Wang Weilong rushed into the kitchen gardens just as Wang He was calling people over to clean the place. He grabbed Wang He and dragged him toward the rear courtyard.
"Junior Brother Wang, what did I tell you when I sent you to the kitchen gardens? There was a promising 'vessel of the Dao' here, and you were to take good care of him-is this how you took care of him?"
Wang He remained silent.
"I told you to use the Northern Yin Diagram to lay his foundation. You know better than anyone how he was progressing, don't you? Do you not know what his potential means to our Seven Spirits Sect?"
The Seven Spirits Sect descended from the Guangfa Sect, an immortal patriarch's lineage renowned for creating methods and developing arts. A clever youth like Ao Ding, devoted to spellcraft, was precisely the sort the Guangfa Sect liked best. And with Ao Ding's innate Immortal Eye Heavenly Vision, he was better still!
To safeguard the Seven Spirits Sect's fortune for the next thousand years, Wang Weilong had specifically transferred a junior brother here to watch over him, even permitting Wang He to use the Northern Yin Diagram to establish Ao Ding's foundation.
As for that business about a "whetstone" in the outer courtyard, it was not false, either; the primary and secondary roles had merely been reversed.
Wang Weilong had already resolved to sacrifice this generation of outer-courtyard disciples, making every one of them a whetstone for Ao Ding.
So long as Ao Ding could amount to something and truly succeed in cultivation through being honed by those in the outer courtyard, what did it matter if all those disciples were discarded? At worst, the Seven Spirits Sect would guarantee them a lifetime of wealth and honor and protect them through three reincarnations.
Cultivation methods, "sworn rivals," a dao companion, a nanny protecting him in secret, a mentor...
Wang Weilong had arranged everything perfectly, but now... but now...
He clutched his chest, feeling his blood surge upward and his true essence spill out.
Just then, Wang Daniangzi approached with measured steps.
"Cousin-"
Worry showed on her face as she said apprehensively, "This had nothing to do with Senior Brother Wang. I was the one who failed to watch him."
Wang Daniangzi was Wang Weilong's younger female cousin from a distant branch of his clan. Without talent for cultivation, she had been assigned to the kitchen gardens, where she also served as his eyes. Wang Weilong's timely discovery of Ao Ding's gifts had likewise been thanks to her secret reports.
"You?" Wang Weilong studied Wang Daniangzi, his gaze deep and unreadable.
Seeing Wang Daniangzi remain silent, how could he fail to understand?
Rather than failing to watch the boy, had they not deliberately let Ao Ding leave with his uncle-master?
"Hmph-"
Wang Weilong sighed. "You two-perhaps you were thinking only of the child's best interests-but... why did you not consider this? If a True Person's legacy were so easy to claim, why would our Seven Spirits Sect not take it ourselves? Uncle-Master Sun and our master have old ties and address one another as fellow disciples. He came to our door asking our Seven Spirits Sect to collect his body and bury him. Why did I avoid him under the pretext of secluded cultivation?"
Wang He's expression did not change, but Wang Daniangzi's face abruptly fell.
Wang Weilong continued, "Uncle-Master offended a Demon Court. Though its demon king is dead, many valiant offspring survive him. Not to mention the three demon marshals and eighteen demon generals still out there-are they easy to provoke? Uncle-Master has no more than a month to live. Once he dies-who will protect Ao Ding?"
"Then..." Wang Daniangzi panicked. "Hurry after them! Perhaps they haven't gone far!"
"They have! I can no longer sense them within a thousand li. Do you have anything Ao Ding used regularly?"
"Well... we just finished clearing away his old things. Senior Brother Wang also told us to clean the kitchen gardens. It seems..." Sensing something amiss, Wang Daniangzi looked at Wang He.
Ao Ding had distributed some everyday possessions he could not take with him to the others. But after he left, Wang He had specifically ordered them to destroy those things.
It seemed... it seemed he had anticipated this?
Wang He still said nothing.
Only when Wang Weilong glared at him did Wang He reply:
"Your timidity, Senior Brother, does not mean everyone else is the same."
So you had people clean the kitchen gardens, removing every last trace of Ao Ding's existence?
