Chapter 385: Cannot Advance (Extra Chapter 4 for the Wandering Orphan

Xin Chuang, standing beside Meng Zhongqi, had already fixed his gaze on Chang Chang Danyi, and sent a mental message to Meng Zhongqi:

"Master, Chang Chang Danyi is Ding Huan's friend—she originally joined our Baihe Immortal Dao alongside Ding Huan."

Meng Zhongqi saw it was Yan Yuefang and frowned slightly.

Shuangzi Mountain's strength far surpasses Baihe Immortal Dao; he needed to understand why Chang Chang Danyi was with Yan Yuefang.

"Friend Yan," Meng Zhongqi stepped forward to Yan Yuefang's side and bowed, asking, "Who is this?"

Yan Yuefang replied coolly: "She is my disciple. What, does Master Meng know her?"

Meng Zhongqi laughed heartily: "Not at all—I merely noticed she is young yet already at the True Immortal realm; her talent is truly top-tier."

Yan Yuefang said to Chang Chang Danyi: "Danyi, let's go. Ding the Shopkeeper won't be returning anytime soon—we'll return to our Immortal Sect first."

"Yes, Master," Chang Chang Danyi had long wanted to leave; she only hoped Ding Huan would never come back.

Better yet, let Ding Huan go to Shuangzi Mountain searching for her—then she would show him the vile faces of these people.

Watching Chang Chang Danyi and Yan Yuefang depart, Meng Zhongqi ultimately said nothing.

Chang Chang Danyi didn't know Ding Huan's whereabouts; she was surely waiting here for him. Exposing this would benefit him nothing and only anger Ding Huan and Shuangzi Mountain—against his own interests.

…

At this moment, Ding Huan was setting up a massive concealment Immortal array deep within a mountain range far from Yao Yue Xiancheng.

He had one million five hundred thousand Superior Immortal Crystals and several dozen thousand Lower-grade Immortal Crystals; he planned to cultivate here for a while.

As long as he still had even a scrap of cultivation resources, he wouldn't go out to trade—that was Ding Huan's principle.

Immortal Crystals must be used while still hot; they must never be stored too long.

He arranged Lower-grade Immortal Crystals along the outer perimeter and piled Superior Immortal Crystals into a Spirit Gathering Immortal array at the inner circle.

Ding Huan then condensed Immortal Qi within the pile of crystals, activating the Great Cosmos Art.

Streams of Immortal spiritual energy were drawn from the crystals by Ding Huan.

Whether Superior or Lower-grade Immortal Crystals, all impure Dao rhythms were filtered through the Great Cosmos Art's Zhou Tian; his cultivation surged upward rapidly.

Ding Huan intended to break through to the Golden Immortal realm; his Great Cosmos Art's Zhou Tian was rooted in the Great Cosmic Universe, with all things in heaven and earth as Dao rhythms and laws—once his cultivation reached the threshold, he could perceive higher-level Dao principles.

To Ding Huan's surprise, after reaching True Immortal Ninth Layer's peak, he did not summon a Lei Jie—he directly advanced to True Immortal Tenth Layer.

This made Ding Huan realize his Great Cosmos Art differed fundamentally from ordinary Dao techniques.

Ordinary techniques treat Nine as the ultimate limit; beyond Nine comes the next realm.

Yet within his mind-sea's Great Cosmic Universe, besides the central star, there were twelve star systems.

This clearly meant his technique's foundational Dao base was entirely different from mainstream methods—perhaps his Great Cosmos Art was meant to be cultivated all the way to Twelve Layers.

After adding the Immortal Source Purification Zhou Tian to his Great Cosmos Art, Ding Huan's cultivation speed actually increased further.

In less than two years, Ding Huan's cultivation reached True Immortal Twelfth Layer.

Ding Huan decided to attempt breaking through to the Golden Immortal realm; once he reached it, he would have the qualifications to earn more Immortal Crystals.

Settling his mind for total seclusion, Ding Huan was completely enveloped in dense Immortal spiritual energy, which he fully absorbed and transformed into Immortal Qi.

In the Fourth Immortal Region, even a Sect Master might not afford such extravagant cultivation—using nothing but Superior Immortal Crystals to absorb spiritual energy—who else could be this wealthy?

Another year passed, and Ding Huan's cultivation reached True Immortal Twelfth Layer's peak.

Ding Huan prepared himself to break through to the Golden Immortal realm. Yet in truth, he felt absolutely no barrier blocking his path to the Golden Immortal realm.

After months of no progress whatsoever, Ding Huan simply ceased cultivation.

It wasn't his Great Cosmos Art that was flawed—it was because during its Zhou Tian cultivation, he could not perceive higher-level heavenly laws at all.

How could one break through to a higher realm if one could not perceive its higher-level laws?

Not even touch them—let alone break through.

This wasn't a problem of insufficient foundation either.

Having cultivated here for three years, Ding Huan wasn't in a hurry to leave.

He decided instead to refine his iron pot; after a month, he reached the Forty-Ninth Layer of sealing restrictions on the pot. When he confirmed it could not be refined further, Ding Huan decided to end his seclusion.

The scarcity of Immortal spiritual energy here didn't matter—if the heavenly laws themselves were lacking, then his seclusion could only serve to refine treasures.

He must find an Immortal Sect and ask whether one could break through to the Golden Immortal realm outside of an Immortal Sect.

Breaking through to True Immortal here meant nothing—in fact, True Immortal breakthroughs are possible even within the Dao cultivation world.

But in the Dao cultivation world, one immediately ascends after reaching True Immortal.

