Chapter 119 - Act 17. Abyssal Labyrinth (4)

* * *

Yise set out for the labyrinth without hesitation. Now that a fortuitous encounter was within his grasp, he would not be satisfied until he investigated it for himself. He prepared his body and mind, determined to overcome whatever trials awaited him, then started on his way.

"Fellow Daoist, please cooperate with our inspection."

Even on his way out, he encountered Cultivators from the Heavenly Ice Palace conducting searches.

By now, Yise had realized that the Heavenly Ice Palace was using its search to blockade Tiandogyeong. He had already removed his spirit-concealing ring to avoid suspicion, and he was not in disguise, so he passed safely through the cordon. Once the Cultivators were far behind him, he brought out the Dream-Saving Cloud and began picking up speed in earnest.

* * *

After following the map northeast for about nineteen days, he caught sight of the snowy mountain marked on the secret map. He spread Flame Release over a wide area, melting the snow blanketing the mountain to clear a path. Searching the mountain with nothing but the secret map to guide him was an ordeal, yet he roamed in search of the entrance without even noticing the hardship.

What he finally found was a boulder about the size of a Grade 1 demonic beast, a Thunder Boar. A single rectangular hole pierced its center, exactly the right size for the jade slip. When Yise slid the secret map into it, the boulder shuddered with a rumble, and the ground beneath it split open to reveal a staircase. The jade slip itself was the key to the labyrinth.

Lighting his way with a flame, he descended one cautious step at a time. He had taken only a few steps when another rumble sounded, and the entrance closed and vanished behind him.

For a long while, he descended through pitch-black darkness with only a single flame to guide him. The stairs stretched on without end. The sense that they truly led all the way into the abyss made him dizzy, while a strange energy gradually began to coil around him.

Soon, an enormous stone door came into view. It opened on its own as Yise stood before it, revealing an enclosed chamber roughly three jang (10 meters) across. He stepped inside, and the door closed behind him.

'So this is where the trials begin in earnest.'

What sort of trial would it be? He did not know how many secret maps the master of the Five Elements Life-Promoting Art had left behind, but there could not be many. Surely they would not kill someone who had made it this far for some absurd reason. Dangerous, perhaps, but within reason. That was the level of difficulty Yise expected.

A short while later, he wiped away the sweat that nervousness had brought to his brow. Then he frowned. He almost never sweated from nerves.

'This heat...'

The temperature in the chamber was rising. If it was enough to make a Foundation Establishment Cultivator sweat, it could probably boil water.

His guess proved correct. Soon, heat haze began to cloud his vision, followed by flames springing up inside the private cultivation cave. Setting fire to an enclosed space? What a nasty piece of work. In an instant, the temperature rose high enough to burn everything to ash.

Yise immediately cast Gushing Torrent, driving back the fire with water. Fire and water pressed against each other, billowing thick smoke. After he had held the flames back for quite some time, they gradually subsided. Then water began flooding the cave instead. He could not imagine where the openings were that let fire and water pour into the chamber.

He raised an Earthen Wall in the shape of a cube, sealing himself securely inside. Confirming through his divine sense that water had filled the cave, he steadied his breathing until it was shallow. The purpose of the trial was easy enough to grasp.

'They're testing my mastery of five-element spells.'

Apparently, the master of this place did not want visitors who had relied on someone else's strength to unseal the secret map.

After burning and drowning came man-eating vines. They multiplied in an instant, as though using a clone art, and Yise ruthlessly cut them down with metal-attribute spells. He melted away the metal closing in from every direction with fire, then blocked the onrushing earth with the wood-attribute cultivation method Vine-Root Binding. With that, the first trial ended.

Having passed the trial with ease, Yise headed through the open door into the second private cultivation cave. There was nothing inside. He expected the trial to begin after some time had passed, as the first one had, but no matter how long he waited, nothing changed.

He spread his divine sense and carefully examined the chamber. Twisted characters and distorted pictures covered the ceiling, arranged in the pattern of the five directions. They were unusual engravings, impossible to detect without divine sense.

'You really are underestimating me.'

He had expected the trials to be fairly simple, but wasn't this a little too easy? The characters were tangled and twisted, yet their patterns and strokes suggested that they meant eyes, tongue, mouth, nose, and ears. In the cultivation world, those corresponded to wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, respectively. It was little more than introductory theory, not something one strictly needed to know, but surely people who aspired to defy the heavens knew at least that much.

Yise simultaneously cast spells of the attributes represented by each character and sent them flying. The door opened, revealing the next cave before him.

As he cautiously advanced, Yise abruptly stopped. An injured black fox spirit beast lay curled up inside. Spotting him, it hissed and bristled. A closer look revealed six tails. It was a Six-Tailed Black Fox.

Among fox spirit beasts, it was second in rarity only to the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox. Independent Cultivators on the Eastern Continent considered finding one a great fortuitous encounter. Judging by the energy of its Demon core, it would have wielded power on par with Foundation Establishment if healthy, but it was badly wounded now.

'Surely I'm not supposed to kill it?'

Other Cultivators would have rejoiced at such an unexpected windfall, but Yise was simply troubled. Refusing to hunt spirit beasts was Daemudo's last remaining conviction. He wanted to uphold at least that alongside them.

'... This is a problem.'

