After entering the ruin, the cultivation realms of all cultivators were suppressed. Everyone struggled to progress inside. A significant portion of them relied on various medicinal pills just to keep going.
However, who could have imagined that the deeper one ventured into the ruin, the more the white mist that suppressed cultivation seemed to be losing its effect?
Yun Jianyue stood on the cliff, looking at the bottom of the valley, thinking about many things.
He had managed to come all the way here from the outskirts of the ruin. Could it be that the initial cultivators from the Sublime Bright Sect failed to obtain this information? One had to know, he did not encounter any danger along the way. Therefore, the disciples from the Sublime Bright Sect should have no problems arriving here as well. Since that was the case, why did no information transmit out?
After Daoist Master Ironcloud's death, the Sublime Bright Sect was in a state of panic, and they did not dare to conceal anything at all. Especially since he was from the Infatuation Daoist Temple, he should know everything.
Yet, he had not heard any information like this.
With this in mind, Yun Jianyue shook his head. There must have been some problem. If it was not related to the Sublime Bright Sect, then it was likely a problem with this ancient ruin itself. However, he leaned more towards this ruin being the issue.
Perhaps this ruin operated on a certain cycle, where at a certain time, the white mist would gradually weaken? Or maybe no cultivator had ever reached this place.
Yun Jianyue thought for a long time but ultimately could not come to a conclusion. Nevertheless, he did not dwell on it. He had already come this far, and already done so much, since there were many things that he could not find an answer to, it was better to let nature take its course.
He took a look at the bottom of the valley, not entirely sure what he was thinking. Then, he walked along the cliff edge, as if searching for a path that would lead him to the bottom of the valley.
After walking for an unknown period, he did indeed find a steep mountain path. It was so steep that an ordinary person attempting to descend here would likely fall off the cliff and meet an unfortunate end.
But Yun Jianyue was no ordinary person.
He continued to descend along the mountain path, noticing a thick layer of moss covering the ground. This made him feel rather emotional, likely because he felt that no one had been here for many years.
But, he soon became somewhat dazed.
Suddenly, his expression became very solemn.
Because he discovered something very important, which was that the moss here was green.
This was something very normal outside, no one would care. But, it was different here. In fact, it was very special.
Because along the way, the feeling that this ancient ruin gave people was gloominess and darkness. How could there be such a bright color?
Green moss could be seen everywhere outside, in this place, it represented vitality.
This was incongruent with the rest of the ancient ruin. This abnormality made Yun Jianyue fall into silence, thinking about many things.
There were too many abnormalities, it must represent something.
……
……
Chen Chao left the cemetery and also traveled along the river. It was just that after walking more than halfway, he did not arrive at the cliff. He changed direction, heading southeast. While walking, he threw medicinal pills into his mouth one by one, chewing them carefully. He wanted to fully utilize their medicinal effects.
He had naturally finished his own bottle long ago. However, so many cultivators had died and there were still so many medicinal pills that remained, he was not going to let them go to waste. If it were not for the fact that other magic artifacts and whatnot were very troublesome to bring away, Chen Chao might have taken those magic artifacts away as well.
As Chen Chao continued forward, he was actually quite confused himself too. Initially, he had stumbled into that place within the white mist by accident. Although he had tried to memorize some things when he left, the ancient ruin was really too vast, it was difficult for him to find that place again.
But the only thing he was certain of was that this place was definitely deep within the ruin. The identity of the young girl was definitely not simple as well.
However, finding her again would be a very challenging task.
Chen Chao walked aimlessly, unsure of how far he had walked. Suddenly, he thought of something. He raised his head, looked ahead, and began exhaling.
Within the body of a cultivator, there was the concept of old and new qi. When the old qi was depleted, new qi would naturally be born. However, during this transition, a cultivator would often be at their weakest. Chen Chao had used this timing to his advantage in battles several times, defeating many people. But at this moment, he was not exhaling for a qi transition, it was for another purpose.
There was some white mist in the breath he exhaled.
Within the white mist were traces of gold.
Chen Chao had always had many secrets, from his identity at the very start, to why he was able to cultivate, to why he could cultivate so quickly. These were all secrets.
This white mist was the secret.
Countless people had entered the white mist, but none of them had gained any benefits. After spending a certain amount of time inside, they would inevitably suffer severe injuries. The young men who had died on Sublime Bright Mountain or within this ruin was clear evidence. The white mist had brought them only terror and misery, without any positive effects.
But Chen Chao was different, after he entered the white mist, he learned a daoist technique from that crystal clear coffin.
