Fellow Daoist Wumian

The sky was murky yellow, new buds sprouted from the dead trees all around, and the Spiritual Qi was hot and dry.

Zhou Ning looked around, somewhat bewildered. "I'm in a little grove again?"

He had clearly died in Gazing Immortal Port. By rights, he should have transmigrated into the city and become a respectable city dweller.

Zhou Ning tried hard to remember. "I recall glimpsing two points of light just as I plunged into the jade. Could the other point have been the coordinates for Gazing Immortal Port?"

Unfortunately, he couldn't test it this time. If he really could have an extra set of coordinates, that would be wonderful news for him.

After all, the great cultivators of the Land of Wei were despicable and shameless. They might be lying in wait for him.

"My cultivation carried over perfectly: Fourth Layer of Qi Refinement." Zhou Ning gathered his metal-fire Law Power and unleashed a blazing golden-red ribbon of power.

Every waist-thick trunk in its path snapped with a crack. It cut down more than a dozen trees in succession, and the smell of scorching in the air grew stronger.

Was it his imagination, or did this method seem a little more powerful in the Land of Wei?

Zhou Ning thought no more about it. He took out the Flowing Plainness Boat and stepped aboard.

"First, I'll go to Gazing Immortal Port and see if I can sell some spiritual materials."

He didn't hold out much hope. After all, the chaos in the city last time had dealt Gazing Immortal Port a devastating blow.

But he was far too unfamiliar with the Land of Wei, so he could only go and take a look.

Half a day later.

As Zhou Ning piloted his flying boat over the vast land, a great ancient city wall came into view, faint light flowing over the fortifications atop it.

That was Gazing Immortal Port's formation.

Not only that, but bright lights of every color shone within a radius of ten li, all of them cultivators from various places heading for Gazing Immortal Port.

After paying the customary half jin of spirit rice, Zhou Ning entered Gazing Immortal Port. Voices clamored in an open area nearby.

Zhou Ning found it inconceivable. Everyone in the city had clearly died four years ago, so how was it bustling with visitors again?

Did none of them ever learn?

The cultivators of the Land of Wei were just like leeks: crop after crop, impossible to harvest them all.

Zhou Ning felt out the suppressive force around him. It was a little weaker than it had been four years ago, but he still couldn't fly through the air.

Several mortals gathered around him with ingratiating smiles, asking if he wanted a guide.

Zhou Ning suddenly recalled the girl with a flower pinned to her clothes. A troubled feeling stirred in his heart, and he waved them away.

He walked down the street, past shops with jade walls and carved railings on either side. Law Artifacts, talismans, medicine shops-they had everything.

He even saw the He Household's pill shop. He swept his Divine Sense inside but found no sign of He Zhuoran.

He wondered what that kid had done with the Void Wind Qi-Unifying Instruction. Had he perhaps dispersed his cultivation and started over?

Still, Zhou Ning only hoped that he would do better and better for himself and become an important figure in the He Household.

That way, after Zhou Ning reached Foundation Establishment, it would be easier for him to visit the He Household and trade for its Foundation Establishment alchemy inheritance. After all, the spiritual oath was still binding.

Following his memory, Zhou Ning strolled to a spacious square, where crowds of cultivators were still selling their wares.

But the woman in the purple veil was nowhere to be seen.

He turned to leave and sighed softly. "It's so lonely!"

"Oh? You're lonely?"

An abrupt voice rang out, carrying a strange, beguiling note.

Zhou Ning almost thought he was hearing things. He instinctively looked toward the voice and saw a figure suddenly standing before him.

The person held a dark turtle shell. His face was indistinct, his whole figure blurred.

Zhou Ning looked back at the square of stalls. It was as though a pane of frosted glass separated them, but he could just make out the cultivators walking and talking as usual, as if nothing had happened.

"Where did you take me?" A chill ran through Zhou Ning's heart.

The last time he had encountered something like this, the woman in the black dress had held him under her control, leaving him utterly powerless to resist!

Has a higher cultivator been lying in wait for me? He couldn't suppress the thought.

"Don't panic, don't panic. I won't die!" Zhou Ning forcibly suppressed his fear.

Last time, even under the scrutiny of that sky-covering giant face and the Purple Mansion cultivators, he had still returned safely to Cuiwei Lake.

Besides, if he died, he died. He could still come back!

Even if someone kept lying in wait for him, he could simply switch Cultivation Methods. Once he became a Nascent Soul Cultivator in Chen State, he could come back and beat them all to death!

"Ji Wumian, you've finally appeared in the world," the shell-bearing figure said slowly.

Using the spiritual treasure Divine Talisman Turtle Shell, he had been unable to divine the fate of a mere Qi Refining cultivator. It had been a complete blank.

