Chapter 762: Spirit Seeds

Although they had already guessed that something might have happened to Niu Youdao, Yan's cultivators still hurried forward to meet the returning group.

Yan Li, Elder of Zijin Cave, was the first to ask impatiently, "Where is Niu Youdao? Why didn't he return with all of you?"

Situ Yao sighed. "He's behind us. Someone asked to see him. He should be back shortly."

At those words, Yan's cultivators looked at one another.

Shan Hai, Elder of Xiaoyao Palace, tried asking, "Niu Youdao is all right?"

Situ Yao understood what he meant and shook his head. "For now. He escaped one calamity by luck."

The Elders of Yan's three major sects exchanged looks and all let out breaths of relief.

Yan Li noticed that the people from Nanzhou's side showed no sign of celebration. "Escaping a calamity is a good thing. Why do all of you look like this?"

Situ Yao sighed again. "I said he escaped one calamity for now. Misty Pavilion left Niu Youdao a road to survival, but there's a condition."

"He must take first place on this expedition into the Tiandu Secret Realm. Otherwise, Misty Pavilion will still kill him!"

"What?" The Yan cultivators were badly shocked.

Yan Li immediately grew anxious. "Niu Youdao is only an independent cultivator. How could he possibly take first place? Isn't that simply putting him to death by another method?"

Situ Yao could only sigh.

The Zhao cultivators who had returned at the same time passed by this group, one after another throwing distinctly hostile looks in their direction.

After returning to their own area of the valley, Zhao's cultivators were left at a loss.

Unease settled over them as well.

All three Elders who had been responsible for leading them were dead.

They had not even entered the Tiandu Secret Realm yet, and already so many elite core disciples had been lost.

Not long afterward, escorted by Misty Pavilion cultivators, Niu Youdao came sauntering back at an unhurried pace.

He's alive?

Yan Baoru, standing at a cave entrance, frowned.

She looked genuinely surprised.

He had slaughtered people openly in Tiangu and still returned alive?

Many who witnessed his return were equally astonished.

The development was so unexpected that people naturally wanted to know what had happened.

Various factions soon sent people over one after another to inquire with either Zhao's or Yan's cultivators.

Yan's cultivators said little, merely stating that nothing serious had happened.

Zhao's cultivators, however, needed somewhere to vent the resentment in their hearts.

They spread the news that Sha Rulai had effectively condemned Niu Youdao to death.

From the way they told it, they seemed eager for everyone to know that Niu Youdao was doomed sooner or later.

The news spread rapidly.

On this expedition into the Tiandu Secret Realm, Niu Youdao could survive only if he took first place.

Before long, the matter had become a popular subject of discussion.

Yan's cultivators took Niu Youdao to the area where Yan's people were staying.

A cave had been specially left for Niu Youdao's group.

One cave hardly seemed like much, but Tiangu had limited space.

This expedition was different from previous ones.

In past openings, the seven continental states each sent one thousand people, while the four seas each sent five hundred.

Every expedition therefore sent nine thousand cultivators into the Tiandu Secret Realm.

This time alone, another thousand independent cultivators had been added.

A full ten thousand people were participating.

Or rather, there had been ten thousand before Niu Youdao killed some of them.

Now there were slightly fewer than ten thousand.

With so many more people, the accommodations naturally became more crowded.

Fortunately, this was only a temporary stop.

The inconvenience was tolerable.

Once the miscellaneous visitors finally withdrew, Situ Yao moved close to Niu Youdao inside the cave and asked in a low voice, "Did Wan Tongfu and Ming Jing truly attack you secretly first?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Niu Youdao looked him up and down. "If they didn't strike first, who did? Don't tell me you think I deliberately went looking for trouble too."

"That's not what I meant." Situ Yao smiled awkwardly.

After he left, Yun Ji came deeper into the cave and found Niu Youdao as well.

In a low voice, she asked the exact same question.

"Did those two truly attack you secretly first?"

Niu Youdao fell silent for a moment.

