Chapter 45

For the past few months, ever since Qi Xun arrived at Zhaoshui City, he began his search from the portrait given to him by Xie Zhefeng and the two words "Su Xue."

The portrait had been painted by a mortal artist in Zhaoshui City, and the identity of Su Xue also had an origin—a mortal whose parents had both passed away, raised near Zhaoshui City.

Upon his initial minor investigation, he discovered that Su Xue's life story and circle of friends and family were exceedingly clear. It was easy to find out whom Su Xue had befriended and where he had once lived.

After a brief inquiry, Qi Xun had initially assumed that Xie Chuhan was merely being paranoid and letting his imagination run wild.

However, as he prepared to leave, he remembered that Song Buwang was stationed there to guard the formation.

Song Buwang was the son of an old friend of his, and also Qin Wei's disciple—a child whom An Wuxue had protected and raised until the very moment of his fall, without ever revealing the truth.

Therefore, before leaving, he went to the Zhaoshui Sword Array.

Before his departure, Song Buwang had taken the initiative to mention Su Xue.

"...Speaking of which, Young Master Su can be considered my benefactor," Song Buwang said with a smile. "If it weren't for his hint, I wouldn't have known what to do. I heard that before ascending to Luoyue, he was just a mortal in the secular world of Zhaoshui City, barely twenty years of age. Yet I have practiced cultivation for hundreds of years, and my state of mind is still inferior to his. It is truly shameful."

These were mere casual remarks from Song Buwang, but they aroused Qi Xun's suspicion.

Because according to the life story of Su Xue that he had investigated, Su Xue did not sound like someone possessing such mature wisdom at a young age.

In the end, he turned back once more and started his investigation from the very beginning.

Since his previous attempt had nearly ended in failure, he changed his approach. He no longer asked about Su Xue's life story, but instead asked different people what kind of person Su Xue appeared to be in their eyes.

This investigation truly uncovered something amiss—the Su Xue in these people's eyes did not possess a consistent personality at all. It was more as if they had known completely different individuals, and those memories had been altered through advanced sorcery practiced by a powerful expert here, pieced together to forge the life story of Su Xue.

Presently.

Using an array, he extracted the lingering aura from the portrait and found his way back to the artist's doorstep.

"Knock, knock, knock—"

The artist pushed open the door and blinked in surprise. "Why has the Immortal Master returned? Are there further instructions?"

With a trembling hand, Qi Xun unfolded the portrait of Su Xue once again.

"Do you still remember this item?"

"I remember, I remember. The Immortal Master asked me before if I was the one who drew it. I painted this about half a month ago. The person in the painting is named Su Xue, also a native of Zhaoshui. At that time, an Immortal Master surnamed Yun brought him to me to have it painted. I told the Immortal Master all of this already. This is..."

"You need not be alarmed," Qi Xun said slowly. "I merely wish to ask one more question—this portrait is exceptionally detailed, so the time required to paint it should not have been short. Do you recall if this person named Su Xue had any unusual reactions while the portrait was being created? What kind of person was he?"

The artist pondered for a moment, but his expression grew increasingly bewildered.

"This, I..." The artist looked somewhat troubled. "Now that the Immortal Master asks, I truly cannot recall."

"Oh?"

"It is not that I am trying to deceive the Immortal Master, but I genuinely cannot remember this young master's temperament."

Pointing at the portrait, the artist squinted and recalled carefully. "When he arrived back then, he simply sat there, extremely quiet. From beginning to end, it was the Immortal Master surnamed Yun who brought him and conversed with me. Now that the Immortal Master mentions it, I do recall feeling that something was rather odd at the time."

He scratched his head. "This old man has been painting portraits for decades, and the sittings are never short. Patrons usually do not have such immense patience; no matter what, they cannot help shifting about or making small talk, right? But this Young Master Su was simply too quiet for comfort. From the moment I put brush to paper until I finished, he did not move an inch, and not a single word did he utter—"

The artist clapped his hands together and raised his voice. "If I may say so, he didn't look like a young person at all; rather, he looked more like a soulless object..."

As Qi Xun listened, every single word uttered by the artist fell precisely upon the conjectures he had anticipated yet dared not truly expect. He stared blankly ahead, his gaze scattered, his thoughts drifting far away.

