Chapter 45: 玄骨山

As expected, it was Gu Zhengshun calling. The other party seemed eager to get him on board, and considering their previous agreement, there was no need to turn hostile yet.

Wang Yu chuckled:“Senior Brother Gu, long time no see. You’re as impressive as ever.”

“Oh, no, no. Just look at these people, Junior Brother Wang, and you'll understand why I'm so determined about Mount Xuangu.”

Wang Yu nodded in agreement, presenting the image of a respectful junior brother to anyone who saw them.

The bustling square they were in was the front plaza of the various halls and workshops. Since the Mount Xuangu mission was an official sect assignment, the handover between the two groups needed to be handled by the Mission Hall. Therefore, many people were gathered there at the moment.

Gu Zhengshun subtly pointed out two people who were the center of attention and quietly introduced them to Wang Yu:“Junior Brother Wang, look at that woman in black clothes with green hair. She is an inner disciple of the third peak, Gu Poison Peak. Her name is Liu Jinxian, and she is at the eighth level of Qi Cultivation. Her father is the Core Formation Elder, ‘Azure Serpent Daoist’, and she holds one of the Mount Xuangu Master Tokens. Surrounding her are over 200 subordinates from Gu Poison Peak, making their faction the largest among the three Mount Xuangu masters.”

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow. Liu Jinxian—quite an imposing name. “And who is the other person?”

“Situ Hong. He is an inner disciple of the seventh peak, Five Yin Peak. His adoptive mother is also a Core Formation cultivator, known as ‘Peach Blossom Ghost Mother,’ and her power is much greater than that of the Azure Serpent Daoist. He himself is only at the seventh level of Qi Cultivation, having just entered the late stage. There are 129 Five Yin Peak disciples surrounding him.”

Good heavens, the two groups combined made exactly 400 people. If he had come to the appointment knowing nothing, he would have been the only one among the three mountain masters, likely eliminated along the way. Zhao Shang, that dog, deserved to be eaten alive!

However, on second thought, although Gu Zhengshun had a Core Formation grand-master, their relationship was certainly not as close as that with his own master. And in the demonic path, the master-disciple bond isn't as important as one might imagine. Compared to Liu Jinxian and Situ Hong, Gu Zhengshun's status was significantly lower. Therefore, when Wang Yu looked behind him, there were only about twenty people with varying cultivation levels. The weakest were merely at the third level of Qi Cultivation, and they carried elm wood coffins, looking quite shabby.

This kind of backing... how could he compete with those two?

Wang Yu gave Gu Zhengshun a questioning look and silently walked away.

“Cough, cough—”

“Junior Brother Wang, don't rush. There are over 500 Mount Xuangu Tokens issued by the sect, plus about 80 ordinary disciples. We can recruit some of them. You did promise to stand by me through thick and thin, remember?”

Wang Yu paused, no longer leaving. Instead, he blended into the group of Heavenly Corpse Peak disciples, found someone to get a spare coffin from, and properly put it on his back. From today on, he was a Heavenly Corpse Peak disciple. Blending in with the surroundings.

Seeing this, Gu Zhengshun didn't stop him; in fact, he was pleased. Wang Yu was his trump card, so naturally, he had to keep him hidden for now. Gu Zhengshun, meanwhile, went to the group of ordinary disciples, using his eloquence to recruit people and, while he was at it, gathering information from the returning senior disciples.

Five years was not a short time for Qi Cultivation cultivators. There might be discrepancies with the information he already possessed, so he needed to clarify everything. There was no harm in asking more questions.

A single province was vast. Blood Abyss Province, for instance, covered approximately twenty million square kilometers. The Blood Spirit Sect was located in the center of this province, and a few hundred li away was the holy land for cultivating Blood Dao techniques—the Blood Abyss! This journey, heading north from the sect, would cross Qiongye Province and go straight to Feng Province, which was the northernmost part of the Scarlet Kite Demonic Domain, in a remote location further to the west. Further north lay the boundless and uninhabited Endless Ice Plains, along with a natural disaster known as the Extreme Ice Storm, which even Nascent Soul cultivators found difficult to cross.

The direct distance of this journey was over 50,000 kilometers, longer than the equator in his previous life, truly a long expedition. At the speed of a Qi Cultivation cultivator, even if they continuously rode flying artifacts, it would take at least twenty-six days, averaging eighty kilometers per hour. However, this was a straight-line distance. Along the way, they would need to bypass dangerous areas, stop to recover spiritual power, and take daily rests. It was normal for travel time to multiply several times over, meaning it would take at least nearly three months to reach Mount Xuangu. They would arrive just in time for the new year, and their guard duty would begin upon their arrival. Fortunately, they would be passing through the territory of the Blood Spirit Sect. Otherwise, let alone reaching their destination, simply surviving the journey would be a stroke of luck.

Maps of the Scarlet Kite Demonic Domain were difficult for someone like Wang Yu to acquire. Maps were precious resources, highly valued by all sects. Ordinary maps were useless; they needed to accurately mark spiritual veins, factions, dangerous areas, and so on, making the mapping process extremely risky. Therefore, the lower the cultivation level, the more 'blind' a cultivator was. They might know how to get to a certain place, but they would only have a vague idea of the dangers they might encounter, unable to grasp the full picture. For cultivators, long-distance travel was also a difficult endeavor.

The waiting period was always long. When Gu Zhengshun returned to the group, he hadn't managed to recruit anyone, but he did have an extra scroll in his hand. He said:“Junior Brother Wang, the Mission Hall has completed the handover. The reward for five years is 500 contribution points and 500 spirit stones. You just need to leave your imprint on your disciple token.”

This amount of money was very little, quite paltry compared to the missions taken from the Ice Snow Pavilion. No wonder those people were willing to be exploited by sixty percent just to take missions within the pavilion.

“Alright.”

The true gains from Mount Xuangu were not in the mission itself, but in the opportunities the place offered. Therefore, a little more or less made no difference.

After the imprinting was complete, Gu Zhengshun handed the scroll to the others one by one, then turned back to submit the mission scroll. Only then did he speak:“Alright, everything is settled. Let’s go.”

Wang Yu's expression changed slightly, and he pointed at Liu Jinxian and Situ Hong's groups.“Not together?”

“They don't think much of us. Let's go.”

“Understood…”

Just as he was about to take out the Black Silk flying artifact, which he hadn't used since acquiring it, Gu Zhengshun produced a white bone boat. He flicked dozens of mid-grade spirit stones into it, and the bone boat instantly expanded, large enough to carry all twenty-two of them. He realized he lacked experience.

As soon as they left, Liu Jinxian and Situ Hong each displayed their methods. One brought out a pavilion shrouded in poisonous mist, containing its own spatial dimension. The other produced a skull from which resentful spirits shrieked, which rapidly grew in size after spirit stones were embedded.

To Wang Yu’s surprise, there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators accompanying them. Instead, the disciples who had obtained the 'Mountain Master Tokens' were free to travel on their own.

On the bone boat, as they flew out of the sect, Gu Zhengshun seemed to sense Wang Yu’s thoughts and said playfully:“Feng Province is remote, and Mount Xuangu, where we’re headed, is close to the Endless Ice Plains. Not many Foundation Establishment cultivators go there, and once they're stationed, it's hard for them to move for forty or fifty years.”

“So that’s how it is—” In two words: exile!

After leaving the sect, Gu Zhengshun handed over the control of the bone boat to his subordinates. He then sat on the top deck with Wang Yu, sharing drinks and discussing information about Mount Xuangu, as well as their upcoming tasks.