# Chapter 4093: The Final Instructions
In the Sword Realm, on Azure Wood Continent.
Beneath the rugged mountain, there stretched an endless peach forest. It was the season of blooming peach blossoms—pink and fragrant, with falling petals drifting down like a scene from a painting, intoxicating all who entered.
Zhang Ruochen walked upstream along a glacier-fed stream, with green stones serving as steps, his body and mind filled with joy.
The ancient peach trees here, planted who knows how many tens of thousands of years ago, were all astonishingly beautiful. Some took root on cliff faces, their flowering branches extending to cover half a mountain peak. Others towered into the clouds, their roots thicker than a human body, lacking the delicate fragility of mortal peach trees.
In the forest, streams babbled, and the calls of tree sparrows, cuckoos, white swallows, and all kinds of birds interwove. In the distance, snow-capped mountains gleamed white—a breathtaking landscape.
After walking for three hours, he reached the mountainside and emerged from the forest to see a pavilion built at the edge of a cliff.
In the pavilion, Yun Qing and Xu Rulai sat facing each other on straw mats, drinking peach blossom tea and discussing all kinds of interesting tales from around the world.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen appear, both were slightly startled and immediately rose to greet him.
"Godfather!"
Yun Qing walked out of the pavilion, standing in the spring sunlight, and bowed to Zhang Ruochen.
Xu Rulai pressed his palms together and said, "Greetings, Imperial Dust Lord."
Zhang Ruochen stepped into the shade of a tree and smiled. "What a coincidence! Has Master Candela also come to the rugged mountain?"
Behind him came the sound of footsteps.
Master Candela, dressed in spotless white Buddhist robes, every inch of his skin seeming to glow, carried a bamboo basket filled to the brim with peach blossoms. He laughed and said, "I heard that the Yama Clan Chief, the White Clothes Valley Master, and the Ancient God Panyuan—many of the world's top experts—have all gone to the Origin Divine Temple to visit you. Why have you come to the rugged mountain instead?"
Master Candela brushed past Zhang Ruochen, entered the pavilion, sat down, and added freshly picked peach blossoms to the pot on the stove.
The pot was made of clay, and the water was already boiling.
Zhang Ruochen followed him inside. "They all came for the Cause-Effect Qin. Every one of them wants to master a power that can contend with an Ancestor."
After returning to the Wuding Divine Sea, Zhang Ruochen had spread the news about the Cause-Effect Qin.
Of course, he only publicly announced the divine ability known as "Orchid and Mugwort Burn Together."
The cultivators of this era, including the Half-Ancestors, all lived under the shadow of the Ancestors, with no countermeasures whatsoever. Even wanting to self-destruct one's Divine Source was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
This feeling of powerlessness was all the more unbearable for the stronger cultivators.
When news of the Great Venerable's divine ability "Orchid and Mugwort Burn Together" spread, it naturally attracted great interest. Everyone knew that since Zhang Ruochen had leaked this information, he was looking for an owner for the Cause-Effect Qin.
He was asking the cultivators of the world: Who dares to die?
The Orchid and Mugwort Burn Together, the Cause-Effect Qin, and the cultivator himself—all three burning together, only to exchange one's life for the enemy's. Such deterrence would make even an Ancestor think twice.
In recent days, no fewer than ten Heavenly Venerable-rank and Half-Ancestor experts had visited Zhang Ruochen.
Master Candela asked, "Have you already sent the Cause-Effect Qin away?"
Zhang Ruochen shook his head. "The reason I spread the news and let the powerful from all sides come to me was only to cover up the truth."
Master Candela said, "You didn't want the Ancestors to know in advance who you gave the Cause-Effect Qin to, so you used this method to confuse them. But you could have simply not made the Orchid and Mugwort Burn Together divine ability public. Wouldn't that have been more surprising?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Making it public is meant to make the Ancestors from all sides restrain themselves a bit, so they can't do whatever they want."
