Li Yuan moved through the outer Belt of the Forbidden Forest, his steps light as he hid his presence with Veil of Borrowed Heaven. Each step carried him farther from the safety of the sect and deeper into territory where even Foundation Establishment cultivators would die if careless.
Then suddenly, Li Yuan's instincts prickled and he slowed down as immense Killing Intent washed over him. He spun instantly, Shadow Cloud Steps activating without thought as his figure blurred sideways.
A heartbeat later, the ground where he had been standing exploded as a giant claw made of dark miasma tore through the area, erasing a large swathe of the forest behind the hill.
The surrounding trees that had been within the attack range withered instantly as their bark blackened and their leaves and roots turned into sludge from the corrosive demonic Qi.
Li Yuan landed lightly a dozen paces away and his eyes locked forward where the Golden Core assassin had appeared.
'So… even using Veil of Borrowed Heaven the entire way is not enough to fool him.' He thought grimly. 'This guy's method of tracking me is definitely not normal.'
"Oi oi, don't you feel ashamed trying to surprise attack a Qi Condensation disciple." Li Yuan asked, even though he'd learned by now that talking to this guy was useless. "Where's your pride as a Golden Core cultivator?"
Like all the times before, the assassin didn't bother to respond and simply moved in to attack.
The ground shattered beneath his feet as he lunged forward, faster than any Qi Condensation cultivator had any right to track. But Li Yuan was already moving, having fought the assassin multiple times before (at least in his visions), and was thus aware of most of this guy's tricks.
Shadow Cloud Steps carried him into motion and his sword flashed out, meeting the cultivator's demonic Qi head on.
Unlike all the times before, this time, he targeted the Demonic energy within the assassin's Qi instead of the assassin himself, and thus, was able to cut right through the dark miasma, leaving a deep gash on the assassin's torso who moved back at the final moment to protect his throat.
Li Yuan 'tch'd' at another failed attempt at taking the assassin by surprise. The assassin launched a powerful attack to counter him. His blade met the attack head on, and the impact detonated like thunder. The shockwave rippled through the forest, flattening any nearby grass and throwing him half a football field away before he righted himself.
Inside his robes, one of his defensive talismans broke. Then, the assassin was already on top of him.
Li Yuan did his best to resist but he was pushed back again and again, being able to do nothing but be on the defensive as the assassin simply outclassed him in everything. Be it speed, strength, defence or offence.
The only advantage he had was his prior knowledge of the assassin's abilities. And even that would only take him so far.
Another attack from the assassin finally burned his last defensive Talisman and flew back, coughing blood as his back collided with a giant tree. His Soulbound Ice Armour shimmered faintly across his body, absorbing the force within the impact. But the corrosive Qi was already eating through his body, until a second artefact layered beneath it activated, one specifically designed to counteract the demonic corrosion.
The assassin wasn't aware of this, and pushed his advantage, intending to finish him. For some reason, he'd noticed that whenever the assassin went for the kill, he would always try to pierce him with his own hands. He didn't know why this was. Maybe the assassin was just a sadist, but he'd learned to make use of this for his own advantage.
Just as the assassin reached him, his dark miasma covered arm reaching toward Li Yuan's torso, a dozen talismans hidden inside his robes activated at once. Burst of flames, lightning, and lasers made from compressed Qi detonated toward the assassin from multiple angles.
All those talismans had been gathered by Zi Mo for him over the past two weeks. And each held the power to injure, or even kill an Early Stage Golden Core cultivator if caught off guard.
But this was no early stage Golden Core cultivator. Even caught off guard as he was, the assassin managed to dodge some of the attacks, while using his own defensive artefacts to block the rest.
The forest erupted into explosions. And Li Yuan's Ice Armour was the only reason why he survived being in the vicinity of those explosions. Even then, he was thrown a few hundred meters away, and rag dolled through the ground before finally coming to a stop.
When he gazed up, he saw that the explosions that turned an entire area within a hundred meter radius into a giant crater and the land within had turned into glowing lava while the entire land in its surroundings had been scorched black.
The heat was such that trees even hundreds of meters away had caught fire and had started to burn. And Li Yuan's own Ice Armour was rapidly eating through his Qi reserves in order to keep him safe.
