by Tinalynge
This was the reason why Lan Feng never managed to reach the rank of a God. He had been at the pinnacle of cultivation for years, but sadly, his comprehension was lacking; he never understood the ultimate laws, the ways of the cosmos, stopping him from stepping into the rank he had aimed for all his life.
Hui Yue’s mind was reeling from the vast amount of laws which existed within the world as he finally understood. Cultivation was the road which he had embarked upon, yet to become a God, an immortal, was not something which only cultivators were seeking.
Immortals… The ones who lived forever. The ones who controlled the laws themselves.
As a cultivator, Hui Yue had carved the first steps within his journey to reach this goal, but he was still so weak that even the weakest law was far stronger than him. But a sudden thought sprouted within his mind as he realised that one did not have to be strong to reach immortality. One only needed to have comprehension far above the normal person. Even a newborn child could become immortal, had they fully understood the laws of the cosmos.
Meditating, Hui Yue felt a strength welling up inside. This strength was far different from any he had felt before, as it in no way increased his cultivation base; instead, the silvery sea within his middle dantian gained a slight hue of gold. It was as though the sea itself understood that Hui Yue’s comprehension had soared by leaps and bounds.
Hui Yue’s head hurt as the different laws entered his mind. Each law had a major law and within those existed multiple smaller laws. For instance, there was a law for the water element, but at the same time another law existed for the flow of water, and a separate one for the rain, the lakes, and the seas.
Even though Hui Yue was truly trying to grasp the knowledge which was flowing through his mind, he had a hard time understanding it and some of it became vague. What was not vague was the knowledge that everything within this world consisted of laws, and that the laws were created by Gods, who could in turn break them.
These laws were unlike humans, but they were still living creatures, which would survive as long as the world created by the gods was standing. These laws were far older than even Lan Feng!
Opening his eyes, Hui Yue looked confused as he saw Deng Wu, Sha Yun, and Wang Ju Long all sitting across from him. None of them were meditating; instead, they all observed him intently. A knowing smile was seen on their faces, and Hui Yue could not mask the confusion which spread across his face.
This was not the first time that he had suddenly stopped doing other things for the sake of enlightenment, yet it somehow seemed as though they were treating it differently.
“What’s wrong?” Hui Yue finally blurted out, as his curiosity got the better of him. His body was sore from being seated in the same position for a long time, and he slowly rose to his feet, stretching as though he had never moved before. His entire body was shivering from unused energy, as both his spiritual energy sea and his Qi spiral were bursting with energy, overflowing as though they had not been used for weeks.
“Took your sweet time, huh?” Deng Wu asked with a brilliant smile on his face, causing Hui Yue to frown slightly. Having been so absorbed with the enlightenment of the laws, Hui Yue had completely lost track of time and he had no clue how long had passed.
Seeing the confused expression, Sha Yun instantly felt sorry for Hui Yue, and she slithered next to him, gently massaging his shoulders. “You have been gone for three days,” she said dangerously close to Hui Yue’s ear allowing for her snake-like tongue to slither in the air right next to the young man.
Hui Yue instantly wrested himself free from the gentle grip of Sha Yun and sent her a warning glare, yet the snake-woman paid no heed, as she was observing her nails instead.
Seeing that he was getting nowhere with the snake-woman, Hui Yue let out a sigh before he paid attention to what she had said. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, as he felt no different from how he had felt before entering meditation.
His body worked perfectly well, and he was not hungry nor felt like his body was in need of the natural bodily needs. Everything was exactly as it had been three days ago. The only thing which Hui Yue could say was that the enlightenment must have ensured that his body gained the nourishment it needed.
Suddenly, a thought flashed in his mind and a strange light appeared in his eyes. He no longer showed no interest in whether or not Sha Yun had been trying to flirt with him earlier, nor was the question about bodily functions important.
Hui Yue had had a glint of enlightenment, yet such a thing never appeared on its own. Usually he would gain enlightenment after a fight, or while pondering upon a hard question or during his spiritual arts practice. Yet this time the enlightenment had struck him in the middle of a banquet, where he had not been deep in thought about anything useful.
Hui Yue had gotten very few words about laws from Lan Feng, but this was not enough to trigger such an immense enlightenment, especially since he was not pondering on it by the time of impact.
The only thing which Hui Yue could understand was if he had contact with something that had to do with the laws. That would be enough to trigger such a reaction, and a smile spread on Hui Yue’s face, as he felt that this was a lead to find Sun.
Although Sun was not able to die, she was still a living creature, much like the other laws which Hui Yue had met in the forest, and he could not help but feel that this enlightenment was definitely connected to her. She had to be somewhere within the City Lord’s mansion.
Seeing the smile on Hui Yue’s face, his friends around him also sprouted similar smiles. Hui Yue only had such a cheeky expression on his face when he had found something which meant good luck for the rest of them.
