The Crevice

Yu Ci remained silent. He stood beneath the Dharma board for a long while, then suddenly turned and walked to the item board nearby. After browsing for a while, he went to the recruitment and posting boards on the other side of the hall and looked them over for quite some time before returning.

The old Daoist was patient by nature and waited with a smile the entire time, showing not the slightest impatience. Yu Ci walked beneath the item board, pondered briefly, then suddenly asked, "How should this entry be explained?"

The old Daoist turned his head and saw a layer of ink-black words rising across the snow-white wall of the item board. The entry was written with great clarity: "Enter as an outer resident disciple—one thousand merits!"

Seeing this, old Daoist Yu Zhou nodded slightly. "I preside over Zhixin Temple and serve as the head of the outer resident disciples. I have the authority to admit those with hearts devoted to the Dao to cultivate here. If a disciple possesses outstanding talent and disposition, and has rendered great service to the sect, I may also report them to the mountain gate and have the sect's secret methods passed on to them, in pursuit of immortality."

"What are these secret methods? Are they arts of immortality?"

"Outer resident disciples may at most obtain the sect's pill formulas. Their lifespan may reach three hundred years. That still does not count as immortality; it merely means they have climbed onto the edge of the road toward it."

"Are these pill formulas the ones listed on the Dharma board?"

"Indeed!"

Yu Ci smiled at that. "That is quite a bargain."

He meant the difference of more than a thousand merits between exchanging for pill formulas and becoming an outer resident disciple. The old Daoist smiled as well. "Our sect's pill formulas are not lightly bestowed. None but those who have rendered great service to the sect may obtain them. Young man, you are thinking too simply... And besides, your three hundred merits are still not enough."

"One mouthful at a time for a meal, one step at a time for a road," Yu Ci replied.

After a brief pause, he pointed across from them. Directly opposite the item board stood the "posting board," where Li Chen Sect cultivators posted merit-related notices in their own names.

"Master Yu, it seems there is a notice on that board from one of your sect's immortal elders purchasing ichthyosaurs. Are the three hundred merits mentioned by that immortal elder obtained from there?"

"Correct."

The old Daoist added, "The one who posted that notice is Senior Brother Lu, a master artificer of the sect. He is forging a magical artifact and lacks only ichthyosaur material. He has sought it bitterly without success, hence this notice. His offered price is a full thirty percent higher than the sect's purchase price. Young man, your luck is excellent!"

Yu Ci forced a smile at the old Daoist's teasing. With those words, his thoughts immediately focused on one matter:

"There is something I would like to ask the master. This junior is not a disciple of your sect. May this junior accept those notices?"

The old Daoist looked into his eyes. After a pause, he suddenly stroked his beard and smiled. "To come to Zhixin Temple is fate. The immortal Dao places fate first. Since that is so, of course you may. However, the sect has its rules. Merit notices on the 'recruitment board' may not be accepted by anyone other than sect disciples, while the 'posting board' has no such restriction."

Without another word, Yu Ci raised his hands above his forehead and bowed deeply to the old Daoist.

He did not know whether the old Daoist had brought him to Tongde Hall out of public-mindedness or because he found Yu Ci agreeable, but the matter the old Daoist had agreed to so readily was simply too important to him. He could not help being grateful.

If the old Daoist had refused, then relying solely on the three hundred merits obtained from exchanging the ichthyosaur, becoming an outer resident disciple and then acquiring an immortality pill formula would have been no different from an idiot dreaming in broad daylight. But with the old Daoist's words, Yu Ci could continuously earn merits from notices posted on the "posting board," until he had accumulated enough and finally fulfilled his wish.

Perhaps the process would not be smooth, but the old Daoist had ultimately pushed open a crack in the gates leading to the immortal Dao. How could Yu Ci not be grateful?

Still, he had weathered his share of affairs. He quickly steadied his emotions and brought his attention back to the present, asking the old Daoist, "May one stay overnight at the temple?"

