The Forbidden Path to Immortality-Chapter 245

"Shame, really. Yin Chonghua’s always been... Odd . Different from the rest. And she’s tangled up with the Yin-Yang Sect, heaven knows how deep. Otherwise, we might have had ourselves a useful ally."

"Madam?" Li Xun’s mind lit up like ice, but his face frowned. "The lesson of Lord Bishui is still fresh. Better to be careful. The Sect Master’s health is failing by the day, yes, but as long as he sits in that chair, we can’t move without his shadow over us. Better to work within the sect than pin our hopes on outsiders.”

Even as he said it, Li Xun sneered to himself. Naturally, Madam Yan shook her head. “Too cautious,” she said flatly. Suddenly, she smiled. Her gaze locking on him. “This doesn’t sound like you at all… Was it Elder Yin who told you that?”

It's that sickly old bastard... Li Xun thought, but he said nothing. He just smiled, calm as ever, not a flicker of reaction to Madam Yan’s sudden words.

Seeing that look on his face, Madam Yan understood most of what she needed to. She studied him for a long moment, then frowned slightly.

“So it’s him again, isn’t it? Elder Yin’s words always seem to trace back to that man. Hmph. Even now, he hides behind riddles and half-measures. If I really did what he wanted, and one day took the Sect Master’s seat, how long do you think I’d keep it?”

Though it sounded like she was talking to herself, Li Xun knew perfectly well she meant him to hear it. So he answered obediently: “I’ve been away from the sect for too long to see the situation clearly. Madam, would you enlighten me?”

Pleased with Li Xun’s attitude, Madam Yan gave a small smile. “Enlighten you? Hardly. You only need to understand one thing. Every sect in this realm has its eyes on the coming change of leadership in ours. As for so-called internal affairs…”

She paused, then slowly shook her head. “In this world, tell me... what ‘internal affair’ ever stays untouched by others?”

So that’s it, Li Xun thought. Madam Yan had just confirmed everything the Underworld Fire Yama had suspected. A grin tugged at his lips as he let out a quiet chuckle.

“I understand... but if there are no such things as internal affairs, then even if you become Sect Master, what meaning would that title have?”

Such blunt words, only Li Xun would dare say them.

Madam Yan wasn’t the least bit annoyed. On the contrary, she seemed to appreciate his frankness , nodding with a smile. “That’s the heart of it. I should explain it to you in detail, but there are too many eyes and ears here. Not the right place. Tell you what, there’s something I need done. Do it for me, and once it’s done, you’ll understand everything.”

“Oh?”

Madam Yan reached out and handed Li Xun a jade slip. “This contains a spell-breaking technique. Make sure you memorize it carefully…”

For Li Xun, that was hardly a challenge. A brief probe of his spiritual sense, and he had memorized it all. When he looked up again, Madam Yan said. “You said you'd be cultivating for less than a hundred days. That means you’ll finish your seclusion before the third month, correct?”

Li Xun gave a small nod.

Madam Yan smiled, then stepped closer. She lowered her voice. “Have you ever been to Mount Beiqi?”

“Beiqi Mountain?” Li Xun thought for a moment. “I’ve been there once. It’s a well-known herb trading hub. A bit of a distance from our sect.”

He lowered his voice without realizing it, and the two of them drew closer, shoulders nearly brushing as they walked on slowly.

Madam Yan kept her gaze fixed ahead. “Years ago, I made an agreement with someone. To retrieve something. I may not be able to travel anytime soon, so I need you to go in my place. On the second day of the fourth month next year, about a month before the ancestral rites, be at Razor Peak on Mount Beiqi one quarter past midnight. Someone will deliver it to you.”

“And who will that be?”

“Who knows,” she said.

Seeing the strange look on Li Xun’s face, Madam Yan gave a soft laugh. “The one who made that deal with me… probably won’t show up in person.”

