The Dye Vat
Cang Lan finished speaking, his green robe fluttered without wind, and the vast world behind him surged like a raging sea, but he did not immediately rush forward.
He simply raised his right hand and pointed his index finger in the air.
A very faint bluish-green halo rippled from his fingertips, like a pebble falling into water, creating gentle ripples.
In the void, a landscape of crisscrossing paths unfolds out of thin air, with mulberry and hemp fields stretching as far as the eye can see, and the sounds of chickens and dogs filling the air.
An old farmer's proverb drifted out, seemingly coming from the farthest reaches of the countryside:
"Around Qingming Festival, plant melons and beans. Around Grain Rain, transplant early rice seedlings; the solar terms are just right..."
The voice was extremely soft, yet every word was clear, as if it had not entered Su Yao's ears but had landed directly in Su Yao's Rising Yang Mansion.
Su Yao felt a tremor in his heart, and an indescribable weariness suddenly surged through his limbs. The light between his brows instinctively flickered, dispelling the warm weariness, but on his Spirit Platform, a tiny, almost imperceptible yellowish dust had quietly settled, like oil in water. Although it did not immediately disperse, it had already stained a corner of the jar.
"Mulberry and Hemp Proverb," Su Yao murmured, uttering the name of the Divine Ability.
"Master has excellent eyesight." Cang Lan smiled and tapped again with his fingertip.
A bluish-green halo suddenly spread out, and between the fields, old farmers held plows, village women picked mulberry leaves, shepherds played flutes, and white-haired old men and women sat in front of their doors, surrounded by their children and grandchildren. In just a few breaths, the entire Great Void was filled with this peaceful rural scene.
Su Yao's brows twitched slightly, and he already held the Vermilion Brightness Sword in his hand.
Sword Intent light, clear as water, swept out, cleaving the rural landscape before them in two with a single strike.
The mulberry and hemp fields were torn in two like a piece of cloth, but the sword light continued its undiminished momentum, heading straight for the Cang Lan.
Cang Lan neither dodged nor evaded, but simply put his hands behind his back, and the mortal dust behind him suddenly surged, engulfing the sword light.
In that mortal realm, countless phantoms of living beings reached out and grasped the sword light. Although the sword light was sharp, it was enveloped by layers of countless phantoms, like a sharp weapon stuck in mud, unable to move an inch.
"The Sword Intent is indeed sharp." Cang Lan's tone was calm, seemingly with approval. "But can this sword of yours, Master, cleave through the Great Void, and cleave through the mortal world?"
He clenched his fist suddenly.
The "Ten Thousand Households' Wishes" burst open with a roar, and the illusory images of ten thousand lights behind him lit up in unison. Countless tiny wishes rose into the sky like fireflies, converging into a warm yellow radiance, vast and gentle, like a long river formed by the smoke of ten thousand homes, slowly pushing towards Su Yao.
Su Yao felt the Sword Intent intent retreating, and thought to himself, "In the end, my swordsmanship is too shallow..."
Then, he took a deep breath, made a hand Hand Seals with his left hand, and simultaneously unleashed "Guarding Unity Rosy Cloud Robe" and "Rosy Cloud Feather Wanderer".
Layers of black feathers, bathed in rosy light like a garment, overlapped and protected him completely.
The warm yellow light collided with the rosy clouds; there was no explosion, no roar, only a gentle permeation.
Su Yao's expression changed.
That beam of light was like mercury spilling onto the ground, penetrating everywhere. It didn't break through defenses or launch a direct attack; it simply seeped in little by little through the gaps in the rosy light. With each bit of penetration, his Sword Intent dulled, and the heat emanating from Vermilion Brightness Sword dimmed.
"This is the aura of the mortal world." Cang Lan's voice came from behind Hongguang, unhurried and calm. "The Mysterious Gate Immortal Dao fears this aura of the mortal world the most. The Abbot may not know, but this thing is abundant in the mortal world. You cultivate the Path of Rainbow Clouds, but no matter how bright the rainbow's light is, it can never penetrate the mundane world."
Upon hearing this, Su Yao gritted his teeth and retreated rapidly.
With a light tap of his toes, he unleashed Golden Light Across the Land. In a flash, he was already a thousand miles away.
