Chapter 65

The next morning.

An Wuxue slowly sat up, casually dismissing the isolation barrier he had cast before going to sleep.

Lowering his gaze to look at the silk quilt draped over him, he remained in a daze for a long time before realizing he was fully awake.

Did he not have any dreams last night?

It seemed so. He had been far too exhausted last night...

"Awoo..."

A soft sound drifted in from outside the door.

Still half-asleep and drifting in thought, he heard Kunkun calling him, so he got up, used a cleansing spell to freshen up, threw on an outer robe, and hurried over to open the door.

With a creak, the door swung open. Kunkun swooped "whoosh" right into his arms, yet most of the morning light outside the doorway was still blocked.

An Wuxue: "..."

The person blocking the light asked him, "How did Shixiong sleep last night?"

Without answering, he said, "Since my stay is solely because of the disaster in Beiming, there is no need to report such personal matters to the Immortal Lord, is there?"

"I was merely worried that last night, when Shixiong entered a dream, Kunkun was not by your side—"

"Furthermore, the City Lord's Mansion is teeming with cultivators. For the Immortal Lord to address me in such a manner—are you trying to broadcast to the entire world that a condemned criminal who should have been executed has returned?"

Xie Zhefeng stiffened, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed his words.

He reached out, palm upward, and drew an object from his spirit pouch using spiritual energy.

It was a book.

An Wuxue's gaze narrowed slightly: "Is this the manual recording the puppet seals and the methods of crafting puppets?"

Holding Kunkun in his arms as he stood in the doorway, he had not budged an inch to let Xie Zhefeng enter. Yet, upon seeing an item related to the calamity of Beiming, he did not hesitate, turning first to lead Xie Zhefeng inside and bid him sit.

Xie Zhefeng naturally perceived the distinction—Shixiong was only willing to discuss matters concerning the two realms with him.

Looking crestfallen, but terrified of displeasing An Wuxue, he instantly composed his expression, took the book inside, and sat down opposite An Wuxue to discuss it.

He said, "A few days ago, you recovered several spirit pouches from Zhao Duan's room. After replenishing the array with spiritual energy, you collapsed from exhaustion. When I changed your clothes using spells, I found these spirit pouches and broke them open to examine them closely."

An Wuxue had already taken the book from Xie Zhefeng's hands.

Flipping it open, he remarked, "The method Zhao Duan obtained from the person behind the sound-transmission talisman indeed differs slightly from the resurrection method spreading through every street and alley in Beiming."

The manuals ordinary Beiming cultivators could acquire featured extremely crude techniques for imprinting puppet seals, bearing a vast difference from the crucible seal on An Wuxue's arm.

Such crude crucible seals could only serve as a spell to keep a puppet's body from decaying, and the spiritual energy required was like a bottomless pit.

However—

"This is identical to the manual Yunzhou obtained!" An Wuxue said. "The affair concerning Zhaoshui is indeed connected to the person who communicated with Zhao Duan."

Flipping further down, he noted, "This copy belonging to Zhao Duan also has several pages torn out..."

The missing pages were located in the exact same spot, immediately following the description of the puppet seal imprinting technique.

An identical book, with identical pages torn out.

There were no new clues whatsoever.

Thus, the thread they had been following to dig deeper seemed to snap once again.

That mastermind was as slippery as an eel in muddy rain, seemingly leaving traces everywhere, yet ultimately as intangible as rainwater that vanished the moment the skies cleared, leaving no solid evidence to grasp.

Yet...

An Wuxue vaguely felt something was amiss, but as he pondered, he sensed someone's gaze constantly lingering on him.

Subconsciously raising his eyes, he caught Xie Zhefeng's gaze before the latter had time to look away.

Frowning, he stood up, intending to find a quiet, deserted place to continue thinking.

Xie Zhefeng hurriedly rose and gave chase: "Shixiong!"

Kunkun: "Awoo?"

Just as An Wuxue stepped out the door, Xie Zhefeng bypassed him, blocked his path, and spoke in a low voice, "I simply couldn't help myself..."

