At those words, disappointment washed over everyone present. Had the Nuo arts truly been created as nothing more than a scam to fatten people up to be devoured?
Had the news come from anyone else, they might have harbored doubts. But spoken directly by a Nuo immortal from four thousand years ago, it left them no choice but to believe.
The dimpled woman asked, "How did you find your way here?"
Xu Ying replied, "I sensed the resonance of heaven and earth and noticed a faint wisp of aura leaking from your Hidden Scenery ground."
Guo Xiaodie chimed in, "When Yunmeng Marsh appeared, our Guo clan's Nuo masters came out to explore and search for any grotto-heavens or blessed lands. We saw a red glow spilling from this area that formed an unusual phenomenon, so we summoned our clansmen."
At this, the dimpled woman's expression changed abruptly. Turning around, she meticulously inspected her Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground, then stamped her foot. "My haven of latent transformation and concealed form really did spring a leak! Could it have been caused by the impact when Yunmeng Marsh resurfaced?"
Suddenly noticing something was amiss, she looked back to see the boy, the girl, and the snake demon perched on the boy's shoulder all craning their necks, staring intently at the back of her head.
The dimpled girl's eyes darted with suspicion. "Do you think I've already been eaten? Are you trying to see if there's a thin slit along the back of my skull with light shining through?"
She parted the fine hair at the nape of her neck and chuckled. "Here, take a good look."
Xu Ying and the others leaned in close. Sure enough, there was no slit, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. Xu Ying explained, "I recently discovered the Hidden Scenery grounds of nine Nuo immortals, and every single one had been hollowed out and devoured."
After patching the leak in her Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground, the dimpled woman surveyed her surroundings. "Release the dragon-horse and step into my haven of latent transformation. It's perilous out there. If my leaked aura drew you here, I'm afraid it might also draw my nominal master. Heaven knows when he might track me down!"
Xu Ying agreed. The bronze bell ceased pinning the dragon-horse and flew up to hover above his head.
Taking the lead, Xu Ying followed the dimpled woman into her Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground. Guo Xiaodie, Li Yingzhu, Guo Yue, and the rest followed suit. Looking around, they beheld a pristine sanctuary of verdant hills and clear waters, replete with continuous Dao images and immortal radiance draped across the sky.
Before their eyes lay a complete Realm of Xiyi.
The immortal mountains of the Five Sacred Peaks, the Heavenly Mountain and Heavenly River, the Three Mystic Passes, the Twelve-Storyed Mansions—everything was clearly visible!
Looking up, Xu Ying even spotted the woman's Primordial Spirit upon the God Bridge, resembling a celestial maiden waiting to ascend.
Even more peculiar, inverted cave-heavens hung across the firmament: not only nine cave-heavens of the Mud Pill, but also nine cave-heavens of the Jade Pool and nine cave-heavens of the Crimson Palace!
Evidently, this dimpled woman was a grandmaster who cultivated both Nuo arts and Qi!
The bronze bell remarked in bewilderment, "She is plainly a Qi Refiner from three or four thousand years ago, so how can she cultivate both Nuo and Qi?"
The same question puzzled Xu Ying.
Dual cultivation of Nuo and Qi had only emerged in recent years; it was with Zhou Qiyun's tribulation that the practice had begun spreading across Shenzhou.
The female Nuo immortal bade them make themselves comfortable. "My surname is Bai, my given name Qiuzi. I was a Nuo master around the transition from Qin to Han, and I've lived in seclusion here for nearly four thousand years. Throughout all this time, I hid from my master and never let him find me. Who would have thought that today, you would be the ones to discover me?"
Bai Qiuzi was thoroughly on edge. Fetching a bright mirror, she gave her sleeve a gentle wave, sending the mirror aloft to hang in the sky. It reflected the landscape outside the Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground.
By now, the dragon-horse was free. Galloping away, it plunged deep into the vast marsh and swam beneath the water.
Bai Qiuzi turned to Xu Ying. "If you could sense my aura, my master surely can as well. He should be arriving soon! Make no sound!"
