Martial Dao: Peace by Force

Chapter 323: Chapter 184: Huangliang: Qi-Sense Teleportation

This was all hard-won knowledge for survival.

Every word had to be etched into his mind.

”In Huangliang Village, this kind of knowledge is often the result of countless lives lost.” Feng Jiuchen sighed softly. He had suffered losses before and knew the value of experience.

Wan Ze looked up. He wasn’t the type of reckless youth who ignored the advice of his elders. ”Brother Feng, thank you.”

Feng Jiuchen waved his hand with a carefree smile.

The two walked for a while. The mountain path grew narrower, and the trees on either side became denser.

After a long silence, Wan Ze couldn’t help but ask, ”Brother Feng, you don’t have a Flying Magical Artifact? Are we just going to walk the whole way?”

He asked casually.

In reality, he was worried about the drain on his Spiritual Form.

Descending into Huangliang required a Spiritual Form, and just staying in Huangliang Village also required a Spiritual Form. It was being consumed every single second.

In his eyes, something as unproductive as walking was a waste.

Feng Jiuchen’s expression stiffened for a moment. He didn’t stop walking, but it was clear the older man was a bit embarrassed. He gave a light cough. ”That thing... it’s too expensive. In all my years of struggling in Huangliang Village, I’ve only seen two auctions for Flying Magical Artifacts. Each time, the final price was enough to buy half of Tongchen Pavilion. Besides... controlling a Flying Magical Artifact like that requires a massive amount of Qi to support it. You need to be at least in the Second Realm. At my current level of Cultivation, even if someone gave one to me for free, I wouldn’t be able to fly it. What’s the difference between that and riding a wooden donkey that can’t move?”

”Soul Condensation?” Wan Ze nodded, mentally noting the threshold of the ”Second Realm.”

He had heard Feng Jiuchen mention the term Soul Condensation before but hadn’t asked for details. Since they were walking anyway, he figured he might as well ask for more guidance.

Feng Jiuchen quickened his pace slightly, as if he were in a hurry. He explained thoughtfully, ”The first stage of Soul Condensation is Magic. Once you reach that Realm, you can freely use Qi to manipulate external objects—not just Flying Magical Artifacts, but also various offensive and defensive tools. All of them require the Cultivation of the Soul Condensation Realm to operate.”

As he spoke, his gaze constantly swept the path ahead, as if searching for something.

The mountain path grew steeper, and the trees on either side gradually thinned, revealing bare rock and a faintly visible stream in the distance.

”If this discovery really is an unopened Tomb...” A hint of anticipation entered Feng Jiuchen’s voice. He smiled at Wan Ze. ”Then the two of us will have really struck it rich. I can help you formally achieve Spirit Awakening, and I’ll probably be able to enter the Soul Condensation Realm myself.”

Huangliang is a world of Qi Refiners, and the First Realm is Spirit Awakening.

Wan Ze nodded without saying much.

He was still looking forward to his Cultivation in Huangliang. This world was countless times larger than reality, and everything here could hold a secret.

Those secrets held danger, but also opportunity.

He didn’t want to spend his whole life like this, relying on luck to survive. Besides, getting stronger this way was too slow.

What he wanted had always been simple... to be strong enough to protect himself!

”Oh, right, Brother Feng, I have another question.” Wan Ze spoke without breaking his stride, but he pulled his gaze from the path ahead and fixed it on Feng Jiuchen.

”Feel free to ask,” Feng Jiuchen said without turning his head.

This time, Wan Ze asked about the medium for descending.

He relied on his Spiritual Form to descend into Huangliang, yet whenever he met up with Feng Jiuchen, he would appear right beside him with pinpoint accuracy. It was all beyond his comprehension.

”Qi...”

”Qi?”

”That’s right. The communicator that I had Beixi give you contains a unique trace of my Qi. It’s like needing a key to open a door, and it also requires me to activate it from my end to work.”

Feng Jiuchen slowed his pace, waiting for Wan Ze to catch up and walk beside him.

He lowered his voice. ”Descending requires a medium; you know that. But the medium doesn’t have to be your own Qi—external objects work too. As long as you can sense the Qi of a specific location in Huangliang Village, you can use that location as an anchor to descend... You could say it works like making a phone call. You have the Qi I left with you over there. When I activate it here, and you trigger it, it creates a connection...”

He held out his hand, and a faint ball of Qi coalesced in his palm, glowing with a soft, silvery-white light under the Red Moon.

