The journey passed without incident.
From the Northern Barrens, Qin Sang headed straight back to Zhuo Prefecture, making his first stop at Mount Bunian.
The sky was clear for ten thousand li.
Qin Sang stood on the mountain peak that served as the sole gateway into Mount Bunian, right where the stone tablet inscribed with 'White Cloud Waterfall' should have been.
Looking up, not a cloud drifted across the boundless expanse.
Qin Sang flew upward for some distance, but the grand cloud waterfall of the past was nowhere to be found.
Releasing his divine consciousness, he could detect no trace of Mount Bunian's mountain-protecting grand array. Even the 'White Cloud Waterfall' stele here had vanished.
He had originally intended to consult Situ Yu about Old Man Yanshan's origins, but now he could not even locate the mountain gate. Mount Bunian's grand array was no ordinary creation, and it was futile to force his way through.
Mount Bunian's sealing was no joke; they had genuinely withdrawn from the mortal world.
It would be inappropriate to intrude uninvited.
Qin Sang shook his head faintly and turned into a streak of light, flying away.
Returning to the Qingxu Illusion Realm, Qin Sang and his incarnation sat cross-legged facing each other. He retrieved the spoils from this expedition: two pills, an ice disc, and several remnants belonging to Concubine Yue.
The woman's mustard seed bag had survived intact.
To make her act convincing and keep Su Zinan from discovering the bag and seeing through her plot, Concubine Yue had prepared only a few essential pills and items for herself after her soul transference. Most of the treasures bestowed upon her by Su Zinan had been left on her person.
She was, after all, the favored concubine of a Deity Transformation cultivator's adopted son.
Despite having destroyed so many treasures during the battle in the ice cavern, two fairly potent magic treasures remained within her mustard seed bag.
The most precious was undoubtedly the silver bracelet capable of splitting apart. Qin Sang had confiscated it after Concubine Yue 'perished.' It could restrict an opponent's magic treasures and was a rather unorthodox item that might produce miraculous effects.
Qin Sang decided to keep it for his own use.
The two items in the mustard seed bag were somewhat inferior, so he set them aside to bestow upon the Xie family and Loutai View.
Once his true body found time to re-refine them, there would be no fear of Luye recognizing them.
In addition, the bag held an abundance of spirit stones and various pills, yielding Qin Sang a considerable fortune. It would fully support his daily expenses, sparing him the need to scrounge for materials himself.
After all, the Xie family and Loutai View were not wealthy enough to sustain Qin Sang's cultivation needs.
Having sorted everything into categories, Qin Sang looked at the relics of the Water Element Master—the two snow-white pills.
During their return, both his true body and incarnation had examined them closely. The incarnation had circulated various divine abilities of the ice element, but could only determine that the pills were not meant for boosting one's cultivation realm.
The last item was the ice disc.
The disc was slightly larger than Qin Sang's palm, divided into an inner and an outer tier. An aura perpetually circulated within the inner tier, strictly confined to it without spilling outward in the slightest.
Qin Sang could not be certain whether this was chill fiend qi. After being removed from the spirit array, it no longer precipitated chill fiend qi, feeling merely cool to the touch when held.
Divine treasures concealed their own radiance.
Qin Sang stared at the ice disc for a long time, noticing that the shifts in that aura followed no discernable pattern. At times, it morphed into majestic mountains and rivers; at others, it transformed into an ice crystal palace.
Interspersed were various obscure, meaningless visions, devoid of regularity.
Each vision lasted less than a breath, shifting endlessly.
The ice palace appeared grand and magnificent. Even from the scene within the disc, Qin Sang could sense a breathtaking beauty, wondering whether such a place truly existed in the world.
As these images held no clear meaning, Qin Sang pondered for a moment before handing the ice disc to his incarnation, bidding him to refine it using the standard methods for magic treasures.
An hour later, Qin Sang's brow furrowed.
The ice disc was not a magic treasure and could not be refined by a cultivator. It certainly was not a spirit treasure either; otherwise, even if he did not understand the Tongbao Formula, he would still be able to sense a spirit treasure's distinct fluctuations.
The good news was that the incarnation had successfully stimulated the chill fiend qi inside the ice disc, making cultivation feasible.