He recalled being on the Burial Frost Sea, beneath the long pines, where the only moonlight visible on Luoyue Peak flooded the long corridor, and a familiar figure followed behind the Frost Sea disciples—neither humble nor arrogant, neither haughty nor servile.

Whether in bearing or in appearance, it made him catch just a single glimpse, only to feel as though he had returned to those years of old.

He seemed to have smiled at that moment.

"Ha..." Qi Xun shook his head, and at this very moment, he actually laughed, "Ha ha ha—!!"

His laughter held no mirth, only a profound and desolate sorrow.

The more he laughed, the redder his eyes became, until his whole body was drained of strength, and his grip on the scroll loosened.

A gentle breeze drifted by, carrying the scroll just as it fluttered downward.

Seeing that the scroll was about to fall into the muddy dust, he snapped back to his senses, swallowed his laughter, and raised a hand. With a subtle flick of his fingertips, spiritual energy lifted the scroll and guided it back into his palm.

A mortal would rarely, if ever, witness a cultivator manipulating spiritual energy with a mere wave of the hand. Frightened by his appearance, the artist hastily stammered, "I-I-I truly only know this much! D-did I say something wrong...? I didn't mean that the young master was literally an object..."

The mirthless smile on Qi Xun's face vanished instantly. He murmured, "It is fine... You have said enough."

"What did the Immortal Master say?"

Another gust of wind swept past.

This time, the artist merely blinked, and the Immortal Master—who had been dressed like an elegant young gentleman yet possessed a dazzling brilliance as fierce as roaring flames—was simply gone.

A pouch of spiritual stones was tossed toward him.

He hurriedly caught it and heard a voice drifting from far away: "Thank you. But as for everything concerning the person in the painting, I must trouble you, sir, to forget it. Consider that person as having never come, and that you have never painted this portrait."

"Keep the gift as thanks."

-

The Twenty-Seventh City of Beiming.

Before the gates of the City Lord's Mansion.

Xie Zhefeng had pointed out that An Wuxue had never cultivated his spiritual sense, yet his state of mind and spiritual sense cultivation seemed to lack nothing at all.

This was precisely the point An Wuxue could not explain.

He could tell that by uttering those words, Xie Zhefeng had essentially confirmed that there was something wrong with him.

Since Su Xue bore a mark far more complex than those crude puppet seals, and since he had surged into the Great Accomplishment late stage without encountering any bottleneck after accepting the fortuitous opportunity bestowed by Lou Shuiming, and since the puppets outside the Twenty-Seventh City also demonstrated that Yun Zhou's book was actually a complete art of puppetry...

The only explanation he could offer now was to admit that he was a stray soul inhabiting a puppet body.

If he were to offer such an explanation, it would be extremely easy to make mistakes through over-explaining.

The situation was unclear, and with others present, Xie Zhefeng knew the gravity of the situation and would not waste time sparring with him at this moment.

Gazing at the ground with lowered eyes, he simply remained silent.

He thought: If his Junior Brother were truly to find out, how would he react?

Back in Zhaoshui City, Qin Wei had already discovered his identity, and Su Xue could no longer be considered someone unrelated to An Wuxue. Even if Junior Brother found out, even if Qi Xun found out, even if Shangguan Liaolao found out... the heavens would not collapse.

What was he afraid of?

Previously, he was afraid of returning to the plight of his past life, having to argue over grievances and grudges where he had no defense.

Now...

He recalled Qin Wei's actions after returning to Luoyue Peak.

It seemed he was afraid that Junior Brother would be just like Qin Wei, saying "I'm sorry" to him, weeping like someone mourning the dead as they did back in Thorny River a thousand years ago, and displaying all that guilt and regret that only arose because he was already a dead man.

He did not wish to see that.

Kun Kun raised its head to look at him, blinking its round eyes. Seeming to sense his inner turmoil, it extended its tongue and gently licked his wrist.

Neither Pei Chen nor Qiao Yin understood the meaning behind Xie Zhefeng's words. After exchanging bewildered glances for a moment, Qiao Yin spoke first: "Please, the three of you, follow me into the mansion."

Xie Zhefeng nodded.

