The blazing sun burning in the sky lasted for several more breaths before shifting from brilliant white to bright yellow, from yellow to red, and then slowly turning into billowing dense smoke that roiled upward into the high heavens like a mushroom cloud ten thousand zhang tall.
The State of Ji was plunged back into darkness, but hundreds of millions of common folk had witnessed the midnight sun rising. They were shaken beyond measure, yet gripped by an inexplicable excitement.
In these days, the common people suffered too deeply; they all prayed for heaven to send down monstrous scourges—any celestial anomaly brought hope.
Standing before the palace steps, the King of Ji watched the great sun slowly extinguish in the sky, completely oblivious to the freezing cold. In his rush to run outside, he hadn't even had time to put on shoes, and stepping on the icy stone steps, his feet had already gone numb with frost.
He had even forgotten to issue an edict commanding the Directorate of Astronomy to interpret the celestial omen.
Meanwhile, atop the Observatory of the State of Ji, the elderly Director of the Directorate of Astronomy, disheveled and untidy, jogged up to the highest point of the platform, only to discover that the star official on duty tonight had collapsed on the ground, his body still warm.
The old director did not disturb the corpse. Instead, he walked a circuit around the entire Observatory, realizing that the duty star official seemed to have discovered something and attempted to divine the secrets of heaven, only to perish without a single wound or illness.
Great Tang, the imperial capital.
It was said Emperor Jing was startled awake multiple times, unable to sleep nearly the entire night, plagued by nightmares the moment he closed his eyes.
The Regent King's palace was not at peace either. The King of Jin of Great Tang trimmed the lamp and read late into the night until dawn. The palace rules were strict; when the Regent King did not sleep, more than half of the household servants had to remain on duty at their posts. Consequently, many saw that faint wisp of white light far in the distance.
...
With his hands clasped behind his back, Wei Yuan slowly drifted down to his original spot. The county yamen, however, had ceased to exist, while the uninvolved people within had been instantaneously displaced to various locations, entirely unaware of what had happened.
Wei Yuan felt his posture at this moment was flawless. The last lingering rays of the blazing sun in the sky illuminated the contours of his face, just right.
After touching down, he remained with hands behind his back, gazing up at the heavens to watch for any impossible variable before slowly drawing his gaze back—perfection.
Having thoroughly projected calm and composure, Wei Yuan felt his Dao heart clear and transparent.
With the lethal tribulation past, Wei Yuan felt as though he had come back to life.
Yet earlier, with the arrow on the string, Wei Yuan had planned it countless times; the instant the opportunity arrived to pull on causality, he had launched his counterattack immediately without needing to think. Reflecting on it now, he realized there were several points hard to fathom.
Wei Yuan sidled up to the wealthy old gentleman. After sweeping with his divine sense to verify that no one nearby was eavesdropping, he lowered his voice and asked, "Senior, you're the Master of the Sword Palace, right? I'd like to ask you something. Just now, why didn't that Liumiao in the sky dodge?"
"Wasn't it you who locked him down with the massive karma of grievances and karmic luck?" The wealthy old gentleman was also taken aback.
Wei Yuan whispered, "Lock down an immortal? How could this junior possess such ability?"
"In that case, there was another hand in the dark!"
"Could it not have been Senior who made a move?"
The wealthy old gentleman glared with his small eyes. "This old man is practically running out of oil! Blood is still leaking from several spots right now! It's been bleeding for hours, and not a single soul cares enough to ask about it."
Only then did Wei Yuan notice that the wealthy old gentleman's clothes were indeed stained with blood.
Flustered, Wei Yuan scrambled to find medicine, but realized everything on him was meant for the dharma idol realm and could not treat an immortal's wounds. At that moment, the Sword Palace Master grabbed Wei Yuan and said, "Forget it, never mind that for now. Let's go quickly!"
Wei Yuan did not have a single drop of karmic luck left, truly the most nominal child of karmic destiny in history. Hearing the wealthy old gentleman's words, he shuddered. "There are still enemies?"
"What enemies? Liumiao is already dead; where would any enemies come from now? We're going to loot the corpse!"
Wei Yuan finally understood. Just earlier, he had watched Liumiao's corpse dragged into the void abyss—an abyss that had chilled Wei Yuan with dread, keeping him from approaching. Now it seemed it truly took an immortal: a place Wei Yuan dared not venture was one where an immortal could come and go as they pleased.
Yet before the two could depart, a young cultivator walked in through the courtyard gate, carrying the corpse of a youth in his hand. He tossed it casually to Wei Yuan and said, "By the time you two thought of it, there wouldn't have been anything left. Over at the abyss, I made some arrangements and laid some bait to make them think Liumiao's immortal remains are still sinking. It should stall them for a bit, but not for long. Follow me!"
The Sword Palace Master asked, "Where to?"
