The roaring sound of the great boat shattering was mixed with a sense of weightlessness. Zhao Chun squeezed her eyes shut, letting the violent winds blow and toss the two people within the black light about unceasingly. When she opened her eyes again, the clouds had dispersed and the rain had cleared.
Zhao Chun was still a bit dazed and disoriented. After breaking free from the black light, she found herself surrounded by a verdant mountain forest, with the faint sounds of insects and birds.
"Look!"
Meng Han pointed to the continuous green mountains in the distance and said with a laugh, "That's Fragrant Blossom Mountain! Once we've found it, we're not far from the ruins!" As the saying goes: a mountain in sight can run a horse to death.
Although Zhao Chun could see it clearly, actually getting there would take no less than two days of effort. Meng Han took out a Smoke Boat Talisman and started on the road with Zhao Chun. He then heard her say, "I suppose I owe Senior Brother my life."
"You can't count that as mine. That talisman came from Brother Xu's hands. You just need to go back and thank him!"
Xu Feng?
Zhao Chun hadn't known he actually walked the path of a Talisman Cultivator. Meng Han fished out a few more black talismans from his person, the same kind he had used before, and said with a laugh, "They're nothing too good. Brother Xu gave me quite a few."
"What kind of talisman is it? I haven't really seen one before."
There were many types of talismans, and it was impossible for her to have seen every single one. There were yellow paper talismans, jade talisman tablets, and even beast fang talismans in the Hundred Treasures Market, but she had truly never seen one that was pitch-black all over, with paper that was tattered and wrinkled.
"This thing is unique to Brother Xu..."
He picked one up. The small black paper fluttered in the wind, appearing both fragile and resilient.
"Brother Xu has always liked to research new things. A few years ago, he felt that the Smoke Boat Talisman couldn't travel at high altitudes, making it unable to reach slightly more distant places. He also found its speed too slow and wanted to create a more convenient and useful new talisman based on it."
Looking at the black talisman in his hand, Zhao Chun thought, he must have failed… Sure enough, Meng Han said with a hint of schadenfreude, "How could a new talisman be so easy to make?
If he had really succeeded and handed it over to the sect, even a one or two percent cut of the profits would have been enough for him to earn a fortune."
"What he ended up making was this thing. It's not quite smoke, not quite a boat. It can reach the top of the clouds, but it needs someone to carry it up there."
Zhao Chun couldn't help but laugh. If a person could reach the top of the clouds on their own, they wouldn't need a smoke boat in the first place.
Meng Han added, "If it weren't for me being out and about all year, encountering many dangerous places, and accidentally discovering this talisman could be used for slowing one's descent, this useless talisman of his would have truly been useless."
"When you go back, just praise him. Say this Descent Talisman is exquisitely made, and he'll surely stuff a big handful on you. It's free, so why not use it."
How could a Descent Talisman be compared to a Smoke Boat Talisman? The latter was incomparably exquisite, studied by advanced talisman cultivators, while the former had simple brushstrokes and was required for a talisman cultivator's entry-level training. To praise Xu Feng with such words, it was no wonder he would become angry from embarrassment.
Meng Han insisted on giving her a few, claiming he had plenty left for himself, so Zhao Chun accepted them with a smile. After two days of safe travel, they entered the territory of Fragrant Blossom Mountain. Taking a closer look, she saw that a mid-sized city had expanded at the foot of the mountain.
It was dusk, and lanterns were already lit in the city. Cultivators came and went in large numbers; it was quite a lively scene!
"Fragrant Blossom City. Most of those who come to explore the ruins rest and recuperate here."
Zhao Chun said in surprise, "So many people, and they're all here for the old sect's ruins?"
"Not at all!"
Meng Han guided the smoke boat downward while saying, "Only one or two out of ten are here to explore for treasures. The rest are all here for Fragrant Blossom City itself." The two landed, and the city instantly unfolded before their eyes.
Shops were everywhere, and the owners running them were surprisingly not mortals, but mid-stage, or even late-stage Qi Refining cultivators. Meng Han cleared up her doubts. It turned out that the Fragrant Blossom Mountain region was quite special.
It was located at the border of two regions and nine sects, serving as a transportation hub in all directions, and was not under the jurisdiction of any single power. Furthermore, because it produced various unique and rare spirit herbs, spirit beasts, and spiritual ores, it attracted a great deal of trade and commerce, becoming a paradise of its own.
"There is a spirit beast on Fragrant Blossom Mountain called the Yellow-Maned Boar. When cultivators eat its meat, it can strengthen and benefit their bodies. You must know that the early stage of Qi Refining most requires a physical foundation. The local cultivators often eat this creature, so their cultivation progresses much faster than others. I came here this time precisely to bring some back for Junior Brother Feng. He has already reached the peak of the third layer and hopes to enter the middle stage soon to become an official disciple."
