Dusk fell.
Yan Zhichuan followed Zhan Yujie to Forbidden Law Peak, her face tense like she was facing a formidable enemy.
The senior sisters from Artifact Peak worked with impressive efficiency. Not only had they set up Forbidden Law Peak, but it was already up and running.
Though Forbidden Law Peak hadn’t yet been added to the daily training curriculum, word had spread that it was Zhan Yujie’s idea. Cultivators flocked there immediately to join in the fun.
The peak summit was packed black with people.
Yan Zhichuan swept her gaze over the crowd. Some lounged around munching melon seeds and chatting idly. Others boldly charged into the formation, only to be carried out horizontally after going in upright. Then there were those from Medicine Peak—senior sisters who jacked up prices on the spot, slapping bills onto the faces of the unconscious and sealing the deal whether the victims agreed or not.
Yan Zhichuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least if you pass out, they’ll send you out—instead of letting you starve to death inside because you couldn’t make it through.
She cautiously shot Zhan Yujie a look, then pointed toward the Medicine Peak sisters without much hope. “Am I heading over there?”
Zhan Yujie smiled. “No.”
Yan Zhichuan’s head drooped instantly, her spirits sinking like she was mourning her parents.
She stayed silent for a moment, then made a last-ditch struggle. “There are so many people in line. Can I come back another day?”
Zhan Yujie replied casually, “One person per round. The Puppet Man adapts randomly.” Seeing Yan Zhichuan’s dejected expression, Zhan Yujie found it amusing. “Head back today, Junior Sister, and prepare properly.”
Yan Zhichuan, who had been half-dead with dread, perked up immediately. She bowed to Zhan Yujie. “Thank you, Senior Sister. I knew you were the kindest.”
Zhan Yujie tsked at her but didn’t respond further. She turned and stepped into the “Eighteen Passes” of Forbidden Law Peak.
“What are you so happy about? Don’t you still have to train tomorrow?” The Heavenly Dao System didn’t get it.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Yan Zhichuan huffed. “A night of freedom is a night earned. Seize the day and all that.”
After a few laments of “how tragic,” Yan Zhichuan returned to her cave abode and began flipping through the Shennong Hundred Medicines Scripture. In the pharmacopoeia, she quickly found entries for the Iron Body Pill, Golden Body Pill, and other martial pills. Consuming these boosted one’s defenses, even to the point of being impervious to blades and spears. But even Dao Pills had time limits.
Yan Zhichuan’s brows furrowed and relaxed by turns. After a long while, she closed the pharmacopoeia with a heavy sigh. “No good. The effects won’t last through all Eighteen Passes—and Senior Sister might not even let me take pills.”
Heavenly Dao System: “Refine some Dao Pills for me. Then you can use Senior Sister’s sword techniques.”
Yan Zhichuan had already learned pill refining, but since Medicine Peak provided all the herbs she needed for free, she’d never made a single transaction at Myriad Treasures Pavilion.
She let out a cold chuckle. “Nine into one now? I’d be taking a huge loss.” She glared at Little Fat Chirp and yanked it off her shoulder. “Where’s my task reward?”
The Heavenly Dao System had been hoping Yan Zhichuan would forget, but that was just wishful thinking on its part.
It glanced at Zhan Yujie’s faction status—decent enough—and reluctantly spat out a sword with a clang, tossing it onto the stone table.
“You don’t know sword arts. What good is a sword to you? Even with it, you won’t pass Forbidden Law Peak.” Xiao Tian dripped sarcasm.
Yan Zhichuan tugged at its feathers. “Who said I’m using a sword to clear the passes?” She’d already hatched a plan. Most martial pills had time limits, so she’d refine spirit pills instead—like the Dragon Blood Pill. It enhanced her physique, and paired with the Forget-Sorrow Pill to numb the pain, she’d be invincible.
Yes, she couldn’t beat the Puppet Man.
But she could let the Puppet Man beat her until it shattered into pieces.
Eating them herself was way more cost-effective than trading for sword techniques.
Before starting her refining, Yan Zhichuan hugged her hard-won dharma sword close.
The blade gleamed blindingly, sending chills through the air.
Spotting the inscription “Nameless Plainness” on the sword, Yan Zhichuan froze. She frowned in thought. “Isn’t this the dharma sword one of our Nine Abyss Sect ancestors left in the sect?”
There weren’t many spirit treasures among the ancestors’ swords, and they were notoriously hard to tame.
Yan Zhichuan had once set her sights on an ancestral spirit treasure too, but she’d been tossed out.
Only Zhan Yujie had claimed one inscribed with “Dao Is Not Outside the Body.”
