Li Cheng smiled and replied, "If it weren’t for your help, my young friend, it would have all been for naught, no matter how hard I tried. When my Lifebound Painting evolved, the mutation also sealed off my path forward. Without this opportunity to open the way, no amount of effort would have been useful."
Zhang Deming replied, "Ultimately, this is the result of your own hard work, Elder. I merely added the icing on the cake."
Li Cheng shook his head. "This wasn’t merely icing on the cake. This was a lifeline when I needed it most."
Li Shifan watched with a bizarre expression as the two of them launched into a round of mutual flattery, each praising the other for their help. His face twitched, and he could barely maintain his cold, aloof persona.
’How can they be like this?’
’Just a moment ago, we were all stuck, and now, in the blink of an eye, you’ve all had breakthroughs! And you’re even playing coy in front of me, acting like you just ’had a minor insight’ and ’accidentally advanced.’’
’And now you’re just endlessly flattering each other right in front of me. So much for camaraderie. And the old ancestor isn’t so fond of me anymore...’
With a strange look on his face, Li Shifan watched the two continue their laudatory conversation. After a long moment, he finally averted his gaze and silently resumed following Zhang Deming, carefully inching forward.
······
Along the way, Zhang Deming and Li Shifan encountered several more waves of Sword Shadows.
Because they had found a countermeasure, dealing with the Sword Shadow attacks, while still dangerous, became quick and easy.
However, the Sword Shadows were a little different than they had imagined. There weren’t very many of them; by the time the two of them were about to reach the foot of the mountain, they had only encountered three waves in total, amounting to six Sword Shadows.
With four Spirit Beads, Li Cheng could quickly nurture a single Sword Spirit. If he nurtured them over a long period, one bead could create one Spirit. Thus, by the time they reached the foot of the mountain, Li Cheng’s scroll already contained two Sword Spirits. He only needed one more Spirit Bead to create a third.
As a result, the normally seasoned and calm Li Cheng appeared quite excited throughout the journey. He even planned to save the other beads for slow nurturing after he had created his three Sword Spirits.
Only someone who had experienced hundreds of years with no progress in their cultivation, no increase in their strength, and not even a sliver of hope for advancement could understand the feeling of finally being able to grow stronger again.
’Judging by his excitement,’ Zhang Deming thought, ’he’ll probably want to sweep this whole place clean after we find what we’re looking for.’
The two men and the Painting Shadow stood at the foot of the mountain, looking up at the dilapidated mountain range, somewhat lost in thought.
Even after the passage of countless years, the traces of the original battle were still visible on the mountain range. The entire peak looked as if it had suffered endless devastation.
The massive, gaping holes on the mountainside and at its base were especially shocking. They looked as if some colossal beast had taken a bite out of the mountain, or as if a single punch had blasted right through it.
Only by standing here in person could one truly comprehend the feeling of being at the foot of such a mountain.
After a long pause, Zhang Deming took a deep breath. "Let’s go. Be careful. From the looks of this, there’s no way this battlefield was left behind by Duality Cultivators.
Even the most talented Duality Cultivator would find it difficult to cause this level of destruction, even if they were going all out and attacking the mountain directly. It’s even more unlikely that mere shockwaves from their battle could do this.
Plus, Elder Li mentioned that a Lifebound Painting had been dispersed here. That means at the very least, a Great Cultivator at the Three Talents realm or higher must have perished on this spot.
A battlefield like this, one that has caused environmental anomalies, is bound to have unforeseen dangers. We’d better be on high alert."
Li Shifan nodded. "Right. I’ll be careful."
With that said, the two began their ascent. Li Cheng’s figure had already vanished back into the scroll. The miniature scroll didn’t enter a state of Concealment, instead hovering beside Li Shifan to guard against any surprises.
As they stepped onto the mountain range, both of them paused in unison. The surrounding aura had grown even more chaotic.
Previously, Zhang Deming’s Perception had been constantly filled with a sharp Sword Qi; just extending his senses felt like being pricked by needles.
But upon entering the mountain itself, the surrounding aura not only contained the sharpness of Sword Qi, but also the weight of some other power. The two energies were tangled together, creating a violent, frenzied sensation.
In an environment saturated with such energies, their Spiritual Sense and Perception were severely hampered. Zhang Deming and Li Shifan both simply retracted their senses, relying on their naked eyes to proceed.
Just then, Li Shifan took out something that looked like a Compass. Zhang Deming, who had just turned to ask him for more details, paused and looked at the object. "What’s this?"
Li Shifan held the device and looked up. "The information I bought only gave a general area, not a specific location. To be safe, I had a custom Mineral Exploration Disc made at the Artifact Pavilion a while back.
It’s only a One-Star Artifact, but I didn’t request the functions of a normal Mineral Exploration Disc. I had it designed specifically to search for Sword Spirit Ore and Dark Energy Spirit Stone.
Because all of its functions are focused on searching for those two items, its effectiveness for that specific task is comparable to a decent Two-Star Magical Artifact.
But because of that, this device can only find those two things, which makes it more or less a single-use item. After all, it can’t find any other Spiritual Materials; it’s just too specialized."
Zhang Deming nodded. "That’s actually a pretty good idea."
Li Shifan smiled. "It was a choice born of necessity. I spent half a year searching for information and only came up with this single lead, and it doesn’t even have a precise location. A lot of this will come down to luck."