The towering Mount Jiuhua. Precipitous, rugged, majestic, and strange. Between the Upper and Lower Flower Ponds, the Dragon Pond water was deep and verdant; though the sun blazed overhead, the dense mist rising from the water kept the air chillingly cold around one's body. All around stood ten thousand stalks of reeds, and as the wind swept through, the bamboo leaves rustled like straw raincoats, casting dancing, clear shadows everywhere. Those with weaker self-control, upon reaching this spot, could not help but weep silently, their sorrow echoing the melancholic view.

Directly opposite the Dragon Pond Viewing Platform stood a sheer cliff face, from which sprouted thousands of strangely shaped Scale Pines, each as thick as a calf’s leg. The bark on their trunks was tightly pleated like fish scales. Countless rare varieties of bell orchids parasitized the trunks, their fist-sized, bell-shaped blossoms a raging fire-red. The faint, languid fragrance of the orchids drifted for over ten li on the breeze. This initially warm, passionate floral scent, mixing with the deep chill of the Dragon Pond, transformed into a clear, tranquil, and utterly cold fragrance that shocked the soul wide awake.

Dressed in a Daoist robe, cloaked in crane-turtle silk, wearing a green jade Daoist crown, and shod in cloud boots, Gu Xiechen leaned on a bamboo staff nearly as tall as a man, smiling as he stood on the Viewing Platform, quietly watching several iridescent carp play and snatch food in the Dragon Pond. His long hair behind his head moved without wind. Five extremely fine streams of red, white, cyan, black, and yellow colored aura erupted from his Tianling aperture, shooting straight up over ten feet high. The tips of these streams mingled with the surrounding air, becoming vague and indistinct. Within that turbulent mass, three points of faint, fine light could be vaguely discerned shimmering.

More than half of the soul origin within his Sea of Consciousness had already transformed into a five-colored sheen. The five internal organs within his abdomen were blazing with brilliant light, and it could be faintly seen that the organs had taken on the crystalline luster unique to jade.

His heart beat slowly, his surrounding Qi and blood flowed unimpeded and vigorous, and all eighty-four thousand pores were wide open, constantly drawing in external spiritual energy, which gradually transformed into wisps of true Qi stored in the Qi cavities throughout his body.

A sliver of consciousness hovered, elusive as smoke, circling within the span of an inch, occasionally drifting into the five currents of energy above his head, carefully sensing everything in the vicinity.

Flowers bloomed and withered, leaves grew and fell, the wind rose and ceased, the bamboo swayed and stilled. Although his gaze remained fixed on the few carp, everything within a ten-kilometer radius was entirely within his grasp. Even the slight movement of a few ants crawling across a blade of grass registered in his awareness without the slightest delay.

The energy within the Hanyuan Dao Embryo continuously surged into his body; the speed at which his body absorbed the Dao Embryo’s energy was more than a hundred times faster than before. Casting aside all worldly troubles and concerns, Gu Xiechen felt physically and spiritually empty, like a parched lake. His body urgently absorbed every bit of energy, while his spirit eagerly sought to comprehend every natural law it could touch.

A tiger’s roar suddenly sounded from the distant forest. A fierce, surging wind instantly whipped up from the trees, shaking the surrounding growth. Under the clarity of Gu Xiechen’s divine sense, the pure, crystalline mountain forest abruptly shattered.

Countless filaments of divine sense, which had differentiated themselves, were startled by the tiger’s roar. They swiftly retreated, transforming into streaks of purple light that flew out from those pines, bamboos, orchids, and blades of grass, drilling back into Gu Xiechen’s body.

These returned wisps of divine sense moved with incredible speed, carrying the surrounding spiritual energy with them in violent undulations. Gradually, a small tornado began to swirl around Gu Xiechen, causing the water in the Dragon Pond to churn into waves several feet high. A few carp excitedly chased and played on the crests of the waves. Occasionally, as their eyes opened and closed, golden light shot several feet out from their fish eyes. “Tsk,” he mused, “Become demons sooner! Carp transforming into dragons—is such a thing still possible?”