-To stop anyone from finding him through spells?
Wang Weilong gave three cold laughs, swept his sleeve, and left.
Finding Ao Ding did require a medium, but that medium did not have to be in the kitchen gardens.
He turned and headed straight for the outer sect where Luo Qiushui lived.
Little girl, do not disappoint me.
I am still counting on you and Ao Ding entering the Guangfa Sect together and claiming that pair of Azure Phoenix Flying Phoenix Swords.
Old Daoist Sun traveled with Ao Ding by escape arts for a long time, but eventually could hold out no longer.
His face deathly pale, he clutched his chest and regulated his breathing beneath a withered, sinister old locust tree.
The boy hurried forward and asked anxiously, "Senior, are you all right?"
The old Daoist waved a hand, took out a sky-blue porcelain bottle decorated with entwined lotuses, and forced a mouthful of divine water down his throat. Only then did some color return to his face.
"I need to regulate my breathing and nourish my qi. Wait here for now."
Ao Ding nodded silently.
Without hiding anything from Ao Ding, the old Daoist immediately sat in meditation, breathing in and out as he silently circulated his profound art.
This was Ao Ding's first time observing a True Person meditate. He sat cross-legged in imitation of Old Daoist Sun, then concentrated on studying Sun Chen.
Wisps of spiritual cloud curled around the Daoist, while Dao light of many colors shimmered and intermingled.
Yet as soon as vital energy entered his body, it swiftly leaked away again...
The Azure Spirit Seven Forms Seven Qi Formula says, "The flesh is a treasure ship; ascending to immortality is crossing the world." Seeing Senior's condition now, I fear...
It was not that the ship leaked; its bottom was completely gone.
That he remained alive at all was entirely thanks to his profound cultivation, which imprisoned the "signs of death" and forcibly sustained a breath of life.
Still, watching him cultivate yielded something for Ao Ding. He vaguely discerned that Old Daoist Sun practiced a method of refining qi through golden light.
Its subtleties, however, eluded his understanding for the moment.
Unfortunately, I cannot use my left eye again today.
After the third use, Ao Ding's left eye had begun to ache and swell faintly, making further reckless use inadvisable.
Only after the golden crow sank in the west and the jade rabbit rose into the sky did the Daoist finish his practice and open his eyes. Seeing Ao Ding beside him, diligently meditating with closed eyes and focused mind, gathering and refining true qi from the spiritual energy he had drawn together, he grew interested.
He studied Ao Ding from head to toe, observing spiritual energy moving like an undulating white snake, in accordance with the Spirit Snake Transformation Method, one of the Seven Spirits Sect's seven qi seeds.
"Hmm... he gathers and refines quite a bit of spiritual energy, but during its refinement inside his body... hmm... interesting..."
Noticing most of the true essence entering the left eye, the old Daoist silently shook his head.
That eye is still hindering him.
He flicked a finger, and a spiritual note rang beside Ao Ding's ear, guiding him to conclude his practice gradually.
Sun Chen smiled. "Your left eye has hindered you these past few years, and you have heard plenty of nonsense in that outer courtyard. You have many mistaken notions about cultivation. Come, let me teach you how to refine qi."
He lightly touched Ao Ding's lower abdomen. "The Seven Spirits Sect has some theory about 'seven qi and myriad qi,' and some argument about 'a hundred transformations achieving truth'... something about transforming a spirit snake into a dragon? Ha-pay it no heed! At the stage of refining essence into qi, only one breath matters-innate true qi. Cultivators contesting the Great Dao contend for a single breath of qi. Did you think that meant a mortal's angry pride?
"Wrong! The qi we cultivators contend for and seize in seeking the Dao and truth is this innate qi! Innate true qi, present from birth, born alongside the Great Dao True Nature. When mortals exhaust their lifespan, this is the breath of innate qi they expend.
"The first stage of our cultivation is to nourish this breath of innate qi within us back to strength through acquired essence. Once it is whole and abundant, we break through. What is Foundation Establishment? What you establish and nourish is this very breath of qi inside you."
He lightly tapped Ao Ding's forehead and watched the boy with a smile.
The essence of cultivation in the qi-seeding realm was that simple.
