Chương 51: The Endless Mountain Feels Uncomfortable

After a few minutes of flying, Ren Qingquan and Fatty Zhang finally arrived at their destination. From their crane, they could now see a mountain that almost reached the clouds. The mountain was immense, with many Chinese-style buildings scattered around. The crane they rode soon flew into a lake located on flat ground at the mountain's slope. Around the lake, there are many cranes and a familiar hut with the sign 'Mount Renting Station'.

After landing, Ren Qingquan stepped down from the crane and said, 'This whole travelling by crane thing somehow reminds me of the fast travel system in games.' After Fatty Zhang also disembarked from his crane, both of them went to the Mount Renting Station. Similar to the previous Mount Renting Station where they borrowed their cranes from, there's also a disciple manning it. If there's a difference, it would be at their cultivation level.

Perhaps because the mountain with the Disciple Registration Hall is an important administrative site, the disciple manning the Mount Renting Station there is at the Foundation Building realm. Meanwhile, the disciple manning the Mount Renting Station here is only at the Qi Refining Realm, one realm lower. Currently, the disciple is meditating inside the small hut. When Ren Qingquan walked closer, he slowly opened his eyes and asked, "How may I help you? Do you need to rent a mount?" Ren QIngquan shook his head, "No.

I've just entered the sect and wished to look for a suitable residence." When the disciple heard it was unrelated to business, his face visibly fell. At the side, Fatty Zhang suddenly pulled a chime and chimed in, "This senior, please take care of us." As he said so, he pulled a First Tier Low Grade Qi Gathering Pill from his pill bottle and handed it to the disciple. Seeing it, the disciple took it and nodded in satisfaction, "You guys have asked the correct person!"

While Ren Qingquan and I gasped at Fatty's sophistication, the disciple explained, "Just in case both of you haven't read it, let me remind you of something the sect's introduction book has explained."

"When looking for a residence, those with activated formation means the building has been occupied. So, you must choose a residence without activated formation. You can occupy a building by placing your identification token at the building's core formation plate. At that time, you will be identified as the building's owner. But remember, you can only bind a building once. If you want to change your residence, you need to visit the Miscellaneous Hall to request a change of residence. Of course, it won't be free."

"Except for that, if there's a residence you especially fancy, you can fight the owner of that building in the Sect Arena. As long as you bet something of equivalent value and win in a fight against the owner of that building, you can get the ownership of the building for free. The one to paid the ownership change cost will depend on the initial contract before the arena battle." I heard it all and nodded. Those are indeed the core details about choosing a residence, as written in the sect's introduction book.

As expected of a cultivation sect, they seem to promote the survival of the fittest with that last arena rule. Aside from that, I am also amazed by the cultivation world's black technology. How is the automatic change in formation ownership achieved simply by pressing a wooden token on the formation? I don't think I've ever read about something similar in the formation books I've scanned before.

While I began to get interested in learning about the cultivation world's array formation techniques, the disciple continued his explanation, "Then next is my personal advice."

"This outer sect's mountain has a massive spirit gathering array covering it. The centre of the array is located at the mountain's peak. Thanks to it, the peak is also the location with the densest spirit qi. The further away from the peak, the lower the spirit qi density and the slower your cultivation speed will be."

"Does that means we should choose the residence at the mountain peak?" Fatty Zhang asked.

"Not really." The disciple shook his head.

"To ensure most of the mountain is filled and conflicts over residences among disciples won't happen too often, the sect has arranged it so that the farther from the peak a residence is, the more luxurious it is.

"So, the residence located at the peak is usually only a small building with a single cultivation room and a bathroom. Meanwhile, residence at the base of the mountain could rival the mansion of a noble from the mortal kingdoms. Furthermore, every building is equipped with dust-repelling formation, so unlike mortal mansions, you don't need to take care of it, and the building itself will maintain its own cleanliness." Ren Qingquan and Fatty Zhang opened their mouth agape, "Incredible."

The disciple nodded proudly, saying, "Of course. Our sect is the top sect in this region, so ensuring this level of benefit for disciples is essential to maintaining the sect's reputation. Especially in case other sects visit." He then added, "I recommend you choose a residence on the mountain's middle upper slope. The spirit qi density there is not much worse than at the peak, and the building is spacious enough for living comfortably."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Ren Qingquan and Fatty Zhang thanked the disciple, "Thank you for the advice." The disciple waved his hand, "No problem. If you have any questions, you're welcome to ask me." With that, Ren Qingquan and Fatty Zhang climbed the mountain while looking for a suitable residence. I also helped Ren Qingquan find the best residence that balances comfort and qi density.

Thanks to my [Scan], I can constantly see the spirit qi density in a given area. So it's much easier for me to compare spirit qi density between buildings than for others. After half an hour of house hunting, Ren Qingquan and Fatty Zhang finally chose their respective residences and placed their identity tokens on the buildings' formation plates to bind and activate them. For the sake of easier communication between them, the residence Fatty Zhang and Ren Qingquan chose isn't too far from each other.

