Yes, by ordinary logic, no one could possibly have thought of Qi Yan himself. Anyone would have looked for clues through archaeology. Jiang Jinyue even thought there was some chance it was Qi Yan's ancestor. She had also recorded an image of the Qi Clan ancestor's corpse, intending to take it back for her master to see.
Luo Chaoge had clearly only been making an offhand joke, too. It could hardly be taken seriously. She soon turned toward the middle-aged man who had attacked Qi Yan, her expression hardening. "You defied the Lineage's orders and made me faithless and dishonorable! Guards, seize them and deal with them under household law!"
The middle-aged man did not resist. He obediently let himself be escorted away, only sighing softly. "Chaoge, this world devours people. Having integrity only puts you at a disadvantage. Qi Yan may have saved you, but he was really plotting his own escape, too. This man is no ordinary person. At merely the Qi Refining First Layer, how much turmoil has he stirred up? Once he gains power in the future, the Luo Household won't come out of it well."
Luo Chaoge ignored him and went to pick up the sword the assassin had left behind, examining it closely.
Jiang Jinyue watched coolly from the side. "See anything?"
Luo Chaoge said quietly, "It looks like it belongs to the Extreme Dao Sect. I thought they at least had some dignity. I didn't expect them to stoop this low."
Jiang Jinyue said, "A demonic sect? I think I've heard of this new sect."
The Extreme Dao Sect... They had appeared over on Heavenly Prefecture Continent, too, though they were relatively secretive. Jiang Jinyue had not encountered them yet, but she had heard of them.
Luo Chaoge shook her head slightly. "My master said they aren't just a demonic sect. They might even be the Demon Realm's hidden pawns in the world above."
Those words made Jiang Jinyue's heart give a sudden jolt. Her expression turned more serious than ever. "Has a Demon Realm rift appeared on Tianliang Continent?"
"I'm not sure. It's very possible." Luo Chaoge said quietly, "Master said, 'The sword sings in its case; storms are about to rise.' I didn't come home this time to visit my family, but to settle my ties."
All schools of immortal cultivation commonly spoke of "severing worldly ties," but Jiang Jinyue felt this was merely making trouble for oneself.
Plenty of people spent a hundred years in seclusion. When they emerged, the mortal world had changed, familiar faces had withered away, and their descendants were already several generations removed. They would stir no ripples in your heart at all, so why deliberately go and sever those ties?
Besides, her own master's obsession had lasted ten thousand years, far more outrageous than any worldly ties, yet she had never seen it affect her master's cultivation.
Still, Jiang Jinyue was an adopted orphan and acknowledged that she did not understand these things. For example, her master was like a mother to her. Did that need to be cut off? Or would it no longer stir any ripples after millions of years? What about her master's feelings toward her?
She did not understand and could not be bothered to dwell on it. It served no purpose beyond making her miserable. The news about the Demon Realm, however, put Jiang Jinyue on extreme alert. She had not intended to get involved with the attacker just now, but this time she took the initiative to spread her divine sense. Soon, she locked onto a dark figure fleeing in the distance. "Miss Luo, do you want a lead on the assassin? I have one."
Luo Chaoge paused. "Why are you helping me so much?"
"The Demon Realm appearing in this world is a serious matter." Jiang Jinyue sighed. "I'm afraid my mission on this trip will have to come to a halt."
Luo Chaoge asked in surprise, "You only just asked me to help you find someone. We haven't even started, so why is it coming to a halt?"
"News of a Demon Realm rift takes priority over everything else. We have the Extreme Dao Sect over where I'm from, too." Naturally, Jiang Jinyue would not tell her that the entire Heavenly Evolution Sect had actually lost heart in the search, herself included. There were too few clues. It was like searching for a needle in the ocean. Everyone had been fairly dedicated at first, but after enduring the torment year after year, very few could stand it anymore.
Many people felt that the person the sect master sought had long since died, and there was no need to keep searching at all. Over the years, many disciples had accepted the mission only to go out and have fun. Out of respect for her master, Jiang Jinyue had at least searched seriously, which was much better than the others, but inwardly, she truly did not want to do it either.
Now that she had such important news as the Demon Realm appearing in this world, and the clues discovered at the Qi Clan were just barely enough to report back with, she could also call in a favor to have Luo Chaoge keep helping with the search. She really did have ample excuse to go home now and leave these clues to her master's judgment.
Speaking of which, Qi Yan wants to go to the Heavenly Evolution Sect. I wonder if he'll make it... I'll settle accounts with him then.
After several hours of running, from nighttime all the way until noon the next day, Qi Yan finally let out a breath upon entering the neighboring city and slumped by the roadside to rest.
Neither the Luo Household nor Jiang Jinyue seemed to have sent anyone after him. In other words, only at this moment, after awakening his memories, was he truly free.
It had not been easy.
Now, the first pressing matter was to get some money.
During his supposed stint as head of the Qi Clan, he naturally had not dared bring up resources. Being allowed into the scripture library to memorize books was already thanks to Luo Chaoge being a decent person... In other words, Qi Yan had not gained even a single copper coin's worth of resources from the affair. All he had on him now was a little loose silver he had slowly saved over the years.
With this little loose silver, never mind cultivation expenses-he could not even cross the ocean to another continent.
Qi Yan struggled to his feet and found a random noodle shop to fill his stomach first, then went to a Law Treasure shop. He took out the Law Treasure fragments he had gathered in passing when blowing up the ancestral graves. "Do you buy these?"
The shopkeeper gave them a casual glance. "Shattered Law Treasure fragments. You can't even piece them back together... Scrap material prices at most."
As he spoke, he held up a low-grade Spirit Stone the size of a fingernail.
Qi Yan: "..."
