novelraw Chapter 27 : Chapter 27
Chapter 27 : Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Chu Shanzhen’s mood was even worse now.
Even a cooked duck had managed to fly away.
When his wife came out of seclusion and asked him, “Where did that little thief who snuck into Wan Yao Cave go?”
Was he supposed to answer, “I had already successfully trapped him inside Wan Yao Cave, but I accidentally let him escape”?
Would he have any face left at all?
He, Chu Shanzhen, was at least a tiger king whose might shook an entire region!
Chu Shanzhen wiped away the divine sense from the captured blood-light clone from earlier, placed it into a treasure-seeking artifact as a guide, and led his men in pursuit.
The subordinate holding the artifact led the way in front. Chu Shanzhen let his aura spill outward, so overwhelming that even the little insects in the surrounding grass did not dare chirp. His divine sense swept carefully over every inch of the area, unwilling to miss even the slightest suspicious trace.
While they were still searching, Chu Shanzhen suddenly heard the subordinate with the artifact report, “Great General, we… we’ve lost the trail.”
Chu Shanzhen glanced at the artifact. Its pointer was slowly spinning in circles. It truly had stopped working.
He smacked the back of his subordinate’s head and glared with his tiger eyes. “Completely useless!”
The subordinate covered his head in grievance. “Great General, you already put that little thief’s blood-light clone into it as the guide. If the artifact suddenly can’t track him, then that little thief is probably dead, right?”
That only made Chu Shanzhen angrier. When his wife asked him about it later, was he supposed to say “probably dead” too?
“Keep searching! Even if he’s dead, I’ll dig him out!” Chu Shanzhen split his subordinates into teams and sent them scattering in different directions.
They had not been searching long before one of the teams sent back a message. “Reporting to Great General, there seems to be someone ahead!”
“Go ask them!” Chu Shanzhen ordered.
He had the few subordinates beside him continue searching in the original direction while he himself hurried toward the reported location.
…
The one who had spotted a figure was a goat demon. He had a rather gentle temperament. When he saw someone from afar, he walked over politely, cupped his hands, and asked, “Brother, may I ask if you have seen a streak of blood?”
Shuang Wenlü looked at the goat demon before him and said, “A streak of blood? Yes, I saw one.”
“Really? Brother, may I ask where that streak of blood is now?” The goat demon was overjoyed.
“Now…” Shuang Wenlü said leisurely, his gaze drifting. “It should be dead soon.”
…
Blood River Old Ancestor had barely escaped from Wan Yao Cave and was desperately fleeing into the distance.
The right to enter and exit Wan Yao Cave touched on its very foundations. Since his actions had already been discovered, those demons from Wan Yao Cave would certainly never let him go.
Once away from Wan Yao Cave, with heaven high and earth wide, it would not be so easy for those demons to find him again.
But that did not mean he was safe.
The demons would catch up very soon. He was still too close to them, only a single blood shadow remained, and his cultivation had been reduced to scattered scraps. Those great demons were not easy to fool. In his current state, escaping Wan Yao Cave’s pursuit would be unimaginably difficult.
But if he could find someone to possess and use that person’s body as cover, Wan Yao Cave’s tracking methods would no longer be able to locate him so easily. If he could suppress the possessed person’s soul and add a layer of mortal soul aura as camouflage, then he might truly escape.
The trouble was that in this deep mountain forest, finding a person depended entirely on luck. He had no idea where the nearest village or town might be…
Blood River Old Ancestor was anxiously calculating when he suddenly spotted two figures ahead. The woman carried the aura of a cultivator, but the young man beside her looked like an ordinary mortal.
His luck had arrived!
Overjoyed, Blood River Old Ancestor darted out from concealment and shot straight into the young man’s body.
…
Cai Suhong and Lang Qingyun were still evading Demonic Cultivators hunting them down, but compared to the beginning, their situation was far more relaxed.
Ever since word spread that the Blood-Rust Blade had appeared in Beiliang Prefecture, fewer and fewer people were following Lang Qingyun for clues. Many cultivators who had come to Suizhou because of the blade had already left as well. By now, aside from a few stubborn fools, almost no one was still chasing them.
