South of the East Sea, high above the boundless ocean, a Green Phoenix swept past the clouds.
"The South Sea lies just ahead." A gentle voice sounded as a middle-aged woman in a yellow palace robe turned to look at the black-clad girl beside her.
Though she was a woman herself, a trace of admiration still flickered in her eyes.
"Qianxue, didn't I tell you not to keep cultivating?" the palace-robed woman said softly.
"Your Taiyin Constitution is exceptionally suited to the Dao. If you break through again, you'll reach the middle stage of the Purple Mansion."
"If you don't lay a perfect foundation in the crucial first step of expanding your Purple Mansion Origin Sea, won't you be wasting your natural talents?"
"When I have nothing else to do, what can I do besides cultivate?"
The girl opened her eyes. Her voice was as cool and clear as water, just like her.
She was none other than Motai Qianxue, whom Motai Xiao had sent to the Fire Worship Sect Main Altar.
"Of course it's good that you enjoy cultivation." Aunt Huang gazed at Motai Qianxue with affection. "Once you join the sect and take an immortal as your master, you'll naturally be taught a Heavenly Immortal method. Then you can cultivate to your heart's content."
"Aunt Huang, didn't Daoist Fire send me to the immortal sect to become some kind of Holy Concubine?" Motai Qianxue said coolly, though a trace of sadness flickered in her eyes at the words "Holy Concubine."
"Becoming the Holy Concubine is no simple matter!"
Aunt Huang reached out and gently smoothed Motai Qianxue's wind-tossed hair.
"The Holy Son has already reached perfection in the Myriad Phenomena Realm, and his Second Primordial Spirit has even become an Earth Immortal of the Void Return."
"You'd need to reach perfection in the Myriad Phenomena Realm before you could even hope to become the Holy Son's consort."
"I hear the subsidiary sects in the various commanderies have chosen consorts for the Holy Son this time. There are more than thirty candidates, all exceptionally beautiful women."
"The Holy Son has issued an order: the candidate Holy Concubines will first become disciples of immortals within the sect. Once the Holy Son has succeeded in his cultivation, he'll choose one of them as his consort."
"Hmph, how could those painted-up mediocrities compare to you, Qianxue? The position of Holy Concubine is yours and yours alone!"
Aunt Huang spoke with such animation, but when she saw how coolly indifferent Motai Qianxue remained, she couldn't help sighing softly.
"I know you don't want to go, but the Holy Son is sure to take charge of the sect in the future. As his Holy Concubine, you'll have a chance to become a Heavenly Immortal. An opportunity like this comes once in a thousand years. Others would beg for it and still not get it. Qianxue, listen to your aunt and make the best of things from now on, all right?"
"Haven't I always been making the best of things?" Motai Qianxue said quietly. "Aunt Huang, I've accepted my fate."
Her voice was cool, her tone even, but the sorrow beneath them made Aunt Huang's heart ache.
At seventeen or eighteen, a woman was in the prime of her life.
Yet Qianxue had first been sent by her father to a subsidiary sect, and now she was being sent to the main sect. Was this the fate of a peerless beauty?
The two women on the Green Phoenix's back fell silent. They watched as one island after another appeared at the edge of the sky and sea.
They had reached the South Sea.
In the waters around Crouching Ox Island in the East Sea, inside the Red Dust Immortal Mansion.
Zhou Hao stood dazed before the Red Copper Statue.
His mind was flooded with information—voices, scenes, words... It took a full quarter of an hour for him to come around completely.
"Senior Hongchen?" There was nothing in front of Zhou Hao but the Red Copper Statue, just as before. There was no phantom to be seen.
"That was a remnant thought Hongchen left behind. It dissipated after imparting the technique." Ou Huang lay sprawled against the statue's leg and spoke lazily.
"Dissipated?" Zhou Hao froze. "Didn't Senior Hongchen have anything to say?"
"Did he know you?" Ou Huang asked.
"No." Zhou Hao shook his head.
Obviously.
Five thousand years ago, the first Homo sapiens had only just appeared in China. Modern humans didn't even exist yet, so how could he have known Zhou Hao?
"Then there you go." Ou Huang swayed his catlike head. "He didn't know you, so what would he have to say to you?"
"..." Zhou Hao was speechless.
