The Forbidden Path to Immortality

Chapter 286

The moment Li Xun actually stepped into the Star River's domain with both feet, he instantly felt how different it was from the outside world.

Even though Bi Xiu had warned him beforehand, Li Xun was still caught off guard by the surging tides of stellar power rushing through the place.

It was night here too, yet the darkness inside the Star River was nothing like the darkness beyond it.

Deep within the blackness, a hazy glow shimmered. It did not make the night any brighter. But it seemed to pierce straight through the body, triggering some strange reaction with the true breath inside.

So this is the Soul-Piercing Light,’Li Xun thought to himself, recalling Bisu’s warning.

This gentle, almost soothing glow was actually the overflow of stellar power that kept the Star River in motion. It looked harmless, but if someone stayed here too long without using the Xingji Sword Sect’s secret technique to absorb and refine it, the consequences could be terrifying. True breath would stagnate, meridians would clog, bones would warp and decay.

For disciples of the Xingji Sword Sect, it was a powerful tonic. For cultivators of any other sect, it was more dangerous than poison by a hundredfold.

But right now, Li Xun couldn't keep that misty light out of his body.

As Bisu had explained, the moment a cultivator from another sect activated their qi, the nature of their true breath would clash sharply with the star power saturating the area. It would be like tossing a piece of foul-smelling fish into a room filled with orchids. That kind of jarring contrast would never escape the notice of the experts on duty.

Besides, if Li Xun really kept himself completely untouched by it, how could the sect elders ever see the benefits of him "pouring his heart and soul into it" and "throwing himself into the cause without a thought for his own safety"?

And so, when it came to the Soul-Piercing Light, Li Xun had no choice but to endure it.

Right now, Li Xun was standing on the bank of a massive river. Ranks of mountains lined both shores, jagged and towering peaks rising starkly against the sky, their dark bulk heavy and oppressive.

The deep, rumbling roar of the water, however, made for excellent cover.

According to Bisu, the Star River was a world unto itself. Within it lay three Enclosures and seven Peaks, nine Marshes and three Rivers, all arranged according to the numbers of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. An inner framework governed the flow and transformation of stellar power, while outwardly it connected to the earth veins and waterways of the Tongxuan Realm, responding to the changes of the celestial stars.

The place where Li Xun now stood was one of those three rivers: the Azure-Bearing River.

Li Xun looked up at the sky. The stars in the night above seemed far brighter than they were outside. Like the heavens themselves had been drawn closer.

He raised a finger and felt for the almost tangible flow of stellar power, then matched that sensation with the Star Transformation Chart Bisu had taught him. In no time at all, he worked out the route ahead. He did not dare waste a moment. Shooting forward like a wisp of smoke, he skimmed along the sheer cliffs lining both banks.

High above, Bisu was watching from the air, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He was stunned by the speed at which Li Xun flew past.

After all, the terrain within the Star River might not shift from day to day the way the Star River itself did, but under the pull and control of stellar forces, the flow of primordial qi could change a thousand times in the blink of an eye.

An ordinary disciple of the Xingji Sword Sect had to begin cultivating the sect’s methods from the moment they entered. They trained to sharpen their perception of stellar power and to master the many patterns of celestial transformation. Only after a full decade of laying foundations could they move cautiously within the Star River without triggering its restrictions.

As for reaching the level of acting freely without ever overstepping the bounds, that usually took something like sixty or seventy years of cultivation.

How much time had it even been since Li Xun first memorized the Star Transformation Chart? And on top of that, he had never cultivated the Xingji Sword Sect’s techniques. He had no way to amplify his perception with true breath. All he could rely on was pure thought, calculation, and deduction.

Under such a pile of disadvantages, Li Xun was still racing ahead at breakneck speed. That wasn’t so much a miracle as it was downright eerie.

“What the hell is going on in this guy's head?” Bisu muttered.

All of a sudden, he feltlike his decision to double back out of worry had been stupid. And yet, it had been worth it.

Originally, he'd suspected that the reputation of the “Mingxin Spirit Bamboo” might be exaggerated, propped up by Gu Yin standing behind him, and he'd felt a trace of disdain. But after witnessing Li Xun’s utterly incomprehensible methods, a chill crept through his heart. Only then did he realize that a great reputation was not earned without reason, and he was all the more grateful to have discovered this man’s terrifying potential so early.

From now on, any dealings with him would have to be handled with the utmost caution.

Li Xun tore along like that for nearly an hour before he finally eased up a bit on the speed. But while his body was slowing down, the fire in his chest was only burning hotter. Wild excitement surging through him, building and building until he almost wanted to throw his head back and let out a long howl just to vent it all.

Bisu had really been blinded by power and rank. Otherwise he never would have handed over the “Star Transformation Chart” so casually.

Maybe the man thought the chart’s secrets were shallow and hardly worth much. What he failed to realize was that, in the eyes of Li Xun, a true master of forbidden path, the Star Transformation Chart was a perfect gateway into the supreme hidden techniques of the Xingji Sword Sect.

