Chapter 739: Spring Breeze Elated

Chapter 739: Spring Breeze Elated

Zhou Mi seemed to have long planned everything. The ferry boat on which the two stood remained completely unchanged, but all other heavens and earths—including the Peach Leaf Ferry that carried the boat, the Great Spring Dynasty where Peach Leaf Ferry was located, Tongye Continent, and the entire Haoran World—had transformed into a sort of primordial void realm. Only the sun and moon hung in the sky like two lanterns, illuminating everything below as if upon a solitary phantom boat. Two immortals walked side by side through the void, crossing together the long river of time spanning millennia.

A series of lantern-slide images flickered and shifted on the ferry boat, radiating the unique seven-colored glassy hues of time's scroll. They cast a radiant glow upon the two opposing scholars, making them shine brilliantly like two ancient silent deities from eons past.

Qi Jingchun stood at the bow of the floating boat, surveying his surroundings, watching the multitude of time-scrolls that appeared and vanished abruptly. This blue-robed scholar, in truth, had traveled little during his lifetime. Among the direct disciples of the Sage of Literary Purity, he was the one who had traversed the fewest mountains and rivers. As a youth he studied; as a young man he immersed himself in scholarship. Later, he merely accompanied his senior brother—who wished to switch to swordsmanship—on a journey to lift his spirits, wandering through the Central Earth Divine Continent for a few short years. Yet even then, he had not visited many scenic wonders. After that came the calamity that befell their literary lineage. The Embroidery Tiger Cui Chan, who had betrayed the Sage of Literary Purity's lineage, ultimately chose Bottle Gourd Continent and became the Grand Scholar of the Great Li Dynasty. Qi Jingchun, seemingly turning into a bitter enemy, went directly against him, bringing two nominal disciples of the Sage's lineage—Mao Xiaodong and Ma Zhan—and the three of them traveled together to Bottle Gourd Continent. In the capital region of the Great Li Dynasty, they founded the Cliff Academy, one of the seventy-two Confucian academies, setting up obstacles at every turn to hinder Cui Chan. After that, Qi Jingchun served as the presiding sage of Pearl Fountain Cave Heaven for sixty years.

Zhou Mi, too, surveyed his surroundings, probing for subtle manifestations of the Great Way and leaked heavenly secrets. Soon he discovered traces: in the gaps between those time-scrolls, there were faint and delicate phenomena like flickering candle flames. Even when the candles moved far away, weak threads of residual fire remained in place, eventually linking together to form a clearly defined path—like a riverbed that carried the flow of time. If placed within the real mountains and rivers of Tongye Continent, this path would begin at the Divination Sect, Cry Heaven Street, the Huan Family's Eagle Castle, and run from west to east. At the border between Northern Jin and Great Spring, it passed through the Buried River Water God Temple, Peach Leaf Ferry, Zhaoping Peak, then northward to the Tianque Peak Ferry, heading from south to north. Among these, the former site of the Daoist Temple served as the most important central ferry crossing.

Although Zhou Mi found it strange that Qi Jingchun made no attempt to conceal anything, since there was nothing pressing, he casually revealed the heavenly secret: "So the route that Chen Ping'an once traveled through Tongye Continent is the 'anchor' lamp flames that your senior brother Cui Chan chose for you? That's why you weren't afraid earlier when I used the long river of time against the fourteenth-realm Bai Ye on Fuyao Continent? In other words, among the few thoughts that still remain in your mind, Qi Jingchun, one of the major ones is your junior brother Chen Ping'an? It seems your junior brother hasn't disappointed either of you two senior brothers. During his travels, whether intentionally or not, his thoughts were quite heavy, as if he were touring the mountains and rivers with someone else. That scholar who ended up as the last disciple of the Sage of Literary Purity probably didn't even realize himself that the first book he ever wrote was precisely this travelogue of mountains and waters. What a coincidence—it perfectly echoes Qi Jingchun's current journey through Tongye Continent today."

