refinement, as far as Jian Chou knew, apart from the “Human Weapon” body refinement method, there was probably no second type.

Not long ago, before Qu Zhengfeng went to Qingfeng Nunnery’s hidden realm, he had told her that he had completed “black wind bone patterning,” which must have been accomplished here.

Like walking on flat ground, like bathing in a spring breeze, quite boring.

As a peak Nascent Soul cultivator, he naturally had the capital to say such words.

Body refinement was better done sooner rather than later. After all, when someone reached Qu Zhengfeng’s level of cultivation and then practiced body refinement, everything would become somewhat simple, so boredom was expected.

Only…

He had walked ahead after all, which made Jian Chou feel uncomfortable.

People always brood over their failures, and Jian Chou was just an ordinary person.

Finding Qu Zhengfeng disagreeable was normal.

She silently looked at the X she had drawn, taking a long time to come back to her senses. She directly calmed her mind and sat cross-legged under the cave wall, firm as a rock, maintaining stillness despite the howling winds.

The battle disc lit up again, rotating beneath her feet, completely unhindered by the black wind.

Streams of spiritual energy were drawn over by Jian Chou and gathered into her body.

In the ancestral aperture at her brow, that starry sky-like radiance appeared again.

Little by little…

The spiritual energy consumed throughout her journey through Black Wind Cave began to gradually replenish.

Occasionally, one or two disobedient wind blades would fly onto Jian Chou’s body, piercing through to create blood blossoms, but Jian Chou acted as if she hadn’t noticed.

The further back, the more powerful these wind blades would become. What could now cut deep enough to see bone was only the beginning.

If she didn’t have sufficient spiritual power in her body, Jian Chou feared she might be scraped into white bones by a gust of wind and thrown out of Black Wind Cave.

Body refinement could fail, but her life was still important.

The previous consumption had been too great, and it would take considerable time to replenish now.

When Jian Chou opened her eyes again, she felt that the water in the bowl placed at the Tianyuan position in the center of the battle disc seemed even fuller. Though cultivating in Black Wind Cave was somewhat harsh, the speed wasn’t slow.

Because it was harsh, it was fast.

In this world, effort and reward were always equivalent to a certain degree.

Late Foundation Establishment…

Since entering the late Foundation Establishment, the difficulty of increasing the battle disc’s size had multiplied exponentially.

After all, how much spiritual energy a cultivator absorbed determined the battle disc’s growth, and the battle disc was circular—the further out the rings, the greater the area covered by the same measurement, and the more spiritual energy required.

Jian Chou roughly calculated with her fingers. Truly, cultivation knew no short years or months. At this rate, it would take at least a year and a half to cultivate one zhang eight chi.

Moreover…

Core Formation wasn’t such an easy matter either.

“Sigh…”

With a long sigh, Jian Chou finally slowly rose, returned to the center of Black Wind Cave, and continued forward.

After two hundred feet, the size of the wind blades became even more exaggerated.

Jian Chou no longer paid attention to her clothes.

Slash after slash, cutting through skin and flesh, landing on bones, instantly producing small azure lotus spiritual fires that then healed in a flash.

That almost perverted sensation from before had returned.

Bones shattered and reformed.

Each step forward was taken over her blood!

Jian Chou finally understood what it felt like to want to crawl forward.

The Black Wind Cave seemed to have no end, like endless torment.

The only comfort was perhaps the various inscriptions appearing on the cave walls, all left by cultivators who had entered Black Wind Cave in the past.

Three hundred feet.

“Three hundred feet, clothes don’t cover the body, white bones everywhere! Chongxiao Sect, Zhao Jiu!”

“Big mistake—Black Wind Cave’s black wind isn’t a scoundrel, it’s a butcher. This humble one lost a lot of meat.”

“Though my Mo Light Robe is destroyed, I still have my Xuan Light Robe! What’s three hundred feet worth?”

Jian Chou’s mouth twitched. So the third person to leave writing had quite a substantial foundation.

Xuan Light Robe was a grade higher than Mo Light Robe.

“Balls hurt.”

“Right side… that thing, is it safe?”

“Such perseverance, admirable, truly admirable!”

Hey!

Could this topic please end?

Jian Chou quickly looked at the other inscriptions.

“You all suck. This master has an indestructible vajra virgin body—passing through this Black Wind Cave is like drinking water!”

“Hehe.”

