Chapter 0247: Yin Yang Dao Palace
Heaven's Equal Peak, Yin Yang Dao Palace.
This was the highest palace on Heaven's Equal Peak. It was extremely luxurious. Although it was just a palace, it was bigger than the Imperial City of Dong Yue Wu. All kinds of build-ups were constructed along the precipitous cliff, and many of the walls were inscribed with spirit designs that would draw the spiritual qi from the surroundings and fortify the walls.
The Shushan Immortal Sect had a history of a million years. In the world of numbers, one yuan was more than 120,000 years;therefore, this million year history spanned about eight yuan. It was anybody's guess how many of the eight yuan that the Yin Yang Dao Palace had been standing for. In this world, non-living things abided longer than living things. Wu Yu walked within the vacant expanse of the palace and pictured all the sword cultivators who had cultivated and reached enlightenment within this place.
The place where he sat in a lotus position absorbed the spiritual qi from the entire Heaven's Equal Peak, funneled by spirit designs. All of it was channeled towards Wu Yu. Countless sword cultivators had sat in this position before him.
Yin Yang Dao Palace was a name that he had come up with.
Although the contest at the Mountain of Swords and Immortals was proceeding on at a furious pace, Wu Yu was still quite calm.
"Only with more power can I shine brightly amidst such a battlefield."
Perhaps many people were waiting for him to quickly make an appearance, especially after news of Zhang Futu's murder had spread.
For now, Shen Xingyao only watched him. In the end, the notion of whether he would become Shen Xingyao's disciple was an answer that many were even more anxious than Wu Yu to know.
"On this road of cultivation, it does not matter what kind of disaster or commotion is going on. One still has to find inner calm. One should seek dao enlightenment when it is time to seek dao enlightenment. And fight when it is time to fight!"
Yin Yang Dao Palace was the most central palace, and Wu Yu was sitting at the most central position. It was vast and empty around him, and mortal eyes could not even see the four walls around. Even the ceiling above was more than 10 zhang high.
In this vast palace, the copious amounts of spiritual qi were sucked in, circulating within the palace. Wu Yu was at the middle of the vortex, frantically absorbing the vast amounts of spiritual qi. He used the Great Way of Immortality Art's Jindan Condensation Wondrous Art to shape the spiritual qi and refine his Jindan. He incorporated the spiritual qi into his Jindan.
This was a dry, tedious, and repetitive process. Yet it required one's full concentration, and a strict adherence to the procedure.
Even with the excellent quality of Wu Yu's Jindan and the Great Way of Immortality Art, he had to take it step by step, aided by Golden Essence Pills, in order to go further.
But Wu Yu was now as poor as winter. He did not have many merits left.
Even if he had Golden Essence Pills, he would be frugal with them. After all, the Jindan that he had crafted step by step had to be more robust.
Besides this, Wu Yu still had many free days, and he spent them on two things. Firstly, he refined immortal medicines, and very quickly expended all the immortal essences and other materials that he had with him. He had made many Spirit Concentration Pills and other ordinary immortal medicines, but had yet to create Golden Essence Pills. This still required an even stronger immortal fire and more refined techniques.
Next, it was a deeper understanding of the Yin Yang Heaven-Earth-Void Sword Art. After his fight with Situ Gongde, he had begun to make inroads into this technique, laying down some foundations. Developing them in the future would not be as difficult.
"I still have two months before the external challenge of the Leaderboard of Swords and Immortals ends. And then I have seven more months before the entire battle of the Leaderboard of Swords and Immortals ends. Within these seven months, I must at least reach the third tier of the Jindan Dao Realm, and also do my best to completely master the void sword technique."
Wu Yu planned it out.
If he could complete these two goals, then forget the first rank on the Leaderboard of Swords and Immortals - even the so-called demon that was Zhao Tianjian's son, even if there were many Huang sword rank disciples - Wu Yu would not be afraid.
However, Wu Yu was very clear that refining his Jindan was even more difficult than refining his spiritual sources! Many people were stuck at the Jindan Dao Realm because of their Jindan Condensation Wondrous Art limiting them. Their talent was wasted, and their spiritual enlightenment was insufficient to proceed further.
Even in cultivation, many things were naturally bestowed, and could not be forced.
In these seven months, these two goals would see many changes, and might not be completed.
Crucially, Wu Yu had smoothly progressed for half a month before he stopped. He gazed out at the empty plains and could not help but be worried. Why had Nangong Wei not come to find him?
"News of my location at Warring Immortals Hall has spread throughout the entire Common Sword Domain. This concerns my killing of Zhang Futu, and will definitely spread very quickly. Wei Er must know of my whereabouts. Why has she not come? Could it be that she was really caught by people from the Clear Sky of Shushan because of me?
"She must be the heir of some expert, although she did not tell me what was the reason for her escaping in the first place. If she has been brought back, then forget the chance to say goodbye, will she...."
Thinking of the year that he had spent together with that girl, he had become used to her presence. And now that she was not by his side, Wu Yu was a little uneasy.
"The road of cultivation is incomparably long. If it is just me, it would be a little lonely." In this expansive and vacant hall, Wu Yu soon felt a crushing sense of loneliness.
After thinking about it closely, he did not even have a single brother here at Shushan. Only Nangong Wei was close to him, and yet now she was gone without even a word of farewell.
Suddenly, he thought of the words “dao companion.”
