Qingchi Sect.
Upon Qingchi Peak, clouds surged and mists gathered. Azure vapor curled softly within the mountain’s cave abode, where an intricate, dark-golden bell rested at the center, which was sounded only upon the fall of a Real Person or the ascension of a sect master.
Chi Zhiyun descended hurriedly onto the peak, a retinue of Foundation Establishment cultivators following behind him. No sooner had his feet touched the ground than a tall young man came forward to greet him, cupping his hands.
"Sect Master Senior Brother!"
"Hejing."
Chi Zhiyun waved his hand anxiously without pausing, striding into the stone cave in two swift steps. "How is it?!"
"The flame is faint and has turned bright white. The lamp oil is surging, and the nine patterns are alternating between dim and bright. Such a situation has never occurred before."
Ning Hejing spoke in a low voice. As Chi Zhiyun listened, his expression darkened further, his tone grim.
"Bright white... How can that be?!"
Waving his attendants away, he crossed deep into the cave abode in a few paces. Several soul lamps above rested on wooden carved lotus pedestals, burning quietly.
The pedestals were carved from Soul-Listening Mulberry Wood, which could divine fortune and calamity and was impervious to the five elements, fearing only thunderbolts. The lamp oil was Nine-Refined Soul Essence, which had once been a rare treasure, though not particularly prized in this era.
Chi Zhiyun fixed his gaze upon them. Sure enough, the flame of Real Person Bu Zi’s lamp had shrunk by an entire ring, shifting from pale gray to bright white, the patterns on the lamp stand weaving between light and dark.
Only Chi Zhiyun and Ning Hejing remained in the cave, both looking grim. Ning Hejing said in a heavy voice, "I have already inquired. The Real Person left the sect earlier without leaving any word."
Chi Buzi was Chi Zhiyun’s great-great-grandfather, and Chi Zhiyun’s lineage was the maternal clan to Ning Hejing’s branch. Having grown up together with their interests tightly bound, they were practically blood brothers.
As soon as Chi Zhiyun took up the position of sect master, Ning Hejing immediately became the Peak Master of Yuanxing Peak, commanding formidable influence within the sect. Now that something had gone wrong with Chi Buzi, his face was naturally troubled.
"Do Real Persons Yuanwu and Yuanxiu know about this?!"
Chi Zhiyun blurted out. Ning Hejing shook his head and answered:
"Rest assured, Clan Brother. I locked down the news immediately. Both disciples guarding the lamps are our own kin and will never leak a word. At present, only Real Person Yuansu is aware of this."
"Good," Chi Zhiyun praised, then murmured his conjecture: "Demonic cultivators are now roaming in every direction. Without the 'Old Man on the Brook,' I fear they cannot be lured. Xiao Chuting is trapped in the East Sea, so the Real Person must have gone to find him."
Chi Zhiyun rested his hand on the edge of the table, tapping it in irritation, and spoke grimly, "Could it be Zhang Tianyuan? What madness has seized the Jinyu Sect! Are they not afraid of ruining everything?!"
"Not necessarily!"
A clear, bright voice echoed within the cave. Both men relaxed slightly and bowed deferentially aside.
"Greetings, Real Person."
Real Person Yuansu was likewise clad in azure robes, though his Daoist garments were looser. A small white seal hung at his waist, and his roundish face bore a gentle expression as he murmured:
"Zhang Qiushui of the Jinyu Sect has already cultivated his lifebound divine ability, 'Washing Away Lead's Luster.' It can similarly entice that flock of demonic cultivators... it is merely less handy than 'Old Man on the Brook' and 'Heavy and Turbid.'"
"The True Monarch's affairs are of paramount importance. He would never place all his hopes solely on the three of us."
Chi Zhiyun and Ning Hejing bowed their heads respectfully. Real Person Yuansu continued:
"Still, without five or six Purple Palaces, it would be impossible to pin Bu Zi down. Zhang Tianyuan could never muster such an array; at most, he might make Bu Zi suffer a bit."
