Between heaven and earth, darkness hung heavy as the Great Void flickered. Ning Wan threw Dantai Jin onto Beidan and flew a thousand li in a single breath before the dread in her heart eased somewhat. Yet cold sweat still covered her body, leaving lingering terrors in her chest.
*So this is an evil anomaly of the golden nature. No wonder the ancient records said... after the War of Immortals and Demons back then, the golden nature ran rampant, leaving even Violet Palace cultivators unable to protect themselves. Grand cultivators endowed with divine abilities died just like that... I thought it was an exaggeration, but it truly is terrifying.*
The evil anomaly into which Si Boxiu had transformed mostly belonged to the path of Upright Wood, mixed with who knew what other lineages, making it remarkably horrifying. A vast, sharp aura of Upright Wood surged straight into the heavens carrying wind, rain, and thunder, exuding a might unprecedented in its sheer ferocity.
Such an anomaly was born to dwell in the Great Void; outrunning it was completely out of the question. At first, Ning Wan had not grasped its full horror, but once she estimated that she could not survive more than a dozen exchanges before it, cold sweat broke out all over her. Only then did she notice that the surrounding Violet Palace cultivators were fleeing faster than the last, and even Chi Buzi had vanished without a trace.
*No wonder the golden nature inside Anhuai Heaven could catch that Violet Palace cultivator off guard and devour him in one bite. An evil anomaly formed when Senior Yuanxiu failed to attain the Dao is already this dreadful... The golden nature left behind by a True Monarch must hardly differ from a True Monarch’s avatar!*
Still shaken by the fright, she remained fully focused and on high alert. At last, she noticed a lithe azure silhouette treading across the Great Void. While the figure was still several paces away, she instantly called out:
“Who is there?!”
*Splash!*
A sheet of Swimming Water coalesced before her. Chi Buzi stepped from the Great Void into reality, having already arrived within a single pace of her—presumably having used Chougui Cang. Ning Wan felt a numbness creep through her heart.
*The divine ability of the Swimming Water path is bizarre beyond belief. It deceives even a Violet Palace cultivator's spiritual sense with utter ease. If Chi Buzi ever wanted to kill someone, anyone who has not crossed the Canzi threshold would almost certainly be doomed.*
Yet Chi Buzi smiled at her and answered, “I have come to ask Fellow Daoist Ning: where is the Xinyou Swimming Marsh Seal?”
Chi Buzi had no complicated motives. After all, Yuansu was dead, and the Xinyou Swimming Marsh Seal was an excellent treasure capable of trapping others. If he could borrow it for a time, it would greatly aid his monster hunting. But while the speaker had no deeper intention, the listener took it to heart. Yuanxiu had warned her just before his death, and Ning Wan was terrified by Chi Buzi's question. She answered:
“Reporting to Senior, when my master perished, I was still in seclusion. It so happened that Lord Yuanxiu was also within Anhuai Heaven, and the item was lost soon afterward...”
“Oh?”
Chi Buzi merely gave her a look and chuckled. “What? Has Qingchi’s reputation lost its weight, or was Si Boxiu so incompetent that he didn’t even know who took it?”
The next instant, he grasped the implication. His expression darkened, and he said coldly, “There is something wrong with that seal.”
Ning Wan lowered her head and stayed silent. Chi Buzi narrowed his eyes, took a step back, and stared at her.
“Your lord... lost the seal. That is the seal of the Feathered Serpent. Is someone trying to make an issue out of this, using the methods left by the Feathered Serpent to destabilize Swimming Water?”
*Please, say no more...*
This question left Ning Wan drenched in cold sweat. She neither nodded nor shook her head, remaining frozen where she stood as if she had heard nothing.
Yet how could Chi Buzi consider this a pleasant surprise? In the past, he might have entertained other ideas and risked his life in service of Du Qing. Now, however, he wished only for greater chaos between the two factions, so that Du Qing would have no leisure to trouble him.
As for making contact with the party obstructing Du Qing, the thought never crossed his mind.
