The moon was already past its zenith, and magpies flew south.
Su Li sat quietly, gazing out the window as his thoughts roiled.
Eighteen years since he'd crossed into this world, and he'd accomplished nothing. He'd even saved other people's lives several times, only to end up in their sights. He feared he might not escape this calamity.
If he hadn't used the system to glimpse part of the truth, even he would have found it hard to believe.
But this was reality.
In a world like this, the moment you chose to rely on someone else, your fate was sealed.
Su Li brought up the system's holographic panel and looked at his 74,361 Heavenly Secrets Value. He hesitated for a moment.
Should he wait until he'd accumulated around 100,000 points and buy a Latent Dragon Pill, or spend 10,000 to refresh the Heavenly Secrets Mall and take a gamble?
After pondering for a while, Su Li took out the Six Roots Nine Night Spirit Sunflower Cold Stems and cast another divination for himself.
The Life Archive System couldn't show him his own archive.
But divination could still give him a basic assessment.
Normally, there were three great taboos in divination: never divine the dead, never divine yourself, and never divine a fellow practitioner.
Crossing one of these red lines brought dire consequences.
The taboo against divining yourself was especially grave. There was even a saying: "Divine others, never yourself; divine yourself, and death is certain."
But Su Li's abilities came from the system, so he was free of these taboos and drawbacks.
The divination emerged, and the result was identical to the previous one. His fate showed no change.
It was an inauspicious hexagram—the Water Mountain Jian Hexagram. Its Trigram Symbol was: ×o×o××.
The image said: Heavy rain drenches the earth as snow blankets the sky; travelers on the road suffer both hardship and cold. Struggling through mud and water, they expend all their strength; when things go against your heart, bear it with patience.
This hexagram was made of two different trigrams, with Gen below and Kan above.
Kan was water, and Gen was a mountain. High mountains and deep waters meant difficulties upon difficulties; life's path was perilous, with no way forward.
Seeing the result, Su Li let out a soft sigh and silently closed the system. Then he resumed breathing exercises, trying to cultivate qi.
Just then, as if struck by a Sudden Intuition, he felt his heart clench, while his mind inexplicably went blank.
In a daze, he had an illusion—before his eyes, a sea of flames appeared. Within it lay thick chains, their surfaces bristling with vicious bone spikes.
Someone seemed to be bound within those chains.
Every bone in that person's body was shackled. The chains pierced through flesh and pinned him firmly in the sea of flames.
The person's face was blurred.
Yet Su Li sensed that it was him.
The illusion appeared in an instant, then vanished just as quickly.
Su Li's expression turned ghastly. He immediately began thinking about an escape route.
But at a time like this, who could he trust? Who could he rely on?
The figures of Zhuge Qingchen, Hua Ziyan, Mu Yuxi, Yun Qingxuan, Fang Yueheng, and Que Xinyan surfaced in Su Li's mind.
In the end, each one faded away.
"After drinking the Nine Radiance Heart-Inquiry Tea, my condition improved. For a short time, my body can withstand some spiritual energy instead of being unable to bear even a trace of it."
"If I could get a few random teleportation talismans or formation disks, I might be able to take a gamble."
"But random teleportation makes it easy for people to track me."
"Besides, if I can think of that, they'll naturally be prepared for it too. With Yun Wanchu's caution, if they really make their move, my chances of escaping are almost nonexistent."
"I can only see whether I can earn a wave of Heavenly Secrets Value tomorrow. If not, I'll force a refresh of the Heavenly Secrets Mall, give up on the Latent Dragon Pill, and exchange for another special item."
Su Li pondered silently. But just then, he suddenly sensed a presence that made his blood run cold, sweeping over him.
It was an incredibly primeval, vast, profound, ancient, oppressive, terrifying, and uncanny aura.
The instant it appeared, everything around Su Li plunged into endless darkness. It was as if he'd been dragged into a ten-thousand-zhang abyss.
"What's going on? Have they made their move? So soon?"
Su Li was horrified. But then the Five Emperors Ancient Coin on his left wrist began to emit a faint golden glow.
When the light appeared, Su Li felt his wrist grow unbearably hot, even painful.
Yet that pain pulled him out of the terrifying state of sinking, and he instantly came to his senses.
Only then did Su Li clearly sense that something seemed to be watching him!
"Who's there?!"
Su Li barked, fixing his gaze on the edge of the window where he'd sensed the presence!
Night had grown deep.
Yun Qingxuan listened to the insects chirring in the mountains and to her own breathing, but her heart remained unsettled.
After a long while, she took out the palm-sized desolate tower again, rubbing and turning it over in her hands. The scene she'd witnessed an hour earlier resurfaced in her mind.
It was a vision so unbelievable that it had left her utterly shaken and thrown her thoughts into chaos.
One hour earlier.
After carefully sensing the transformation of her Nascent Soul, Yun Qingxuan left the cultivation chamber and returned to her room, intending to meditate.
