Chapter 62 – Crisis and Opportunity.

  The battle in the night sky above the Hollow Stream Sect between Core Formation Cultivators dissolved as abruptly as if it had begun. An icy ripple of orthodox Qi reached Elder Mu and Xun Beiming at the same time.

  “Reinforcements from the Azure Horizon Sect!” Elder Mu stated to her companions as the Qi swept over the ruins.

  The remaining demonic cultivators staggered as the pressure of new Core Formation auras pressed down on them from the horizon, like a cold tide that threatened to drown them.

  Xun Beiming’s eyes flashed with hatred, but a grim smile tugged at the edge of his cracked lips. He twisted the black spear in his hands to create a swirling vortex of black mist that began to obscure him from sight, while his voice echoed through the ruins of the Sect grounds.

  “Enjoy this borrowed respite, Tranquil Mountain dogs. My Nascent Soul will rise over your corpses eventually, and no one can stop me!”

  With a last, mocking salute, he vanished into the black mist. The higher-ranked demonic cultivators fled in his wake, but for anyone who couldn’t run away fast enough, they were cut down by the remaining Tranquil Mountain Sect Disciples.

  As the echoes of the fleeing Xun Beiming faded, Elder Mu Yanyu didn’t wait to savour her victory. With her sword still shimmering with pale blue Qi, she flashed across the ruins straight toward the distant crater where she had last observed Jun De with her spiritual sense.

  She landed at the edge of a pit carved into the earth; its stone fused to glass while the soil was scorched a lifeless black. The shattered remnants of the Warflag of Dominion lay in molten tatters, the once radiant threads now completely dull and blackened.

  Nothing else remained in the area, not a single body or even a scrap of cloth. There was only a faint layer of ash, and the strong smell of fire and burnt earth from the explosion.

  My Yanyu’s fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword as she desperately scanned the devastation with her spiritual sense.

  “Jun De.” She whispered, but the crater only answered her with silence, and the night suddenly felt terribly empty.

  Page Break

  Jun De awoke with a sharp gasp, his body screaming in protest at the sudden movement. Pain lanced through his limbs like fire, and his vision swam before gradually settling when he rapidly blinked his eyes.

  He was incredibly groggy and confused about where he was and what had happened. The last thing he remembered was the blinding explosion from the detonation of the Warflag of Dominion. He hadn’t expected it to be that powerful; it was only a late-stage Spiritual artifact in the Qi Condensation Stage.

  ‘The flag exploded like a bomb!’ Jun De thought.

  Then there was a feeling of being pulled downward, like he was being swallowed by the earth, and a pressure building up around him.

  Now, he found himself lying on a smooth stone floor within what seemed to be an underground vault. The air was dry, but perfectly breathable, and the ceiling above him glowed faintly with embedded spiritual stones that cast a soft, even light through the chamber.

  The space he was in was circular, with gently curving walls made of grey stone. They were carved with faint runes and inlaid with more spirit stones to fuel what he suspected was some sort of protective array.

  One entire section of the room had collapsed behind him, sealing shut by layers of rubble and large chunks of rock.

  ‘That’s probably where I came in through.’ Jun De observed. The rest of the vault was pristine, with not a speck of dust marring the ground or a crack in the polished surface of the walls. It felt untouched by time, like a place that had long been forgotten by the world above.

  Jun De groaned loudly as he slowly sat upright. His robes were torn and streaked with blood, while his left side ached, and a gash across his ribs had been sealed by the fabric of his clothing clinging to it.

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  The Qi in his Dantian moved sluggishly, and the Dawnheart Flame nestled there flickered with exhaustion.

  “At least my storage bag is intact.” Jun De muttered as he began to pull out healing and recovery pills and elixirs from his bag. As he did so, he noticed another oddity in the room.

  Hovering above him was the talisman that Elder Mu had given him, the one that was capable of shielding him from a strike from a Core Formation expert. Its surface shimmered faintly, and there was a single crack along its length that showed that it had activated to protect him.

  A faint hum echoed from the object, almost like it was a sound of acknowledgement for its hard work, before it gently floated downward and disappeared in a flash of light that returned to his storage bag.

  “So that’s how I’m still alive. I need to thank Elder Mu when I get out of here. If I can get out of here, that is.”

