novelraw Chapter 64 : Five Turbid
Chapter 64 : Five Turbid
Chapter 64: Five Turbid
Night descended from the mountaintop downward.
A figure sped through the darkness like flowing light, sleeves fluttering softly in the night wind like a bird folding its wings as it rapidly swept from Canglan Mountain down to Ascension Town at the foot of the mountain.
The figure had clearly employed some kind of technique.
Their entire body was shrouded in illusion, making it impossible to see clearly.
Ascension Town had few people during the off-season, and at night there were even fewer.
The figure moved cautiously all the way forward before arriving at an inconspicuous house.
And within that pitch-black house, someone seemed to have sensed the arrival long beforehand and opened the door in advance.
Under the moonlight, Zhong Ling’s dirty little face was revealed within the house.
She grinned and said:
“Yinqiu, you’ve come.”
“Don’t call me by my name, you idiot.”
“What’s there to fear? With Grandpa Cui here, nobody can discover us.”
Cui Yinqiu’s expression was frosty as she silently entered the house.
Her eyes instantly adapted to the darkness, allowing her to see over twenty people standing within in various postures.
Some had gloomy complexions, protruding cheekbones, deeply sunken eyes, and bodies covered in sores and scars.
Some had blue-black skin, dry brittle hair, and emaciated figures.
Others possessed swollen eyes, bluish-white sclera, and purple lips.
Some had cracked yellow lips and carried an aura of manic agitation.
Others had stiffened limbs, resembling stone statues.
These were precisely the manifestations of the damage caused by the Five Turbid Path within the lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and spleen.
However,
among them were quite a few peak cultivators of the Fourth and Fifth Realms, along with one or two experts of the Sixth Realm.
At the very center stood an old man.
His cultivation was the highest among them all — Seventh Realm Harmonization.
Zhong Ling carried her coffin over and leaned closer.
“Did you handle everything properly?”
Cui Yinqiu ignored her entirely and instead respectfully bowed toward the old man in the center.
“Greetings, Great-Grandfather.”
“Good good good, all is well. You’ve worked hard, Little Qiu.”
Old Man Cui looked gentle and approachable.
The wrinkles across his face folded together like a blooming chrysanthemum.
He wore coarse linen clothes, his back bent deeply as he leaned upon a spiraled wooden cane.
He looked no different from an ordinary elderly grandfather.
But if any elder-generation cultivators of the Grand Void Path were present,
they would immediately recognize him as Cui Gao, leader of the Five Turbid Path and the man who once seized one of the Five Elements Treasure Seals.
Seeing Cui Yinqiu refuse to acknowledge her,
Zhong Ling became somewhat displeased.
“Little Qiu, back when you were little, I even helped you pee before. How come you ignore me now?”
Cui Yinqiu still refused to look at her.
She stood upright like a pine tree, her spotless white dao robes emitting a faint glow.
Compared to the surrounding people — either filthy from head to toe, radiating sinister aura and foul stench, or barely maintaining a humanoid form at all — she appeared utterly out of place.
Zhong Ling pouted in dissatisfaction.
“Could it be that after joining Canglan Mountain, you no longer think you’re one of us? Don’t forget, back then it was us who arranged for you to be sent into the Cui Family Fourth Branch.”
Cui Yinqiu frowned and shot her a cold glance.
“I never thought that.”
“Then why won’t you talk to me?”
“I just think Sister Zhong Ling talks too much.”
“I talk too much?”
Zhong Ling looked unconvinced and turned toward a blindfolded burly man nearby.
“Do I talk too much?”
The blindfolded man honestly nodded.
“You see? He said no.”
Zhong Ling spread her hands.
Cui Yinqiu sighed and stopped paying attention to her before respectfully addressing Cui Gao again.
“Just as Great-Grandfather predicted, Canglan Mountain’s grand formation, the Four Element Treasure Seals, and the Five Elements Dojo are interconnected. This Direct Disciple Trial has already begun diverting most of their power in order to manifest the Five Elements Dojo.”
A man wrapped entirely in black robes spoke urgently, his voice filled with agitation.
“The thirty-six formation foundations, those inverted elemental objects... the underground spirit veins, the yin-yang displacement that obstructs qi circulation... Have you arranged all of them properly?”
