Truly ascended five-layer powerhouses cultivate unique, personal skills; take Zhang Yang’s Heaven-Shattering Sword, the mysterious script left by the owners of the two parrots in this cave, or the Shaolin Patriarch Bodhidharma’s unique mental cultivation method.

This Heavenly Cycle Grand Circulation became the cultivation technique Zhang Yang created after ascending to the fifth layer, synthesizing everything he had learned and ultimately surpassing it; this method was undeniably the most formidable cultivation technique in China for thousands of years, so even Zhang Yang, who had originated the Heavenly Cycle Grand Circulation, was awed by it.

"Jee-jee-jee!"

"Squeak-squeak-squeak!"

"Roar!"

As the sealing energy at the cave entrance vanished, the Shadowless Lightning, Wind Chaser, along with the Golden Three-Eyed Beast, brought Da Lei and Xiao Lei flashing inside instantly.

Seeing Pu Tian’en dismembered, with Zhang Yang standing proudly in place, they cheered with delight, and the two parrots squawked their joy even louder.

Zhang Yang let out a soft sigh of relief, feeling none of the fatigue typical after a major battle; on the contrary, having absorbed the spiritual energy dispersed by Pu Tian’en, he felt even stronger than before.

"Congratulations to you."

The two parrots flapped their wings; by now, they could no longer truly see Zhang Yang, offering only their heartfelt blessings.

Shadowless Lightning darted onto Zhang Yang’s shoulder, crying out happily, while Wind Chaser trotted over, nudging Zhang Yang with heavy, thick snorts; everyone was overjoyed.

Zhang Yang turned sideways, maintaining a smile, yet his perception stretched beyond the Wild Man Mountain. The elemental energy there was now thin, preventing him from sensing conditions elsewhere.

What occupied his thoughts was Pu Tian’en’s fifth-layer spirit beast, the Fallen Three-Eyed Demon Beast. It had fled the Wild Man Mountain earlier, frightened by Da Lei and Xiao Lei. As Pu Tian’en’s enslaved pet, even if the Wild Man Mountain’s elemental energy was barren, the news of Pu Tian’en’s death should still have registered on its senses.

After Pu Cheng’en’s demise, his slave pet, the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox, had completely lost its sentience, devolving into a beast driven only by slaughter. He wondered what transformation the Three-Eyed Demon Beast would undergo after Pu Tian’en’s death.

If the Three-Eyed Demon Beast also became merely a creature of slaughter, it would undoubtedly bring a devastating catastrophe to China; this outcome had to be stopped before it occurred.

"Let's leave the Wild Man Mountain first," Zhang Yang said, his gaze drifting toward the two parrots. Hadn't they waited here for years precisely for a newly ascended fifth-layer powerhouse from China to rescue them?

Zhang Yang had long promised to take them away from the Wild Man Mountain; now was the time. With them present, that Three-Eyed Demon Beast would certainly not be able to hide.

"Ah Hua, Ah Cai. Are you willing to leave the Wild Man Mountain with me?"

Zhang Yang smiled. He still remembered the funny names of the two parrots, and this time, he spoke naturally, with no other intention behind the words.

"Ah Hua."

"Ah Cai."

The two parrots exchanged glances, their eyes possessing a faint luminescence. Upon hearing Zhang Yang’s words, their hearts filled with a deep melancholy.

The Wild Man Mountain was the place where they had lived for hundreds of years. If they hadn't lived here as a pair, such an immense span of time filled with solitude would have surely killed them. Now that Zhang Yang had finally become a fifth-layer powerhouse, fulfilling his promise to take them away, they unexpectedly felt a pang of reluctance for the place they had inhabited for centuries.

This was entirely normal; it applied not just to spirit beasts but to humans too. After leaving one’s homeland, living somewhere else for ten or twenty years, constantly yearning to return, yet when the day for homecoming finally arrived, one would inevitably feel a deep attachment to the place where life had been built.

The restriction of the Wild Man Mountain had already lost its effect during Zhang Yang’s battle with Pu Tian’en, when all the elemental energy had been drained. At this very moment, it was effortless for Ah Hua and Ah Cai, the two parrots, to depart.

Following Zhang Yang, everyone left the Wild Man Mountain together. Once they were outside its bounds, the suffocating sensation of lacking elemental energy gradually dissipated. It was imaginable that such a vast area as the Wild Man Mountain would require a significant period to restore its prior concentration of elemental energy, but during this recovery phase, the Wild Man Mountain was destined to be a forbidden zone for internal energy cultivators or other spirit beasts.

Standing outside the Wild Man Mountain, breathing in the abundant elemental energy, Zhang Yang stretched his arms. His range of perception was now much larger than when he was on the Kunlun Dragon Family Plain. More importantly, by tracking the Fallen Five-Layer Three-Eyed Demon Beast, he finally ascertained its ultimate destination.

"That Korean fifth-layer you encountered—you said he carried Rootless Water?"

Zhang Yang turned, looking at the Golden Great Perfection Three-Eyed Beast, and suddenly asked.

"Indeed. That was the Rootless Water from Lake Tianchi in Changbai Mountain. Rootless Water inherently strengthens the body. It is because of Rootless Water that my Three-Eyed Beasts have always been physically stronger than other spirit beasts since ancient times. It is a pity that the Rootless Water in Lake Tianchi now seems even scarcer than it was thousands of years ago."

