Lu Qingshan dragged his tired body up the hill ahead of him. They were getting close to the mountain. The peak was still far, but was within reach.

  “I can’t keep running,” Song Lin breathed out. The An siblings had long fallen unconscious and needed to be carried by martial artists, but none of their original group were very willing. So Lu Qingshan assigned Jin Teng to carry one while he carried the other.

  Now was the time to take a breather. In their mad dash away from the exit of the sea of fog, they had skipped multiple nights of sleep and barely bothered to stop and catch a breath. But they couldn’t exactly afford to stop for long. His sect knew the consequences — and so they refused to stop — but the other martial artists needed some convincing.

  Fortunately, food rations no longer became a concern. Once they had journeyed far enough, giant man-eating spiders and ferocious creatures like centipedes, scorpions, and beetles began appearing. They were mostly edible, though there were some parts too poisonous to safely consume. Lu Qingshan was glad to have something to eat so he couldn’t really complain.

  After all, their meat was more filling than he expected. Combined with the increased spiritual energy in the air, Lu Qingshan found the proficiency growth speed for the Giant Whale Breathing Technique to be almost as fast as consuming common secret medicines. This helped his mindset a lot, and over the past few days he’d grown accustomed to the taste of their flesh.

  Not many could say the same. Beside him, Song Lin retched after opening his pack to find the head of a slain monster beetle. His eyes were filled with tears as he bit into it piece by piece.

  “I told you,” Lu Qingshan said, “it’s best you get used to the taste and texture now. Or it might be too late for regret when you’re starving and can’t get more food. I expect a Qi Refinement realm demonic cultivator to be chasing us here, so those fasting pills are only to be used when we have no more food sources left.”

  “It’s not even guaranteed for them to get past the fog,” An Xin muttered. “You’re being too paranoid.”

  Lu Qingshan shook his head. “And you’re not being cautious enough. I’ll make sure to drive that instinct into you all within the next three years.”

  He had tried a fasting pill once. But the effects of a single pill worked much better on immortal cultivators than on martial artists. Him taking one could have just half the effect, and it wouldn’t provide him with the bonuses of eating something of sustenance.

  Even Qin Ye was forced to eat the monstrous insects they found. Oh, he cried and complained, but in the end Lu Qingshan was able to beat it into him that he needed to conserve their current supplies as much as possible. Fasting pills didn’t spoil.

  In truth, only Liu Yingting enjoyed eating the monstrous insects. With his Hundred Poisons Body, even venomous and toxic giant insects were edible, though he often had to vanish for a while.

  After everyone had eaten their fill, Lu Qingshan drove them forward again. He needed to get to the mountain and at least explore it before the demonic cultivators arrived. Then they needed to leave again before their enemies could follow their trail.

  Each point of interest brought incredible benefits. The spiritual earthworm, after consuming whatever substance was below the blood-colored patch of wood, had fallen into a deep sleep. The crystal cicada was sitting patiently in his pocket, awaiting the next session of his Insect Harmony Mantra.

  And the mountain was sure to have something as well. It was the highest point of land in the area. Anyone coming through the fog was sure to find it as long as they could move through the monstrous insects. Lu Qingshan wanted to get there early in order to help give himself time to evade trackers. He had a plan to shield himself using the cicada’s help.

  Reaching the mountain became easy with the help of the crystal cicada. Whenever it grew bored of his chanting, it would fly around, but not too far from Lu Qingshan. This was the perfect opportunity to advance quickly without running into giant insects. It was like the cicada was an invincible overlord — as soon as anything spotted it, they would flee.

  Lu Qingshan spent a whole night raising his proficiency points. It gave him a great joy — enough to ignore the cicada's slight trembles and rising dissent when it started to grow dissatisfied with his constant chanting. But Lu Qingshan was careful to not go too far. And as his proficiency ticked up higher and higher, he found the cicada more willing to listen for longer periods of time.

  They reached the base of the mountain. As soon as they got there, a horde of giant insects were waiting for them. Included within the mass were mantises, beetles, wasps, spiders, scorpions and centipedes all pushed to a gargantuan size. His Insect Harmony Mantra failed to work on any of them as there seemed to be something blocking a direct connection. Lu Qingshan guessed they had been driven insane by demonic methods, because none of these insects were strong enough to face him one on one. His technique should've worked like it did the Viscera Tempering stage Bloodseeker Fly.

  It was impossible to fight so many large creatures at once. Fortunately, they had the crystal cicada with them. Lu Qingshan had timed it perfectly for the insect to go flying around at this specific time. The horde of monstrous vermin scattered in its wake.

  Once they were gone, everything fell into place. Above the mountains was another difficult climb, but with Lu Qingshan's raw strength, no creature could attack as long as everyone stuck together. And under his iron fist, none of the tired and exhausted martial artists dared to pose him any problems.

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  As the last of them climbed up to the mountain peak, Lu Qingshan roared, scattering the few smaller monstrous insects from the cliffs around them. He then turned to the building standing on top.

  "What is this?" he asked. But everyone around him was too tired to speak. They were all sprawled onto the floor or huddling onto one another, trying their best to catch their breaths.

  Lu Qingshan couldn't afford to wait. He ignored his aching body and pushed into the building himself. The Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique unfurled itself in a singular motion along with the rising vision of a blood sea.