Hardly had her voice fallen when Xu Ying noticed the mirror's surface ripple slightly. A twisted silhouette appeared within the glass, which shuddered from time to time.
The figure searched all around without catching any trace. Though his lips did not move, a voice resonated in the ears of Bai Qiuzi, Xu Ying, and the others: "Qiuzi, how long have you been hiding? Nearly four thousand years, isn't it? Do you still intend to keep fleeing from shadow to shadow?"
Behind him, a Primordial Spirit leaped forth.
Seated in the void, that Primordial Spirit appeared boundless, yet occupied remarkably little physical space. It shone with brilliant divine light, shrouded in immortal mist. Suddenly, an eyeball rolled in the center of its forehead, opening a third eye that pierced through layers of empty space in search of the Hidden Scenery ground's whereabouts!
The blurred, twisted silhouette continued speaking in an effortless, smiling tone: "We were master and disciple after all. Why must there be such a gulf between us?"
His voice rang inside everyone's minds, conveyed through divine sense. Leisurely, he said, "Qiuzi, you might have misunderstood your master. I cherish your talent—why would I ever eat you? As long as you come out, I shall impart the orthodox path to you."
He chuckled softly. "Having hidden away for so long, you must have realized it by now, haven't you? Nuo arts may bring long life, but not true immortality. The celestial medicine you accumulated within your body through Nuo cultivation cannot grant you everlasting existence. Nor is your Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground a true Immortal Realm; it merely slows your aging. Surely you must have noticed yourself growing older by now?"
Bai Qiuzi's expression shifted drastically. A wave of anxious unease overcame her; his words had struck a raw nerve.
Xu Ying glanced at her hair and noticed a few strands of white interspersed among the locks. *Even a Nuo immortal undergoing latent transformation cannot attain true immortality?* he mused.
In just a brief span, the blurred figure's Primordial Spirit searched through all the adjacent void. Failing to locate Bai Qiuzi's Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground, he furrowed his brows slightly and muttered, "Little girl, where could you possibly have run?"
The blurred, contorted figure vanished.
Just as the onlookers were about to speak, Bai Qiuzi raised her hand and traced a few words in the air: *He will return.*
Sure enough, within the mirror in the sky, that blurred, twisted figure reappeared. His warped, swirling face abruptly pressed against the glass as if he had detected something, a massive eye blocking the surface as it peered inward.
The fluctuation of divine abilities radiating from the mirror had caught his attention, prompting him to trace the source.
The mirror in the sky was already vast, blanketing half the firmament; now, it was entirely filled by that single eye. Those inside the latent transformation ground could even see its intricate details with utter clarity!
The atmosphere turned stifling. Everyone held their breath, dare not take a single gasp, their hearts seemingly suspended in time.
The pressure was simply overwhelming!
Tense to the extreme, Bai Qiuzi produced a silver needle and offered it into the air, poising it before the mirror. Her body trembled, ready at any second to plunge the needle into the eye in the glass!
"So you are right here."
The voice sounded right beside her ear.
Bai Qiuzi's hand jerked, on the verge of driving the silver needle into the bizarre eye, when suddenly the eye blocking the mirror pulled back, revealing the blurred, twisted silhouette once more.
The figure looked up toward the heavens, where a black coffin came flying through the sky.
As the black coffin reflected in the bright mirror, the glass abruptly steadied for a moment, restoring the distorted silhouette to normal.
The figure's true features were revealed: a man appearing to be in his thirties, with a teardrop mole the size of a sesame seed below the corner of his eye. He was exceedingly handsome, yet tainted with an eerie, demonic aura.
The man with the teardrop mole abruptly vanished from the mirror's surface, evidently evading the black coffin's pursuit.
No sooner had he left than the black coffin descended from the heavens, landing right in the center of the mirror's reflection. A young woman drifted gently down before the coffin, her delicate brows slightly furrowed as she surveyed the surroundings. In a low murmur, she said, "Strange. I distinctly sensed your aura. Having emerged from the Cangwu Abyss, what is your aim?"
She took to the air, vanishing beyond the mirror along with the black coffin.