She paused, then added, “Remember this, I can’t say for sure who’ll come, but the item you’re to receive will be sealed with Golden Pellet Spirit Clay, and locked inside a violet jade box bound by our sect’s Emerald Fire Glimmering Spell.

“You don’t need to say anything. Just use the dispelling technique I taught you. Break the outer seal in front of them. That alone will prove your identity. Once you’ve got the item, bring it straight back.”

Li Xun nodded, but Madam Yan shook her head. “This matter concerns my fate. You must give it every ounce of focus you have. I believe, once you reach that place, you’ll begin to understand what this is really about… You know, Li Xun, in all the sixty or seventy years we’ve known each other, this is the first time I’ve ever trusted you with something that could cost lives.”

Not only did her words step far beyond the usual boundaries of master and disciple, they were shockingly frank. For a moment, Li Xun didn’t even know how to respond

Madam Yan smiled, tapped his arm, held it a moment so their skin shared a little warmth. Then she said, in a soft, drifting voice, “Hundred Ghosts… don’t let me down.”

“You have my word,” Li Xun answered, his head bowed.

....

Maybe this is a test, Li Xun thought to himself. A crucial one.

He hovered in midair, gazing down at the fog-shrouded forest below.

From here, the Ghost Gate Lake was no longer visible. Yet somehow, Madam Yan’s eyes stayed on Li Xun, soft but calm and deep, unwilling to let him go.

He knew all too well that after more than a century of simmering, with the Underworld Flame Yama's end drawing near, the tensions inside the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect were about to blow apart.

At this point, both the Underworld Flame Yama and Madam Yan had begun to shed their usual masks, doing whatever they could to gather strength... whether for duty, or for themselves.

He couldn’t help it. The way the two of them carried themselves, the terms they were dangling in front of him... it was all absurdly tempting. Sometimes he caught himself thinking, with a grim little smile, that if this kept up for a few hundred more years, the sect leader’s seat might just land in his lap.

But of course, it was all just daydreaming. For now, what really mattered to Li Xun was his own skin and the mess he was stuck in.

Half an hour ago, Shui Die Lan had swaggered off toward Chong Mountain, dragging along that slave girl she’d basically gotten for free, Yan Cai’er.

Li Xun would bet anything that once this lady finished flattening a few unlucky souls over there, she’d cook up some excuse and storm off to Tenghua Valley to check on him.

That meant Li Xun had, at best, about half a month of freedom left.

And during that short time, he had one extremely important thing to take care of. Something that had to be done without anyone finding out.

When he’d spoken frankly with the Underworld Flame Yama, Li Xun had made a request to enter the Yin-Transforming Pool.

But the Underworld Flame Yama’s reply had caught him completely off guard: “You’re not going in. Yes, the only proper way to refine the Yinfire Pearl is through the Yin-Transforming Pool; I never meant to stop you. Unfortunately, you came too late.

“During the Forty-Nine Tribulation, I was mortally wounded, on the brink of death. It was only thanks to the Yin-Transforming Pool, linking me to the Nine Netherworld Domain and channeling pure Yin Qi, that I survived.

“But because my injuries were severe, I made a mistake while controlling it, which let the Patriarch’s Curse-Spirit broke free from its seal. Luckily, Elder Yin burned away much of her essence-blood to channel the power of the Pool and barely managed to contain it. Otherwise, it would’ve been a disaster.

“You know the Yin-Transforming Pool... though it’s called a ‘pool,’ it’s really the connection point between this realm and the Nine Netherworlds Realm. It runs a thousand li deep underground, and its location shifts constantly with the flow of primordial qi across the land.

“Normally, there’s only one proper entrance. The passage beneath the underground palace at the center of the lake. It was carved open long ago by the Patriarch himself through incredible divine technique. Other than that, even if you were to dig a thousand li down, it’d be like searching for a needle in the sea. You’d find nothing.