After listening, Ao Ding closed his eyes and looked inward at the fire in his lower abdomen.
What the Daoist had illuminated was the root of the innate qi within him.
With that flash of insight, Ao Ding's abdomen burned like a furnace and cauldron. True essence flowed ceaselessly into his Dantian, making the fire blaze ever higher, while the true qi flowing from it grew increasingly pure.
Before he knew it, the bottleneck that had trapped him for years suddenly opened.
As the saying went: a word or half a sentence opens the profound; what need for ten million scriptures of alchemy?
A few words from a great teacher surpassed thousands upon thousands in Daoist scriptures.
Such was the importance of a teaching lineage.
Suddenly, golden light shone before Ao Ding's eyes, and the true essence circulating within him inexplicably flowed more freely.
The old Daoist nodded silently, considering: This child's Root Bone and natural gifts are unexceptional. But his comprehension is good, and he was born with Spirit Pupils—or rather, the strain of those pupils is precisely why his health is poor. Yet after six years of nourishment in a place like the kitchen gardens, he should not still be at the Qi-Seeding Connection Realm. Presumably, my martial nephew deliberately suppressed him.
That Ao Ding had worked out cultivation to the Qi-Seeding Connection Realm merely by eavesdropping on the outer-courtyard disciples showed that his comprehension was far from ordinary.
But under Wang Weilong's overt and covert manipulation, Ao Ding's thinking had followed the outer-courtyard disciples ever further astray. His intention had been to keep Ao Ding in the kitchen gardens for six or nine full years, then, once his foundation was solid, reveal the profound truth in a single sentence and awaken him, allowing him to break through the upper realm and ultimate realm barriers within mere months. With that momentum of long accumulation bursting forth, he would enter the mystic gang realm in one stroke.
"Ha-the Guangfa Sect certainly knows how to play these tricks."
Training and arranging things for disciples, engineering dazzling results from long accumulation: these were specialties of the Guangfa Sect's branch lineages.
After all, when branch lineages recommended talented disciples to the main sect, they all hoped those talents would become True Disciples and shelter their own lineage.
But compared with True Disciples raised by the main sect from childhood, why should anyone surrender resources and attention to talents recommended by branch lineages?
To address this, the branch lineages had long since developed a complete procedure.
Marketing! Publicity! Riding the wave of attention!
Upon reaching the jade palace and light-union realms, cultivators needed to cultivate themselves, nourish their qi, and temper their Dao hearts, did they not?
At that point, the Guangfa Sect's True Disciples would descend the mountain to seek opportunities. Meanwhile, through their early suppression, the talents recommended by branch lineages would already have thoroughly tempered their Dao hearts and would each be bursting forth after long accumulation. While the main sect's True Disciples traveled abroad, those branch-lineage talents in the Guangfa Mountain Court would repeatedly break through, refining immortal light and cultivating Primordial Spirits right beneath the eyes of the True Persons and immortal masters.
One kept breaking through before their eyes; the other went away to temper themselves for years without news.
Which received more exposure?
Even if the True Persons and immortal masters favored their own personal disciples, the disciples sent up by the branch lineages would receive corresponding support.
To bring about that sustained burst of progress later, the branch lineages would even deliberately devise early cultivation methods with flaws that did not damage the foundation, intentionally suppressing cultivation. Then they would let the Guangfa Sect's immortal masters personally expose and correct those flaws. This also gave those main-sect masters a greater sense of participation and accomplishment in teaching disciples, thereby bringing the two sides closer.
Sun Chen held such practices and tricks in considerable contempt.
Back when he had ranked among the True Disciples of the Six Sects, he had properly followed a True Person teacher from childhood. Everything he cultivated and practiced followed the path of the main sect's True Disciples.
After some thought, he told Ao Ding, "Stop studying that Seven Qi Method or Northern Yin Dharma of yours for now. I will teach you a Golden Light Breathing Technique. Use it to concentrate on tempering that breath of innate qi—hmm, this is an orthodox method of the Six Sects, but it does not touch on their secret True Disciple teachings, so it may be passed to outsiders."