A standard-sized "Spirit Stone" was roughly the size of a matchbox. This fingernail-sized Spirit Stone was not even a tenth of one.
As the most widely used resource among cultivators, Spirit Stones were practically equivalent to food for ordinary people. They were indispensable everywhere. This fingernail-sized bit might not even be enough for a single day of Qi Yan's cultivation.
Qi Yan still tried to bargain. "Look at these materials. They're ancient. You don't see much of them nowadays..."
The shopkeeper did not even lift his eyelids. "Short on money?"
Qi Yan said nothing.
The shopkeeper pointed at a notice beside the counter. "If you're short on money, why not work instead of digging up graves yourself? Going tomb robbing with your cultivation-do you have a death wish?"
Qi Yan looked where he was pointing. It was actually a hiring notice: "Guards wanted. Room and board included."
Qi Yan asked tentatively, "It only mentions room and board. What about wages?"
The shopkeeper rolled his eyes. "Are you really stupid, or just pretending? We even buy rubbish from tomb robbers like you. You think we don't organize tomb raids ourselves? When the time comes, we split the proceeds according to contribution, depending on what we find. Isn't that much better than going off alone to get yourself killed with your meager cultivation?"
Without another word, Qi Yan took the fingernail-sized Spirit Stone and left.
You make it sound nice, but aren't you just recruiting cannon fodder? You won't even pay a single Spirit Stone, just dangle a promised cut in front of people. Going off alone to get myself killed might actually be safer than joining you.
Qi Yan had, after all, lived in this world for eighteen years. He knew full well this was how things worked. Hoping to earn enough for an ocean voyage through employment was a pipe dream. Simply staying alive was hard enough. He had long been prepared for the hardships of a rogue cultivator.
But this was not how a world of immortal cultivation ought to be. It was the complete opposite of what immortality meant. There had to be something wrong with this world...
Thinking it over, Qi Yan made his way to the outskirts and slipped into a dense forest. He took out the jade pendant and infused it with law power. "Little Crybaby, are you there?"
This was his first time calling Little Crybaby on his own initiative. He did not know what she was doing or whether it was a suitable time to call.
Soon, a pleasantly surprised voice came from the other side. "Brother Yan!"
Qi Yan's mood instantly brightened. He smiled. "Judging by your tone, everything went fine?"
"Everything's fine. I got a mission from Grandpa Wu at the External Affairs Hall, so even if my senior brother wants to make trouble for me, it won't do him any good." Mu Xunzhen smiled. "I'm heading to Jade Wave Pool now. Apparently, a giant python has been hurting people there. Once I get rid of it, I can complete my mission and remove a threat for the townspeople outside."
Even Qi Yan's bleak view of society felt a little cleansed. "You have missions to help ordinary people, too? Or is it just for the giant python's materials?"
"Hmm... The python's materials do have value, and the experience itself is valuable, too. Even things growing around the python might be worth something. But the most fundamental purpose of missions like this is, of course, to remove threats for ordinary people. We can do both."
Qi Yan said sincerely, "Then your sect is actually... pretty decent."
He did not know what sect it was. Qi Yan wanted to ask, but felt it would be a little presumptuous, like wanting to meet offline after only two or three online chats... The name "Jade Wave Pool" alone told him nothing. There were at least eight hundred pools with that name in the world, if not a thousand.
Mu Xunzhen indeed did not want to reveal her sect outright either, so she smiled and asked, "Did you need something, Brother?"
Qi Yan said, "Yes. I still wanted to ask you about those explanations related to witchcraft. Is now a good time?"
Mu Xunzhen smiled. "I'm on the road right now. I have plenty of time."
Qi Yan asked her about all the obscure characters in the cultivation method, and Mu Xunzhen explained them one by one. There were not too many, and she soon finished explaining them. Then she said, "The words you asked about this time must belong to a cultivation method, not an incantation."
"Yep. Little Crybaby is smart after all."
"My name is Little Seven, not Little Crybaby."
"All right, Little Crybaby."
Mu Xunzhen chided him, "Say that again and I won't teach you anymore."
"You want to teach me how to practice the whole cultivation method?"
"Can you understand the entire cultivation method just from knowing these characters, Brother? Even if your Dao arts are very advanced, this system really is different."
Qi Yan went over it and found that it was indeed difficult.
It was like an ordinary person reading a piece of classical Chinese. They might make mistakes even trying to fully understand its meaning, let alone a cultivation method a hundred times more obscure than ordinary classical Chinese. Certain passages were practically incomprehensible. He knew every character, yet put together, he had no idea what they were saying.
His parents had taught him the first layer of the cultivation method from childhood. That layer alone was enough to cultivate to Foundation Establishment, so he was fine for now. But his parents had never taught him the general outline. More precisely, no one in the entire Lineage could interpret it.
Without understanding the general outline, what future could there be in pulling out one or two layers to practice on their own?
Mu Xunzhen was saying, "The witchcraft system is fundamentally different from Dao arts, which emphasize spirit roots. People say witchcraft focuses only on cultivating oneself, but that's actually a bit of a misunderstanding. Witchcraft also concerns connections with heaven and earth. Those connections are simply different from those in Dao arts."
Qi Yan perked up. He had also thought witchcraft only cultivated the self. It seemed his understanding was somewhat off. Without someone to explain, he really could have practiced it wrong.
This foundation could also be considered the general outline. Whatever the cultivation method, it surely had to explain its theoretical premises first before progressing step by step through the first, second, and third layers.
"So where does the difference lie?"
Mu Xunzhen said, "All things in the universe have principles. Immortals call them the Dao; witches call them domains. The former emphasizes fathoming and wielding them; the latter emphasizes ruling over them and holding office."