Chapter 83: The Missing Heaven-Governing Bottle

Inside Nangong Wan's cave dwelling.

Yan Taibai pulled Yan Ruyan, who could already be considered a graceful young girl, into his arms and said softly.

"Yan'er, you have suffered these past few years."

Yan Taibai knew very well that compared to him, Yan Ruyan was under even greater pressure.

Staying in Nangong Wan's cave dwelling seemed safe, but in reality, it was house arrest; she could not leave at all.

Of course, this was also to ensure Yan Ruyan's safety.

"Yan'er hasn't suffered. Yan'er is already about to break through to Qi Refining Level 11. Although I am not as good as Brother Taibai, I believe I will be able to reach Foundation Establishment in a few years. By then, I will be able to leave Martial Aunt Nangong's cave dwelling."

Yan Ruyan said in a delicate voice.

Now a bit older, her crisp and pleasant voice no longer had its former childish, milky tone.

This meant that Yan Ruyan had grown up a little, and coupled with the mindset of a cultivator, her body naturally matured faster than that of a secular Mortal.

"Mm! Do not be anxious about cultivation; just practice step by step."

Yan Taibai nodded and smiled lightly.

"Yan'er understands, Brother Taibai, please rest assured. You do not need to worry about the family affairs either. Yan'er understands that it is already a great stroke of luck for you and me to be able to cultivate within the sect; we cannot ask for too much."

Yan Ruyan gave a sweet smile and said something that took Yan Taibai quite by surprise.

"Who told you about the family affairs?"

Yan Taibai raised an eyebrow, his tone somewhat puzzled.

It had clearly been agreed that they would not tell Yan Ruyan about the matters at Yan Family Fortress for the time being.

"Yan'er learned of it from Martial Aunt Nangong. Brother Taibai, please do not blame Martial Aunt Nangong; it was Yan'er who begged Martial Aunt Nangong to tell me."

Detecting that something was off in Yan Taibai's tone, Yan Ruyan hurriedly explained.

"Alright, Brother knows now."

Seeing this, what else could Yan Taibai say? He could only nod and agree.

Nowadays, the two of them could be said to be relying on each other for survival within the entire Yanyue Sect, and now that he had been targeted by the Hehuan Sect, it was truly a troublesome matter.

He himself was fine; the only thing he had to worry about was this little girl, Yan Ruyan.

After all, unlike him, she had no power to protect herself and still needed to guard against the Ghost Spirit Sect, a major sect of the Demonic Path.

"It seems I must leave the sect to search for mineral veins."

After coaxing Yan Ruyan gently for a while longer and letting her fall asleep in his arms, Yan Taibai muttered to himself in his heart.

Compared to the Yanyue Sect, Yan Taibai trusted his own strength more.

Whether it was condensing a Golden Core or finding more metal-attribute material veins to advance the White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash, both would be enough to give him more strength to protect himself and Yan Ruyan.

If he were to condense his core now and successfully cultivate the White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash, he would have enough power on his own to wipe out the entire Ghost Spirit Sect, and there would be absolutely no need to worry.

Therefore, he could not stay in the Yanyue Sect to cultivate; he had to find metal-attribute material veins and strive to condense his Golden Core and advance to the Golden Core Stage before the Demonic Path invasion.

Just as Yan Taibai was thinking about his next cultivation plan, Nangong Wan returned.

After Yan Taibai placed Yan Ruyan, who was in his arms, onto the bed and settled her in, he went to the main hall of the cave dwelling.

Nangong Wan was already seated there, clearly waiting for Yan Taibai.

"Junior Brother, the Master has ordered that before you reach the Golden Core Stage, you are not to leave the sect by even half a step. You must stay within the sect to cultivate. Whether it is Spirit Stones or pills, the sect will provide as much as possible. You should just cultivate with peace of mind. With your aptitude, reaching the Golden Core Stage is only a matter of time; there is no need to go out and take risks, especially now that it is a troubled time, the danger is too great."

As soon as she saw Yan Taibai enter, Nangong Wan got straight to the point.

"This junior brother knows the gravity of the situation, please rest assured, Senior Sister. This junior brother is not someone who seeks his own death."

To such words, Yan Taibai agreed as always, while planning how to leave the Yanyue Sect.

In the current situation, how could he possibly stay in the Yanyue Sect to cultivate with peace of mind?

For him, no amount of medicinal pills or Spirit Stones could compare to the speed of improvement gained by using the White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash to devour and refine metal-attribute Spirit Stones or material veins.

It might not be a thousand miles a day, but it was close.

In the entire cultivation world, only his White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash had the ability to directly and unreservedly devour and refine the primordial energy and spiritual energy within mineral veins.

For other cultivation techniques and divine abilities to achieve this step was truly too difficult, or even impossible.

"Do not lie to me again this time with these words. This is the Master's order, not my reminder. You must understand that the Master will not show mercy to those who defy her orders. If the Master finds out that you left the sect privately without sufficient reason, even if your aptitude is excellent, you will not escape punishment. You might even be directly locked into the Emerald Underworld Prison in the Sunset Hall. By then, even if Martial Uncle Qiong comes out of seclusion to plead for you, it might be of no use."

