The sound of pickaxes hitting rock echoed through the dark, hot caves.
Meng Hao looked around, clearly displeased at the endless discomfort and risk this environment offered. He had been brought here with many cultivators, and most had died. Not even ten percent of them were left now... The majority had died to exhaustion, and the unlucky few transformed into strange fire demons that had to be killed shortly afterward by their own colleagues.
His body felt heavy. But Meng Hao still tided through the exhaustion and kept breaking the Blood Rocks.
Day in and day out, they were forced to mine and gather blood rocks. Then place it in mining carts, that would carry it outside. The idea of trying to escape never crossed the minds of any of the cultivators here - since the whole mine was guarded by Ascendant Cultivators. The mere thought of trying to escape them was tantamount to contemplating suicide.
Today, Meng Hao was tasked with mining in one of the deepest parts of the cave. It was a job only he had been tasked with. Not because he could do it, but because of all the people here, Meng Hao seemed the most resistant to the baleful Fire Qi permeating the area.
As he was mining all alone, someone coughed, and that caught Meng Hao by surprise.
He turned saw a man in full length black robes.
"On it's you…" Meng Hao said.
"You still remember this old man!", the man spoke rather jubilantly.
"I knew you were a strange one from the day we first met. What are you doing here? Or rather, how did you even manage to come all the way down here, without being detected," Meng Hao asked.
"Well, you could say that I have something special," the man in black robes said.
This caused Meng Hao to instinctively rub a spot on his chest. Covered underneath his robes was a small bell that not even the guards deemed worthy of confiscating.
"You still have that, very good, keep it with you, it should come in handy pretty soon," the man in black robes suggested.
"Who are you?" asked Meng Hao.
"You don't need to know that right now. Also, I would advise you to start mining there, for now. You never know when one can find blessing within a curse," the man in black winked. While Meng Hao was looking straight at him, he could see the black-robed man slowly starting to disappear from sight. As if the world itself was denying his very existence…
Meng Hao turned to where the man in a black robe had pointed. There didn't seem to be any Blood Stones there, it was a simple-looking block of rock. Having nothing better to do, Meng Hao decided to give it a go, and struck down with his pickaxe…
***
"Still, this is very confusing. When only the powerful entities of the Prime Elements are able to go to the beyond…why was Du Shen trying to go there when he himself didn't have the right," I asked.
"Du Shen… She spoke of him a few times…" Yu Yu said.
"Really? Do you know anything about him?" I asked.
"If she finds out I revealed this to you, she'll have our hide for it…", Yu Yu sighed.
"You seem to have some juicy gossip," I grinned.
"Yes, very… Deadly gossip even, so promise me you'll keep this to yourself!", she said.
"Right, will do, just tell me…", I said eager to discover something, anything, that could help me with the upcoming Poison God trials.
"Okay, so before her highness met her current husband… She actually had a thing for Du Shen. Since he was one of the greatest minds of his time, a powerful cultivator, rich beyond belief, and had great influence and ability throughout the Vast Expanse. They worked on many matters together. He used her ability to mend and control Soul power to make many ingenious trinkets. And she gave him everything. But he betrayed her one day," she said.
I frowned, "How come? Though I can't deny the fact that the Poison God is not benevolent, he hardly strikes me as the 'traitor' type," I said.
"Well, I wouldn't know about that, but do you remember the Incense Pot the Fire King's army had?" She asked.
"Yes"
"Right, it traps souls inside it for refinement and consumption, pretty nasty stuff. That project was actually something Du Shen asked her highness to make, though he said that he wanted to use it to harness the poisonous energies from his home planet, but it ended up being used to harness souls after he got the pot from her," she said.
"That pot later appeared in the hands of the Fire King, and you know what he's used it for. This caused her Highness to feel extreme hatred for Du Shen, for all the damage that those pots had done to the Vast Expanse," she said.
