Once He Yuan arrived at the converging peak, he noticed that there was an extra barrier surrounding the peak. Elder Mo had gone into seclusion. In the storyline, this was because he'd found a demonic technique that was suitable for breaking the formation sealing Mo Sheng's demonic half.
Da Hei proceeded to go over to the immortal cave in elder Mo's courtyard. The immortal cave was basically a cave underneath elder Mo's courtyard with layers upon layers of formation that prevented entry from others.
The only exception was Da Hei seeing as he was elder Mo's spirit beast and their souls were bound together. He Yuan would've loved to witness elder Mo in action but it was a taboo to show up in a cultivator's immortal cave unannounced.
It could distract the cultivator and lead to fatal consequences. He Yuan shrugged. It wasn't as if he could break past the high level formations anyways so he changed direction and headed towards the spiritual lake.
After making himself presentable, He Yuan made his way back to Mo Sheng's courtyard. The first thing he did was to check the clocker. It was a medium grade artifact shaped like a sundial that was present in the homes of virtually every cultivator.
Since there was no set time for seclusion, cultivators usually used the clocker to determine exactly what day, month, year and even century it was so they wouldn't end up at a complete loss whenever they came out of seclusion.
According to the clocker, He Yuan had spent six and a half months in the Back mountain -contrary to his earlier belief. Elder Mo had said the high grade fasting pill usually served a person for one month but looked like it was less than a month for Mo Sheng's constitution.
This wasn't too surprising to He Yuan as the fasting pills were actually high grade ones meant for mortals. Mo Sheng's body was incapable of digesting even the lowest grade fasting pill made for cultivators so elder Mo had to give him the next best thing.
There was only a month and a half left for the spirit beast hunt so He Yuan decided to start the rest of his preparations. First, he needed to upgrade his hidden weapons.
Even if elder Mo's relationship with the Weapon crafting peak master was good, He Yuan planned to leave the Duoluo sect entirely and look for a craftmaster outside to upgrade his weapons.
It would be stupid to go over to the Weapon crafting peak as there was a high possibly that the peak master would assign the task to one of his inner disciples -not even his personal disciple. While He Yuan had no problem with the inner disciples -as there were certainly talented ones amongst them- he knew that it would be a fatal mistake to trust any of them in Duoluo sect.
Mo Sheng was a publicly disliked figure owing to the fact that he was elder Mo's personal disciple even though he had no cultivation talent. Who knew what the inner disciples would do to his hidden weapons out of spite and jealousy?
Even if, by some miracle, the peak master handed over his weapons his personal disciple -who would have more integrity and wouldn't be so jealous- there was utmost certainty that Mo Jiu would get the news. Seeing as the only personal disciple the Weapon crafting peak master had was Ba Duo, who was one of Mo Jiu's major followers.
In fact, it was a bad idea whether the inner disciples or Ba Duo were given the task. The spirit beast hunt was coming up and events like these were one of the avenues cultivators in the same sect -or different sects- used to kill off the fellow cultivators that they disliked.
Some might not even dislike Mo Sheng but would still come after him because of the precious artifacts in his possession.
The only hidden weapons He Yuan had were the three metal balls that were able to exploded and cause a disruption in the air that messed up a cultivator's spiritual power for ten seconds. That was enough time to escape.
He planned to have other hidden weapons added to his lotus artifact so he would be able to protect himself even as he tried to escape. He also planned to add pockets to his defensive robes where he could hide more hidden weapons -one of those being poison laden needles.
Speaking of needles, He Yuan didn't plan to get new ones crafted. He was going to use the silver needles he'd gotten from the system marketplace. He only needed to have them refined by a craftmaster to make them capable of piercing through the skins of cultivators.
Even if the silver needles had been gotten from the system marketplace, it was one of the cheaper sets so it wouldn't be effective against cultivators. He Yuan had no idea if refining it would work or not but he planned to try it anyways. If it didn't work, he'd have fresh needles crafted.
