Chapter 112: Bowing to the Forces of Evil

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, more than two months had quietly slipped away.

Over these past two months, Liu Pan had spent the majority of his time immersed in cultivation. Looking back on this period, although he felt it had been somewhat arduous, he also found it incredibly fulfilling.

Ever since Li Feiyang discovered that the strange energy within Liu Pan’s body was related to the sun, Liu Pan’s cultivation spot had been moved to the deck of the airship. Enduring the wind and sun every day was, to put it mildly, an experience. Fortunately, a cultivator’s body is fundamentally incomparable to that of an ordinary mortal. Aside from his skin darkening significantly, Liu Pan did not feel any other discomfort.

In two months of cultivation, Liu Pan’s cultivation base had reached the ninth level of the Martial Master realm, not far from reaching the perfection of the Martial Master stage and breaking through to the Martial King realm. In fact, with the forced accumulation of essence stones, if he had cultivated without restraint, he could have reached the perfection of the Martial Master stage half a month ago, and it would not have been impossible to attempt a breakthrough to the Martial King realm. However, Liu Pan had subtly suppressed his progress, because he knew very well that once he broke through from Martial Master to Martial King, it would likely trigger a lightning tribulation.

Just thinking about the lightning tribulation for the Martial King realm made goosebumps rise all over Liu Pan’s body. It wasn’t that he feared the tribulation, but the sensation of being struck by lightning was truly unpleasant; even now, the memory of the lightning tribulation he faced when breaking into the Martial Master realm still made him feel uneasy. Moreover, he was currently on the airship of the Burning Heaven Sect.

Because of Liu Pan’s mid-grade spiritual root, Li Feiyang had never imagined that he would trigger a lightning tribulation upon breaking through to the Martial King realm. He continued to urge Liu Pan to cultivate every day, hoping for a swift breakthrough.

Over these two months, Li Feiyang had carefully observed the strange energy within Liu Pan several times. It was fine at first, but as time passed, Li Feiyang became increasingly restless. Aside from knowing that this power was related to the sun, he had gained nothing else.

Under normal circumstances, the flight from Tianyang City on the border of the Southern Prefecture to the Burning Heaven Sect in the north of the Southern Prefecture should only take about forty days. However, this journey had been dragged out to over two months. The primary reason for this lay with Li Feiyang.

Although Li Feiyang was a Vice Sect Leader of the Burning Heaven Sect, he held little real power within the sect due to certain circumstances. He effectively held only an empty title and lacked even absolute freedom. This trip to the border was, in reality, Li Feiyang’s way of escaping the cold gazes of those in the Burning Heaven Sect. Of course, he still harbored a glimmer of hope that he might encounter something that would give him the chance to trample those who had looked down on him before returning to the Central Plains.

Now, having encountered such a "strange" person as Liu Pan, Li Feiyang truly saw hope, yet he found himself unable to grasp it. One can only imagine how reluctant he felt. To increase the opportunities to observe the strange energy, Li Feiyang delayed the journey at every turn, insisting on stopping the airship to wander around whenever they encountered even a moderately large town. He even took the initiative to visit larger sects to find the "Profound Ice Technique" for Liu Pan, hoping to accelerate his cultivation speed.

By now, Liu Pan had cultivated the Profound Ice Technique to the fifth layer. Based on his intuition as an author, he felt more and more that this technique was not simple.

In truth, Liu Pan’s cultivation speed was already remarkably fast. To break through from the first level of the Martial Master realm to the ninth in less than three months while suffering from hidden injuries was a feat most other cultivators could never achieve. Of course, this frantic use of essence stones to boost his cultivation had its side effects: his essence energy was extremely unstable. Even without engaging in combat, Liu Pan could sense that the density of his internal essence energy was not even equal to that of some sixth-level Martial Masters.

Fortunately, Liu Pan was relieved that he was not in the foundation-building stage of the Martial Artist realm, nor had he broken through to the Martial King realm yet. Mere instability in his essence energy did not mean his foundation was compromised; there was still time to rectify it. This was, in fact, the real reason he had secretly suppressed his cultivation speed.

Li Feiyang, however, did not care about the instability of Liu Pan’s essence energy. He only wanted a rapid breakthrough so he could observe that strange aura more often. As for what sequelae might arise from breaking through major realms with unstable energy, he was entirely indifferent. Since Li Feiyang did not care, and facing such a madman, Liu Pan dared not bring it up. Thus, the journey dragged on, and Liu Pan’s cultivation eventually reached the ninth level of the Martial Master realm under the accumulation of essence stones.

To Liu Pan’s relief, after such a long delay, the airship was finally about to arrive at the Burning Heaven Sect. He dared not imagine what might have happened had they been delayed for another ten or twenty days.

