Cultivator’s Path to Infamy [Progression | Cultivation | Villain Lead]

"Are you sure the Qi burst was here?" Standing in a clearing surrounded by large trees, Mo Fan carefully examined everything around, trying not to miss any hidden danger.

"Uh-huh! My artifact locked onto this location. We're here!" Standing next to him, Mi Mili held in one hand a key-shaped red artifact, and in the other, several talismans.

"They should have come here if anything happened, maybe they're somewhere nearby! In such a short time, they can’t have gone far from us!" Nearby, with his back to them and constantly turning his head, gripping his sword tightly, Shepor Dunt stood.

"It's all my fault... If I had realized right away that there would be more than one beast in the lair, we wouldn't have split up, and they wouldn't have gotten lost... It's all my fault." Clenching her fists tightly, Mili lowered her head slightly, feeling guilty for the events that had happened to them not long ago.

"Enough! It's not your fault. It was our collective decision, to hunt a peak first-rank beast." Mo Fan stepped closer to her and tried to calm her with a caring gaze.

"He's right, Sister Mi. If anyone's to blame, it's... Eh." Stopping himself just in time, he looked in the direction where a few days ago they had encountered An covered in blood from head to toe.

"GRAAA!"

Whooosh!

Suddenly, they heard a sharp bird cry and the flapping of wings, and the sound of the forest was pressed down by bursts of air.

Crack! Crack!

Under the pressure of the air, the trunks of thin trees began to snap with a loud crash.

"Get ready! They found us after all!" All three turned toward the falling trees.

Mili activated numerous talismans, attaching them to the trio. She activated and hung several artifacts around her neck and took two short swords from her ring. Taking a stance, she prepared for the inevitable.

Dunt tossed his sword from one hand to the other, took off the prayer beads from his neck, and wrapped them around his free hand.

Closing his eyes, Mo Fan calmed the raging feelings inside himself. Exhaling, he opened his eyes, faintly glowing with a spectrum of colors, shimmering and flowing into his black irises.

'I'm ready!' Taking his sword in both hands, he stared with a confident gaze straight through the fallen trees into the burning eyes of the beast making its way toward them.

"ROAR!"

All three got ready. With nerves on edge and trying to remain calm, they watched the falling and breaking trees without taking their eyes off them.

Closer and closer. They began to hear the sounds of these beasts, their grating voices, like laughter, their cries mixed with the cracking of wood.

"Gugugu!"

"Uu! Uu! Uu!"

Louder and stronger. All three grew pale, realizing from the number of sounds around that there were too many beasts, more than they could handle.

"Mili! Get behind us! And support us with talismans, keep watching your surroundings!" Mo Fan, with a pale face, couldn't tear his gaze away from the cracking forest before him, and shouted loudly so that she would hear him.

Seeing his broad back, she immediately calmed down. Almost all fear disappeared, replaced by faith in him, in herself, and the sheer will to survive wouldn't let her give up.

Mo Fan exhaled and gripped the hilt of his sword. Throwing a glance at Dunt, their eyes met.

Seeing the unshakable determination and panic mixed with resignation in each other's eyes, they both nodded and stood in front of the girl, shielding her with their bodies, ready for the inevitable.

The ground began to vibrate, the closer the monsters got, the more clearly the trio felt the heavy thumping of their steps, making everything around them tremble.

"UUU! WAAA!"

Having reached the edge of the clearing where the three stood, a huge swarm of beasts with crooked wings, huge white eyes and long fangs, and completely black, bare skin, suddenly stopped.

"Ugugu! Shaa!"

Clinging to everything on the ground, packed tightly together, these beasts beat the ground with their huge sharp claws.

Those who did not have enough room on the ground occupied the tops and branches of the remaining trees, and roared at the top of their lungs, spraying saliva everywhere.

A massive cloud of humanoid bats hemmed the trio in across the entire clearing. With their white eyes, they did not tear their gaze away, anticipating fresh meat.

"They've surrounded us!" Mo Fan realized they had been completely surrounded in an instant, the trio pressed closer together and assumed a circular defense.

"How did they manage to circle around us so fast!" Dunt, with panic in his voice, prepared to rush into battle at any moment.

Having surrounded them, and drowning everything around with their soul-tearing cries, these beasts were about to attack.

"ROOOOAR!"

From afar, from the depths of the Beast Lands, came a furious, heavy call.

Hearing this roar, all three fell to the ground and grabbed their heads.

The swarm of beasts fared no better; they all fell to the ground, screaming in fear. Digging their sharp claws into their own flesh, the creatures scrambled up and fled with all their might.

"A-ah! Wh-what was that?" Shepor Dunt, rubbing his head, raised his gaze and looked at the other two while struggling to catch his breath.

