FFSC_16.1

Chapter 16.1: Who Is This Old Friend Again — I Forbid You From Being With Him!

The spiritual sea convulsed violently. His divine sense was damaged, and Chen Moqing coughed up blood unceasingly—within mere seconds, he bore the appearance of one utterly spent, a lamp drained of its oil.

Within the collapsing spiritual sea, the Withered Wood Spring Revival Decree materialized, hovering high in the air, gazing down upon his divine sense from above—like an immortal casting a pitying glance—and slowly sighed:

There is no road ahead. Why press on?

Chen Moqing's figure did not retreat. He boldly stepped forward!

His divine sense was already crawling with fissures, like a guttering candle that might be snuffed out by the wind at any moment—yet he raised his eyes and said with a smile: "The man was warned not to cross the river, yet cross it he did?"

"What does the path of those who came before have to do with me? All I know is, the road I walk is my road!"

The ancient great path beneath his feet trembled without cease, crumbling and falling away, becoming an abyss, churning up towering waves that sought to swallow his divine sense whole.

Chen Moqing hovered in the air, buffeted by wind and rain, and laughed again: "Have you forgotten, whose spiritual sea is this?"

Spiritual power surged outward with him at its center, instantly smoothing the trembling spiritual sea into a mirror's stillness. The shattered divine sense restored itself to its original state. Chen Moqing took another step forward and reached directly toward that vivid crimson command token.

Even if it is an immortal's order—from this moment on, I am its master!

Within the elegant room of kite vessel, Cang Shun's eyes trembled. He watched as Chen Moqing's eyes remained tightly shut, and that vivid crimson branch that had crept across his chest slowly receded back to where it had come from, sinking directly beneath pale skin until it was no longer visible.

Perhaps it was due to the contract—he had long been able to catch glimpses into a corner of this young human cultivator's spiritual sea, and could sense within it a faint trace of an ancient great path's aura.

Before, he had only thought this was the human's hidden trump card. Now, however, he discovered that the trace of great path aura was not entirely under the man's control—it even competed with him for dominion over the spiritual sea.

And yet, the spiritual sea is the cultivator's domain of the mind. Contests within the spiritual sea have nothing to do with cultivation level—what they test is the heart of the Dao.

This man's heart of the Dao had been tempered through a thousand trials, unbreakable. Even when once battered by raging wind and rain, his proud bones would not bend.

Cang Shun raised his hand and gently wiped the blood from the corner of Chen Moqing's mouth. Two seconds passed—then, without a word, he gathered him into his own fur.

He nuzzled him with his fur. A few seconds passed. Then nuzzled him again.

Above the spiritual sea, the great path beneath Chen Moqing's feet had already extended forward. What lay ahead was no longer an endless, murky darkness—it now connected to that soaring heavenly chasm.

This time, the Withered Wood Spring Revival Decree was no longer suspended high above the chasm. Instead, it was held within his grasp!

The immortal's order that he had once only been able to look up at in awe now lay quietly in his palm, as though it had become nothing more than a dull piece of wood.

Chen Moqing did not hesitate. He took the talisman decree with him and ascended the steps, climbing the heavenly chasm. The moment he set foot on the first step, a crushing weight bore down upon him, nearly shattering his divine sense.

His expression did not change. With a single thought, the Withered Wood Spring Revival Decree rose to float above the spiritual sea, radiating a faint gentle radiance, shielding his ceaselessly roiling spiritual sea.

Breaking through to the Golden Core stage is, for any cultivator, the first true tempering of the divine sense—using the spiritual sea as a crucible, allowing the divine sense to shatter completely and be reforged, condensing from within extreme agony a Golden Core that can receive the spiritual veins of heaven and earth.

Such a process need only occur once for an ordinary Golden Core cultivator. But for Chen Moqing, who was climbing the heavenly chasm, he would have to endure it dozens of times—perhaps even hundreds—until he truly stood upon the chasm's peak.

In this moment, his mind was utterly clear. Even if a single misstep would mean instant death, he was without the slightest fear.

Boom—!!