Despite it all, Li Yuan's hope for a victory were dashed as a dark figure emerged from the crater. The assassin's robe was torn and bloodied in multiple places, and the miasma surrounding his body was greatly diminished. He was also leaning heavily on one foot, clearly injured.
Most importantly though, the assassin had finally lost his skull mask, allowing Li Yuan to finally get a look at his face. Pale skin, sharp aristocratic features, a jagged scar running from the corner of his eye down to his jaw, and cold eyes filled with murderous intent.
Li Yuan burned the image in his memory, intending to gather information on the assassin later on. Then, he turned and ran.
Despite his wish that the assassin's leg injury would not let that bastard keep up with him, that did not turn out to be the case as the assassin easily caught up. His only saving grace was that the assassin had become wary of him and kept his distance, only pelting him from the distance with large range attacks.
His Soulbound Ice Armour blocked most of the attacks, but doing so also ate away at his Qi reserves rapidly. And Li Yuan knew that he wouldn't last much longer.
The forest blurred around him as he pushed Shadow Cloud Steps to its limit, his figure streaking through the trees until finally, he arrived at his intended place. The lair of a 3rd grade spirit beast. The guardian of a spirit lake he'd found by chance.
The moment he crossed into its territory, an immense pressure descended upon him, followed by a deafening roar that shook his organs and disrupted his Qi, leaving him completely helpless.
Li Yuan fell over, coughing blood as the spirit beast emerged. The giant ape's massive form blotting out the light as its gaze locked onto the two intruders. Then suddenly…
The killing intent behind him vanished.
Li Yuan pupils shrank as he turned back to look at the assassin and found him missing, as if he'd never been there in the first place.
'…Where—?' He wondered, but didn't have anymore time to think as the spirit beast's attack descended upon him and pulverised his entire body in an instant.
——
Li Yuan's eyes snapped open as the vision ended, and he grimaced at the phantom pain of his entire body being pulverised in a single attack.
'At least this was a quick way to go. Much better than being burned alive, or being eaten through by corrosive Qi.' He thought in jest to distract himself from another failure. '3/10. Wouldn't try again. But a much better death than dying to the assassin's corrosive Qi.'
Finally, as the phantom pain of his death washed away, he exhaled and got up from his meditative position. Without wasting another second, he went to his table, reached for his notebook and started drawing the assassin's features.
After doing that, he noted down every new thing he'd learned about the assassin in that fight. Which admittedly wasn't a lot, even if this was the closest he'd come to killing that bastard.
"Some kind of stealth technique. Or maybe a teleportation talisman." He wrote, wondering how the assassin had been able to disappear in the end without leaving behind any traces.
He also noted down how the assassin became far more cautious of him after suffering such great damage. Which was not good for him as this meant that he only had one chance to kill the guy.
Finally, after noting all the details down, he leaned back against his chair and yawned.
It has been three weeks since he and Zi Mo had been on that date. Two weeks that he spent entirely within the quiet confines of his residence.
The first week had been focused on a single task. Create the Ten Thousand Vitality Reversion Pill for Zi Mo's junior sister, Ning Renxue. Thankfully, he didn't need to hunt for any spirit beasts this time, as the Snow Peak's treasury held countless treasures, and three Vitality type beast cores had been among them.
He succeeded in crafting the pill, and handed it over to Zi Mo, along with a request to meet her junior sister as he knew no one else within the Snow Peak and wanted to expand his circle of acquaintances.
To his surprise, Ning Renxue had refused his request to meet her.
According to Zi Mo, her body had already aged beyond recognition, and she had no intention of allowing anyone, especially a junior, to see her in such a decrepit state. She would either break through to Golden Core and restore her youth before meeting him, or die in obscurity. There was no middle ground.
After hearing that, Li Yuan had not pushed the matter. Some things were better left alone.
But the two weeks after that had been far less peaceful as he had spent the entire week hunting, or rather… being hunted by the Golden Core assassin. At least in his visions.
At first, he had tried to rely on Zi Mo's strength as it seemed like the obvious solution. From what he'd seen, the assassin was only at Mid-stage Golden Core, while Zi Mo had reached Late-stage Golden Core. It should've been a one-sided battle. But reality proved that things didn't always go according to plans.
