Sun spilled over the top of the mountain. Hui broke his meditation and stood, stretching in the first rays of dawn.

Six months had passed. The other cultivators returned home long ago, and so too had Hui restocked his talismans. Over the six months, his dantian had become firmer, the inside hollower, taking the steps toward the next stage: Void Core.

He drew out the manual and observed the next page again. Yet again, the chickenscratch writing transformed before his eyes, shaping a series of images. The cultivator in the images spun his qi faster and faster, interspersing qi and death qi in such rapid succession that the two seemed to touch without touching. At last, his dantian hollowed completely in the center. The outer edges hardened, and the inside became a sucking void, desperately drawing all the qi around it in as it stepped into the next realm.

Although his manual had him take the first steps toward the Void Core when he crossed the boundary between second and third stages, not until he stepped into the fourth realm would he truly form a Void Core. The first steps progressed smoothly, but as ever, ninety percent of the work of forming a Void Core came in the last ten percent of the formation: perfectly smoothing the walls and utterly voiding his dantians.

When it came to his second dantian, he lacked the resources to progress. His Master’s peak contained almost no death qi. Although he managed to stumble across a recent kill from the wolf once, Hui remained unable to draw a significant amount of death qi. Unwilling to massacre his master’s pets for the sake of cultivation, nor stupid enough to think his master would let him live afterward, Hui’s secondary dantian remained unable to progress.

Likewise, the gold ball of life qi still spun in his dantian, fluttering with tiny songbirds. Only under his control when he consciously controlled it, it otherwise spun at its own speed. Unlike the ducks, who returned to smooth death qi most of the time, the songbirds seemed reluctant to lose their form. Hui focused on it for a moment, frustrated, and the ball stopped spinning for a second. As soon as he turned his attention elsewhere, the ball sped up again, letting off another cloud of songbirds. How am I supposed to form a Void Core when I have this life qi? I can’t void everything from my dantian as long as it’s around, and I don’t want to get rid of my hard-won life qi, either! I’ve managed to gather this much, I won’t give it up!

Through the months, he’d occasionally sought enlightenment on the fragmented talismans Bai Luoren had provided him. Nothing had worked. Eventually, he gave in and put them back into storage. It seems conditions aren’t right yet. Once I get more experience, I’ll try again.

I’m stuck, I’m stuck, I’m stuck! I need to get out into the world if I want to break through these bottlenecks and keep climbing!

So thinking, he stepped on the path to leave his Master’s peak for the first time since the tournament.

“Step one, find a ghoul-extermination mission and gather death qi to match my life qi! Step two… sneak into Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect and find that death-faking technique!”

I’ve come up with ideas in the past months! If I go to Twin-Elements City, I can find a Mysterious Heavenly Forest disciple to help, and sneak my way into the sect that way. If fate does not align, then I can stop by Bai Clan and get Bai Xue to pull a few of their clan’s strings to get me inside. After I helped them with the lotus, surely I can wriggle a little more gratitude out of their clan.

Failing that… failing that, I’ll cultivate diligently until I reach fourth stage and fly over myself! That death-faking technique is mine!

Zhubi reared up and hissed gently, swaying against his neck. Hui absent-mindedly pet the snake as he walked. Down the mountain, and back up into Starbound Peak. He wore white robes, only the blue ribbon in his ponytail a hint to his status as an inheriting disciple.

He cast a glance upward, ever wary. Lan Taijian must not care about me… or maybe Master’s pressuring him into not attacking? The way he came down on Ding Bo… I don’t want to lose my cultivation!

But then, the fact that he hasn’t ever attacked me does suggest that he isn’t going to, for whatever reason. Perhaps this small cultivator can be a little bolder.

Something white flickered overhead. Hui ducked instinctively.

A dove fluttered by, uninterested in his life.

Standing, Hui sighed and straightened his robes. It’s fine, it’s fine. How many times have you been here, Hui? It’s fine!

Since the last time he’d climbed the trail, Starbound Peak had returned to its usual state. The tournament long forgotten, the peak’s main square held only stately white-robed disciples. None of the stalls remained, nor the other disciples. Hui kept his head down, eager to avoid the watchful eyes of any Li Xiang fans. He scanned the area from the corners of his eyes. The library loomed on his left, the administration building sat ahead, the cafeteria lurked in the corner between the two, and a few other buildings scattered around.

Off to the side, a stone stele jutted from the ground, carved with mysterious symbols. A few disciples stood around the stele, heads bowed. As he watched, one of them touched a jade slip against the stele, then walked away, down the peak.