Thunder clouds blanketed the sky, obscuring the heavens for a thousand li. Lightning flickered within them, coiling like dragons in motion.

"It's a heavenly tribulation! Which fellow Daoist is undergoing tribulation here!"

Aboard kite vessel, every cultivator was stirred into alarm. They surged together beneath the thunder clouds, rushing toward the vicinity of that elegant room.

As a general rule, the Golden Core, Void Refinement, Mahayana, and Tribulation Crossing stages all require one to endure a thunder tribulation. Thunder tribulations at the Void Refinement level and above can cleave the heavens and earth and flood a thousand li. Below Void Refinement, the thunder tribulation targets only the one undergoing it, without affecting those nearby— and the kite vessel itself would suffer no damage.

When a thunder tribulation strikes, it is accompanied by surging spiritual energy, making it a rare and precious cultivation opportunity. At that moment, the cultivators aboard kite vessel competed to rush forward, each vying for the closest position, some even coming to blows over it.

Another crack of thunder exploded—deafening, its sound carrying a hundred li—yet that was only the prelude to what was to come. Thousands of thick, towering bolts of lightning stretched across ten thousand meters of sky like ancient leviathans, erupting with a blazing radiance like that of a scorching sun, tearing the heavens apart into fragments!

"Heavens— it's the Nine-Heavenly Thunders Tribulation!"

"How many years has it been since anyone has witnessed the Nine-Heavenly Thunders Tribulation! When did the cultivation world gain another such genius!"

Amid the cries of shock, even more cultivators burned with eagerness to fight for the nearest positions. The tribulation had yet to descend, yet already the various factions below were unleashing their techniques against one another without end.

【Scram!】

A voice—commanding and laced with killing intent—pierced through the spiritual seas of every cultivator present. A crushing tide of pressure, vast as the ocean, bore down upon them, silencing all clamor in an instant, reducing ten thousand meters of sky to utter stillness—leaving only the rolling thunder.

The crowd of cultivators who, moments before, had been fighting until their heads were bloodied over a few forward positions now went pale as ash in their terror. They retreated at speed by over a hundred meters, not daring to approach any further—not even daring to breathe.

Their gazes—filled with fear, shock, and suspicion—fell upon that tightly shut elegant room. Every divine ability and technique they possessed had been rendered useless. No one could peer through those thin doors to sense even a trace of the aura within.

The spectacular, dragon-like lightning already filled the sky from edge to edge. Dark clouds pressed down upon the land as if to crush it—yet still, the tribulation did not fall.

While some were still puzzling over it, they heard a Nascent Soul cultivator cry out in shock: "What kind of supreme expert is this, to be able to delay the descent of a heavenly tribulation!"

——Within the elegant room, a demon beast as vast and magnificent as a snow-capped mountain was coiled at the center. Every strand of its snow-white fur shimmered with a soft, luminous glow. Countless intricate and ancient demon script characters swirled all around, weaving a brilliant starlit cosmos that floated beside the human cultivator seated with eyes closed in deep concentration, drifting past the dark ends of his hair and the soft folds of his robes.

Cang Shun tilted his head slightly downward, gazing at the man's profile. Then he raised it again. His crimson demon eyes pierced through the roof and fixed upon the heavenly tribulation that could not descend—carrying what seemed like contempt.

【Do not concern yourself with it. I am here.】

Within the spiritual sea, upon hearing that steady, unhurried voice, Chen Moqing's gaze stirred ever so slightly. A ripple crossed the ink-dark lake—then sank back into stillness.

His divine sense was already riddled with fractures, like white porcelain dashed to the ground. Yet his figure still did not stop. He stepped forward once more——

The divine sense shattered completely, scattering into ten thousand fragments!

The next instant, the countless fragments hung suspended in the air—then condensed once more. The divine sense was reforged.

——Countless cultivators throughout the ages had spent their entire lives halted at the peak of the Foundation Building stage, precisely because they could not endure the process of having their divine sense ground to dust and rebuilt. Some had even been driven to madness by the agony of it. Because of this, no small number of cultivators chose instead to stack pills and spiritual materials to force their way to the Golden Core, simply to avoid the torment of tempering the divine sense.

