Chapter 55. Very refreshing!

Dark clouds had never enveloped the sky above the Imperial Palace so tightly.

The fog was heavy, but it was not raining. However, it did not affect the daily lives of the commoners  at all. Moreover, the last few nights were even livelier  than usual, since the celebratory atmosphere of the Washing Autumn Festival still had not dispersed. Each street was still brightly illuminated throughout the night. It was said that many guests from Zhaoyue had visited music shops, and squandered a thousand taels of silver like dirt during a single visit there. Everyone said that many rich merchants from Zhaoyue were there as well, and those were not empty words.

As people were celebrating peace by singing and dancing in the dim light of night, a stream of black qi was flowing silently in the clouds, blending together with them, unnoticed by everyone.

Drip-drip, drip-drip.

A stream of black qi emerged from a well, gradually turning into a human shape from its flowing form. Water was still dripping down from the body.

The droplets of water  were falling onto green slabstone, and the smoke disappeared without a trace.

The house in front of the well was situated in the backyard of the biggest music shop.

The loud  and deep sound of pipa [1] was coming from the inside, but it was not a melancholy  and mournful  sound. Instead, the sound was  rather cheerful and graceful, like bouquets of flowers and piles of brocades.

Bouquets of flowers and piles of brocades: bright, splendid

A girl in revealing clothes was dancing, following the music, and whirling quickly in the manner of the Western Regions. The bracelets on her hands and feet were clanging together with jade pendants, so the girl was even more eye-catching.

The guests were drinking and giving toasts, and the aroma of meat and wine was hanging in the air inside the rooms. An attendant  who came to serve the dishes almost felt tipsy from the smell alone.

The satin clothes slid down from the girl’s bright and clean shoulder, causing the crowd to clamour in a trance again.

In this atmosphere, the black qi slipped in through the gaps in the windows, glided down onto a felt cushion, and followed the breaths of the humans in the room  to find the most suitable person to turn into a vessel.

There was the  half-naked dancing girl, the musician plucking the pipa, the guests who were bleary-eyed from drinking, and the attendants  delivering vegetables to the music shop with envy plastered on their faces.

Almost half of the people from the Luo Capital who indulged in a life of luxury had gathered there.

Everyone seemed valuable, so the black qi was hesitating.

Yun Weisi was sitting cross-legged and meditating.

His eyes were tightly closed, and his whole body was enveloped in a faint white light.

They chose this place, which was convenient for having a short rest, as their residence in the Luo Capital. It was a lot less restrictive than renting  rooms at  an inn.

Changming had gone  to the Song Residence, and still had not returned, while Xu Jingxian and Fang Suihan had also disappeared somewhere. Everyone had their own goals to achieve.

This place was a residential area close to the eastern districts, remaining a quiet oasis  in a noisy neighborhood. In the dead of night, they could still faintly hear pipa music here.

He had not heard such decadent music in the Nine Layers of the Abyss. A long time ago, he had already lived in the flourishing Human World, wearing brocade garments and eating jade meals, free from all anxieties, but he had been cut off from the world for ages.

Recently, he had many dreams about his past. Mostly, they were about Changming.

The latter was always unfeeling and stern in these dreams, and  treated Yun Weisi with unduly harshness. But that dreamland Yun Weisi’s attitude changed over time, from a person with his heart full of enmity, to a man who practiced so diligently every day that he fell asleep as soon as his head touched his pillow at night. He even had no time to avenge the old wrongs and wiped away his hatred; instead, he worshipped the strong, and followed the Dao with all his heart.

The little details of  past events were gradually recurring to him inside the dreams.

He cultivated the Heartless Dao, but the further he progressed, the fiercer the backlash became. He did not manage to cut off this bond, and with this tiny seed of affection that remained, even a prairie fire could not destroy the grass.

A prairie fire couldn’t destroy the grass: couldn’t be easily eliminated

Yun Weisi opened his eyes suddenly!

He almost did not hesitate when he leaped out of the window, floated to the roof, and rushed to another room, stepping on the eave tiles.

The mid-night merry-making  of the secular world didn’t impede his movement at all.

Yun Weisi’s figure flew very fast, and an ordinary person would have only seen a shadow sweep past, and thought it was only their imagination.

Only he knew that the thing he was chasing was even faster!

It was the black qi.

It flew by his window, faint and untraceable, yet he noticed it in an instant.

He was more sensitive to demonic qi than any other human.

They flew out of the city in a split second.