How did I never notice it before? Hui paid close attention to his mental energy. A strand of energy that radiated a profound, ancient aura brushed against his mental energy, drawing his attention to the stone stele.

I never looked for the message board before, so it didn’t call out to me. I wonder what else I’m not seeing…

Hui turned his eyes to the horizon. For a second, he saw the shape of another mountain between the other five. The other mountain stretched wider and reached taller than the other five mountains, broad enough to swallow them up. The other peaks stuck out of its sides, becoming not distinct peaks but merely tall points on the mountain range.

He blinked. The illusion vanished.

Eh? What was that? Another peak? But… there can’t be anything between the peaks. I walk between them every day.

Hui shook his head and rubbed his eyes. Did I meditate for so long that my eyes stopped working?

Putting it out of his mind, he approached the stone stele. Nothing burst out to him. The mysterious characters remained mysterious. At a loss, Hui touched the stele, then cautiously sent in a strand of qi.

Information flooded his mind. Quests and requests from fellow disciples, from higher-tier members of Starbound Sect, even a few posted by rogue cultivators or other sects, all rushed at him.

Eh? So many requests? Hui boggled before the rush of information. Overwhelmed, he stood frozen for a few breaths, all his energy focused on processing the stele’s message.

After a second, he understood. There are steles like this all over the sect’s territory and in the surrounding villages, as well as in the nearby cultivator cities. Any cultivator can leave a request on the board. The steles transmit the requests they need to one another, and then any Starbound Sect cultivator can access any stele and see all the requests available. Drawing on my first-life’s knowledge, they basically function as a cultivation-based poor man’s trading post website!

He scanned the list again. Each post had a title, reward, and a short description. Based on the requests I can see, the stele provides quests suitable to the level of the cultivator looking at it. They seem to be ordered by most-recent-posting, newest at the top.

Out of curiosity, he scrolled to the end of the list. A few dusty quests lingered at the bottom.

Retrieve a dragon’s scale. Reward: 10 spirit stones.

Slay Eccentric Qin. Reward: Secret.

Discover where Sect Master Lan vanishes to once a month. Reward: 500 spirit stones.

Hui snorted. As expected, the bottom of the list is full of trash. I wonder if the requestor for the Sect Master would give me 500 spirit stones if I told him the Sect Master just likes to feed ducks… mmm, no, they wouldn’t believe me. As for the other two, ten spirit stones for a dragon scale? A quest to slay someone? Eccentric Qin must be a demonic cultivator… or, I hope he is, anyways. Otherwise, a righteous sect like us taking on a quest to kill…

Well, it is a cultivation world. Killing isn’t that unusual.

Hui scanned back up the list, searching for any that mentioned ghouls or undead.

Take on the Malignant Giant Ghost. Hui stared. No, no! Too scary! That sounds like a dangerous battle!

Remove the death curse on an ancient gem. Pausing for a moment, Hui considered, then shook his head. Though I removed Bai Xue’s curse, it’s not like I’m a curse-remover. And when I removed her curse, I almost got cursed myself! Curses are dangerous. No thank you, no thank you!

At last, one caught his eye. Requesting exorcism of the Han family ancestral estate. Reward: 500 gold.

Gold? Is this a request from a mortal? Hui sighed, the weight of his debt on his shoulders, then shook his head. No, no. I can buy talisman paper with gold—it’s not as if the paper is too important. And besides, I’m not doing this for the reward. I’m doing it for the death qi, the death qi!

If I think of it another way, a quest from a mortal likely won’t be difficult. My poor little life won’t be in danger! If there’s no death qi in the deal, I can always return and put the quest back into the stele. It’s not as if I’m forced to take on the quest.

Hui retrieved half of the snapped jade bird his Master had given him before his adventure in Bai Clan and recorded the details of the request on it, using it as a jade slip. When he accepted the request, more details poured into his mind: the location, a faint impression of the requestor, and some other errata. The second he took down the quest details, the quest disappeared from the stele.

He turned and faced his Master’s peak. Cupping his hands, he bowed and said, “I’ll be off, Master.”

When Weiheng Wu failed to materialize to stop him, he stood and headed down the peak on foot. Come to think of it, this is my first time leaving the peak without Master by my side.

Hmm… I wonder if disciples of my level are allowed out of the sect? Often, there’s a rule about not leaving the mountain until a certain stage…

Ah well! This Hui might one day defy the heavens, but for now, I defy the rules!

…Anyways, if there’s quests that involve leaving the mountain for disciples of my level, it’s probably fine. They wouldn’t post them if we weren’t allowed to leave the sect.

So thinking, Hui strode off.