Southern Qi.
Inside an opulent residence, drums and music sounded as songs and dances unfolded in the main hall.
More than a dozen dancing girls were draped in sheer gauze, their bodies half-revealed. Their movements shifted from swift to slow, at times vigorous and powerful, at times supple as though boneless. Their dance steps were by turns dignified, bewitching, strange, and bizarre.
Guests lined both sides of the hall, thoroughly dazzled, on the verge of drooling. One could tell at a glance that none of them had seen much of the world.
In the seat of honor sat a middle-aged man in jade-trimmed robes of brocade. He possessed handsome features, but his aura was hollow and his cheeks slightly puffy—clearly, his health had deteriorated.
A beauty flanked him on either side, one feeding him dishes and the other offering him wine, saving him from having to lift a single finger. Even so, the food still had to be chewed by himself, and the dancing girls had to be watched with his own eyes; no one could do that on his behalf.
The middle-aged man took a bite of food, and the beauty beside him raised a wine cup to his lips. But in that very instant, the wine turned dark crimson, resembling congealing blood, and reeked of foul, sickening gore!
The beauty cried out in shock, but without losing her composure, she moved to fling the cup away. The middle-aged man seized her wrist, took the cup, and comforted her, saying, "It is no fault of yours."
With this abrupt upheaval, the guests in the hall froze in astonishment. The dancing girls stiffened where they stood, not daring to move in the slightest for fear of bringing disaster upon themselves. In times like this, anyone who moved rashly would die.
The middle-aged man stared down at the cup of bloody wine and suddenly chuckled. "Someone wishes to end my bloodline? Heh!"
He abruptly raised the cup and drained it in a single gulp!
The guests were terrified, shouting in succession, "Duke Huien! Absolutely not!"
"What should we do?"
"Help!"
Innumerable armored iron guards rushed into the hall, encircling the middle-aged man and shielding him.
Duke Huien calmly set down the wine cup and muttered to himself, "If that is how it is, then I shall give you a pair of eyes as well!"
Reaching up, he thrust his fingers into his own eye sockets, gouging out two bloody eyeballs!
Screams instantly erupted throughout the hall. Several guests leapt up and ran about frantically, but anyone who dared approach Duke Huien—no matter who it was—was struck down on the spot by the iron guards.
Duke Huien sat unmoving and said in a deep voice, "Go to the palace and summon the imperial physician."
A moment later, squads of azure-armored warriors marched into the hall, herding all non-essential personnel outside to be held under guard. Shortly after, a dignified figure clad in yellow imperial robes strode into the main hall—it was none other than the sovereign of Southern Qi.
Duke Huien remained seated. Blood still streamed from his hollow eye sockets, having long since soaked the front of his robes.
The King of Qi's gaze swept over Duke Huien's face like lightning. "What happened here?"
Duke Huien said indifferently, "I did not wish to see the day my bloodline was severed, so I took my own eyes first."
"You believe this was Zhen's doing? Absurd!"
Duke Huien tilted his head slightly. "Was it not Your Majesty's intent?"
The King of Qi let out a heavy snort, then turned aside. "Casting a curse all the way into the royal capital—do they think Southern Qi has no capable men? Imperial Preceptor, can you tell who is responsible?"
Behind the King of Qi, a Daoist priest who had kept his eyes lowered the entire time finally raised his gaze. He glanced at the empty cup on the table and said, "This is a Wuyu blood curse. Duke Huien has already retaliated just now, severing the karmic connection. Determining the specific caster will require some time and effort."
The King of Qi's expression darkened. He commanded, "Investigate thoroughly! Zhen expects results within seven days! Someone go to the palace, pick two fruits from the Dragon Glaze Tree, and give them to Duke Huien to serve as eyes."
The guards acknowledged the order and departed.
The King of Qi leaned down, wiped the blood from Duke Huien's face, and said, "If Zhen wished to kill you, Zhen would issue an explicit decree, not resort to such underhanded tricks. You took this performance too far."
Duke Huien smiled faintly. "Only thus could Eldest Brother's wisdom be made plain."
The King of Qi snorted and turned away.
***
In the Western Regions.
Atop the altar, Blood Eye suddenly shrieked as one of his eyes exploded, spraying blood all over the elder and Phantom!
