Zhou Qiyun's expression shifted unpredictably. "Why would His Majesty come to Yongzhou at a time like this? Why use ghost children to gather yang qi? Could it be..."
A strange look came over his face. "Has the injury I left on him back then still not healed?"
He sighed and silently looked up at the sky, thinking, *Emperor Zhidao Dasheng showed me great kindness, and I have no desire to commit regicide and usurp the throne. Emperor Shengshen, coming to Yongzhou at this moment puts me in quite a difficult position.*
Xu Ying looked around and found himself within a towering mountain range. He stood atop a precipice, and looking down from the cliff edge revealed only an expanse of emerald water.
It was a lake. Just moments ago, they had been fished up from that very lake with fishing lines by the gold-armored soldiers guarding the cliff edge!
The strange part was that they had clearly been in Cangwu Abyss just moments before, not in any lake.
*Besides, Cangwu Abyss should have two shores, but this cliff can only be counted as one. Where did the other shore of Cangwu Abyss go?*
Xu Ying looked across. Facing him was only open sky, with verdant peaks and green waters far in the distance—not a single cliff that could correspond to the one beneath him.
*Could the other shore of Cangwu Abyss not even be in Mount Jiuyi?*
He was baffled. Where else could that other shore possibly be?
"Demon King Xu, there is something very wrong with this grand figure from the capital!"
Yuan Weiyang came to his side and whispered, "Look at the people guarding the passes throughout Mount Jiuyi. None of them belong to ordinary Jianghu sects. Their uniforms are the garb of the imperial capital's Jinwu Guard!"
Xu Ying looked over. Sure enough, figures clad in armor were stationed at various precarious vantage points across the peak. Coming from the countryside, he did not understand official attire, but he could tell that these sets of armor were rare treasures.
Every single plate of armor shimmered with precious radiance!
Above their heads, glints of sword light wheeled and danced. From time to time, strands of sword qi descended, slipping into the sword caskets resting by their feet to be nurtured.
From beneath Xu Ying's collar, Yuan Qi poked his head out and pressed close to Xu Ying's ear, whispering, "The Great Tang was founded on martial prowess, and the Nuo masters of old were known as martial Nuo. During the empire's golden age, scions of the capital loved nurturing swords. Instead of keeping physical blades, they gathered sword qi and nurtured it inside sword caskets. Kept long enough, the sword qi within the casket could soar forth like a soaring dragon to kill without leaving a trace. Later on, fewer people cultivated swords that way, until only the imperial honor guard kept up the practice."
"Strange. Why is there the scent of incense smoke qi?" Xu Ying looked toward the grand palace hall, thoroughly bewildered.
The qi of incense offerings within that grand hall was so thick that it drifted outside the palace eaves, forming an azure mist—an auspicious cloud!
The only other time Xu Ying had seen incense smoke qi on such a massive scale was around the towering divine statues of the Nether Court!
Yuan Weiyang looked at the auspicious cloud and said, "Imperial power governs the livelihoods of the people; it is the hope of the populace and the anchor of their hearts. An emperor gathers the devotion of all under heaven, making him the most powerful deity in the realm. Inside this hall, there must be a supreme ruler of the mortal realm!"
Xu Ying was shaken. "You mean... the emperor is inside the hall?"
Yuan Weiyang said, "It can only be the emperor."
Just then, a figure robed in purple stepped out from the grand hall in the distance and called out in a shrill, piercing voice, "With turmoil stirring in the Netherworld today, the harvesting of qi is temporarily suspended! You may all withdraw to rest and descend to harvest qi again tomorrow!"
The many Nuo masters of the Cangwu Sect breathed collective sighs of relief and filed down the mountain trails. Some took off their impermanence masks, chatting and laughing among themselves.
"So the ones entrenched in Mount Jiuyi, forcing the Cangwu Sect down into the Netherworld to harvest yang qi, are actually people from the palace,"
Xu Ying kept his eyes on the purple-robed figure and whispered, "Could that person in purple be the legendary eunuch?"
He had never seen a eunuch before and could not help being curious.
The purple-robed figure looked down at the crowd from above and frowned. "Did so many Nuo masters die? General Yingyang, go abduct some more Nuo masters from nearby Jianghu sects."
From behind him, a burly, imposing man stepped forward and said, "The Nuo masters of these Jianghu sects cultivate fragmented and unstructured arts. They are mere rogue practitioners, far inferior to the scions of the great clans in cultivation, strength, and worldly experience. Why not requisition some disciples from the great clans?"
