novelraw Chapter 124 : Dual Perfection in Martial and Dao, All Preparations Complete, Awaiting the Eastern Wind
Chapter 124 : Dual Perfection in Martial and Dao, All Preparations Complete, Awaiting the Eastern Wind
Chapter 124: Dual Perfection in Martial and Dao, All Preparations Complete, Awaiting the Eastern Wind
“Father…”
“Master…”
At the foot of Clear Mountain, inside the Bamboo Hut, Shen Tian had been unable to calm his mind or focus on cultivation for several days. His soul seemed to wander as he was consumed by the shocking news of the Demon Suppression King’s rebellion.
The shock was followed by deep worry and dread.
At this time, if his identity as the true heir of the Demon Suppression King were to be exposed, imprisonment would surely await him.
Originally, his plan had been to become the Sword Son of the Ten-Thousand-Mile Sword Court, then travel gloriously to the Imperial Capital to acknowledge his father.
But now?
It was too late. Everything was too late.
Even if he were to rush to the Southern Border now, what use would it be?
Furthermore, the events that had occurred at the Pure Pavilion these past few days had struck him deeply. He had once accepted Wet Nurse Rui’s explanation, believing that his master was merely in seclusion for cultivation.
Yet three full days had passed, and neither Tantai Yuxian nor Shen Yanzhou had appeared outside the Pure Pavilion.
A man and a woman alone together within—what could possibly have happened?
Did such a thing even need guessing?
Shen Tian’s lips curled bitterly, his entire body feeling drained. It was as if this world itself had cast him aside, as though something that once belonged to him was slipping further and further away with each passing day.
“Wet Nurse, tell me—what are Master and that despicable man doing in there? What vile method did that wretch use to threaten her?”
Shen Tian’s eyes were red, veined with blood, as he confronted Wet Nurse Rui hoarsely.
Rui avoided his gaze, unable to meet his eyes. How could she explain such a thing?
Even she had not expected this so-called ‘cultivation’ to last for such a long time.
Now, how could she possibly hide it from him?
But Shen Tian was no fool.
“Sigh…” Rui let out a quiet sigh.
In that instant, Shen Tian seemed to understand everything. He gave a wretched laugh and stumbled out of the bamboo hut, running wildly. Yet halfway down the path, unwillingness welled up within him, and he turned to run toward the mountain summit instead.
He had thought there would be restrictions on the mountain as before, barring his ascent.
Yet strangely, this time there was none—he ascended without the slightest obstacle.
“Master…”
Reaching the summit, Shen Tian clung to a final thread of hope. Standing before the Pure Pavilion, he shouted toward the interior, praying for a response from Tantai Yuxian.
But within the pavilion, all was silent—utterly still.
It was as though his master was not there at all.
“Master, are you there?”
He called again, unwilling to give up, even stepping forward as if to force his way inside.
“Stop shouting.”
A voice, faintly amused, suddenly responded.
Shen Tian froze, his eyes instantly reddening as he saw the man he had not seen for days—Shen Yanzhou.
A gust of wind lifted the heavy curtain. Shen Yanzhou stood with his back to him, something slung over his shoulder like a farmer carrying a burden.
Between them, the hazy mist blurred the scene, yet Shen Tian thought he saw something clearly for a fleeting moment—an embroidered shoe, adorned with peach blossoms, swaying in midair.
“You—”
His eyes widened in disbelief, as though struck by thunder, his mind blanking in a roar.
“Shen Yanzhou—!”
He opened his mouth to speak, but in that instant, he seemed to hear his master’s voice—filled with fury, shame, and wrath.
A flash of sword light roared forth, drowning his vision. His consciousness went dark as he collapsed unconscious before the pavilion steps.
When Wet Nurse Rui arrived moments later, her expression was uneasy. She hurried to carry Shen Tian away.
“Wait.”
A light voice floated out from within the Pure Pavilion—Shen Yanzhou’s.
Rui froze, anxious.
“Leave him here.”
“I’ll take him back to the Imperial Capital later—to reunite with his kin,” Shen Yanzhou said with a soft smile.
Rui opened her mouth but found no words. Then came Tantai Yuxian’s voice, coldly restrained: “As he wishes.”
—
Several days later.