Qi Jingchun seemed completely oblivious, merely gazing at the time-scrolls.

Zhou Mi didn't think this was Qi Jingchun's doing; it was more likely the work of that Embroidery Tiger. Cui Chan's actions were more utilitarian.

No wonder Qi Jingchun, as soon as he appeared, dared to choose Tongye Continent as his battlefield—a great world that Zhou Mi already considered his own. Because the retreat route had already been paved by senior brother Cui Chan and junior brother Chen Ping'an working together.

This retreat path was like a child playing, casually placing two branches on the ground and then walking away, leaving the branches behind.

Or like a muddy puddle on a narrow alley road, where someone walking places stones one by one as they go.

Qi Jingchun's current state was rather peculiar: he had neither physical body nor true soul. Yet although he was a person without tangible form in an empty realm, he possessed the cultivation of the fourteenth realm.

Thus Qi Jingchun could hardly afford to let his mind wander; otherwise, he would break this mysterious state himself. In short, Qi Jingchun had long imprisoned himself, retaining only a few thoughts that could be called beliefs, cutting away everything else and turning himself into a puppet. Over so many years, he had always kept himself confined within a certain segment of the long river of time. The torment of this—how many people in the world could understand? No more than the fingers of one hand: the founders of the Three Teachings, Cui Chan, and Zhou Mi. Other fourteenth-realm cultivators, even if their cultivation was sufficient, ultimately did not understand the long river of time as thoroughly as these five.

So Qi Jingchun often gave irrelevant answers or talked to himself, basing everything on those few remaining thoughts. If additional thoughts arose, his Dao cultivation would be diminished.

Thus the ensuing battle between the two sides was vastly different from Bai Ye's alignment with poetry. Bai Ye, wielding his sword with poetry, remained at his peak cultivation as long as his poems were not exhausted. But Qi Jingchun's fourteenth-realm state would only continue to "descend the mountain."

Qi Jingchun wasn't in a hurry, so Zhou Mi certainly didn't care.

Zhou Mi suddenly laughed: "Now I know your reliance. So Pearl Fountain Cave Heaven, because of Qi Jingchun's sixty years of teaching, once nurtured a golden-bodied incense-fire figure that merged both literary and martial fortunes. But your choice isn't very good. Why not pick a more suitable clay statue from that Immortal Grave? Why choose this one, so badly damaged? Dao affinity? Nostalgia? Or just because it looked pleasing?"

With the sage-like power of speaking to manifest reality, Zhou Mi's words revealed the heavenly secret. Behind Qi Jingchun, a secret dharma manifestation appeared: a five-colored armored deity with mottled paint and a shattered golden body, yet wearing a jade hairpin on its head. Its armor scales were continuous, the edges adorned with two strings of beads, each bead round and full. Many arms were broken. Through the mountain-river fortune gathered by the golden figure, Qi Jingchun had used an unconventional method to temporarily reshape a complete soul. Then he took refuge in a Daoist Guardian Deity statue, using Buddhist nature to stabilize the "soul," finally conforming to a Buddhist principle: "Though the flame is extinguished, the lamp and furnace remain."

This was both the Confucian scholar's tireless pursuit of the unity of heaven and man, and what Buddhists call "far from inverted dreams, cutting off delusive thoughts, abiding in the fourth Radiant Wisdom Ground," and what Daoists call "stepping into the void, preserving stillness, the empty boat bright and clear."

Qi Jingchun paid no attention to Zhou Mi's words. He looked down at the path that seemed extremely slender compared to the great world—or rather, a segment of Chen Ping'an's heart-path when he had traveled through Tongye Continent in years past. Qi Jingchun deduced and evolved it a bit and discovered that the youth who had once carried a sword away from home and then returned, journeying through the world, had some heart-paths filled with joy—touring magnificent mountains and rivers with good friends—and some filled with sorrow, such as on the narrow streets of Eagle Castle, where he personally watched some children depart on their travels, and some rare moments of youthful spirit, such as in the Buried River Water God Temple, where the Little Master spoke of order and then collapsed in drunkenness.

