Xu Ying's heart gave two heavy thuds. The black coffin and chains flying across the sky were unmistakably familiar—they were the very accoutrements Fairy Qingbi always carried.
It suddenly struck him that back in Yunmeng Marsh, while hiding in Bai Qiuzi's Hidden Scenery latent transformation ground, he had seen the man with the tear mole hunting Bai Qiuzi down—and trailing right behind that man had been Fairy Qingbi!
Now the man with the tear mole was dead, and Qingbi was nearby. Could Qingbi be that harvester?
The big bell and Yuan Qi cried out in shock as well; they too recognized the origins of the black coffin and chains.
Back at the deserted temple on the rocky mountain, one of them had been a snake demon following Xu Ying to the temple to escape the Nai River's invasion, while the other had been the big bell suppressing Qingbi. On that fateful night, when the Nai River invaded and Xu Fu's subordinates attacked the temple, Fairy Qingbi had been released, and their paths had crossed.
After that, every encounter had been a reunion.
The chains and the black coffin were treasures Li Xiaoke had used to suppress her; once she refined them, they had become her own magic treasures instead.
Fairy Qingbi's sudden appearance here took them by complete surprise.
Yuan Qi's voice trembled. "Ah Ying, you don't think Fairy Qingbi could be that ultimate harvester, do you?"
At his words, the big bell couldn't help shuddering, letting out clanging rings as it said, "It's possible! The old devil Qingbi is insidious and cunning. She deliberately let my master, Li Xiaoke, suppress her for three thousand years, then broke out of the well and seduced pure-hearted youths to conceal her true face, all to seize the chance to harvest the world's anglers..."
Yuan Qi cried, "Old Devil Qingbi wants to become an immortal!"
"Aba aba!" Bai Qiuzi waved her arms, a stalk of grass having sprouted from her head at some point.
Xu Ying leapt into the air, giving chase in the direction Fairy Qingbi had gone. The big bell hurriedly flew onto the giant snake's head, Chu Xiangxiang landed on Yuan Qi's brow, and after a moment's hesitation, Bai Qiuzi followed behind.
The giant snake soared into the sky, pursuing Xu Ying.
Ahead, Xu Ying and Fairy Qingbi streaked across the sky one after the other. Xu Ying was faster, but Fairy Qingbi's cultivation method was remarkably bizarre—it was the Gourd Heaven Questioning the Immortals Scripture.
This method achieved extraordinary mastery over spatial arts; folding space and shrinking the earth into inches were mere minor tricks in its repertoire.
Even though Xu Ying's cultivation and strength had reached the mortal realm's absolute pinnacle, he still held immense admiration for Fairy Qingbi's otherworldly divine ability.
Though Qingbi was not as fast as Xu Ying in raw speed, her spatial folding spanned a thousand li in a single contraction and release, making it extraordinarily formidable.
Xu Ying found it difficult to close the gap for the moment, and the two sped far into the distance, one trailing the other. Behind them, Yuan Qi desperately pushed his speed, yet only fell further and further behind.
Xu Ying's eyes flickered. Back when Qingbi had tracked down that man with the tear mole, she had said he came out of Cangwu Abyss. Clearly, Qingbi knew him.
*This is far too coincidental. Could Qingbi really be that harvester?*
Just as the thought crossed his mind, Qingbi's movements ahead abruptly grew erratic, darting east and west unpredictably, as if trying to evade his pursuit.
Xu Ying's heart sank, but he pressed on after her.
Suddenly, the realization struck him: *Qingbi isn't trying to shake me off; she's pursuing someone else! That person is trying to lose her, moving erratically, which forces Qingbi to constantly shift directions while tracking them, making it look as though she's trying to shake me!*
Realizing this, Xu Ying felt somewhat relieved. *The person she is pursuing is the harvester! She didn't dare stop and wait for me because she was afraid of losing them!*
Behind him, the two great cave-heavens of Crimson Palace and Mud Pill suddenly emerged. Both Nuo ancestor cave-heavens rotated simultaneously, driving his heart power and physical body to the absolute limit in a single instant!
