The Source of Everything

The Immortal Sect, Divine Weapon Courtyard. Daoist Nun You stepped out of the flying boat into a vast expanse of starry space. Spreading before her eyes were stars arrayed like stones across the dark cosmic void. At the very center of these celestial bodies stood a colossal, blazing star that continually spewed radiant splendor. Once separated from the star itself, the radiance dispersed and drifted, splintering into vibrant, kaleidoscopic hues. Every slender wisp carried immense might capable of crushing all creation. "So this is the Eight Trigrams Furnace..." You Xuexin's lovely eyes grew dazed as she gazed entranced at the gigantic star. Only after quite some time did she return to her senses, turning to the person beside her with a trace of concern. "Junior Brother Xuanhe, are you certain nothing will go wrong?" Hearing this, the young man standing beside You Xuexin thumped his chest. "Rest assured, Senior Sister. I've arranged everything; there won't be any issues." "Good." You Xuexin nodded and sighed. "After all, this concerns whether Master's immortal longevity can endure. In this matter, you and I are grasshoppers tied to the same string." "I understand." The young man, Xuanhe, nodded in complete agreement and said solemnly, "Senior Sister, please set your mind at ease. With the help of the Eight Trigrams Furnace, we will surely repair the Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd this time." "We still must be careful." You Xuexin shook her head. "Splendid as the Eight Trigrams Furnace is, there are uncontrollable factors. My Daoist temple inside was once ambushed by the human firewood within the furnace. "Although we only lost some slag left behind from pill refinement, the attendant boy stationed in the temple—who had neglected his watch for personal gain—was still sacrificed by my hand... If that human firewood refuses to cooperate and the furnace heat falls short, the Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd might still suffer a defect. "That is precisely why I sent the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag inside." At this point, You Xuexin's tone turned solemn. "Naturally, this was not an abuse of power to conveniently refine the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag into a dharma treasure. My primary intention was to protect and ensure Master's longevity extension." Upon hearing this, Daoist Xuanhe gave a prompt thumbs-up. "Magnificent! Truly magnificent, Senior Sister You. "If Master knew how much care Senior Sister has poured into his longevity extension, he would surely be deeply moved. Junior Brother's admiration for you flows like the surging waters of a great river..." "Enough." You Xuexin cut off Daoist Xuanhe's flattery and continued, "The Celestial Craft Extreme Yang Ninefold Smelting Qi has entered its proper station. The auspicious hour has arrived; unseal the furnace at once." *** Inside the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag, Wang Ping stood with his hands at his sides. At this moment, he could not even define his own emotions. There was the shock of learning the truth, as well as the sudden enlightenment of all the clues connecting together. 'Wrong. It was wrong from the very start! 'Dashun is the Immortal Sect, and the Immortal Sect is Dashun... I should have realized long ago! That's why the thaumaturgic arts of Dashun share so many similarities with the Immortal Sect!' For example, the rearing of fiends in the Lin family haunted manor, or the thaumaturgies that struck directly at the soul—various earlier signs had actually hinted at this truth all along. What filled Wang Ping with even greater dread upon closer reflection was the role the Dashun Dynasty played for the Immortal Sect: an Eight Trigrams Furnace used to refine dharma treasures. What was a dharma treasure? In plain terms, wasn't it simply a weapon? And the foundation of the Dashun Dynasty was called divine weapon martial arts, where a martial artist's bounden duty was to forge powerful weapons. What did that make them? Could it be that the entire Dashun Dynasty—a grand empire spanning ten thousand li and shepherding hundreds of millions of people—was merely a furnace maintained by the Immortal Sect to craft artifacts? 'What kind of sick joke is this!' Wang Ping swayed slightly, instinctively wanting to reject such a conjecture. Yet the more he thought about it, the deeper rooted the theory became in his heart. If anything, this actually made sense. Using a world as a furnace and myriad living souls as firewood, igniting the vast mortal realm to temper the artifacts of a single sect—the Immortal Sect was entirely capable of such an atrocity. Suddenly, a piercing ache struck between Wang Ping's brows, followed by a powerful intention surging into his sea of consciousness. It was the awakening of memories customary to each transmigration. This time, however, was different. What surfaced in Wang Ping's mind was not a memory, but a vivid, distinct scene. In the vision stood You Xuexin, an embodiment of both aloof chill and sultry charm. She stood directly before him, gathering a point of radiant light in her hand before pressing it against the center of his forehead. It was an order from his master. In the scene, You Xuexin's voice echoed faintly: "Your mission this time is to gather as many fiends as possible and elevate your rank with all your might. "That is your primary task. "Your secondary task is to ensure that the refinement of the Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd is not disrupted. Naturally, someone dedicated is in charge of that; you need only assist from the side." With those words, the vision faded to black. Soon, however, memory fragments began flickering and surfacing in Wang Ping's heart, swiftly answering every question in his mind. "...So that's how it is." Moments later, Wang Ping lifted his head, revelation gleaming in his eyes. "Splendid. I'm beginning to understand everything. So this is the source of it all." Across the entirety of Longxing County, whether it was the Imperial Academy's machinations, the arrival of the Royal Enshrinement Hall, or the thaumaturge lurking in the shadows who had killed him in his previous life—the reason all these factions had gathered in such a tiny county town was, in truth, for a single weapon. The Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd. 'In Dashun, this item is a divine-artifact-grade weapon, while in the Immortal Sect, it is a dharma treasure on par with the Fate-Peering Flesh-Flensing Bone Mirror. Its wondrous effect matches its name.' As the name implied, it extended life. 'Supposedly, the Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd was only refined after Dashun expended the strength of the entire realm, ultimately succeeding in saving a Qi Refiner whose immortal lifespan had reached its end. 