Chapter 4: First Encounter with the Mountain Gate

  The two masters and disciples collected their spoils of war and planned to return to Wuji Demon Sect.

  Chen Ling is now in the middle of Yuan Ying's cultivation, relying on Fei Jian to barely fly with Ding Hao, but it's also a bit strenuous. The speed is naturally not fast, but even so, it opens up Ding Hao's horizons and makes him feel unprecedented surprise, his determination to cultivate magic has become even more resolute.

  Ding Hao now knew that he was on a spherical object called Tian Xuan, where the land only occupied one-third of it, and the rest was sea. The land was mainly divided into four major blocks in the east, south, west, and north, with the largest block of land being separated by the sea, and countless smaller blocks of land were not counted.

  The mountain gate of the Wuji Demon Sect is located on the Duanhun Mountain in the Western Continent, and there are not only the Wuji Demon Sect but also other sects on the Duanhun Mountain. Although the Western Continent has many famous mountains and rivers, only a few have abundant spiritual energy suitable for cultivation. There are thousands of large and small sects competing with each other, and the scene of monks fighting over limited resources is constantly being performed.

  The largest sect on Duanhun Mountain is Lianyu Demon Sect, along with Tian Sha Demon Palace of Changhen Mountain and Jianmo Palace of Heiyun Mountain, known as the three major demon gate holy lands in Western Continent. Each sect has thousands of disciples, with numerous masters, and for several thousand years, they have always stood at the highest point of the demon gate.

  Duanhun Mountain has five other sects besides Lianyu Magic Gate: Yin and Yang Harmony Sect, Blood Slaughter Sect, Black Magic Sect, Soul Devouring Sect, and Talisman Sect. Together with Wuji Magic Sect, they all rely on Lianyu Magic Gate to cultivate magic in Duanhun Mountain.

  These small sects must pay tribute to the Refining Hell Sect with some spiritual stones, genius treasures, and refining materials every hundred years in order to obtain the right to continue cultivating on Broken Soul Mountain!

  Among them, the Yin-yang and Hehe sects are stronger, followed by the Xue Sha sect, the Black Demon sect, the Soul-eating sect, the Talisman sect, and the Wuji Demon sect is the weakest.

  Other sects have a mid-term master of Nascent Soul, several early masters of Nascent Soul, while the highest master of Wujimozong, Li Tiannan, has just passed the later stage of Jiedan and entered the early stage of Nascent Soul. The four elders are still in the later stage of Jiedan, which is much weaker than other sects!

  The entire Wuji Sect has only a few dozen people, while the other sects have hundreds of people. The Yin Yang and He Sect even have more than 500 people.

  Due to the fact that their strength was indeed too weak, the disciples of Wuji Demon Sect were extremely cautious when acting on Duanhun Mountain. One misstep could lead to a disaster that would destroy the entire sect. In the demonic path, people do not care about right or wrong, only about one's cultivation level. Therefore, all the disciples of Wuji Demon Sect were extremely low-key. The sect master, Li Nantian, was also in closed-door meditation every day, ignoring everything and seemingly trying to avoid humiliation. He repeatedly warned his disciples to cultivate diligently and not provoke trouble, lest they bring a great calamity upon their own sect!

  Inside the Wuji Demon Sect, everyone's houses were gathered together. The largest and most magnificent one was the main hall, Wuji Hall. However, due to the small number of people, there were more rooms than people. Each person had a room to themselves, even the newcomer Ding Hao had one.

  Behind the building, there is a deep pool. Even in summer, standing by the pool makes one feel cold air pressing down, and the cold air blending with the air above the pool forms a mist of over three feet high, drifting and hazy, like a dream or an illusion, truly having some flavor of a place for spiritual cultivation.

  Behind the deep pool was a small mountain peak, and in the middle of the mountain peak were more than 100 caves that were used by the disciples to cultivate their magic. In terms of living conditions, Ding Hao was already very satisfied, but there were not many people in the Wuji Sect to begin with, and everyone was mainly focused on cultivating, making it seem unusually deserted.

  All the way, he only met two second-generation Shifu and seven third-generation disciples. The gaze of several people was quite strange, and the low voice of a third-generation disciple's surprise made Ding Hao feel like he had boarded the wrong boat. "After 25 years, finally, there is a new disciple joining!" This sentence made Ding Hao feel that something was not right.

  Chen Ling learned from a teacher surnamed Wang that Ma Feng had already left the pass, so he took Ding Hao to pay his respects.

  Ma Feng Gao is only about 1.65 meters tall, with a thin face and a head full of messy black hair that falls to his shoulders. He wears a grey long gown, with a prominent forehead and a pair of narrow eyes, and an expressionless square face topped with a pair of wind-swept ears, giving off a somewhat "crazy" vibe!

  When he heard that Chen Ling had accepted Ding Hao as his apprentice, the expressionless square face showed a few shades of color. When Chen Ling handed him a few scales of the Eight-winged Purple Python, Ma Feng's half-closed eyes suddenly lit up, and his withered claws holding the scales trembled slightly due to emotional excitement.

  "How did you get this thing, and what else do you have? Tell the truth!" The voice was sharp and fine, like a night owl's cry, making one's eardrums ache.

  Chen Ling insisted that he had only obtained it by chance while traveling and had nothing else, just these few scales.

  Ma Feng looked at it for a while before directly putting the scale into his storage bag. "You know how precious this thing is, yet you're willing to give it to me. I appreciate your filial piety, and naturally, I won't be stingy with my rewards. This jade slip is for you; inside are the cultivation methods for the Wuji Demon Sect's breakthrough period, as well as the production and usage methods for three talismans. This jade stone also comes with it, containing enough spiritual energy to last you ten years of cultivation. Your newly recruited disciple has a good bone structure; our sect hasn't had any new disciples join in a long time. You must train him well!"