This time, he gave a different answer.

"Whether they secretly attacked first is not important. What matters is that sooner or later they were going to move against me."

"Now their side is leaderless. Zhao's threat inside the Secret Realm will inevitably be reduced substantially."

"There isn't only one or two factions trying to deal with me. Whenever there's a chance to weaken one of them, weaken it. There's no need for politeness."

Yun Ji understood at once.

So all his arguing inside Misty Pavilion had truly been sophistry.

The thought alone made her heart pound with lingering fear. "Have you gone mad? Do you understand how dangerous that was? Weren't you afraid Misty Pavilion would kill you on the spot in a fit of anger?"

Niu Youdao said, "In another place, at another time, maybe they would have. Not now."

"So long as I had a justification that could stand, so long as I gave Misty Pavilion a step it could use to come down gracefully, they wouldn't kill me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have dared make the move."

Yun Ji's expression shifted uncertainly. "Where did that confidence come from?"

Niu Youdao said, "Apart from gathering resources for the cultivation world, the Tiandu Secret Realm expedition serves another purpose for Misty Pavilion, one everyone understands without saying aloud. You should know what I mean."

Yun Ji sighed softly.

Naturally she did.

"They want to use the cultivators beneath Heaven to help them control the world and seize its resources easily, while at the same time preventing other cultivators from growing too powerful. So they use this opportunity to cull the elite cultivators beneath Heaven."

Niu Youdao nodded. "Exactly."

"Right now, one group wants to protect me and another wants to kill me. The moment I enter the Tiandu Secret Realm, I become a focal point of conflict between the two sides."

"Letting me go inside will intensify their mutual slaughter."

"This time they even threw the independent cultivators into the Secret Realm. Their intentions are vicious enough."

"Do you think the man presiding over this place had any reason to help the two sides eliminate a point of conflict that would intensify their fighting?"

Understanding dawned on Yun Ji.

At last she understood where Niu Youdao had found the courage to act here.

He had known they would be reluctant to kill him before he entered.

She truly admired his nerve and his eye for the larger situation.

But she was still worried. "You escaped the immediate danger, but what happens afterward?"

"Originally, you only needed to fight for a way to leave alive. Now that single word, 'first,' has nearly cut off your final road to survival!"

Niu Youdao sighed inwardly in helplessness.

He had originally believed that so long as he presented a defensible reason, Misty Pavilion would take the offered step and let the matter pass.

And in one sense, that was exactly what happened.

For its own purposes, Misty Pavilion had indeed spared him.

Who could have known it would spare him only temporarily?

Niu Youdao could roughly guess why.

He had acted directly beneath Sha Rulai's eyes.

Whether Niu Youdao had reason on his side or not, Sha Rulai had been displeased.

This was the punishment.

Sha Rulai was in charge of Misty Pavilion for this opening of the Tiandu Secret Realm.

He wanted Niu Youdao to enter the Secret Realm and intensify the mutual slaughter to serve Misty Pavilion's purpose.

At the same time, he did not want Niu Youdao to have a road to survival.

And on top of that, he wanted the wine recipe in Niu Youdao's hands.

Where was there even a trace of reason in any of it?

A Moon Butterfly glowed softly in the depths of the cave.

Niu Youdao turned and stood leaning on his sword, staring at the Moon Butterfly resting in a hollow in the stone wall.

In its light, his expression looked faintly melancholy.

"Fu with jian, shi with ju. Do you know what that means?"

Yun Ji said, "I do. Those were the words Sha Rulai used to warn you earlier."

"He was breaking apart the two characters in guiju, 'rules.' Shi means arrow, symbolizing strength."

"Fu with jian, shi with ju. What he means is that the immense strength you see before you is the rule."

The moment she finished, Yun Ji understood that she had indirectly answered the question she herself had just asked.

Faced with Misty Pavilion's overwhelming power, Niu Youdao had no choice.

What could he do afterward?

He could only accept it and face what came.

"That's right. This is the rule."

