45: Chapter 45 The Mysterious Lord of Taiyue Mountain

This way.

Su Wanyue hovered above the Mass Grave, beginning to break the Formation left behind by the old man.

Her hands moved through the Void Realm, and strands of blood-red Ghostly Demonic Aura overflowed from her fingertips, precisely piercing into the eight spiritual power nodes.

Under the erosion of the Ghostly Demonic Aura, the Formation runes rapidly dimmed, and the light barrier began to tremble violently, like a mirror on the verge of shattering.

"Break!"

With a low shout from Su Wanyue, the Ghostly Demonic Aura exploded violently. The eight spiritual power nodes collapsed backward simultaneously, and then the light barrier crashed down, turning into countless specks of light that dissipated into the night sky.

Once the base of the Formation was disrupted, the Formation vanished completely. Moonlight spilled down without obstruction, shining upon Su Wanyue.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The power of moonlight surged into her body like a tide. Her soul body, which had been so transparent it was almost dissipating, began to recover rapidly. The blood-red color of her wedding dress became vibrant once more, and the golden Phoenix on the hem of her skirt glowed again.

Wu Li crouched on a dead tree outside the Mass Grave, leisurely preening the feathers that had been ruffled by the shockwave.

The spot on his left wing where two flight feathers were missing was still bald, making him look somewhat comical, but he did not care in the least.

He watched Su Wanyue busy at work, a thoughtful glint flashing in his bean-sized black pupils.

"You just said that if you offer a treasure to the Mountain Lord, he will protect you?"

Wu Li asked aloud.

Su Wanyue turned her head and replied while absorbing the moonlight: "Yes."

"What's the deal with this Mountain Lord? Does he have such great ability?"

Wu Li continued to ask.

Su Wanyue let out a long breath as the power of moonlight circulated within her. She turned around to face Wu Li, her voice calm and serious: "Mountain Lord Taiyue is a rather bizarre position. Although he is a Yao, he values rules the most."

A trace of confusion flashed in Wu Li's eyes.

"Rules? Isn't that something the Human Race uses to restrain the weak? How could he, a Yao, value such things?"

Su Wanyue shook her head, a hint of complexity flashing in her eyes.

"You are right; rules are indeed used by the Human Race to restrain the weak. But Mountain Lord Taiyue is different. He is very powerful, yet the rules he sets are... somewhat beneficial to the Human Race."

"I don't know the specific reason why."

Wu Li didn't dwell on this point. "That is rather interesting. So, can you be certain that if you offer him a treasure, he will definitely protect you?"

Su Wanyue nodded: "Correct. He values his rules highly, even regarding them as more important than his own life or dignity."

Wu Li: "So bizarre?"

Su Wanyue nodded, then suddenly said as if recalling something.

"You probably don't know this yet; I only heard it from an old Yao."

"As for this Taiyue Mountain, although there are many Yao Beasts, in reality, this place is a training ground for Human Race Cultivators."

"Over on the Human Race side, every thirty years, nearby Sects join forces to seal off the mountain range, then send Disciples into the mountains to hunt Yao and conduct slaying trials."

"After these Disciples complete their trials, the powerful experts from those Sects will enter the mountains to finish up, clearing out and killing the remaining Yao Beasts in the mountain. Even third-rank Yao Beasts are included in the cleanup."

"Yet, Mountain Lord Taiyue has set a rule based on this: high-rank Yao Beasts in the mountain are not allowed to kill Human Race trial-takers prematurely. They can only strike when those Sect experts enter the mountains later."

"Under this rule."

"One of Mountain Lord Taiyue's Disciples of the same lineage was brutally killed by Human Race Cultivators, yet he didn't even make a move. When those Human Race experts entered the mountains later, he still didn't take revenge."

Once these words were spoken.

Wu Li's body stiffened abruptly.

He crouched on the dead tree, his bean-sized black pupils wide open, staring fixedly at Su Wanyue.

At this moment, he seemed to suddenly understand...

Why, according to the divination, finding such a good place only resulted in a 'Small Auspicious' omen...

"Is this Mountain Lord Taiyue a traitor to the Yao?"

