Volume 3, Chapter 110 – The Grand Trend

Once they had agreed on their stance, the atmosphere between Dharma Master Hua Li, Prince Saiwei, and the long-necked Daoist turned amicable.

The latter also finally revealed his identity. He was actually an attached offering of the National Preceptor’s Office of the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty, surname Ji, given name Chang, known to others as the Golden Collar Adept.

“It was no easy thing to return to the main world. The court is hungry for talent right now.” After a few words of small talk, Ji Chang earnestly advised Hua Li, “If you can help the Immortal Dynasty hunt down and kill the Black Heaven abominations, I can put in a good word for you with His Highness the Crown Prince, give you a chance to enter the National Preceptor’s Office to cultivate.”

“Many thanks, National Preceptor.” Hua Li nodded. “We will certainly do our utmost for the Immortal Dynasty.”

“Good.” Ji Chang was very pleased with him, especially with that form of address, “National Preceptor,” which made his eyes crinkle to slits with delight.

The man was extremely arrogant by nature, but he did have the capital to be proud.

Hua Li, meanwhile, kept turning things over in his mind.

Ji Chang clearly did not care what might happen now that Hua Li knew the truth. In just a few sentences he had revealed that the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty had “tens of millions of subjects,” even “counted in the tens of that measure,” ruling over thousands upon thousands of dojos, with over a hundred people holding positions in the National Preceptor’s Office.

“Tens of millions” meant in the hundreds of millions.

“Counted in the tens of that” meant over a billion.

Putting aside everything else, just that size of population was enough to produce no small number of experts.

And based on Hua Li’s observations, Ji Chang was not even ranked very high among the “hundreds of National Preceptors.” At most, he could scrape into the middle.

The signs were obvious. Ji Chang avoided speaking in any detail about the National Preceptor’s Office, and when he mentioned a few of his senior brothers, there was clear fear and wariness in his tone.

Furthermore, when he tried to lure Hua Li into obedient service with the bait of “entry into the National Preceptor’s Office,” the process he described did not involve going straight to the higher-ups of the Office, but taking a detour through “His Highness the Crown Prince.” That alone showed he had little pull there. Whatever post he had managed to secure was likely thanks to flattering that prince.

This was both good news and bad.

On the good side, the man’s character had flaws, which made him easier to fool. On the bad, even so Hua Li had no confidence in being able to handle him. Which meant there were many stronger experts in the National Preceptor’s Office.

That was enough to make one’s heart tremble. In his mind, Hua Li compared the power of the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty to that of the Great Yu court and found that the Yu people were not as secure as they thought.

He knew how severe things were. He understood clearly that forces like the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty were not a lone case. Once all these powers descended, the human world of the main world was bound to be turned upside down. There would be few places left untouched.

If the Dao lineage of Golden Cicada Temple did manage to reestablish itself, it would still need to find a patron in the middle of that chaos.

Returning to Great Yu was out of the question. As for whether the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty truly was as formidable as this man claimed… that remained to be seen.

Just as he was thinking this, Hua Li suddenly heard, “Since you have agreed to submit, these others are of no further use.”

He froze. His expression shifted. “What does National Preceptor mean by that?”

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Ji Chang merely gave him a cold sidelong glance. With his sleeves folded, he formed a hand seal. The huge golden collar around his neck came apart with a click, then reassembled itself in midair into an even larger golden ring.

In the distance, the monks and Prince Saiwei’s followers were gathered in one place, resting as they waited. Some occasionally whispered to each other, wondering what was being discussed over here. Now they all stared wide-eyed at the golden ring, unsure what change had taken place.

“Golden Seal of Blessing. Go.”

Ji Chang flicked his fingers, forming a sword-hand and pointing at the monks. The golden ring burst into radiance, and countless circular golden imprints seemed to splash down, dropping with lightning speed around the monks’ necks and forming flashing golden seals on their skin.

