One day, Wei Yuan suddenly recalled that a year had passed since he arrived at the Palace of Absolute Beginning. If not for his daily classes, the line between human and jade toad would have started to blur for him. After all, he spent more time swallowing lunar essence as a jade toad than he did anything else as a human.

Dusk had fallen, and the moon had just risen into the sky. A hint of chill had crept into the evening breeze, and tall trees were casting mottled shadows across the lonely courtyard. It was a night of melancholic beauty, but the sight of the moon only left Wei Yuan with a feeling of nauseousness.

Still, this was his first anniversary since embarking on the path to immortality. It would be terrible if he spent it like any other day, right?

Wei Yuan set the utensils on a stone table. He poured clear water into a cup, and set a Qi-drinking Pill on a plate. Just like that, his anniversary dinner was ready. Now that he thought about it, the last time he enjoyed a real meal was when Bao Yun had treated the class to a feast. Since then, all he had was rice. This had not changed even though a year had passed.

It was a difficult year.

He had used up the pocket money Trueman Fen Hai had given him a long time ago. In fact, he owed the Enlightenment Hall over two thousand taels as of today. Some of the expenses had to be paid immediately, so he had no choice but to borrow from the public account Bao Yun had set up. Over the course of the year, he had accumulated a debt amounting to several thousand taels as well. By his calculations, his debt had exceeded ten thousand taels—a modest achievement, one might say.

It was an especially lonely year.

Since the meeting with Trueman Fen Hai, Wei Yuan had met Zhang Sheng only a dozen or so times in total. The total hours they had spent together didn’t even exceed half a day. Besides attending classes, most of his time was spent sitting on his rock and blanking out at the full moon. Oh, right. To the jade toad, sitting and lying down were the exact same posture.

Consuming lunar essence? Right now, Wei Yuan could do that even when he was asleep.

It was a year of mounting pressure.

Frankly, he had reached a point where hard work no longer mattered. After all, no matter how hard he worked, there were still only twenty-four hours in a day.

He tried recalling everything that had happened in the past year, and... reached the end of his reminiscence in a single thought. That was how uneventful the year had been.

Wei Yuan let out a small sigh and sat down by the table. First, he raised a toast to Wei Youchai at Yong Province. Then, he raised a toast to Zhang Sheng. After draining his cup of clear water in one gulp, he picked up the Qi-drinking Pill and swallowed it in a somewhat pretentious fashion.

“What are you doing?”

A voice suddenly came from his back. It belonged to his master. To say he was shocked would be an understatement. The Qi-drinking Pill became stuck inside his throat, and he was unable to swallow it or throw it up for a time.

When Wei Yuan looked back and saw his master staring at him with a blank expression, his cheeks turned hot, and every blood in his body seemed to be rushing into his head. He only wished he could dig a hole in the ground and bury himself alive.

Zhang Sheng kept staring at him. It wasn’t until his complexion had turned purple, and it looked like he might throw up a mouth of blood that he finally cracked a smile.

Suddenly, the unfathomably tall mountain of pressure sitting in Wei Yuan’s chest disappeared just like that, replaced by indescribable joy. He could not remember the last time he saw a smile on his master’s face.

The scholar then looked at the teacup on the table and the neatly arranged empty plates on the table, causing Wei Yuan to flush bright red once more.

There were two pairs of chopsticks on the table.

Unable to hold it any longer, Zhang Sheng guffawed at the top of his lungs. He laughed so hard that Wei Yuan wanted to kill himself; so much that he had to put a hand to his aching belly and grab the table for support.

A long time later, the scholar just barely stowed away his laughter and said with a straight face, “The founder recently divined the heavenly mysteries and discovered that your cultivation would reach its culmination today. That is why he asked me to bring you to the Skyblue Hall.”

“Really?!” Wei Yuan exclaimed in pleasant surprise.

A whole year had passed. He had consumed so much lunar essence that he almost forgot that he was a human being. Although the shadow on the moon looked exactly the same as before, his great grandmaster had declared that his cultivation had reached its culmination. He could not be wrong.

Zhang Sheng had said the founder. In the Skyblue Hall, the founder could only be True Lord Xuan Yue.

The founder’s summon could not be delayed, so his master released a sword and took them into the sky. However, a chuckle would escape the scholar’s throat every now and then, causing the sword to sway and wobble. They would soar high in one moment, and dip low in the next.

Every time Zhang Sheng chuckled, Wei Yuan felt like jumping off the sword.

On the way, his master suddenly said, “Today is the anniversary of you joining the Palace, isn’t it? It’s a day to remember, I suppose.”