The blue-robed scholar, who should not have let another thought arise, smiled faintly: "When the heart-lamp is lit, the night road becomes bright as day. In bitter cold and freezing ground, the Dao tree blooms eternal. Little junior brother has read quite a few books."

Qi Jingchun forcibly broke his so-called refined and sincere state of mind at that moment, murmuring: "Master is too busy. Cui Chan is too ruthless. Zuo You is too stubborn. I am too young, the burden too heavy. How could there be such a toilsome little junior brother in this world?"

Qi Jingchun didn't look at Zhou Mi: "Are you pleased and surprised that I would so undermine my own Dao? I taught you what 'only the essential, only the one' means, yet I actively withdraw from this state. A scholar like you—not only can you not achieve it, you won't even understand it. I know you don't believe me. This is very similar to Cui Dongshan when he first arrived at Pearl Fountain Cave Heaven. But don't think you and the Embroidery Tiger are kindred spirits. You don't deserve it. No matter how heretical Cui Chan is, he is still the first disciple of the Sage of Literary Purity, and still a Haoran scholar."

Zhou Mi smiled: "This isn't a debate among the Three Teachings. I won't engage in wordy disputes."

Qi Jingchun dismissed it with a smile. He first raised his sleeve to block the great sun that was Zhou Mi's heart-phantom. "If I do not see it, the heaven and earth do not exist." You, Zhou Mi, as the master of this world, have no say.

Then Qi Jingchun pressed his two fingers together, as if picking up a piece from a cosmic game board. The primordial void night, which had used the sun and moon as candles, was now left only with the bright moon. A vast, boundless sea of books was forced to appear. Moonlight reflected on the water. A snow-white chess piece rapidly condensed at Qi Jingchun's fingertip, like a sheet of rice paper being gently pulled up. The entire surface of the infinite sea of books instantly turned pitch-black like an ink pond.

Qi Jingchun released his fingers. The white piece hung motionless in the air. Then he obscured the bright moon and turned to pick up a black piece, causing the world's atmosphere, which had been like an ink pond, to restore brightness. Now only the great sun shone, everything snowy white.

Qi Jingchun said: "All shatter."

The black and white pieces suspended beside him lightly collided and shattered with a bang.

The two world prohibitions that Zhou Mi had secretly arranged earlier were thus broken and vanished without a trace.

Zhou Mi frowned slightly. He flicked his sleeve and extended his two fingers as well. At his fingertips he caught two casually written black-and-white characters—the true names of two great demons manifested in Zhou Mi's heart-lake: the Lotus Nunnery Master and the Throne Armor Yao.

Zhou Mi returned the favor, shaking his head: "Cliff Academy? That academy's name is ill-omened. Thunder splits the cliff, karmic catastrophe falls from above, so you, Qi Jingchun, can't avoid it."

If Qi Jingchun dodged, the karmic consequences would afflict the entire Pearl Fountain Cave Heaven and implicate the mountain-river fortune of the whole Bottle Gourd Continent. Then the Great Li Dynasty, which is now one country equals one continent, would lose thirty to forty percent of its literary and martial fortune. In that case, the goblin army of the Barbarian World would now be near the auxiliary capital instead of being stubbornly blocked at the Southern March border. But the Embroidery Tiger Cui Chan wouldn't care much about this—he would simply contract the front line, making the continent's defense formation tighter, eventually stationing troops on both sides of the Central Great River (which would probably be renamed), guarding the auxiliary capital. If that happened, the Barbarian World would suffer fewer losses, but Zhou Mi would find it even more troublesome.

"Then I shall heed the ancients and command the ghosts to grind the cliff."

As Zhou Mi's words settled, three scenes appeared one after another in the void all around: a line-drawn map of Bottle Gourd Continent, a Cliff Academy that had not yet moved to Great Sui, and a small schoolhouse in a town within Pearl Fountain Cave Heaven.

