The Immortal Sect

"The way of Heaven was to diminish the surplus and make up for the lacking."

"The way of man... was to diminish what was lacking in order to offer it to what had surplus."

Yang Xiao only swept a glance over the scripture on the bamboo slip, and was instantly dumbstruck.

Wasn't this the original text from the Dao De Jing?

Could it be that in this otherworld, there was also Laozi, the "Dao Ancestor"?

Or was all of this merely—coincidence?

With a trace of doubt and puzzlement, Yang Xiao continued reading.

Sure enough!

This volume of the Azure Cloud Mental Method contained quite a few original lines from the Dao De Jing, but it was not the true Dao De Jing.

This bamboo slip was more like the understanding and insights of some ancient worthy of the Azure Cloud Sect regarding the Dao De Jing, written down in the form of a mental method.

Even so, these scriptures were dry, obscure, and profound, utterly impossible for anyone to comprehend.

Yet these profound words were something Yang Xiao understood at a glance, becoming utterly entranced.

"Kid, the sky is already late. The Scripture Pavilion is about to close, and the inner city curfew will soon begin. You should leave."

An aged voice suddenly rang by Yang Xiao's ear.

"Senior."

Only then did Yang Xiao wake with a start from his deep thoughts, unable to help looking out the window.

Outside the window, thousands upon thousands of lanterns floated into the air, lighting up the entire underground world.

"Stop looking. This place is deep underground beneath the Vermilion Bird Tower. There's no such thing as day and night changing here."

"Those bright lamps in midair will extinguish on their own once night falls. Hurry up and go."

The old man waved his hand impatiently.

"Yes."

Yang Xiao reluctantly put down the bamboo slip, bowed respectfully to the old man, and only then turned to leave.

"That boy's quite the clever imp. Not only does he understand the ways of the world, he can also make people feel pleased. A pity, though..."

Watching Yang Xiao's retreating back, a trace of regret flashed through the old man's eyes.

"Hm?"

The old man began tidying the bookshelves. When his gaze landed on that volume of the Azure Cloud Mental Method, his face instantly filled with astonishment.

"Has that kid gone mad? He actually read this wicked broken thing?"

Puzzled, the old man flipped through the bamboo slip, and at once felt dizzy and dazzled, almost suffocating.

The old man hurriedly put the bamboo slip down, gasping for breath, drenched in cold sweat.

"That kid stared at it for an entire day and actually nothing happened to him? This... how is that possible!"

"Right, that makes sense. That kid's aptitude and bones are both inferior. He was born a cultivation cripple. No reaction from looking at the bamboo slip isn't surprising."

The old man quickly "figured out" the key point, shook his head slightly, and stopped paying attention to the matter.

After all, this bamboo slip was profoundly mysterious upon mysterious, rumored to be a Daoist scripture passed down from the era of the Azure Cloud Immortal Sect. It had sat in the Scripture Pavilion for hundreds of years, and no one had been able to understand it at all. How could Yang Xiao possibly understand it?

Azure Cloud Immortal Sect?

Hah!

Although the Azure Cloud Sect had an inheritance of several thousand years, dominated Qingzhou, and had produced martial arts grandmasters in every generation.

If the Azure Cloud Sect had truly produced immortals, how could it have come within just a hair's breadth of having its lineage destroyed by Taizu several hundred years ago?

It was nothing more than the Azure Cloud Sect gilding its own face, bragging and blowing its own trumpet!

Ignoring whatever sighs the old man gave.

After Yang Xiao left the Vermilion Bird Tower, he appeared calm on the surface, but in truth, waves were rising in his heart.

The old man would absolutely never have imagined that not only could Yang Xiao understand the Daoist scripture on the bamboo slip, he had even thoroughly digested all of its contents!

"My comprehension is max level to begin with. No matter what martial art I study, I can thoroughly digest it after looking at it once."

"But before today, unless I used the once-a-day Qi-Observing Stealing Technique, even if I thoroughly digested those martial arts, I couldn't use them at all."

"So it wasn't that I couldn't use them. It was that this body of mine had been too weak in the past, fundamentally unable to withstand those martial techniques. This was the body's self-protection mechanism."

"Now my muscles, bones, and skin are all as tough as iron, and my essence, qi, and spirit far surpass those of the same rank. If a First Blood expert doesn't 'burst blood,' they can't compare to me either!"