No wonder he didn't bring Feng Sanchu along. It turned out he was focused on his cultivation and had no time to come. But the effects of this Yellow-Maned Boar meat were indeed useful.
Zhao Chun nodded slightly. She could bring some back for her senior sisters to help with their cultivation. The two of them each bought twenty jin of boar meat.
It wasn't that it was too expensive, but rather that Fragrant Blossom City had a rule, a purchase limit, to ensure the Yellow-Maned Boar could continue for generations and be protected from indiscriminate slaughter.
Besides this, Zhao Chun also bought a scabbard made from the skin of a Scaled Snake, which was just the right size for the Red-Edged Dagger, finally freeing it from being wrapped in cloth. The two rested for a night and headed for the old sect ruins early the next morning.
The "one or two out of ten" Meng Han had mentioned was actually quite a lot when counted in terms of people. Along the way, they saw several smoke boats, all heading in the same direction as them. When they landed, they could see an octagonal ground altar, with stairs made of white stone leading down from it.
The Flaring Wind Sect ruins were underground. This altar was built by Fragrant Blossom City, and there were nine of them in total, intended to commemorate the souls of righteous cultivators and record the crimes of evil cultivators. The two entered through one of the stairways.
The inside was very spacious, with torches lit on all eight sides, making it very bright. This was not yet the outer layer of the Flaring Wind Sect. They had to continue downwards, walking through a deep and serene corridor in the center.
Zhao Chun's vision gradually dimmed, but fortunately, there were dim lights in the corridor for illumination, so they didn't completely lose their way. Besides the sound of footsteps, the sound of wind brushing through forest leaves gradually appeared in her ears. Before Zhao Chun could feel strange, she heard Meng Han say from the side, "We're here."
It was a place as tranquil as a secluded valley. The two were above the Flaring Wind Sect, so looking down, they could see a general overview of the entire sect. Mountain springs surged between the rocks, tree shadows were uneven, and a hundred grasses grew lushly.
"Hidden underground for several thousand years, yet the water still flows and the plants have not decayed!"
Zhao Chun sighed in admiration. But Meng Han shook his head.
"They are not plants."
He leaped down with Zhao Chun in one hand. The distance was merely a hundred meters, which was nothing for a Foundation Establishment cultivator. It took only two breaths to fall from the high place into the forest.
Zhao Chun reached out and touched a towering giant tree. The touch was ice-cold, not like a plant at all. Suddenly, a strange thought appeared in her mind.
She turned her head to look at Meng Han.
"This is actually made of iron and stone!"
Meng Han nodded and praised, "When Brother Xu and I first came here, we were also amazed by the Flaring Wind Sect's divine craftsmanship. Everything as far as the eye can see is a product of artifact forging. Such an Immortal Craft, several thousand years ago, was considered the work of a minor sect…"
"A hundred years ago, when the ruins were first excavated, the nine neighboring sects all came to fight for the artifact forging methods. For a time, the Fragrant Blossom region was plagued with endless conflict. It only stopped after they divided it up amongst themselves."
Zhao Chun nodded. With such wondrous methods, it was no wonder so many sects fought over them. If the True Spirit Sect had also been nearby, it would have likely made a move to fight for a share of this immortal fate.
She was filled with astonishment and pity. Astonished that a sect capable of such a grand undertaking was a minor sect, and pitying that this immortal foundation and fate… had not fallen into the hands of evil cultivators… The two walked further in and heard Meng Han explain why it was a minor sect.
The Drifting Clouds World was originally like other small worlds, governing a thousand small worlds, with a spiritual source that circulated endlessly, full of life. Tens of thousands of years ago, it encountered a great calamity and half of the world was shattered by something.
Many small worlds were thus displaced, and a great deal of the spiritual source was lost. The native cultivators constantly searched for and recovered the lost small worlds, slowly repairing the spiritual source. This was the only reason the Drifting Clouds World did not completely collapse.
However, its spiritual vitality was lost, and it could never return to its former glory. The Flaring Wind Sect was annihilated several thousand years ago, but it was a sect with an orthodox lineage stretching back over ten thousand years. In the old days, the Drifting Clouds World had extraordinary immortal fate and numerous cultivators.
The lineages of sects and families were mostly long and continuous, not like today, where the quality is uneven and lineages are often in danger of being broken. Back then, Core Formation Stage cultivators were everywhere, and there were numerous Profound Division Stage cultivators. There were even spiritually gifted infants who were born at the Foundation Establishment stage.
Measured by the standards of the olden days, the Flaring Wind Sect was naturally a minor sect. Zhao Chun sighed at the impermanence of worldly affairs and asked, "What was it that shattered half a world?" Meng Han smiled, not quite believing it himself.
"According to what the ancestors said, it was a single teardrop."
(End of Chapter)