Secret Plot

As for the future of Proclaiming Earth, based on his knowledge and speculation, Proclaiming Earth would at most cause trouble in the Nanzhao, Southern Frontier, and Miao Frontier areas. The real big trouble would be in Annan and Pagan further west, as well as the many large and small Wu kingdoms to the west, and even as far as Tubo. From here, one could enter Tubo by going north.

After all, to enter Tubo, one must either take the Hexi Corridor or pass through Shu. However, Shu must not be allowed to descend into chaos, as Great Qing would not stand idly by and allow it to become unruly. The only remaining option is the Hexi Corridor, but that is a strategically important military location, home to a large number of military households that form Great Qing's core territory. Therefore, only the Nanzhao remains as an option.

Heading north from here leads to Tubo.

What he needed to do was to drive Xuan Tu out of Nanzhao when necessary, after Proclaiming Earth had wreaked havoc there, and force him to the west and north.

With their minds made up, and given that the reincarnated True Lord was still in the cave, and Zilin and the others were still in seclusion.

Su Yao then began to comprehend the cultivation of the Purple Mansion.

Now that the Divine Ability "Rosy Cloud Feather Wanderer" has been achieved, the next step is to perfect this Divine Ability Divine Ability before seeking the second one.

However, the cultivation of Divine Ability is extremely slow. Most people are already three or four hundred years old when they break through to the Purple Mansion, which is one-fifth of the Purple Mansion's lifespan.

Normally, it takes about three hundred years to cultivate a Divine Ability to perfection, and even for Su Yao, it would take one to two hundred years. This is under the condition of having the blessing of elixirs and miraculous medicines.

Moreover, after Su Yao entered the Purple Mansion, he needed to condense an additional talisman for each Divine Ability he cultivated!

Yes, since Su Yao's breakthrough, the Prism has sent a message that Su Yao needs to condense a talisman after each Divine Ability he has mastered, but he can no longer condense talismans after reaching the Golden Core.

Su Yao still needs to refine four more, since the Prism has seven sides, but only three are currently in use.

This will waste time, and for cultivators, time is the most valuable resource.

Another thing is that Su Yao is now able to control the Prism to a basic extent.

He steadied himself and focused his mind deep into the Prism.

He had never truly seen its entire interior before.

At this moment, Prism released the restriction, and his mind went straight in, where he saw a vast and boundless void.

In the center of the void, forty-eight restrictions were laid out layer upon layer, like forty-eight layers of celestial curtains stretching across the chaos.

Each restriction was perfectly formed, as if it had existed since the beginning of the Great Dao, without a trace of human intervention.

Countless runes flowed and disappeared within it, sometimes transforming into an inverted galaxy, and sometimes resembling the primordial chaos before its creation. He only glanced at it once, and then he could no longer look away.

That was not Law Technique, not array patterns, not Divine Ability, and not any talisman or restriction that Su Yao had ever seen in his life.

He couldn't even describe it using any known Daoist scriptures; he could only vaguely sense that these forty-eight restrictions weren't imprinted on by anyone, but were inherent to the Prism itself—born in accordance with the Great Dao, containing the secrets of heaven and earth.

He had once used Prism to observe the cyan immortal sword "Ask Amid the Clouds" in the Ancestral Hall of Qixia Mountain. At that time, he thought it was the most profound and wonderful immortal weapon in the world. But now, compared with the restrictions in front of him, the immortal charm revealed by Ask Amid the Clouds seemed a bit shallow.

Su Yao was so engrossed in it that he completely forgot about time. It wasn't until the Prism trembled slightly that a gentle yet irresistible force pulled his mind back from the throes of distraction.

At the same time, a thought entered the Spirit Platform, as clear and ancient as Highest Clarity a rock:

"Do not move for now. Refine it after obtaining the fruit of heaven and earth... You and I are one, our true spirits are in harmony..."

Su Yao was taken aback upon hearing this, then muttered to himself:

"The fruit of heaven and earth... are we one...?"

