The Choice

Chapter 172: The Choice

On a desolate mountain in the northern part of Jian Province, near the border between the Yue Kingdom and the Yuan Wu Kingdom, stood several dozen men and women in yellow robes. Their clothing fluttered in the wind, and their ages varied widely. The oldest had white hair and a face full of wrinkles, already past their fiftieth year. The youngest had soft, fair skin, red lips, and white teeth, their childishness not yet shed. But all of them stood in silent, orderly rows.

At the very front was an old man whose威严 was apparent without any effort. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing calmly at the sky, lost in thought. Behind him were four men and one woman, all wearing solemn expressions. Among them was the Wang-shishu who had led Han Li into the sect. His face was equally grave.

Behind these five stood two neat rows of yellow-robed disciples. Their expressions varied: some were tense and fidgety, others indifferent and looking around, and still others smiled silently, revealing nothing.

At the very edge of the last row stood a dark-skinned, ordinary-looking youth, his eyelids lowered, staring at his own feet. He did not dare to look anywhere else, appearing extremely shy.

But no one could know that this seemingly timid young man was cursing inwardly, filled with resentment.

This youth was none other than Han Li. This group of yellow-robed people was the contingent of Yellow Maple Valley disciples heading to the “Blood Forbidden Trial.”

In the end, Han Li had still joined this suicide mission, and he had done so even after acquiring two Foundation Establishment Pills. This was an ironic and helpless situation, to say the least.

A little over a month ago, Han Li had learned from Wu Feng how to take the Foundation Establishment Pill, and the news had hit him hard.

It turned out that after taking a Foundation Establishment Pill, the person attempting Foundation Establishment had to enter seclusion for three full months to let the medicinal power dissolve completely. Otherwise, the medicine’s power would dissipate, and its effectiveness would be greatly reduced. So, whether Foundation Establishment succeeded could not be known for at least several months.

Having to wait such a long time was terrible for Han Li.

His original plan after acquiring the two pills was to take them first, see if he could successfully establish his foundation, and then decide whether to still participate in the trial. If he was lucky enough to succeed, then he would certainly not go to such a dangerous forbidden land. A one-in-four survival rate was far too terrifying.

If he took them and failed, then the trip to the forbidden land would still be unavoidable. If one or two pills weren’t enough, then he would refine three or four, or even more. He believed that no matter how poor his aptitude, with enough Foundation Establishment Pills, he would still be able to enter the Foundation Establishment stage.

But the requirement of a three-month seclusion after taking the pill threw Han Li’s plan into disarray, forcing him into the awkward position of not being able to have his cake and eat it too.

Now, he had to either take the Foundation Establishment Pills now and abandon the trip to the forbidden land entirely, or put the pills away for now and take them after the Blood Forbidden Trial was over. There was no way to have both.

After nearly half a month of deliberation, Han Li concluded that, given his terrible aptitude, even taking two Foundation Establishment Pills in a row, his chances of successfully establishing his foundation were still very slim. He absolutely could not give up on the Blood Forbidden Trial.

In truth, Han Li had also considered waiting for the next Blood Forbidden Trial, five years from now. By then, even if he hadn’t established his foundation, he would surely have cultivated the Eternal Spring Art to its peak. That would greatly increase his ability to protect himself.

But just as this thought had occurred to him, the upper echelons of Yellow Maple Valley announced a piece of news that shocked the entire Yue Kingdom cultivation world, immediately extinguishing that idea.

The announcement stated that the forbidden land of the Blood Forbidden Trial would be temporarily sealed for sixty years, starting five years from now. During this period, the Seven Great Sects would jointly supervise, and no one would be allowed to enter to gather herbs.

This kind of temporary sealing was not unheard of. Almost every three or four hundred years, the Seven Great Sects would do this once.

The reason was that frequent opening of the forbidden land caused a massive loss of spiritual qi within, slowing the production and growth of spiritual herbs. This temporary sealing would allow the density of spiritual qi to change and recover to normal levels.

