Only after a li did Lin-Lin really come to wonder about the inside of the mountain. The outside was wholly insignificant, not a single trait to separate it from the millions of mountains in the Empire.

Details were fuzzy, really. All she concerned herself with was fleeing at the time, but she got a somewhat good look at the mountain. One li tall approximately, and maybe twice that wide, but even then, it was impossible for it to be that large that it could host an entire underground hallway system like the one she was currently in.

Moreover, she was aware of how far low she had descended when burrowing, and the distance she traveled didn’t add up if this place existed underground.

“Bizarre,” she whispered under her breath.

The mountain was like any other. Insignificant, of a relatively shorter height compared to the ones she had seen in her travels that were easily twice as tall on most days. No energy emanated from it that she could sense, yet she had been unwittingly drawn towards it.

“Is this fate?”

The object which she was pursuing had magnified in its energy signature almost a hundredfold, and it would easily choke a human cultivator of her level with the purity and velocity of the swirling Qi wisps, but she was no human. Her body allowed her to simply put ‘eat’ her way through the fog of Qi, having the added benefit of growing her core ever so slightly.

After the seventieth li, the Qi almost became too much for her to effectively bear and settle into her core seamlessly. It took much more concentration to integrate it, and the amount of Qi coursing through her meridians was definitely enough to cause some damage if mishandled. Other than the added concentration on integration stealing some mental capacity away from wondering aimlessly in her mind, it was of no real inconvenience.

One thing remained true. The object, or even person for that matter, at the end of the hallway, had so much Qi that even a trickle for them was enough to put someone on par with a late-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator out of commission.

The thirty last li of her journey was the most difficult. After twenty li, every step was laborious and required a herculean amount of mental effort to redirect the Qi and fill her core. At some point, she tried to bend the Qi around her to miss her, but it was too obtrusive. Integrating it safely was the only option that she could think of. At this point, turning back was no option either. Whatever lay at the end of that hallway was much too important to turn her back on.

The last ten li, the Qi was too much and she stopped to sit down and meditate. Around her, torrents of raging Qi as pure as anything slammed at her paltry meridians. They coursed violently through her body before crashing into her Core, causing cracks to appear on it. More large wisps of raging Qi slammed into those cracks and used themselves as repairing material. Rinse and repeat.

Lin-Lin remained as such for an indeterminate amount of time, though she was sure that it was most likely the duration of a night.

After meditating, the process of absorbing the Qi automated itself somewhat, only requiring some output from herself. Her Core had grown dramatically, and after compression, the Qi she possessed was only that much more potent.

fifty more li eventually, the Qi became so thick that Lin-Lin couldn’t bear walking. After meditating for a day, she continued on her way. Twenty-five li later, the same occurred.

After one and a quarter hour, Lin-Lin noticed a pattern. The amount of time it took for her to reach her absolute limit would halve every time.

That would make sure that no matter what, mathematically, she would never be able to reach the two hundred li mark. No matter how much she meditated, she couldn’t stop it as half a li and some change later, the Qi stopped her like an impenetrable barrier.

“It’s futile,” she murmured, her eyes taking on a dangerous glint. All that way and he was inhibited from going forward.

At any rate, it wasn’t quite that much of a waste of time. Her core had already grown considerably, and it was on a magnitude that was nothing to really sneeze at. To bide her time, she could spend it on something worthwhile, if a little tedious like walking through a wall of suffocating thick Qi.

Days went by. Lin-Lin approached ever-closer to the object, building a tolerance to the thick Qi as she approached closer and closer. Days went by as Lin-Lin lurched ever-forwards, reaching closer and closer to the source, but never quite touching it, but that was fine because that wasn’t her objective.

Days blended into weeks as she moved closer, and when she reached to such a point where she could swear that she could see the object past the dim torch-light, she hastened her pace.

Not that far ahead, approximately a quarter li, a giant wall stood, and below, in the middle of the wall where it touched the ground was an upright rectangular entryway that lacked a door.

A few days later, she arrived right outside the door and peered in to see a bridge leading to a circular platform standing above sparkling azure water. Above, in the center of the platform was a pedestal where an orb rested.

Ever closer she arrived at the source, and every ten steps became just five steps which became two and a half. Eventually, she was so close, if she stretched her hand out, maybe just an errant little lurch forwards, and she could touch it.

Of course, the more rational part of her knew that the orb would blow her corporal body into pieces, reducing her into nothing but a defenceless Nascent Soul that couldn’t protect her father in his time of need, the only time he ever, truly, really, without question needed her for a specific time. Platitudes aside, her father could have lived a happy life without her. Now was the time to truly put her everything plus that again into her inborn function and protect the devil out of him.

Another moment of tolerance-building, absorption, integration, and a fraction of a step was all that brought her closer to the damn orb, but from where she stood, roughly a meter or two from it, she could see it.

