Chapter 131 – Trust the Nose, I Say!

The first to break through to the foundation realm were the two yin and yang attribute tortoises. One evening, Ren detected some odd fluctuations of qi. Mild and contained as they were, he happened to look over from curiosity, only to find the yin and yang attribute tortoises undergoing simultaneous breakthroughs!

He sucked in a breath of cold air in surprise and rushed over all flustered. Their breakthrough had completely taken him by surprise, and though he wanted to fuss over them, he kept his distance to keep from disturbing them.

Unlike humans, spirit beasts had no alchemical pills to increase their chances of breakthrough, but their constitutions were very different to begin with. They nurtured their strength by refining their bloodlines and by consuming beast cores, spirit plants, and natural treasures until they reached a bottleneck. A bloodline refinement wasn’t strictly required, but it did increase their chances of breaching the bottleneck. Most spirit beasts needed something special to nudge themselves over the tipping point, but once they did, their chances of breaking through successfully were much higher than those of humans.

It was part of what took Ren by surprise because he hadn’t given them anything special lately. Other than letting them out of the qi-repelling array once they grew accustomed to the rich ambient qi, he had only arranged entertainment for them. Yet it was enough because the two tortoises had initiated a second bloodline refinement, and on completing it, begun their breakthrough.

They smoothly entered the foundation establishment realm, and Ren hurried to examine them. They were squeaking joyously as he looked them over and found their single colored spot on their shell had grown larger. He also noticed small quantities of yin and yang qi, respectively, swirl around the two.

At first Ren had thought it a lucky coincidence, as their attribute so closely resembled the environment of the Edge, but then in the following weeks other tortoises began to break through as well. The yin-water and yin-earth tortoises were next, followed by the wind and then the lightning tortoises. All of them smoothly entered the foundation establishment stage after refining their bloodlines a second time. They also continued about their day as if nothing had changed, needing nothing beyond what they foraged for themselves.

Granted, their first bloodline refinement should have increased the odds of reaching a higher realm, but he had never heard of Myriad Path Tortoises reaching the foundation realm. Maybe the Azure Mountains Sect had more information on this subject but at that point, Ren had to acknowledge another possibility. He had plenty of other evidence already, but this confirmed it in his opinion. There was something strange about the Edge.

Ever since he created and initiated the great cycle of qi with a gigantic array, forcing interactions between life and death qi, he had disrupted the stagnant environment that existed before his arrival. His fears of destabilizing the balance hadn’t come to pass, but clearly there had been other consequences. The spirit plants that made up the array all showed accelerated growth and died quicker. It was what allowed him to harvest a larger than usual amount of herbs. Even the animals, such as the goats and yaks, had started to procreate rapidly. Of course there was also the far more obvious matter of all the mountains growing!

Ren might have found excuses for them occurring individually, but combining all three instances, it became apparent. He knew it couldn’t just be an excess of life and death qi causing changes, as that wouldn’t affect a non-living mountain. Yet something about their interactions was forcing everything to grow. The living creatures weren’t unnaturally burning their lifespan as far as Ren could tell; the encouragement was more gentle than that. He knew too little about the obscure higher-order qi to discern the exact cause, but Ren needed to find out what other effects it could have. After all, his own breakthrough to the peak of the foundation establishment realm could occur at any moment.

He had been preparing to enter the Sacred Ground so as not to waste one of the biannual chances to enter freely awarded to custodians of the Edge, but Ren decisively postponed it. As much as the spirit plants, insects, and animals he could find there would improve the balance of his abode, his cultivation took priority.

Times like these made Ren wish he could visit the library whenever he wanted. He missed being able to hop onto his flying sword, make a quick trip to study, and then return before nighttime. The distances in the Azure Mountain Sect were just too vast even at the highest speed of his flying sword to cross swiftly. He caught himself redesigning a new flying sword when his mind was idle, but he wanted to wait until both his forge was constructed and he had better materials to work with.

“Looks like I’ve just committed myself to a new plan! These past few months were a welcome break, but I must admit, I’ve really missed working towards something with all my might. Although with the amount of work I did, I wonder if I can truly call it a break? Hah!”

His mind made up, Ren began to prepare to leave his abode for a long duration. He harvested all the spirit herbs he could from the 18 enclaves and stored them for sale. Even the tortoises had grown independent and could responsibly feed themselves from the small patch of flesh eating moss. They knew where they could and couldn’t go, but some of the more adventurous ones would still go to take a bite from the weakest strands or vines from the plants that dominated the 1st and 3rd peaks.

The animals living on his mountain had all grown accustomed to the new circumstances and reached an equilibrium so they didn’t need him to do anything. In fact, they did him the favor of keeping Encroaching Darkness and Heart of Relentless Suffocation in check by feasting on the vitality-filled extremities of the plants.

In truth, those two plants were the only factor that determined how long he could stay away from the Edge. Left unattended, they would grow and develop more nexuses. With that additional stored vitality, their daily conflict would grow more vicious, dragging in their surroundings and destroying the environment beyond recognition. He had already dug up the 2nd set of nexuses and would leave as soon as the 3rd were fully grown in a few days. This way he could maximize the time spent away from his abode. Even then, he could at most stay away for 4 months.

