Great Firmament Mother Gold, Innate Water Wall

Following the map down beneath the mountain stream, they saw ancient vines hanging like curtains and heard the wondrous surge of springs and waterfalls.

"The surroundings are certainly peaceful."

Ao Ding surveyed the waterfall and cold pool, then pointed at a rocky outcrop nearby with a smile. "That would be a fine place to build a Waterfall-Listening Pavilion."

"The cave abode is yours anyway. You can do whatever you like with it later."

Wen Dan lowered her head to search for the entrance to the immortal abode, her brows tightly knitted.

She kept feeling that this place would not be so easy to enter. Something was wrong.

Suddenly, golden light surged around her. Ao Ding had spread true heaven golden gang throughout the valley with his magical power.

"Fellow Daoist, what are you-" Wen Dan grew wary.

"There's miasma here," Ao Ding said, frowning. "I was thinking of raising some fish and shrimp after building the Waterfall-Listening Pavilion-but then I suddenly realized there isn't a single living creature in the pool beneath this waterfall. Poisonous miasma blankets it. Neither fish nor shrimp can live here."

"Ah-"

Only then did Wen Dan understand. The absence of fish and shrimp was what had felt wrong.

She cultivated through water and had the deepest affinity with aquatic creatures. Yet here, she could sense no aquatic creatures at all.

This poison might even specifically target aquatic creatures like herself!

"The cold pool is poisonous," Ao Ding said softly, staring at its waters. "Each day, sunlight makes it evaporate, turning the poison into a noxious miasma that seals off the valley. The poison should begin rising between seven and nine in the morning, reach its strongest between nine and eleven, then thin around noon before settling again. This is the first barrier to entering the Plague-Dispelling Dao. It bars flying birds and repels swimming fish."

Wen Dan's expression grew uglier.

Looking at the ink-black water, he asked, "I know nothing about alchemical poisons. Do you have a way to deal with this?"

Looking at the glittering true heaven golden gang that filled the valley, Wen Dan pondered. "How about an ice spell? We could join forces to form ice and freeze the cold pool..."

But if we work together, will our mutual misgivings...

As Wen Dan was thinking, the youth beside her agreed without hesitation. "That makes sense-"

Ao Ding beckoned, and the Ice-Soul Long Sword appeared.

Wen Dan paused briefly, then took her spear in hand as well.

She pointed at the cold pool and chanted the Dragon-Roar Secret Spell. Deep-blue, chilling mysterious energy spread across its surface. Meanwhile, Ao Ding swiftly unleashed streak after streak of Sword Qi, forming glaciers above the pool.

Working together, the two turned the mountain stream into a realm of ice, thick with sinister yin energy.

Only when she saw the poison sealed beneath the ice did Wen Dan breathe a sigh of relief. Without Ao Ding here, she would likely have run into some trouble.

Afterward, the two carefully felt along the stone wall. After a long while, they found a concealed opening.

Ao Ding struck hard, forcing a thumb-sized recess into view with true heaven golden gang.

"This is it. Use the secret key-I can sense a spirit-realm dharma realm here."

Wen Dan took out the secret key Tu Qing'er had given her: a broken brass sword refined from a plague ghost. As soon as she inserted it into the hidden keyhole, billowing poisonous mist poured out.

"Mystic source of heaven and earth, root of all vital energies..." Ao Ding, who stood ready beside her, acted at once. Vast golden light spread like a divine net, confining the erupting poisonous mist within seven feet.

Wen Dan repeatedly flicked her fingers as well, shooting drops of jade dew toward the divine net of golden light. Whenever a drop sank into the golden net, a swath of poisonous mist dissolved. But watching the jade dew disappear, Wen Dan looked somewhat pained.

"What is this?"

"This is Hundred-Flower Heavenly Dew. It's a secret art inherited from my... my father. It doesn't contain much spiritual energy and isn't precious, but gathering and refining it takes considerable effort."

She had been born all alone beneath a stream, knowing nothing of her origins. Only after finding another flood dragon's skeleton did she learn that he was her father. Beside his remains were some unsystematic spells and Daoist arts. Wen Dan had relied on these to struggle her way to where she was today.

But after today, perhaps things would be different!

Thinking of what her father's final letter had said, Wen Dan could barely contain her excitement.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the sweet dew had purified the poisonous mist, and a bronze door appeared before them.

Ao Ding opened his left eye and looked through the bronze door at the space within.

