Over the next few days, Xu Ying and the others continued their search for the anglers. Yet every time they tracked one down to their hiding place, they found the person already harvested, leaving behind nothing more than an empty skin sack.
Xu Ying drew in a cold breath.
Lord Bell said, "Ah Ying, something is wrong. Even though these anglers severed their own cultivation and realms, the immortal herbs inside them remained. If this ultimate harvester has harvested so many anglers, wouldn't that mean an immense quantity of immortal herbs has accumulated in his hands?"
Yuan Qi murmured, "Anglers harvest Nuo immortals, leek farmers, and other anglers. Then the ultimate harvester harvests them. Big fish eat little fish, and in the end, the vast majority of immortal herbs stolen by Nuo immortals over the past tens of thousands of years are gathered in a single person. That person... must be immensely nourishing!"
The purple immortal plant poked a few leaves from his head and nodded vigorously in agreement.
Chu Xiangxiang said, "Can one person even refine that many immortal herbs? Even cave-heavens formed through the orthodox method cannot fully refine them. To do that, one must cultivate the ancestral method. If he cannot refine them, why slaughter so many anglers?"
Xu Ying pondered for a moment. "Though these anglers severed their realms, the cave-heavens they amassed are still there. Every single one of their cave-heavens is extraordinarily powerful, forged from fusing hundreds or even thousands of Nuo immortals' cave-heavens together. If this person gathered all those cave-heavens into himself..."
Everyone fell silent.
By harvesting anglers and leek farmers, the ultimate harvester was gathering within himself the immortal herbs collected by the vast majority of Nuo immortals over more than forty thousand years.
By the same token, by harvesting their cave-heavens, he was consolidating the cave-heavens of nearly all those Nuo immortals into his own body. Even if he still could not fully refine the immortal herbs, his speed of refining would be monstrously fast.
Moreover, possessing such an astounding abundance of immortal herbs and cave-heavens would bolster his cultivation and strength to a terrifying degree!
"He wants to become an immortal," Xu Ying murmured.
Without cultivating the ancestral method, relying solely on an unimaginable amount of immortal herbs, unimaginable magic power, and an unimaginable body, yuan qi, heart power, yin and yang, and divine consciousness, he intended to face the heavenly tribulation directly!
"This person found a way to crack my scheme."
Xu Ying could not help shivering, his voice low. "For over forty thousand years, the Qi Refiners of the Yuanshou world have torn into each other in endless internecine strife—you harvest me, I harvest you, big fish devouring small fish. In the end, they have bred an unimaginable monster."
An incomparably powerful, incomparably terrifying monster!
That person's cultivation was the collective cultivation of countless Nuo immortals consumed across forty thousand years of infighting!
Lord Bell said, "He is the one truly harvesting the world. Just what heights will his power reach?"
Xu Ying continued his search, trying to uncover any clue. Yet the ultimate harvester's senses were keener than his own; the harvester was consistently able to locate the concealed anglers and reap them before Xu Ying could arrive.
Time and again, Xu Ying found only shed human skins.
Some of these anglers' skins were contorted in loud wailing, some looked blank and dazed, while others showed an unprecedented relief and release.
When Xu Ying questioned them about who had taken their lives, they wracked their minds but could recall nothing of the harvesting process. Naturally, they could not tell Xu Ying the ultimate harvester's true identity.
The harvester had erased part of their consciousness to conceal who he was.
"Once he finishes harvesting these anglers, he will attempt to cross his tribulation. Only then will we learn who he really is."
Though reluctant, Xu Ying had no choice but to abandon the chase. He said to Chu Xiangxiang, "It has been a long time since I left the Fusang tree, and I haven't returned to see the Shang people. Since we are nearby, why don't we pay a visit?"
Chu Xiangxiang agreed and smiled. "My divine father entrusted me to Uncle. Wherever you go, I will naturally follow."
They set out for Yunmeng Marsh. Ancient behemoths inhabited the vast wetland, often lurking beneath the deep waters. Yuan Qi grew visibly cheerful once they arrived, spending the journey chasing those gigantic beasts and feasting to his heart's content.
His present strength already surpassed most of the colossal creatures, allowing him to roam unchecked through Yunmeng Marsh.
Xu Ying let him frolic freely, clearing his mind completely. He smiled. "No matter who the ultimate harvester turns out to be, it no longer matters. The era of anglers has passed."
Just as he said this, a dragon-horse suddenly leaped from beneath the water and sprinted across the surface, racing off at breakneck speed. Xu Ying stared in surprise, then hurriedly pursued it, calling out, "Bai Qiuzi... Miss Bai, wait—"
The dragon-horse spanned dozens of zhang in length and moved with astonishing speed, skimming the water like fleeting light. But with Xu Ying's formidable cultivation, he made the creature rise into the air against its will the very next moment, bringing it down before him.