This was already the one hundred and twentieth time Chen Moqing had repeated the tempering process. Not a single expression crossed his face. He simply stepped forward again!

That step was heavy as a mountain range—hovering in the air, unable to come down no matter how long he waited.

Hairline cracks crept up his pale cheeks. His divine sense shattered once more. Yet those dark, deep eyes ignited with a blazing flame. Beneath his feet, a great path suddenly stretched outward—black as its foundation, stained through with the color of blood—the Path of Slaughter!

My path is my heart! With this path, I proclaim to all of heaven!

The final step, planted upon the summit of ten thousand zhang!

The heavenly chasm, at last, was scaled!

Spiritual energy surged and trembled, enveloping the entirety of the heavenly chasm. A brilliant, flawless Golden Core rose from within the spiritual sea, its dazzling radiance pouring across the whole of the spiritual sea before finally merging into Chen Moqing's elixir field.

Above kite vessel, thunder that shook the very earth erupted across a hundred li. Countless blazing silver-white lightning dragons churned and roared, plunging down from the dark clouds, holding aloft pillars of light that bridged heaven and earth!

Within the elegant room, the young cultivator who had been seated in stillness opened his eyes.

He first glanced at the great mass of fluffy Demon Emperor beside him, let his palm drift across the snow-white fur, gave it a pat—and the next instant, his figure had already appeared high in the open sky.

Almost the very moment he revealed himself, tens of thousands of bolts of thunder crashed down all at once, like a blazing silver-white sea pouring in reverse. The sky-blotting, sun-obscuring torrents of lightning instantly swallowed his body whole, illuminating the mountains and rivers within a hundred li until nothing remained but an expanse of absolute white daylight.

Within the waterfall of lightning that no outside eye could penetrate, Chen Moqing stood alone to meet the heavenly tribulation of all the skies. His robes billowed freely around him. Between his brows, a lotus mark blazed to life. He raised one finger toward the heavens: "Go."

A crystalline nine-petaled magnificent lotus burst open in defiance. From the heart of the lotus, a vivid crimson command token shot forth, hanging suspended like the sun at its zenith.

The Withered Wood Spring Revival Decree!

Beneath nine thousand bolts of tribulation lightning, the immortal's order of old unfurled a magnificent curtain of ten thousand springs in bloom!

Ten thousand streaks of lightning reflected in those dark, still, untroubled eyes. Chen Moqing looked straight up at the heavens, a faint mocking smile on his lips: "Long time no see."

The tribulation lasted three days and three nights. Only when the dark clouds had fully dispersed and light fell once more upon the land did the young cultivator in white robes descend gently to the ground.

Early Golden Core stage.

A hundred meters away, a white-haired elder came drifting over rapidly, making no effort to conceal his Nascent Soul cultivation, and bowed with a smile: "Young friend, might we become acquainted?"

A small snow-white creature leapt onto the young cultivator's shoulder, tilting its head to reveal a pair of cold, piercing demon eyes.

The Nascent Soul elder felt an inexplicable chill run through him and took a step back. He watched as the young cultivator smiled and said: "I have disturbed everyone. For that, I offer my apologies."

"You may go now."

With a single utterance he dispersed the crowd. Carrying the Demon Emperor back to the elegant room, Chen Moqing sent his divine sense once more into his spiritual sea, where he saw the Withered Wood Spring Revival Decree floating quietly before him, its surface etched with patterns of branching wood and fresh leaves.

At last, this talisman decree—first created by an immortal, replicated by him, yet never fully under his control—had been refined by one part.

——He called it one part because he could sense that he had not yet fully refined the Withered Wood Spring Revival Decree, and had not even managed to pry loose its true power. As for that trace of immortal will, it had merely gone dormant for the time being.

He merged the Withered Wood Spring Revival Decree into his spiritual sea, and thought to himself: there would be time yet.

A Golden Core hung above the spiritual sea—perfectly round and resplendent. Three days and three nights of Nine-Heavenly Thunders Tribulation had tempered it to the highest and most flawless quality; from this point forward, his cultivation would advance with tremendous speed.