Feeling much lighter, Cai Suhong said to Lang Qingyun, “Brother Lang, I think in a little while you won’t need to hide anymore. You’ll be able to bring your family out and live a normal life again.”
Lang Qingyun was no longer quite so tense either, and his voice was full of anticipation. “Yes… I’ll be able to go home soon.”
He was in a good mood at the moment, and the chilling coldness around him had faded quite a bit.
Cai Suhong knew there was a secret on Lang Qingyun’s body.
During the months they had traveled together, she had already noticed that if Lang Qingyun could avoid using cultivator methods, he would do so whenever possible. He would rather suffer hardship and exhaustion than use spell arts to make things easier for himself.
But all along the way, they had been hunted by cultivators coveting the Blood-Rust Blade. There was no way Lang Qingyun could avoid using spiritual power.
His strength had greatly surprised Cai Suhong.
Every single time, no matter how powerful their opponent was, Lang Qingyun could erupt with even greater strength, as though he had no upper limit at all. He could even reach the Sixth Layer of the Tianquan Realm. To cultivate to the Tianquan Realm within seven hundred years would already earn praise for excellent aptitude. But judging from Lang Qingyun’s relatives, had he even been cultivating for more than ten years?
Such cultivation speed should have inspired envy, but after seeing the state Lang Qingyun fell into each time he unleashed that power, Cai Suhong did not envy him in the slightest.
The stronger the power Lang Qingyun used, the more terrifying his condition afterward became. It reminded Cai Suhong of when he had returned to find his family’s corpses lying in the ruins.
Detached. Hollow.
That kind of detachment was even more frightening to Cai Suhong than his fury.
Cai Suhong had secretly asked the Mystic Realm System about it before. The System had told her that Lang Qingyun might also possess a “Golden Fingers.”
“Like you?” Cai Suhong had asked.
“Not like me at all!” the Mystic Realm System had protested. “I can sense it. The thing on him is very strange… I can’t really explain it. Anyway, it’s not anything ordinary.”
“I feel like that thing isn’t good for him,” Cai Suhong murmured.
Every time Lang Qingyun erupted with his power, it took him a long time to recover afterward. Sometimes he had no time to adjust and could only grit his teeth and continue, but he was always trying to make himself return to normal.
The Mystic Realm System took the chance to strengthen her education in “cherish excellent systems.”
“Of course it isn’t! Not every Rule Fragment is willing to cooperate for mutual benefit. Do you know how incredibly rare a system like me is?!”
Cai Suhong agreed, but seeing Lang Qingyun like this still made her heartsick. She could see how much pain and difficulty he was enduring.
“You’re not thinking of helping him solve it, are you?” the Mystic Realm System said. “Let me warn you. Even if you want to play the hero, you still need to know your limits. The thing on him is a huge problem. You’d better not touch it. Otherwise, you’ll probably fail to save him and drag yourself down with him.”
The Rule Fragment on Lang Qingyun was different from ordinary Rule Fragments. The Mystic Realm System had seen enough to recognize a few signs. That kind of unusual Rule Fragment… there might well be the shadow of some greater being behind it. No one knew what it wanted by entering Qiankun. Little ordinary Rule Fragments and little cultivators like them had no ability to get involved.
“I know,” Cai Suhong said.
She knew her own limits very clearly, and she was not the sort to invite trouble. She could not help Lang Qingyun in that respect, but there were other ways she could help.
“Once we get back, let’s go to Fude Pavilion and have a look. The illnesses your brothers and sisters have are hard for mortals to treat, but cultivator methods might not fail,” Cai Suhong said.
Lang Qingyun had been cultivating for less than a year. Most of his frightening combat ability came from relying on the power of the Dao Seed. He had neither connections in the cultivation world nor much experience, and he had accumulated almost nothing. Naturally, he had nowhere to turn if he wanted to heal his family in a short time.
But Cai Suhong was different.
For her, these things were not especially difficult.
“Alright,” Lang Qingyun said with a smile. There was no longer any need for thanks between them.
While they were talking, the Mystic Realm System suddenly screamed in Cai Suhong’s mind.
“Be careful!”
“What?” Cai Suhong’s heart instantly leapt into her throat, but it was already too late.
