Volume 1, Chapter 63 – Origins

Illusory Realm, deep within. Ao Lin leaned against a tree trunk, doing his best to regulate his breath, but still couldn’t help coughing up a mouthful of blood.

He opened his eyes. Remembering that sky-filling sea of insects and the sound tide, fear rose in him. He couldn’t understand how things had spiraled to this point.

“Ao Lin?” A figure stepped around the trunk to stand before him—a gray-bearded Daoist in long robes.

“Protector Yi.” Ao Lin nodded to him. “Lin’s body is unwell… I beg Protector Yi’s pardon for any discourtesy.”

“Hardly.” The gray-bearded Daoist wiped blood from his own face and slowly shook his head. “There’s been no word from Protector Lü to this moment—he’s likely met a bad end. Now the Sacred Dao has only you and me left. This is when we ought to support each other. How could I blame you over trifles?”

Ao Lin thought: don’t be so sure.

Yi Tianzhi, the Demon-Immortal Dao’s Right-Route Protector in the south. Like Lü Ran, the Left Protector, he had crossed three Body Tribulations—and his cultivation was even deeper than Lü Ran’s.

Where Lü Ran was brutal, Yi Tianzhi was a smiling tiger—mercurial, killing at a whim, with reasons all over the map. Sometimes it was “you stepped out with your left foot first,” sometimes “you broke decorum, which means you didn’t respect him at all.”

He was effectively the southern Sacred Dao’s overall coordinator; this operation had been organized by him.

Ao Lin couldn’t read the man’s temperament, only knew his movements were secretive and unpredictable. If he had to choose, he’d rather the one who survived to be with him now were Lü Ran.

“You have the Jade Phoenix Sword—how’s your recovery coming?” Yi Tianzhi asked.

“Reporting to Protector: much improved,” Ao Lin answered carefully, then, after a thought, added, “If Protector is unwell, Lin is willing to offer up the Jade Phoenix Sword for Protector’s adjustment.”

“Good, good.” Yi Tianzhi chuckled a few times and patted his shoulder. “Ao Lin.”

“Lin is here.”

“This time, using the Jade Phoenix Sword to break through your third tribulation—you could call it a blessing in disguise. But you’ve seen the situation. The Sacred Dao gathered so much strength from the south only to end up like this, and that has a great deal to do with Protector Lü insisting on settling a personal vendetta last night.”

At that, Ao Lin almost lost his breath.

Anyone with eyes could tell this suddenly erupting insect tide from the earth’s depths had nothing to do with Protector Lü’s vendetta. Even if she hadn’t gone, the team would still have suffered this calamity.

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Yi Tianzhi just wanted to shrug off responsibility—pin it all on Lü Ran, who was probably already dead, then swallow all the credit for himself, with Ao Lin serving as his “witness.”

The situation was stronger than the man. Ao Lin understood the rules and nodded obediently to go along.

Yi Tianzhi was very pleased with Ao Lin’s sense of the moment. He soothed him: “Don’t take it to heart. We’re talking about barely-a-century-old cultivations. A hundred years of cultivation doesn’t mean it took a literal century to raise—these consumables are very easy to replace.”

“…” Ao Lin was speechless.

If he hadn’t gotten lucky and crossed his third Body Tribulation, he would probably be just another consumable in Yi Tianzhi’s eyes.

“Protector Yi.” After a moment’s thought, Ao Lin spoke up. “Protector Yi doesn’t seem surprised by this wave of insects?”

He said so because Yi Tianzhi looked utterly confident. Even with the team nearly annihilated and only the two of them left, he hadn’t given up—in fact he showed not the slightest anxiety.

And at the last moment, he had also thrown out a “Copper Cicada,” which was how the two of them survived. All this made Ao Lin suspect Yi Tianzhi knew some buried secret.

Such as why this operation had been planned at all.

The Sacred Dao had spent so many resources. The treasure they were scheming for in this Illusory Realm—that massive Egg Case buried deep underground—what was it really?

Faced with Ao Lin’s questioning, Yi Tianzhi paused, then narrowed his eyes and looked him over.

That gaze made Ao Lin go cold. Only then did he hear Yi Tianzhi speak slowly: “Have you heard of the ‘Zhenyuan’?”

“Of course.” Ao Lin nodded. “The sword worn by that lapdog of the Imperial House, Daokong—no one doesn’t know it!”

In Great Yu, year 1375, the Demon Kingdom saw a chance to revive. That dog of a monk cut down anyone in his way with a single sword, smashing through siege after siege, forcibly extending the life of a human-ruled age!

“Correct.” Yi Tianzhi nodded. “After ‘Daokong’ died, his bodily relics and the ‘Zhenyuan’ were taken by the Imperial House. But there’s word he was the reincarnation of the ‘Golden Cicada’—passing nine lives and nine tribulations to attain the true dharma—which is how he wielded such might.”