Craning her neck, she read the two characters on each side of the orb, written in fiery silver that shone the cushion on the pedestal. On one was the word ‘Mountain’ and the other was, pulsing with Qi and the Primordial Dao in its script, the word for ‘Immortal’.

An Immortal’s Mountain.

An Immortal’s Cave. The meditating grounds for a true Immortal…

Lin-Lin had struck a goldmine.

Days almost felt like minutes as she waited patiently to acclimatize and move closer so she could maybe touch it. She tried every way to get as close as possible, even risking a tiny amount of injuries just to lurch even a centimeter ahead. Even that would make a difference in the end. Halfing the initial number in a series, she had surmised, indefinitely and adding all those numbers up would never make it double the original number, truly. Just a figure so close to the double, it’s indistinguishable.

Infinitely close, yet separate.

A single extra lurch, even by the breadth of a dust mote would put her ahead.

Even a-

From within her soul, Lin-Lin could feel a bulging sensation. Her father was ready.

Sitting and crossing her legs, Lin-Lin separated the torrential Qi from her immediate surrounding, laying a gentle cove in the wrathful streams where her father could come in peace.

Guiding his soul gently, Lin-Lin separated him and laid him bare, staying close. Her instincts were screaming at her to hug him and protect him from even an errant mosquito, but she needed to concentrate to keep her father from suffering from her mindless greed.

Surrounding his soul like a dutiful shell was father’s corpus. An energy-construct that would imitate, and later become flesh.

Gathering its energy, the corpus spun around itself several times before giving off a bright flash of light.

It faded to reveal the image of an old, naked man.

Lin-Lin could do nothing but smile, decidedly content. “Father!”

Feeling at his face, Lao Chen pouted. “Still an old geezer, huh?”

Realizing that he was naked, Lao Chen quickly protected his modesty and gave an embarrassed smile. “Do you mind helping your old man with my bags?”

Lin-Lin fumbled a little before tossing both her bags towards him.

“Be careful, father. There’s a lot of Qi here that might take you by surprise if you’re not ready.”

Her father pulled out a near-identical set of robes and clogs from the bag before taking a minute to wear them. Donning his metal ring once again, he simply had to smile.

“Being alive is wonderful. Now, what are you saying about this Qi, and where are we at the moment?”

Lin-Lin shook her head. “I do not know. In a mountain much bigger on the inside than the outside is what it is, but anything more specific, I cannot say, though my theory points to it being an Immortal’s cave.” sighing, she continued. “I will let in the Qi in small increments until you cannot bear it.”

Lao Chen stood stock still, waiting as Lin-Lin turned up the Qi in the small cove, but he didn’t shift as much as an eyebrow as almost fifty percent was let through the proverbial floodgates.

Sighing, Lin-Lin smiled. “I should have known.”

Releasing her hold completely, Lao Chen staggered somewhat but remained standing. “What the devil? Why is the Qi here so thick?"

Lin-Lin pointed behind herself. “It’s all coming from that stupid orb. It must be an Immortal’s artifact.”

Lao Chen raised an eyebrow before approaching the orb, furrowing his eyebrows as every step forward became more labored.

“Whoa…” he huffed.

Lin-Lin raised an eyebrow, slightly askance. “Did… did you siphon some of the Qi I collected out of my core? Was that why I couldn’t approach it fast enough?”

“Yes. I needed it to create me.” he smiled. "You really quickened the process!"

Approaching the orb, Lao Chen picked it up. Dropping it as though it was hot, Lao Chen clutched at his arm, grimacing in pain.

“Father!”

“Don’t worry,” Lao Chen bit through the pain. “This is incredible…”

Lao Chen took a few moments to process the pain before rational thought took precedence. “If someone that has gone through Immortal Ascension had the Qi of a hundred thousand Dao Seekers, this single orb is more extraordinary in every way possible! It is easily the equivalent of a… million… million Dao Seekers! Even in its most restricted form, it still leaks so much Qi, it's ridiculous! This hurricane of Qi isn't even a droplet in an ocean!”

Lao Chen’s fascinated smile dropped slightly. “If that is true, then this orb belongs to an individual far past the realm of Immortal Ascension. Impossibly far away…”

The orb began to vibrate slightly, shocking Lao Chen out of his thoughts. From the orb, two projected words shot out.

Xian Seal.

“What is this thing…?”

The vibration sped up in the blink of an eye until suddenly, it ceased to exist, and in its place, the image of a glowing white, naked human with no identifying features stood tall, tens of meters high.

Crossing its arms, the creature opened its mouth to speak.

“You trespass, trifling Dao Seeker.” His voice was layered and intrusive, as though he couldn’t shake it from his mind no matter how much he tried.

Lao Chen and Lin-Lin both swallowed.

“Prepare for utter annihilation.”

Just as the creature was about to wave his hand, he stopped.

“My scions… You have them. I can sense their presence with you.”