All three scenes were Zhou Mi's heart-phantom illusions, yet they could well be the true heart-lake scenes of the fourteenth-realm Qi Jingchun.

Such dharma powers that didn't settle on anything solid were meaningless to anyone else, but they were useful against Qi Jingchun in his current state.

One after another, remnants of ancient deities trod upon an entire continent's mountains and rivers, instantly causing the land to sink. A sudden storm fell upon Cliff Academy, drowning out the sound of reading. A small cave heaven condensed as a Pearl was crushed and split apart by heavenly tribulation.

Qi Jingchun let Zhou Mi display his dharma powers, killing the so-called three truths in his own mind. He smiled: "Zhou Mi of the Barbarian World's literary sea has indeed read many books. Three million volumes in his collection, great and small heavens... well, a Pavilion of Ten Thousand Volumes, with only three hundred and some heavens and earths."

Zhou Mi nodded: "It's no great skill, but one can't help being nostalgic."

Qi Jingchun asked with a smile: "Just bumbling about like a headless fly? Aren't you willing to use your ultimate tricks? Don't want me to see the image of my junior brother in your heart? Or are you worried about someone else, making longer plans?"

Zhou Mi laughed in answer: "This isn't a schoolteacher and a novice. When a student asks, the teacher doesn't have to explain."

Ordinarily, once Zhou Mi detected that lamp-lit heart-path, the first person he should kill was the young Hidden Officer of the Sword Qi Great Wall.

And through Li Zhen's year-after-year observations, conversations, and provocations on the other shore, then later cross-checking the scenes of the long river of time seen by Li Zhen and "Lu Fayen"—one near and one far—Zhou Mi's understanding of Chen Ping'an was not shallow. Add to that Zhou Mi's direct disciple, the sword cultivator Liu Bai. The mountain-river prohibitions set up during the Sixty-Year Account were originally the work of "Lu Fayen," or rather Zhou Mi. The young Hidden Officer couldn't see the light of day, but Zhou Mi saw him completely unobstructed—every word, every action, even changes in his state of mind, without omission.

The only flaw was that young man—whether it was sheer luck or habitual caution—Zhou Mi couldn't find an entry point into his heart. Otherwise, Zhou Mi's yin spirit travel would have settled in Chen Ping'an's heart-lake. Using the young Hidden Officer's personal small world to isolate Zhou Mi from the great world of the Sword Qi Great Wall, "Lu Fayen" would eventually have become a new Chen Ping'an.

Zhou Mi dared not say this scheme would definitely succeed, but if the young Hidden Officer made even one misstep, it would be total defeat.

During this time, that travelogue of mountains and waters actually caused a lot of trouble. It should have been a joint brilliant move between Cui Chan and Zhou Mi, each displaying their skills. At that time, Zhou Mi instructed Li Zhen to hand over the book so that Chen Ping'an, bored and confined in one place, could read it. Zhou Mi thought it would be an opportunity to break the deadlock, at least causing ripples in Chen Ping'an's state of mind. But unexpectedly, it made Chen Ping'an's Dao heart even more resilient. As if after just flipping through the book once, he immediately detected the Embroidery Tiger Cui Chan's intention.

A scholar might escape the cage of profit, but not necessarily the world of "fame."

So when Li Zhen handed over that travelogue, Zhou Mi had already refined six characters before Chen Ping'an, concealing four sparks of spiritual light within them: specifically on the characters "Yellow Bird" and "Fish Dragon" in the fourth chapter. This was to guard against Cui Chan. In addition, there were also the characters "Ning" and "Yao," each hiding a particle of divinity that Zhou Mi had stripped away, intended to disturb the young Hidden Officer's mind. Unexpectedly, from beginning to end, Chen Ping'an refined the characters but never placed them in his heart-lake; instead, using a pseudo-jade technique, he stored them in his sleeve universe.

At that time, "Lu Fayen," who had already become Zhou Mi's combined yin spirit, made an exception to appear and chat with Chen Ping'an on the city wall. One of the matters was to completely eliminate those spiritual lights and divinities, and then use the reverse flow of the long river of time to make Chen Ping'an completely unaware.