Caught off guard, Wei Yuan felt a twinge in his nose. He didn’t think that his master would remember. For the whole year, he only got to see him once per month. He almost thought that his master didn’t want him anymore.

Wei Yuan had grown much taller in the past year. He was now taller than the tip of Zhang Sheng’s nose and no longer at the height where his master could pat his head comfortably. Thus, the scholar put a hand on his shoulder instead and said gently, “Foolish disciple. The path to immortality is long and arduous. You and I will be walking together for a long time yet.”

Another twinge attacked Wei Yuan’s nose. His eyes felt like it was getting watery as well.

The sword never stopped flying unsteadily like it was drunk, but it ultimately hadn’t forgotten its way. They eventually made it to the main hall of the Skyblue Hall.

The main hall was eighty-eight zhang tall and much bigger and grander than the side hall Trueman Fen Hai was residing at. After the master and disciple came to a stop in the middle of the hall, a gentle, sonorous voice came from above, “Are you Wei Yuan? Please show me your image.”

Wei Yuan sat crosslegged on the floor and began the work. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the method had been engraved in his bones, so his image manifested before he even entered a meditative state, and the jade toad took a greedy gulp of lunar essence!

The image hadn’t just appeared in his sea of consciousness. It had materialized in the same proportions in the Skyblue Hall as well!

A gigantic rock appeared at the center of the main hall, and sitting on top of it was an equally massive jade toad. It was almost a hundred zhang tall, and its head was touching the ceiling. As for the moon, it had appeared outside the main hall!

The main hall of the Skyblue Hall was massive, yet it wasn’t big enough to fit an image?!

Silence hung in the air for a time. Finally, Profound Moon True Lord spoke up again, “You have cultivated the Jade Toad Full Moon Painting for three hundred and sixty-five days, Wei Yuan, and it is time you stop. I will now teach you a method that will allow you to enter the Body-tempering stage immediately. Please head to the side hall and perform your cultivation there. Your Master and I will catch up with you later.”

Wei Yuan got up to his feet and did as his great grandmaster asked. He wasn’t surprised by the size of his image at all. After all, he had spent every day thinking about the life of a toad. To him, there was simply nothing to see.

After the boy was gone, six silhouettes appeared in the main hall. Trueman Fen Hai was one of them. They were all looking at the gigantic jade toad in silence.

The hall suddenly faded away, and the true extent of the image was revealed to the group. It looked as if they were standing in the void. True Lord Xuan Yue had turned the main hall invisible so that everyone could view the image in full.

He asked, “You are his shifu, Zhang Sheng. Were you aware of the... extent of his cultivation?”

The scholar replied, “This disciple has been keeping busy. I only tutored him once per month. I did notice from the beginning that his image is bigger than normal, but you get used to it over time. Besides, I noticed no fault with Wei Yuan’s cultivation and see no reason to interfere.”

“What were you busy doing?” There was a hint of criticism in True Lord Xuan Yue’s tone.

Zhang Sheng threw a seemingly unconscious glance at Trueman Fen Hai and replied, “Nothing worth mentioning.”

True Lord Xuan Yue dropped the subject and said, “The otherworldly fortune still exists, but it has been three hundred and sixty-five days since Wei Yuan began absorbing it. Too much is as bad as not enough, so he should stop here.”

The shadow on the moon seemed unnaturally distinct. A weak cultivator wouldn’t notice anything wrong, but the Truemen present all felt a vague sense of unease.

One of the Truemen said, “An otherworldly fortune is ultimately different from our world’s. Would Wei Yuan’s act of converting an otherworldly fortune into his foundation count as stealing?”

True Lord Xuan Yue replied, “That is exactly what I’m worried about. It is why I will be closing this passage of fortune myself.”

Another Trueman spoke up suddenly, “It hasn’t changed a whit despite being siphoned for three hundred and sixty-five days.... Does this mean it’s on the same level as a great fate?”

His words reminded the other Truemen. They all gasped in shock and disbelief.

A narrow beam of lunar essence descended from the sky then. It was True Lord Xuan Yue’s signature Dao art. When the moon beam landed on the full moon, the shadow slowly but surely began to fade.

Every Trueman let out a sigh of relief as the shadow disappeared. They didn’t understand why, but it was the same feeling as putting distance between oneself and a fatal threat.

Suddenly, the shadow rapidly grew in size until it burst out of the full moon! Then, the head of a bird with three eyes emerged from the shadows!

The bird scanned the main hall as soon as it appeared. Finally, its gaze settled on Zhang Sheng.