Shen Yanzhou departed the Ten-Thousand-Mile Sword Court, taking with him the broken-hearted Shen Tian.
The faint fortune that had lingered on Shen Tian had been nearly drained, yielding about six basic attribute points.
Without hesitation, Shen Yanzhou invested all of them into his cultivation realm. From early Third Rank, his realm surged directly to late Second Rank.
Martial and Dao—both Second Rank. He now stood among the true peaks of the world.
Yet after leaving the Sword Court, Shen Yanzhou did not rush back to the capital.
“According to the information Gu Ruoxi gave me, that Ye Xingchen should currently be in Fanzhou.”
“Most likely, to curry favor with the Crown Prince, he went there to seek a Buddhist treasure to present at the Empress’s birthday celebration.”
“How did he even know that such a treasure exists in Fanzhou, one worthy of the prince’s regard? Could it be, like me, he knows the plot?”
“Or perhaps… he’s a reincarnator?”
Shen Yanzhou pondered. He recalled Ye Xingchen’s earlier attempts to please Gu Ruoxi, aligning perfectly with her tastes.
If he hadn’t known her background as the legitimate daughter of the Gu Family, how could he have schemed so precisely?
“In that case, things will be simple.”
Mounting the Soul-devouring Flood Serpent, Shen Yanzhou set off toward Fanzhou.
To the outside world, he should still have been within the Ten-Thousand-Mile Sword Court. By normal means, such a journey should take several days.
Even if Ye Xingchen were wary, he would never expect Shen Yanzhou to arrive so quickly.
The Second Rank of the Martial Path—also known as the Nirvana Realm—was not yet capable of rebirth from a drop of blood, but riding the wind and traversing the void was now effortless.
Thus, riding the Soul-devouring Flood Serpent, Shen Yanzhou reached Fanzhou in less than half a day.
Finding Ye Xingchen was not difficult. The Buddhist treasure he sought was no common relic—how else could it be worthy of gifting to the Empress?
Shen Yanzhou thought for a moment, recalling a segment of the original plot: the emergence of the Crimson Pearl of Eight Clouds, which had drawn numerous Buddhist masters and great powers into battle.
Clearly, that event had not yet occurred.
But he knew exactly where it would.
As expected, when Shen Yanzhou arrived, he found Ye Xingchen waiting in a desolate mountain temple, utterly devoid of people.
“Shen Yanzhou—why are you here?”
Seeing him descend from the heavens, Ye Xingchen was struck dumb with shock.
The Crown Prince’s retainers behind him reacted swiftly, drawing weapons and artifacts to attack Shen Yanzhou.
But with a mere wave of his hand, Shen Yanzhou shattered their weapons into dust.
He pointed again—and the charging retainers exploded into blood mist, body and soul annihilated.
Though Ye Xingchen was a reincarnator, he had never witnessed such horror firsthand. Trembling violently, his face went pale as death.
Wasn’t Shen Yanzhou supposed to still be in the Ten-Thousand-Mile Sword Court?
How could he have come to Fanzhou—and found him so quickly?
“Shen… Shen Yanzhou, what do you want?”
Ye Xingchen stammered, panic-stricken. In the Imperial Capital, he might have relied on his cunning to bargain with him, but here, in this wilderness, he had no chance at all.
Even the Crown Prince’s retainers had been obliterated with a gesture.
“Answer me a few questions,” Shen Yanzhou said coolly.
Ye Xingchen nodded frantically. “Yes, yes—ask! Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you everything—”
“Hmm, forget it. That’s troublesome. You’re at least a Seventh Rank in the Dao Path; your soul is strong enough. I’ll just search it directly.”
Shen Yanzhou raised his hand and grasped, not giving Ye Xingchen a chance to resist, pulling him straight into his grasp.
Moments later, Ye Xingchen could no longer endure the excruciating pain tearing through his mind. His eyes rolled back, his body convulsed, and he fainted dead away.
Shen Yanzhou had already obtained the information he wanted.
As expected, it was just as he had suspected—Ye Xingchen was indeed a reincarnator.
However, his rebirth was rather strange. According to the timeline, it should have occurred two or three years later, when the entire Great Qian Dynasty had already fractured and was on the brink of collapse.
