Chapter 1023: Childhood Is a Wedge
In a rural village school, there was a teacher named Chen Ji, who was instructing a disciple in a certain stance.
Zhao Shuxia rested, feeling conflicted, because during the day, the master had nearly had his face scratched by a shrew who barged into the school.
In the capital of Yuxuan State, there was no curfew. The fortune-telling Taoist Wu Di had cooked himself a midnight snack, walked out of the residence under the night sky, and passed by the Changning County government office on the way. The shrine of the yamen god was brightly lit, likely another dispute brewing. The Taoist went north, walking through a narrow alley in Yongjia County, planning to find a youth and chat for a while.
At Caiyu Mountain, Chen Jiu, who served as the outer gate guest receptionist for the Bamboo Branch Sect, arrived at a spot by the river where he had already laid bait, ready for night fishing. Such was the skill of a master: just a rod, a stool, and a fishing basket; he never set up a stall.
At the Powder Maru Estate within Hehuan Mountain, a youth in straw sandals with a sword on his back, going by the alias Chen Ren, carried an empty scabbard. He hesitated whether to let his disciple spar with that Grand Master Wen with the shifty eyes, just to practice a little.
At the summit of Pomo Peak, Chen Ping'an, dressed in an immortal-like Taoist robe, listened without comment and smiled as he took his leave. He made a Taoist cupped-fist salute to Cao Rong, "If Lord Cao ever has the leisure to visit Luopo Mountain, just send word ahead, and I will certainly prepare a warm welcome."
Cao Rong did not say he would definitely visit Luopo Mountain, but returned the salute with a smile, "May the Blessed and Immortal Venerable grant blessings."
Chen Ping'an's body transformed into a rainbow light and vanished in an instant, leaving the summit of Pomo Peak and blinking a few times before leaving the territory of Hehuan Mountain.
Lu Chen squatted back down, picked up nine small stones, held them in his palm, shook them gently like dice, and casually threw them on the ground.
Although Cao Rong claimed to be of dull aptitude, having cultivated for three thousand years without finding a path to ascension, such polite words were best taken with a grain of salt. One should not believe them.
In terms of talisman and formation arts alone, Cao Rong had profound insights. Without needing to form hand seals or perform calculations, he could produce an answer in his mind.
Hearing is false, seeing is true. This famous young Hidden Official had already entered the hall of talisman arts, with considerable skill. How deep it ran, Cao Rong had no interest in investigating. Having neither close ties nor grievances with Chen Ping'an, Cao Rong...
"Good thing you held back and didn't recklessly calculate Chen Ping'an's fate; otherwise, you'd be sharing misfortune with Lord Lu," Lu Chen teased first, then explained: "The Big Dipper, along with the two assistant stars. Chen Ping'an used talisman techniques to create nine avatars. This Chen Ping'an you just saw, as one of the left and right assistants, cannot stay here too long, or else pulling one hair moves the whole body, and the entire formation would fall into chaos."
Cao Rong asked curiously, "Master, do you have a good relationship with Chen Ping'an?"
As for Chen Ping'an's technique of forming formations with talisman avatars, it was not enough to surprise a Taoist Heavenly Lord.
Pitifully, every time Master Lu Chen visited the Haoran world, he never actively sought out Cao Rong, his direct disciple from the Lingfei Temple.
Regarding rumors about his master and the young Hidden Official, Cao Rong had heard many mountain-top rumors over the years, and during his recent travels to the Northern Juzhou, he had met his junior sister He Xiaoliang and learned some inside details.
Lu Chen wore a worried expression and nodded, "Good, but also deeply entangled. A messy ledger."
He clasped his hands together, breathed gently, then looked up toward Hehuan Mountain and asked, "How is He Xiaoliang?"
Some things, Lu Chen was too lazy to deduce. He was a Taoist who took the Dao as his profession, not an old hen spreading wings to protect a brood of chicks.
Cao Rong replied respectfully, "Reporting to Master, not long ago, Bai Shang secretly went into seclusion. Junior Sister He knew it might be a trap specifically aimed at her, yet she insisted on obstructing him. Your disciple and Senior Brother Gu had no choice but to follow her and take the gamble. Hidden in the shadows, Lord Xie Shi helped maintain the pressure, but due to his status, he could not act directly against Bai Shang, only remotely suppressing him to prevent Bai Shang from killing Junior Sister He."
That Taoist named "Xiancha" Gu Qingsong was not a formal disciple of Lu Chen; in the old days, he was just a boatman who followed Lu Chen on a voyage to seek immortals.
