Lu Qingshan sat beside the crystal lake, reciting the Insect Harmony Mantra. His voice was low, almost a whisper. Even someone standing near him wouldn’t hear his chanting.

  Standing alongside the water's edge was the rest of his sect, including a calm Qin Ye. Their gazes stared unflinchingly at the crystalline cicada seated on a tall reed in front of Lu Qingshan's body. Its profile was barely visible to anyone not already in the know.

  “Who are you?” a martial artist shouted behind him, his voice trembling. Lu Qingshan shot back an uncaring glance at the man. He recognized him — this was the person standing right next to the martial artist who had been blown into chunks.

  "I asked who you are," the man stammered. Then he lost his voice entirely as he was forced backwards by the two cultivators whom he served.

  "Fellow daoist," the woman said. "Have you been here long?" Like Li Fanghua, her voice was soothing to his ears. But Lu Qingshan ignored her, continuously reciting the Insect Harmony Mantra to the crystal cicada.

  The air broke as three of the martial artists rushed forward to attack him. They were obviously held captive — no one in their right minds would recklessly attack someone in this accursed place — and Lu Qingshan mentally sighed at their misfortune.

  Lu Qingshan gave them another glance, trying to mimic the indifference he saw when facing Liu Wanli. It was like these people were merely ants. Their fists were a mere breath of time from reaching him, but no one responded to the attack.

  The crystal cicada shivered — in the next moment, it was gone. The three martial artists each cried out in unison. Instead of blood pouring from their throats, crystal growths formed at the wounds. Then they collapsed, and the crystal cicada returned to where it was sitting.

  Lu Qingshan kept up his chanting. The two immortal cultivators' faces had paled, and they took a few steps backwards. The man's face became terrified when a stray branch cracked from his footsteps. He immediately stopped moving — face as white as a sheet. It was like he saw death flash in front of his eyes, even though the cicada had only fluttered its wings.

  Eventually, the crystal cicada flew away, and the people standing like stone statues behind him collectively breathed a sigh of relief. Even his sect elders visibly relaxed. Lu Qingshan ceased his chanting and stood back up. His eyes turned to the cultivators behind him, completely skipping over the martial artists.

  "Who are you?" he asked.

  "Song Lin," the refined-looking man standing farther than everyone combined said first. He gave him a bow. "Thank you for keeping that creature under control," he said.

  Lu Qingshan nodded. He then looked into the two cultivators' eyes, whose faces were still pale.

  "I'm An Xin," the woman said, a haughty air to her tone. "This is my brother, An Zichen. We're from the An family of immortal cultivators.” Her words gave off the feeling that she favored herself highly, as if she was a gift to the world.

  "I'm Qing Feng," Lu Qingshan said, giving them a fake name. "When did you all arrive in this place?"

  "Not that long ago," Song Lin replied. "These two came after me."

  "You got lucky," the woman murmured. "Where were you? We didn't see you in the city."

  Lu Qingshan simply said nothing, staring at them with a deadpan gaze. He dearly hoped this bluff would work. Any explanations of his background were likely to fail — he knew nothing of the current state of the cultivation world.

  "Fine," she said. "Stay mysterious. What has everyone discovered about this place?"

  "There are no animals. Everything is too quiet." Song Lin started with the basics.

  "Agreed. We sent a few martial artists to explore everywhere, and they didn't find anything," An Xin said.

  "Then you haven't been looking," Qin Ye said, stepping up. The two cultivators' eyes flashed with anger until they realized that the man was no mere martial artist. "We've discovered a mountain peak in the distance. Do you know any records about what that means?"

  They shook their heads. "We're completely lost," the man finally spoke after a long period of rest. His face was no longer pale at least. Now that he'd had the chance to recover, a bright and sunny disposition had appeared, showing off his gracefulness. "Our families didn't tell us anything."

  Lu Qingshan nodded. "That was our next destination. I was wondering if you two had better plans. There's a lot of land we haven't been able to explore with the only martial artists I managed to preserve in that fog."

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  "Same here," An Xin said. "Should we take a bit longer to scout, and then come back here to share information? I don't want to go running around in vain." Her brother nodded.

  "I agree," Song Lin said. He tentatively took a step back.

  "No running away now," An Xin said. "Come on, we're all in this together." Her smile was almost vicious.

  Lu Qingshan ignored their jabs at one another and looked back towards the lake. The crystal cicada had seemingly grown more accustomed to his presence after a second session of the Insect Harmony Mantra. Perhaps all he needed was time spent with the little creature before it'd willingly follow him away.

  Then his next goal was to secure more supplies for the sect. "How long do you plan to take? I don't know if there'll be another delay in our journey towards that mountain," Lu Qingshan said. "Make sure you have enough supplies."

  An Xin nodded. "There's enough Fasting Pills for all of us," she said. "We won't be having problems."

