Chapter Ten: The Tides of the Spirit Sea

Only I Sect.

Moonlight poured down cold and clear. Wang Ran stood at the fork in the fiery red bamboo forest, gazing at the unconscious inner disciple lying at his feet, his expression peculiar.

The man was clearly a pampered young master; besides the inner sect robe, he wore numerous expensive accessories, marking him as someone of wealth. Yet, at this late hour, he appeared here alone, furtive and suspicious. Upon seeing Wang Ran and his companions, his first reaction was panic and confusion—how odd.

Wang Ran’s gaze fell upon the yellow talisman protruding from the man’s arms. He picked it up and examined it carefully. A strange, cryptic pattern was etched upon it.

“A spirit talisman…”

Wang Ran stroked his chin, pondering the talisman. He knew a bit about such items—they were tools to aid cultivators, akin to magical artifacts and pills, but unlike magical artifacts, spirit talismans were single-use.

Spirit talismans came in countless varieties, their prices wildly divergent. Wang Ran knew of one called the Divine Movement Talisman, which doubled one’s speed for a short time. Its price was about two spirit jades—quite cheap, given its simple effect.

Another, the Explosive Talisman, unleashed terrifying destructive power akin to a golden core cultivator’s full strike. It cost no less than ten spirit jades, a coveted treasure for foundation-stage cultivators.

Besides these strength-enhancing or deadly talismans, there were others for support: some concealed one’s aura, others accelerated cultivation temporarily, and so forth.

Wang Ran inspected the talisman in his hand; at the center of its cryptic pattern was an eye-shaped motif. Clearly, its effect was related to vision. He held it before his eyes, fiddling with it, but noticed nothing unusual.

Perhaps he had not figured out its activation method. Though Wang Ran was not well-versed in talismans, he’d picked up these basics after years in Only I Sect.

He turned his gaze to the forked path—a bamboo forest glowing fiery red. The narrow path allowed passage for only a single person, littered with jagged boulders. If not for witnessing the inner disciple’s suspicious behavior here, most would overlook the trail entirely.

Wang Ran sensed there might be answers hidden within.

He leapt forward and entered the bamboo grove.

At once, his vision was filled with fiery red; bamboo everywhere, swaying and rustling in the night wind.

The path beneath his feet grew ever narrower, until at last it vanished altogether.

Wang Ran looked around; nothing but endless bamboo. No landmarks remained.

He glanced at the sky—bright moon, sparse stars—the hour had passed midnight.

Wang Ran pondered, picked up a small stone, and carved a mark into a bamboo stalk as a sign, then fixed his direction and sped forward.

The bamboo forest seemed endless. After a quarter hour’s walk, he saw nothing but bamboo stretching to the horizon.

Moreover, for some reason, the heat was rising. The stifling warmth flushed Wang Ran’s skin and sent beads of sweat down his brow.

He had to activate his Diamond Glazed Body technique to resist the oppressive heat.

Reaching a certain spot, Wang Ran’s eyes swept across the scene and suddenly narrowed. On a bamboo stalk before him, he saw the very mark he had carved at the start!

He had returned to his original spot—even though he’d walked straight, never turning. How could he have come back?

“There’s something strange here!”

Wang Ran’s brows furrowed. He fixed the bamboo’s location in memory, then spun and sped off in the opposite direction.

Another quarter hour passed.

Rushing forward, Wang Ran abruptly halted. Before him was the same mark. He had returned again—caught in a ghostly cycle.

No doubt, he had fallen into a formation.

Wang Ran glanced at the mark, but his casual gaze froze. He focused, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

The mark was unchanged, but—blood was seeping from the lines!

Wang Ran’s body tensed, alertly scanning the silent bamboo sea.

His heart pounded; he sensed danger.

His mind raced, unease mounting.

Suddenly, intuition struck and he looked up.

He drew a sharp breath.

Above, the sky had turned blood-red, thick and viscous as if shrouded in a sheet of gore. Not a trace of moonlight remained!

Wang Ran’s thoughts churned. There was definitely something hidden here; otherwise, why would that disciple enter such peril?

He took out the talisman, then pressed it to his forehead without hesitation.

The golden glow shimmered, then faded. Wang Ran’s gaze grew bright.

A pattern matching the talisman slowly appeared in his pupils, and as it took shape, the world before his eyes abruptly transformed.

Seeing it clearly, Wang Ran felt his scalp tingle.

Fire!

Endless, boundless fire!

Everywhere he looked, everything was aflame. No bamboo forest—only a sea of fire.

He stood at the heart of the inferno.

Each bamboo stalk was pure fire.

Removing the talisman, the scene reverted to bamboo; with it, the world shifted back to the fiery sea.

At this point, Wang Ran understood—it was truly a sea of fire, and the bamboo forest was mere illusion.

No wonder the heat grew ever more intense. Prolonged entrapment would incinerate even a golden core cultivator.

With the talisman, Wang Ran could finally see the real world; he could distinguish where the fire raged and where it did not.

He followed a flame-free path deeper into the bamboo’s heart.

Though he had always been moving forward, he’d merely circled within the formation. Now, at last, he walked the true road.

Soon, the view opened up. The sea of fire parted, revealing a massive crater.

And what lay within stunned Wang Ran most.

Countless points of light floated there, surging like waves.

These lights were spiritual energy!

Cultivation was the endless absorption of spiritual energy, which pervaded the world yet was ordinarily too thin for the naked eye.

But here, it had condensed into visible dots!

From afar, it was stunning—a scene like fireflies drifting in midair.

Wang Ran’s brows furrowed. He wasn’t surprised to find a gathering of spiritual energy within Only I Sect.

His real curiosity was about the inner disciple—how did he know of this spiritual sea, and how did he acquire the talisman to break the formation? He was surely no ordinary person.

Yet this thought flickered only briefly. Faced with such a spiritual sea, how could he not enter and cultivate?

But as Wang Ran stepped into the tide of spiritual energy, a sudden system prompt echoed in his mind, leaving him utterly stunned.