*Boom!*
Xu Ying pushed off with his feet. Layer upon layer of space before him compressed and folded under immense pressure before shattering with a roar! The splintered space ignited into bursts of thunderfire, detonating in rolling blasts as violent shockwaves surged outward!
Xu Ying's speed instantly peaked, closing the distance between him and Fairy Qingbi at terrifying rapidity!
This was the first time he had ever traveled through such pure, unadulterated violence—paying no heed to any Great Dao laws or flight abilities, directly crushing space with sheer raw power and physical might, propelling his speed beyond any flight technique or Great Dao law!
Suddenly, Fairy Qingbi snapped in a sharp angle, speeding off in a different direction.
Xu Ying hastily wheeled around. However, because he was chasing her through raw speed, his maneuvers lacked the fluidity of her spatial Dao methods, making turning difficult. By the time he righted his trajectory, Mount Jiuyi loomed closer and closer ahead.
From afar, he saw Fairy Qingbi alight upon one of the mountain peaks, her fluttering robes momentarily revealing her silhouette. Xu Ying immediately rushed over and descended onto that peak, the two Nuo ancestor cave-heavens spinning rapidly behind him gradually settling back into stillness.
Yet his heart could not settle, for this was Mount Jiuyi—and on Mount Jiuyi lived an old acquaintance.
On this mountain lay a neglected grave, within which was buried the empty skin sack of Zhou Qiyun.
His other acquaintance, Foolish Ah Fu, also lived here.
That Fairy Qingbi's acquaintance had also come here made Xu Ying suspect Foolish Ah Fu for a moment, but he immediately dismissed the thought. Foolish Ah Fu hated the Nuo methods more than anyone, viewing them as wicked arts used to harvest the common people, and had gone so far as to hatch a scheme to personally destroy them.
In that case, who could Fairy Qingbi's acquaintance be?
"South of the Xiaoxiang, Cangwu Abyss, beneath Mount Jiuyi, an ageless immortal."
This Mount Jiuyi was also the place where he and Qingbi had once lived. Xu Ying had herded livestock at the foot of the mountain, while Qingbi had cultivated immortality up in the peaks.
The two had once shared a time of innocent companionship.
Only, that had been more than three thousand years ago.
*Qingbi tracked that person all the way back to Mount Jiuyi. Could that person have been on Mount Jiuyi back then as well?*
Xu Ying suddenly remembered something: Mount Jiuyi was where Fairy Qingbi's sect had once resided!
Back then, the Watchers had washed away Xu Ying's memories and sent him to a village beneath Mount Jiuyi to become a boy herding sheep and cattle. Driving his herds up the mountain, he had encountered Fairy Qingbi cultivating among the peaks.
The young maiden had been washing her lustrous hair by a stream while Xu Ying grazed his sheep nearby.
He had stepped forward to ask, learning that she was an immortal cultivating in the mountains, and began visiting often. The maiden had also visited frequently, and the two had gradually grown close. Not until their young hearts began to stir with affection without their realizing it did the maiden sense something was amiss, quietly departing from his life.
Remembering this, an indescribable emotion welled up in Xu Ying's heart.
Yet at the same time, his doubts grew even deeper.
*Qingbi's sect was located right here back then. Now she has tracked that person to this very place... could the ultimate harvester be a fellow disciple of hers?*
Xu Ying swept out his divine consciousness, blanketing a thousand li in every direction and engulfing all of Mount Jiuyi to search for Fairy Qingbi's whereabouts.
*If there was once a sect here, why is there not a single trace left behind?*
Xu Ying searched carefully. Bishui Pool, which led to Cangwu Abyss, lay at the foot of the mountain, and Taixu cave-heaven was within Bishui Pool. Taixu cave-heaven should have been this sect's private property, yet the sect had left no palaces, buildings, or mountain gate behind.
Suddenly, Xu Ying sensed Foolish Ah Fu on another mountain peak. Foolish Ah Fu was delivering a lecture, teaching disciples of the Jiuyi Sect.
The Jiuyi Sect had numerous disciples—fully two to three thousand—most of them birds and beasts, with relatively few humans among them.
A thought stirred in Xu Ying's mind. He flew over to that peak at once, took a seat among the crowd, and listened quietly to the lesson.
