The dark-coated Spirit Master lowered his hand.
The 9th layer cultivator forced himself to cup his fists. "Senior, thank you for—"
The Spirit Master's eyes passed over him.
Not paused.
Passed.
As if identifying a broken tool and deciding it was not worth picking up.
"9th layer Spirit Opening," the Spirit Master said flatly. "Loose foundation. Sixth-grade root at best. Still standing only because those beasts were distracted."
The cultivator's face flushed red.
He gritted his teeth hard enough for his jaw to ache.
Tang Jue looked away with the expression of someone trying very hard not to laugh.
Xu Yiran gave him a warning glare.
The Spirit Master had already forgotten the cultivator existed.
He turned toward the deeper valley.
There, hidden behind layers of unstable beast aura and natural mist, something pulsed.
A threshold.
It was not a door.
Not exactly.
More like the world itself had a scar. A faint oval distortion hovered between two ancient stone pillars covered in moss and broken formation marks. Every few breaths, the distortion released a strange wave of energy that drew beast aura toward it.
The Spirit Master's bored eyes suddenly lit with greed.
"So it's real."
His voice was soft.
But everyone heard it.
The 9th layer cultivator's heart sank.
Tang Jue and Xu Yiran exchanged a glance.
The Spirit Master raised his communication jade. A silver screen unfolded above his wrist.
"Found it," he said. "Clearbell Eastern wild zone, old gorge ruins. Send the others. Quietly if possible. Quickly if not."
A voice replied from the jade. "Confirmed threshold?"
The Spirit Master smiled.
That smile was far more dangerous than his pressure.
"Confirmed enough."
The 9th layer cultivator's fists tightened.
He had found the place first.
Or at least, he had been one of the first to survive near it.
But in front of a Spirit Master, that meant nothing.
The Spirit Master knew it too.
He looked at the 9th layer cultivator with faint amusement. "You have people, don't you?"
The cultivator said nothing.
The Spirit Master's smile cooled. "Call them if you want. Or don't. I don't care. But don't stand there looking like I stole your family heirloom. If you had the ability, you'd take it from me. Since you don't, be quiet."
The 9th layer cultivator's pride screamed.
His survival instinct screamed louder.
He clicked his teeth, took several steps back, and pulled out his own communication device.
"Brother Luo," he said through clenched teeth. "Bring everyone. The beast gathering rumors are true. Yes. Exact location. And hurry."
The Spirit Master ignored him again.
He had already started contacting more partners and groups.
Tang Jue leaned closer to Xu Yiran and whispered, "We should leave."
Xu Yiran's answer was immediate. "Yes."
"Like, right now."
"Yes."
They retreated slowly at first, careful not to draw attention.
The Spirit Master did not care.
To him, they were not even pieces on the board.
They were dust near the board.
That was the only reason they survived.
But before Tang Jue and Xu Yiran could disappear completely into the trees, another wave of power swept across the gorge.
Different from Spirit Qi.
Cleaner.
Sharper.
More structured.
Mana.
The air filled with faint silver symbols.
A man in a long blue-gray wizard coat stepped out of a circular spell gate. He had silver rings around his fingers, a floating spell tablet near his shoulder, and eyes that shimmered with layered runes.
An Arcane Master.
The Spirit Master's face immediately darkened.
The wizard looked around, taking in the blood mist, the threshold, the broken formation pillars, and the Spirit Master's ugly expression.
Then he smiled.
"Well," the Arcane Master said. "Looks like my afternoon just became profitable."
The Spirit Master narrowed his eyes. "You followed the fluctuation?"
"I sensed it. Followed it. Same thing, depending on how possessive you feel."
"This area is under my group's claim."
The Arcane Master laughed once. "Your claim? That's adorable. Did the valley sign a contract with you before or after you turned the beasts into soup?"
The Spirit Master's aura sharpened.
The Arcane Master's spell tablet rotated.