She caught only a glimpse of a thread of blood-light shooting out of the forest. In an instant it had reached Lang Qingyun’s side. He was caught completely off guard. Before Cai Suhong could stop it, the blood-light had already drilled into his head.
“Possession!” Cai Suhong’s face darkened.
…
On the other side, after hearing Shuang Wenlü’s words, the goat demon was utterly baffled.
What did “should be dead soon” mean?
“You caught it? That little thief has a grudge with our Wan Yao Cave. If you hand it over to us, our Great General will surely reward you generously,” the goat demon asked.
Chu Shanzhen happened to arrive just then. He strode over, shoved the somewhat simple-minded goat demon behind him, stared fixedly at Shuang Wenlü, and asked, “Are you the Sword Sovereign?”
The goat demon’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
“You know me?” Shuang Wenlü looked at Chu Shanzhen with some interest.
Chu Shanzhen’s tiger eyes burned brightly. “I’ve seen your portrait.”
Stories of the Sword Sovereign were widely spread through the world, but almost no genuine portraits of him had survived. The pictures in mortal storybooks were all invented by artists from their own imagination and did not resemble Shuang Wenlü’s real appearance.
He did not like his image being spread everywhere. If portraits of him circulated freely, then every time he went out he would have to wear a disguise. What kind of nonsense was that—his own face, yet he could not use it?
Jianrong, the Cave Master of Wan Yao Cave, had old ties with Shuang Wenlü, and because of that she possessed one of his portraits.
Chu Shanzhen had seen this portrait in Jianrong’s hands more than once, and he had heard his wife praise the Sword Sovereign as though no one under heaven could compare. But this was the first time he had met the man in person.
Chu Shanzhen looked Shuang Wenlü up and down in detail. He himself was a tiger in human form and already exceptionally tall, yet Shuang Wenlü was still slightly taller than him!
Unconsciously, Chu Shanzhen squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest, making a secret comparison.
He’s a little taller than me, but he’s not as mighty and sturdy as I am! As for looks… well, I suppose he’s barely on my level.
Seeing him stare at the Sword Sovereign without blinking, several of Chu Shanzhen’s subordinates began exchanging glances.
This is bad, very bad!
Their Great General was good in every way, but whenever anything related to the Cave Master was involved, his mind stopped working properly. Back when the Cave Master had not been in seclusion, she could still smack sense into him whenever he occasionally did something stupid. But now she had not yet come out of seclusion.
And privately, their Great General had always been jealous of the Sword Sovereign!
He would not do something foolish, would he…?
“Let’s fight!” Chu Shanzhen extended a hand and summoned a long-handled broadsword, planting it on the ground so hard that the stones trembled.
His demon subordinates turned pale in shock. “Great General, you mustn’t!”
Great General, you can’t beat him! That’s the Sword Sovereign, Great General!
Chu Shanzhen turned and glared at them. His fierce authority crashed over them, forcing the demons to shut their mouths at once.
“Why should I fight you?” Shuang Wenlü asked.
Chu Shanzhen said, “Aren’t all you sword cultivators fond of sparring? Don’t tell me you’re afraid.”
Behind him, the goat demon tugged weakly at the hem of his robe. “My King…”
Chu Shanzhen turned back and glared. “What is it?!”
This goat demon had been one of Chu Shanzhen’s old subordinates from before he joined Wan Yao Cave. At this moment, he was so stunned by Chu Shanzhen’s behavior that he had accidentally used his old habitual form of address.
Startled by Chu Shanzhen’s tiger-like glare, the goat demon immediately dropped flat to the ground, clutched his leg, and wailed, “My King, please stop provoking him, My King… My King, we can’t beat him, My King!”
Chu Shanzhen was stunned too. By the time he recovered from that howl, he was furious and started kicking at him. “Let go of me!”
The goat demon was an old subordinate, and Chu Shanzhen did not actually want to kick him hard enough to injure him. Since he held back, he unexpectedly could not shake off the stubborn goat demon, and could only listen as the man wailed on.
“My King, if you die, how are we supposed to explain it to the Cave Master later, My King?!”
“Let go! Let go! Who says I’m going to die?!” Chu Shanzhen was beside himself with rage.
