Offending the Dragon's Reverse Scale and Seeking to Leave
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This book's cultivation realms: Mystery Opening, Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Purple Mansion True Person, Loose Immortal, Golden Core True Lord, Dao Embryo (Immortal), Primordial Spirit (Dao Lord), Heavenly Venerable.
"Leave a comment if you're ridiculously handsome."
Among the Thirty-Six Peaks of Qixia, the main peak, Purple Canopy Peak, rose sheer for ten thousand fathoms, overlooking the shore of the South Sea and the Great Qing River as it rushed into the sea.
Behind the Ancestral Hall stood a towering crimson-cloud cypress. The tree was so tall that it shaded the entire hall and the square before it.
At that moment, however, three people were kneeling beneath it.
At the front was a young man in his early twenties. His features were not particularly striking, but his eyes were exceptionally bright, and paired with his sword-like brows, they gave him a naturally heroic bearing.
He wore a pleated navy-blue robe, with an ochre jade pendant and tassels hanging from his waist.
Behind him knelt two young Daoist attendants in white.
The wind stirred the cypress branches as the three knelt there.
"There is no need for this." An aged voice sounded from within the cypress. "Even if you kneel for another seven days and seven nights, I will not allow you to leave the mountain."
The young man did not raise his head. He simply looked at the ground and replied:
"Daozheng, this disciple has no other thought. I only wish to leave the mountain and settle my worldly ties, break through my inner demons, and seek the Great Dao, so that I may revive our Zhongnan Dao Lineage and the Daoist tradition of Qixia Temple. I beg your permission, Daozheng."
"You are so stubbornly obsessed. How can you speak of reviving our Great Dao?
"To think I raised you for decades in vain. Had I known this would happen, I should have left you to live or die in the Great Qing River back then, so you would not have grown up knowing nothing but how to anger me!" The aged voice was full of displeasure.
The young man raised his head then.
Before him, the cypress crown divided into six. Pure Qi wreathed the central trunk, while the five surrounding branches were each entwined in smoky vapors of white, green, black, red, and yellow.
Looking at the sight, he refused to back down and replied:
"Since that is how you feel, Daozheng, why not cripple my cultivation, strike me from the Daoist register, and drive me down the mountain to live or die as I please?"
At those words, the cypress's branches trembled, and the five-colored vapors churned. Plainly furious, the Daozheng gave a cold snort that echoed across the Thirty-Six Peaks of Qixia:
"Nannuo, go to the Ancestral Hall and fetch the Turbid and Clear Branch!"
Behind the young man, the slightly taller attendant trembled all over and hurriedly prostrated himself, pleading for mercy:
"Please calm your anger, Daozheng! The Turbid and Clear Branch was passed down by the patriarch. How could the Dao Son withstand a single stroke with his cultivation?"
"Fetch it!"
Su Yao turned to look at Nannuo, who was prostrate on the ground, and said:
"Why beg?"
"Defiant disciple." The Daozheng laughed in fury. "I still have the final say on Qixia Mountain."
At that moment, more than fifty figures appeared in the direction of the Ancestral Hall. All were Daoists of the mountain, and among them were quite a few rare beings born of heaven and earth and spirits of the mountains and wilderness.
Seeing the five-colored vapors churning violently above the cypress, they knew the Daozheng was furious and fell to their knees to plead:
"Please calm your anger, Daozheng. The Dao Son is young and headstrong and does not know better. Please forgive him, Daozheng."
Seeing this, the Daozheng sighed inwardly, though the voice remained cold:
"Su Yao doesn't know better? I doubt that. It is because you all indulge him too much that he has become so lawless today, daring to talk back to his elder."
The Daozheng paused, then added, "Daoist Zheng, bind this defiant disciple and take him to the Ancestral Hall. Make him face the wall and reflect on his conduct."
No sooner had the words fallen than a wisp of ochre vapor descended from the cypress crown.
Su Yao immediately lost consciousness.
Seeing this, those below breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the Daozheng's anger had finally subsided.
A white-haired, white-bearded old Daoist then rose and came to Su Yao's side. He cupped his fists toward the unconscious young man and said:
"Dao Son, forgive the offense." With that, the cord around his waist shot up and lengthened in the wind. Glowing faintly yellow, it held Su Yao securely aloft.
Daoist Zheng formed a Method Formula, and Su Yao's body rose into the air, following him toward the Ancestral Hall ahead.
After Daoist Zheng and Su Yao disappeared in the direction of the Ancestral Hall, the Daozheng's voice sounded again:
"Nannuo and Jueming, stay. The rest of you may leave for now."