*Given Du Qing’s nature, if the Xinyou Swimming Marsh Seal could leak out, it surely cannot cause him substantial harm—at most a minor annoyance. If I truly side with whichever faction is trying to shake the Swimming Water fruit status, I would be the first to suffer an abrupt demise!*
*As for this Ning Wan before me, she still needs to stay alive. Having a few Violet Palace cultivators tossing around Swimming Water in Qingchi will at least keep him from remembering me.*
He then said, “Do not touch it. Guard your life.”
Ning Wan nodded repeatedly. Satisfied, Chi Buzi rode the wind into the sky, sneering coldly in his heart:
*The ceremony has been observed. Fine, very fine. Green-eyed ghost, is it? Motley-feathered fowl... Your Master Chi will send you to become a ghost alongside Yuse!*
……
The World within the Mirror.
A glittering great hall stood amid pure white clouds, its white bricks gleaming bright. A jade platform rested at the center of the courtyard, where a woman clad in tea-white robes stood guard. A stark-white circular marking was dotted between her brows, and her expression was respectful and submissive.
Beside her sat a white-robed immortal, his hand resting upon the jade platform. Directly before him was a circular screen of light the size of a basin. Within it, wind and clouds howled, and lightning flashed with thunderous roars. Muffled roars were kept at bay, reduced to slight vibrations.
On the other side of the jade platform, six lustrous jade slips stood upright on the table, arranged in a circle.
Lu Jiangxian watched the changes within the mirror with rapt attention. He saw the handsome young man bound by the gray Dharma treasure, gradually reduced to dark-green motes of light and dragged into the Great Void. The wind and rain over Shitang also began to subside, though the clear, cloudless weather had turned into a sweltering heatwave fraught with humidity and rain, warmth almost pressing against the face.
Withdrawing his gaze, he pondered for a moment, drew out a jade slip, and murmured:
“He cultivated four paths of Upright Wood. According to the Daoist canon within the palace, they are ‘Turning Back on the South,’ ‘Abiding by Singleness,’ ‘Discerning Words,’ and ‘Wood Forming Squares’...”
“The remaining path was ‘Falcon Seeking Roost’ of Gathered Wood... Perhaps he hoped to draw upon the description of the Gathered Wood path from the ancient texts: ‘Multitudes gather like flocks of birds coming to roost,’ hoping to be accepted.”
“This line of thinking is not entirely wrong.”
Lu Jiangxian’s cultivation was profound, and he quickly analyzed where the issue lay. He sighed softly:
“Among the Five Virtues, the paths of Dui, Zhen, Kan, Li, and Gen are upright positions. These extreme, flourishing upright positions naturally prefer excess and reject intercalary diversion. But paths that assemble, merge, and unite into one are positions of containment and accommodation; by nature they welcome intercalary status and do not favor excess.”
“A clever idea. Pairing it with ‘Falcon Seeking Roost’ was meant to liken Upright Wood to a sudden, ferocious falcon coming to roost upon the intercalary status of Gathered Wood.”
With a light wave of his hand, the mirror before him once more reflected those scenes. He sighed:
“Unfortunately, the four paths of Upright Wood were too overbearing, while the Gathered Wood fruit status is entirely vacant with no branch to rely upon. His method of seeking gold was also an absolute mess. Naturally, it could not succeed!”
Though Si Boxiu had failed, his struggles and deliberations ranked among the forefront of the many Violet Palace cultivators attempting a breakthrough, evoking deep sighs.
Lu Jiangxian allowed the jade slip of ‘Qingxi Rain’ in his hand to dissolve, though a touch of doubt lingered:
“Yet where did ‘Swimming Water’ come from? He concealed an essence of Swimming Water in his belly beforehand, but that alone should not have caused heaven and earth to rain—let alone the Qingxi Rain that represents the Swimming Water fruit status. He must have used some method to borrow Du Qing's status.”
He bowed his head in contemplation for a moment, looked at his own palm, and recalled the sequence of Si Boxiu’s actions from beginning to end:
“Could it be Lukui Pond? Circling like a bird was meant to embellish himself, fulfilling the symbolism of Gathered Wood, so that should have nothing to do with Swimming Water... As for swallowing the finger...”
Lu Jiangxian was almost certain that this method was by no means an impromptu whim of Si Boxiu’s! He had definitely drawn upon the Golden Core breakthrough method of some predecessor!