At the bottom of Cibi Lake, the gate to the Water Palace is tightly closed, like a deep tomb. Only the four characters "Cibi Water Palace" on the lintel gleam coldly in the eternally shimmering water.

Immediately afterwards, a figure broke through the water and slowly stopped a few feet in front of the door.

The newcomer was dressed in white robes, with white hair and a youthful face; he was none other than the Kuiwu True Person of the Red Rock Zhao Household.

He stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the tightly closed gate, his smile gentle, seemingly oblivious to the cold reception he received from the Water Palace, and simply said in a clear voice:

"Fellow Ao Xiao, Kuiwu who has come to pay your respects!"

Silence lingered in the water palace for a long time.

The Kuiwu didn't urge him on, but stood there with a smile, as patient as a stone statue.

After a long while, the gates of the Water Mansion suddenly opened, and a figure in gray robes slowly walked out from inside.

Ao Xiao, the Lake God of Cibi Lake, stood with his hands behind his back inside the gate, the single horn on his forehead gleaming coldly in the water.

He made no attempt to invite the guest into his residence, not even offering a word of greeting, only coldly uttering a few words:

How dare you show your face in front of me?

Upon hearing this, the smile on the Kuiwu's face deepened even further:

"Fellow Daoist, why be so insistent? Although Li Chaoxue and Ni Polu managed to escape once, they are ultimately like stray dogs. How could they possibly escape our grasp?"

Ao Xiao snorted coldly:

"Li Chaoxue, after all, has the blood of the Nanzhao Royal Family. Ni Polu's master and the Mountain God of Cang Mountain are old friends; the two studied Daoism together under the Cang Mountain Sect for many years. If they were to seek help from the Mountain God of Cang Mountain..."

"They won't go." The Kuiwu shook his head, his tone resolute. "If Li Chaoxue could have established herself in the royal family, she wouldn't have been implicated and banished by her father. Her father wrote poems mocking the royal family, and the king issued an edict expelling her branch of the royal family from the court, even stripping them of their surname. Later, she was able to go to Cang Mountain to study Daoism only because her grandfather had a past relationship with the mountain god. But after the mountain god gave her the spiritual object that helped her break through to the Purple Mansion, he never cared about her affairs again. The favor has been settled, and the fate has ended."

He paused briefly, looked at Ao Xiao's still cold and stern face, and continued:

"As for Ni Polu, his master did indeed have some connection with the Mountain God of Cang Mountain, but that was a thing of the past. His master broke ties with the Mountain God before his death, and that relationship was completely severed long ago."

After he finished speaking, Ao Xiao fell silent.

The undercurrents in front of the Water Palace surged ceaselessly.

After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice even lower than before:

"Are you sure those two Spirit Treasure are in their hands?"

"I saw it with my own eyes." The Kuiwu enunciated each word clearly. "Over the past two hundred years, I have ventured alongside them more than once. The Morning Mist Drum and the Dusk Snow Flute are indeed in their hands. I have personally witnessed Li Chaoxue summoning a sky full of frost and snow with the Dusk Snow Flute deep in the Miao Frontier, and I have also personally witnessed Ni Polu trapping a Demon Race's Purple Mansion on the border of Annan with the Morning Mist Drum. With a single tune, the mist shrouded the Great Void for thousands of miles."

After speaking, the Kuiwu took out a recording stone and projected the scene he had just described.

Ao Xiao stared at the two people using those two Spirit Treasure in the video for a moment, then quickly regained his composure.

"If that's the case, why don't I seek cooperation with those two? Why must I join forces with you?"

The Kuiwu shook his head, a hint of helplessness appearing in his smile for the first time:

"I believe you won't go, Fellow Daoist. If Li Chaoxue and Ni Polu knew that the Morning Mist Drum and the Dusk Snow Flute were the key to opening the Purple-Blue Secret Realm, their first action would be to offer the treasures to Cang Mountain and ask the Mountain God for protection. Once the items are in the Mountain God's hands, it won't be something that a few threats can accomplish for you."

He paused, then added:

"Moreover, as you know, fellow Daoist, the situation between us and them is no longer one where we can sit down and have a proper talk."