Whenever Zi Mo accompanied him, the assassin never appeared. Not once. No matter how well Zi Mo hid herself, the assassin was somehow able to figure it out, and didn't attack him. After a few days of fruitless attempts, Li Yuan had given up on that approach. Which left him with only one option; do it himself. And thus… his latest vision being the result.
He exhaled slowly and leaned back in his chair. So far, every single one of his attempts had ended in his death. But despite his repeated failures, it hadn't been meaningless.
If anything, the past two weeks had been one of the most productive periods of his life. Because not only had he gained immense battle experience against a powerful opponent. But he had learned something new about his Halo. Something incredibly useful.
The information being that: If he held killing intent toward someone and actually desired to kill them, then he could fool the halo into believing that he would actually go through with those actions, and force it into showing him a vision of how that battle would turn out.
So, whenever he held the intent to kill that assassin, and decided to act on that intent, the halo would show him a vision, allowing him to basically simulate a life-and-death battle at will.
There were limitations to this ability, of course. Two to be exact.
One being that the Halo only responded when the outcome resulted in fortune or misfortune. If he targeted someone weaker than himself, someone he could kill easily, then nothing would happen. Mostly because there would be no 'misfortune' in that act as he himself would not suffer any death and injuries.
So using it against weaker opponents was futile, unless those opponents carried something incredibly valuable. In which case, the halo would show him the vision of him gaining a 'fortune'.
The second limitation was that the halo only worked like this once a day. After that, he would have to face an actual fortune and misfortune for it to show him anything.
But even with those two limitations, this newfound ability of his was incredibly useful. Be it for infiltration, assassination, or exploration of dangerous ruins.
If he ever intended to enter a deadly location, he could simply focus on that intent, and the Halo would show him exactly how he would fail, so that he may change his actions until he finally succeeds.
Through repeated trials, he had also learned that there was actually a way to bypass the second limitation, and repeat the process of simulating a death battle multiple times a day.
But it came at a cost. Namely, his fortune.
The more times he forced the Halo to simulate a death battle within a day, the more it began to drain his luck. And the stronger the opponent, the heavier the cost.
And from what he had observed so far… it wasn't worth it. So unless absolutely necessary, he had no intention of using this ability and drain his fortune needlessly.
Li Yuan let out a long sigh and dropped his head onto the table with a dull thud. "…This is exhausting." He muttered. Just because the past two weeks had been productive didn't mean he actually enjoyed them.
Dying once was bad enough. Dying repeatedly, even if only in visions, was something else entirely. And it'd become so bad that he was now having nightmares every night.
It was not as bad as the mental illusion cast over him by Elder Wu Yuechan, where he'd been convinced that he was actually about to die. But it was still bad. And it was definitely affecting his mental health. Something that even Zi Mo had noticed.
He turned his head slightly, staring at the empty space beside him. "…I wish Zi Mo was here."
Cuddling with her made things better. But over the past few days, Zi Mo and the rest of the Snow Peak were occupied with preparing for Ning Renxue's breakthrough.
After all, should Ning Renxue succeed, she would be the 19th Golden Core realm cultivator in the Snow Peak. Which was no small thing. So, the entire peak seemed to be involved in the preparations. Whatever that entailed.
He would've liked to help as well, but since no one had come to ask for his assistance, he could only assume that they had the preparations well in hand and didn't need his help.
Li Yuan sighed again and closed his eyes briefly. The house felt… quiet. Too quiet.
Just as he was day dreaming of cuddling with Zi Mo, a sudden knock broke him out of his thoughts.
Li Yuan lifted his head and blinked. "…Hm?" He stood and walked out to the living room before sliding the front door open.
Rou Lin stood outside, tapping her feet impatiently.
She shifted slightly when she saw him, her hands clasped behind her back. "Li Yuan…" she began softly, then hesitated.
Li Yuan raised an eyebrow. "What is it Linlin?"
She looked away briefly before speaking. "Senior sister Zi Mo asked me to… keep you company while she's away."
Li Yuan almost chuckled. 'That woman… is she still trying to get me and Rou Lin together?'
Still, he would not mind some company, so after a moment of thought, he moved aside and gestured for her to come in.