*Grasping the connection between Upright Wood and Gathered Wood without a teacher is already worthy of praise, but being able to inexplicably induce heaven and earth to bring down Qingxi Rain points to an undeniable anomaly.*
Conceiving the transition from Upright Wood to Gathered Wood had been his absolute limit. Even Lu Jiangxian had been taken aback by the method of swallowing the finger; it was not a symbolic substitution within a fruit status, but an imitation of the deeds of an ancient Golden Core, or even a Dao Embryo!
*The Sima family truly still holds some legacy... Otherwise, how could they have endured as a clan passed down from the ancient Zhou State...*
Lu Jiangxian weighed the matter heavily, murmuring:
*Pity... He did not know that this item had to be spat out only after succeeding...*
Those were the exact words spoken by the Nether Office figures at the time. Lu Jiangxian had observed them through his spiritual sense. The two were not the same pair who had appeared during Li Ximing’s breakthrough; they were likely the two from the Nether Office responsible for the South Sea or Shitang, both bearing grotesque appearances.
*This shows that the Nether Office is also aware of this method.*
Though Lu Jiangxian could read Daoist methods, the most critical secret collections were clearly encrypted or passed down solely by word of mouth. Such matters were fundamentally difficult to understand completely. Yet he did not dwell on it, thinking to himself:
“There is still plenty of time... Clues will only increase. Still, having witnessed this ordeal, I wonder what Chi Buzi is thinking. After all, seeking the Dao matters more to him than heaven itself; he should be all the more certain that his path forward lies with me.”
During the time since Li Ximing reached the Violet Palace, the Daoist collections Lu Jiangxian encountered had expanded explosively. Most importantly, he had obtained a small portion of the Jiuqiu Lineage!
Real Person Yuandao’s Jiuqiu Lineage had been passed down in an orderly fashion and preserved meticulously. It not only required seals for decryption, but every path also had corresponding mnemonics. Fortunately, this lineage was generous; the contents of several libraries granted to inner disciples were exceptionally rich. Though they did not involve many Violet Palace cultivation methods, the knowledge gained greatly broadened Lu Jiangxian’s horizons.
*Jiuqiu is a Taiyin lineage, so these Violet Palace cultivation methods are of little practical use to me. However, this narrative of the Three Mysteries is well worth examining.*
According to the descriptions within the Jiuqiu Lineage, the path of immortal cultivation in this world originally possessed three traditions, known as the Three Mysteries: Qingxuan, Douxuan, and Tongxuan. No matter how the various lineages of the world shifted, their origins could all be traced back upward to these Three Mysteries.
The most renowned Qingsong Taiyang lineage south of the river and the Jiuqiu Lineage of the Peacock Sea both originated from Qingxuan.
*Furthermore, according to the decree read by the Jinyu Sect, both Wuguang Luoxia and Jinyu belong to the Tongxuan lineage. Almost the entirety of Jiangbei belongs to Tongxuan.*
“As for Douxuan, no orthodox lineage has yet been discovered. Yet those who obtained remnant branches of its lineage are quite a few—one being Duxian Dao, and another being Changxiao Gate. They gained inheritances, but neither counts as orthodox.”
*From this, one can see Duxian Dao’s awkward predicament in Jiangbei. Its lineage differs completely from the other sects, and it is an outside counterfeit to boot. Its only barely relatable fellow branch, Changxiao, is also sharpening its blades... No wonder Ye Gui dared not linger in Jiangbei for long.*
Having sorted out the framework of the Three Mysteries, Lu Jiangxian instantly gained a far clearer understanding of the remnants in the present world, and also grasped where the intermittent discrimination and prejudice among Violet Palace cultivators originated.
As for why the former leader of Qingxuan Taiyin—who might have even embodied Taiyang—had fallen to such a state, that was truly intriguing.
“At least this Luoxia is nine times out of ten up to no good. While the dragon kind is slightly better, they are an alien race after all. The path to restoring my strength remains long...”
Presently, the shard of his true body within the Mifan Secret Trove was no easy prize to claim.
