Chapter 524: North Sea

Chapter 524: The Northern Sea

Having spoken these words, Yuansu rose from his jade throne of his own accord, stepped down, paused briefly beside Li Xuanfeng, and brushed his waist jade sash lightly—at once, a surge of white cloud gushed forth.

This cloud qi drifted to the soles of their feet, where a soft, yielding force lifted them, carrying them swiftly out of Yuansu’s cave abode; instead of heading straight north, he flew east in one unbroken burst.

Turbulent turquoise waters stretched out, with scattered islets dotting the sea; coming from the south, they raced unceremoniously over the gates of several immortal sects, soon entering the Eastern Sea.

Ning Tiaoxiao stood with his hands clasped behind his back and suddenly asked:

“Is your spirit aperture in the palm of your hand?”

Li Xuanfeng was observing the terrain when he heard this, and a faint shock stirred in his heart—his spirit aperture being in his palm was nearly his greatest secret aside from the talisman seed and register qi of his clan.

A spirit aperture is originally a window for absorbing the world’s spiritual qi during embryonic respiration, capable of locking in the absorbed qi to prevent its leakage; once one reaches the Qi Refinement stage, one can inhale and exhale freely with each breath, making the spirit aperture hard to notice any longer.

After arriving at Green Pond, Li Xuanfeng had researched this thoroughly but found no records of it, so he could only hide his doubts silently in his heart; now, questioned like this, he could only reply:

“Reporting to the True Person, it is indeed in my palm—I have been perplexed by this for years…”

Yuansu let out a low chuckle and replied:

“It is not a matter of great consequence, merely a rare occurrence; the Chi Clan has a cultivation method specifically for those with such constitutions to practice the Different Mansions Shared Furnace Art, hence why you can find no related records in Green Pond…”

“Fortunately, you are not a disciple of Green Pond; if you had taken the path of joining a sect to cultivate at the age of seven, you would have surely been given a special cultivation method long ago, and all the cultivation you attained would have been for someone else’s benefit.”

Li Xuanfeng narrowed his eyes slightly and nodded in assent, while Yuansu spoke softly:

“Though such a constitution is extremely rare, it is of no great use for cultivation; at most, it grants a boost when practicing special arts… it can be called a rare talent, but it is not comparable to innate Dao constitutions or True Monarch bloodlines.”

Yuansu paused briefly and suddenly asked:

“How fares the Moon-Watching Lake?”

Li Xuanfeng had not expected him to ask this suddenly, so he cupped his hands and replied:

“By the True Person’s protection, the Li Clan has taken over half of Moon-Watching Lake, only waiting for the immortal peak’s jurisdiction to be adjusted.”

Yuansu nodded heavily and spoke softly:

“If I die, the Ning Clan will inevitably submit to the Chi Clan, be suppressed and divided, and will no longer be able to remain as independent in the Southern Border as they are today; He Yuan is still obedient enough now—you may consult him about any matters you have.”

Before Li Xuanfeng could respond, he continued:

“Though He Jing is that lad’s trusted subordinate, He Yuan also has close ties with Chi Zhiyun and his brother; the two will certainly employ a balancing strategy, and at least until Wan’er’s news comes out, no one will dare to act rashly.”

“When Wan’er’s news leaks, whether her breakthrough succeeds or fails, at the very least, things will not turn out too badly…”

He suddenly turned to Li Xuanfeng and spoke in a low voice:

“I know you are concerned about your clan, but you will be used by Chi Zhiyun—you must arrange Yuanqin properly; you and your wife are both sharp-witted, so you should know how to conduct yourselves.”

Li Xuanfeng listened in silence; to this day, he could not tell whether Yuansu’s words were sincere or not, but regardless of the old man’s motives, he had helped his clan a great deal, both directly and indirectly.

He fell silent for a breath, not uttering the polite phrase of wishing the True Person eternal life, but instead replied softly:

“Rest assured, True Person—I, Xuanfeng, will definitely assist He Yuan and protect my clan.”