“Unfortunately, though the Curse-Spirit was sealed again, fate had to play its trick. It’s now trapped right at that entrance. That spirit has lost all reason, driven only by hatred and the curse that binds it. Worse still, its power completely counters our sect’s cultivation methods... so no one can stand against it.

“For nearly two hundred years, no one could enter the Yin-Transforming Pool except on the day of the Ancestor Ceremony, when the energy of the Nine Netherworld Domain surged and the pool naturally rose, making it possible to suppress it completely. At all other times, it was impossible… though, perhaps, there’s another way.

“After the Patriarch’s Curse-Spirit was displaced, some of the Netherworld energy within the Yin-Transforming Pool was forced out, leaking into the surrounding earth veins. Though it’s been less than two centuries, that energy has already carved out a large subterranean Yin vein connected to the pool itself. If someone could follow that vein, they might just find another entrance to the pool.

“This Yin vein, however, is hard to trace. It shifts with the movement of the earth veins, and the Netherworld’s energy seeps through it, masking its path. But after years of calculation, I’ve found one possible convergence point... it happens to be in Tenghua Valley.”

Ah, so that’s the way of it!

Li Xun flew without hurry, his mind busy calculating.

The words of the Underworld Flame Yama had stirred up old memories.

He remembered back when he’d first become Madam Yan’s disciple, he had been 'tricked' by Ying Cai’er into killing one of Lord Bishui’s worthless pupils... what was that fool’s name again?

At the time, Li Xun hadn’t thought much of it. He’d assumed Madam Yan simply couldn’t stand the man’s arrogance and had used Ying Cai’er to teach him a lesson. It was only later that Li Xun realized something about that whole affair didn’t add up.

After all, Lord Bishui and Madam Yan had been bitter enemies by then. So why would one of Bishui’s disciples dare linger in Tenghua Valley for so long, throwing his weight around as if nothing could touch him?

Li Xun had once asked Ying Cai'er about it, but the girl had only mumbled something vague: that scumbag was acting on the sect’s orders, looking for something, and no one else in the valley was allowed to interfere.

Thinking back on it now, everything suddenly made sense. He must have been after the leftover traces of yin energy leaking out from the Yin-Transforming Pool, right?

And when it came to places near Tenghua Valley where yin energy tended to gather... a long-buried memory surfaced in Li Xun’s mind.

He’d thought of a brilliant possibility. That's why he'd told Madam Yan that he’d be entering secluded cultivation in Tenghua Valley for three months.

In that time, he was sure he could get some real results.

Flying through the sky, Li Xun didn’t squander a moment, mapping out every move he’d make in the weeks ahead.

Time trickled past while he pondered, and suddenly, hours were gone. Twilight had fallen, and the eerie cries of bizarre birds and beasts snapped him awake.

The southern part of the Tongxuan Realm was covered in dense, ancient jungles. Every creature that survived there had endured millions of years of brutal evolution. Nothing weak could last long. Even the top cultivators of the realm had to tread carefully around some of them.

Suddenly, Li Xun remembered something: there was a venomous beast here called the Zhe. It was fearsome, but more importantly, it carried a natural poison sac at the back of its head. That sac was an excellent catalyst. Refined through yinfire, it could greatly boost the efficiency of drawing out the energy of the Nine Netherworlds Domain. It was precisely the kind of high-grade treasure you'd want while secluded for cultivation.

Looks like there’s some kind of outpost here, huh?

A treasure that could boost cultivation like this was something no sect would ever let slip by. And the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect was no exception.

Taking advantage of the local terrain, the sect had built a small branch compound here, stationing a few disciples to tend and breed the Zhe beasts. Their job was to keep the creatures thriving while harvesting as many of those poison sacs as possible for the sect’s use.

Li Xun, planning to snag a few poison sacs for later, glanced around and then flew off toward the outpost.

The giant birds swooping over the forest were returning to their nests. Spotting Li Xun, instinctive fear took hold, and they scattered in every direction, filling the air with a nonstop cacophony of squawks.