The hall was vast and deep, with no visible beams or pillars. The dome was carved with the cycles of the four seasons, while the walls flowed with the imagery of the five paths of reincarnation.
Upon entering the hall, Fu Yun lowered his gaze, only stealing glances at the figure seated above with the corner of his eye.
That person sat upon a slab of green jade, his long hair unbound and cascading down, the silver runes on his robes flickering in and out of existence.
No one knew what the world looked like through the eyes of a Saint.
But Fu Yun knew what his eyes looked like.
When he was still the youngest disciple under the Azure Saint, Fu Yun had secretly looked up at him, catching only the shimmering halo of runes and, deep within, a fleeting glimpse of his eyes.
Stone-green, devoid of sorrow, joy, or any ripple of emotion thus, the aura of sanctity overshadowed any hint of the uncanny.
“Xie Lingjun said you were afflicted with a cold poison,” the Azure Saint remarked. His tone betrayed neither concern nor inquiry.
Fu Yun chose his words carefully, speaking little to avoid mistakes: “It has already been dealt with.”
“This is just a casual chat. Don’t be afraid,” the Azure Saint said. “Come closer. Let me take a look at you.”
Nine years a long and distant chasm for Fu Yun, yet for the Azure Saint, it was as thin as a cicada’s wing, easily pierced with a flick of a finger.
Fu Yun took three steps forward and stopped, consciously relaxing his body to allow the Azure Saint to examine him.
A gentle, spring-like spiritual energy seeped into him. This sensation of being thoroughly soaked and scrutinized from the inside out would terrify any cultivator.
Saints understood cause and effect, calculated the fates of all beings, and whether they killed or saved lives, they acted as agents of heaven’s will. It was said that a century ago, the Azure Saint had guarded the border between immortals and demons, slaying thirty thousand great demons. Later, he sacrificed his lifespan to open the gates of Fengdu, guiding countless souls across, and through comprehending life and death, he attained sainthood.
Fu Yun genuinely feared that the Azure Saint would discover he had learned the art of soul-siphoning and send him straight into reincarnation.
One hand clenched tightly behind his back, his nails digging into his palm. Blood had just begun to flow when it was gently cleansed by the wood spirits in the hall, healing the wound.
“Now it’s clean,” the Azure Saint withdrew the probing wood spirit, his tone as casual as if discussing everyday matters. “Why didn’t you bring the demon slave back?”
Fu Yun’s eyes darkened. He bore the flower seal of the formation’s ownership, which couldn’t be hidden from the Azure Saint. He hadn’t expected the Azure Saint to bypass the formation and directly ask about the demon slave.
Even a Saint couldn’t deduce things out of thin air. There were three possibilities: First, he had seen it with his own eyes this could be ruled out. A Saint’s avatar was at least at the Great Ascension stage, while the ancient demon remnant soul in the secret realm was too weak to accommodate it.
Second, through Xie Yun. Fu Yun had taken Xie Yun’s life beast, and the Azure Saint had traced this connection to Fu Yun.
But Xie Yun was favored by the Heavenly Dao, and the Azure Saint couldn’t unravel all the karmic threads on him.
Third, through Fu Yun himself. This possibility was the worst if he truly deduced the demon slave from the formation, the Azure Saint’s divination abilities would be terrifying.
Fu Yun tested the waters cautiously: “This disciple has kept the demon slave in the core of the secret realm, as it is accustomed to living there. Mainly, its identity is complicated, and bringing it back to the sect would be inconvenient.”
“Raising the Crown Prince of the Tengshe in an immortal sect’s secret realm not bad,” the Azure Saint’s words carried a hint of amusement this time. “I said this is just a chat between master and disciple. I won’t make things difficult for you.”
Fu Yun felt slightly reassured.
His reply contained a trap: after subduing the formation, the space belonged to him. Although it was still within the cultivation world, it had separated from the core of the secret realm. The Azure Saint hadn’t corrected this point.
So, he didn’t know the details of the formation. He was also testing Fu Yun.