Yuansu’s lips twitched, his mood unreadable; he only let out a soft sigh and spoke gently:

“The Bronze Forging Gate has a scripture called The Heavenly Whisk Bronze-Tempering Scripture; if you intend to break through to the Purple Mansion stage, you will eventually have to turn to this scripture. The Situ Clan still has Purple Mansion cultivators—if you wish to plot something, do not act too impulsively.”

The old man finally shed his cold tone and said:

“Your cultivation talent is quite good; having come from the mountains, you have already made the most of it, but you are still slightly inferior to the direct descendants of immortal sects. Breaking through to the Purple Mansion is difficult—think carefully before you act.”

“I, Ning Tiaoxiao, have cultivated for all these years, and in the end, I was undone by my own obsession; you should take this as a warning.”

Li Xuanfeng assented to each point, and Yuansu fell silent; he pinched a few finger seals with one hand while driving the cloud to fly faster and faster, as if waiting for something.

Yuansu adjusted his direction slightly and flew over the sea for a moment; standing on the cloud Yuansu had summoned, Li Xuanfeng observed silently, and soon the sea beneath his feet turned dark blue—he knew they had reached the He Shui Sea, the lair of the dragon clan.

This was the dragon clan’s stronghold, teeming with many demons of high cultivation and considerable strength; compared to the sparsely populated Zhulu Barbarian Strait, Li Xuanfeng had only come here a few times, all to eliminate demons.

Yuansu said nothing and drove the cloud at top speed; soon, a wisp of clear qi emerged ahead, solidifying from the void—it was actually a Purple Mansion True Person, transformed into a young man in a blue-and-white robe, with a handsome face, who spoke gently:

“Greetings, Senior Yuansu.”

Li Xuanfeng recognized this Purple Mansion cultivator—he had visited Yuansu years ago and even revealed the news that Yuanwu was about to perish; he waited for Yuansu to nod in acknowledgment before speaking in a deep voice:

“This junior greets True Person Puyu!”

This was none other than the Sect Leader of the Lotus Sea Sect, True Person Puyu, who was said to be able to regulate yin and yang and know life and death; his handsomeness carried a faint feminine charm, and he smiled with crinkled eyes and said:

“Xuanfeng, you need not stand on ceremony.”

Though Puyu spoke kindly, Li Xuanfeng did not dare to let his guard down; Puyu was a cultivator of the Eastern Sea, and during their previous meeting, he had even asked Yuansu if he wanted to inhabit his body—surely he had some sinister streak, so Li Xuanfeng only cupped his hands in return.

Puyu did not speak more to him and soon turned to Yuansu with a smile:

“Senior! My estimation was correct—by only a month’s difference, Tang Yuanwu indeed perished… When I saw the golden rain fall over the Yue Kingdom, I knew it was his death; his accumulated strength was quite substantial… it caused a great commotion.”

He spoke with a laugh, not fearing that Yuansu would be angered by this sensitive topic; Yuansu’s expression did not change, and instead he asked:

“If that is the case, why not take a look at me and tell me how much time I have left?”

Yuansu had not hidden his face during this visit, revealing it openly; Puyu glanced at him briefly, a faint confusion in his eyes, and spoke softly:

“For some reason, I find your aura vague, as if there is a great upheaval; I cannot see it clearly for the moment, but I can make a careful calculation…”

Yuansu immediately lost his interest and waved his hand to stop him; meanwhile, Li Xuanfeng noticed that everything before him was gradually dimming, all color fading away into pitch black, leaving only the two True Persons standing on the cloud with their hands clasped behind their backs, their colors still intact.

Li Xuanfeng saw that all around him—above, below, left, and right—was pitch black, without light, and no sun, moon, or stars were visible; he realized that he had unknowingly entered the Great Void, relying solely on the cloud beneath his feet to protect him as he shuttled through it at high speed.

Li Xuanfeng took the opportunity to observe; the darkness was sometimes dense, sometimes faint, and the eye art he had cultivated was of no use here—beyond the cloud, everything was hazy and indistinct, and the darkness beneath his feet was terrifying, as if it would suck away all one’s spiritual consciousness.