However, all of Cao Rong's direct disciples recognized this eldest senior brother, who "never lost an argument and feared no one."
Lord Xie Shi, nominally the leading figure among the mountains of Northern Juzhou, could oversee heaven and earth except for the Confucian academies.
This Taoist Heavenly Lord from Li Zhu Cave Heaven's Taoye Lane held a status similar to Qi Zhen from the Divine Proclamation Sect in Vase Bottle Continent.
As for the Fire Dragon True Man of Prostrate Ground Peak, he would never admit to being the underworld overlord of both black and white, always saying he had no money in his pockets and could not speak forceful words.
Recalling that encounter of the mantis stalking the cicada with the oriole behind, Cao Rong still felt a lingering fear. He quietly formed a hand seal to dim the image of the sword cultivator Bai Shang in his mind. "Bai Shang's seclusion was real, absolutely true. It's just that the speed of his breakthrough and emergence from seclusion was astonishing, unheard of. Moreover, he did not seem like a brand-new ascension cultivator who needed to stabilize his realm. Previously, I thought I had already estimated Sword Immortal Bai Shang highly enough, but I still underestimated him. He caught us off guard. Senior Brother Gu used a temporary formation to block the first sword but was severely injured and is now recuperating at Osmanthus Island. I blocked the second sword, and Junior Sister He barely managed the third, but was sent flying by the sword strike, her body smashing into a peak. Fortunately, her injuries were not severe. Before Xie Shi could help, a Taoist claiming to be from the Pure Yang Dao lineage appeared."
Cao Rong's account was extremely brief, sounding quite calm to others, but he believed that none of the parties involved, including Xie Shi who hadn't acted, would feel at ease. Well, perhaps except for Senior Brother Gu, who was used to such grand scenes.
Yet Cao Rong had to admit that his junior sister He Xiaoliang was exceptionally blessed by fortune.
It wasn't that the four of them together had no chance against an ascension-stage sword cultivator, but Cao Rong's mission this time was more about protection without justification; he had no reason to fight Bai Shang to the death.
They had clearly fallen into Bai Shang's carefully laid trap, yet Junior Sister He only suffered a single sword strike before retreating safely—a mountain encounter that Cao Rong found unimaginable.
Lu Chen had clearly foreseen this outcome. He chuckled, "Do you think the title of 'Number One Sword Cultivator in Northern Juzhou' is just for show? Absurd."
"Bai Shang was extremely patient in his quest to prove the Dao and ascend. Light and dark, he had deep plans, laying out at least three paths for himself, trying to merge them into one. It was very painstaking work."
"For example, Bai Shang didn't hesitate to cooperate with Tian Wan of Zhengyang Mountain's Cornus Peak, coveting the sword Dao's fortune in Vase Bottle Continent. He almost succeeded."
"He has lofty ambitions, but his style of conduct... tends to be unscrupulous, more like a pure wilderness rogue cultivator. He Xiaoliang, the sect leader, chose to compete with Bai Shang in scheming rather than in luck—wasn't that using her weakness against his strength?"
"Northern Juzhou is famous for its abundance of sword cultivators. Logically, there should have been an ascension-stage sword cultivator by now. That Gu Qingsong doesn't think before speaking and takes everything lightly, I won't talk about him. But you, Cao Rong—don't you find it strange? To say nothing of Xie Shi, as a senior on the mountain and a local expert, why didn't he advise our Sect Leader He?"
Lu Chen paused here and smiled, "He Xiaoliang wanted to delay Bai Shang's ascension to the sword cultivator realm, preferably to harm his foundation so he'd never ascend. If both were ascension-stage, they couldn't fight. At least for the next thousand or eight hundred years, two mortal enemies on the same continent would only glare at each other, both in an awkward position."
"Bai Shang wanted this battle to drop He Xiaoliang's realm by one or two levels, making her miss some great future opportunity. One step slow, every step slow. He wanted to ensure He Xiaoliang could never catch up in her lifetime. They both feared each other and were gambling on a permanent solution. He gambled that Bai Shang's cultivation aptitude wasn't that good and he couldn't break through just by going into seclusion. He gambled that He Xiaoliang's luck wasn't that good and she couldn't always be blessed on her cultivation path—she was bound to hit bad luck sometime."
Cao Rong asked, "That Pure Yang Taoist said he was an old acquaintance of Master and owed you a favor."