The cave abode was not large and had few deadly, perilous warding arts. After all, a cave abode was meant to be lived in. A mechanism every five steps and a killing trap every ten would only harm one's own people, and would not help pass on the lineage.

Thus, although the Plague-Dispelling Dao's cave abode had some defensive wards, most relied on plague poison and miasma, which did no harm whatsoever to its own successors. Even outsiders seeking its lineage could avoid the noxious energy as long as they had the secret key.

"Through my secret art, I can see that the cave abode was hewn into the mountain and contains fifteen rooms. The five outer rooms have already been opened, presumably by Old Daoist Qi. The ten behind them remain sealed. Farther back-it seems to connect to a natural water cavern serving as a rear garden."

"A water cavern?" Wen Dan asked eagerly. "Can you tell what it looks like?"

"There's water vapor everywhere. I can't see clearly."

Yes, this could very well be the place!

From her father's final letter, Wen Dan had learned of a secret place called the Water Dragon Wall. For its sake, she had searched countless abandoned abodes throughout White Mountain Commandery, all to no avail.

Now she saw hope once more.

"I'll open the door. Find a way to point out the wards and poisonous mist, and we'll keep freezing them."

"Mm." Ao Ding held the Ice-Soul Long Sword upright before his chest.

The instant the main door opened, sword light slashed toward three positions around the entrance.

Wen Dan followed with thrusts of her spear.

A cold surge and frost flowers bloomed together, freezing the traps' poisonous gases before they could spray out.

Fortunately, the cave abode had lain dormant for many years. Old Daoist Qi had lacked the ability to restore it and could only watch the immortal abode fall into disrepair, leaving many of its wards weakened. This gave Ao Ding and Wen Dan the chance to freeze their way straight into the front hall, without relying on the secret key's protection at all.

As soon as they entered, the flood-dragon woman looked displeased. "I can faintly smell fox musk. Has Tu Qing'er been here?"

The two then searched the five outer rooms.

Old Daoist Qi had taken everything clean away back then, leaving nothing behind except the Plague-Dispelling Dao cultivation methods he had later transcribed and preserved, which lay right in the center of the front hall.

Neither Ao Ding nor Wen Dan had any interest in these, and they passed without looking.

They then came before a Ghost-Head Gate.

"Presumably, this is the barrier that stopped Old Daoist Qi from obtaining the true inheritance? The gate-seems to require mysterious gang. No-a higher level of power. The master of this abode probably expected a successor to break through to the Jade Tower Realm before inheriting the true Daoist arts."

Ao Ding and Wen Dan exchanged a glance, but both held back, neither making a move.

After staring for a while, Wen Dan said quietly, "I have a treasure that can break open the gate. But-I can't let outsiders learn of it."

Ao Ding nodded and silently withdrew.

A thunderous explosion sounded inside. By the time Wen Dan called out that it was done, billowing black smoke came pouring out.

Ao Ding walked back. The middle gate had been blasted open.

Probably a treasure like a dragon pearl?

Sensing the lingering dragon energy on the gate, Ao Ding had a vague suspicion.

The five middle rooms were where the Plague Daoist had cultivated.

They were, in order, the Alchemy Chamber, a quiet cultivation room, the middle hall, a secret plague-refining chamber, and a storeroom. The true inheritance of the Plague-Dispelling Dao rested on a meditation cushion in the center of the middle hall.

Looking left from the middle hall, Ao Ding glimpsed cultivation manuals scattered inside the quiet room. Remembering Sun Chen's earlier warning, he showed no interest in the Plague-Dispelling Dao's methods and only recorded the other Daoist arts and formulas the Plague Daoist had collected into the Primordial Truth Mirror.

Farther along, bottles and jars filled the Alchemy Chamber. Since Ao Ding knew nothing of alchemy, he did not dare rummage about carelessly, afraid of disturbing the arrangements and turning spirit medicine into poison.

Wen Dan did much the same, taking a look around the two rooms on the left before turning away.

Proceeding along the right, they first saw a corpse in the secret chamber.

All its flesh was gone. Beneath its gray robe lay only a blackish-purple skeleton.

"The Plague Daoist."

"Careful-he spent years refining plagues. His corpse is bound to carry plague poison."

Neither entered the secret chamber. They went straight to the storeroom at the very back.

Some of the Plague-Dispelling Dao's savings and spiritual objects remained inside.

Wen Dan counted them carefully and smiled. "Fortunately, Banyan-Leaf Crimson Pistils don't deteriorate. There are roughly eight hundred banyan leaves here. Not bad at all."

