Having harmed the child just moments before, Daoist Zhen did not give the matter another thought. Upon returning to the Wei manor, he mused privately, *I entered this Wei family in the first place hoping to leverage their local influence to track down whoever made off with the carcass of my strange serpent. Little did I expect to spot an even better embryonic flying sword in the hands of a Qi Refining cultivator—and ten to one, that fellow is the very culprit who ruined my plans.*
*Striking at him can hardly be considered unjustified!*
*Yet when I sounded out the Wei family earlier, Wei Lecheng proved to be a cunning old fox with no intention of pulling chestnuts from the fire on my behalf. I originally intended to trick them into slaying the lad so I could seize the flying sword during the chaos and flee far away, leaving all the loose ends for the Wei clan to clean up.*
*From the looks of it now, that Wei Lecheng only covets my alchemy and has no stomach for blazing a trail for me. Yesterday, just to win his trust, I had no choice but to reveal a bit of skill to that cheap disciple of mine. The Wei family does possess some alchemical heritage of their own, but it pales in comparison to the teachings of my lineage. Our sect has always passed its legacy down through a single disciple... and never accepts an apprentice until one's lifespan draws near its end.*
*This cheap disciple of mine...*
A glint of malice flashed in Daoist Zhen's eyes, and he sneered inwardly. *Since you refuse to act, I'll just have to force your hand!*
Rising to his feet, he summoned Wei Taiping. After Wei Taiping paid his respects, his makeshift master offered some guidance: "Having entered my tutelage today and presented so many gifts, it is only right that I bestow something upon you in return. However, the magical implements I carry are the foundation of my life's cultivation, bonded to my very essence; I cannot part with them lightly... They can be passed down to you only after I sit in final meditation and pass away.
"While the Wei clan possesses some wealth, it all rests in the hands of those elders with profound cultivation, who bestow it only upon their favored juniors. Your father is in the prime of his life, and what heritage he has will surely be reserved for your elder brother.
"Thus, seeing that you lack any proper magical implement of your own... I have an opportunity to offer you!"
Wei Taiping was overjoyed. He had originally planned to learn alchemy from this newly acquired master first, then find an opportunity alongside his father to plot against Daoist Zhen and seize all his implements. Yet he had harbored quiet worries as well: his father had always favored his elder brother, so even though Daoist Zhen was his own master, how much of that hoard would actually end up in his hands?
He had never expected another opportunity to present itself so soon. Kowtowing twice at once, he said, "I thank Master for your generous favor! Your kindness is something your disciple will never forget!"
"Do not celebrate just yet..." Daoist Zhen said with a smile. "This opportunity will still require effort on your part. It is an exceptional embryonic material for a magical implement... A few days ago, when I slew that strange serpent, I discovered something extraordinary about the great plum tree in Sanyang Village. It has taken root atop a vein of earthly baleful yin qi, which was precisely what allowed that serpent to grow so formidable.
"That plum tree is a rare variety that has absorbed baleful qi for a century. It is nearing full maturity, making it a superb embryonic vessel for crafting a magical implement.
"If you fell that tree and dedicate your efforts to its ritual refinement, forging an exceptional magical implement from it will be no difficult task..."
Daoist Zhen gave him a few more pointers, and Wei Taiping readily agreed to every word, stepping back in delight. By now, his heart was consumed entirely by the prospect of this future implement. Greed blazed within him, and a faint, nebulous haze clouded his mind. Having taken his leave, Wei Taiping was just about to report the matter to his father when a second thought struck him.
*Father has always favored Elder Brother. If I obtain such spiritual material, what if he turns around and gives it to him instead?*
*Better to secure it myself first and make it a done deal.* Gathering his trusted confidants—a gang of vicious servants and hired thugs—he set off toward Sanyang Village in swaggering fashion, surrounded by his entourage.
