After Venti's group joined Mount Shu, they quickly adapted to life on the mountain.
In the blink of an eye, four or five days had already passed.
During this time, Mount Shu had remained peaceful.
Everyone's daily lives were comfortable and fulfilling.
They spent their days cultivating, studying auxiliary arts, and sparring with the demon gods inside Mount Shu's cave realm. Though it was far too short a time for their strength to improve drastically, constant combat and mutual exchange of techniques had allowed them to fully grasp the fighting style of cultivators.
With their natural talents, most had already grasped the basics of Sword Control and were beginning to explore more powerful sword techniques. Their spells had also grown significantly more refined.
Take Xiao, for example—after he mastered the rudiments of cultivator combat and the Flying Cloud Tyrant Spear, he once again challenged a demon god. Three moves—that demon god never stood up again.
At present, Xiao was training against another demon god equivalent to a mid-stage Qi-Refining cultivator. The true advantage of cultivators was beginning to fully manifest.
The only one lagging behind was Lisa. The requirements for cultivating the Hellfire Soul-Burning Art were truly inhumane. Relying on the occasional beast soul she obtained had no real effect.
But Lisa wasn't in a hurry. She had only just entered the sect and had plenty of time to learn. Besides, the Nine Nether Secret Realm expedition was right around the corner—souls would be plentiful then.
When Ningguang and the others first learned that Lisa was cultivating a demonic art, they were quite alarmed. Thankfully, she gave them the gentleman's explanation, which soothed their fears. Now, some of them were even curious about what it felt like to cultivate demonic techniques—but none dared try. It was far too dangerous.
Meanwhile, Ningguang had successfully implemented the contribution point system, and Jiang Yan had rebuilt the Hall of Merits atop Tongtian Peak.
Considering Klee's attachment to her mother, Jiang Yan had Alice stationed at the Hall of Merits under the pretense of watching over it on behalf of the Disciplinary Hall. For the moment, the hall remained quiet, but Jiang Yan planned for it to fully operate once the Nine Nether expedition began.
As for alchemy, Lishu remained stagnant, and in artifact forging, both Liuyun and Pingzi had only managed to produce a rudimentary artifact-grade cauldron. Anticipating that the Hall of Merits would require vast resources later, Jiang Yan personally refined a large batch of pills and artifacts to be exchanged with contribution points.
Currently, the Hall of Merits only displayed a few long-term tasks Jiang Yan had posted, alongside a personal commission from Ningguang—five thousand points for Zhongli to develop martial arts suitable for mortals.
Naturally, Ningguang was now the wealthiest in contribution points. Zhongli, for his part, welcomed the challenge. With his understanding of cultivation, creating mortal martial arts was relatively simple, and he had been busy working on it for the past few days.
Everyone else cultivated steadily.
Shenhe was fully immersed in the Seven Kill Orders, and Jiang Yan determined she could now unleash the first three seals, though their true might remained unknown.
Ningguang had fully mastered the three talismans innate to her Heaven-Penetrating Seal and was now refining them further. She had also produced many Thousand-Mile Sound Transmission Talismans and distributed them to Baiwen and the others, allowing her to remotely manage much of Mount Shu from its cave realm—saving no small amount of spirit stones.
Keqing had comprehended the Mountain-Crushing Strike of the Sword Control Art, greatly enhancing her strength. In pure cultivation terms, she was stronger than Ningguang at the early Refining Essence into Qi stage.
But the strongest of all was Klee. With the Crimson Emperor's Heaven-Burning Art and the Southern Bright Fire Condensation Method, plus a full set of custom artifacts Jiang Yan crafted—defense, offense, survival, and escape all maxed—Klee was unmatched among her peers at the early Refining Essence stage.
Indeed, disciples of one's own house were always dearest.
Ganyu was also progressing rapidly, in no small part because Jiang Yan personally trained her and Klee every night. Their strength soared by leaps and bounds.
In short, cultivation was going smoothly for everyone.
But not everything was so smooth…
Venti.
The rascal was too restless. During morning lessons, he insisted on sneaking a drink of spirit-brewed wine and was caught by Xiao, who fined him ten spirit stones under the Disciplinary Hall's rules.
Venti learned his lesson briefly, but soon enough his mischievous nature resurfaced. He began pranking demon gods outside Mount Shu with a surprise Maze Formation, tossing them into bizarre places mid-hunt.
While harmless, it was disruptive.
He then plied the tamed animals of Baisheng on Luoxia Peak with liquor, leaving them vomiting everywhere—nearly choking Baisheng to death when he returned to find the mess.
He tricked an unlucky immortal into testing out a brand-new formation Seiyue had just finished inscribing.