“I can’t bear to lose you, My King!” the goat demon kept crying.
After watching the whole farce from the side, Shuang Wenlü laughed. “I won’t fight you.”
The goat demon, whom Chu Shanzhen had been unable to shake off no matter what, instantly sprang to his feet. He wiped at a face that had not shed a single tear despite all his wailing, then bowed repeatedly to Shuang Wenlü. “Thank you, thank you!”
Chu Shanzhen was so enraged he nearly died on the spot. He glared furiously at the goat demon and had just opened his mouth to scold him when a shout came from behind.
“Chu Shanzhen!”
Chu Shanzhen shuddered instinctively and turned around.
Jianrong stood there in half armor, striking and valiant.
Chu Shanzhen lit up with joy. “Wife, you’ve come out of seclusion?”
Jianrong glared at him. “Chu Shanzhen, what are you doing?!”
Chu Shanzhen shook all over.
It was over. It was over. His wife had called him by his full name…
The tiger king who had just radiated towering dominance instantly withdrew all of his imposing aura. Scratching his head, he grinned foolishly at Jianrong. “Wife, I just wanted to spar a little, just a little…”
Jianrong’s face remained stern. “Spar with what? You can’t even beat me. Why are you provoking Master Shuang?”
Jianrong, the Cave Master of Wan Yao Cave, was also known as the Lord of Weapons. She had attained the position of the White Tiger, and all the world’s weapons, armies, and battles were under her command. In terms of raw combat power, the number of people in all the world who could defeat her did not exceed a single hand.
Chu Shanzhen looked at her pitifully. “You’re always praising him, so since I happened to run into him, I just wanted to see for myself…”
Jianrong shot him another glare, then turned away and ignored him. She looked to Shuang Wenlü instead. “Master Shuang, he didn’t trouble you, did he?”
Shuang Wenlü had once saved her and also taught her for a time. Jianrong was not his disciple, but there was indeed half a teacher’s bond between them, so she addressed him as “Master Shuang.”
Shuang Wenlü was still smiling. “No.”
A bright smile appeared on Jianrong’s face, while one hand reached to pinch the flesh at Chu Shanzhen’s waist.
Chu Shanzhen instantly bared his teeth in pain. But before his wife could continue and twist harder, he quickly composed his expression and became obedient to an almost unbelievable degree.
Jianrong chatted with Shuang Wenlü for a few more moments, and only then did she spare Chu Shanzhen’s poor waist.
The moment she released him, Chu Shanzhen forgot the pain as quickly as ever. He reached out and lightly poked her. “Wife, earlier some thief secretly borrowed our Wan Yao Cave’s passageway and escaped. Let’s go after him.”
In truth, he simply did not want his wife to keep talking to Shuang Wenlü.
Jianrong glared at him again, though she did not pinch him this time. Instead she asked Shuang Wenlü, “Master Shuang, do you know where that thief went?”
When she came out of seclusion, Li Tong had already told her everything that had happened recently.
Shuang Wenlü cast a glance into the distance and said, “He’s dead now.”
…
After Blood River Old Ancestor drilled into his body, Lang Qingyun stood frozen in place with his eyes closed.
Cai Suhong recognized this as a possession technique, but she knew nothing about soul arts and had no idea how to save him. All she could do was anxiously ask the Mystic Realm System, “What do I do? What do I do? Do you have a way?”
The Mystic Realm System comforted her. “Don’t worry. That Demonic Cultivator might not succeed in the possession. Just keep watch and protect him for now.”
There was still that unfathomable Rule Fragment inside Lang Qingyun’s body, after all.
Cai Suhong had no choice. She could only hastily set up a simple protective formation around them while keeping watch for anyone approaching and remaining wary of Lang Qingyun at the same time.
Lang Qingyun had begun cultivating because of the Dao Seed, but his knowledge was badly lopsided. He had no idea what to do when faced with possession. During the time he had traveled with Cai Suhong, they had never stopped being chased by Demonic Cultivators, and Cai Suhong had not had much chance to teach him the basics.
But when Blood River Old Ancestor charged into his sea of consciousness, Lang Qingyun did not feel especially panicked or terrified.