Above his head, there were tiny white specks, some large, some small, all indistinct; Li Xuanfeng knew Yuansu’s temperament, and moreover, the two True Persons were conversing, so he did not dare to speak up and only experienced it silently.

This was his first time shuttling through the Great Void, and it was not as smooth as he had imagined; he felt a flowing current, sometimes rapid, sometimes gentle, and there were also high-lying areas that required climbing up.

Standing in this place where neither sky nor earth was visible, Li Xuanfeng thought secretly:

“I have heard that the Great Void is closely tied to spiritual energy; perhaps the spiritual energy varies from place to place, hence the differences in traveling through the Great Void…”

While he was thinking this secretly, he did not miss the conversation between the two True Persons; Yuansu spoke little, for he had no intention of breaking through, and was more or less just watching the commotion.

Puyu, however, was completely different—he seemed to be in a quite good mood and smiled:

“Senior Yuansu, I have a question to ask you.”

Yuansu turned his gaze to him, indicating that he should speak; Puyu frowned and asked softly:

“The Three Sects and Seven Gates of the Yue Kingdom in the sea… most of them are from the Qing Song Temple’s lineage, are they not?”

Yuansu nodded and spoke softly:

“That is correct; most of them originate from the Six Disciples of the Chong Ming Hall of Qing Song Temple, their lineages are all connected, and they get along quite amicably.”

Puyu clearly already knew this and nodded:

“Since I attained the Purple Mansion stage, I have traveled frequently across the four seas; yet, by a strange twist of fate, I have never met True Person Shangyuan, and I only hear that he never shows his true face—hence, it is very difficult to get any news of him.”

He paused and asked softly:

“In my opinion, the several Golden Core cultivators in the sea have no great enmity between them; they can even be said to be on friendly terms—if Shangyuan breaks through, so be it… he is not necessarily wholeheartedly loyal to True Monarch Taiyue, so why do they hinder each other like this?”

“The Dao of Immortality is already declining day by day; if there were one more Golden Core position, it would surely inspire the world and revitalize the Dao lineages—with the two True Monarchs guarding the north, would that not be a wonderful thing? Why do they act like this… allowing the dragon clan and Buddhist cultivators to benefit?”

Puyu hesitated for a moment, seemingly hesitant; he took a small, exquisite pearl from his sleeve, which lay quietly in his palm, emitting a hazy purple light that enveloped the three of them, and finally spoke:

“Surely the two Golden Core cultivators are not about to come to blows just for a junior’s breakthrough!”

Yuan Su paused slightly first; not a soul in the realm would dare utter such words, and he merely said:

“Perhaps there are more than two.”

True Person Pu Yu looked puzzled, and Yuan Su, letting out a soft sigh, finally replied:

“True Person Shang Yuan acts with utmost rectitude, and the lineage he cultivates is the Yuzhen Lineage—this lineage once belonged to the Moon Radiance Immortal Manor… and the position of fruition was once occupied by a denizen of the Immortal Manor.”

“The several True Monarchs are all cautious; I fear there is some hidden contingency tied to that position of fruition. Even ordinary folk would tremble at the thought of claiming it, let alone someone with Shang Yuan’s disposition.”

True Person Pu Yu fell silent in contemplation, and Yuan Su spoke in a low voice:

“The master went away, and a few mischievous children banded together to ransack the house. Only the eldest son, having been severely beaten, remained obedient all along, daring not to stir.”

“As time drifted by, the eldest son hit a bottleneck in his cultivation. He then began to recall the master’s kindness, thinking of summoning the master back. After all, he had put on a docile front for so many years, hoping to earn some rewards. If the master were to die out there, wouldn’t all that be a laughingstock?”

Upon hearing these words, True Person Pu Yu remained silent for a full dozen breaths, his eyebrows lowered and eyes cast down. After a long while, he spoke in a soft voice:

“True Monarchs can attain immortality, and claiming that position of fruition allows one to fend off a hundred cycles of reincarnation. I cannot bring myself to believe that the immortals have simply fallen and vanished without a trace.”

