“Have you and Senior Nie been this affectionate since long before I met you? Xuan Yang told me a lot about when he was just born, and even then, you two were already together...” Shen Yan asked curiously. He rarely pried into the private affairs of others, so this was a first. In the cultivation world, partings and reunions, life and death, were all commonplace; he had no idea how Zhai Bairong and Nie Shiyun, who hailed from different sects, had managed to come together.
Zhai Bairong thought for a moment, reminiscing as he spoke. “Actually, it was shortly before Xuan Yang was born. When we were in the Hantian Secret Realm, we had only known each other for a few years. Thinking back, so much time has passed. Truly, time flies like an arrow...”
Recalling the events of the past, Zhai Bairong felt a deep sense of nostalgia.
“It’s rare to see you interested in such things. Perhaps you’ve had an awakening of your own, and so your mind has begun to wander?”
Hearing Zhai Bairong’s pointed remark, Shen Yan’s face immediately stiffened, his expression becoming quite colorful. He had pointedly avoided mentioning his promises and conversations with Xuan Yang to Zhai Bairong!
Both Zhai Bairong and Nie Shiyun were incredibly sharp-eyed.
After this exchange, the air between the two, who had never interacted alone before, became less awkward.
Following their brief conversation, they began to cultivate at opposite ends of the room. Zhai Bairong had not spent a fortune to rent the highest-grade cultivation room, but even so, the spiritual energy of the Upper Layer was sufficiently abundant. Shen Yan had received Zhai Bairong’s promise to provide him with a Nirvana Pill for his tribulation. Although Spirit-grade Nirvana Pills didn’t fetch a high price in the Upper Realm, where Void Refinement and Body Integration cultivators were everywhere, it was more than enough to help Shen Yan advance from the Nascent Soul stage to the Deity Transformation stage.
With this, Shen Yan no longer needed to suppress his cultivation and could continue his progress. Once his cultivation rose, he would have more choices come next spring, whether he decided to stay or leave.
Shen Yan was naturally very grateful. His knowledge of formations was shallow, and he didn't rely on them for a living; he likely wasn't even as skilled as Nie Shiyun, who excelled in both tool refining and formations. However, he promised that if Zhai Bairong were to advance, he would do his best to assist with any formation-related needs.
Having help was always better than not, so Zhai Bairong naturally didn't decline. He even encouraged Shen Yan to refine his formation skills if he had the energy. During his time working at the pill shop, Zhai Bairong often observed the streets where commercial shops were concentrated. He had learned that in the Upper Realm, after reaching the Immortal grade, formations and inscriptions became completely separate disciplines. Nie Shiyun would likely specialize more in inscriptions in the future. It would be ideal if someone they knew could master formations.
A month later, with Zhai Bairong’s assistance, Shen Yan advanced to the Deity Transformation stage in the outskirts of the town.
Advancing from Nascent Soul to Deity Transformation was hardly a major event in the Upper Realm. Although it brought a small lightning tribulation, the people in the town didn't even bother to come out and watch, treating it as if it were nothing.
Shen Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Zhai Bairong went to work at the pill shop every day while he stayed in the rented cultivation room to heal and practice, which made him feel quite guilty. Now, he could spend his days exploring the outskirts; hunting low-level spirit beasts to earn a bit of money was within his capability, as long as he didn't venture too deep into the forest.
“My thanks for everything.”
“No need to be polite. You are quite talented; your cultivation speed is very impressive.”
Shen Yan said sincerely, “You flatter me. Compared to Senior Zhai, this bit of talent is nothing.”
There was a thick wall between the talent of a dual-element root cultivator and a single-element root cultivator. Had Zhai Bairong not spent most of his time in the shop and the alchemy room, he might have already been approaching the Great Circle of the Deity Transformation stage by now.
The two returned to the city together. Usually, they didn't move around much, but passing by the city gates today, they noticed there were more cultivators than usual.
Zhai Bairong observed for a moment and, listening to the conversations of the passing cultivators, soon learned that the Immortal Ship to the Middle Layer was scheduled to depart within the next two days.
Not many cultivators traveled from the Upper Layer to the Middle Layer, but since the Immortal Ship only ran once every six months, the influx of people arriving at the docks near the departure date made the surrounding towns much livelier.