From this, it could be seen that the Embroidery Tiger truly didn't care about this little junior brother's life. If any link in the chain went wrong, Chen Ping'an would no longer be Chen Ping'an.

Or perhaps the heart-testing game of "Chen Ping'an" and "Qingzhu Lake" in that travelogue was also a kind of inconceivable Dao protection by Cui Chan? To place a youth in such a precarious situation, surrounded by human heart’s demons, where his true self's Dao heart could collapse at any time so early?

The robe on Xiao Xun was refined from the fortune of three continents. Zuo You's sword strike was equivalent to striking the Master himself. Yet Zuo You still cut down without hesitation.

And Qi Jingchun was such a fourteenth-realm cultivator.

Add to that the young Hidden Officer of the Sword Qi Great Wall and the Embroidery Tiger Cui Chan of Bottle Gourd Continent.

The direct disciples of the Sage of Literary Purity—setting aside their realm and cultivation—how had they cultivated their hearts? What kind of minds did they have?

Zhou Mi felt some genuine admiration and withdrew the three futile heart-phantom worlds.

He clasped his hands behind his back: "If you hadn't appeared, many of my hidden trump cards would have been unknown to the world. If I lose, I blame fate; if I win, I rely on luck. Qi Jingchun, just watch."

This boundless, infinite sea of books appeared intact but was in fact crisscrossed, with many great and small worlds overlapping marvelously, arranged in a layered fashion. Within this great world, even the long river of time no longer existed. But after losing the two "blinding spells" that were both world prohibitions and fourteenth-realm cultivators, a pavilion that Zhou Mi had been hiding appeared. It connected heaven and earth, and was one of the fundamental Great Ways in Zhou Mi's heart. The pavilion had three floors. On each floor sat a person. On the first floor was a gaunt blue-robed skeleton scholar—the manifestation of the disheartened Jia Sheng's state of mind. On the second floor was an old man with a clear, gaunt face and a bamboo flute at his waist—this was the appearance of "Lu Fayen," the transmitter of Qieyun, symbolizing Zhou Mi's new identity in the Barbarian World. At the highest, the top floor, was a young scholar around twenty years old, with dim eyes and a hunched posture. Two completely different auras—high-spirited and vigorous versus gloomy and decaying—appeared in turns, alternating like the sun and moon. The Jia Sheng of yesteryear, and the Zhou Mi of today, united into one.

Qi Jingchun didn't need to look far; the scene of that pavilion was clearly visible in every detail. On the first floor, books were piled like mountains, arranged with great care. One pile was in the shape of Sui Mountain. In addition to displaying a set of Five Book Mountains painted by Master San Shan Jiu Hou—the oldest true form maps of the Five Sacred Mountains—Zhou Mi had also whimsically refined countless characters, millions of them, and on the first floor of the pavilion stood nine grand Suppression Towers. Among them, the Sword Suppression Tower and the Bai Ze Suppression Tower were built with the most care. The books selected there were of great significance.

On the second floor of the pavilion: a gold-brocaded zither, a broken chess game, several calligraphy rubbings, a poetry collection specializing in five-character quatrains. On the wall hung a couplet befitting a scholar's study, and beside the couplet, a long sword was slantingly hung.

Qi Jingchun ignored that Zhou Mi and instead seemed to let his mind wander freely among the three million volumes, casually flipping through them.

With "stillness" he concentrated his spirit, with "spring breeze" he turned the pages.

Among the three hundred-plus great and small worlds, stacked and overlapping high and low, large and small, crooked and tilted, were placed the books of ancient worthies—many of them rare editions that Qi Jingchun had never had the chance to read during his lifetime.