The Golden Three-Eyed Beast nodded; it knew the water-mist shell on Pu Tian’en all too well.

Zhang Yang seemed to grasp something. When the Li and Hua families first came to the Dragon Family Plain to deliver a message, they reported that Pu Tian’en had appeared at the foot of Changbai Mountain. He dared not ascend the mountain, likely wary of the fifth-layer spirit beast residing there. But Li Jianyi clearly stated that Hua Feitian had refused Pu Tian’en; so how did Pu Tian’en ultimately acquire the Rootless Water?

What condition could Pu Tian’en have met to convince Hua Feitian to help him obtain it?

Zhang Yang frowned, lowering his head in thought.

Shadowless Lightning and Da Lei and Xiao Lei were playing amongst themselves. Seeing Zhang Yang in this state, they immediately led the younger pair off to another area, trying not to disturb him.

Ah Hua and Ah Cai looked at Zhang Yang, then at the Golden Three-Eyed Beast. After flapping their wings and circling once in the air, they landed back on the Golden Three-Eyed Beast, which did not object, allowing the two parrots to perch upon it.

"I understand!"

Zhang Yang suddenly looked up; he had finally figured out why Pu Tian’en possessed the Rootless Water and what price he had paid to exchange it from Hua Feitian.

The condition for ascending to the fifth layer!

Pu Tian’en lacked the robust physique of a true fifth-layer powerhouse yet achieved that level of strength by establishing some form of connection with a fifth-layer spirit beast. Pu Tian’en’s ascension was clearly not recent; his talent for refining fallen demonic beasts using the modified Gu techniques of the Southern Border Demonic Path proved he was a brilliant cultivation genius.

Over the years, he might well have devised a method to help other internal energy cultivators attain the strength of a fifth-layer powerhouse by establishing a similar link with other fifth-layer spirit beasts.

Perhaps this was the method Pu Tian’en used to trade for the Rootless Water from Hua Feitian, and only this explained why Hua Feitian would risk the charge of betraying China and colluding with foreign cultivators to hand over the Rootless Water.

Zhang Yang’s speculation was almost certainly the truth, which in turn illuminated another issue—for example, why that Three-Eyed Demon Beast fled to that specific location after Pu Tian’en’s demise.

It had absolutely no familiar connection to Pu Tian’en in China; the fact that it fled there instead of returning to Korea suggested a complexity that could not be ignored.

"Ah Hua, Ah Cai, Wind Chaser, wait for me here. I need to return for a moment."

Having understood, Zhang Yang immediately decided to go back to the cave.

Previously, out of respect for a fifth-layer powerhouse, Zhang Yang had not engaged in any overtly aggressive actions after slaying Pu Tian’en, allowing his corpse to remain in the cave as a vigil for Ah Hua and Ah Cai. Now, it seemed necessary for Zhang Yang to return and check things over once more.

"Are you worried about that person's fifth-layer Three-Eyed Demon Beast?"

"Certainly. But I imagine Zhang Yang already knows where it has fled," Ah Hua asked Zhang Yang, looking puzzled. Ah Cai, understanding Zhang Yang’s thinking better, answered for Ah Hua, though she too looked at Zhang Yang with curiosity.

"That Three-Eyed Demon Beast fled to Changbai Mountain."

There was nothing to hide about this; Zhang Yang told them directly.

"Roar."

Ah Hua and Ah Cai froze. They knew exactly what was at Changbai Mountain. For a fifth-layer Three-Eyed Demon Beast to flee there—wasn't it seeking its own death?

The Golden Three-Eyed Beast followed with a loud roar, equally baffled.

"Wait for me here; I'll be right back."

Zhang Yang nodded; perhaps everything could be clarified by returning to the cave.

In the blink of an eye, Zhang Yang instructed Ah Hua, Ah Cai, the Golden Three-Eyed Beast, Wind Chaser, and Shadowless Lightning to stay put while he returned to the cave alone.

Everything inside the cave was intact. Although the previous battle between the fifth-layer experts was incredible and devastating, the real fight within the cave had culminated in a single final strike.

Zhang Yang had essentially achieved a one-sided kill. Pu Tian’en, having lost his will to fight, hadn't lasted even a single exchange against Zhang Yang.

Fifth-layer powerhouses, while formidable, often decided outcomes swiftly, typically with a single decisive move.

The headless corpse remained kneeling there, almost in a prostration pose. A thought stirred in Zhang Yang's mind, and a surge of spiritual energy flowed from him, transforming into elemental energy that swept over Pu Tian’en’s body.

As moment after moment passed, Zhang Yang’s brow furrowed deeper. There was nothing special about Pu Tian’en’s body, which greatly surprised him.

Hua Feitian was not a fool; his ability to comprehend the Dao of Nature to Great Perfection attested to his talent. If Pu Tian’en hadn't offered something significant, Hua Feitian would never have trusted him.

Yet, the result seemed to be a complete void.

"Impossible. That Three-Eyed Demon Beast has low intelligence; after Pu Tian’en’s death, it is driven purely by instinct. If Changbai Mountain did not offer it a sense of security, it would never have chosen that path!"

Zhang Yang withdrew his spiritual energy, muttering to himself. Though this search yielded nothing, he refused to give up. (To be continued.)

ps: Overslept; woke up to find it was already past midnight... Truly sorry, this chapter and the next count as compensation for yesterday’s update, not today’s.

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