When the demonic qi was about to escape, he unsheathed his sword and firmly nailed it to a tree nearby.

The tree suddenly emitted smoke and abruptly crumbled to dust, and the black qi within the trunk scattered.

Yun Weisi turned his wrist slightly, and the Chuzhao Sword returned to his hand immediately. He did not stop his movements, and folded his fingers into a sword seal. The sword glow split into eight rays that quickly flew into opposite directions.

The sword glow was swift as a lightning, and brilliant as a rainbow.

One ray stopped halfway all of a sudden, and then burst, revealing a silhouette of a smiling man.

“Heavens care for every living creature, but Daozun Yun can’t tell apart red from green or black from white, wounding the best of my intentions!”

The man was wearing blue robes with wide sleeves, his demeanor rather lofty and elegant.

Putting aside his connection with the demonic qi, he almost seemed like one of those scholars from the Literary Office of the Imperial Palace.

Yun Weisi: “It’s you?”

The man raised his eyebrows: “You remember me?”

Yun Weisi: “I’ve seen you before.”

The man’s face seemed very familiar, as if he had left an impression on Yun Weisi; presumably, they had known  each other years ago. But, according to Yun Weisi’s memories, he knew little about the man. They had met by chance like patches of drifting duckweed, and did not have a deep connection.

The other laughed, waving his fan. A fragrant wind picked up.

“Only the best masters could ever enter your line of sight. At that time, I was a mere nobody, how could I attract Daozun Yun’s attention?”

But, the more he talked, the more Yun Weisi recalled about him.

Yun Weisi: “You were a young daoist following Jiang Li back then.”

The other man was a bit surprised. He probably did not expect Yun Weisi to remember him.

“Right, it’s me. But, surely, Daozun Yun still doesn’t know my name, so let me introduce myself. My humble self is surnamed Xiao, and my name is Cangfeng.”

When Yun Weisi heard this name, his expression finally changed a bit.

“Is Liu Xiyu’s death in the Qixian Sect connected with you?”

Xiao Cangfeng smiled: “You can’t say I am the culprit. I only said the opening words, but I wasn’t the one who killed him. And I lured Daozun Yun here today not to start a fight; on the contrary, I’ve been admiring Daozun Yun ardently for a long time. If it wasn’t for the circumstances, we could have become two wise friends who appreciate each other and occasionally discuss the Dao.”

Yun Weisi said nothing, but the Chunzhao Sword flew towards the other suddenly. However, it stopped half a cun in front of Xiao Cangfeng’s body, obstructed and deflected  by an invisible barrier.

Yun Weisi looked at his feet. A red pattern was glowing faintly on the ground, encircling him.

“Jiang Li ordered you to trap me? You think that you’ll succeed alone?” Yun Weisi said indifferently. Rather than a rhetorical question, it was a disdainful retort.

Xiao Cangfeng sighed: “I’m only an average master. Compared to you, I’m surely still lacking. Shizun trapped you in the Nine Layers of the Abyss and originally wanted to let you cultivate there peacefully and guard the Nine Layers of the Abyss. Who would have guessed that Jiufang Changming would appear again and almost ruin shizun’s great plans? Daozun Yun, I don’t want to become your enemy. Besides, you’re cultivating the Heartless Dao, but because of this Jiufang Changming, you can lose your composure, wasting all the previous efforts. Is he really worth it?”

“What is your goal? Jiang Li is the master of the Wanjian Immortal Clan, he is deeply revered in the Human World. What could he possibly want? Eternal life? Becoming an immortal? Colluding with demons isn’t a way to get what he wants, and even if he becomes a demon, he can’t live forever without getting old.”

Yun Weisi’s eyes were bright. It seemed that he was determined to get the answer.

Actually, he had discussed this question with Jiufang Changming before, but they had not come to a conclusion.

It was not strange for Situ Wanhuo, who wanted to revive a close relative, to cooperate with Jiang Li in this matter, but why would the Wanxiang Palace, the so-called omniscient place with a deep knowledge of the heavenly way, be bewitched by Jiang Li’s demagogy?

Yun Weisi had not had much contact with Jiang Li, so he could not speak on this matter. But Changming and Jiang Li had cooperated a few times before. Changming spoke highly of Jiang Li, but, even though he had extensive knowledge, he also could not understand what was Jiang Li’s ultimate goal.

“Once, there was already  a person in the Wanjian Immortal Clan who had ascended,” Yun Weisi said.

Xiao Cangfeng nodded: “You are referring to Shizun’s shifu, my shizu, Immortal Lamei.”

