Nearly ten months had passed since their return from Duxu City, and Jiang Hanchuan had remained unconscious the entire time.
At first, Xia Yunzhao visited every few days. Whenever he refined a new kind of pill, he would try feeding one to Jiang Hanchuan. Yet the man simply would not wake up.
Jiang Hanchuan had infiltrated Qianyuan Sect prepared to die. The Qianyuan Spirit-Severing Formation had drained practically all his vitality; his chances of surviving had been vanishingly small.
In time, everyone came to believe that hope was gone and stopped trying. Everyone except Du Yan.
He visited Jiang Hanchuan every single day. Not long ago, Xia Yunzhao had even heard that Du Yan had found several medical cultivators to treat him.
And today, Jiang Hanchuan had finally awakened.
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze returned to the City Lord’s residence and went to Jiang Hanchuan’s courtyard. Sure enough, a good number of people were waiting outside. Several unfamiliar cultivators carried a faint, bitter medicinal scent, and their auras were long and gentle. They were probably the medical cultivators.
Xia Yunzhao looked around for a long time before spotting Du Yan sitting in a pavilion some distance away. Everyone else was waiting at the door, but Du Yan had hidden himself far from the room.
He turned an inquiring look toward Zhong Yundu. Zhong Yundu jerked his chin at the room. “He’s awake. The medical cultivators say there’s nothing seriously wrong with him. Xing Wenyu was here earlier but left to take care of something. I went in to see him just now. He said he wanted to see you and had something to tell you.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded, signaled to Shang Shuangze, and pushed the door open.
Once the door closed behind Xia Yunzhao, Zhong Yundu could not help saying to Shang Shuangze, “The two of you hole yourselves up in that little valley all day. Are you ever going to do any proper work? Your auras have practically blended together. Do you even realize that?”
Shang Shuangze looked at him without speaking.
Zhong Yundu pressed on. “Tell him to refine some more pills. Xiao Li came to the City Lord’s residence yesterday and said Qingming Pavilion was almost out of stock…”
Shang Shuangze replied calmly, “Does cultivation count as proper work? When will you advance to Nascent Soul, Fellow Daoist Zhong? I’d like to find you and exchange a few moves.”
Zhong Yundu: “…” Fine, cultivate all you want. Who could possibly out-cultivate the two of you? Why don’t you just sprout wings and fly!
Inside the room, Xia Yunzhao found Jiang Hanchuan propped up in bed, gazing absently out the window.
“Fellow Daoist Jiang, you’re finally awake.”
Jiang Hanchuan came back to himself, hurriedly straightened, and cupped his hands. “Thank you for saving my life, City Lord Xia…”
Xia Yunzhao waved it off. “Think nothing of it. I hear you have something to tell me?”
“Yes.” Jiang Hanchuan collected his thoughts. “I’m told I was unconscious for a very long time. I don’t know what’s been happening outside, but I assume you’ve already offended Qianyuan Sect on my account. I have no way to repay you. Before, when I was seeking revenge, I did manage to uncover quite a bit of information about Qianyuan Sect…”
Xia Yunzhao perked up. “Please, tell me everything!”
Jiang Hanchuan said bluntly, “As far as I know, there’s something wrong with the cultivation of Qianyuan Sect’s Sect Master, Dao Venerable Guanwei.”
Xia Yunzhao’s mouth fell open. Jiang Hanchuan was revealing a secret the instant he opened his mouth. “What do you mean, something wrong?”
Jiang Hanchuan said, “A Mahayana cultivator has a lifespan of five thousand years. Li Jingyuan is only fifteen hundred years old, yet he’s already showing signs of the Five Declines of Heaven and Man.”
“No wonder…” Xia Yunzhao understood in a flash. No wonder Qianyuan Sect had suddenly thrown open its gates to recruit disciples and unexpectedly added another Qianyuan Grand Competition. So something had gone wrong at the very top… “Does that mean their sudden recruitment of so many disciples with special constitutions was for this as well?”
Jiang Hanchuan nodded. “I used an unorthodox art to control He Ping, a senior disciple of Qianyuan Sect’s Method-Appraisal Office. Officially, he was its foremost disciple; in reality, he was the biological son of the office head, He Tong. He Tong never bothered to conceal his affairs from him, so I learned many secrets through He Ping. One was that, back in Fushui Plain, they obtained not only a fragment of the Earth-Vein Book but also a scripture called the Blood Refining Scripture.”
“According to He Tong, ten thousand years ago this continent was home to a lineage known as heart cultivators. Later, they were led astray by demonic cultivators, joined forces with them, and turned against other cultivators. The Blood Refining Scripture was a technique of that lineage. It recorded a way to use cultivators with special constitutions to nourish one’s own body and seek a breakthrough. The more advanced the donor cultivator, the greater the effect. Li Jingyuan has already reached Mahayana. For it to work on him, the cultivators would need to be at least at Soul Transformation. Around that time, I heard Qianyuan Sect was recruiting disciples and guessed they wanted those with special constitutions. That was why I disguised myself as someone with the Rock Constitution to infiltrate them…”
Xia Yunzhao froze the moment he heard the words Blood Refining Scripture. Only one thought filled his mind: You again!