The Burning Heaven Sect, located in the north of the Southern Prefecture, was the largest and only seven-star sect in the region. On the other end of the deck, Yang Yi looked at the massive silhouette appearing on the horizon, his long-tensed heart finally settling. He unconsciously straightened his back, feeling a sense of relief, and even the aura he exuded seemed to change inexplicably. After a moment of thought, his eyes flickered, and he walked toward the other side of the deck.

"Senior Brother Li, we will reach the foot of the sect mountain in about a quarter of an hour," Yang Yi said coldly, his gaze sweeping over Liu Pan, who was sitting cross-legged in meditation, with a lingering trace of suspicion in the depths of his eyes.

The address had changed from "Brother" to "Senior Brother Li," and his tone and demeanor completely lacked the warmth and ease he had shown on the road and in Tianyang City. This change was obvious even to an outsider, let alone the person involved, Li Feiyang.

A flash of icy coldness crossed Li Feiyang’s eyes. If Yang Yi had dared to speak to him in such a tone far away from the Burning Heaven Sect, Li Feiyang would have restricted the space and reduced him to ashes with a ball of flame. However, he could not do that now; the situation was truly stifling. Fortunately, having spent so much time in the sect, Li Feiyang had encountered many such people, so he did not act rashly. But he knew that if Yang Yi dared to appear before him the next time they were away from the sect, that person would certainly disappear from this world in an instant.

"I know," Li Feiyang replied, his voice devoid of emotion, not even bothering to look up at Yang Yi.

Finding no common ground, and merely curious to take another look at Liu Pan, Yang Yi soon turned and left.

Li Feiyang stood up and gazed at the silhouette on the horizon, a sense of melancholy rising in his heart. If he could, he truly did not want to return to the Burning Heaven Sect. He turned to look at Liu Pan, who was still cultivating, his eyes filled with unwillingness. He had originally hoped that if Liu Pan broke through a major realm, the strange energy would surely manifest more intensely and for a longer duration, allowing for deeper observation. But now, it seemed there was little hope.

After some thought, Li Feiyang woke Liu Pan from his meditation. He took a white jade bottle from his storage ring and handed it over, saying, "Take this. It is medicine to heal the hidden injuries in your body."

"Senior, are you not going to continue your observations?" Liu Pan asked, realizing the question was futile. He could sense Li Feiyang’s reluctance and knew he would never give up so easily, but he had not expected Li Feiyang to give him medicine for his injuries at this moment.

Deep inside him, the hidden injuries on his bones had already been mostly repaired by that strange energy. Perhaps in another month, they would be completely healed. Liu Pan could feel that his repaired bones were several times stronger than before, so he was hesitant to take this medicine.

"Now is not the time," Li Feiyang shook his head, a look of seriousness appearing on his face. "Remember, it is best not to tell anyone about the strange energy that appears within your body, or it may bring about a fatal disaster!"

Liu Pan was speechless. He thought Li Feiyang was truly skilled at spouting nonsense with a straight face. If he didn’t know that Li Feiyang still hadn’t figured out the nature of that energy, he might have actually believed him. A fatal disaster? What a joke! If killing him could solve the problem, Li Feiyang would have done it himself long ago; why wait until now?

However, Li Feiyang’s words made Liu Pan reflect. He really shouldn’t let others know about this strange power. Exposing it to Li Feiyang had been a matter of necessity, and as a result, he had spent months being treated as a research subject. Although Li Feiyang seemed unable to grasp it now for some reason, who was to say a second Li Feiyang wouldn’t appear? If he were caught for research again, his martial path would be truly ruined.

The more he thought about it, the more speechless Liu Pan felt. He truly envied those with a protagonist’s halo, as he suddenly realized his author’s halo was of such limited utility. Protagonists could rise up against any powerful evil force, no matter where they went, yet he, an author transported into his own book, was forced to bow to evil. It was simply...

After a moment of silence, Liu Pan took the jade bottle and swallowed the pill. As for whether the pill was tainted, that was not something he could control. Li Feiyang was watching him with a grave expression; if he didn’t take it, he couldn’t be sure what unpleasantness might occur.

Seeing Liu Pan take the pill, Li Feiyang breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t know if exposing the energy would bring a fatal disaster, but he knew that if Liu Pan exposed it, he would lose his opportunity. Therefore, he had to help Liu Pan hide it. Based on the effects of the energy, Li Feiyang had concluded that if Liu Pan had no injuries, the energy would likely not appear.

Soon, the hidden injuries within Liu Pan were purged by the effects of the medicine. At that very moment, the airship gave a slight tremor and touched down outside the mountain gate of the Burning Heaven Sect.