  Chen Ling nodded repeatedly and confirmed that there was nothing more to gain from Ma Feng. He then left with Ding Hao.

  Chen Ling handed a jade slip to Ding Hao after bringing him back to his residence, which contained the cultivation method of Wuji Magic from the Qi Refining stage to the Heart Movement stage. After briefly explaining the beginner's cultivation method, he said that there was no distinction between good and bad in the cultivation of the Tao, and that progress depended on individual talent and opportunity. However, Ding Hao detected a hint of insecurity in Chen Ling's tone! He had a feeling that Wuji Magic was not an excellent magic cultivation technique.

  Ding Hao originally wanted to borrow the jade stone given by Ma Feng to Chen Ling for his cultivation, but after careful consideration, he felt that the spiritual energy provided by the inner elixir of the eight-winged purple python in his body was already more than enough for his own cultivation needs, so he didn't mention it again.

  Although I had been studying in a private school for several years, at that time I felt it was useless and did not study diligently. Now that I have a method to cultivate my skills, but I don't recognize many characters, and the few characters I do know are difficult to understand when strung together. Only now do I realize that my foundation in cultivating the Tao is still lacking in many ways.

  But looking at Chen Ling's expression, he didn't seem like a patient teacher either. He only asked a few questions and then let him go to the study room to look up the materials himself. It's really unclear whether it was impatience or if he also didn't quite understand. He just repeatedly reminded him to cultivate well, saying that cultivating is also about understanding, letting Ding Hao comprehend on his own!

  Ding Hao was not a man of many words, so he didn't say anything more and avoided embarrassing Chen Ling. Since he already knew his own shortcomings, Ding Hao naturally would try to make up for them and headed straight to the library.

  The only person guarding the library was a third-generation disciple. At the entrance, Ding Hao saw him with his eyes closed, sitting cross-legged, and didn't know whether he was cultivating or sleeping. When he heard Ding Hao's footsteps, he opened his eyes to take a glance, then continued meditating as if Ding Hao didn't exist.

  Ding Hao didn't even know his name, and was too lazy to ask. As he walked towards the inner courtyard, every sect's library was a must-have, storing some books on cultivation knowledge, basic cultivation techniques, but the most profound techniques would not be stored here, they were all passed down orally from generation to generation.

  Even so, the library is not a place where ordinary people can enter at will, but the Wujimozong seems to be indifferent to the management of the library. Although the Wujimozong is only a second-rate cultivation sect, there are also thousands of books in the library. It's unknown whether it's because the high-level cultivation methods of the Wujimozong are too few, but most of the books in the library are basic cultivation books. For example, the method of making and using the simplest insect-repelling talisman is usually only introduced in one book by other sects, and at most two or three kinds, but Ding Hao found seven manufacturing methods here.

  Ding Hao thought that maybe there were too few intermediate to advanced level techniques, so if the entire collection only had a dozen or so books it wouldn't look very good, so he added some miscellaneous basic books to make up the numbers.

  Ding Hao didn't rush to look at these basic cultivation techniques, but instead found a dictionary to flip through. Beginner cultivators who couldn't read weren't just limited to Ding Hao, so the hidden book room had also prepared some of the most basic things for this type of person to study!

  With the help of a dictionary, Ding Hao has identified the three cultivation methods of Qi Refining Stage, Embryonic Breathing Stage and Revolving Body Stage in Jade Swallow. The beginning is not too difficult, Ding Hao's memory is ordinary, but his understanding ability is extraordinary. Originally thought to be obscure and difficult to understand words, with the help of a dictionary, they have all been slowly understood!

  Then he organized some common sense books of Xiuzhen into his jade slip, and returned to his residence after three hours.

  Sitting on the bed, he began to sort out his thoughts. Every event that had occurred in the past two days was clearly visible in his mind. Just yesterday, he was just an ordinary hunter in Shanhe Village, but today he had entered the world of cultivation. The development of events always exceeded expectations. These two days of experience had broadened his horizons while also making him feel uneasy and fearful. Everyone in this world had the ability to kill him, which made him feel threatened, but more so, it was excitement. Yes, it was excitement. Ding Hao knew he liked this feeling, perhaps he was just not suited for a mundane life.

  The first person he thought of was his master Chen Ling. Ding Hao didn't believe that Chen Ling had taken him as an apprentice out of concern for his life. People in the demonic path were inherently selfish and wouldn't do something so unprofitable.

  The Eight-Winged Purple Python is so precious in his mouth, why would he be willing to feed it to himself? What does he want from him? The Eight-Winged Purple Python's inner elixir! Not bad, but not quite right either. Although he has already eaten it into his belly, he hasn't fully absorbed it yet. He can completely kill him and take it, although the effect will be greatly reduced.

  Effect greatly reduced! That's right, he is now in the early stage of Yuan Ying, and has the ability to re-emerge from the womb and choose a new body. Once he absorbs the inner elixir of the Eight-Winged Purple Python, he can directly disperse his own soul, and only then can he obtain the maximum effect of the Eight-Winged Purple Python's inner elixir. This is his true purpose!

  Ding Hao was completely certain that the facts were absolutely so, and since he had figured out this point, Ding Hao wasn't afraid anymore. For him, this was exactly the first difficult problem he encountered after entering the Cultivation Realm, and how to break through this level was what he was thinking about!

  After some thought, I feel that there is no good solution for the time being, and what's most important now is not this matter, but how to quickly improve my own strength.

  Strength! Strength! This is the greatest proof of whether one can survive in the Cultivation Realm!