"The chill fiend qi in this ice disc is exceptionally dense—more than enough to sustain the incarnation in mastering the Ice Soul Divine Light! Could it be that the Water Element branch's heritage requires such a special treasure solely to provide chill fiend qi for cultivation?" Qin Sang mused, his expression suddenly shifting. "Wait..."
A flash of insight struck him, and he examined it from the perspective of array arts, promptly discovering something. "It resembles an array device, though it cannot form an array on its own. Rather, it serves to coordinate with a special spirit array—seemingly as the treasure of the array eye... The power of such an array must be astonishing!"
He could not be certain; perhaps this was only one of the ice disc's functions.
Like the pills, it all traced back to a single problem: to understand their true purpose, one had to obtain the Wuxiang Immortal Sect's heritage first.
For now, it could only serve as a treasure to aid cultivation.
The incarnation put away the ice disc, intending to cultivate the Ice Soul Divine Light first and gradually familiarize himself with the disc. Once the Ice Soul Divine Light reached grand accomplishment, he would study its other functions further and see if he could use the treasure to advance his cultivation.
This time, the incarnation was also entering a prolonged period of secluded cultivation.
The true body yielded the immortal's cave to the incarnation, their roles of inside and outside now reversed.
The immortal cave's restrictions sealed shut.
After a brief period of meditating to regulate his breath, the true body did not rush into cultivating. He quietly departed Mount Pu and flew southeast, stopping just before reaching the border of Zhuo Prefecture to enter a massive market known as the Yanshui Market.
The Yanshui Market fell under Mount Bunian's jurisdiction and was among the largest markets in Zhuo Prefecture. How Mount Bunian intended to handle the Yanshui Market after sealing their mountain was still unknown, but no changes could be seen for now.
Across the Nineteen Misty Rain Prefectures, sects governed the lands, and markets or cities that exclusively hosted immortal cultivators were rare. Those few were mostly small-scale secluded bazaars meant for limited trading.
In larger cities, cultivators and mortals coexisted, though a divide separated them; mortals generally dared not disturb immortal masters.
Flying was prohibited within the market.
Having offended Luye not long ago, Qin Sang cast a secret art to disguise his appearance to avoid trouble. Weaving through the crowds with a few swift steps, he entered the core of the market and soon located his target: a branch of Six Prefectures Hall.
This was the largest branch of Six Prefectures Hall in Zhuo Prefecture.
Just as Qin Sang reached the entrance of Six Prefectures Hall, three Core Formation cultivators stepped out together. The ground-floor hall was bustling with people, where even Qi Condensation cultivators were seldom seen.
The three Core Formation cultivators—two men and a woman—seemed to have reaped substantial gains, smiles plastered across their faces.
As Qin Sang approached them head-on, one of the men glanced at him, sensing an ethereal temperament from this stranger, yet finding him completely unfamiliar, which aroused his curiosity.
As they brushed past each other, a notion struck the man. He secretly activated a spiritual eye ability, a faint glint of lightning flickering across his left pupil.
He prided himself on how covert this divine ability was, having used it repeatedly to spy on others without ever slipping up.
Yet the instant the lightning flickered, a needle-sharp, excruciating pain shot through the man's left eye. His body shuddered as he groaned in agony, clutching his left eye with one hand.
"What happened?"
Startled, his companions saw blood oozing through his fingers. Shocked and furious, they exclaimed, "You..."
"Go!"
The man endured the agony, shoving his companions back while daring not move an inch himself. Unable to contain the terror churning in his heart, his voice trembled. "Junior was insolent! I deserve ten thousand deaths!"
The stranger paid no heed, walking into Six Prefectures Hall without turning his head.
"Thank you, Senior, for sparing my life!"
Feeling as if he had received an imperial pardon, the man hurried away, dragging his companions along.
Only after fleeing far into the distance did the man pull his hand away.
His companions were horrified to find his left eye mangled and bloody, the divine ability he had painstakingly cultivated completely ruined, with no telling whether it could ever be restored. What terrified them most was that they had no idea when the man had even been attacked. "Could that person just now have been..."
Rejoicing over surviving the ordeal, the man said with a bitter tone, "Back then, I used this divine ability to spy on the sect master of the Star-Plucking Sect, and even he didn't notice... Fortunately, this senior was magnanimous. To keep my life is already great fortune; I nearly dragged you two down with me."