Chu Xiangxiang rushed over, puzzled as to why Xu Ying would address a dragon-horse as Miss Bai. Just then, she noticed a faint, slender line hovering vertically in the air above the beast's back, from which a light shone out.
The line parted to either side, opening a doorway from within, and a pleasant woman's voice drifted out: "Is that Fellow Daoist Xu? Quickly, come inside! My lunatic of a master is hunting me down again—he nearly caught up to me!"
From the doorway stepped a woman dressed in Qin-Han attire. She glanced around warily before pulling the entrance completely open. She waved to Xu Ying, gesturing for them to enter quickly.
Chu Xiangxiang followed Xu Ying into the female Nuo immortal Bai Qiuzi's Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground. Whenever Bai Qiuzi smiled, dimples appeared on her cheeks, giving her a very sweet expression.
Bai Qiuzi poked her head out of the Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground, let out a sharp whistle, and then shut the entrance.
Hearing the signal, the dragon-horse bolted at once, plunging into the water as it ran and swimming toward the deeper abyss.
Xu Ying asked curiously, "Miss Bai, your master is still pursuing you?"
He had first met the young woman when Yunmeng Marsh resurfaced in the mortal world. The dragon-horse had bounded from the depths, treading across the waters, and when Xu Ying and the others pursued the strange beast, they had unexpectedly discovered a Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground concealed on its back.
That was when Bai Qiuzi had gotten to know Xu Ying and told him that her master was hunting her.
To think that after all these years, her master was still after her. His perseverance was truly astonishing.
Looking on edge, Bai Qiuzi conjured a clear mirror and suspended it in the air. "He hasn't been chasing me the entire time. There was a period when he vanished, and I breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed a few peaceful years. But over the past year, he started hunting me again, determined to capture me."
Weaving through the subterranean depths, the dragon-horse found a stone cavern, crouched down, and hid quietly.
Xu Ying was taken aback. "Over the past year?"
The past year happened to be precisely when he had been spreading the ancestral method.
Bai Qiuzi kept her eyes glued to the mirror. "I've been hiding everywhere lately, barely clinging to life. If you draw him here and he notices where I am, I'm dead for sure."
Xu Ying probed, "Are you saying your master isn't dead?"
Bai Qiuzi shot him a sidelong glance and laughed. "If he were dead, how could he be chasing me?"
Xu Ying and Chu Xiangxiang exchanged a look, each seeing the surprise in the other's eyes.
By now, anglers and leek farmers had completely vanished from the world; every one Xu Ying had found had been turned into human skin, thoroughly harvested.
How could Bai Qiuzi's master have survived until now?
Could her master be the ultimate harvester? Xu Ying and Chu Xiangxiang wondered in unison, their minds in sync.
Chu Xiangxiang asked, "Miss Bai, have you not left your Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground during this time?"
Bai Qiuzi shook her head. "How would I dare? It took everything I had just to evade my master and stay alive. If I stepped outside, he would surely catch and devour me."
Chu Xiangxiang smiled. "No wonder you are still in hiding. You don't know this, but the world has changed. You no longer need to hide. You only need to cultivate the ancestral method, and you won't be harvested by anyone."
Bai Qiuzi asked in bewilderment, "Ancestral method? What ancestral method? I thought it was the orthodox method."
When Xu Ying had met her, he had been searching for the orthodox Nuo method and had shared what he knew with her. In return, Bai Qiuzi had gone to the Netherworld to drag out another Nuo immortal and force him to surrender his Bubbling Spring Nuo method.
Ever since then, Bai Qiuzi had remained in seclusion, and her understanding of the world remained frozen at that time.
Xu Ying looked at her and said with a smile, "After cultivating the orthodox method I taught you, did your lifespan stop draining away?"
Bai Qiuzi said, "It is still draining, but much slower than before... Wait, he's here!"
Right then, a figure appeared in the clear mirror before their eyes.
It was a man in his thirties with a tear mole beneath the corner of his right eye. He was dignified, remarkably handsome, and carried an extraordinary bearing.
Xu Ying looked him up and down, thinking, Could this man be the ultimate harvester?
As the thought crossed his mind, the man with the tear mole spoke, calling out in a clear voice, "Qiuzi, I have a favor to ask. I hope we can meet!"
Bai Qiuzi held a finger to her lips, gesturing for them to remain still.
The man with the tear mole looked around, searching for her whereabouts, and his voice reached their ears: "Qiuzi, your master knows you hate me deeply, but I was left with no choice. Who would willingly devour others unless driven to a dead end?"
Bai Qiuzi huffed under her breath and said nothing.
The man with the tear mole sighed. "Now, great disaster looms over your master. Someone has marked me. I fear my cultivation will be destroyed and I will end up as food for another. Qiuzi, your master knows you excel at hiding. Consider this a plea from me—save my life!"
He added urgently, "If you save me, I will pass down everything I have learned in my life to you! Oh, and the ancestral method! Did you know? Your master obtained the ancestral method among the Nuo methods! By opening cave-heavens with this method, one can fully refine immortal herbs! With this ancestral method, you will never have to hide again!"
