Li Zhongshan clenched the jade slip tight in his palm, swept his sleeve, and hurried out of the study.
He moved fast along the Main Peak the whole way. The night wind struck his face, but it did nothing to disperse the burning unease in his chest.
Before long, he stood once again before the door of that hidden meditation chamber.
Creeeak—— He pushed the door open gently. Inside, everything looked much as it had during his last visit.
Sandalwood smoke curling. Dim light. Elder Sun sat cross-legged on the cushion at the center, still as an old monk in deep meditation.
This time, however, Li Zhongshan's step faltered almost imperceptibly the moment he entered.
By the weak candlelight, he sharply noticed that there was something indescribably off about Elder Sun today.
The elder was normally gaunt, but his gaze had always been sharp as a falcon's. Today, most of the color had drained from his face, leaving an unmistakable ashen pallor and the faint air of a man approaching death.
Even the hands protruding from his sleeves were as withered as old tree bark.
Li Zhongshan's heart lurched, but he didn't dare let the slightest hint show on his face. He only bowed his head lower and saluted respectfully: "This subordinate greets Elder Sun."
On the cushion, Elder Sun slowly opened those somewhat clouded old eyes.
He offered not a single word of pleasantry. His dry, hoarse voice cut straight through the chamber: "Where is it?"
Three simple words, and yet they pressed down like a mountain.
Li Zhongshan's back snapped taut, cold sweat sliding down his temples. He steeled himself and hurriedly explained:
"Replying to Elder, this subordinate has investigated thoroughly these past few days." "I've essentially locked onto the suspect—it's only that I'm still somewhat hesitant—"
"I don't want to hear your excuses!" Elder Sun cut him off coldly.
He didn't so much as lift an eyelid, his tone carrying an irrepressible agitation and malice: "I want the Nether River Bone Lotus!"
At that, Elder Sun suddenly raised his eyelids, those bloodshot eyes fixing on Li Zhongshan, his voice so low it seemed squeezed out between his teeth:
"I'll give you one last stretch of time." "If you still can't bring it back... you know the consequences yourself!"
Feeling that near-physical killing intent, Li Zhongshan shuddered from head to toe and could only bow repeatedly, swearing oaths as he guaranteed:
"Elder, please calm your anger! This subordinate understands!" "I'll see to it at once—I will present the Nether River Bone Lotus before you intact, in the shortest possible time!"
Elder Sun seemed to find even one more word exhausting. He merely waved that withered hand with intense irritation: "Get out."
"Yes. This subordinate withdraws." As though granted a pardon, Li Zhongshan backed out of the chamber step by step and gently pulled the door shut behind him.
With the door fully closed, dead silence returned to the chamber.
On the cushion, the overwhelming authority Elder Sun had radiated moments ago seemed to have every ounce of its strength drained away in an instant—gone without a trace.
His shoulders visibly caved in, and in a blink the man looked decades older.
Elder Sun slowly lowered his head, looking at his own hands—mottled with dark, corpse-like blotches and withered as kindling—his eyes dark with dread.
A moment later. "Hrk! Hrk hrk hrk——!"
A violent, suppressed fit of coughing erupted in the chamber.
Elder Sun clamped a hand over his mouth, his aged body shaking hard. It took a long while before he barely managed to settle the churning blood and qi inside him. When he slowly opened his palm, there was a smear of dark black congealed blood sitting in it.
His expression had turned as ugly as it could possibly get.
Outsiders knew only that Elder Sun held high position and limitless prestige within the Azure Cloud Sect. None of them knew that his end... was drawing near.
The hidden injuries left behind by a failed push toward a higher realm in his early years, compounded by the merciless erosion of time... Had long since reduced his lifespan to a candle guttering in the wind. Barely anything remained.
To survive, he had secretly combed through countless ancient texts over the years and scoured the world for every manner of life-extending spirit medicine—none of it enough to save him.
In the end, out of options, he had pinned his only hope on a forbidden secret technique obtained by chance from the ruins of an ancient demonic path sect—
Using an object of supreme purity and supreme yin nature from heaven and earth as the medicinal catalyst, together with the essence blood of living sacrifices, one could forcibly seize life from the heavens and extend one's lifespan!
Methods like these were, naturally, demonic practices that the Azure Cloud Sect—indeed the entire orthodox path—would absolutely never tolerate.
If even a whisper of it leaked, forget losing his position as Elder. Sect Master Qing Feng and Vice Sect Master Ming Xuan would join hands without a moment's hesitation to purge him from the sect and grind his bones to dust!
For this, he had endured and schemed for years, finally learning that a Nether River Bone Lotus was gestating beneath the abandoned mine on Hundred Forging Peak.
That was the perfect supreme-yin primary ingredient the secret technique required!
Yet just when his chance at survival was finally within reach, the prize had slipped straight through his fingers!
"Nether River Bone Lotus..." Elder Sun wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, a hair-raising madness and obsession flickering in those withered eyes.
"Whoever dares stand between me and survival... I'll make sure they die without even a grave!"