The three spoke in low voices, not daring to linger in the market any longer, and hurried away.
Meanwhile, Qin Sang, having administered a slight punishment to the offender, gave it no further thought and stepped into Six Prefectures Hall.
The chief manager of this branch happened to be a Nascent Soul cultivator. Having witnessed the scene outside, he hurried downstairs to attend to the guest personally, ushering Qin Sang into a quiet chamber.
Qin Sang waved his hand to decline the tea, producing a token of identification. "This is my token. Please take a look, Fellow Daoist."
The chief manager took it, offered an apology, and verified it with a secret art before bowing deeply and returning it to Qin Sang. "The token is genuine. This humble one is Jiang Mu. Greetings, Fellow Daoist Qin."
Qin Sang cupped his hands in return, addressing him as Fellow Daoist Jiang. "In recent years, has anyone produced a token inquiring after me?"
"Please wait a moment, Fellow Daoist."
Jiang Mu went to check the records in person, returning only after a stick of incense had burned down.
Receiving a negative answer, Qin Sang sighed inwardly.
A century ago, Liu Li had traveled west to study Buddhist teachings and had since vanished without a trace, leaving no word of her whereabouts or whether she had achieved any success.
Shaking off his stray thoughts, he explained his purpose.
Qin Sang wished to purchase intelligence regarding the major factions across Zhongzhou from Six Prefectures Hall—not limited to the present age, nor restricted to the Nineteen Misty Rain Prefectures, with no bounds on time; the older the records, the better.
Though surprised, Jiang Mu did not find it unusual. He surmised that Qin Sang had likely stumbled upon some secret realm or a treasure of unknown origin, and lacking clarity, wished to investigate from this angle.
He had seen many such cases.
However, doing so was no different from searching for a needle in a haystack; only a tiny fraction of people ever had the luck to unearth any clues.
So long as spirit stones were offered, everything was negotiable.
Once they settled on the terms, Qin Sang produced a pouch of spirit stones. Jiang Mu immediately ordered his subordinates to bring in the dossiers, leaving Qin Sang alone in the quiet chamber to peruse them at his leisure.
Qin Sang cast several isolating restrictions, then first opened the dossiers on Bajing View and Ganlu Zen Monastery, counting the names to search for all renowned masters at or above the Nascent Soul stage.
It was no secret that the Deity Transformation figures of these two sects often revealed their divine might to overawe all directions.
The founder of Ganlu Zen Monastery, Master Liaosu, was a Buddhist Saint!
The other was Huang Xi, a Deity Transformation True Monarch and founder of Bajing View!
Moreover, the two belonged to the same era, their breakthroughs to the Deity Transformation realm separated by no more than two hundred years.
"Both were at the Deity Transformation stage!"
Qin Sang's expression grew solemn.
It was now certain that the two individuals cursed so vehemently in the Water Element Master's posthumous letter were indeed the founders of these two sects.
With the fall of the Wuxiang Immortal Sect and the rise of Bajing View and Ganlu Zen Monastery, what had truly transpired in those days?
Given the Water Element Master's boundless resentment, Qin Sang could not help but suspect that they were the masterminds behind the downfall of the Wuxiang Immortal Sect. He quickly flipped through the records, scanning through jade slips in rapid succession, until he finally found the Wuxiang Immortal Sect.
Curiously, for such a colossal faction, the contents of the dossier were exceedingly brief. No matter how he searched, no useful information could be gleaned; even the location of the Wuxiang Immortal Sect's mountain gate had been omitted, clearly wiped away with deliberate intent.
"Bajing View and Ganlu Zen Monastery truly aimed to eradicate them root and branch..."
Qin Sang murmured softly.
The situation remained murky, involving two paramount sects of Buddhism and Daoism. Hidden perils lurked everywhere, making open investigation impossible.
"A supreme immortal sect wouldn't have possessed only a single lineage. As the saying goes, a hundred-legged centipede dies but never falls down. The Water Element Master's heritage has already emerged; can the other lineages be far behind? Back then, the continuous line of Deity Transformation figures from the Buddhist and Daoist sects kept them suppressed. Now, rumors of missing Deity Transformation figures are spreading rampantly, while the Gu God Cult of the Southern Barbarians and the demonic sects of the Northern Barrens are stirring. After lying low for so long, the descendants of the Wuxiang Immortal Sect should be stepping forth as well, shouldn't they?"