Rou Lin stepped inside quietly, glancing around the residence before taking up a chair in the living room. They sat across from each other. And for a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Rou Lin tilted her head slightly. "Are you okay, Yuan?"
Li Yuan blinked. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
She hesitated. "You just look… a bit down today."
Li Yuan forced a small smile. 'Yeah… dying horribly every day within visions tends to do that.' But he didn't say that out loud. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and exhaled. "…Just a bit tired."
Rou Lin nodded slowly, though she didn't look entirely convinced.
The silence stretched again. And Li Yuan's gaze drifted around the room. The walls of ice. The emptiness. He frowned slightly and realised that he didn't want to stay inside the house anymore.
Being cooped up inside like this… it was suddenly starting to feel rather suffocating to him. He needed air. Li Yuan straightened and looked at Rou Lin. "Wanna go collect some herbs with me?"
Rou Lin blinked.Then shrugged lightly. "…Sure."
And so, that's what they set out to do.
—————
Li Yuan moved through the icy wilderness of Crystal Yin Mountain with unhurried steps, the soft crunch of snow beneath his boots the only sound breaking the stillness.
To others, this might seem like a hostile place. But to him, who had a pseudo special physique that gave him great resistance to the Yin Qi, as well as had deep understanding of spirit herbs and Gu… this place felt like a treasure vault.
He crouched beside a cluster of pale silver petals blooming between two ice-crusted stones, his eyes lighting up slightly.
"Huh… Nine Moonlit Flower." He said, watching as the petals glowed faintly, reflecting a pale blue light similar to the moon itself. Even the surrounding air around the flowers carried a faint, soothing Yin aura.
"To think I'd find something like this just lying around." He muttered as his fingers moved with practiced precision and dug carefully around the base, loosening the soil without damaging the roots. A thin blade of Qi sliced cleanly through excess strands before he lifted the plant free. "Perfect."
With a flick of his wrist, the flower disappeared into his Ancient Spatial Ring, already earmarked for transplantation into a more controlled environment later. But while he was enjoying himself, the same couldn't be said for others. As behind him…
"Yuan… this spirit herb won't come out!"
He glanced at Rou Lin and rolled his eyes.
"That's because you're not supposed to pull it like that," he replied calmly. "That's Blue Ganoderma. For every year it lives, it grows by a centimetre in width while its roots grow by an entire metre in length. Judging by its width, its roots must be hundreds of meters deep into the ground, and you can't really harvest it without killing it. So if you want to harvest it, dig around it first, then cut a portion of the roots before lifting it."
A pause. "…Oh."
A few moments passed as Rou Lin carefully harvested the Blue Ganoderma while he went back to searching for other valuable spirit herbs. Until Rou Lin called out to him once again.
"Yuan… this one looks really pretty. Should I collect it?"
Li Yuan turned, and his expression changed instantly. "Don't touch that!" He shouted. Rou Lin froze mid-reach, looking at him like a deer caught in headlights. "That's Devil crystal mushroom. It's surface is coated in Yin poison. Touch it and your hand will rot before you can even scream."
"…Oh." Rou Lin muttered with a gulp as she slowly pulled her hand back.
A few steps later—
"Yuan, what about this one? This one is so beautiful. It must be pretty valuable, right?"
Li Yuan glanced over and almost facepalmed. "…That's just weed Linlin."
"…Oh."
Another few steps.
"Yuan, what about—"
"Don't touch that!" He shouted once again but it was too late.
There was a wet, sickening slurp. As the Carnivorous Gu camouflaging itself as a spirit herb burst forward and wrapped its large tongue around Rou Lin's waste before pulling her halfway inside its mouth.
"Eeep! Yuan, save me!"
Li Yuan stared at the scene for half a second. Then sighed. If Rou Lin had the presence of mind, then she would've realised that it was just a 1st Grade Gu, and not any real threat to her. But it seems like in her panic, she had forgotten to think clearly.
He channeled some of his sword intent through his finger and slashed forward. The creature split cleanly in two, its body collapsing into a disgusting mixture of slime and half-digested matter.
Rou Lin fell out, and sat there in the snow for a moment, drenched in slime, blood, and half digested matter. Her body trembled.
"…that was scary."
