Chapter 10#
Chapter 10#
An Wuxue stood silently in place for a long time.
He held the bag of spirit stones without moving.
The snow of the Frost Sea fell rustlingly, piling up bit by bit in his hands, nearly burying the spirit pouch containing the stones.
In his spare moments over the past few days, he had been emptying the spiritual energy in his body to reshape the foundation of Su Xue’s body. His spiritual power was even weaker than before, and after just a short while, he felt the cold.
He eventually put the spirit stones away.
The disciple had followed Shangguan Liaoliao away, and at the moment, there was no one around.
An Wuxue walked under the tall pine where the Soul Bell was hanging.
After Xie Zhefeng entered the Dao, he lived in the Frost Sea. This place was not suitable for An Wuxue’s cultivation, and the cave dwelling Nan He arranged for him was far away. He had once asked Xie Zhefeng if he could give him a passage talisman so that he could enter and wait on his own.
But Xie Zhefeng had not responded, only hanging such a Soul Bell in front of the cave dwelling.
So for the next several decades, he was no different from any other visitor to the Frost Sea, only able to ring the Soul Bell at the entrance and wait for the owner to come out and greet the guest.
Fortunately, because of this, he remembered every detail of this Soul Bell very clearly.
An Wuxue took out the prepared Soul Bell from his spirit pouch.
He compared it with the Soul Bell hanging on the tall pine. Spiritual energy surged in his palm, passing over the fake Soul Bell he had prepared, adding identical wear marks to it.
He reached forward and once again scanned the surroundings with his divine sense.
No one.
As long as the Soul Bell was not struck with divine sense, it would not ring.
Now that Xie Zhefeng was still in Luoyue, if the Soul Bell actually rang, everything would be for naught.
He carefully wrapped the real Soul Bell in spiritual energy to prevent himself from accidentally striking it. Then, he quickly swapped the real Soul Bell with the fake one.
The surroundings remained silent.
Nothing happened.
With the Soul Bell, he could borrow Xie Zhefeng’s aura from it, modify the Seal the Mountain array for a short time, and quietly leave Luoyue Peak.
But that disciple just said there was also a prohibition on the Frost Sea…
He hid the secretly swapped Soul Bell in his spirit pouch and continued walking outward for a while.
As he neared the edge, a disciple suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking him: “Master Su, entering or leaving requires the Immortal Venerable’s order.”
As expected, it was guarded.
He said calmly, “I’m just taking a walk, I didn’t expect to walk this far. Thank you for the reminder.”
Would the guard be looser after nightfall?
He walked back while pondering. Before he had gone far, a familiar figure drew closer.
Yun Zhou also spotted him and ran over quickly: “How did you wander so far while taking a walk?”
An Wuxue said unhurriedly, “I’m not familiar with the terrain, just walking around, and somehow I ended up here. Luckily I ran into you, otherwise I might not have found my way back. Why are you out too?”
Yun Zhou raised an eyebrow: “Seeing as you’ve been out so long and haven’t come back, I came to look for you. You really are from the mortal world, ignorant and fearless. This is the heart of Luoyue, the Immortal Venerable’s cave dwelling. If you take a wrong step, aren’t you afraid of violating some taboo and dying without a place for burial?”
Once Yun Zhou started talking, he couldn’t stop. “And if you really did something wrong, a quick death would be one thing. But what if it’s a living punishment you can’t escape? Have you heard of the Cangu Tower of Luoyue Peak?”
An Wuxue’s eyes shifted.
He said softly, “…I’ve heard of it.”
Yun Zhou seemed not to notice his subtle change in emotion and continued, “That place is specifically used by Luoyue Peak to punish heinous demonic cultivators and disciples who have violated the Thirteen Articles of Demon Extermination. It’s said to be modeled after the Cangu Tree in the extreme north. Once inside, every moment feels like falling into an ice cellar. The flying snow of the Frost Sea can’t even compare to the first floor of the Cangu Tower, and the top of the tower is like ice needles piercing the bone.
“If a demonic cultivator enters the Cangu Tower, their turbid energy is completely sealed within their body. They can’t die and can’t live, wailing in pain all day until their soul is worn away. If it’s a disciple who broke the rules…”
He scratched his head: “Then I don’t know, I haven’t heard.”
An Wuxue said patiently, “Disciples who break the rules will have their spiritual power sealed before entering the tower and be given protective spiritual medicine to preserve their lives. After entering the tower, they freeze but do not die, staying cold but not perishing, until the period of punishment is over.”
