Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Mountain Seal Continues

Zhou Yi lowered his head in thought. He had once believed his strength was more or less sufficient, only to realize now how far he still was from true mastery.

Still, there was nothing to be done about it.

After a brief spell of discouragement, he quickly steadied his mind again. Life had always been this way; if everything unfolded exactly as one wished, then it was not life but a dream.

“And the mana?” Once he had gathered himself, Zhou Yi thought of another question and asked through gritted teeth.

The thought of power measured in years had already given him a headache. Since he had come to this world with a miraculous boon at his side, if he could not reach the summit, would that not be far too spineless? So no matter how difficult the golden core would be, he had to attain it.

And before he could achieve that, the six stages of the false core were the most urgent obstacle. The final stage alone required thirty-six and a half billion years of mana. Just thinking about it was enough to make his scalp tingle.

Yet every problem had its own solution. Although such an amount of mana sounded and even seemed utterly unreal, since it had appeared at all, it meant that someone in the past had surely reached it.

If others could do it, Zhou Yi believed he was no worse.

“It should be a matter of method,” he thought. “Or perhaps a matter of vision.”

As he pondered, he gradually grasped where the problem lay.

Thirty-six and a half billion years of mana might seem like an astronomical figure to him now, but to some people it might be no great matter at all.

It was a limitation of perspective, a difference in method.

It was like making money: the first pot of gold was usually the hardest to earn, while everything after that became much easier.

“As for mana, you need not worry,” the old monk said with a faint smile. Zhou Yi’s question reminded him of himself. When he first heard of the six stages of the false core, his reaction had been exactly the same.

Back then, he too had been full of ambition. After hearing of the six stages, he had immediately wilted. But before long, he had sprung back to life. The only thing that truly worried him was that horrifying requirement of thirty-six and a half billion years of mana.

Yes, when he first heard of the six stages of the false core, his own thought had been to reach the golden core and complete those six stages. What worried him was where on earth he was supposed to find that much mana.

For at the time, in his eyes, nothing else was a problem. Only that vast requirement of mana was the greatest obstacle.

He had been confident he could endure anything else. No matter how much hardship it took, no matter how difficult it was, the only thing he worried about was where to get those thirty-six and a half billion years of mana.

But in truth, after struggling to survive on Peerless Isle for some time, he suddenly realized that the greatest problem he had originally imagined, mana, was not a problem at all.

Instead, what he had once thought was not a problem had become the biggest problem of all.

Thirty-six and a half billion years of mana.

What an immense number. What a terrifying force it represented. To draw all of it into the body would place demands on physical strength at a level so desperate it defied imagination.

Only then did the old monk understand: what he truly needed to consider was the strength of the body, together with the evolution of its acupoints.

After living on Peerless Isle for a long time, the old monk finally accepted his fate and fell into despair. His body could not be strengthened enough; no matter how much mana he possessed, the body would not bear it. Although his cultivation had advanced rapidly, compared with the demands of life on Peerless Isle, he was gradually falling behind.

In the end, with no other choice, he gave up. After several life-and-death struggles, he seized an island departure token, poured his energy into his acupoints, and returned here.

By then, his cultivation stood at the second stage of the six-stage false core, with his pool aperture perfected.

“Once I dreamed of the six stages with boundless ambition, only to retreat in helplessness at the second.”

At the thought of it, the old monk felt even the air in his lungs turn bitter.

After a while, he turned to look at Zhou Yi and Song Hai. A trace of envy flickered in his eyes. What wonderful years they had, young and rash, high-spirited and full of vigor, able to sweep the world with their ambition. That was youth.

“I hope that spirit of yours can endure forever,” he murmured inwardly. “Do not become like me...”

Having silently blessed them, he turned and slowly walked away, his figure lonely and desolate.

“Once you reach Peerless Isle, all your questions will naturally be answered. If I am not mistaken, that day will not be far off.”

The old monk’s voice drifted back from afar.

“Do what you want to do. The time for reckless freedom is running out.”

Zhou Yi and Song Hai looked at one another, then at the old monk’s receding back, and stood frozen. His lonely departure left a sour ache in their hearts, and for a long while neither of them could say a word.

“Forget it. Why think about so much?” After a long while, Zhou Yi was the first to recover from the melancholy sight. He drew a deep breath, steadied himself, and seeing that Song Hai was still lost in his emotions, slapped him on the shoulder to wake him up, then said loudly, “Let’s continue with our plan.”

“Mm!” Song Hai nodded heavily after being shaken awake, still dazed. Then he looked at Zhou Yi. “What plan?”

He was young and inexperienced, and after being roused, his mind was still a little foggy.

“Of course, to seal off the mountain,” Zhou Yi said with a smile. He did not comment on Song Hai’s reaction.

“Oh.” Song Hai nodded blankly.

...

On the rear mountain of Green Ox Academy, in an open clearing, a monk, a Taoist priest, and a nun stood apart in silence.

The air around them was so still it seemed to have stopped breathing. The atmosphere was heavy. The three standing there were all cut from the same cloth: brows furrowed, expressions stern, as though some matter had seized their thoughts and would not let go.

“Are we really just going to ignore this and let them continue?”

After a long silence, the Taoist was the first among the three to break it, speaking in a deep voice.

“What else can we do?” the monk replied.

The Taoist fell silent at once.

Yes, what else could they do? If there were a solution, would the three of them still be standing here?

So, after the monk spoke, silence returned once more, and the atmosphere grew even heavier.

Whoosh!

Just then, a sound tore through the air, and a tall, handsome man in a purple robe appeared all at once.

The three of them twitched an ear, then turned their gaze toward the newcomer. A hint of understanding flickered in their eyes.

“You’re here?”

“Mm.” The man in purple nodded once, answered briefly, and fell silent again.

This time, it was four people sharing the silence.

But that was only the beginning. As time passed, figures began appearing one after another, tearing through the air and arriving almost instantly. The original three became four, then quickly five, six, seven...

None of them spoke after arriving. Seeing the first few standing there in silence, all with less-than-pleasant expressions, and feeling the suffocating weight of the atmosphere, they too fell silent after only a moment.

No one knew how much time passed. By then, the place that had once held only three people was filled to capacity. Counting carefully, there were exactly twenty-three.

“This won’t do. We can’t go on like this!”

In the midst of that oppressive silence, a young man who had arrived later, appearing to be in his twenties, suddenly changed expression and shouted loudly.