In Matoupo Village, Xu Ying sat obediently as Lu Si pressed down on his head, ladling water over his hair scoop by scoop to wash away the bloodstains trapped within.
"I've washed his hair like this all his life, for seven whole years. How could he not be my son?" Lu Si muttered, tears spilling down her cheeks.
The villagers gathered around holding wooden pitchforks, steamed buns, kitchen knives, and whatever else they could find, trying to stop Yuan Qi, the bronze bell, and Zhu Chanchan from taking Xu Ying away. Weak though they were, and terrified as they were of the giant snake, they still mustered their courage to step forward.
Having finished washing Xu Ying's hair, Lu Si wiped her tears and choked out, "How could he not be my son?"
Xu Ying sat up and said, "Mother, I really might not be your son. I can vaguely remember some things. I remember this giant snake has the surname Niu, and he's called Qi. He and I have gone through life and death together and experienced so much. And Lord Bell—there are always flashes in my mind of it shielding me with everything it had."
Zhu Chanchan looked up expectantly. "And what about this Ancestor?"
Xu Ying hesitated. "Are you my child bride?"
Zhu Chanchan was furious. She thumped him twice on the head. *Thump! Thump!* "Keep dreaming! What are you thinking?"
Xu Ying said, "No wonder I have no impression of you. If you were my child bride, I would definitely remember. I also remember a girl who liked to eat rouge."
He racked his brains trying to recall the girl's name, then exclaimed with delight, "I remember! Her name is Yuan Weiyang! I liked to eat the rouge off her lips!"
Yuan Qi glanced at the bronze bell, his face full of concern.
The bronze bell sent a quiet transmission: "Him mistaking Yuan Weiyang for a girl is actually a good thing. At least he's starting to remember something."
Lu Si wiped her tears again and looked at Xu Jin. Xu Jin remained silent.
The village head called out loudly, "Ah Ying's mother, just say the word and we'll fight these demons to the bitter end! We won't let them take young Ying!"
Suddenly, the bell chimed, deep and resonant. Its ripples washed over the crowd, releasing the true memories sealed within their minds.
These people were merely mortals. The memory seals left behind by the sorrowful old man and his two companions were not particularly powerful, so the bronze bell broke them with ease.
The long-buried memories came flooding back to all the villagers. Soon, someone remembered that three months ago, three strangely dressed individuals had brought Xu Ying to the village.
At that time, none of the villagers had known Xu Ying, yet soon they all came to know him, and everyone believed that seven years ago, Xu Jin had fished Xu Ying out of the river with a net.
From then on, everyone believed Xu Ying had lived in the village for seven years, and they all knew about the fire that had ravaged his ancestral home in Xujiaping.
Now that their memories were unsealed, however, a deep fear of Xu Ying welled up in their hearts.
What on earth was this boy?
Why had everyone's memories warped the moment he arrived?
Xu Jin and Lu Si's memories had awakened as well. The husband and wife held each other, looking at Xu Ying with unmistakable dread.
"So, I'm really not your son, am I?" Xu Ying asked with a smile, though his heart was heavy with sorrow.
The couple shook their heads.
Xu Ying's nose twitched. The water used to wash his hair today was a bit chilly. He figured he had caught a cold, which was why his nose felt so sore.
Lu Si hesitated, unable to say a word.
Xu Ying looked at them, his lips twitching slightly.
Lu Si and Xu Jin had regained their memories. They knew he was not their son and that they had never lived together for seven years. Yet Xu Ying's memories remained unchanged.
He still harbored deep, genuine affection for them; in his mind, the seven years of living together as a family still felt entirely real.
To him, they were still his parents.
Xu Ying leapt up and landed on the surface of the river. With a sweep of his sleeves, giant fish were yanked helplessly out of the water, landing along the riverbanks and docks—enough fish to support the villagers of Matoupo Village comfortably for a long time.
Zhu Chanchan produced a spirit elixir, dropped it into the village well, and said, "Once the elixir dissolves, drink from the well, and you two will be able to conceive a child of your own."
Yuan Qi glided into the Yuan River, the bronze bell flew up and tucked itself behind Xu Ying's head, and Yuan Qi dove beneath the water before surfacing swiftly, scooping Xu Ying onto his head and swimming eastward.
Lu Si and Xu Jin watched them vanish into the distance, a sense of melancholy tugging at their hearts.
Life in Matoupo Village returned to peace. The villagers' encounter with demons became fodder for casual chatter over tea, but the matter was not yet over.
The next morning, Lu Si cried out in astonishment. Xu Jin hurried outside to look, only to find a brand-new boat sitting in their courtyard.
A few days later, when the couple woke up, they found a giant fish two to three zhang long in their yard. Unable to finish the previous fish, they took it to the market to sell.
A few days after that, another massive fish mysteriously appeared in their yard.
Every few days, huge fish would appear out of nowhere. Some said the demon named Xu Ying was returning to repay their kindness.
