"Do you still remember who that person was?" Lin Xiao quickly asked.
Unfortunately, He Yi shook his head.
"I was too young at the time, just a vague memory really. I was only three or four years old, so I don't remember much. But when I saw these patterns you showed me, it instantly reminded me of the ones I saw on that stone wall. It's a very clear and vivid memory for some reason."
Lin Xiao couldn't offer any explanation for that.
"Can you ask your father about it?"
He Yi frowned a bit as he mulled over the word "father." It felt somewhat awkward to him.
He glanced at Lin Xiao and said, "I could ask, but I can't return there now. That Absolute Spirit Land is not an easy place to traverse." What he really wanted to say was, "Are you willing to let me return now? Aren't you worried I might spill the secret about Lingxian Sect's cultivation method that doesn't require specific spirit roots?"
But he held back from saying it out loud.
After all, he knew he wouldn't do such a thing, so why raise unnecessary suspicion?
Lin Xiao, however, seemed to understand the unspoken words and responded honestly, "I do have ways to get you to the cultivation world. But you're still new to Lingxian Sect, and your loyalty to the sect hasn't had time to grow yet. What if I let you go, and you run back to Fuzong? This matter, although urgent, isn't pressing enough. How about you wait until the auction event is ready, and you can ask your father when you return?"
He Yi, apparently thinking along the same lines, smiled and nodded without saying anything further.
After asking his questions, Lin Xiao left He Yi to his cultivation without disturbing him further, then departed from Qingyun Peak.
With some clue regarding the mysterious formations from the Ji Stone, Lin Xiao could temporarily set that aside.
Now, his most pressing task was preparing for the construction of the new city.
Just as Lin Xiao was about to head to the Formation Hall, a sudden gust of wind surged through the area, nearly flattening the spiritual plants in the fields.
In the sky, dark clouds began to swirl and gather over Lingxian Sect!
Amid the thick clouds, flashes of lightning, like dragons, could be seen darting between them.
It was the sign of a tribulation!
Someone in the sect was about to break through? How come no one had mentioned this?
Lin Xiao felt puzzled, but the tribulation clouds were clearly gathering with a purpose. Using his spiritual sense, he quickly pinpointed the center of the storm.
To his surprise, the center of the storm was on the floating island!
It was none other than Sun Yigao, meditating in front of the Mirror of Reflection!
Lin Xiao hurried over. Upon arriving, he saw Sun Yigao with his eyes tightly shut, his face calm and composed, showing no signs of distress.
Spiritual energy was pouring into him in wave after wave, being drawn into his body. Gradually, the spiritual energy began to shift toward a state that was somewhere between spiritual energy and primal energy, a sign of a breakthrough.
Lin Xiao quickly set up a protective barrier around Sun Yigao to prevent any interruptions.
Glancing up at the swirling tribulation clouds above, Lin Xiao couldn't help but worry that Sun Yigao might be fried to a crisp.
"System, Yigao will be okay, right?"
After all, Lin Xiao had read many stories in his spare time over the past two years, where characters facing tribulations ended up being reduced to ashes.
[Kind reminder: After the system upgrade, the host can now transfer the tribulation-dispersing function of the Natural Terrace into the mountain-protecting formation, which will protect sect members during breakthroughs.]
This function exists?
"How do I transfer it?" Lin Xiao asked immediately.
Before the system even answered, Lin Xiao smacked his forehead, realizing how silly he was being.
He accessed the system interface and opened the control panel for the mountain-protecting formation. Sure enough, there was a plus sign there. When he clicked it, a list of features appeared, and one of them was the tribulation-dispersing function of the Natural Terrace.
Without hesitation, Lin Xiao confirmed the addition of the tribulation-dispersing feature.
With that in place, he could now relax and watch his sect's first disciple, apart from himself, break through to the Nascent Soul stage.
The phenomenon in the sky drew the attention of many disciples from Qingyun Peak, and even the people in Shuiliu Village below noticed the commotion.
However, the villagers of Shuiliu Village were calm, as some of them reassured the onlookers, "That's just the immortals from the mountain breaking through their tribulation. Nothing to be alarmed about."
It was no surprise they were so calm. Over the past few years, they had witnessed several tribulations of varying sizes.
After all, several members of Lingxian Sect had broken through to the Golden Core stage in recent years.
Of course, the tribulations of the Golden Core stage were relatively mild, just a bit more intense than ordinary thunder and lightning during a storm.
So, for the villagers of Shuiliu, it had become a familiar sight.
Still, even they noticed that this particular tribulation seemed a lot more intense than the previous ones.
It almost looked as intense as the time when the Heart-Seeking Path malfunctioned during Lingxian Sect's recruitment event.
At that time, many observers had assumed the strange phenomena were due to the malfunctioning path, not someone breaking through a tribulation.
After hearing the villagers' explanations, some of the tourists in the village calmed down a bit. Yet they couldn't help but look up at the massive lightning swirling in the sky, feeling a lingering sense of awe.
"That lightning is so thick. If it struck anyone, they'd be gone!"
Who would have thought that immortals on the mountain had to endure such punishment?
Actually, it made some of the onlookers feel grateful they were mere mortals—at least they didn't have to get struck by lightning.
Jiang Youfu and the others had also been drawn by the commotion and hurried over.
"Brother Xiao, is Yigao breaking through?" Jiang Youfu asked in a hushed voice, barely daring to breathe as he sent a transmission to Lin Xiao.
"Yeah. By the way, Fuzi, was it like this when I broke through?" Lin Xiao asked through transmission as well, his gaze never leaving Sun Yigao.
"Pretty much," Jiang Youfu nodded.
Meanwhile, Liu Yunan glanced nervously at the sky and asked, "Brother Xiao, are you sure that with lightning this intense, it's going to be okay? He's not in the Natural Terrace, after all."
"Don't worry. I transferred the tribulation-dispersing function from the Natural Terrace to our mountain-protecting formation. From now on, whenever someone breaks through in the sect, the tribulation won't hit them as hard," Lin Xiao explained.
The others who had gathered breathed a collective sigh of relief upon hearing this and settled in to quietly watch Sun Yigao's breakthrough.
Lin Xiao, however, noticed that someone was missing.
A person who, under normal circumstances, wouldn't miss such an important moment.
Where was Senior Liao?
As Sun Yigao's master, Senior Liao was always highly attentive whenever it came to him. Why hadn't his spirit, or rather his soul, made an appearance this time?
Lin Xiao found it strange.
While Changming Mountain was a fair distance from here, and there was a protective formation that created some interference, it shouldn't be enough to block such a huge event from his senses.
Just then, the system chimed in:
[If disciple Sun Yigao successfully breaks through to the Nascent Soul stage, won't that leave the host, as the sect master, with a cultivation level barely ahead of his? Is the host not feeling a sense of urgency?]