Chapter 70: The Road Ahead

After settling everyone in, Wei Cheng walked to the highest point of the city wall, sat cross-legged, and gazed around. He had several options ahead.

First, he could accumulate Mountain-Moving Inner Power to eighty cycles, break through the eighth innate meridian. This was already quite easy—with those five hundred jars of osmanthus wine and the bottleneck illuminated by divine radiance, he was confident he could advance to eighty cycles by tomorrow morning, before the fourth wave of demonic curse struck.

Second, he could use his greatly enhanced spiritual power to further master the ninth level of the Golden Bell Shield technique, and this would be swift—he could accomplish it by midday.

Third, still leveraging his increased spiritual power, he could push the advancement of the Mountain-Moving Visualization Chart. He had already mastered fifty percent of its deeper details, and the Way of Non-Contention derived from it had saved him many times.

Fourth, again using his spiritual power, his current cultivation realm, and the ample osmanthus wine, he could complete the micro-adjustment direction he selected when breaking through the seventh innate meridian.

At the time, he gained two micro-adjustment options. One could add an extra thirty cycles to his Mountain-Moving Inner Power. The other, using the seventh meridian as a foundation, could transform it into a refining plant for inner power, like a furnace, steadily compressing and purifying Mountain-Moving Inner Power, raising its quality from one to about one and a half.

Wei Cheng chose the second micro-adjustment, but circumstances had not favored him—when he had time, he lacked resources; when he had resources, he lacked time.

Now, he finally found the right opportunity.

"A thousand-foot tower rises from the ground; laying a solid foundation is most important."

After weighing these four paths, Wei Cheng chose the safest, most conservative route.

He worried that once he broke through the eighth innate meridian, the micro-adjustment for the seventh might become impossible. It was logical—who would alter a foundation or tear down a load-bearing wall after the house was built?

Having decided, Wei Cheng felt light-hearted. He went to the wine cellar hidden within the city wall, packed full with precious osmanthus wine.

Five hundred jars—an enormous amount of cultivation resources. This was clearly set up by the Trial Immortal, so that after a harrowing battle, the trial-takers could quickly recover and even have time to cultivate.

"Xu Shan, fill the others' bamboo baskets with osmanthus wine," Wei Cheng instructed. These miner's baskets were common in the demon stronghold. Most trial-takers now carried these baskets, sturdy, fireproof, water-resistant, spacious, and shock-absorbent.

Each could hold thirty jars of osmanthus wine.

"In the past, we only lamented the lack of resources. Now, we lament that we can't carry them all," Xu Shan sighed.

Wei Cheng merely smiled. If they couldn't carry them, they could simply drink them all.

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"Later, you'll have to work hard. I need to meditate for a while."

With that, Wei Cheng took a jar of osmanthus wine, broke the clay seal, drained it in one gulp, then a second, a third, up to ten jars. Xu Shan was stunned by the spectacle.

Seriously? I only meant we couldn't carry it all, not that you had to drink it all at once!

"Hey, Wei—" Xu Shan began, but Wei Cheng had already enclosed himself and two hundred jars of osmanthus wine within an unmoving Golden Bell, then slipped into his optimal cultivation state.

But he wasn't cultivating; instead, he focused entirely on micro-adjusting the seventh innate meridian.

Now, from the perspective of internal vision, his meridians—especially the innate ones—were no longer mere physical parts, flesh, or vessels.

They represented a grand inner world, housing the majestic mountains conjured by the Mountain-Moving Visualization Chart.

The seven innate meridians formed the main branches of these mountains, shaping their fundamental terrain.

If outsiders were fortunate enough to glimpse it, they could easily distinguish, for instance, the first innate meridian as the lowest range—a group of rolling hills, no matter how craggy or steep, their general direction was unified.

The second meridian manifested as a taller, grander range, clearly distinct from the first.

Then came the third, fourth, up to the seventh meridian, whose mountains soared seven times higher and grander than the first.

Yet these seven ranges were not isolated; they were bound by three levels of close connection.

The first was the great river, winding through the mountains, threading the seven ranges together.

The second binding was Wei Cheng's Mountain-Moving Inner Power, forming a solid foundation, flowing ceaselessly through the ranges—seemingly seven, but truly one from the perspective of his inner power.

The third connection was the overall structure of the seven ranges. Though comprised of hundreds of thousands of details, arranged by Wei Cheng’s memory and observation, they blended harmoniously into a single whole.

So, though Wei Cheng seemed to be micro-adjusting only the seventh meridian, he was actually affecting the entire system; a change in one detail rippled through every part.

Mountain-Moving Inner Power surged, and as it flowed through the seventh range, the micro-adjustment acted like a switch on a railway track. Driven by the vast inner power, the path shifted.

A change in one detail led to discord elsewhere; a shift in one peak required adjustment of the whole range.

Thus, all seven mountain ranges changed.

This was the full process of micro-adjustment, like a passive domino effect.

It sounded simple and straightforward—just a single detail to alter—but ultimately it became a massive undertaking.

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The overall variables had reached five hundred thousand.

This required extraordinary spiritual power, massive consumption of Mountain-Moving Inner Power, from substance to spirit, start to finish, all in one go—otherwise, he would fail halfway, all efforts wasted.

Wei Cheng's spiritual power just barely sufficed.

But each micro-adjustment consumed enormous inner power.

He had only managed half of the seventh range before his seven cycles of Mountain-Moving Inner Power were depleted. Only the spiritual potency of the ten jars of osmanthus wine enabled rapid replenishment.

Even so, the inner power required for further micro-adjustment was vast.

Thus Wei Cheng drank ceaselessly, converted, adjusted, relying on his formidable spiritual power to coordinate everything.

When he finished micro-adjusting the seventh range, he had consumed fifteen cycles of Mountain-Moving Inner Power.

Fifteen jars of osmanthus wine were drained.

Fortunately, wine was the least of his worries.

Next, Wei Cheng pressed on, unstoppable, drinking, converting, fine-tuning, like a relentless micro-adjustment machine.

He could not be stopped.

The sixth range required eighteen jars.

The fifth, twenty jars.

The fourth, twenty-five.

Yes, the lower he went, the harder the adjustment became.

Yet Wei Cheng was fearless. Onward!

The third range—forty jars.

The second—fifty.

When he finally reached the first range, he expected the greatest difficulty.

Unexpectedly, a sudden change occurred—the Mountain-Moving Inner Power he had expended for micro-adjustments returned along its original path!