His tone carried an uncontainable sense of helplessness.

An Wuxue lowered his gaze, reined in his expression, and calmly said, "If you cannot control your romantic inclinations, you might as well look around and fix your gaze on someone else."

As soon as the words left his mouth, even he felt they sounded rather bizarre.

Xie Zhefeng and the phrase "unable to control romantic inclinations" truly seemed impossible to associate in any way.

Xie Zhefeng's eyes darkened as he said, "Do not tell me to look for others."

An Wuxue remained silent.

The man beside him spoke in a slightly hoarse voice: "During the eight hundred years I was forced into secluded cultivation due to my inner demons, apart from being on Luoyue Peak, the rest of my time was spent searching for Shixiong's soul in the Thorn River."

An immortal's spiritual energy constantly blanketed those desolate thorn thickets, and no matter how vast that energy was, it would eventually be depleted. Sometimes, when his spiritual energy was exhausted and his inner demons resurfaced, he could only hide in secluded cultivation within the Thorn River, suppress the demons, and then resume spreading his spiritual energy...

Repeating this cycle for eight hundred years.

In eight hundred years, mortal lovers would have parted and reunited countless times.

"It is not that I cannot control my romantic inclinations. Just now, seeing Shixiong leaf through the manual, I was reminded of how you used to discuss the major affairs of the two realms with me back then, and for a moment I forgot to look away..."

An Wuxue sighed: "You now regard the past as cherished memories, but to me, it is a past too painful to look back upon."

Xie Zhefeng turned pale as death.

An Wuxue was merely stating what was in his heart and had no intention of piercing him with words. Having finished, he simply stood by the door and sank back into thought.

He seemed to realize what was wrong.

—It was precisely the eight hundred years Xie Zhefeng had just mentioned.

"Do you remember when Yunyao died?" he asked Xie Zhefeng.

Though still deathly pale, Xie Zhefeng immediately straightened his expression, not delaying An Wuxue's inquiry in the slightest: "Two hundred years ago."

Xie Zhefeng could not possibly remember wrongly.

Two hundred years ago, he finally eradicated his inner demons, and upon leaving seclusion, he entered the Canggu Pagoda, where he encountered a demonic cultivator at the end of his rope and beyond medical help. The pagoda was dim, and that cultivator kept his head bowed from start to finish. Xie Zhefeng could not possibly have cared about the fate of a random demonic cultivator at the time, and thus had not examined him closely. However, afterward, in the memories brought forth by Yunyao's obsession, he discovered that the powerful demon he met in the Canggu Pagoda two hundred years ago was none other than Yunyao.

Having spoken those words, he too realized the subtlety within them.

An Wuxue said in a deep voice, "Two hundred years ago, your inner demons were eradicated, so you no longer lingered in the Thorn River. Shortly after, Yunzhou obtained the method for imprinting puppet seals, Yunyao fell into demonic corruption and died in the Canggu Pagoda. Yunzhou has been running about ever since to resurrect Yunyao, slaughtering the entire Yun Sword clan, and somehow finding Xuesui, which led him to Luoyue Peak and everything that followed."

"Looking back now, Yunzhou most likely took over Xuesui from the mastermind behind the scenes, brought Xuesui up to Luoyue Peak, and only after that did I awaken within this puppet body of Xuesui."

That mastermind must have waited precisely until two hundred years ago, when Xie Zhefeng finally left the Thorn River for an extended period, to begin doing something to his lingering soul!

He opened the book once more, stopping at the pages that had been torn out.

"Furthermore, the torn pages in the book are also very strange. If only Yunzhou's book had these pages torn out, one could argue it was because Yunzhou didn't want Yunyao to see the unsealing method. But Zhao Duan and Yunzhou were unacquainted; it is impossible that these two people shared a telepathic connection and tore out the exact same pages."