Life grew easier and more prosperous for Xu Jin and his wife. Before long, Lu Si became pregnant. And the villagers who drank from the well gradually grew hearty and strong, free from all ailments.
Three months later, when autumn arrived, Xu Jin said to Lu Si, "Our demon child hasn't delivered any fish these past few days."
Lu Si said, "We took care of him for three months, and he came back to repay that kindness. Now that the debt is settled and we have our own child on the way, he has let it go."
Xu Jin nodded and took his boat out to fish as usual. Strange as it seemed, the boat the demon child had given him was remarkably stable; no matter how turbulent the waves on the river grew, the little vessel remained as steady as Mount Tai.
*Ah Ying isn't the demon they say he is,* he thought silently. *He is a human, with a human heart.*
At Mount Wuwang, Xu Ying returned from Wuling beneath the fading stars.
Over these months, he had frequently slipped away on his flying sword in the dead of night, traveling thousands of li to Wuling and returning to Mount Wuwang before dawn.
"Ah Ying, you have already repaid your debt of gratitude. You don't need to go anymore," the bronze bell said as it waited on the mountain, watching him return travel-worn. "You are a Qi Refiner, and they are mortals. What is merely a tiny ripple to a Qi Refiner would be an apocalyptic catastrophe to them. Do not bring misfortune down upon them."
Xu Ying felt a chill in his heart. "Lord Bell is right. I won't go again."
Yuan Qi slithered over and asked, "Ah Ying, your cultivation surpasses what it was before. Have you remembered your past?"
During these three months cultivating on Mount Wuwang, Xu Ying had long since recovered his strength and pushed even further, drawing closer and closer to the fourth heaven of the Pass-Breaching stage.
Over this time, scattered fragments of the past occasionally surfaced in his mind—life in Jiangjiatian, days on the run with Yuan Qi and the bronze bell, Yuan Weiyang's face, and Zhou Qiyun facing his tribulation.
Yet he still could not string these fragments together or fully recall his past life.
Zhu Chanchan had grown into an adolescent girl. Her aura was ethereal and celestial, her cultivation profound and vigorous. She wore Guo Xiaodie's clothes, which, just as she had claimed before, were a bit snug on her.
"Last time his memories were unsealed, he must have secretly tucked away a portion of power to resist the talisman seal, leaving behind a loophole in the seal."
Brimming with an oddly world-weary youthful vigor, the young girl lifted her chest a little to ease the tightness, then leaned down close in front of Xu Ying to examine the space between his brows.
Sure enough, there was a faint lightning mark between Xu Ying's brows, so dim that it was difficult to spot without looking closely.
With her face almost touching his, she stared intently at the lightning mark while using visualization to convert its shape into a Dao image to record it. "This lightning mark must be the clue he left before losing his memories. I suspect that the moment the seal was activated, he was already prepared to break it."
Xu Ying sat there obediently. Feeling her breath brush against his face, his cheeks flushed slightly. Averting his gaze, he asked, "Chanchan, how much of the immortal medicine in your body have you refined?"
"Only a tiny bit..."
Zhu Chanchan paused mid-sentence, suddenly realizing what had just happened. She stared at him in disbelief and blurted out, "You remember me?"
Xu Ying nodded. "When I was returning from Wuling just now, a little more suddenly came back to me. Why has your cultivation stalled? By all rights, you should have refined the immortal medicine in your body by now."
"I need to suppress my cultivation, practice the Nuo methods, and unify the Nuo techniques with the Qi Refinement methods."
Zhu Chanchan sighed. "I realized that the immortal medicine I stole from the Tushita Palace doesn't seem enough to support me in attaining immortality. The Qi Refinement methods of my era never discovered the Six Secret Depositories of the Human Body. The immortal medicine I stole from the Tushita Palace only seems capable of elevating heart power to the immortal level. Even if I refine all of it, I wouldn't survive the Heavenly Tribulation."
She straightened up, her eyes flickering. "During the time you were missing, I reflected on my pain and decided to open the human body's secret depositories, cultivating both Nuo and Qi! But once my cultivation reached the Twelve Storeyed Pavilions stage, I suddenly discovered something."
Her expression grew grave. "I can't open the human body's secret depositories."
Xu Ying chuckled. "Without the Dragon-Seeking Locating Art, of course you can't open the secret depositories."
Zhu Chanchan shook her head. "You left several scrolls of the Dragon-Seeking Locating Art inside the giant snake's belly. I can enter his belly anytime, so naturally I read those texts. Given my natural genius, locating the secret depositories wasn't hard. But even after locating them, I still couldn't open them."
Xu Ying was thoroughly perplexed.
Zhu Chanchan sat cross-legged. From behind her flew out the figure of a young woman—her Primordial Spirit, radiating dazzling divine light with inviolable majesty. She reached out and grabbed Xu Ying's hand.
Xu Ying felt his body shift and involuntarily flew up after her.
Looking down, he saw another version of himself still on the ground—one shining with dazzling, resplendent light.
"Oops... wrong one. Why did I drag out your physical body?"
