Amid vast plains of dried-up earth with sandy patches, a set of orange-red solid rock mountains stood tall like a monument built by nature itself.

There was a rather large and lavish palace, built atop a relatively low one with a flat top, in the middle of the mountain range.

The palace, in contrast with the surrounding area was full of vivid green, a small lake in the center of its garden creating a waterfall into a cave leading into darkness below.

The lower height of the mountain it stood on caused it to be enclosed in natural ‘walls’, concealing it from being visible at a distance even in such open prairies, and only a small tip of a tall pagoda tower standing next to the waterfall peeked out.

Though strangely, there were no visible roads or steps leading to the palace, one side of which stretched toward a steep cliff.

A building resembling a stone temple entrance, cut into the mountainside at the foot of the mountain, right beneath the cliff-facing part of the palace.

Its large brutally cut shape stretched high up the side of the rocky wall, reaching almost halfway to the top.

And a small village-like complex of stone buildings surrounded the temple entrance.

A lone figure arrived through the narrow passage leading to the mountain, clad in a long black travel cape with a hood covering the face as the sun was starting to tip over and go near the horizon, covering the tops of the mountains in warm glow while the canyon within, including the palace were submerged into the yet shallow darkness.

The figure raised its head a bit, which only exposed the lower half of the face with a short black beard from under the cape, looking over the temple entrance, and then moved forward to it.

“Greetings, Sect Master Gui”

A group of people in loose-fitting black robes with crimson linings awaited the figure at the start of the village-like buildings, and deeply bowed as the figure came closer.

“Mm, I am here to meet Senior Linghun”

“The Venerable Blood Demon has been awaiting you”, the man greeting the figure nodded, speaking the title with a reverent tone.

The group moved toward the massive gates of the temple, which cracked open, throwing an orange vertical line of light across the center of the hooded figure and far into the distance behind him.

A thick scent of blood wafted toward the figure that went further inside, escorted by the group, as they went past the brightly illuminated cave hall with a statue.

Going through the dimly-lit artificially-carved corridors, soon a distant sound of falling water could be heard from ahead, its source somewhere beyond the entrance to the different, natural cave-like passages going further into the core of the mountain that started after another slightly bigger hall.

However, the group turned to the side, toward one of the doors that revealed stairs carved into the heart of the mountain.

The figure’s eyes under the hood lingered on the entrance to the natural cave-like part, but followed the group which politely led him ahead. f𝚛ee𝐰n𝐨v𝗹.com

“Haa~…”

‘… making me walk on foot every time…’

The man under the hood heavily sighed, a disgruntled thought running through his head as he went up the stairs.

After a while they emerged from a small and discreet stone building amid the green bamboo forest on the mountaintop, already on the grounds of the mansion, from which the figure was escorted toward the tallest building in the palace, the pagoda tower.

At the top of the tower was a luxuriously decorated room with two sides open to view the scenery, a young-looking man lounging on a chaise, and a scantly-clothed woman sitting to his side, feeding him grapes.

“Respecting the Senior, this Junior has come to greet you”, the hooded figure previously called Sect Master Gui entered the room, as those escorting him remained on the previous floor, and saluted with hand and fist toward the man, slightly lowering his head.

“Oh, you have arrived”, the man laying on his back with hands behind his head lazily turned toward the guest without changing his pose, and then looked at the woman who took another grape and raised it for him, “Are you not going to greet your Father? Xiaolan?”

“Haha, hi Dad”, the woman called Xiaolan chuckled, not even turning to the middle-aged man, and then continued to feed the man the grape, as the guest lightly clenched his fists under the long cape.

“Hahaha, are you still that angry he sent away that boy that you were supposed to eat up?”, the one called ‘Blood Demon’ by his servants chuckled seeing that.

“Of course I am, Lord Mo!”, Gui Xiaolan spoke with an aggrieved you were supposed to eat up?”, the one called ‘Blood Demon’ by his servants chuckled seeing that.

voice, a look of a sulking kid appearing on her face as she pursed her lips, “It was Extreme Yang Physique! Extreme Yang!!! It was supposed to be a present from you that you got through so much hardship!”

“Hahaha, those Elders were eager to send him as soon as I asked, so I didn’t spend that much effort”, Linghun Mo spoke with a chuckle.

“Still! It’s not like Extreme Yang Physique is that common!”

“Wasn’t there one about a century ago? Is it our fault you ruined him too quickly when he was only in Qi Condensation Realm?”, her Father made a counterpoint.

“Hah! This time I waited as you both said, and what? We cultivated his talent for so long! And Dad just had to send him away with no news ever since! The Sect he supposedly went to cultivate in was apparently trashed too! If we just waited until he reached Mortal Transcendence here or in the Yen Kingdom he was originally supposed to be in… uuf! I am too angry to even speak about it!”, Gui Xiaolan turned her head to the side, away from her father.

“X-xiaolan, don’t be angry. Father did it for you. How would he cultivate to Mortal Transcendence without a suitable furnace?”, her father started pleading with an amicable expression on his face, seeing a look Linghun Mo gave him.

Seeing no response from his daughter, he continued with “The Yen and Gugong Kingdoms don’t have that many women in Realms above Revolving Qi… it would have taken centuries for him to ripen here, if it was possible at all. But on the Azure Eagle Continent… there were far more opportunities. At the very first request, there was a Foundation Building furnace ready for him there…”

“Hmph! And where is he now then? You know? No you don’t!”, Gui Xiaolan spoke like a sulking child, and then turned back away from him with “I don’t speak with you for a while!”

“Gui Xiaolan! Don’t go overboard! Or should I also start asking what happened to the branch of the Dawn Concealing Sect in the Yen Kingdom that I told you to look after?! Even the Yen Royal Famil-…”, her father snapped, raising his voice, but shrank and faltered back the very next moment under a sharp gaze of Linghun Mo.

“It seems you forgot where you are, Jianyu, and who you are speaking with. No one speaks with Xiaolan that way”, Linghun Mo spoke in a cold voice.

His intention in bringing up this topic was originally to clear the air between the two, as it was frustrating Gui Xiaolan. Not to mention that he agreed with the assessment that sending away Nie You was a necessity at the time so he himself bore part of the blame.

“Come on, didn’t I prepare your favorite type for you after that? A whole dozen of good-looking, tender and innocent?”, the Blood Demon’s expression shifted to become full of affection again as he turned to his woman, his voice then descending into whisper, “And guess what I prepared for you again?”

The light in her eyes shifted at these words, but she did not move, as she seemingly was pondering how to act.

“Mm? Not going to give me those grapes anymore?”, Linghun Mo then raised one eyebrow with a playful smile on his face, and the woman first turned only her eyes to him, and then with a laugh fully turned to him again, continuing feeding the grapes to him.