Mount Hulong, Carefree Abode.
Night had fallen, and thick clouds churned across the sky, shrouding both stars and moon in darkness.
Lu Yuan stepped out of the wooden hut and checked the ti on the watch. It was nearly midnight, and his surroundings were pitch-black.
Not a hint of light could be seen. But it didn't matter to Lu Yuan. After going through a tamorphosis, the capabilities of his fleshly body were already far beyond those of an ordinary man.
Although his vision wasn't as sharp as it was during the day, he could still see things in the distance with ease. With a bit of focus, even the tiny insects crawling through the grass couldn't escape his eyes.
"It's about ti," Lu Yuan muttered to himself as his eyes drifted toward the Wordless Stone Stele hidden behind the undergrowth.
Tonight, he was going to move it and place it in his car before anyone noticed.
He had no choice but to do things in secret, as Mount Hulong had a rule. They forbid many things on the mountain to be taken away. Although the Wordless Stone Stele looked like just another stone, Lu Yuan didn't dare to take any chances. He didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to himself.
Without hesitation, he walked over to the stele.
The Wordless Stone Stele stood roughly knee-high, its surface smooth and unblemished.
Judging from its size and density, the stele had to weigh at least three to four hundred pounds, far beyond what an average adult could lift. But in Lu Yuan’s hands, it rose effortlessly. He lifted it one-handed, barely feeling its weight at all.
The next step was to get the Wordless Stone Stele down the mountain.
There was a saying that ascending a mountain was easy, but descending it would be hard, and especially so with several hundred pounds strapped to your back. Even a group of burly n would have to carefully make their way down a mountain trail to avoid slipping and falling to their death.
But with Lu Yuan's personality...he wasn't the kind to take the conventional route.
It's ti for to put this body to use.
A smirk surfaced on Lu Yuan's visage. He grabbed a few thick vines and fastened the stele to his back.
He scanned his surroundings and the next mont, without any hesitation, he bent his knees, kicked off against the huge boulder he was standing on, and leaped into the air.
The drop below was easily several dozen ters high. That was about the height of a four-story building.
If an ordinary person were to leap down such a height, it ant shattered legs at best, or worse still, death.
But Lu Yuan didn't even hesitate. He leapt without a second thought.
Boom!
A thunderous crack rang through the air as he landed. The sheer force of impact sent deep fissures spiderwebbing across the boulder beneath his feet, nearly shattering it.
However, Lu Yuan didn't stop. He kept moving.
Like a wild ape, he raced down the rugged cliffs of Mount Hulong. He leapt from jagged rocks to narrow ledges. The path was choked with brambles and weeds. It was not an environnt that a normal human could navigate with ease.
But to him, it was nothing. His skin had been tempered and hardened. Sharp blades could barely leave a mark on him. What were a few thorns in comparison?
Under the faint glow of the moonlight, Lu Yuan's silhouette streaked across the treacherous cliffs. Each landing stirred a cloud of dust, and the boulder beneath his feet exploded with a loud bang. His strength transcended that of an ordinary human; it was terrifying.
And just like that, instead of a mountain path that would've taken a normal person over an hour to traverse, Lu Yuan picked another alternate route of jumping down from ledge to ledge, and spent less than fifteen minutes to reach the base of the mountain.
Right in front of the gate was his car, parked just where he had left it that afternoon.
After loading the Wordless Stone Stele into the trunk, he let out a quiet sigh of relief. Now all he had to do was find an excuse to leave tomorrow.
With that, Lu Yuan turned around, prepared to head back up the mountain.
Just then, rays of dazzling light erupted from the peak of Mount Hulong.
In an instant, radiant beams of multicolored light tore through the night sky, painting the clouds in a brilliant shade of gold. The glow was so intense that it illuminated everything for miles around, turning night into day with a brilliance that rivaled the sun itself.
What's going on?
Lu Yuan's heart skipped a beat. He narrowed his eyes and focused his gaze. The light seed to originate from the Celestial Master Hall.
Amid the radiant light, two colossal shadows erged. Their massive forms blotted out the sky. It was a white tiger and a golden dragon.
The two beasts hovered in mid-air. At the sa ti, low, indistinct roars echoed through the air.