Real Person Yuansu showed not the slightest sign of worry, smiling genially.
"Bu Zi truly takes after my late Senior Brother. Now that he has broken through to the mid Purple Palace realm, he has spent decades arrogant and haughty, looking down on everyone, yet he happens to be greedy by nature... Though his mind is sharp at scheming, letting him suffer a rare setback won't hurt!"
How could Chi Zhiyun and Ning Hejing dare interject? They could only pretend not to hear, cowering like quails. After a long pause, one of them ventured:
"Perhaps the Real Person could divine his whereabouts..."
Only because Real Person Yuansu was the gentlest in temperament did the two dare to ask. Real Person Yuansu pursed his lips and replied:
"He is a cautious man who never leaves traces in the Great Void, and his cultivation is profound. I am a divine ability Purple Palace, not a karmic Maha. What would I use to divine him?"
He shook his head and cracked a joke:
"If he were dead and his divine abilities had dissipated, I might actually manage a divination."
Chi Zhiyun and Ning Hejing exchanged glances, clearly finding no humor in the remark. Yuansu shrugged, hooked his hand through the empty air before him, and stepped into the Great Void, his voice lingering behind:
"Most likely he was plotted against while trying to rescue Xiao Chuting in the East Sea. I shall take a trip there."
...
Lu Jiangxian’s divine sense was more terrifying than Bu Zi could have imagined. Crashing into his sea of consciousness in one breath, it battered Chi Buzi’s soul into complete disarray. Hailing from an immortal sect and possessing vast knowledge, how could Chi Buzi fail to realize he had provoked a supreme cultivator?
Instantly stirring his spiritual sense, he seemed to employ a secret art to coalesce it into a tight mass, shouting:
"This junior is a disciple beneath the seat of True Monarch Lushui Wuyuan Fuyu! I know not which senior stands before me—if I have caused offense, I beg your pardon!"
As an old fox hundreds of years of age, Chi Buzi was not easily frightened by Lu Jiangxian's ferocious momentum. Examining him closely up and down, he perceived that Lu Jiangxian was strong without but hollow within; had his intrinsic nature not been unimaginably exalted, Chi Buzi truly would have feared nothing.
Speaking with outward deference, he pondered inwardly:
*This old monster looks like an ancient cultivator fallen on hard times... If I can kill him, the spoils will surely allow me to leap like a carp transforming into a dragon.*
Yet Lu Jiangxian said not a word. Wherever his divine sense swept, it broke through like a dead branch snapping before a gale. Though Chi Buzi's spiritual sense was inferior in quality, he possessed sheer volume, stubbornly resisting as he called out again:
"May I ask which golden nature Senior cultivates?"
No matter what Chi Buzi asked, Lu Jiangxian maintained his silence, relentlessly pressing the assault. Chi Buzi had never expected Lu Jiangxian's divine sense to be so indestructible, and he crumbled again and again.
After a full incense stick's time, Chi Buzi grew somewhat anxious.
"Senior should take care... My name is registered with the True Monarch! If anything befalls me, it will be a major incident that alarms him!"
Paying him no heed, Lu Jiangxian pressed his fierce attack a bit longer before seizing him firmly in hand, finally breathing a small sigh of relief.
*If this were within the realm inside the mirror, annihilating him would take only a single thought. Yet within his Shengyang Mansion, it took so much effort...*
Looking at the still-struggling Chi Buzi, Lu Jiangxian gradually came to a decision. Following the backlash of the Nine Mounds Heart-Interrogation Art of Fangyin, he moved to read Chi Buzi's memories.
Just as the thought arose, an uneasy premonition stirred in Lu Jiangxian's heart. A hazy image of a clear pool surfaced before his mind's eye, and he was startled:
*That's right, there is still Lushui!*
This was Chi Buzi's sea of consciousness, not his own mirror-realm. Prying into Chi Buzi's memories would without a doubt alert the True Monarch behind the Qingchi Sect...
