Ning Prefecture, located in the eastern reaches of the Tianan region within the
Compared to the dense, seemingly endless mountain ranges of Chang Prefecture, this prefecture was its polar opposite — barren yellow earth and barren slopes stretched in every direction, with scarcely a tree or river in sight. As a result, very few cultivators resided here. A handful of small cultivation clans occupied the few poor-quality spirit veins the prefecture had to offer, living out their days in quiet contentment, with no one around to contest them for anything.
In the southwestern corner of Ning Prefecture stood a mountain range called Linglin Mountain — one of the very few places in the prefecture that contained a spirit vein.
Linglin Mountain was not particularly small in area, stretching over a hundred li across. But the spirit vein itself was a mere ten-odd li in extent. Only the main peak and two nearby smaller hilltops were barely suitable for cultivators to sit in meditation and practice. Yet this narrow territory was home to three cultivation clans — one large and two small — each occupying one of the three peaks.
The Huang, Li, and
Having settled so close together yet coexisting peacefully without incident, the three families naturally maintained decent relations. Over the past century or so, it had become common for disciples from different families to marry into one another, forging bonds of kinship. The reason behind this lay in the fact that while the spirit vein at Linglin Mountain was of truly unremarkable quality, the three families shared something atop the main peak: an unknown and wondrous spirit spring.
This spirit spring was not one of those extraordinarily rare Spirit Eye Springs found in the wider world, but it was still a spiritual treasure with remarkable properties.
Water from this spring, when used together with certain spirit herbs to brew spirit tea, could cleanse the marrow and reshape the meridians of low-level disciples below the fifth or sixth layer of Qi Condensation — a process of immense benefit for their future cultivation. This was one of the primary reasons the three families, despite knowing full well that this was no place for serious cultivation, gritted their teeth and refused to leave.
However, despite its miraculous effects, the spirit spring could not be used at just any time. It only surged up from underground on a fixed number of days each year, and each time the amount of spring water produced was pitifully small — nowhere near enough for the three families to share.
After much deliberation early on, the elders of the three families reached a simple solution: they jointly sealed the spring shut and only opened it once every ten years.
Ten years of accumulated spring water was more than sufficient for a single round of use by all three families. And every ten years also happened to be the time when the families' newest generation of disciples had grown into training age, ensuring the spring water would not go to waste.
This single spirit spring had effectively bound the three families together. They jointly guarded and utilized this spiritual treasure, opening it once a decade to let their young disciples partake and cleanse their marrow and reshape their meridians.
On this particular day, at the summit of Linglin Mountain's main peak, a grand ceremony was underway to open the spirit spring.
Before a towering black cliff face over a hundred zhang high, several dozen disciples from the three families stood in neat rows, every face brimming with excitement as they gazed at the spectacle before them.
The eldest among these disciples were no more than sixteen or seventeen, while the youngest were only eleven or twelve.
Their cultivation levels were mostly around the third or fourth layer of Qi Condensation — some were even at the first or second layer.
At the very front of the crowd stood over a dozen considerably older cultivators, all at the tenth layer of Qi Condensation or above. Among them were three elderly men whose cultivation had already entered the Foundation Establishment stage — one at the mid-stage and two at the early stage.
These dozen or so cultivators of comparatively "deep" cultivation stood before the cliff face, each holding a ritual flag in hand, chanting incantations ceaselessly as they performed the ritual to undo the restrictive formations.
On the towering cliff face, seven or eight restriction talismans of various sizes and colors were affixed, their spiritual light flickering between dim and bright.
At this moment, under the lead of the three elders, the incantations chanted by the dozen cultivators grew louder and more urgent, while the ritual flags in the three elders' hands blazed with increasingly intense white light.
Moments later, the three elders raised a hand almost simultaneously, each launching a spell incantation. The spells transformed into a sweeping wave of rosy light that surged forward.
The talismans on the cliff face trembled faintly amid the radiant glow, then drifted down one after another.
Several disciples who had been standing by with jade boxes in hand rushed forward immediately, carefully picking up the restriction talismans one by one and placing them in the boxes before quickly retreating.
Such restriction talismans were rare treasures even for small families like theirs — they could not afford to lose a single one.
Without the talisman restrictions, the cliff face began emanating a hazy white spiritual glow, and at the same time trembled gently.
Instantly, the cultivators at the front — the three elders among them — raised their ritual flags in unison. Slender threads of light in various colors shot from the tips of the flags and pierced into the white glow, vanishing without a trace.
The cliff face shook even more violently. Then, amid an earth-shaking rumble, it gradually split apart down the middle on its own, revealing a massive semicircular gap over ten zhang wide.
Behind them, the young disciples of all three families stared wide-eyed, craning their necks to peer eagerly into the opening.