Chapter 3013 — A Strange Encounter in the Cave 3 (Part One)

"Short of money?" Old Man Wei glanced at Wei Zhao. "I thought you'd already grown used to a comfortable life."

"Compared with the past, I wouldn't call this comfortable. Next to the life of an assassin, all that was child's play. It's just that my strength has risen, and among cultivators I no longer find things so perilous," Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile. "Every world has its own rules. If you never set foot in it, you'll never understand what goes on inside."

"Since you want to take on missions, I can look into it for you. Naturally, don't take the kind you used to. I'll find you some high-end jobs with generous pay," Old Man Wei agreed.

"Good. The bigger the reward, the better!" Wei Zhao replied. "Of course, don't make them too difficult. I'm not looking to get myself killed over money."

"Oh, I'll screen them for you," Old Man Wei said carelessly.

That night, Wei Zhao left Little Feng with Old Man Wei and headed off alone for West Star Mountain.

After the second stone gate had opened, Wei Zhao remembered that beside the third gate stood a stone tablet entirely different from the one by the first gate. On it, written in seal script, was a line of text: Once the second level of divine skill is mastered, the stone gate may be opened.

That being so, Wei Zhao no longer had to abide by the five-year pact of the full-moon night. As soon as his second level of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art reached grand perfection, he could open the third stone gate. And now that his second level had indeed reached grand perfection, he reckoned he should be able to enter the gate without trouble.

Wei Zhao made his way to the Xuanyuan cave dwelling with practiced ease. By now he had come to understand a few things: this cave dwelling had not existed since ancient times but had been built later by human hands. And from what Jiao Yazi had said about the five-year pact, it seemed the whole arrangement had been prepared specifically for Wei Zhao.

His heart was full of doubts. Ever since Old Man Wei had kicked him off the cliff, he seemed to have stepped onto a path someone else had designed. Once on it, every step had been controlled by that person. Who on earth had engineered all this?

Of course, that person clearly bore him no ill will—in fact, was full of goodwill, for Wei Zhao had reaped every benefit. Though he had no worthy sect behind him and no vast supply of heavenly treasures to aid his cultivation, a jade pendant space and the superb techniques within the Xuanyuan cave dwelling were enough to make up for all of that.

Otherwise, how could Wei Zhao have trampled opponents whose cultivation level exceeded his own? That alone showed how formidable the things in the Xuanyuan cave dwelling were—in no way inferior to the top-tier, heaven-defying legacies of the ancient sects. However mighty Zhang Naipao might be, had he not in the end been checked all the same?

So Wei Zhao held the builder of the Xuanyuan cave dwelling in boundless admiration. He did not know why this person had helped him, nor what relation truly existed between them. And having built the cave dwelling, why had the man never shown himself?

Old Man Wei must know something of all this—or at least part of it; otherwise he could not have kicked Wei Zhao down the cliff in the first place. But now Old Man Wei was unwilling to speak, and Wei Zhao could only guess in silence.

It was not yet night. On his last visit, Wei Zhao had tried the gate and found that it would not open before dusk. This time he did not know whether it would work, for the third gate carried no condition about the full moon. Still, night did not necessarily mean a full-moon night, so he stepped forward and tried once more.

To his regret, the gate did not open. It seemed that even if the full moon was not required, ordinary nightfall still was—night was the prerequisite for opening the gate. This was within Wei Zhao's expectations; still, without trying, he could not have been certain.

Since it was still early, Wei Zhao calmed his mind, sat cross-legged at the mouth of the cave, and resumed condensing the forging flame, waiting slowly in his refinement for the moment night descended.

On the path of cultivation, Wei Zhao had essentially reached a bottleneck. His early Heaven rank was now fully consolidated, and he awaited only some stroke of fortune to advance to the peak of early Heaven rank. But that peak was not so easily broken through. Unless Wei Zhao obtained Qi-Gathering Pills or brushed against the bottleneck in battle, such plain cultivation would find it exceedingly hard to break through.

This was also why many cultivators, lacking the chance to break through in combat, could only choose secluded meditation in search of the opportunity.

Of course, some cultivators kept taking Qi-Gathering Pills all the way to grand perfection at the peak of late Heaven rank—but once they had climbed there by such means, with no more pills to take and no ability to cultivate on their own, they had effectively forfeited their chance to ascend to the Heavenly Way.

Though ascension to the Heavenly Way sounded remote and faint, many cultivators still clung to a thread of hope. If they could avoid Qi-Gathering Pills, they would. Besides, apart from the Xuandan Sect, which sect had Qi-Gathering Pills in any abundance?

Gradually, night fell. Wei Zhao withdrew the forging flame he had been condensing, raised his head, and glanced at the blue-black night sky. The moon was not full but a slender crescent.

Wei Zhao rose and walked toward the cave. He halted before the stone gate, slowly laid his hand upon it, and began to circulate the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art.

With his previous experience, Wei Zhao moved with practiced ease. The gate had already acknowledged him as master, and it rose slowly, revealing the Xuanyuan cave dwelling within.

The scene inside the stone gate was much as it had been on his last visit. Wei Zhao did not linger but walked straight to the second stone gate behind the great hall.

Last time, opening this gate had cost him great effort—the gate had drawn the physical energy and true qi from his body into one great circulation. This time, however, Wei Zhao had experience. Unhurried, he placed his hand on the second gate and began to circulate the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art. Yet this time, to his surprise, the energy and true qi within him were not drawn into the gate of their own accord to complete a circulation as before. Instead, just as with the first gate, once Wei Zhao circulated the mental technique and its oral formulas, the gate slowly opened.

The gate was open, and Wei Zhao's connection with the jade pendant space was naturally reestablished. At the sight before him, Wei Zhao could not help asking, "Elder Jiao, this second stone gate is completely different from last time?"

"Naturally it is different. Last time you circulated the first level of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, so the gate had to test you, to see whether you had reached the grand perfection of the first level. This time, however, you circulated the mental technique and oral formulas of the second level. Have you ever seen anyone break through to the second level without first reaching grand perfection in the first? So there was no need for any test at all," Jiao Yazi explained.