”So you’re saying I can descend here because the Qi in the real world corresponds with the Qi in Huangliang?” Wan Ze asked.

Feng Jiuchen pondered for a moment. ”That’s one way to put it... After all, I don’t know much myself. In my limited understanding, this is the only way I know of to descend into Huangliang. It’s possible there are other methods. After all, Qi Refiners... are full of unpredictable tricks.”

Wan Ze nodded.

’Take me, for example... my method of descending into this world is my Spiritual Form.’

’After all, before this, I had no way of becoming a Qi Refiner.’

But setting those thoughts aside, something else occurred to Wan Ze.

According to Brother Feng, when he touched other people’s objects in the real world and it triggered his Spiritual Form, Magic Sense, or anything else related to Qi Refiners, his ability to use Stealing Celestial Secret was likely because he could perceive ”Qi” that ordinary people couldn’t.

’And if those objects contained ”Qi” and could even bring me to Huangliang, it means a corresponding ”Qi” exists in Huangliang... and the ”Qi” in the Huangliang Realm must exist in a physical form.’

’That means... I can continue to use Stealing Celestial Secret.’

”By the way, Brother Feng, how do you usually sense ’Qi’?” Wan Ze asked.

Besides Stealing Celestial Secret, he wanted to know if there were other methods.

’If I can’t use Stealing Celestial Secret, I can use other methods to lock onto ”Qi.” This is a Skill I have to master.’

Feng Jiuchen retracted the ball of Qi, clapped his hands, and said with a smile, ”You use your own Qi to sense it. First, find a place in Huangliang Village and use your Qi to leave a mark there, like carving a notch in a tree. The next time you descend, you can follow that mark to go directly to that spot without needing any external object. The specific method is like this...”

Hearing this, Wan Ze’s eyes lit up.

’I’ll commit this method to memory. After daybreak, I’ll try it out in the real world on Xiao Yunkai’s Jade Pendant.’

’If that Jade Pendant really is connected to Huangliang, there should be some trace of Qi left on it.’

’By following that trace, I might be able to find more information behind the Jade Pendant... It would be even better if there were more old artifacts, but I’ll have to be careful then.’

’Not everyone in the Huangliang Realm is like Feng Jiuchen.’

Seeing Wan Ze’s expression, Feng Jiuchen chuckled, feeling a bit emotional. He had taught many people, but it was rare to find someone like Wan Ze who understood things instantly and could immediately apply them.

The two continued along the mountain path. The journey had its thrills but no real danger.

A few beastly roars echoed from a distance, but they sounded very far away, as if coming from the other side of the mountain, carried intermittently by the wind.

Each time, Feng Jiuchen would stop and listen intently for a moment, only continuing on after confirming the sound wasn’t getting closer.

Wan Ze followed behind him, his gaze sweeping the darkness on both sides.

After walking for more than half an hour, Feng Jiuchen suddenly stopped.

Wan Ze followed his gaze, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

In the distance, a massive, towering mountain pierced the clouds. Its peak was hidden in the darkness of the upper atmosphere, beyond the reach of the Red Moon’s light.

There was no vegetation on the mountain’s body, which revealed a dark, iron-gray color.

Its silhouette was too distinct, so sharp that it didn’t look naturally formed. It was more like a geometric shape carved out by a knife.

And it was jarringly out of place.

The surrounding mountains were a rolling, interconnected range, but this one stood alone. Isolated on all sides, it resembled a giant abandoned in the wilderness.

Wan Ze stared at the mountain for two seconds, then sharply noticed that the air around it was faintly distorted, as if an invisible heatwave were shimmering.

”It’s not caused by temperature?” Wan Ze muttered to himself.

Feng Jiucheng heard him and whispered, ”This is what it looks like when space itself is compressed and distorted. This is Huangliang... opportunities everywhere, but also unexplainable phenomena everywhere. So, before you have enough Strength, you must be extremely careful.”

The moment he finished speaking, a sudden change occurred.

RUMBLE!

The earth suddenly trembled.

Countless mountains erupted from the ground as if a legion of sleeping giants had been simultaneously awakened. They thrust their massive arms from beneath the earth, pushing aside soil and rock, and stretched toward the sky at an incredible speed. The mountainsides were still caked with dirt and rubble, which peeled off the rock faces and tumbled down, forming mounds of various sizes at their bases.

One, two, four, eight... Wan Ze couldn’t count them all. His entire field of vision was filled with mountains—tall, short, wide, and narrow.