The purple-robed figure shook his head. "His Majesty leaving the palace for the martial world is a secret matter. If we alert the great clans, all under heaven will know. This affair must be handled with the utmost secrecy. Jianghu sects are weak; once we are done with them, we can simply eradicate them without causing much stir. But the great clans are not so easily wiped out."
General Yingyang assented. "These past years, His Majesty has continually tried to curtail the regional lords and diminish the influence and power of the great clans. If those clans learned that we came to Yongzhou to harvest qi to prolong His Majesty's life, there is no telling what chaos would ensue! Earlier, when we harvested yang qi from living mortals in the realm of light and more than two hundred commoners died, it caused quite a commotion. Those wretched clans kill countless commoners every single day, yet when His Majesty takes a few lives for the sake of longevity, they raise an uproar."
The purple-robed figure sighed. "The entire world has its eyes on His Majesty, countless gazes searching for any fault of his. Those two hundred-plus commoners could still be hushed up by blaming malevolent spirits and executing a few Jianghu sects, but we could no longer keep it up in the mortal realm. Fortunately, an upheaval occurred here in Yongzhou, with the Netherworld encroaching. Now we no longer need to travel to the Netherworld to gather yang qi."
He wore a faint smile as he sighed. "It only brings suffering to the people of Yongzhou, that is all."
General Yingyang also let out a sigh. "Let the Yongzhou commoners suffer for a few more years. Once they get used to it, they will stop making noise. Eunuch Chen, this officer takes his leave."
He turned and departed.
The purple-robed Eunuch Chen returned to the grand hall, reflecting silently, *His Majesty's old illness has flared up again, and while practicing immortal arts, he has grown increasingly irascible these past days, ready to kill at the slightest provocation. Can cultivating that kind of immortal art truly be free of peril?*
Yuan Weiyang gently nudged Xu Ying's waist and signaled for him to look back. Xu Ying glanced behind him and discovered that Zhou Qiyun had vanished without a trace at some point.
"Should we slip away?" Yuan Weiyang whispered.
Xu Ying hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "We won't get the chance."
Yuan Weiyang thought it over and was likewise crestfallen. Zhou Qiyun was simply too powerful; he had forced his way through the Nether Court unscathed. Trying to escape from his clutches was as difficult as scaling the heavens.
Xu Ying took off his mask and looked all around. Mount Jiuyi had undergone changes as well. This mountain range had not originally been very tall, only possessing scenic beauty. Though he had visited before, he had never inspected it closely.
Now, however, Mount Jiuyi stood steep and imposing, its peaks piercing straight into the clouds. Its terrain was multifaceted, grand, and majestic, a world apart from the Mount Jiuyi of before!
The present Mount Jiuyi looked far more like the one depicted on the jade disk within the Mud Pill Palace Grotto-Heaven of Qinyan Cave!
*"South of the Xiaoxiang, Cangwu Abyss. Beneath Mount Jiuyi, an ageless immortal." I have already seen Cangwu Abyss, but where is the ageless immortal?*
The longer one looked at Mount Jiuyi, the more extraordinary its aura seemed. Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang wandered along the mountain paths without realizing it, taking in the breathtaking landscape, when they suddenly heard someone speak.
"For a petty Jianghu sect like the Cangwu Sect to occupy such a celebrated mountain—who knows whether it is a blessing or a curse?"
"A curse, without a doubt. Once they have served their purpose, I doubt even their ashes will remain."
Xu Ying looked toward the voices. The speakers were two lovely young maidens clad in palace garments—green skirts with white strapless bodices that pushed their bosoms up high, bouncing with every step and catching the sun in a dazzling display.
"The Master said, 'See no evil.' Demon King Xu, where are your eyes looking?" Yuan Weiyang reminded him.
Xu Ying asked in confusion, "Weren't you looking too? Are they palace women? Their clothes are truly beautiful."
"Are you really looking at their clothes?"
Yuan Weiyang rolled her eyes at him and whispered, "Their attire is that of young maidens, which shows they are not palace maids or candidates for the harem, but have a different origin altogether. I heard that the current emperor's empress comes from the Guo clan, a great lineage. It was through an alliance with the Guo clan that the emperor secured his throne."
