Published: September 9, 2025
Chapter 855: Breaking Free
Ningzhou, in Tian Nan’s Dongyu State, was a small, inconspicuous prefecture right next to Changzhou, where Fallen Demon Valley was located.
Unlike the dense, boundless mountain ranges of Changzhou, this prefecture was covered with barren yellow soil and desolate slopes, with sparse trees and rivers. As a result, cultivators residing here were extremely few. Only a handful of small cultivation families occupied the few poor spiritual vein lands in the area, living carefree lives without anyone fighting over their territory.
In the southwest of Ningzhou lay a mountain range called Spiritual Qilin Mountain. It was one of the few spiritual vein lands in the prefecture.
This Spiritual Qilin Mountain was not very small, spanning over a hundred miles. However, the spiritual veins in the mountain range extended only about a dozen miles.
Only the main peak of the mountain and two nearby hills barely offered enough spiritual energy for cultivators to meditate and practice. Yet, despite the limited space, three cultivation families—one large and two smaller ones—lived there together, each occupying one of the three peaks.
The Huang, Li, and Wang families were forced to settle in this spiritually deficient area. Naturally, all three were considered insignificant families. Even the strongest among them, the Huang family, had only two foundation establishment stage cultivators; they didn’t have any foundation formation cultivators. The rest of their disciples were mostly low-level qi refining stage practitioners, mostly at the third or fourth layer. There were even thousands of family members without any spiritual root at all, forced to live around the outskirts of Spiritual Qilin Mountain.
Despite living so close to each other, the three families managed to coexist peacefully, with no major conflicts. Over the past century, intermarriage between their disciples was common, forging close family ties.
At the root of their unity was a strange, unidentified spiritual spring located at the peak of the main mountain that all three families co-owned.
Though this spring was not a rare Spirit Eye artifact like the Spirit Eye Spring, it was still a spiritual entity with miraculous effects.
Tea brewed with water from this spring, combined with certain spirit medicines, could wash the marrow cleansing classic to a certain degree for low-level disciples below the fifth or sixth layer of the qi refining stage. This greatly benefited their future cultivation. This was one of the main reasons the three families stubbornly stayed here despite knowing the place was not ideal for cultivation.
However, this spiritual spring was not available year-round. It only erupted from underground on specific days each year, and the amount of water each time was pitifully small—not nearly enough to satisfy all three families.
After discussion among the elders of the three families, they agreed to seal the spring, only opening it once every ten years.
The water accumulated over ten years would be enough for all three families to use once, and the ten-year cycle conveniently matched the growth period of new disciples, avoiding waste.
This single spiritual spring bound the three families together, forcing them to jointly protect and share this precious spiritual entity, opening it once every decade for their young disciples to drink the marrow cleansing spiritual tea.
On this particular day, a grand ceremony was held at the summit of Spiritual Qilin Mountain’s main peak to open the spring.
In front of a towering black stone cliff over a hundred zhang high, dozens of disciples from the three families stood in rows, their faces alight with excitement.
These disciples ranged in age from as young as eleven or twelve up to sixteen or seventeen.
Most were at third or fourth layer of the qi refining stage, with many even at the first or second layers.
At the front of the crowd stood a dozen older cultivators, all above the tenth layer of the qi refining stage. Among them were three elders who had already reached the foundation establishment stage—one mid-stage and two in the early stage.