He even dug pits in the spirit fields to bury jars of wine. When Lishu caught him and reported to Zhongli, Venti righteously declared it was "fertilizer for the herbs."
In just five days, Venti averaged two trips a day to the Disciplinary Hall. But his mischiefs were always trivial pranks, not serious enough for harsh punishment—just lectures and copying down the hall's rules. But Venti forgot them the moment he stepped outside.
Zhongli had expected Venti to be a regular at the hall, but not to this extent. It left him with no time for proper cultivation. Reporting to the sect master would be excessive—it was all too minor. In the end, only Zhongli suffered, constantly cleaning up Venti's messes.
He considered "teaching" Venti through battle, but Venti's strength after mastering the God of Wine Arts was formidable. Worse, he never fought seriously. Thus, the supposed Head of Chaoyang Peak, Venti, was in truth the biggest headache of Longshou Peak.
As for the Four Auxiliary Peaks, progress was limited.
Luoxia Peak's beast taming produced no true spirit beasts, only powerful animals. Chaoyang Peak's most advanced formation was Venti's Maze Formation—useful for confusing demon gods.
The most miserable were Dazhu Peak and Fenghui Peak.
Liuyun and Pingzi's forging efforts had yielded nothing beyond that one rudimentary cauldron. They tried to create a storage artifact like the Xu Mi Mustard Seed, even finding substitute materials from Alice's resources. But every attempt fell just short—Liuyun was so frustrated her once elegant demeanor had unraveled into a frazzled disarray.
Lishu fared no better. Even with a cauldron and Teyvat's native herbs, his hundreds of alchemy attempts all ended in explosions. The failed pills went straight to Lisa, who used them to poison beasts for soul harvesting. Several cauldrons had already been destroyed, and every time Lishu had to humbly beg Liuyun and Pingzi to repair them—only to endure a full hour of scolding each visit.
But Lishu remained undeterred, tirelessly persisting. Lisa, however, was exasperated. In her view, the senior brother of Dazhu Peak didn't understand pharmacology at all—he just tossed herbs in without regard for timing or order. It was a miracle he wasn't dead from an explosion.
Unlike Lishu, Lisa wasn't in a rush. She carefully studied the True Fundamentals of Alchemy, knowing that only through practice could one appreciate the art's vast complexity—technique, fire control, herb properties, quantities, timing, environment, spiritual density… any misstep could ruin everything.
At best, the pill would be useless. At worst, the cauldron would explode—like every time Lishu tried. His survival was sheer luck.
Overall, Mount Shu's disciples were progressing smoothly, their days filled with some mischief but also hope and promise.
For the first time, they were free from concerns of lifespan, decay, or karmic burden. Ahead lay the chance to resurrect old friends, restore civilizations, and ascend to immortality. In such an atmosphere, each of them grew to truly love cultivation and Mount Shu.
As for Jiang Yan, his own progress wasn't as dramatic. Having already reached late Refining Spirit into Void, every step forward required years, even for one with an innate Dao body. Still, his gains were significant.
With Ningguang transporting vast resources, and even Alice bringing Creation Crystals from the Quantum Sea, Jiang Yan's mind and divine sense had grown stronger. Though still short of a breakthrough to peak Refining Spirit into Void, he estimated he would reach it within half a year.
With Mount Shu now stable—disciples managed by Zhongli in the Disciplinary Hall, Alice overseeing the Hall of Merits, and few other affairs—Jiang Yan spent his days cultivating in the main hall, leaving only morning and evening for small lessons with Ganyu and Klee.
His life was leisurely.
But though Mount Shu was calm, the whole of Teyvat was still in turmoil.
The Liyue tribulation still shook the nations, and Ningguang's perfunctory reply had already spread abroad.
Each country reacted differently.
In Inazuma, it was Sara Kujou who had secretly contacted Liyue. The current Raiden Shogun absolutely forbade such actions, but the thunder tribulation that day had been too terrifying. For Inazuma's sake, Sara had taken her first step in defying her Shogun.
Yet when she saw the letter's perfunctory explanation—
"Just the Lord Emperor undergoing tribulation. If you doubt, come see for yourself."
Sara was dumbfounded.
She had risked so much, and this was all she received?
Furious, she stormed toward Tenshukaku. But midway, she realized the Shogun would never heed anything that might shake her eternity. Disheartened, Sara abandoned the thought and turned back toward the Kujou estate.
But before she arrived, a shrine maiden called out to her.
"General Kujou, do you have a moment? Lady Yae Miko requests your presence."
Already seething, Sara snapped coldly,
"No time!"
The shrine maiden seemed unsurprised, covering her mouth with a smile.
"Lady Yae told me to ask—don't you want to know what really happened in Liyue?"
"…"
Sara stopped. After a long silence, she turned and said,
"…Lead the way."
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