Chapter 99: The Barrier

Chapter 99: Chapter 99: The Barrier

The voices coming from below the mountain grew clearer with every passing moment.

Xi Yunxui remained where she was, her expression becoming increasingly tense as the faint sounds of approaching footsteps and distant conversations drifted through the trees. She could not yet see the people making their way up the mountain, but the fluctuations of spiritual energy accompanying them were enough to tell her that there was more than one cultivator.

The ancient creature had attracted attention.

That much was obvious.

Xi Yunxui glanced toward the path leading down the mountain, then at King C, Hui, and Biyu. King C had already noticed the approaching people and was watching the trees with a wary expression, while Hui held tightly onto Xi Yunxui’s clothing. Biyu remained perched nearby, its head turning from one direction to another as though trying to determine where the unfamiliar voices were coming from.

Xi Yunxui’s mind raced.

She had barely finished dealing with one problem, and another had already arrived.

The system appeared before her.

[Host, it would be unwise to allow the approaching cultivators discover you here.]

Xi Yunxui’s expression tightened.

’You’re right.’

She had no idea who these people were, what they wanted, or how they would react if they discovered that she had been standing at the center of the strange energy fluctuation.

More importantly, she could not exactly explain what had happened.

What was she supposed to tell them?

That she had come to investigate her mountain, awakened an ancient creature buried beneath it, somehow became its master, entered her own spiritual consciousness, and nearly forgot to give the creature a name?

Even she knew that explanation sounded ridiculous.

And there was another problem.

The ancient creature was now residing within her spiritual consciousness.

If the cultivators sensed its presence, she had no idea what would happen.

Xi Yunxui looked toward the approaching voices again.

’Then I should leave.’

[Agreed.]

Xi Yunxui suddenly remembered something.

’The teleportation talisman.’

She had used it to reach the mountain in the first place.

The talisman had been bought by her as a means of transportation, and although she had already used it once, she vaguely remembered that the system had mentioned that its remaining spiritual power could still be utilized.

Xi Yunxui immediately asked, ’Can I use the teleportation talisman again?’

The system responded after a brief pause.

[The teleportation talisman still contains a final spatial ripple.]

Xi Yunxui’s eyes brightened.

’So I can use it?’

[Yes. The remaining ripple can be initialized, but it will be completely consumed afterward.]

That was more than enough.

Xi Yunxui did not hesitate.

"Initialize it."

The moment the command left her mind, a faint golden light appeared around her.

The air beside her began to distort.

King C looked up in surprise, while Hui tightened her grip on Xi Yunxui’s clothes. Biyu immediately spread its wings, seemingly startled by the sudden fluctuation.

Xi Yunxui reached down and picked Hui up, while King C moved closer on his own.

"Stay close."

The golden light intensified.

For a brief moment, the trees around them appeared distorted, as though the entire world had been submerged beneath rippling water.

The approaching voices were now much closer.

Xi Yunxui could even hear someone shouting from farther down the mountain.

"Search this area!"

"Check the surroundings!"

"Don’t miss anything!"

Her heart tightened.

There was no time left.

The golden light enveloped Xi Yunxui, King C, Hui, and Biyu completely.

The next instant, all four figures vanished.

---

Far below the mountain, the cultivators continued their advance.

They had been drawn toward the source of the extraordinary energy fluctuation, yet the closer they came to the mountain, the stranger the situation became.

The mountain itself appeared ordinary from the outside.

There were no signs of a massive battle.

No destroyed buildings.

No obvious traces of a spiritual treasure.

No visible enemy.

Yet the spiritual pressure in the surrounding area was unmistakable.

Several cultivators gathered at the foot of the mountain and stared upward.

One of them frowned.

"The fluctuation definitely came from here."

Another nodded.

"I sensed it too."

Qing Xi stood slightly farther away from the group.

Her expression remained tense as she stared at the mountain.

She had already known there was something strange about this place. The barrier had prevented her from entering, and now the energy fluctuation had spread across such a wide area that even cultivators from distant regions had been alerted.

Something had happened inside.

The only question was what.

Several cultivators attempted to approach the mountain.

They immediately encountered the barrier.

A translucent layer of spiritual energy appeared across the entrance, almost invisible except when someone tried to pass through it. The moment a cultivator came into contact with the barrier, a powerful force pushed him backward.

He stumbled several steps before regaining his balance.

"What is this?"

Another cultivator stepped forward and attempted to channel his spiritual power into the barrier.

The result was the same.

The barrier remained completely unmoved.

Qing Xi’s expression became complicated.

She knew this barrier well.

It was the same one that had prevented her from entering earlier.

"It won’t let us through," someone said.

"Can it be broken?"

"Not with ordinary spiritual power."

The cultivators exchanged uneasy glances.

At that moment, two figures approached from the side of the mountain.

One was an imposing middle-aged man whose presence alone caused the surrounding cultivators to straighten.

The other was a man who had been traveling with him.

The cultivators immediately made way.

The man at the front was Huo Jingchen.

He was an Elder-Level cultivator, but his cultivation had only reached Stage Two.

Beside him stood the Sect Master of the Shu Sect, who had also reached the Elder Level, though he was only at Stage One.

Both men looked toward the barrier.

Huo Jingchen narrowed his eyes.

"So this is what has been preventing everyone from entering?"

One of the cultivators bowed.

"Yes. We have tried several methods, but none have worked."

The Sect Master of the Shu Sect stepped closer.

