Volcanic Age

The twelfth month passed, and the first month of the year arrived.

Zhou Xuchuan was now twenty years old.

He tried to visit Senior Brother Zhang and Luo Xiaoyue, but he couldn't meet them. He was told that they were in closed-door training and would remain in seclusion for quite some time in preparation to become new members of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen.

Fivefold Fist Teng Guoyou returned to the Murim Coalition in a hurry once he had recovered somewhat. Of course, he didn't forget to stop by Liu Zhengmu's residence to apologize profusely.

As usual, Liu Zhengmu smiled like a saint and bestowed forgiveness upon Teng Guoyou.

The Fivefold Fist was greatly relieved to receive Liu Zhengmu's forgiveness. Things could have gotten troublesome for him in various ways had Liu Zhengmu refused to forgive him, after all!

"Master, sir! I heard that Zhou Xuchuan has returned to Mount Hua!"

"What? In that case, why aren't you getting ready to depart?! Hurry up!"

The Plum Blossom Order Sword, Zhou Xuchuan! Everyone had heard of that name by now. Upon hearing the news of his return, people rushed to Mount Hua in droves.

Zhou Xuchuan had been greeting so many people these days, so the new arrivals almost overwhelmed him. He was so busy that it was taking him at least two days before he could attend to any of his personal matters.

Having more visitors meant Zhou Xuchuan needed more workers to help him out, so he put up a notice in the nearby village, hiring plenty of helpers.

With the arrival of new helpers, the food costs and miscellaneous expenses went up. Had Mount Hua not been a well-off sect, it would have gone bankrupt. However, it wasn't a total loss for the sect, as visitors brought tributes with them.

"What should I do if I wish to speak to Great Hero Zhou in private?"

"You see, I have something important to share with the Plum Blossom Order Sword."

"I'm the Boss of the Taiyuan Merchants. The Plum Blossom Order Sword helped me out earlier, so I want to express my gratitude to him."

The name "Zhou Xuchuan" could be heard everywhere, and the majority of the visitors had come to Mount Hua to visit him. The number of people wanting to meet Zhou Xuchuan had to have three digits by now.

If it were only one or two people, Zhou Xuchuan wouldn't find it problematic. However, there were so many of them that He freaked out and rejected all the meetings under the pretext of focusing on his training.

"Is it possible to meet with Great Hero Zhou somehow? Can you please help me?"

"N-no, miss! We can't assist you!"

The young disciples of Mount Hua had to go through a torrid time, as there were some people resorting to honey traps.

How enviable!

He's so popular with ladies, too!

Huh. They are all so pretty. Are you telling me that all these ladies had come here in hopes of marrying Junior Brother Zhou? That is just astounding.

Whether it was a merchant family or a martial arts clan, families with some fame had sent their unmarried daughters to Mount Hua.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if their daughters were to snag the Great Hero somehow?

Zhou Xuchuan as their son-in-law was like acquiring a massive army of soldiers and horses.

"Hey, have you heard? The beauties throughout the land have gathered in Mount Hua!"

"Really? How can I sit still as a man in that case!"

Flowers were bound to attract insects.

The news of beautiful women drew more men to visit Mount Hua.

Mount Hua had somehow become a dating spot and a tourist attraction at the same time, and the unexpected turn of events allowed the nearby village to profit handsomely.

The influx of visitors meant the marketplace would grow busier. It also led to more frequent visits from merchants hoping to do business in the village.

Li Yicai predicted this event, and he opened various businesses, such as inns and shops, to rake in as much money as possible.

Meanwhile, the man in the eye of the storm, Zhou Xuchuan, was training diligently in a private training area.

Mm… Being famous is nice and all, but it does have its downsides, too.

The gazes of respect trained on him felt rather great, but having too many eyes on him was also rather inconvenient.

He could no longer train in a public training area, as it would attract a throng of spectators, making it difficult for him to train in peace. In the end, he searched for a place to train by himself, and he eventually returned to the spot where he had to scale a cliff under his master's supervision.

Zhou Xuchuan proceeded to organize the techniques in his arsenal, but he excluded the techniques that he had already mastered.

His Violet Haze Divine Art and Violet Haze Sword Sutra hadn't improved at all. He was still on the eighth stage on the former, while he was on the third stance on the latter.

He was in the fourth stage of the Eclipse Divine Archery Art, while he was stuck on the third stage of the Green Eyes Ten Thousand Poisons Art.

He was on the fourth stages of both the Hidden Nether Flying Dagger Art and the Phantom Steps. The intense life-or-death battle against Twisted Melody had allowed him to reach the seventh stage of the Hundred Divine Transformations.

As for the Ten-Thousand Jin Sword, I'm on the fourth level of it.

