Other than the Lougao Sect's strict Yan family watching Little Cold Mountain, Master Dun'er from the She Ri Tribe and his people had also been keeping a close eye on it. But unlike the Yan family, what they wanted wasn't Wei Tu's inheritance after death. They were looking for the right moment to take back Little Cold Mountain, an important spiritual land.
"What a disgrace to our Kang Kingdom cultivators, falling so low as to become a life slave!" Master Dun'er looked disgusted when he got the news from the Yan family. But this piece of information also confirmed that Wei Tu hadn't found the Iceheart Spirit Dew. If he had, he could have used it to purify his mana and extend his life, and he wouldn't be showing such obvious signs of lifespan anxiety as an aging Golden Core cultivator.
"Just wait for him to die," Master Dun'er ordered coldly.
"Master Dun'er, should we report this old man occupying Little Cold Mountain to the clan?" another Golden Core True Lord from the She Ri Tribe asked hesitantly. With the trade routes between the Xiao and Kang Kingdoms restored, they were struggling to decide what to do. Before, when the routes were blocked and it was hard to get back to the Kang Kingdom, they could easily keep quiet about losing Little Cold Mountain—no one could blame them. But now that travel had resumed, hiding it might look like they were deliberately withholding information.
"The clan's prodigies, except for Yuwen Cheng, don't deserve to bathe in the Iceheart Spirit Dew at Little Cold Mountain. That old man surnamed Cui has at most thirty years left before he dies. If we report this to the clan now… do you think the Divine Master will go easy on us?" Master Dun'er's tone turned cold.
Reporting that they'd lost Little Cold Mountain right away would probably get them punished by Divine Master Jinxia, who'd scold them for not trying harder to hold it. But if they waited until they'd retaken it before reporting, it would look like they fixed their mistake—no clan assets lost—and instead of punishment, they'd probably get rewarded for their efforts.
"Master Dun'er makes sense." The other She Ri Tribe cultivators exchanged glances and nodded. Since it looked like they had a chance to win Little Cold Mountain back, there was no need to foolishly get themselves punished by confessing now.
What they didn't know was that Yuwen Cheng, who had traveled all the way to the Xiao Kingdom, was already dead. And the matter of Little Cold Mountain would end up reaching Divine Master Jinxia in a very different way, and much sooner than thirty years.
…
Two years—long or short depending on perspective—were nothing more than a blink for a Golden Core True Lord in seclusion. But for the Ascending Cloud Flying Boat traveling between the Kang and Xiao Kingdoms, it was enough for six round trips. So when Yuwen Cheng still hadn't returned after so long, Divine Master Jinxia in the distant She Ri Tribe in the Kang Kingdom started getting anxious.
Especially after he heard that Yuwen Cheng had been forced off the Ascending Cloud Flying Boat midway by Wang Tianwu from the Shen Jia Sect and lost his protector, Old Hong. That made Divine Master Jinxia restless.
But as the clan's protector, he couldn't leave his post to check on Yuwen Cheng's safety himself. "Yuwen Cheng has a top-tier third-tier defensive magic tool on him, plus a strike of my own Nascent Soul finger force. He's also trained in the Sun-Gazing Golden Eyes technique for some time, which lets him see others' cultivation levels… he should be good at staying alive… maybe he just got delayed," Divine Master Jinxia told himself, trying to calm down.
After all, cultivators often stumbled upon opportunities while traveling. Yuwen Cheng had always seemed favored by fate, getting lucky over and over on his path to becoming the top prodigy among the three tribes. And Wang Tianwu's attack had happened sixteen or seventeen years ago. If something bad was going to happen, it probably would have already. There was no way it would take this long for news to get back.
But Divine Master Jinxia wasn't the type to just sit still. With a wave of his sleeve, he activated a talisman to summon his eldest disciple, Yuwen Liangu. If there was a problem, it was the disciple's job to go handle it—that was how most Nascent Soul Venerables operated. They'd never personally go chasing after minor issues, and if a Nascent Soul expert showed up in person, it could alarm or offend local powers. For example, if he went to investigate Wang Tianwu's attack directly, he'd almost certainly clash with the Shen Jia Sect in Liaozhou.
"Liangu, your junior brother has been gone too long. Go to the Xiao Kingdom and find his trail," Divine Master Jinxia ordered. Although the Xiao Kingdom was vast—thirteen provinces several times bigger than the Kang Kingdom—a peak Golden Core cultivator using special communication artifacts could still find someone like Yuwen Cheng in two or three years.
But he deliberately left out any mention of Little Cold Mountain. The Iceheart Spirit Dew there was priceless for Golden Core cultivators, but to Divine Master Jinxia, Yuwen Liangu wasn't talented enough to deserve bathing in the ice pool and absorbing the dew. So it was better not to let her know about it at all.
"If you really can't find your junior brother, use this magic tool to contact Master Dun'er." He flipped his hand and gave Yuwen Liangu a horn-shaped artifact.
"Yes, Master," Yuwen Liangu bowed respectfully, took the horn, and flew off.