Ji Chang immediately clenched his fist. The monks screamed. The golden seals on their necks spawned tadpole-like written sigils both upward and downward, enveloping their bodies in an instant.

“National Preceptor!” Hua Li only had time to cry out once before he saw his fellow monks stiffen and fall to the ground. Their breath had clearly vanished.

Only Dharma Master Hua’an was left… in the whole party Hua Li had brought, only Hua’an remained standing. There was a golden seal locked around his neck as well, and his eyes were cloaked in black qi-sha with no trace of self, but his life had been spared.

Hua Li’s face darkened at once.

Leaving only Hua’an was a sign that Ji Chang had seen through his wish not to act against this former fellow disciple and was now placing Hua’an on the board as a hostage.

“Why?” Red-eyed, he glared at Ji Chang, unable to understand what madness had suddenly seized him.

“Why?” Ji Chang narrowed his eyes. “Because they are Yu people.”

“They betrayed Great Yu with me long ago. For decades they have no longer been Yu people…” Hua Li argued.

Ji Chang cut him off with a cold snort. “Once they were, that is enough to condemn them.”

Hua Li was stunned.

That answer was far beyond anything in his worldview.

“It is time to contact His Highness,” Ji Chang said, no longer paying him any attention. He turned toward Prince Saiwei.

Prince Saiwei nodded to show that he understood, then jogged off, leading his dark-skinned retainers deeper into the ruined market of Jingwu Village. From there they dragged out hundreds of refugees.

These were the “human mines” Bai Xiang had saved when she broke through the market. One after another, they were half-clothed or naked, limbs missing, exposed skin of all colors studded densely with crystal.

Driven out now by Prince Saiwei’s guards under his orders, they were still too confused to understand what was happening. Many, upon recognizing him, knelt before him, thinking this prince had brought men specifically to rescue them.

They were going to die anyway.

Facing those hopeful faces, Prince Saiwei only turned his head away, expression cold.

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If I do not do it, someone else will. In the end, what difference does it make?

“That is enough.” Ji Chang, seeing the crowd gathered, nodded in satisfaction. He drew a green jade box from his breast, twisted it open, and revealed a neat stack of yellow talisman papers within.

Strange symbols in black ink were drawn on the talismans. Ji Chang puckered his lips and blew at them. They fluttered away, scattering over the refugees, and a talisman stuck to each person’s forehead.

Sss—

Almost at once, all the talismaned people burst into flames, their bodies wrapped in interwoven red and green fire.

They did not even have time to cry out in pain. As soon as the flames rose, their bodies turned to white ash and fed the blaze higher and higher.

The smoke from that two-colored fire was not black. Under the jumping light, thin white wisps slowly drifted out, hanging in the air as a faint miasma, with the vague silhouette of a person showing within.

“Ji Chang?”

The figure seemed startled by the disturbance, shifting slightly where it sat. “You reached out to me? Has there been progress in the southern lands?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Ji Chang said, his voice even shriller.

He recounted what he had just done, then waited eagerly for the figure’s reaction.

“So that is how it is… the secret legacy of Golden Light Temple, tied up with the imperial daughter of the Xuan Dynasty as well?”

The silhouette nodded.

“I only sent you south to scout those abominations’ movements, and you bring me such welcome news instead.”

“Ji Chang, you have done well.”

“It is all thanks to Your Highness’s wise direction.” Ji Chang bowed hastily.

“As for how we should move next… I beg Your Highness for further instruction.”

“Fool. You need to ask?” The figure gave a soft laugh.

“The passageways are loosening. In seven days and nights I will descend to the lower world and take the opportunity to discuss a marriage with our hosts.”

“You happen to have a chance to carry my message. What do you think you should do?”

Ji Chang froze. There were things he wanted to try saying, but he was afraid of guessing his prince’s intent wrong.

“Take the secret legacy.”

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The figure’s tone turned impatient, as if disappointed in him.

“I will grant you a Gold Wheel Talisman. You will be sure to courteously invite the imperial daughter in and bring her safely to meet me.”