Ever since obtaining the Dao Seed, his emotions had grown fainter and fainter. While fleeing from Demonic Cultivators before, he had repeatedly stood on the edge of life and death, yet he had felt almost nothing. When he killed those Demonic Cultivators, he had felt almost nothing.
Even toward Cai Suhong, it was the same.
Deep down, he knew he ought to be grateful to her. She had helped him greatly.
But that gratitude had grown thinner and thinner each time he used spiritual power.
A heart like wood and stone—this was probably what that meant.
That frightened him.
And what chilled him even more was that even this fear itself was growing fainter and fainter.
Lang Qingyun looked at the streak of blood that had intruded into his sea of consciousness. Blood River Old Ancestor had cultivated for over a thousand years. Even weakened to a single blood shadow, he was not an opponent a minor cultivator like Lang Qingyun—who had cultivated for less than a year—could possibly resist.
But within Lang Qingyun’s sea of consciousness, the one who felt astonishment was Blood River Old Ancestor.
He had never seen such a sea of consciousness before.
It was utterly dead silent, like layers of ancient ice beneath a permanently frozen sea, silent for ten thousand years.
How could a normal person possess a sea of consciousness like this?
All living beings had hearts, and from the heart came thoughts. Those thoughts were like ripples within the sea of consciousness. Even a cultivator with an exceptionally steadfast Dao heart would at most possess a sea of consciousness like a lake without waves. The mind-consciousness was something soft and fluid like water; only then could it remain flexible.
If a person’s sea of consciousness was this stiff and cold, could they still be considered alive?
Blood River Old Ancestor was stunned, yet for a moment he could do nothing.
If the mind-consciousness were like a lake, then even if it were calm as a mirror, he could still try all kinds of methods to stir waves. But faced with this hard, merciless layer of ice, what waves could he possibly raise?
He felt as though he were trying to possess a dead thing.
But he had no other choice.
When he possessed this young man, the female cultivator beside him had seen it. If he gave up now, then with the miserable scraps of strength he had left, escaping again would be nearly impossible.
Blood River Old Ancestor steadied himself and transformed within Lang Qingyun’s sea of consciousness into a towering sea of blood. He would search carefully and see whether this strange sea of consciousness truly had no weakness at all!
The blood waves swept rapidly across the ice.
The young man he was trying to possess did not counterattack in his sea of consciousness at all. He was completely like an inexperienced ordinary person. Blood River Old Ancestor swept through the entire sea of consciousness and finally found a crack in the ice, as though it had been split open by a sword.
The towering blood waves halted, then surged into the crack all at once.
He had found Lang Qingyun’s anchor.
At the instant Blood River Old Ancestor entered the crack, Lang Qingyun thought of his family.
If he died, then his third younger sister, Ji Hongluo, would become the eldest left behind. She was hardworking, resilient, and careful. But she was only nineteen. And she was a girl. In this world, girls always suffered more harsh treatment.
She had been abandoned despite being healthy.
Perhaps it was because of the birthmark on her face.
Perhaps it was because she was a girl.
Perhaps it was both.
Would she be able to hold this family together?
His fourth younger brother, Shao Si, was a man, but his leg was disabled. There was immortal opportunity from the Sword Pavilion on him. If he could successfully enter the Sword Pavilion, that would be for the best. Then the whole family would have someone to rely on.
But entering the Sword Pavilion was not so easy.
He had heard that Meng Zhensheng, who had obtained the same opportunity as Shao Si, had already given up.
His fourth brother was stubborn, but cultivation was not something one could achieve through desperate effort alone.
While he himself was still there, it was all right. But if he were gone, would that immortal opportunity instead become his fourth brother’s heart demon?
His fifth younger sister…
One family member after another passed through his mind, and then he thought of Cai Suhong.
There were secrets within Cai Suhong’s Mystic Realms, but he did not want to pry into them. Cai Suhong had helped him too much. Along this journey, they had passed through life and death again and again, skirting danger time after time. Without Cai Suhong, he might not have endured.
Even if he had not died with the Dao Seed’s help, he probably would no longer have been himself.
Cai Suhong had come to help him by risking her life.
But he did not want her to truly fall into a dead end because of him.