Whether the Six-Tailed Black Fox understood his feelings or not, it merely growled with all its might. After a long struggle with himself, Yise finally lowered his hands.

When he had first entered the cultivation world, he had thought that Principle simply meant doing good. But after all he had experienced, his understanding of the Dao heart had changed. The essence of Principle was not the direction one walked, but how straight a line one followed. A Cultivator had to clearly define the path they wished to take, then never stray from it. That was the Dao heart a Cultivator must uphold.

Yise had made upholding his mentors' teachings and his sect's convictions the foundation of his own Dao heart. His resolve had wavered on occasion—just once... no, perhaps twice—but even if he faltered, he would not lose his direction.

'I don't know. Surely I'll get at least one more chance. If not... it'll be a terrible waste of all that effort, but I'll just have to accept that this fortuitous encounter wasn't meant for me.'

Anyone who heard his decision would have pointed at him and called him mad. Even as he offered the fox a Regeneration Pill, he kept questioning whether he was doing the right thing.

"I won't hurt you. Take this and heal yourself."

As though it understood him, the fox spirit beast gradually let go of its hostility. At last, Yise reached out, and the Regeneration Pill was drawn into its mouth. It swallowed the pill readily and began to radiate light. Then it swished its tails, spun around, and vanished. A moment later, the cave's door opened.

'...?'

For a moment, he could not understand what had happened. Then his expression changed as though someone had struck him over the head with a hammer.

The Five Elements Life-Promoting Art.

Did it mean that anyone seeking to learn a cultivation method that fostered life had to choose to protect the life before them rather than harm it?

Only then did he grasp the labyrinth master's intent, and he let out a hollow chuckle at the trick. Anyone who entered this place would have chosen to claim the spirit beast for themselves.

'I think I understand what you're trying to teach me.'

Relieved, Yise headed toward the next trial chamber.

Inside were two planting beds and a half-withered, dying spiritual herb. Given the previous trial, he was probably meant to save this herb as well. But unlike a spirit beast, which only needed a Regeneration Pill, a spiritual herb could not be revived without the relevant knowledge.

'This is Sunheart Radiance Grass.'

The spiritual herb was one of the ingredients used in Foundation Establishment Pills and was considered quite rare on the Eastern Continent. Fortunately, Yise had acquired extensive knowledge of spiritual herbs while studying immortal cuisine. One look told him what it needed.

'The soil is contaminated, and the rotten parts need to be cut away. The temperature is wrong, and it isn't getting enough water. The herb's own vitality is badly depleted, too.'

The crucial question was what to treat first. As the first page of his introductory guide to spiritual-herb cultivation had stated, even transplanting had to be done in the proper order to keep an herb in the best possible condition.

First, he needed to make spirit soil to serve as its foundation. The problem was the ingredients. Where was he supposed to find something like spirit-beast droppings right now...?

As he considered the materials needed to make spirit soil, he snapped his fingers. The most important ingredient was spirit-beast droppings. Couldn't he have those produced on the spot? He immediately took Emer out of the spirit-beast pouch.

"Gurr?"

"Don't you dare eat that. The moment you do, I really will turn you into stew."

"Gurr!"

Emer, who had been eyeing the herb hungrily, flapped his wings at the chilling warning. Yise got straight to the point.

"You. Do your business here."

"Gurrr?"

"Number two."

"... Gurr?"

"As much as you can."

Emer stared at Yise with an expression that said he would have cursed him out if only he knew how. Yise merely jerked his chin, urging him to hurry. What was the bird going to do about it? If his master told him to shit, he had to shit. Besides, Yise didn't know any curses either.

* * *

Yise mixed Emer's droppings with finely crushed spirit stones and Redwood Grass to nourish the soil, kneading them together by hand. Kneading spirit-beast shit was hardly pleasant, but the text had said that making spirit soil required a sincere offering of devotion, so he had little choice. It was also something Bu Chun did every day. With a newfound appreciation for his fellow disciple's hardships, Yise finished preparing the spirit soil in the bed where he would transplant the herb.

Next, he used a metal-attribute spell to cut away the herb's rotten parts. Even after transplantation, any rot left behind would contaminate the soil's spiritual energy, so it had to be removed before planting.

He then washed the herb clean and transplanted it. Immediately afterward, he supplied moisture with a gentle casting of Gushing Torrent and raised the chamber's temperature to a suitable level with Flame Release. Finally, he breathed vitality into the herb with Living Wood Art, and it soon began to regain its fresh green color. When it at last radiated spirituality and filled the entire chamber with spiritual energy, the door opened.

'Does that mean the herb is mine?'

Yise cast a covetous glance at the spiritual herb, practically salivating, but unfortunately, it vanished on the spot.

'Isn't it about time you showed yourself?'

Hadn't he passed quite enough trials by now? At this level of difficulty, ninety-nine out of a hundred people would have failed. With that thought, he entered the next cave.

A bust of an elderly man stood directly ahead. On the altar before it lay a cultivation manual and a ritual implement shaped like a door handle. It seemed all the trials were finally over. With a hint of a smile, Yise walked up to the bust.

He was just about to reach for the cultivation manual when he drew his hand back. He could feel a gaze on him, as though the bust were watching him. Moreover, the pure spiritual energy flowing through the entire chamber in a fixed direction grated on his senses. His instincts were screaming at him.

The trials were not over yet.