The moment the words fell, the two-colored flames exploded with a boom and vanished together with the misty white smoke.

In the air, only a single brilliant gold talisman drifted down, then, as if of its own accord, found the huge golden ring hanging there and slipped into it with a hiss.

…

Elsewhere, within Great Yu.

On the outskirts of a city in Chilong Circuit, two figures were locked in a heated argument amid the rubble of a collapsed building.

“The sect’s decision is wrong!” The young man on the left growled in fury. “How can they support those things? They are not human. They are just demonfolk who survived their tribulation.”

“That is true,” the woman on the right said, twining a lock of hair between her fingers. “So what of it? The Xuan Dynasty in its prime was the same.”

“Even so…” The young man was livid. “Even so, we cannot hand the imperial daughter over to them.”

“Hand her over?” The woman shot back. “Think it through, Uncle Song Qiao. It was the imperial daughter who refused to come close to us. It is not as if Feng Yinglong did not explain matters to her back then. How did she react? What is wrong with using chips that are not hers to trade for what she wants?”

“Ignorant. Foolish.” The young man’s anger flared higher. “This is trampling the Imperial Sovereign’s Dao lineage. I do not agree.”

“Your disagreement is useless.” The woman’s temper rose with his, then suddenly dissipated. She dropped her head with a soft sigh.

“I know this might lead to the Feathering Sect being devoured and absorbed.”

“But with the passageways about to open wide, it is foreseeable that many envoys will descend.”

The young man still tried to persuade her. “We can keep hiding…”

“Where?” The woman lifted her gaze.

“When the passageways open, those puppet strings stretching down from the void will control every organization and force in this world whose name you know or have even heard mentioned.”

“Hide?”

“With so many eyes coveting the Xuan Emperor Scripture, where can we hide?”

The young man insisted, “We do not even have the Xuan Emperor Scripture.”

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“All these years we have run Feathering experiments over and over. Aside from each attempt bringing down massive hunts and reprisals from the Yu, have we produced any results?”

“You think they will believe you if you talk like that?” The woman gave a short laugh.

“Answer me, Uncle Song Qiao. Right now, envoys from the Upper Realm all know the ‘seat of reverence’ in our sect is vacant, and they all know the name the Imperial Sovereign left behind in ancient times. Naturally, they will think we are clutching the Imperial Sovereign’s legacy. Then you go and tell them, ‘It’s not like that, we really do not have it at all’… do you think anyone will seriously listen?”

“Uncle Song Qiao, can you stop being so childish?”

The young man’s face went ashen, but he had no answer.

The woman was not wrong.

They would not listen. Even if they did believe that the sect did not hold the legacy, it would only be after they had captured them, slit every one of them open, and searched their insides.

“We cannot hide,” the woman said, her own force ebbing away, her expression shaded with pessimism.

“Face reality. The Feathering Sect, the Imperial Sovereign’s Dao lineage, has long since fallen.”

“Rather than letting something more vicious drag us away for torture, we might as well cooperate with the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty.”

“At least they speak like people, and they look more like a ‘civilization.’”

The young man frowned. “But…”

She cut him off. “You know what I mean by ‘something more vicious,’ don’t you?”

Without waiting for his answer, she turned her head and looked out past the ruins.

Startled, the young man followed her gaze. Huge swaths of ruined city stretched away along their line of sight all the way to the slanting horizon in the distance, where a column of black smoke slowly rose.

That black smoke had long hung over the plains. It only looked black to the eye. In truth, it was a deep, dark red, drifting up from the blood-abyss great marsh on the banks of the Jing River.

“Did not the Imperial Sovereign say that any who act like humans are human, and any who act like demons are demons?”

The woman’s voice came from beside him.

“Now the horns of the Wu clans are about to sound again.”

“The time that was frozen will also thaw.”

“At a time like this, thinking too much does no good. Better to do as I do and stay a little muddled.”