Cang Lan smiled slightly, without moving, but simply raised her hand and grabbed in the direction Su Yao had fled.
The "Gather a Trillion People" erupted with a thunderous roar.
Behind Su Yao, the phantom images of billions of people appeared out of thin air, as if a giant wall of mortal dust had appeared out of nowhere between heaven and earth. Those phantom images were neither angry nor resentful, but simply watched him calmly. Each gaze was a heavy wish of the people; each wish of the people was a trace of the mortal world.
"Master, why are you in such a hurry to leave?" Cang Lan's voice came from behind, tinged with mockery. "My two friends are ready to fight to the death, but here I am, Master, you're unwilling to even take a single solid blow."
Su Yao did not turn around.
He clearly felt that the gazes of those illusory figures were turning into countless specks of dust, clinging to the radiant glow surrounding him. That glow, which he had cultivated for over eighty years and was pure and flawless, was now being enveloped layer by layer by the aura of the mortal world, becoming sluggish and dim.
Even more deadly is that the radiance emanating from the "Rosy Cloud Feather Wanderer" Divine Ability in the Rising Yang Mansion has begun to be covered with a very faint layer of dusty yellow.
Su Yao felt a chill run down his spine. Cang Lan Lan's move was far more insidious than any killing Divine Ability. He wouldn't kill you, but he would corrupt your Dao heart, defile your Divine Ability, and drag you back from the Immortal Dao immortality to the mortal realm.
"Senior, you have some impressive skills." Su Yao said coldly. The radiance surged again, dispersing most of the mortal energy clinging to it, but a small portion still seeped into the radiance, like a persistent, intractable disease.
Cang Lan walked with his hands behind his back, leisurely following behind Su Yao, each step covering a hundred miles.
"Master, please don't be offended. The mortal Human Dao is a great taboo in the Xuanmen (Mysterious Gate). If I truly wanted to kill you, you wouldn't be leaving here today. But I won't kill you. I only want you to take this mortal worldly aura back with you and think carefully about what the purpose of your cultivation is."
Upon hearing this, Su Yao felt a surge of emotions welling up inside him.
This person's decision not to kill him was more terrifying than killing him. But what truly alarmed him was not the aura of the mortal world itself, but the unintentional remark in Cang Lan's words. "You will not leave here today."
How could Cang Lan be so certain that he wouldn't be able to leave this place?
Why must Cang Lan taint his Dao Path with the filth of the mortal world?
Su Yao asked himself, having no prior dealings with this one of the Three Heroes of Nanzhao, and having only met him for the first time today. There was no enmity between them, yet he would resort to such insidious means to try and cut off Human Dao's path to enlightenment. This was by no means a momentary outburst of righteous indignation, nor was it as simple as Cang Lan's own will.
Someone must have been behind this.
Su Yao's mind raced as he quickly reviewed the day's events. Mo Yan and Zhao Shouzhi intercepted Xue Min and Yang Xuanye, while Cang Lan blocked him. The three of them acted simultaneously, blocking three directions. The ingenuity of this arrangement was no coincidence. Su Yao absolutely refused to believe that the three of them had acted on a whim.
Cang Lan kept saying that he wanted Su Yao to "stop and leave Nanzhao." But as Su Yao fled, Cang Lan followed him at a leisurely pace, neither using his full strength nor letting him escape, but instead planting layers of worldly energy into his body. This was hardly persuading him to leave; it was clearly an attempt to keep him here and cripple his Daoxing little by little.
"Some people don't want Qixia to recover; they'd better keep the mountain closed forever..." Su Yao sneered inwardly, but remained outwardly calm.
Looking back now, from Liu Mingyuan sending Xuanping and the other two to their deaths, to Zheng Qingci being abandoned, to Mo Chen, Geng Metal, Radiant Fire seeking gold, to the three heroes appearing together, there was a chilling tacit understanding everywhere.
The person behind this was able to persuade the three Three Heroes of Nanzhao at the same time, accurately calculate his, Xue Min's, and Yang Xuanye's routes, and even foresee that Mo Chen's pursuit of the Golden Body would lead to his demise and his Golden Nature would turn evil, yet he was unwilling to personally intervene, only sending three pawns to stir up trouble. Such methods are truly terrifying.