Meticulous Preparations

Yeop Pung stood before Taibai Peak, at the very heart of the Dragon Tomb.

He had traveled a full month into the past. Seven days — that was all the time this journey would allow him.

A month out from the hunt, the campsite at Taibai Peak was a desolate place. It may have been the tournament's regular staging ground, but it saw use only once a year, and the crews who came to prepare it never arrived more than a week before the event. At this moment, the site was still nothing but a barren stretch of open ground, wooden posts and stone pillars standing forlorn in the emptiness.

Yeop Pung stood in silence for a beat, then began walking slowly toward Taibai Peak, which rose behind the campsite. Before long he came upon an enormous slab of blue stone, three characters carved into its face in a vigorous, powerful hand: Taibai Peak.

This was the starting point of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the mountain path. Looking up, he saw a stone staircase barely three feet wide, following the mountain's contours as it stretched toward the heavens — a shape like a dragon soaring into the sky. On either side of the stairs lay sheer, slippery cliffs with no foothold to be found. Yet this steep staircase was the only path to the summit.

Even as Yeop Pung continued to refine his plans for the Ascent Battle, light flared beneath his feet like lightning, and he shot up the mountain path toward the peak.

I need to time the climb first.

After roughly two hours of all-out sprinting, he reached the summit of Taibai Peak.

This was no mountain for ordinary people to climb or sightsee. The staircase stretched some four kilometers in all, and the closer one drew to the summit, the steeper the incline became, until the final stretch was nearly vertical. Yeop Pung had no choice but to scramble up on all fours. To make matters worse, from the mountain's midsection upward, bitter cold and accumulated snow had frozen the stone steps solid, leaving scarcely a foothold to be found. No ordinary person could ever complete this climb.

His sprinting speed already rivaled that of a six-meridian martial artist, yet even he had needed a full two hours to reach the top. On the day of the Ascent Battle, with everyone racing up this same path in a frantic scramble, it would take far longer still.

Yeop Pung rested briefly at the summit. After reviewing the route he had just mapped in his mind, he wasted no time heading back down — and as he descended, he carefully surveyed the ridgeline beside the stairs, searching for something. He climbed and descended the mountain three times in this manner. He had more than enough time to prepare everything.

On his third descent, when he had come down about a third of the way from the summit, Yeop Pung suddenly left the stairs and leapt toward the slick cliff face beside him.

He drove his hands straight into the cliff face, sinking them deep into the stone to support his weight.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

He moved sideways along the cliff like a monkey. After about an hour of travel, he had left the mountain path far behind and arrived at the opposite face. From the staircase, no one would be able to discern his position.

Yeop Pung looked down. A dizzying precipice stretched endlessly below, the ground so distant it seemed to belong to another world. An ordinary person would faint from sheer terror at a single glance. But he had already been tempered by freely traversing Mount Tianyun — and besides, he had already laid his plans with meticulous care.

He raised his palm once more and struck the cliff with tremendous force.

Boom!

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠frozen rock was extraordinarily hard, but to him now, it was nothing. A single strike gouged a small pit some two and a half feet deep into the stone.

That'll do.

Yeop Pung gauged the depth with his hand. It was just right for gripping and putting his weight into. A satisfied smile crossed his face, and he immediately set about carving more pits into the cliff.

This was part of his plan. He intended to create another climbing route on the opposite face of Taibai Peak, using each pit as a foothold to ascend to the summit.

The idea of climbing the cliff was something others could easily conceive of as well — but it held little practical value. First, it wasn't faster. Compared to simply following the stone stairs, scrambling across the cliff like a monkey was inefficient. Second, the process would consume far too much Profound Qi. Carving a path into a cliff this hard was something even a master of the 5th Meridian Mysterious Realm couldn't accomplish in a single attempt. Not even close — it would likely take at least half a year of uninterrupted labor to finish. The return was pitifully small compared to the time and effort invested.

Rather than hunting for an alternate route along the side, it was simply better to put a little more effort into the stone stairs. That was why every participant in the Ascent Battle throughout history had focused solely on the staircase, never even considering the cliff.

But Yeop Pung was different. First, he had time — and with the razor-sharp Thunder Roaring Palm, he could carve a rock-climbing route in short order. More importantly, he had never intended to connect this path all the way from the base to the summit. After calculating it over and over, he planned to carve the second route only along the middle section of the mountain path, over the course of two days. The construction period was more than sufficient.

He decided to carve multiple pits into a single stretch of cliff — a precaution in case something unexpected occurred during the month he had crossed through time, blocking the climbing route.