*I cannot kill him either...*
He thought to himself:
*Since I cannot erase his memory, I shall plant a witchcraft curse within his spiritual sense!*
With a wave of his hand, Lu Jiangxian gathered thick moon essence to set up a witchcraft curse of oversight and backlash, pained as he drew out a string of talisman qi.
*Let this tie you to my pirate ship, lest you run off to tattle to Lushui!*
Having prepared a series of contingencies to ensure that their eruption would blast the man's soul to smithereens, an idea struck Lu Jiangxian. Channeling his divine sense, he retrieved an object.
This item was a fragment stripped from the soul of Jinlian Maha. Refined countless times by Lu Jiangxian's moon essence, it gleamed with bright white light, reduced to a total blank.
A bold idea rose in Lu Jiangxian's mind, making him somewhat excited:
*Why not... pull a switcheroo... and sculpt one of my own people...?*
On second thought, Lu Jiangxian shook his head. Chi Buzi was Lushui's man after all. If he couldn't match his records after returning to the sect, flaws would inevitably appear, and trouble would fall upon his own head.
*Then I'll settle for the next best thing—fashion a "fellow Daoist" for him!*
And so he took the orb of light, stuffing it with a vast swathe of fabricated memories, mixing in recollections from his previous life about Celestial Courts and various immortal lords. He inspected it thoroughly.
He then modified the witchcraft curse in Chi Buzi's Shengyang Mansion and handed its control to this soul born of Jinlian Maha. Examining it once more, he was thoroughly satisfied.
"In this way, it is completely seamless."
...
Upon Mount Lijing.
The continuous tears of blood from Chi Buzi's body had been producing crisp clinking sounds and rustling frictions. Now that they abruptly ceased, the void fell into utter silence, quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
"Mm..."
Real Person Bu Zi pushed open the door and stepped forward unsteadily, a bizarre smirk playing across his face. Supporting himself with one hand against the doorframe, he dragged his trailing foot out.
*Bu Zi...* Li Yuanjiao thought in alarm.
The azure-robed Real Person stepped forward, eyes tightly shut, yet the bloody tears had stopped flowing. Bu Zi exhaled a long breath and stiffly turned his head toward the Li family members.
Li Yuanjiao felt his legs go numb, the hairs all over his body standing on end as a chill crept up his spine.
Divided down the center of his brow, half of Bu Zi's face was smooth, clean, and sharply defined, while the other half was twisted upward and covered in dense, fine white fuzz. The facial muscles twitched faintly, and his ear was long and thin, drooping limply.
His eyelids twitched and slowly opened, yet there was nothing inside—only two pitch-black cavities on his face, the empty sockets veined with dark veins, held open with difficulty by reddish-purple lids.
"G-Greetings, Real Person!"
Li Yuanjiao's hoarse voice echoed through the courtyard. Bu Zi stared blankly at him for several breaths before opening his mouth:
"What Real Person! I am an Immortal Official of the Dangjiang Brook Water Mansion beneath the Immortal Sovereign's seat... What age is this? Where is the Celestial Court? Which water mansion is nearest?..."
"After waiting so long for a Purple Palace body, why is it a damned demonic cultivator! In this age, can demonic cultivators run rampant in broad daylight?!"
The Li family stared at him in disbelief. Chi Buzi squinted at them and snapped impatiently:
"Have you received the talismans? Which sect's disciples are you?"
While Li Yuanjiao was still trying to comprehend Real Person Bu Zi's words, Bu Zi suddenly took a step back and muttered:
"No, I must find a water mansion and reclaim my immortal rank!"
With that, he barked:
"You little yellow-caps, open this wretched formation at once, lest this immortal master shatter it with a palm strike and leave you weeping everywhere!"