“So do you want to hear what we found out from our trades with the city?” Deng Wu asked curiously, and Hui Yue nodded his head. It was impossible for the four of them to make any move at all before they were more knowledgeable about the world they were now stuck in.
“Okay, firstly, these dungeons are split into two kinds of areas. Some of them are caves like this one and the others are tunnels. The tunnels are what connect the caves to each other.” Deng Wu stated all the information he had gotten from the women days before when he traded with meat.
“The caves belong to only humans and very weak magical beasts,while the tunnels belong to the magical beasts.” Hearing this made Hui Yue nod his head. In that case it made sense as to why they would be astounded, for they were cultivators who managed to break through the area belonging to the beasts themselves.
“This area is known as Cave’s End,” Deng Wu continued with the report. “It is the end of all the caves, and no one seems to know about the entrance we took to enter here. No one seems to know about the cabin we were at within the forest either.”
“There are no cultivation techniques left in this cave and everyone is cultivating according to their own way. When I asked about what they meant with their own way, none of them seemed to be able to describe it properly,” Deng Wu continued. But as soon as he started talking about a way, Hui Yue’s eyes became vacant as he once more remembered the enlightenment from before.
Their own way. This was indeed important. Although Hui Yue was cultivating in accordance with the Rooster, he was also threading his own way in life, determined by the decisions he made and the actions he took. Somehow, Hui Yue felt as though the way he was treading had something to do with the laws of the world, but once again, it was impossible for him to put his finger on exactly what it meant. Complicated words and reasons were flooding his mind, and he eventually stopped thinking about it, as no new flash of enlightenment appeared.
“Sorry,” Hhe said sheepishly, as he once again made his friends wait for him, but none of them seemed to feel any problems; instead, Deng Wu just nodded his head and continued with what he was saying.
“This place, Cave’s End, is the weakest of all the areas, and similarly, the beasts within the tunnels leading to the next Cave are also the weakest. The closer you get to the center,
the stronger everyone is.” Saying this, Deng Wu let out a depressed sigh. “No one was able to tell me about the center, as no one has ever been there before. It is something far away which every cultivator dreams of reaching.”
Hearing this, Hui Yue nodded his head as he was getting a rough idea of the world they had descended into. It was perfect for their training, as it would gradually get stronger and stronger, and Hui Yue silently applauded Lan Feng for his thoughts.
“There was one more thing,” Deng Wu said with a smile on his face, looking as though he had saved the best for last.
“There is this thing called the Dragon Corps,” he started, and Hui Yue suddenly remembered the name from the day before. “This corps appears once a year, and each year they require taxes, and in return they make sure that no magical beasts will overrun the cave. The Dragon Corps are much stronger than the City Lord and his elders. They gladly pay the tax every year, but every time they are here they end up taking whatever they wish for on their way back, not shying away from killing the previous owners. If a beautiful woman took their fancy, she too would be forced away from her parents.”
Hearing this suddenly made Hui Yue understand why there was such fear towards the Dragon Corps, and he slowly nodded his head. He was about to open his mouth when Deng Wu held a finger in the air.
“This year I hear that they will not have to pay any grain in taxes, and that the City Lord has managed to come up with such a great item that not even the women are in danger,” Deng Wu said with a cheeky smile on his face. Hui Yue felt a snicker appear on his face. It seemed as though Sun was an item which the Dragon Corps would like very much.
“Tell me something like that earlier!” Hui Yue exclaimed with laughter as he sat down on the ground once more, thinking about their next move.
Chapter 11 – The Tunnels
Hui Yue spent the following days examining the City Lord’s mansion thoroughly, yet no matter how much he looked around, nothing seemed to appear in front of him.
Being treated like a guest of the elders allowed access to everything for Hui Yue, but although he looked in every crook and cranny, he saw nothing relating to Sun.
There was no place too secret for Hui Yue to enter, and after a few days the entire City Lord’s mansion had been searched from the highest pagoda to the lowest cellar.
While Hui Yue was searching the mansion, Deng Wu was making friends with the female population of the town. Although Hui Yue had a good standing within the city, Deng Wu was nothing but a mere retainer, a servant to the white-haired boy. Although Lord Liu Wei and his elders felt that Deng Wu was strong, he was nothing compared to his master and thus spending time befriending him was a waste.
The first day when Wang Ju Long and Deng Wu left the mansion, their followers quickly had to give up, but a few days later they managed to keep tracking him as he made his way to the farmhouses.
Arriving in this area, Deng Wu was much more popular than Hui Yue, even more popular than the City Lord, as he was flirting with all the girls and sharing meat generously to all who were interested.
It had to be said that Deng Wu possessed more than one storage ring filled with dried foods for long trips, and his heart truly felt no regret in sharing these with the commoners. Although somehow the pretty girls ended up getting more than the rest.