"If you really want to do something for Hongchen," Ou Huang said indifferently, resting his head on his paws, "then help him look into what became of the Ling Clan's descendants."
"Was Ling the secular surname of Loose Immortal Hongchen?" Zhou Hao asked.
"No. They were the descendants of a woman."
"Well, sort of. She was a confidante of Hongchen's. By the time he met that Ling woman, he was already a Loose Immortal. How could he have left behind any descendants?"
Ou Huang continued, "That woman was traveling with a child when they encountered a shipwreck. Hongchen rescued them. Perhaps he was too lonely, so he let the Ling woman stay in this Immortal Mansion for several decades. The child saw him as a father and often came back to visit...
"Hongchen really did live a lonely life. Those few decades might have been the most comfortable time he ever had.
"Later, the Ling Clan's descendants even regarded Hongchen as their founding ancestor.
"But after the Ling woman died, he never left again. Only when he knew he was going to die did he refine an Immortal Mansion Signal Talisman, saying that he wanted to take it out and give it to the Ling Clan."
So that was the story behind it.
Zhou Hao nodded. "I'll make sure to look into it carefully one day."
The old man with the red nose who had sold him the Signal Talisman Statue was in Jade Dragon City, so it shouldn't be hard to investigate. But even if Zhou Hao found out anything, the Ling Clan had probably already fallen.
Otherwise, how would an heirloom like this have ended up at a common marketplace, where he could buy it for just a few catties of Thunder Gold?
"Besides this secret art, did Senior Hongchen leave anything else behind?" Seeing that Ou Huang seemed to have started snoring, Zhou Hao hurried over and shook it by the paw. While he was at it, he gave it a couple of strokes.
It was soft and warm, and felt almost exactly like a real cat.
Ou Huang seemed to enjoy it, too. It stretched lazily, still keeping its eyes shut, and said, "Nothing. If you were a descendant of the Ling Clan and hadn't learned any techniques, I'd have some body-tempering and qi-refining methods he prepared for you. But you're not, so tough luck!"
"What about this Immortal Mansion?" Zhou Hao pressed. "And the five palaces floating above us—aren't there any Dharma treasures inside?"
Getting a complete secret art was already an immense stroke of fortune, but who would complain about getting too many benefits?
"This Immortal Mansion is a Heaven-Tier Cave Abode Dharma Treasure. Only a Primordial Spirit Daoist can refine it. If you can refine it, I'll acknowledge you as my master."
"As for the five palaces..." Ou Huang raised a paw and pointed into the air behind it. "Weiyang Palace is an Immortal Artifact. You'd need to be an Earth Immortal of the Void Return to refine it. The other four aren't Immortal Artifacts, but each contains a Five Elements Suppression Object. They're all Heaven-Tier, first-grade treasures. If you've got the ability, take them. If you don't, shut up and stop disturbing my sleep."
All right.
Zhou Hao understood now.
Unless he cultivated to the Primordial Spirit Daoist Realm, he could forget about getting anything else out of this Immortal Mansion.
Seeing Ou Huang snore off to sleep, he simply sat down on the stone platform and closed his eyes, reviewing the secret art and cultivation method Loose Immortal Hongchen had transmitted to him.
The Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light was a complete immortal secret art. After Loose Immortal Hongchen fortuitously obtained a fragment of the Five Elements Extinction Divine Light secret art from the Dao Sect's Great Five Elements Escape, he refined and improved upon it. He spent hundreds of thousands of years working on it as an Earth Immortal of the Void Return and a Loose Immortal before finally creating the complete art.
Like the Free and Easy Wandering Zhou Hao had learned from Master Jingzhi, the Great Five Elements Escape was one of the Dao Sect's supreme secret arts in the Heavenly Realm.
But while the Free and Easy Wandering was merely an escape technique, the Great Five Elements Escape encompassed myriad things and was known as the source of all Five Elements spells.
The Five Elements Extinction Divine Light was only one offensive technique among them.
"What a marvelous idea." As Zhou Hao reviewed the secret art in his mind, he couldn't help but admire Loose Immortal Hongchen.
The reason Hongchen had added the word "Great" to the name Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light was that cultivating it meant more than simply refining the powers of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth into Extinction Divine Light. He also had to nurture various Five Elements baleful energies, such as cold baleful energy and Earth Fire, inside his Purple Mansion. Only after condensing them through the secret art could they become the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light.
