"As carefree as the sea and as unrestrained as the wind," those were the words that popped up in Jiyan's mind as she stared into Harun's eyes. Instantly, the weight of her worries dropped and, wholly cheered up, she stifled a laugh. For a second, Jiyan considered following Harun, but recalled that at the moment, she could only fight with punches and kicks. To take a sect on, that didn't cut it.
Although she could still count on the Empyrean clan's Divine Power, using that signature ability would do Harun's plans no good, and they both knew it. So she didn't press the matter and accepted his arrangements. Joining his hands in a hakini mudra, Harun connected to Jiyan's soul, establishing an attachment link to cement her in his karma. Jiyan didn't resist it, and so joined Harun's Karmic Tree. This would enable them to communicate even from impossible distances.
Standing up, Harun took the toxic wine pond as the starting point and cleared up a ten meters wide and 100 meters long road for the First Step's four stages. Of the four, the second and fourth stages didn't pose much challenge. Harun never lacked in top-grade noxious fumes or Withering Essence and could set up those two zones in a heartbeat. Only the poisonous pills of the third stage required heavy work, and so Harun got to work.
Teleporting to his Pill Refining Chamber within the Artisan District, Harun dragged stacks of herbs toward the furnace's feet and summoned twenty gourds from his cosmic pouch. Each of these gourds contained carefully bred toxins from the poisonous beast he'd cultivated since his reincarnation. Although they couldn't threaten celestials yet, for his current purpose, it was more than enough.
The Toxic Ascension Road wasn't for Jiyan alone. But would enable Harun to train the most reliable of the Birusk clansmen in batches while he completed the infrastructures necessary for his inner disciple recruitment. After spending ten minutes polishing his Divine Sense on the Sense-Grinding Stone, Harun returned to the Pill Refining Chamber, sat in seiza position, and fired his Divine Sense into the ingredients. Dark-green flames surged from his palms, shooting into the furnace in measured jets while the strands of Divine Sense controlled the mixture.
Twenty-six hours of non-stop pill refinement followed and, at a rate of seven pills per hour, Harun refined 182 Blood Burning Pills. By now, his sweat drenched his forehead, black robe and pants, and while his eyelids didn't tremble, Harun had to take long breaths to control the strain.
Blood Burning Pills were four-star poisonous pills and were the template for Harun's Noxious Flame Flies. A rather obnoxious poison, it starved the brain of oxygen and reduced its perception of the atmospheric pressure, thereby lowering internal fluids' boiling points drastically. This resulted in forced ebullism and death within two minutes for all below Crossed Vicissitude. Nowadays, Harun could raise it to the seventh grade. But lack of time and material prevented him from developing such pills. Of course, even if he could, he wouldn't use pills of that grade for the Toxic Ascension Road. No one would survive them.
"It's in moments like these that I wish I could multiply myself. If only I could recruit someone specialized in Alchemy, I could teach them the less pleasant parts of my craft, and lessen my workload," Harun sighed. As his sect grew, he'd need at least six elders: a Treasury Elder, a Refining Elder, an Alchemy Edler, a Law Enforcing Elder, a Lecturing Elder and a Great Elder to supervise them all.
Harun estimated that many of these posts would be filled by his direct disciples. After all, considering the secrets they'd have access to, he couldn't just give such positions to those that already received training from other factions, and may still hold unknown affiliations. Another sigh followed, and carrying the batch of 182 pills, Harun returned to Truth Shaping Chamber.
There, Jiyan sat in meditation, cultivating the Toxic Truth Mantra. Leaving her to her own device, Harun laid down the Toxic Ascension Road's Four Zones, enclosing the last three in a tunnel of cedar wood, and separating all by wooden doors. The road started with the toxic wine pond, followed with a potent miasma, seven crates of Blood Burning Pills, and ended with a gray fog of Withering Essence.
Satisfied, Harun stepped out. Jiyan's eyes opened, and without a word, she walked in. Exiting the system, Harun lifted his eyes toward the night sky, and saw the full moon hanging there.
"Just in time," he whispered, and with a step, vanished from the village. To him, this day represented an inviolable date, and though Harun knew that a night of full moon would maximize his chances against the Vermilion Brides, he didn't intend to carry out his plans now.
Finding a deserted prairie several kilometers ahead, Harun summoned a jar of bitter wine, a three-legged jade cup, pulled open the lid, and filled his cup with a smile. On this occasion, Harun often forced himself to smile more than usual. With a polite bow, he raised his cup at the sky, and poured the wine on the ground, an offering to the dead. For indeed, this day marked his father's death anniversary. And two days later, his brother's would follow. On those two dates, Harun never willingly shed blood—a principle he kept unbroken across 150 years.
Mortals could heal all wounds with time. But cultivators, who possessed an eternal memory past the Hallowed Realm, couldn't say the same. All images remained fresh, keeping the emotions and sensations they carried unspoiled.
"Don't rely on me. If you fail to keep up, I will leave you behind," Harun recalled how much of a tsundere his brother could be—always showing the same indifferent look, yet still helping him at all times.
"Talent is only one side of the equation. Remain serene and clear-headed, find what you wish to excel in, and even if you can't reach the stars, with patience, hard-work and dedication, you will have results. Cultivation is not the only road in this world, but if you insist on following that path, I will fully support you." Harun recalled his father's encouragements and closed his eyes. His lips curled upward, and he downed ten cups in succession.
"Old man, paradoxical bro, I became a Celestial in 150 years. But that didn't work out well, so now I'm going to achieve Samsara Dominion. That'll probably take more than 150 years. But when I reach that step, I will cheat fate so you can live well for the rest of eternity—that's the least I can do," Harun pledged, and set down his cup to sit crossed-legged in meditation.
On this particular night, as he stared into the moon, Harun felt lighter than he ever did before. An incomprehensible sense of peace washed over him, and silver-blue streams of light swirled around his torso like shooting stars.
Though present in all nights, Lunar Essence was incomparably difficult to harvest. To refine it, Heavenly God and above-level experts created artificial moons, and prepared the soil to breed Lunar Plants. But prompted by a surge of enlightenment, Harun achieved a connection to the Lunar Essence cast by the full moon. His Yin Soul took shape above his head, and a silver-blue ray shot from his forehead, binding to the moon.
Two half-moons, one silver, one blue, formed on Harun's forehead—combining to become a full moon. The Yin Soul returned to his body, and Harun's eyes opened wide. Three mudras followed, and a dazzling full moon appeared at Harun's back—enabling him to activate his peak state as he pleased.
"Let's call this...the Moon Conjuring Incantation," Harun said, then downed twenty more wine cups. The shadow of a dark-blue Dharma Idol flashed beside the moon, but failed to maintain its shape.
…
On the following day, Harun donned a red monastic robe, wore a golden mask, and sent Mukri toward the Vermillion Brides' Sect. As the Emissary Bull crossed the sky, Harun's form blurred across the ground. Both maintained the same speed, but one had already vanished in the shadows.