The Forbidden Path to Immortality-Chapter 266

A spark flickered in Yin Wanderer’s eyes, but his voice stayed cool. “Not bad.”

In those two words lay a tangle of emotions too complex for Luo Moshi to grasp.

Still, at least on the surface, he understood most of it. He laughed. “So what’s your take on that Rogue Cultivators' Alliance?”

“Strong on the outside, hollow inside… though they do put on a good show.”

“Strong outside, hollow inside? Only someone like you would dare put it that way.” Luo Moshe shook his head, then sighed. “Maybe it’s because that alliance was formed after you vanished from sight, and tightened up just before you broke through. You don’t know how formidable it truly is. Hollow inside, you say? Even a pile of loose sand, when heavy enough, can crush a man. Have you heard of the Hundred Beasts Sect…”

“The Lion-Camel King went looking for death on his own, and Qixia overreacted. With her abilities, she could wipe that circus-animal sect off the map by herself. No need to mobilize an army.”

Luo Moshi froze for a moment, then suddenly got it and burst into laughter. “You’re toying with me, Lady Yin! Don’t tell me you haven’t figured this out. Two hundred years ago, even if the Demon Phoenix wiped out that sect, what would have come next? Nothing but a coalition of the major sects hunting her to the ends of the earth, ready to kill her as soon as they could.

“But now? Never mind destroying the Hundred Beasts Sect. Even if someone smashed my own Succubus Sect into dust, how many voices in this realm would actually protest?”

‘The rabbit dies, the fox mourns. That’s all there is to it,’ Yin Wanderer said offhandedly, though there was a thoughtful look on her face.

And it wasn’t just her. Behind the Light-Splitting Mirror, Li Xun and Shui Die Lan were also affected.

Not because Luo Moshi’s words were some kind of thunderbolt revelation, but because coming from him, the foremost figure of the demonic path, the statement rose above a simple personal sentiment and became something broader, something with real weight.

If Luo Moshi felt this way, how could others not?

The cliffside fell silent for several breaths.

“Third time's the charm,” Yin Wanderer finally said, her tone cold. “The Hundred Beasts Sect took the first hit, and that’s as much as the sects are willing to tolerate. If Gu Yin and the others keep pushing their luck, then even if the entire realm takes action, what does the Rogue Cultivators" Alliance really amount to?

“And don’t assume everyone in this world is clueless. Out of a million rogue cultivators, how many are willing to be ordered around, and how many would dare stand against the major sects? Old Luo, you seem to be aging backwards in wisdom. Also, what does any of this have to do with Mist-Hidden Pavilion or Umbral City?”

“How does it not? If it were unrelated, how would word about Mist-Hidden Pavilion get out in the first place?”

“Oh?”

“Just like you’re thinking: the Cloudmist Stone that opens the Pavilion was first obtained by the Alliance. My good-for-nothing disciple thought he was clever, snatched it from them, but got ambushed on the road and killed. Somehow, the Cloudmist Stone ended up with someone named Xiao Zhongzi, and that’s how the news began to spread.”

Luo Moshi poured himself another drink. There seemed to be no end to the blood-wine in that silver flask. He downed seven or eight cups in no time. Maybe it was the alcohol, but after a few drinks his gaze grew a little hazy. And then, he suddenly burst out laughing.

“Gu Yin… now there’s a woman unlike nearly any other. But forgive me for saying this, women really do think in strange ways. For Gu Zhixuan to have a niece like her… I can’t tell whether he died unsettled or went to the grave grinning.”

This was the second time Li Xun had heard someone speak with such certainty that Jade Wanderer was already dead. He couldn’t help feeling deeply shaken.

And of course, Yin Wanderer sensed Li Xun’s reaction. She followed Luo Moshi’s tone with a light chuckle. “Hearing you say that, it sounds like Gu Zhixuan really is dead beyond doubt.”

Luo Moshi gave her a long, intent look, then shook his head. “Dead or not, I think only a handful of people like Gu Yin and Qixia really know the truth. You went to Yemo Heaven, so of course you’ve heard clearer reports. But do you actually believe them?”

“If you told me he died in some woman’s bed one day, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest.” Yin Wanderer gave a cold, mocking smile. “But saying he died so quietly that not a whisper was heard… I doubt there’s a soul under heaven who’d buy that.”

“That, I agree with completely.”

Luo Moshi lifted his cup with a grin. “But it seems we’ve gone off on a tangent, wandering around and around. If Lady Yin doesn’t mind, let’s return to the Mist-Hidden Pavilion. Straight question: is there any chance of working together?”

“Work together? You mean going with you to search for that Mis—”

She didn’t finish. Luo Moshi was already roaring with laughter. Though the sound was rough and ragged, the force of it cut Yin Wanderer’s words clean in half.