Only upon attaining the Golden Core does a cultivator truly transcend the mundane world and step onto the great path of cultivation. Not only is one's lifespan greatly extended, but one may also soar through heaven and earth, no longer bound by certain laws of the world.

His physical body had likewise undergone a complete transformation. Having spent months in the northern reaches of the Zhou Kingdom tempering himself with baleful energy in those earlier days, after crossing into the Golden Core stage, his physical strength had reached the early stage of the Nascent Soul stage.

What surprised Chen Moqing most of all was that his eight-lined talisman path spiritual root had quietly sprouted an entirely new branch, transforming into nine lines—his talisman path aptitude ascending yet another tier!

The spontaneous growth of an already-established spiritual root is an exceedingly rare occurrence even in the cultivation world. Yet within Tianshu Sect, there were two such once-in-a-millennium prodigies— the sect master of Tianshu Sect, Yu Bai, and Yu Bai's last-accepted disciple, Xiao Jibai.

It was said that in his youth, Yu Bai had possessed eight lines of sword path spiritual root, and as the years passed, it had suddenly grown to ten. Xiao Jibai, meanwhile, was the overlooked second son of an ancient clan in Jiugai Prefecture— his aptitude assessment in his youth had measured only three lines of sword path spiritual root, but upon reaching adulthood he had suddenly come into possession of eleven, shaking all of Jiugai Prefecture. The very next day, Yu Bai had taken him as his last disciple.

At that time, the entire cultivation world said that the future achievements of the Tianshu Sect sect master's last disciple would be no less than those of his senior brother—the sect master's first disciple. After all, between the two of them, there was only a single line of sword path spiritual root separating them.

The vast spiritual sea churned and surged, boundless and brimming with spiritual energy. A new heavenly chasm had risen from the ground, more precipitous and towering than the one before, utterly beyond reach.

Within the elegant room, Chen Moqing opened his eyes. His lashes dropped slightly, reflecting the image of the small snow-white creature that was tugging at the hem of his robe with its paw.

He said: "It seems someone was calling my name just now."

Cang Shun held his gaze for two seconds, then turned his head away as though nothing had happened.

【No. Benzun heard nothing.】

Chen Moqing gathered the fluffy creature into his arms, meeting that pair of crimson demon eyes once more.

Why had he helped him.

Was it because of……?

His fingers drifted through the soft fur. He said: "Thank you."

Cang Shun lazily pressed his chin down onto the back of his hand.

"Meow."

【Just a thank you?】

Chen Moqing reached into his storage pouch and retrieved two small cloth pouches.

One held dried small fish. The other held osmanthus cake.

Cang Shun let out a huff and turned his head away, making clear he had not the slightest interest.

After a while.

A small white fluffy ball appeared beside the pouches, poking its head around and peering inside.

"I have nothing with which to properly thank you for now," Chen Moqing said, watching the little white sugar cake bury its head into the osmanthus cake, "But if there is ever anything you need of me, within my power, I will go through fire and water without a second thought, and face ten thousand deaths without hesitation."

Upon hearing these words, Cang Shun immediately sprawled across his lap with grand, imperious ease, and lifted his chin with arrogant flair.

Massage Benzun's legs!

Chen Moqing picked the small fluffy ball up by the scruff.

Set it down beside the dried fish. And began to cultivate with eyes closed.

Cang Shun: "……"

The esteemed Demon Emperor His Majesty stormed off in a huff—then two seconds later came shuffling back to Chen Moqing's side with a small dried fish clenched in his mouth, and plopped himself down squarely on his lap.

He stared at the focused profile of Chen Moqing deep in cultivation, and chewed on his thoroughly flavorful pepper-salted dried fish.

An ordinary cultivator, even upon reaching the peak of their current realm, would still require a stroke of fate before breaking through to the next. This man did not.

Not only because he was treading a path he had walked before, but because his natural gifts were truly heaven-defying.

Twelve lines of sword path spiritual root—none before him, none to come after. His cultivation had never once slackened, and his heart of the Dao was unyielding… A person like this was born to reign supreme across the upper regions, to illuminate the long night of the sword path, to cast the prodigies of his generation into shadow.

