Chapter 9: The Hidden Master
Tian Yuan spent the next year as a servant in the Yunlan Sect.
He kept his head down, did his work, and observed. He watched the disciples train, memorized their techniques, analyzed their flaws. He studied the sect's library when no one was looking, devouring knowledge like a starving man devouring bread.
And he waited.
His breakthrough came when he discovered a hidden chamber in the sect's basement. It was sealed, locked, protected by a formation that would have stumped most cultivators. But Tian Yuan had seen formations like this before. He had created formations like this before.
He broke the seal in three breaths.
Inside the chamber was a skeleton. An old cultivator, long dead, surrounded by yellowed scrolls and cracked jade slips. Tian Yuan scanned the scrolls and his breath caught in his throat.
These were techniques. Ancient techniques, lost to the ages, powerful beyond belief. The cultivator had been a rogue, a hermit, a man who had rejected the orthodox sects and forged his own path. And he had left everything behind.
Tian Yuan smiled. It was a cold smile, a predator's smile.
"Thank you," he whispered to the skeleton. "Your knowledge will not be wasted."
He took the scrolls and hid them in his room. Over the next few months, he studied them, mastered them, integrated them into his own immense knowledge base. And finally, finally, he found what he was looking for.
A technique for repairing shattered spiritual roots.
It was risky. It was painful. It required a sacrifice of blood and soul. But it was possible.
Tian Yuan began his preparations.
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