“Everything has been arranged.”
“So smoothly? No one else discovered anything?”
“According to the plan, I entered under Perfected Water Mirror’s tutelage. In recent years, he has grown somewhat senile and entrusted the maintenance of the mountain formation diagrams to me. Over these years, the disciples responsible for maintaining the diagrams have all been subtly influenced by me. They neglected inspections and happily accepted merit without effort. No one will discover anything.”
“When can we act?!”
“Once I return to my position, we may act immediately. The sooner, the better.”
The agitated man nodded in satisfaction.
“Excellent, excellent. Compared to Zhong Ling, Little Qiu is far more reliable.”
Zhong Ling angrily shouted:
“What do you mean by that!”
“You still dare say anything? You nearly exposed our entire plan!”
“There you go again, again, again! That Corpse Refinement Path cultivator was only at the Qi Absorption Realm! What could he possibly know?!”
“The problem is he joined Canglan Mountain! And he succeeded! If he truly noticed something and reports it upward, do you think we’ll still have a chance?!”
Cui Yinqiu frowned.
“What happened?”
Zhong Ling guiltily hunched her shoulders and refused to speak.
The agitated man explained:
“Some days ago, wasn’t there a cultivator who successfully passed the Waiting for the Heavenly Steps and entered Canglan Mountain?”
Cui Yinqiu thought briefly and vaguely recalled the matter.
Very few people successfully passed the Waiting for the Heavenly Steps to begin with, let alone a rogue cultivator.
She constantly monitored the happenings within Canglan Mountain and faintly remembered that the person seemed to have arrived using Cheng Hua’s guidance jade token.
“That did happen.”
“This idiot Zhong Ling spoke with him and apparently revealed something!”
“That person was only a Qi Absorption cultivator?”
Zhong Ling muttered sullenly, “Yes.”
“It’s fine. There hasn’t been any unusual activity within the mountain, nor have we heard of any elder accepting a new disciple. He’s probably just an outer sect disciple. Nobody cares about him.”
Upon hearing this,
Zhong Ling immediately straightened up proudly, her shoulders rising high as all traces of grievance and frustration vanished.
Like a gust of wind, she rushed beside the agitated man’s ear and triumphantly shouted:
“HEARD THAT!!!”
“......”
The man picked at his earwax with utter disgust written across his face.
Though too lazy to bother with her, he still excitedly declared:
“Once the mountain-protecting grand formation is gone, our clansmen from the other Ascension Towns in the east, south, and north can attack the mountain together. We will restrain the remaining cultivators. If Cui Xuan doesn’t appear, then we can act without restraint. And if he does appear, heh heh... once Grandpa Cui kills him, it will further prove that we are the true orthodox lineage of the Grand Void Path!”
Zhong Ling chattered endlessly beside Cui Yinqiu.
She rambled about going up the mountain to kill that Qi Absorption cultivator and about tearing off his face to stitch onto a Yin Corpse.
Cui Yinqiu frowned in irritation.
The others each discussed matters among themselves, filled with excitement and agitation, like a chaotic dance of demons.
After a long while,
Cui Gao tapped his wooden cane against the ground with a crisp sound.
The discussions abruptly ceased.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“It has already been sixty years since this old man last stepped within the domain of Canglan Mountain.”
Cui Gao’s deeply wrinkled face carried a nostalgic expression.
“Sixty years ago, this old man was not yet as useless as he is now, needing a wooden cane merely to walk.”
“That year, I personally stepped foot upon this land solely to truly behold the mountain sect that should have belonged to our branch of the Cui Family.”
He shook his head, bitterness upon his face.
“The Cui Family branch within Canglan Mountain is tyrannical. They proclaim themselves righteous and treat us like rats crossing the street, driving us into the Outer Regions to live lives unfit for humans, while they themselves enjoy luxury and comfort.”
“Sixty years ago, Cui Xuan only barely surpassed me by a single move. Twenty years later, after he became Mountain Lord of Canglan Mountain, our battles ended in draws. Now he has been injured and secluded himself for nearly ten years without showing his face...”
“They have grown weaker.”
“And the Five Elements Treasure Seals... it is time they returned to their true owner.”