Seeking Relics, Leaving Only Obsession

As Chen Chuan drew closer, the vines parted on their own under his gaze, exposing the full inscriptions beneath. The characters were small yet vigorous and free-flowing, carrying an innate sense of open-hearted breadth. They had likely been carved before this yaogui ever underwent mutation. He skimmed a few lines; what was carved here was the man's personal account. The man referred to himself as You Zhinan, a Guardian of the Jinli Sect. The Jinli Sect... Chen Chuan pondered. It should be a branch under the Xuan Sect. The impression stuck with him because there were members of this sect in several Xuan abbeys within Jibei Circuit Center City. This sect had once held a certain degree of influence in the past, or else it would never have appeared in municipal records. However, after entering the new era, the sect fell into decline for various reasons. Its disciples had abandoned their martial heritage, surviving entirely on divination and fortune-telling, possessing virtually no combat capabilities anymore. According to You Zhinan's account, he had arrived here during the reign of Emperor Cheng Yi. Emperor Cheng Yi... Chen Chuan considered the timeline. That would place him as a monarch from over four hundred years ago, even prior to the final dynasty. The reason he remembered was that this emperor was one of the few who revered the Chan Sect and suppressed the Xuan Sect after the two rival sects had settled their struggle eight hundred years ago. During his reign, the Chan Sect experienced a brief resurgence; some scholars believed the subsequent dynastic overthrow might well have been connected to this. Setting those thoughts aside, he read further. The man explained that he was here precisely because he had discovered this Nine-Aperture Stone Lotus. The Jinli Sect possessed an elixir formula that utilized the lotus blossoms, lotus seeds, and other rare medicinal ingredients to propel a guardian divine general like him to a higher realm. Yet in the descriptions that followed, he noted that the formula was incomplete. He readily admitted that trying to achieve his goal with an unverified formula offered only the slimmest of hopes, yet he had no choice but to pin his hopes on it, because during his era, the Jinli Sect had nearly fractured and dispersed under imperial suppression. At that time, he was already the sole surviving Guardian of the sect, and there was not even anyone qualified to serve as Sect Master. What remained were only loose local altars, having long lost their former grandeur. And to revitalize the sect, nothing short of producing another True Person or Celestial Master would suffice. After all, though the Xuan Sect faced imperial suppression at the time, the major sects were left largely untouched beyond overt coldness—proof that preferential treatment was at play. For reasons unknown, he had ultimately inscribed both the fragmented original formula and the formula he had attempted to complete himself upon the stone. Chen Chuan committed them to memory after reading, but only that, as he had no way to verify their authenticity, nor could he tell whether the man had intentionally left hidden pitfalls. Besides, even if they were genuine, technology had advanced at a rapid pace in the new era. Many relics of the past were not necessarily useless, but superior alternatives now existed. Even the Xuan Sect had offered up a collection of elixir recipes after the founding of the Republic of Great Shun, and among those, there were bound to be ones superior to what lay before him. Following the formulas, the man had left a regretful message: his original purpose in coming to the Confluence was to search for a supreme treasure left here in earlier times by the Xuan Sect. Unexpectedly, he had encountered the stone lotus. Judging the treasure before his eyes to be more important, he had abandoned his initial plan and stayed to guard it, waiting for the lotus seeds to mature. Interspersed within were garrulous recollections of past events, lamenting how in his youth he had focused solely on cultivation, never reciprocating the help of many friends. In later years, he felt deeply ashamed of having let down their kindness, which was why he had carved their names, places of origin, and past deeds here. He wrote that while he could no longer repay his friends' benevolence, he could at least ensure their names endured through the ages, never fading away. Chen Chuan glanced over; the accounts regarding these individuals were etched upon a naturally formed boulder nearby, numbering fewer than twenty people in total. Owing to the confluence of day and night, the stones of the Confluence differed from ordinary rock. Coupled with how deeply these words were carved and the mental saturation imbued within before the yaogui's mutation, they could easily endure for thousands of years barring violent destruction. The man had certainly not been boasting. Yet what this person had left behind was far more than this. Perhaps because he had existed here in isolation for so long, this was his only outlet to relieve the pent-up anguish in his heart. On an adjacent stone was inscribed a portion of the Jinli Sect's secret teachings—a set of cultivation techniques ranging from foundational basics all the way to the Fourth Limit, which corresponded to what he termed the Martial Ancestor level. Alongside were listed various precautions and the medicinal concoctions required at each stage. A hint of pride showed in the accompanying words; he believed he had synthesized past teachings to forge new breakthroughs, claiming this system of cultivation could help the Jinli Sect flourish for another three hundred years. Chen Chuan examined it and pondered for a moment. Truth be told, it had its merits, though it demanded a certain level of innate talent for entry and was suitable only for a select few. The methods of the new era were actually better and far more adaptable to ordinary people. Many techniques of the new era had been explored, refined, and promoted collectively by numerous martial artists during the Grand Alliance era, far surpassing the isolated efforts of a single man working behind closed doors. Still, that did not mean this man's work was devoid of