Qin Sang lightly tapped the jade slip with his finger.
His heavenly tribulation was approaching; it would do no harm to wait a little longer. All sorts of monsters and demons were bound to show their heads.
Having formed a plan, Qin Sang browsed through the remaining dossiers, committing them to memory, before having the attendant waiting outside remove them and inviting Jiang Mu back in.
"Qin has another matter to entrust to your hall. Please help me gather treasures capable of enhancing divine consciousness—be they spirit elixirs, miraculous medicines, secret arts, or magic treasures."
This was Qin Sang's primary objective.
After breaking through to the late stage, refining the demonic fire had become far easier than before.
At the time, Qin Sang had believed that by continuing at this pace, refining the demonic fire and greatly expanding his divine consciousness, he stood a strong chance of reaching heights comparable to a Deity Transformation cultivator.
Yet after three years of painstaking cultivation following his breakthrough, Qin Sang realized he had likely oversimplified matters.
The speed at which he refined the demonic fire was still gratifying, but hidden concerns lingered.
He practiced the Fire Seed Golden Lotus, using the refinement of demonic fire to strengthen his divine consciousness, and was still far from breaking through to the secret art's third layer—transforming the fire lotus into a lotus pedestal.
Yet that did not mean there were no bottlenecks.
As time passed and the fire lotus merged with more demonic fire, the demands placed upon him grew ever steeper, outstripping the rate at which his divine consciousness expanded. In the future, a limit would likely emerge where his divine consciousness and the fire lotus reached a precarious equilibrium.
He also had the Soul-Nurturing Wood to thank for subtly bestowing immense benefits upon him; otherwise, practicing the Fire Seed Golden Lotus would never have gone so smoothly.
If he continued forcibly refining the demonic fire, whether the result would be a breakthrough or a loss of control was unpredictable.
Based on Qin Sang's experience, the odds of success were negligible.
He would either have to advance his cultivation realm significantly or find another method to achieve a breakthrough in divine consciousness.
Naturally, the Wandering Sword had integrated the Soul-Nurturing Wood, and its soul light nourished his nascent soul at all times. He would eventually succeed in refining the demonic fire, but it would take a very long time.
The gathering turmoil in Zhongzhou was at hand, but turmoil brought opportunity.
He wished to elevate his strength further, not merely to preserve his life in the coming chaos, but to reap rewards from it.
Qin Sang sought to rely on external items, which was why he had approached Six Prefectures Hall.
Now this was major business!
Beaming, Jiang Mu promptly produced a jade slip, displaying the treasures held in Six Prefectures Hall's collection. "Please have a look, Fellow Daoist Qin. Not long ago, our hall happened to acquire an impermanence flower. Refined into an impermanence pill, it produces remarkable effects even for Nascent Soul cultivators like us. I can take the liberty of including the pill formula as a complimentary gift for you. Furthermore, this Tortoise Guiding Technique is an unparalleled method for cultivating divine consciousness, created by a renowned Nascent Soul expert from the Eastern Sea Immortal Mountain and later refined over generations of cultivators on Miemeng Island..."
Qin Sang inspected each item in turn, but ultimately shook his head.
The impermanence flower was merely one of the primary ingredients for the impermanence pill; who knew how many years it would take to gather the rest, not to mention that its effects were hardly exceptional.
As for the Tortoise Guiding Technique, he had obtained secret arts of comparable grade in the Xuantian Palace; once he hit a bottleneck, it would likely be of little use.
A single glance revealed the whole picture.
Seeing Qin Sang's demanding standards, Jiang Mu reined in his delight and scrutinized Qin Sang inwardly, raising his evaluation of him by a notch.
Putting away the jade slip, he pondered for a moment before speaking. "Does Fellow Daoist Qin know of the Ullambana Festival?"
"The Buddhist Ullambana Festival? I hear it is held only once every thousand years," Qin Sang replied, having heard of it before.
"It is not a thousand years, but actually once every five hundred years,"
Jiang Mu explained. "Buddhism has its Ullambana Festival, while Daoism has the Zhongyuan Dharma Assembly; in truth, they are the very same event. It is simply hosted alternately by the Buddhist and Daoist sects under different names, making it the foremost grand event in the Central Plains."
Chapter 1579