However, even with this measure, the spiritual herbs in the forbidden land were dwindling year by year, becoming harder and harder to find. In particular, the mature herbs suitable for pill refining were becoming rarer than rare.

According to some insightful figures among the Seven Great Sects, to truly restore the normal quantity of spiritual herbs in the forbidden land, the sealing period would need to be extended to a full thousand years. Otherwise, this temporary sealing only delayed the eventual depletion of the forbidden land’s herbs. After all, the production and growth of spiritual herbs were not something that could happen overnight.

Although this logic was based on the actual conditions of the forbidden land and could not be denied by anyone, the leaders of the Seven Great Sects still could not bring themselves to make such a decision.

The number of Foundation Establishment Pills was tightly linked to the rise and fall of their seven sects.

If they lacked these pills for fifty or sixty years, the Seven Great Sects would only suffer a superficial loss, not a fatal blow. But if they were without Foundation Establishment Pills for hundreds or even a thousand years, then not just the Seven Great Sects, but the entire Yue Kingdom cultivation world would face a crisis of life and death.

After all, what kind of cultivation world would it be if cultivators could no longer establish their foundation? All cultivation families and rogue cultivators would probably leave the Yue Kingdom to seek survival elsewhere. The Seven Great Sects would be no exception.

So, even though they knew that this frequent opening of the forbidden land was a foolish act of killing the goose that laid the golden egg, the people of the Seven Great Sects had to grit their teeth and continue.

They only hoped to find an alternative source of spiritual herbs before the forbidden land’s supply was truly exhausted.

This had also caused some of the Core Formation and even Nascent Soul old monsters from various sects to begin frequently venturing out in recent centuries—a behavior contrary to their usual habits—all in search of other herb-producing lands or other paths for their sects. They absolutely could not let their sect’s lineage decline.

Naturally, Han Li could not know all of this in such detail. But as soon as this news came out, he would not dare to consider participating in the Blood Forbidden Trial five years later.

Even the most oblivious person would understand that the opening of the forbidden land five years later would be an absolute bloodbath. Every major sect would send out all their elite disciples in a final, desperate attempt to grab a large haul of herbs before the seal. For Han Li to join such a trial would be suicide!

Although this news also meant that the current trip to the forbidden land would be more difficult and the fighting more brutal, it was still, in any case, much better than the next one.

As for the stupid idea of waiting fifty years to participate in a Blood Forbidden Trial, Han Li didn’t even consider it.

If one missed the optimal age for Foundation Establishment, even if they barely managed to establish their foundation later, they would certainly not be able to go far on the path of cultivation. This was not the result Han Li wanted.

With this mindset, Han Li signed up for the forbidden land’s herb-gathering expedition. The person in charge of registration happened to be that very Wang-shishu, which surprised Han Li and made him somewhat regretful.

Wang-shishu was even more stunned to see Han Li.

On one hand, he was greatly surprised that a new disciple like Han Li would participate in the Blood Forbidden Trial. On the other hand, he found it hard to believe that Han Li’s cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds. With Han Li’s aptitude, how could his technique have progressed so quickly in such a short time, jumping from the ninth layer to the eleventh? It was astonishing.

If Han Li were a disciple with exceptional talent, it wouldn’t be so strange. There were others who advanced even faster. But Han Li’s identity as a False Spiritual Root cultivator had been personally tested by Wang-shishu. How could he be cultivating so rapidly?

For a False Spiritual Root cultivator, the fact that Han Li had already reached the ninth layer when he first joined the sect was already abnormally high.

Such an achievement usually required the infusion of mana by elders, frequent consumption of spiritual herbs, and diligent hard work. But now, Han Li, with his eleventh-layer technique, was standing right before him, alive and well. This was utterly astonishing!

Since Wang-shishu was suspicious, he unceremoniously pulled Han Li aside and tested his attributes again. The result was the same as before; there was no sign of the speculated spiritual root mutation.

This only confused Wang-shishu even more.