***
Ever since the night he brandished his sword over Jiuzhen Lake, Qian Chen had ventured into the outer reaches of the Great Marsh to explore. People often said that deep mountains and vast marshes were breeding grounds for dragons and serpents, and it was no empty exaggeration. Along the way, Qian Chen had encountered an untold variety of venomous beasts and crawling vermin. All things under heaven possessed their own unique abilities; many of these bugs were so frail they could be pinched to death with ease, yet even a Golden Core cultivator who grew careless for a moment could easily lose their life to them.
Take, for instance, the venomous *yu* lurking in the poisoned bogs that spat sand to curse shadows, or the *yi*, microscopic creatures invisible to the naked eye that swarmed by the hundreds of millions, rising into the air like dense white fog.
Guided by the subtle perceptions of his spiritual sense, Qian Chen had also detected several veins of baleful qi.
Unfortunately, they were either far too impure or inherently too low in quality.
Superior baleful qi originated from the turbid qi of earthly yin. Conversely, accumulations of rotting corpses, festering filth, nests of vermin and serpents, or even the passions between men and women could also engender baleful qi—such as the Peach Blossom Sha, a variant born of the carnal desires of yin and yang. While these were also forms of anomalous primordial qi, their intrinsic nature was far inferior to the extraordinary variants among the Seventy-Two Earthly Baleful Shas.
Moreover, such baleful qi arose from the incidental creations of the mortal world, carrying a far greater degree of impurity than the immaculate handiwork of heaven and earth.
Superior baleful qi was inevitably pure, whereas inferior variants were typically tainted. To Qian Chen, baleful qi that was both fundamentally inferior and contaminated was completely unusable.
On the other hand, the spirit medicines that grew alongside the earthly baleful miasmas were often of fine quality. Qian Chen harvested a few, generally taking only about thirty percent, roughly three parts in ten.
This was to leave the roots intact, honoring the principle of never exhausting the gifts of creation.
Even though the Great Marsh was so profoundly vast that Qian Chen could never pick it clean even with all his might—and even if all the jianghu wanderers of Jiuzhen Commandery, or indeed the entire realm, surged into the marsh to gather herbs, they would not deplete a ten-thousandth of its reserves—Qian Chen hailed from an industrial society in his past life. He knew all too well the devastation that reckless resource exploitation could inflict upon an environment.
He would not presume to lecture or dictate terms to the mortals of this world, who were still fighting to expand their living space. He felt no need to sit on high and pass harsh judgment on the desperate jianghu wanderers risking their lives for a single stalk of spirit medicine, or on the wandering cultivators struggling to survive their grueling path. Yet when faced with the same circumstances, he preferred to leave a margin of forbearance.
After all, Qian Chen had no shortage of such things...
Leaving some behind for the native creatures might seem like wasting it in the bellies of serpents and venomous insects, but weren't those very guardians an integral part of the spirit medicines' life cycle? Many rare plants depended on these creatures to propagate and expand their populations. Otherwise, with the Great Jin spanning thirteen prosperous provinces, such abundant spirit medicines would hardly be confined only to these perilous wilds.
Riding his Flying Cloud Pouch, Qian Chen emerged from the marsh's perimeter in something of a disheveled state.
Aside from harvesting a handful of spirit medicines today, his greatest takeaway was gaining a firsthand understanding of the Great Marsh's perils. The Lake Hexagram signified entrapment and peril; beyond the demonic beasts, poisonous vermin, miasmas, and yin sha, the marsh was riddled with natural formations. All of them were trapping and confining arrays that, when paired with the vermin and foul vapors, possessed unpredictable lethality.
Even more hazardous was the marsh's terrain itself. For example, Qian Chen had encountered the Kongqing Marsh, which appeared on the surface to be nothing more than an ordinary mud bog. In truth, the mire was formed from the rotting pulp of a spirit fungus known as the fly agaric. Not only was it filled with countless toxic fly eggs, but the sludge was dozens of times lighter than water, resembling frothy foam. A single gust of wind could kick it into the air, and a mere speck touching bare skin would cause a person's entire body to fester, turning them into nourishment for the fly maggots to hatch.
Qian Chen had remained atop the Flying Cloud Pouch without ever setting foot on the ground. Had he not witnessed an exotic, crimson-scaled python plunge into the bog with his own eyes, he never would have noticed the hazard.