Bai Qiuzi wore an odd look as she glanced at Xu Ying and whispered, "You mentioned an ancestral method just now too. Does an ancestral method really exist?"
Xu Ying smiled. "Of course it does. I was the one who spread it."
Bai Qiuzi quickly clamped a hand over his mouth, whispering frantically, "Keep your voice down! Don't be so loud!"
Yet the man with the tear mole caught the source of the sound, and the figure in the mirror snapped his gaze directly toward them.
Bai Qiuzi's expression shifted drastically, and she stomped her feet repeatedly. "It's over, completely over! He found my location!"
Before her words faded, the man's face filled the entire surface of the mirror.
The next instant, the sky of this Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground shook violently. The man with the tear mole stepped in from beyond the sky, his voice gentle. "Qiuzi, rest assured, I won't harm you, let alone eat you. I only need your methods to evade that person..."
Just as he said this, he spotted Xu Ying standing beside Bai Qiuzi. His expression changed drastically, and without a second thought, he turned on his heel to flee.
Xu Ying laughed. "Fellow Daoist, why the great rush?"
The man with the tear mole said nothing. He summoned cave-heavens one after another—some large, some small, numbering around six hundred. His Primordial Spirit materialized, towering a hundred zhang tall, seated in the void, surrounded by the swirling cave-heavens.
With a leap into the air, he swept past with all those cave-heavens in a howling rush, vanishing into the marsh. Seeing this, Xu Ying knew at once that he could not possibly be the harvester.
Bai Qiuzi was filled with shock and doubt, unable to understand why her master had paled and fled in panic the moment he saw Xu Ying.
Xu Ying's eyes gleamed as he took a step forward. "He may not be the harvester, but the harvester has definitely set his sights on him! Xiangxiang, let's follow him! As long as we keep our eyes on him, we are certain to see that harvester."
With that single step, he was already outside the Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground. Bai Qiuzi had not even glimpsed how he had departed from her realm.
She stood flabbergasted. Back then, Xu Ying had merely been a petty Qi Refiner cultivating both Nuo and qi, far inferior to her in ability. After not seeing him for a few years, she could no longer see through his depth at all.
Chu Xiangxiang followed Xu Ying out of the Hidden Scenery ground. Seeing this, Bai Qiuzi hastily rushed out, leaped onto the dragon-horse's back, burst from the water, and shouted, "Wait for me..."
No sooner had she spoken than a massive serpent hundreds of zhang long lowered its head from the clouds and chuckled. "So it's Miss Bai! If you want to keep up with Ah Ying, come onto my back. I'll carry you after them."
Bai Qiuzi stared in bewilderment. "You are... you're that yuan serpent that was with Xu Ying back then?"
She stammered, "How did you become so gigantic? No, your aura..."
Overwhelmed with shock, she quickly composed herself and had the dragon-horse leap onto Yuan Qi's back.
Yuan Qi slithered through the air, riding clouds and mist, surrounded by surging wind and thunder as he chased after Xu Ying.
He still had breath to spare as he spoke: "Miss Bai, Ah Ying is pursuing your master. It looks like your master isn't an angler, but a leek farmer. His skills aren't top-tier, so you can rest easy."
Bai Qiuzi gaped, murmuring, "What is an angler, and what is a leek farmer?"
Yuan Qi chuckled. "Anglers are more ancient. They received the inheritance of the Undying People's Nuo methods, and most fused their various cave-heavens into one, leaving only the six great cave-heavens. Leek farmers never got the true transmission. They can only slice cave-heavens from Nuo immortals and graft them onto themselves, unable to unite them into a whole. Such leek farmers are usually products of the era after Qi Refiners declined."
Bai Qiuzi half-understood, her mind completely consumed by shock.
I only lived in seclusion for a few years after parting with Xu Ying. How did the world change so fast? Even this big snake has become this formidable!
Yuan Qi carried her at top speed, flying eastward across tens of thousands of li before finally catching up to Xu Ying at Mount Taihang.
Following the tear-marked man, Xu Ying arrived inside Tongtian Gorge. Bai Qiuzi leaped down from the great serpent's head and looked into the distance, seeing her master standing beneath a waterfall with his back turned to them.
Suppressing the fear in her heart, Bai Qiuzi was about to speak when a gust of wind blew past, causing the tear-marked man's body to flutter slightly.
He turned with a smile—one brimming with free-spirited detachment, devoid of any lingering attachment to the mortal world.
"Qiuzi, you're here," the tear-marked man said with a smile.
Xu Ying frowned slightly. The man had already been harvested.
"I followed closely on his heels. The one who harvested him couldn't have gone far!"
Suddenly, Xu Ying felt a stirring. He looked up toward the sky, where chains rattled with a metallic clatter as a black coffin flew past overhead.
"Miss Qingbi!"
Chapter 309