Chapter 49#
An Wuxue: “…”
On his left arm, the cauldron mark that Xie Zhefeng had combed through a few days ago lay quietly.
The chains attached with spiritual energy and turbid qi were still hanging on him. In the eyes of others, he was just Zhao Duan’s prisoner, but he stood there calmly, unmoving, silently observing Zhao Duan’s expression.
Since this beast knew much more than Yun Zhou, he might know some things that Yun Zhou didn’t.
The book recording the puppet technique had several pages torn out. Would Zhao Duan have the complete book?
Would there be other solutions in it?
“Whose cauldron are you? If the cultivation level of the one who placed this mark is exceeded by the owner, it should disappear on its own. You are already at the Great Completion stage, yet the mark is still there.” Zhao Duan’s expression became increasingly gloomy. “The person linked to this mark is at the Tribulation Transcendence stage… I see, is it one of those two?”
He sneered, “No wonder. I was wondering how you reached the Great Completion stage at such a young age; it turns out you’re an appendage to someone else. However…”
He stroked his chin and looked at An Wuxue carefully again. His gloom deepened, and he said coldly, “Someone else’s beauty, how unlucky—”
“Young Master… Zhao?” An Wuxue’s eyes curved slightly. “I’ve just had my eyes opened. You’re right; the ability to do as one pleases and take whatever one wants is indeed hard to refuse. If Beiming becomes the world of demonic cultivators in the future, following Young Master Zhao would be much better than the one linked to my cauldron mark…”
He paused, shifting from a lie to the truth, “…much better than that capricious, heartless, and emotionless person.”
Zhao Duan: “Oh? Is there an immortal cultivator at the Tribulation Transcendence stage in this world who is even more heartless and emotionless than a selfish person like me?”
An Wuxue: “…”
His self-awareness was remarkably clear.
He fell silent for a moment, then said as if talking to himself, “Him…”
After a long time, he remembered the last glimpse he had caught in front of the Luoyue Peak mountain gate in his previous life—his junior brother’s back receding into the wind and snow.
It was a look that made him feel a bone-chilling cold every time he thought of it.
“…His heartlessness and lack of emotion are even more indescribable than so-called selfishness and cold-bloodedness. You blame him but feel you have nowhere to start, because his emotionless nature is for the sake of justice for the world; you have no place to argue. And you feel tired of hating him, because hating him means you have to face the past. You can’t hate him, you can’t blame him, yet he happens to not want to go his own separate way.”
He sighed: “It’s truly a sin.”
“…?”
Zhao Duan raised one eyebrow, then the other, looking confused; he clearly didn’t understand.
Eager for knowledge, he asked, “What do you mean?”
An Wuxue’s expression faltered, and the gloom that had just appeared vanished instantly.
With a smile on his face, he said gracefully, “It means if I can be Young Master Zhao’s cauldron, I am naturally willing to drag out an ignoble existence.”
Zhao Duan said proudly, “Now you’re truly being tactful.”
Zhao Duan waved his hand, and spiritual energy rolled in his palm, descending toward the existing mark on An Wuxue’s arm.
Before the spiritual energy could touch the mark, spiritual runes suddenly emerged above it, drawing in spiritual energy from all directions—and suddenly sent Zhao Duan’s spiritual energy back!
The spiritual energies collided!
Backlashed by the mark linked to the Eternal Immortal’s spiritual energy, Zhao Duan lost his footing and stumbled back a step.
His several cauldrons hurried forward, surrounding and supporting him, talking all at once: “What happened, Zhao-lang?”
“Did this annoying immortal cultivator offend you?”
“An ignorant immortal cultivator, just kill him…”
Their voices clashed, making An Wuxue’s long-absent headache flare up.
He looked at the intact mark and thought with regret that Zhao Duan clearly didn’t know how to undo it.
It seemed that for this cauldron mark, which might or might not be a cauldron mark, the only way was indeed for his cultivation to exceed Xie Zhefeng’s, or to simply abandon this body that was very likely a puppet.
Even if there was no way back, he would rather be a lonely ghost or have his soul scatter without a body—regardless, he would never truly stay by Xie Zhefeng’s side because of such a mark.
Shaken by Xie Zhefeng’s spiritual energy, Zhao Duan pushed away the cauldrons crowding around him and said in a fit of rage, “Bah! When I kill those two Tribulation Transcendence cultivators, I’ll send you to see them once I’m tired of playing with you! I—”
Just then.
An Wuxue’s expression changed slightly.
The protective barrier covering the villa suddenly vibrated!
