Chapter 67

The day after Su Jinzhou successfully formed a pill, the ranking competition for the sect's inner disciples continued.

In just four months, Su Jinzhou's name had become known to everyone in the sect. This Ganri Peak disciple, who had suddenly advanced during the ranking tournament and successfully formed a golden elixir in just four months, was so famous that even the other sects and palaces in Chenwu Province had heard of him.

Senior Brother Zhang Xiaoxian, who had previously been able to suppress him and force him to the point where he had no power to fight back, now had no chance of winning against him.

Su Jinzhou's ranking continued to rise.

Ji Tang followed Su Jinzhou to every match, wanting to see what ranking he would eventually get, until his master came to find her and told her to go into seclusion immediately and not waste any more time.

She noticed that her master looked a little strange, but no matter how much she asked, her master just told her to go into seclusion as soon as possible.

Ji Tang had no choice but to tell Su Jinzhou about the matter.

Su Jinzhou had just finished his morning ranking match. He pondered for a moment before saying, "Since Master asked you to retreat as soon as possible, there must be a reason for that. So, don't sit here and watch me play. Go and retreat directly."

"But you've already made it into the top ten. Even if you see it to the end, it'll only last about ten days..." Ji Tang sighed, "Okay, I get it."

Su Jinzhou sent her back to Ganri Peak. She met her master and found out that he had even set up a spiritual power shield for her retreat cave.

Now she had no reason to delay.

Ji Tang stood outside the cave, "Brother, I don't know when I can come out of this retreat."

Su Jinzhou: "Once you start practicing, time flies." He was the one who was having a hard time. He suppressed the thought and said, "Do you know what you look like now?"

"Like what?"

"Like the children in the palace who don't want to go to morning classes." He gestured below the waist. "They are all this small."

Ji Tang curled his lips, "It seems that Senior Brother doesn't feel reluctant at all."

He smiled and said, "Practice well. Master and I are waiting for your good news."

Jitang waved his hand, "I know."

Her figure disappeared into the darkness of the cave, and the stone door slammed shut, shaking off scattered debris.

Su Jinzhou's smile only lasted until the moment the stone door closed. He looked at the closed stone door with worry and couldn't help but raise his hand to cover it.

Behind him, the master walked slowly towards him.

"There's no point in overthinking. Go to Xuanhe Peak and complete the ranking competition. I will take care of the rest."

Su Jinzhou bowed his head and said, "Yes, Master."

*

The 3341st year of Qingyu.

Two hundred and eighteen years have passed since Jitang entered the retreat cave.

The stone gate of the cave, which had been silent for a long time, finally made a sound today.

Gu Yan went to the outside of the cave as usual to check the situation and found that the stone door of the cave was shaking slightly. He excitedly took out the spiritual message stone to report to his master.

"Is this girl out of seclusion? I see. Tell your senior brother too."

Gu Yan immediately sent a message to Su Jinzhou, but the other party only replied with a brief "I understand."

He felt a little puzzled. Logically, the senior brother should have been looking forward to the senior sister coming out of retreat every day, but why was he so calm when the senior sister really came out?

He estimated that the cave would be opened in the next two days, and planned to wait here for Ji Tang to come out. However, not long after, he saw Su Jinzhou flying over in a hurry on his sword.

Gu Yan was stunned, "Brother, don't you have a mission?" If he remembered correctly, Su Jinzhou should be investigating the hidden Nightmare Clan at the foot of the mountain at this time.

Su Jinzhou strode to the front of the cave, looking nothing like the calmness he'd heard from the Lingxun Stone. He reached out and touched the trembling stone door, his eyes bright.

Gu Yan smiled and stopped asking questions, leaving tactfully.

Three days later, the stone door began to tremble more obviously, and with a heavy and muffled sound, it slowly opened.

Seeing this, Su Jinzhou directly used a body cleansing technique on himself.

Gu Yan stood beside Master Wu Shu, and the two of them watched the movements in the cave from a distance.

Gu Yan was shocked: "Senior Brother just used the Body Cleansing Technique half an hour ago."

Master Wu Shu smiled and stroked his beard. "Although the stone gate moved earlier, it didn't open, did it?"

Gu Yan: "I think Senior Brother is just too nervous."

While the two were talking, the stone door was completely opened.