"Yes." They accepted the order. Apart from the two attendants kneeling at the front, everyone rose and returned to their respective cave abodes.
Daoist Zheng brought Su Yao into the Ancestral Hall and settled him on the left side of its main chamber, the Hall of Return to Truth.
Looking at the Dao Son he had raised from childhood, he could not help feeling bitter. In a low voice, he said:
"Dao Son, how did things come to this?"
But the only answer he received was the candlelight burning throughout the hall.
Tears glimmered in his eyes.
A year ago, the Dao Son's progress in cultivating a Secret Method had stalled, and he had begun insisting on leaving the mountain to settle his worldly ties.
But the world below the mountain was dangerous. The Dao Son had grown up on the mountain, cherished in everyone's palms, and had been raised into a little devil king. How could they dare let him leave?
"Come to me." The Daozheng's voice rang out. Upon hearing it, Daoist Zheng rose and offered three sticks of incense to the patriarch, then closed the hall doors and headed for the rear mountain.
Inside the hall, Su Yao slowly opened his eyes. Tears glimmered in them as well.
He had come to this world sixty years ago. The Daozheng had taken him in at birth, raised him on the mountain, and taught him wondrous methods.
He had begun cultivating at ten, entered Mystery Opening in three days, reached Qi Refining at fifteen, Foundation Establishment at thirty, and Foundation Establishment Perfection at fifty-five.
By fifty-eight, he had mastered two Secret Methods, but now, at sixty, he had made no progress at all with the next one.
There was only one reason. Su Yao sent his spiritual sense into his Qi Sea and saw that, apart from the immortal foundation of Draped in Rosy Radiance, a crystal-clear, seven-sided prism was floating and sinking within it.
Of the prism's seven faces, two were already flickering with red and orange light.
This prism was the greatest fortuitous opportunity of his life. It was with this very prism that he had come to this world.
As his cultivation rose, he could select a compatible rare being of heaven and earth and use his own cultivation as a catalyst to form a talisman.
The talismans came in seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. Red was the lowest, and purple the highest.
He still remembered capturing a Mystery Opening Stage Morning Rosy Cloud Duck in the skies above Qixia Mountain while he was in the Mystery Opening realm, and combining it into a red talisman, "Consume the Sun and Dine on Rosy Clouds."
With this talisman, spiritual essence was automatically converted into pure cultivation upon entering his body. A single day of his cultivation could match dozens of days of an ordinary person's efforts.
Rarer still, "Consume the Sun and Dine on Rosy Clouds" had the marvelous effect of naturally clearing his mind and increasing his comprehension of the Dao.
Coupled with his own considerable talent, his cultivation speed was far beyond the reach of ordinary people.
Later, during Qi Refining, he caught an Azure Empyrean Sparrow and combined it into an orange talisman, "Luminous Sword Heart," allowing him to comprehend a sword intent while still in Qi Refining.
But the prism concealed this sword intent, so the Daozheng had never discovered it.
After he mastered two Secret Methods, the prism sent him a warning: if he failed to form a third talisman before mastering his third Secret Method, then once the Secret Method was mastered, he would never again be able to form a third talisman in this lifetime.
So a year ago, he had conceived the idea of leaving the mountain, using the settlement of his worldly ties as an excuse.
But the Daozheng had refused to yield.
He had intended to wear the Daozheng down gradually, but a few days ago, the Daozheng had received an immortal decree from the Jade Void Palace, summoning the esteemed figures of the various Jade Pure One lineages to attend a lecture.
With the Daozheng about to leave the mountain, he had no choice but to hurry.
Looking at the statues of the patriarchs, he sighed inwardly. If only there were a rare being on Qixia Mountain that met the prism's requirements.
He recalled how, when he had just entered Mystery Opening, Daoist Zheng had taught him the art of riding a sword, allowing him to soar through the nine heavens and chance upon the Morning Rosy Cloud Duck. He had then begged Daoist Zheng to catch it for him.
Later, at twenty-five, he had reached Qi Refinement Perfection, and the Daozheng had taken him down the mountain to look for his parents. But his birth parents were no longer in Qinghe Commandery City, so they had had to give up.
On the way back to the mountain, they had encountered the Azure Empyrean Sparrow. He had claimed he wanted to observe it to practice the Azure Empyrean Sword Technique, and only then had the Daozheng caught the bird.
Otherwise, under the rules of Qixia Temple's direct Jade Pure One inheritance, immortal cultivation held life precious, and killing was forbidden at will. The same applied even to flying or land-dwelling Demon Beasts, unless they brought disaster upon a region.
At that thought, he stirred his mind, and ripples spread across the prism in his Qi Sea.
A moment later, there was a sound outside the hall.