Chapter 74#
They were still on the main street with many mortals and cultivators passing by. After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian cast an illusion on his own face to prevent any old acquaintances from five hundred years ago from recognizing him.
Miasma beasts were rare, so Xie Zhefeng also hid Kun Kun’s form.
Now, to outsiders, they appeared as four unfamiliar Great Success stage cultivators.
“You said earlier that City Lord Shangguan would visit the Qu family soon,” An Wuxue asked Pei Qian. “Is there a specific time? Do you remember why?”
Pei Qian’s eyes flickered. He hesitated for a moment before saying, “I wasn’t at the Qu family when the City Lord visited; I only found out she had been there after I returned. Consequently, I can’t be sure of the exact time—why don’t we stay at an inn near the Qu family first?”
Xie Zhefeng frowned. “Do we have to wait? Can’t I just go directly to the City Lord’s manor?”
Pei Qian said solemnly, “This is a Death Gate. Any change could lead to cataclysmic results. If City Lord Shangguan hasn’t appeared yet when we strike, and the killing intent of the Death Gate changes this world, we might not even get a chance to see her.”
As they spoke, led by Pei Qian, they hurried toward the Qu family estate.
The Qu clan was the foremost family of the North Abyss array path. Aside from Qu family cultivators, there were many mortals and rogue cultivators who made a living under them. The closer they got to the Qu family, the more prosperous the surroundings became.
The Qu family had even produced Long-Life Immortals in the distant past. Even during the Immortal Calamity, when An Wuxue was setting up arrays in North Abyss, many array experts from the Qu clan served under him.
Why would such an esteemed immortal family with such a long history get involved in the North Abyss crisis? What was their aim?
As An Wuxue observed along the way, he didn’t find anything unusual from five hundred years ago.
Pei Qian led them to the front of an inn and said, “This inn is close by and tall. From the rooms on the higher floors, one can see the outskirts of the Qu family estate.”
The inn was bustling with people. A storyteller was in the lobby, which was filled with customers.
Jiang Qing stepped forward with a smile and said to the attendant, “Are there four vacant rooms? Preferably on the higher floors.”
The attendant looked troubled. “Sir, we have vacant rooms, but… the Qu clan is holding a wedding banquet these few days. The rooms on the higher floors are reserved for immortal masters who have invitations from the Qu family…”
An Wuxue’s brow twitched—a Qu clan wedding banquet?
No wonder it was so lively. Could it be that Shangguan Liaoliao’s visit to the Qu family was actually to attend this wedding banquet?
Wouldn’t that mean they needed an invitation to get in? Why hadn’t Pei Qian mentioned this?
As he was thinking, he saw Pei Qian walk up beside Jiang Qing and say to the attendant, “We are here to attend the banquet. We are friends of Master Pei…”
As Pei Qian spoke, he raised his hand and formed a seal.
Upon seeing this, the attendant’s expression immediately changed. He bowed and said, “The Qu family’s crest? Friends of Master Pei don’t need an invitation. Please wait a moment in the lobby, and I will have four superior rooms cleaned for you!”
The attendant left, and Pei Qian whispered to them, “This inn is actually run by the Qu clan. The superior rooms are meant for hosting visiting cultivators. I recall that the superior rooms weren’t full at that time, so our staying here won’t affect what will happen in the ‘future’ of this time period.”
Jiang Qing teased, “I didn’t expect Little Pei to have so much weight in the Qu family back then?”
Pei Qian gave a bitter smile. “Before I severed ties with the Qu family, I was at least an adopted son. I still had an official status on the surface.”
At that moment, several more cultivators walked in.
These cultivators were holding invitations, clearly guests of the Qu family.
Since the inn’s attendants were all busy, the cultivators stood by the door and began to chat.
“So lively. How many people did the Qu family invite? What a grand affair.”
“The wedding banquet itself will likely be even more bustling.”
“It is Master Qu’s wedding banquet, after all. The main branch of the Qu family has only this one son in this generation, and he’s an unprecedented genius in the array path. How could they not place importance on it?”
“…”
Pei Qian’s expression became increasingly complex.
He fell silent, becoming much quieter than usual.