Su Jinzhou stood at the entrance of the cave and looked inside. It was very dark. He looked around but didn't see Jitang coming out. Just when he couldn't wait to go in, he suddenly heard a small sound from inside.

He paused, and at the same time a figure flew out from inside and jumped onto Su Jinzhou.

Su Jinzhou reached out to support the person on his body without thinking, and when he looked up, he saw Ji Tang's bright eyebrows and eyes, which were filled with a smile.

He laughed almost at the same moment.

“Senior Brother!”

"Um."

He held Jitang's hands and wanted to bring him into his arms, but what he did was slowly putting him down.

Ji Tang looked at him and asked, "Brother, why haven't you changed at all?"

At this time, Master Wu Shu and Gu Yan also came over.

Liu Wushu: "In just over two hundred years, how could your brother have changed?"

Ji Tang called him Master affectionately and hugged Master Wu Shu again.

Compared to the other two disciples, Ji Tang, the spoiled junior, made Liu Wushu soft-hearted and indulgent. He carried Ji Tang around for a while before putting him down.

Ji Tang turned around and tried to hug Gu Yan again. Gu Yan had already opened his arms, but Su Jinzhou lifted up Ji Tang's collar from behind and pulled him back.

Gu Yan didn't get to hug his senior sister, but he was actually relieved. His hands were quicker than his brain; if he had, he would have been afraid of losing his life.

"Senior Sister, congratulations on coming out of seclusion. Master and Senior Brother have been looking forward to your release!"

Ji Tang nodded, and suddenly realized something. "'Master'?" She then smiled and said, "Master has accepted you as his disciple. Congratulations! From now on, you will be my dear junior brother."

Gu Yan glanced at his senior brother inconspicuously, and met his senior brother's cold eyes. Obviously, his senior brother's expression was usually calmer than now, but he still shuddered involuntarily.

Master Wu Shu: "Now that you've come out of seclusion, there are some things I should tell you."

Ji Tang thought of the strangeness of her master before he went into seclusion, and was puzzled. She obediently replied, "Yes, Master."

She followed her master and mouthed to Su Jinzhou: What’s the matter?

Su Jinzhou smiled at her and mouthed: You'll know soon.

Gu Yan went to prepare the morning dew tea, while Ji Tang and Su Jinzhou followed their master to the cave first.

The master gestured for them to sit down.

Liu Wushu smiled and praised her, "You've reached the middle stage of the Nascent Soul stage after more than two hundred years of seclusion. This speed of cultivation is beyond the reach of ordinary disciples. It's quite impressive."

Ji Tang smiled: "Disciple has not wasted a single minute, and has practiced very seriously."

"Is the Nightmare Soul Pill forming smoothly?"

Ji Tang was still a little scared when she thought about it. Although the process was difficult and dangerous, the result was good. She avoided the important point and said, "It went smoothly. You see, I am fine now."

Gu Yan came in quickly, poured tea for the three of them and sat down.

Ji Tang: "Master, when you urged me to go into seclusion, was it also related to what you wanted to say?"

Liu Wushu took a sip of tea before speaking calmly, "When I urged you to retreat, there were several incidents of Nightmare Clan injuring people down the mountain."

Ji Tang still remembered what her master asked her before urging her to go into seclusion, "So that's why Master asked me if I had left the mountain?"

Liu Wushu said, "Master, I'm not worried that you'll go astray. It's just that you're from the Nightmare Clan, and the Nightmare Clan is your root. If you go down the mountain and run into people from the same clan, you can't guarantee that you won't be influenced by them."

Although Jitang is 345 years old, she is still a child in the eyes of Liu Wushu, the 1,300-year-old elder. She has spent most of her time on cultivation and has little experience with human hearts, so she is easily gullible.

Ji Tang was puzzled: "Why would the Nightmare Clan hurt people?"

Liu Wushu: "In the first few cases, the Nightmare Clan would enter the dreams of ordinary people and torture them in their dreams, causing them to suffer nightmares every day. They would feed on the nightmares until the people could no longer bear the torment and committed suicide, or even went insane."

