The instant he recognized the man, Mo Fan's instincts kicked in—every muscle in his body snapped taut to the extreme...
And he even made a small, involuntary motion of defensive retreat.
That almost instinctive shudder and overreaction immediately caught the other man's attention.
Lord Li, it seemed, had just been chewed out inside the Dao Asking Palace. His face was already dark enough to drip black water.
He stopped walking. His previously careless gaze turned into two sharp knives, nailing themselves onto Mo Fan's face.
"Hm?"
Lord Li narrowed those deep-set eyes slightly.
The massive coercion of a Golden Core cultivator surged over Mo Fan in an instant, like an invisible tide.
"I have no impression of you whatsoever. And yet you look at me as though I were a viper or a scorpion you can't get away from fast enough..."
He pressed half a step closer, his voice cold enough to pierce bone:
"Do you know me?"
BOOM.
Cold sweat burst out across Mo Fan's forehead in an instant.
He cursed his body's instinctive reflexes for being far too quick. In front of an old fox like this, any tiny flaw could be magnified without limit.
But right now, all he could do was grit his teeth and force his way through the cover-up.
Mo Fan quickly lowered his head, putting on a picture of fearful reverence, and mumbled obsequiously:
"L-Lord, please see clearly! This disciple's status is lowly—I have never once laid eyes on your esteemed countenance here on the Main Peak."
"It's only... only that you, my Lord, are so dignified and majestic, so imposing in bearing. The coercion radiating from you is practically tangible, unfathomably deep..."
Mo Fan swallowed, awkwardly laying on the flattery:
"This disciple was careless for a moment just now and bumped into you, my Lord, which is why my conduct was so unseemly."
"I entreat you, my Lord... in your great magnanimity, to forgive me."
This flattery—clumsy though it was, the attitude was spot-on—earned a cold snort from Lord Li.
He clearly wasn't so easily fooled, and continued to press:
"Which peak's disciple are you? What brings you—"
At that very moment, a crisp cheer suddenly rang out from inside the Dao Asking Palace.
"Big Brother Xiaoqi! What are you doing here?!"
And then Li Hansong—dressed in an extremely refined set of Inner Sect robes—came dashing out like a whirlwind.
He didn't even notice Lord Li standing right there.
Beaming with excitement, he planted himself squarely between Mo Fan and Lord Li and grabbed Mo Fan's arm.
Oh, crap!
Mo Fan wailed in agony inside his head, his scalp prickling.
Of all the times for that simple-minded kid A-Song to come out—not earlier, not later—he had to pick this exact critical moment...
And had just blurted out the illustrious name "Lu Xiaoqi" for everyone to hear!
Sure enough—
At the sound of the name "Xiaoqi," something flickered in Lord Li's eyes.
"Oh...?"
On that previously dark face, a most intriguing smile suddenly surfaced.
He gave Mo Fan, who was sheltered behind A-Song, a long, deep look.
Mo Fan knew there was no dodging this now.
He could only force himself to stay composed, roll with the momentum, and let out two extremely awkward dry chuckles:
"You see, my Lord... this disciple came here precisely to find Junior Brother Hansong. I truly had no intention of colliding with you."
"I wonder—would this explanation satisfy you?"
Mo Fan bowed deeply once more.
"In the days to come, this disciple will most certainly pay you a visit and offer a proper apology for today's recklessness."
"An apology won't be necessary."
Lord Li gave a light snort. Unexpectedly, he didn't pursue the matter any further.
He glanced at A-Song, forced himself into a posture befitting an elder, and reached out to pat A-Song on the shoulder.
"I won't hold it against him. Martial Nephew Hansong is a genius of rare talent."
"Cultivation is a tedious affair, day in and day out—having a few playmates come to visit is no bad thing."
Then, with utterly natural fluidity, he shifted his tone, veiling a barb:
"But I would still ask Junior Brother Hansong to devote himself to cultivation, and not let these worldly family sentiments and amusements delay the Great Dao of your practice. The Sect Master, after all, holds great hopes for you."
With that, Lord Li gave Mo Fan one last deep look, then flicked his sleeve, turned, and departed in grand procession with several attendants in tow.
Watching the group's retreating backs, A-Song scratched his head, a little bewildered.
"Big Brother Xiaoqi, how did you end up crossing paths with him?"
