The majestic tower junk flew through the air. Beneath it was a boundless sea of clouds, the seething mists like roaring waves. It was a gorgeous and astonishing sight that had the students gasping in wonder.
Even students who had learned flying spells would not fly to such altitudes. After all, spiritual energy was limited, and if they ran out of spiritual energy and fell from these heights, they would almost assuredly die.
This was precisely why the students all chose to stand on the deck and look down. In standing high above the clouds, they felt like they were gazing down on the rest of the world.
Perhaps this is what those Immortals who can freely traverse the heavens feel? When one becomes powerful, all living beings inevitably appear like ants, Tang Jie couldn’t help but think.
The ship flew very quickly, but the protection of a formation reduced the force of the wind. As Tang Jie stood at the bow of the ship, he began to examine the design of the ship’s formation as was his habit.
This ship could be considered a large art relic, a rarity even in the Basking Moon Sect. The formation applied to it was extremely complex, formations built atop formations, all of which were bursting with mystery. It was impossible for him to grasp its design, let alone understand it in the little time available to him.
In his moment of helplessness, he suddenly sensed something. Peering inside the ship, he saw that it was crisscrossed with barely distinguishable lines. These lines that thickly covered the interior of the ship were none other than countless formation lines.
Spiritual energy thrummed within them, gathering up at certain points and creating brilliant stars, a beautiful galaxy that entranced Tang Jie.
A moment later, this beautiful landscape disappeared, the countless stars dissipating into nothing.
The ship was still a ship and the people were still people, walking around the ship and conversing with each other.
Tang Jie knew that the scene he had witnessed had probably been due to his Dao of Insight, which had allowed him to inadvertently glimpse a hint of the secrets behind the ship’s formation.
Alas, this ship’s formation was too powerful, and he had made too little progress on his own Dao. That glimpse had been too difficult to sustain.
Even so, that one glimpse had been enough to leave Tang Jie thoroughly shaken. Many problems that had confused him in the Dao of Formations had been instantly resolved. He was bound to have a breakthrough soon.
The ship flew for only half a day before arriving at a rather desolate and mountainous region.
These were the Nimbus Mountains, located in the far western regions of Sageheart.
The mountain range ran from north to south for a thousand kilometers and consisted of a thousand mountains of various sizes. Countless savage birds and beasts lived in the mountains, including formidable fiend beasts. The Valley of No Return was located on the eastern end of the Nimbus Mountains, covering a vast area, and it was one of the seven protected areas the Basking Moon Sect had in the Nimbus Mountains.
The ship arrived at its destination and began to descend. As it broke through the clouds, they could see a mountain that had had its top shorn off and a resplendent golden palace put in its place. This was the branch hall the Basking Moon Sect had set up in the area.
The hall had a teleportation formation inside through which one could access the Valley of No Return, and the teleportation formation was also used to come back.
The ship anchored in front of the hall, and the students disembarked and filed into the hall, making their way toward the formation.
The branch hall’s teleportation formation was one of enormous size, able to send several hundred people at once. But as there were several thousand students, they had to be teleported in batches.
Tang Jie, Wei Tianchong, and Shi Meng were in the third batch. Once the first two batches had been teleported off, as they entered the formation, Tang Jie gave Yiyi to Wei Tianchong.
Wei Tianchong was very curious. “Isn’t this your baby? Why are you giving her to me?”
“To take care of you.”
“With you at my side, why would I need this little girl?” Wei Tianchong chuckled.
A student next to them heard this and said, “What? Do you still not know that the Valley of No Return is accessed through random teleportation? How is he going to take care of you?”
Wei Tianchong was startled. “What random teleportation… Hold on! Are you saying that we’re going to be separated when we go in?”
The student pursed his lips. “It feels like you don’t understand anything.”
Wei Tianchong was aghast. “I’m not going!”
He rushed to leave the formation, but Tang Jie grabbed him and shouted, “Young Master! There’s no going back at this point!”
“Shit! Tang Jie, you tricked me…” Wei Tianchong fearfully hollered, but in a white flash of light, everyone disappeared.
His vision blurred, and Tang Jie discovered that he was in a world of birdsong and fragrant flowers. A tall mountain towered in the distance while white clouds drifted in the sky.
A bird flew past, seemingly coming from far away. It passed over the valley, and as it fluttered its wings, it seemed to run into something, and there was an explosion of rainbow light in the air.
A bird corpse dropped from the sky.
“Sealed ground,” Tang Jie muttered.
This was the sealed Valley of No Return. The entire valley was sealed by a giant formation, making it inaccessible from the skies above and the earth below. All he could sense here was the abundant spiritual energy in the air.
Even though Basking Moon Academy was also a place abundant with spiritual energy, it was an open area, so it was far inferior to this place.
The moment he entered, Tang Jie felt a soothing warmth spread throughout his body. A single Major Circuit Heaven was incredibly easy to perform, and a Minor Circuit Heaven recovered much more energy than usual.
One could see that whether one cultivated or fought here, the effects would all be much better.
Before this, he had felt that thirty days of trial in the Valley of No Return was rather long, but now, after feeling the thick spiritual energy around him, he felt that thirty days was too short.
If possible, he wanted to spend the rest of his time here cultivating.
Fortunately, this desire lasted only for a moment. He quickly got ahold of himself and cast Heart Consonance.
He had only learned this spell last night and had barely managed to memorize it. Thus, it took him nearly three minutes to successfully cast it. Fortunately, Yiyi quickly replied.
A voice resounded in Tang Jie’s heart: “Big Brother!”