Zhou Mi smiled faintly: "My lifelong favorite is the five-character quatrain. Twenty characters are like twenty immortals. If Liu Cha only cares about his own feelings and refuses to obey my command to draw his sword even once, then I shall have to use the Qieyun posture to make him ask the sword of the pure Confucian of Southern Pipa Continent. In my heart, I have manifested twenty sword immortals, just enough to compose a five-character quatrain titled 'Sword Immortals.'"

"From the ancient times, ten in total. Among them, Chen Qingdu, Guan Zhao, and Dragon Lord lived the longest. I was fortunate enough to witness each of them draw their swords. From the later generations, ten sword cultivators, still without ranking, each with their own purity and style: Yu Dou of the White Jade Capital, the most proud Bai Ye, Zhao Xuan Su of the Dragon Tiger Mountain who dared to go beyond the heavens and more daringly to die, the current Great Celestial Master Zhao Tian Lai who dares to come to Tongye Continent, Sun Huai Zhong of the Grand Mysterious Capital Temple who lends his sword to others, the young Dong San Geng who travels the Barbarian World alone, Chen Xi who nearly fought the Old Blind Man to the death over a sword, the bearded and heroic Liu Cha, A Liang who is the least like a scholar of the Yasheng lineage, and Zuo You of your Sage of Literary Purity lineage."

"In addition, Xiao Xun who is without good or evil and free in nature, Ning Yao of the Ascending City whose Dao path is promising, Liu Cai of the future, and Chen Ping'an, on whom you Qi Jingchun have placed great hopes—all can be considered candidates."

Qi Jingchun seemed, for once, to be listening to Zhou Mi's words, but he still divided his attention, flipping through books without stopping.

Zhou Mi looked up at the young Jia Sheng self on the top floor of the pavilion.

Inside the top floor, an incense burner sat on a book, which in turn rested on a straw-woven cushion.

Zhou Mi muttered to himself: "In the human world, an unmoored boat; the spirit to slay ghosts and cut down villains, I once had. But what heaven and earth cannot bind—the heart to cultivate the golden elixir and pursue the Dao—I truly do not possess."

Qi Jingchun glanced at the pavilion: "You chose to use books to oppose the world. To keep company with antiquity. To befriend heaven. But you only watch human hearts for your own freedom. Don't think that just because the Central Earth Confucian Temple accepted your Thirteen Policies for Peace, it will truly bring eternal peace. That cannot be done."

When Cui Chan was young, receiving teachings from his master, he once said: "A truly strong country, in times of peace, has the power to invade other nations but chooses to coexist peacefully. Within its borders, it cultivates farming and learning, and unites the hearts of its people. It is about people interlocking like mortise and tenon. It is about travelers and those at home never growing distant. It is about letting more people who have never read the sage's books still understand reason without knowing the words."

The old scholar quietly stood at the door, gently clapping and laughing, as if this pleased him more than winning a debate among the Three Teachings.

That was the first time Zuo You volunteered that they could drink that day.

That day, after drinking, the old scholar was in an exceptionally good mood. Emboldened by the liquor, he stepped onto a long bench, raised his arm high, splashing wine without care, and spoke cheerfully. It was a self-questioning and self-answering by the master: "What is a childlike heart? It has little to do with whether a deed is heroic or grand, nor with a person's age. Some people burn the bridge after crossing the river; others insist on paving roads and building bridges. Some people pick up their bowl to eat and put down their chopsticks to curse their mother; others silently clean up the tableware and worry whether the table and stools are steady. Some think growing up means becoming worldly and slick; others believe that growth means bearing more suffering for oneself and others. Some think strength means being unfettered, a pure freedom of self-existence; others feel that to become strong is to do something for this world!"

That was also the first time Zuo You said that Ming'er could also drink.

But he added a note: let Xiao Qi set up a stall to earn money; he and his senior brother would be responsible for livening up the atmosphere. The big guy should stay away, he'd only scare customers away.

Many of the books turned by the spring breeze began to disappear into thin air. In Zhou Mi's heart, the great and small worlds instantly diminished by several dozen.

If it were an upper-fifth-realm sword cultivator, even if they exerted all their strength and could strike without consuming any spiritual energy, it would take years to eliminate so many world prohibitions.