His gaze swept across the barrier before settling on Huo Jingchen.

"We will have to combine our strength."

Huo Jingchen nodded.

Neither man wasted time.

They stepped forward together and raised their hands.

A surge of spiritual energy erupted from their bodies.

The surrounding cultivators instinctively retreated as the powerful currents of spiritual energy converged before the barrier.

Huo Jingchen’s spiritual power struck first.

The Sect Master’s followed immediately afterward.

The barrier trembled.

A low hum spread through the air.

For several seconds, nothing else happened.

Then a faint crack appeared across its surface.

The cultivators immediately became alert.

"Again!"

Huo Jingchen and the Sect Master increased the force of their spiritual power.

The barrier shook violently.

Cracks spread across its surface like thin lines of light.

Neither man knew the truth.

They did not know that the barrier had not weakened because they had finally overcome it.

They did not know that its true source of resistance had already disappeared.

Xi Yunxui had left the mountain.

The ancient creature was now residing in her spiritual consciousness.

With the source of the mountain’s protection no longer present within the area, the barrier had lost the strength that had made it impossible to penetrate.

The two Elder-Level cultivators simply believed that their combined spiritual power had finally succeeded.

With one final surge—

Boom!

The barrier shattered.

The translucent wall of spiritual energy dissolved into countless fragments of light before disappearing completely.

Everyone at the foot of the mountain stared upward.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then someone shouted,

"Go!"

The cultivators immediately rushed into the mountain.

Qing Xi followed among them, her expression tense as she crossed the place that had previously prevented her from entering.

She looked around cautiously.

Nothing happened.

The barrier was truly gone.

Yet instead of feeling relieved, Qing Xi became even more suspicious.

She had expected to find something.

Some evidence.

Some trace of Xi Yunxui.

Anything.

But the mountain looked... normal.

The cultivators spread out across the surrounding forest, searching every direction.

They examined the ground.

They inspected the trees.

They followed the faint remnants of spiritual energy.

Some even climbed higher toward the place where the strongest fluctuation had originated.

But the farther they went, the stranger the situation became.

There were no enormous footprints.

No collapsed trees.

No cracks in the earth.

No signs of a massive creature having emerged from beneath the mountain.

The ground was intact.

The forest was undisturbed.

Even the spiritual spring continued flowing peacefully, as though nothing had happened.

One cultivator crouched and placed his palm against the ground.

"There’s no trace of a battle."

Another looked around in confusion.

"How is that possible?"

"The energy fluctuation was real."

"I felt it myself."

"So did I."

Voices overlapped throughout the forest as the cultivators tried to make sense of what they were seeing.

Huo Jingchen stood among them, his gaze sweeping across the mountain.

His expression remained calm, but his brows gradually drew together.

Something was wrong.

The energy fluctuation had been so powerful that every experienced cultivator in the surrounding region had sensed it.

Yet now...

There was nothing.

Not even a trace that could explain what had caused it.

Huo Jingchen slowly turned his head.

For some reason, an uncomfortable feeling had settled over his chest.

It was faint.

Almost imperceptible.

A strange throbbing sensation pulsed somewhere near his heart.

Huo Jingchen’s hand instinctively moved toward his chest.

He frowned.

"What..."

The sensation disappeared almost as soon as he noticed it.

He lowered his hand.

There was no pain.

Nothing physically wrong.

Yet he could not shake the feeling that he had just missed something incredibly important.

It was as though something had been within reach only moments ago, something that should have been noticed or remembered, but had vanished before he could grasp it.

Huo Jingchen stared into the depths of the forest.

He did not know what he was looking for.

He only knew that the faint ache in his chest seemed to insist that something important had been here.

Something he had somehow failed to find.

A cultivator suddenly called from nearby.

"President Huo!"

Huo Jingchen looked over.

"We found something."

Several people had gathered around a patch of unusual plants.

Huo Jingchen walked toward them.

The cultivator who had called him pointed toward the ground.

"These are spiritual herbs."

Huo Jingchen’s gaze fell upon the plants.

Several varieties were growing together beneath the shade of the trees, each one carrying a faint spiritual glow.

The surrounding cultivators immediately became interested.

The strange energy fluctuation had disappeared, but the discovery of spiritual herbs was enough to attract their attention.

One young cultivator crouched beside a particularly beautiful plant.

Its leaves were covered with tiny beads of moisture, each droplet reflecting the light like a small crystal.

He recognized it almost immediately.

"A Dewmon Grass."

The people around him became excited.

"That’s a low-level spiritual herb."

"Even low-level spiritual herbs are difficult to find outside cultivation territories."

"There are so many of them here."

The young cultivator’s eyes lit up.

Without thinking too much about it, he reached toward the nearest plant.

His fingers were only an inch away from the stem when—

A powerful force suddenly erupted from the ground.

"Ah!"

The cultivator’s body was violently thrown backward.

He crashed several meters away, rolling across the ground before stopping against the roots of a tree.

Everyone froze.

The cultivator slowly raised his head, his face pale with shock.

"What... was that?"

The Dewmon Grass remained exactly where it had been.

Its delicate leaves swayed gently in the breeze.

Not a single blade had been damaged.

Huo Jingchen’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the spiritual herb.

The mountain had been empty.

The ancient energy was gone.

Xi Yunxui had vanished.

Yet whatever had protected these spiritual herbs was still here.

And judging from the frightened expression on the cultivator’s face, the mountain was far from as harmless as it appeared.