Immortal Mortal

“Bang!” Another explosion during the pill condensing step occurred, which made Mo Wuji jump up in shock. Thankfully it wasn’t Shi Jun’s pills that exploded this time, but the guy who was seated first from the left previously. With the two consecutive failures, he was disqualified.

At this rate, it seemed as though the only one who was not half assed was Pill Master Ju, who he did not get along with. Most probably, they were trying very hard to mimic a Tier 3 pill refiner in order to gain entry to the Formless Blade Mountain. But now their ruse was seen through when placed in front of a pill furnace and asked to refine Tier 3 pills.

Shi Jun’s second attempt at refining carried on smoothly even as explosions from other’s failures rang out one by one around him. Could it be that Mo Wuji’s words helped? Another half an hour passed, and Shi Jun began the condensing process just as the fragrance of pills wafted out of his furnace. At this moment, another person’s pills blew up in his face, leaving only one other pill refiner..

The outline, followed by the solid shape of reddish-green pills slowly formed within the blazing furnace. Minutes later, Shi Jun slapped both hands on the pill furnace, causing six pills to fly out of it and into the jade vase that was waiting in place.

Once Shi Jun succeeded in creating his pills, the last pill refiner got affected by the commotion, and could only resign to failure. Out of the five pill refiners that started out, only Pill Master Ju and Shi Jun managed to successfully refine their pills. Without any further evaluation, the results of the selections were clear.

“Pill Master Ju and Pill Master Shi are hereby promoted to Tier 3 Mortal Pill Master, congratulations.” The elder at the top left corner was the first to give a standing ovation. The sect head followed suit, revealing a big smile on his face while clapping for them, “with Pill Master Ju and Pill Master Shi, the Formless Blade Sect will definitely get a better placing in the Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition.”

After completing this sentence, Gu Ran’s smile disappeared and he took a more serious tone, “The people present today are the foundations of our Formless Blade Sect: Our 10 elders and our pill refiners. The Formless Blade Mountain of our sect has not been opened before in a thousand years. Talking about it, perhaps our Formless Blade Mountain may not have spiritual herbs as valuable as those found in the Five Elements Desolate Domain. We definitely do not have any top tier treasures that can help one cross into the Heaven Realm. But out of all the secret dimensions of the sects in the five great empires, our Formless Blade Mountain is undoubtedly one of the top ranking secret dimensions.

When we open the largely untouched Formless Blade Mountain, I hope that the seven pill refiners will treasure this opportunity. Do not to waste a single stalk of spiritual herb, and raise your pill refining ability as much as possible. This is all so that we may obtain a better placing in the Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition.”

“Don’t worry sect head, we will live up to your expectations” Mo Wuji observed Shi Jun, Pill Master Ju, and the rest of the six Tier 3 pill refiners standing up and bowing respectfully.

Yan Qianyin did not move upon hearing this statement, so Mu Wuji knew that these six pill refiners were simply bragging.

Although other people could not see through his ruse, but Mo Wuji completely understood the abilities of Pill Master Shi. Even though he had never seen how good the other sects’ pill refiners that were taking part in the Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition, it was pretty clear that someone of Pill Master Shi’s level would not be able to get any significant position. Pill Master Ju might be more capable than Shi Jun, but Mo Wuji still did not think he amounted to much. Rather, it was the Tier 4 Earth Pill Master Yan Qianyin, did not speak nor make any movements, who Mo Wuji had his eyes on, .

“Good, now I officially declare the Formless Blade Mountain open, every pill refiner who enters is allowed to bring one ingredient boy with him. The Formless Blade Mountain will remain open for a duration of one month, after which, it will close again. All elders and the pill refiners entering the Formless Blade Mountain, please follow me.” Gu Ran cut to the chase, and rose right after speaking.

Since the time Mo Wuji joined the Formless Blade Sect, his activities were restricted to the most outer circle. If it were not for Shi Jun’s help, the deepest he would be able to delve into the sect would only be the Hall of Affairs. At the moment, he followed behind the sect head and the elders into the deepest regions of the Formless Blade Sect. Only then did he realise how enormous the Formless Blade Sect was. Chain after chain of blades stretched on for kilometres, leaving one thinking just how many experts passed through this place in the past.

