Mu Jin hadn’t expected Sang Hua to be so straightforward, but he didn’t plan to answer Sang Hua’s question directly either. Instead, he countered, “Then, Immortal Venerable, why do you think Duan Junyi went through such a roundabout way just to release you? He could easily have chosen to deliberately find an excuse to step away during the Dharma assembly, and back then, Elder Changlin would have had the exact same opportunity to take the Immortal Venerable away.”
“If I knew his purpose, I wouldn’t be asking you two. But it seems you aren’t going to talk either. Oh well…” With his hands clasped behind his back, Sang Hua stood on the covered veranda as scene after scene of everything that had happened since he came out of seclusion played through his mind.
Mu Jin’s fingertips plucked the strings, and melodious, lingering zither music drifted up into the tranquil night air.
When the tune came to an end, Sang Hua regained his focus. Turning his head to gaze into Mu Jin’s eyes, he asked softly, “Has Pavilion Master Mu trapped himself as well?”
Mu Jin continued to pluck the strings, the notes sounding one by one like a tale of grief and pleading. He answered softly, “Then what about the Immortal Venerable? With the Immortal Venerable clinging so stubbornly and refusing to let go, how are you any different in binding yourself? Since memory is a shackle, the Immortal Venerable might as well simply forget.”
The sound of the zither reflected the state of the player’s mind, and it could also stir up the inner thoughts of the listener. Mu Jin’s zither skills were peerless in the present age, and his proficiency in illusion arts was also among the very best in the world.
Using zither music to enter dreams and weave illusions was Mu Jin’s most adept method.
Amidst the zither music, memories deeply hidden at the bottom of Sang Hua’s heart were unconsciously summoned, unfolding scene by scene before his eyes, only to slowly shatter one piece at a time.
The tea water on the stone table condensed at Sang Hua’s fingertips. With a flick of his long sleeve, Sang Hua cast the tea water toward Mu Jin, who was playing the zither.
Although the tea water did not touch Mu Jin in the slightest, it disrupted Mu Jin’s zither music and simultaneously broke Mu Jin’s illusion art.
As Mu Jin drew back his hands and smoothed the slightly vibrating zither strings, Sang Hua said indifferently, “If Pavilion Master Mu wishes to use illusion arts to alter my memories, based on your current level of skill, it is not enough.”
With his illusion broken, Mu Jin smoothed down the strings and countered, “Since the Immortal Venerable yourself is unwilling to forget and cannot let go, how can you persuade me to let go?”
Wiping away the lingering tea stains on his fingertips, Sang Hua replied calmly, “Memories have never been shackles that bind us; rather, they tell us that beauty once existed, and they further remind me of what he originally looked like. Precisely because I remember, I cannot simply watch him lose his original nature, plunge into an endless abyss, and become completely unrecognizable.”
Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to extract anything further from Mu Jin, and realizing that the Heart-Inquiring Spell had no effect on Mu Jin either, Sang Hua stopped wasting his energy sparring with him.
Just as he was about to leave, Mu Jin hurriedly blocked the center of the veranda. “It is already the depth of night; where is the Immortal Venerable heading? The Immortal Venerable was just rescued from the summit, and I fear Duan Junyi might be looking for you right now. Besides, if you leave like this, Elder Changlin will worry.”
“Sorry to trouble Pavilion Master Mu’s concern,” Sang Hua replied. “Since A-Yi was able to let me leave the summit, even if he sends people out to look for me now, it’s merely going through the motions. Pavilion Master Mu should understand this point better than I do.”
“Although I don’t know why you two are going to such great lengths to keep things from me, nor do I know what the hidden truth is or why you intentionally let the world misunderstand, I cannot stand idly by. If there are indeed hidden circumstances behind this, I will definitely restore his innocence. But if he truly has fallen into devilry, I will not allow him to repeat his mistakes over and over again.”
Before leaving, Sang Hua paused his steps, turned back, and said to Mu Jin, “Right, I am heading to Fuyun Mountain. If Pavilion Master Mu is worried that I might discover any traces, you should send word to tip off A-Yi right now so he can hurry and wipe away the evidence. However, whatever has already manifested no matter how painstakingly one tries to conceal it will always leave behind traces that cannot be erased.”
