Chương 429: Unending Peaks (III)

I whipped my head toward Long Tao, who shrugged and looked away, which immediately told me all I had to know. It was the guy he sold the spot to for the millions of stones he ended up getting.... but when the hell did he join us?! No, seriously. No matter how hard I think back--and it's not as though my memory is shit, what with effectively qi-juiced brain framing every second of every moment--I can't remember exactly when he joined us. He just... was, suddenly, here.

Beyond that, he was quite nondescript, one of those guys you'd never really take notice of out there in the wild. Kind of like coming across a distantly familiar face and then looking at your high school's yearbook and going, 'Oh, yeah! That's the guy!' As we settled down, my thoughts raced back to what to do now. If I suddenly rise up and say, 'Hey, everyone! Someone from this lovely sect is planning on sacrificing all of us so they can try and become an Emperor!'

, I'm pretty sure my head would fly further up than a rocket could. Furthermore, I kind of... well, I kind of have to go in. The system's strongly implied preference that I break through using that 4th method relies entirely on me getting into the realm and getting the tortoise's heart. So, despite knowing that it's a trap, I still must go. Haah. I miss the days when my biggest worry was gathering enough materials to do some work on a rundown shack atop a mountain.

One good piece of news is that the pill finally worked--starting with me. [--congratulations, Host. You have successfully eroded the flaws in your foundation through the use of Flawless Foundation Pill] [...] [Host's Talent evolves: Heaven (Low) --> Heaven (Peak)] [Host's natural quality of Qi undergoes a quantitative evolution. The density is increased by approximately 30%] [Host's meridians were strengthened, allowing for a greater circulation of Qi] [Host's dantian had been stripped clean of accumulated flaws, increasing the total capacity of Qi by about 40%] [Host's body had been further restructured, greatly increasing the body's natural abilities] [...] [Congratulations, Host. Your Disciples have all undergone a massive change in their foundation, their talents shifting] [...] [Light's talent has evolved:??? -->???] [Xi Zhao's talent has evolved: Heaven (Low) --> Heaven (Peak)] [Dai Xiu's talent has evolved: Heaven (Low) --> Heaven (Peak)] [Long Tao's talent has evolved slightly: Myth (Peak)(+) --> Divine (Low)(+)] [Wan Lan's talent has evolved slightly: Heaven (Peak) --> Jade (Mid)] [Rayce's talent has evolved slightly: Myth (Middle) --> Myth (Peak)] If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

[Xing Feng's talent has evolved slightly: Heaven (Peak) --> Jade (Low)] [Lao Shun's talent has not undergone an evolution, but his ability to control Divine Flames has increased by a tier, allowing for finer control of wilder flames] [...] [Special Rewards have been triggered] [...] [Reward 1: 1, 000 CP] [Reward 2: Talent Jade (Legendary) x5] [Reward 3: Eternal Regeneration Pills (???) x2]... hm? Wait. Why does that name sound familiar?! [Eternal Regeneration Pill (???) -- completely restores the body, heart, and soul of a martial artist using Source Dao. So long as the cultivator's existence hasn't been completely annihilated, they can be reborn. Half of their cultivation, however, will be sacrificed, and their lifespan will immediately be cut down to 10 years if they had more than that] [Note: Host is naturally shielded from the pill's drawbacks.] Right! The damned breakthrough pill! No, two of them. On top of that, don't I already have one of the other ones?

Enduring Qi Pill, right. Shit. Aren't I halfway done with collecting them all? All that's left is the tortoise heart and... My eyes wandered over toward Lao Shun, who had been slipping in and out of consciousness until recently, when he finally seemed to awake. He was currently chugging some food and drinks that had been prepared for us, and I frowned as I finally remembered a conversation we had way back in the mine.

"Hey," I sat by him and greeted him as he didn't even look my way, still engrossed in the food.

"We need to talk."

"Clearly," he said.

"Otherwise, you wouldn't be here."

"Remember a recipe I gave you way back in the mine? The one you said is considered extinct?"

"..." he stopped eating in a rather comical way, his eyebrows dancing slightly as he finally looked over toward me.

"Uh..."

"So, you do remember," I said, smiling.

"What came of it? Best I recall, you mentioned needing some ingredients and an assistant, both of which we were supposed to find... oh, where was it? Do you remember?"

"... Jade Blossom City." he mumbled.

"Jade Blossom City, that's right! Wait a moment. Could that be the place we just left? No, it can't be. It truly can't be."

"I... I really forgot," he said.

"I focused so much on the Flawless Foundation Pill that I... it just slipped my mind completely." I figured as much. I mean, I forgot, so it's not like I can lash out at him much. But still.

"Look, while you're in the secret realm, I can hop back to the city and see if I can find her as well as the ingredients."

"Sure." It didn't matter much either way. Even if I got them all, there are only two places that I can actually break through at: Phoenix's Rest Mountains, which, if I'm to make a wild guess, is this place. Or, well, somewhere in this place. And the other one is the center of Nirvana Island, whose owner is very likely to hate our guts by now.

A possibility still exists that, in the chaos of aftermath, this place (or, well, the place within this place) might become unguarded, and Lao Shun will return just in time to hand me the necessary pills, and it will all play out to a tee... but, somehow, some way, I doubt it. I glanced over at Long Tao and realized that, while the system was handling my ingredients, I didn't have an extra for him.

And, as horrifying as it sounded, I don't actually think I can gather them all for him, not in a reasonable amount of time, anyway. It's been something that I thought about on and off for a while, and try as I may to wreck my head with a solution, I always came up empty. Best I can tell, there's just one 'theoretical' way for him to achieve this breakthrough: through Enduring Eternity.

One of the perks of the method is that, upon perfecting it, one goes up a minor realm, and if they are at the peak of it, they break through. The question is... would the system qualify Long Tao as capable of breaking through using the fourth path? I genuinely don't know, and yet chances are that I might just have to find out.