"You should be clear that no matter how good your aptitude is, if you are disobedient, it is harmful and of no benefit to the sect."

Nangong Wan reminded him earnestly.

She knew her Master's temperament better than anyone, especially under the current circumstances; no one in the entire Yanyue Sect could defy her Master's orders.

There must be one voice, and no one could have any objections.

After all, the Great Elder of the Masked Moon Sect was the person with the highest cultivation in the Yanyue Sect.

"This junior brother understands, please rest assured, Senior Sister."

Yan Taibai nodded with a solemn expression and agreed.

After all, this was the truth; he also did not like disobedient disciples, even if their aptitude was high.

Unless they were like him and had a cheat.

Therefore, if he went out this time, he would probably have to return only after reaching the Golden Core Stage to avoid punishment.

As for the place to go into seclusion to condense his Golden Core, it was not important to him.

But to condense a Golden Core, it was not an easy task to accomplish in three, five, or even eight to ten years.

"Good, as long as you understand."

Seeing this, Nangong Wan felt slightly relieved and did not say anything more on this matter.

She then began to offer guidance on cultivation experience to Yan Taibai. Although Yan Taibai had no bottlenecks to speak of before the Golden Core Stage, these cultivation experiences could still reduce some cultivation time.

Yan Taibai naturally listened patiently and discussed his own insights with Nangong Wan. In particular, the experience from the White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash was a profound insight for Nangong Wan, enough to be an eye-opening experience.

Thus, the two gradually discussed more and more intensely, and Nangong Wan benefited greatly, as did Yan Taibai.

After all, the Sunü Lunhui Gong that Nangong Wan practiced was no ordinary cultivation method, and it was not even a technique that should exist in the Human World.

Furthermore, the gap in their cultivation stages was right there, so naturally, they could not be compared, especially regarding experience related to the Golden Core Stage.

Qiong Laoguai had never even mentioned a single word of it to Yan Taibai.

After all, Yan Taibai had been cultivating for too short a time, and in Qiong Laoguai's eyes, it was not yet time to discuss these things.

After a rather in-depth exchange, both Yan Taibai and Nangong Wan benefited greatly from each other, and their friendship deepened by a few degrees.

However, they did not continue to say much more; both rose to bid farewell, preparing to enter seclusion to cultivate.

"The cultivation experience you just shared is enough to save me several years of bitter practice."

After Nangong Wan smiled sweetly and thanked him, she parted ways with Yan Taibai to go to her own room for seclusion.

Seeing this, Yan Taibai followed suit, having no intention to say more.

In the time that followed, Yan Taibai remained in Nangong Wan's cave dwelling, cultivating while also looking after Yan Ruyan.

Yan Ruyan also possessed a Heavenly Spirit Root, and her cultivation speed was not too slow either, though it could not compare to Yan Taibai's.

In the blink of an eye, three months passed!

Yan Taibai quietly left the Yanyue Sect, alerting no one.

Or rather, that was not entirely true; Nangong Wan knew but did not make a sound, continuing to stay in the cave dwelling to cultivate and look after and guide Yan Ruyan.

Jing Prefecture was located in the northwest of the Yue Country, but because it was situated in a remote area, there were almost no large cities, though small towns and villages were countless.

The environment within its borders consisted of small hills and mounds, and it was full of desolate places where no human presence could be seen.

Because of this, the number of bandits and thieves in Jing Prefecture was far greater than in other prefectures; it was also the place where martial arts figures were most mixed, and there had never been a major martial arts power that could unify this region.

Therefore, this created a local folk custom that was fierce and bold, with escort agencies and horse gangs emerging endlessly, forming a stark contrast to the number of bandits in Jing Prefecture.

Caixia Mountain was originally called Luofeng Mountain and was the second-largest mountain in Jing Prefecture, controlled by the Jing Prefecture martial arts sect, the Seven Mysteries Sect.

This Seven Mysteries Sect was once one of the top major sects in Jing Prefecture, but now it had fallen into a second or third-rate sect, only able to hold onto a place like Qingniu Town.

Yan Taibai's purpose in coming to this Seven Mysteries Sect was for the Heavenly Sky Bottle; don't talk to him about Dao Ancestor reincarnation or things being fated.

If it were before, he would have considered himself to have a golden finger and would not have cared much about the Heavenly Sky Bottle, but now he wanted to progress too badly, and he did not want to live this life of walking on thin ice anymore.

The fastest way was to find Spirit Stone veins or material veins, but although he had a map of the veins within the Yue Country, most of them were in the hands of the Seven Sects of Yue Kingdom, and sneaking into them was not an easy task.

Therefore, Yan Taibai wanted to try to see if he could obtain the Heavenly Sky Bottle and use it to ripen metal-attribute spirit woods.

Such spirit woods were not rare in the cultivation world; for example, the most common Iron Wood was one of them.