At Little Cold Mountain, Wei Tu did feel a bit uneasy about a Nascent Soul Venerable like Divine Master Jinxia coming for him, but he wasn't too worried. First, he'd only planned to stay at Little Cold Mountain for two more years. After accounting for travel time, there wasn't much time left for Divine Master Jinxia to react. Even if Jinxia was sharp enough to immediately figure out that Yuwen Cheng was dead, it was unlikely he'd rush straight to Little Cold Mountain. By timing alone, Yuwen Cheng should've already left Little Cold Mountain for other parts of the Xiao Kingdom.
Second, Little Cold Mountain was far too important, tied directly to the fate of the She Ri Tribe. So unless Divine Master Jinxia knew Wei Tu was the one who killed Yuwen Cheng, he wouldn't immediately start a crusade against him. If he did, the value of Little Cold Mountain would be exposed to the Xiao Kingdom's immortal sects, and then the She Ri Tribe would have almost no chance of keeping the place. Wei Tu believed Divine Master Jinxia knew the stakes.
So, even if everything went wrong and Jinxia somehow knew he killed Yuwen Cheng and occupied Little Cold Mountain for the Iceheart Spirit Dew, he'd probably just set up an ambush outside instead of storming the mountain immediately. Confident in this, once Wei Tu stabilized his agreement with the Yan family of the Lougao Sect, he stopped worrying about his safety over the next two years and focused fully on absorbing the Iceheart Spirit Dew, refining his mana and body.
"It's done!" Two years later, deep underground in Little Cold Mountain, Wei Tu looked inside his dantian. Next to his Golden Core floated dazzling specks like a miniature galaxy of ice crystals, and he smiled. These tiny ice particles were formed by the Iceheart Spirit Dew merging with his mana. They were much purer than ordinary mana. Although this ultra-pure mana wasn't useful for normal combat, it was crucial for breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm.
The Nascent Soul breakthrough had three steps: 1. Shatter the core to form the infant. 2. Condense the Nascent Soul spiritual body. 3. Awaken it, turning the dead infant into a living one. The second step determined the quantity and quality of a Nascent Soul cultivator's future mana, and it was entirely dependent on how pure their mana was.
"It's time to leave." After checking his condition, Wei Tu flicked his sleeve, put on his robes by the poolside, and flew up to the mountain's surface. There, he didn't rush to go. Instead, he summoned Yan Xiaolan, who was busy disciplining the other concubines.
"Do you want to leave with me?" Wei Tu glanced at Yan Xiaolan and asked calmly. In his eyes, though she was scheming, she wasn't truly evil and hadn't committed any serious crimes. He had no reason to kill her off. He knew perfectly well that if he left her behind alone, she'd face a terrible fate. More importantly, she'd already swallowed his poison pill and carried the Biyan Pill he'd given her earlier, making her worth keeping—she even had a shot at reaching the Golden Core Realm.
"Xiaolan is willing." Without any hesitation, Yan Xiaolan's face lit up and she quickly nodded. She knew full well that following Wei Tu was her only chance at survival; any other path meant certain death.
"Do you need to pack anything?" Wei Tu asked, nodding slightly as he looked at her.
"Xiaolan still has…" Yan Xiaolan started to speak but caught herself, lowered her head, and said respectfully, "Xiaolan has nothing to pack. Staying by Senior Cui's side is all the blessing I could ever want." As she spoke, she kept her head down, avoiding looking at Wei Tu's face so she wouldn't get sick and lose composure. Over the years, though she'd learned his temper and found him easy to talk to, she'd never gotten used to his appearance.
"Close your eyes!" Wei Tu didn't care about her awkwardness. To him, she was just a lowly Foundation Establishment junior, a concubine to be ordered around. After saying that, he placed his palm on Yan Xiaolan's shoulder and took off at incredible speed, flying out of Little Cold Mountain.
As soon as he moved at near-peak Golden Core speed, the Yan family cultivators stationed outside Little Cold Mountain were stunned, standing dumbfounded for a long moment.
"Second Brother, do we chase or not?" a narrow-eyed young man asked Yan Zezhi beside him.
"This…" Yan Zezhi hesitated, his courage fading. Even if he could keep up with Wei Tu's speed, the sheer power he showed—a late Golden Core cultivation and surging vitality—was far beyond anything Yan Zezhi, a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator, could handle. His cousin next to him was only early Golden Core. Even if they caught up, they'd just get crushed.
But before Yan Zezhi could decide, Wei Tu's speed carried him beyond their divine sense range in less than a breath. "A Minor Shift Talisman?" Yan Zezhi realized the technique Wei Tu had used, but he couldn't believe Wei Tu would waste such a valuable talisman just to take Yan Xiaolan along. Even wealthy Golden Core clans rarely had more than two Minor Shift Talismans.
In less than half an incense stick of time, about thirty miles outside Little Cold Mountain, Master Dun'er and his group, who were standing guard, heard the news of Wei Tu fleeing with Yan Xiaolan. Their faces darkened immediately, and they knew something was terribly wrong. They might not have been the sharpest, but even they could now guess why Wei Tu had pretended to be an old Golden Core cultivator to seize control of Little Cold Mountain.
"Iceheart Spirit Dew!" "Damn it, who is he? How did he know there was Iceheart Spirit Dew at Little Cold Mountain?" Master Dun'er's face turned frighteningly dark. His thoughts quickly went to Yuwen Cheng, who'd visited Little Cold Mountain more than a decade ago.