Li Xun’s talent in forbidden techniques already far surpassed that of his peers. Unfortunately, neither the Mingxin Sword Sect nor the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect, nor even the two Great Wanderers , could be considered top-tier in this world when it came to such path.

Because of that, when compared with experts from the three great forbidden-path sects, the Mystic Cycle Sect, Star Sword Sect, and Unspoken Sect, Li Xun’s only real edge had been his ability to draw from many schools and think along unconventional lines.

That changed not long ago, when he unlocked Mist-Hidden Pavilion. By inheriting the vast and almost overwhelming body of forbidden-path knowledge accumulated by generations of pavilion masters, especially the refined core techniques of the Unspoken Sect, Li Xun finally gained a commanding perspective. His cultivation in forbidden path leapt to a whole new level. His vision widened dramatically, and he was beginning to show the bearing of a true grandmaster.

Bisu’s generous move was effectively the final piece Li Xun needed to complete a system that was nearly finished. It allowed him to glimpse the deeper mysteries of his sect’s “Secret Canon of Star Transmutation.” How could Li Xun not be ecstatic?

And the benefits did not stop there.

Li Xun had advanced by refining his inner demons. He had only just reached the True Person realm, and his progress had been far too fast. His foundation was badly unstable. A single serious blow might have knocked him right back down again.

At this exact moment, his forbidden path advanced as well. Given his usual approach of using cultivation to drive forbidden path, and forbidden path to push cultivation in return, it was like throwing fuel on a fire. Li Xun felt the true breath throughout his body begin to boil. Amid surging currents that looked like clouds and glowing mist, a grand and imposing aura emerged. Seizing the moment, his foundation absorbed the momentum, smoothed out its flaws, and gradually took on a steadier, more solid presence.

Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent.

Li Xun took a deep breath, steadying himself. He’d spent decades training his mind, and that discipline was the only thing holding back the wave of triumph rushing through him. As he looked around, he noticed the terrain changing. The great river still thundered onward, but the mountains on both banks had grown lower. From time to time, roof eaves appeared atop the high cliffs. This was already territory where disciples of the Xingji Sword Sect lived. He would need to be careful, extremely careful, in everything he did.

The “incident site” Bisu had arranged for him was not far from here, yet Li Xun’s pace had clearly exceeded their original estimates by a wide margin.

Still, pushing any farther would be very difficult.

The Star Transformation Chart covered only this much ground, and no more.

Li Xun, after all, was not an all-powerful immortal. With his formidable powers of deduction, he could read the general flow of the Star River and predict its overall movement. But when it came down to fine details, without something like the Star Transformation Chart to serve as a ready-made framework, he was forced to rely on dense, painstaking calculations. There was no cutting corners here, not even a little.

He slowed his pace. In his mind, patterns of forbidden glyphs rose and fell, echoing the movement of stellar force in the outside world, then feeding back into his own body. Compared to the ease and freedom he had felt earlier, this was hundreds, even thousands, of times more difficult.

Yet the harder it became, the more it tempered him.

Li Xun knew this was a chance to test his understanding of the Star Transformation Secret Manual. At the same time, it was an opportunity to further stabilize his cultivation realm.

After advancing seventy or eighty steps, he stopped abruptly.

No matter how exceptional his mastery of restrictions, he could only barely project conditions within a range of about a hundred steps. After that, he had to pause, catch his breath, and steady his mind before moving on.

And with every stretch of ground he covered, the complexity of the calculations doubled. At this rate, even if he walked until dawn, he might not manage to go ten li.

The spot Bisu had chosen for him was anything but random. It lay right at the boundary between the Qingcang River and the Taiwei Enclosure. Thanks to a shift in the star positions, the area around the Qingcang had gone quiet lately. Its qi flow pulling back, the restrictions thinning out. This was exactly the kind of window that made sneaking in possible.

The Taiwei Enclosure, on the other hand, was the core hub of the Star River. Its forbidden formations were far tighter and more meticulous than anything along the Qingcang River. More importantly, the Gathering Stars Platform was located within Taiwei Enclosure. So Li Xun slipping into the Qingcang River area, only to be stopped at Taiwei Enclosure, would look perfectly natural and raise little suspicion.

For now, Li Xun’s work on restrictions was simply a matter of personal interest, a way to pass the time.

He had long since identified the exact “trigger point” Bisu had set up for him and had already calculated the timing. Once the moment arrived, he would deliberately crash into the restriction, then retreat along an alternate route using the method Bisu had taught him. That path would skim right past tonight’s other objective, the duty zone of Bisu’s rival senior brother, Wang Luo, known as “Lesser Brilliance Star,” the man Bisu was determined to outshine.

At the thought of Wang Luo, Li Xun found himself watching the night’s coming events with a spectator’s curiosity, eager to see how it would all play out.