“Then isn’t that just as painful as for a demonic cultivator?”
An Wuxue shook his head.
He wanted to say something, but the words reached his lips and he swallowed them back down.
A moment later.
“It’s incomparable. Once a demonic cultivator enters, they don’t come out, but a disciple who made a mistake will,” he said, his voice growing lower. “A disciple who makes a mistake stays in for fifteen minutes to an hour as punishment; it won’t be life-threatening. But there is one exception.”
“Hmm?”
“You just said it—disciples who violated the Thirteen Articles of Demon Extermination. The last ten articles are still open to debate, but only those who violate the first three: entering obsession with one’s body, assisting demons with one’s body, and harming fellow cultivators—these will be sent to the top floor of the Cangu Tower, where it’s a narrow escape from death, and the punishment is determined by the crime.”
Yun Zhou shuddered: “How do you know so clearly? It’s like you’ve been in there before. Oh my, just thinking about it is terrifying. It’s one thing to drive demonic cultivators to a dead end, but to be so ruthless to normal cultivators too?”
The two were walking quickly back to their residence.
With Yun Zhou channeling spiritual power to help, they walked extremely fast and were about to arrive.
An Wuxue saw from a distance under the tall pine in front of the courtyard that Yun Yao seemed to be standing with his sword held, doing nothing, appearing to be in a daze.
He didn’t answer Yun Zhou’s words but said, “Since you find it terrifying, don’t wander around. If you accidentally make a mistake, the Cangu Tower is indeed not easy to endure. Your senior brother is waiting for you.”
Yun Zhou followed his gaze and immediately headed toward Yun Yao.
But just as Yun Zhou reached Yun Yao, he suddenly paused.
An Wuxue also felt it—that person hadn’t restrained his aura at all.
He heard Yun Zhou call out in some panic: “Immortal Venerable!”
In front of the courtyard, that person in white robes and a jade crown stood at the door. Kun Kun was at his feet, blinking his eyes and looking at An Wuxue.
Xie Zhefeng’s expression was plain, his black pupils deep; there was no sign of the abnormality of that day.
Beside him stood another person—the one who had received Xie Zhefeng’s order that night to go to the Yunjian Sect to investigate the matter of the talisman paper!
What was going on?
The source of the talisman paper was something he had made up on the spot. The more randomly something was made up, the harder it was to investigate, because nothing would be found.
He thought it would take at least a month before that disciple would return from the Yunjian Sect empty-handed. How had it only been a few days…?
He had just secretly taken the Soul Bell and was a bit worried the disciple had found out he was lying, so he walked forward with some guilt and said in a low voice, “Why did the Immortal Venerable—” Why did he come today?
Xie Zhefeng looked at him.
Why was he looking at him?
An Wuxue lowered his eyes and remained silent as well.
Xie Zhefeng then said, “I arrived fifteen minutes ago. Seeing you weren’t here, I didn’t manifest.”
“The Frost Sea is sparsely populated. I found it dull staying in, so I went for a walk to pass the time.”
Xie Zhefeng actually showed a rare look of displeasure: “The path of cultivation is long; how can there be such a thing as passing the time? Since you want to walk the path of ascending to immortality, how can you be so wasteful?”
An Wuxue was utterly confused.
It was one thing for this person to come and play chess with an uneducated loser like him, but why say he wanted to walk the path of ascending to immortality?
When had he ever said that?
In his previous life, he had indeed cultivated diligently and even told Xie Zhefeng: “I am appointed by heaven, with a heaven-sent jade bone and golden body. Naturally, I must cultivate seriously, uphold the immortal tradition, and walk a path of ascending to immortality with a clear conscience.”
But at that time, he didn’t even possess Chunhua yet and didn’t know that Xie Zhefeng would be a karmic obstacle he couldn’t pass on his path to immortality.
He said directly, “The Immortal Venerable has misunderstood. I have no great ambitions and no desire for the immortal path.”
Since the matter of the chess game, he had roughly understood that Xie Zhefeng inexplicably had an extra layer of patience with Su Xue.
Because of this, he didn’t have many misgivings. As long as he didn’t expose his identity, Xie Zhefeng probably wouldn’t do anything to him.
Xie Zhefeng was raising his hand to brush the frost and snow off the pine and cypress in front of him. Hearing his rebuttal, he wasn’t angry but instead was momentarily stunned, and even his snow-brushing posture stopped.
“Yes,” the man nodded as if disappointed, “you haven’t said it. An old friend of mine said it.”