The Ten-Thousand Jin Sword had been of massive help to Zhou Xuchuan during his adventure in the Evil Valley. However, he had discovered a flaw upon unleashing it at full power.

The consumption of qi to allow me to withstand the increased weight on my body is far too much.

The Ten-Thousand Jin Sword had proven to be a double-edged sword. A massive increase in weight meant greater destructive power, but the burden on his body was too much.

Make one mistake, and one's muscles would get destroyed by the sword art. To ensure that such a mishap wouldn't happen in the first place, one had to reinforce one's fleshly body with qi.

However, unleashing the sword art alone and moving around demanded a large amount of qi, so spending even more qi to withstand the increased weight was both a waste of qi and an incredibly inefficient way of using it as well.

In other words, mastering a different martial art would be a better choice than sticking with the Ten-Thousand Jin Sword.

Zhou Xuchuan had been pondering ways to fix this glaring flaw, and that was when he remembered the Iron Shirt technique that he had obtained at the same time as the Ten-Thousand Jin Sword.

The Iron Shirt was a type of physical cultivation art that would toughen the cultivator's figure, transforming it into something that resembled armor. The Iron Shirt could allow one to withstand the Ten-Thousand Jin Sword's weight without wasting qi, so Zhou Xuchuan decided to focus on mastering the Iron Shirt for the time being.

"Isn't the training method so brutishly straightforward?"

Befitting a physical cultivation art, the Iron Shirt's training method was simple. All Zhou Xuchuan had to do was pound on something sturdy without relying on his qi, and that was it.

There were no variations. There were different stages, but the only difference between the stages was the difficulty level. For example, he'd start by hitting trees before moving on to boulders.

It was a training that one would usually see in the back alleys.

"But I should still do as the secret manual says."

To test out his limits, Zhou Xuchuan punched a nearby tree.

BANG!

"…Oops."

Just then, Zhou Xuchuan recalled that he had gone through a bodily transformation. It was a process that would transform the cultivator's muscular system and skeletal structure. It would also improve the toughness of a cultivator's skin.

It was indeed worthy of being called "bodily transformation." Fortunately, the fact would help Zhou Xuchuan with his training, and that was a silver lining.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Even rocks stood no chance, shattering easily beneath Zhou Xuchuan's fist. Only boulders the size of a house were capable of withstanding his punches, and Zhou Xuchuan trained until his skin was torn open.

Wheew… Training this way is all well and good, but it's so boring!

He'd rather have a complicated training method than this one, as that would at least keep him interested. The Iron Shirt technique was making Zhou Xuchuan yawn in boredom. After all, the training method required him to do nothing aside from hitting one spot repeatedly using the simplest movements out there.

***

Three months later, everyone's breathing no longer generated white steam. The layers of snow blanketing everything beneath the heavens had melted away as well.

A pleasant warmth enveloped everyone; there were flowers blooming everywhere, and their array of colors pleased one's eyes to no end. The passage of the cold winter heralded the oncoming warm spring.

The Benevolence Clinic—the number one clinic in Murim—no, the entire Central Plains.

The head of this clinic was the Divine Physician, whose medical skills were reputedly so high that it was touching the heavens.

"What should we do…"

However, there was a gloomy mood in the Benevolence Clinic.

The Divine Physician's disciple and the vice head of the clinic, Li Jian, was figuratively dying of anxiety. It was the same story for his fellow martial brothers.

"Senior Brother! What should we do about this?"

"I knew it! We should have locked him away to ensure that he wouldn't be able to escape!"

"We're not even talking about the Central Plains, you know! Going missing in the Southern Jungles is just the worst crisis imaginable!"

The Divine Physician had gone missing. Li Jian and others didn't even want to imagine the catastrophe that this news would bring if the public were to learn of this news.

Going back in time to around half a year ago…

"They say that a poison unknown to me was discovered in the Southern Jungles!" the Divine Physician exclaimed, "And it's also said that they've developed a divine medicine, too! I'm going there to see it for myself!"

"I'm sorry?!"

At first, Li Jian thought that the Divine Physician was joking. Who would take his words seriously when he had said it as if he were a man about to go for a stroll?However, the Divine Physician was dead serious. He finished his preparations in two days and even summoned escort warriors to take him to the Southern Jungles.

"No, you can't, sir!"

It wasn't just Li Jian; the other disciples of the clinic jumped up to their feet and stopped the Divine Physician. They couldn't agree with his idea at all.

"Haaah?!" The Divine Physician roared in dissatisfaction. "Why can't I go if I want to go?! Get out of my way!"

"Are you seriously asking me that because you really don't know, sir?!"

They were talking about the Southern Jungles here!

The imperial government's influence hadn't been able to reach the region that used to be the kingdom of Dai Viet, and it was all because of how dangerous the region was as well as the fact that it was a barren land.