Unlike now—shut away in this ramshackle room, concealing his name, hiding even his true face.

Cang Shun lay silently across Chen Moqing's lap, his slender tail curling gently around the dangling wrist, brushing idly against that pale skin every now and then.

Chen Moqing had long since grown accustomed to being undisturbed by a certain Demon Emperor. He cultivated without sleep for several days on end. During that time, more than a few cultivators had attempted to pay a visit, but none had been able to pass the restriction at the door.

Half a month later, the kite vessel made a brief stop at a waypoint—no more than three days' journey from Qingluan Prefecture.

Only then did Chen Moqing emerge from his seclusion, and he took Cang Shun down for a stroll.

Near the stopping point stood a lavish restaurant catering exclusively to cultivators, where every ingredient came from rare spiritual beasts—creatures born brimming with spiritual energy yet without awakened intelligence, once raised as food by the demon race, and later introduced into the dining establishments of human cultivators as well.

Chen Moqing ordered the finest spread the restaurant had to offer. By the time they came back out, the small snow-white creature in his arms had become a round, plump mass—belly-up, sprawled across the crook of his arm like a soft, squishy white disk.

Chen Moqing gave the great fluffy ball a small bounce.

Heavier again.

He wondered what it would look like in human form.

Cang Shun fixed his gaze on the pale fingers drifting past him and stretched out a paw to catch them—

Blocked by his own round, distended belly, he could not reach.

"……"

The great fluffy ball sprawled in his arms began to wriggle back and forth. After a good deal of struggling, it finally managed to flip itself over.

With a soft plop it landed face-down on the back of his hand, and, having gotten exactly what it wanted, hugged his fingers and tucked them snugly beneath its soft, round belly.

Chen Moqing gave the great fluffy ball a mildly puzzled glance, then let it be.

"Fellow Daoist, please stop."

As they were returning to the kite vessel, someone blocked their path. The moment they drew close, Chen Moqing sensed an aura on the person that was distinct from that of humans.

Demon clan.

Over the past several hundred years, the demon clan and the human clan had reached an equilibrium, and conflicts between them had grown exceedingly rare. At that moment, the demon clan member—whose appearance was indistinguishable from an ordinary person's—spoke in an affable, pleasant tone: "Fellow Daoist, our lord is willing to offer twenty thousand spirit stones to purchase this demon pet of yours."

Not far behind him, several demon clan members were gathered around a beautifully-featured woman in ornate robes, all of them looking over in this direction.

Chen Moqing said calmly: "He is my companion, not a demon pet."

The demon clan member looked down. The small demon beast lying in the young human's arms twitched its ears slightly, and began to sway its tail in a leisurely manner.

He said nothing more, turned, and left.

Not far away, the woman in ornate robes heard her subordinate's reply and seemed to find it amusing. She gave Chen Moqing a bright smile.

Chen Moqing inclined his head slightly in return—and the snow-white creature that had been lying perfectly contentedly in his arms immediately stopped wagging its tail and began glaring at the woman across the way.

"Oh my, barely the size of a palm and already acting possessive, clinging to someone and refusing to let go."

"Young little demons these days really are, tsk tsk tsk…"

The woman in ornate robes drifted away with her attendants, chattering among themselves.

Cang Shun: "……?"

Chen Moqing looked down: "They can't recognize you."

【Naturally.】

The Demon Emperor leapt lightly onto his shoulder and began to stroll along with an elegant, unhurried gait.

【Benzun has said so before, no one is worthy of beholding Benzun's true form.】

Chen Moqing glanced at the fluffy mass and said: "The Demon Emperor's true form is indeed impressively imposing."

The snow-white creature folded its paws together and lay down, tilting its small head upward, tail raised ever so slightly.

Chen Moqing walked on.

The side of his face was gently nuzzled a few times by a mass of soft, fluffy fur. He glanced downward.

The little fluffy ball was perfectly still, the picture of composure.

Chen Moqing looked away.

The fluffy mass nuzzled his face again, soft and persistent, nuzzling back and forth.

He had no idea what it meant.

Never mind.

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