The Roar of the Tiger, Song of the Dragon!
The birds on Mount Hulong seed to be frightened by the commotion. They flapped their wings wildly as they fled the mountain.
Could it be that the global awakening is arriving earlier than expected? Lu Yuan began to speculate upon seeing the sight before him.
The scene was too breathtaking. It was like a scene torn straight from the pages of a myth and being brought to life before his very eyes.
But it was fleeting. Just when he wanted to take a closer look, the white tiger and golden dragon soared into the clouds and vanished without a trace.
At the sa ti, every beam of light faded away. Silence and stillness returned to the mountain, as if nothing had ever happened.
"That isn't the awakening..." Lu Yuan muttered to himself. "But sothing huge must have happened in the Celestial Master Hall."
Without wasting another mont, he began climbing back up the mountain.
As there was no one around, he didn't hold back and with each stride, he crossed dozens of ters ahead.
In just twenty minutes, he had returned to Carefree Abode. He then lay down as if nothing had happened.
He knew very well that with such a divine phenonon, the Celestial Master Hall would surely take action.
Strange signs have already happened at Mount Tai, Mount Jiuhua. As the ancestral ho of Daoism, naturally, Mount Hulong will not be left out. The sign simply ca a little later. And all of this... is just the prelude to the global awakening. When that day arrives, everything will beco different. A new era will begin.
Lying on the bed, Lu Yuan stared at the ceiling, his mind running wild. His experiences in his past life reminded him of many things.
Deep down, he knew that aside from the Wordless Stone Stele, there were many more divine treasures within Mount Hulong, or even various powerful inheritances. It was exactly because of these that the sect managed to secure its footing in the new era and continued having great influence. If he had the ti to search slowly, he would surely find more valuable things.
Unfortunately, he didn't have much ti on hand. And even if he did, he didn't have many thods at his disposal to get them.
The Celestial Master Hall was shrouded in mystery.
Take that young Celestial Master Chunyang, for example. And then there was Master Yuyang who looked like an ordinary old man. Though he was clearly over ninety years old, his stamina surpassed even that of a youth. There was no way he was just so normal figure.
Not to ntion, there was still the elusive old Celestial Master himself.
So, Lu Yuan had to take every step with caution. At least until the global awakening happened, he needed to be careful.
If he were to draw too much attention now, it would only bring unnecessary trouble. Even if his fleshly body had surpassed the boundaries of ordinary humans, he still can't take modern weaponry head-on.
With that thought in mind, Lu Yuan waited quietly for ti to pass.
Soon enough, morning ca.
A young Daoist ca to Carefree Abode and escorted Lu Yuan back to the Celestial Master Hall.
When he arrived, Liu Qing and the others were already gathered here, though none of them seed to know what was going on. But it was apparent that they had witnessed last night's strange phenonon.
Each of them was trying to get answers from the nearby Daoists, but the answers they got were less than satisfactory. All mbers of the Celestial Master Hall kept their lips tightly sealed.
At last, Master Yuyang arrived. He first sincerely thanked Lu Yuan and the rest for their generous donations, and also promised that the Celestial Master Hall would always rember their goodwill.
After which, he officially announced that from this day onward, Mount Hulong was officially closed to outsiders. Everyone, including those with lay cultivation sites on the mountain, would have to leave imdiately.
However, Master Yuyang added another clarification. He ntioned that if circumstances permitted in the future, the Celestial Master Hall would offer certain compensations in return, such as so form of protection.
That remark left Liu Qing and the others confused. Everyone present held so level of influence or authority. As long as they didn't break the law, they wouldn't need protection. And even if they did do sothing illegal, was the Celestial Master Hall even capable of bailing them out of it?
Questions began to pour in, and Master Yuyang took ti to address each question. But when it ca to last night's phenonon, his answers were vague and evasive.
It imdiately dawned upon Lu Yuan. Sothing major had definitely happened on Mount Hulong, and it was related to the global awakening. But the sect clearly didn't want to divulge too much, so there wasn't any point in lingering any longer.
In the end, Lu Yuan was the first to take his leave.
The global awakening was just around the corner, and he needed to hasten up.
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