He thought of that bowl of hot noodle soup, warm and delicious.
It had been so good.
He had never eaten anything so delicious in his life.
He thought of the pear blossom grove.
The whole grove had been white, thin and translucent as snow.
It had been so beautiful…
He thought of Big Sister…
…
These were all things he had already thought about again and again in ordinary times.
He had to seize every last trace of emotion that had not yet been erased. He had to recall them desperately, deepen them desperately, and desperately tell himself that these were what he truly wanted.
The stronger his feelings grew, the more the Dao Seed wanted him to kill.
Between his own feelings and the Dao Seed’s urge to kill, Lang Qingyun found a difficult, bearable balance.
Then, each time the Dao Seed’s killing intent turned icy, he used these fragments of warmth he had desperately treasured to pull his mind back again.
Blood River Old Ancestor pushed deeper and deeper into the crack. At last, he found the emotions fluctuating within the young man.
Within the sea of consciousness, whose surroundings were as harsh as frozen ice, there lurked a terrifying, indifferent killing intent. The walls of ice on either side seemed ready to collapse inward and crush the crack.
That killing intent left Blood River Old Ancestor agitated and uneasy. He only wanted to finish this strange possession as quickly as possible. Following his usual methods, he stirred towering waves of emotion within the crack.
The seven emotions and six desires were food for the monkey-mind and horse-will.
Blood River Old Ancestor churned up waves of feeling and tides of desire within the crack, and from among them he found the strongest one:
Anger.
A terrible unwillingness was hidden in this young man’s heart. His anger had been crushed beneath the ice and buried deep within.
Seizing this flaw in the waves, Blood River Old Ancestor swiftly sank deeper into the crack until he finally reached the bottom.
At the bottom of the crack, he saw a single sentence, as though it had been nailed there by a sword:
Is it a person cultivating the Dao, or the Dao cultivating the person?
Before Blood River Old Ancestor could make sense of what it meant, the furious wave of anger he had stirred above burst out of the crack, forcibly shoving the narrow ice cliffs on both sides outward by a little.
But that disturbance triggered an unexpected change.
The Dao Seed hidden within Lang Qingyun’s chest suddenly gave a violent throb.
The cold, merciless killing intent instantly shook the entire sea of consciousness.
“No—!” Blood River Old Ancestor screamed in terror.
The final streak of blood was shredded by the killing intent.
But the Dao Seed was still unsatisfied. The ruthless killing intent condensed into the ice layer and grew inch by inch. In the blink of an eye, it pushed the ice cliffs that had just been forced apart back into place. Worse still, those ice cliffs continued to grow inward, trying to freeze completely that last bit of softness, that water-like thought of the heart.
Yet within the crack, a strand of sword intent suddenly spread out.
It was a sword intent sharper than the Dao Seed’s killing, more absolute in its severing of all things, yet at the same time it was soft, with not the slightest trace of killing intent.
Once the Dao Seed’s killing met that sword intent, it could not advance even an inch.
Within this strange sea of consciousness, there was still the terrifying frozen ice. There was still a crack in the ice left by a sword. And within that crack, there were still many warm thoughts, soft as water, being guarded with utmost care.
Outside the sea of consciousness.
Cai Suhong watched Lang Qingyun warily.
She did not know whether, when this little brother who had shared life and death with her several times opened his eyes again, he would still be the Lang Qingyun she knew, or a vicious Demonic Cultivator who had succeeded in possession.
Lang Qingyun’s eyelashes trembled.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw Cai Suhong standing there with a pot raised in front of her face, looking deeply wary. Her huge iron pot was nearly as broad as a door panel, shielding everything except her head and feet.
Lang Qingyun: …
Lang Qingyun said, “It’s me.”
Cai Suhong inspected him thoroughly before finally confirming that this really was Lang Qingyun.
She let out a breath of relief. “That settles it. We’d better hurry up and find a place where we can live in peace for a while. Once you—”
She had only gotten halfway through the sentence when she saw Lang Qingyun silently take out a blade from his divine sense.
Its entire body was covered in blood-rust, with only three inches of the tip’s edge exposed.
Cai Suhong’s pupils contracted sharply.
“This is… the Blood-Rust Blade?”