“A monk’s virgin body? This young master likes that most, hehe. Jingyang Palace’s Young Master Ruhua.”

A chill ran through her!

What exactly was this Young Master Ruhua’s taste?

Jian Chou facepalmed.

“Three hundred feet. Dragon Scale Dao Seal awakened, misfortune turned to fortune. Wish to follow fellow daoists’ old path and march forward!”

“This old man’s thighbone is showing, crawled here still wanting to carve one line: the person to the right is Dragon Gate’s Zhou Chengjiang!”

She couldn’t help looking down at her waist area, where a swift, massive wind blade had just passed. Jian Chou swore she thought she saw her internal organs.

So what was a thighbone?

However…

Awakening the Dragon Scale Dao Seal—Dragon Gate, Dragon Gate, it seemed their cultivation methods were unique.

Moreover, this person who chased Zhou Chengjiang into Black Wind Cave and could reach three hundred feet was extraordinary, with amazing perseverance.

Jian Chou was rather curious.

Her gaze turned again, and this time, Jian Chou was stunned.

She had judged earlier that Qu Zhengfeng had come here and experienced black wind bone patterning, so he probably wouldn’t stop at three hundred feet—there should be his inscription here too.

Only…

Jian Chou hadn’t expected there would be so much!

A dense patch of small characters, from top to bottom, about three feet wide left and right, nearly covering all the cave wall within Jian Chou’s sight.

“Dragon Gate, Dragon Scale Dao Seal.”

These opening six characters fell into Jian Chou’s eyes like thunder!

What followed was a diagram of a Dao seal, with countless detailed explanations after.

“Dragon Gate’s cultivation method is based on dragons. Legend says that in ancient times, a five-clawed golden dragon fell at Dragon Gate, trapped in shallow waters, and manifested various Dao seals for Dragon Gate disciples to cultivate. The Dragon Scale Dao Seal is among the top three protective Dao seals in the Nineteen Continents cultivation world. Upon activation, dragon scales will appear on the body’s surface…”

Word by word, clear and comprehensible, like a gentle narration.

At the end, this vigorous inscription became casual: “Though the Dragon Scale Dao Seal is good, unfortunately don’t know where the reverse scale is, regrettable.”

Dragons have reverse scales—touch them and die.

…

After carefully reading through this patch of small characters, Jian Chou only felt an indescribable sense of heart-stopping shock.

Though she hadn’t been in the Nineteen Continents long, she knew that Dragon Gate’s cultivation methods had always been extremely mysterious, teachable only to inner sect direct disciples. There was even a true “Dragon Gate” that existed—legend said that ordinary people need only leap over the Dragon Gate to obtain ancient inheritance and thus step onto the smooth path of cultivation.

This was why Dragon Gate, though declined, still maintained its “Upper Five” ranking.

But now, Dragon Gate’s most secret teachings were written so boldly on the cave wall at three hundred feet in Black Wind Cave!

If people knew…

For a moment, Jian Chou couldn’t even dare to imagine.

Was it Qu Zhengfeng?

How did he know Dragon Gate’s secret teachings?

And why would he write such classified information so openly on the cave wall?

Once Dragon Gate knew what kind of tremendous waves it would cause?

Zhou Chengjiang had just said he awakened a Dao seal, and then Qu Zhengfeng directly analyzed it completely, calling it face-slapping wouldn’t be excessive.

It was sabotage.

If later people saw this, Dragon Gate’s Zhou Chengjiang would be a laughingstock!

Jian Chou instinctively wanted to wipe away the writing, but when she was about to act, she somehow couldn’t bring herself to do it.

What did it have to do with her?

What right did she have to erase others’ inscriptions?

Jian Chou slowly lowered her hand.

Her brow furrowed tightly. After a long while, Jian Chou finally withdrew her complex gaze and continued forward.

Black Wind Cave was still very long.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Jian Chou couldn’t walk anymore. Line after line of characters appeared in her mind—precisely that Dragon Scale Dao Seal!

The top three protective Dao seals in the Nineteen Continents…

Others might not be able to learn from Qu Zhengfeng’s inscription, but Jian Chou was different.

She had the Void Constitution.

Under heaven, there were almost no Dao seals she couldn’t use.

Standing in the cave with wildly howling winds, Jian Chou fell into prolonged silence for the first time.

Outside Black Wind Cave.

