Chapter 65#
Early the next morning.
An Wuxue slowly sat up and casually withdrew the barrier he had set before sleep.
He looked down at the silk quilt on his body, his gaze distant for a long moment, before he realized he had woken.
Had he dreamed last night?
It seemed not. He had been too exhausted last night…
“Wuwu…”
The sound came from outside the door.
Just waking, his mind still adrift, An Wuxue heard Kunkun calling and rose, using a technique to cleanse himself of dust before pulling on his outer robe and hurrying to open the door.
Creak.
The door swung open. Kunkun shot “whoosh” into his arms — but most of the morning light at the threshold was blocked.
An Wuxue: “……”
The person blocking the light asked: “Did Senior Brother sleep well last night?”
He didn’t answer the question. Instead, he said: “Since I’m staying for the sake of Beiming’s calamity, surely such private matters don’t need to be reported to the Immortal Sovereign?”
“I was only concerned that Kunkun wasn’t at Senior Brother’s side when you fell asleep last night—”
“Also,” An Wuxue continued, “the city lord’s residence has many cultivators. Does the Immortal Sovereign want to announce to the world that the criminal who was executed has returned?”
Xie Zhefeng stiffened. His throat worked as he swallowed back his words.
He raised a hand, palm up, and used his spiritual energy to draw something from his spirit pouch.
It was a book.
An Wuxue’s eyes narrowed: “The book recording the puppet brand and puppet-making technique?”
He had been standing at the door holding Kunkun, not letting Xie Zhefeng enter. But seeing this object related to Beiming’s calamity, he didn’t hesitate. He turned and led Xie Zhefeng inside, and they sat facing each other.
Xie Zhefeng was clearly aware of the distinction — Senior Brother was only willing to discuss matters concerning the two realms with him.
His expression was desolate, but afraid An Wuxue would be displeased, he quickly gathered himself and entered with the book in hand, sitting across from An Wuxue to discuss it.
He said: “A few days ago, you retrieved several spirit pouches from Zhao Duan’s room. After using them to supplement the formation’s spiritual energy, you lost consciousness from exhaustion. When I used a technique to change your clothes, I obtained those spirit pouches and carefully opened them to examine.”
An Wuxue had already taken the book from Xie Zhefeng’s hands.
He opened it and looked. “The one Zhao Duan obtained from the person behind this — it’s indeed slightly different from the resurrection method spread throughout Beiming’s streets.”
The kind of book that ordinary Beiming cultivators could obtain had an extremely crude method for applying the puppet brand — very different from the Cauldron Brand on An Wuxue’s arm.
That crude Cauldron Brand could only serve as a spell-mark to keep the puppet body from decaying, and it required spiritual energy endlessly.
But—
“This is the same as the book Yun Zhou obtained!” An Wuxue said. “The matter in Zhaoshui is indeed connected to the person who transmitted to Zhao Duan.”
He continued flipping through. “Even this copy of Zhao Duan’s has had pages torn out…”
In the same place — right after the section recording the Cauldron Brand application method.
Identical books. Identical missing pages.
No new clues.
The thread they could follow seemed to have snapped again.
That person behind all this was like a loach in mud — impossible to grasp, slipping away, leaving traces that seemed obvious at first glance, yet turning to nothing like rain after it passes on a clear day. There was no tangible evidence to seize.
But…
An Wuxue felt vaguely that something was wrong. Even as he thought about it, he became aware that someone’s gaze was fixed on him.
On instinct, he looked up — and caught Xie Zhefeng’s stare before the man could look away.
An Wuxue’s brow furrowed. He stood to go find a quiet, empty place to continue thinking.
Xie Zhefeng immediately rose to follow: “Senior Brother!”
Kunkun: “Wuwu?”
An Wuxue had just stepped out the door when Xie Zhefeng circled around him, blocking his path. Quietly, he said: “I simply couldn’t help it…”
There was something helpless in his tone that he couldn’t quite hide.
An Wuxue settled his expression and said flatly: “If you can’t bear romantic feelings, perhaps look elsewhere.”
Even as he said it, he thought it strange.
Xie Zhefeng and “can’t bear romantic feelings” — those words truly had nothing to do with each other in any possible way.
Xie Zhefeng’s eyes went dark. “Don’t ask me to seek another.”
