Chapter 416: Valley Master Shuang: Curses Are Ineffective Against Me

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It was not the first time Lu Yang had heard of the Nine Disciples of the Asking Sect. This title was a double-edged sword; when facing weaker foes, like those in the Deity Transformation or Void Refining stages, it could bluff them into submission.

But if the opponent was a Fusion Stage grandmaster who also held a post within a major power, it was practically guaranteed that they shared some historical entanglement with the Nine Disciples, with an eighty percent chance of a deep-seated grudge.

Should one venture into the Imperial Capital, that eighty percent would instantly sharpen into a certainty.

When Meng Jingzhou returned to the Imperial Capital, he would at least have the backing of the Meng clan, ensuring his relative safety.

But looking at himself—his master was the Unspoken Daoist, and his best brother was Meng Jingzhou. With these two identities combined, what difference was there between going to the Imperial Capital and walking straight into the gates of hell?

As the heart of the Central Continent, a place where the Great Xia Dynasty had accumulated its heritage for a hundred thousand years, the Imperial Capital stood as the most powerful cultivation city of the contemporary age. Not only did the people of the Central Continent long to pay pilgrimage to its sights, but the Demon Realm, the Golden Buddhist Kingdom, and the Sea Race all yearned to journey there as well.

Lu Yang was the sole exception who harbored no desire to go.

As if suddenly struck by a realization, Lu Yang began counting on his fingers: "Why does it feel like my enemies are everywhere? I know the dark history of the four ancient immortals, so they certainly won't let me off. Master stirs up trouble everywhere, and it all gets pinned on me. Putting it this way, do the great powers of both past and present all hold a grudge against me?!"

"It shouldn't be like this. I joined the strongest sect in the realm, became the youngest disciple of the Sect Master, and carry the strongest ancient immortal within my body. Shouldn't I be slaying gods and Buddhas alike, surrounded by beauties, enjoying ultimate bliss? How did it all end up bringing nothing but misfortune?"

Lu Yang could only find solace in the fact that his own destiny was resilient enough to withstand such overwhelming perils.

"After being thrown into solitary confinement, Master sealed the spiritual energy of both myself and Shanren. Locked in two separate cells, we could only glimpse each other through the small iron windows in the walls." Continued

"We sat and debated the Dao from our respective cells; I explained the principles of curse techniques, while he expounded on the sayings of the Sages. It was a mutual enhancement, a collective elevation."

In his heart, Lu Yang wondered if the two of them hadn't simply been talking past each other.

Valley Master Shuang's tone softened. Lu Yang, well aware that disaster often springs from the tongue, refrained from inviting trouble upon himself.

As she reached the end of her tale, Valley Master Shuang let out a long, wistful sigh: "In the end, Shanren never accepted my affection. After I broke through to the Fusion Stage, I went into secluded meditation to research a curse that would make him devoted to me entirely, but alas, Shanren never came to see me again."

Lu Yang shuddered. He had long heard that reading the scriptures of the Sages could help one navigate away from danger and disaster, and it seemed the saying was indeed true.

"Ah well, since I share a certain destiny with your Asking Sect, I shall lend you a hand."

Before Lu Yang could even celebrate on Meng Jingzhou's behalf, Valley Master Shuang continued: "However, judging by the situation described in the letter, your companion's curse is of an exceptionally high tier, far beyond my capacity to unravel completely. Furthermore, it belongs to the realm of karmic backlash, so it cannot be treated entirely as a standard curse technique."

"Then should we seek help from someone else?"

"There is no need for that just yet. Since you have come to my Seven Emotions Valley, we cannot simply let you leave without doing anything. If word of that got out, how could my Seven Emotions Valley continue to claim mastery over curses? Though I cannot dissolve the curse entirely, I can still mitigate a portion of it."

"For instance?"

"For instance, I can alter your companion's curse from being unable to physically contact women to a state where any woman he comes into contact with will feel an intense aversion toward him."

Lu Yang: "......"

Why did that sound infinitely worse?

"How about it? Shall I proceed in this manner?"

