Lingering Mountains Grotto, Icy Peak Mountain

Hao Meng steered his icy cloud with his gu worms. He and Qinyang were sitting on the snow-like cloud as cold wind blew around them.

"We are so high up. Is this safe?" - Wen Qinyang asked as she looked at the ever further Icy Peak Mountain below.

"Of course, nothing bad is going to happen. My gu worm is the Ice Cloud gu. It won't be easy to drop us." - Hao Meng reassured her.

"I'm not a person to have vertigo, but this is scary. If I fall from this height, I'll definitely die." - She gulped as she thought to herself.

Seeing her unease, Hao Meng enlarged the cloud by twofold.

"See, you are not afraid now, are you?" - He chuckled.

"Yeah, but it's still cold." - She rubbed her arms to fight off the chill.

"We will soon reach the edge of Icy Peak Mountain. It'll get better, you will see what I mean."

Qinyang thought to herself: "This is quite the romantic trip you've taken me to... It better be worth it, I'm freezing to a popsicle here!"

They soon reached the boundary around Icy Peak Mountain.

"Hold on a bit, I need to gain some speed to pass the boundary." - Hao Meng yelled.

The cloud accelerated at a rapid pace. The wind was so powerful that her silver hair was blown around wildly.

Qinyang clung onto Hao Meng's clothes. She closed her eyes tightly and hoped that Hao Meng knew what he was doing.

Qinyang felt like a wave of water splashed over her or a strong gust of wind hit her. She felt like she was floating in the air.

At the next moment she felt like she was falling, and she opened her eyes.

Qinyang was surprised and happy to find that she was still on the cloud, and the feeling disappeared right away.

"Now you can look around, Qinyang. Welcome to the Lingering Mountains Grotto!" - He said proudly.

"Lingering Mountains Grotto?" - Qinyang was confused. She looked around, and she saw dozens of floating islands around them in every direction.

"Indeed, Icy Peak Mountain is just one of the many mountains here."

Qinyang stood up on the cloud in her shock, even forgetting about her previous fear of this height.

Hao Meng: "I know what you are thinking. You lived all your life on Icy Peak Mountain. It must be hard to take in the greatness of the world."

"But now your horizons are broadened." - He continued in a cheery voice.

Qinyang was still in shock. She saw a lot of people flying around on clouds. Some of them were even further away in the distance.

"This, this wasn't a blessed land. What is this? Is this a grotto heaven?" - Qinyang thought to herself.

"Is this all Wen clan's?" - She asked.

"Naturally." - Came the proud answer.

"Let me explain. Each floating island is a resource point of Wen clan. For example, Icy Peak Mountain is where snow and ice path gu are produced."

"I underestimated the foundations of Wen clan." - She muttered.

"You haven't seen anything yet! Come with me!" - He grabbed her hand and brought her closer to him.

"This is the best part!" - He exclaimed.

Qinyang looked around and saw that they were moving towards a floating island that was even higher than Icy Peak Mountain.

Hao Meng steered the cloud around the island.

"Look below us!" - He said.

Qinyang looked down, and she saw a giant palace.

"That's the Golden Peak Pagoda. That's where our clan leaders live." - He told her.

"How is that possible?" - Qinyang was baffled.

"You'll see. My clan has many secrets. I'm sure you'll be impressed." - Hao Meng said with a smile.

"Do immortals live there?"

"Oh, you guessed it?" - Hao Meng's enthusiasm was deflated.

* * * * *

Ancestral Grotto, Sun Lotus City

Bao Zhi was hiding underground where the city hall stood. He kept looking for an opportunity to escape, but the fighting was too intense above ground. Just the shockwaves of the clash could seriously injure him.

"The battle has escalated to this degree... I might as well use my time while I wait it out." - Bao Zhi thought to himself.

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He carved out a small hollow in the ground. It was pitch black inside.

He took out a rank one Sun Lotus gu and set it aside as a light source. Next, he prepared the ingredients for refinement.

"Refining gu in the face of adversity. Why did it become the norm?" - He thought amusingly as he recalled the prior events. How he refined Verdant Heart Seed gu during a myriad tribulation, the Primeval Elder gu during the tournament matches and then this gu worm that he already tried to refine when the city's calamity interrupted it.

"This gu worm... I have to refine it. This might be my only chance." - Bao Zhi decided to ignore the ruckus above and once again started the refinement process.

He added in the Ling Zhi that he collected. The other materials were all common and easily available.

There were no problems during the refinement.

The whole process was done within three hours.

Bao Zhi had a strange feeling, the human qi of Sun Lotus City that he could feel had sharply decreased.

Bao Zhi took the refined gu worm in his hands to inspect it. It was a plant-type gu, a flower. It had a red color with white spots of warts on it. Five thick petals lined the flower's pot-like hollow center. The gu had no stem, leaves or roots because this was a parasitic plant, it only had a root like appendage to attach itself to its host.

"Success! Rank one Rafflesia Essence gu is refined!" - He exclaimed to himself softly.

He took out the rank three Primeval Elder gu from his fake aperture and put it under the Rafflesia Essence gu. Next, he activated the flower gu.

The Rafflesia Essence gu extended its appendage and grew around and into the round Primeval Elder gu.

The two gu combined into one.

"Let's call it simply Primeval Rafflesia gu house." - Bao Zhi thought to himself.

This was a portable gu formation so technically a gu house, albeit a very primitive one, only having two gu worms.

