The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, the birds in the mountain forest began to chirp. However, Wan Yunting was already awake, sitting cross-legged on a flat stone behind the wooden cabin, meditating and practicing his skills.
For the past few days, he had been practicing with Chen Qiuyun at night, and both of their inner cultivation had improved. However, while dual cultivation could rapidly enhance inner strength, it also had its drawbacks.
To break through to the inner Qi of the Martial Dao Gang Jin realm, Wan Yunting now needed to focus on mental and spiritual cultivation and improvement.
But the human mind and spirit were mysterious and unfathomable, with no set methods for practice.
Wan Yunting could only try his best to calm his mind, hoping that by facing the natural environment, he might gain some enlightenment.
However, at this moment, his mind could not be calm. The deaths of Lu Xiaodie and Zheng Rong weighed on him like a heavy stone, filling him with guilt and regret. This was why he had been staying with Chen Qiuyun for so long; he wanted to calm himself down and adjust his mindset.
After finishing his meditation, Wan Yunting opened his eyes, retracted his movements, and exhaled a breath of turbid air. He saw that Chen Qiuyun had also gotten up and was busy in the small kitchen preparing breakfast, with smoke curling from the chimney.
Wan Yunting continued his physical training behind the wooden cabin. He picked up a large stone weighing six hundred jin and began doing squats. His physical body had reached the middle stage of the outer Gang Jin realm in the Martial Dao, but to truly break through his physical limits, he needed to reach the peak of the outer Gang realm.
"Time to eat."
An hour later, Chen Qiuyun called out from behind. Wan Yunting slammed the giant stone down, took a breath, and wiped the sweat from his brow, calling back, "Coming..."
Chen Qiuyun, dressed in a simple grey robe with her hair tied up in a bun with a chopstick, looked like a woman from a rural village in ancient times. She carried a low table and stools to the front of the kitchen and had already laid out breakfast. Seeing Wan Yunting return, she silently handed him a towel to wipe his sweat.
"Thank you..."
Wan Yunting took the towel and wiped the sweat from his face and body. He sat down without ceremony and began eating the millet porridge Chen Qiuyun had cooked, grabbing a large steamed bun fresh from the steamer. His physical training consumed a lot of energy, so he naturally ate a lot.
"After breakfast, let's go check out the back mountain. Maybe we can even find some bear meat!"
As Wan Yunting gnawed on the bun, he remembered the bear roars he had heard from the depths of the back mountain the previous night. He mainly wanted to see what kind of fierce beast had attacked the bear.
Chen Qiuyun nodded, elegantly eating her millet porridge with pickles. She enjoyed the simple, unadorned life.
After finishing breakfast, they both shouldered their baskets and took out their cleavers. Wan Yunting carried an axe and entered the back mountain forest, following the direction of the bear's cries from the previous night, and also looking for dried goods along the way.
"It should be around this area."
After an hour of walking into the mountain, within a range of about one to two kilometers, Wan Yunting pointed to the forest ahead. Based on the bear's screams from the previous night, it was roughly around here, no more than five hundred meters away.
"It's up ahead, let's go take a look..."
Wan Yunting sniffed the air. The familiar scent from last night still lingered faintly in this area. He pointed to the northwest and led Chen Qiuyun forward. The closer they got, the stronger the familiar scent became.
After walking about a hundred meters, the scene that unfolded before them made Wan Yunting and Chen Qiuyun's eyes widen. They couldn't help but stare in astonishment at the scene of devastation, with broken and decaying trees, and scorched earth. It was hard to imagine what kind of destructive power could have caused such widespread destruction.
They saw a long, deep沟壑, half a meter deep, crisscrossing the ground, as if plowed. There were also terrifying claw marks on the trunk of a large tree, left by a bear.
A tree that an adult could not even embrace was snapped in half by some unknown force. The ground was covered in thick, reddish-brown blood, and brown bear fur was scraped off the broken tree.
This led them to infer how fierce and brutal the battle between the beast and the brown bear had been the previous night.
"What kind of animal could kill a brown bear?"
Chen Qiuyun covered her nose with her left hand, looking at the blood-stained ground with a foul odor and scattered bear fur, completely unaware of what could have killed a brown bear.
Wan Yunting frowned, looking at the widespread destruction, and took a sharp breath, saying, "What could cause such destruction is definitely not an ordinary fierce beast. It should be a large fierce beast!"
"A large fierce beast?"
Chen Qiuyun's expression stiffened, and she couldn't help but feel alarmed. "Brown bears are already considered large animals. What other fierce beast could be bigger than it?"
Of course, animals like elephants, giraffes, and rhinoceroses were larger than brown bears. But this was the Kunlun Mountains of China. Even if there were elephants or rhinos, those herbivores would not be able to contend with a brown bear.
Although he didn't know what beast had attacked the brown bear the previous night and caused such a terrifying scale of destruction, the lingering scent at the scene made Wan Yunting's strong feeling grow clearer.
"Could it really be that intelligent snake?"
