Chapter 504

Ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers, a vast and ancient path.

More than half a month of time slipped away quietly, following the rising and setting of the sun and moon.

Zhang Fan's figure had long since moved far away from the prosperity and clamor surrounding Yujing, completely merging into the endless mountain ranges, primeval forests, and uninhabited desolate marshes in the hinterland of the Central Plains.

During this period, he specifically chose paths that were rarely trodden by human feet.

Sometimes he climbed along winding trails carved out by wild beasts, sometimes he trekked along dried-up ancient riverbeds, and sometimes he even needed to rely on a faint sense of water veins and earth Qi to find a glimmer of survival on seemingly impassable cliffs.

He drank mountain spring water when thirsty, ate wild fruits when hungry, slept in rock caves at night, kept company with the stars and moon, and traveled alongside the wind and rain.

For over half a month, he lived among wild beasts, kept company with nature, and took heaven and earth as his teacher.

His body remained heavy, the cracks on his Jin Dan had not healed much, and the golden light was dim, like a sleeping stubborn stone.

Although his soul-aspect was no longer like a candle in the wind that might go out at any moment, it had only recovered from "near-death" to a state of "extreme weakness," and his strength had recovered very little.

However, if anyone familiar with his past were to see him now, they would surely be astonished.

His change was not an increase in strength, but a thorough, from-the-inside-out transformation of his temperament.

The sharpness and occasional playfulness that once belonged to a young man had been completely worn away by the continuous arduous trekking and the struggle on the edge of life and death, replaced by a stillness like a deep, ancient pool, and a resilience like a massive rock or mountain.

Hum...

On this day, Zhang Fan, braving the scorching sun, sat cross-legged on a large bluestone beside a stream; three feet above his head, his soul-aspect perched, mysterious and unfathomable phenomena rippled, and the faint black and white Qi finally rose again.

After more than half a month of baptism by nature, his skin had long been dyed a faint bronze by the mountain wind and scorching sun; although his originally somewhat thin figure was now lean due to exhaustion, his muscle lines were as refined as if cast in iron, and every inch contained the endurance and explosive power accumulated from crossing mountains and rivers.

Most notable were his eyes, deep, calm, and without ripples, as if reflecting the thousands of mountains and rivers he had seen along the way, having seen through the rolling clouds, the life and death, and the withering and flourishing of all things.

This was a rebirth.

He seemed to have retraced the old path of the Great Lingzong Wang of yesteryear, seeing nature through heavy trials, and shedding his mortal dust with heaven and earth as his teacher.

The Zhang Fan of today truly possessed the aura of a great expert and a great grandmaster.

"Hoo..."

Suddenly, a gust of wild wind whistled, rising inexplicably.

Zhang Fan raised an eyebrow, looked intently, and saw a massive figure emerge from the dense forest, hidden behind mountain rocks, its fierce gaze like a knife, locking onto him firmly as if he were prey.

Clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger.

In the Water Margin, when Wu Song slept drunk on Jingyang Ridge, it was because a strange wind sobered him up by three parts; the moment he opened his eyes, he saw the tiger with hanging eyes and a white forehead appear before him.

At this moment, Zhang Fan followed the sound of the wind and indeed saw a tiger, but its size far exceeded the ordinary, and its focused eyes actually flashed with near-human emotions and brilliance.

"A spirit-beast!?" Zhang Fan's gaze sank slightly, revealing a look of surprise.

In the Age of Dharma Decline, true great demons were already legendary, and even in the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm, they were few and far between, hiding away year-round and rarely involving themselves in the human world.

In such deep mountains and old forests rarely visited by humans, true demons and ghosts were hard to see, but there were still some mountain spirits and wild monsters that had obtained opportunities, swallowed the essence of the sun and moon, and luckily opened their intelligence.

Their cultivation was shallow, their soul-aspects were weak, but their ferocity remained.

Clearly, the tiger with hanging eyes and a white forehead before him was a spirit-beast with an awakened soul-aspect.