Zhao Yunbin sat cross-legged on the cliff not far from Black Wind Cave, with almost all her attention focused on the cave entrance.

The wind had been blowing for a full twelve hours, yet not a single person had emerged from inside!

This didn’t match her initial expectations.

Her gloomy gaze swept toward the left side, not far away, where the figures of Shang Liufan and those two from Yashan came into view.

Suddenly, one of the jade-tree-like, elegant figures moved. Yan Chensha turned his head, as if sensing Zhao Yunbin’s gaze, and smiled slightly at her.

Zhao Yunbin’s heart immediately jumped with fear. She hurriedly withdrew her gaze in a panic, secretly resentful.

She hadn’t expected this at all!

After reporting the situation here to Xu Lan’er, she had thought of Shang Liufan and went to notify him, not expecting Shang Liufan to bring back these two troublesome fellows from Yashan!

Not only were their cultivation levels high, but their thoughts were also unfathomable.

Now, everyone in the Nineteen Continents knew that the Jianzhu Sect dared to oppose Yashan, and the two families had long been incompatible. If not for both still having some reputation, they probably would have started fighting already.

It was just that Yashan, being a prestigious righteous sect, didn’t want to make the first move.

Now it was such a coincidence.

Two Yashan cultivators happened to be in Flying Heaven Town on business, Junior Brother Shang happened to be explaining the situation to them, she happened to transmit to Junior Brother Shang, and Junior Brother Shang happened to speak directly!

So many “coincidences” immediately put Zhao Yunbin in a desperate situation!

One Nascent Soul stage, one Golden Core stage—they had forced her into a corner right upon arrival.

Fortunately, Zhao Yunbin had maneuvered for a long time. After all, there was a Yashan cultivator inside, and Yashan cultivators were now handling this matter—who knew if they would show favoritism? So Zhao Yunbin suggested avoiding suspicion.

Without Jianzhu Sect cultivators arriving, they would all wait outside together, and no one was allowed to act.

So now, Zhao Yunbin was locked in a standoff with these two Yashan cultivators.

But…

Her own sect’s Shang Liufan was mingling with those two Yashan cultivators—this was what most made Zhao Yunbin hate and grit her teeth, yet she dared to be angry but not speak out.

She secretly clenched her fingers, forcibly suppressing her resentment and anger.

Yan Chensha over there, though he hadn’t seen her explode, knew she was probably about at her limit.

Hooking his flute with his finger and gently turning it, Yan Chensha raised his eyebrows and smiled, looking toward the Black Wind Cave entrance.

Senior Granduncle…

Quite surprising.

Initially, didn’t they all think Jian Chou would come out in at most two or three hours? They had worried for so long, not expecting that after a full day, Black Wind Cave had spat out nothing but shattered stones and a pile of strange debris.

Never mind Senior Granduncle Jian Chou—there wasn’t even a ghost shadow.

If not for Zhao Yunbin initially insisting that Jian Chou was inside and setting up an expensive confinement array outside, he wouldn’t believe there was anyone inside.

Now, all of Yashan knew about this matter, but having Yan Chensha alone was sufficient to handle it, so they had only prepared personnel but hadn’t sent them yet.

Yan Chensha was also calm and collected.

He counted on his fingers—this array could only last ten days, but cost many, many spirit stones. Every moment that passed burned spirit stones.

Ah, he immediately hoped Senior Granduncle Jian Chou would stay in Black Wind Cave for several more days, to see if it wouldn’t exhaust these poor Jianzhu Sect members to death!

Qi Shaofeng, sitting beside him, had been staring at the swirling black wind at Black Wind Cave for a long time.

Seeing Zhao Yunbin over there looking at the constantly burning array with eyes that seemed ready to drip blood, as if the array was extremely important, he always felt something was wrong and couldn’t help but transmit: “Senior Brother Yan, is there something wrong with that woman? She looks awful.”

“Oh.”

Yan Chensha’s finger hooked the flute, paused, pondered for a moment, then said seriously: “She must be anxious that Senior Granduncle hasn’t come out yet. It’s nothing.”

Is that so?

Why did it look like Zhao Yunbin cared more about the array?

It must be his imagination.

Qi Shaofeng wrinkled his handsome, long eyebrows and asked again: “So we’re just waiting outside for the Jianzhu Sect people to come? When they arrive, won’t they try to bully us or something?”

Bully us?