I frowned, "Du Shen abhors Devil Cultivation, and based on that I really don't think that he would do such things. But honestly, I wouldn't know. Things that happened far in the past are naturally veiled by the passage of time. No one can ascertain what is real from what is not."
Yu Yu shrugged, "I think he should have at least come clean about it, and apologized. I believe that would have sufficed. But he disappeared immediately after taking those pots. He then appeared much later, only when something happened to his concubine. By then, the Wind King had taken her Highness's hand in marriage and they had their current children. By that time, Du Shen had changed, he was not as she remembered. He had become vengeful, distrusting, full of malice and madness. He didn't even try to explain to her why he betrayed her. I felt that she might still have feelings for him… even after she got married."
"Oh, no wonder you said not to say this to anyone, yes, she'll probably not like hearing that. Nor would her current husband. Either way, it's not my place to gossip about people aloud. And it's good that I know a bit more about the Poison God. Yet this still doesn't explain why he wanted to go to the beyond," I said.
"I suppose that something about his lifelong goal of proving that all Dao, even Auxiliary ones should be considered Key to the beyond. Since he was a Poison Cultivator, and even if poison cultivation is considered to be something of a shortcut to power with no substance, he wholeheartedly believed that in its essence it can contend with the prime Dao. And as you are aware, the Poison God's power is well known. And well feared in the Vast Expanse. But since his disappearance or likely death, we can't find anything about him anymore… Except for you, and the Acolytes," she said.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose for a moment, this was a lot to take in. The Poison God had many secrets and many enemies. Death wouldn't have been far-fetched, but on the off chance he is still alive, what is he doing? If he is still active, how can I find his traces?
"Enough with this talk. Tell me you didn't come here just to speak about ancient myths?", Yu Yu said, waking me from my reverie.
"Oh right, I wanted to ask you something, how come you came here?" I asked.
"It was her Highness' request. She didn't want to spoil me further and said that if I wanted to grow, I needed to do it without help from the Wind Realm. She already gave me more than I could ever ask for and I couldn't be leeching off on her kindness. I asked if I could join the Heavenly Academy, and here we are."
"The Heavenly Academy only accepts a few cultivators every now and then," I said.
She shook her head, "If you're implying I used the Wind Realm as a backdoor, I didn't, I actually had to go through the Heavenly Academy's special entry program, it was not fun…" she said.
"Oh, I guess special admissions require special tests," I said.
"Yes, I honestly thought that I grew a lot, but I almost died…"
"Yeah, I know that feeling, Old Man Gin almost killed me with his exam, but it was worth it. So, we'll be attending some classes together I suppose," I said.
"Hopefully, we'll see about that tomorrow. I want to ask, what happened to the Purple Cloud Palace?"
"It's safe and sound with me," I said, "If you want it, I can give it back to you right now," I said.
She shook her head, "I don't feel like I deserve it yet. I'll receive it from you later. Also, I've heard that you already reached Pseudo Ascendant,"
"Something like that, but I don't feel any different," I said as I stood up, "I've been wanting to give you something that will help with your cultivation."
I picked out a small vial from my holding bag and handed it to her.
She took it, and opened the bottle revealing a sweet scent. And she had the reaction I was expecting.
"Just take it, I have more. Hopefully, this will help you in your cultivation. I'll be heading off,"
"You're a very kind man Shen Bao," she said.
"Am I now…" I grinned, "It's still not enough to repay your kindness in taking me into the Purple Cloud."
"You already repaid that debt with interest, so I'm really thankful," she said.
"I'm glad you liked it, anyway, I should be heading out to rest, tomorrow should be interesting," I said.
"You can rest here if you wish, I won't disturb you," she said.
I thought about it for a moment then shook my head, "I'll have to go, see you again soon," I said and she removed the ice from the pagoda's door.
As I left, I marveled at the effulgence of the moonlight permeating the ice pagoda, a most memorable scene indeed.