Zhu Chanchan grumbled in annoyance, shoved Xu Ying back down, and grabbed the hand of Xu Ying's soul. She soared into the air and slipped into the back of her own physical body's head.
Xu Ying's physical body sat cross-legged on the ground, motionless.
The two arrived first at her Sea of Chaos.
Strong as Xu Ying's soul was and formidable as Zhu Chanchan's Primordial Spirit was, both were shaken by the turbulent, churning Sea of Chaos. This Sea of Chaos was countless times vaster than Xu Ying's, and the chaotic Mud Pill sat at the center like a colossal celestial sphere!
As their eyes fell upon it, they felt an unsettling distortion of heaven and earth, as if falling endlessly toward the chaotic celestial orb—a thoroughly sickening sensation!
Holding Xu Ying's hand, her robes flapping in the wind, Zhu Chanchan's Primordial Spirit flew across the boundless Sea of Chaos. The waves surged with deafening roars, filled with chaotic noise that made it impossible to concentrate.
Zhu Chanchan shouted, "Even with my strongest divine abilities, I can't break open this chaotic Mud Pill! As my cultivation realm advances, the chaotic Mud Pill continues to grow! When I rebuilt my Primordial Spirit and it had just formed, this Mud Pill was already heavy enough to make the Sea of Chaos sink! Now, it's dozens of times larger than it was back then!"
Xu Ying followed her away from the chaotic Mud Pill, his heart pounding as they flew above the Sea of Chaos.
Passing through the Twelve Storeyed Pavilions, they arrived at Heart Peak Immortal Mountain, entered the heart chamber within the immortal mountain, and located the Crimson Palace secret depository.
Within the Crimson Palace, Tushita immortal flames blazed fiercely. No divine ability could maintain its power here; any Dao image would be incinerated to ash. Opening it was over ten thousand times harder than during the Pass-Breaching stage!
Next, they visited the Yellow Court secret depository and the Jade Pool secret depository. The difficulty of opening these two had also multiplied beyond measure. The Black and Yellow Qi was immensely heavy, weighing down countless heavenly worlds, while the Jade Void azure qi was solid as jade, making it virtually impossible to cleave open!
Stopping outside the Jade Pool secret depository, Zhu Chanchan sighed. "That arch-villain blocked the path of ascension. To ascend, the immortal medicine from the Tushita Palace alone isn't enough—one needs the medicines from the other five immortal palaces as well. I can't spend thirty thousand years sneaking into the other palaces to steal them, so the simplest alternative is to unlock the Six Secret Depositories of the Human Body. But the higher one's cultivation, the harder it is to open the Six Secrets."
Xu Ying was lost in thought, then a chilling possibility struck him: "If someone cultivates to the Ascension stage, can they still open the Six Secrets?"
Zhu Chanchan shook her head. "I'm only at the Twelve Storeyed Pavilions stage, yet even using my strongest divine abilities, I can't force the secret depositories open. I would need to retrieve the magic treasures I left behind back then just to unlock them. If someone reaches the Ascension stage, they wouldn't be able to open them even with the treasures I forged for the Son of Heaven of Zhou!"
Xu Ying's eyes lit up. "I know why the master of the Mud Pill Palace orchestrated his trap to harvest people! He is an Ascension-stage Qi Refiner who knew he lacked the strength to ascend and could no longer open his own secret depositories to advance his cultivation. So he laid a trap, spreading the Nuo methods so others would cultivate the secret depositories for him!"
Zhu Chanchan said, "But he only spread the cultivation method for the Mud Pill secret depository..."
Then realization dawned on her. "You mean the Six Secret Depositories of the Human Body—all six secret depositories—were spread by him! He isn't just harvesting the Mud Pill; he intends to harvest the Crimson Palace, the Yellow Court, the Jade Pool, the Jade Capital, and the Bubbling Spring—every single one of them!"
Zhu Chanchan drew a sharp breath and muttered, "That brat is truly that ruthless... If my youngest junior brother is still alive, does that mean he's just as vicious?"
She was stunned.
Xu Ying pondered. "One thing was very strange: six months ago, when I opened the Yellow Court secret depository and fished for the divine sense immortal medicine, I didn't feel anyone watching me. That can only mean one thing: the master of the Yellow Court is one of the three depository masters who had already targeted me before!"
He paused, then added, "That person had already set their sights on me, so there was no need to do it a second time. I wonder if Yuan Weiyang has completed the Yuan Dao Heavens Induction. If not, their ancestor Yuan Wuji is in grave danger."
When he recalled Yuan Weiyang, the image that surfaced in his mind was always Yuan Rushi, which was why he stubbornly believed Yuan Weiyang was that girl who had let him taste her rouge.
Just then, someone ascended the mountain. It was a young man, who bowed and said, "Might you be Ancestor Xu Ying? My master instructed me to deliver an invitation."
Xu Ying asked in puzzlement, "Who is your master?"
The young man replied, "Xu Fu."
Chapter 115