Bai Qiuzi waited a moment, then exhaled in relief. In a hushed voice, she said, "They should both be gone. I must relocate immediately. Do you have anything you wish to ask or say?"
A collective sigh of relief washed over everyone, their clothes drenched in sweat. That terrifying display just now had truly shaken them to the core.
Guo Xiaodie inquired, "Senior Bai, I see that you cultivate both Nuo and Qi, and your cultivation is astonishingly profound. Why do you refer to yourself as a Nuo immortal?"
Bai Qiuzi offered a sweet smile, revealing two dimples. "Nuo masters were originally Qi Refiners to begin with. The character 'Nuo' embodies humanity's struggle to cultivate immortality. In our era, Qi Refiners had reached a dead end. Some stubbornly adhered to orthodox tradition, refusing to change, while others, seeing that the traditional path was impassable, opened secret depositories instead. Those Qi Refiners who unlocked the secret depositories came to be called Nuo."
The Nuo masters of the Guo clan were utterly stunned. Who knew that Qi Refiners and Nuo masters were once of the same root?
Bai Qiuzi pushed open the temple gates of her Hidden Scenery ground and invited everyone out. "Nuo arts appeared very early on. Back then, Qi Refiners argued fiercely. Some deemed it unorthodox and attacked it, while others accused the traditionalists of being stubbornly ossified. The bickering eventually turned into outright fighting."
Bai Qiuzi was the last to step out. At some point, she had changed into the garb of a village girl, clad in coarse cloth with a floral headscarf. She continued, "Later, someone discovered that traps were hidden within the Nuo arts, raising suspicions that the one disseminating them harbored malicious intent. Thus, Emperor Zulong burned the books and buried the Nuo masters, incinerating the compromised techniques and executing a batch of fellows who spread those harmful methods. Yet it was futile; I still fell for it later on and tumbled right into the trap."
In that era, Nuo immortals were numerous, and many chose latent transformation within their Hidden Scenery to retire into mountains and forests.
Yet Bai Qiuzi discovered that many of her friends vanished after entering seclusion. When she went to visit them, she found those Nuo immortals had already been devoured, reduced to hollow husks.
Seeing that something was terribly wrong, she knew her generation of Nuo immortals had been targeted. Fortunately, having survived countless battles, she possessed a vast repertoire of tricks even if she wasn't the strongest among them.
She concealed her Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground upon the dragon-horse and drove it into Yunmeng Marsh. The celestial master who had imparted the methods in dreams searched for her repeatedly, but could never find her.
Xu Ying asked, "Miss Bai, why do you say Nuo arts were a scam from the very start? Weren't they created by Qi Refiners? I once met a Qi Refiner from the era following Emperor Wu whose Nuo arts contained no traps, allowing him to refine the celestial medicine."
Bai Qiuzi said, "Before I entered seclusion, a group of Nuo masters had already become aware of the trap; they must have been the ones who developed the orthodox method. Though I never learned their orthodox techniques, I managed to outlive them by several thousand years."
Mounted atop the dragon-horse, she added, "Even with the orthodox methods, I suspect Nuo immortals cannot escape aging. I hid within my Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground as a Nuo immortal for over three thousand years, originally feeling no passage of time. But in recent years, I have begun to feel it."
Her expression grew solemn. "What's more, I feel that the pace of my aging is accelerating. In the end, cultivating immortality via Nuo arts is still not the true path. Only ascension brings genuine eternal life! This time, I shall step into the mortal world to seek the way to ascension. I can hide no longer!"
Just as she was about to bid them farewell, Xu Ying produced several thin, handwritten booklets. "Miss Bai, I have here the orthodox methods for the Mud Pill, Crimson Palace, and Jade Pool, which can refine the celestial medicine of those three secret depositories. Cultivating them should prevent that person from detecting you. Once you refine the celestial medicine, you will no longer need to fear being devoured."
Bai Qiuzi accepted them and read through carefully. The more she read, the more astonished and thrilled she became. Cultivating according to these handwritten copies would undoubtedly allow her to refine the three kinds of celestial medicine in her body! "Did you come searching for me in hopes of obtaining an orthodox method?"