“And that… means there are eight more sets of remains from his prior lives.”

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“Protector Yi.” Ao Lin frowned. “Don’t tell me you think this place is where one of that monk’s lives is buried?”

“Whether it’s his burial place, uncertain for now.” A gleam lit Yi Tianzhi’s eyes. “But we can be fairly sure this place holds the ‘root method’ of one of his lives.”

“Root method?”

“Nine Tribulations of the Golden Cicada—nine lives, nine laws.” Yi Tianzhi nodded. “One of them is called the ‘Cicada-Sloughing Method.’ After you’ve chosen your path, it gives you one chance to repent.”

Such a thing exists?

Ao Lin’s eyes widened. He’d never heard such a secret.

Humans truly fix their path at the Condensing the Aspect (realm); demon cultivators at the third Body Tribulation.

Before that line, you can still repent—convert your cultivation to swap out your Demon Pool, or convert to replace your demonic aspect. After crossing it, you can’t change anymore.

For a secret method to grant a chance to repent—if word got out, it would cause a sensation!

“Even if you don’t change, it can reshape your foundation—patch over past mistakes and regrets.” Yi Tianzhi lifted his gaze to the sky. “Not to mention this root method belongs to the same ‘Nine Laws’—it likewise touches on reincarnation, touches on the Innate and the mysteries in the womb.”

“Tell me, Ao Lin.”

“Is such a treasure worth it, or not?”

Naturally, it is.

Ao Lin fell silent.

Never mind the losses now—even at twice the cost, it would be worth it!

“The Shenming Sword Dao very likely was created by Daokong the monk in one of his lives.” Yi Tianzhi stroked his beard. “It once ranked among the Seventy-Two Paths, but only hung there for a few short years before being replaced. The records are sketchy—there’s barely anything on its signature Demon Pool.”

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“And this place is the Shenming lineage’s ancestral Demon-Breeding Ground.”

“The Demon Pools here spanning centuries aren’t the true treasure. The heavy prize should be that visualization chart and the Forge the Sword Method.”

“My aim is to bring back one of these ‘Nine Laws’ for the Sacred Dao—to do my part to restore an age ruled by demonkind!”

So that’s how it is.

Ao Lin finally understood—fully.

He had no objection. He even stood and cupped his fists to the Daoist. “Lin is willing to lend his strength!”

“Good!” Yi Tianzhi laughed aloud.

“The mass emergence of cicadas is the very omen of ‘Contending Calls.’ It means the life within that giant egg is about to pupate—and that’s because you once drove the Jade Phoenix Sword to help catalyze it.”

“What we need to do is hold this spot, and when it’s just broken from the pupa—at its most fragile—seize it and force from its mouth the secret of the ‘Nine Laws’!”

…

Meanwhile, outside the Illusory Realm.

A thunderstorm had just passed. In the morning rainforest a faint seven-colored bridge hung in the air—the natural scene was breathtaking.

In the Chilong Circuit, the city’s clamor was waking as well. Traffic surged along the avenues; hawkers at breakfast stalls called out; car horns and bicycle bells mingled into a single sheet of sound—bustle washed with the dust of ordinary life.

Along the street, a woman in an archaic-style long dress was walking.

She wore a pale-violet gauze gown, a light veil across her face, hair pinned with a hairpin, a four-foot sword at her waist. An oil-paper umbrella shaded her features. At her hem, a teasing hint of black stockings flickered.

She should have drawn every eye—yet people acted as if they didn’t see her at all. Everyone looked right past her.

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She walked to the southern street corner and, across the road, lifted her gaze to the row of stone steps leading to the Shenming Dojo.

“Before I knew it… seventeen years.”

“The nerve I have, coming back to visit this place.”

After that bit of self-mockery, she stepped forward, climbed the long stairs onto the bluestone path, and rang the doorbell at the dojo gate.

It happened to be Bai Zhuqing’s turn to be up early cleaning. Hearing the bell, she ran to the door with a flicker of hope—only to find the one on the threshold wasn’t Bai Xiang, but an unfamiliar woman in violet.

“You are…?” She pulled the door to a narrow crack, ready to slam it shut and bolt if anything seemed off.

“Sorry to intrude.” The woman folded away the oil-paper umbrella, revealing a bright smile.

“I’m here to see Bai Shengju… huh?”

Halfway through the sentence, her hand flashed like lightning through the crack to seize Bai Zhuqing’s left wrist.

“Y-You! What are you doing?” Bai Zhuqing yelped, struggling to break free.

“Didn’t expect that…” The woman released at once, meeting Bai Zhuqing’s wary stare with an apologetic smile.

“Forgive me—old occupational reflex. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Before Bai Zhuqing could answer, she drew a calling card from her sleeve and handed it over, adding, “But your talent really is quite good…”

“Interested in coming to the Yujing Circuit?”