Niu Youdao gave a bitter smile.

"He could hardly have made it clearer."

...

At daybreak, faint ghostly mist appeared at the far end of the valley, drifting without dispersing.

Misty Pavilion had seen this many times before and knew it was a sign that the Tiandu Secret Realm was about to open.

An order was issued immediately.

There had originally been ten thousand cultivators.

Niu Youdao had killed some.

Now slightly fewer than ten thousand emerged from their caves one after another and went to receive their supplies.

The environment inside the Tiandu Secret Realm was unlike the outside world.

In practical terms, it was another world entirely.

Things from inside could not normally be brought out, and things from outside could not normally be taken in.

People, however, were intelligent.

Over time, they had found ways around the problem.

The supplies being distributed now were precisely the items indispensable for entering the Tiandu Secret Realm.

Bai Yulou was once again overseeing the distribution.

No one could collect extra.

One portion per person.

Every cultivator entering the Tiandu Secret Realm had to line up obediently and receive the same allocation.

Before Misty Pavilion, everyone's identity and status were ignored.

Naturally, Niu Youdao was in the line as well.

Quite a few people around him kept looking his way.

After all, he had dared slaughter people openly in Tiangu beneath everyone's eyes.

Avoiding attention after something like that was impossible.

Being watched by too many people was not a good thing.

Niu Youdao had not wanted this attention.

It could bring no end of trouble later.

But the situation had forced his hand.

Future trouble would have to wait for the future.

The immediate problem came first.

If he could not find a way through the present calamity, there would be no future to worry about.

A row of tables had been set across the valley with gaps between them.

After receiving their items and registering, the cultivators passed between the tables and continued toward the area at the far end of Tiangu where the ghostly mist lingered.

Taking advantage of the chance to see everyone gathered together, Niu Youdao asked around about several of the experts near the top of the Golden Core Ranking.

He did not recognize them personally, so he had others point them out.

After receiving his allocation and passing the tables, Niu Youdao opened his palm.

Thirty tiny objects, each no larger than a sesame seed, lay there.

They were crystalline and translucent, glowing with a violet hue.

These were the essential items everyone had come to collect before entering the Tiandu Secret Realm.

They were called Spirit Seeds.

The environment inside the Tiandu Secret Realm was extremely unusual.

Its air, water, soil, and even its various forms of life all exerted powerful effects on the human body.

In that environment, a person's mind would gradually fall into confusion.

Remain too long and the body itself could become deformed and eventually die.

Spirit Seeds could protect a person from those strange effects.

Spirit Seeds were also indispensable ingredients in refining Spirit Essence Pills.

They possessed a similarly miraculous ability to eliminate the various adverse effects associated with Spirit Essence Pills.

For that reason, the cultivation world could not do without them.

And Spirit Seeds were produced only inside the Tiandu Secret Realm.

Every expedition into the Secret Realm existed for the purpose of gathering them.

The Tiandu Secret Realm opened only once every fifty years.

That meant every harvest had to supply the entire cultivation world for the next fifty years.

Everyone now received the same amount.

Thirty Spirit Seeds per person.

The effect of one seed lasted one day.

In other words, although the Tiandu Secret Realm remained open for a full year, the amount issued to each entrant guaranteed safety for only thirty days.

If they failed to find additional Spirit Seeds within those thirty days, they would be in danger.

Whether Misty Pavilion possessed larger reserves of Spirit Seeds, outsiders did not know.

But the meager quantity it distributed made one thing obvious.

The people entering would have no choice but to search desperately for more.

Of course, Misty Pavilion did not expect everyone to labor for nothing.

It was also giving them an opportunity to become rich.

The Spirit Seeds brought back would be tallied, and Misty Pavilion would rank the entrants according to the amount obtained.

Rewards would then be distributed according to rank.

The rewards offered by Misty Pavilion were enormous.

Enormous enough to make the various sects jealous.

The state that ranked last, however, would have labored for nothing.

And that created a very troublesome problem.

[End of Chapter 762]