Zhou Mi seemed somewhat helpless: "With this distraction, you give rise to other thoughts. Is stealing books not considered theft for a scholar?"

Qi Jingchun glanced at the pavilion. Zhou Mi too wanted to use the Three Teachings' knowledge from others to sharpen his Dao heart, taking a shortcut to break through the bottleneck of the fourteenth realm.

To climb even higher, ascend the tower and then ascend to heaven, Zhou Mi wished to rise above heaven itself.

As for the so-called collection of three million volumes, the great and small worlds, and the three-story heart-phantom pavilion—all were just deceptions. For Zhou Mi at this stage, they could be had or not.

Zhou Mi shook his head: "Not easy."

Qi Jingchun smiled faintly: "The bookworm eats books; it can devour countless characters, but it consumes too few principles. That's why after you ascended to the fourteenth realm, you found yourself on a dead-end road. You can only combine with great demons outside of eating characters. Since it's so difficult, how about I help you? Your heaven and earth are uneven? What a coincidence—I have a personal character. May I lend it to you?"

Zhou Mi shook his head: "Forget about borrowing the character 'Qi.' I'm afraid that Xu Jun of Zhaoling would risk his life and wealth, joining forces with Cui Chan, to ruin my Dao. Whether you devour my three million volumes and annex all the heavens and earths, then completely disappear together into the Haoran world, or I devour a rare fourteenth-realm cultivator to break through my bottleneck—between you and me, we can indeed make a wager."

Qi Jingchun finally began to examine the books of the Three Teachings. First, he selected rare editions and fine copies. Then, whether he had read them or not, they were all turned by the spring breeze. One by one, the books vanished, merging into Qi Jingchun's fourteenth-realm Great Dao.

Zhou Mi frowned slightly.

As Qi Jingchun turned more books, the dharma manifestation behind him began to gradually crumble. On his left and right sides, two Qi Jingchuns appeared, their blurry forms slowly becoming clear.

One was solemn and dignified, the other gaunt and withered. In the middle, Qi Jingchun remained the blue-robed scholar with graying temples.

Zhou Mi gradually relaxed his brow.

Let Qi Jingchun eat enough books, allow him to achieve the "union of the Three Teachings," and establish his own sect in Zhou Mi's heart—so be it.

Qi Jingchun then, in one go, finished turning and then "borrowed" all three million volumes.

Suddenly, Zhou Mi's heartstrings tightened. Without a word, for the first time, he exerted his full dharma power. In all three hundred and sixty-five of his spiritual mansions, great demons from the Barbarian World, sword cultivators from the Sword Qi Great Wall, and reincarnations of divine remnants were all refined by Zhou Mi as life-bound objects, each responsible for sitting in the various human-body cave heavens and blessed lands.

It turned out that Zhou Mi's union with the Dao had completely refined both his soul and body into a combined state of cave heavens and blessed lands.

Thus, Zhou Mi himself was equivalent to a brand-new world, truly deserving of the name!

Once Qi Jingchun achieved the union of the Three Teachings in this world, even if he reached the fifteenth realm, it would certainly not be stable. And Zhou Mi, having the first move and occupying heaven, earth, and man, Qi Jingchun's chance of victory was indeed slim.

But Zhou Mi had never imagined that this pair of senior and junior brothers would make such a mad, irrational move.

Qi Jingchun's fourteenth realm indeed couldn't last much longer, but what if that Embroidery Tiger ascended to the fourteenth realm? Using Zhou Mi's three million books, the two sides' realms might exchange one old for one new?

In the auxiliary capital of central Bottle Gourd Continent, "Embroidery Tiger Cui Chan" raised one hand, forming a spring character seal, and smiled: "When in doubt, still ask my spring breeze."

And this "Qi Jingchun" in Zhou Mi's heart-phantom within Tongye Continent suddenly shook his head and burst into loud laughter: "Jia Sheng's schemes truly disappoint."

The End