A woman in palace robes suddenly appeared in midair, gazed down at the white-robed man with a complicated expression, then took a step... and stood on the soil of Two Realms Village.
"The Wild Spirit Hall has also reached an understanding with City Lord Bai Ye on this matter... After this battle, Two Realms Village can relocate deep into Two-World Mountain, near the Wild Spirit Land. The Wild Spirit Land will move a secluded mountain back a hundred li... Three mountains will shelter and conceal Two Realms Village. That way, the ancestor can continue guarding this wordless stele of the Central Lands, and Big Black won't have to leave Two-World Mountain..."
Du Yuan the cripple stared, dumbstruck, at the female Ninth Realm cultivator from the Wild Spirit Land... Guo'er!
"You... you would actually join forces with this vile traitor?"
Guo'er nodded with a complicated expression, lowered her head in a slightly apologetic curtsy, and said softly, "Times have changed... Du Yuan, this is a collaboration between the Wild Spirit Land, City Lord Bai Ye, and Two Realms Village! Mingxin... has already agreed to it!"
"What? The old blind man already knows?"
Bai Ye smiled faintly and raised a hand, releasing a paper crane. It drifted down into Du Yuan's palm...
Master Ming's low, hoarse voice came from the paper crane...
"Cripple! Tell Master Peach... to do as Bai Ye says! Capital City... Taihua Sect... Guardian City... Two-World Mountain! Carve a single line of slaughter with the sword. Kill, save, and slay immortals!"
Du Yuan's expression shifted several times before he nodded, then looked at Old Skeleton, whose eyes were already closed in rest, though his face was filled with pain...
Beside them, Big Black withdrew his enormous, savage manifestation, cast a disdainful glance at Guo'er, the female Ninth Realm cultivator from the Wild Spirit Land, and turned back into the village.
Old Skeleton, Master Peach, waved a weary hand. "Go on! Make whatever trouble you please... If it works, I'll take the Land God Temple's stone stele and Big Black and move into Two-World Mountain with you... If you die, I won't collect your corpses..."
Du Yuan lowered his head without a word. Guo'er bowed deeply to Old Skeleton... Bai Ye smiled faintly.
Three sticks of incense later.
Du Yuan, the Ninth Realm cultivator Guo'er, and Bai Ye, the smiling lord of Eleventh Guardian City in his tattered white robes, all looked at Lü Bufan...
Lü Bufan lowered his head and thought for a moment... "I'll go talk to Big Black..."
Big Black lay in Lü Bufan's courtyard with his eyes closed.
Lü Bufan quietly sat down beside him and said nothing.
An obscure voice faintly sounded in Lü Bufan's heart... "If I take action, I'll have to hide inside Two-World Mountain with Two Realms Village... After that, I won't be able to go out with you anymore."
Lü Bufan nodded. "I know, but Village Head Shameless deserves to be avenged! And... that immortal sitting high above everyone, and the Taihua Sect that oppresses the common people... They all deserve to die!"
"Have you truly thought through the causes and consequences of all this?"
"No... I'm pretty stupid. I know all these people are scheming against one another... Everyone has their own aims, I suppose!"
"And you?"
"I only trust what I see for myself, and those who are good to me!"
"You're letting a single leaf blind you... It's an obstruction in your heart. One day, it will hinder your ascent to the summit of the Great Dao..."
"What exactly is the Great Dao? I've cultivated the Daoist Scripture... I'm a Qi Refiner now, too, but I still can't understand what cultivating the Dao is really for..."
"The Dao is the ultimate truth of heaven and earth..."
"If it's the ultimate truth of heaven and earth, then it must be the greatest principle of all! But why do those Immortal Sect cultivators still fight and kill, doing things that leave ordinary people unable to survive?"
"Principle cannot prevail over the human heart..."
Lü Bufan sat for a long time, then bowed respectfully to Big Black...
Big Black rose with his eyes closed and turned toward the great rock at the village entrance...
"I'll merge with my other body. After the battle, I'll suppress my aura and sleep for a long time. Be careful..."
Lü Bufan called out, "Why are you so good to me?"
Big Black stopped and thought for a moment. "You were once the kind of food I craved most... But a certain being wouldn't let me eat you."
"Who was he?"
"He's already dead..."
Big Black left. With one step, he reached the great rock, then padded gently over to the other Big Black... and lay down beside him. The two Big Blacks merged into one, continuing to sleep...
Bai Ye lowered his head without speaking. Only after a long time did he look up and smile. "At dusk today, people across the Six Southern Borderlands Commanderies and nineteen cities will raise their banners in revolt against the Taihua Sect and the Great Jin Dynasty..."
Du Yuan froze. "How long have you been arranging this?"
Beside him, Guo'er, the Ninth Realm female cultivator, glanced at Du Yuan. "Stop dwelling on these things... Back among the Twelve Who Crossed the Mountain, someone advocated joining forces with the Great Jin Dynasty. It was just that we all thought the idea was sheer fantasy..."
Bai Ye bowed and slowly stepped back. "Ancestor Master Peach... Master Du Yuan, Senior Guo'er... I shall take my leave. The Wild Spirit Land's army can advance on Two-World Mountain at the same time! You're certain to gain something... If you're willing, there may even be a chance for the Wild Spirit Land's army to sweep away the two Guardian Cities and the two great Immortal Sects in southern Great Jin..."
Guo'er stared coldly at Bai Ye. "Taking your head with my own hands would settle one burden on my heart..."