Master Candela nodded with understanding, opened the steaming teapot, and poured a full cup of flower tea for Zhang Ruochen. "So, who did you choose as the owner of the Cause-Effect Qin? It wouldn't be this humble monk, would it?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Would the Master be willing to burn together with an Ancestor using the Orchid and Mugwort Burn Together?"
"Unwilling!"
Master Candela said, "Anyone who has the confidence to assault the Ancestor realm would be unwilling."
Zhang Ruochen seemed thoughtful. "Actually, among the cultivators who came to visit me, one convinced me. I had already made the decision to give him the Cause-Effect Qin."
"Who?" Master Candela asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, "The White Clothes Valley's Nutian Shenzun. He said he is the son of the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, the most qualified to inherit this divine ability, the one who can best resonate with it, and the one most likely to activate it in front of an Ancestor. Any other Heavenly Venerable-rank, or even Half-Ancestor, would probably die at the Ancestor's hands before they could even trigger this divine ability."
Master Candela remained calm and natural. "That is indeed an advantage no one else can match! But why haven't you sent the Cause-Effect Qin out yet?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "The time is not yet right! Besides the Orchid and Mugwort Burn Together divine ability, the Cause-Effect Qin also has a divine ability called Returning and Departing. I want to find an owner for this divine ability first."
"This humble monk can accept this divine ability," Master Candela said with a smile.
"Stop joking! If you were to take off your Buddhist robes, even an Ancestor would probably be helpless against you. Why would you need this divine ability?"
Zhang Ruochen lifted his cup. On the surface floated three or four translucent petals. He took a sip. "Truly fragrant. Such a familiar taste. Yun Qing, where is your father?"
"Father is on the hill! Every year when the peach blossoms bloom, he says he remembers someone, but he has forgotten who that person is or what they looked like. He only knows that the flowers bloom year after year, and there is always an inexplicable melancholy," Yun Qing said.
Zhang Ruochen frowned, unsure whether to be happy or sad for him.
That year, in the Illusory Star Sea, Peach Blossom's death had been too tragic. Forgetting was a good thing.
Back then, Zhang Ruochen had asked A Le to send Peach Blossom, who had become a Corpse of Time, into the starry sky, hoping he would forget the past and emerge from his pain.
He seemed to have succeeded, yet also seemed not to have.
Zhang Ruochen said softly, "And you? Have you also forgotten?"
"Godfather is referring to Mother? I only have a familiar yet unfamiliar shadow deep in my memory. I want to paint it, but I can never capture it," Yun Qing said.
"You were still young then. It's normal not to remember."
Zhang Ruochen let out a long sigh.
A person lives a life—cries, laughs, enjoys glory. They seem important, seem to leave traces. But in reality, everything is illusory. After death, there are no traces left.
Zhang Ruochen carried the teapot and went alone to the top of the hill, where he saw A Le sitting under a tree, gazing at the sky.
It was as if he were looking at the clear blue sky, tracing the paths of the white clouds; or as if he were just lost in thought, recalling bits and pieces of the past.
Zhang Ruochen said, "The peach blossom's blooming period is the shortest—dying after ten days. But it flourishes brilliantly, its fragrance spreading for a hundred miles, everywhere a splash of thick ink and vibrant color. When the spring breeze comes again next year, the peach blossoms will still bloom for you."
After a long time, A Le seemed to come back to life. "You're leaving?"
"In a few days," Zhang Ruochen said.
A Le took the teapot and asked, "Will you come back?"
Zhang Ruochen sat down with his back to A Le. "To others, I would say I will definitely return. To you, I'll tell you the truth: perhaps I won't come back."
"Any instructions? Kill someone?" A Le asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, "This time is different. I want you to save someone."
"Save who?" A Le asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, "I don't know! Save whoever you think should be saved. I'm leaving the Cause-Effect Qin with you. No one will guess that I left it with you, so you'll have the chance to use it. After using it, send the qin to the White Clothes Valley."
"Alright!"
A Le held the teapot with both hands. "I toast you with this pot of tea. May you be like these peach blossoms, blooming again next year. I will still be waiting for you at the rugged mountain."
The tea in the pot was all poured onto the ground.
...