Observing his state, a wave of terror surged in Li Yuanjiao's heart:
*Could Chi Buzi... have been possessed by some golden nature! This golden nature evil spirit keeps prattling about water mansions—who knows how many ages old this monster is... No wonder... no wonder Chi Buzi was reduced to such a wretched state!*
*Yet why doesn't this evil creature traverse the Great Void...?*
Now that Chi Buzi had been possessed, Li Yuanjiao wished for nothing more than for this bearer of misfortune to get lost as quickly as possible. He hastily opened the great formation, revealing the pitch-black night sky.
"Good! You little yellow-cap, you certainly know your place!"
The golden nature evil spirit was overjoyed. Riding the wind like a falling star, he took flight, leaving behind hearty laughter:
"Come to my Dangjiang Brook Water Mansion in the future, and I shall surely record a merit for you all!"
...
After Chi Buzi rode the wind away from the Li residence and flew south for a while, the residual power of Lu Jiangxian began to dissipate, and his expression grew increasingly bizarre until he abruptly halted, roaring in a heavy voice:
"Where did you come from, you golden nature evil monster?!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than he flared with fury, smacking his own face with astonishing force and cursing:
"Insolence! This Daoist master is an Immortal Official of the Dangjiang Brook Water Mansion! What evil monster?!"
Chi Buzi was thoroughly appalled. He raised his hand to cover his Shengyang Mansion, but midway up, his arm froze in midair, caught in a tug-of-war with some invisible power.
"I am a disciple under True Monarch Lushui! You evil monster... stay your hand! I will find you a fine physical body!"
"A physical body? I want this very one of yours!"
The soul Lu Jiangxian had molded retained remnants of Jinlian Maha's disposition—a chaotic troublemaker that relished upheaval. Cursing and squawking, it spewed foul vitriol.
Yet Chi Buzi paid him no mind, remaining deadpan as he forced his hand down toward his Shengyang Mansion inch by inch. After all, he was the original owner of this body and a Purple Palace cultivator; gradually, he gained the upper hand.
Seeing that he was slipping into a disadvantage, the Dangjiang Brook Water Mansion Immortal Official sneered. A luminous witchcraft mark rose within Chi Buzi's soul:
*Try moving again! At worst, I'll detonate this spell and flee using the golden nature—what will you do then?!*
Chi Buzi looked down in disbelief, muttering, "How can this be?!"
*How could it not be? What did you think I was doing while controlling your body earlier? Feel free to try—let's see if you can wipe me out faster, or if I can detonate this formation first!*
The Immortal Official truly believed himself to be a remnant of a golden nature. Swelling with pride according to the memories Lu Jiangxian had fabricated, he stopped wrestling for control of Chi Buzi's body and let him land beside a brook, chattering away:
*I waited for decades inside that yellow-cap's mind before finally luring you in with that Taiyin moon essence! It's just a pity you're a demonic cultivator... Why didn't a demonic cultivator like you hide properly instead of wandering about searching everywhere? Were you afraid you wouldn't die fast enough?!*
*I won't pursue your demonic cultivation either. As long as you take me to find a water mansion and send me into the Celestial Court, I won't hold a grudge against you... Perhaps I might even submit a memorial to the Celestial Court and grant you a chance at life.*
Chi Buzi was so infuriated that he laughed. Sinking his spiritual sense into his Shengyang Mansion, he cursed at that glowing white halo:
"What ancient relic! What Celestial Court! What water mansion! Babbling on and on about unheard-of ancient drivel! What kind of age do you think this is today? Fool! Idiot!"
After venting his curses, he suddenly froze, an abrupt surge of greed rising within his heart.
Suspended within the glowing halo before him were several things that seemed like charms yet not charms, like talismans yet not talismans, glowing with an ash-gray sheen. A sweet scent interwoven with destiny, blood-qi, and incense wafted toward him.
*What... what is this?!*
Chapter 355