Chapter 10: Cultivation in the Shadows
After the brief confrontation with Zhao Kun, Han Feng returned to the village as if nothing had happened.
His steps were relaxed.
His expression was calm.
There was even a slight tiredness in his eyes.
Exactly what people expected to see.
An ordinary boy.
A weak cultivator.
Someone who had been lucky enough to obtain an unusual Gu but lacked the strength to make proper use of it.
Han Feng almost smiled.
The performance had worked.
But maintaining that appearance would be harder than creating it.
Every day he became stronger.
Every day the risk of being discovered increased.
He needed somewhere to cultivate.
Somewhere nobody would accidentally find him.
More importantly...
Somewhere he could experiment.
The Celestial Diagram was still full of mysteries.
Han Feng couldn't afford to test its limits inside the village.
One mistake was enough.
A strange fluctuation.
An unusual aura.
A Gu escaping control.
Any of those things could attract the attention of the elders.
And once they became curious, hiding the truth would become much more difficult.
Han Feng needed distance.
Fortunately, the memories he had inherited contained something useful.
An abandoned region several kilometers beyond the village.
The Misty Mountains.
There were countless rumors surrounding that place.
Poisonous fog.
Spiritual beasts.
Strange Gu.
Some villagers even claimed that people had disappeared there.
Most of the stories were probably exaggerated.
But that wasn't important.
What mattered was that nobody went there willingly.
For Han Feng...
That made it perfect.
He waited until nightfall.
Once the village became quiet, Han Feng slipped out through a less-used section of the wooden wall.
He didn't hurry.
He had learned enough to know that moving quickly wasn't always the same as moving safely.
He kept his aura suppressed as he walked.
The Dual Chaos Larva remained dormant.
Only a faint connection remained between them.
The forest was dark.
Moonlight filtered through the branches in broken fragments.
Every now and then, Han Feng stopped.
Listened.
Watched.
Then continued.
The farther he traveled from the village, the stronger the spiritual energy in the environment became.
The difference was subtle.
But Han Feng could feel it.
The Misty Mountains weren't ordinary.
Something had changed here long ago.
He couldn't explain what.
Yet the Celestial Diagram reacted every time he moved deeper into the mountains.
A faint warmth appeared in his consciousness.
Han Feng frowned.
"Again?"
He stopped.
The hexagram pulsed once.
Then went silent.
Han Feng looked around.
Nothing.
He continued.
He would investigate later.
Several hours passed before he finally found the waterfall.
Water crashed down from a cliff, forming a white curtain beneath the moonlight.
Behind it was a narrow opening.
Han Feng pushed aside several thick vines.
A cave appeared.
He stood there for a moment.
"This should work."
He entered carefully.
The air was cold and damp.
The constant roar of the waterfall would conceal most sounds from outside.
More importantly, the spiritual energy here was denser than in the village.
Han Feng took several steps forward.
Then stopped.
Something was wrong.
He closed his eyes.
His spiritual perception spread through the cave.
Nothing.
Then—
A faint movement.
Han Feng opened his eyes.
Something crawled across the wall.
A small insect.
Its body was almost transparent, with a thin green line running across its back.
Han Feng didn't recognize it.
He didn't move.
The insect stopped.
Its tiny head turned toward him.
The Dual Chaos Larva reacted.
A faint pulse traveled through Han Feng's body.
The strange insect immediately retreated into a crack in the stone.
Han Feng's eyes narrowed.
"It sensed the Gu."
Interesting.
He didn't chase it.
Not yet.
Unknown Gu were dangerous.
He needed more information before touching anything inside this cave.
Han Feng continued deeper.
Eventually, he found a relatively dry section of stone near the rear wall.
He placed his small bag there.
Then he examined the surroundings again.
No large beast.
No obvious trap.
No powerful Gu.
The cave would do.
For now.
But before beginning his cultivation, Han Feng remembered something.
A technique.
A fragment of memory had surfaced several times recently.
The Art of the Celestial Veil.
It was an old concealment technique.
Or at least...
That was what the memories suggested.
Han Feng sat down.
He closed his eyes.
Fragments appeared.
A diagram.
Breathing patterns.
Meridian circulation.
Instructions.
But the memories were incomplete.
Several sections were missing.
Han Feng frowned.
"This isn't enough."
He tried to reconstruct the method.
The principle was simple.
Don't suppress Qi by force.
That would create unnatural fluctuations.
Instead, circulate it inward.
Compress it.
Keep the energy close to the body's core.
Then use controlled breathing to smooth out the remaining fluctuations.
The Gu presented a greater problem.
A Gu's presence couldn't simply be erased.
It had to be hidden.
