Chapter 46#
An Wuxue’s eyes flickered.
He forced a chuckle.
“Daoist Xie, Kunkun is a miasma beast born with a unique gift for the soul path, rare and precious. On the soul path, an adult miasma beast’s divine sense is comparable to the peak of the Dujie stage.”
The more panicked he was inside, the more composed he appeared on the outside. “Kunkun likes me, but that doesn’t mean I can raise such a spirit beast. I’m just being self-aware; how does that count as distancing myself?”
He raised his hand and patted Kunkun’s head.
Kunkun looked up following his movement and obediently closed its eyes.
“I like it very much too.”
He didn’t want to give Xie Zhefeng an opportunity to speak on the matter, so he hurriedly asked Qiao Yin, “Young City Lord, you said just now that you are at a stalemate with a Dujie stage demonic cultivator. Where is that demonic cultivator now? Are the turbid qi in the sky and the puppets outside the city all related to this demonic cultivator?”
“Related, but not entirely. This matter is complex, and I still need to go assist the sword array. To make a long story short…”
Qiao Yin raised her hand, moved her spiritual power, and gathered a few drops of water on her fingertips, drawing the pattern of a mark on the table.
It was exactly the mark on those puppets.
“A few months ago, there was a pair of Dacheng stage cultivators in the city. The woman fell after accidentally entering a dangerous area. The other cultivators who entered with her brought her body back, but her Dao companion refused to accept it. He sat with the body for several days, forcibly detaining the soul that should have scattered, condensing a few fragments of a remnant soul, insisting on reviving her.”
Pei Qian turned his compass, saying leisurely, “Such matters aren’t rare. Most people have delusions and can’t see through matters of life and death. Cultivators have much longer lifespans than mortals, making them more prone to falling into this. Once an obsession has nowhere to go, it will eventually scatter.”
Will it eventually scatter?
An Wuxue’s fists tightened a bit more.
This time, he didn’t even need to look to feel the gaze from his side. Even with Kunkun lying between them, that man was looking at him without saying a word.
If an obsession will eventually scatter when it has nowhere to go, why did Xie Zhefeng have to develop an inner demon?
“…Yes,” Qiao Yin said. “At first, we thought so too. But on the fifth day after that cultivator’s wife fell, he suddenly obtained a mark—”
She pointed at the water traces on the table that were gradually drying. “It’s this mark, which originated from a book. The book recorded a method for creating puppets to retain souls. Using spiritual objects of heaven and earth as a foundation, one can craft a puppet identical to the deceased when they were alive. By sending the remnant soul into the puppet’s body and then applying this mark, the remnant soul can be kept within.
“The more powerful the spiritual object used to create the puppet, the more the created puppet will resemble a living person.”
Xie Zhefeng suddenly said, “There’s no need for further explanation of this method; Su Xue and I have seen it.”
Qiao Yin was slightly surprised. “This method has actually spread to other places? I thought it was only circulating within the Northern Abyss…”
“After that cultivator obtained this method, he didn’t tell anyone else. He secretly used spiritual objects of heaven and earth to craft a puppet and stored his Dao companion’s remnant soul within it. It wasn’t until he brought his ‘Dao companion’ out that others saw and learned of this.
“At that time, the City Lord’s Mansion received the news but did not interfere. After all, this was a secret technique the person had obtained themselves, and the spiritual objects also belonged to that cultivator. Even if it was just keeping a remnant soul and a puppet for a bit of comfort, it’s considered human nature. But after that, some people in need learned of this and also sought out this method.”
An Wuxue whispered, “Then it must have spread like wildfire.”
How many people could resist the temptation of “resurrection”?
Even if it was just a visible delusion.
He finally understood where those wandering puppets outside the city came from.
In a place with many immortal cultivators, creating many puppets tainted with turbid qi out of thin air would be extremely difficult.
But if these puppets came from people’s scattered obsessions, and the cultivators of the City Lord’s Mansion hadn’t been on guard, then by the time things spiraled out of control, it was clearly too late.
Qiao Yin nodded. “More and more puppets were created. Some mortals, to satisfy their own obsessions, even spent large sums of money or paid a great price to seek help from cultivators to create puppets for them.
“At that time, I vaguely felt something was wrong and sent word to the nearby cities. Sure enough, I found that this method had begun to spread throughout the Northern Abyss. But at the time, I really couldn’t say what was wrong.
“Until a dozen or so days ago, the cultivator who first started making puppets to retain his Dao companion’s remnant soul finally discovered a problem—there was something wrong with the mark. After the puppet was made, it couldn’t be maintained for long; instead, it required injections of spiritual power at intervals to be sustained.”
An Wuxue opened his mouth, almost blurting out—isn’t this situation almost the same as the furnace seal on his body?
It’s just that Su Xue’s body showed absolutely no trace of being a puppet. His soul was complete, not just a remnant soul, and the mark on his hand was even more refined, being linked to Xie Zhefeng’s aura.
In terms of their origin, they were cut from the same cloth.
Xie Zhefeng asked, “Even so, it’s just a failed resurrection method. Why has it reached the point where puppets tainted with turbid qi are wandering everywhere?”
“Because most people who did so simply couldn’t support the required supply of spiritual power, yet were unwilling to destroy the puppets, so things turned into a mess. It was precisely at this time that something happened to the Northern Abyss Sword.”
Pei Qian suddenly realized, “So the Northern Abyss Sword Array suddenly emitted turbid qi, which scattered everywhere. It just so happened that there were many puppets in the city that were about to rot without spiritual power. These puppets absorbed the turbid qi, which became their source of life, turning them into what they are now?”