  Jun De fumbled through the recovery pills and elixirs that he had drawn from his bag with shaky fingers. He finally managed to pull the stopper from a small jade bottle by pulling it free with his teeth. Without hesitation, he swallowed the pills inside and let the bitter taste spread over his tongue.

  Moments passed as the pills melted in his mouth, and soon a soft warmth began to flow through his body. His wounds began to slowly knit together, his bruises faded shade by shade, while the sharp pain in his ribs dulled into just an ache.

  His breathing steadied as the pain left him, and even the pounding headache eased significantly.

  Jun De leaned back against the cool stone wall and let the pills do their job. A thin sheen of sweat covered his forehead, but he could finally think and breathe. Most importantly, he could open his eyes fully and take in his surroundings with clarity.

  The vault he was in was massive and smelled faintly of incense and dry earth. There was a slight hum in the air, which Jun De thought might have something to do with the protective formation surrounding it.

  There was a small table or altar at the center of the vault, a raised portion that Jun De couldn’t quite see what was resting on from where he was sitting.

  Aside from the altar, there was a single metal door at the far end of the chamber.

  Jun De narrowed his eyes and pushed himself slowly to his feet. His body still hurt, but he had recovered enough to move.

  He stepped carefully up to the altar, his footsteps soft against the smooth stone floor. Now that his vision wasn’t fading in and out from the pain and he was standing, he could see that there were a few items on top of the Altar.

  The first was an old book, its cover worn but still intact. It was bound in dark leather with a symbol that depicted a flowing stream and the words ‘Hollow Stream Sect’ above it, pressed into the leather.

  Jun De picked it up and flipped through the pages. It was the Sect’s core cultivation method, and it seemed to be focused on stability and long-term growth, similar to the Tranquil Method of his Sect.

  He didn’t know much about cultivation methods, but he figured it was valuable, and now that the Hollow Stream Sect had been wiped out, they wouldn’t need it anymore. He put it in his storage bag to give to Elder Mu later.

  The second item was a sword.

  It lay diagonally across the altar, its blade an elegant and sleek silver-blue that gave it an almost liquid appearance. Ice clustered faintly along the edge, and a powerful presence pulsed from within it.

  Jun De could feel it even without touching the hilt; this wasn’t a weapon he could use. It was far beyond his current cultivation and was probably meant for a Foundation Establishment or Core Formation cultivator.

  He waved his hand and drew it into his storage back using his Qi, but was careful not to touch it or try to interact with it in any other way.

  The third item was a storage ring. It was a golden band with a single emerald set into its surface. Unlike the sword, this one didn’t radiate any power, but the moment Jun De picked it up and probed it gently with his limited spiritual sense, his eyes widened.

  It held hundreds of thousands of low-grade Spirit Stones!

  Jun De sucked in a deep breath.

  “Okay, now we’re talking!” This made the entire night worth it. All the pain, the fighting and the terror were inconsequential to the amount of wealth inside the ring. He had been worrying about how he would survive after spending all of his contribution points on refining the flag, only for it to be destroyed.

  “I’m rich!” Jun De whispered. He was already thinking about going to Tranquil City and buying all the expensive wine he could drink, along with the finest delicacies.

  He slipped the ring onto his finger without hesitation, right next to the other golden ring he’d worn since the day he had arrived in this world. The two rings gleamed side by side in the light of the vault.

  “Worth it!”

  With his gains safely secured, Jun De walked over to the door of the vault and pulled it open. There was a rush of air, and a hallway was revealed, with a faint light in the distance.

  The corridor narrowed slightly near the end, and Jun De slowed his pace as he approached what he hoped was the exit. But instead of a door or a passageway leading out, the hall ended in a blank wall of dark stone.

  Jun De frowned and stepped forward cautiously.

  The moment his foot crossed the threshold of a circular engraving on the floor, an array snapped to life. Symbols lit up in rapid succession, and the air thickened around him.

  “Oh! I wonder what this one-” Jun de was cut off as there was a sudden flash of light, and he felt a sensation of weightlessness. Spiritual energy squeezed around him, pressing into his body, before he was free with a faint ‘pop’.

  Jun De landed on the ground in a new location, this one under the night sky and far removed from the ruins of the Hollow Stream Sect.

  “Within crisis lies opportunity!” Jun De exclaimed as he breathed in the fresh night air and revelled in the fact that he was alive and safe.

  “Now, where the hell am I?”