Yan Zhichuan smirked. “Nice. You stole a sword from Nine Abyss for my reward. Last time you were just an energy body that couldn’t touch fruits, but now it’s fine?”
The Heavenly Dao System wanted to stuff her mouth shut. A sword wasn’t the same as a fruit! It shot back, “Can you tame it on your own?”
Yan Zhichuan swore solemnly, “Not now, but future me definitely will.” She pondered, then added, “I’ve claimed what’s rightfully mine. It has nothing to do with you. So, does that mean I get another reward?”
Heavenly Dao System: “……You’re a real clever one.” It changed the subject, urging her on. “It’s late. Got your herbs ready? Can you refine enough Dragon Blood Pills?”
Yan Zhichuan: “Senior Sister said the Puppet Man adjusts to the entrant. I’m just a Foundation Establishment cultivator—it has to be the lowest difficulty, right?” Still, Xiao Tian had a point. She’d need to hit up Medicine Peak for Dragon Blood Pill herbs.
“Even if you refine them, can you swallow them all at once?” Xiao Tian pressed. Dao Pills had no side effects, but their vital energy was overwhelmingly potent. A Dao body could only handle so much; overdose without digesting, and it turned toxic—lethal even. It didn’t want its host dying from pill-popping.
“Why not?” Yan Zhichuan retorted, bragging to the Heavenly Dao System about her pre-Foundation Establishment feats: downing eighteen heavenly treasures in a single day, with just a burp to show for it.
Heavenly Dao System: “……”
Its focus shifted to Yan Zhichuan’s race entry.
—Seems human.
Not an insult—just stating facts?
Yan Zhichuan bustled until the ugly hour before collapsing into bed. But she’d barely closed her eyes when the sound of a sword hilt rapping at the door jolted her awake.
“Xiao Tian, what time is it?” Yan Zhichuan sat up, eyes still shut.
Heavenly Dao System: “A quarter past the Yin hour.”
Yan Zhichuan: “……” The peak’s roosters hadn’t even crowed yet. Did she really have to rise this early?
But the sword-knocking persisted.
Utterly listless, Yan Zhichuan scratched her hair and dragged herself up.
She fumbled through the dark to open the door.
The stone lantern in the courtyard cast a faint, eerie glow.
Zhan Yujie sat on a stone bench radiating intense chill, saying calmly, “If I were an enemy, you’d be dead a thousand times over.”
Yan Zhichuan nodded furiously, like a chick pecking rice.
She got the logic, but this was Nine Abyss Peak. Assassins?
Zhan Yujie gave her prep time. “Fifteen minutes. Then we depart.”
Yan Zhichuan’s face fell, her resentment nearly materializing.
She muttered bitterly to the system, “Xiao Tian, I’m turning bad!”
Heavenly Dao System hummed noncommittally. “Anyway, you’ll pop Dragon Blood Pills and Forget-Sorrow Pills, then swallow an Iron Body Pill later? Nap through the formation—no problem.”
The half-dead Yan Zhichuan mustered a spark of energy. “You’re right.”
Heavenly Dao System: “……”
But Yan Zhichuan didn’t fall asleep.
The Puppet Man swung its staff whistling through the air fiercely, accompanied by eerie wails rising and falling from who-knows-where. She tried every sleep-inducing position, but stayed wide awake.
Next time, bring instant-sleep pills.
No—was there a next time?
The staff shadow crashed down overhead. Even knowing there’d be no pain, her pupils contracted sharply, laced with instinctive dread.
I’m never coming back!
Outside the Eighteen Passes of Forbidden Law Peak.
Zhan Yujie frowned slightly, puzzled.
How’s she not out yet? With her movement arts, she should’ve blacked out at the second pass.
“She came to my Medicine Peak last night for a pile of herbs to refine Dragon Blood Pills and Forget-Sorrow Pills. But no one on Great Power Peak bought any—odds are she took them herself,” Wu Jiang’s voice drifted over as she strolled up gracefully.
Zhan Yujie: “……” She rubbed her temple and sighed. “Training like this won’t help her.”
Wu Jiang blinked, confused. “Why bother with her? Hasn’t Junior Sister always toughed it out like this before?”
Zhan Yujie replied evenly, “She wants to enter the Three Ways River Sword Duel.”
Wu Jiang snorted. “She’s only at second layer Foundation Establishment. She won’t hit Golden Core before it starts.”
By the standard of one layer per eighteen years, even Zhan Yujie thought so.
But a vague sense of foreboding lingered in her heart—especially around Yan Zhichuan, whose presence made her eyelid twitch fiercely.
Zhan Yujie said, “What if she’s a late bloomer?”