The young cultivator glared and said, "Liumiao's cave abode, of course! Boss Bai, you're wealthy and imposing, but miscellaneous immortals like us rely on scavenging scraps everywhere to get by."
The wealthy old gentleman immediately said, "Let's go, let's go, quickly! I'm wounded, so my head's a bit slow!"
He took two brisk strides, then suddenly stopped and turned to look at the young cultivator. The young cultivator remained standing in place, motionless.
Seeing the Sword Palace Master halt, the young cultivator said slowly, "I'd like to ask... Palace Master, are your injuries... severe?"
Bai Kaishui casually took out a red jade archer's ring, making sure the young cultivator saw it clearly before slipping it onto his left thumb. Smiling, he said, "The injuries are indeed quite heavy. But the Sword Palace's heritage runs deep, and our Old Ancestors left behind quite a lot of things. Taking any single item at random would be enough for this old man to preserve his life."
The young cultivator's killing intent vanished, and he smiled faintly. "In that case, shall we make some fortune together?"
The Sword Palace Master swept his robe sleeve. "Let's move!"
The two immortals vanished from the spot. Wei Yuan stood there dragging the corpse of Immortal Monarch Liumiao, momentarily unsure where to put it. As for Immortal Monarch Liumiao's cave abode, Wei Yuan had never had any designs on it to begin with.
Wealth was merely external worldly goods; Wei Yuan did not care about money in the slightest right now. In any case, excluding ancestral immortal artifacts, few immortals were wealthier than Wei Yuan, who sat atop Qingming.
By now, Zhang Sheng had also awakened. With a point of her finger, eight immortal swords flew out and drew a formation on the ground, gesturing for Wei Yuan to place Immortal Monarch Liumiao's corpse inside first. They had to first isolate its qi and karma with the formation before considering anything else. An immortal's remains were extremely precious and had to be handled with care.
As for how to handle it, they would have to consult records back at the Palace of Grand Beginning; neither of them had expected to obtain an immortal's remains.
Just as the two finished, the world before their eyes suddenly transformed. In an instant, they were moved from the ruins of the county yamen to a gloomy, dark poisonous land littered with white bones. All the trees here were charred black and twisted, and many white bones were grown directly intertwined with the trees.
A thin mist permeated throughout this realm. Wei Yuan felt nothing amiss, but Zhang Sheng swayed slightly, her face gradually turning pale. The Sword Palace Master sent out a streak of sword qi that flitted continuously around Zhang Sheng like a small bird, keeping the mist at bay, which finally allowed her to catch her breath.
"This place naturally siphons the three souls and seven spirits; if a Scenery Command cultivator lingers here too long, their soul will dissipate in death. You haven't recovered from your heavy injuries and can't withstand such erosion yet. Be careful once we enter, and make sure not to touch anything inside. Originally, you shouldn't have come, but I felt seeing an immortal's cave abode would bring you great benefit, so I brought you along anyway.
"You see, every immortal's cave abode is an embodiment of their Dao authority, equivalent to laying that Great Dao bare right in front of your eyes..." The Sword Palace Master rambled on with his instructions.
In the middle of the poisonous land stood a small stone house, built without a single symmetrical or tidy angle. Wei Yuan was merely looking at it, trying to commit the shape of the stone house to memory, when suddenly his face began to itch—two fleshy sprouts had actually grown out!
However, Wei Yuan's dharma body was formidable. The moment he sensed something was wrong, he severed the fleshy sprouts on his own. Then, a patch of grey oily fluid surfaced on his face, killing off and expelling all flesh affected by the curse. Meanwhile, with a sudden clatter, several stones dropped from a corner of the stone house; the overall curse had been broken.
Even the young cultivator couldn't help glancing at Wei Yuan and remarked, "Breaking Liumiao's arrangement purely through your physical body's backlash? This physical body of yours, tsk tsk! If you were a descendant of my Zhao-Li clan and happened to be a girl, I would impart immortal arts to you, and you would surely establish a great clan in three generations and a state in ten!"
Wei Yuan also felt a chill. The methods of an immortal were indeed terrifying—to be able to place a curse on an unassuming stone house relying purely on its shape and natural lines was truly impossible to guard against. At the same time, Wei Yuan grew even warier of the young cultivator; if an immortal chose to play dirty, even making a rooster lay eggs wouldn't be out of the question.
The four entered the stone house, and the scenery shifted again, transporting them into an underground palace.
The underground palace was quite large. From the ceiling hung three hundred and sixty skull lamps, illuminating the space with the eerie glow from their eye sockets. The nearby lamps even shifted their gaze to follow the four people's footsteps, as if watching them.
The floor was paved with countless corpses. Like figures in a painting, these corpses had been made paper-thin by miraculous means and laid across the ground.
The underground palace featured an alchemy room, a formation chamber, and a scripture repository—the standard layout of a cave abode.