Lu Chen replied, "Owing a favor isn't quite right. Brother Pure Yang once traveled with the White Bone True Man to Green Emerald City, and he got along well with your master."
Those who achieve immortal longevity do not walk the corpse path. As one of Lu Chen's seven minds, the White Bone True Man clearly did the opposite.
Taoist priests practice the Way; they are people who walk the great Dao. Those who gaze long into eternity have sufficiently long Dao ages; live long enough, and you can see many later travelers climb step by step to the mountaintop.
Lu Chen asked with a smile, "Did they fight so fiercely that the sky shattered and the earth shook?"
Cao Rong shook his head. "Bai Shang and that Pure Yang Taoist compared their sword techniques within the area of this mountaintop stone platform."
"In the end, the mountaintop was filled with sword aura so dense it was like water that had frozen. That's no exaggeration."
Cao Rong sighed, "One Taoist and one sword immortal, matching sword techniques against sword techniques. Unexpectedly, the Taoist won decisively."
Lu Chen was not surprised by this.
If Bai Shang, who had just ascended, could defeat Lu Yan, who had already proven the Dao three thousand years ago, that would have been the strange thing.
Pure Yang Lu Yan—it cannot be said for certain that he would inevitably rank among the world's top ten heroes. Lu Chen wouldn't guarantee that.
But taking a step back, Lu Yan becoming a candidate was beyond doubt.
Lu Chen chuckled. "The founding patriarch of the Golden Immortal Nunnery—what happened back then? What great crime did she commit to be expelled from Lingfei Temple? And why has she always been obsessed with restoring her lineage identity? Tell me about it."
Cao Rong honestly revealed the truth, "Back then, she was too eager to reach the upper five realms. She took a crooked path and secretly went into seclusion. As a result, she lost control of her Dao heart and fell into demonic obsession. I noticed the signs and had to forcibly drag her out of the illusion. If I had been a step slower, a celestial demon would have taken the chance to possess her. Her crime deserved death, and expelling her from the mountain was already lenient."
Lu Chen lamented, "I remember when you reached the immortal realm years ago, I stepped out of the ancestral hall portrait. Later, during a walk on the mountain, I saw her."
When Taoists in the Haoran world, such as those from Lingfei Temple or Peace Mountain, ascend to the Heavenly Lord realm, they can invite down one of the three patriarchs from the Grand Capital of Jade.
For the duration of one incense stick.
At that time, she was still an innocent young girl, with a pointed chin and round eyes. When she saw the Taoist crown on Lu Chen's head, she insisted on accusing him of the crime of overstepping his authority.
If she were clever, she would have guessed his identity and the reason. If she were a bit slower, she might have held back and found a chance to report to her sect elders.
In the complex world, human innocence is like a sword without a sheath; it can only be hung on a wall called childhood or youth.
Perhaps one can occasionally return to the hometown of the heart and gaze at it a few times, but it cannot always be carried along.
Lu Chen said with a half-smile, "Lord Cao, you're not being honest."
Cao Rong looked embarrassed, guessing why his master was teasing him, and had to steel himself and say, "Junior Sister He was afraid of being punished by Master, so she asked me to help cover it up."
It turned out that before setting out, He Xiaoliang had already decided to sacrifice a cave heaven and suffer a realm drop as the price to stop Bai Shang's breakthrough.
It was only because Bai Shang's emergence from seclusion and breakthrough was too fast that this loss-making deal, which could be described as "kill five hundred enemies at the cost of a thousand of your own," fell through.
Lu Chen couldn't be bothered to dwell on such matters. He said, "When you get back, inform the Xiang Lord to restore this woman's lineage identity in Lingfei Temple."
Cao Rong bowed and said, "As you command."
After leaving Pomo Peak, Chen Ping'an returned directly to the original location, where there was an ancient site.
An immortal can tread where ancients trod.
Earlier, following the records of a local county gazetteer, Chen Ping'an had indeed found an ancient mountain considered by locals to be the dwelling place of immortals. But the mountain temple had long been abandoned, no longer seeing the prosperous incense offerings recorded in history. However, beside an old stone path, he found several "frost pines" mentioned in the *Shanhai Supplement*. These ancient pines could condense lunar essence without dissipating; under the moonlight, their needles glittered like snow.
Chen Ping'an gazed at those ancient pines, considering two problems. His realm was insufficient to perform the upper-five-realm technique of taking heaven and earth into his sleeve. Not even a "diminutive object" could contain these ancient trees, let alone a "nearby object." So, should he move them or not, and how?
