Mo Yu, who had been listening all along, suddenly waved a hand. “I think they’ve got too much time on their hands. If you ask me, they should go out and gain some experience. Once they’ve seen more of the world, they won’t have time to think about all this romance.”
The disciples all shrank back. They were alchemists! Alchemists generally devoted themselves to studying alchemy. Were they supposed to go out and fight people with their furnaces?
“Doesn’t the Mission Hall have assignments? From now on, go out and train with disciples from the Sword Sect’s other peaks. Just broaden your horizons. I don’t expect your cultivation to improve much, but you should at least learn to tell right from wrong and remain true to yourselves.”
Jiang Chan nodded too. “Mo Yu’s suggestion is excellent. It’s getting late today, so report to the Mission Hall tomorrow. I’m sure you’ll gain a great deal from this experience.”
With both people in charge having spoken, the disciples could only agree. From then on, an unwritten rule was passed down on Alchemy Peak.
Its disciples were not to shut themselves away from the world. They also had to understand worldly affairs and human relationships, and develop thoughts and opinions of their own, rather than become cultivators who did nothing but refine pills behind closed doors.
After the disciples dispersed, Mo Yu propped her chin in her hand and looked at Jiang Chan with a knowing smile. “How are you planning to deal with Tang Yubai?”
Jiang Chan raised an eyebrow. “I don’t need to do anything else. Did you think I brought out that sound-recording stone just to teach my disciples a lesson? Only the dead can keep a secret. Once a third person knows, it’s no longer a secret.”
“That’s true. Those disciples of yours seem pretty lively, and they certainly love their gossip.”
Jiang Chan gave Mo Yu a look. “And who’s the real gossip here? You’re the one setting a bad example and turning all these disciples into gossips.”
Mo Yu grinned. “What fun is it if everything stays the same? I’m adding a little entertainment to everyone’s dull cultivation lives. They should thank me. Alright, enough talk. I’m off to cultivate.”
As she walked toward her cave dwelling, Mo Yu muttered, “It’s so unfair. I’m clearly better at fighting and taking a beating, so why can’t my cultivation catch up with yours? Does Heaven really favor certain bloodlines?”
Jiang Chan naturally heard her muttering. She, too, had wondered why her cultivation advanced so quickly. Later, she had gradually begun to understand.
For spirit beasts, cultivation and advancement inevitably involved all kinds of battles. The strong preyed on the weak. It was in their nature, a cruel law of the natural world.
But Jiang Chan had a human soul. After accepting Xiao Jin’s mission, much of her behavior had remained closer to that of a human. When spirit beasts cultivated, they inevitably accumulated karmic ties through killing and other acts.
Killing might improve a spirit beast’s cultivation in the short term, but the karma it incurred brought greater trouble. Wasn’t excessive accumulated karma the very reason so many spirit beasts failed their lightning tribulations?
Jiang Chan’s cultivation followed the ways of human cultivators more closely. She rarely killed, though she certainly would not hesitate when she needed to protect herself. All in all, after so many years of cultivation, the karma she had accumulated was almost negligible.
That was why her cultivation had gone so smoothly. Moreover, Xiao Jin’s body carried the treasure-hunting mouse bloodline, so Heaven’s Dao already favored Jiang Chan. As long as she did not kill excessively, her path of cultivation would be a smooth one.
Of course, that was only the ideal. Nothing in this world remained fixed forever. In general, Jiang Chan’s prospects were bright, but the road ahead was long and winding.
She could only raise her cultivation step by step through her own efforts. Advancing was simply a little easier for her than for other spirit beasts. That was Heaven’s gift to her.
This was exactly what Mo Yu envied. Unlike Mo Yu, Jiang Chan had essentially followed the path of a spell cultivator, whereas Mo Yu had fought her way forward at every step.
Besides, Mo Yu had already been a dominant force in the forest of magical beasts before meeting Jiang Chan. She had naturally accumulated plenty of karmic ties. This was largely why she had remained a step behind Jiang Chan all these years.
Fortunately, Mo Yu’s several advancements had offset most of those karmic ties. Her cultivation would progress faster in the future. She simply did not know it yet.
Jiang Chan’s prediction proved largely correct. Within days, word of Tang Yubai’s murder of a fellow disciple reached the Yunshui Sect’s leadership. Cultivators placed tremendous importance on their sects’ continuity. Anyone who harmed a fellow disciple would be killed on the spot in a serious case, or at the very least expelled.
Jiang Chan paid little attention to what followed. Later, she happened to hear Qingqing mention that Tang Yubai’s cultivation had been crippled and he had been driven out of the Yunshui Sect.
With that, the first of Xiao Jin’s requests was successfully fulfilled. Now Jiang Chan simply worked steadily on her cultivation. Cultivation was inherently difficult for spirit beasts. Even so, it took her a full five hundred years to reach the Tribulation Transcendence stage.
By then, Alchemy Peak was flourishing and had virtually become the Sword Sect’s second-largest faction. Jiang Chan had long since withdrawn from worldly affairs, and Alchemy Peak had already passed through three generations.
Today was the day of Jiang Chan’s tribulation. If she passed, she would ascend and become a divine beast. If she failed, she would perish, her cultivation gone with her. Jiang Chan was not widely known in the cultivation world, as she had always kept a low profile.
This tribulation was no different. Only a few of the Sword Sect’s grand elders were there to observe up close. Even Jiang Chan’s direct disciples could only watch from the foot of the mountain. Qingqing, who had spent a long time in seclusion, sat at the head of Alchemy Peak’s disciples, her attention fixed entirely on Jiang Chan’s location.
Feng Qiwu sat beside several grand elders with a broadsword resting across her knees. Her expression was calm and solemn, and she appeared completely confident that Jiang Chan would pass her tribulation.
Mo Yu sat beside Feng Qiwu and sighed. “If Xiao Chan ascends this time, it won’t be long before it’s my turn. Ah, I wonder how powerful the lightning tribulation for ascension will be.”
She had been suppressing her cultivation all this time. If she released it, the tribulation lightning would probably have struck her long ago. But she had to stay and watch Jiang Chan’s tribulation. After so many years together, the two were already like family.
Mo Yu also wanted to learn from it. Observing someone else’s tribulation could be tremendously beneficial.
Standing on the summit, Jiang Chan looked up at the dark sky, where tribulation lightning gathered within the clouds, ready to strike. She had felt lost at times during her many years of cultivation, but each time she had emerged from that confusion knowing that, wonderful as this world was, it was not where she belonged.
She had not forgotten that her family and friends were waiting for her to return. That world might not have the cultivation world’s abundant spiritual energy, and she might not be able to live quite as freely there, but it was still her home.
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