His only problem was how much all these would cost. He had 100 high grade spirit stones but crafting was not cheap, especially if it was done by a rogue craftmaster who had no ties to any sect.
He Yuan clicked open his system storage to take out the needles but before he could close it, something caught his eye. Was it just him or did his [Strongest Martial Arts] manual look a bit different?
For the past six months, he'd had no reason to open his system storage. His hunger relieving pills had been stored away since elder Mo had given him that bottle of fasting pills so he hadn't noticed the change in the manual.
He Yuan took out the manual and observed the cover. Originally, the cover was a worn out gray colour and the name of the manual was written in gray ink but now, the cover was pure black and the name was suddenly in gold ink and the calligraphy was even more refined.
He Yuan was beyond dumfounded. When did this happen? Why did this happen? How did this even happen?!
He proceeded to open the book and the first three pages were the same as normal. He Yuan hissed. So the fancy cover was for what? He decided to turn to the next page and his eyes widened in shock.
A new set move moves had been ingrained on the fourth page.
He Yuan excitedly opened to the next page. It was blank but that did nothing to dampen his excitement. He returned to the fourth page and observed the moves closely. The more he observed the more familiar the moves looked until,
"FUCK!" He Yuan exclaimed in shock. The set of moves were actually a smooth merge of Mo Sheng's cultivation stances, the Duoluo sect's sword stances and an unfamiliar set of moves He Yuan had never seen before.
He Yuan trembled in excitement. This was possible? Could it be a result of merging the two cultivation methods? But how did the Duoluo sect moves end up there?
Before He Yuan realized what he was doing, he shouted, "888! Do you see t-" Then he suddenly paused and laughed at his mistake. He was in a test task and 888 was back at the soul realm.
He would never admit it out loud but he kind of missed the system. Even if 888 never spoke much, his presence was always in He Yuan's mind space and was one of the things that helped calm him.
There were several times he caught himself thinking all this was just a dream. In the other task realms, 888's presence worked to anchor him. That was why it had been quite difficult for him when he'd lost the connection to the system in the last task realm.
His mind drifted over to the image of 888 his brain had conjured when he'd ingested that aphrodisiac months ago and He Yuan broke down in laughter. The silver haired man would kill him if he ever found out.
Three days later, He Yuan found himself at the entrance of an abandoned courtyard. He'd come down the Duoluo sect mountains three days ago in search of a rogue craftmaster and his search had led him here after so long.
Now He Yuan was busy wondering if he'd made the right decision.
There was no way he was stepping in there. He did not have any cultivation so if he ended up trapped, how would he save himself? He began picking up stones and throwing it inside.
At the tenth stone, a grumpy old man smacked He Yuan upside the head.
He Yuan shrieked and turned around with widened eyes. When had this man appeared? He began looking around for the quickest escape route.
"Dumb kid, are you asking for death? What are you throwing stones inside my home for? Are you an idiot?!"
He Yuan scratched his nose in embarrassment and bowed ninety degrees in front of the old man. "Forgive me senior. I meant no ill will..." Then he proceeded to tell him his reason for coming.
The old man burst out in laughter in the end. "I've never seen such a coward! You don't even have the guts to enter my home and you want me to upgrade your weapon for you?"
He Yuan chuckled dryly. "It's not that I don't have the guts. I was raised well and it is very disrespectful to enter another's home without permission."
"BAH! LIES! Why didn't you knock then?"
The eyes of both men trailed to the empty space where a door should have been at the same time.
The old man froze and waved. " Never mind. In fact, the lack of door is a test to determine those who are actually well mannered enough not to just barge in."
He Yuan didn't even bat an eyelid but inwardly, he was laughing at the old man's shamelessness.
"Come," The old man finally said as he led He Yuan in.
He Yuan was still a bit skeptical but he had no choice. Rogue craftmasters were quite rare. If he left now, he might never run into another one in time for the spirit beast hunt.
Anyways, he had teleportation talismans. If anything went wrong he could escape so he gingerly followed after the old man.
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