Whether it was a daoist technique or not, even Chen Chao himself could not determine. Apart from being able to reduce pain when he tempered his body, he had not yet discovered any other effects of this white mist. But in reality, he was certain that the white mist had other uses.
Otherwise, that final skeleton sword immortal would not have been so shocked when he saw the white mist.
In fact, Chen Chao had noticed the anomaly of the white mist back then. Upon careful reflection, he realized that aside from the white mist within his own body, there could not be any other explanation.
The white mist drifting in the world was different from the white mist inside his body, but they were intricately connected.
In that case, why not follow the guidance of the white mist to find the young girl?
Chen Chao realized this and forced the white mist out of his body. It exhaled from his mouth and nose, interwoven with golden threads, and then it left his mouth and nose, and drifted slowly in front of Chen Chao.
Chen Chao had no cultivation base, so he could not control the white mist, he could only watch.
The cloud of white mist slowly floated, resembling falling leaves in the wind.
This scene involuntarily made him recall the sheet of paper from before.
The disciples of the Sublime Bright Sect had explored this place for many years, and perhaps that page was the most significant discovery. Except, it was kept secret from the other disciples. It was only in the hands of Daoist Master Ironcloud who studied it carefully.
Chen Chao remembered that year.
That year, he left the place where the coffin was located, and ran outside without any knowledge of where the exit might be. In the end, in his frantic running, he stumbled upon a set of bones and discovered a key and a final letter next to the corpse.
That was the fury of a dead man. He had only sought revenge and had not harbored any thoughts about the sect he had cultivated in for many years. That was why the Sublime Bright Sect had to move its location elsewhere, it was primarily because of that previous sect master.
He was a wicked man who spared no means for his own goals.
But later, Chen Chao found a letter from a good person who shared the same goal as that previous sect master. However, he simply believed that the Sublime Bright Sect was too evil and should not continue to exist.
Chen Chao regained his composure and thought that matters of good and evil were never that simple; it was not just black and white.
Just as he returned to his senses, the cloud of white mist began drifting off into the distance, still resembling falling leaves. But at this moment, the falling leaves had a trajectory.
The cloud of white mist floated off into the distance and Chen Chao followed along. He held onto the broken saber, thinking about how even this broken saber had been picked up randomly by the roadside.
……
……
Yun Jianyue descended the mountain path before he finally reached the valley. Here, he saw lush trees, some of them so large that several people needed to surround it to embrace it. This meant that they had lived for countless years.
Unfortunately, these trees were ordinary and not spirit medicines. Otherwise, given their age, even the most common spirit medicines would have become a rare top-grade item.
Sadly, there was none.
Yun Jianyue continued forward through the woods and arrived before a lake.
The lake was extremely large, the surface shimmering beautifully with light.
Along the lake's shore, there was a patch of reed beds. The reeds swayed with the wind, making it even more picturesque.
Standing there, Yun Jianyue looked at the beautiful scene, thinking of the woman who was like a blooming flower when she smiled, and he could not help but smile himself.
He noticed a white flower by the lakeside.
It was an ordinary yet unusual white flower.
Ordinary because it grew by the lake and was not a spirit medicine, it had nothing particularly special about it.
Unusual because this white flower was growing by the lakeside, but it should not exist in the current era.
Yun Jianyue had read many records in the Infatuation Daoist Temple and had read a book about flowers. It documented every flower in the world, yet this white flower was not among them.
He did not know what this flower was called.
He knew it originated from the ancient times and had continued to live on. As long as no one did anything to it, it would continue to live.
Yun Jianyue reached out and plucked the flower.
Then, he took out a transparent glass bottle and placed the white flower inside.
Looking at this white flower, Yun Jianyue was overjoyed.
He wanted to take it back and show it to his senior sister.
Thinking of this, he was very happy. But he did not notice that the flow of qi in his body was smoother and more abundant than before.
The suppression of cultivation here had lessened significantly.
Yun Jianyue looked up at the sky and saw a bright moon.
It turned out that it was still late at night.
The white mist was too thick, which prevented him from seeing the true sky before. But now that the white mist was significantly thinner, he could see it clearly.
He loved moonlight. Perhaps it was because his name also had a moon?[1]
But that was not the case.
It was because he believed that when he gazed at the moon, the girl he liked would also be looking at the moon. No matter how far apart they were, the two would always be together.
There was only one moon.
Yun Jianyue lowered his head and muttered to himself, "My heart is like the moon."