Qiao Yin said with deep regret, “Exactly. It was our negligence; we didn’t take this puppet technique seriously… A few days ago, when something happened to the sword array and turbid qi filled the sky, plus a Dujie stage Great Demon took the opportunity to strike, some people turned to the demonic path themselves in order to protect their puppets, and others unfortunately lost their lives. With no one to tend to them, the puppets chased after anything with life, wandering everywhere and causing trouble for mortals. Even the cultivator who first used this ‘resurrection’ method, unable to bear seeing his Dao companion’s remnant soul puppet tainted by turbid qi, personally destroyed the puppet he had given everything to create. Entangled by his inner demons, he also became tainted by turbid qi and ultimately took his own life.
“The city was in chaos for a few days, and then it reached its current state.”
Xie Zhefeng asked, “Do you know the origin of the Dujie stage demonic cultivator?”
When he ascended and ended his seclusion back then, he had clearly purged the world of demons and monsters.
If there was a Dujie stage demonic cultivator, they most likely fell into the demonic path within these thousand years.
“I know. That Great Demon had ties to my Qiao family. He was originally an orthodox immortal cultivator who later went astray. Alas… he cultivated turbid qi, and his cultivation became even greater than it was back then; he actually killed my father!”
She clenched one hand into a fist and suddenly struck the table, her expression full of resentment.
“He almost took this place for himself. Fortunately, he was finally repelled. After that, we could only establish a barrier and distribute spirit talismans to mortals and cultivators with low cultivation, while the other experts guarded the sword array. I held out until today, when I sensed someone opening the barrier to enter the city. I almost thought it was that villain’s reinforcements, which is why I attacked.”
“I didn’t expect Daoist Pei and Daoist Xie to both be Dujie stage immortal cultivators. This is truly wonderful—”
“Young City Lord,” Xie Zhefeng interrupted her, “from what you’ve said, the book seems more like it was distributed by someone with an agenda who knew something would happen to the Northern Abyss Sword Array, so they timed it perfectly to strike just as the turbid qi scattered.”
Aside from the Twenty-Seventh City, there are forty-nine cities in total in the Northern Abyss; I’m afraid they are all in a similar situation.
An Wuxue’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
By now, the matter of the Yunjian Sect’s extermination leading to the crisis of the Zhaoshui Sword Array could no longer be a coincidence. Yun Zhou was but a pawn. The person behind it, shaking Zhaoshui in the east and throwing the Sea of Hades in the north into chaos, couldn’t possibly be an ordinary Dujie stage cultivator.
That person also knew about the matters within the sword array, and even some events from a thousand years ago. Could it be one of the prominent Great Demons that was missed back then?
While he was lost in thought, Xie Zhefeng had already stood up. “In that case, the sword array is of utmost importance. The situation in the forty-nine cities is unclear, and time is pressing. Young City Lord, please come with me to take a look at the sword array first.”
Qiao Yin was stunned.
She was a Dujie cultivator herself. After the old City Lord was killed by the Great Demon, she had held on through these turbulent times until today, and she didn’t consider herself incompetent.
Yet this Daoist Xie Chunhua who had just arrived had, with only a few words, given her a sense of taking orders.
It was as if she weren’t the one in charge here, but the person before her.
If anyone else had taken such a stance to have her lead the way, she would certainly have felt indignant. But with Xie Zhefeng speaking this way, she instead feared wasting time and hastily stood up, saying, “Alright. Since Daoist Xie is willing to help, I am naturally extremely grateful. Are you all coming together?”
“I’ve always been skilled in array arts,” Pei Qian said, “so naturally I’m going. But the sword array will emit turbid qi, and those with insufficient cultivation and willpower are very likely to be unable to resist cultivating turbid qi into their bodies; it’s extremely dangerous. Su Xue is only at the Dacheng stage, so perhaps he should wait in the City Lord’s Mansion while we investigate the situation first?”
Xie Zhefeng remained silent.
An Wuxue had originally wanted to go take a look—after all, the sword array was something he had established in his previous life.
But on second thought, since Xie Zhefeng was going personally, most of what he could see, his junior brother would likely also be able to see with the help of an array expert like Pei Qian.
If he went, he would only reveal more difficult-to-explain flaws during their interaction. It would be better to stay behind; he might even find an opportunity to take a closer look at what exactly was going on with the puppet technique.
So he took the offered out: “Daoist Pei is right. My going would only be a hindrance. You all go ahead.”
Pei Qian nodded with a smile.
“Daoist Xie, what are you still standing there for? Didn’t you say you wanted to take a look? Let’s go, let’s go,” he urged. “I’m also very curious to see what exactly happened to the sword array.”
Xie Zhefeng turned around to face An Wuxue directly.
Kunkun’s wings fluttered as it landed on Xie Zhefeng’s shoulder, its dark eyes looking back and forth.
This man stood with his arms crossed, holding Chunhua in his embrace.
Suddenly, Xie Zhefeng gave him a deep look and walked toward him, arriving in front of him.
An Wuxue instinctively took a step back.
He heard Xie Zhefeng say in a low voice, “Pei Qian and I must go to the sword array. Because of my… injury, Kunkun needs to follow me. The Northern Abyss is dangerous, and your cultivation is only at the Dacheng stage. If you stay here alone…”
The man’s voice grew lower and lower, and he spoke slower and slower.
He paused for a moment before continuing, “…you might as well take this sword for protection.”
As he finished speaking, Xie Zhefeng reached out and held Chunhua before his eyes.