A-Song lowered his voice and muttered:
"That guy's called Li Zhongshan—he's a favorite of the Vice Sect Master's faction. Super obsessed with keeping up appearances. But every time he comes to the Dao Asking Palace, his face is as sour as a stone dug out of a latrine, hahaha!"
Listening to A-Song's laughter, all Mo Fan could do was wipe the cold sweat from his forehead and brush it off with a dry chuckle.
"An accident. Purely an accident. Wasn't looking where I was going and bumped into him."
Mo Fan had no desire to linger on this dangerous topic, and he was afraid of dragging A-Song into it.
He patted A-Song's shoulder and cut straight to the point.
"A-Song, I happen to have some free time these past few days. Figured a kid like you, cooped up on the mountain in closed-door cultivation all this time, must be going stir-crazy, right?"
"Today your big brother's taking you down the mountain for a stroll—go see Old Lü and Er-Ya. They've missed you something fierce."
At the words "down the mountain" and the name "Old Lü," A-Song's eyes lit up instantly!
Like a child who'd finally gotten his long-awaited vacation, he nodded eagerly, over and over:
"Yes! Yes! Let me send Master a Voice Transmission Jade Slip right now and ask him for leave!"
As he spoke, he hurriedly pulled a jade slip shimmering with iridescent light from his robes, closed his eyes, and respectfully transmitted his request for leave into it.
A moment later—
The jade slip lit up faintly with a soft azure glow.
After A-Song read the message, his previously excited little face visibly wilted—like an eggplant beaten down by frost.
"Big Brother Xiaoqi..."
A-Song let his face droop and sighed helplessly.
"Master says I haven't finished today's coursework yet, and I have to finish it before I can leave the palace. I'm afraid... it'll take another few hours."
"How about, Big Brother Qi, you wait for me a little while in this side hall?"
"No problem. Coursework comes first."
Mo Fan waved his hand, the very model of understanding.
He was just about to say, Then I'll go hole up in some pavilion and wait for you—
But—
Before the words could leave his mouth—
The Voice Transmission Jade Slip in A-Song's hand suddenly flickered again!
A-Song lowered his head and read the second message. And then—
Those clear eyes of his abruptly went as wide as saucers, before erupting with a fervent, fanatical light.
He clamped down on Mo Fan's wrist in a death grip, his voice trembling with excitement:
"Big Brother Qi! Big Brother Qi!!"
"Master says for you to come in with me!"
"His venerable self... he says there are some words he'd like to say to you."
"..."
The instant he heard those words, Mo Fan turned to solid stone.
"C-come in? Personally... talk to me?"
Mo Fan swallowed hard with great difficulty, and his legs, beyond his control, actually went a little weak.
That was Qing Feng!! The Sect Master of Azure Cloud Sect! A great cultivator of the [ Late-Stage Nascent Soul ] realm!!!
"A-Song, buddy..."
Mo Fan looked at A-Song with a face on the verge of tears, utterly abject, even a little pleading:
"Your big brother's got natural social anxiety—I stammer the second I see anyone important."
"And look at these clothes of mine, all dirty. Wouldn't it be terribly disrespectful to go bumping into the Sect Master like this... Can I not go?"
"I'm afraid that's a no."
A-Song didn't pick up on Mo Fan's internal collapse in the slightest.
Warm and enthusiastic, half-pulling and half-hauling, he dragged Mo Fan back toward the depths of the corridor.
"Don't be scared, Big Brother Qi! My Master's a really great guy—he's always super kind to me!"
"His venerable self has knowledge surpassing heaven and man. If he's in a good mood and gives you a pointer or two personally, that's a massive fortuitous encounter others could beg for and never get!"
Listening to A-Song's comfort, so full of beautiful hopes—
Mo Fan, dragged forcibly forward, felt like crying two rivers of wide-noodle tears. The bitterness inside was about to corrode a hole clean through his guts.
Give me a pointer?
Mo Fan roared in the depths of despair.
What's he going to point out to me?! Optimizing my Necromancer skill loadout?!
But in his current predicament, Mo Fan clearly had no room whatsoever to resist.
He could only stiffen his body and let A-Song drag him, step by step, deeper into the Dao Asking Palace.
Since sword-riding was strictly forbidden inside the Dao Asking Palace, the two of them could only walk along the long corridor paved with white jade.
Along the way, in an effort to ease Mo Fan's nerves...
A-Song took the opportunity to seize on the topic and give him a lesson on the cultivation world's insights into the realms that lay ahead.
