Chapter 3901 — Great Difficulty

"Half-Moon Lake? Then we had best set off at once," Wei Zhao said without delay.

Out in the wider world, two hundred li was nothing at all to cultivators at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage—they could cover it in next to no time. But here in the outer reaches of the rear mountain, that was another matter entirely.

Making one's way through dense forest was trouble enough in itself; the real problem was that peril lurked on every side. One careless step and a man could run into some monstrous creature, and should anything go wrong along the way, a journey might drag on for days and nights without success—or cost him his life outright. That, too, was far from impossible.

Only after a full day and night did Wei Zhao finally appear on the shore of Half-Moon Lake with Shangguan Lan'er and Little Circle Bear in tow.

The delay was owed partly to Wei Zhao himself, who had taken the chance to gather spirit herbs along the road, but chiefly to Little Circle Bear, who had—with those meddlesome paws of his—yanked a handful of tail feathers from an Oddstride Sparrow.

Oddstride Sparrows were a common sight in the outer reaches of the rear mountain. Their individual strength was nothing remarkable, falling mostly between the Earth rank and the Heaven rank. They had a pair of long, stout legs like an ostrich's, yet plumage to rival a peacock's.

The one they met along the way had plainly grown used to people; sensing no hostility from Wei Zhao and his companions, it strutted about pecking for food right beside them. And so Little Circle Bear, curiosity brimming over, reached out and plucked a fistful of feathers.

Then the tragedy struck.

Vegetarian though it was, the Oddstride Sparrow treasured its plumage above all else, and Little Circle Bear's mischief sent it into an instant frenzy. Oddstride Sparrows were fiercely communal birds; provoke one, and one provoked the entire flock.

A single Oddstride Sparrow was nothing to fear. But a flock of dozens, even a hundred? Even Wei Zhao would not claim he could weather an assault from that many. And in a place like the outer reaches, once a commotion broke out, the trouble only snowballed.

Fortunately, swift as they were, Oddstride Sparrows had a weakness: unlike other birds they could not fly, nor could they climb trees. Wei Zhao and the others squatted in the branches for a good half day until the flock finally dispersed, and only then did they slip clear of disaster.

That mischief, though, put Wei Zhao in mind of Shen Yushu, and he sighed with a thousand feelings...

"Oh? So this is Half-Moon Lake? It doesn't look half bad. I suppose it takes its name from that half-moon shape?" Wei Zhao's eyes lit up as he took in the scene.

"That's not all! Grandpa says there are lots of glowing creatures on the lakebed. At night, seen from the sky, it looks just like a real half moon—he says it's beautiful!" Shangguan Lan'er's face was full of longing.

"Is that so? Then it's worth looking forward to. Speaking of which—can you tell me now what we're looking for?" Wei Zhao asked. From the moment they met, Shangguan Lan'er had kept him guessing, and to this moment he still had no idea what her goal was.

"See that enormous cedar in the middle of the lake? What I want is inside its heart, little junior brother." Shangguan Lan'er smiled prettily.

"Then there's no time to lose—let's go now." Something stirred in Wei Zhao's heart; he drew a deep breath and changed the subject.

The giant cedar she pointed to was ringed on all sides by water, but since this was Half-Moon Lake, setting out from its narrowest point meant crossing only a dozen yards or so of lake—no difficulty at all for a cultivator at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage.

Shangguan Lan'er, however, said unhurriedly, "No rush, little junior brother. You don't know yet—lovely and peaceful as Half-Moon Lake looks, Grandpa says the lovelier a thing is in this world, the more dangerous it usually is. One slip, and you'll die here."

"Hm?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. He had always trusted his own senses; here in the outer reaches of the rear mountain he could sense danger everywhere before it struck, and he had avoided a great deal of trouble along the road. Yet here at the lakeshore, he had never once felt the slightest sign of it.

So far, Half-Moon Lake had made only one impression on him: an unexpected stillness.

In the mortal world, such stillness would be a rare pleasure. But in this danger-ridden rear mountain, if one stopped to consider it, it only set the heart strangely on edge.

And yet there were no powerful spirit beasts about, nor even ordinary wild animals. For miles around Half-Moon Lake, the place felt like a pure land cut off from the rear mountain, untouched by the world's strife—and a stillness so complete was, frankly, uncanny.

Still, as Shangguan Lan'er had said, the more abnormal a place, the more likely it was to hide unexpected danger. Some unspeakably terrible spirit beast might well be concealed within Half-Moon Lake—otherwise there was no explaining why not a single spirit beast remained in the vicinity.

"I did my homework properly, you know. In the Rear Mountain Hall's danger rankings, Half-Moon Lake is one of the most dangerous spots in the outer reaches. Countless experts have died here; even Golden Core cultivators don't dare let their guard down. There was once a case of a Golden Core expert perishing here." Shangguan Lan'er nibbled at her fingertip as she spoke.

"A Golden Core expert?" Wei Zhao was startled. He had already sensed that this place was out of the ordinary, but it had never crossed his mind that even Golden Core cultivators could fall prey to it.

Wei Zhao had always been confident in his own strength. Even when he had faced Nan Tianyong, a peak late-stage Foundation Establishment expert, he had never entertained the thought of giving up the fight—and in the end he had laughed last, as he wished.

Yet against a Golden Core cultivator, Wei Zhao could not muster even the notion of resistance, for the gulf in strength between them was simply that of heaven and earth.

If even Golden Core experts met their end here, then Half-Moon Lake was truly beyond what his peak early-stage Foundation Establishment strength could handle.

"In that case, aren't our chances of success vanishingly small?" Wei Zhao frowned.

If it were only himself, so be it—even knowing it was nine parts death to one part life, his refusal to admit defeat would have driven him to try. But now he had Shangguan Lan'er and Little Circle Bear at his side.

Little Circle Bear had no fighting capacity whatsoever, and though Shangguan Lan'er possessed the strength of a peak early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, she looked to have no real combat experience at all. If a crisis truly came, how much of that strength she could bring to bear was anyone's guess.