Han Feng glanced toward his dantian.
The Dual Chaos Larva was quietly moving.
He connected his consciousness to it.
"Stay quiet."
The Gu responded with a faint pulse.
Han Feng began.
One breath.
Two.
Three.
His Qi slowly moved inward.
The aura around his body weakened.
But then—
It collapsed.
Han Feng's eyes opened.
He coughed.
A wave of Qi escaped from his body.
The small stones beside him trembled.
"Too much."
He frowned.
The technique wasn't as simple as the memories had made it seem.
He tried again.
This time, he compressed less.
The result was better.
But his aura was still visible.
Again.
And again.
Hours passed.
His breathing became increasingly precise.
Sweat covered his forehead.
His body began to ache.
The Dual Chaos Larva also seemed uncomfortable.
Han Feng stopped.
He examined the Gu carefully.
The Gu's aura was leaking through the connection.
That was the problem.
He needed to synchronize his own energy with the Gu's.
Not suppress it.
Synchronize.
Han Feng remembered what had happened during the evolution.
The Celestial Diagram had balanced the two opposing forces inside the Gu.
Perhaps...
He could use the same principle here.
Han Feng activated the diagram.
The hexagram appeared in his consciousness.
Golden light spread through the dark space.
He connected the diagram to his Qi.
Then to the Dual Chaos Larva.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the three energies began moving together.
Qi.
Gu essence.
Celestial energy.
Han Feng's breathing slowed.
The fluctuations disappeared.
His aura became faint.
Fainter.
Then almost nothing.
Han Feng opened his eyes.
He couldn't feel his own cultivation.
He looked at his hand.
He could still sense the power beneath his skin.
But to an outside observer...
There would be almost nothing.
Han Feng smiled.
"Finally."
He stood.
Then immediately frowned.
Something was wrong.
His concealment wasn't perfect.
The Celestial Diagram had compensated for the missing portions of the technique, but the method had a flaw.
The longer he maintained it, the more difficult it became to circulate Qi normally.
In other words...
He could hide his cultivation.
But he couldn't fight at full strength while maintaining the technique.
Han Feng considered this for several seconds.
Then nodded.
"Good enough."
A concealment technique without weaknesses would have been suspicious anyway.
Everything had a price.
He only needed to learn how to pay it at the right moment.
Han Feng sat down again.
This time, he didn't immediately cultivate.
He looked around the cave.
The strange insect from earlier was still somewhere nearby.
He could sense it.
And there was something else.
A faint spiritual fluctuation came from deeper within the cave.
Han Feng's expression changed.
He slowly stood.
He walked toward the rear wall.
The deeper he went, the stronger the sensation became.
Eventually, he reached a narrow passage.
At the end was a small chamber.
Inside...
There was a stone platform.
And on that platform sat the remains of an old formation.
Most of it had already been destroyed.
But one symbol remained.
A hexagonal mark.
Han Feng froze.
His consciousness trembled.
The Celestial Diagram reacted violently.
For the first time since arriving in this world...
It didn't merely pulse.
It responded.
Han Feng stared at the ruined formation.
His breathing became slow.
"Impossible."
He stepped closer.
The mark was ancient.
Much older than the village.
Perhaps much older than the empire.
And yet there was something familiar about it.
The same geometric structure.
The same six-pointed pattern.
Not identical to the Celestial Diagram.
But close enough to make Han Feng's skin crawl.
He reached toward it.
The moment his fingers touched the stone—
The formation cracked.
A faint golden light escaped.
Then disappeared.
Han Feng stood completely still.
His expression was no longer calm.
Someone had been here before.
Someone who knew something about this kind of formation.
And perhaps...
Someone who knew something about the Celestial Diagram.
Han Feng withdrew his hand.
He looked toward the dark passage behind him.
For the first time since entering the cave, he felt a trace of unease.
This place was supposed to be a refuge.
But now he wasn't so sure.
He returned to the main chamber and sat down.
The discovery changed things.
He could still use the cave.
But he couldn't treat it as an ordinary hiding place anymore.
There were secrets here.
And secrets had value.
Han Feng closed his eyes.
The Celestial Diagram slowly appeared in his consciousness.
Six points.
Six lines.
And somewhere between them...
A faint seventh mark.
Still incomplete.
Still waiting.
Han Feng's expression hardened.
He didn't know what the diagram wanted.
He didn't know who had created it.
And he certainly didn't know why traces of something similar existed inside this cave.
But he knew one thing.
He had found his first real lead.
Han Feng began cultivating.
The waterfall roared outside.
The village slept peacefully miles away.
And beneath the mountains, in a forgotten cave that nobody had visited for years...
A boy quietly took his next step toward power.