With two puffs, light flashed again a hundred meters away from the stone pavilion and a purple mist made an appearance.

A furious howl came from within.

With two more angry roars, the mist scattered to reveal a four-winged bird with a lion’s head.

It had a wingspan of twenty meters and purple light coiled around its body in a fearsome display.

“A Lion Hawk?” The eccentric shouted out in alarm upon seeing the beast’s true appearance.

The scholar’s expression changed and he shook his sleeve to release a red-black saber, fiercely chopping towards the beast.

In an odd display, the feral beast revealed fear upon seeing the saber and gaped open its mouth to spit out rings of purple light towards it.

A series of explosions erupted, and black-purple light s.h.i.+ned as the flying saber cut through the dozen rings of light with unrelenting force, but with each destroyed ring, its light weakened. By the time the saber actually reached the beast, its light had greatly dimmed and was forcibly blocked by the few remaining rings. The beast rejoiced at the sight of this, and thought to employ more of its abilities to capture the saber.

But then, the scholar spat out a mist of blood essence and grasped his hands in an incantation gesture and pointed at it.

The blood essence instantly condensed crimson talisman characters before fading away from sight.

Simultaneously, the flying saber erupted in a similar light and destroyed all of the remaining rings, arriving in front of the demon beast just as it was about to cleave through it.

Alarmed, the beast quickly flapped its wings and shot backward, raising one of its claws to block the blow.

Green blood splattered through the air. The flying saber was blocked for a time, but it also began to cleave halfway through.

The demon beast suddenly raised its ma.s.sive head and let out a world-shaking roar. This left them both dazed as if it shook the very heavens themselves.

An unimaginable scene followed.

Translucent golden ripples left the lion’s mouth and flowed towards the saber, sending it cascading through the air as if struck by an immense force. 

The eccentric tried to a.s.sist the saber with his own yellow swordlights to little success. However, the further the ripples spread, the quicker they faded away.

After releasing those golden ripples, the demon beast seemed to tire.

It fiercely glared at the scholar and flapped its wings with a thunderous boom. Then its figure blurred before disappearing in a giant burst of lightning. In the following moment, it reappeared a hundred meters away.

However, it didn’t dare to stop there, and flew off into the distance in a streak of purple, quickly leaving line of sight.

When the eccentric saw this, he sighed and turned to look at the scholar who now had a pale complexion. He worryingly asked, “Young Third, are you alright? It already consumes a large amount of magic power to control the Black Blood Saber, but you even used blood essence to forcefully increase its might.”

The scholar sighed and shook his head, “I’m fine, I only lost a bit of vitality. That Lion Hawk was a famous bird of prey during ancient times. Its abilities should be even stronger than late-Nascent Soul cultivators like us. If we hadn’t driven it away, it would’ve turned incredibly dangerous. Now that we’ve injured it, it shouldn’t come to easily bother us again.”

The eccentric appeared relieved to hear this. “As an ancient bird of prey, its body should be incredibly hardy. If you hadn’t used our clan’s Black Blood Saber, we hardly would’ve injured it.”

The scholar smiled and then turned his eyes to the green mist down below. The Ye Clan cultivators had been startled by the monster’s arrival, but they managed to calm down.

He nodded at the sight of this and spoke a bit with the eccentric before heading down to the stone pavilion to rest.

...

Underneath a huge mountain near Myriad Poison Valley, there were five white silhouettes standing in a row. They were facing two black-robed cultivators who were respectfully giving them a report.

“There is a phenomenon in the sky?” A mysterious voice sounded out intermittently from around them in an entrancing fas.h.i.+on.

One of the black-robed cultivators answered, “Yes, Grand Elder. There are seven pillars of light directly shooting into the sky near a nameless lake in the Puyun Prefecture.”

“When did this happen? Did you discover what is it is?” The master of the voice sounded interested.

“It happened four days ago,” one of the cultivators respectfully replied, “One of our disciples acquired the information and immediately made a report. It is said that the pillars of light are above an incredibly large seal. Due to its size, we are unable to properly locate its position. Many of the sects in Nanjiang were alarmed by this sudden occurrence and have sent over Nascent Soul-grade cultivators to investigate.”