"Master says that only upon reaching the [ Golden Core ] stage—compressing and solidifying the liquid true essence in your dantian to the extreme, forming a round, golden, perfectly unified solid pill..."
"Can you truly be considered to have stepped into the hall of immortal cultivators. Once the Golden Core forms, your lifespan surges straight to five hundred years. The rise and fall of mortal dynasties becomes nothing more than the flick of a finger!"
"But the Golden Core still has its limits."
A trace of profound awe crept into A-Song's voice.
"Master told me—above the Golden Core is the [ Nascent Soul ] stage!"
"The transformation into a Nascent Soul is a true, genuine rebirth from the bones out. A cultivator must shatter the Golden Core they spent centuries painstakingly refining..."
"And 'incubate'—from the ruins of the dantian—a miniature infant that looks exactly like the cultivator themselves!"
"That Nascent Soul is the physical manifestation of the cultivator's soul—it represents the 'second form' of life! At that point, lifespan skyrockets straight to a thousand years!"
"And even if the physical body is destroyed, so long as the Nascent Soul can flee and survive, they can even seize someone else's body and be reborn!"
"Their command over the laws of heaven and earth reaches a degree ordinary people simply cannot comprehend!"
As A-Song spoke, his eyes shimmered with yearning light:
"And what's more, Big Brother Qi—Master says Nascent Souls are ranked into grades too, high and low!"
"Oh?" Mo Fan's pupils constricted slightly.
"When shattering the core to form the infant, based on the cultivator's foundation, their techniques, and their comprehension of the laws of heaven and earth, Nascent Souls are strictly divided into nine grades."
A-Song counted them off on his fingers familiarly, reciting like an expert.
"Grades seven through nine are called 'Low-Grade Nascent Souls.' These Nascent Souls are strong too, but their foundation is superficial."
"In this lifetime, they'll basically stop at the peak of Nascent Soul, never able to advance so much as half a step toward a higher realm for the rest of their lives."
"Grades four through six are 'Mid-Grade Nascent Souls.' These are already exceedingly rare masters."
"Their ultimate ceiling, in the future, may hope to touch the threshold of the legendary [ Soul Formation ] stage—but going any higher than that is as hard as climbing to the heavens."
At this point, A-Song abruptly stopped walking, turned his head, looked at Mo Fan, and there was undisguised pride in his eyes.
"And grades one through three... those are called [ High-Grade Nascent Souls ]!"
"These are Nascent Souls that only peerless prodigies—those with foundations terrifying enough to reach straight to Soul Formation, or even up to the [ Body Integration ] stage—can condense!"
A-Song pointed at the magnificent hall ahead, his voice carrying an extremely intense reverence:
"And our Sect Master, Qing Feng! What he condensed... is precisely the exceedingly rare [ Third-Grade Nascent Soul ]! A boundless future ahead of him!"
Listening to A-Song's rambling lecture—
Mo Fan, following behind, couldn't help but let out a long, heavy sigh from the bottom of his heart.
A good platform really does determine your ceiling.
Back on Hundred Forging Peak, although Zhao Ziwei was also an Inner Sect disciple, what he'd explained to him were mostly vague insights about the road from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core.
And A-Song?
He'd only just established his foundation, yet he'd already fully internalized and absorbed the Great Dao truths of the Nascent Soul, and even the future Soul Formation and Body Integration stages.
This terrifying gap in resources, worldview, and channels of information—that was the objective, insurmountable chasm that existed on the path of cultivation.
A moment later—
The two of them passed through layer upon layer of white-jade corridors and finally stopped before an extremely serene, yet extraordinarily magnificent, giant hall.
There were no vivid, lavish decorations around this main hall, but it was perpetually shrouded in a thin layer of pale cyan mist.
Just standing there, though he had no cultivation at all, Mo Fan could feel it—the Wood-attribute spiritual energy all around had reached an utterly monstrous density.
Even just taking a breath, that spiritual energy almost condensed into a tangible sweet dew, drilling its way into his body through his pores.
On the golden-thread nanmu plaque above the main hall, three archaic, vigorous seal-script characters were written:
[ Evergreen Hall ].
Gulp.
Mo Fan stood before the tightly shut large doors, just wanting to steady his heart—which was on the verge of leaping out of his chest cavity—and do a little mental preparation.
From the depths of the hall—
An extremely mellow, gentle voice, yet carrying a trace of majesty, drifted out leisurely.
"Since you've come."
"Then come in, A-Song..."
"And you as well, Xiaoqi."