This phrase couldn’t possibly apply to the Jianzhu Sect, could it?

Yan Chensha couldn’t help glancing at Qi Shaofeng, thinking it was right to bring him out to see the world this time.

At the Golden Core stage, he should see some blood.

With a slight smile, Yan Chensha’s features carried a few traces of an elegant air as he leisurely transmitted: “Wait, a school of fish is drilling into the net. As for bullying, don’t worry—we Yashan are a prestigious sect.”

Qi Shaofeng was stunned and said half-understanding: “Right, we Yashan are a prestigious righteous sect—they wouldn’t dare bully us.”

“Sigh…”

Yan Chensha let out a long sigh and finally stopped talking.

Cold air drifted through the atmosphere, with icy white frost forming on the dry, vigorous bark of the old pear tree in front of Black Wind Cave.

Autumn was deep, winter approaching.

The surface was already cold, and below ground should have been warmer, but…

Black Wind Cave was an exception.

Whoosh…

The howling wind “swoosh” scraped away half the flesh on a shoulder, exposing stark white bone stained with blood!

“Hoo!”

The instant the wind blade passed, a spiritual fire rose from Jian Chou’s bones, actually smelting the black wind into itself.

When using Azure Lotus Spiritual Fire for body refinement, her bones had already permanently absorbed the spiritual fire. The inextinguishable spiritual fire, nourished by Jian Chou’s daily cultivation of spiritual energy, not only didn’t weaken but became increasingly powerful.

At this moment, the powerful aspects of “Human Weapon” body refinement were revealed.

And Jian Chou finally understood what kind of existence “black wind bone patterning” was.

The wind blades of the black wind, blowing across Jian Chou’s muscles and bones, would make “ting-ting-tang-tang” sounds when hitting vulnerable joint areas—this was the effect of the fourth level of Jian Chou’s body refinement.

Every joint was filled with hard spirit pearls for protection, even the throat bone was no exception.

The places the black wind could injure were all at Jian Chou’s bone locations.

When spiritual fire emerged and smelted the black wind, it would immediately leave a faint trace of black energy that adhered to Jian Chou’s bones, forming thin black threads like permeating ink marks.

Initially, such ink marks were few, but as Jian Chou’s journey progressed and more black wind was smelted, the ink marks left on her bones increased.

Accumulating bit by bit…

“Swoosh!”

A wind blade slashed across Jian Chou’s thighbone.

At this moment, Jian Chou saw what looked like a light stroke of an ink brush on the white bone.

This was black wind bone patterning.

Jian Chou looked up—four hundred feet now.

She couldn’t help feeling melancholy for a moment: Qu Zhengfeng had completed black wind bone patterning, which meant… he was black to the bone.

Would she also have to embark on such a path of no return?

On the stone wall ahead, there were still several lines of inscription, which Jian Chou was already somewhat familiar with.

“Four hundred feet, the limit. Will return to explore again another day. Chongxiao Sect, Zhao Jiu.”

“Can’t walk anymore. A thousand gold for bones—will you buy?”

“Leave your thighbone, this humble one will buy it!”

“Thousand gold for bones”—others spent a thousand gold buying bones, he spent a thousand gold selling bones. Eye-opening.

Among these three, two were already preparing to give up at four hundred feet.

Truly, Black Wind Cave wasn’t easy to challenge.

If not for her peculiar body refinement method, she probably couldn’t have lasted too far either and would have reached her limit at three hundred feet.

Though these two decided to give up, they were already remarkable people.

“Who said when a man dies, his balls face heaven? Step forward and see if I don’t beat you to death!”

“Could he have become a eunuch?”

“Seeing the two gentlemen to the right, can’t help feeling cold between the legs, alas.”

Hey…

Jian Chou was powerless.

These three were quite something.

“…This master picked up a large wooden fish containing Buddhist dharma on the cave wall. Your Central Domain’s Black Wind Cave—could it be that eminent monks once came here? Strange, strange.”

Seeing the bald donkey’s lies, scanned all directions but only saw debris covering the walls. Though the materials were good, they had no use for artifact refining. Forget it, four hundred feet is enough—I return satisfied.”

“Across the river, they still sing backyard flowers. The wooden fish is too, very good. Jingyang Palace’s Young Master Ruhua.”

After reading this, Jian Chou felt something was strange about the last line.

She couldn’t help rubbing her arm as she also looked around.