Zhang Ruochen rode a small boat made of divine wood, traveling along the Santu River toward the Hell Realm.
His speed was slow; there was no rush to get there.
Inside the boat, he opened a corner of his Divine Realm World.
The towering and imposing Nether City was situated on this land.
On the city walls, war flags fluttered in the wind. The bricks were like demon iron. Within the city, halls and towers stood in rows, with divine platforms rising one after another.
Wind and thunder, eighty thousand towers; corpses and ghosts forged the Nether City.
This Nether City had been built by Corpse Yan and Ghost Mother for the Nether Ancestor, forming one of the four parts of the Nether Ancestor's Divine Realm World.
The other three parts—the Nether Sea, the Nether River, and the Nether Kingdom—contained Dao that Zhang Ruochen had already comprehended.
He only needed to make up for the Dao contained in the Nether City to have a chance to light up the fortieth cluster of Dao Light, truly reaching the Minor Perfection Realm and stepping into the Half-Ancestor level.
The divine wood boat drifted downstream, merging from a tributary into the main river, entering the Santu River basin, and then sailing westward for five hundred years.
In those five hundred years, all cultivators knew that Zhang Ruochen had left the Wuding Divine Sea and left the Sword Realm, but no one knew where he had gone.
Even Half-Ancestors and Ancestors tried to calculate his location, but all failed.
This disappearance did not cause much of a stir, because everyone knew that Zhang Ruochen would appear again one day, and someone would surely force him to act.
After finishing comprehending the Daoist rules within the Nether City, Zhang Ruochen began attempting to trace them.
"Swoosh!"
The first Rule Divine Mark was traced.
It was exactly the same as the Ancestor Rule Divine Mark that the Nether Ancestor had left in the Nether City.
It could be said that with Zhang Ruochen's current abilities, if he pretended to be the Nether Ancestor, he could absolutely fool the vast majority of cultivators in the Nether Ancestor faction.
Zhang Ruochen lightly flicked his finger, and this Ancestor Rule Divine Mark flew into the fortieth cluster of Dao Light.
"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh..."
Zhang Ruochen continuously traced Ancestor Rule Divine Marks, and the fortieth cluster of Dao Light grew brighter and brighter.
Just as the Dao Light was about to reach a critical point, the forty clusters of Dao Light within Zhang Ruochen's body, which had been operating in an orderly manner, began to spin chaotically, faster and faster, exceeding his ability to control.
"Not good!"
Zhang Ruochen wanted to release the forty clusters of Dao Light from his Primordial Embryo to prevent his body from exploding, but the Primordial Embryo began to contract inward instead.
Both the outward and inward forces exceeded what Zhang Ruochen himself could currently control. If this continued, the result would likely be the complete annihilation of his divine form.
Forced to do so, Zhang Ruochen had to withdraw the Ancestor Rule Divine Marks he had just injected into the fortieth cluster of Dao Light.
Gradually, the forty clusters of Dao Light within the Primordial Embryo calmed down and resumed their stable, orderly operation. But the light of the fortieth cluster dimmed by half.
Clearly, this attempt to reach Minor Perfection had ended in failure.
"This step is indeed not that simple."
Zhang Ruochen let out a long breath and looked at the thick layer of dust on his body.
He stood up, and divine qi vibrated from the inside out, scattering the dust.
He walked out of the Nether City and the Divine Realm World, reappearing on the divine wood boat.
Xiu Chen Heavenly God, sitting at the bow of the boat, said, "You close your eyes and open them, and five hundred years have passed. Don't you care at all about the outside world?"
"The world will still function normally without me, Zhang Ruochen," Zhang Ruochen said.
Xiu Chen Heavenly God asked, "Did you break through?"
Zhang Ruochen shook his head.
Xiu Chen Heavenly God said, "I knew it wouldn't be that easy! If you had broken through again, your combat power would absolutely be able to go head-to-head with an Ancestor. This is a realm that countless geniuses throughout history have dreamed of. If you could achieve it just by closing and opening your eyes, how many people would it infuriate to death?"
