Chapter 9: The Bird That Was Startled

  In a daze, he didn't know how much time had passed when his brain suddenly rang out with a "thud", as if that little hammer had struck again, bouncing him out of his trance-like state. Opening his eyes, the sky was already bright, and the scene of riding the moon and touring the starry sea seemed still before his eyes, but the more he recalled it, the more it felt hazy and dreamlike.

  With eyes closed and introspection, the body's energy and blood vessels are clear and unblemished, the internal organs are flexible and strong. With just a slight movement of thought, true energy emerges like a tide, dispersing and rising up. As soon as the mind stirs again, it transforms into gentle clarity, thread by thread, like a spring breeze passing through.

  Without a doubt, Yu Ji's cultivation has improved, her physical condition is better than ever before, and her control over the true energy is unprecedentedly free.

  But is there something missing?

  In Yuji's view, taking a leap to the realm of Tongshen should be an extremely critical step in the cultivation process. It should be an unparalleled evolution from inside to outside, from physical body to spirit, otherwise, how can we distinguish the difference between cultivators and ordinary people?

  Up to this moment, apart from the differentiation of divine consciousness into divine intention, Yu Ci has not found the earth-shattering changes he had expected. Perhaps last night's moonlit journey was one, but that was too mysterious and made him feel unreal.

  And what's more, there are even more serious problems waiting for him ahead.

  The cultivation of the Tongshen realm is vastly different from the "Mundane Three Passes". I recall that the Red Yin Female Immortal once said that below the Tongshen realm, all cultivation methods are acquired through practice and learning (post-heavenly), to further refine oneself in the Tongshen realm, one must possess a unique method to transform post-heavenly into pre-heavenly, or abandon previous methods and directly cultivate pre-heavenly techniques.

  The so-called innate law is precisely the "longevity technique" held by the group of cultivators. However, Yu Ci couldn't find the legendary "longevity technique", nor did he know the secret to transforming post-heaven into pre-heaven with the "Nine Palaces Moon Brightness Returning to Truth Method". As for what path to take next, he was still completely at a loss.

  Of course, he didn't give up. Similar things happened to him countless times during his twelve years of independent cultivation. That's just how it is when you're cultivating on your own - no master to pass down teachings, no seniors to guide you, and no theoretical concepts to rely on. All you can do is grope forward by yourself until you hit a dead end and have to turn back...

  Get used to it and you'll be fine.

  Yu Ci was thinking and wanted to continue thinking, but from the surrounding pine forest, there were sounds being transmitted over, and they were getting louder and louder.

  He raised his head impatiently, but suddenly felt a jolt beneath him, as if the mountain was shaking. From his position, he could see birds flying out of the woods in all directions, not just from one corner, but from this entire half of the mountain forest. The sky above the pine forest seemed to be shrouded in a dark cloud, and the buzzing noise was so loud it felt like it could burst eardrums.

  What can cause such an effect?

  Yu Ji gathered her spirit and carefully lowered her body, looking down from the edge of the pit.

  From this angle, the details in the forest are not clear, but a gust of mountain wind blows by, and Yu Ci vaguely smells a very unfamiliar bloody smell. The reason it's called unfamiliar is that this smell doesn't match the usual grass, wood, bird, and beast scents of the mountain forest, and its stimulating properties are extremely strong. As soon as it enters her nostrils, Yu Ci feels an inexplicable sense of unease in her heart, thinking that whatever is emitting this smell can't be a good thing.

  The birds flying around in circles above the forest also seem to be able to prove it.

  Just then, another mournful cry echoed from below, the sound was so sharp that it reverberated throughout the mountain, and for a moment even drowned out the chirping of birds. Yu Ci felt the intense fear and death energy bursting out of the cry, and immediately knew that someone had met their end down there.

  Perhaps the wail was too loud, and after the cry, there was an unusual silence in the mountains. Of course, it's also possible that Yu Ci is mistaken. However, he also felt that although the chirping of birds had not stopped, the forest seemed to be deserted, as if the guy who emitted a foul odor was leaving.

  It wasn't until nearly half a minute later that the birds in the sky above the mountain forest finally landed. Yu Ci didn't delay either, flipping over and jumping out of the hidden depression, leaping down.

  In the mountain wind, there was a faint smell of blood and a thick smell of smoke. Yu Ciyu followed it, passing through the branches and leaves, and soon arrived near the scene. Unexpectedly, on that side, there were already people, and as many as seven or eight.

  But these people were all clearly distracted.

  Yu Cijian walked straight over, intentionally heavy footsteps, but still hadn't caught the other party's attention, until he cleared his throat and someone turned around, taking a defensive stance. Then, that group of people turned around one after another, being extremely cautious. This reaction was somewhat excessive.

  However, judging from their speed of mobilizing their vital energy, these people are at most just Longxiu cultivators, and the danger is not high. They look like ordinary herb collectors.

  Those herb collectors saw that I was alone, with burn marks on my body and looking somewhat disheveled. Their guard dropped a bit. Only then did I walk forward, introducing myself as a lone traveler who had come to collect herbs and happened to hear the noise and came over to investigate.

  "It's a monster!"

  This was the reply of the herb collectors. As they spoke, they still had lingering fear and their eyes involuntarily glanced towards the depths of the forest, trying to distance themselves from that direction as much as possible.

  Monster? Thinking of that stimulating bloody smell, Yu Ci somewhat believed it.