Then, a sudden cataclysm had descended from nowhere. The Nine Provinces shattered, heaven and earth collapsed, and all living beings perished—Ye Xingchen among them.
When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to several years in the past.
This development differed greatly from the original plot that Shen Yanzhou knew.
In the original plot, after the fall of Great Qian, no cataclysm had occurred. Instead, following the perspective of the Heaven’s Mandated Protagonist, order was restored and peace returned to the Nine Provinces.
Was there something wrong with that?
Shen Yanzhou fell into thought. Apart from that discrepancy, most of their understandings of the future timeline overlapped.
“This sudden cataclysm—none could resist it. And it happens in just two years?”
“What could have caused it? A world-ending calamity? To destroy all of the Nine Provinces?”
“In the original plot, there was mention of a supposed barrier beyond the Nine Provinces… could this catastrophe be related to that barrier?”
“But then why did the Nine Provinces not fall in the original storyline? Could it be… two diverging paths?”
Shen Yanzhou pondered quietly.
According to Ye Xingchen’s knowledge of the future, the Nine Provinces would be drenched in blood and chaos. Order would collapse; the great clans would divide the land and crown themselves kings. Endless wars would ravage the land, setting the world aflame.
And most crucially—in Ye Xingchen’s memories, the true Heaven’s Mandated Protagonist never appeared.
That surprised Shen Yanzhou deeply.
In the original plot, the one who occupied the most narrative and perspective— the true protagonist chosen by fate—was entirely absent from Ye Xingchen’s memory?
“How strange… could something have gone wrong?”
He glanced at the unconscious Ye Xingchen. When he had searched the man’s soul, he had already sensed Ye’s deep, burning hatred toward him. So without hesitation, Shen Yanzhou casually struck him down, turning him into a mist of blood.
At the instant Ye Xingchen died, Shen Yanzhou felt a wave of intense hatred surge skyward.
As that immense negative emotion dissipated, his interface displayed a new notification—
Received negative emotions from Ye Xingchen +99 +99 +99…
“So this works too. Had I known earlier, I wouldn’t have bothered with all that trouble.” Shen Yanzhou paused, then smiled faintly. That final burst of hatred before death—it counted as negative emotion too.
He might not have drained it all, but such a harvest of negativity wasn’t wasted.
Without hesitation, Shen Yanzhou added the three basic attribute points to his panel.
He had now reached Dual First Rank in both Martial and Dao.
——
The Great Qian Dynasty had fallen into turmoil. In the Southern Border, hordes of demon beasts poured across the borders, and the great noble families swiftly mobilized their armies to resist the invasion.
At court, the ministers jointly memorialized, condemning the Demon Suppression King, and petitioned for a campaign to quell the rebellion.
Originally, the Empress’s birthday was approaching, and the Imperial Capital had been filled with celebration, envoys from many nations arriving in festivity.
No one had expected such a calamity to occur, tarnishing Great Qian’s prestige.
Yet even then, within the Hall of Cultivated Mind, Emperor Mingde still had not emerged from seclusion to govern affairs. Instead, he continued to leave all matters of state to the Crown Prince Xia Chongming.
This caused unease among all the court officials.
The Crown Prince, believing this to be his moment of imperial testing, was filled with fervor and immediately ordered the mobilization of provincial forces to intercept the Demon Suppression King’s northern expedition.
At the same time, the Bureau of Immortal Inspection received orders—its many immortal officers were to move south to quell the beast tide.
Armadas of cloud vessels and war bastions ascended from the capital, tearing through the skies toward the Southern Border with awe-inspiring might.
Meanwhile, as Great Qian descended into chaos, Beiyu grew restless. Agents stationed in Northern Desert Prefecture reported that the Beiyu army was gathering as well.
It was a force that could not be underestimated—an ocean of troops, more than a hundred thousand strong, spread like a tide through the forests beyond Northern Desert Prefecture.
The Crown Prince had no choice but to divide his troops to guard against Beiyu’s potential incursion.
Three days later, within the Ten-Thousand-Mile Sword Court in Northern Desert Prefecture, a surge of sword intent tore through the heavens, sweeping a thousand miles.
After several days of secluded cultivation with Shen Yanzhou, Tantai Yuxian finally broke through to the First Rank.
She shattered the limits of her era—becoming the sole First Rank in the Way of the Sword.