“Who would dare believe it?”

A cold sneer curled at the corner of Yuan Su’s mouth, and he merely said:

“Over these past several hundred years, it has been those who believed first that rose to prominence. The Six Sons of the Chongming Palace are indeed in the height of their fame, but among them, those who refused to believe still met their deaths. As for someone like me, who still refuses to believe to this day, I can only wait to die of old age slowly.”

True Person Pu Yu fell silent in contemplation. Time flowed swiftly in the Great Void, and after an unknown length of time, True Person Pu Yu spoke in a gentle voice:

“We have reached the Northern Sea.”

Then the blackness around them faded slowly, revealing gray-white patterns, and all manner of colors resurfaced. A sharp, biting cold wind rushed toward them, laced with dense snowflakes.

Li Xuanfeng lifted his eyes to look around, only to feel that the heavens and earth were all white. In the distance lay endless snow-white ice mountains, ice peaks and snow clouds, and a few white eagles circled above the ice mountains as snowflakes drifted about.

“This is the Northern Sea…”

The cold wind, laced with ice and snow, crashed against his armor, letting out a crisp clinking sound. He casually used his magical power to block it, and then he heard True Person Pu Yu’s laugh:

“It seems everyone has arrived!”

Li Xuanfeng lifted his eyes to look, and the various colored lights emerging in the sky had already revealed the identities of these Purple Mansion cultivators. He slowly lowered his eyes, and Yuan Su, standing beside him with a still gentle expression, turned to him and spoke in a low voice:

“These true persons are going to discuss some important matters in the Great Void, and it would be inconvenient to bring you along. You can ride the wind down to land, and the local sect will come to receive you. I will return in three days.”

Li Xuanfeng nodded in response, riding a golden wind down from the cloud. Sure enough, he saw a cultivator clad in plain white coming to greet him, with a rather reverent and polite demeanor:

“I am a disciple of the Beihuan Sect in the Northern Sea. Please follow me, Senior.”

Li Xuanfeng nodded and followed him. The cultivator, seeing Li Xuanfeng in a weathered golden armor with a strikingly shaped long bow slung over his back, and catching a glimpse of his hawk-like eyes that were inadvertently daunting, felt a surge of wariness in his heart:

“He must be some cultivator who has been stuck in the Foundation Establishment stage for a long time. He exudes pure qi, so he is not a demonic cultivator… but judging by his murderous aura, he is no easy person to provoke.”

He straightened himself a little and asked at once:

“May I ask which country and sect you hail from, Senior? And which Purple Mansion cultivator have you come with? I would be grateful if you could tell me your name.”

The cultivator’s attitude was reverent, and Li Xuanfeng, not knowing the rank of this immortal sect, replied in a soft voice:

“I am Li Xuanfeng of the Qingchi Sect, and I have come with True Person Yuan Su.”

“No wonder! It’s the Qingchi Demonic Sect.”

The cultivator muttered this to himself and led Li Xuanfeng all the way into the ice mountains. There were already many figures sitting cross-legged on the mountain peaks, and in front of them stood a white-clad cultivator quietly, with a calm expression, who cupped his hands and said:

“I am Xie Zhanchang of the Beihuan Sect. Greetings, Fellow Cultivator.”

This man was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment, with a long spear slung over his back, and he seemed to have decent strength. Li Xuanfeng exchanged a few brief words with him, stated his identity, and did not engage in further small talk, instead finding a place to sit by himself.

To Li Xuanfeng’s surprise, no sooner had he sat down than someone approached him slowly. He frowned and looked over, and saw a person with slender eyebrows and large eyes, bearing an elegant and natural demeanor, who stopped in front of him, straightened his cuffs, and spoke in a gentle voice:

“Greetings, Fellow Cultivator Xuanfeng.”

“You are…”

Li Xuanfeng raised his eyebrows slightly. The young man was well-behaved and very polite, so Li Xuanfeng let out a soft laugh and said politely:

“I am… Dongfang Heyun.”

(End of Chapter)