A Pure Heart

From then on, Emperor Xia learned that his falling out with the Ask Dao Sect was the reason he was cursed with the "ten thousand-year Curse".

Those in the shadows only thought Yun Zhi was highly talented and very strong, but they had no clear concept of Yun Zhi's "strength".

If they knew how powerful Yun Zhi was, they would realize how foolish this scheme to sow discord was.

"Senior Sister, where are we going?" Lu Yang asked, seeing that his senior sister had flown to the Ask Dao Sect and had not stopped at Heaven Gate Peak, but continued flying forward.

Lu Yang had never set foot here before. Below them lay vast mountains and marshes, barren lands stretching for miles, and loess deserts.

"Prison Peak."

Neither Lu Yang nor Meng Jingzhou had ever heard of this place.

The senior sister passed through these areas and landed on a gloomy mountain peak. The mountain peak was bound by huge chains, with the other ends of the chains wrapped around four mountains in the four directions. Lu Yang and his companion felt their hair stand on end, sensing that this was no good place.

Lu Yang had studied some Feng Shui formations. Feng Shui emphasizes "unobstructed flow," meaning that at least one of the four directions (east, west, south, and north) should be connected to the outside world, which represents vitality. However, Prison Peak is surrounded by mountains on all sides, blocking all vitality. The clouds adjacent to Prison Peak are like a lid, completely covering this area.

Prison Peak was a place where prisoners were detained and interrogated.

The three landed, Yun Zhi opened the entrance to the formation, carrying two Body Integration Realm souls. They entered from the foot of the mountain and descended for about five thousand meters before stopping.

The prisoners were all kept at the foot of Prison Peak.

Upon arriving at Prison Peak, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou felt as if they had returned to Buyi Town, unable to mobilize any Spiritual Qi. This wasn't a spirit-suppressing array, but rather a kind of [rule].

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou discovered that there were nearly a hundred cages here, most of which were empty, with only a dozen or so people imprisoned inside.

To be precise, what's imprisoned isn't people, but souls. These souls are listless and dispirited under the suppression of the [rules].

Some of the spirits drooled when they saw Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, wanting to pounce on them and devour them, but they all behaved themselves after seeing their senior sister.

Lu Yang felt that there were far too few people imprisoned here. The dungeons in Yanjiang County held far more people than this place.

"These are all ancient cultivators in the Body Integration Realm, so please be careful," Yun Zhi reminded them.

The two of them shuddered immediately, realizing they hadn't locked themselves up enough.

Goodness, a dozen or so Body Integration Realm are locked up here?

"Senior Sister, aren't you afraid they'll run away?" Lu Yang asked in a low voice.

"Run? You little brat, you're underestimating this old man." A childish voice came from behind. Lu Yang turned around and saw a white-haired child. The child was short; he only reached Lu Yang's waist when he stood on tiptoe.

"Master."

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou were astonished to find that the white-haired child was actually the master of the Silent Daoist.

"Master!" they both called out.

"Hehe, do you think I'm too young?"

"No, no."

The white-haired child said in a wise and experienced tone, "You are too young and lack experience. You don't understand my state. This is a method of cultivation."

Lu Yang quickly recalled a legend, "The ancients said, 'If one does not depart from constant virtue, one will return to the state of an infant,' and 'The multitude are bustling about, as if enjoying a grand feast, as if climbing a terrace in spring; I alone am still, without a sign of life, like an infant before it smiles.'"

"Many great cultivators spend their entire lives pursuing a childlike heart, yet they can never reach that state. Deliberately pursuing it is no longer a child's thought; how can one truly achieve a childlike heart?"

"Could it be that you, Master, have 'returned to infancy,' reaching a state of simplicity and Celestial Person, possessing the State of Mind of a child?"

Meng Jingzhou was also surprised. A pure heart had always existed only in legends, and none of the elders of the Meng family had reached such State of Mind. He never expected that the Ask Dao Sect would have one.

The white-haired child smiled without saying a word, nodded slightly, and had an expression that suggested he was a teachable child.

Yun Zhi was puzzled. "That's not the story I heard."

"Master said that when you were young, you were a womanizer, frequenting brothels and neglecting your cultivation. Later, you were stimulated by something and suddenly realized your mistake. You wanted to work hard in your cultivation. To show your determination, you fixed your body at the age of six forever, so that you wouldn't have to worry about your yang energy leaking out."

Lu Yang: "..."

Meng Jingzhou: "..."

Strictly speaking, this is indeed a form of spiritual practice.

The two recalled that cultivators, upon reaching a certain level, could control their appearance. So why did some cultivators prefer to maintain the appearance of a young child or an elderly person? Could it be for the same reason as their master?

No, no, no, they shouldn't think about these things too much, so they quickly cleared their minds.

"In short, with me here, none of the Body Integration Realm locked up here will escape!" The white-haired child forcibly changed the subject, "Yun girl, you've brought back two more people?"

"Yes, I'd like to interrogate them."

"Why not just search their souls?" the white-haired child suggested.

Yun Zhi shook her head. "Soul searching will damage their minds. Souls at the Body Integration Realm are excellent materials for refining Law Treasure. Without their minds, the Law Treasure will be much less effective."

The two Body Integration Realm souls shuddered. Wasn't the Ask Dao Sect supposed to be a prestigious and righteous sect? This was nothing like the prestigious and righteous sect they had imagined!

Yun Zhi looked at the two Body Integration Realm with a puzzled expression, not understanding why they were afraid. "You've caused so many people to die in fear, so isn't it normal for you to receive the same treatment?"

"Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you." Yun Zhi thought the two of them had long understood this principle.

Yun Zhi and the white-haired child each carried a soul in the Body Integration Realm and threw them into the cage. Lu Yang followed Yun Zhi, and Meng Jingzhou followed the white-haired child.

Yun Zhi immediately launched into a severe torture session, using various instruments of torture designed to target the soul. The man cried out in pain repeatedly, making Lu Yang's eyes twitch. He hadn't expected his senior sister to be so ruthless.

Wait a minute, it seems like when I first started cultivating, my senior sister did the same thing?

Could it be that Senior Sister used her experience of torture to teach me cultivation?

Every time the Immortal Fairy saw her senior sister use a different instrument of torture, she would shudder. She felt that joining the Ask Dao Sect was truly a wise choice.

Ask Dao Sect wouldn't be this ruthless to its own people?

"Strange, why isn't he telling anything?" Yun Zhi wondered. Her master had told her that if they followed this procedure, the prisoner would definitely tell her everything.

Lu Yang asked quietly from the side, "Senior Sister, you haven't asked yet."

Yun Zhi said "Oh," picked up the first instrument of torture, and prepared to repeat the procedure again, which frightened the other party so much that he quickly said, "No, no, no, I'll confess, I'll confess to everything."

What era are you from?

"The Great Yu Dynasty lasted forty thousand years."

Have you ever heard of immortal beings or immortal fairies?

"Never heard of it."

"Huh? Still lying?"

The man was almost intimidated by Yun Zhi's cold expression. "I really have never heard of it. In our time, we only heard that there were immortals in the Western Buddhist Kingdom, immortals in the Southern Demon Realm, and possibly immortals in the Extreme North. I don't even know the name of an immortal."

"If you're looking for immortal beings, you can go to the Extreme North. Maybe some immortals there are frozen in place, which would also make them immortal."

The immortal fairy was so angry that she wanted to roll up her sleeves and beat someone up on the spot.