An Wuxue said nothing.
The man beside him spoke, his voice slightly rough: “During those eight hundred years when I was forced into seclusion because of the inner demon, except when I was at Falling Moon Peak, the rest of the time I was in Thornbriar Creek, searching for Senior Brother’s soul.”
An immortal’s spiritual energy, spread across the barren tangle of thorns, would eventually be exhausted no matter how abundant it was. Sometimes when the energy ran dry and the inner demon flared up, he could only hide and go into seclusion in Thornbriar Creek, suppressing the demon before spreading his energy outward again…
This cycle repeated for eight hundred years.
Eight hundred years — in the mortal world, lovers went through countless separations and reunions in that span.
“I don’t truly lack the capacity to bear romantic feelings. Just now, I was simply watching Senior Brother turn through the pages of the book. I remembered how you used to discuss matters concerning the two realms with me like this, and for a moment I forgot to look away…”
An Wuxue sighed. “You treat the past as cherished memories. But for me — those are things I cannot bear to look back on.”
Xie Zhefeng’s face drained of color.
An Wuxue had only been stating what was in his heart. He hadn’t meant to wound him. Once he’d spoken, he simply turned back to the doorway and resumed thinking.
He seemed to have understood what was wrong.
— It was precisely those eight hundred years that Xie Zhefeng had just mentioned.
“Do you remember when Yun Yao died?” he asked Xie Zhefeng.
Xie Zhefeng’s face was still pale, but his expression sharpened at once, without any hesitation in answering: “Two hundred years ago.”
Xie Zhefeng would not be mistaken about this.
Two hundred years ago, he had finally eradicated his inner demon. Upon leaving seclusion, he had entered Canggu Tower, where he encountered a demonic cultivator already at death’s door beyond remedy. Canggu Tower was dark, and the demon kept its head bowed the entire time. Xie Zhefeng had paid no attention to a mere demon cultivator, and certainly hadn’t looked carefully. But later, in the memories drawn out by Yun Yao’s obsession, he discovered that the great demon he had encountered in Canggu Tower two hundred years ago was Yun Yao.
As soon as Xie Zhefeng finished speaking, he too perceived the subtlety of it.
An Wuxue said grimly: “Two hundred years ago, you eradicated your inner demon, so you stopped spending all your time in Thornbriar Creek. Shortly after, Yun Zhou obtained the method for applying the Cauldron Brand, Yun Yao turned demonic and died in Canggu Tower. Yun Zhou has been scrambling to resurrect Yun Yao ever since, annihilated Cloud Sword Sect, and somehow found Suxue — which is how she came to Falling Moon Peak, and everything that followed happened.”
“Looking back at it now, the person behind all this most likely gave Suxue to Yun Zhou, and Yun Zhou brought Suxue to Falling Moon Peak. After that — I awoke in this puppet body called Suxue.”
That person behind all this — they must have been waiting for Xie Zhefeng to leave Thornbriar Creek for extended periods, which only happened two hundred years ago. That’s when they did something to his lingering soul!
He opened the book again, stopping at the torn pages.
“And there’s something else strange about these missing pages. If only Yun Zhou’s book had pages torn from this same place, you could say Yun Zhou didn’t want Yun Yao to see the method for breaking the brand. That would make sense. But Yun Zhou and Zhao Duan didn’t know each other. They couldn’t possibly have torn the same pages by coincidence.”
Xie Zhefeng said gravely: “These pages weren’t torn by them. They were torn by the person behind this before giving them the books. But if that person truly didn’t want the book to fall into our hands — didn’t want us to know the method for breaking the brand—”
An Wuxue gritted his teeth and said coldly: “That person could have simply not included these pages when creating the books in the first place. This was intentional! This person knew the book would eventually reach our hands. They deliberately let me know that pages were missing — so I would pursue those missing clues and fall into their trap.”
If that was true, then this matter was entirely different!
Xie Zhefeng’s expression suddenly became ruthless and cold.
An Wuxue felt a headache coming on — something he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
He raised a hand to rub his temples. Kunkun flew to his shoulder and soothed his spirit.
Just then, a transmission talisman drifted toward Xie Zhefeng.
Pei Qian’s voice came from within: “Immortal Sovereign, the sword formation can transmit now, but I’ve run into another problem.”