The old Daoist blinked and smiled. "Those beyond the secular world should make things convenient for others. Naturally, lodging is available."

Yu Ci did not stand on ceremony. "In that case, I ask the master to take me in."

Before he successfully entered the mountain gate, Bai Ri Mansion would surely want nothing more than to kill him. Yet so long as he remained in the temple, the Li Chen Sect was like a great umbrella over his head. No matter how terrifying Jin Huan's Supreme Blazing Sun Method was, its light would not reach him anytime soon.

Yu Ci settled down at Zhixin Temple. He had a courtyard all to himself in a quiet setting, meals were delivered to him, and his treatment was quite good. The payment required was merely symbolic, making for a very comfortable stay.

After staying at the temple for several days, Yu Ci did not keep himself shut indoors. Instead, he wandered about the temple freely, familiarizing himself with the surroundings. In his plans, Zhixin Temple was a place where he would remain for many years to come. It could never hurt to grow familiar with it earlier.

After staying longer, Yu Ci made a new discovery. Although Zhixin Temple was an external affairs Daoist temple of the Li Chen Sect, not everyone within it was an outer resident disciple. Of the hundred or so Daoists, more than eighty percent were merely lodging there. They had no formal connection with the Li Chen Sect, staying only to cultivate, perform chores, and keep the temple running. In their daily lives, they also accepted merit tasks from Tongde Hall, harboring a faint hope that they might leap like fish through the Dragon Gate and enter the Li Chen Sect.

Yu Ci's circumstances were much the same as theirs. Over the past few days, as he moved through the temple, quite a few people had taken the initiative to befriend him, while others deliberately kept their distance. Even in this place of quiet cultivation, one could glimpse a little of the subtleties of the human heart.

But whether they sought friendship or distance, Yu Ci did not pay much mind to such deliberate interpersonal dealings. He had his own reasons for remaining at the temple, and they had nothing to do with others.

Seated in the courtyard, Yu Ci held a crimson glow in his palm, blazing like fire without harming so much as a shred of his flesh. At the same time, fine fragments of charred ash slid from his hand, gradually piling into a thin layer upon the ground.

Yu Ci's eyes were half-closed, his breathing steady. Before doing this, he had carefully refined the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror once more, preserving the purity of his Innate Qi in its most perfect state. Now, the vital energy of mind and intent within his body had blended into one. The tremors of his heartbeat and soul resonated in harmony, while his divine intent stretched into the flames in his palm, as unobstructed as seeing with his eyes and touching with his hands.

In his palm, the Nine Yang Talisman Sword was "devouring" another Three Yang Talisman Sword. Their talismanic patterns fitted together, and in the blink of an eye crimson light flowed forth, engraving new talismanic patterns onto the wooden sword body. Throughout the process, the Three Yang Talisman Sword burned continuously, yet not a trace of heat escaped. It was all drawn into the Nine Yang Talisman Sword. If one pressed an ear beside Yu Ci's palm, one could even hear muffled, rumbling pops within the flames.

That was only the aftershock of the flames' collision. The truly terrifying power had been locked between Yu Ci's palms with the sword's talismanic patterns, where it underwent a violent reaction.

Yu Ci was fusing a "Pure Yang Talisman Sword."

During the half-month journey here from Juebi City, he had thoroughly comprehended the jade slip on talisman sword forging obtained from Daoist Yan. Over the past few days, Yu Ci had begun attempting to fuse talisman swords in preparation for the plan in his heart.

Over more than ten years of cultivation, the existence of the Shangqing Juxuan Xing Shu Mi Shou Fu Jing had given him the firmest foundation in talisman arts. Thus, whether it was the Six Yang Talisman Sword or the Nine Yang Talisman Sword, neither posed any difficulty. The only thing requiring caution was this final Pure Yang Talisman Sword.

Only after beginning to fuse this series of talisman swords did Yu Ci understand why, when he had used his Primordial Spirit to control the sword and trigger the Nine Yang Talisman Sword's Killing Intent, it had possessed such devastating lethality.