With the nexuses, he could also continue to progress in building his Boundless Space Physique without fear. He was on the 6th node of the second Boundless Meridian by consuming 8 of the nexuses, leaving him with just one fleshy lump until he could harvest the 3rd set. His speed at cycling vitality and sealing the nodes had increased with the constant repetition, but the amount of vitality needed for each node was also incrementally growing. Seeing as he needed to form 9 Boundless Meridians, he would be sealing a shocking amount of vitality into his body if the requirements grew with each success.

As for Yu Ran, the little snake turned out to be in the middle of shedding his first skin! The trip to the Forbidden Region had been more bountiful than expected, hastening its growth. It had only been slumbering to digest the qi-rich banquet it had consumed. Ren could see the shiny new skin under the old, and it wouldn’t be long until the little one was ready.

Ren felt like a proud parent when he first realized it. The snake he had hatched from an egg was already at the 2nd layer of the core formation realm and would likely break through again once it shed the old skin completely. Unfortunately, it meant Yu Ran would have to stay behind, as its concealing technique could fail at an inopportune moment. During its brief waking periods, he explained the situation and gave it the mission of looking after their home while he was away. Yu Ran could ensure that the thieving red panda would stick to its word in his absence. Not that it mattered much, as he had already planted plenty of bamboo already.

The little snake gravely accepted the mission and said, ‘I’ll miss you, Ren!’ before letting out an enormous yawn and sinking back into sleep.

The morning of his planned departure, Ren couldn’t help but feel a little anxious, doing one final check flying over his abode, but he finally steeled his heart and flew out. Behind him his security formations concealed all sight and emanations of qi. It was a little inefficiently designed, as without his Resin Willow tree, he had started to run out of array flags. He had compensated by increasing the amount of qi fed into it, which his abode still had plenty of.

Coincidentally, his divine sense detected that someone had just emerged from the Sword Phase Formation before him. The scruffy old man approached the guards near the entrance to the Sacred Ground and began conversing. Their voices were hidden, but the guards looked as cold as always, gruffly sending him away.

To fulfill his responsibility as custodian of the Edge, Ren landed nearby and waited for them to finish talking before approaching. Ren usually kept his distance from those guards because his few overtures of friendship had been bluntly dismissed. Furthermore, each shift of guards rotated monthly, leaving him no time to wear them down. Ever since, Ren left them to their duty. He missed socializing, but he didn’t want to force matters.

"Greetings, Senior. I am called Ren, and I have granted the Edge as my domain. As its custodian, is there anything I can assist you with?”

"Well, you’re a polite one, aren’t you? Unlike those smelly fellows over there. No respect for their elders, I tell you!” He croaked before turning and crassly spitting on the ground.

Ren refrained from commenting, though the old man’s rags were more pungent than even the smelliest guard. It would have been easy to mistake him for a beggar but Ren had long since learnt his lesson about judging based on appearances.

‘In a world where a youthful face might belong to someone centuries old, or someone of similar age to your grandparents might be younger than you, it is best to stay polite to everyone,' thought Ren as he waited for the old man to finish a sudden outburst of wheezing coughs.

The old man might have been missing teeth, but his weathered face had an odd charm. He looked Ren up and down, not even attempting to conceal his examination. Ren tried desperately to maintain eye contact as the old man had started to idly itch his butt. He fervently prayed that hand wouldn’t move around to the front side. Then the old man spoke.

“Perhaps you can indeed help me. I seem to have dropped something of mine around here. It's a worthless trinket, but it can cause nearby creatures to behave violently, even rotting them from the outside. Tell me, have you seen anything like that around here?”

Alarms were ringing inside Ren’s head. ‘This old man! Stop talking like you dropped a coin or something. Can’t you take better care of such dangerous-sounding items!’ he wanted to scream, but he bit back the remark.

“Er… No, I haven’t, senior. And unfortunately, I’m heading to the outer sect, so I cannot keep an eye out for you.”

“Ah, a pity. Well, my nose led me here, and you’ve got to trust your nose, I always say, so I’ll stick around for a while. I’ve got all the time in the world after all! Kahahah." He inexplicably winked and then cackled with laughter. Ren didn’t know what the jest was, but he nodded along politely.

Knowing the guards likely wouldn’t let the old man stay in their camp, Ren offered the pavilion he had built on his borders to the old man to stay in.

"Aah, what a kind youngster to take pity on these old bones! I’ll take you up on that Ren lad! Know why? You smell nice; that's why! Keheheh! Trust the nose, I always say!” he laughed while patting Ren on his shoulder, fortunately, with his other hand.

‘What a strange old man,' Ren thought as he bowed and turned away. ‘I hope he finds whatever he was looking for swiftly. Wouldn’t want to come back home to rabid spirit beasts!’

Ren looked at the building housing the Sword Phase Formation in front of him. By now the earlier nervousness had vanished, and all that remained was a bubbling anticipation.

“Time to go be a student once again!”