Spending his days with the younger generation of the city, Deng Wu picked up a lot of information which he shared with Hui Yue and the rest.
“The Dragon Corps will arrive in a few weeks. That ought to be the reason that they feared that you were apart of them,” Deng Wu said as he leaned against the courtyard, resting his body after having spent the whole day in town once more.
Hearing this, Hui Yue’s previously depressed face turned into a smile. Having searched the premises multiple times with no clues he felt like ripping out his hair, yet the causal information given to him by Deng Wu gave him an idea.
“Since I cannot find Sun I suggest that we leave soon. The only entrance and exit to Cave’s End is through the so called tunnels. Although we cannot find Sun, she will probably be traded to the Dragon Corps. What we can do is to simply get rid of the corps and bring Sun back to her friends.”
“You mean that we should fight against these men who are clearly stronger than us?” Wang Ju Long asked with a straight face, but upon seeing the gleeful smile on Hui Yue’s face she sighed deeply and nodded her head. Of course Hui Yue wished to fight the Dragon Corps to see just how strong they were.
“We will stay here for a few more days,” Hui Yue said with a voice filled with childish excitement. “Although I haven’t found Sun yet, I could find her and if I do, then we stick to the earlier plan of getting her out during the night. If I don’t find her then we go for the second plan of ambushing the Dragon Corps to free her.” Hui Yue said, but anyone who looked at Hui Yue could obviously see that he already decided upon the second option.
Although the killing aura within him was usually suppressed by the tranquil cloud, the excitement of finally battling again shone through and a slight killing intent ignited within his blue eyes, leaving behind a small red hue.
Watching Hui Yue very intent on fighting caused his friends to laugh, even Wang Ju Long was smiling which was quite rare.
Shooing his friends away, Hui Yue once more left the courtyard to examine the mansion only to once again find that he truly was incapable of finding even the slightest sign of Sun.
Going back to the courtyard Hui Yue shrugged as he did not mind. Fighting against the Dragon Corps was much more interesting after all.
Gathering up all their belongings, Hui Yue went to thank Liu Wei for his hospitality before the group once more set out on their journey. Deng Wu was the one leading the entourage as he had gotten directions from his female friends within the city.
Exiting the city, they noticed that the land was filled with fields and farm houses, much like the opposite end had been, the place where they had entered the city.
No woods were visible on this side, instead one was capable of seeing the cave wall in the distance. Walking straight towards it would take days, yet everyone in the group was in a good mood as they chatted and joked on the way to the cave wall where they needed to find the tunnels.
While walking, Deng Wu was looking through a very important storage stone, the one which contained all his inscriptions.
Deng Wu had taken the road of a necromancer and this road was greatly frowned upon, due to the immense amount of death that followed such a cultivator. Death was certain to follow anywhere a necromancer arrived and currently Deng Wu was working with a new inscription which would allow him to transfer longevity from one person to another.
Deng Wu was a genius when it came to creating inscriptions. Had he not been such a genius then he would have had a hard time injuring a King ranked cultivator, let alone killing one.
It was true that the power which he used then did not belonged to him, instead it belonged to Little Dragon. However, without Deng Wu Little Dragon would never have had the ability to release the energy, had Deng Wu not made the synchronization inscription.
Within Deng Wu’s body flowed Dragon Qi from the time when Little Dragon gave him strength from his cultivation base, and this Qi only grew in strength because Hui Yue gave him the Dragon Zodiac cultivation technique. This increase in Dragon Qi allowed for Deng Wu to make an inscription which would allow Little Dragon to send a rush of strength into Deng Wu. This inscription is what enabled the black-haired man to be able to release the energy of an Emperor ranked divine beast in a beautiful beam.
Little Dragon was much like Lan Feng when he had been sealed within the hairpin. The only thing left which they had was their cultivation base, as they had no means of increasing their strength due to their lack of bodies with which to refine energy.
Having gifted some of his cultivation base to Deng Wu, along with using a burst of power against his father caused Little Dragon to plummet down into the Emperor rank.
Sacrificing one’s cultivation base was something which cultivators only did when they had no other means of winning a battle. Although it was possible to restore it, it required painstaking efforts to once more go through the refining process.
This was also another reason why so few wished to become necromancers. Although the control over life and the ability to command undead was appealing, one had to constantly sacrifice their cultivation base for the sake of it.
Looking at Deng Wu from behind, Hui Yue could not help but give a sad smile. He knew that Deng Wu had chosen this road because it allowed for him to be strong. Deng Wu was perfectly well aware of the strength he currently had, versus the strength he would need to survive in the future.
As a Metal affinity user, the ones who used necromancy were by far the strongest, yet the gemstone masters were not people to look down upon because they were not ranked number one.
As a Metal affinity cultivator, Hui Yue himself knew about the various paths he could take with his affinity, but, sadly, he had still not spent enough time to truly understand them all.
