Immortal Spring

Lu Yuzhen?

Xie Xuanyi thought carefully... but the name meant nothing to him.

Over the past sixty years, among the grandmasters who had founded sects across the two dynasties of Great Chu and Nanli, the great cultivators of extraordinary strength, those capable of claiming a place among the heroes of the realm—

There had been no one named Lu Yuzhen.

The white-robed Daoist seemed to have seen through Xie Xuanyi's thoughts.

He smiled gently. "Lu only recently entered the martial world. I have no great name."

"You don't look like someone who only recently entered the martial world."

Xie Xuanyi studied the Daoist before him anew. Judging from his features, Lu Yuzhen was at least forty or fifty years old.

"This outer shell is the most useless thing in the world."

Lu Yuzhen smiled and asked, "Setting me aside, Xie Xuanyi, look at yourself. What can your current appearance possibly prove?"

"..."

Xie Xuanyi had no answer.

With a sweep of his sleeve, he dispersed the Golden Qi in his palm.

No matter how much of what Lu Yuzhen said was true, and how much was false.

There was at least one thing he could be certain of.

This white-robed Daoist held no killing intent toward him. He had only begun cultivating anew and his realm was still low. From the details of their brief exchange just now, Lu Yuzhen's realm and strength were clearly above his. If Lu Yuzhen truly intended him harm, those first two moves would not have ended this way.

The great river surged and roiled, while Lu Yuzhen clung to its surface like a wild blade of grass.

"You said you saved me... Why should I believe you?"

Xie Xuanyi spoke slowly.

"Haven't you already believed it?"

"You set out from the Northern Prefecture, journeyed a thousand miles south, came to Carp Tide City, and stood here. That alone proves you believed me."

The white-robed Daoist clasped his hands behind his back and said with a smile, "Though I have no need to prove anything. After the battle at the North Sea, your corpse sank to the seabed. I retrieved it and placed it within a coffin-shaped treasure, preventing it from decaying. In all the world, only one person knows where you, Xie Xuanyi, were buried—and that person... is me."

Xie Xuanyi's gaze flickered.

He was somewhat puzzled. "But... why?"

"Where in this world are there so many whys?"

Lu Yuzhen said indifferently, "In the battle at the North Sea, the Great Grain Sword Palace—the sect you trusted most—did not intervene. Your closest friend, the one you trusted most, never appeared. Even All-Under-Heaven Pavilion, which had always claimed to uphold justice, knew the truth yet stood aloof, utterly unwilling to help clear your name and wash away your suspicion. I cannot stomach those great sects with rotten foundations posing as the righteous path, nor can I bear to watch gifted geniuses perish like this."

A very reasonable reason.

Yet Xie Xuanyi felt not the slightest ripple within his heart.

He laughed at himself. "Do you think I would believe that? For that reason alone, you resolutely chose to brave the wrath of the whole world and save me... Even if it were true, saving me was no simple matter."

"Brother Xuanyi, have you been bitten by a snake once, and feared well ropes for ten years?"

Lu Yuzhen slowly sat cross-legged, riding the towering tide and looking down at the white-clad youth on the riverbank.

With narrowed, smiling eyes, he said, "I know what you are truly curious about... exactly how I brought you back to life."

Correct.

This was the truth Xie Xuanyi truly cared about.

He did not care about the motive, nor did he care for Lu Yuzhen's high-sounding reasons—

He only wanted to know how, when his meridians had all been severed and his Qi utterly burned away, when he had clearly fallen into a desperate situation with ten deaths and no life—

Who could possibly have saved him under such circumstances?

If that person truly was Lu Yuzhen, how had he done it?

"Rebirth."

Seated atop the great tide, Lu Yuzhen softly uttered two words.

Those two words struck directly into Xie Xuanyi's Heart Lake.

He froze for an instant.

"In the Demon Kingdom, there is a term called 'rebirth.' Grandmaster Mozhen once promised that every 'death warrior' willing to offer up their life and swear to follow the Demon Kingdom south unto death would receive 'rebirth.'"