  There it was. The answer to their supply issue. Lu Qingshan eyed the three cultivators as they walked away, slightly faster than their normal pace. He almost made a move to stop them right then and there. But he decided not to.

  Having more immortal cultivators to explore wasn't necessarily a bad thing. At least they knew more than him when it came down to the world of immortal cultivation. If they managed to put a stop to a phenomenon or give him some vital information with their lives, then having them around was valuable.

  Perhaps they also had additional knowledge about the immortal path he could later extract out of them. Things like a realm after Qi Refinement, for instance, which might stop all his plans in his tracks if it did exist.

  In fact, he was pretty sure they were worth more to him alive than dead. The problem that arose was how to prevent them from figuring out that he was not an immortal cultivator, but an audacious martial artist. He expected them to turn crazy — having their egos bruised would make them wish death on him with all their might.

  This crystal cicada was vital to his efforts. Controlling insects was clearly not a method that was normally available to martial artists. Especially not one so powerful. So, after sending his sect elders out to help the others explore the area, Lu Qingshan returned to his martial arts practice. He stayed close by the lake to give the cicada a session of the Insect Harmony Mantra whenever it was willing — which it would then signal by immediately flying over from its vines.

  For a few days, Lu Qingshan continued this cycle. Qin Ye returned from time to time to notify him of the things he'd missed from his occasional glances to his fly swarms. Most notably, another altercation had begun between the An siblings and their controlled martial artists. Lu Qingshan didn't even need to make a move for them to lose another half of their forces in an escape attempt.

  He sighed. Such was the life of a mortal, doomed to forever stay under the hand of immortal cultivators. At least until three years later. Then they might have a chance to rise.

  Lu Qingshan managed to forge a bond with the crystal cicada as the dawn of the last day approached. In less than a week, he had accumulated an increasing amount of proficiency points the more time he spent with the powerful spiritual insect. Now the Insect Harmony Mantra sat at a comfortable threshold, steadily climbing at its current rate. In less than half a year, he expected to reach the next level, unless something happened to the cicada.

  Insect Harmony Mantra (Level 6, 4219/10000)

  Speaking of cicadas, his Bloodsense Bug tracked his sect elders' movements. They were all ready to return. Lu Qingshan prepared himself to go as well, but there was still one thing left to do.

  The three crystalline fruits on the vine needed to be retrieved. When Lu Qingshan threw a stick into the water, it immediately became coated in crystals. The whole lake was a deadly hazard — he didn't know how long the crystal cicada had lived, but if it ever left the vines, lots of crystal particles would've been deposited into the lake.

  Asking the crystal cicada to help him wouldn't work either. After all, its body was too small. Lu Qingshan needed to figure out a way to cross the lake forward and back without touching the water. Fortunately, there were many trees in the area tall enough to carry his weight. If he combined the long unnecessary Red Falcon Soaring Leap with a running head start from the Seven Steps Technique, he should be able to make the jump. The problem was getting back across.

  Lu Qingshan's eyes narrowed at the trees. Maybe he could try cutting one of them down. His strength was certainly enough. Balancing across the trunk would be simpler than leaping off of a tree.

  His fist shot out and buried itself deep into a trunk. A vision of a blood sea rose behind his back. There was little to no resistance as his entire arm cleaved through the tree’s base and chopped it off.

  A deafening crash resounded through the forest, stopping the incoming groups of cultivators in their tracks. Even his sect paused for a moment. Lu Qingshan used the time to heave the fallen trunk onto his shoulders, then hurled it into the lake.

  Seven steps broke the soil and launched him into the air. Lu Qingshan landed on the fallen trunk. Another seven steps took him onto the island, where he swiftly captured the three crystal fruits into jade boxes. Then he leapt back onto the makeshift bridge and rushed back towards land.

  The entire time, his steps were light and balanced thanks to techniques like Deer Traverses the Forest. Lu Qingshan calmed down the agitated crystal cicada right before Song Lin and the An siblings arrived.

  “What happened?” Song Lin asked. “Did the tree fall down?” His gaze traveled across the trunk and towards the island. Then his eyes widened in shock the moment he discovered the three fruits had gone missing.

  “You, took them?” An Zichen stuttered. “But, what about the crystals?”

  Lu Qingshan remained silent. He simply walked a few paces forward and the rest were forced to follow him through the forest to reach the patch of trees colored blood-red. The An siblings attempted to interrupt him a few times, but he continued to ignore them.

  Beneath the earth and behind a thick grove of trees, the spiritual earthworm crawled up from another part of the soil and onto the back of his clothes. Lu Qingshan made sure nobody saw its movements by turning to face the others head-on as soon as he felt the earthworm's presence. “We can discuss what information we’ve gathered now,” he said matter-of-factly.