For one dangerous moment, the air between them tightened.
Tang Jue and Xu Yiran froze behind a tree.
Tang Jue whispered, "Are they about to fight?"
Xu Yiran whispered back, "If they do, we run and pray the shockwave hates someone else more."
The Spirit Master finally looked away.
He could threaten Spirit Opening cultivators.
He could dismiss the 9th layer man as trash.
But against a fellow Master-level expert, especially an Arcane Master, he could not act recklessly. Wizards at this level were troublesome. They had shields, movement spells, curse marks, stored runes, and enough dirty tricks to make a martial cultivator regret rushing in.
The Arcane Master lifted his own communication crystal.
"Found the threshold," he said casually. "Yes, the rumor is real. No, I'm not alone. A Spirit Master is here making territorial faces. Bring the team. And tell Elder Shen to move faster if he still likes treasure."
The Spirit Master's expression became colder.
The Arcane Master smiled wider.
"Relax," he said. "This place is going to be crowded soon anyway."
Tang Jue and Xu Yiran did not wait any longer.
They retreated.
Not too far.
Just far enough to breathe.
Behind a slope covered in twisted roots, Xu Yiran finally lowered her compass. The three formation rings collapsed into sparks.
Her hands trembled slightly.
Tang Jue noticed.
"You good?"
"No."
"Honest. I respect that."
Xu Yiran sat down against a tree and closed her eyes. "That was almost a disaster."
"Almost?"
"That was a disaster. We were lucky someone stronger arrived before the beasts finished us."
Tang Jue looked toward the gorge. Even from this distance, he could feel faint waves of power gathering there. More experts would come. More families. More sects. More greedy people with better weapons and worse tempers.
His eyes, however, were bright.
Xu Yiran saw that look and immediately frowned.
"No."
"I didn't even say anything."
"You're thinking something stupid."
"I'm thinking something bold."
"That is what stupid people call stupid thoughts before they get buried."
Tang Jue crouched in front of her. His voice lowered.
"Yiran, listen. That threshold is real."
"Yes. Which means every expert in the area will come."
"Exactly. That means there's something inside worth making experts move."
"That means there's something inside worth killing us over."
Tang Jue did not deny it.
For a moment, the usual reckless humor faded from his face.
"Our town needs this."
Xu Yiran went quiet.
Tang Jue looked down at his spear. The lightning along it had already faded, leaving faint burn marks on his palm.
"Do you know how many years Elder Wen has been stuck because he can't afford a proper breakthrough pill? How many kids in town have roots good enough to cultivate but no resources to start right? How many people get dragged into cheap missions because the big cities take everything first?"
Xu Yiran's fingers tightened around the compass.
Tang Jue continued, "I'm not saying we charge in like idiots. I'm saying we watch. We wait. We use what we're good at. Your formations. My lightning. Our foundations. We don't need the biggest treasure. We just need something life changing."
Xu Yiran stared at him for several breaths.
Then she sighed.
"I hate when your bad ideas come with reasonable emotional points."
Tang Jue grinned faintly. "So that's a yes?"
"That's a 'we scout, we don't show off, and we run the second a Master-level expert looks in our direction.'"
"Beautiful. Love the strategy."
"And Tang Jue?"
"Yeah?"
"If you say something like 'fortune favors the bold,' I will throw you into the threshold myself."
He closed his mouth.
Then nodded seriously.
"Understood."
A few days later, Qin Yuan stopped cultivating.
His eyes opened.
There was no wild surge of Spirit Qi.
No explosive breakthrough.
No dramatic pressure shaking the walls.
Only clarity.
Clean, sharp, terrifying clarity.
For several breaths, Qin Yuan sat silently on the cultivation mat, feeling the movement of his Spirit Qi, the strength of his body, the smoothness of his breath, and the faint rhythm of the air around him.
His cultivation realm had not improved.
Still 4th layer Spirit Opening.