"I-I don't know, but the creatures, having heard that roar, fled as soon as they could get up off the ground..." Slowly rubbing his temples, Mo Fan was already on his feet, looking around to ensure they were now safe.

"Th-that was clearly not a first or second-rank beast... Perhaps it's one of the overlords of these lands!" Mi Mili muttered loudly into the ground without raising her head, her hands still covering her face.

"One of the overlords... Heh, I never thought I'd be grateful to a stinking beast!" Dunt slumped against the ground, finally exhaling as he realized that they were now definitely safe.

"Overlord or not, we can't stay out in the open. Better to find a cave or an abandoned burrow where we can rest and gather our strength." Keeping his sword out, Mo Fan approached Dunt and extended his hand.

Seeing his gesture, Dunt exhaled and took it. Standing up, he nodded to Mo Fan and began to survey the area around them, trying to find the best path.

"Are you alright?" Approaching Mili, Mo Fan crouched down beside her and gently touched her arm.

"Uh-huh... G-give me a moment, and I'll be fine..." She muttered almost in a whisper, and her tense body relaxed.

….

"Enough! Don't move!" Sitting on the shore of the lake, An held in his hands something resembling a water star. Using his Death Qi and Wood Qi, he channeled the energy into this star, carefully observing its reaction.

'Hmm... Even a tiny particle of enriched energy is enough to bring this little fish to the brink of death... And only a particle of Wood Qi, to fully restore it… Even though this is a primitive organism that doesn't even have a brain, let alone a complex body structure…' Alternating the different Daos’ Qi through it, he simultaneously watched his own condition, trying to understand whether the use of Wood Qi, which was rich in his vitality, affected him.

He had tried similar experiments on more complex creatures, but it yielded almost no results.

‘Hmm! So it's just a waste of the Qi from my body and dantian. Excellent!’ Realizing that using Dao-enriched Qi had no effect on his puddle or cloud in his inner world, or his personal vitality. It only consumed his Qi reserves, just like his ordinary Qi without any Dao transformation.

"Alright, you're free..." Having finished experimenting, looking at the star, which understood nothing and felt nothing, he released it back into the lake.

'I've checked everything around and gathered everything I could find... What should I do with the remaining day?... Eh.' Sitting on the shore and watching the sun set behind the huge waterfall in the distance, he exhaled heavily, trying to figure out how to occupy himself on the last day of this strange and overly eventful adventure.

Dipping his hand into the water to create ripples while releasing Fire Qi, he watched bubbles form on the surface and finally decided that the best thing to do was cultivate.

Examining himself, specifically the dried blood traces from the gorilla, he made sure they were still performing their function. Tweaking Qi Silence so that he wouldn't emit energy, but the gorilla's scent would spread around, he sat more comfortably and relaxed.

Closing his eyes, he began a cultivation cycle.

….

The dark room.

The number of projections on the wall had decreased. Even though the number of groups themselves had barely changed, the number of people in these groups had significantly decreased.

Several projections flickered constantly, hiding certain disciples, especially when they utilized secret techniques or anything that might draw unwanted attention from those present in the room.

"Group 214, candidates unchanged." A monotonous female voice sounded from the darkness.

"I nominate candidate 902 for the position of core disciple. I ask for a vote!"

"Support!"

"Support!"

"Aye!"

"Against!"

"Abstain!"

.

.

"The majority supported the nominated candidate. Number 902, outer disciple Mo Fan, is approved to undergo the trial for the status of core disciple of the Heavenly Soul Sect." A rough and quiet male voice announced the results to those present in the room.

The source of this voice was somewhere above, in the darkness where even the ceiling was not visible.

"Hmm, we've already approved more than a hundred candidates for the core disciple trials. What about candidates to be included in the resource support program?" A large female silhouette stepped forward, closer to the center of the room, and asked the question, raising her head to the ceiling, carefully looking into the darkness, her whole demeanor showing that she would stay like that until she got her answer.

"Hmm... I think we'll hold that discussion at a separate meeting after we finish this event. Agreed?" Descending from above, a male silhouette, the owner of that rough and quiet voice, stared intently at the large woman below him.

Even without activating his Qi, the woman felt uneasy. Barely able to remain on her feet, she bent over and bowed.

….

The lake, right beneath the huge waterfall.

"Hm... The signals to the key are coming from the bottom of this lake!" Holding the key-shaped artifact in her hands, Mi Mili looked at her two companions with a joyful face.

"What about the beasts in the water? Do you see anything? Mo Fan?" Standing at the water's edge, Shepor Dunt gazed into the depths, trying to see something or someone at the bottom.