  In an instant, the attacking golden centipede was blown away in a single hit. A large crevice was carved into its body as it struggled to recover from its grievous wounds. Lu Qingshan's next series of attacks blew open more parts of its body while

  At the Innate realm, unleashing the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique in its entirety meant he finally had an attack that could contend with the Qi Refinement realm. This state wouldn't last forever, and he would eventually lose, but he was no longer as helpless as he'd been a minor and a major realm ago, waiting for the immortal cultivators to exhaust themselves completely. He stood a decent chance at killing them on the spot if they were unaware of his power.

  This writhing centipede was indeed a match for Qi Refinement realm cultivators. There was a membrane around its body that Lu Qingshan had broken through in a single hit. But what place was this to have such a powerful defender?

  Lu Qingshan finished off the centipede and felt the damage to his body. It wasn't as bad as he'd thought with the greater amplification of force. More levels in the Dragon Spine Manual greatly improved the resiliency of his physical body, and the blood essence absorbed from the Blood Seas Inner Force technique at its limit was extremely high. Especially considering the abundant vitality this demonic insect had before his attack.

  Even so, he was still a long way off from opening his upper aperture. Maybe if he slaughtered his way through that previous swarm in its entirety, he'd be approaching the halfway point of tempering the aperture. But that'd take too long — he'd first need multiple other martial arts to reach their limit before he even considered taking on that many enemies. And there had to be no one with him.

  After he'd recovered enough, Lu Qingshan limped his way behind the centipede's growing pool of ichor. He pushed its body towards the other side of the room and uncovered a closed door.

  Lu Qingshan kicked it open. Inside the small room was an open grave containing a small, coverless book within. He first inspected the room for anything abnormal, but it seemed to be just a room. His insects couldn’t find any small holes to crawl into. There were no other treasures but the book and the golden centipede’s body.

  He picked up the book. Flipping through it, Lu Qingshan quickly understood a summary of its contents. This was the autobiography of a cultivator named Qingxu. At least that was what he called himself.

  The favored genius of an unnamed sect, this man lived a troubled life. He had been denounced as a demonic cultivator just as he was starting to gain a foothold in the world. Chased by a multitude of forces, this daoist had several close scrapes with the jaws of death.

  And yet, Daoist Qingxu survived. Past hundreds of enemies and scores of hunters, he still managed to forge his foundation and reach the second realm of immortal cultivation. Foundation Establishment.

  Daoist Qingxu refused to accept his status as a demonic cultivator. Throughout the entire diary he held the belief that he had been framed.

  Whether or not this was the truth no longer mattered, as everyone that had been involved was long dead. It had been centuries since the events listed in the book.

  But through this journal Lu Qingshan learned a few things. Chiefly, the small cultivation insights would prove helpful for all cultivators in the Seven Mysteries Gate. He also planned to use such insights to recruit the three new rogue cultivators Song Lin and the An siblings.

  What greatly pleased Lu Qingshan was that there were insights on rearing spiritual insects inside the book as well. There were several methods, each powerful but restricted in their uses. They’d need many years of effort in order to fully succeed even once.

  Fortunately, the book reduced the need for experimentation, as Daoist Qingxu recorded down many of his thoughts with all the methods he used. His spiritual insects were one of the main reasons he could survive for so long.

  The second reason was the so-called Wood Spirit Body. Lu Qingshan had to spend more time reading this, because spiritual bodies attuned for cultivation were not easily detectable. Even spirit root sensing stones failed — and there had been cases where a mortal had awakened a spiritual body. Daoist Qingxu was one of them.

  There were so many secrets and knowledge contained in the book that it could be considered Daoist Qingxu’s inheritance upon his passing. This was probably why the man had placed it near his grave — assuming it was his grave, and not a decoy. Lu Qingshan did find it suspicious how the crystal cicada was more powerful than the golden centipede.

  He glanced at the three crystalline fruits in his bag. That vine was nothing special, but these fruits might become the real inheritance. He just didn’t know how they worked yet.

  But now was not the time to ponder what he had discovered. They needed to leave, fast, before the demonic cultivators reached this place. None of his Bloodseeker Flies that he’d laid along their path had died, but that was not exactly a reliable indicator.

  Lu Qingshan hurried to conceal their tracks. Fortunately, his sect was well-versed in moving quickly. They had torn apart the golden centipede for materials while his flies feasted on the rest of the body.

  This brief period of time was the only rest they'd get. Lu Qingshan lent a hand the best he could while getting everyone ready to continue fleeing. On this mountain peak, there were too many tracks left behind to easily solve. But that was fine. The demonic cultivators likely knew some fish had slipped the net, and were already looking for them.

  The important step was being able to flee somewhere enclosed to avoid the enemy’s tracking. Running back towards the lake was not feasible. But the crystal shavings from the cicada’s body proved resilient against spirit qi. As long as everyone took the same path, they stood a decent chance at covering the enemy’s tracking.

  Lu Qingshan drove the unwilling martial artists down the mountain and through the forest. It was much harder to get them to stand rigid to walk, but he managed to make it happen with constant threats of violence. That golden centipede's rapid death had shocked them into numbness.

  He chanted the Insect Harmony Mantra, convincing the crystal cicada to fly behind them. Dust fell from its body to cover their steps behind them in a protective coating. It would take Embryonic Breathing realm cultivators too much time to burn through it all. They'd be far away, even with proper rest.

  But they were dealing with unknown threats. Hopefully, his precautions would be enough.