After considering further, Old Daoist Sun added, "You should know the saying, 'All immortal schools beneath heaven spring from the Six Sects.' I too cultivated in one of those sects in my early years, but certain things happened later, and I am now an unaffiliated wanderer. Your future cultivation, however, must involve seeking a teacher in one of those sects. Without joining the Six Sects, it is difficult indeed to receive guidance from a great teacher."
Ao Ding nodded silently.
"While I was in the Seven Spirits Sect, I already decided I would go to the Guangfa Sect in the future."
From what Ao Ding had learned in the Seven Spirits Sect, the Guangfa Sect had created more methods than any of the Six Sects. Half the cultivation methods of today's immortal schools originated there.
The Daoist smiled. "Though I am not from the Guangfa Sect, I still have some standing there and old ties with several fellow disciples. Later, I will write a letter to help you become a True Disciple sooner."
Having broadly understood Ao Ding's intentions, Sun Chen now had a plan.
"The Golden Light Breathing Technique I will teach you is the preliminary method of the Taiyi Profound Origin Golden Light Chain-Form True Scripture, one of the Pure Tenuity Sect's thirty-six orthodox golden canons. The Six Sects share one breath and interlinked branches, and because the Guangfa Sect creates methods and develops spells, it does not object to taking pupils who have studied elsewhere. Thus, using the Golden Light Breathing Technique to consolidate your qi-seeding realm will be quite sufficient."
After he briefly revealed his arrangements for Ao Ding after his death, the boy's expression grew somewhat more settled.
The Daoist lightly touched a finger to the space between Ao Ding's brows.
Within his Niwan Palace, golden light suddenly flashed, cleaving the primordial chaos.
"Vast is the supreme void, boundless the primordial beginning; a point of golden light hangs within emptiness, neither increasing nor perishing, neither appearance nor form..."
The wondrous formula imprinted itself word by word within his Niwan Palace. Through the Mind-Transmission Dao-Seal Method, Sun Chen also sealed his insights into the Golden Light Chain-Form True Scripture there. Even after the Daoist underwent Liberation by Violence and reincarnated, these insights would suffice for Ao Ding's studies through the mystic gang realm.
Ao Ding silently pondered the scripture.
It was immeasurably more sophisticated than the Seven Spirits Sect's Azure Spirit Seven Forms Seven Qi Formula. Even compared with the various hell spells he had comprehended from the Hell Diagram, it was no less impressive.
Refine a single ray of golden light, and refine only that single ray.
This golden light arose from the sublimation of innate qi and would also form the foundation for warding off evil and subduing demons in the future.
According to the Golden Light Breathing Technique, golden light protected the body and drove back all evil. Even the chance of cultivation deviation was lower than with other methods-especially far lower than with the Northern Yin cultivation method!
During his years practicing the Northern Yin Diagram's method, had Ao Ding not achieved something in the White Bone Hell Contemplation Method and been able to steady his mind, the boundless horrors of hell would probably have driven him mad long ago. The Northern Yin Dharma Gate offered rapid progress, but demanded far too much of one's mental disposition.
Ao Ding circulated the new method. Golden light flowed down from between his brows through the twelve-storied tower, passed through his internal organs, and finally took up residence in the Dantian of his qi sea.
Illuminated by the golden light, all the true essence he had previously cultivated was refined into golden light true qi, which slowly circulated through his limbs and every bone.
Ao Ding thought, Senior spoke truly. This golden light method is indeed an orthodox method of the Six Sects, naturally compatible with every immortal school's inner teachings. Converting my Seven Aspects Spirit Snake true essence met not the slightest obstruction. Like water flowing into a completed channel, all the magical power in my body has been converted and purified.
Sun Chen stood guard beside him and nodded silently.
The Six Sects shared one breath and interlinked branches; many Daoist arts had originally been discussed and developed together. Without advancing hand in hand, how could they have supported humanity's flourishing in an age of savage wilderness? How could they have resisted the Demon Court's encirclement and extermination?
Though the Taiyi Profound Origin Golden Light Chain-Form True Scripture was one of the Pure Tenuity Sect's thirty-six orthodox scriptures, the other five sects had often taken it for study. As far as Sun Chen knew, several true immortals of the Guangfa Sect excelled at this method.
