Immortal Mortal

Mo Wuji pointed at Lotus Sword Summit’s blueprints and said, “The buildings on this sword summit look quite good: nice and simple. It doesn’t take up much space either, which would be convenient for me as I plan to build some structures in the future. This is the sword summit for me.”

“Pill Master Mo, you’re choosing the Lotus Sword Summit? The spiritual energy there is rather sparse,” The disciple of the Sword Summit Chambers responsibly volunteered the negative points of the Lotus Sword Summit. Despite that, Mo Wuji waved the comment off, “It’s fine, I’m not that particular about cultivating, as I mainly research into pill refining. There’s no need to send people to help me rebuild the place either. The original house is good enough for my simple needs.”

Since Mo Wuji had said so, Yuan Qi and the Sword Summit Chambers disciple naturally did not blabber on. Soon enough, the administrative procedure for him to stay at Lotus Sword Summit was complete.

…

Truthfully, guest pill refiners could not even get a sword summit, but on account of Yan Qianyin’s relationship with Mo Wuji, he was still able to get one from the sect. Hence, after arranging a sword summit for Mo Wuji, the sect did not send any disciples to the Lotus Sword Summit.

Three days later, Mo Wuji moved into the Lotus Sword Summit.

The Lotus Sword Summit was considered to be one of the less conspicuous sword summits in the Formless Blade Sect. Its land area was not big, and neither were its peaks very tall. The only difference it had with other sword summits was that there was a decent sized lake on the peak of the Lotus Sword Summit. This lake was originally used by Guan Li to grow Blood Lotuses, but after he left, the whole sword summit became vacant, and as a result, the lake also no longer had any visitors.

In the end, there were only four people moving into Lotus Sword Summit: Mo Wuji, Yan’Er, and the Xiong Xiuzhu couple. While the number of rooms available were not many, and a hall was not present, the remaining rooms were sufficient for the four of them to live in. Other than the main building, there were two side rooms, a storeroom, and a spirit animal room.

After assigning all the menial tasks of the house and sword summit to Xiong Xiuzhu, Mo Wuji started training in the Revolving Star Passage Technique and began crafting his plans for the Hanging Sword Cliff.

...

While the concentration of spiritual energy at the Lotus Sword Summit was inferior to other summits, it was over 10 times greater than at the Blood Lotus lake. Even when compared to the accommodation of Wu Kai that Mo Wuji was envious of previously, the spiritual energy here was many times denser, and this was only a sword summit poor in spiritual energy. One could only imagine how rich the spiritual energy would be at the better summits.

As he trained here, Mo Wuji could feel his cultivation level increasing by leaps and bounds every day, even without the use of pills or spirit stones. He did not know that skills could only be trained after reaching the Spirit Building Stage, so he began training the Revolving Star Passage Technique as he cultivated.

A month in, Mo Wuji’s Revolving Star Passage Technique had reached the Nature’s Passage Level.

Because of the high speed of spiritual energy absorption, his cultivation level improved greatly during this period. Within a single month, the spiritual energy within Mo Wuji was frothing wildly, which based on his experience in cultivation, meant a breakthrough was near. Han Ning mentioned before that Channel Opening Stage Level 4 and Level 3 had a vast difference between them. When one reaches Channel Opening Stage Level 4, he would power up by a significant amount. Without the guidance of a master, Mo Wuji was prepared to use spirit stones to ensure his breakthrough to Channel Opening Stage Level 4 succeeded. He intended to use the spirit stone to step out of the initial levels of the Channel Opening Stage, and into Level 4.

Glowing stones lay in his hand, as Mo Wuji began the spiritual energy circulation process. He could feel his hand become a large vacuum, relentlessly sucking away spiritual energy from the spirit stones. The pure spiritual energy spread out from his hand to the rest of his body, opening up every pore he had. His minor circulation speed increased many folds as the energy accelerated while it flowed through him.

Mo Wuji was actively suppressing the excitement within him. “How could the spirit stones have such a great effect on me?” He thought to himself. If he gave up using pills, and focused on only using spirit stones while cultivating, perhaps he might have entered Channel Opening Stage Level 4 earlier.

Wave after wave, the spiritual energy crashed through his meridians, and in only half a day, Mo Wuji went through five spirit stones. “Bang!” It seemed as though a dam broke apart in his body; the frothing spiritual energy turned into a raging stream, causing Mo Wuji to jump up with a roar.

