Free Web NovelChapter 373: Chapter 298: Fishing in Troubled Waters
The area before Awakening Lion Valley had descended into utter chaos. The clashing auras from the battling Foundation Establishment Cultivators sent ripples of agitation across a hundred-li radius of the Barbaric Wilderness.
As the cultivators fought amongst themselves, demonic beasts began to converge, drawn to the commotion. This was why the Five Directions Star Meteor Array laid down by the Pill Alliance was not just to stop other cultivators, but more critically, to fend off the impending onslaught of beasts.
Sensing the worsening situation, Fang Qingyuan led Jiang Wanqin and the three Foundation Establishment Disciples from the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect to take cover behind the group from the Pill Alliance.
Fang Qingyuan had no intention of standing with them, regardless of what Han Yunlong wanted. The deal was to act as a guide. ’Fighting alongside them? That’ll cost extra.’
Within moments, furious auras collided and intertwined. Any cultivator who could reach the depths of the Barbaric Wilderness had a few tricks up their sleeve; the mediocre ones had long ago become food for the beasts in the outer regions. As such, none of the cultivators clashing here were pushovers.
At the very forefront was a late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator in a black robe. He had a stalwart build and immense Magical Power, and his salt-and-pepper hair revealed he was no longer a young man.
The man exuded a vicious aura, his entire body shrouded in killing intent and the stench of blood. He was clearly a White Mountain native; only White Mountain could produce such brazen, devil-may-care thugs.
Several other Foundation Establishment Cultivators were in hot pursuit, periodically unleashing their techniques to slow him down. And within Fang Qingyuan’s Mind Sensing Map, all their emotional fluctuations were laid bare.
The lead cultivator felt more joy than worry, though tinged with impatience. The pursuers behind him, however, were consumed by anger and bitter resentment.
Sensing this, Fang Qingyuan concluded that whatever treasure the group had just found must now be in the possession of the man in the lead. ’No wonder he’s being hunted down by everyone else.’
But as the distance between them closed, the moment Fang Qingyuan got a clear look at the lead cultivator, he was startled. He had met this man before.
Years ago, while he was still touting for business in Black River Square, Fang Qingyuan had been caught in a Demon Cultivator uprising. He’d sensed the danger and immediately fled with Yinbao, only to be intercepted midway by a White Mountain Tribulation Cultivator.
Although the White Mountain Tribulation Cultivator had been scared off by a Qi Yun Cultivator hiding on Yinbao’s back, Fang Qingyuan could still recall the despair he’d felt in that moment.
Now, sixty years later, Fang Qingyuan never thought he would see the man again—the White Mountain Tribulation Cultivator, Duoluo Cheng.
Sixty years ago, the man had a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivation. Now, he was at the late-stage, apparently even at the Perfection Realm. But Fang Qingyuan knew that, barring some unforeseen miracle, Duoluo Cheng would never achieve Core Formation in his lifetime.
White Mountain Cultivators possessed astonishing combat prowess during the Qi Cultivation and Foundation Establishment stages—it wasn’t an exaggeration to say one of them could take on three Qi Yun Cultivators of the same realm. However, when it came to the chances of achieving Core Formation, they were far inferior to cultivators from Qi Yun.
The White Mountain People love to brawl and kill; they disdain spiritual cultivation and have no regard for Daoist classics, Buddhist sutras, or Confucian texts—any scripture that doesn’t directly improve their fighting ability. As a result, their grasp of Pill Theory is typically atrocious. ’That must be where Duoluo Cheng is stuck,’ Fang Qingyuan mused. ’Otherwise, after sixty years, he should have formed his Golden Core by now.’
As long as they didn’t meet a violent end, Tribulation Cultivators were never short on resources. Duoluo Cheng should have had no lack of materials for Core Formation.
But on the path of cultivation, external resources were only one piece of the puzzle. Pill Theory was what truly mattered. To blindly charge into the Golden Core Realm without it was to court certain death.
Seeing Duoluo Cheng about to burst across the border of the Barbaric Wilderness and into the black-earthed lands ahead, his pursuers grew desperate. If they couldn’t stop him now, it would be even more difficult once he entered the territory of the Wind Breath Returning Soil Beast.
At this, one of the pursuers, with a pained expression, pulled a jet-black Talisman from his storage bag and hurled it at Duoluo Cheng’s back.
In the next instant, the spectral form of a black, demonic creature materialized directly in Duoluo Cheng’s path and lunged at him.
Duoluo Cheng’s expression shifted at the sight of the spectral demon. His forward charge slowed; if that demonic shadow pounced on him, he feared he would be afflicted with demonic corruption.
With a sharp exhalation, Duoluo Cheng reversed the flow of his Magical Power, instantly conjuring the illusion of a Slaughter White Tiger to charge the demonic specter.
This was his half-baked True Meaning of Pill Theory, one that followed the path of slaughter. Such a path was suitable for a Tribulation Cultivator like him who had spent the better part of his life in battle, but using it to form a Golden Core was fifty percent more difficult than with other theories.
Besides, the path of slaughter was nothing special in White Mountain. As the region’s mainstream Pill Theory, it was becoming depressingly common.
But no matter how common, the White Tiger True Intent Illusion was incredibly potent in that moment. The demonic specter, which could have tied up a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator for a good while, was torn to pieces by the tiger’s phantom claws and fangs in just a few breaths.
Seeing this, Duoluo Cheng paid no mind to the black stains of corruption marring his White Tiger illusion. He charged forward, his own body becoming a weapon. The concussive blast from his momentum finally shattered the last remnants of the demonic specter.
But just as a smile began to form on Duoluo Cheng’s face, the air around him suddenly grew heavy, as if an immense weight had descended upon him in an instant.
