Aladdin saw what he needed to see. The battle was intense, the techniques powerful, and the danger real. It served as a clear reminder—he still had a long way to go. Now, it was time to focus on his mission. Of the one year Old Bao had granted him to stay in the Kunlun Mountains, only four and a half months remained. He had to return before the deadline, mission complete.
Without hesitation, he resumed his journey. The road ahead wasn't peaceful. Spirit beasts roamed the deeper wilderness—some aggressive, some merely territorial. Aladdin chose wisely. The weaker beasts, he confronted to sharpen his instincts and refine his combat experience. The stronger ones, those beyond his current level, he avoided altogether. There was no glory in pointless injury, and time was too precious to waste on battles with no gain.
By the time another half a month passed, he arrived at the outer edges of Arkania Valley. The valley sprawled before him like a painted tapestry—vast fields kissed by the wind, rivers gliding across the land like silver serpents, and forest patches clustered around the base of the hills. It was serene at first glance. But underneath that beauty lurked danger. The air was unnaturally moist, heavy with the scent of ozone. Distant rumbles of thunder echoed through the skies, hinting at the storms that gave the valley its reputation.
Aladdin's eyes narrowed as he scanned the terrain. This was the valley. Now came the hardest part—finding the exact location of the thunderroot camellia flower. A rare and powerful plant that only bloomed in areas frequently struck by lightning, where essence concentration ran high and the land bore scars of nature's fury.
He adjusted the strap of his saber and stepped forward.
"No one ever said walking the path of strength would be easy," he murmured to himself. "And I'm not here for easy."
----
This wasn't your ordinary valley. The Arkania Valley stretched for a thousand kilometers in length, was twenty kilometers wide, and plunged five thousand feet deep into the earth like a wound carved by the God himself. With such an overwhelming scale, finding a single flower within it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
"Big valley, small flower," Aladdin muttered with a dry smile. "Perfect."
Thankfully, he had an advantage—his spiritual senses, enhanced by the fused magic lamp within his body. At his current cultivation, he could scan up to a kilometer around him, allowing him to cover ground far faster than any normal Martial Adept.
Without wasting a moment, he stepped into the valley. A low hum of thunder rolled in the distance, carried on warm winds laced with the scent of moss, rain, and danger. The thunderroot camellia flower wasn't just rare—it was extraordinary. It could enhance a cultivator's lightning affinity, boost nerve response speed, and increase the flow of qi through one's meridians, making lightning-based techniques faster and more devastating. But what Old Bao hadn't mentioned—or perhaps didn't even know—was the flower's secret power: it could stabilize one's foundation during lightning tribulations, the dangerous hurdles cultivators faced when breaking through to higher realms.
He moved through the valley like a shadow, his spiritual senses sweeping the terrain rhythmically. Forests of tall, dark trees passed under his gaze, winding rivers cut through low slopes, and clusters of tall grass whispered in the wind. He searched for hours, maybe longer, until something strange pinged in his senses.
"A beast…? No… wait. Dead?" Aladdin's brows narrowed. His direction shifted instantly as he moved toward the signal.
He emerged into a quiet glade, where the sun filtered through the canopy above in broken shafts of golden light. There, lying motionless in the grass, was a rank 3 Frost-tail Basilisk. Its body was long and muscular, covered in icy-blue scales that shimmered like frozen gemstones. Its tail curled unnaturally, and its maw was still slightly open, revealing jagged fangs coated in faint frost.
But what drew Aladdin's attention most was the wound—a single, clean sword strike through the heart.
He knelt beside it, eyes widening slightly. "That's not a wound from a struggle… that's precision. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing."
What shocked him even more was that the beast hadn't been harvested. The core was still intact. The scales untouched. No signs of butchering.
"They didn't even want the beast core?" he muttered. "Either they're incredibly strong… or they were in one hell of a hurry."
Aladdin glanced around cautiously. There was no lingering aura. Whoever had done this was long gone.
"Well… their loss, my gain."
He got to work, drawing his saber and making clean, practiced cuts. "Tail first," he whispered, slicing through the thick base of the Frost-tail's icy appendage. "This'll fetch a good price… or maybe I'll save it for when I learn cold-type refinements."
Next, he peeled off the scales, stacking them in his spatial ring. "These things are tougher than most armor."
The fangs came next—sharp, curved, and deadly.