"Besides mutual collaboration and spending their lives together, the dao companionship of martial cultivators has an even more profound meaning than the marriage of ordinary mortals. They will walk the path of cultivation together, and cultivate together. They will live and die together, and share their fortunes and misfortunes equally.
"Dao companions are even closer than husband and wife. All that they have is shared.
"In one's life, there will only be one dao companion. Turning one's back on one's dao companion will cause one to be spurned by the world of dao."
He had met many female cultivators before. Firstly, there was Su Yanli. At the start, he had some budding affection for her, but later realized it was merely a respectful affection for his senior sister. And now that Wu Yu had risen to another level, he found himself ever more distant from her.
And next had been the Ninth Spirit. A demon that Wu Yu both loved and hated. She still held the most important position in his heart. But she was a demon. And she was wrong. Her mistake had been that she had gone after Wu Yu's life.
After coming to Shushan, the only one who had brought warmth to Wu Yu was Nangong Wei. But she was still young. Although they had spent much time together, his heart had not yet been moved. And Wu Yu knew that Nangong Wei seemed to have taken a liking to him.
"Will I be with Wei Er in the future? After all, she will eventually grow up. And her talent is exceptional. She must be the most talented woman that I have met to date. Will she walk the journey of cultivation hand in hand with me?"
With regards to the future, Wu Yu still felt that there was no need to dwell overlong on those matters - he would cross that bridge when he came to it.
"I just hope that we meet again."
If they simply parted thus, without a farewell and without ever meeting again, Wu Yu would feel regret, even if they were but friends.
There was a designated Immortal Pair Hall in the Shushan Immortal Sect, where martial cultivators could go of their own free will, to redeem an immortal treasure called the United Heart Lock. From then on, they would be tied as dao companions, and announced to the rest of the world that they would spend their lives together.
Nangong Wei did not appear again. Wu Yu ventured out a few times to find her, but to no avail. He did not go to the Mountain of Swords and Immortals. He heard that the internal challenges on the Leaderboard of Swords and Immortals had already begun, and everyone was waiting for Wu Yu's next appearance.
As for Wu Yu, he had engendered jealousy already. Added to the matter of Zhang Futu, as well as the rumors and slander from others, he would hear all sorts of malicious gossip wherever he went. More than 70% of the people that recognized him did not want him to become Shen Xingyao's disciple.
The sin of killing one's master had scared many of them.
As for the details, the disciples of Futu Hall naturally would not divulge them. They would only say that Shen Xingyu had protected Wu Yu; otherwise, he would have been sent to the Sword Impalement Prison long ago.
The Shushan Immortal Sect could not tolerate disciples with a broken moral code.
Time passed, and Wu Yu rarely left his peak. Firstly, he did not wish to listen to others gossip about him, and secondly, the pressure was indeed mounting. He felt like there was a star up high that was constantly looking down on him.
Sometimes, Wu Yu would become frustrated. Why had he been sucked into this maelstrom of trouble simply because of this notice?
Sometimes, Wu Yu was grateful. If not for him and Shen Xingyu, how could he have come to Warring Immortals Hall and peacefully cultivate, unmolested?
If he had not come to Shushan, Wu Yu would never have known how marvelous the road of cultivation was.
And when he was truly engrossed, time flew. Wu Yu forgot how much time had passed. He only felt the end of the Battle of Swords and Immortals draw ever closer. But the problem was that refining his Jindan through spiritual qi was not the same as using Golden Essence Pills. No matter how ferocious his pace, he could not match the speed from the previous time. He was already considered frighteningly fast. Other Shushan disciples had to spend a few years refining spiritual qi before they moved from the second tier of Jindan to the third tier. And he had only spent a few months' time.
But he still felt that it was slow.
"Being so anxious is not conducive to cultivation." He was very clear on this.
"But now there is still some distance before I breach the third tier. And the seven months of the Battle of Swords and Immortals is almost over.
"With this level of ability, I doubt that I'll be able to catch the Galaxy Sword Sage's eye at the Battle of Swords and Immortals!" Wu Yu had started to doubt himself.
He had taken the time to analyze the top three on the Leaderboard of Swords and Immortals. They were indeed monsters. They were of the same age as he was or younger, but their names already rang throughout the divine continent.
These would definitely become Heaven sword rank disciples in the future, and even become Shushan Sword Sages!
They were all at the fourth tier of the Jindan realm, and bordering on the fifth tier. The top five were said to all have unique qualities of Jindan, along with their own talents and abilities.
And yet the Galaxy Sword Sage had not paid attention to them.
"I must surpass them if I hope to be favored by the Galaxy Sword Sage!"
Wu Yu was not in any particular hurry to become anyone's disciple, but he had already been forced onto the stage, and it was difficult to make his exit now.
And once he failed, he might fall and be dashed - becoming the laughing stock of Shushan and spurned by the sect.
This was why this challenge was extremely important, and why it caused him a lot of pressure.
"The void sword technique is more or less mastered now. Let me ask someone how many days there are left before the Leaderboard of Swords and Immortals ends."
After seven months, Wu Yu knew that he could not linger here any longer.
Normally, he would require three more months to complete his refining.
He did not know that countless people had gathered at the Mountain of Swords and Immortals, waiting for him to come. The time was almost up, and many were already angry and speechless.
If Wu Yu still did not appear, some people would probably rush to Warring Immortals Hall.