Bao Zhi controlled the gu house carefully.

The flower gu's petals perked up with vitality as they visibly expanded and become fuller. Its hollow pot-like center started to be filled with rank one green copper primeval essence.

"My essence problem is sorted out with this." - Bao Zhi was very relieved.

Bao Zhi stored away his new asset into his fake aperture. The level of his primeval essence started to rise at a visible rate.

As he was putting away the remaining refinement materials, he noticed that the Sun Lotus gu started to act up, its light intensified and seemingly wanted to escape the confines of the small room.

A short while later, the intense tremors returned, but just as quickly abated.

"Strange." - Bao Zhi had a bad premonition. He activated his Earth Root Transformation and tunneled into the ground. Ready to escape at a moment's notice, he lay there motionless.

Suddenly, a terrifying force blasted the ground and sent debris flying everywhere.

The small room where Bao Zhi was hiding was completely destroyed.

Bao Zhi was barely able to keep himself from being blown away by the force of the blast by using his Earth Root Transformation.

"What happened?" - He was dumbfounded.

As the debris settled, Bao Zhi cautiously poked out his root out and listened.

He was ear-witness of Ding Shuren's and Bao Xu Lian's heated conversation.

"Indeed, an immortal was behind it." - Bao Zhi had his conjecture confirmed.

...

"No heaven and hell? This immortal is really ignorant, he couldn't even comprehend this truth from the Legends of Ren Zu. It is one thing that you grew up in my grotto heaven, not knowing the Immemorial Heavens or the Door of Life and Death, but it is another thing to be a human without an understanding of human path. It brings me shame to have a descendant like you. How can your human path attainment be so shallow? Even the human path of the mortals are deeper than yours." - Bao Zhi scolded Bao Xu Lian in his mind.

The more he observed, the more displeased he got.

"If you want to truly develop human path, you must first understand heaven and earth! Only by understanding heaven and earth can you understand the path of humanity. The way of heaven is impartial, and the way of humanity is virtuous. The way of heaven is ruthless, and the way of humanity is merciful. The way of heaven is eternal, and the way of humanity is mortal. To understand heaven and earth, you must first understand yourself, and to understand yourself, you must first cast aside your attachments." - Bao Zhi sighed.

"You are strong, but you are not impartial! You are rich, but you are not benevolent! You think pursuing the ultimate justifies every action, but going down this route is discarding the core of oneself. Even if you reach eternal life this way, there will be no fulfillment. You will be an empty husk of yourself."

"It is easy to squander what isn't yours! Using such heavy-handed measures are only counterproductive in the long term. The development of human path is the gradual accumulation of each generation! The tall tree protects the small tree not because it's good for itself, but because it is good for the forest. Now you have hurt the forest. You have failed to see the forest for the trees. You only think about your own benefit, but fail to see that you are just a speck of dust in the world. The human path is not something that can be pursued by force. It is something that must be accumulated over time. Even if you have the strength of an immortal, you cannot change this fact." - Bao Zhi sighed with frustration as he listened to Bao Xu Lian.

* * * * *

Bao Xu Lian gazed over the broken remains of Sun Lotus City with indifference. The city was in ruins, with only a few walls still standing. The rest of the city had been destroyed, and the streets were littered with corpses. The area was filled with the stench of blood and death.

Bao Xu Lian stood in the air, his eyes closed as he slowly extended his senses.

As he activated his investigative killer move, small clumps of green fires appeared in his vision. The flames were illusory and in various sizes. A small green flame floated over a nearby rank one gu master, but Bao Xu Lian ignored him. A small flame like this meant that gu master only had an average aptitude.

Thousands of flames floated throughout the area that only Bao Xu Lian could see. These were all the survivors after Sun Lotus City's calamity. Less than one in ten has survived since the beasts attacked.

Bao Xu Lian adjusted his killer move's sensitivity, and each green flame shrunk in size in his vision. The small flames have disappeared entirely. The remaining ones were small fist-sized flames that burned weakly and a few that were basin sized.

These were the B and A grade aptitude gu masters respectively.

He was even able to vaguely discern the difference in quality between each gu master with A grade of aptitude. He gathered the gu masters with A grade aptitude.

The mortal gu masters floated unconsciously behind him as he surveyed the ruins.

Bao Xu Lian watched as the flames burned in the air with a cold look on his face.

"Too few." - He muttered with a dark expression.

Bao Xu Lian slowly opened his eyes.

A trace of green light flashed in them.

"There aren't enough A grade talents. I will need to take in a few B grade talents as well." - He furrowed his brows in dissatisfaction.

"Maybe I can still raise their aptitude forcefully... Are any of the aptitude raising gu worms left? Or do I have to take back the gu from the other cities before I unleash the beasts?" - He wondered to himself and soon activated another investigative killer move.

Every inch of Sun Lotus City was laid bare before his sense.

He quickly found the gu that he was looking for.

"Hm, there's only three aptitude-raising gu left." - He frowned.

"Wait, what is this?" - Something else caught his attention suddenly.

"Oh, an immortal material! Ding Shuren, you sly old fox." - He flew closer to inspect it.

Bao Zhi felt his human qi waver as Bao Xu Lian's gaze landed on him. He felt as if countless needles were piercing into his body.

Bao Xu Lian: "Hmm, it is full of vitality. This root will be perfect to develop my immortal aperture."

With that thought, Bao Xu Lian grabbed Bao Zhi and tossed him into his immortal aperture.

* * * * *