What Strategist Ji didn't know was that this was a small trick played by Dong Fuyi before his divine will dissipated, just to give Li Yan a greater chance to escape. He had deliberately created this treasure map. The terrain and landforms in the map were what the wisp of divine sense roaming outside had transmitted to him when he was slumbering in the jade book. At that time, in order to find a cure for the fire poison, Strategist Ji had retraced almost all the paths he had taken when he was seeking immortals. So, the divine sense in the jade book naturally knew which places he had been to, and it was extremely simple for Dong Fuyi to find such a place in these memories.
However, drawing this map required some small details. The journey could not be too short, lest he find the place quickly and naturally be able to return quickly when he found it was fake. At the same time, the journey could not be too far. There were extremely powerful demonic beasts and ghosts in the depths of the Great Green Mountains. These were not something a small cultivator like Strategist Ji could deal with. With Strategist Ji's cunning, he would definitely not go too deep. If he did, he would only die faster, which would not be worth the loss. So, he had to find a range that he could accept, and then piece together the terrain and landforms of some other places to create such a seemingly plausible map.
This way, it could extend the time he took to find and confirm it. During this period, Li Yan would have a relatively long time to escape from this place. It was just that at that time, his communication with Li Yan had already reached the verge of his divine will dissipating. In just about twenty breaths, after hastily finishing the necessary matters, he could only barely use his last wisp of magical power to draw this map. Before he had time to tell Li Yan, he had already vanished into thin air. Li Yan did not know about this matter.
During that noon, Strategist Ji had been thinking about whether this matter was true or false, whether it was feasible. If it really was the place he had judged it to be, there would still be many dangers. For him, whether he could return in one piece was another matter. Even if he could safely reach that place and find the location of the "Great Art of Poisonous Creation" marked on the map, how would he enter the treasure land? What dangers would there be after entering? They were all unpredictable. But if he didn't go, then the jade book that he had been waiting for for so many years and had finally opened, and had really obtained a sliver of hope from, if he lost this chance to live, how could he be willing? In the end, he couldn't think of a foolproof plan, until Li Yan arrived at this time.
After Li Yan entered the room and sat down cross-legged, Strategist Ji composed himself and smiled. "How do you feel now?"
Li Yan quickly replied respectfully, "Reporting to Teacher, disciple feels that my body is much lighter than before, and my six senses are also much sharper than before."
Strategist Ji was overjoyed to hear this, his face filled with an expression of great relief. "That's good, that's good. It means that through your hard work during this period, you have successfully entered the first layer of the 'Woodyin Art.' I have seen your hard work. Very good, very good. But you must not be arrogant and impatient. Continue to cultivate like this. In the few days I have left, I hope to be able to personally see you achieve some small success. This way, my efforts will not have been in vain, and I will not have failed the ancestors of our sect." As he said the last words, the joy on his face had already turned to loneliness.
Li Yan's expression also became a little worried. "Teacher, your body will definitely be fine."
"Disciple will definitely not fail the sect's trust and will definitely cultivate even harder. It's... just... just..." Li Yan replied with determination, but then his words began to hesitate.
Strategist Ji's face was calm at first, but when he heard the last words, he couldn't help but frown and ask, "What is it?"
Li Yan looked at Strategist Ji, his face a little uncertain. "It's... just that disciple feels that after advancing to the first layer, it's fine when I'm not cultivating. But once I do, the hot qi in my dantian seems to be even more agitated. It seems that there is some problem with disciple's cultivation."
After hearing Li Yan's description, Strategist Ji's face was as calm as an ancient well. He chuckled and said, "I thought it was something serious, but it's just this. You have just entered the first layer, and I haven't had time to explain it to you yet. This is not a problem. First, you have just entered the first layer, and your state is not yet stable. Second, as I've said before, the reason our sect's martial arts are so domineering and unparalleled is that our sect's internal energy technique cultivation is different from other sects. Now that you have entered the first layer, you can no longer practice the 'Breath Guiding Technique.' You need to cultivate the corresponding first-layer incantation. Third, after entering the first layer, the main role of this layer is to start completely fusing the medicinal liquid in your meridians, to stabilize and strengthen your foundation. Only when your foundation is stable can the internal energy in your dantian be condensed and your meridians be tough. Before you reach the second layer, you will always be affected by the residual medicinal liquid in your body. So, don't worry. When you have cultivated to the second layer of the 'Woodyin Art,' everything will become normal."
After hearing this, the hesitation on Li Yan's face slowly turned to determination. Seeing this, Strategist Ji nodded with satisfaction. "I will now impart the first-layer cultivation incantation to you. You must remember it well." He then flipped his right hand, and a piece of paper appeared on the tabletop, with about a hundred words on it.
Li Yan bent slightly to express his gratitude, then picked up the incantation on the tabletop and sat down to study it carefully. A moment later, he had finished reading it once and looked up at his teacher. Seeing this, Strategist Ji began to explain it word by word, sentence by sentence...
Watching Li Yan's figure disappear at the doorway, Strategist Ji waved his right hand over the paper on the tabletop. The piece of paper floated up without any wind, and then spontaneously combusted in mid-air, turning to ash. He just stared blankly at the doorway. After half a cup of tea's time, he seemed to have made a decision. He stood up and walked slowly towards the door.
Li Yan had no idea that he had originally had a great chance to escape from this place. But as fate would have it, Dong Fuyi had not had time to tell him about the means he had left behind, so he had missed a great opportunity to escape.
Time is always too thin, flowing away like fine sand through the fingers. Li Yan cultivated hard in the valley every day, often only coming out once every two or three days. At this time, he could not yet abstain from grain, but his constitution was already very different from that of an ordinary person. It was fine for him to not eat or drink for a day or two. Sometimes he was so engrossed in his cultivation that he would only realize that a few days had passed when he was woken up by hunger.