“Yiyi, it’s me. How are you right now?”
“Good, but that stupid pig is cursing you,” Yiyi scornfully said.
Tang Jie chuckled. “If he still has the energy to curse, I guess you haven’t run into any danger yet.”
“Mm, we haven’t run into any fiend beasts yet.”
“That’s good. Where are you right now?”
“I’m not sure. There are mountains and trees everywhere.”
Tang Jie glanced at the map. While the map had descriptions of the various terrains in the valley, there was no secret art to show where the student currently was. Thus, not even Tang Jie knew where he was at the moment.
After some thought, he said, “Let’s try and determine where we are first, and then I’ll go and find you. If we really can’t find each other, go to the Thousand Leaf Forest. I arranged to meet with Shi Meng there.”
“Mm.”
“Remember to be careful. If you run into a fiend beast, don’t fight it if you have to. Safety is your first priority.”
“Big Brother, relax. This stupid big has already found a place to hide. Even if you told him to fight right now, he would refuse… Hey! I told you to get up already! What’s the point in hiding now? We have to find out where we are first so that Big Brother can come and find us!”
The latter words were shouted at Wei Tianchong.
Tang Jie shook his head, a bitter smile on his face. Heart Consonance consumed quite a lot of spiritual energy, which he needed to save, so he cut off the spell and took out the beast talisman to let out the little tiger.
As Yiyi had also come out for this battle, and Tang Jie couldn’t leave the little tiger alone in his house, he had to bring it with him.
The little fellow had seemingly gotten used to being penned up and didn’t make his characteristic roar of fury. He curiously examined his surroundings while also searching for Yiyi. He blinked his big eyes as if he was asking, “Where did you take me this time?”
Tang Jie petted him on the head. “Enough. Your big sister Yiyi isn’t going to be with us for now. Let’s go and take a look around.”
He advanced with the little tiger and soon came upon a dense forest, the tree branches festooned with bright red fruits.
Tang Jie looked at the map and found that there were no records of this forest, so he could only sigh and keep moving forward. Suddenly, he grabbed the tiger and put him back into the beast talisman, after which he lunged behind a nearby boulder.
Not long after he had hidden behind the rock, two figures sprinted out of the distance—a man and a woman.
The female student looked around and then looked at her map. “No, this isn’t the Floral Forest… This Valley of No Return is too big.”
The male student replied, “There’s no need to rush it. We’re going to be in the Valley of No Return for thirty days, so we can just slowly search. We’ll eventually run into Senior Brother and the others.”
The female student glared. “I worry that we’ll be in the belly of a fiend beast by then! The Valley of No Return is dangerous, and only by gathering the strength of many people can we fight back.”
The male student proudly replied, “With me, Zhang Chengyun, around, you don’t need to fear any fiend beast.”
As he boasted, the girl smiled and said, “Yes, yes, Senior Zhang is great. With you around, this junior sister is much more at ease.”
This female student was rather pretty and knew how to talk, flattering Zhang Chengyun so that he felt pleased. She looked around and soon noticed the bright red fruits hanging from the trees. She said in delight, “Senior Brother, look! Fruit! The Valley of No Return has been sealed for many years, and spirit plants abound. These might be a kind of valuable fruit.”
Tang Jie frowned at these words.
While the Valley of No Return was abundant with spiritual energy, spirit plants didn’t suddenly become like cabbages. Unless the Basking Moon Sect specifically raised them, how could so many spirit plants be growing in one place?
Moreover, the Valley of No Return was swarming with fiend beasts, and if these red fruits were really spirit plants, countless fiend beasts would have already seized them for themselves. For these red fruits to be completely unharmed would be simply bizarre.
Zhang Chengyun didn’t think so much about them. Hearing the female student’s words, he laughed and said, “I’ll go and get some for Little Sister Wan’er.”
He flew forward.
From his hiding spot, Tang Jie saw the female student’s eyes flash with disdain as she looked at Zhang Chengyun, and his heart trembled. He knew that this woman probably wasn’t a kind sort, nor was she innocent and ignorant.
Zhang Chengyun went to a tree and plucked a red fruit. He took a bite and found it to be extremely sweet and brimming with spiritual energy. He cried out in delight, “It really is a spirit fruit! Sister Wan’er, come over!”
But at these words, this Wan’er girl retreated, a solemn look on her face.
Zhang Chengyun froze, and then he heard hissing.
This hissing came from none other than the fruit in his hand.
Zhang Chengyun looked down and saw red juice flowing out of the fruit.
There was so much juice that it instantly flooded into Zhang Chengyun’s hand, making it seem like it was covered in blood.
“This is…” Zhang Chengyun yelled in shock.
The remainder of the fruit suddenly twitched, and a pair of eyes appeared, coldly looking at him with a red gleam. The fruit became a little person in red clothes, the size of a palm and with its arm missing, clearly bitten off by Zhang Chengyun. The other hand pointed at Zhang Chengyun as the little red man jabbered something at him.
“A sprite?” Zhang Chengyun was startled, and then his face turned ecstatic.
He hadn’t expected the fruit he had plucked to be a sprite turned into a fruit. It was no wonder it was so rich with spiritual energy. Just when he was about to seize the sprite, he heard a whistling coming from all around him.
Turning his head, he saw that all the red fruits in the forest had turned into little red people, all of them angrily staring at Zhang Chengyun.
All of the red fruits in the forest were sprites!
Zhang Chengyun was aghast, and he finally realized the terrible situation he was in.
One sprite was a treasure.
A group of sprites was a problem.
Tens of thousands of sprites was a calamity!