novelraw Chapter 459: Are They All Looking at Us?
Chapter 459: Are They All Looking at Us?
Ever since the seven great sects of the cultivation world joined with the Demonfolk to lay down an ancient Teleportation Array using a Spirit Core, the cultivation world had been quiet for a long time. It was as if the departure of Yu Zhao and Fang Cheng Lang and the others had drained the very vitality from it. Daoist Master Qing Yan, in particular, had not taken a single step outside Five Elements Dao Sect since then.
Because of his despondence, the Monsters and Demons that had been lurking in the dark began moving again. Ji Yuan wiped a hand down his face and rose in anger: “Qing Yan has rested long enough. He ought to get out and move around, or else he’ll choke on his grief.”
Half of Lone Moon Peak’s people had vanished, leaving only the sickly Lan Zi Yu behind. Ji Yuan could fully understand why Daoist Master Qing Yan’s heart was ill at ease and had indulged his every whim. But now the cultivation world was no longer peaceful; instead of moping in the sect, Qing Yan might as well go do something useful.
He was about to go to Lone Moon Peak to push Daoist Master Qing Yan into taking a mission when Zhou Jin Yue stopped him: “Master, don’t be hasty; please hear me out.”
“Speak,” Ji Yuan said.
Zhou Jin Yue laid out all the information she had gathered: “Master, I suspect the ones stealing the Spirit Veins are not people of our cultivation world.”
Ji Yuan’s pupils shrank. He quickly picked up the jade slips on the table and skimmed them one by one; the deeper he read, the tighter his frown became.
“Ever since I learned from Junior Sister Yu that someone was stealing Spirit Veins, I found it odd,” Zhou Jin Yue continued. “It is not unheard of for a Cultivator to siphon spiritual energy, but what is strange is why they would destroy the Spirit Core as well. Anyone who cultivates should know that killing the hen for the egg is folly, and yet they are deliberately doing just that, ruining vein after vein. Moreover, many of those Spirit Veins were unknown even to the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion. How did they get the information? Everything about them is abnormal.”
“That alone cannot prove they are not from the cultivation world,” Ji Yuan said, rubbing his brow, his voice low.
“So I asked the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion to investigate their origins,” said Zhou Jin Yue, “only to find that the group seemed to appear out of thin air—spotless, without a trace. On the rare occasions someone glimpsed them, they were covered head to toe, never showing their faces. I had the Pavilion find witnesses to draft likenesses, then especially consulted Daoist Master Qing Yan.”“What did Qing Yan say?”
Zhou Jin Yue’s eyes flashed coldly: “Daoist Master Qing Yan said the figures in the drawings are identical to a man he once killed—who later revived under mysterious circumstances.”
Ji Yuan recalled the sect crisis a century ago. Thinking on it now, those several mysterious Divine Transformation Cultivators—whether body shape or methods—were the same in every respect. They had once believed it was a deliberate misdirection; but if they were in fact the same person, it would make sense.
Clones at the Divine Transformation Stage, a method of draining the pond to catch fish, ghost-like movements—sign after sign seemed to point to one conclusion. A chill shot from Ji Yuan’s soles to his scalp: “No wonder. No wonder, though our seven sects have strained to keep the cultivation world stable, the spiritual energy has kept thinning, as if there were a leak we cannot fill.”
He murmured to himself, his arms trembling: “Wolves with wild ambition. Their hearts deserve death.”
It was the first time Zhou Jin Yue had seen her Sect Master wear such a terrifying expression. She fully understood; when she pieced together this conclusion, she too had wished to tear that group limb from limb. What right did a band of outsiders have to throw their weight around in their cultivation world and lay it waste?
“I will notify the other sects at once,” Ji Yuan said. “No matter the price, we must eradicate them completely.”
“Master,” Zhou Jin Yue said, “if they truly are outside Cultivators, they will certainly have means beyond our imagination. If we fail to finish them in one move, it will be hard to catch them again. I propose inviting each sect’s Supreme Elder to act—let the seven sects move together.”
Under Zhou Jin Yue’s orderly analysis, Ji Yuan’s anger gradually cooled: “You’re right. We must not let a single one escape. And we must keep one alive—we need to know how they entered the cultivation world.”
The Heavenly Ladder leading outside from their cultivation world had been severed. Yet Cultivators from elsewhere could come and go freely, then wreak havoc here. How could Ji Yuan tolerate that? He would not only eliminate them, he would wring from them their origins and method of entry by any means necessary; perhaps they could even find a way to save the cultivation world.
The more he thought, the more fired up he became; he no longer fretted over Qing Yan. He went straight to the Supreme Elder’s cave dwelling and personally invited the nearly decrepit elder out. The Supreme Elder’s allotted lifespan had been close to its end; thanks to the two Longevity Pills Yu Zhao had left for Five Elements Dao Sect before she departed, the elders had decided—after discussion—to present one to the Supreme Elder. She had not wished to accept it, but Ji Yuan’s pleading, to the point of weeping and raising a ruckus, finally prevailed. Because her body was so near exhausted oil and dying flame, the Longevity Pill extended her life by only ten years; even so, both she and Ji Yuan were satisfied with that result.
When Ji Yuan arrived, the Supreme Elder was feeding chickens. Seeing his furrowed brow, she scolded him lightly; but the moment she finished hearing his report, she flung the wooden feed bowl to the ground. Her aura changed at once; the kindly face set into killing intent and majesty as she said: “Go. To Green Wood Sect!”
“Yes.”
…
“The docks of Divine Wood Star are as lively as ever,” Ancestor Sui Bian said as he stepped off the starship, marveling at the bustling crowd.
Standing beside him, Yu Zhao nodded in full agreement. They had thought that what happened in the Land of Divine Remains would affect Divine Wood Star; reality proved her wrong.
“They say the Land of Divine Remains holds countless treasures,” Ancestor Sui Bian said, “yet we stayed there for over two years and couldn’t even scrape together five Starry Sky Stones. I wonder who started that rumor.”
They had stayed two years in the Land of Divine Remains, in the end finding only three Starry Sky Stones, and discovering several resting places of ancient Cultivators besides. But the items those ancients had left had long since been divided up; only a few unclaimed corpses remained. Thinking of the two of them wandering adrift, Yu Zhao and Ancestor Sui Bian felt a rabbit’s grief for a dead fox and buried the bodies on the spot.
Perhaps that little kindness earned a touch of Heaven’s favor; afterward they bumped into several bands who tried to kill and rob them, and made a few easy fortunes. Later, after a quick discussion, they decided their time in the Land of Divine Remains was about up and, at the appointed time, boarded a ship back to Divine Wood Star.
Having seen far too much killing in the Land of Divine Remains, Ancestor Sui Bian now looked at the treasure-hunters with a tinge of pity. Gradually, though, he sensed something amiss. When he looked at these people, why were they also staring at him?
He scratched his head and leaned closer to Yu Zhao, saying in a low voice: “Yu Zhao, are they all looking at us?”