The day of the Lantern Festival was precisely the day Sang Hua emerged from seclusion. He descended the mountain to search for Duan Junyi, sensed the aura of evil spirits along the way, and rushed to Fuyun Mountain, where he witnessed with his own eyes Duan Junyi slaughtering and wiping out the entire town of Fuyun Mountain.
That night’s impact on him had been far too great, leaving him with many details he hadn’t had the chance to carefully observe at the time.
Following the massive massacre, the town had been scorched through by a raging fire, and all the corpses had been burned completely clean. Across the entire town, only a few buildings that hadn’t burned down completely and the four perimeter city walls remained; everything else had been reduced to a ground full of flying ashes.
The entire town had been left in a state of deathly silence.
A town that was originally bustling and prosperous, filled with laughter, chatter, and the warmth of human life, had turned into a wasteland overnight, inevitably prompting sighs and evoking a profound sense of desolation.
Holding a spiritual lamp, Sang Hua walked through the empty wasteland. The entire town was covered in traces of fire damage; even so, Sang Hua did not miss a single deliberate detail.
Soon, Sang Hua discovered something amiss—or rather, the entire town reeked of strangeness.
Souls who met an unnatural death carried deep resentment, let alone following such a tragic and brutal massacre where not a single soul in the entire town survived. Under such circumstances, not a trace of resentment could be sensed in the town; an unnatural level of peace in itself was strange.
Sang Hua walked through every corner of the town and found no traces of any spiritual power or demonic energy covering the area, nor any clue as to what kind of force could wipe away such resentment.
“To be able to conceal or suppress such massive resentment requires more than just simple magic arts; that leaves only array formations.”
Thinking along these lines, Sang Hua ascended directly into the air above the town to overlook the entire settlement. He ignited spiritual lamps in every corner of the town, instantly illuminating it as brightly as day.
Since Duan Junyi had been able to burn the town clean with a massive fire, he certainly wouldn’t have left behind traces visible to the naked eye. That left only spiritual energy or demonic energy, but since these auras were formless, they were even harder to capture.
Sang Hua had already walked through every single corner of the town without discovering any lingering auras, which showed that Duan Junyi had also successfully concealed the traces of spiritual energy. Without these, Sang Hua had no way of finding traces of an array formation being set up.
Just as Sang Hua was wondering how to find a clue, a wall of fire locked him in on all sides, and right behind the fire wall, several fireballs came hurtling toward him.
Before he even caught sight of his attackers, blows were already being exchanged. Trapped within the square space, Sang Hua was in no hurry to dodge. Summoning Feibai, with a single sweep of his sword, he shattered both the enclosing fire wall and the incoming fireballs.
In the flash of a spark, another long whip lashed out, sweeping past his ear with a trail of raging flames.
The attackers were two people, but their speed was not fast enough. Within two moves, Sang Hua had already captured their attack patterns. Before they could strike again, Sang Hua broke their moves ahead of time, and in the next moment, his long sword was pointing directly at the neck of one of them.
However, Sang Hua had no intention of harming the opponent. After disrupting their attack, Feibai hovered right against the young man’s neck without piercing an inch further, as Sang Hua smiled gently at the two youths: “Attacking rashly without even knowing who your opponent is, that is a very dangerous matter. Your fire arts are practiced well, but compared to your master, you still lack a bit of seasoning.”
Those who used fire arts were disciples of the Nanli Yihuo Palace, which specialized entirely in fire techniques. That was why the two youths had immediately used a fire wall to restrict Sang Hua’s mobility when they attacked, combining offense and defense. It was a pity their experience was too shallow and their coordination lacked a smooth rapport.
When the two youths saw the long sword pointing directly before their eyes, they instantly recognized Sang Hua’s identity and gasped in shock: “The Feibai Sword it’s the Yujing Immortal Venerable.”