That crimson serpent, exhaling miasma and possessing cultivation on par with the one he had slain by the plum tree, dissolved into a pool of rotting flesh in the blink of an eye. The maggots crawling upon it transformed into venomous flies the moment the wind struck them, and upon spotting Qian Chen, they swarmed him in a frenzy. He had been forced to draw out the Seven Baleful Banner before he finally wiped them out.
Beset by such layered dangers, Qian Chen had no choice but to keep the Flying Cloud Pouch skimming close to the ground, with the Heavenly Net Umbrella opened wide against sudden ambushes.
Throughout the journey, he had been attacked by venomous snakes that resembled dry twigs, three-tailed scorpions, centipedes as thick as a child's arm, poisonous earthworms as thin as strands of hair, and all manner of bizarre, savage creatures. It made Qian Chen wonder: with such a relentless frequency of danger, how did ordinary jianghu wanderers—who possessed only mundane martial arts and a few paper talismans for rudimentary spells—ever manage to make it out alive with spirit medicines in hand?
He knew that these wanderers followed trails blazed by their predecessors and understood how to avoid certain vermin and beasts.
Yet to emerge alive relying merely on such meager skills still caused Qian Chen to marvel at the boundless potential of life.
After leaving the Great Marsh, Qian Chen flew into the clear skies as usual to gather the pure spiritual qi of the Nine Heavens. He then drifted down over the lake, unfurling an azure cloud to sit within, refining the qi into his own true qi.
He had not yet condensed his true qi into a true talisman to transform it into fundamental magical power. His plan was to refine the quality of his true qi until it matched the Pure Qi of the Nine Heavens, after which he would see if he could use the Dao Dust Pearl to condense the Innate Qi Taiqing Divine Talisman. Attaining Taiqing magical power in this manner would bestow an immense potency reputed to be eternal.
This meant that a single true talisman of Qian Chen's magical power could potentially effect permanent transformations upon primordial qi.
Shrinking an object would keep it permanently small, as that strand of magical power would never disperse, remaining constant throughout eternity. Even transmuting stone into gold would never revert, enduring as true gold for thousands of years. Unless a cultivator employed tremendous magical power to wear away that Taiqing essence, every illusion and transmutation would become reality.
It was the sublime realm of turning the illusory into the real.
Waking from his meditation, Qian Chen stretched languidly. He relaxed the restriction, letting the gentle breeze from the lake drift inside. The cool lake wind brushed across his face, washing away the faint exhaustion deep in his bones. Qian Chen reclined upon his cloud bed, allowing the Flying Cloud Pouch to drift leisurely across the water. The lake was utterly still, broken only by the gliding silhouettes of water birds.
As he was enjoying this peace and quiet, an Ear Canal Deity slipped over at some unknown moment, preparing to crawl into his ear.
Qian Chen pointed a finger, pinning the tiny creature to his fingertip, and said with a smile, "Don't go crawling into my ear. Just speak from there... If your news is useful, I have something good for you."
With that, he produced a few specks of jade dust on his fingertip. Qian Chen had found that crushing spirit pills proved quite practical; while exploring the Great Marsh, using them to lure away little creatures guarding spirit medicines had worked wonders, so he had crushed another one to keep on hand specifically as treats for these little spirits.
The Ear Canal Deity darted swiftly onto his fingertip. The soybean-sized creature perched there, clutching a piece of jade dust the size of its own head and gnawing away happily while babbling in a squeaky voice.
As Qian Chen listened to the little spirit's report, the smile on his face gradually faded, replaced by a dark, chilling solemnity.
A short while later, a streak of sword light swept across the lake and descended outside Jiaobu Town. A ghost messenger, who had been searching for him for quite some time, hastily manifested his form and clasped his hands in salute. "Might you be the immortal master who slew the demon by the plum tree? The City God sent this humble servant with a matter to report!"
Qian Chen cast a cold glance at him and said in a chilling voice, "I already know your purpose.
"Tell the City God that I, Qian Chen, do not repeat mistakes... I accept his kind gesture."
Chapter 56