*The Mifan Secret Trove is suspended within the Great Void, shut tight at all times, opening only for a few days each year. It hangs bare above, yet I cannot claim it.*
Under the watchful eyes of all Jiangbei, Li Qianyuan had been forced to manifest in the world. Lu Jiangxian remained cautious enough not to show himself at all, unsure how many True Monarchs were encircling that small domain; by no means did he intend to pluck it from thin air.
Moreover, from the surge of spiritual energy in Jiangbei to Li Qianyuan’s reincarnation and possession as the conclusion, everything was clearly orchestrated. Almost every figure along that path had been replaced by members of the Tongxuan lineage, and Chengyun Gate was even subordinate to Jinyu. The scent of danger could hardly be thicker.
“Perhaps obtaining that shard will depend on this True Monarch.”
With a light flick of his sleeve, the mirror surface and the jade slips upon the jade platform vanished entirely. A spark of purple lightning manifested in his palm, and Lu Jiangxian’s expression turned somewhat complex:
*Li Qinghong.*
Li Qinghong was someone who had received talismans and registers. When she entered the grotto-heaven alongside Xi Zikang all those years ago, Lu Jiangxian had watched her fight her way from the south of the grotto-heaven to the north, until she ascended the Hall of Thunder.
Finally, she had beheld Beijia’s boundless draconic form.
When Li Qinghong transformed into a body of lightning amid the swallowing of thunder, the connection of the talisman seed had not severed. It had even granted Lu Jiangxian a measure of feedback, though it merely enhanced his spiritual sense slightly—better than nothing.
Though Lu Jiangxian had only a partial understanding of the Beijia Dragon Lord’s ambitions, planting such a pivotal eye among the dragon kind was undeniably beneficial. Even if Li Qinghong could only guard the Thunder Pool, it was sufficient for Lu Jiangxian to glean a few fragments.
*This Beijia Dragon Lord not only harbors immense ambition, desiring to become a True Dragon, but is even preparing to attempt a breakthrough to the Dao Embryo!*
The matter of the True Dragon involved that Qingxuanzi, but no matter how Lu Jiangxian looked at it, this True Dragon was at least a presence above the Dao Embryo:
“If even the True Chi at the peak of the Dao Embryo realm could not accomplish it back then, how could it be done without a Dao Embryo status? Though the dragon kind has made improvements across generations and plotted continuously, if one wishes to carry on the grand undertaking of predecessors, one must at least possess a Dao Embryo.”
After contemplating for a long while, he finally turned his gaze toward Shaohui, who waited at his side.
The Shaoyin celestial maiden immediately bowed and said:
“Reporting to the Lord of the Palace, your subordinate has completed the compilation of the *Wugui Yin-Seeking Divine Scroll*. The catalog is complete, movement arts and spells are fully prepared, and it allows one to cultivate a divine ability. I have brought it to offer to the palace!”
The Shaoyin celestial maiden was the transformation of the demon sparrow Fuyu, having cultivated the Shaoyin path in her past life. Lu Jiangxian had used Zhengao’s voice to instruct her to compile texts. The fairy was thoroughly obedient, compiling the very scriptures from which she had attained her divine ability in her past life in one breath.
This was no small undertaking. After all, she had been a demon in earlier days and now possessed a human form; without considerable depth in Daoist principles, organizing such materials would have been exceedingly difficult. Lu Jiangxian took it, glanced through it, and nodded inwardly:
*Her efficiency is far higher than Dangjiang’s!*
The *Wugui Yin-Seeking Divine Scroll* allowed one to attain Xiang Juchen, a rare fourth-rank cultivation method. Shaohui’s own limitations lay right here; pushing this method to the Violet Palace was already her limit, so naturally it could not achieve a higher rank. Lu Jiangxian merely nodded slightly and remarked casually:
“It is passable.”
Even a clever woman cannot cook without rice. Having completed this copy of the *Wugui Yin-Seeking Divine Scroll*, demanding that Shaohui write other Violet Palace methods would be asking the impossible. Lu Jiangxian could only say:
“There are still Daoist collections within the palace. Study them diligently. Zhengao has many affairs to handle, so arrange them well.”
The woman in tea-white robes promptly withdrew. Lu Jiangxian thought to himself:
“Given Chi Buzi’s efficiency, someone from Northern Buddhism will be suffering before long!”
Chapter 833