Ji Tang frowned. "There are indeed some people in the Nightmare Clan who deliberately torture the dream master in order to feed on nightmares. When my father was the clan leader, he explicitly forbade the Nightmare Clan from intentionally harming the dream master in order to feed on them. But now the clan leader is Xue Mei. I haven't been back to the Nightmare Clan for a long time, so I don't know what the Nightmare Clan is like now... Master said that at the beginning, does this mean that the Nightmare Clan still continues to hurt people?"

Liu Wushu: "Yes, it's like a signal that the Nightmare Clan has begun to eat dreams on a large scale. It started with a few cases at the foot of the mountain, and then slowly spread to various towns. Now even the imperial city is suffering. Now the people of the entire Chenwuzhou are in danger, restless day and night, and terrified."

Ji Tang was shocked, "How could this happen..."

They were her fellow tribesmen. She was born and raised there and was one of them. Even though this matter had nothing to do with her, she still felt complicated and confused.

"Before I left the tribe, the tribe leader had already been replaced by Xue Mei. He didn't abolish the rules set by my father. After that, some members of the Nightmare Clan would torture the dream masters in order to eat nightmares, but they were extremely rare. Although tribe leader Xue Mei wouldn't punish them as harshly as my father, he would still punish them."

"It's very strange that the Nightmare Clan is now eating on such a large scale. Is there something else going on?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Liu Wushu said, "Ji Tang, you are from the Nightmare Clan and understand them better than the rest of us. You have feelings for them and would empathize with them, but the sects and palaces of Chenwuzhou don't. They only feel disgust and hatred when they see more and more people being tortured by the Nightmare Clan."

"Jitang, can you understand?"

This sounds cruel, but it is the truth.

Jitang knew that his master had good intentions. He did not just comfort her, but explained the matter objectively. Jitang was no longer ignorant, so how could she not understand? She lowered her eyes and replied, "Disciple understands."

Liu Wushu nodded to Su Jinzhou.

Su Jinzhou whispered to Ji Tang, "Over the past century, the cultivators of Chenwuzhou have formed a stranglehold group. They include disciples from various sects and schools, as well as independent cultivators who joined on their own accord. The Suxuan Sect also sent disciples to join. I subdued some of the Nightmare Clan when I went down the mountain."

Ji Tang's hands on his legs gradually clenched, "What will happen to those nightmare people?"

Su Jinzhou had no choice but to tell the truth: "Strangled."

Ji Tang was in a state of confusion.

Su Jinzhou: "I secretly imprisoned the subdued Nightmare Tribe in the mountains behind Ganri Peak. Now that you have come out, why not go and ask them?"

Ji Tang raised his head, "Senior Brother..."

He reached out his hand and patted Ji Tang's clenched fist. "For a long time, the Nightmare Clan and other tribes have lived in peace. How could they suddenly attack people on such a large scale? This is indeed strange. However, the Nightmare Clan members I captured are all very tight-lipped. No matter how much I ask, they won't say a word. Maybe when you go there, you can find out something."

Jitang stood up after hearing this and said, "I'll go ask right now!"

Liu Wushou pressed down, asking her to calm down. "Sit down first."

Although Jitang was anxious, he still sat down obediently.

"Given Chenwuzhou's current attitude towards the Nightmare Clan, it's unsuitable for you to appear before the public. We in the family know about you, but we can't guarantee that outsiders will beat you to death with a stick. The head master has discussed with me that until this matter is concluded, you will temporarily stay in the sect and do not leave."

"There are a group of senior masters in the sect, and your brothers and sisters are here. You are very safe in the sect."

Xuanzong wanted to protect her.

Jitang replied with a nasal tone: "Yes, I understand, Master."

Liu Wushu couldn't bear to see Jitang feel wronged, and his face, which was a little serious because of worry, softened in the blink of an eye.

"Okay, you're already grown up, and you still want to cry?"

Jitang's eyes were just a little red, "I didn't cry."

Liu Wushu said, "Look at your pitiful little face." He couldn't bear to see this, so he turned away and waved his hands, "Don't be an eyesore in front of your master. Go to the back mountain with your brother."

Jitang said "Oh".

Ji Tang had long experienced his master's awkward personality. He might seem to be fussing and glaring, but in reality, the old man might just be embarrassed. He might seem to be disgusted and chase people away, but in reality, he was soft-hearted and didn't want to show it.

Jitang bowed respectfully to his master before leaving with Su Jinzhou.