"In that case, when I look at these martial techniques again, not only can I comprehend them, I can also execute them!"

Yang Xiao's heart stirred, and in his dantian, a faint wisp of cyan airflow suddenly appeared.

Azure Cloud Mental Method · First Level · Entry!

With Yang Xiao's max-level comprehension, he had naturally thoroughly digested the entire Azure Cloud Mental Method on the bamboo slip.

But limited by the strength of his fleshly body and his vital essence, energy, and spirit, Yang Xiao could currently only reach the entry level of the first layer of the Azure Cloud Mental Method.

Even so, Yang Xiao could keenly sense that even without circulating the Nine Cicada Auditory Arts, he could clearly hear the vibration of mosquitoes and insects in the distance.

And when Yang Xiao tried to circulate the Nine Cicada Auditory Arts, his hearing was amplified even further, to a level comparable to his previous Spirit Cicada Transformation.

"Let's try the Spirit Cicada Transformation!"

Yang Xiao's heart stirred, and he immediately felt a boom in his mind. In an instant, every stir of wind and grass within a radius of a hundred zhang was clearly "painted" inside his head.

This image was no longer monotonous black and white. Instead, it was bright and colorful, extremely vivid and alive.

At the bottom of the underground river in that image, fish of every color were slowly swimming.

The large red lanterns floating in midair were also drifting up and down with the wind.

Inside the lanterns, what burned were not candles, but strands of crimson feathers gleaming with light!

"What kind of bird's feathers are these, that they can actually glow for so long?"

"And the reason these lanterns are floating in the void seems to be because of these feathers as well?"

Yang Xiao could not help feeling somewhat curious.

However, this was a secret of the Scripture Pavilion. Naturally, it would not be proper for Yang Xiao to ask around, and even if he did, it probably would be meaningless.

Just like that, Yang Xiao lowered his head and closed his eyes, slowly walking forward, "watching" as he walked.

All kinds of scenes that the naked eye would have found difficult to peer into appeared clearly in Yang Xiao's mind.

From the distance, the sound of a zither suddenly came riding on the wind.

Yang Xiao immediately "saw" that, at an ancient pavilion a hundred zhang away.

A scorched and broken ancient zither, its strings charred black and dull, was eerily jumping up and down by itself, its music mournful and shrill.

"This ancient zither actually has no one playing it, but is playing itself?"

This!

Yang Xiao instantly turned pale with shock. He abruptly raised his head, and his pupils shrank.

Inside the ancient pavilion.

Clad in white purer than snow, a peerless beauty with an extraordinary bearing was gently stroking an ancient zither.

String by string, the sound was ethereal and pleasing to the ear.

"What... exactly is going on?"

Yang Xiao froze slightly, then lowered his head and closed his eyes again, activating the Spirit Cicada Transformation.

Inside that ancient pavilion, there was still no one at all.

There was only that scorched, tattered ancient zither, stroked by an invisible hand, as though telling of an indescribable sorrow.

Yang Xiao opened his eyes again and suddenly looked toward the ancient pavilion.

Inside the ancient pavilion, the woman in white was peerlessly graceful.

The ancient zither on the table was still dark and lustrous, giving off a solemn and weighty aura.

"Hm?"

As though sensing Yang Xiao's spying, the woman in white froze slightly and slowly turned her head.

It was actually a face like a sheet of white paper, with no features visible at all!

If not for the fact that this white-clad woman had a pair of normal human ears, thick black hair hanging to her shoulders, and slender, perfect hands as pale as spring onions.

Otherwise, Yang Xiao would even have thought that what stood before him was not a person at all!

"No, no!"

"The image my Spirit Cicada Transformation sees is the real image. This woman in white before me is definitely not human!"

Yang Xiao's mouth went dry, and cold sweat could not help appearing on his forehead.

Clearly this white-clad woman had no facial features, yet Yang Xiao had the feeling of being carefully examined by a woman, as if his entire body had been seen through.

"Calm down, calm down!"

"I've seen this woman three times in total. Others can't see her, so she probably also thinks I can't see her at all."

"As long as I pretend nothing is wrong and ignore her, that will be enough."

Yang Xiao forcefully suppressed the terror in his heart, kept his gaze straight ahead, and slowly moved forward.

One step, two steps...

Very quickly, Yang Xiao brushed past the woman in white and was about to walk far away.

Yet just then, that woman in white suddenly spoke in an icy voice:

"Stop!"