“Mn.” Sang Hua nodded in satisfaction, then withdrew his long sword. “Attacking before you can even distinguish between friend and foe, your fiery tempers certainly resemble those of the Palace Master of Lihuo.”
Realizing that the person they had attacked was actually Sang Hua, the two youths were immensely embarrassed. Rubbing their noses in shame, they said, “We offended the Immortal Venerable; thank you, Immortal Venerable, for showing mercy.”
Before long, the two youths revealed their identities. The older youth holding the long whip was Zhu Zhen, the senior head disciple of the Nanli Yihuo Palace.
The one who had cast the fire wall was his junior brother, Nan Su.
Exchanging a glance, the two youths stammered in hesitation for a long time. After hesitating, Zhu Zhen bowed to Sang Hua with a cupped-hand salute, apologizing profusely, “Half a month ago in this town, my junior brother and I spoke presumptuously and insulted the Immortal Venerable. This was a grave disrespect, and we ask the Immortal Venerable to punish us.”
Had they not brought it up, Sang Hua wouldn’t even have recognized that they were the two disciples whom Duan Junyi had tied up and brought to the Fuvian Sect, almost having their tongues cut out.
Recalling the situation back then, Sang Hua was left with nothing but helplessness.
Too many things had happened during this period, and Sang Hua didn’t want to dwell on these trivial details. He asked the two youths, “There isn’t a single person left in this town. What are you two doing here?”
Reminded by Sang Hua, the two youths finally recalled the serious business that brought them here, and explained to Sang Hua, “Actually, half a month ago while the town of Fuyun Mountain still stood, we came here specifically for our Nanli Yihuo Palace’s treasure, the Fire-Repelling Pearl.”
“The Fire-Repelling Pearl is our sect’s treasure, but it was stolen by Duan Junyi seven years ago. For seven years, Master has constantly tried to snatch the Fire-Repelling Pearl back. Until half a month ago, snow began to fall over the Fuyun Mountain town, leading Master to suspect that the Fire-Repelling Pearl was located here, so he sent us to investigate the situation.”
“This is the first time in seven years we’ve found a trace of the Fire-Repelling Pearl’s whereabouts. After our injuries healed, Master sent me to investigate whether the massive fire in the town that day was caused by the Fire-Repelling Pearl.”
Through the two youths’ explanation, Sang Hua recalled yet another peculiar detail.
The Nanli Yihuo Palace was situated in the south, maintaining a constant temperature across all four seasons, and even winter did not bring heavy snow like in the north. Yet on the day Duan Junyi slaughtered the city, Fuyun Mountain had been swirling with heavy snow and biting cold.
The strangest thing was that the surrounding cities were entirely normal; only the region of Fuyun Mountain had been caught in such conditions.
If all of this had been caused by the Fire-Repelling Pearl, then it was no longer strange.
The Fire-Repelling Pearl could gather and absorb fire energy. Duan Junyi must have gathered the fire energy into the Fire-Repelling Pearl before slaughtering the city, and then used that fire energy to incinerate the entire town after the slaughter.
If it was the work of the Fire-Repelling Pearl, then having the two disciples of the Nanli Yihuo Palace present right now happened to be of help to him.
Sang Hua said in a deep voice to the two youths, “Since you can track the whereabouts of the Fire-Repelling Pearl, if this truly was its doing, you might as well do one more thing: locate the places where spiritual power remained after being burned by the Fire-Repelling Pearl.”
“Ah?”
The two youths didn’t understand Sang Hua’s intention, but they still followed his instructions.
They covered the areas scorched by the blazing fire with fire incantations. The fire incantations were intimately connected to the Fire-Repelling Pearl, allowing them to sense all the spiritual energy that had been incinerated away by the pearl.
In the end, the two youths sketched out all the locations of the residual traces onto a piece of cloth.
Sure enough, when Sang Hua connected all those locations together, they formed an array formation. At a glance, it looked like a common spirit-gathering array, but the formation had been altered.
The two youths couldn’t understand it, but Sang Hua had seen it before.
Chains were added to bind the four sides of the spirit-gathering array; that was a spirit-locking array.