Clutching his face, Blood Eye wailed in agony. Phantom drifted aside, putting some distance between himself and the elder.
The elder's expression changed. "Do you two believe I played a trick on you?"
"Who else could it be?"
Instead of losing his temper, the elder said, "There is something amiss here. Wait until I offer a sacrifice to Heaven and perform a divination..."
Seeing the mounting murderous intent radiating from Blood Eye and Phantom, the elder hesitated and gave a wry smile. "I shall divine it right away."
A vast amount of bloody mist poured from the elder's sleeves, forming an extremely intricate array diagram. He pointed a finger, activating it. The instant it came to life, a faint wisp of aura abruptly emerged from the array, causing the three Great Shamans to tremble violently as if beholding their natural predator, nearly crying out in terror!
The aura vanished in a flash, after which the array diagram dissolved into chaos, revealing nothing more.
The elder looked thoroughly grim. "Immortal-level methods! To think they still left behind an immortal's methods here! If I hadn't divined this, this old man might have charged straight into their clutches!"
Blood Eye had recovered, his tone icy. "Did you truly not know?"
The old shaman pointed toward the heavens and swore an oath: "If this old man knew of this beforehand, let this old man suffer the punishment of celestial thunder scouring the soul, never to enter the Sacred Land for all eternity!"
This was the most solemn oath among the Shamans. For an ordinary Shaman Scholar, breaking an oath was of little consequence, but once a Great Shaman swore such a vow, the repercussions of violating it were catastrophic. Seeing the elder swear so viciously, Blood Eye finally believed him.
Phantom remained silent throughout.
Each of the three Great Shamans harbored their own thoughts, scheming for countermeasures. That aura from before could not be faked: not only was it the work of an immortal, but it was also stained with the blood of a Great Shaman; otherwise, it would never have terrified them so deeply.
After a brief stalemate, the elder said, "The Xu family has many who possess dharma idols. I will find a way to pick someone with poor fortune and push him to scout that place first. However, involving a dharma idol requires considerable spell cost, so you two must compensate me with some sacrificial offerings. Phantom must also grant me a curse that strips away fortune and plagues a person with calamity, diminishing his surplus fortune as much as possible, for this to succeed."
As long as someone stepped forward to scout, spending some offerings and blood mist was nothing to them, so Phantom and Blood Eye both agreed.
***
Within the Qingming domain, Yun Feifei was leading the young masters and young ladies, teaching them the fundamentals of mounted combat. She focused primarily on the young masters, while two handsome and sweet-talking male cultivators instructed the young ladies.
However, despite Wei Yuan's repeated warnings beforehand, these cultivators native to the Western Regions were accustomed to undisciplined freedom and inherently wild. One of them failed to keep his hands to himself and stroked one of the young ladies' thighs.
The young lady flew into a rage on the spot. The young cultivator was utterly bewildered, unable to fathom how an atmosphere that had been so ambiguously flirtatious moments before could sour in the blink of an eye.
She summoned her guards to seize the young cultivator, demanding that his hand be chopped off on the spot. Seeing this, the other Western Regions cultivators rushed over, confronting the guards in a tense standoff where violence seemed imminent.
Informed of the disturbance, Wei Yuan hurried over, nursing a terrible headache. In the end, he ordered the young cultivator dragged away and heavily flogged with a hundred lashes. Out of deference to Wei Yuan, the young lady dropped the matter, which finally smoothed over the incident.
Yun Feifei hurried over and whispered, "I saw them getting along quite well just now. I thought there was a chance between the two of them—how did it turn out like this?"
Wei Yuan frowned. "Who told you there was a chance between them? Did you tell them that?"
Yun Feifei flinched and shrank back. "I didn't!"
"You'd better not have!" Wei Yuan said sharply.
Sensing that Wei Yuan was genuinely furious, Yun Feifei grew frightened and muttered in a small voice, "It wasn't that big a deal, was it? Why get so angry?"
Suppressing his rage, Wei Yuan said, "If anything happens to these people, the family elders of any one of them could wipe out Lanshen Palace several times over! They came here for my sake; if they die in battle, no one can say a word. But if they fall victim to your petty schemes, do you think their families will let it slide?"