"How does it sound so much like... he is a dog raised by those Sects?"

Just hearing these rules, even though they hadn't been applied to him yet, filled Wu Li with anger.

Su Wanyue shook her head at this. "I don't know about that."

"How long until the next trial?"

Wu Li's voice deepened.

Su Wanyue looked up at the moon in the sky and calculated with her fingers: "That will take some time. About five years or so."

Upon hearing this, Wu Li finally felt relieved.

Five years is fine. Once he has developed enough, he can just run away.

Staying in this mountain to wait for those humans to come and kill him would be sheer madness!

Seeing Wu Li's relieved expression, Su Wanyue's lips curled up slightly, revealing a meaningful smile.

"Are you thinking that you can run away?"

Wu Li's feathers bristled, his whole body trembling. His bean-sized black pupils stared fixedly at Su Wanyue: "What do you mean? You mean I'm not allowed to leave?"

Su Wanyue did not answer directly but asked in return: "You've used the Spiritual Qi of this mountain range to Cultivate, haven't you?"

Wu Li hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

He had been Cultivating in this Limestone Cave for five months, breaking through from the Late Stage of the first rank to the second rank, using entirely the Spiritual Qi from this mountain.

The spiritual liquid gathered by the Spirit Gathering Array also came from the water pool in this mountain.

"Then you cannot leave."

Su Wanyue's voice was calm, yet it felt like a basin of cold water poured over Wu Li's head.

"Otherwise, why do you think the other Yao Race in the mountain don't run? Don't they know that Human Race Cultivators will come to purge them? Don't they know that staying means death?"

Wu Li's pupils constricted sharply.

He had indeed thought about this question.

Taiyue Mountain is so big, and there are so many Yao Beasts; why hasn't a single one run away?

Are they all fools?

"What is the reason?"

Wu Li's voice was hoarse and hurried.

Su Wanyue looked at him and said slowly: "Mountain Lord Taiyue is an absolutely dominant existence in this mountain. The Spiritual Qi of the entire mountain range is controlled by a special Spiritual Artifact in his hands."

"As long as you enter here and use the Spiritual Qi here to Cultivate, you will be branded with his mark."

A 'buzz' sounded in Wu Li's mind.

"If you want to run, you will definitely die."

"If you don't run, stay and fight, and there is still a chance."

Su Wanyue's voice was indifferent. "So it's not that the Yao Beasts in the mountain don't want to run; it's that they can't."

"They can only stay, wait for the trial that happens every thirty years, and fight the Human Race Cultivators to the death. If they win, they continue to live; if they lose..."

Wu Li crouched on the dead tree, his mind instantly recalling that when he first arrived here and scanned the mountain range with his Blood Pupil, he had discovered a special mark shaped like the character 'Chuan' ( river) on those powerful auras of blood and Qi.

'Could it be this?'

Wu Li thought to himself, then immediately opened his Blood Pupil to perform internal introspection.

Wu Li's Blood Pupil opened, and scarlet light enveloped his entire body. Under internal inspection, everything within his body was revealed in minute detail.

Demon Power circulated, Meridians were clear, bones were tough, and every feather was distinct; everything was perfectly normal.

But when he focused the vision of his Blood Pupil on his chest, his pupils constricted sharply.

At his heart, a dark gray mark rested silently, like a scar carved onto the surface of his heart.

As the mark twisted, it vaguely resembled the character 'Chuan' ( river), with three vertical lines side by side, each emitting a special fluctuation of Spiritual Qi.

The fluctuation was very weak, so weak that it was usually impossible to feel, but under the Blood Pupil, it had nowhere to hide.

Wu Li stared at that 'Chuan' mark for a long time, his brows knitting tighter and tighter.

Su Wanyue hadn't lied to him. This mark indeed existed, and it was deeply rooted, closely connected to his heart and even having a subtle connection to the circulation of his Demon Power.

If he wanted to forcibly erase it, he feared his heart would shatter before he even made a move.

But during his observation, Wu Li discovered that this mark seemed... not impossible to remove.

'Why does this power fluctuation seem like... the Power of Incense?'

A glint of light flashed in Wu Li's eyes.