Since Zhai Bairong couldn't leave yet, he had no intention of joining the excitement. However, he calculated the dates for the ship's round trip. He figured that when this ship returned, he could go to the harbor to see if Nie Shiyun was among the cultivators disembarking. Although by all accounts, even if Nie Shiyun moved as fast as possible, he would have only arrived in the Upper Realm this spring. It was impossible for him to jump two levels from the Lower Layer to the Upper Layer in just half a year, but Zhai Bairong still wanted to go for peace of mind.
The Immortal Ship took over ten days to travel from the Upper Layer to the Middle Layer. After staying in the Middle Layer for a period, it would return, taking about a month in total.
After a slightly long month had passed, Zhai Bairong specifically requested a day off from the manager of the pill shop to wait at the docks.
Though he knew the possibility was minuscule, after an hour, once all the passengers had left the ship and cleared the docks, Zhai Bairong still hadn't seen that familiar figure. He couldn't help but feel a bit empty inside.
Winter was not far off. The leaves on the row of trees by the dock had already turned yellow and withered. Just then, a leaf drifted down and landed on Zhai Bairong’s head. He gently brushed the leaf away, remembering how back at the Yunqing Pavilion’s back mountain, Nie Shiyun had a sudden whim to plant a few trees in front of their cave dwelling. He hadn't even allowed Zhai Bairong to use his wood spiritual root to nourish the saplings. Yet, decades later, the trees had grown surprisingly well, casting a lush canopy of shade over the entrance.
*Forget it, let’s take it slow,* Zhai Bairong sighed softly. Looking at the now-empty dock, he finally turned around to return to the town.
...
Around the same time, the Immortal Ship from the Lower Layer to the Middle Layer also set sail.
After obtaining the manual for Immortal Artifacts, Nie Shiyun quickly mastered it and informed the Tiger Clan leader. Before this, he had made a trip to the trading house in a nearby town, so the leader naturally assumed he had purchased the manual himself and was overjoyed.
By this time, Nie Shiyun’s cultivation had firmly stabilized at the middle stage of Void Refinement, and his tool-refining skills had improved significantly. The clan leader, who had previously entertained thoughts of trying to make Nie Shiyun stay, completely gave up on the idea. Nie Shiyun was destined to be a talent who would not remain in such a small place.
Before Nie Shiyun departed, he forged several Mortal-grade Immortal Artifacts for the Tiger Clan. Although they had only spent a few months together, the Tiger Clan had a very good impression of this human refiner, and they all came out to wave him goodbye. Hong Lang and He Yin accompanied Nie Shiyun all the way to the foot of the mountain, making him promise that if he ever returned to the Lower Layer, he must visit the Tiger Clan. He Yin even joked that he would soon be heading to the human-populated towns to make a name for himself; if his furniture shop actually opened, Nie Shiyun would be an old customer and get a discount.
Waving goodbye to the Tiger Clan with a smile, Nie Shiyun set out on the road to Jiuyun City.
After advancing to Void Refinement, the spiritual energy in Nie Shiyun’s body was even more abundant than before. While other cultivators might have to find a balance between traveling and earning money, he could cultivate and refine tools at night and travel by day, selling the Mortal-grade Immortal Artifacts he had on hand whenever he passed through a town. Less than half a month after starting his journey, he successfully gathered the remaining Immortal Crystals and arrived at Jiuyun City three days before the Immortal Ship’s departure.
Spending all his savings in one go was a painful experience for Nie Shiyun.
“Young man, if you want to get ahead in the world, you have to make sacrifices!” at the shop in the Immortal Ship harbor, the cultivator selling tickets teased.
He saw so many people coming and going every year; there were plenty of young cultivators who spent their entire net worth trying to make a break for it in the Middle Layer. As for how many actually made a name for themselves? The outlook wasn't very optimistic.
After all, the primary way to go from the Lower Layer to the Middle Layer was to be promoted by a family or sect and sent to the main branch as a talent. If one couldn't even make it in the relatively less competitive Lower Layer, going to the Middle Layer alone would likely result in returning empty-handed.
Every year, the returning Immortal Ships carried cultivators who had spent years of savings without finding any opportunities, eventually returning to the Lower Layer to live a quiet life.
As a ticket seller, this cultivator wouldn't say such things aloud.
“Here, your token.”
Nie Shiyun took the item the cultivator handed over. Although he referred to it as a “ticket,” it wasn't a piece of paper but a small, translucent jade token. The back was engraved with the pattern of a great family, identical to the pattern Nie Shiyun had glimpsed on the hull of the Immortal Ship when he passed the harbor earlier.