"Venomous and cold. Lovely combination."
He removed the creature's eyes with precision, then carefully sliced open the chest cavity to retrieve the beast's icy-blue core. It pulsed faintly in his palm, cold to the touch.
"This baby might push me to the peak of Martial Adept," he said with a satisfied grin. "Old Bao is going to raise a brow when I get back with this."
He stored the core in his spatial ring and stood, brushing the frost off his hands.
"Alright, thunderroot camellia… let's keep looking. I'm not leaving this valley without you."
With renewed determination, Aladdin turned and vanished into the valley's shadowed depths once more.
-----
Now, Aladdin had reached the real Arkania Valley.
The deeper recesses of the land stretched before him like the maw of a slumbering beast. Here, the atmosphere shifted entirely. Thunder cracked in the sky every few minutes—loud, violent, and unpredictable. Each boom rolled through the valley floor like a pulse, vibrating in his bones. The air was thick, not just with moisture but with tension, as if the land itself was on edge.
It was still afternoon, but the sky overhead was a stormy gray, the clouds dense and swirling like a cauldron stirred by unseen hands. Shadows draped across the valley despite the hour, making the place feel more like twilight. The trees were gnarled and blackened, as though lightning had kissed them over and over until their bark turned to ash.
There were no birds. No insects. Not even the rustle of distant movement. It was unnervingly silent between the thunderclaps.
"Not a sound," Aladdin muttered, tightening his grip on the saber slung across his back. "This place is dead quiet… and that's never a good thing."
This wasn't the periphery anymore. The outer areas where spirit beasts roamed were behind him. Here, the rules were different. No more spirit beasts. From this point forward, only demonic beasts ruled this land—creatures corrupted by darkness, their minds twisted, instincts sharper, and strength far beyond their spiritual cousins.
"Even a rank 3 demonic beast here… I might not be able to handle it one-on-one," he admitted quietly, his eyes sweeping the area as he moved. "Their power's not just raw—it's cruel."
Old Bao had warned him about this place. Told him it wasn't meant for those below Martial Master level. But Aladdin had no choice. The thunderroot camellia only grew in places touched by natural lightning for decades, maybe centuries. The core of Arkania Valley was one such place.
He pushed on, each step measured, each breath controlled. His spiritual senses remained spread to the limit, constantly scanning for any sign of movement. The pressure here was heavier—like the very air rejected his presence.
And yet, Aladdin's eyes held a fire. Not of recklessness, but of unshaken resolve.
"I didn't come this far to turn back now," he whispered to himself. "Come what may… I'm not leaving without that flower."
Aladdin moved like a shadow among shadows, silent and watchful. The deeper he ventured into the heart of Arkania Valley, the more treacherous it became. Even a rustle of wind through the blackened foliage could be a sign of death. Here, caution wasn't a choice—it was survival.
He avoided even the rank 2 demonic beasts. Unlike spirit beasts, demonic beasts were cunning, brutal, and far less predictable. Their claws were sharper, their instincts keener, and their bodies overflowing with corrupted qi that made them more difficult to read and far more dangerous to face. Aladdin didn't want to waste a single drop of strength. Not here. Not now.
He crouched behind a twisted rock formation, eyes fixed on the horizon as a hulking beast—its back covered in jagged, stone-like plates—lurched past. A rank 2 Demonic Earthhide Boar. Its presence alone warped the nearby spiritual energy, making the air feel thick and stifling. Aladdin held his breath until it disappeared into the mist.
"I'll pass on that one," he muttered under his breath with a faint smirk. "Too loud… and too fat."
Still, he didn't let his guard down. The teachings of Old Bao rang clearly in his mind: "No treasure of real worth is left unguarded. If you want it, you'll have to fight for it. Kill the beast guarding it… or be its meal."
That wasn't just a warning—it was the law of the world he now lived in.
Aladdin narrowed his eyes as another boom of thunder crashed in the distance, the sound rumbling through the valley like the growl of some ancient predator. He pressed a hand to the hilt of his saber, more out of instinct than fear.
"I know the flower's close," he said quietly to himself. "And whatever's guarding it… it's not going to be something I can run from."
Still, his steps didn't falter. He moved deeper into the valley, ready to face whatever monster stood between him and the thunderroot camellia—because that was the path of strength. And Aladdin wasn't planning to walk away from it.