Lu Yuzhen spoke calmly. "It was precisely this oath that plunged the war in the northern borderlands into a long stalemate, causing countless human cultivators to choose to 'believe'... Of course, most of those cultivators were fools. Even if something like 'rebirth' truly existed, it certainly would not fall to those pitiful wretches of low realms and feeble strength. Yet in the final stages of the northern war, even Daoist True Persons who had cultivated to the Yang Spirit Realm were willing to join the Demon Kingdom and sign contracts with Grandmaster Mozhen. Could this so-called 'rebirth' truly be a lie?"

Cold sweat seeped down Xie Xuanyi's back.

Inside the residence at Tai'an City, before Shen Yan, he had mocked the word rebirth without mercy.

But now that Lu Yuzhen brought it up again—

He realized...

Wasn't he himself the finest proof?

"Those Daoist True Persons can even attempt 'passing away and reincarnating.'"

Lu Yuzhen said faintly, "If the 'rebirth' Grandmaster Mozhen spoke of was false, or if 'rebirth' was inferior to 'passing away,' why would they betray Great Chu and join the Demon Kingdom?"

"There is only one truth."

"Rebirth... truly exists."

Resting his cheek on his hand, Lu Yuzhen gave a long sigh and murmured, "The Demon Kingdom survives in the barren lands farther north than the northern borderlands. There, Qi is thin, life has been cut off, and the land is barren beyond measure... Yet the more desolate a place is of life, the more likely miracles are to arise. The 'rebirth' Grandmaster Mozhen promised back then was the Demon Kingdom's one and only divine miracle."

"The Demon Kingdom's cultivators call it... the Immortal Spring."

The white-robed Daoist gazed meaningfully at Xie Xuanyi. "The Immortal Spring can revive the dead and grow flesh upon white bones. Even a single drop is a sacred treasure worth a city. All this time, the Immortal Spring had been merely a legend passed from mouth to mouth in the Demon Kingdom, much like creatures such as true dragons and true phoenixes. If such beings truly existed, everyone believed they could only exist in the immortal realm. The Immortal Spring was that kind of thing."

He paused slightly.

"Until... Grandmaster Mozhen proved its existence to the world."

Lu Yuzhen said meaningfully, "That is why even lofty Daoist True Persons, figures standing at the very summit of the world, chose betrayal. To great cultivators pursuing longevity, obtaining the Immortal Spring was tantamount to obtaining immortality."

"You make it sound real enough..."

Xie Xuanyi said hoarsely, "Did you personally see that Mozhen possessed the Immortal Spring, or did those Daoist True Persons who joined the Demon Kingdom tell you so with their own mouths?"

"..."

Lu Yuzhen had no answer. He could only give a mute, awkward laugh.

Xie Xuanyi said calmly, "If Mozhen truly possessed the Immortal Spring, how could he have died?"

"That, I do not know."

Lu Yuzhen smiled. "But Mozhen's affairs are not important... Though he died, you are still alive."

He extended a finger and lightly pointed through the air.

"You have ignited forty-three acupoints."

The white-robed Daoist's fingertip fell.

Xie Xuanyi lowered his head.

Strands of golden light ignited at his acupoints, boiling and roaring!

"After every acupoint is ignited, it sends Golden Qi toward the dantian."

Lu Yuzhen asked softly, "Why not wait until all the acupoints are ignited, then see... exactly what that Qi is condensing into?"

A fierce gale suddenly rose. The great tide churned, scattering the dark clouds and gloom overhead.

A great moon hung high.

Xie Xuanyi looked down at the cavern-heaven within his dantian, and his heart suddenly thudded.

He realized...

What Lu Yuzhen had said was very likely the truth.

Immortal Spring, Immortal Spring.

The Golden Qi within his body gathered at his dantian and spread into mist. Clumps of mist curled and dispersed, seemingly formless, yet in truth their roots and branches tangled together as they gradually collapsed inward, condensing!

If he ignited every acupoint and the golden mist condensed—

This would become a single drop of spring water!