The No-Self Lamp hanging at the bow of the boat said, "Five hundred years have passed. Where exactly are we going?"
"We've arrived!"
Zhang Ruochen looked ahead along the Santu River. The Abyss of Darkness defense line was now visible.
On the defense line, stretching over a thousand light-years, one could clearly see the two World Trees where Fengdu Ghost City and the Fate Divine Domain were located. Beyond the defense line, the deeper universe was a vast darkness and emptiness.
Zhang Ruochen went to Fengdu Ghost City and secretly visited Fengdu Dadi.
"Over these five hundred years, the Imperial Dust Lord has made all the cultivators of the world search high and low. Where have you been?" Fengdu Dadi asked.
Zhang Ruochen did not directly answer this question. "Curious about where I've been? Why isn't the Great Emperor curious about where the missing Xu Fengjin, Meng Ge, and Ming Bone have gone?"
"Actually, I do know where they went. Before leaving, Xu Fengjin told me his destination and said that if he hadn't returned within a thousand years, I should go to help him," Fengdu Dadi said.
Zhang Ruochen smiled faintly. "That old ghost Xu! Will the Great Emperor go?"
"I will, I definitely will. I should have gone long ago, but I thought the Imperial Dust Lord's disappearance meant you had gone yourself. Now it seems that's not the case. Five hundred years without return—things must be going very badly for Xu Fengjin," Fengdu Dadi said.
Zhang Ruochen observed Fengdu Dadi's ghostly body, tens of thousands of miles tall. "Has the Great Emperor refined the Ancestor Realm left by the Yellow Spring Great Emperor?"
"That's right! Living in this era, one must do everything possible to enhance one's own strength. Every bit of improvement increases one's chance of survival," Fengdu Dadi said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "If I had a way to help the Great Emperor increase his combat power by another two points, how would the Great Emperor repay me?"
As he spoke, Zhang Ruochen took out the Yellow Spring Seal and the Yellow Spring Great Emperor's Ancestor Divine Source, suspending them in the void between him and Fengdu Dadi.
Fengdu Dadi said, "What price does the Imperial Dust Lord want?"
"Help me do two things," Zhang Ruochen said.
Fengdu Dadi was very straightforward. "Alright, the Imperial Dust Lord may speak freely."
"I won't say them now! I trust the Great Emperor's character, and I also trust the value of the Yellow Spring Seal and the Ancestor Divine Source. The Great Emperor will have his own measure."
Seeing the confusion in Fengdu Dadi's eyes, Zhang Ruochen smiled and left, leaving only one sentence: "The Great Emperor will understand soon enough!"
Leaving Fengdu Ghost City, Zhang Ruochen gazed at the brilliant star clouds of the Yellow Spring Star River, trying as much as possible to clear his mind of distracting thoughts and attachments. He only wanted to travel light, without any burdens, to face fate and life and death head-on.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen looked toward the direction of the White Clothes Valley. He very much wanted to have a good talk with Bore, to reminisce about the youth that could never return. He also wanted to sit with the Wonderful Zen Maiden under the Bodhi tree, listening to the falling leaves and watching the clouds and sunset glow.
Who wouldn't want to enjoy such leisurely moments?
He then looked toward the Fate Divine Domain.
If nothing unexpected happened, Feng Tian must be busy in the divine temple at this moment. Should he go see her one last time?
In a person's life, there are too many attachments. Wanting to let go of all concerns and be completely free of burdens—how easy is that?
Zhang Ruochen took off the Victory Crown from his head and handed it to Xiu Chen Heavenly God.
Xiu Chen Heavenly God was flattered. "Finally, I get to wear it?"
"It's not for you. Why are you so excited? Take it to the Fate Divine Temple and give it to Feng Tian. Say... if dust falls, this crown replaces the phoenix crown."
Zhang Ruochen's long sleeves fluttered as he strode briskly into the void.
Xiu Chen Heavenly God asked, "What does that mean? Feng Caiyi doesn't even cultivate the Path of Light. Giving it to her is a waste!"
Zhang Ruochen's back disappeared into the darkness.