The few times he came out of cultivation, he gave the impression that his personality was becoming easily angered. He would scold people at the slightest displeasure, making the few women who brought him food feel terrified every day. In the end, Chen An and Li Yin had to come and bring him some food. But they gradually discovered that Li Yan was not giving them a good face either, which made them very frustrated.
The two of them were Strategist Ji's confidants. Before he went out each time, Strategist Ji would instruct them to take good care of Li Yan. Whatever he asked for, they had to do their best to satisfy. However, Li Yan was not allowed to easily leave the Strategist's Manor. His cultivation was pressing, and he could not be slack. Otherwise, they would have to report the matter to him.
As Li Yan's temper grew worse and worse, Chen An and Li Yin also began to complain privately. But Strategist Ji had not returned since he went out more than ten days ago. They didn't know what he was up to. In the past, the Lord would return to the valley after at most half a day and a night. This time, they didn't know the reason.
But in the following days, Chen An and Li Yin began to feel a little more at ease. They didn't know what new trick this young master in the back valley had come up with. He had them find a brush, ink, paper, and an inkstone, and would often pick up the books of poetry on the bookshelf in his room and copy the words on them. He would write for half a day or a whole day, making the floor full of ink and paper. They had to carefully clean it up and then ask Li Yan with a fawning smile what to do with these papers, whether to frame them and hang them on the wall, or to organize them and put them in a large box for collection.
Li Yan impatiently told them to take these scribbled papers and get out. They had no choice but to take them out, but they didn't dare to throw them away, for fear that this young master would have a fit one day and remember these ghost-like scribbles and want to hang them up. If they couldn't produce them then, they would be scolded again. So, they had to find a few large boxes to store them.
To be honest, the calligraphy was really not something to be admired. Some of it was even written like ghost talismans. They didn't know what poems or songs he was copying. Who would have thought that after a few days, they were surprised to find that Li Yan's temper seemed to have slowly calmed down a lot. He even spoke to them with some of his former politeness, which left the group of people in the valley a little confused.
Li Yan was also a little frustrated. He had been cultivating very hard recently, and when he came out occasionally, he had to put on a show. But what surprised him the most was that he hadn't seen this teacher of his in the valley the last two or three times he had come out, let alone put on these shows for him. In the past, Strategist Ji would also go out occasionally. It was normal for him to not see him when he came out of cultivation sometimes. So, at first, he didn't pay it much mind. But in the past ten-odd days, he had come out several times, but he hadn't seen him once. This made him suddenly realize that he might have missed something. After thinking for a moment, he came to the door of the first stone house. There was no sound of Strategist Ji asking who it was after sensing him, as there had been before. He already felt that something was wrong. He walked forward, raised his hand, and knocked on the door. After a short pause, there was no reaction from the room. He quickly walked to the mouth of the valley and called out for Chen An.
Chen An ran out from the stone house outside the valley with a nervous look on his face. The soldiers behind him looked at Chen An's back with sympathy. 'What's wrong with this young master today? He actually came out of the valley and started shouting.' These soldiers were not in charge of the inner valley's affairs. The inner valley's affairs were basically handled by a few women and Chen An and Li Yin. Recently, they had seen these people suffer a lot.
"Chen An, how come I haven't seen my master the last few times I've come out of cultivation? Has he not been in the valley recently?" Li Yan stood at the mouth of the valley, looking at Chen An before him, and asked nonchalantly.
"Reporting to Young Master, Lord Ji has been out for more than ten days. I'm not sure if he has something to do in the city, or if something else has come up," Chen An said with a fawning smile, his heart immediately relaxing when he heard it was this matter.
"What? Teacher has been out for more than ten days?" Li Yan couldn't help but raise his voice, his heart filled with anger. This time, he wasn't pretending; he was really anxious.
Seeing Li Yan's sudden change in expression and his exasperated look, Chen An couldn't help but feel timid. 'Isn't it normal for Lord Ji to go out? Besides, you never asked, my lord.' But he didn't dare to be the slightest bit slow in his speech. He asked cautiously, "Young Master, do you have something you need to see Lord Ji about? If it's something we subordinates can handle, you can just tell us."
Li Yan was startled. He knew he had let his emotions show. He quickly put on a stern face and reprimanded, "I'm looking for my teacher to solve some problems in my cultivation. Can you help with that?" After speaking, he even glanced at Chen An from the corner of his eye.
Chen An's face turned bitter. "Young Master, this is something I subordinates can't do."
"Then why did you ask? Let me ask you, do you know when my teacher will return?" Li Yan asked.
"This, I subordinates really don't know. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe..."
"Alright, alright, if you don't know, you don't know. What's with this today, tomorrow?" Li Yan said. Without another glance at Chen An, he turned and walked back into the valley.
Chen An stood at the mouth of the valley and couldn't help but sigh. This was really a thankless job. He then also turned and walked towards the clearing outside the valley, where he was met with a burst of soft laughter. He looked and saw that except for Li Yin standing in the clearing and a few women standing at the kitchen door with helpless expressions, the other soldiers were all looking at him with mockery. He couldn't help but get angry. "You idlers, instead of standing guard and resting properly, what are you doing standing here for no reason?"
These soldiers had long disliked the two of them. Why was it that only they and those women could go into the inner valley? Who didn't want to get closer to the Lord? The women were one thing; after all, they were servants who cleaned and cooked. But Chen An and Li Yin could often go into the valley to do things with the Lord and the Young Master. This had invisibly created a gap in rank between them and their own group. Recently, seeing the two of them often getting into trouble, they were also happy to see it.
The few soldiers didn't say anything, just chuckled, gave a soft whistle, and went their separate ways, leaving only Chen An and Li Yin in the clearing.