Starting Cultivation During a Trip

Chapter 243: Chapter 147: Black Crane Devouring White Feathers! Eighty Years Ago on Dragon Tiger Mountain

White clouds float leisurely, veiling the glow of the setting sun; the Crane Descends, yet the true Dao remains hidden in secret arts. Only the sound of wind and startled cranes rises—suddenly, blackness emerges and the heavens fall into chaos.

Above Yujing City, white clouds drift, the sunset glow faint within, a sign that the incense of Agarwood is burning—an omen for discerning High Skill and cultivating enlightenment.

Especially when the Crane Descending phenomenon manifested, many hidden experts lurking within Yujing City were startled and drawn out.

In Daoist cultivation, to be able to step into the realm of High Skill is one in ten thousand; to induce the White Crane Descending from Heaven is true immortal fate, a sign of someone transcendent, whose future will be limitless.

”Only in High Skill can the descent of the Immortal Crane be found amidst the incense... It is said only those who achieve High Skill before thirty may ever attract the Crane Descending sign.”

”A true recluse walks among the masses—Yujing City yet hides such an expert. Today, their virtue will certainly ascend.”

”A breakthrough indeed—surpassing the barrier of Lowering True Fate; what fortune... It seems another attempts a breakthrough as well, but perhaps they have failed.”

Crane Descending—the rarest of omens throughout history, let alone in these modern times—naturally draws every gaze heavenward.

Yet in another patch of white cloud, the glow has dimmed, fading before the eyes.

But just then, a long, piercing cry rang out—like thunder, startling and frightful, shaking the eight directions. Amidst the faint, dispersing floating clouds, two fierce, ghastly talons tore forth, huge beyond measure, each one as vast as a circling white crane, black feathers drifting down with them.

”What is that?”

In the courtyard, He Ningyan gazed skyward, her Primordial Spirit observing; at first, seeing clouds scatter, she lamented within: the path to High Skill is perilous beyond compare. With talent like Ma Buting’s, one may achieve ascension and draw the Crane Descending sign. For others striving together, their fates would be swallowed by countless failures—obscure, nameless, forgotten.

This is the despair of reality, and the brutality of cultivation’s road.

Yet...

Rumble...

Within the dispersing clouds, who knew what terrifying form was concealed? Those two fierce, monstrous talons were but the tip of the iceberg; as they burst from the void, they reached into the neighboring, drifting white clouds, shattering glimmers of sunset, shaking the firmament itself.

In the next instant, came a shriek of misery. The two white cranes that had circled high above were seized alive, each held fast within one great talon.

”A black Immortal Crane!?”

”What on earth is that thing!?”

He Ningyan’s face went pale with shock, hardly able to believe her eyes. Born of the Three Emperors Sect, learned and well-read in the Daoist Canon, she had never once seen such a sign.

Black feathers fluttered down, giant talons seizing cranes; though all this transpired only in the Outer Scenery of the Primordial Spirit, it sent a chill to the core of her soul.

It was a fear stemming from instinct itself, as though branded into her Innate Primordial Spirit—trembling and terrified, she dared not face it directly.

In that moment, she even forgot to guard her body while Out-of-Body.

”I knew it... something was destined to go wrong.”

Upon the rooftop, Bai Buran’s gaze was focused to a line. Staring at the unnatural sky, his countenance was unspeakably grim.

Ever since Zhang Fan entered his company, not a single event had gone without freak occurrences.

This time, as the Agarwood burned and someone sought their breakthrough, it was anything but an exception—a mishap has happened again, just as expected.

But the Outer Scenery unfolding before his eyes was beyond even Bai Buran’s knowledge.

Though of Zhenwu Mountain lineage, his cultivation was profound, yet even he could not fathom what omen this vision heralded.

Roar...

Just then, a terrifying cry ripped from the dispersing clouds—mysterious, profound, piercing the haze of Yin and Yang, obscuring the light of the Agarwood. And then, the two struggling white cranes were crushed to pulp within the monstrous talons.

”This... this... crushed to death? What... what does this mean?”

”Burning incense to heaven draws down the true ones, so come the white cranes as sign... In my thirty-seven years of cultivation, never did I hear of the Crane Descending vision being...”

”Cranes descend from heaven—proof of immortal fate... Then what is this thing, that can seize and crush the white cranes!?”

Innumerable incredulous eyes turned to the sky, each shivering with disbelief.

Bai Buran’s face grew cloudier still, feeling as more and more attention was absorbed into the sky’s bizarre vision.

”Look!”

Suddenly, high overhead, the two cranes that had been crushed in plain sight transformed into two masses of violet qi...

Then, within the dispersing clouds, that eerie silhouette flapped its wings, black feathers dancing down through the air.

In the next moment, those two wriggling masses of violet qi seemed devoured, instantly streaming into the dissolving clouds—consumed by that unfathomable, ghostly shape.

”That thing—it ate the white cranes!?”

The world fell into utter silence. Every gaze was fixed in horror upon the spectral form hanging in the heavens; now, all knowledge and experience seemed impotent and void.

No one knew—what did such an Outer Scenery portend!?

Rumble...

In a flash, the scattering white clouds vanished, and the malevolent shape concealed within them disappeared without a trace.

”Huh!? There’s nothing at all? Wasn’t someone just making a breakthrough to High Skill!?”

Clouds drifted away; no Primordial Spirit was seen. In truth, it was Bai Buran who, quick as a shadow, summoned Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit back into his body’s acupoints—only then did the strange vision above finally dissolve.

”No one? How can there be no one?”

He Ningyan’s face was grave; she had thought someone much like Ma Buting was seeking to break into the High Skill rank.

Yet now, the heavens were empty—no trace left behind at all.

If that were so, then where had the earlier phenomenon arisen from?

”Could it have been my junior’s Demon Tribulation? What grievous, heaven-defying deed did he commit, to draw such wrath from above?” He Ningyan’s heart was thrown into disarray, her thoughts swirling in confusion.