The cauldrons screamed again, and a demonic cultivator ran panic-stricken to Zhao Duan.
“Young Master! Outside the barrier, there’s… there’s… ah!”
Zhao Duan stepped forward and kicked the reporting demonic cultivator away with a foot imbued with spiritual energy, saying crossly, “Someone is blasting my barrier with spiritual energy; I can see that with my own eyes! Do you need to tell me?”
The barrier trembled again, and cracks actually appeared!
Only then did Zhao Duan realize the strength of the newcomer, and his expression darkened.
An Wuxue spread his divine sense slightly, feeling puzzled—it didn’t seem to be Xie Zhefeng or Pei Qian.
Zhao Duan said to the demonic cultivator, “Keep an eye on these beauties of mine for me.”
He turned back and pointed at An Wuxue, who was still bound by chains, “Especially this one!”
A shout came from outside the barrier: “You dog named Zhao, are you hiding inside and afraid to come out? I didn’t know you’ve changed professions from being a dog to being a shrinking turtle?”
The voice was that of a young man, and his cultivation was enough to make his shout penetrate the barrier; he was at least at the Tribulation Transcendence stage.
Zhao Duan seemed to know the person shouting; his eyes instantly became as gloomy as if they were dipped in poison.
He clearly knew who it was and said coldly, “Shouldn’t the one surnamed Zhao originally have been you? Bastard.”
Before his voice finished, Zhao Duan had disappeared from the spot.
In the blink of an eye, ripples from a clash between Tribulation Transcendence cultivators spread outside the barrier.
Those cauldrons had long since run and hidden. An Wuxue watched the movement in the distance, feeling somewhat surprised.
A Tribulation Transcendence cultivator was exceptionally rare for an ordinary sect, and Zhaoshui City hadn’t seen one for a full thousand years after its inheritance was broken. Was this twenty-seventh city actually a place of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, with so many Tribulation Transcendence cultivators?
In the center of the twenty-seventh city.
Within the sword array.
Kun Kun was flying beside Xie Zhefeng, holding the Chunhua Sword. Xie Zhefeng had his eyes lowered and his breath held, spiritual energy surging around him.
Qiao Yin and a group of cultivators from the City Lord’s Mansion who had come to maintain the sword array were all marveling nearby.
After the sword array’s mysterious malfunction, they had been working day and night here to prevent the turbid qi from increasing. Their spiritual energy had been depleted round after round, and they were barely holding on with the accumulated spiritual pills and stones.
But these two visiting Tribulation Transcendence cultivators had come with the Young City Lord. One had started flying and moving around the sword array with a compass, seemingly studying the array patterns, while the one named Xie Chunhua in front of them was actually replacing the spiritual energy of all of them single-handedly, and had even temporarily blocked the turbid qi from all directions!
Someone asked in a low voice, “Young City Lord, what is the background of this Immortal Master Xie?”
Qiao Yin shook his head: “I don’t know the specifics, but I heard he is a Luoyue disciple.”
“I have long heard that the number one sect is filled with geniuses. I previously thought that Beiming is so vast it would certainly not lose to Luoyue. I didn’t expect that the number one sect is indeed the number one sect…”
At this moment, Pei Qian, holding an array compass, stepped through the air to Xie Zhefeng’s side.
Xie Zhefeng looked at him: “How is it?”
“There really is something fishy about this array! Fellow Daoist Xie, you told me before we came that the Beiming Sword was invaded by turbid qi, but I didn’t know the details. In the distress letter from the first city, was it specified whether the main sword array of the first city also had problems?”
Xie Zhefeng shook his head.
Pei Qian said, “There is indeed a problem with the sub-sword array, and judging from this problem, it seems the person shaking Beiming is exceptionally familiar with it, especially the workings of the Beiming Sword Array.”
“What is the problem?” Xie Zhefeng only asked.
“The Beiming Sword Array is truly exquisite. Spiritual energy flows endlessly within it, with arrays within arrays. Even if parts of the array have worn down over these thousand years, other parts will naturally repair the worn areas. Therefore, even if someone destroys a part of the sword array, it is useless.
“But the person who moved the array was very clever! They didn’t destroy the array, but stole one of the array cores of the sub-sword array. Since the sword array wasn’t destroyed, its self-repair ability naturally couldn’t take effect.
“The array core seems to have its patterns linked elsewhere, but exactly where cannot be found in such a short time. This missing array core has caused a leak in the sword array. The sword array was meant to replace the Heavenly Pillars to cleanse the world’s turbid qi. With the array damaged, an imbalance between turbid qi and spiritual energy naturally appears.
