At the top of the cliff, the mountain wind howled without cease.
Lin Mu gripped the incomplete map tightly in his hand and stared out toward the dark, unfathomable depths of the ten-thousand mountains.
A full incense stick's worth of time passed before his clenched fingers slowly loosened. What escaped him was a long, heavy sigh that dissolved into the cold wind.
"Lu Xingyun — Rank 3 — died without a whole corpse, reduced to food for a pack of apes. Kevin — Rank 4, a fellow countryman — ended as nothing but a lonely skeleton in a mountain cave."
"How many self-proclaimed geniuses lie buried in the depths of these ten-thousand mountains? I am nothing but a Rank 2 middle stage cultivator. If I let greed blind me and press recklessly into the unknown following this map, this fine head of mine will very likely be left behind in some nameless corner of this wilderness."
Beyond that, Lin Mu had a faint but growing sense that after these past several days of combat pushed to the very edge of life and death, the stubborn Aperture wall had begun to show signs of yielding.
He was already drawing close to the threshold of Rank 2 upper stage.
Real combat truly was the finest whetstone.
"Time to go back."
Lin Mu made the call without hesitation and tucked the map firmly into his robes.
The gains from this expedition into the mountains were already extraordinarily rich. Biting off more than one could chew served no one.
Only by fully digesting what had already been gained and consolidating his foundation was the most fundamental law of survival.
The two of them reversed course and set off on the road back the way they had come.
Several days later, when the towering bluestone gates of Black Blood Stockade came back into view, a fine drizzle was drifting down from the sky.
A week or two meant nothing to Black Blood Stockade. Nothing had changed.
Back at the External Affairs Hall quarters, word of Lin Mu's return reached Lin Ping immediately, and he came at once.
The Lin Ping of today was a far cry from the timid, deferential boy of before. He wore a proper deacon's long robe, and though his talent kept his cultivation at only Rank 1 middle stage, the constant flow of visitors and business through the External Affairs Hall had tempered him into someone composed and capable — managing the hall's daily affairs with smooth, practiced efficiency.
Seeing Lin Mu and Lin Wuxie return safe and unharmed, he was overjoyed, and immediately set about arranging a welcome.
That night, rain fell in a steady curtain outside. Inside, the charcoal fire burned bright and warm.
On the table sat several jars of fine green bamboo wine and a spread of carefully prepared drinking snacks. The three of them sat gathered around the fire, the atmosphere easy and comfortable in a way that was rare — a small, solid unit that had quietly taken shape.
Lin Mu held his cup and let his gaze drift slowly across the faces of the two beside him, the firelight dancing in his eyes as he ran through his core strategy for the future.
"The most critical priority, above all else, remains my own cultivation."
He took a sip of the sharp, burning liquor.
"I must break through to Rank 3 as quickly as possible. Once I cross that great boundary, I can legitimately deploy my hidden card — the White Silver Relic Gu — and force my cultivation to Rank 3 middle stage in one stroke."
Only then would he have truly secured his footing in Black Blood Stockade. Only then could he reveal his strength openly and hold the initiative in his own hands.
As for Lin Wuxie — Lin Mu glanced sideways at Lin Wuxie, who was currently tearing into a large piece of meat with single-minded focus.
With Kevin's partial formula in hand, Lin Mu planned to begin gathering materials immediately upon returning, and refine the critical Dialysis Gu for him without delay.
Swallow and filter. A cycle of life and death in perfect balance.
It would not only help Lin Wuxie purge the impurities packed inside him and break through the peak Rank 1 wall into Rank 2 — more importantly, once this unique cultivation path was made whole, it would become a terrifying combat asset in Lin Mu's hands in the years to come.
And Lin Ping... Lin Mu's brow furrowed slightly.
Lin Ping's loyalty was beyond question, and his reliability in handling affairs was exceptional. But his Grade D talent was an iron gate that could not be forced — a hard ceiling on everything he could ever become.
Lin Mu had nothing in hand right now that could directly and safely improve someone's innate talent. As for the Blood Skull Gu from the original story — it required the slaughter of one's own blood kin to fuel the improvement — and Lin Mu was clearly not noble enough to sacrifice himself for Lin Ping's benefit.
"Forget it. If an opportunity arises later, I'll find him a Lifespan Gu or some powerful supplementary Gu worm."
Watching these two young men beside him — both of whom trusted him without reservation — listening to Lin Ping ramble on cheerfully about the small happenings around the stockade, Lin Mu felt something rare stir in that cold, hardened heart of his.
A faint warmth, coaxed out by the glow of the charcoal fire.
He carried too many lethal secrets. His identity as a transmigrator, the inheritances tied to a Rank 5 Demon Venerable — none of it could ever be shared with them in full.
But within the limits of what he could do, keeping them safe and granting them strength — that was the only thread of warmth he allowed himself.
Yet as his thoughts drifted, an image surfaced unbidden in his mind.
The Rank 4 female demon, draped in thin black gauze. Wuxiang.
She was the sharpest blade hanging over his head right now.
High-ranking Demonic Path cultivators of her kind were capricious by nature, acting entirely on whim. Today, if her mood was good, she might gift you a Gu worm and spare your life. Tomorrow, if her mood soured — or if she decided you had outlived your usefulness — she could crush you as casually as pinching an ant.
Two full major realms separated them. Lin Mu had no standing whatsoever to overturn the table.
"Time. I am desperately short of time."
The fingers wrapped around his cup tightened sharply. His knuckles went pale from the force.
This suffocating sense of urgency had clung to him almost without pause since the moment he arrived in this world. And since his Aperture Opening, he had pushed himself with near-sleepless, relentless intensity — calculating resources, cultivating with everything he had, every waking moment — and had only just now begun to touch the threshold of Rank 3.
That kind of rocket-like speed, if made known, would have shocked the world — comparable to the legendary Ten Extreme Physiques in the tales.
And yet Lin Mu still felt it was too slow.
Because his enemies were not the sheltered peers of his own generation. They were Rank 4 cultivators. Rank 5. And beyond that — Gu Immortals.
Driven to the edge by that extreme, grinding anxiety, a thought surfaced in Lin Mu's mind that he could not suppress — a thought that was nothing short of reckless.
"If only I could get my hands on a Three Watches Gu..."
It was a domineering Gu worm of the most extreme kind. It could forcibly distort the flow of time around its host, causing cultivation speed to surge at three times the normal rate.
The price was that the host's lifespan would burn away at three times the rate as well — consumed at a pace that was nothing short of horrifying.
But with a Three Watches Gu, Lin Mu was confident he could storm his way to Rank 4 in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take, and finally secure the power to protect himself. Even if it cost him half his remaining years, he would pay it without hesitation.
Late into the night, the rain gradually eased.
After seeing off Lin Ping and Lin Wuxie — both thoroughly drunk, leaning on each other as they stumbled away — the courtyard fell back into dead silence.
Lin Mu returned to his room alone and dropped onto his cold, hard stone bed.
He did not light a lamp. In the darkness, he slowly closed his eyes and turned his senses inward.
He looked upon the Gu worms drifting within his Aperture, and the mountain of Primeval Stones piled inside the Gourd Gu.
If the anxiety could not be eliminated, then let it become fuel.
If there are no shortcuts, then walk this road until the very end.
In the darkness, Lin Mu's eyes snapped open. Two flames burned in their depths as he made his silent, absolute resolve.