On the day of her ascension, sword qi spanned a thousand miles, its pressure alone forcing Beiyu’s army to halt their advance.
Northern Desert Prefecture erupted in thunderous excitement.
Tantai Yuxian’s breakthrough drew the attention of countless peak figures across Great Qian.
Yet even that could not stop the Demon Suppression King’s determination to march north. The Demon Suppression Army under his command swept through the land invincibly, crushing clan territories in a torrent of blood. When their rations ran dry, they looted the granaries of the noble houses.
The imperial court was forced to send reinforcements.
The Empress’s birthday celebration, originally set for the end of the month, had to be postponed.
——
Shen Yanzhou secretly returned to the Imperial Capital. With his current Dual First Rank power, concealing his presence was effortless.
Even within the Dragon-Tiger Institute, full of hidden masters, no one detected him—not even his senior martial sister, Luo Qiushui.
He first contacted Zhu Chansi and another ally, entrusting them with Shen Tian, who was imprisoned together with Liu Zi’an.
Afterward, he wandered through the forbidden grounds of the Martial Academy, locating the cave abode of the Mad Martial Saint.
But he made no move.
That night, he slipped into the imperial palace and met Emperor Mingde within the Hall of Cultivated Mind. This was their first true meeting, for previously, both Mingde and Wei Gong had always disguised themselves.
Within the capital, Emperor Mingde was cloaked in imperial dragon qi—normally, he would instantly sense any intruder. Yet Shen Yanzhou’s arrival went unnoticed until he stood before him.
Cold sweat trickled down the emperor’s back.
Then he recognized his visitor—and was struck speechless.
As a wise ruler, Emperor Mingde immediately understood that Shen Yanzhou must have learned the truth.
Shen Yanzhou gazed silently at his “birth father.”
“So, you know everything now?” After a moment, Emperor Mingde smiled faintly, breaking the silence.
“I went to Fanzhou, and also to the Floating Sky Temple. I understand now,” Shen Yanzhou replied with a nod.
Emperor Mingde’s expression softened. “Your strength and cultivation have already surpassed even my perception. You indeed have the right to know the truth.”
That night, father and son spoke long and deeply.
Emperor Mingde recounted the past—how he had met Qing Shu, and the events of twenty years ago.
Shen Yanzhou shared what he had learned in turn.
As expected, Emperor Mingde had been planning to settle accounts with the Cui Clan of Hejian.
The Demon Suppression King’s sudden rebellion, however, had caught him completely off guard.
Shen Yanzhou urged the emperor not to worry about Shen Jingxiao’s faction and to take full control of the court again, while preparing to celebrate the Empress’s birthday.
He also reminded Mingde to refine the thousand years of imperial fortune stored within the Heavenly Emperor’s Cauldron, lest other forces covet it.
Trusting Shen Yanzhou completely, Emperor Mingde postponed his original plans and followed his advice.
Before dawn, Shen Yanzhou departed the capital.
The Cui Clan of Hejian’s ancestral lands lay not in the capital but on a vast, fertile plain to the northeast.
As a millennia-old family, their foundation was immense. Though no First Rank sat in residence, they had many Second Rank experts across Martial, Daoist, and Confucian paths, controlling the core lifelines of Great Qian.
Their estate was veiled in mist, layers of arrays humming with power, making it impossible for outsiders to discern its depths.
Shen Yanzhou did not act rashly. Though his current strength was formidable, directly challenging such a clan would be reckless.
Instead, he arrived outside their territory to study the terrain, then waited in ambush along the mountain valley through which one would return.
For the Crown Prince Xia Chongming was not the son of Emperor Mingde, but rather the child born of the Empress Cui Jingyi and her brother, the Cui Family Head Cui Zhenghong—an incestuous union born of ambition.
The Cui Family, driven by the lust for power, had defied all morality to preserve the purity of their bloodline.
Now, Cui Zhenghong’s son—the Cui Clan’s most brilliant scion, Cui Yangming—was none other than the second child of that same unholy union.
To nurture him, the Empress Cui Jingyi had employed the art of Fortune Theft, channeling imperial dragon qi to forge his exalted body.
And Shen Yanzhou waited precisely for Cui Yangming, who was returning to the Cui Clan of Hejian.