'Thanks to that, the current Emperor of Dashun picked up a few scraps, which allowed him to live to over a hundred and twenty... Unfortunately, the Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd was damaged after that. To extend the life of another Qi Refiner, the Immortal Sect is now attempting to reforge and repair this dharma treasure.' And the Imperial Academy was the Immortal Sect's dirty glove. The Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd was a dharma treasure bound to lifespan. To repair it, the shortfall had to be replenished with lifespan as well. The Imperial Academy had ultimately chosen Longxing County. The price for repairing the Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd was simple: the lifespans of all the common folk under Longxing County's jurisdiction, plus half the lifespans of the law-abiding citizens within the city walls. To that end, the Imperial Academy had begun its arrangement. The first step was raising taxes. Upon taking office as county magistrate, Xu Bingzheng had set about hiking taxes, deliberately engineering a famine. All the common folk who died as a result were fed into the Longevity as Old as Heaven Gourd. The second step was manufacturing haunted estates within the city, like the Lin family residence, to breed fiends. Thinking of this, Wang Ping could not help clutching his forehead as he recalled what he had witnessed in the Lin family residence: 'The thaumaturgy implanted in Lin Sheng, the method of devouring flesh and blood.' Back then, he had even mocked the thaumaturgy as a junior version of Life-Stealing Thief. He had not expected those words to be prophetic. 'At the time, I hadn't seen the finished fiend with my own eyes, which led to my misunderstanding... What junior version? What was planted in Lin Sheng was Life-Stealing Thief itself! 'Only with Life-Stealing Thief could fiends become tools for harvesting lifespan!' The third step was mobilizing the imperial military encampment. Under the famine's impact, the common folk gathered outside the walls. Left long enough, unrest was inevitable. Meanwhile, the city within was destabilized by the rampaging fiends. Beset by trouble from both within and without, rebellion was guaranteed. When that time arrived, it would be the imperial army's turn to strike. They could righteously slaughter all the rebelling commoners, harvesting their lifespans in one fell swoop, while blaming the deaths of the city's law-abiding citizens on the peasant rebellion. The imperial court would remain spotless and pure, and would even earn the gratitude of the surviving citizens. "Those bastards..." Having finally untangled the Imperial Academy's full scheme, Wang Ping could not help sighing in dark awe. "Practically zero cost for boundless profit. Committing every conceivable evil, yet still emerging as the righteous party. "Vicious. Far too insidious!" Fortunately, plans could never keep pace with change. 'First, because of my presence, Xu Bingzheng lost Chen Haoyan as his chief constable and was forced into the open, resulting in Shouchong's ambush leaving him severely wounded. 'That undoubtedly slowed the Imperial Academy's timetable. 'Second, thanks to Madam Su's mysterious close friend, the Black Armor Battalion was deployed to Longxing County, and that battalion is not under the Imperial Academy's control. 'Finally, and most crucially... the Royal Enshrinement Hall.' Wang Ping recalled the two royal enshrinement masters he had met in his previous life, Shen Monkey and Xu Dog, as well as the secret imperial decree he had received as a member of the gold-bearing armed cavalry: *Secretly support the civil uprising and facilitate the rebels breaching Longxing County.* 'Back then, I couldn't understand what that secret decree meant. Now that I've unraveled the Imperial Academy's entire scheme, it isn't hard to grasp.' The secret decree's directive to support the rebellion was fundamentally opposed to and in direct conflict with the Imperial Academy's goal of using the uprising to slaughter the commoners. Clearly, the imperial court was not an impenetrable monolith. At the very least, the faction represented by the Royal Enshrinement Hall was openly at odds with the Imperial Academy. With that realization, Wang Ping made an immediate decision. 'To the county yamen!' Whether on principle or by conscience, he could never endorse the Imperial Academy's deranged scheme to massacre the city. The urgent priority was to find Shen Monkey and Xu Dog at once. From what he had just seen, fiends were already rampaging through Longxing County, devouring the people's lifespans. The Imperial Academy's plan had already been set into motion. He had to stop it as quickly as possible. Time waited for no one! With a thought, Wang Ping sent the true body of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon King stepping out from the banner. Shifting like a phantom, he sped swiftly toward the Longxing County yamen. Before long, he arrived at the secluded meditation chamber where he had died two lives ago. 'No one has entered...' Wang Ping breathed a sigh of relief. Since no one had seen his corpse from two lives ago, he could stage a flawless resurrection without fear of exposure. The next second, he walked into the secret chamber. 'Next, I just need to temporarily re-enter my corpse, then go find Shen Monkey and Xu Dog. Since they dared come to Longxing County, they must have cards up their sleeves...' Just as the thought crossed Wang Ping's mind, he froze. Looking ahead, he saw his corpse sitting upright in the center of the chamber. Everything below the neck was intact and lifelike—yet above the neck, it was completely bare. "Where's my head?" Before dying two lives ago, he had definitely reattached his head to his neck. Had seven days passed and, failing to hold firm, it had tumbled off again? Wang Ping grew anxious. He could hardly go out possessing a headless corpse. Yet as he searched around, he found no sign of a fallen head anywhere. Fortunately, just at that moment, another person inside the chamber strolled over amiably, holding a severed head by the hair. "Looking for this?" "Yes, that's it! Thank y—" His voice stopped dead. In an instant, Wang Ping's pupils shrank to pinpricks. Reflected in his vision was a kindly old man clad in white robes, a warm, gentle smile curving at the corners of his lips. "Good disciple, so that's how you resurrect?" Inside the quiet chamber, a soft chuckle sounded. "Since you borrow the power of a divine weapon to return to life, you ought to have destroyed your remains after death to leave no hidden dangers behind. Yet you returned to the old scene... You truly were far too careless!"