Xie Zhefeng said grimly, "These pages were not torn out by them, but by that mastermind before handing the books to them. However, if the mastermind truly did not want the manual to fall into our hands or let us know the unsealing method—"

An Wuxue clenched his teeth before retorting frostily, "That mastermind could easily have omitted those pages entirely when compiling the manual. That person did it on purpose! They knew the book would eventually fall into our hands and deliberately let me know that several pages were missing, driving me to step into their trap in search of clues."

If that was the case, then this matter was entirely different!

Xie Zhefeng's expression instantly turned fierce and chilling.

An Wuxue felt a rare pang of a headache.

Raising a hand to massage his temples, Kunkun flew onto his shoulder to soothe his spirit.

At that exact moment, a sound-transmission talisman drifted before Xie Zhefeng.

Pei Qian's voice issued from it: "Immortal Lord, the sword array is ready for transmission, but I've run into another problem."

Xie Zhefeng glanced at An Wuxue, his gaze softening.

An Wuxue merely said, "We are coming over now."

"Good. Well... Huh...? Xuesui...? Where is the Immortal Lord?"

The sound-transmission talisman was cut off.

Pei Qian had not heard a single word from Xie Zhefeng.

Subconsciously, Xie Zhefeng wanted to take An Wuxue and fly through the air together, but the moment he turned his head, An Wuxue had already summoned Chunhua and soared on his sword toward the sword array.

His gaze darkened, and he had no choice but to follow in silence.

When Pei Qian waited for them at the sword array, what he saw was Xuesui arriving on a flying sword, landing with clean and crisp movements, while Chuhan Immortal Lord trailed right behind Xuesui alongside the spirit pet called Kunkun.

Pei Qian: "...?"

The person was still the Immortal Lord who had told him he would be killed if he couldn't find the array core, but why did everything feel so strange...?

An Wuxue retracted his sword and landed, prompting Pei Qian to blurt out, "Isn't this the Immortal Lord's signature sword?"

He was referring to Chunhua.

Xie Zhefeng had carried it with him every single day, never letting it leave his side.

Earlier, when he wanted to lend it to An Wuxue, An Wuxue had even refused.

An Wuxue simply replied, "The Immortal Lord's signature sword is the Chuhan sword, which drinks the wind and feeds on snow—this is known to all the world."

"...?" Pei Qian looked at Xie Zhefeng.

Xie Zhefeng nodded: "Mn."

Pei Qian: "."

Fine, whatever.

Unfortunately, Xie Zhefeng's identity was now exposed, and he no longer dared to tease the two "wooden blocks."

Xie Zhefeng did not care about Pei Qian's reaction in the slightest; he merely stepped forward a few paces and asked, "You mentioned earlier that there was a problem with the transmission?"

"Right. Though it's not quite that transmission failed—the twenty-seventh city can now transmit directly to the first city."

"However, I cannot be certain about the other end of the transmission. Logically speaking, we should be able to transmit directly from here into the sword array of the first city. But when I probed the spiritual aura on the far end of the transmission, I discovered that the entirety of the first city appears to be trapped within a massive, ferocious array..."

As he spoke, he attempted to manipulate the array runes related to the transmission to show Xie Zhefeng.

Yet just as Pei Qian turned around, before he could even channel his spiritual energy, he saw that An Wuxue had already taken the lead, hooking out the array runes connecting to the first city directly from the giant sword of the twenty-seventh city.

Pei Qian had spent days studying those array runes, and even Qiao Yin, who had grown up in the twenty-seventh city since childhood, couldn't make heads or tails of them.

Yet An Wuxue had accomplished all this without the slightest effort.

"The sword array of the first city is enveloped by a ferocious array covering the entire city, which is likely the handiwork of the mastermind as well. With the sword array wrapped inside this fierce formation, to uncover the problem with Beiming's sword array, we must first enter that ferocious formation before we can access Beiming's sword array. We can transmit," An Wuxue said, "only upon transmission, we will land straight into that fierce array blanketing the first city."

Xie Zhefeng nodded lightly: "Then that is not a problem. Since the first city is covered by a ferocious array, Shangguan Liaoliao, the cultivators of the first city, and even ordinary mortals may be trapped inside the formation. We were bound to enter the array anyway."