Before Jinzhu departed, she still took the time to exchange insights on the Buddhist Dharma with Wei Yuan.
When they were done, she praised his Path of the Three Realms to high heaven, but her concluding judgment was what she had truly meant to say all along: Wei Yuan's grand aspiration was far too grandiose, practically indistinguishable from a pipe dream. By contrast, the Pure Land's path of cultivating only oneself was practical and viable, having already produced countless fruitions. Even if Wei Yuan believed it was plagued by this flaw or that defect, it remained far more grounded than his Path of the Three Realms.
This was an ideological debate over their respective Dao; neither could convince the other.
After Jinzhu left, the war in the north drew to a close in a manner no one in the world could have anticipated. The Liao army trapped inside the encirclement surrendered where they stood, while the million-strong Liao troops outside launched desperate, ferocious assaults. Yet, with the Qingming defensive line no longer facing enemies from both front and rear, its redirected firepower blanketed the battlefield. Every furious charge by the Liao army achieved nothing beyond leaving the ground carpeted with corpses.
The commander of the Northern Legion fumed with impotent rage. Helpless to intervene, he could only watch as the Liao forces inside the encirclement surrendered, boarded flying boats, and departed to the west.
Mopping up the battlefield was left to Xiaoyu. Wei Yuan, meanwhile, hurried back to the main mountain of the Palace of Grand Beginning to seek an audience with the two palace masters, Yanshi and Zhu Yan. Neither of them ventured outdoors these days. Zhu Yan could still travel stealthily through Immortal Heaven at scheduled intervals, but Yanshi didn't even go to Immortal Heaven anymore. He stayed curled up on the Palace of Grand Beginning's main mountain, clutching the Patriarch's immortal sword without stirring. With the calamity drawing near and the heavenly secrets thrown into chaos, the greater part of Yanshi's divine arts had been rendered useless. For a diviner of heavenly secrets like him, this was a time when the heavens unleashed murderous intent and great doom hung overhead. However carefree and unrestrained his life had been thanks to his divination arts in past years, that was how miserable and trapped he felt now.
Consequently, Yanshi dared not take a single step out of the mountain gates; he might not even survive ten li.
Upon meeting the two palace masters, Wei Yuan relayed the parting words Silver Moon had given him and asked, "What did he mean by this?"
Secrets of this nature were naturally best put to Yanshi. Yanshi replied, "The Vast Sea Liao Clan possesses three sanctuaries: first is the North Pole Nether Sea, second is the Golden Tent Khanate Court, and third is the Snow Mountain Esoteric Sect. The Wise King of the Left, whom we have dealt with before, belongs to the Golden Tent Khanate Court, while the Little State Preceptor hails from the Snow Mountain Esoteric Sect. However, neither is at the core of their respective factions; they can only be called outer disciples. In addition, there are dozens of independent factions within the Liao Clan, and Silver Moon is one of them.
"Well, if you say the Liao immortals are weak, judging strictly by the Wise King of the Left or the Little State Preceptor, they are indeed a bit lacking. But reincarnated figures like Silver Moon are not weak in the slightest. Historically, however, the Esoteric Sect never emerges from the mountains unless a catastrophe arrives. As for the North Pole Nether Sea, people in the mortal realm have only ever heard rumors; none have truly seen it. Among the notes the Patriarch left behind, one essay mentioned the North Pole Nether Sea, describing it as the most perilous place in the world as well as a sacred sanctuary for cultivation. The Patriarch intended to defeat the Ancestral Shaman and then journey north alone to witness this most perilous land under heaven.
"If those legends are entirely true, then those we have encountered so far are merely free-roaming immortals from the various Liao tribes—fringe, miscellaneous immortals at best. From what I know, the Liao Clan's Golden Tent Khanate Court currently has no common ruler. Silver Moon aims to seize the throne, but he is merely one of several factions, and a weaker one at that. The truly formidable immortals within the three great sanctuaries seem to have been secretly plotting something all along."
Zhu Yan pondered for a moment, then said, "During my travels across the world, I once crossed paths with a loose immortal and conversed with him for several days. He brought up an incident from a thousand years ago. Back then, the Sea Li suddenly abandoned the ocean to make landfall, mobilizing over a dozen immortals to strike into the Liao domain from the polar east. In a single breath, they destroyed dozens of Liao tribes and leveled hundreds of settlements. That loose immortal said the battle was quite bizarre—it didn't look like the Sea Li were conquering territory, but rather trying to stop something."
Yanshi concluded, "Many of the Liao Clan's secrets are sealed behind grand restrictions that erase karmic cause and effect. The strength of these restrictions is not in the least inferior to the Martial Ancestor's arrangements, and may even surpass them. Even as immortals, we can only discuss these matters here at the Palace of Grand Beginning's main mountain under the Patriarch's protection. As for written records, only handwritten notes by the Patriarch could survive.
"Silver Moon has clearly reclaimed his immortal station, which is why he was able to have Dharma King Jinzhu deliver these words to you. As for his motive in passing on this message, there are two possibilities. First, to entice you into expanding the war against the Shaman Clan. After all, if Qingming wishes to expand, the foremost direction is toward the Wu domain. Although the territory Silver Moon ceded to you this time borders Western Jin, Xu Wangu still stands in between.