Wei Yuan glared daggers at Yun Feifei. "If it truly were mutual affection, that would be one thing. But if I discover anyone using underhanded tricks, I've killed plenty of people in my time—I will execute every single one of them! And if anything like this happens again, you will share their guilt!"
Yun Feifei was aghast. "That's not fair!"
"Endure it." Wei Yuan had already walked away.
Returning to his quarters, Wei Yuan found Bao Yun, Xiaoyu, and Cui Yu waiting for him.
Seeing Wei Yuan enter, Cui Yu spoke up. "I just talked with Brother Xiaoyu. Those Western Regions cultivators fought beside you through blood and fire, so I don't intend to pursue this matter further. But there cannot be a next time. If something truly goes wrong, I won't be able to answer to their elders."
Wei Yuan said, "What if it were truly mutual affection?"
"Even that won't do!" Cui Yu replied unequivocally.
Wei Yuan frowned without answering.
Cui Yu softened his tone. "I know those sisters of mine were looking for novelty—they specifically asked for those men. But it's just like running into puppies on the roadside: they look cute, so you give them a bite to eat and pet them twice. But if that dog wants to come inside and get into bed, that's completely out of the question. So mutual affection is basically impossible."
Xiaoyu said, "If you grope recklessly, you deserve to get bitten! Serves him right!"
Cui Yu gave a wry smile. "No wonder you have no friends."
Without hesitation, Xiaoyu replied, "Having you few is enough. Any more would just be fair-weather friends."
Catching sight of Wei Yuan, he added, "Wei Yuan doesn't count!"
Wei Yuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
At that moment, Bao Yun said calmly, "She's really just a girl with petty schemes who grew up undisciplined. Fearing that we might take her place, she secretly incited others to test the waters. She probably assumed the young masters and ladies of these noble houses were just like the people she met before, easily seduced."
Cui Yu realized it as well. "So she wanted to vie with us for authority."
Xiaoyu dismissed it casually. "What is there to vie for? The moment any one of us breaks through to the dharma idol realm, what could she possibly contest?"
Cui Yu agreed.
The talent and resources of Palace of Grand Beginning disciples were far beyond what small sects could compare to; even among those young masters and ladies, two or three had prospects of breaking through to the dharma idol realm. On the side of the Western Regions cultivators, only Yun Feifei and Xu Wan'er had a sliver of hope, and that was strictly under the premise that Wei Yuan supplied them with the necessary resources. Under the Western Regions' original conditions, they would never have had any hope of achieving a dharma idol in their lifetimes.
Bao Yun glanced at Wei Yuan and said, "Aside from authority, she could also vie for a man."
Cui Yu came to a sudden realization. He sized Wei Yuan up and down, smiling with subtle mischief.
Xiaoyu also looked Wei Yuan up and down, an expression of disgust written across his face.
Wei Yuan had not expected the crosshairs to pivot squarely onto him, and he instantly felt it was unwise to linger. Fortunately, the domain suddenly trembled at that moment. The sky grew clearer, the trees and grass took on richer hues, and the spiritual energy and vitality thickened by a fraction.
Everyone sensed the shift within the domain and turned their eyes toward Wei Yuan in unison.
Wei Yuan focused his mind to commune with Qingming. A moment later, he smiled. "The Qingming domain has finished expanding; it is now one hundred and ten li across. Next, we must nurture it toward the third rank."
"Wasn't it supposed to be one hundred li? How did it gain an extra ten li?" Xiaoyu asked.
Wei Yuan replied, "Didn't we convert numerous corpses of Shaman warriors after the previous battles? Qingming received extra nourishment, so the domain expanded a bit further."
Cui Yu froze. "It has a function like that? How have I never heard of such a thing?"
"Perhaps that is what makes an immortal-grade item special," Bao Yun said.
Cui Yu found that reasonable. Although he was an outstanding scion of the Cui family in this generation, there were very few immortal-grade boundary stones in the entire mortal world, leaving him with no opportunity to encounter one.
With the domain established, Qingming had truly taken root. The enhancements Wei Yuan received all grew slightly, and the range of his perception beyond the domain expanded as well.
Wei Yuan suddenly looked toward the west. In his senses, billows of green mist were surging from that direction—the Shaman host had arrived!
Chapter 151