“Won’t make things difficult for you” did that mean the protagonist’s life beast was simply being gifted to Fu Yun?
The art of leaving things unsaid was a skill of those in power. Fu Yun pondered and pondered, cautious and deliberate, when he heard the Azure Saint ask again: “Does the inner demon still haunt you?”
Fu Yun answered truthfully: “It emerges when my state of mind fluctuates, sparring with this disciple a few moves. Aside from delaying breakthroughs, it’s not so bad. Master knows this disciple’s temperament inner demons are difficult.”
“I’m asking you do you still hate Chu Wuchun?” The Green Sage’s voice was gentle and unhurried.
Fu Yun: “”
Since entering the hall, the Green Sage had posed three questions, each tracing from the present to the past, all difficult to answer.
“Your disciple only hates the master from thirty years ago, not the present one. It is my own foolishness, trapped in the past. I seek the master’s guidance.”
“Look up.”
Fu Yun met the Green Sage’s gaze and was somewhat startled. The halo and runes had vanished, revealing a plain, unremarkable face. Fu Yun had seen this avatar in his childhood, yet he couldn’t help but think, “Marvelous.”
Every feature flowed like water through the observer’s eyes the highest good is like water, and moderation approaches the Dao.
Fu Yun’s current face was modeled after this one.
The art of facial transformation was taught by the Green Sage in the year Fu Yun first entered the sect.
The Green Sage rarely taught him personally, but everything he taught was practical. For instance, how to conceal one’s face with transformation talismans, how to kill with soul-searching techniques, how to integrate offense and defense with wood spirit energy but he never taught swordsmanship. Over time, Fu Yun grew suspicious: Did the master also think him unworthy of wielding a sword?
He waited for the master to return to the sect and offer guidance, but the master brought back a junior disciple instead. What he gave the junior disciple was a treasured sword, not a tree branch.
The master was also part of Fu Yun’s inner demon. He could not guide Fu Yun.
Fu Yun’s request for guidance sounded respectful, but since when did a disciple need to “plead” for the master’s guidance? What kind of broken master-disciple bond was this?
Fu Yun was merely being respectfully sarcastic.
“Inner demons are common. Let them take their course. When it truly becomes irreparable, I will kill it for you.” The Green Sage seemed to have lost interest in idle conversation. “Go back.”
Fu Yun bowed and retreated.
A wisp of wood spirit energy, carrying a drop of blood stolen from the cut on Fu Yun’s palm drifted to the Green Sage’s side.
The closer it drew to its master, the more it trembled. The Green Sage extended a finger, and the wood spirit energy coiled around it.
The Green Sage tasted the blood energy at the base of his finger.
Using blood as a medium, he traced back the threads of causality
The runes on his robes transformed into slender threads of light, drifting outward. Three thousand threads of causality extended in all directions. Those above hung shimmering, as if welcoming the Sage into the heavens, while those below were densely taut, as though trying to pull him down.
Yet they all merely passed by him, veering away, unable to truly entangle him.
The Green Sage brushed aside the myriad threads and hooked onto a single blood-red strand.
“Host, your hand is bleeding again. Aren’t you going to treat it?”
Fu Yun fled the Sage Hall, encountering disciples from his own peak along the way who greeted him. His body returned the courtesies, but his spirit remained in the Sage Hall until the system reminded him.
Fu Yun had been too focused, and the sudden return to awareness made him shudder instinctively.
Blood.
Blood was also a medium for divination. The master-servant contract was sealed with blood, so the Green Sage could use the blood medium to deduce the whereabouts of the demon servant.
Fu Yun opened his palm, which was drenched in cold sweat.
Fu Yun quickly asked, “System, is the causality of draining Xie Lingjun properly concealed?”
Xie Lingjun’s sword had also tasted his blood. Could the Green Sage deduce that he had drained fire spirit energy?
System: “Rest assured, the main system has handled it. Even the Heavenly Dao can only deduce that ‘you and Xie Lingjun nearly engaged in dual cultivation.'”