In the entire cave abode, not only were there no living people, there wasn't even a single living creature. Most of the pills in the alchemy room were refined from corpse materials, yin qi, and resentment, completely useless to Wei Yuan. They were equally useless to the young cultivator and the Sword Palace Master, but the young cultivator pocketed the entire alchemy room anyway, remarking that this still counted as a cultivation path leading straight to Scenery Command perfection; trading it away would fetch at least a few items.
The formation chamber and scripture repository held nothing eye-catching either. Immortal Monarch Liumiao had likely run into trouble in his cultivation and switched to the Path of Corpse Puppets. From the looks of it, once he collected enough wronged souls and resentment, he intended to refine himself into an immortal corpse as well.
The young cultivator was surprisingly considerate, explaining common immortal knowledge to Wei Yuan along the way. A so-called immortal corpse did not mean truly becoming a corpse, but completely separating one's primordial spirit, mindscape world, and physical body, then refining the physical body into a puppet dharma artifact. This path was somewhat similar to ancient ghost immortals, possessing special techniques but also fatal flaws; one's immortal journey basically ended there, making further progress nearly impossible.
Neither Immortal Zhao Li nor the Sword Palace Master was an ordinary immortal. After one circuit, they saw that Immortal Monarch Liumiao had switched to corpse puppets later in life and paid a heavy price for it, leaving virtually nothing of value in the entire cave abode. His truly precious treasures had likely been traded away for cultivation paths, implements, and medicinal pills.
The most valuable things in the cave abode were eight golden corpses, each possessing mid-stage Scenery Command cultivation, presumably Liumiao's ultimate trump card. Unfortunately, Liumiao had been exceptionally unlucky, used directly as a shield to block Wei Yuan's spear empowered by the mortal luck of a hundred million people, leaving him no chance to deploy the eight golden corpses.
After touring the cave abode, the four returned to its center. Immortal Zhao Li drew three circles on the ground and said, "Liumiao truly was rather poor. Alas, a disgrace among immortals. His former fortune was probably confiscated by those fellows behind the scenes back then. Now he only leaves behind three things of any value. First, the eight golden corpses—though without Liumiao driving them himself, their power will be greatly diminished, but they'll make fine ingredients for pill refining.
"Second is Liumiao's primary immortal heaven realm, which is the poisonous dead land we are standing in right now. In any case, it is an immortal heaven, more than sufficient to serve as a primary grotto-heaven, though this grotto-heaven smells a bit foul and won't be easy to clean up.
"Third is Liumiao's immortal remains. Let us divide them up!"
The Sword Palace Master coughed and said, "My Sword Palace's wealth is respectable enough. Without being modest, it rivals two or three states of Zhao. Since we're dividing things, I'll stand with Wei Yuan; the two of us will count as one share. Pick a smaller share for yourself."
Immortal Zhao Li snorted. "You old fox, stealing my lines! Even if you are the Sword Palace Master, don't think for a moment this seat will give you face! Have you considered how his hundred million mortal luck came to be, or how he knew that mortal luck exceeding a hundred million could slay an immortal?"
The Sword Palace Master snorted in return. "Without this old man, no matter how much mortal luck he had, wouldn't it all end in futile sorrow?"
"You were already within my calculations; there was no way you wouldn't come!"
"You really know how to boast! Could it be that the divine abilities of Zhao-Li include blowing your own trumpet?"
...
As the two immortals bickered, Wei Yuan recalled something and asked, "Where are his primary primordial spirit and souls?"
Primordial spirits and souls were somewhat similar to dharma idols, and Wei Yuan felt the shadow in the moon would probably like them. However, harvesting an immortal's soul was far beyond Wei Yuan's current abilities, so he hadn't entertained the thought back then. Now that two immortals were present dividing the spoils, Wei Yuan voiced the question.
The young cultivator said, "Liumiao practiced such an art, incensing heaven and earth and amassing immense karmic debt. His primordial spirit and souls are things one must never touch. That's why I only scooped up his remains and left his souls alone, letting them sink into the abyss on their own."
Listening to this, Wei Yuan felt a sudden surge of emotion. Liumiao had been an immortal after all, his actions once lofty and unfathomable, having even intimidated Wei Yuan at first. Who could have thought he would fall so abruptly, and after his death, everything of his would be carved up by immortals, with even his primordial spirit and souls seriously discussed as loot—only spared because they were too filthy.
For an immortal to end up like this was truly pathetic.
Zhang Sheng had remained silent all this time, but now spoke up: "Immortal Monarch Liumiao's immortal remains are very useful to us. If both seniors are willing to part with them, could they be bestowed upon us?"
The Sword Palace Master naturally had no objection and immediately said to the young cultivator, "No problem. Our share will include the immortal remains. You choose something else."
The young cultivator looked at Zhang Sheng, then at the Sword Palace Master, and smiled faintly. "Of course. However, when it comes to these immortal remains, there are three ways to prepare them. Let me explain them to you one by one."
Chapter 1005