Not bad?

Ao Ding muttered inwardly. Doesn't this look a little poor?

Wen Dan gave the storeroom a cursory glance and said generously, "You can have all of this. I only want the cultivation methods."

Ao Ding nodded without speaking and quietly surveyed the storeroom.

Suddenly-

His gaze was drawn to a brocade box on a shelf.

Viewed through his left eye, it had the densest spiritual energy in the entire storeroom. In fact, calling it the densest concentration in the entire cave abode would not have been an exaggeration.

Ao Ding walked over and carefully opened the brocade box. Inside was a small bottle, with an auction document laid on top.

"Southern Yu Mountain, Ninefold Mystic Purple-Gold Stone, suspected to be guarded by a Ba Demon. Three hundred cultivators once perished to obtain a single fragment. Starting bid: one hundred thousand banyan leaves."

"Original self!" Suddenly, the three boys inside the Primordial Truth Mirror spoke in unison.

"Yes, I understand." Ao Ding stared at the fragment.

Found it!

I've found the material for the Collection of a Thousand Spells!

Ninefold mystic purple-gold stone was the raw ore of great firmament primordial mother heavenly gold. This heavenly gold possessed the qualities of growing on its own, bearing the Great Dao, and remaining unworn by time.

Though called a spiritual material, it was already close to an immortal material.

If the Collection of a Thousand Spells were forged from such a material, it could not only transform into a Dharma Treasure in the future, but even possess the wondrous ability to evolve on its own.

Self-directed evolution was a particularly necessary property for book-type Dharma Artifacts.

Flying-sword Dharma Artifacts needed little beyond sharpness and hardness. Pill-cauldron Dharma Artifacts required no more than harmony between yin and yang and the profound workings of creation.

But book-type Dharma Artifacts required far more consideration. If only three hundred pages were refined when first forging the artifact's embryo, what would happen once they were filled? Expanding it would require adding more materials to append pages at the back.

Ao Ding believed that, given his talent for spells, if the Collection of a Thousand Spells started with too few pages, they would certainly not suffice in the future.

With heavenly gold, however, there was no need to consider this. Just a small piece could grow on its own in the future. Like inexhaustible living soil, it was infinite gold.

"Original self-" Red Boy was so impatient that he nearly rushed out of the mirror.

"I know."

Ao Ding quietly put away the tiny fragment of raw ore.

In theory, if he could extract a little great firmament primordial mother heavenly gold from this fragment and infuse it with abundant spiritual energy from heaven and earth, he could grow it to the size of a palm, or even a bucket.

But that would take far too much effort and consume an enormous amount of spiritual energy.

By a conservative estimate, he would need to invest a million banyan leaves just for it to possibly grow to the size of a fingernail.

"I still need to find that raw ore on Southern Yu Mountain. Otherwise-I'll have to bleed my purse dry."

Still, for a Collection of a Thousand Spells with the potential to become a Dharma Treasure, Ao Ding did not mind spending money as a last resort.

With Ao Ding having gained something, the two continued farther inside.

There was another door.

"I'll do it this time." Seeing that Wen Dan was somewhat short of breath, Ao Ding stepped forward of his own accord and likewise asked her to leave for a moment.

He took out the Golden Dragon Banner and shook it gently. A golden dragon abruptly appeared and clawed the doorway to pieces.

He called Wen Dan over, and she rushed inside impatiently.

The five rooms here were where the Plague Daoist had enjoyed himself at leisure with his wife, concubines, and family.

"What a strong smell of fox musk, though it's a little fainter than in that room up front."

Passing through the five rooms, Wen Dan went straight into the garden.

A pure-white curtain of water flowed gently. In the sunlight streaming down through the open courtyard, it cast the shadows of wondrous seal-script characters onto a wall.

The characters resembled dragons, weaving and roaming across the wall.

Ao Ding exclaimed softly in surprise, "Ah-is this a passage of Innate Water Script?"

Holding down her excitement, the flood-dragon woman told him, "According to the records my father left, there's an Innate Water Dragon Wall beneath White Mountain Commandery, of great benefit to dragonkind. But cultivators occupied it back then, and his repeated attempts to negotiate with them came to nothing. Now-"

Ao Ding's brows stirred slightly, but he said nothing more.

Then how did the Plague-Dispelling Dao decline afterward?

And why did your father die too?

Could it be...

Forget it. Don't ask what you shouldn't...

Ao Ding believed he had at least that much discretion.