After answering, it asked in confusion, “If you were afraid of exposure, why did you go to see the Green Sage?”
Fu Yun had already reached the mountainside. He looked back at the Sage Hall amidst the clouds still lofty and distant, but no longer unattainable.
He had taken the risk to see the Green Sage, certainly not out of master-disciple affection.
Fu Yun: “I’ve decided what I want for the reward from Side Quest One a technique that can temporarily obscure or even alter causality.”
The system grew even more puzzled. “What causality do you want to alter?”
“The causality of master and disciple,” Fu Yun said. “I want to disguise myself as a nightmare demon, enter his dreams, and drain the Green Sage.”
System: ?
System: !
System: “The Azure Saint’s avatar also possesses Mahayana cultivation! How did you enter the dream?”
Fu Yun said: “Through blood.”
Today, he entered the hall to meet the Azure Venerable solely to leave traces of his blood qi within the hall and attach it to that person.
The illusion technique obtained in the secret realm should actually be called the dream illusion technique. One of its scrolls discusses entering another’s dream.
“With my essence blood, I nourish your spirit platform; with my divine soul, I ferry your dream soul.”
In simpler terms, whoever comes into contact with Fu Yun’s flesh and blood establishes a connection with him this is called the “anchor point” for entering dreams.
Here, “dream” is broadly defined, including meditation, wandering thoughts, and waking fantasies.
The higher the dream master’s cultivation, the shorter the dream, and the easier it is to detect intrusion. Therefore, Fu Yun planned to disguise himself as a nightmare to approach the Azure Saint.
System: “But you already have a Mahayana demon servant.”
Fu Yun: “To be safe, it’s better to absorb from humans.”
System: “Then find one no, many rogue cultivators to absorb from! Little by little adds up!”
Fu Yun: “Have you forgotten I’m a furnace cauldron? My dantian cannot accumulate spiritual power.”
“Moreover, the dangers of absorption can temper my body and soul. Otherwise, I would surely lose in battles against peers.” Fu Yun patiently explained to the system, then calmly reminded: “Do not mention absorbing from rogue cultivators again it damages my Dao heart.”
System: “What is your Dao heart?”
Fu Yun: “None yet. But I seek to be free of guilt.”
He must absorb from a great power to break through his bottleneck. Absorption is perilous, so each time he must find the best target.
The Heavenly Dao gives the protagonist the best.
Then the protagonist’s harem must also be the best.
Fu Yun gazed into the distance at the Sacred Hall. Azure Saint. Master.
Since you are destined to be entangled with your disciple, why can’t that person be me?
In the dense forest behind Fu Yun, a person had been standing for a long time, gripping a jade token tightly, without revealing themselves.
Not long ago, Xie Lingjun and Xie Yun paid respects to the Azure Saint together. Upon leaving, they happened to see Fu Yun entering the hall.
Xie Lingjun took a solitary stroll and unknowingly walked halfway up the mountain.
Then he saw Fu Yun.
The look in Fu Yun’s eyes as he gazed at the Sacred Hall made Xie Lingjun’s heart sink
Xie Lingjun had never seen such an expression on him before.
Too intense. His pupils seemed to burn, melting and distorting his usually gentle features. That obsession bordered on ominous.
Suddenly, he remembered Fu Yun’s joking words in the secret realm: “My heart belongs to someone. it’s the Azure Venerable.”
The sun set.
Fu Yun’s shadow vanished, and his figure disappeared. A cold wind howled past, jolting Xie Lingjun awake: What does the affairs of the Sacred Peak have to do with you? What does he have to do with you?
Xie Lingjun lifted his sword, only to notice an extra pit at his feet. Looking closer, the tip of his sword was covered in soil he had unconsciously planted the sword tip into the ground and twisted it, digging out this pit.
Xie Lingjun hurriedly soothed his sword, then scooped some soil to bury the pit, along with all secrets, suspicions, and fantasies.
Fu Yun was waiting for a dream.
A dream he would share with the Sacred Venerable.
Fortunately, on the third day after returning to the sect, he got his wish.