At the centre of the blades, there was a round pavilion with a hilt-less and scabbard-less blade floating right at the top. Who knew how long this blade had been there for? As Mo Wuji curiously gazed towards it, he could still feel a chill run down his spine.

Tiny figures and words describing sword styles littered the exterior of the pavilion, seemingly random, but also seemingly having a certain order.

An old one-armed man held a broom in hand, sweeping the grounds before the pavilion. Gu Ran gave him a small bow as he passed by the pavilion, leading the rest of the group into the circular structure.

On the other hand, Mo Wuji took a second look at this old one-armed arm thinking. Was this the sweeping monk of the legends? No, it should be the sweeping old man.

Soon after Mo Wuji took his first step into the round pavilion, he laid eyes on the circular altar at the centre. Mysterious symbols covered the entirety of the altar, and beside it were many potholes. Other than that, there was nothing else in the pavilion.

“The thirteen going to the Formless Blade Mountain, please proceed into the Formless Blade Mountain Transfer Formation.” Formless Blade Sect Head Gu Ran’s words echoed out as he pointed at the altar. So this was the legendary transfer formation. Mo Wuji had heard that immortal masters could set up various types of formations, and the transfer formation was one of them.

Even though Yan Qianyin was the most qualified to have a ingredient boy help her carry stuff, she was the only one who did not bring one along. This piqued Mo Wuji’s interest. How would she refine pills without a pill furnace?

Like the other ingredient boys, a large furnace was carefully balanced on the back of Mo Wuji as he stood behind Shi Jun. There was no helping it, as an ingredient boy, he would have to do this sort of manual labor for pill refiners. Otherwise, going into the Formless Blade Mountain would just be a dream.

Once all thirteen people stepped onto the transfer formation, Gu Ran threw a handful of shiny transparent jade rocks. A dazzling white glow erupted as the jade rocks accurately fell into the potholes, causing everyone to look away for a moment. This was definitely not normal jade rocks, but the spirit stones that he had heard of before. As much as Mo Wuji tried to catch a glimpse of the appearance of spirit stones, his line of sight was blocked by the white light. He was unable to see anything, but could still feel the rich and dense spiritual energy that resided in those rocks.

A sense of giddiness overcame him, making Mo Wuji wonder if this was the teleportation part of the transfer process. It felt as though his surroundings were shaking violently, like he was about to get torn apart.

“RIIIPPPP…” Following that sound, bursts of blood stench bombs exploded all over him. Mo Wuji was in shock. Although he could not see anythin, he knew that some people were really torn apart by the energy released by space-time fluctuations.

Could one transfer be so scary, to the extent that people have to give up their lives?

“Everyone take note, something’s wrong with the transfer. Once you’ve reached the Formless Blade Mountain, don’t roam around recklessly, try to gather as a group first…” Yan Qianyin’s voice made it in the nick of time, but only half of the message reached Mo Wuji before her voice faded away.

Another wave of searing pain hit him, and Mo Wuji could clearly feel and hear his bones breaking. Just as he thought that he would end up like the few other unlucky buggers, to be torn up by the energy of space-time fluctuations, he landed on the ground with a heavy thud.

It took a good 10 over minutes of resting before Mo Wuji slowly struggled his way up. Pain invaded every crevice of his body, and his bones had cracked under the stress of the space-time energy. What’s more scary was that there was not a single person around him. Indeed as what Yan Qianyin had said, some issue had arose with the transfer formation.

The stench of blood that he had smelt before must have been the few other ingredient boys being ripped apart. He managed to survive as he was not an ordinary ingredient boy. Not only was he a Channel Opening Level 2 cultivator, but after enduring countless strikes of lightning, his body’s durability became much greater than those around the same level of cultivation as him.

Gritting his teeth, Mo Wuji fought the pain throughout his body to stand up, before taking in a breath of cold air. According to Gu Ran, Formless Blade Mountain should have spiritual herbs aplenty; fields of different colours stretching out beyond one’s field of vision like a utopia for pill refiners. But now what lay before him was a barren wasteland of crumbling rocks and dried, cracked soil. Where were the spiritual herbs? Where were the grass?

Mo Wuji could not believe that the Formless Blade Sect’s Leader would lie about such a thing. With such a great discrepancy, it must have meant that something had happened back at the sect. Connecting this with the problem in the transfer formation, he was even more sure that the story was not as simple as it seemed.