Yuan Qi chimed in, "I heard that after Emperor Zhidao Dasheng grew muddled and nearly caused the realm to fall, it was the Guo clan that turned the tide and rescued the dynasty from collapse. For that, the Guo clan became a preeminent family, held in highest honor by the emperor."
Yuan Weiyang added, "If the Guo clan does not nod in agreement, the emperor cannot sit securely on the throne either."
Along the path, they encountered many more handsome young men and women, likely all scions of the Guo clan. Mount Jiuyi was vast; the Jinwu Guard could only seal off key mountain passes, but they had no way of cordoning off the upper mountain, leaving people free to stroll and take in the sights.
Before they knew it, they had reached the mountainside, when Yuan Weiyang suddenly gasped, "Why is there another Mount Jiuyi over there?"
Xu Ying stepped up beside her and looked into the distance. Another Mount Jiuyi stood tall amid a sea of clouds; at a rough glance, it was virtually identical to the Mount Jiuyi beneath their feet, with almost no perceptible difference!
"There is a third Mount Jiuyi over there!" Yuan Weiyang discovered yet another.
That third mountain was lofty and picturesque, imbued with ten thousand wondrous vistas, its midsection wreathed in rainbow-tinted clouds. Yet its physical structure was also nearly identical to the two Mount Jiuyis before them!
Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang looked even farther into the distance. Amid the rolling mists, peak after peak of Mount Jiuyi stood proudly amid the clouds, all nearly identical to one another!
"The name 'Jiuyi' means nine peaks that look alike." From beneath Xu Ying's collar, Yuan Qi poked his head out and scoffed at their lack of knowledge. "The books say it: all nine of these mountains are Mount Jiuyi."
The bronze bell's voice chimed in, "Do the books say these nine mountains are this tall and this massive?"
Yuan Qi went silent. The books had said no such thing.
The heights of these nine mountains exceeded any mountain that had ever existed in the mortal realm!
Suddenly, a melodious cry drifted through the clouds. Xu Ying looked toward the sound and saw a remarkably magnificent great bird take flight from the mountains, trailing seven-colored tail feathers as it beat its wings and soared between the peaks.
Beside that great bird, all manner of rare birds fluttered their wings in escort, among them legendary divine birds seldom seen in the mortal world, such as the Bifang, the roc, and the peacock!
Closest to the great bird were three azure qingluans.
The three qingluans were colossal in size, their outspread wings like clouds hanging from the heavens. Hovering in the air, each bore a precious pearl above its head that radiated ten thousand rays of light.
They flanked the splendid great bird, escorting it toward the mountain summit.
"A phoenix!" Yuan Weiyang exclaimed in surprise. "A phoenix dwells in these mountains! Come, let us go comprehend the Dao image of the phoenix!"
Xu Ying was also overwhelmed with excitement. He followed her in a sprint toward the peak. Escorted by a hundred birds, the phoenix beat its wings and soared directly toward the very mountain they were on.
Throughout the mountains, many others witnessed the spectacle and rushed toward the summit as well.
"Such an auspicious phenomenon is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity! Hurry and comprehend it—perhaps we can refine an extraordinary Hidden Scenery!"
"A phoenix never alights on land devoid of treasure! There is an exceptional treasure on this mountain!"
Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang quickened their pace, heading straight for the summit.
Though Mount Jiuyi rose immensely high, it still had a peak. When Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang reached the summit of this Mount Jiuyi, they saw a single parasol tree growing at the edge of the precipice. Those marvelous divine birds wheeled and danced around the tree; occasionally, a bird would alight on a branch, rest for a moment, and take flight once more!
That parasol tree was truly majestic and magnificent, resembling an entire mountain peak rising atop the mountain!
Xu Ying felt refreshed in mind and spirit, praising, "Observing the divine birds' Dao images here, if one can grasp their full profundity, one might create a technique no lesser than the Zhou clan's Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits Hidden Scenery Technique!"
Standing beneath the parasol tree at the mountain summit, the youth cast his gaze outward. Below, the hundred thousand mountains looked like black jade and green jade, drifting in and out of view amid the sea of clouds. The majesty of rivers and mountains could hardly be surpassed.
Suddenly, Xu Ying noticed a bizarre sight: the bodies of these hundred thousand mountains did not point straight into the sky. Instead, their peaks all leaned toward Mount Jiuyi, without a single exception!
It was as if all hundred thousand mountains were bowing in reverence to Jiuyi!
Chapter 65