When unleashed, it was not only more powerful than the original divine light secret art, but could even perfectly counter all Five Elements spells and Dharma treasures. It was absolutely a top-tier secret art.
That wasn't all. In the technique, Loose Immortal Hongchen revealed that while he was an Earth Immortal of the Void Return, inspiration from creating the art had led him to imagine something audacious: when he passed through the heavenly tribulation and formed a Heavenly Immortal Golden Core, he would use Five Elements Spiritual Objects to condense it instead of relying solely on the power of heaven and earth.
To that end, Loose Immortal Hongchen had spared no effort to gather five Five Elements Spiritual Objects, intending to use them to condense his Golden Core when he became a Heavenly Immortal.
Unfortunately, after Loose Immortal Hongchen failed his tribulation, that plan came to nothing. He refined the Earth Element Spiritual Object into what was now Weiyang Palace, then used it with the other four spiritual objects to set up the Five Elements Extinction Divine Light Array and protect this Immortal Mansion.
"Alas, what a pity. A genius like that, born under such auspicious stars, ended up lonely all his life. In the end, he could only die beneath a heavenly tribulation that grew stronger with each passing day." Zhou Hao sighed.
"To cultivate this secret art, I need to open a Purple Mansion at the very least. Damn you, Ou Huang. If you'd been a little less self-absorbed, you could've left me some Origin Liquid. Even ten or eight catties would've been nice."
Drip!
A drop of water fell from above and landed behind the statue.
To Zhou Hao, the dripping sound was now the sweetest sound in the world.
It was a drop of Origin Liquid, formed from the mist of Origin Liquid that Weiyang Palace above had failed to absorb. The vapor had condensed again in midair, and the liquid had dripped back down.
Zhou Hao glanced over at Ou Huang.
Mm, it was still snoring.
Then he carefully rose and followed the sound of the drops to the back of Loose Immortal Hongchen's statue.
The stone platform behind the statue was quite large, its dark surface riddled with holes and crevices. Zhou Hao had no idea what kind of stone it was made from.
It seemed that after thousands upon thousands of years of Origin Liquid drops falling on the platform, the holes and crevices had filled with droplets. Zhou Hao swept them with his spiritual sense. Each hole held anywhere from a few ounces of Origin Liquid to several catties.
Altogether, there had to be at least dozens of catties of Origin Liquid in those holes.
Many more drops had scattered around the platform, rolling over its surface like gleaming pearls.
"Haha, at last, a little something tangible!"
Overjoyed, Zhou Hao sat cross-legged above the holes filled with Origin Liquid and began circulating the sixth level of the Water Source Sutra.
"Splash, splash, splash~~"
As Zhou Hao circulated the technique, the heaven and earth essence inside the Red Lotus Flower Pond surged toward him like flowing water. Some of the Origin Liquid in the holes rose into the air, too, flying straight into his mouth under the control of his spiritual sense and pouring into his body.
Such pure energy poured into him without pause, flowed along his meridians into his dantian, and transformed directly into true essence. It was as smooth as one breath!
In less than the time it took an incense stick to burn, he had nearly perfected the sixth level of the Water Source Sutra.
"Again." Zhou Hao opened his mouth and drew in more Origin Liquid.
"Rumble~~"
The blue-green true essence in his dantian surged without end. As the Origin Liquid poured in ceaselessly, it surged like an endless tide, gathering and building without pause!
Before the Red Dust Statue, the two little ears of the white Feifei, Ou Huang, twitched as it snored. It rolled over and went back to sleep.
"I had to give you something tangible to make you move a little faster. I've been playing with statues here for tens of thousands of years. I was getting bored..."
A new week had begun, and I was adding an extra chapter at midnight for the Monday new-book rankings!
Old friends, if you have any votes—monthly or recommendation votes—I'd really appreciate your support.
Last week, I reached tenth place on the signed-author new-book rankings.
Let's push a little harder this week and try to hold steady in the top ten, with our sights set on the top five.
I've now been featured in the sixth-channel recommendation on Qidian's homepage. Maybe there's even a chance at Sanjiang.
Waaah, I've never been featured on Sanjiang. Please let me experience it just once!
Suifeng thanks all the old friends!
Before you continue