It was a nice, delicate accessory, but thinking about how much he had paid for it, Nie Shiyun would have preferred they didn't put so much effort into it and just gave him a piece of paper instead.
Nie Shiyun checked his storage ring and went to the Jiuyun City auction house to consign his remaining Mortal-grade Immortal Artifacts. Jiuyun City was truly the largest town in the Lower Layer; with the Immortal Ship docked, the foot traffic was immense, and his items sold shortly after being listed. Nie Shiyun didn't even have to wait a day; he just took a walk and came back to collect his Immortal Crystals.
Before leaving the Tiger Clan, he had harvested a batch of spiritual herbs. He didn't have time to commission an alchemist to refine them, so he simply went to a pill shop to sell the herbs and spent some Immortal Crystals to buy finished pills. He figured that since he wouldn't be able to join any families or sects right away in the Middle Layer, he would have to follow his old path: hunting in the wild and refining things to sell. Thus, he stocked up on basic Spirit Recovery Pills and Pure Accumulation Pills for detoxification while prices were lower in the Lower Layer, avoiding extra expenses later.
Having emptied his pockets once again, Nie Shiyun finally stopped fussing and boarded the Immortal Ship a few days early.
The so-called “harbor” was not a river or an ocean, but simply a piece of land specifically constructed for ships to dock. When it was time to depart, the Immortal Ship would soar into the sky, passing through the clouds. The Immortal Ship, comparable to a small luxury cruise ship on Earth, was surrounded by high-level restrictions. To board, one had to pass through the entrance; cultivators without sufficient skill couldn't possibly sneak on, and those capable of sneaking on probably didn't need to take the ship anyway.
After handing over his token, Nie Shiyun was assigned a room. Since there were still a few days before departure, he leisurely took a tour first.
The treatment was well worth the twenty thousand Immortal Crystals. Even on a ship, the rooms were more spacious than those in a typical inn, and free spiritual wine was provided daily. There were high-grade cultivation rooms available for rent within the cabins, and even a top-tier restaurant, though food and drink cost extra.
*This is just a cruise ship.* Although a ten-day journey wasn't short, being comfortable was always good. However, since he didn't need a cultivation room or to feast on the ship, he wondered if they could refund him half the money...
Knowing that was impossible, Nie Shiyun just thought it to himself. After finishing his tour, he returned to his room.
Lying on the carved bed that he had paid for—but which ultimately served no real purpose—Nie Shiyun finally felt the reality of taking a major step forward.
In the end, he hadn't found any information in the Lower Layer regarding how to repair the ascension path. Nie Shiyun hoped to find some clues in the Middle Layer. If he still had no leads, he could only hope that the kid Xuan Yang was getting along well with his cheap father and could coax some information out of that Phoenix Emperor.
He had heard that the Phoenix Emperor was at the Golden Immortal stage, one of the few top-tier powerhouses in the Upper Realm. Moreover, several thousand years ago, it was the so-called Four Divine Beast Clans that had smashed the ascension paths all at once. As the leader of the Phoenix Clan, one of those four, he ought to know something.
It had only been half a year since he arrived in the Upper Realm, yet Nie Shiyun felt as though a long time had passed. He wondered how everyone at Yunqing Pavilion was doing, if Xuan Yang and Shen Yan were faring well, and where Zhai Bairong was currently located...
Although Zhai Bairong said he would wait for him, Nie Shiyun knew he certainly wouldn't just stay with the Phoenix Clan waiting to be picked up. On the contrary, if the travel costs weren't so high and time wasn't so tight, he would likely have run down to the Lower Layer to greet him.
“Thinking about it, maybe we’ll run into each other in the Middle Layer... I just hope I don't go to the Upper Layer while he runs down to the Lower Layer,” Nie Shiyun murmured.
His thoughts were a jumble, and gradually, Nie Shiyun’s eyelids grew heavy. Although the results were gratifying, he had been truly exhausted during this period. Thinking carefully, between the non-stop cultivation, tool refining, and traveling—and counting the time spent inside the jade pendant—the actual time he had spent was far more than half a year.
He knew that as long as he took a Spirit Recovery Pill or focused his mind to circulate the spiritual energy in his body, this drowsiness—which used to strike every day when he was a mortal—would vanish without a trace. But today, Nie Shiyun suddenly wanted to have a proper sleep for the first time in a long while.
His eyelids closed gently, and Nie Shiyun drifted into a dream faster than he had imagined.