Long time ago, the Wanjian Immortal Clan was at most a second-rate sect. But, after Immortal Lamei ascended, creating a stir in the whole world, their clan was regarded as  the cream of the crop.

It was said that Immortal Lamei left lots of cultivation instructions and miraculous panaceas for his disciples before his ascension, so, after he was gone, every generation of the Wanjian Immortal Clan’s disciples produced numerous men of great ability. Moreover, Jiang Li, being held in high-regard and popular, took the Wanjian Immortal Clan to the next level. So nowadays, few people dared say his name directly, calling him Immortal Jiang.

Yun Weisi said: “A cultivator’s lifelong pursuit is nothing but to find a way to ascend and live forever.”

His meaning was: since there was Immortal Lamei, a gem of the past, why would Jiang Li seek an alternate route?

A gem of the past: a role model

Xiao Cangfeng smiled faintly, but this smile seemed somehow bitter.

“Of course, there is a reason justifying all of shizun’s actions, but he doesn’t expect the world to understand him. However, he said that if Daozun Yun heard him out, he would’ve probably understood a thing or two. It’s a pity that from what I’m seeing, you gave up your Heartless Dao halfway, wasting all your previous efforts, so it won’t work out.”

Yun Weisi sneered at Xiao Cangfeng’s attempt to conceal the truth by playing a devil dressed up as a deity. Without any superfluous words, Yun Weisi solved the problem by attacking the other, and formed a finger seal to create an array.

Playing a devil dressed up as a deity: deliberately mystifying

For some reason, Xiao Cangfeng obviously wanted to delay him, which may have had something to do with what was happening in the Luo Capital.

He even mentioned Changming intentionally or deliberately to confuse Yun Weisi’s mind so that he would make a mistake while distracted.

Yun Weisi slightly squinted. Following his will, the Chunzhao Sword hung in the air near him, slightly trembling in response to his owner’s fighting spirit.

He concentrated solely on Xiao Cangfeng in front of his eyes.

…

The Imperial City, the Yongyu Palace.

Changming’s words astounded everyone in the emperor’s sleeping chamber.

Taking into account the skills he had revealed during his fight with Xie Chunxi earlier, no one rushed to come forward and accuse him of deluding people with lies, but, after they had recovered from shock, their expressions were still filled with doubt.

Kuhe spoke first: “Daoyou’s cultivation is profound. This poor monk has eyes, but failed to recognize Mount Tai; sorry if that offended you. But we were entrusted to protect the Son of Heaven, naturally, we can’t be negligent. May I ask daoyou’s honorable name?”

Changming put his arms behind his back and said coldly: “Be it my surname, name, sect or faction, how is it connected with what I said?”

Kuhe bowed slightly: “Of course, they are not connected. But this poor monk admires daoyou’s graceful bearing. Moreover, while what daoyou has said is not something trivial, we don’t know what your judgement is based on. Won’t you share your thoughts?”

Now Song Nanyan could say he had seen everything in the world.

Before this day, he had no idea that aloof masters of cultivation could talk in such a servile and submissive way.

As he saw it, all  four cultivators there, especially Kuhe and Xie Chunxi who had solid backgrounds, were each more arrogant than the last. Although Kuhe’s manner of speaking wasn’t as condescending as Xie Chunxi’s, those who relied on the Qingyun School were always talking impeccably, which made other people feel a bit alienated and underappreciated.

Song Nanyan knew it was a common error among cultivators. Because they were stronger than ordinary people, they always unwittingly revealed haughty attitudes when dealing with common people.

But, as the saying goes, in the face of absolute power, a person could only submit themself to its rule.

It was the first time Song Nanyan saw a master, whom even the emperor and the empress dowager addressed respectfully, bowing his head, and in front of his teacher at that. Song Nanyan had to admit, this feeling—

Was very refreshing!

Changming was not in a hurry to answer the question pertaining to his name.

“In my lifetime, I’ve had to deal with demons several times, so I’m very clear about their tricks. I saw a Moonlight on the Blue Ocean, a favorite tool of demons, on the head ornament of the Zhaoyue Princess. But she still hasn’t entered the palace, and yet something has already happened to the emperor. It is obvious that  there are traces of a demon hiding inside the palace. Just now, when people were diagnosing the emperor’s illness, some words and actions betrayed the demon’s intentions.”

The empress dowager was anxious and doubtful: “Whom are you pointing to, Immortal?”

Tn:

[1] Pipa: a plucked string instrument: