The machinations of Immortals and Buddhas left no room for escape.
Since this karma was his own, Wei Yuan felt that whatever an enemy did directly to him was acceptable; to overcome a foe, any means necessary was only natural.
Yet striking at those around him was something Wei Yuan could never tolerate. No matter how formidable this faction was, he would have to exchange a few blows with them first. If he truly could not win, he would think of another way, but surrendering without a fight before even trading moves was never an option for him.
However, their methods were mysterious and unpredictable. Even Ji Liuli had fallen prey to them, and they still did not know how the strike had been delivered. They were indeed difficult to deal with and required careful planning.
According to True Monarch Yanshi's deductions, they had likely leveraged the power of karma to project a faint force through the void, seeking out the weakest link to strike. Yet True Monarch Yanshi had left one thing unsaid: Ji Liuli's trouble should never have been this severe in the first place.
Ji Liuli's innate foundation was truly terrifyingly strong. Even though her Dao heart had faltered so badly that her sea of consciousness was nearly shattered, she had woken after merely a day of unconsciousness, with her cultivation completely restored. Upon receiving the news, Wei Yuan rushed over and finally saw his Eldest Senior Sister after their long parting.
Ji Liuli was just as she had always been, though her face showed a little less arrogance and a lingering, insoluble sorrow.
Wei Yuan sat across from her, feeling somewhat constrained. He had always held both reverence and fear toward this Eldest Senior Sister of his, an instinctive dread that he could never quite explain.
It was Ji Liuli who spoke first. "How long has it been, and your cultivation has already surged ahead of mine? Looks like I'll have to rely on you to support me from now on."
"Eldest Senior Sister, your Dao heart..."
Ji Liuli replied nonchalantly, "Let it be. It was just some old hidden wounds being triggered, that's all. If you truly care, then wipe out those bastards for me!"
"No problem. Is there anything else I can do?"
"Just killing them will do. Especially that old pervert who's over a thousand years old yet still acts like a child! That fellow barged into my sea of consciousness to disrupt my Dao heart. The karmic art he used was bestowed by Immortals and Buddhas, so I truly couldn't resist it. But I gave his Dao heart a savage blow in return—enough for him to choke on for a good while."
Wei Yuan suddenly thought of the mortals' inexplicable city-building in Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, as well as the defensive barrier inherent to Maiden Yin-Yang. His heart skipped a beat as he finally realized that his own sea of consciousness was not necessarily completely safe. If he encountered a foe with profound methods, they might also infiltrate it without anyone noticing.
Thus, Wei Yuan inquired closely about the details so that he could prepare countermeasures within his mindscape world in the future.
Ji Liuli covered her mouth with a light chuckle. "You really want to know?"
Wei Yuan nodded.
"He borrowed the power of karma to manifest his true form within my sea of consciousness. When I lost the duel of techniques, he moved to destroy the karmic luck array laid down by Patriarch. At that moment, I asked him if he'd like to take the chance to ravish my virtue on the side..."
Wei Yuan blurted out, "You can even do that in the sea of consciousness?"
Ji Liuli suddenly fixed her gaze on him, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly. "That question gave you away... Mmh, looks like you haven't been idling all this time. You cultivated more than just a dharma idol, didn't you?"
Wei Yuan hurriedly asked, "What happened next?"
"Hmph, his true form is that of a boy, so what 'next' could there be? Caught off guard, I ripped off his dudou in one swift motion and saw that little thing. Sure enough, it was only that tiny."
Ji Liuli pinched her thumb and index finger together, indicating a size roughly equal to a pea.
Wei Yuan suddenly felt his own image grow towering.
Still, there was one thing Wei Yuan did not understand: what manifested in the sea of consciousness was not a physical flesh-and-blood body. Clothing and flesh were essentially one and the same—how had Ji Liuli managed to tear off his clothes?
Knowing what Wei Yuan was thinking, Ji Liuli smiled faintly. "Manifesting a true form is actually what one conceives of oneself ordinarily. That old pervert has played a child for over a thousand years and worn a dudou for over a thousand years. When I tore it off without warning, he subconsciously believed it really fell away, and then his body manifested its genuine state. Hahaha, he really is just that tiny! When you were six..."
Wei Yuan took fright and coughed violently again and again, barely managing to keep Ji Liuli from continuing.
Wei Yuan was at a loss for words. His Eldest Senior Sister refused to suffer a loss even inside her sea of consciousness. The blow she had dealt to that old pervert's Dao heart was likely no smaller than the strike Wei Yuan had dealt to his dharma body by selling his true blood to the Shamans.
A thought struck Wei Yuan, and he said, "What did he look like without the dudou? Let me see."
Ji Liuli looked at Wei Yuan suspiciously. "Playing this wildly these days? Or was this your true nature all along, finally bursting forth?"
Seeing Ji Liuli's thoughts straying ever further, Wei Yuan quickly explained, "It's not like that! Hearing what you just said, I figured that boyish body must be a major flaw in his Dao heart, something we ought to exploit thoroughly. I'm about to screw him over big time, so he'll probably come after me again. I'm planning to make several puppets modeled after what he looked like without the dudou and place them around me. If he shows up, he can admire them to his heart's content. And if we ever find out his background and origins later, we can even mail a few to his friends and family."
Ji Liuli froze for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter, the hidden wounds of her Dao heart easing noticeably at once.
With a wave of her hand, a stark-naked little boy appeared before Wei Yuan, though his gaze was extraordinarily world-weary and aged. Wei Yuan checked the crucial spot; sure enough, not only was it tiny, it had a noticeable curve to the side.
With such distinctive features, Wei Yuan naturally committed them to memory in great detail.
Wei Yuan chatted with Ji Liuli for a while longer, trying to understand what had truly gone wrong with her Dao heart, but no matter what he asked, she adamantly refused to say. It seemed the problem was indeed serious.
After taking his leave of Ji Liuli, Wei Yuan returned to True Monarch Xuanyue's residence, intending to discuss the training of the next batch of Dao soldiers with Patriarch. There were not many untrained Dao soldiers left in the Palace of Grand Beginning—roughly three thousand, just enough for one more cohort. The war at the Northern Mountain Gate was no longer hanging by a thread, so transferring a few thousand Dao soldiers would not imperil the overall situation.
True Monarch Xuanyue naturally agreed. At the same time, he planned to select the top Body Casting perfection cultivators from among the mortal troops to make up a total of five thousand, sending them all to Qingming together.
With official business settled, Wei Yuan chatted with Patriarch about Qingming's future development. True Monarch Xuanyue listened with glowing eyes, already planning to spend his retirement there someday.
Just as their conversation was hitting its stride, Wei Yuan suddenly felt a stirring in his heart. Looking outside the hall, he saw Zhang Sheng walking over.
"Teacher! You've ended your secluded cultivation?" Wei Yuan stood up instinctively.
Zhang Sheng was dressed in scholar's robes, her long hair simply gathered behind her head in effortless elegance.
Seen from afar, she seemed one with heaven and earth, her bearing lofty and profound. Beautiful though she was, it was the beauty of mountains and rivers, of heaven and earth—the more one gazed upon it, the more unreachable it felt. Had it not been for Wei Yuan, others would hardly have dared entertain a desire for closeness.
As Zhang Sheng entered the hall, True Monarch Xuanyue said, "A flawless Dao body, not only fully recovered from your hidden wounds, but also able to take a step further—this is good. But has your Dao heart made any progress?"
Zhang Sheng said, "This disciple intends to observe all of the mortal world to mend the missing link from the past."
Xuanyue asked, "That is an approach. Do you have a plan?"
"This disciple intends to return to Qingming to seek the turning point for attaining the Dao."
Patriarch Xuanyue was about to agree when a sudden realization stirred in his heart, bringing a faint recollection.
Given True Monarch Xuanyue's cultivation, a spontaneous premonition was never a trivial matter. He immediately laid out an array and cast a hexagram, seeking to divine the cause. However, his arts of karmic luck and feng shui were unrefined; after much busywork, he grasped only a vague omen, seeming to relate to Zhang Sheng and Wei Yuan's first meeting, but nothing beyond that.
Finding no results despite his efforts, Xuanyue could only cough and say, "I just remembered something else. Well, going to Qingming is good too. When do you plan to leave? In a few days, a flying boat transporting Dao soldiers will depart for Qingming; you two can take that ship."
Zhang Sheng said, "We can go to Qingming on our own."
Patriarch Xuanyue looked at Zhang Sheng, then at Wei Yuan, and suddenly let out a heavy snort. "One and the other, so young yet already so fond of defying tradition!"
Zhang Sheng met his gaze calmly, while Wei Yuan's cheeks flushed red.
True Monarch Xuanyue stood up, took a scroll down from a nearby shelf, tossed it to Zhang Sheng, and said in exasperation, "This is a manuscript left behind by the founding patriarch of our Sky Azure Hall. This old man could never bear to use it, keeping it until now. Now I have no need for it, and you've lost your cultivation, so take it. At a critical moment, you won't even need to activate it—it will protect your life on its own."
Taking the heavy scroll, Zhang Sheng felt a surge of emotion, her eyes reddening slightly, though her voice remained aloof and lofty. "Thank you, Patriarch."
Watching from the side, Wei Yuan thought to himself that his teacher was stubborn to the core—no matter what she felt inside, she would never soften her words. Had it been him, he would have long since thrown himself to the ground weeping, expressing gratitude for Patriarch's doting affection, after which Patriarch would kick him out of the hall with a chuckling curse of 'you little rascal.' Only then would it feel complete.
After bidding farewell to Xuanyue, Zhang Sheng said, "I'll go see Ji Liuli to discuss some matters with her. We'll set off once I return."
Seeing the day drawing to a close, Wei Yuan asked, "Should we wait until tomorrow to leave?"
"We cannot wait. I can sense that my turning point for attaining the Dao lies in Qingming. The sooner we go, the better."
With that, Zhang Sheng headed to True Monarch Yanshi's residence to visit Ji Liuli. Unexpectedly, she was gone for several hours, not returning until midnight.
Wei Yuan did not know why she had lingered so long, but seeing that Zhang Sheng clearly did not wish to speak of it, he did not ask.
Zhang Sheng said, "Where is that flying machine you used when we fled back from the north? We'll take that back."
Wei Yuan was already prepared and manifested the flying machine. Optimized by Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, it featured a reinforced cockpit specially designed for two. Aside from that, there was little change; propulsion was provided by eight standard thruster cylinders. Normally four were fired, but all eight could be unleashed at critical moments, leaving ordinary Scenery Command cultivators incapable of catching up.
Moments later, the flying machine shot into the sky through the dark of night, departing the Northern Mountain Gate and heading toward Qingming.
Inside the cockpit, Wei Yuan and Zhang Sheng sat one behind the other. Out of habit, Wei Yuan sat in front, prepared to shield against the astral winds with his body. Only after taking off did he remember that the new cockpit was fully enclosed; there was no longer any need to shield against wind and rain with his flesh.
Along the way, Zhang Sheng routinely asked about Wei Yuan's cultivation progress. Wei Yuan answered each question in turn. Zhang Sheng then recalled something and said, "Let us go to the main mountain first. You need to comprehend the True Meaning of Great Yin, and I must also contemplate the ancestral immortal true meaning within the Sovereign Time Scripture of the Pure Heaven Orthodoxy."
And so Wei Yuan changed course, flying swiftly toward the main mountain.
Several days later, the two arrived at the main mountain. One contemplated the true meaning in Sky Azure Hall and the other in Water Moon Hall; after ten days, they reunited and set off for Qingming.
On the way back, Zhang Sheng said, "It is time you learned of your teacher's past. I... I was born back then into a modestly wealthy family. My birth mother died in childbirth. Disliked by my stepmother and with a father who was rather meek, I was given a crude, rustic name.
"Later, I met a hermit cultivator traveling through the area. Seeing my talent, she took me away from my family, enlightened me in my early studies, and gave me the single-character personal name Sheng. After my early studies, she sent me to take the Immortal Sect Unified Examination, where Master Fenhai took notice of me. I entered the Palace of Grand Beginning and was accepted into Sky Azure Hall. But ever since then, I have never seen my enlightening patron master again."
At this point, Zhang Sheng let out a rare sigh, a faint melancholy in her breath.
Wei Yuan's thoughts strayed wildly at this moment; he dearly wanted to ask what Zhang Sheng's original rustic name was, but he instinctively felt that this question was begging for a beating, with consequences too perilous to gauge.
The small flying machine carried the two of them across the earth, winging toward Qingming.
High heavens and freezing winds, perilous mountains and distant waters, ringed by powerful foes and the malice of Immortals and Buddhas—at this moment, none of it could rival the gentle warmth inside the cabin.
Chapter 460