Han Ning was right; at that moment, he felt every cell in his body filled to the brim with explosive energy. Pride welled up from within, which Mo Wuji knew was the confidence that came with a rise in one’s strength.

Channel Opening Stage Level 4, he could be considered to be a cultivator at the intermediate level of the Channel Opening Stage. As arrogant as he felt, Mo Wuji was aware that in this sort of area where immortal masters were around every corner, he would not be able to protect himself with only this level of strength. Now that he had experienced how good a cultivation aid that spirit stones were, Mo Wuji desired to obtain more spirit stones.

Once he reached Channel Opening Stage Level 4, Mo Wuji felt a bottleneck again, just like what he experienced after reaching Channel Opening Stage Level 1. In his current condition, 27 meridians were insufficient for him to progress any further. To cultivate further, he would have to open new spirit channels.

Having trained to Channel Opening Stage Level 4 and having obtained a skill, it was time to make a trip to the Hanging Sword Cliff.

The sky was painted a mixture of yellow and red just as Mo Wuji stepped out of the house. When he left, Yan’Er remained behind to learn embroidery from Xiong Xiuzhu. This tranquil and peaceful scene with the sunset in the backdrop looked like it came out of a painting. Upon seeing Mo Wuji, a serene look appeared on Yan’Er’s face. Xiong Xiuzhu frantically stood up too, greeting him enthusiastically.

“Elder sister Xiong, I’ll be going out for awhile. If I’m not back by tomorrow, and anyone comes looking for me, just say that I’ve shut myself in to cultivate. Oh yes, once I’m back, I’ll take a look at brother Tao’s broken legs. Whether I can fix them or not, I dare not guarantee you at this stage.”

Mo Wuji nodded at Xiong Xiuzhu. He was worried that the difficulty of getting close to the piece of sword at the Hanging Sword Cliff would be too high for him to accomplish the task in a night.

Don’t underestimate him for being just a Tier 2 Mortal Pill Refiner. While he had no ways on hand to repair Tao Ao’s broken legs, he knew Yan Qianyin, who he could inquire for solutions.

“Ahhh…” Xiong Xiuzhu was overwhelmed by joy. She quickly understood what Mo Wuji meant, and dropped her knees to the ground, “Thank you for your mercy and grace, young master. Regardless of the outcome, Tao Ao and I will always be grateful to you.”

“Elder sister Xiong, since we’re living together now, I consider you as part of my family, so don’t stand on occasion like that next time,” Mo Wuji was aware of how grateful Xiong Xiuzhu was, and as Yan’Er’s condition improved day after day, he had already thought of her as one of his own family members for a long time.

“Yes young master,” As expected, Xiong Xiuzhu was unable to simply let it go. Despire standing up, her eyes still held a deep sense of gratitude and reverence towards the young pill refiner. To this, Mo Wuji could not do much but to let her go, if he made anymore demands of her, it would only serve to make her feel uncomfortable.

The most crucial task now was to proceed on to the Hanging Sword Cliff after dusk. Other than cultivating this past month, all other preparations for this operation were made.

...

The Hanging Sword Cliff was located at the extreme left of the Formless Blade Sect. Any further out from it, and you would leave the boundaries of the sect. It seemed as though everyone from the sect feared the cliff to some extent, hence visitors to this corner of the sect grounds were far and few between.

By the time Mo Wuji arrived at the Hanging Sword Cliff, it was already in the middle of the night. A crescent moon hung in the sky, it’s gentle rays shining down and illuminating the cliff. But despite that, the pit that lie below the cliff still appeared to have no limit in depth, darker and blacker than anything could be. The occasional hooting of owls in the night, added the final piece of the puzzle to create a oppressive and fearful atmosphere in the dark.

This was not the first time that Mo Wuji came to look at the broken blade, which lay hanging on the inner side of the cliff wall, a good 60 over metres from the top of the cliff. The side of the cliff glistened in the moonlight, smooth as a mirror, leaving no footholds or handgrips for Mo Wuji to latch on at all.

Mo Wuji had heard from rumors that there was a very strong gravitational pull originating from the bottom of the Hanging Sword Cliff. Even birds were unable to fly past this area, simply plunging to an unknown fate in the depths of the dark pit, drawn in by a mysterious force.

In reality, Mo Wuji did not have any methods to fly either, and he only brought a 90 metre long rope instead. First he drove a steel rod into the top of the cliff as a strong point, before securing one end of the rope around it, and the other end around his waist, carefully paying out the rope to descend down the Hanging Sword Cliff.