With Qiao Yin leading the way, the interior of the City Lord's Mansion was just as desolate as the mortal houses and streets outside. Aside from Qiao Yin, not even a few practitioners in the Great Accomplishment stage were to be seen.

Even the cultivators, whose cultivation levels were not low, walked in hurried steps. Upon seeing the unfamiliar faces of An Wuxue and the others, they merely wore expressions of vigilance. Because Qiao Yin was by their side, they said nothing, simply offering a brief greeting before hurrying past.

Unlike their usual bustling interactions, the atmosphere was downright eerie.

Even Pei Chen was exceptionally tactful and refrained from saying much.

It was not until they reached the reception hall, where a young attendant poured them immortal tea, that Qiao Yin dismissed the attendants and invited them to sit around the table, finally breaking the silence.

"Young City Lord Qiao," Xie Zhefeng asked in a deep voice, "what on earth is happening in Beiming? Can you tell us now? We flew all the way here, and aside from the Young City Lord, we have not seen a single Tribulation-stage cultivator. I presumptuously probed with my spiritual sense, and all fluctuations of spiritual energy are concentrated right in the center of the city—are all the cultivators of your esteemed city inside the sword array? Did this disaster originate from the sword array?"

He voiced the very question An Wuxue had also wanted to ask.

When An Wuxue had set up the sword array in Beiming back then, the method he used was different from the other three cities.

Beiming was vast and sprawling, and its heavenly pillar had vanished entirely due to the Beiming Immortal Lord actively destroying it. The difficulty of driving in the Beiming swords far exceeded that of the other three cities.

Although it sounded as though there was only one Beiming sword, in reality, just like the forty-nine cities of Beiming, there were forty-nine swords in total. Each one stood in a branch city, forming its own array, and each array simultaneously served as the focal point for the main sword array in the First City of Beiming.

Therefore, moving one part truly had a way of affecting the entire body.

An Wuxue also suspected that the incident involving the Beiming sword right under Shangguan Liaolao's nose was likely because someone behind the scenes had secretly tampered with these minor sword arrays.

Qiao Yin's reply confirmed his and Xie Zhefeng's suspicions: "The sword array is plagued by turbid Qi and hums day and night. The experts within the city are all channeling their spiritual energy to stabilize the array. Otherwise..."

She glanced outside, lifted her gaze toward the sky, and said desolately, "The turbid Qi nearby is likely far more than what you cultivators have seen... Fortunately, City Lord Shangguan used the power of a half-step Immortality realm to erect a barrier covering the entirety of Beiming, trapping this turbid Qi so that it does not leak into the two realms and cause more people with weak willpower to fall into demonic corruption."

Pei Chen raised an eyebrow. "All the cities of Beiming are closely linked. If something went wrong with the sword array of the Twenty-Seventh City, why didn't the Young City Lord send word to the surrounding cities or directly ask the First City for help?"

Qiao Yin sighed. "Since City Lord Shangguan erected the barrier covering the whole of Beiming, I imagine the situation in all forty-nine cities is much the same, and the state of the First City remains unknown. Furthermore, you have seen the turbid Qi on all sides; it is difficult for immortal cultivators to expand their spiritual sense, and ordinary sound-transmitting talismans simply cannot travel very far."

She paused. "We have been locked in a stalemate with the Great Demon for many days. Even if we had transmission talismans, that Great Demon would intercept them. No matter what, it would be useless."

"A Great Demon?" Pei Chen let out an exclamation. "A Tribulation-stage demonic cultivator who burst onto the scene out of nowhere? The immortal cultivators of your esteemed city are truly lacking in competence. A Great Demon appeared, and it was only when things became a major crisis that you discovered it."

Qiao Yin's face darkened, unable to find any words of rebuttal.

Hearing this, An Wuxue cast a glance at Pei Chen.

They had witnessed the situation in the Twenty-Seventh City with their own eyes; even he could not help but feel anxious. Yet Pei Chen, despite hailing from Beiming and caring about the cause of the matter, showed no sense of deep sorrow and spoke of it purely in a detached, matter-of-fact tone.

This person seemed enthusiastic on the surface, but upon closer inspection, he felt unfathomable, giving off an extraordinary sense of aloof detachment.