Book 1- The Start of Cultivation Chapter 24: She’d Received What She Deserved
"Master 76, why share the information about the Evil Kinblood Ghostfire Pill?" asked a figure who seemed to emerge from the shadows.
"I suspect one of them might be responsible for what happened," said the fat man. "They are all individuals of good talent or background, so there's a chance one may give us a clue. Especially those two who can use the Hundred Phantom Hands."
"Then why not just kill them and search their souls?" the other man suggested.
"The odds that one of them is the culprit are minimal; it's just a hunch I have" Master 76 replied, "and one of them is well-positioned within the royal clan. The risks outweigh the benefits. I'll have someone keep watch on those two until they return to their respective forces. If, by chance, one of them holds Dan Qing's ring, then we will strike."
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Xue San surveyed his surroundings and noticed Darkwood City about a mile away. "There's no reason to linger here," he murmured. "I've already completed the sect mission. I need to hurry back."
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Not far from Xue San's landing site stood another figure dressed in black robes and wearing the Blood Moon Guild's distinctive mask. The figure was about to depart when it abruptly halted.
"Hmph. So this is how your Darkmoon Guild conducts its business," the figure said, voice dripping with disdain. Turning sharply, he unleashed a beam of strange light in a specific direction.
A grunt sounded in response, and a second person seemed to materialize out of the shadows.
"W-wait, I can explain!" stammered the newcomer. Blood oozed from beneath his mask, which bore a faint blue tint—proof of his genuine status in the Blood Moon Guild. "I was sent only to ensure no one was following you. Master Seventy-Six has taken a great interest in you."
"So the entire guild already knows who I am?" The first figure's voice was cold.
Hearing that tone, the wounded man trembled. He had assumed tailing a mere peak Qi Condensation junior would be simple, but this "junior" possessed a technique that struck directly at the soul. "No—only the branch manager who recruited you knows the identities of new members. This is a rule implemented by the Guild Leader, so even he doesn't know I—"
Before he could finish, another beam of light hit him. Like a puppet with its strings cut, he collapsed in a lifeless heap.
Reaching down, the victor removed his own mask, revealing golden eyes that exuded purity and holiness, a prominent chin, and a sharp nose. "So only that one knows my identity. Good. The Blood Moon Guild will be extremely useful in my plan to seize the throne."
This man was none other than the third prince of the Soul Saint Kingdom—Ling Qi, a figure well known throughout the realm.
Unlike the third prince, Xue San did not bother checking if he was being followed. Still, whether by luck or instinct, he resisted any urge to open his spatial ring. He simply sped toward the nearest town, intending to hire a carriage for the rest of his journey.
As he traveled, he resolved to devote his spare time to perfecting the Shadow Veil Technique and advancing his cultivation.
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"Master 76, one of our men who went to tail them is dead. How should we proceed?"
"Already? Impressive," Master 76 remarked, his voice carrying a note of intrigue rather than concern. "Tell the other one to keep his distance and continue tracking him." He showed no sign of care that one of his subordinates had just perished.
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While Xue San was away, life in the Soaring Sword Sect continued its steady march forward.
Deep beneath a manor in the sect's core region lay a specially designed cultivation chamber. Intricate arrays etched into the walls heightened the density of spiritual energy to five times that of the outside world. At first glance, fivefold might not seem impressive, especially given the rare materials used to build the array. But one had to remember that the ambient spiritual energy in the core region was already staggeringly high. Multiplying that baseline by five made cultivating here tantamount to giving wings to a tiger.
Seated in the center of the chamber was Long Huo, legs folded beneath her. As she exhaled, a vortex of air swirled past her lips.
"This place is incredible," she murmured. "It's only been a week, and I've already reached the peak of the ninth layer of Qi Condensation. At this rate, I'll break into the Foundation Establishment realm in half a year—maybe even sooner if I can get my hands on a Foundation Establishment Pill. But that bastard insists on keeping me from obtaining one."
A sudden glow lit her disciple token. "Hmm, a message?" she said, pressing the token to her forehead. "It's from Lan Shui. So the mission failed. Hah, that bastard Fang Wei! Not only does he keep me from receiving the resources that are rightfully mine, but now he dares to sully my name, and even use that old bastard to try and get ride of me."
She let the token drop into her lap, annoyance etched on her face. Life as a core disciple was far from the paradise everyone assumed.
Indeed, the Soaring Sword Sect was powerful—renowned, even—but after centuries of prominence, it had begun to rot from within. Overly complicated teaching methods favored scions of established cultivation families, and rampant nepotism had infested the sect's inner workings. In the last few hundred years, nearly every core disciple hailed from one of the great sect clans.
Yan Yi had broken that long-standing pattern, but only thanks to being Grand Master Chu Feng's disciple. Now that tradition was being toppled again—ostensibly through Grand Master Chu Feng's influence—yet Long Huo, unlike Yan Yi, had no powerful backer to shield her. Even those few members of the Long Clan who held minor positions in the sect remained silent, afraid of drawing the ire of the more influential core disciples.
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Recruiting talent from outside had also been a recent initiative. For the handful of recruits who managed to ascend to the inner sect, any ambition to claim genuine power required affiliating themselves with one of the sect's core forces. This problematic system was an open secret in the cultivation world, and the other two dominant sects regarded the Soaring Sword Sect with silent disdain, dismissing its outward reputation. Were it not for the covert support of the royal clan, the Soaring Sword Sect would likely have been stamped out long ago.
The War God Sect, in particular, scorned such nepotism. They honored raw talent above all else, and their educational methods were second to none. Their current sect head had risen from the humblest of origins, only to climb quickly through the ranks due to his exceptional ability and the War God Sect's open-minded teachings.
Long Huo understood her presence as a newly promoted core disciple would provoke hostility, yet she endured it for the sake of her ambition. She knew better than anyone else that once she advanced to the Foundation Establishment, no one from the core disciples would have the power to stop her. Eventually, the Soaring Sword Sect would turn into her family's personal domain.
Her talent could have earned her a position in either of the other great sects—both of which continually refined and modernized themselves—but the Soaring Sword Sect, stagnant and complacent, seemed far easier to swallow. Deep down, she knew these so-called elites cared only for personal gain.
"Just wait, Fang Wei," she hissed under her breath. "I'll claim the Soaring Sword Sect first, and then I'll make sure your Fang Clan is torn to pieces. One whiff of your clan as a prize, and the sect's powers will rip you apart."
Her clan's plan to seize the Soaring Sword Sect had begun long before her birth, but she was the final key that would put it into motion. With a cool smile, she steadied her thoughts, closed her eyes, and returned to cultivating.
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As Xue San made his way back, he made little headway with either the Shadow Veil Technique or his cultivation. He wasn't sure why the Shadow Veil Technique was proving so difficult, but he had a better idea why his cultivation wasn't improving: even though his talent had soared, his cultivation method was woefully inadequate. It was like having a carriage carved from gold and jade—only to hitch it to a donkey.
"I need a better cultivation technique," he muttered. "But relying on the sect is out of the question."
After mulling it over, Xue San devised a plan. "First, I'll return and report that I've completed the mission. Rather than spending my points on lessons, I'll check the prices of pill ingredients. Then I'll attempt pill concoction. If I succeed, I can sell the pills at auction and possibly afford a superior cultivation manual."
He reached for his spatial ring to review the pill formulas but hesitated. His thoughts flitted back to the fat man from the Blood Moon Guild.
"I'll wait until I'm inside the sect—who knows who might be watching out here?" As if on cue, unbeknownst to him, Master 76's spy was still trailing him, even though the sect lay only a few day's journey ahead.
"I wonder how everyone is doing," Xue San murmured, thinking of his family in Dragon Fort City. "Maybe I can pick up a mission near there."
Homesickness wasn't his only motive. He also wanted to test whether he could unveil the blank pages of that mysterious book the old man had given him by using his spiritual power. Xue San was no longer as naïve as before. He knew that anyone who could fly had to be at least at the Core Formation stage—and that old man was certainly beyond that, given how the young woman by his side had also been flying.
"Maybe he didn't cheat me. Perhaps there are genuine secrets hidden in that book."
He had lingering questions, too. The jade slip he owned didn't say a word about innate constitutions like the book did; it only described how to use one's spiritual sense and Qi to concoct pills through the runes on a cauldron. His curiosity flared once more.
"Yes," he said to himself, "I'll take another mission in Dragon Fort City. I miss my family, and it'll be a good chance to see how they're doing. Who knows—maybe they've patched things up with my older brother by now."
A sudden thought struck him. "Oh, right. Fluffy. If he's still there when I get back to the sect, maybe I can bring him home as a gift for Xue Si. He's still a pup, so if he grows up viewing her as his pack, he'll never harm her."
Xue San's father had once explained how one of his friends had found a wolf cub and given it to his child. Worried the wolf might turn on the boy, Xue San had asked his father about it, but his father reassured him that a wolf raised from infancy among humans would be as loyal and docile as any dog.
"Yes," Xue San decided, nodding to himself. "That's exactly what I'll do."
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With a firm plan in mind, Xue San felt a new calm. For the rest of his journey, he decided simply to enjoy the scenery. After all he had endured, he felt weighed down, as if a heavy stone pressed against his chest.
He no longer felt the same pangs of guilt about his recent actions—yes, he had killed again, and in a particularly brutal manner. But what other choice did he have? Let that vile woman take his life? If he was brutally honest, a part of him believed she'd received what she deserved. During his travels a few days earlier, he'd experienced another flash of memories, much like his vision of Bear-Axe's past. This time, however, the images came from Dan Qing, as though he'd witnessed what she had witnessed in her final moments before death.
Dan Qing had been born into an extraordinary clan. Her mother was the wife of the current Spirit Cauldron Sect Master, and Dan Qing herself displayed remarkable talent in alchemy—so much so that everyone believed she was destined to become the next sect leader.
But all that changed when her father introduced a twelve-year-old girl into the sect. That girl, was Dan Qing's half-sister from a mistress who wasn't even a cultivator, possessed monstrous talent. Within two years, she'd caught up to Dan Qing's skill level; in another year, she completely overshadowed her. Although the Spirit Cauldron Sect wasn't as rotten as the Soaring Sword Sect, it still held firm to one tradition: the sect master had to be a direct descendant of the Dan clan. Seeing everyone support this "filthy half-breed" as the most gifted talent to emerge in millennia drove Dan Qing to madness.
Desperate, Dan Qing committed one of the worst taboos in the Spirit Cauldron Sect: she attempted to concoct the Evil Kinblood Ghostfire Pill. At first, she succeeded in killing two of her cousins for the ingredients. But for the third, she targeted the very half-sister who had "ruined" her life. That choice proved her downfall. She failed in the act and was caught by one of her father's elite guards, assigned to protect her half-sibling. Her furious father would have executed her then and there, but her mother intervened, vowing to kill herself if he killed Dan Qing. Her father loved her mother dearly so he spared her.
Her mother's devotion, however, couldn't quell Dan Qing's torment. Seeing her father's cold, merciless gaze pushed her to commit an even more appalling act. Late one night, while her mother slept, Dan Qing plunged a dagger into the woman who loved her more than life itself, completing the Evil Kinblood Ghostfire Pill "core material". Gazing into Dan Qing's face—twisted with rage, despair, and madness—her mother simply reached up to touch her daughter's cheek and whispered, "It's all right. Mother forgives you…"
Dan Qing then fled the sect, knowing her father would subject her to unspeakable tortures if she were caught. Yet she was determined to finish refining that vile pill and, one day, return to annihilate the sect that she believed, in her own twisted way, had wronged her.
Xue San couldn't tell if the heaviness he felt came from Dan Qing's memories or something else entirely. But he did know he faced another mystery: how to harness this strange ability that allowed him to witness the memories of those he killed. Did death have to be the trigger? Or was there another way to control it?
He sighed. "There's so much to do… but for now, I'll stick to my plan."