"When I send this boy to seek a teacher, which senior brother's mountain should he go to...?"
He considered it carefully.
It truly was a difficult decision. Later, he would have to discuss it repeatedly with the boy.
The moon passed the zenith, and the midnight hour gradually slipped by.
Suddenly, a patch of moonlight descended from the sky, becoming ten streaks of white radiance that entered Ao Ding's body to be refined into golden light true qi.
Ao Ding then concluded his practice and slowly opened his eyes.
The old Daoist said delightedly, "Good, good! Your connection realm is stable, and your true essence abundant-in the next few days, you can enter the upper realm and advance to the ultimate realm."
Ao Ding smiled wryly. "This junior cultivated bitterly for years, only to remain at the connection realm. Surely entering the ultimate realm will also take several years?"
"Ha ha! If I cannot replenish your essence, nourish your Spirit Pupils, and advance your cultivation within this month, would I not be a laughingstock of a True Person? Come, I will take you to the Country of Xuanjia shortly. Within that 'country' is a divine spring of jade liquid formed by innate creation. It can wash away your bodily impurities and remake your Dao body."
Sun Chen had deduced some of Wang Weilong's arrangements and knew he must have prepared many spiritual cultivation resources for Ao Ding.
Since he had asked to take the child, surely he could not treat him worse than Wang Weilong would?
But at present, the old True Person was indeed short of funds. Much of his wealth remained in his "immortal abode"; he had not brought it out at all. He had come out on this journey to find someone to guard him during his Liberation by Violence. Why would he bring everything he owned?
"The Country of Xuanjia?" Ao Ding looked bewildered.
He had read ancient books; why had he never heard of this country?
Surely there was nothing wrong with Luo Qiushui's books?
It could not be that someone had deliberately altered the books' contents to trick him, could it?
"Ha ha-just follow this old Daoist! But... young as you are, do not let beauty bewitch you."
Looking at the night, he nodded.
"It is about time. Come, I will take you somewhere-once we arrive, do not make any loud noises."
With that, he called Ao Ding over to support him and slowly walked toward the wild woods behind the old locust tree.
Suddenly-Ao Ding's expression grew strange.
While watching over the Daoist that afternoon, although his attention had been focused on him, he had also surveyed their surroundings.
Beyond the wild woods, earthen mounds crowded together, straw mats lay scattered, and hemp ropes and paper money were everywhere. Broken pottery and chipped bowls held rotten fruit and stinking meat of unknown age, strewn among white cogongrass and wormwood.
He had not wanted to spare such a place another glance.
Yet Senior was leading him straight toward it?
Passing among the earthen mounds and wormwood, Ao Ding felt the wind drifting around him grow ever colder.
"Sen-"
He wanted to speak, but seeing gusts of sinister wind and shadowy shapes stirring in the darkness, he swallowed the rest.
Seeing the boy's frightened face, Sun Chen laughed. "Come, come, this old Daoist is taking you visiting. We will borrow a carriage to travel through the night to the Mystic Jia Kingdom."
Travel?
Through the night?
Ao Ding's ominous premonition grew stronger and stronger.
The old Taoist came to a large earthen mound overgrown with wormwood, with the faint cries of wild foxes drifting from nearby.
Stopping to gaze at the mound, the old Taoist chanted an incantation, then circled it three times to the left and three times to the right before pointing at it.
Golden light suddenly flared.
There came a rumbling crash-
The mound opened, revealing tier upon tier of dark silver steps.
"Stay close to me."
With that, the old Taoist ducked down inside.
Ao Ding stared at the three earthenware bowls set fairly neatly beside the mound. The rotten fruit inside had been pecked and gnawed beyond recognition by crows and foxes. The plain funeral streamers on either side of the mound had also been shredded in the cold wind, leaving no trace of their original appearance.
This... was this really a suitable place for a living person like me to go?
Hearing the shrill cries of foxes and caws of crows all around him, he felt a chill of dread and hesitated, not daring to follow.
Even having lived two lives, when had he ever come to a place like this in the dead of night?
A mass graveyard, a desolate burial mound, and then a passage beneath the mound.
Where did it lead down there?
Whose household were we going to as banquet guests?
Before you continue