As Ding Huan stepped out of the mountains, preparing to summon his iron pot, he saw a cultivator hurrying toward him.

Ding Huan was puzzled—he had spent considerable time in the Fourth Immortal Region.

Aside from the time he'd seen Yan Yuefang, he had never encountered a lone cultivator in such remote wilderness.

When Ding Huan saw the cultivator, the cultivator had clearly spotted Ding Huan too.

He recognized Ding Huan: "Are you Master Ding?"

Ding Huan immediately thought of the Immortal Sects searching for him—he had once installed surveillance arrays in Yao Yue Xiancheng.

A group had wanted to trap him and force him to hunt Immortal Sources exclusively for their Sects.

"That's right—I'm Ding Huan," Ding Huan didn't bother hiding.

To Ding Huan's surprise, the cultivator shouted loudly: "Master Ding, your two friends arrived at Xu Kong City—they inquired about you."

"But Wu the Madman found out—he captured them, saying if you don't come to Xu Kong City next time he returns, he'll kill your friends."

"When did this happen?" Ding Huan frowned.

He recalled how those people in Yao Yue Xiancheng had also sought his friends—capturing them to lure him out.

These people truly had no bottom.

"Over a year ago. They should be fine—for Wu the Madman only returns to Xu Kong City once every three years," the cultivator replied.

"Thank you," Ding Huan bowed in gratitude. "How did you get here?"

That cultivator laughed awkwardly: "I was recruited by an immortal sect to refine ores, but they found my refining impure and slow, so they simply drove me away.

I had nowhere to go, and couldn't bear to leave the immortal domain, so I ended up wandering around.

When I really couldn't hold out any longer, then I'd leave the immortal domain."

Ding Huan took out a storage bag: "There are some immortal crystals in here. Take them, as thanks for passing along a piece of news to me."

The storage bag contained ten thousand low-grade immortal crystals; for Ding Huan, low-grade immortal crystals were truly of no use whatsoever.

"Many thanks, many thanks…" When this cultivator had reported the news to Ding Huan, he had been hoping Ding Huan might give him some benefit.

He hadn't expected Ding Huan would actually give him something.

After Ding Huan left, he swept his divine sense into the storage bag and, upon discovering a full ten thousand immortal crystals, nearly fainted.

Even if he refined ores in the immortal sect until his hands were ruined, refining out ten thousand immortal crystals would still be a dream.

"How impressive—no wonder even Chang Chang Danyi stays by his side." The cultivator muttered to himself, then quickly picked a direction and shot off.

He had to find a place to go into closed-door cultivation and break through to the True Immortal realm.

Ding Huan did not leave the immortal domain right away. He was well aware that leaving the Fourth Immortal Domain was easy, but wanting to come back would be hard.

He had a jade slip in hand that introduced some of the immortal sects of the Fourth Immortal Domain; he needed to find an immortal sect to do a deal with.

Half a day later, Ding Huan locked onto one immortal sect: the Immortal Mist Dao of Alchemy Gate.

This was an immortal sect that specialized in cultivating immortal spirit herbs and then refining all kinds of immortal pills.

Sect Master Reminding Shen Yi was a late-stage Profound Immortal cultivator and also a third-rank immortal pill refiner.

The jade slip's evaluation of Reminding Shen Yi was decent, and on top of that, a Profound Immortal couldn't necessarily instant-kill him either.

Most importantly, the Immortal Mist Dao of Alchemy Gate wasn't very far from his current location—at most seven or eight days' journey.

So Ding Huan decided to head to the Immortal Mist Dao of Alchemy Gate.

Because the iron wok had been refined to the forty-ninth layer of restrictions, Ding Huan reached the outside of the Immortal Mist Dao of Alchemy Gate in just three days.

Although the Fourth Immortal Domain was the Immortal World, Ding Huan felt this Immortal World was no different from a cage.

Because under normal circumstances, very few cultivators loitered outside an immortal sect.

Those still loitering outside were basically loose cultivators with nowhere to go, like that fellow he'd met earlier who had been expelled from an immortal sect.

True immortal sect disciples mostly holed up inside their sects to cultivate, only leaving the sect under absolutely unavoidable circumstances.

The Immortal Mist Dao of Alchemy Gate was no exception; the sect's protective array was tightly sealed, with not a single person outside.

Ding Huan knocked on the sect's restriction array to signal his arrival as a visitor.

Soon, a disciple at the True Immortal realm appeared before Ding Huan. He looked Ding Huan over in puzzlement: "Fellow Daoist, may I ask who you are?"

Ding Huan cupped his fists and said: "I've come to look for Sect Master Reminding Shen Yi."

The True Immortal cultivator said helplessly: "Sorry, our sect master is very busy. If there's nothing else, I'm going to close the sect gate."

In his eyes, Ding Huan was at most just a minor cultivator at the Immortal-Mortal Bridge realm, opening his mouth with the brazen audacity to ask for the sect master.

If every random person who showed up wanted to see the sect master, the sect master would be busy to death.

Ding Huan smiled: "Just say my name is Ding Huan. I believe your sect master will definitely see me. Of course, if you don't wish to report it, I'll leave right away."

Ding Huan? This True Immortal cultivator truly had never heard of this person.

"Then wait a moment, I'll go report it." Seeing that Ding Huan seemed very confident, spoke unhurriedly, and carried himself with excellent bearing, he couldn't make up his mind either.

Of course, when he went in, he wasn't reporting to the sect master, but to the steward—whatever the specific matter was, the steward was in charge.