Jiang Yan

Linghai Commandery. Linghai Commandery was originally the territory of the Yu family. After the Qingchi Sect recovered this land, the Yu family had promptly switched their allegiance; with several ancestors serving within the Qingchi Sect, they preserved the greater part of their domain and continued to reign as the local overlords of Linghai Commandery. Later, when several of those ancestors passed away, the Yu family declined year by year, gradually falling into desolation. After much difficulty, they produced a genius named Yu Yuxie, only for him to meet an untimely, careless end in Nanjiang. With that, the main line of the Yu family fell into ruin. Several collateral branches each allied with outside surnames and established their own strongholds. While the vast territory still nominally belonged to the Yu family, in reality, though they shared a name, they did not share a single heart, and each ruled their own domain independently. Fortunately, Linghai Commandery was situated in the southeast, with few external enemies in its surroundings, and the Qingchi Sect did not permit aristocratic clans to expand across prefectures and commanderies. Thus, the Yu family of Linghai remained locked in a fractured stalemate, maintaining a social hierarchy that had hardened over a century or two. Foot traffic on the broad highway was fairly bustling, with small merchants and peddlers riding past on donkeys and horses from time to time. Squatting by the roadside was a youth clad in ragged robes. His face was pale, his lips blood-red, and his frivolous gaze casually scrutinized the pedestrians passing by. Suddenly, he spoke: “Master, what exactly do the cultivators of the Purple Mansion Golden Core Dao cultivate?” From among the passersby wriggled an old peasant drenched in sweat, reeking to high heaven. He plopped down beside the youth, bared a mouth of yellow teeth, and replied: “The Purple Mansion Golden Core Dao... This path cultivates innate nature. They fancy devouring humans, manipulating dharmas, refining elixirs, gathering qi, and toying with the common folk. Barely a good sort among them.” The youth raised an eyebrow and countered: “This path cultivates the gold nature? Seeking the eternal preservation of one’s own nature—it is only natural they would resort to any means necessary.” “Heh!” The old peasant merely answered: “And if one cultivates destiny, how is the Maha Dharma Aspect any better? Those who are servants remain servants for generations upon generations, and those who become Maha remain Maha year in and year out. Once you run into cultivators of the Maha Dharma Aspect, you’ll see that the despair and injustice in it are even heavier than that of the Golden Core Dao cultivators!” Spittle flew as the old peasant cursed. The youth covered his nose and replied: “Perhaps you could switch to another skin, Old Master. This man is simply too foul.” The old peasant froze for a moment, then looked up in sudden realization. Scratching his head, he glanced around in bewilderment, slapped his thigh, and cursed: “What dog-fucker walked all the way over here? Dazed and muddled every damn day.” As if he did not know the youth at all, he leapt up and headed back down the road. Not long after, a peasant woman walked over. Her appearance was reasonably clean. She laughed and scolded: “After cultivating spells for over a decade, you still care about this mere mortal bag!” The youth curled his lips and simply said: “You have it easy, Old Master. Having dodged those overseers of Yin, you can run rampant across the world with no one to restrain you—how carefree!” “Motherfucker,” the peasant woman cursed, her brisk lips flapping as she replied, “I gave up the greater part of my gold nature and destiny to them! What I have left isn’t enough to forge a Golden Core, nor enough to cultivate a Maha. I’m just clinging to a shameful breath of life for a while. What’s so carefree about that? “Luckily, the heavenly ordainments have shifted. If the Three Disasters and Nine Tribulations still existed today, I wouldn’t even be able to cling to life. Ending up in such a state—it really is laughable!” The youth scoffed dismissively and replied: “You talk about how miraculous and talented Duanmu Kui of the Shanyue was, but didn’t he still end up turning to ash, without even a chance at reincarnation? You can still seek another chance. What’s so laughable about that?” The woman smiled, revealing a mouthful of slightly yellowed teeth. Resting her hands on her hips, she showed off her sturdy arms and explained: “His temper was fierce. He insisted on demanding a Golden Core nature position, believing that with an immortal’s promise, he was bound to form a Golden Core. Naturally, he met that end. It wasn’t that he couldn’t compromise and bend to survive; he simply was unwilling. If it had truly come down to a real fight, those two underworld emissaries might not have been a match for him. “Even after dying and transforming into an anomaly, he nearly escaped from their grasp. Duanmu Kui was a great shaman who suppressed an entire era—I am no match for him.” The youth nodded thoughtfully. The peasant woman turned solemn: “Yan’er, let’s put that aside for now. You and I, master and disciple, will join hands to strike down the Qingchi Sect’s prestige. You shall avenge your mother’s murder, and I shall seek out a fine Dao foundation for myself. Once we tie up these loose ends, we’ll go into hiding to cultivate and meddle no further in these affairs.” The youth nodded in silence, only asking: “What kind of Dao foundation are you looking for?” The woman paused, then said: “Forget things like ‘Old Man on the Stream’ or ‘Vast Sea.’ Xiao Chuting intends to cultivate the Jiazi Kan Water Qianne nature. That man is insidious; he might string me up and devour me when the time comes. The Purple Mansions of Changxiao Gate and Xuanyue Gate both have prospects of breaking through, so those two paths are out... And then there’s Master Shangyuan. Truly, not many paths remain open to cultivation.” She pondered for a moment and answered: “There are still quite a few lightning cultivators around the State of Yue, yet none at the Purple Mansion stage. That is a promising path to tread. Find me a Dao foundation like ‘Sound of Winter Thunder’ or ‘Spring Awakening of Insects’!” The youth nodded, stepped forward, and drifted lightly into the air. On the ground, the woman hurriedly raised her wrinkled, calloused hand, pinched her fingers in calculation, and shouted: “Thirty-two li to the north—there is a Qingchi Sect market!” Hearing this, the youth traversed the short distance in the blink of an eye. Just as he flew before the market’s illusion array, the grand array of the Qingchi Sect market collapsed with a deafening roar. Layer upon layer of buildings and densely clustered spirit fields were exposed. Shouts and screams rose and fell in succession as someone cried out in shock: “Why did you shut down the grand array?! Senior Brother Chi! What are you doing? Open the grand array at once! Are you not afraid of the sect’s punishment?!” Standing in the air was a man in green robes with handsome features, but his expression was frantic and mad, his robes drenched in blood. He laughed wildly: “Hahahaha!” The interrogator flew forward, intending to subdue him. Senior Brother Chi drew his saber with a backhand sweep and hacked at him with wild clamor. The cultivator hurriedly channeled his magical artifact to block. Clang! The magical artifact bounced away like a startled bird, and crimson blood poured down. Ordinarily, the two were evenly matched, but out of nowhere, Senior Brother Chi seemed to possess boundless strength. With a flick of his blade, he knocked the magical artifact aside and severed the man’s arm in a single stroke. Overcome with excruciating pain and utter horror, the man watched as his fallen arm stretched out like a lump of clay, hopping and fluttering as if it were a mule in heat, bounding straight toward his own face to claw at it. “What kind of spell is this?!” “Senior Brother! I’ll help you!” The Qingchi Sect cultivators stationed below flew up one after another, but they were far too late to save him. The man was struck across the face by a massive slap from his own severed hand. His head spun four or five times like a top, and all signs of life vanished in an instant. “What?!” The rushing cultivators were struck dumb. Yet the dead man’s corpse trembled in the air for only a single breath before his sole remaining hand reached up to his neck. With a sickening crack, it yanked out his spine along with the skull—pale white and streaked with blood—and hurled it like a greatsword directly at the face of the arriving cultivator! His mind reeling in sheer terror, the cultivator instantly understood and launched over a dozen talismans, screaming in panic: “A demonic cultivator! A Purple Mansion demonic cultivator—” Crack. Before he could finish, a heavy slap cracked against his head. It spun several times like a top, and he fell silent. His hands and feet frantically tore away from his body, dragging out heart, spleen, stomach, and lungs, each moving on its own as they dispersed in all directions hunting for cultivators. “Demonic cultivators... It’s demonic cultivators!” The entire market was plunged into a storm of blood and gore, filled with rising and falling shrieks of agony. The youth stood quietly high above, masses of flesh and blood swirling around him, nestling obediently at his side like docile hound beasts. Smiling, he looked down at the fleeing cultivators and called out clearly after their receding figures: “Tell the Qingchi Sect: Jiang Yan has come to avenge the slaughter of my commandery!” His voice echoed slowly through the air, sending the Qingchi cultivators fleeing even faster. Jiang Yan savored the moment aloft. Beside him flew a man’s head, hair wild and disheveled, clamoring noisily as it spewed blood and laughed: “Only the arrogant Qingchi Sect would leave such a grand market without even a single Foundation Establishment cultivator! Let’s get out of here quick—the Yu family is already on their way!”