After laughing, he casually tossed the silver flask over the edge of the cliff. The demonic markings on the left side of his face glowed a vivid purple, giving half his face this wild, eerie look. “Lady Yin, you’re teasing me again. Why bother chasing after the Mist-Hidden Pavilion? Finding you is more than enough.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Yin Wanderer’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. And her voice was casual and weightless. But in her eyes storm clouds gathered, and something like lightning flickered there.

Luo Moshi frowned. “That’s not like you at all. You know what I mean. That Hundred Ghosts, the one who’s recently made you ‘see him in a new light’!”

“You’re very well-informed,” Yin Wanderer said, sounding even more nonchalant. She drawled out, “Is that all?”

Luo Moshi chuckled. “Hardly. If that were the only reason, dragging the Mist-Hidden Pavilion into it would be an insult to you, Lady Yin.”

His gaze drifted past Yin Wanderer’s shoulder and off into the endless void behind her.

His eyes didn’t seem focused on anything at all, yet his next words cut through the air like a blade: “I just don't get it. With a master of your caliber... how are you totally fine with some little rats spying on you?”

A thousand li away, inside the Mist-Hidden Pavilion, Li Xun jolted and yelled, "Oh no!"

Luo Moshi’s gaze had already pierced the vast distance. And looked straight at him through the Light-Splitting Mirror.

Maybe this was the first true moment that Li Xun and Luo Moshi ever met each other’s gaze.

Even though Luo Moshi couldn’t truly lock onto his target, the moment Li Xun met the eyes of the greatest figure of the demonic path, he suddenly felt as if Luo Moshi’s entire face had melted away. The only thing that remained in his perception were those dark, bottomless eyes…

…and that twisted, almost bewitching demonic mark.

There was a sharp metallic crack, and the central pane of the three-sided Light-Splitting Mirror looked as if it had been smashed by a sledgehammer. Li Xun let out a grunt as his head snapped backward, almost like he’d just been punched in the face.

The once-clear image rippled into chaotic distortions. The night sky, the towering cliffs, everything shattered and dissolved into drifting lines of colored light flowing endlessly across a silver-white background.

“Damn it! This useless piece of junk!”

Shui Die Lan burst out cursing, as if completely forgetting how she had been singing praises of this “useless piece of junk” just moments before.

Beside her, Li Xun shook his head and slowly straightened up. It felt like Luo Moshi had rattled him from a thousand li away, and he was still a bit dizzy. But when he saw Shui Die Lan losing her cool like that, he couldn’t help but laugh.

He took a slow breath, steadied himself, and chose to set aside Luo Moshi’s strangely accurate deduction for now, focusing instead on the problem at hand.

He reactivated the Light-Splitting Mirror. Hundreds of thousands of streams of qi linked together at his command, recombining and converging as the view gradually swept forward from a radius of a hundred li around the site of the incident.

Clear images began to form once more on the mirror. From this angle, he could even see the violent eruption of energy raging across the distant cliff.

But as the view pushed closer, the image began to shake and blur.

Li Xun estimated the distance and let out a breath of relief. “It’s not as bad as I thought. He must have sensed something and just went ahead and scrambled all the qi within ten li so we can’t scout up close. That’s all it is. Still…”

He looked at Shui Die Lan, face still serious. “I’m going to send you out once. See if you can sense anything. If you can, how clear is it? Pay very close attention. Be thorough. And then be even more thorough.”

Li Xun seldom used that tone with her, so the moment felt awkward for both of them.

Shui Die Lan, however, indulged him. She gave a short “hm” and didn’t push back.

Li Xun nodded, opened the portal, and sent her out. The left pane of the mirror immediately showed the scene where she was standing.

The experiment was over quickly, just a few moments really. And Shui Die Lanstepped back into the chamber, her expression calm. “It’s true,” she said. “Not obvious at first, but if you go in expecting it and pay close attention, you can actually pick up quite a few unnatural qi nodes.”

“Find the clearest ones and point them out to me.”

She pointed out several spots on the mirror. Li Xun, while adjusting the central hub, paid close attention to the qi fluctuations in those areas.

It was painstaking work. Out of millions of intertwined qi threads, trying to pinpoint just a few specific nodes and figure out how they connected was like searching for a needle in a haystack. It's impossible without solid cultivation in the Forbidden Path.

Even with Li Xun’s skill, it still took him close to half an hour to strip out the unique qi pattern inside the Light-Splitting Mirror.

By then, viewed from the center mirror’s angle, Yin Wanderer and Lou Moshi were already locked in a high-pressure standoff. The primordial qi near the cliff had been squeezed to almost nothing. At a glance, it looked as if a full-blown battle could break out at any moment.

Li Xun understood exactly what that meant. Shui Die Lan, on the other hand, could only guess.

Her mastery of forbidden techniques wasn’t strong enough. She had been staring for a long time and was already feeling frustrated. She wanted to ask what was going on, but Li Xun kept his head down as he worked, lost in thought without an end in sight.