Entering his new house, with a bedroom, a bathroom, a guest room, and a cultivation room, Ren Qingquan immediately ran to the bedroom to sleep. [Host, why are you sleeping in the afternoon?]'Don't talk to me. I am just so tired after camping outdoors for a few days straight.' While squirming on his bed like a worm trying to make a cocoon, Ren Qingquan occasionally stretched and groaned, "Ahhh… that hit the spot." As he lay on his bed, I suddenly heard Ren Qingquan think, 'I'll cultivate and whatnot tomorrow.

I'll just sleep for today.' Then he read some novels from the system library before sleeping deeply, like a Victorian child dying of the plague. As Ren Qingquan went to sleep, I kept only a small bit of my attention on the area around him with [Scan]. Meanwhile, I also kept a small part of my attention on an ASMR from one of the Pure Wave Sect's higher-ups, a woman in a dress covered in runes that's busy refining equipment.

Whenever I got bored, I'd switch to other people's [Scan] before returning to watch the weapon-refining show. This reminded me of the time I spent a whole day mindlessly scrolling through social media. Perhaps I should place my [Scan] on more people. That way, I'd have more entertainment. As I repeatedly switched between different people's [Scan], the [Scan] I placed on Azure Emperor finally showed him arriving at a familiar location.

Riding the giant bird he controlled, the Azure Emperor made it descend to a familiar open space amid a forest of dense trees. I called it familiar because that place is where Ren Xuan fought a Martial Emperor realm wolf and detonated a spirit tool like a bomb to attack it. Azure Emperor closed his eyes as he stood amid the empty ground. Then I saw him circulate the energy within his body as the spirit qi that hadn't entirely dispersed from the spirit tool Ren Xuan had detonated began gathering within him.

Soon, Azure Emperor reopened his eyes.

"So, this is what Spirit Qi feels like?" After speaking, Azure Emperor walked through the trees and shrubs until he reached the spot where Ren Xuan had opened the spatial crack that led him to the cultivation world. I immediately guessed what Azure Emperor wanted to do. It seemed he also wanted to enter the Cultivation World through the method Ren Xuan had used.

As he stood at the shallow pit caused by the spatial crack that Ren Xuan had created, the Azure Emperor closed his eyes while circulating his energy, seemingly sensing something. Soon, Azure Emperor opened his eyes, "It seems We have found the correct place. The Spatial Sensing Technique has detected this place as the location with the weakest spatial strength." After he said so, the Azure Emperor suddenly circulated the energy in his body and moved it all into his fist before punching the air.

The punch sent winds blasting everywhere, but nothing else happened. The Azure Emperor fell silent, then muttered, "We have found the record that explains how to reach the ascension path to the world of cultivation. It said those with power beyond the Martial Emperors, or those who sacrifice a Spirit Tool, can shatter space in the world's weakest spatial area."

"We have reached the realm beyond Martial Emperors, yet why doesn't it work? Did We find the wrong place? Or perhaps that punch isn't strong enough? Should We also try to sacrifice a Spirit Tool? But We're ignorant of any technique to trigger a Spirit Tool's explosion." The Azure Emperor thought out loud, then decided to start punching once again. Every punch thrown by the Azure Emperor nearly matched the strength of the spirit tools that Ren Xuan had exploded.

After seven punches, a black crack appeared in the sky. The Azure Emperor, seeing the crack, didn't stop but instead punched even harder, unleashing his energy wildly. By the twentieth punch, the crack in space had expanded to a size comparable to a human. Azure Emperor looked at the darkness behind the spatial crack and took a deep breath before stepping inside. Similar to Ren Xuan, I observed the Azure Emperor's environment transform into a dark sky dotted with numerous star-like lights.

Behind him lies the Martial Arts World, and in the distance, there's the Cultivation World that, from his current position, looked like a glowing sun. Just when I thought the Azure Emperor would cross safely, a feminine voice suddenly echoed through the empty space, "Oh no, it broke! Damn it, who's breaking the space again?!" The voice spread in a way similar to the secret voice transmission technique used by the Pure Wave Sect's higher-ups to chat with each other.

Not long after the voice is heard, the space around Azure Emperor somehow cracked and shattered before sucking him and a few other matters around him. After being sucked by the crack, Azure Emperor suddenly switched direction. Instead of the Cultivation World, he flew to the sky full of stars. Soon, I saw him move further and further before suddenly… I lost contact with him. This loss of contact is different from the one caused by death.

When the Martial Emperor I had anchored before died, I felt a jolt, and then I could no longer connect with them. As for the Azure Emperor's case, I felt I had lost contact with him, but I also felt I could still regain that connection through some means. If I must guess, this should have something to do with my [Anchor] ability. Perhaps I need to place my [Anchor] ability on him if I want to regain our connection.

I have a theory that Ren Qingquan, who has all of my ability anchored to himself, kinda works like a signal station. When Ren Shiluo, Azure Emperor, Ren Xuan, or anyone else I've lent my ability to moves a certain distance away from Ren Qingquan, I might lose my connection, just like with Azure Emperor just now. As for the distance within Ren Qingquan's 'signal' range, it should be the Cultivation World and the Martial Arts World combined.

After all, I could still see Ren Shiluo even though he's in the Martial Arts World.