With Spirit Stones and material veins currently out of reach, he had come to Jing Prefecture to find the Heavenly Sky Bottle.

Of course, besides this, there were also a few small material veins in Jing Prefecture.

It was just that their locations were remote and dangerous, and they had already been mined out, leaving them with little value.

However, the mineral vein map left behind by Xuan Ye recorded that those few abandoned material veins still had quite a bit of material left, only it was difficult to mine, and the cost required was completely disproportionate to the harvest.

But for Yan Taibai, this was not a difficult task at all.

Anyway, he did not need to mine them; he only needed to absorb and refine the metal-attribute Qi within them.

However, he still planned to go there first to see if he could obtain the Heavenly Sky Bottle.

The Caixia Mountain where the Seven Mysteries Sect was located did not consist of just one peak, but over a dozen peaks of various sizes, all of which were very steep and dangerous; however, they were now all controlled by the various halls of the Seven Mysteries Sect.

In particular, the main peak of Caixia Mountain, "Luori Peak," was the most treacherous; not only was it exceptionally high and steep, but there was only one road from the foot of the mountain to the summit. After the Seven Mysteries Sect placed their main hall there, they set up thirteen checkpoints, both visible and hidden, at the dangerous points along this road, which could be called foolproof and worry-free.

Yet these things were completely useless to a cultivator like Yan Taibai.

Even walking into the Seven Mysteries Sect in a grand manner, not a single person discovered him.

Therefore, Yan Taibai began to search the Seven Mysteries Sect carefully.

Of course, he did not let go of the most likely place, Shenshou Valley; calculating the time, Han Li should have already obtained it.

But what surprised Yan Taibai was that Han Li was not in Shenshou Valley, and not even Modafu or Zhangtie were there.

However, there were traces of people living there; the herb garden, courtyard, and wooden house were all there.

It was just that there was no sign of anyone, which made Yan Taibai quite disappointed, so he stayed in the Seven Mysteries Sect for a few more days to wait, but unfortunately, there was no sign of Modafu and the others returning, and he did not know if they had met with an accident.

After all, the situation within the Yue Country had indeed changed quite a bit over these years.

Especially with Xin Wang ascending the throne and implementing a series of policies, the impact on the secular world was actually the greatest.

For example, all martial arts sects had to be registered, and they were not allowed to fight and kill at will.

There were other policies and rules that restricted secular martial arts sects as much as possible.

After all, no matter how strong a secular martial arts sect or gang was, they could not compare to the imperial court's army.

Just on Yan Taibai's journey, he saw dozens of gangs and sects perish under the encirclement of the imperial court's army.

As for assassinating the "Yue Emperor," it was hard to say if one could even enter the Imperial Palace, not to mention that by now, who didn't know that the current Yue Emperor was acting under the orders of an immortal and was protected by an immortal.

Under such circumstances, who would dare to assassinate him?

Because Jing Prefecture was located in a remote area and due to environmental issues, it had not yet been affected, but it would not be long.

Under these circumstances, Yan Taibai really could not guarantee whether Mojuren would still stay in the Seven Mysteries Sect.

After all, the Jingjiao Association founded by Mojuren might not necessarily survive under these circumstances.

And as a result, the plot would inevitably change, so Yan Taibai did not know how far things had progressed.

But now it seemed that since the people were gone, there was naturally no news of the Heavenly Sky Bottle.

Therefore, after staying in the Seven Mysteries Sect for a few more days and confirming from other Seven Mysteries Sect disciples that Mojuren and his two disciples had left the sect, he did not continue to stay.

He headed straight for those abandoned material veins in Jing Prefecture to cultivate the White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash.

Compared to the Heavenly Sky Bottle, his White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash was more important.

As long as he successfully cultivated the White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash, he would not need to care about any Heavenly Sky Bottle; he could just go and take whatever he wanted.

No one could stop him, and if anyone dared to stop him, he would cut them down with one sword!

It couldn't have been more carefree and unrestrained!

However, the prerequisite is that the White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash must be successfully cultivated.

Jing Prefecture is the smallest among the thirteen prefectures of Yue Country, so it did not take much time to find those few abandoned material mineral veins.

Therefore, it only took Yan Taibai a few days to find a way in and set up the array.

He then began to circulate the White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash to absorb and refine the metal-attribute Qi within the mineral veins to strengthen his power.

In the entire Immortal Realm, he is the only one who cultivates in this way.

After all, only his White Emperor Golden Emperor Slash has this ability.

Just as Yan Taibai was cultivating, the Twin Devils of Feicha had already returned to the Hehuan Sect.

They arrived at the Tianyang Pool of the Hehuan Sect, and the Tianyang Pool is precisely the most strictly guarded forbidden area within the Hehuan Sect.

Although its area is only a few hundred zhang in size, it is shrouded in thick gray mist all year round, so even other Nascent Soul cultivators of the Hehuan Sect do not easily step into the mist.

Yet on this day, a voice of surprise rang out from within the mist,

"A Golden Body, I never imagined that the Yanyue Sect would have such good luck!"

(End of this chapter)