Foolish Ah Fu looked somewhat surprised upon seeing him, yet patiently continued teaching. Only when he had finished explaining a cultivation method did he dismiss the class.
As the disciples dispersed one after another, Foolish Ah Fu walked up to Xu Ying with a smile. "What brought you here to listen to my lecture?"
Xu Ying's eyes gleamed. "The technique you taught them was quite interesting. Would you let me take a look?"
Foolish Ah Fu produced a jade slip Dao book—a piece of emerald-green bamboo slip—and said, "A fool passed this to me. Seeing that the technique was genuinely impressive, I comprehended it thoroughly and passed it on to the Jiuyi Sect disciples."
Xu Ying took the Dao slip and examined it closely, finding the method inscribed upon it to be titled Gourd Heaven Dao Verification Scripture.
As Xu Ying studied it with care, he felt that its Immortal Dao runes contained the wonders of space—a domain he had barely touched upon before.
"Could you tell me how that fool passed the Gourd Heaven Dao Verification Scripture to you?" Xu Ying asked.
Foolish Ah Fu then recounted how Fairy Qingbi had been living in seclusion within Taixu cave-heaven and suddenly departed, how he himself entered Taixu cave-heaven, and how Immortal Yuhu had happened to be looking for disciples at that very moment.
"That Immortal Yuhu seemed to hold a grudge against Great Emperor Cangwu," Foolish Ah Fu said. "He ordered us to take his immortal artifact into Cangwu Abyss to ambush Great Emperor Cangwu."
Xu Ying pressed, "And then?"
Foolish Ah Fu said lazily, "And then, he became a fool. Wanting me to carry his jade gourd, eat his immortal pills, cultivate his immortal arts, and throw my life away in Cangwu Abyss? In his dreams."
Xu Ying's eyes flickered. "The method Miss Qingbi cultivates must share the same origin as the Gourd Heaven Dao Verification Scripture. In other words, Qingbi's sect was indeed right here. Ah Fu, do you know where their mountain gate is located?"
Foolish Ah Fu replied, "I don't. But this sect cultivates spatial Dao methods; they surely concealed their space into formlessness. If you master the Gourd Heaven Dao Verification Scripture, searching for their mountain gate should be much easier."
Xu Ying smiled. "You've deciphered the Gourd Heaven Dao Verification Scripture. Why don't you help me find this sect?"
Foolish Ah Fu yawned, shuffling away in his scuffed shoes while waving a hand. "I'm exhausted from teaching. I'm going to rest by the grave. Look for it yourself."
Xu Ying shook his head and pondered the Gourd Heaven Dao Verification Scripture intently. After a long while, he put the Dao slip away.
*Truly worthy of an immortal method—exquisite and incomparable. It cannot be fully grasped in a brief moment.*
Xu Ying channeled his vital qi and activated the Gourd Heaven Dao Verification Scripture, thinking, *Fortunately, I don't need to master it completely; knowing enough for my purposes is plenty!*
The greatest subtlety of the Gourd Heaven Dao Verification Scripture lay in viewing heaven and earth as a jade gourd—all realms of the world contained within one's own gourd. From this, one gained the wonders of spatial Dao methods, reaching for things as easily as plucking an object from a pouch.
As Xu Ying circulated this immortal method, the world before his eyes looked entirely different.
Scattered around Mount Jiuyi were hidden spaces of various sizes. Some were folded away to hide a towering portal, some concealed a waterfall, others a well or a palace, and still others harbored graves and coffins.
A sect of immense scale had been partitioned into tens of thousands of pieces and concealed within separate pockets of space.
Now, those myriad hidden spaces lay fully exposed to Xu Ying's gaze!
At that moment, Xu Ying spotted a concealed path: a flight of stone steps leading to an unknown destination. It was near those stone steps that Fairy Qingbi had vanished moments ago.
Xu Ying walked over, his silhouette flashing as he vanished without a trace from the mountain, stepping directly into that concealed space.
Carrying Chu Xiangxiang, Bai Qiuzi, and the others, Yuan Qi finally caught up to the area, only to find no sign of Xu Ying.
Foolish Ah Fu lay leisurely across Zhou Qiyun's burial mound with a stalk of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth, silently thinking, *Cultivating faster than even me... having a brain really is convenient...*
His own skull was hollow and empty, containing nothing but a single beam of radiance.
