Hidden Spring

Yellow Springs.

It indeed took Qai more or less a month of crossing few towns and several villages to get to the outskirts of the much renowned place.

He even had to fend of some group of bandits and demonic beasts.

But what surprised Qai more was that near the entrance of the mountain range, there was even a makeshift market with around a dozen of cultivators and merchants engaged in trading.

It made Qai believe that even of the Yellow Springs was known for being extremely dangerous, there were still plenty of cultivators who venture inside the place and tried their luck.

Although he is not intent on going to the deeper parts of the mountain, he could be considered one of those that wanted to try his luck.

In that said small makeshift market, he traded some of the items he collected from the bandits and demonic beasts and bought something valuable for his journey.

It was an incomplete map of the explored areas of the wide stretch of Yellow Springs which also contains basic information of the demonic beasts' territories.

He then found out that most flying beasts were nesting in the cliffs along the mountains and the nearest cliff, the likely less dangerous, in the map was around three days travel more and was not in the outskirts.

Thus Qai would have to venture a bit and would have to face some dangers along the way.

But with the two Inheritance rank items he possessed, he was confident that he could survive and succeed with his mission.

***************

Around this time across the region, news that a new sect was established called Frozen Sword Sect spread like wildfire and that two very young geniuses who became elders of sect were at the forefront.

It was of course, Jiang City's Mo Clan and the two young elders were Mo Shui and Lin Qiao who were now at the initial Heaven stage of the Sage realm—the same level Ji Wuheng had back in the forbidden Hundred Graves.

The level of the two elders were comparable to the peak core disciples of the great sects and Patriarch Mo Chen's vision was indeed coming into fruition.

Also within the Darkwood Forest, a group of five young elite Sky stage Sages were immersed with their training. Their travel in the entire Stonecrest region in the past year had earned them a bit of fame and they had been given the name 'Peerless Five' among the community of vagrant cultivators.

They were of course Shu Liang and his group who were bound to participate in the sub competition during the Gathering of the Five Great Sects.

Without much discussion, the group had eventually chosen the Darkwood Forest near 'The Hunters' Plateau' as their base. The group thought it wise to take advantage of the rising Shu family's protection and connections since Shu Liang was one of them.

Although the Peerless Five had not officially joined 'The Hunters' Plateau,' the choice of the group also became beneficial to the Shu family as many vagrant cultivators who wished to interact with the 'Peerless Five' had to stay in the family's inn and transact in their shop.

Within the family moreover, Elder 'Fatty' Lu had already gone his way to visit the family's shop in Sun City.

He brought along his nephew Su Yu to personally train under Dong Fei's guidance. And although the current level of the two was only one stage apart, Dong Fei's knowledge in crafting and learned skills was obviously much more advanced.

Thus, Su Yu's exposure in Sun City would definitely benefit him greatly.

Elsewhere, around the continent, all the core disciples of the five great sects had been busy in preparation for the gathering.

Ji Wuheng of the Scarlet Feather Sect was in deep seclusion. With the help of the Blood Crystal Pill from the Blood Crystal Grass he and Qai found in the forbidden Graves, he was actually trying to breakthrough to mid Heaven stage of the Sage realm.

***************

On Qai's way to the cliff just a mile away from the outskirts of the forested entrance to the mountain range of Yellow Springs, he accidentally stumbled upon a small cave emitting thick Qi. Qai thus chose to spend his cultivation in the cave that night.

To his surprise however, within the cave he encountered a pair of peak Sky stage Sage Ghost Bat—a demonic beast with life force suction ability.

Although the bloody battle had been difficult which even lasted for almost an hour, with the help of his Inheritance items, Qai and Shandian were able to win.

He looked around the cave after killing the two demonic beasts and thought that there could be a spiritual herb they were protecting—but he found nothing. The cave was practically empty.

'Why would there be such strong demonic beasts in this cave?' Qai asked himself.

He was relatively not too far from the outskirts. And to his knowledge and with the aid of the map's informations, there shouldn't be elite Sage demonic beasts in that part of the Yellow Springs.

He thought deep that moment and felt that something was really amiss.

He activated his 'Hawkeye' skill and looked around the cave. The cave was just the size of a regular room so it was easy to scan.

Apart from a very small portion of the cave's ground being wet, nothing was really unusual.

"Hmmmm," he mumbled.

He quickly approached the muddy ground and tried to dig it.

After few breaths, clear water started to spring from a knee deep pit.

Happiness started to beam from his face. He instantly knew that the reason why the cave was emitting thick Qi and why there were demonic beasts in the cave was that the cave was hiding a spring.