An Wuxue said politely, “Since it is an old friend the Immortal Venerable remembers, they must have been a favored child of heaven and a model for both realms. They must have already had a smooth immortal path, reached the pinnacle, and become famous.”
Kun Kun at the man’s feet gave a low whine: “Wu…”
Xie Zhefeng repeated his words syllable by syllable: “A smooth immortal path, reaching the pinnacle, becoming famous…”
“Snap—”
With a force from his fingertips, the pine and cypress branch near his hand suddenly shattered, turning directly into powder and drifting down.
The other three present seemed to have forgotten even to breathe, not daring to make a sound.
An Wuxue felt helpless.
Even wishing for this person’s old friend to have a smooth immortal path wasn’t okay.
Indeed, from beginning to end, he had never understood Xie Zhefeng.
He didn’t speak again.
Xie Zhefeng watched as the pine and cypress branch powder merged with the snow on the ground, and then changed the subject: “I just heard you talking about… the Cangu Tower?”
Yun Zhou’s face turned pale.
An Wuxue, on the contrary, had no reaction.
He said, “Yes.”
“The top floor of the Cangu Tower is rarely opened. You seem to know it quite well.”
“Perhaps because I’ve been there,” An Wuxue said as if casually, “seen it with my own eyes, experienced it personally, so naturally I know.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the disciple beside Xie Zhefeng lowered his head even further, like a quail.
Yun Zhou’s eyes widened, and he began to frantically signal him with his eyes.
—Those who enter the Cangu Tower for punishment are either those who have entered obsession with turbid energy or disciples who have violated the Thirteen Articles of Demon Extermination. Was “I’ve been there” something one could just say?
But An Wuxue felt it didn’t matter.
When the false is taken for true, the true becomes false.
Sometimes when the truth is thrown out, no one is willing to take it seriously instead.
Xie Zhefeng indeed didn’t take his words seriously, only thinking he was talking nonsense: “With your cultivation, if you entered the top floor of the Cangu Tower, you would never come out again.”
The man looked in the direction of the Cangu Tower, and as if thinking of something, his face actually turned somewhat pale.
“The Immortal Venerable hasn’t been there either, so how can you be so certain?”
Yun Zhou already had a “we’re going to die” expression and was just short of rushing up to cover An Wuxue’s mouth.
Xie Zhefeng, however, seemed very interested in the topic of the Cangu Tower and said in a low voice, “I once wanted to understand the suffering within, but in the thousand years since the end of the Immortal Calamity, whether demonic or immortal cultivators, I have never seen anyone walk out of the top floor alive.”
An Wuxue was silent for a moment.
He knew better than anyone that what Xie Zhefeng said was not false.
The reason Xie Zhefeng said “the thousand years since the end of the Immortal Calamity” rather than in all of history was because he had walked out alive a thousand years ago.
But what did Xie Zhefeng want to know this for?
Inexplicable.
He said, “The Cangu Tower is right there. The Immortal Venerable rules Luoyue. If you want to know, couldn’t you just enter as you please?”
After he finished speaking, he paused.
After a cultivator successfully survives the tribulation, they ascend to immortality. Immortals do not fear water or fire. No matter how cold the Cangu Tower and the Extreme North are, they cannot chill a Long-Life Immortal.
On the day he fell in his previous life, Xie Zhefeng had emerged from seclusion after ascending and was no longer an ordinary cultivator.
He gave a light laugh: “I was foolish. The Immortal Venerable is the only person in the current age to have ascended. The cold of the Cangu Tower cannot disturb the Immortal Venerable’s immortal body.”
Xie Zhefeng’s gaze darkened.
An Wuxue continued, “The Immortal Venerable likely won’t have the chance to experience the suffering of the Cangu Tower.”
So why, for no reason, would he want to understand this sort of thing?
Truly boring to the extreme.
Silence fell once again.
Xie Zhefeng kept looking in the direction of the Cangu Tower and didn’t speak for a long time.
A moment later.
“Yes…” the man suppressed his voice, “what you say… is extremely true.”
Kun Kun rolled over: “Wuu wuu…”
Xie Zhefeng finally withdrew his gaze, turned to enter the door, and said, “Follow me in.”
The disciple who had been standing aside and not daring to speak also followed him in.
An Wuxue was about to lift his foot to follow when he heard the man in front of him say, “The two beside you should come in as well.”
Yun Zhou: “Me me me me?”
An Wuxue was startled.
Yun Zhou hurriedly pulled Yun Yao and ran in with quick steps.