But just before she began, she acted on the flash of inspiration she'd had after drinking the Nine Radiance Heart-Inquiry Tea.
The tea leaves were still there. The holy water was gone, but she had top-grade pills and some spiritual water.
She didn't have Flame-Thunder Lightning Fire, but she did have Cloud-Thunder spiritual power, which she could use to condense cloud-element lightning fire.
She no longer had the Purple Rhyme Pot, but surely the tea can she'd used to hold the leaves could brew tea too?
Even if she couldn't make the perfect Nine Radiance Heart-Inquiry Tea, she could still drink an inferior brew.
In any case, it would surely do her a lot of good.
With that thought, Yun Qingxuan immediately got to work.
First, she poured water rich in spiritual energy into the tea can, soaked the leaves that had already been brewed once, then began boiling them.
The moment she did, the tea can underwent an astonishing change.
Ancient runes flowed with a faint rosy glow. The runes gradually combined, forming two unusual characters: "Soul Perishing."
"The Soul Perishing Tea Can?"
Yun Qingxuan was startled. She seemed to have heard of or seen something called the Soul Perishing Tea Can somewhere, but she couldn't remember at all.
It was just like how she'd initially been unable to remember where she'd seen the Nine Radiance Heart-Inquiry Tea.
"This thing must be powerful too."
"Master Su said that as long as I don't get involved with the Soul Locking Tower, my fate will remain favorable for a long time."
"But I should still try out that flash of inspiration."
"These two things were discovered together. Perhaps they're connected."
"I'll give it a try."
Yun Qingxuan placed the thumb-sized Soul Locking Tower directly into the Soul Perishing Tea Can, then gathered lightning-element spiritual fire and began boiling the tea.
At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
But gradually, large quantities of white smoke began pouring out of the tea can. Then the smoke grew thicker and thicker.
Soon, it filled Yun Qingxuan's entire room.
As if possessed, Yun Qingxuan kept boiling the tea, blank and unresponsive.
"Ah—"
"Ah—"
"Crack—"
Faintly, as if from the depths of hell, anguished screams kept coming from within the smoke.
At first, the voices sounded dreamlike and distant, but soon they grew steadily more real, as though they were ringing right beside her ears.
Yun Qingxuan continued boiling the tea without moving. Yet it was as if she'd entered a dream; all at once, she began to rise into the air.
Then her vision suddenly spread outward. She was like a god soaring between heaven and earth, flying through the void with all creation beneath her gaze.
Wisps of white smoke drifted in every direction, and Yun Qingxuan's vision spread along wherever the smoke went.
Then, from this lofty vantage, she saw Hua Yunxiao speaking with a white-haired old man.
"Ancestor, that body belonged to a young man who did our Hua Clan a great kindness. I can't go against my own principles."
"Ancestor, Yunxiao understands!"
"Good. Also, Mr. Zhuge has already divined that this is an opportunity. You happen to have a disciple with a wood-earth spiritual body, don't you?"
"Well... yes, we do."
"Excellent. Tomorrow, there'll be a chance to gather the souls of seven spiritual bodies embodying Yin Yang and the Five Elements. Mr. Zhuge has already calculated everything with flawless precision. We need only wait for events to unfold. You must personally monitor things and follow in secret, to prevent any mishaps."
"Ancestor, it seems that Master Su... Su Li has already divined this too, and asked Zhuge Qingchen to follow and protect him."
"Oh? Then get him out of the way, or... have Mr. Zhuge personally step in and guide him. As the core wood-earth spiritual body, he has to be sacrificed this time. He's the key! Otherwise, the Nine Desolations Altar can't be opened, and when I truly revive, I'll be left with a tremendous regret.
"Also, Mr. Zhuge mentioned that a major upheaval is coming to the Wanli Holy Land. We might as well open the sect to the public on the surface and announce a forbidden-ground trial, while secretly abandoning it outright.
"Let these people's sacrifices provide true cover for our plan."
"Are we going to abandon all the disciples...?"
"Pick a few and send them out to gain experience. Leave the rest... here."
"Ancestor, what about Wanchu...?"
"Him? He's nothing but a dog raised by our Hua Clan. If he doesn't stay behind this time, who will? What, do you want to take him with you?"
"Ancestor, can we really succeed this time?"
"This is our chance. With Mr. Zhuge giving it everything he has, we already have a ninety percent chance. If we don't act now, when will we? Yunxiao, you've grown old. No wonder the Hua Clan has been driven to the brink under your watch!"
"Ancestor... Yunxiao is ashamed. I'll make the arrangements now."
"Good. Go, and remember the burden you bear. Have no more reservations. Every rising legacy is built upon a mountain of corpses."
Yun Qingxuan was utterly stunned!
She had never imagined that she would suddenly stumble upon a secret of such earth-shattering magnitude!
Many thanks to reader "Seven Great Tides" for the 200 Qidian Coins! Much appreciated!
Before you continue