"Let me ask for his opinion first." Lu Yang was not Meng Jingzhou and could not make such a decision on his behalf.

"That is only fair. I shall go ask him in person then."

Lu Yang wore an expression of deep hesitation, prompting Valley Master Shuang to ask, "What is the matter?"

"Old Meng's curse prevents him from approaching any female. Valley Master, you..."

Valley Master Shuang smiled gracefully: "I thought it was something serious. Though he suffers from a curse, as a peak master of the mystic curse arts, I am immune to all such afflictions. His curse cannot possibly affect me. Let us go together."

Valley Master Shuang instructed Luo Yu and Zhao Po to remain where they were, intending to return shortly with Lu Yang.

She then took Lu Yang and soared out of the Seven Emotions Valley, flying in the direction Lu Yang indicated to search for Meng Jingzhou.

When the two arrived at Meng Jingzhou's last known location, they found that both Meng Jingzhou and the old horse had vanished without a trace, leaving behind nothing but a circle drawn on the ground.

"What is the meaning of this circle?" Valley Master Shuang asked, perplexed.

"I drew it. I was afraid Old Meng would wander off, so I traced a circle on the spot and told him not to step beyond its boundaries. I have no idea where he could have gone now."

Valley Master Shuang possessed a passing familiarity with the arts of karma. Pinching her fingers to perform a swift calculation, she pointed in one direction and said, "He should be over that way. Let us go look."

The two set off once more in search of Meng Jingzhou, flying along the calculated trajectory for a long time without catching so much as a glimpse of his shadow.

"How peculiar. Given my flying speed, I should have overtaken him in no time."

Valley Master Shuang pinched her fingers to calculate once more, arriving at a different result: "So that is how it is. He altered his course midway; he is over here."

"Let's move."

Following the new coordinates, they maintained their rapid flight, repeatedly searching for Meng Jingzhou but continually meeting with failure.

Just as Valley Master Shuang was preparing to divine Meng Jingzhou's position once more, Lu Yang offered an understanding look: "How about you just give me the location, and I will go find Old Meng myself?"

If they kept chasing like this, they would fly right out of the Desolate Province.

Valley Master Shuang felt a twinge of embarrassment: "Very well. He is just to the west."

Lu Yang journeyed westward alone, eventually discovering Meng Jingzhou collapsed limply upon the ground in a deserted mountain forest, with the old horse casually sipping spring water nearby.

"Are you alright?"

Meng Jingzhou spoke with a voice entirely drained of strength: "Do I look like I am alright to you?"

He added in an outburst of exasperation: "I don't know what happened just now, but a sudden tornado materialized, and I happened to be right in the center of it! It swept me up and went flying, while that old horse just followed behind at a leisurely pace!"

"Once the tornado finally died down, an out-of-control living corpse suddenly appeared and started chasing me. Seeing that its cultivation in life was far too high for me to ever defeat, I took off running for my life. It nearly worked me to death! Fortunately, my spiritual energy was abundant enough to entirely exhaust the corpse's strength, all while that old horse just watched without offering a single hand!"

"Before I could even catch my breath or celebrate escaping the corpse, something went wrong with the spiritual energy in my body. Perhaps it circulated too fast while I was running, causing an error that made my body run uncontrollably. I don't know how long I ran before the rampaging spiritual energy finally subsided."

"I didn't even have the time to swallow a Great Rejuvenation Pill before I saw two Deity Transformation cultivators battling in the sky above. The scope of their clash was immense and could easily have caught me in the crossfire. Thank goodness I am a body cultivator and can run fast even without spiritual energy, so I kept running west until I reached this place, where I finally got a moment to breathe. And then you showed up."

"Talk about terrible luck... Right, I've run such a vast distance, how on earth did you manage to track me down?"

Lu Yang was too embarrassed to admit that it was because Valley Master Shuang had been relentlessly chasing him from behind, so he quickly changed the subject.

"I found a helper in the Seven Emotions Valley who can alleviate your curse to a certain degree."

"In what way?"

"Do you happen to enjoy it when women look at you with an expression of pure, unadulterated disgust?"