An Wuxue suddenly felt things were a bit strange.
If Yun Zhou and Yun Yao were also to come in, then it wasn’t like last time—closing the door and playing chess with a male favorite—but rather something related to the Yunjian Sect.
What had that disciple found out at the Yunjian Sect?
The group entered the main hall.
With a sweep of Xie Zhefeng’s sleeve, the door closed with a “bang.”
“You speak.” He glanced at the disciple.
The disciple clasped his hands: “Master Su, the two junior brothers from the Yunjian Sect, I went to the Yunjian Sect by order of the Immortal Venerable, and as a result… this matter is of great importance, and I cannot explain it either, so I was bold enough to ask the Immortal Venerable to call everyone together before reporting. After all, you are people of the Yunjian Sect and might know some things I don’t.
“After I arrived at the Yunjian Sect, I saw no one at the mountain gate, so I sent a message into the Yunjian Sect in the name of Luoyue Peak. The message was quickly answered, and someone inside responded, ‘Honored guest, please wait a moment, we will come immediately.’”
The disciple looked at Yun Zhou and Yun Yao.
Yun Zhou nodded quickly: “That should have been our sect master’s reply. The old gentleman likes to be refined like that. So didn’t you go in afterward?”
The disciple shook his head.
“No. After the reply came, I waited at the mountain gate for a long time but saw no one coming to greet me. I happened to run into a purchasing disciple returning, so I stopped him to ask. The purchasing disciple told me, ‘The sect master and the others seem to have suddenly encountered an urgent matter. Please wait a bit longer, honored guest, I’ll go in and ask.’ I had no reason to doubt him and waited for that purchasing disciple to go in and notify someone.”
Yun Zhou nodded again: “The sect master does indeed forget things when he gets busy. That purchasing disciple should be Junior Brother Yun Pu. Then you should have gone in. Junior Brother Yun Pu is reliable; even if the sect master forgets, he won’t.”
The disciple’s expression changed: “After that, it was a strange affair! I waited at the mountain gate for a long time again, until it got dark, and saw that the candles were already lit inside the Yunjian Sect, yet still no one came to greet me. I had no choice but to give up and rest for a night in a nearby mortal inn.”
In the cultivation world, entering by force when no one is there to greet you is considered a provocation, so the disciple naturally didn’t dare act rashly.
Yun Yao finally spoke: “And then?”
“On the second day, I again sent a message about Luoyue Peak’s visit into the Yunjian Sect. In just fifteen minutes, I received another reply…”
Hearing this, based on the disciple’s way of describing it, An Wuxue already vaguely guessed what happened on the second day.
Sure enough, Xie Zhefeng also said, “Did that message also say, ‘Honored guest, please wait a moment, we will come immediately’?”
The disciple said quickly, “Yes! That’s right! At that time, I only felt that the sect master was snubbing me and was thinking about whether to just break in. As a result, at dusk, I encountered that purchasing disciple again! I thought of the identical response and suddenly had an idea. I stopped the purchasing disciple and said the same thing as yesterday. Sure enough, the purchasing disciple answered me, ‘The sect master and the others seem to have suddenly encountered an urgent matter. Please wait a bit longer, honored guest, I’ll go in and ask’…”
Wasn’t this the exact same answer as the first day?
Yun Zhou and Yun Yao were both greatly shocked and for a moment didn’t speak.
An Wuxue frowned.
The disciple continued, “I stayed there until the third day, and refused to believe it, so I sent another message in. The third day was exactly the same, and even that purchasing disciple appeared at the mountain gate at the same time. I had originally thought about just breaking in to see, but by then I didn’t dare act rashly.
“When the purchasing disciple appeared for the third time, I checked his breath… and found nothing at all.”
Yun Zhou rushed directly in front of the disciple, grabbing the other’s shoulders with both hands: “What do you mean? Junior Brother Yun Pu is dead? What about within the sect? My master, the sect master, the martial uncles—what about them?”
The disciple was someone who directly worked for Xie Zhefeng after all, so he didn’t lose his composure but said calmly, “I didn’t go in to investigate, I only used my divine sense and spiritual treasures to check a bit…”
He sighed, “Perhaps it’s because I am not skilled enough, but within the vicinity, I didn’t detect any aura of a living person. I didn’t dare act rashly, so I returned to the Frost Sea to report to the Immortal Venerable.”
No aura of a living person?
Then didn’t that mean…
Yun Zhou shook his head, saying in disbelief, “Are you saying they… we… the Yun, the Yunjian Sect, has been wiped out!?”