To make matters worse, there were many undiscovered ethnic tribes hidden in the region as well as lunatics with customs like offering human sacrifices.

Even worse, the region easily rivaled the Poisonblood Valley for its sheer number of venomous species. There was also a huge variety of inscrutable sorcery to worry about.

To top it all off, the ocean of forest covering the region was so vast and labyrinthine that one could get trapped inside for all eternity. As a clincher, a myriad of ferocious predators called that forest home, too!

Considering all those dangerous factors, it wasn't a surprise that the Divine Physician's disciples were vociferously stopping him from going there.

"Fine, fine! I get it, so stop," the Divine Physician grumbled, "Why are you raising all this fuss?"

It seemed that the last few days of diligent monitoring and hard work had paid off.

Despite licking his lips ruefully, the Divine Physician showed signs of finally giving up.

Exactly fifteen days later, however, the Divine Physician scaled the clinic's back wall and headed to the Southern Jungles in the company of a handful of guards.

The Benevolence Clinic was thrown into an uproar, and they hurriedly chased after the Divine Physician, but it was too late by then. He and his entourage had already disappeared into the ocean of forest covering the Southern Jungles.

At the very least, the disciples had received a letter from the Divine Physician, saying that he'd contact the clinic regularly. Sure enough, he remained in touch for a while.

For some reason, however, he hadn't sent any letters over the past two weeks. The sudden silence worried the disciples greatly, as the Divine Physician had been communicating with them until now.

"We need to dispatch an investigation team."

"Who is crazy enough to travel to the Southern Jungles, though? Besides, no random person can survive in a region filled with so many things that can kill people, you know!"

Saying that every the Southern Jungles denizen had built up some level of tolerance to poisons wouldn't be a silly joke. That region really was overflowing with venomous creatures.

It was also far hotter than the Central Plains, and several people had reportedly died after failing to acclimatize to the environment.

"Besides, we need to keep our master's disappearance a secret! In that case, who can we even entrust with finding him?"

"That's right! No one knows that our master has traveled to the Southern Jungles except for us. Imagine what kind of rumors will spread once the public gets wind of our master's disappearance!"

"Yes! Senior Brother Li Jian will surely be suspected of foul play."

Gulp!

A flood of cold sweat broke out on Li Jian's back. Murdering one's own master was a common sightamong the cultivators of the Central Plains. Of course, murdering Dao siblings and parents to snatch away positions of power was common, too.

For example, hadn't something like that happened in the Evil Valley not too long ago?

If people were to suspect foul play, the Benevolence Clinic would be finished for good.

The Benevolence Clinic wouldn't have existed if it hadn't been for the Divine Physician, after all.

Li Jian cried out, "I would never do something as insane as that!"

"Senior Brother, people won't care about such details, you know!"

"Do you still remember the other clinics who've been viewing us as a thorn in their side? They'll surely hit us with all sorts of underhanded schemes!"

It would have been fine had the Divine Physician passed on from natural causes.

However, what was going to happen if the public believed that his disciples' scheme had caused his demise? The whole clinic would surely be plunged into the pits of the netherworld.

"Most of all… His Majesty won't sit still, Senior Brother!"

The Divine Physician had displayed talent in medicine since he was young, and his genius even reached the ears of the imperial court, so he was invited to serve as an imperial physician.

When he was still a middle-aged man, the Divine Physician saved the life of a member of an imperial family and secured protection from the imperial court, as well as his unfettered freedom.

The Divine Physician enjoyed connections like that, so it was obvious what would happen if the rumors of him dying through unsavory means were to spread around.

Fear and anxiety filled the faces of everyone attending the emergency meeting.

The emperor had a special connection with the Divine Physician. With that in mind, the disciples couldn't stop imagining every single person in their immediate families getting executed for treason.

They couldn't just sit back and do nothing—they had to do something.

"How about the Tang Family? We have a good cooperative relationship with them, right? Maybe not the Poison Dragon, but the Poison Phoenix might come to help us!"

"That's not a bad idea. But they aren't going to be enough," said Li Jian.

Toxins weren't the only things to worry about in the Southern Jungles. As stated earlier, that region was teeming with dangerous beasts, sorcerers, and deranged cultivators.

"Then… who else would want to go to the Southern Jungles?"

"An expert who doesn't care about stepping foot into the venomous land of the Southern Jungles and can overcome most dangerous situations? Where would we even find someone like—wait a minute! I know someone who can do that!"

The clinic's disciples were reminded of a certain expert.

The Benevolence Clinic and the Tang Family had a cooperative relationship, so the two organizations often exchanged information. In other words, they knew a lot about each other, including even trivial bits of news.

One of those bits of news concerned the situation regarding a Tang Family store that had opened its doors not too long ago.

"Thousand Poison Immunity!"

"The Plum Blossom Order Sword, Zhou Xuchuan!"