Xie Zhefeng glanced at An Wuxue, and his eyes softened.
An Wuxue simply said: “We’re coming now.”
“Good. Um…? Suxue…? Where’s the Immortal Sovereign?”
The transmission talisman cut off.
Pei Qian hadn’t heard a single word from Xie Zhefeng.
Xie Zhefeng instinctively tried to take An Wuxue with him as they flew through the air. But the moment he turned, An Wuxue had already summoned Chunhua and was speeding toward the sword formation on the blade.
Xie Zhefeng’s eyes darkened. He could only follow silently.
By the time Pei Qian saw people arriving at the formation, Suxue was descending smoothly on his sword with clean, precise movements — while the Chuhan Immortal Sovereign was catching up from behind, along with the little spirit beast called Kunkun.
Pei Qian: “……?”
It was still that Immortal Sovereign who had threatened to kill him if he couldn’t find the formation’s core, but something felt off somehow…
An Wuxue descended and sheathed his sword. Pei Qian couldn’t help but ask: “Isn’t that the Immortal Sovereign’s companion sword?”
She meant Chunhua.
Xie Zhefeng had carried it with him for ages, never letting it leave his side.
Earlier, he had tried to lend it to An Wuxue, and An Wuxue had refused.
An Wuxue only said: “The Immortal Sovereign’s companion sword is Chuhan, Drinker of Wind and Snow — the world knows this.”
“……?” Pei Qian looked at Xie Zhefeng.
Xie Zhefeng nodded: “Yes.”
Pei Qian: “…”
Okay then.
Pity that Xie Zhefeng’s identity was already revealed. Pei Qian no longer dared to tease the two “sealed jars.”
And Xie Zhefeng paid no attention to Pei Qian’s reaction at all. He simply stepped forward and asked: “You said the transmission has developed a problem?”
“Sort of. Though it’s not that the transmission itself has a problem — the twenty-seventh city can transmit directly to the first city now.”
“But I’m not certain about the other end of the transmission. In theory, we should be able to transmit directly into the sword formation of the first city. But when I probed the energy at the other end of the transmission, I discovered that the entire first city seems to be covered in a massive malicious formation…”
As he spoke, Pei Qian moved to draw out the formation lines related to the transmission to show Xie Zhefeng.
But before Pei Qian had even turned around or begun to draw on his spiritual energy, An Wuxue had already, without any effort, drawn out the formation lines connecting the twenty-seventh city to the first city.
Pei Qian had been studying those lines for days. Even Qiao Yin, who had grown up in the twenty-seventh city since childhood, couldn’t understand them.
Yet An Wuxue accomplished it all without batting an eye.
“The sword formation of the first city is wrapped in a massive malicious formation covering the entire city,” An Wuxue said. “I don’t know if it’s the work of the person causing this calamity as well. Since the sword formation is enveloped in this malicious formation, if we want to find the problem with the Beiming sword formation, we have to enter that malicious formation first before we can access the Beiming sword formation. We can transmit,” An Wuxue continued, “only — once we transmit, we’ll first fall into that malicious formation covering the first city.”
Xie Zhefeng nodded lightly: “Then it’s not a problem. If the first city is covered in a malicious formation, Shangguan Liaoliao and the first city’s cultivators — even the mortals — may well be inside it. We were always going to have to enter.”
“Let’s go in.”
An Wuxue finished speaking, and caught in his peripheral vision the sight of Pei Qian staring at him. He suddenly realized what he had overlooked.
He belatedly made amends by asking Pei Qian: “What do you think, Fellow Daoist Pei?”
Pei Qian: “……”
What could he possibly think?
Hadn’t these two already said everything between them in that back-and-forth?
She raised an eyebrow: “I always said you were hiding your light, and you wouldn’t admit it. Turns out not only is your soul-sense cultivation superior, but you’ve also studied formation work quite a bit.”
An Wuxue had refused to admit it before — that was to hide it from Xie Zhefeng.
Now that Xie Zhefeng knew, and Pei Qian was a cultivator brought into Beiming by Xie Zhefeng at that, they would have to work together as they investigated Beiming. From this moment on, he didn’t intend to hide anything from Pei Qian specifically.
He said: “Not merely studied it.”
“There you go being modest again—”
“I have a grasp of it.”
Pei Qian: “…”