After hanging from the cliff through two days and nights, he returned to the foot of Taibai Peak with an exhausted face, sat in a lotus position, and regulated his breathing. And so a rock-climbing route that no one had ever imagined quietly took shape on the far side of Taibai Peak.

Yeop Pung rested well through the night. At last able to absorb qi freely, he turned to the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture.

On the morning of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠third day, Yeop Pung entered the forest at the foot of Taibai Peak in high spirits. First he pushed into the underbrush and found the herb he had been seeking: Bitter Cloud Herb.

Bitter Cloud Herb was so common it wasn't even assigned a grade. Yeop Pung had encountered it before in the Cheonun Sect's Herb Garden, and he knew it had the effect of stripping away the characteristic bitter odor of medicinal herbs, making medicines easier to swallow. The herbal compendium recorded another use among hunters: crush the Bitter Cloud Herb into juice and apply it to the body, and it would eliminate human body odor, making it easier to approach prey.

But the effect Yeop Pung wanted was the opposite. He didn't want to approach prey undetected — he wanted the beasts to be unable to remember his scent.

He spent half a day coating his entire body with Bitter Cloud Herb juice. The second most important preparation in his plan was completed without a hitch.

Finally, Yeop Pung headed toward the Blood Palm Fruit.

How strangely the world's affairs could unfold. When he had first seen the Blood Palm Fruit and those fierce, ill-tempered giant monkeys, a faint outline of today's plan had already taken shape in his mind. And later, upon rediscovering the Bitter Cloud Herb, his plan had become all the more complete.

But the reason he had put his success rate at sixty percent was precisely because of those giant monkeys — the greatest variable of all. Monkeys lived in troops. What size of troop stood behind those two giants? How strong were they? That was the single most important factor determining whether his plan would succeed.

Fortunately, Yeop Pung had personally experienced the crushing strength of those two giant monkeys that day. It was by no means the power of ordinary beasts. Thanks to that, he could hold a measure of confidence in his plan.

After finishing the application of Bitter Cloud Herb juice, he carefully approached the Blood Palm Fruit thicket. He scanned the surroundings, confirmed there were no monkeys, then darted out, plucked one fruit, and returned. He squeezed the crimson juice from it, then removed the white disciple's robes he was wearing and painted himself from chest to waist in vivid red.

Why does this look so wrong?

Yeop Pung struggled for quite some time, but he simply couldn't draw anything resembling a phoenix.

Ah, to hell with it. This should be good enough. There's no way those monkeys remember the exact design that clearly.

White robes and a phoenix. Who he was targeting was obvious at a glance.

Finally, he tore a strip of cloth from his robes and covered his face. He gazed at his Myriad Realms Wrist Ring, lost in thought.

Everything's going smoothly.

Yeop Pung drew a small flint from the Myriad Realms Wrist Ring. The moment it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠settled in his palm, a strange excitement began to rise in him.

This is the first thing I've ever brought from the present into the past...

All preparations were complete.

With every piece in place, Yeop Pung strode boldly up to the Blood Palm Fruit thicket. He drew a deep breath, then unleashed a booming voice from the depths of his chest with all his might.

The enormous laughter echoed through the entire forest.

Several large monkeys lingering nearby heard it. They blinked, as if something had clicked, then shot toward the Blood Palm Fruit grove like arrows.

They're coming.

A moment later, Yeop Pung spotted shadows racing toward him from a distant cliff. A sly grin spread across his face as he hurled the flint in his hand into the thicket. Dense black smoke billowed up, and flames surged skyward.

The monkeys on the cliff exploded with fury in an instant.

From the first moment he'd laid eyes on these creatures, Yeop Pung had known they were no ordinary, mild-tempered monkeys. Possessed of tremendous physical power and savage temperaments, they would surely have launched a merciless assault that day if he hadn't withdrawn first.

And today, setting fire to the Blood Palm Fruit grove was like lighting a flame under their very rumps — it ignited their wild nature in an instant. The monkeys leapt from the cliff and charged at him.

Thud!

When they landed, Yeop Pung could finally take in their true size. Each one stood over ten feet tall, with massive arms and muscles developed across their entire bodies. Their leaping speed rivaled that of a four-meridian martial artist.

The monkey charging at the very front, in particular, had golden fur mixed among its grayish-yellow coat, and its strength rivaled that of Wang Maeng, a 5th Meridian master. As it shot toward Yeop Pung with a whoosh, a wicked aura surged forth. The monkey's two powerful fists carried a force that seemed capable of felling even a giant elephant or a tiger in a single blow. Its ferocious, cruel nature was at its peak.

Yet even facing such a powerful profound beast, Yeop Pung wore a satisfied smile.

So they're strong, huh? Perfect.

Crackle!