Chapter 13: Charting the Path

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“Brother Luo Yan, you’re so useless! Such a great opportunity, and you just exchanged it for this worthless herb! It’s infuriating! If only you were a bit more capable, maybe you’d have a chance to get close to Senior Sister in the future!” Wei Yi’s small face puffed up in anger.

Luo Yan flicked his forehead with a finger and teased, “What would a child like you understand? Don’t be matchmaking recklessly!”

Wei Yi stood stubbornly in front of Luo Yan, fuming, “How could I not understand? Taking that spirit herb means accepting Senior Sister’s favor. After that, there’s no excuse to get closer to her!”

“Where did you learn all this?” Luo Yan asked.

Wei Yi blinked, stammering, “No… no one taught me…”

Luo Yan stopped in his tracks, looking up at the path lined with trees nearby. “Are you coming out, or do I have to invite you?”

From behind the trees emerged a spirited, lively black-haired youth, caught red-handed by the master himself. The little madman was utterly embarrassed but still forced himself to call out, “Brother Luo Yan…”

“Come to Canfeng to see me tomorrow!”

The little madman accepted his fate with a resigned expression.

...

Time flows like water.

In the blink of an eye, another two years had passed.

Wei Yi had now reached the Dao Palace realm, and under Luo Yan’s guidance, the little madman had become a formidable expert in the Dragon Transformation realm, fully accomplished.

Wei Yi and the little madman’s status within the Tianxuan Sacred Land had risen steadily. In these two years, they had become invincible against peers of the same realm within Tianxuan, easily defeating opponents above their level. Some even hailed the duo alongside the Tianxuan Sacred Son as the Three Heroes of the Age—undisputed and unparalleled in their realm.

The disciples of Tianxuan Sacred Land were now divided into three tiers.

The first tier had a single person: the incomparable Tianxuan Sacred Maiden, the most beautiful woman in the Eastern Wilderness, whose presence stifled all other prodigies.

The second tier comprised the Tianxuan Three Heroes—Tianxuan Sacred Son, the young madman, and Wei Yi—who could contend with prodigies of Sacred Son rank from the outside world.

The third tier included every other disciple, without exception.

Born in this era, some were indeed prodigies, but compared to these four, they were like mayflies shaking a tree, barely noticeable beneath the vast sky.

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That day, above the Tianxuan Sacred Land, countless figures rode rainbows through the sky, their terrifying auras spreading as they flew past the sacred ground. On the surface were three half-saints and one saintly aura; the secret number of others was unknown. Luo Yan sensed at least three powerful figures comparable to saints, including one Great Saint who wielded the imperial weapon of Tianxuan Sacred Land.

Numerous disciples and elders of Tianxuan looked up in awe.

“The Holy Lord and the Southern Yang Ancestor have set out with the ultimate imperial weapon! Could the Ancient Forbidden Zone below truly hold the path to immortality?”

“If so, does that mean we’re about to ascend to immortality as well?”

“Immortality is difficult, so difficult! How incredibly hard it is to become immortal!” Some sighed deeply, lacking hope.

Within Canfeng, Luo Yan glanced back at the little madman and Wei Yi, who were still cultivating. Donning the secret treasure he had forged two years prior that could alter his appearance, he stepped forward and vanished from sight.

Outside the Hidden Merit Pavilion, a figure appeared slowly.

The old man who usually spent his time asleep suddenly opened his eyes, looked over, and rasped, “Fellow Daoist, you’ve come!”

His sunken eyes fixed on Luo Yan, as if he had long expected this visit.

Luo Yan was slightly surprised. This seemingly ordinary old man was actually a powerful saintly king realm cultivator. Though his vitality was waning, he had tread this path for a long time, nearly reaching the threshold of a Great Saint.

“You knew I’d come?”

“Since you entered the Tianxuan Sacred Land, you have been to the Hidden Merit Pavilion fifty-four times, visited the thatched hut outside thirty-one times, and stood before our Holy Lord’s palace several times. It would be hard not to know!”

The old man continued, “If you weren’t wary of the ultimate imperial weapon, you would have come in already. Now that the imperial weapon has left the sacred land, it’s strange that you haven’t come sooner.”

“So, do you intend to stop me?” Luo Yan asked, ready to act.

The old man shook his head, “Your strength is formidable; I’m no match for you. One Great Saint, half-sealed within the Divine Source, said you can go wherever you want and that no one would oppose you.”

He stared at Luo Yan, seemingly trying to see through the mask beneath, but quickly disappointed. The mask was impervious to all probing.

A Great Saint? Was this a warning not to act recklessly?

Indeed, as a sacred land with imperial legacy, even in this approaching age of decline, a Great Saint still watches over everything in Tianxuan.

Luo Yan knew the old man did not know his true identity, only suspecting that a powerful figure from another faction was hiding within Tianxuan. Now that the ultimate imperial weapon had left the land, if a fight were to break out, the sacred land would suffer unpredictable losses. So they chose to yield and avoid conflict unless the imperial weapon returned.

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This was the first time the old man had such close contact with Luo Yan. Before, he had only observed from afar, sensing his aura. Now, standing this close without any tests, he could feel the abyss-like power emanating from Luo Yan. As the half-sealed Great Saint had said, this person was unfathomable—probably a Great Saint-level cultivator himself, or at least close to it.

“Thank you,” Luo Yan said.

He stepped into the Hidden Merit Pavilion and headed straight to the top floor, where most of Tianxuan’s secret techniques were stored. The “Xing Character Secret,” one of the Nine Secrets, would naturally be kept at the highest level.

The Pavilion had seven floors, with fewer techniques as one ascended.

The pavilion was protected by formations that blocked cultivators’ spiritual senses, so Luo Yan could only search one book at a time.

After a while, Luo Yan left the pavilion disappointed—there was no sign of the Xing Character Secret inside.

The old man at the Hidden Merit Pavilion immediately released his spiritual sense, following Luo Yan outside.

If Luo Yan threatened Tianxuan, the old man could intervene immediately and alert the other elders.

At the same time Luo Yan appeared, the Great Saint within Tianxuan Sacred Land awoke from his half-slumber, covertly watching Luo Yan’s every move.

This Great Saint had appeared within the sacred land two years ago when the Southern Yang Great Saint brought news. Besides him, there were several other powerful figures from different factions, but none were taken seriously by this Great Saint, as the strongest among them were only half-saints. Only Luo Yan was inscrutable. The Great Saint sensed a dense aura of danger from him.

This meant Luo Yan was at least a supreme saintly king realm expert, on the cusp of Great Saint.

“This person did not come for the path to immortality; could it be for the Xing Character Secret?” the Great Saint speculated.

Luo Yan’s actions didn’t resemble investigating clues about the path to immortality but rather searching for a certain technique.

Within Tianxuan, only two techniques could attract a cultivator of this level: the Imperial Scripture of Tianxuan, which had extremely harsh cultivation demands and was currently only practiced by the Tianxuan Sacred Maiden, and the legendary Xing Character Secret—one of the Nine Secrets.

Most likely, Luo Yan had come for the latter.