Chapter Ninety-Nine: Only Two People

Xuanyuan Tunhan put away the flying artifact and stood in the air for a while before someone quickly flew out from the mountains.

The newcomer bowed to them both. “Senior Xuanyuan, you have come as well?”

Xuanyuan Tunhan gave a slight nod. “Who else is here?”

The man said, “There is also a boy named Yi Tianling. He has been here for many days, trying to break through the formation, but he has not yet come out.”

Ning Xianyu could not help asking, “He came to see that Stone of Three Lives thing?”

The man looked puzzled. “Stone of Three Lives?”

Ning Xianyu said a little embarrassedly, “The stele, I mean. The one said to reveal the origin of all things. Hehe.”

She felt it was somewhat like the Stone of Three Lives, so she had casually given it a name.

The man thought it over, then smiled faintly. “That boy did indeed come to see the stele. But to see it, one must first pass through the formation. He is still trapped within it, and I do not know whether he will be able to come out.”

So seeing the stele was such a troublesome affair after all.

Ning Xianyu asked, “If he fails to break through the formation, will he die?”

The man nodded.

Wow. Just to look at a stone, it was really quite a hassle.

As she thought about it, the giant sun in the Demon Realm had appeared for many years, so the great demon lord must have already seen the stele long ago. Why had he not simply told Yi Tianling what it was, and instead made him go see it himself?

And besides, what had the great demon lord come to Ten Directions Mountain for? Even if he saw the stele again, what could possibly change?

The man asked again, “May I ask who this young lady is...?”

Ning Xianyu hurriedly introduced herself. “I am Ning Xianyu, a disciple of the Jade Immortal Sect.”

The man also smiled. “I am Wei Nian, the twenty-third mountain lord of Ten Directions Mountain.”

“Ah, so you are the mountain lord. A pleasure to meet you.”

Ning Xianyu thought that the Flower Festival on Flower Tone Isle had also been attended by emissaries from Ten Directions Mountain, but not this mountain lord. The people of Ten Directions Mountain had been very understated as well, hardly speaking at all from start to finish.

Could that be the rule of Ten Directions Mountain, to do everything with extreme restraint?

The system explained to her, "You remember it wrong. Those who went were not from Ten Directions Mountain itself. Last time, it was a sect attached to Ten Directions Mountain, not far from here."

"The Ten Great Immortal Sects are not only powerful in themselves; many sects depend on them. Take Ten Directions Mountain and Mount Sumeru Temple, for instance. Their numbers are small, and they have many rules, so they do not practice dual cultivation. Matters of the Flower Festival are therefore left to the affiliated mountain sects to compete for."

Only then did Ning Xianyu understand why Wei Nian had always seemed strangely different.

He was unlike ordinary cultivators, with a more ethereal sense of being beyond the mortal world, not at all like someone who would send disciples to fight for a dual-cultivation quota.

Xuanyuan Tunhan said he would also enter the formation and told Wei Nian to lead the way.

Wei Nian glanced at him in surprise, then turned and led them onward.

Outside Ten Directions Mountain, there seemed to be some kind of array. As they entered, they had to stay closely behind Wei Nian, weaving left and right through a difficult path.

At last they passed into the barrier, and Ning Xianyu found the place very quiet, so quiet that she could scarcely sense anyone at all.

She looked around and wondered if she was mistaken.

“Does Miss Ning feel that there are very few people here?”

Wei Nian was considerate enough to voice her doubt for her.

Ning Xianyu hurriedly nodded. “Indeed, I can hardly feel anyone at all.”

Wei Nian smiled. “That is because there are only two people in Ten Directions Mountain.”

What?

Ning Xianyu was astonished.

This was one of the Ten Great Immortal Sects, ranked eighth, no less. How could there possibly be only two people?

Wei Nian looked at Xuanyuan Tunhan. Seeing that he said nothing, he explained on his own.

“Because that is the inheritance of Ten Directions Mountain. It passes from master to disciple, and only two people remain in each generation. Once my master has chosen a disciple for me, he will pass his cultivation to that disciple, and then ascend into the immortal realm.”

In other words, each of their cultivations had come from an ancestor.

“But don’t you ascend?” Ning Xianyu asked.

For cultivators, the goal was always ascension. If the people of Ten Directions Mountain passed their inheritance on like this, how could they possibly ascend?

Wei Nian smiled. “Ascension is only another beginning of life. For us, inheritance is the next beginning.”

Wow, that sounded so mysterious and so grand that Ning Xianyu immediately felt a surge of respect.

Ordinary cultivators had to endure countless hardships to achieve their cultivation, and even among kin, there might not be willingness to part with it.

Yet these people knew from the very beginning that the fruits of their cultivation would inevitably be passed to another, and still they persisted in their practice.

That kind of spirit, at any rate, was beyond her.

Still, for a mountain sect with only two people to be counted among the Ten Great Immortal Sects was proof enough of how formidable Ten Directions Mountain truly was.

Wei Nian led the way ahead with a smile, saying that his master was still meditating for the sake of the next life and could not come out to greet them, and asked their pardon.

Ning Xianyu tugged at Xuanyuan Tunhan’s sleeve and whispered, “If one of the master and disciple suddenly dies before the inheritance can be passed on, what happens then?”

People had fortune and misfortune in the blink of an eye; such a thing could very well happen.

Xuanyuan Tunhan did not answer, but Wei Nian turned back with a smile. “That kind of situation does happen. My own master was the one chosen later by my grandmaster.”

“Because it happened so suddenly, my master was brought here in haste and inevitably found it somewhat difficult to adapt. His realm was also unstable, so over the years he has been consolidating his cultivation.”

Ning Xianyu thought to herself that it seemed this master, Nian Lai Sheng, had not done a very good job, which was why Wei Nian had to come out to handle everything.

Xuanyuan Tunhan, on the other hand, seemed to have known all this long ago and showed no interest in it.

Ning Xianyu, however, kept gossiping and asked, “Then have you and your master already chosen successors?”

As soon as she asked it, the system told her she had no emotional intelligence.

“If they choose successors, that means they are going to die. Asking them that is basically asking when they will die.”

Ning Xianyu finally realized how inappropriate the question was and awkwardly changed the subject. “What I mean is, since nothing grows on this mountain, what do you usually eat?”

Wei Nian did not mind and even explained that although nothing seemed to grow here, in the rainy season a strange kind of mushroom would appear.

This mushroom was rich in spiritual power. Eating it could prolong life and strengthen cultivation, so it was highly sought after.

It was also one of Ten Directions Mountain’s sources of income.

Ning Xianyu had never expected that even such transcendent people would sell things. Looking at Wei Nian again, she suddenly found him much more down-to-earth.

They walked back and forth among the barren mountains, and at times even found themselves circling around.

The system said that Ten Directions Mountain itself was a huge formation, which made it an excellent place to hide.

And because the land was so barren, it was not suitable for many disciples to live here, so no one would ever come to seize territory.

It took them more than an hour to reach their destination.

Ning Xianyu had come to realize that for cultivators with such long lifespans, time itself did not matter much.

On a formation like this, she was already so sleepy she could nod off, yet the other two still walked with brisk, vigorous steps. One had to admire them.

What was truly despairing, though, was that ahead of them lay yet another formation, and a gigantic one at that, said to require at least more than a month to cross.

Ning Xianyu looked at the entrance to the formation and recoiled. “Can I not go in?”

She really did not want to enter...