"No... I sense a few low energies, no higher than the middle stage of the first rank. Everything else is ordinary fish." Opening his shimmering eyes, Mo Fan carefully studied the water's surface. Blinking a few times, his eyes returned to normal, becoming black again.

"Well then, who's for scouting the bottom of this not-at-all-scary-and-terrifying lake? I'm in!" Dunt, with burning eyes, turned to Mo Fan and Mili.

"Agreed."

"Uh-hum!"

Nodding simultaneously, Mo Fan and Mili looked at each other.

Looking into his eyes, her cheeks flushed slightly, and she quickly lowered her head. In response to her reaction, even Mo Fan became a little flustered and smiled slightly.

"Eh..." Looking at this pair before him, Dunt, with nostalgic sadness in his eyes, shook his head and smirked.

"Almost forgot! If we're going to the bottom, I happen to have just the thing for this situation. Here!" Suddenly remembering something, Mo Fan took three pills from his ring, blue in color with white pseudo-veins.

Catching the pill, Dunt began examining it with a puzzled expression. He was about to open his mouth, but was beaten to it.

"The Air Paradise pill? But how? Where did you get it? Wait! This... this is a fresh pill!" With wide eyes, holding the pill in her hands, Mili opened her mouth like a fish in surprise.

"You made it? But how?! Its recipe was lost thousands of years ago! How?!" Holding the pill in her hand, Mili jumped up to Mo Fan, grabbed his collar with her free hand, and began shaking him, trying to pry the answers out of him.

"Ah! S-sorry!" Realizing what she was doing, her entire face turned as red as a tomato. Quickly pulling her hand away from Mo Fan, she took a few steps back. But curiosity still got the better of her, and her cheeks still burning with embarrassment, she continued to look into his eyes, waiting for an answer.

"Um... My medicine master... um, in the place where I grew up, before my spiritual roots were discovered... he had this and several other recipes. He made me memorize them when he found out I was heading to the Heavenly Soul Sect." Mo Fan scratched his head. Looking away from Mili, he began to speak, stumbling after every sentence.

"Oh! And who is he?! What's his name?! Mo Fan! Brother Mo! You have to tell me everything! Everything... oh! Sorry..." Realizing she had overstepped again, and was prying where she shouldn't, she managed to stop herself, not making a bigger mistake and thereby offending Mo Fan.

"It's okay... I don't know his name. No one does. He was a guest in our city. After making sure I had memorized his recipes, the next day, he vanished without a trace." With an awkward smile, Mo Fan got out of the situation.

"Air Paradise? What does it do?" Dunt, not knowing anything about pills or Alchemy, holding the pill in his hand, looked at Mo Fan.

"It's a pill, the only one in the world, that allows you to convert water inside your body into air, without needing Qi. It lets you breathe underwater! It's the only pill capable of that! And that's not all!" Mili sharply turned to him. Tilting her nose up, she began praising the pill as if it were her pride, her own creation.

"Um... Wouldn't it be easier to use a technique to create a barrier and use that as an air bubble underwater? What's the point? And what about elemental conversions and turning water into air?" Tossing the pill, Dunt, with a wrinkled nose, still didn't understand all the excitement around this blue pill.

"What's the point?! Ha! What about pressure at great depths? What then?! Huh?! When your barrier cracks and you're crushed by pressure and lack of air? What then? Hm! The last time I checked, cultivators at Qi Condensation can't breathe underwater! And how are you going to convert water into air? Did you suddenly, hiding it from us, reach the Golden Core realm in an instant and comprehend the wisdom of all Qi?!" Putting her hands on her hips, she wrinkled her forehead and began to scold him.

She was seriously worked up, both from Dunt's stupid questions, in her opinion, and from the shock of the pills that had disappeared thousands of years ago.

"Got it! Got it! Enough! It's irreplaceable, the best pill in the world! Happy?" Dunt began waving his hands, his whole demeanor showing that he surrendered.

"Ha!" Raising her nose, Mili crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him.

Standing nearby and seeing this, Mo Fan smiled and shook his head.

….

The dark room.

"Air Paradise... wait, he said he had several recipes?" Standing in the corner, a male silhouette upon hearing what was happening on one of the numerous projections began to mutter and clench his hands into fists.

'Maybe… I can still compensate for my wasted resources and time on that worthless slave... I just need to find a way to get those recipes... But how? I can't do it directly, this Mo Fan is in the spotlight, and if the rumors aren't lying, the Sect Leader himself wants to take him as a personal disciple… Maybe I can use that girl from the Xia clan? She's the same age as him, and not bad-looking… This Mo Fan is clearly weak when it comes to young girls... Maybe it could actually work.' Standing there, his eyes fixed on the projection of the three disciples by the lake, the dark silhouette formed a plan in his mind.