Starting Cultivation During a Trip

The thirteen Zodiacs, with Human Xiao as their head.

Human Xiao is one of the most mysterious existences within the Wuwei Sect, veiled in mist even to the other twelve Zodiac guardians.

Yet when that name is spoken by Yun Jianyue, or by Si Snake of Bai Yujing, it shakes Zhang Fan to his core.

”Human Xiao… Li Linglong?”

”Mom? This… how can this be?” Zhang Fan’s eyes trembled, utterly incredulous.

”You never considered that your origins could be like this, did you?”

Yun Jianyue gazed at Zhang Fan with a half-smile, firelight flickering in her beautiful eyes.

”Ten years ago, beneath Dragon Tiger Mountain, that great calamity thrust you into the Great Night. There are many things you no longer remember…”

”But you should know, your mother is none other than Human Xiao.”

”Inside that Dharma Jar sent by the Jiangnan Province Daoist Alliance lies the sealed Primordial Spirit of Human Xiao.”

Yun Jianyue’s words erupted like thunder from a clear sky, rattling Zhang Fan’s nerves, making his face twitch faintly.

”My mom…”

”Daoist Sect experts severed that Primordial Spirit from her corpse and sealed it away to this day…”

”Heh heh… over the years, this has been the greatest triumph of the Daoist Sect over the Wuwei Sect. Who knows how many secrets reside in the Human-shaped Primordial Spirit? Once it’s refined, it will be the sharpest blade to slaughter the Wuwei Sect.” In Yun Jianyue’s eyes, it seemed as if she glimpsed a bloody tempest.

”Ten years ago—what exactly happened that night?”

Zhang Fan longed to know.

Ever since he descended Zhenwu Mountain and gradually walked into this world of Daoist cultivation, Zhang Fan’s understanding of the past had been thoroughly overturned.

The world he’d known was false, his father fake, his mother an illusion, everything around him a sham—even he himself was not real…

Even though he’d recovered the Evil Gods and, through the Rooster’s gaze, peered into the Celestial Secret, catching glimpses of that night ten years ago, he was still some distance from the truth.

”Everything begins with the Daoist Sect’s Great Calamity eighty years ago!” Yun Jianyue declared in a solemn voice.

”Daoist Sect’s Great Calamity…” Zhang Fan frowned deeply.

Now, he was no longer a novice just entering the Daoist Sect; those words, ”Daoist Sect’s Great Calamity,” were no mystery to him.

”Eighty years ago, the Daoist masters of the world all gathered at Dragon Tiger Mountain… It was the brilliance of an era…” Yun Jianyue muttered faintly.

The Universal Sacrifice, the highest rite of the Daoist Sect, had only been held seventeen times since the sect’s inception. To live in this era and dwell within the Daoist world—who wouldn’t wish to participate in such a grand assembly?

One in ten thousand—back then, those who could stand upon Dragon Tiger Mountain were the elite of every school, the future aristocrats.

”A ceremony inviting the blessings of the Immortal Gods, yet in the end it turned into the Daoist Sect’s Great Calamity… Everyone who attended died on Dragon Tiger Mountain…” Yun Jianyue intoned in a low voice.

After that day, Daoist masters across the land withered; many Dharma Lineages lost their incense for good, and even the Dragon Tiger Zhang Family, hailed as the Daoist Ancestral Lineage, was annihilated.

”So what exactly happened?” Zhang Fan couldn’t help but ask.

”No one knows.” Yun Jianyue shook her head slowly.

This is the Daoist Sect’s greatest secret; everyone who knew perished atop Dragon Tiger Mountain—except…

”Chu Chaoran!”

”He was the only survivor.” Yun Jianyue said, her voice grave.

When Chu Chaoran attended the gathering, he was still a fledgling novice, youthful and proud; he alone emerged alive from Dragon Tiger Mountain, clutching his master’s severed hand with the Jade Scroll signifying Zhenwu’s inheritance gripped tight inside.

”There is a saying…”

”Within the Daoist Sect’s Great Calamity lies the secret of immortality!” Yun Jianyue declared in a deep tone.

”That is why Chu Chaoran, in the subsequent twenty years, advanced his cultivation at a phenomenal pace, directly stepping into the Pure Yang Wuji Realm, and, before the sixtieth year, defeated the world’s number one Three Corpses Daoist.”

”The secret of immortality!?” Zhang Fan’s gaze narrowed, deep in thought.

”Since ancient days, so many Seekers of Immortality—how many have attained Pure Yang?” Yun Jianyue shook her head.

From age to age, the Pure Yang Realm is but a legend; let alone those elusive Immortal Gods—do they even truly exist? Even cultivators wouldn’t dare claim it lightly.

Especially now, in the End of Dharma, when the path fades into obscurity; it is feared even Pure Yang will drift into mist.

Yet, eighty years ago, that ritual was intended to summon the Immortal Gods above; as for whether any Immortal Gods descended into the mortal world, none can say. But tribulation brings fortune—under great calamity, there must be destiny…

”That great calamity concealed the secret of immortality, and Chu Chaoran was the protagonist of that era; he glimpsed a fragment, and so achieved the Pure Yang Wuji Realm.” Yun Jianyue’s eyes flashed with an unearthly light.

Sixty years ago, Three Corpses Daoist also said that if the Wuwei Sect wished to rise, it had to solve the mystery of the Daoist Sect’s Great Calamity.

Thus, for so many years, whether it’s the Daoist sects or the Wuwei Sect, they have all obsessed over the tribulation that struck eighty years ago.

There were even experts who entered Dragon Tiger Mountain, but all faded without a trace—not a single one emerged alive, until…

”Ten years ago, someone reopened Dragon Tiger Mountain and became the sole survivor.”

At this, Yun Jianyue paused for a moment, then looked at Zhang Fan with a meaningful gaze.

”You should know that person as well.”

”His name is Zhang Lingzong!” Yun Jianyue’s eyes were focused to a thread; just mentioning his name, her gaze seemed to waver.

”As expected!” Zhang Fan sighed inwardly.

It matched precisely what he’d glimpsed in the Rooster’s Celestial Secret; ten years ago, that night, his father truly entered Dragon Tiger Mountain and brought out a coffin holding the girl Jiang Lai.

”Who is my father, really?” Zhang Fan asked, unable to resist.

”The most dangerous in the world—the Divine Demon Holy Embryo…” Yun Jianyue said darkly.

”The Inner Core Technique he cultivates is one of the nine great legends—the Divine Demon Holy Embryo!”