With his hands hidden beneath his sleeves, An Wuxue inconspicuously set up a sound-insulating barrier before saying, “Is this unprecedented array genius they’re talking about the same Qu family member who created this Guan Ye Array, whom Fellow Daoist Jiang mentioned earlier?”
Jiang Qing sighed. “Yes. That’s why I was so surprised when I was first trapped in the array. But…”
Pei Qian interjected, “The Qu family is somewhat related to me. It’s not convenient for Mr. Jiang to speak in front of me; why don’t I explain it instead?”
He paused and then turned to Xie Zhefeng. “Fellow Daoist Xie, may I explain everything?”
Knowing that Xie Zhefeng was Immortal Venerable Chu Han, he naturally understood that Xie Zhefeng had brought him to North Abyss because he knew of these connections. Whether or not he should speak was up to the Immortal Venerable.
However, the Immortal Venerable’s gaze was fixed on An Wuxue, his usually cold eyes softening significantly.
Xie Zhefeng only said, “There is no need to ask me about anything Su Xue wants to hear. I am also following his lead.”
An Wuxue immediately said, “Fellow Daoist Xie is the primary force from Falling Moon Peak investigating North Abyss. Both Pei Qian and I were brought in by you. Naturally, everything should be decided by you. I wouldn’t dare overstep my bounds.”
He spoke very quickly, every word and sentence an almost instinctive attempt to distance himself from Xie Zhefeng and Falling Moon Peak.
Xie Zhefeng couldn’t help but think of the Senior Brother in the previous illusion.
A thousand years ago, his Senior Brother’s eyes had reflected his figure, and the way he looked at him was filled with tenderness and worry, full of affection and anticipation for the future.
But the current Senior Brother seemed to want nothing and was afraid of everything.
If only… if only he had successfully turned back and grabbed his Senior Brother’s hand even once back then.
His heart once again felt like it was being twisted by a knife. It wasn’t right to agree with An Wuxue, and it was impossible to disagree. He just stood there, frozen.
Jiang Qing, still unaware of their identities, stood by with a smile, waiting.
Pei Qian, however, knew perfectly well.
He lamented inwardly. Who could have known that a single question would cause such a reaction between these two? How would he dare speak now?
Fortunately, the attendant saved him by bringing the keys and talismans for the superior rooms.
Pei Qian was so familiar with the area around the Qu family that he didn’t need the attendant to lead them. He took the items and said, “Follow me. Although we have a sound-insulating barrier, the lobby is full of people. It wouldn’t be good if we accidentally triggered the killing intent and destroyed this Death Gate illusion.”
As he spoke, he led the group upstairs and chose one of the rooms. After setting up several layers of barriers, he pointed to the sprawling estate not far outside the window. “That’s the Qu family estate—I grew up there.”
An Wuxue looked out through the tall window and saw a continuous stretch of pavilions and halls not far away. Guarding spiritual beasts circled in the four directions, and there were several layers of protective barriers. From what he could see, the Qu clan was even more prominent than before his death.
Since it concerned North Abyss and the two realms, he didn’t hold back and asked directly, “You said you were an adopted son of the Qu family… but as far as I know, immortal cultivators have few offspring. If one has no children but wants someone to carry on the legacy, they just find a child with immortal bones and an affinity and take them as a disciple.”
“Moreover, they just said that Master Qu is the only son of the Qu family in this generation. Doesn’t that mean the Qu clan has a successor in this generation? Why would there be an adopted son?”
As Pei Qian listened to An Wuxue’s words, his expression became increasingly bitter.
“Yes…” he actually said. “Why would there be an adopted son? It was all because of Qu Jizhi.”
Qu Jizhi was that unprecedented genius of the main Qu family branch.
The head of the Qu family from before An Wuxue’s death had passed away several hundred years ago. After the current head took over, she hadn’t become pregnant for a long time. Seeing that there was no successor, she indeed had the idea of finding a disciple from a branch family or within North Abyss.
But not long after, she became pregnant with Qu Jizhi.
This child hadn’t been easy to conceive, and abnormal celestial phenomena occurred before his birth. Since the Qu family excelled in arrays and divination, anyone who calculated would find that the child’s future was limitless.
However, the head of the Qu family calculated a hexagram herself and found that the child was destined to face a tribulation.