Bai Ye laughed heartily... "Best leave this head to my own sect! Everyone... farewell!"
Bai Ye swept his sleeve and dissolved into a wisp of breeze, vanishing without a trace.
Without a word, Old Skeleton crawled into the squat Land God Temple and did not come out again. Big Black lay sound asleep on the great rock.
Du Yuan sat at the village entrance, watching Guo'er, the cultivator from the Wild Spirit Land. Guo'er watched Lü Bufan, who stood silently nearby.
"Your name is Lü Bufan?"
"Yes."
"Would you like to enter the Wild Spirit Land to cultivate?"
"No..."
Guo'er smiled. "If you come into the Wild Spirit Land with me, you'll be able to see that little girl you like often."
Lü Bufan said earnestly, "One day, I'll go into the Wild Spirit Land to see her through my own ability!"
"Oh? Aren't you afraid? Among the cultivators who rebelled against the Immortal Sects, there are plenty of fifth- and Seventh Realm Golden Core cultivators and Martial Dao Grandmasters... Even they don't dare enter the Wild Spirit Land lightly. Aren't you afraid of dying?"
"I am, but I'm also afraid of living without understanding why."
Guo'er paused, then turned to look at Du Yuan beside her.
Du Yuan chuckled and thrust out his chest. "Heh, I want a wife, too... But I'm afraid I'd spend every day swallowing grievances after marrying her! The kind where she puts a cuckold's green hat on my head, and I don't even dare make a sound..."
"You damned cripple..."
Guo'er gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes at the irreverent Du Yuan, then turned to leave...
"Two Realms Village is in your hands. I'll send people into Great Jin's Capital City to assist the old blind man, the deaf man, and the others. Relocate Two Realms Village immediately after the immortal is slain..."
"Understood! This matter... we'll remember it!"
Guo'er glanced back. Du Yuan was watching her with a cold, expressionless face...
Guo'er sighed with a trace of guilt. "Perhaps you'll understand someday. The Wild Spirit Hall has its own difficulties..."
Du Yuan said nothing.
Lü Bufan rose and left, returning to his little courtyard and entering his room to pack... There was going to be a fight, and this time it might be very dangerous. The village would move afterward... He had to bring some things!
Lü Bufan took out two Mustard-Seed Objects. The space inside them was not large, but each contained an empty space a full five feet across.
Lü Bufan looked at the cured meat hanging from the beam, the bamboo shoots he had dried, a few clothes and bedding, and the bamboo chair Master Ming lay in every day...
"Ah-ba! Ah-ba..."
At some point, the monk Mute had appeared at the doorway, squatting there with a small bundle on his back as he watched Lü Bufan.
"Uncle Mute..."
Lü Bufan looked at Mute, who had been hiding away for several days, and wanted to tell him what had happened.
"Ah-ba... ah-ah... ba!"
Mute nodded to indicate that he already knew everything. Then he pointed at himself, followed by the southeast beyond the mountains...
"You're leaving? Going... to the Southwestern Region... overseas?"
Mute smiled, stroked the top of Lü Bufan's head, and tucked something into his arms.
Lü Bufan took it out and looked. It was a dull gray Demon-Subduing Pestle, densely engraved with strange characters.
"This is for me? Is it... the body-tempering method you taught me?"
Mute nodded, patted Lü Bufan's head, and turned to stride away.
At the village entrance, Du Yuan looked at Mute and asked, "Won't you take another look?"
Mute waved a hand and left with his little bundle on his back, heading toward the sea in the Southwestern Region without ever looking back.
Inside the Land God Temple, Old Skeleton, resting with his eyes closed, snorted. "He's a man of unwavering devotion... Back then, the Buddhist Sect refused to act for the people of the world. They merely retreated overseas, closed their gates, and hid from the world. In his fury, he cut out the tongue with which he had attained spiritual fruition, never again reciting a single true Buddhist scripture... He is a true disciple of the Buddha who genuinely practices his path."
Du Yuan watched Mute's departing figure, free and unburdened, and sighed. "That's a true cultivator. Compared with people like us, merely clinging to our last breaths... he lives far more purely!"
Lü Bufan put the Vajra Pestle into a Mustard-Seed Object, then stuffed in some food and belongings, along with Master Ming's bamboo chair.
Suddenly, as though his heart had sensed something... Lü Bufan hurried out of the Bamboo House into the courtyard and saw two masked women in blue robes rise into the air in the distance, carrying a small figure between them...
"Lian'er!"
In midair, the little girl seemed to turn her head and take a close look at Lü Bufan... Then all three vanished into the sky.
Lü Bufan leaped out of the courtyard and ran toward Granny Yu's little yard. Granny Yu stood dazed at the entrance, gazing at the sky...
"You were a step too late. The girl was taken away by people from Azurefall Lake... Lad, cultivation isn't easy for you. Forget her! Otherwise, your heart will suffer terribly..."
Lü Bufan shook his head, then turned and left without a word.
Du Yuan sat on Granny Yu's roof with his arms folded and gave a cold laugh. "Who would have thought Two-World Mountain, which once separated the Central Lands from the Wild Spirit Land like a heavenly chasm, would now be riddled like a sieve? One poor choice of subordinate... and a mighty Guardian City lord turns into a born traitor... No! He was always a born traitor who betrayed his master and destroyed his forebears..."
A middle-aged man who had always kept to himself also emerged, carrying a small bundle on his back and a bamboo staff in his hand.