Suppressing her excitement, Bai Qiuzi turned eyes like limpid autumn waters upon Xu Ying, looking him up and down. "I failed to teach you an orthodox method, yet ended up receiving three from you instead. You're still lacking the method for the Bubbling Spring secret depository, aren't you?"
Seeing Xu Ying nod, she laughed heartily. "Leave the Bubbling Spring secret depository's technique to me—I'll get it done for you! Up ahead on Mount Dongting sits a mountain god temple. Wait for me there!"
She spurred the dragon-horse, and it galloped wildly across the water's surface, its hooves pattering as it vanished into the distance.
Li Yingzhu glanced at Xu Ying, nudged his shoulder with hers, and giggled. "Demon King Xu, um... could you transcribe a copy of those three orthodox methods for us?"
Leaning into Xu Ying's ear, she whispered, "Remember that night on Mount Jiuyi? I was the one who stripped Xiaodie bare and tucked her into your bedding."
Seeing them leaning so close, Guo Yue coughed.
Recalling that night, Xu Ying blushed slightly. "Second Aunt, the Guo clan has shown me kindness. Old Ancestor Guo even stood against Emperor Shengshen to protect me. What are a mere three orthodox methods worth mentioning?"
Li Yingzhu beamed, revealing a pair of canine teeth, and whispered, "Tonight, I'll tuck Xiaodie into your bed again!"
Xu Ying flushed crimson, his heart pounding, uncertain whether she was teasing or in earnest.
They made their way to the mountain god temple on Mount Dongting. The deity had long since departed; after tidying up, the Guo clansmen waited quietly inside.
A dragon-horse several dozen yards long sped across the terrain, its iron hooves clattering as it flew between mountain ranges, alerting the Nether Court. The ghost-gods of the Nether Court looked out in astonishment, terrified to see the dragon-horse charging straight toward the forbidden zone of the Netherworld.
"Who is this? Who dares trespass into a place where even our Nether Court dares not set foot?"
The dragon-horse raced on, covering a hundred thousand li in a single night, until it reached the depths of the forbidden zone. Somber mountains loomed, graves dotted the landscape, and ghostly fires flickered everywhere.
The dragon-horse halted before a gloomy mountain. The entire mountain was a sheer cliff, upon which hung a suspended coffin forged of black iron.
Standing upon the dragon-horse's forehead, Bai Qiuzi looked up at the suspended black iron coffin and spoke: "I must repay a debt of gratitude. I need the technique for the Bubbling Spring secret depository."
A majestic, chilling voice echoed from within the black iron coffin: "Bai Qiuzi, you aren't dead yet? What does your debt of gratitude have to do with me?"
Bai Qiuzi smiled. "Old Demon Jiuyou, among all my enemies, you are the only one who possesses the Bubbling Spring secret depository's technique. Naturally, I had to come to you."
"Bai Qiuzi, you seek death!"
The black coffin shattered, and terrifying power erupted from within. "Both of us were hiding peacefully, yet you just had to provoke me! Today, even at the risk of being discovered by evil, I shall send you on your way!"
Xu Ying waited an entire night in the mountain god temple on Mount Dongting, growing slightly anxious. Yuan Qi muttered, "Ah Ying, does this person have any credibility at all?"
The bronze bell agreed, saying, "Indeed, I haven't seen Li Yingzhu strip Guo Xiaodie and deliver her here."
Yuan Qi said, "Lord Bell, I was talking about Bai Qiuzi."
The bronze bell muttered sheepishly, "I thought you meant Li Yingzhu."
Suddenly, the sound of galloping hooves echoed through the air.
Outside the temple, a dragon-horse neighed. Xu Ying stepped out to see Bai Qiuzi leaping down from its back, covered in blood and bruised all over. Offering a black scroll, she laughed. "Here is the Black Water Underworld Scripture. It took quite a bit of effort to fetch."
Xu Ying took the scroll and opened his mouth to speak, but Bai Qiuzi waved at him with a grin. "Until we meet again in the world!"
With that, she leaped back onto the steed. Carrying the valiant woman, the dragon-horse bounded into the darkness and vanished without a trace.
Chapter 135