"The second motive might be to bait you into probing the secrets of the Liao Clan. That brings many possibilities. The worst of them is that the moment you uncover the true secret, you drop dead on the spot."
"Is it really that terrifying?" Wei Yuan found it hard to believe.
"For certain secrets, merely knowing them is equivalent to enduring a casual blow from the mighty figure who originally laid down the restrictions. If it were those mighty figures from the Liao Clan hundreds of thousands of years ago, such a strike would be on par with a blow from the Glazed Immortal Lord back then," Zhu Yan said.
Wei Yuan turned back to Yanshi, but Yanshi shook his head. "Don't ask me. I know nothing about this calamity, only that it is coming. Besides, I feel absolutely nothing right now—and even if I did, it would definitely be wrong."
Zhu Yan sighed. "Stop putting Yanshi on the spot. When a world-spanning calamity is about to descend, he is pure dead weight. If the Patriarch hadn't left behind that immortal sword, he might drop dead even while staying inside the sect."
"What is this calamity, anyway? How could it arrive so suddenly without the slightest omen?"
Zhu Yan said, "That is how calamities in the Liao domain are—silent and soundless. Sometimes they have already run their course while uninvolved bystanders remain completely oblivious, never even knowing that a cataclysm had taken place."
At this point, Yanshi said, "I have perused all of the Patriarch's manuscripts and notes. Perhaps three thousand nine hundred years ago, a calamity descended as well. The Patriarch's sudden, long journey to the Wu domain back then might have been related to this."
Wei Yuan suddenly recalled the Patriarch's final divine intent that he had witnessed in the ethereal depths, faintly sensing that Yanshi might be right.
With their discussion reaching this point, the three could arrive at no further conclusions. After all, the Palace of Grand Beginning had been founded too recently. The Patriarch had risen and fallen like a comet, dazzling the mortal world, but he had left behind few records concerning the world's secrets.
Before that, the Three Immortals had spent their time cultivating behind closed doors; only after returning from the great battle did the Patriarch reluctantly elevate the three of them. After the Patriarch fell, the Three Immortals were busy organizing his teachings and forging paths for later generations, leaving them with no leisure to explore the world and uncover secrets.
The later successors, Suchan and Xihe, were both generational prodigies towering over their eras, but they were entirely willful figures whose only passion was charging headlong into difficulties. Neither left many secrets behind, and both ultimately met their ends at human hands, leaving behind zero information regarding the foundational secrets of the foreign races. As for the Fifth Generation, his heart and soul were set on vengeance, and he did nothing else.
Consequently, the Palace of Grand Beginning's records of secrets were quite sparse, not resembling the premier immortal sect of the age at all, and completely incomparable to the Academy or the Pure Land. In the final analysis, aside from the sect's short history, there was another crucial reason: from the founding Patriarch onward, the attitude of the strongest palace masters toward secrets had always been: What the hell does that have to do with me?!
Knowing two more secrets won't make me stronger, and no matter how many secrets my enemies know, they still won't be my match, so why waste the effort? Better to seize the moment and chop down another immortal!
By the time the Palace of Grand Beginning's current palace master took over, this one simply lived as a secret himself. Nobody knew when his divine arts reached great completion, nor did anyone know when he slipped away from his seclusion chamber. In short, from top to bottom, the Palace of Grand Beginning only knew there was still a Grand Palace Master. Beyond that, they knew nothing at all.
After leaving the Palace of Grand Beginning's main mountain, Wei Yuan still felt somewhat unwilling to let the matter rest.
After pondering, Wei Yuan suddenly realized: since this Liao Clan calamity was related to the Shaman Clan, perhaps he could learn something from the Shamans? With that thought, Wei Yuan set off immediately and entered the Desolate Realm once again.
The moment he stepped into the Desolate Realm, several clusters of terrifying white light flared before Wei Yuan's eyes. In an instant, his vision turned completely white, and his divine intent was paralyzed! Immediately afterward, it felt as if spider silk wrapped around his body, something binding him tightly. Wei Yuan shouted and strained with all his might to break free, but the thing binding him also erupted with terrifying strength, suppressing Wei Yuan's struggles through sheer brute force!
Then another violent force slammed onto him, pinning Wei Yuan down so firmly that he couldn't budge an inch. With an audible smack, Wei Yuan was forcefully kissed right on the face!
At that point, the restraints vanished, and Wei Yuan gradually regained his senses, only to find Yaolan and Jiumu standing before him. Just now, Jiumu had used its many eyes to project the blinding light. This was no ordinary light, but a light of forbidden severance, instantly sealing Wei Yuan's divine consciousness, before wrapping several tentacle-arms around his dharma body. Jiumu was, after all, a Heavenly Shaman; on pure strength alone, it could still overpower Wei Yuan. Then Yaolan joined in as well, and with two Heavenly Shamans teaming up, Wei Yuan stood no chance of resisting.
Yet as Wei Yuan touched his cheek, he found pale gold blood on his fingers! Yaolan's kiss just now had actually broken his skin.
Chapter 1294