Carrying the pines on his shoulder as he flew through the sea of clouds would be a bit too ridiculous.
At Luopo Mountain.
Chen Ping'an walked out of the first floor of the bamboo building, gently rubbing his wrist. In the night, he looked into the distance. Stars hung low over the vast plains, heaven and earth seemed to merge, as if one only needed to gallop swiftly to reach the end of the sky.
Because he had run into Lu Chen at Hehuan Mountain, he had taken out a series of related books here, including "Great Meanings of the Five Elements: Seven Regulators," "Astronomical Instructions," "Treatise on Harmonics and Calendar," "Monthly Orders from the Book of Rites," and also "The Pheasant-Cap Master" and "Star Chart of Celestial Phenomena" borrowed from the Yellow Flower Temple in Tongye Prefecture. He had already read them several times and knew them by heart, just reviewing old knowledge.
Along the bluestone path, he approached Old Cook's residence. From afar, he heard the trademark laughter of Chen Lingjun and Zheng Dafeng. Chen Ping'an knew with his knees what they were doing—watching flower-water mirror? He thought about turning away, but after a moment's hesitation, he stepped over the threshold and went to the side room. Both doors were open; he stood at the doorway, leaning against the frame, hands in sleeves. Inside, the room's table was piled high with spirit artifacts used to watch the flower-water mirror. At the moment, it displayed a landscape painting of a minor immortal estate in Vase Bottle Continent, where a graceful immortal maiden walked slowly. Zheng Dafeng rubbed his mouth and commented, "Nonsense!" Chen Lingjun saw the woman sit by the dressing table and begin to braid her hair; the azure-clad little boy snickered, "The moment I see her tying her hair, I know things aren't simple..."
Xian Wei was also there. In the past, some of the words from Brother Dafeng and Fellow Daoist Jingqing had been incomprehensible to him, but now this gatekeeper understood them at once.
Thus, Chen Lingjun often praised him for his insight.
Only Old Cook sat alone in another spot, watching a flower-water mirror about a scholar taking the imperial exam traveling through a haunted house at night. He held a plate of stir-fried soybeans, tossing a few into his mouth. He was just at the part where, outside a boudoir pavilion, a white and a red garment swirled in the air without falling.
Old Cook stood up to offer his seat, but Chen Ping'an didn't want to disturb their enjoyment. He waved his hand and left.
He went to the mountain path, where Cen Yuanji was still practicing her fists. Her gaze toward the young mountain lord these days was no longer as guarded as before.
In the past, Chen Ping'an got angry just thinking about it. That old cook's house was full of perverts, young and old, not a single upright person. Why didn't you guard against them, but instead guarded against me, an upright gentleman?
Walking up the steps, he thought of the "True Trace of the Crimson Book" given by Li Xisheng—a thin booklet recording over eighty kinds of talismans, divided into upper, middle, and lower grades, corresponding to the three tiers of Qi refiners.
Back when Lord Lu temporarily lent Chen Ping'an the Dao power of the fourteenth realm, the young Hidden Official hadn't idled. He had made "full use of everything." While traveling through Vase Bottle Continent, taking advantage of his incomparably high realm to "look down from above," he drew a considerable number of upper-grade talismans from the later pages of that book. However, even after that, including when he later challenged the Sword at Tuoyue Mountain, he never used them. More than three hundred talismans were all locked by Chen Ping'an in a small wooden box that had been "sealed in mountain"—truly his bottom-of-the-chest treasure.
Chen Ping'an arrived at the mountain gate and sat by the table.
Realms could be borrowed, but personally drawing talismans still required consuming the accumulated spiritual energy of one's own small heaven and earth. This loss of spiritual energy was the "capital" for drawing those three hundred talismans.
Estimating by the market price on the mountain, converting a cultivator's spiritual energy into spirit money, if Chen Ping'an chose to sell that box of talismans, he would not earn a little.
But because those talismans were of high quality, the seal-mountain restriction's quality also rose accordingly. At the time, Chen Ping'an thought that since he was already in the Jade Pu realm, breaking into the Immortal realm wouldn't be too hard, so he dug a considerable pit for himself. As a result, a trip to the Barren Wilderness directly dropped his realm to Nascent Soul, and he still hasn't returned to Jade Pu. He knows the pain well.
When a Qi refiner draws and activates a talisman, there are rules for opening and closing the door.
As for martial artists drawing talismans, spiritual energy flows out as quickly as a flood bursting through a dam—once