Cultivation itself is a tribulation. If one has enough talent to reach the Tribulation-Transcending stage, every step of that stage is a tribulation. A prophecy of being destined for a tribulation might be a major threat to a mortal, but to a cultivator, it’s really nothing. Consequently, no one took it seriously at first.
As Pei Qian spoke, he leisurely toyed with the sword tassel hanging from his natal sword, his tone so relaxed it was as if he weren’t talking about his own affairs.
“But after this fellow was born, the head of the family realized something was very wrong.”
Jiang Qing was surprised. “Oh? I’ve never heard of anything being very wrong. I’ve been in North Abyss for a long time, and I’ve always known that the young Immortal Master Qu showed a talent for the array path since childhood and progressed incredibly fast in his cultivation. Some even say his talent for the Way of Floating Life is comparable to that of the North Abyss Immortal Venerable in his youth. How could…?”
“The problem was exactly with that Way of Floating Life,” Pei Qian said. “Only a few months after Qu Jizhi was born, he became obsessed with worldly things. While still in his swaddling clothes, he would laugh incessantly upon seeing the bustling mortal world; he truly had the foundation for the Way of Floating Life. But after they had his birth date and time, the family calculated another hexagram and found the details of that tribulation.”
Pei Qian gave a mocking smile. “It was a love tribulation of the Way of Heartless.”
Way of Heartless?
An Wuxue instinctively glanced at Xie Zhefeng.
Immortal Venerable Chu Han seemed to strongly dislike those three words. For once, he didn’t notice An Wuxue’s gaze. His brow was furrowed, and his expression was extremely unsightly.
Jiang Qing, who was familiar with the laws of karma, also frowned and said, “Cultivation emphasizes facing tribulations. If he was destined for such a tribulation, he was meant to pass it to progress further. Since he had a love tribulation of the Way of Heartless, he should have cultivated the Way of Heartless and waited for the day of his tribulation. But the young Immortal Master Qu clearly had the foundation for the Way of Floating Life…”
Pei Qian bowed to Jiang Qing. “As expected of Mr. Jiang. You’ve identified the problem before I even finished. If you had woken up earlier and entered the First City, those old fogies of the Qu family would have surely consulted you, the only remaining member of the Fetal Spirit race. Perhaps they wouldn’t have committed those foolish acts later on.”
“In that case, it really was your benefactor’s fault—why did he seal you so tightly? Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d come out a hundred or two years earlier?”
An Wuxue: “…”
Jiang Qing didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Get back to the point.”
Pei Qian’s expression turned solemn as he continued, “Qu Jizhi was born with the perfect foundation for the Way of Floating Life, yet his destined tribulation was the love tribulation of the Way of Heartless. For anyone else, they would likely either give up on the highest pursuit of cultivation or be made to cultivate the Way of Heartless to follow heaven’s will. But…”
“He is Qu Jizhi, the only hope for the Qu family of the array path. The Qu clan thought they had researched karma and destiny enough to attempt to deceive the heavens and change a tribulation decreed by the heavenly dao.”
Pei Qian condensed spiritual energy at his fingertips, raised his hand, and drew several strokes in mid-air.
It was a hexagram rune.
“The hexagram they calculated for Qu Jizhi was ‘A child of the Qu family, destined for a tribulation, heartless yet with feeling.’ The hexagram didn’t specify Qu Jizhi; it said ‘a child of the Qu family.’”
Having heard this much, An Wuxue understood what the adopted son was about.
Sure enough, Pei Qian said, “So, the head of the family found a child among the mortal refugees who had immortal bones and a birth date and time very close to Qu Jizhi’s. She used three copper coins to buy him from his parents and recognized him as an adopted son. The Qu clan didn’t record Qu Jizhi in the family genealogy; instead, they recorded the adopted son and had him cultivate the Way of Heartless to face the tribulation.”
An Wuxue was finally a bit surprised.
“—You cultivate the Way of Heartless?”
Pei Qian nodded with a slight hint of embarrassment. “It’s not hard to tell, right?”
An Wuxue: “…”
No, it was very hard.
His peripheral vision caught Xie Zhefeng, who was constantly looking at him from the side, and then he looked at Pei Qian, who had a playful smile on his face. He suddenly had the illusion that he was the one cultivating the Way of Heartless.