value; had it been introduced in its own day, it would have been quite impressive. Sadly, times had changed. Chen Chuan shifted his gaze. Ahead, slabs of stone were neatly arranged in rows, each face bearing inscriptions. Initially, the man had kept records year by year; Chen Chuan counted a span extending across two hundred and thirty-two years. Yet counting backward from the era he belonged to, roughly two hundred years remained unaccounted for by yearly dates. Toward the latter entries, Chen Chuan could already sense that something had begun to go awry with the man. Surviving day after day in the Confluence, fighting off encroachment day and night, the man must have accumulated excessive filth within his body, and mutation had already begun. His handwriting began to grow disordered, though brief flashes of lucidity still surfaced. Moreover, he was aware of his predicament. On one stone wall, he had carved notes stating that he had originally thought the Jinli Sect's secret arts would suffice to repel this pollution, but evidently he had miscalculated. He lamented that perhaps only the supreme secret arts of the Xuan Sect or Chan Sect could hold it at bay. Looking further still, the handwriting descended into complete chaos and madness. Chen Chuan understood the root cause: the man had begun to doubt what he had learned. Once such a thought took root in the mind and his willpower wavered, things took a swift turn for the worse. Yet that was unavoidable. It was precisely because pollution had already invaded his body that such doubts emerged. Even when he realized it and constantly fought back, he was merely delaying the process; unless he left this place, only then might recovery have been possible. Yet waiting for this stone lotus to mature, he simply refused to leave. Having persevered for two hundred years, that was not something one could abandon on a whim; it had rooted itself into the deepest recesses of his body and mind as an absolute obsession. Even when he ultimately degenerated into a yaogui, he had never let it go. Yet Chen Chuan knew that Guardian You had actually made a mistake. The formula recorded that the lotus seeds had maturity stages at five, seven, and nine seeds: if five seeds failed to mature, one waited for seven; if seven failed, one waited for nine; only when harvested at full maturity would the seeds yield their greatest efficacy. In reality, that was not the case. It was likely a flaw that had arisen during the transmission of knowledge in the old era. Five, seven, and nine seeds were indeed correct, but one did not wait for them to ripen on their own. Instead, the seeds had to be removed, kept overnight, and then placed back, repeating the cycle as many times as there were seeds. Once every seed had undergone this process, the lotus seeds would naturally mature. And some two hundred years ago, the plant had already borne five seeds, barely sufficient for the elixir formula. Thus, this man had very likely missed his chance out of ignorance, which ultimately led to his tragic transformation into a yaogui—a truly lamentable fate. Now that Chen Chuan possessed this knowledge, it was only fitting that he claim them. However, the seeds had to be harvested at the precise moment daylight first broke. It was too late today; he would have to wait until tomorrow to begin. In that case, he might as well stay here for a while; this was something well worth waiting for. In the meantime, he planned to read through the remaining stone tablets. Since the man's initial purpose had been to seek out the lost Xuan Sect treasure without specifying what it was, given his personality, he might well have written about it further down. The result, however, was somewhat disappointing. The remaining tablets held only obscure ravings, though these ravings did not appear completely devoid of logic; they seemed to be attempting to convey something. When Chen Chuan read parts of it in isolation, nothing seemed particularly amiss. But as he read on and pieced the content together, subtle peculiarities gradually became apparent. The carvings appeared to describe how, during his cultivation, a divine being had appeared before him. The two engaged in a dialogue exploring the methods of cultivation, whereupon he praised it as "wondrous indeed," convinced he had beheld the true supreme path and should "cast off the old to embrace the new, proceed in accordance with the method," whereupon he would "naturally attain wondrous enlightenment." At first, Chen Chuan assumed this was caused by the man's gradual mutation warping his mind, leading him to hallucinate such delusions. Yet as he continued reading, radiance abruptly flared across his body. The Grand Radiant Light Forms had spontaneously manifested and spilled forth, seemingly warding off and sweeping away something, even though no abnormality showed upon his Second Self. His eyes narrowed slightly. Such an occurrence meant that his spirit had sensed a certain danger, prompting the Grand Radiant Light Forms to act of their own accord. Therefore, what was recorded on these stone tablets was not necessarily Guardian You's mere imagination. Chen Chuan deduced that the man might have established communion with something; the most plausible inference was that during his mutation, he had learned certain cultivation methods originating from the world on the opposite side. Thus, when Chen Chuan read the words just now, his mutated tissue had absorbed the information and begun experimenting on its own. Changes resulting from such autonomous actions would generally elicit no response from the Second Self without conscious intervention from his will, yet his own spirit had perceived the discrepancy, thereby drawing forth the Grand Radiant Light Forms. He quietly reminded himself that he truly needed to maintain constant vigilance toward things originating from the opposite side. Nevertheless, encountering this early was not necessarily a bad thing; should anything similar appear before him in the future, he would not be caught off guard. Keeping his guard up, he continued searching downward. On the final few stones where the carvings were nearly illegible, he actually discovered what seemed to be subtle clues related to that lost treasure. ... ...