The cave walls, after years of black wind erosion, showed that honeycomb-like structure resembling wind-swallowing stones even more clearly.

Looking at this strangely textured stone, she felt a flash of inspiration in her mind, but when she tried to grasp it, it disappeared.

There were indeed many things hanging on the cave walls, but all were broken and unusable.

Little Marten could now only cling desperately to the nape of Jian Chou’s neck, seemingly unwilling to be sliced bit by bit by wind blades, and hadn’t run out, even seeing these things.

Jian Chou withdrew her gaze, truly curious about that large wooden fish containing Buddhist dharma.

Actually, not everyone who came here necessarily left writing—perhaps it was left by some eminent monk from the Northern Domain?

And that person who called himself “this master,” referring to Central Domain as “your Central Domain,” definitely wasn’t from the Central Domain.

The next one should be Zhou Chengjiang, right?

Gathering her thoughts, Jian Chou remembered the order of this series of messages.

Looking down, she was once again stunned.

“How is this possible?”

The crooked writing seemed to have taken tremendous effort, as if forcibly restraining exciting and trembling emotions, and perhaps a particularly wonderful bewilderment.

The initial character “old” was scratched many times before taking shape.

“This old man arrived first—could it be that even scoundrels have their spring? Walking along, suddenly comprehended a Dao seal from these wind blades. Could it be that after leaving Black Wind Cave, this old man will become a peerless genius that all major sects compete for? Hahaha…”

After this unusually cumbersome, long sentence came Zhou Chengjiang’s indescribable statement.

“Fellow Daoist has exceptional talent, this humble one admires. However, being dull by nature, studied wind blades for a long time with no results—I can only sigh at lacking affinity.”

…

For a moment, Jian Chou couldn’t speak.

This was truly “absolutely unexpected.”

The “fellow daoist” who had been struggling desperately behind had unexpectedly run ahead of Zhou Chengjiang. They must have encountered each other along the way, and even he couldn’t believe he had surpassed Zhou Chengjiang.

That was Dragon Gate’s Zhou Chengjiang, the number one Foundation Establishment cultivator before Xie Buchen.

Jian Chou had originally thought she definitely wouldn’t see the other party’s inscription anymore, but unexpectedly, such a big “surprise” awaited her.

By what means could he surpass him?

Her gaze unconsciously fell on the two characters “Dao seal.”

This person seemed naturally to have a rogue temperament, quite unruly, actually comprehending a Dao seal from wind blades?

How was this different from self-creating techniques and special moves?

Zhou Chengjiang knew it was possible to comprehend something, so he deliberately tried to understand it, but gained nothing.

What about Qu Zhengfeng then?

As soon as the thought arose, Jian Chou immediately looked down.

“Inspired by the two fellow Daoists to the left, I comprehended wind blades and indeed produced a Dao seal. Used it briefly—quite marvelous.”

This line of characters had a different feel from the previous iron-hook silver-stroke style.

Jian Chou carefully reached out to touch it, seeing each character deeply embedded in the cave wall. The moment her fingertip passed over them, actually, wind blade after wind blade shot out from the characters!

In that instant, Jian Chou immediately withdrew her hand!

Looking back, her fingertip was already covered in flowing blood.

This was “used it briefly—quite marvelous”?

Jian Chou stared at the cave wall for a long time, slowly raising her finger and curling her tongue to the fingertip, calmly and coldly licking the dots of blood into her mouth.

The taste of blood.

She turned her eyes to look at the countless rapidly flying wind blades.

At four hundred feet, the wind blades actually began to become small again, but each wind blade had gradually changed from the original colorless to a grayish-black color, yet the feeling became increasingly terrifying.

Dao seal…

What would it be?

The wound on Jian Chou’s finger had already instantly disappeared.

The warm taste on her tongue was like the blood that had once surged to her throat on the sword sheath peak.

Senior Brother?

Dragon Scale Dao Seal was one, wind blade was the second…

Heh.

Everyone was comprehending—how could she fall behind?

She decisively walked forward three steps. Swoosh swoosh swoosh—three wind blades struck, producing three spiritual fires from Jian Chou’s white bones.

Her brow furrowed, but she didn’t retreat a single step. She sat cross-legged in the center of Black Wind Cave!

Ahead were endless grayish-black wind blades.

Jian Chou raised her eyes, without worry or fear.