Xu Ying climbed the stone stairs, stepping upward pace by pace. From above came Fairy Qingbi's voice: "Three thousand six hundred years ago, my master reached the end of her lifespan, and I buried her here. I was someone who strove to restrain my emotions, intending to stay with my master and grow old upon this Mount Jiuyi until my own days came to an end."
Hearing her voice, Xu Ying quickened his steps.
Ahead lay the sacred grounds of the Gourd Heaven Sect, a radiant and majestic spectacle bathed in sunlight like an immortal realm, with palaces perched atop the peaks.
Fairy Qingbi's voice continued, "It was you, Dao Brother, who invited me to emerge into the world. You possessed a broad heart and far-reaching vision. You told me that no one could fully comprehend the ancient texts anymore, that countless Dao methods and divine powers were lost with only fragmented scrolls remaining. You harbored grand ambitions to reverse the decline of Qi Refiners, and you asked for my aid."
A stir rippled through Xu Ying's heart. An image flashed through his mind—on the eve of Zhou Qiyun's heavenly tribulation, Qingbi had drifted onto Mount Wuwang, landing alongside her black coffin atop a ridge formed by a severed mountain.
The spot where she had landed was an imprint left behind by a giant.
"Does Miss recognize the giant who left these footprints?" he had asked back then.
Qingbi had answered at the time, "He should be an old acquaintance of mine. That acquaintance was erudite and possessed witty conversation, settling on Mount Wuwang. I once received his care and benefited greatly from him."
Remembering this, Xu Ying looked up at the palaces of the Gourd Heaven Sect. Could the Dao Brother Qingbi spoke of be that giant?
The Master of Mud Pill Palace, who had plotted against Zhou Qiyun?
Xu Ying had deep ties to him. Qinyan Cave, where Yuan Qi had lived, had once been his cave dwelling; there, he had left behind an inheritance on the stone wall, turning the snake catcher Zhou Qiyun from three hundred years ago into his human great medicinal herb.
It was also there that Xu Ying had obtained the Mud Pill Palace Dragon-Seeking Locating Art, enabling him to become a Nuo master.
And it was he who had left two cups of tea in the cave-heaven on Mount Wuwang, one cup extinguishing the female demon immortal suppressed there by the Heavenly Dao divine artifact.
*The Master of Mud Pill Palace should only be a figure from three or four thousand years ago. Could he really harvest all the anglers?* Xu Ying thought.
"Dao Brother's wisdom commanded the respect of us all; even someone as haughty and proud as Li Xiaoke bowed to you in genuine admiration,"
Qingbi's voice drifted down. "You were the leader of the righteous path, possessing profound erudition. When I was unable to fathom the Gourd Heaven Questioning the Immortals Scripture, I sought your guidance. Had it not been for your instruction, I could never have survived Li Xiaoke's suppression to this day. You were the most brilliant figure of our era, the person with the greatest hope of crossing the tribulation and ascending to immortality."
Just then, a towering silhouette appeared at the mountain summit. His voice boomed like thunder as he chuckled, "Qingbi, why do you always dwell on such ancient history?"
Fairy Qingbi said softly, "After freeing myself from suppression, I went to your cave dwelling to seek you, but could not find you. I thought you had already passed away or perished in the Great Purge. I believed everyone from my era was dead—until I saw your figure once more on Mount Wuwang. Back then, Zhou Qiyun was crossing his tribulation, and taking advantage of his post-tribulation weakness, you devoured him. I was shocked. Could this truly still be the person you were back then?"
Her voice remained calm as she asked, "You refused to see me, constantly avoiding me with secretive movements. I tracked you into Yunmeng Marsh, yet you were pursuing someone else, fleeing the moment you saw me. Why must you always evade me?"
The Master of Mud Pill Palace sighed. "If I say my conscience was troubled, would you believe me? I didn't want an old friend from the past to see me in the midst of devouring people."
His gaze was somber as he looked toward the stone steps behind Qingbi. "Ageless immortal, we meet again."
Xu Ying walked up the steps, emerging behind Fairy Qingbi.
Chapter 310