Smiling faintly, he beckoned to the few carp whose demonic energy was already thick and who had begun to possess nascent intelligence. Gu Xiechen pulled out a jade vial from his robes and carefully dripped several drops of Flood Dragon essence blood into the pond. The carp surged toward him, wriggling their heads and tails, and eagerly swallowed every drop of the thick, gold-like essence blood. The seven-colored light around them flared intensely. Their bodies, originally three feet long, seemed to have grown another size, and their demonic aura grew even more potent, now carrying a distinct trace of Flood Dragon essence within the rolling demonic clouds.

A gale roared out from the dense woods behind him, and several large, white-browed tigers, each twenty feet long, charged forth reeking heavily of alcohol. They affectionately circled Gu Xiechen several times, sniffing him deeply before tilting their heads and collapsing onto the ground, snoring loudly.

One large tiger kept letting out loud burps, its pungent alcoholic breath startling the carp in the Dragon Pond below into a frantic escape. “Alas, spoiled disciples, they are all truly spoiled disciples!” Gu Xiechen chuckled, patting the haunches of these great beasts before cheerfully leaving the Viewing Platform.

The Huayan Cave on Mount Jiuhua was the secluded retreat of the Nine Nether Daoist Auntie Tiger. Now that Auntie Tiger was guarding the Laoshan Valley, Gu Xiechen had borrowed the entire Mount Jiuhua as his training ground. These white-browed tigers were the direct grandsons of Auntie Tiger. Because they were still young and Auntie Tiger doted on them excessively, they spent their days indulging in food, drink, and roughhousing without any sense of propriety. However, they immediately hit it off with the wine-loving Gu Xiechen, becoming close friends. Dudu, dudu, went the sound of his staff tapping the ground. Gu Xiechen appeared to walk slowly, yet in the blink of an eye, he had crossed several mountain ridges and arrived on a cliff face before the Huayan Cave.

After gazing for a moment at the vast, misty, and picturesque sea of forest below, Gu Xiechen drew a deep, satisfying breath. He muttered subconsciously, “What extravagance! The entire Mount Jiuhua is occupied by that old aunt as her private garden. Tsk tsk, might truly makes right! If I could cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage... Hmph, all the famous peaks of Asia will be taken over by them!” After his brief lament, Gu Xiechen leaped, his body drifting like a white cloud to land gently before the entrance of the Huayan Cave.

Two young Daoist acolytes, who had been dozing in the cool shade near the entrance while clutching their horsetail whisks, were startled awake. They jumped up immediately and bowed to Gu Xiechen with faces full of smiles: “Master Gu, you’ve returned?” “Mmm. I’ve circled Mount Jiuhua a few times these past few days. Has anything happened here?” Reaching into his Qiankun Pouch, Gu Xiechen rummaged around and pulled out a square parcel, about a foot on each side, and handed it to the two young acolytes. It contained fresh wild fruits he had picked from the cliffs and rock faces around the mountain. The spiritual energy of Mount Jiuhua was rich, making the fruits incredibly sweet, a delight to children.

The two young acolytes beamed as they accepted the parcel, quickly pushing open the cave entrance for him. One of them laughed, “Nothing much, Master. Just that over a thousand people arrived here in succession. After howling and wailing for a few days, they’ve all been settled in the Quiet Cultivation Garden in the back mountain.” Hearing this, Gu Xiechen was delighted and hurried into the cave dwelling.

The vast Huayan Cave consisted of palace-like structures built in the front area. Passing through two courtyards and navigating a narrow stalactite passage, one had to cross a stone beam over a bottomless dark river to reach the rear cavern—the true Huayan Grotto-Heaven.

“Hmm, Xiao Gu’s cultivation life... When will he truly begin his path of Dao? That depends on the harvest of Moon Chestnuts...”