Still 4th layer Body Opening.
But that did not mean he had not grown.
Far from it.
His arts, talents, and mastery had improved by leaps and bounds.
Almost every important talent had reached either Level 13 or Level 16. His sword, movement, perception, concealment, breath control, Spirit Sense, fire, lightning, body control, and combat instincts no longer felt like separate tools.
They were beginning to overlap.
They were beginning to merge.
Qin Yuan slowly raised one hand.
A thread of Spirit Qi moved along his fingers.
No waste.
No tremble.
No extra ripple.
Then it vanished into the air.
His gaze remained calm, but a trace of satisfaction entered his eyes.
Not arrogance.
Not excitement.
Satisfaction.
The kind that came from seeing hard work produce results.
He felt close.
Not to true perfection.
Not even close.
But he could faintly sense the direction of something deeper.
One With the Wind.
The words sounded exaggerated when written in the art manual.
Now, Qin Yuan understood why it existed.
The body becoming light.
The breath becoming silent.
The presence becoming unstable.
The cultivator no longer forcing movement through the world, but borrowing the world's own flow to move.
Before he could continue thinking, his phone buzzed.
Qin Yuan glanced down.
A public spirit-net alert flashed across the screen.
CONFIRMED BEAST GATHERING LOCATION LEAKED.
BLACK-GREEN HOLLOW.
EASTERN OUTER RESTRICTED VEIN DISTRICT.
EXACT THRESHOLD COORDINATES ATTACHED.
Below it, comments flooded in.
"Bro, this is fake, right?"
"Mission Bureau is cooked if this is real."
"My cousin's sect already moved. Stop acting like this is a rumor."
"Treasure ground?"
"Beast nest?"
"Dreadmyr?"
"Delete that before inspectors knock on your door."
"Too late. Everyone has the address now."
Qin Yuan ignored the comments.
Most of them were useless.
Panic.
Excitement.
Greed.
Stupidity.
Speculation wearing confidence.
None of that mattered.
What mattered was the confirmation.
The location was real.
The threshold was real.
And now, everyone knew.
Qin Yuan turned off the screen.
"It's time."
He stood.
Then he looked around his training room.
The room was quiet.
The rented formation still hummed faintly around the walls. The air carried the faint scent of heated stone, sweat, and pill residue. His Cloudline Sword rested beside him, clean and ready.
Qin Yuan picked it up.
He did not rush.
Rushing created mistakes.
He checked his storage pouch.
Pills.
Low-grade recovery medicine.
A few emergency fire stones.
His sword.
His phone.
A small amount of spirit credits.
Not much.
Enough.
Before leaving, he opened his phone again and sent Elder Su a message.
I'll be training in my room for a longer period. I may not respond quickly.
Simple.
Believable.
Not too detailed.
He did not want to unnecessarily worry her.
He also did not want to cause trouble.
Elder Su was strict, sharp, and far from stupid. If she learned where he was going, there was a real chance she would either stop him, send someone after him, or personally drag him back by the collar.
That would be troublesome.
Qin Yuan put away the phone.
Then he moved.
He did not simply walk out.
He took one step.
His body became practically weightless.
Like a feather drifting through the wind.
No.
Lighter than that.
A feather still had shape.
A feather still caught the eye.
Qin Yuan's movement seemed to borrow the smallest gap in the air and slide through it.
His foot touched the ground.
But there was no sound.
His sleeve brushed the air.
But there was no ripple.
His Spirit Qi circulated.
But it did not leak.
A servant walking down the corridor suddenly paused and looked around.
"Eh?"
Another servant beside him frowned. "What?"
"Did you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"Like… wind?"
The second servant stared at him.
"We're inside."
"Yeah, that's what I mean."
The first servant scratched his head.
Then shrugged.
"Whatever. Maybe the formation vent is broken again."
They continued walking.
Qin Yuan had already passed them.
A single step brought him ahead of people silently.