“If this is the case for all forty-nine cities of Beiming, the person shaking Beiming would need to arrange every leak in every sword array, spread the puppet technique, and strike at exactly the right time to leave the vast Beiming isolated and helpless within just a few days.”
The two talked in low voices without using a barrier to mask the sound. Qiao Yin and the others heard only fragments, yet their expressions were already solemn, and their faces became increasingly unsightly.
However, Xie Zhefeng remained unmoved from beginning to end, and the spiritual energy emanating from his seal didn’t fluctuate in the slightest.
There were countless matters between the two realms. Since the Immortal Calamity, Immortal Chu Han had experienced so much; how could he lose his composure over this?
Pei Qian continued, “Aside from our Immortal guarding Luoyue and City Lord Shangguan himself, who else alive could meet these conditions?”
“I wasn’t born a thousand years ago, so I’m not too sure. I only heard that the sword array was completed by the joint efforts of City Lord Shangguan and his sister, Immortal Chu Han, and An Wuxue. The first three couldn’t possibly bring chaos to Beiming; it couldn’t be An Wuxue, could it?”
“He’s been dead for a thousand years!”
The claws of Kun Kun, who was holding Chunhua, trembled.
“Wuwu…”
Xie Zhefeng’s expression changed abruptly.
He said, “Speculating out of thin air is useless. Find the lost array core first—”
He stopped mid-sentence.
There was clearly no change in the surroundings, but he suddenly felt a fluctuation of spiritual energy linked to himself.
He had never left anything associated with himself in the two realms, except…
The cauldron mark on Su Xue!
What happened at the City Lord’s Mansion!?
Pei Qian was still thinking: “The incidents in the forty-nine cities of Beiming have all happened in these few days. The array core was likely tampered with by the demonic cultivator Young City Lord Qiao mentioned…”
As he spoke, the person in front of him suddenly dropped the seal, withdrew his spiritual energy, turned, and quickly sped out of the array. He was a completely different person from the one who had just been calm and composed upon hearing about the Beiming disaster.
“Fellow Daoist Xie, you…!?”
Qiao Yin and the others were caught even more off guard. Fortunately, the seal Xie Zhefeng left could maintain things for a while, and the other cultivators hurried forward to maintain the sword array again.
Qiao Yin, not knowing why, chased after him with Pei Qian. Just as they hurriedly left the sword array, the servant who had been making tea in the City Lord’s Mansion came stumbling toward them.
The servant’s sleeves were bloodstained, and his body was covered in dust.
Seeing Qiao Yin, the servant ignored his own disarray, lunged forward to hug Qiao Yin’s legs, and cried out, “Young City Lord, Zhao Duan came!”
Qiao Yin was startled and drew his sword. “Zhao Duan came!? Where is he?”
“He just came! He secretly entered the City Lord’s Mansion and took away the immortal master who stayed with the Young City Lord today!!!”
Before Qiao Yin could react, Xie Zhefeng stepped forward, leaned down, grabbed the servant’s sleeve, and asked in a deep voice, “Where was he taken?”
“I… I don’t know…”
Xie Zhefeng’s expression became increasingly grim.
His hand gripping the servant’s sleeve first tightened, then suddenly let go, abruptly releasing the boy.
The servant only felt that the aura of the immortal master in front of him was even more terrifying than that of an unscrupulous demonic cultivator like Zhao Duan, and he hurriedly shrank back.
Xie Zhefeng’s eyes seemed to be getting darker and darker, his gaze getting deeper and deeper.
“Wuwu…” Kun Kun flew to his shoulder, its spiritual energy attached to his soul, and reminded him in a low voice.
He turned his head and saw the Chunhua Sword held by Kun Kun.
His senior brother’s sword helped steady his mind slightly.
He raised his hand slightly and pushed everyone away.
Including Pei Qian, whose cultivation was second only to this avatar, all were pushed dozens of feet away.
“Fellow Daoist Xie, what are you doing?”
Xie Zhefeng closed his eyes and didn’t answer.
Because the inner demon was hidden in his sea of consciousness, spreading his divine sense made it extremely easy to lose control. He hadn’t used his divine sense on such a large scale for a long time.
The voice of the inner demon rose again, like a dull knife cutting into his soul.
He seemed not to notice.
The next moment, sand and stones flew, and a wild wind swept the clouds.
The immortal’s divine sense swept out from below the sword array, scanning the entire twenty-seventh city!