It smelled the special aura on Zhang Fan that was different from ordinary people, and its greedy nature drove its fierce bloodline; a roar erupted, and it pounced toward Zhang Fan, bringing a fishy wind and sharp claws that could split rocks.

Such spirit-beasts had higher intelligence and greater strength than ordinary wild beasts; once they tasted human flesh and swallowed human essence and blood, their ferocity would be unleashed, and their cultivation would become higher and higher.

Originally, humans were the leaders of all things, comparable to the essence of the sun and moon.

This tiger had lived in the deep mountains for a long time and clearly was not eating humans for the first time, but it had indeed been a long time since it had tasted meat.

"Since you delivered yourself to my door, you cannot blame me."

"Thank you for nature's gift!"

Zhang Fan sat cross-legged and motionless, a strange fluctuation at the center of his brow unfolding like thick ink, quietly turning and extinguishing.

Hum...

In an instant, that strange fluctuation, like an invisible spike, fiercely pierced into the weak and chaotic soul-aspect core of the tiger with hanging eyes and a white forehead.

"Aoo..."

The tiger let out a miserable shriek, its massive body of several hundred kilograms convulsing violently in mid-air, followed by a heavy landing that kicked up a cloud of dust.

The next moment, a tiger-shaped soul-aspect was forcibly pulled out, and under the crushing pressure of that strange fluctuation, it turned into wisps of faint yet pure flowing light, merging into Zhang Fan's Spirit Platform Origin Palace.

Harvesting the soul-aspect!

This was perhaps truly the most wonderful technique of heaven and earth; harvesting the soul-aspect to refine longevity, the taste of which was truly indescribable.

Although the tiger's soul-aspect was weak, it was better than nothing.

Like parched fields receiving a few drops of sweet rain, Zhang Fan's soul-aspect, after absorbing this bit of "nourishment," finally recovered a trace of faint vitality, and the black and white Qi that had just risen expanded a little more.

"There is a reason why the Wu Wei Sect can grow; natural techniques, natural consumables..." Zhang Fan couldn't help but sigh.

Along the way, he had had countless thoughts, his consciousness restless.

But he couldn't really act like a demon, wantonly harvesting soul-aspects. Moreover, he had been traveling through sparsely populated high mountains and steep ridges, so even if he wanted to harvest, it was like a clever woman unable to cook without rice.

It was just that on this long journey, he had indeed broken his fast a few times; there were corpse-demons that occupied ancient tombs and absorbed earth-evil, and bone-demons that transformed into human shapes to lure human essence... all became "provisions" on Zhang Fan's road to prolonging his life, harvested of their pitiful soul-aspect origins in the most direct and cruel way.

Precisely because of this, his soul-aspect recovered so quickly; compared to his Jin Dan, the situation had improved far too much.

On this day, after crossing a majestic and vast mountain ridge, his field of vision suddenly opened up.

Looking into the distance, the power of heaven and earth was presented in a grand manner.

Ahead, the trend of the earth seemed to have been split by an invisible giant axe, a majestic pass guarding between the mountains and the sea, like a dragon coiling and a tiger crouching, with a thousand phenomena!

Shanhai Pass!

The First Pass under Heaven!

"Finally arrived!" Zhang Fan looked at the world-famous pass before him and couldn't help but sigh.

Leaning against Jiao Mountain in the north, the peaks rose and fell like a giant dragon extending its claws, firmly gripping the earth; facing the Bohai Sea in the south, the misty waves were vast, and the sound of the tides was faint, as if a Black Tortoise were guarding the sea.

The pass city itself sat majestically on the narrow corridor between the mountains and the sea, like a giant lock, firmly blocking the throat of the circulation of dragon vein Qi between the Central Plains and beyond the pass.

This was the aura of the First Pass under Heaven.

Seeing nature, feeling heaven and earth, and understanding the Dao—this was true cultivation; supernatural powers and techniques were merely minor paths.

Walking all the way here, Zhang Fan gradually understood this truth.