Elsewhere.
Li Zhongshan left the chamber and strode back to his own study, face iron-gray the whole way.
The moment he was back in the room, the face he'd forced into submissive deference twisted instantly. He snatched the teacup off the desk and hurled it at the floor!
CRASH! Porcelain shards flew everywhere, tea splashing across the ground.
"Old undying bastard!!" Li Zhongshan's chest heaved violently as he cursed viciously inside his own head, teeth grinding.
Your lifespan's running out, you've got one foot in the coffin, and you still have to drag me down into the grave with you!!
Li Zhongshan hadn't clawed his way to his current position on the Main Peak by being a fool.
Elder Sun's withered appearance today, along with that abnormal mania, had practically written the words "his end is near" across his face!
The instant he imagined what wretched fate awaited him if Elder Sun dropped dead—or if the whole thing got exposed—cold air crawled up Li Zhongshan's back.
Cursing aside, once the venting was done, Li Zhongshan still had to drop back into his armchair, dejected, and force himself to calm down and think of a plan.
Facing an elder who might snap at any moment, he was in no position to make the first move. If he wanted to live, he had to follow the old man's wishes and find a way in through Lu Xiaoqi, and fast!
"But conventional surveillance isn't working anymore..." Li Zhongshan pinched his brow, expression shifting back and forth.
Hundred Forging Peak was desolate, yes, but after losing the tail today, that kid Lu Xiaoqi had clearly put his guard up.
If he rashly infiltrated Hundred Forging Peak again to seize the man by force and the commotion alerted Lin Dong or Qing Feng, that was suicide.
"The only option is a different route—work through official channels, see if I can find an opening..."
Li Zhongshan drew a deep breath and quickly suppressed his agitation.
After years of cultivating connections on the Main Peak, he naturally had his own information network threaded through every corner of the sect.
He immediately took out several Voice Transmission Jade Slips and, under the pretense of concern for recent sect affairs, began inquiring with a few stewards he was friendly with about recent developments on the various peaks.
At first, he was simply casting a wide net, hoping some scrap of news related to Hundred Forging Peak might turn up.
But in less than half an hour— The messages that came back one after another unexpectedly informed Li Zhongshan of something major.
In preparation for the Mystic Realm Trial one year from now, the Main Peak was currently drafting the first roster of seed disciples for priority cultivation and unified group training!
This wasn't the final competition roster for a year out, but rather an early screening of promising talent to receive resource prioritization and tempering.
Li Zhongshan normally wouldn't have cared much about a trial like this.
But since his nerves were entirely strung around one name—"Lu Xiaoqi"—he copied down that preliminary roster out of caution anyway.
A few breaths later. As Li Zhongshan's divine sense swept across the columns of names in the jade slip and finally came to rest on one particular line—
He froze solid in his chair.
Li Hansong's name was right there on the roster. That was nothing surprising. But right beneath Li Hansong's name was another entry, written clear as day—
Hundred Forging Peak, Lu Xiaoqi!
A body cultivator with no Spirit Root, who had crawled up out of the menial servants' district... Had brazenly appeared on the sect's first-tier priority cultivation roster for the Mystic Realm Trial?!
Li Zhongshan stared hard at the name, finding it difficult to believe for a moment.
This undoubtedly further confirmed his earlier conjecture: this Lu Xiaoqi was absolutely receiving all-out backing from some upper echelon figure in the sect!
At first, a surge of intense fury and helplessness welled up in his chest.
Making this roster meant Lu Xiaoqi's weight within the sect would only grow heavier going forward. Moving against him covertly without alerting the upper echelons would be damn near impossible!
But then— As Li Zhongshan forced down his rage and his gaze fell back onto the roster— His eyes suddenly stilled.
A thought he'd never once considered flashed through his mind.
"Unified cultivation... concentrated tempering..." Li Zhongshan muttered to himself, and his tightly knit brows actually began to smooth out, bit by bit... Replaced by a gradually surfacing glint.
In the past, this Lu Xiaoqi had holed up on Hundred Forging Peak all day. Apart from that one trip to Cangqing City, he rarely set so much as a foot outside the mountain gate.
Li Zhongshan could find no reasonable excuse to approach him, and he certainly didn't dare pull anything on Hundred Forging Peak's turf.
But once the kid entered the sect's unified cultivation track, the situation changed entirely!
It meant Lu Xiaoqi's movements going forward would be unavoidably tied to the sect's publicly scheduled training, missions, and even external tempering assignments!
He would have to come out of Hundred Forging Peak. He would have to step into the open!
And as long as he came out—as long as he had to participate in the various tempering exercises the sect organized...
Then Li Zhongshan could use that official process to observe his true strength. Or even... find, within some reasonable sect arrangement, the ideal opportunity to pull him out from under Hundred Forging Peak's protection!
At that thought, Li Zhongshan's previously clogged line of reasoning cleared in an instant.
He slowly set down the jade slip, leaned back in his chair, and tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest.
In the dim study, nothing remained but the sound of his breathing, growing steadily heavier.