This was because the conversion of the talismanic patterns among the swords was extremely unstable during fusion. From the very beginning, a delicate dynamic balance formed the final shape of the sword's talismanic patterns, keeping its fierce fiery Killing Intent in constant motion, grinding and reacting without cease as it accumulated even greater power.

Naturally, an outer seal had been placed around the talisman sword to restrain that dangerous balance. As the levels advanced from Six Yang to Nine Yang to Pure Yang, the seal grew stronger. At the same time, once the seal was broken, the fiery Killing Intent unleashed became increasingly terrifying.

This was the most essential nature of this set of talisman swords.

After Yu Ci grasped the workings behind it, he increasingly felt that such talisman swords were, in the final analysis, still talismans—one-use talismans of immense power. Bai Ri Mansion's manner of using them looked thrifty and economical, but it was actually an even greater waste.

However, for the current Yu Ci, using the Pure Yang Talisman Sword as a sword better suited reality.

The fusion of the talisman swords entered its final stage. Within the crimson firelight, the Three Yang Talisman Sword had completely vanished, while the Nine Yang Talisman Sword twisted and warped. Countless talismanic patterns danced within the tongues of flame, then all rivers returned to the sea and were branded back onto the talisman sword.

In the next blink, the flames went out and the talisman sword took shape. At first glance, its jet-black blade looked as though it had been scorched by fire. But upon closer inspection, a dim sheen flowed across that black shell, while the talismanic patterns hid beneath it, gleaming with liquid crimson radiance like magma deep underground, slowly flowing.

"Hah, it worked!"

Yu Ci was somewhat fatigued. He had taken a risk in the end. Had he failed just now, the several talisman swords he had worked so hard to obtain would all have gone down the drain. Fortunately, his strength was sufficient, and his luck was not bad either.

The newly fused Pure Yang Talisman Sword was still somewhat hot, yet Yu Ci could not put it down. With this sharp weapon, the journey in his plan gained another measure of assurance.

As time passed, the Pure Yang Talisman Sword's temperature fell to normal, and the hot wind formed during the fusion was scattered by the chill of late autumn. Cool stillness returned to the courtyard, only to be shattered in the next instant by someone's loud cry:

"Brother Daoist Yu, are you there?"

The voice had actually come from the sky.

Yu Ci raised his head and saw a white cloud streak across the clear autumn sky at an absurd speed, then dive down from above. Before it had even stabilized over the solitary courtyard, someone leaped from it.

The newcomer was a young Daoist with an ordinary face and slightly thick lips, a boy who looked quite honest. At present, though, his face carried some agitation. He was the very Daoist who had guided Jin Huan and the others that day.

The young Daoist was called Baoguang. He was old Daoist Yu Zhou's registered disciple and held the status of an outer resident disciple of the Li Chen Sect. Though his talent was merely ordinary, he had a fine teacher to guide him. At only nineteen this year, he had already reached the Bright Aperture Upper Stage, not far from the Spirit Connection realm. He was considered a young man with a promising future. During Yu Ci's stay at the temple these past few days, Baoguang had delivered his morning and evening meals. The young Daoist was kind-hearted and pleasant, rather than blindly blunt, and suited Yu Ci's temperament well. Over the days, they had formed a bit of friendship.

Baoguang jumped into the courtyard. Seeing Yu Ci glare at him, he hurriedly raised a hand to cover half his face, his reaction exceedingly strange.

Yu Ci could not help smiling. "What is it? Did someone bully you, or did Master Yu give you a dressing-down?"

Baoguang knew he had overreacted. His face reddened as he awkwardly lowered his hand, revealing several scratches on his left cheek. They were only shallow flesh wounds, but they made him look thoroughly bedraggled.

"I was not bullied by someone. I was bullied by a feathered beast!" The young Daoist even knew how to mock himself, yet it was still an embarrassing matter. As he spoke, his face reddened even more.

"A feathered beast?"