“Seven pillars of light? I heard that leakage of spiritual light can be produced from a broken restriction. How interesting, I’ll have to go personally. In any case, you said that the Nine Serenities Sect’s Elder Fu was discovered near here, but now there is no news of him. Were you mistaken? If you can’t even find this person, then how are you supposed to find that fellow named Han?” Near the end, this mysterious voice turned cold.

The two black-robed cultivators were fl.u.s.tered by his words and one of them hastily explained, “Please don’t be angry, Grand Elder. We truly acquired information that Elder Wei was sighted heading in this direction, but he disappeared when he approached Myriad Poison Valley.”

“There truly are traces of cultivator movements, but I’ve swept through all areas of the valley apart from the Yin Yang Cave. I am sure there is no one in the valley, and don’t tell me that he went into the Yin Yang Cave. If he did enter, I would’ve known by now., unless that old man planned on spending the rest of his life down there. ” After the mysterious voice said this, the black-robed cultivators muttered and found themselves at a loss of what to say and cold sweat dripped from their faces. The mysterious voice then said, “I’ll leave it be. It wasn’t easy for you to search for this place to begin with. I’ll give you some more time. Send people to survey the valley and I’ll go and take a trip to the Puyun Prefecture. Inform Elders Wu and Xiao that they will be accompanying me. It will be better with more people.” 

“Yes, Grand Elder!” The two black-robed cultivators felt a wave of relief and bowed.

Then, the five white silhouettes took to the skies, merging in position as one before tearing through the air.

...

There were a group of cultivators that crossed the border into the Puyun Prefecture, approaching the small lake.

There were over twenty of them, each wearing blue robes and red headscarfs. The four at the very front possessed Nascent Soul cultivation; in particular, the middle-aged cultivator with jade lines on his face was at the peak of mid-Nascent Soul stage. His body possessed an icy-cold aura, giving others a feeling of great danger.

An old man at early-Nascent Soul stage worriedly asked, “Senior Martial Brother Hua, are we truly going to muster a large number of forces? We’ve brought a majority of our disciples with us. If there are any mishaps, our strength will greatly suffer.”

The middle-aged cultivator replied, “If a grand treasure is descending into this world, there won’t be much trouble, but it is very likely this is the legendary Kunwu Mountain. We must take the risk to acquire the mountain’s secret treasures.”

“Kunwu Mountain? The spiritual mountain that our sect founder had always searched for?” A different grey-haired old man gasped with alarm.

Light flashed from the green marks on the middle-aged cultivator’s face, “That’s right. I’ve said it once before when you all ascended to Nascent Soul stage. During times of antiquity, it was one of the legendary spiritual mountains of the mortal realm, but for some unknown reason, the ancient cultivators used their great abilities to seal it away. However, the mountain’s secret treasures are sure to be many. Our sect’s founder was, in fact, a descendant of an ancient cultivator that helped seal the mountain. He was certain it was sealed somewhere in Nanjiang but knew little else. I reckon he established this sect in Nanjiang to search for the mountain’s whereabouts, but his efforts were in vain. This was a secret that had been pa.s.sed down throughout the successive generations of sect elders.”

The third old man, one with thick eyebrows, puzzlingly asked, “Why is Senior Martial Brother Hua certain that the pillars of light are an omen of Kunwu Mountain’s appearance?”

The middle-aged man chuckled, “Our founder left behind a spirit detecting pearl that his ancestor once possessed. It was specifically made to detect the Flying Immortal Stone on the mountain. Now that it has appeared, the pearl has reacted. Several days ago, it had begun to ring inside the founder’s hall. Even without the pillars of light in the sky, I would’ve dispatched all of our disciples anyways.”

“So it was like that!” The three old Nascent Soul cultivators wore expressions of understanding and soon, excitement.

The grey-haired old man sighed and said, “It is a pity that Senior Martial Brother Yuan wasn’t at the sect. With all of us, this matter would be much safer.”

“Junior Martial Brother Yuan left on rather secretive business, and we neither know where he is, nor have any way to contact him. However, I’ve given orders to the disciples that remained to have him immediately join us upon his return. For now, we need to take advantage of this opportunity to enter the mountain first and seize a majority of its treasures. And we still don’t know if the seal on the mountain had broke on its own or if it was the doing of other cultivators. If it was the latter, we’ll have to be particularly careful.” With that said, the middle-aged cultivator’s expression turned grave.