Li Yuan rubbed his temple. "…Yeah. I suppose."
He finally understood. Why the mountain had been left untouched. Why spirit herbs grew in abundance without being harvested. It wasn't because they lacked value. It was because most disciples simply didn't know how to find, identify and pick them.
It was like how in his past life, city folks couldn't simply go into the forest, and come out an hour later with a bag full of herbs, berries and mushrooms. They would have no idea how to find, let alone pick the edible items.
Except, in a xianxia world like this, ignorance could prove to be lethal.
Spirit herbs could contain poison or have other lethal countermeasures. And even if these mountains didn't have any Spirit beasts, dangerous Gu could still lead to someone's death if careless.
As his gaze drifted across the mountain. 'What a waste.' He thought. Knowing well enough that Outer sect disciples would kill each other over herbs like these.
Yet here they grew freely. Many of them reached maturity and then died without anyone there to claim them. Then, a thought flickered through his mind.
'Maybe I could teach the Snow Peak disciples how to find and safely harvest these herbs.' He mused. Because if Snow Peak disciples could safely harvest even a fraction of the Peak's bounty, then the wealth it would generate would be absurd.
A small poke interrupted his thoughts. He looked down and noticed Rou Lin staring up at him with watery eyes.
"Yuan… I don't want to pick herbs anymore."
"…Fair enough."
"Can we go back?" She asked and he nodded, suppressing a faint smile.
"Very well." He bent down and helped her to her feet. Then paused as he felt… something. His gaze shifted to the spot where she had been sitting and there, he noticed it.
Half-buried in the frost, nestled between cracked ice and remnants of the Gu he had just killed, something glimmered faintly. Li Yuan crouched slowly. And then his eyes sharpened.
"…Well, I'll be damned."
Carefully, he brushed aside the frost. And a small, translucent Gu revealed itself—its body resembling a tiny crystalline cocoon, with faint pulses of cold energy radiating from within at regular intervals.
"Glacial Stasis Gu…" His voice dropped slightly.
This was a rare Gu. And an incredibly useful one.
This Gu could place a person within its body into a state of suspended stasis. Very useful to saving someone suffering from critical injuries, halting their bleeding, and buying time until proper treatment could be administered.
It was also used by the various 'old monsters' within Powerful Families who placed themselves into stasis, and then remained there until their families fell into critical times and needed their help.
This Gu was also said to drink from the River of Time, meaning that the users don't need to feed it anything, making it even more valuable.
If sold in an auction house… well, he actually had no idea how much such a Gu would go for. But with his own knowledge, he could guess that its price would be at least 100,000 Spirit Stones. Likely much more than that.
Not that he really cared for wealth at this point in time.
But if he ever suffered any serious injuries against the Golden Core assassin or someone else in the future and managed to escape. Then he could simply place himself within the Gu, and wait for Zi Mo to come to rescue him before bringing him to a healer to get healed.
In other words… the Glacial Stasis Gu could act as a life-saving treasure.
He carefully placed the Gu into a jade box, sealing it before storing it away. Without reaching Foundation Establishment, he lacked the proper dantian to refine, and house a Gu. But Zi Mo could do it in his stead.
Then, he paused as he suddenly noticed his Halo become a slight bit brighter. It was not a change he would've noticed before but ever since he gained part of Zi Mo's Special Physique, he became more attuned to the changes in his own fortune.
'This… could my own fortunes also improve my Fortune?' He thought and then immediately realised what a stupid thought it was. If his own fortune won't increase his fortune, then whose will?
Still, this was an avenue that he didn't know he had before. And now that he did… it changed so many things. Especially in the Snow Peak that was currently filled to the brim with unclaimed treasures.
"What is that?" Rou Lin asked, her voice still a little shaky as she noticed him pocketing the Gu.
Li Yuan glanced at her and smiled. "I'll tell you later. For now, let's get you cleaned up before you start scaring your fellow disciples away with that smell."
Rou Lin froze. Then looked down at herself before taking a sniff. A full-body shudder ran through her.
"…Yuan."
"Hmm?"
"…I think I'm going to cry."
He chuckled. "…Hold it in until we get home."
And so ended their spirit herb collecting adventure. With Rou Lin bawling her eyes out.