Such a method had to be the work of a mighty being concealing it.

Zhou Ning was at a loss for a moment. Who was Ji Wumian?

And in that moment, his expression betrayed his confusion. He saw the shell-bearing figure fall silent, apparently thinking.

The next moment, Zhou Ning felt the world before his eyes abruptly darken. He couldn't see a thing.

A bolt of silver lightning suddenly entered his sea of consciousness, racing through the endless mists toward its very center.

This is bad. It's probably a soul-searching secret art! Zhou Ning's consciousness instantly withdrew.

Zhou Ning's true body in the little courtyard on Bamboo Creek Island raised its head. Through the image in the jade, he saw the man before him grunt and take half a step back.

The soul search failed?

Did the jade save me?

Zhou Ning waited a breath. Only when he saw that his false body in the Land of Wei was about to collapse did he send his consciousness back, hoping to see if he could pick up any scraps.

Zhou Ning could finally see light again in the Land of Wei, and he got a clear look at the man.

He was a middle-aged man in a wide green robe, its flowing sleeves woven with an unbroken pattern of turtle shells and earth veins.

To Zhou Ning's astonishment, the man's eyes were tightly shut. Zhou Ning could just make out his clear-cut, handsome face, but the skin was cracked all over, peeling off in pieces like porcelain and falling to the ground.

The porcelain fragments made no sound at all before melting into the earth and vanishing.

The man's long hair was loosely bound with a jade hairpin. Behind his head, a cluster of multicolored lights emerged, taking the forms of gold crystals, agate, spirit jade, and mineral sand as they floated about.

Zhou Ning couldn't help reaching out and grabbing a gold crystal.

He actually caught it. It felt cold and hard, its weight heavy in his hand, while the spiritual light of earth fire flowed slowly within it.

Zhou Ning was startled. Was this man even human?

Just as he stared in disbelief, the man suddenly opened his eyes. An indescribably strange expression appeared on his face, and he murmured to himself:

"A True Lord's methods. Perhaps even more than that..."

The Divine Talisman Turtle Shell had failed to divine anything. Even after using the Divine Ability Immortal Caresses the Crown, he had been unable to glimpse any memories in the soul, and had suffered a backlash that damaged his cultivation!

A mere Qi Refining cultivator... He had to be the reincarnation of Ji Wumian of the Bright Radiance Immortal Sect...

The light gradually returned to his eyes, and he caught sight of the gold crystal in Zhou Ning's hand.

With a casual summons, he took it back and returned it to its place above his head.

The cluster of seemingly solid jade and spiritual objects behind his head gradually faded, finally disappearing altogether.

He even had the leisure to straighten the jade hairpin holding his hair.

Zhou Ning watched, dumbstruck. What realm had this cultivator reached?

Even a Nascent Soul Cultivator of Chen State might not possess such a wondrous ability, right?

Though he had never seen a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

As though he could sense Zhou Ning's thoughts, the man spoke, his voice low and slightly husky, like ancient pieces of jade striking together.

"Fellow Daoist Ji, you may call me True Person Lu."

True Person... As far as Zhou Ning knew, in this world, Purple Mansion cultivators were called True Persons, while Golden Core cultivators were called True Lords.

Zhou Ning had already calmed his thoughts. He didn't force himself to play this so-called "Ji Wumian." There were too many flaws in such an act.

Instead, his gaze was calm as he asked, "Senior, why did you call me Ji Wumian?"

True Person Lu saw that this Ji Wumian had even lost his memories and couldn't help reflecting that the Grand Yin Splendid Mansion truly was ruthless.

For the sake of the Si Fire Intercalary Position, it would stop at nothing, making him reincarnate again and again to wear away his metal nature.

"Fellow Daoist, you really don't remember who you are? Or what you came here to do?" True Person Lu asked.

He had come to Gazing Immortal Port four years ago and remembered that this person had been nothing more than an utterly ordinary Meridian Opening cultivator, one who had even been caught up in that witch's schemes.

True Person Lu had seen with his own eyes as he was beaten to death, leaving not even a corpse behind.

Yet now he had appeared in the world again, having cultivated the Xinsi Golden Scripture.

If he wasn't a reincarnator, whose four-year-old child could grow this big?

All the signs indicated that this had to be the work of a True Lord of the Bright Radiance Immortal Sect.

Zhou Ning saw that he meant no harm and seemed to have mistaken him for someone else.

He felt much more relaxed. The man had made him think someone was lying in wait to harm him!

Zhou Ning's eyes flashed with light, and he answered, "I don't know who I am. I only know that my name is Zhou Ning, and I came to this world to go on a killing spree!"

His words fell.

True Person Lu's pupils contracted slightly. Such an overbearing disposition-it was indeed Ji Wumian!

He had found the one he was waiting for.