Wan Yunting frowned and muttered to himself. Chen Qiuyun, hearing him clearly, asked with confusion, "Intelligent snake? What is an intelligent snake? Are you saying the beast that attacked the brown bear was a snake?"
Wan Yunting nodded and said, "An intelligent snake is a snake whose spiritual consciousness has awakened. You can think of it as becoming a spirit. They are enormous. If it was indeed an intelligent snake that attacked the brown bear, causing such destruction, it would be very normal."
Although he couldn't be sure if the familiar scent lingering at the scene was the same intelligent snake he encountered in the Ling Shan cave, he recalled the red Tira python raised by the Divine Snake tribe on Thai Snake Island. That python had reached an unprecedented weight.
Given the destructive power of the red Tira python, it was entirely normal for it to cause the widespread destruction seen at the scene.
Compared to the intelligent snake he encountered in the Ling Shan cave, the red Tira python was much larger in size and length.
Wan Yunting couldn't determine if the beast that attacked the brown bear last night was the same intelligent snake from the Ling Shan cave.
However, the lingering familiar scent at the scene made Wan Yunting's suspicion that it was the intelligent snake from the Ling Shan cave increasingly strong.
"A snake that has become a spirit?"
Chen Qiuyun raised an eyebrow, finding it a bit mystical. Wan Yunting said, "The Qi of heaven and earth nourishes all things. Although we cannot see it in reality, some animals hidden in deep mountains and old forests rely on the Qi of heaven and earth, their spiritual consciousness awakens, and they become sentient, meaning they have become spirits."
"When I was rescuing people in Lingyun County, I was trapped in a cave and encountered a snake that had become sentient. I even drank a bellyful of its snake blood. After sleeping for two days, I broke through to the Dan Jin realm in martial arts, and my physical senses also changed, becoming more acute."
Chen Qiuyun had never heard of this before, and she was even more astonished. She then said, "So, you mean the intelligent snake that attacked the brown bear last night is the same one you encountered?"
Wan Yunting stood with his hands on his hips, his brow furrowed, looking at the mess and the blood-soaked grass. He shook his head uncertainly and said, "Although the lingering scent is familiar, I can't be sure it's that intelligent snake."
Chen Qiuyun nodded. They stayed at the scene for a long time but found no clues, so they finally had to leave.
Given what happened in the forest, and for Chen Qiuyun's safety, Wan Yunting stayed with her for a few more days. During these days, the back mountain was calm, and there were no more disturbances like that night.
The next day, Wan Yunting left Chen Qiuyun and returned to Wuliang Daoist temple to inform Chang Wude and Yang Jingyi, before preparing to enter the valley beneath the Kunlun Mountains again for secluded cultivation.
At seven o'clock in the evening, it was already dark. Wan Yunting drove his car slowly back to the foot of Wuliang Mountain. As he got out of the car, he prepared to ascend the mountain.
Suddenly, Wan Yunting noticed something and turned to look not far away. He saw an elder in a black robe, with slightly long, flowing white hair, looking spirited and vigorous.
He wasn't tall and was thin, appearing to be eighty or ninety years old. However, he walked with an upright posture and steady steps, clearly not an ordinary old man.
Wan Yunting raised an eyebrow, looking suspiciously at the elder walking towards him. He couldn't sense any fluctuation of Qi from him, yet the elder looked full of vigor, clearly a martial artist.
Unless his martial arts had reached an unfathomable level, allowing him to hide his Qi at will, he was simply an old man who practiced martial arts frequently and had excellent physical fitness.
"Sir, are you going up the mountain?"
Seeing the elder's gentle demeanor, Wan Yunting politely asked.
"Yes." The elder nodded, his gaze calmly sweeping over Wan Yunting, and he smiled, "Young friend, are you a disciple of Wuliang Daoist temple?"
Wan Yunting nodded and politely cupped his fists, asking with a smile, "Yes. May I ask what sect or school you belong to, sir, and what brings you to Wuliang Daoist temple?"
The elder waved his hand and said with a smile, "This old man has something to do at Wuliang Daoist temple. Can you take me up the mountain, young friend?"
Seeing the elder's amiable disposition, yet his refusal to reveal his identity or purpose, made Wan Yunting's brow furrow slightly. He asked with vigilance, "Forgive my boldness, sir, but what is your business at Wuliang Daoist temple?"
The elder smiled and said, "You will know once you take me up the mountain."
Wan Yunting's expression froze. He couldn't help but murmur to himself, gazing at the elder before him, from whom he truly couldn't sense any trace of Qi fluctuation.
His refusal to state his identity or purpose made Wan Yunting involuntarily vigilant.
"Very well, this old man will go up on his own."
Seeing this, the elder flicked his sleeve and walked towards the steps leading up Wuliang Mountain.
Wan Yunting snapped back to attention. Although he didn't know who this elder was or what his business was at Wuliang Daoist temple, he couldn't very well stop him. He quickly followed, intending to ask for clarification: "Slow down, sir, I'll take you up the mountain..."