Volume One: Youth Must Be Seized, For One Cannot Remain Young Forever. Chapter 141: Into the Depths of the Forest

Another half a year slipped away.

Before dawn, Bai Qingzhou carefully checked his supplies, secured his storage bag, and stepped out of the sect gates into the biting winds of midwinter.

Today, he was setting out to enter seclusion and attempt to reach the Foundation Establishment stage.

Having remained within the spirit-rich environment of the sect, Bai Qingzhou had reached the peak of the ninth layer of Qi Refining a month ago. He was now just one step away from advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Yet, for the past month, he had failed to sense the elusive opportunity for breakthrough. To truly clear his mind and focus entirely on his cultivation, he decided to follow his intuition and seek a secluded place to practice.

As he hurried to the gate, he found a familiar figure waiting for him. Bai Qingzhou paused slightly and murmured, "Senior Sister Zhang..."

"Qingzhou..." Zhang Zhiyan drifted down gracefully, her voice gentle. "You must take care of yourself on this journey."

Bai Qingzhou nodded solemnly. Without a word, he brushed past her and continued forward.

Watching his receding figure, Zhang Zhiyan’s eyes filled with tenderness. Her lips parted once more: "I... will be waiting in the sect for your return."

"Don't worry, Senior Sister!" Bai Qingzhou waved his arm, his expression resolute as he pressed onward.

...

Two hours later, Bai Qingzhou arrived at the Luogu Ferry.

Upon reaching the peak of the ninth layer of Qi Refining, a flicker of clarity had emerged in his mind. It felt as though something was guiding him, and after careful introspection, he sensed that his opportunity for Foundation Establishment might lie near the Huoying Workshop.

Without hesitation, he acted on this mysterious intuition and set his course.

He boarded a spirit boat and took a seat. Before long, the boat took flight, heading toward the Shuiying Workshop.

The spirit boat traveled north. Bai Qingzhou did not disembark at any of the intermediate stops; he remained in his seat, eyes closed in meditation. After paying the fare twice and traveling for over ten hours, he finally arrived at the ferry of the Huoying Workshop.

Stepping off the boat, another flash of clarity struck his mind, causing his body to tremble. He hesitated no longer, summoning his Immortal Wind Sculpture to fly toward Mount Yufeng.

Upon reaching the Huoying Workshop, he felt a sharp, clear sense of direction: his opportunity for Foundation Establishment was precisely at Mount Yufeng, where he had once watched the "Fire Waterfall."

...

*Swoosh!*

With a single strike, he severed the beast's head. Bai Qingzhou sheathed his sword and stared at the carcass in silence.

This was his third day at Mount Yufeng. He had been following his intuition, searching the forest for the site of his breakthrough. To his surprise, the deeper he went, the more dangerous the terrain became, teeming with ferocious beasts.

This was the seventh creature he had encountered—a high-level first-tier beast with formidable strength. Even with his peak Qi Refining cultivation, he had been forced to use several mid-grade Yellow-tier talismans to defeat it.

"If I go any deeper, I might run into a second-tier beast," Bai Qingzhou thought, his expression grim.

As he searched over the past few days, he realized he had been venturing deeper into the forest, and the beasts were growing stronger.

"If I don't find a suitable spot soon, I will have to turn back. A second-tier beast is not easily handled..."

Distressed, he lowered his head and used his Shangqing Sword to extract a tail bone from the beast. He couldn't be bothered with the hide or meat; they weren't worth much, and his storage bag was already cramped, so he discarded the rest.

He regulated his breathing, calmed his mind, and leaped up onto a towering tree.

With a thought, a light ignited in his eyes, and he scanned his surroundings.

He was using a minor spirit-application technique: the Art of Feng Shui.

Under the influence of this art, the world appeared to be veiled in a shimmering haze. The light flowed in waves—sometimes dense, sometimes thin—like dark currents or whirlpools. Some patterns hinted at an underlying order, but most were chaotic, complex, and intertwined.

This was the flow of spiritual energy in the world.

Trusting his instincts, Bai Qingzhou chose a direction at random and moved, darting forward with speed.

The trees were tall and dense, blocking out the sky and shrouding the forest in dimness. The branches were covered in a thick layer of frost from the cold. His figure flickered through the forest, constantly on the move...

...

Night fell.

Deep within the lair of an ordinary tiger, a corpse of a creature on the verge of mutation lay in the corner. Bai Qingzhou sat in the center of the cave, the entrance blocked by a massive boulder and sealed with a "Qi-Concealing Talisman."

The Qi-Concealing Talisman could mask a cultivator's presence. For mindless beasts, as long as they could not see the intruder, they would remain oblivious to his existence.

Too tired to prepare a meal, Bai Qingzhou took a Bigu Pill. He didn't even bother to take off his clothes before lying down on a freshly laid straw mat.

Before departing, he had prepared various supplies for a year of seclusion. He had over thirty of these Bigu Pills, costing two spirit stones each. One pill could sustain him for three days without food or water, enough to keep him going for over three months. However, they tasted terrible—like rubber—and were strictly for emergency use.

Lying quietly on the mat, Bai Qingzhou stared wide-eyed at the cave ceiling. His mind was flooded with memories of the past, and he found no sleep.

"What exactly... is the opportunity for Foundation Establishment?"

He tossed and turned, pondering.

Before leaving, he had consulted various Foundation Establishment cultivators in the sect—Nie Fang, Han Aoyu, Xiao Feichen, Zhang Zhiyan, and even Li Xian, who had recently succeeded. None of them could clearly define what the opportunity was; their explanations were vague, generally boiling down to: one must discover it for oneself.

*Rustle, rustle...* A faint sound from outside the cave reached his ears.

"It's raining..." Bai Qingzhou shifted his body, staring up at the ceiling.

Listening to the downpour outside, a sense of unprecedented loneliness welled up within him.

Far from the crowd, deep in the wilderness.

Wandering the forest alone, sleeping in the open, surrounded by danger, with no one to talk to. Beyond the beasts, he hadn't seen a single person or any sign of human existence. It felt as if he were the only soul left in the world.

This thought gradually quieted his restless mind.

"Stop overthinking. Loneliness is the essence of hard cultivation..."

With this realization, his agitated heart slowly calmed.

It became as still as stagnant water.

Soon, lulled by the sound of the rain, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.