Five days passed in the blink of an eye.
Within the forbidden valley, trees stood lush and green, birds sang, and flowers bloomed. Yang Kai sat cross-legged, raising his gaze to the sky.
The weather was fine—the moon bright, the stars sparse, the night sky deep and vast. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. As time trickled by, the full moon slowly climbed toward its zenith.
It was then that a faint ripple of peculiar power suddenly surged outward. The fluctuation was so subtle that had Yang Kai not been deliberately focusing, he might never have noticed it.
"So it's finally here," he murmured under his breath, his expression growing serious as he attuned his senses even more carefully. The Rakshasa Gate's forbidden valley only exhibited strange changes on the night of the full moon, and he was deeply curious about what those changes might be.
Under his probing awareness, the surroundings sank back into calm, as if the earlier sensation had been nothing more than a trick of the mind.
But before long, the peculiar fluctuation surfaced once more—and this time it was far more distinct. It flashed and vanished in an instant, disappearing the very moment it appeared.
"Where is it?" Yang Kai surveyed his surroundings with keen interest, his eyes gleaming.
The third fluctuation came swiftly, and the prepared Yang Kai immediately cast his gaze in a particular direction—only to freeze in surprise.
That direction was none other than the luminous cliff face he had observed earlier. When he had come to investigate five days ago, what had impressed him most about this forbidden valley was precisely this cliff—smooth as a mirror, perfectly reflective, bearing no trace of human handiwork, entirely the masterwork of nature. And now, the anomaly was manifesting from this very same, impossibly flat cliff.
Yang Kai was somewhat taken aback. He swept his divine sense across the cliff face inch by inch, suspecting that some profound restriction might be concealed there, one clever enough to elude his detection.
But after a thorough search, he found nothing.
Fortunately, the strange power fluctuations were growing more frequent and more rapid. At last, a wondrous scene suddenly appeared on the smooth cliff—it transformed as though into a mirror, its surface rippling with kaleidoscopic light and shifting silhouettes, yet nothing could be made out clearly.
And as the cliff underwent its transformation, a tremendous volume of heaven and earth spiritual energy spontaneously generated throughout the valley, filling it to the brim.
Yang Kai could not help but be moved. After a moment's assessment, he realized that the density of spiritual energy here was in no way inferior to the heaven-grade secret realm outside Spirit Lake Palace in Maple Forest City. An ordinary cultivator who could practice in this place for a single day would accomplish what would normally take ten.
The valley during the day was nothing like this—the spiritual energy was barely stronger than the surrounding area. The transformations wrought by the full moon's night were truly astonishing. Yet Yang Kai vaguely sensed that these changes were merely a surface phenomenon. The real key likely lay in that smooth cliff face.
He focused his vision to its fullest and stared deeply into the cliff, hoping to discern some clue.
The moment he did, he let out a soft gasp of surprise.
Reflected in the cliff's polished surface, he began to perceive something inexplicable. As his concentration deepened, the folding, twisting rays of light seemed to be coalescing into lines of text—the harder he focused, the clearer they became.
Yang Kai did not dare waste a moment, committing everything carefully to memory.
Only after some time did he realize with a jolt that what he was seeing was a remarkably profound cultivation technique. This truly astounded him. On the night of the full moon in the Rakshasa Gate's forbidden valley, a cultivation method spontaneously emerged on the cliff face—if he had not witnessed it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it possible.
The technique he saw was incomplete, but upon careful contemplation, it appeared to be a method suited for women, somewhat similar in lineage to the Rakshasa Gate's own tradition. That made sense—the Rakshasa Gate's cultivation methods had likely originated from this very cliff.
Jade Rakshasa must have discovered the anomaly here and seized this opportunity long ago, enabling her to cultivate all the way to the Emperor Realm. It was precisely because of this that she had established her sect in this place, founding the Rakshasa Gate.
While Yang Kai's thoughts churned, the scene on the cliff shifted once more. The blurry, distorted text gave way to a shadowy human figure that seemed to dance gracefully across the moonlit cliff face. Yet within each movement and gesture lay profound divine techniques being demonstrated—mesmerizing to behold. Anyone who could immerse themselves in observation and comprehend even a fraction of it would surely reap tremendous rewards.
Yang Kai did not know how this wondrous phenomenon had come to be. It might be artificial, or it might be a natural marvel of creation. All he could do was sigh in wonder at the infinite wonders of the world.
He let his mind sink into contemplation, carefully absorbing what he sensed and cross-referencing it with his own knowledge, and found the experience surprisingly fruitful.
This made Yang Kai feel a certain wistfulness on Jade Rakshasa's behalf. She had truly been unfortunate in her timing. If she had been given enough time, with an opportunity like this, there was no way she would have stopped short of the third level of the Emperor Realm. Yet she had perished inside the Wuhua Palace, cut down before she ever had the chance to grow.
That said, he now understood why Jade Rakshasa had designated this place as forbidden ground, forbidding even Tao Yingruo and the others from approaching.
Such a treasure was naturally best kept to oneself. If word ever leaked out, it would undoubtedly attract the covetous eyes of many. This was partly Jade Rakshasa's selfishness, but it was also only human nature. Then again, given that Jade Rakshasa's cultivation had only reached the first level of the Emperor Realm, her comprehension must have been somewhat lacking—otherwise, with an opportunity like this, there was no way she would have progressed so little.
At some point, the radiance on the cliff abruptly retracted and vanished without a trace. Yang Kai, who had been immersed in a torrent of insights, sensed the change and turned his gaze in a certain direction—a gaze so deep it seemed to pierce through the barriers of space itself, fixing upon a distant location.