  For four months around the Sky Crack Valley, he already knew that what Xuan Qing said that night was not entirely nonsense. He often heard rumors that in the depths of the layered clouds and mist of the Sky Crack Valley, there lived some ferocious creatures that ordinary people could hardly imagine, they formed their own world, although each one was cruel and bloodthirsty, but rarely set foot in this area of the upper part of the Sky Crack Valley. However, once someone provoked them, these fierce creatures would pursue and attack, vowing not to stop until they killed the person.

  However, compared with monsters, Yu Ji would rather call them fierce beasts, which is more in line with his understanding.

  Yu Cai also asked about the appearance of the fierce beast, but these medicine collectors were all evasive in their words, saying that the fierce beast was too fast and they couldn't see its appearance clearly. They only knew that it was extremely large, and could ride on clouds and drive away fog, control thunder and fire, and was very strange and unusual.

  Ride the clouds and drive the fog? Command the thunder and fire? Yu Cui found it hard to understand such things, but he had already seen that behind the crowd of medicine guests, a corpse was lying horizontally, and after scanning it with his eyes through the crowd, he felt that the person died extremely miserably, probably at the hands of a "monster".

  "Are you companions?"

  Suddenly, some people nodded and others shook their heads.

  Yu Ci smiled. Earlier, he also saw that among the medicinal herb collectors, two people had just stood up from beside a corpse and were putting something into their clothes, probably this was the reason.

  He had no intention of robbing the dead, but he didn't care what these medicine collectors thought either. He said "excuse me" and was about to go forward to observe. Among the medicine collectors, some made way for him, others were reluctant, and some even harbored murderous intentions.

  At this moment, Yu Ci also glanced at the face of the person who had just moved to kill him.

  So accurately captured the target, because at this moment, a lamp lit up on his forehead.

  To Yu Ci, this feeling was very strange. In the blink of an eye, his forehead suddenly felt hot, as if a light had risen and a flame had ignited on top of his head, about the size of a bean. It seemed that it would be extinguished by the wind, but it still illuminated the empty space. The lamp light seemed to have a spiritual quality, shining onto the target's body, and the surrounding air machine also adjusted to a state of readiness, motionless for now, but once moved, it would inevitably shake heaven and earth.

  Everyone's face across from them changed color.

  The change in the expressions of the medicine guests was not due to Yu Ji's sudden change in attitude, but rather because they suddenly felt that the skin of the little white face in front of them, which was even more delicate than a woman's, had suddenly grown taller by one section after turning around, and his body had also expanded horizontally by one circle, as if he had puffed up with air, so much so that his elegant face had become somewhat ferocious, and from this high vantage point, he glared at them.

  But on closer inspection, the person is still the same, no taller, no stronger, with no fierce expression on his face, but the feeling that comes across is incomparably ferocious.

  Among the medicinal herb pickers, a man's legs suddenly went soft and he sat down on the ground with a thud.

  This was the man who had just harbored evil intentions, born rather short and sturdy, also good at fighting fiercely. He had just taken advantage of the opportunity to gain some benefits, but feared that after the white-faced Taoist left, he would spread the word everywhere, bringing disaster to his own family. Therefore, he secretly drew out a knife, preparing to call on his brothers to go up together and finish off this man.

  Just as he was about to make a move, the white-faced Taoist suddenly turned around, his eyes directly nailed to his body, sharp as a knife, and with one slash at his heart, his entire chest seemed to have been hollowed out! At that moment, he couldn't catch his breath, and almost fainted.

  Companions fell to the ground, and those who were picking herbs also had a shock. At this time, everyone's thoughts were revealed, some drew out their swords, while others retreated backwards, seven or eight people had seven or eight different expressions, the atmosphere in the forest suddenly became tense and chaotic to the extreme. Of course, that was only true for the few herb-picking guests.

  Yu Ci couldn't help but laugh at the reaction of this motley crew.

  His mood was not bad, and that glance was not intentional, but a spontaneous reaction of his soul. The newly lit "lantern" was something he didn't have before, but it had a lot to do with his soul, and it's very likely that after connecting with the divine, there will be a unique change, which needs to be studied carefully later on.

  He spared no effort, but still had to solve the problem at hand. There was no need to say more, with a fierce and intimidating aura, he stepped forward in the direction of the corpse, came to the front of the corpse, squatted down to examine it.

  None of the guests dared to make a move.

  Even though Yu Ci thought she had a strong heart, the back of her neck felt slightly chilly when she saw the state of the corpse. The person's face was completely smashed, and it wasn't just their face - from the head down to the upper half of their body, there were hardly any intact bones. With just a slight touch, the skin and flesh seemed to crumble, clearly having been brutally smashed into this state by an external force.

  From the posture of the corpse, he inferred that the person should have been blown away by a huge force and soon found the direction from which the person had flown.

  From his position, it was indeed that on the other side there was a pine tree broken off at waist height, only being propped up by the surrounding trees and not completely fallen. Looking through the gap in the broken tree into the depths of the forest, one could vaguely imagine how this person had been violently struck by a ferocious beast, knocking over the pine tree, and finally crashing down to this spot where he met his end.

  At the same time, this also solved the previous doubts. No wonder he didn't find any signs of fierce battles and felt that the smell of ferocious beasts was too faint here. It turned out that this wasn't the first battlefield, the real battlefield was still deep in the forest.

  Yu Ji noted down the location and then bowed his head to examine the corpse. What caught his attention was that although this person's clothes had been through intense fighting and the searching of these medicine collectors, they were still quite disheveled. However, when he lightly pinched the corner of the garment, although he couldn't tell what material it was made of, it felt both soft and durable, suggesting that it was quite valuable.

  This kind of person doesn't seem like they're here to pick herbs!

  The curtain of the great era is lifted, and Fish Brother finally enters the world of cultivation, summoning collection and red tickets!