What kind of godforsaken troublemaker was this Blood Refining Scripture anyway?
Fang Yanya, the Fang family ancestor, acquired a copy and began draining his own clan members’ cultivation. Yan Sikong, Master of the Puppet Gate, acquired a copy and turned himself into a demonic cultivator. And now even Li Jingyuan, a Mahayana cultivator, was using a copy of the Blood Refining Scripture to feed on his own disciples…
As Xia Yunzhao thought about it, cold sweat suddenly broke out across his body. This looked like a trap. An enormous trap designed to ensnare cultivators from Foundation Establishment all the way up to Mahayana, a lie big enough to deceive the entire world! And the Blood Refining Scripture was the bait.
Its victims were cultivators nearing the ends of their lifespans who had no hope of ascension. It tempted them into evil, into slaughtering the innocent… And as luck would have it, no one in the cultivation world had ascended in four thousand years. The world was full of arrogant cultivators who had lost all hope of ascending!
They had encountered three copies of the Blood Refining Scripture in the open. But how many others were hidden beneath the surface of this filthy cultivation world, quietly committing atrocities while under its influence?
He could hardly bear to imagine.
But if this truly was a trap, who could wield enough power to turn the entire world into a game board? And what was the purpose?
Jiang Hanchuan finished and saw that Xia Yunzhao had not moved. He asked, “City Lord Xia, is this information of any use to you?”
Xia Yunzhao snapped back to himself and immediately said, “Thank you, Fellow Daoist Jiang. It’s incredibly useful!”
Jiang Hanchuan let out a breath of relief. “I’m glad it helps.”
Xia Yunzhao noticed his unease. Although his own thoughts were still in turmoil, he reassured him. “Don’t feel guilty, Fellow Daoist Jiang. I’ve been disgusted by the way Qianyuan Sect operates for a long time. We would have clashed sooner or later, with or without you.”
Jiang Hanchuan fell silent. “Thank you, City Lord Xia.”
Seeing him like this, and remembering Brother Du outside, Xia Yunzhao hesitated before saying, “Actually, I wasn’t the one who saved you. It was Brother Du, that is…”
Unexpectedly, Jiang Hanchuan answered, “That disciple of Qianyuan Sect’s Earth-Vein Office. I know him.”
Xia Yunzhao scratched his head. “Um, could I ask what happened in Fushui Plain back then? Of course, it’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it…”
“Fushui Plain…” Jiang Hanchuan looked out the window again. Flowers bloomed beautifully outside, some spirit flowers and grasses, others perfectly ordinary. Spring was everywhere, just as it had once been in Fushui Plain.
“Fushui Plain…”
Fushui Plain was not a town. It was an enormous stretch of flatland formed along the lower reaches of the Changchuan River. The soil was fertile, the climate pleasant, and villages and towns dotted the plain like scattered stars.
Every spring, Fushui Plain held the Flower God Festival. No one among the mortals still knew who the Flower God was. But when the appointed time arrived, the villagers at the easternmost village would raise a human figure woven from fresh flowers and carry it in a procession. Village after village took over, passing it along until it reached the last settlement. The celebration lasted more than a month and was the liveliest occasion of the year. Cherished children from many families would follow the procession all the way to the end; it was said they would thereby earn the Flower God’s protection.
Then, beginning one winter, the “Flower God” disappeared.
The grasslands of Fushui Plain started to wither. Even in spring, not a trace of green could be found. The soil grew yellow and dry. Although the Changchuan River flowed nearby, the land received none of its nourishment and slowly began to “die.”
Jiang Hanchuan was a man of few words, and his descriptions were plain. Even so, Xia Yunzhao could picture the catastrophe vividly. It reminded him of what had happened to Pinglan. He asked, “Was it because the earth veins were in disorder?”
Jiang Hanchuan nodded. “Passing cultivators said that was the reason. So the villagers pooled their money and begged Qianyuan Sect for help. Its cultivators came very quickly, and everyone was overjoyed. They began setting up a formation. It was enormous, covering almost a third of Fushui Plain. Every day you could see cultivators flying back and forth overhead… The man leading them was Du Yan, the Earth-Vein Office’s foremost disciple.”
Jiang Hanchuan had only been eight at the time. His family’s home stood close to the heart of the great Qianyuan formation, where more cultivators gathered than anywhere else.
His parents kept a strict eye on him during that period. They would not let him go out on his own or approach the cultivators. They were terrified that he might accidentally offend one of those exalted people and die without even knowing why.
But children of seven or eight were at their most unruly and fearless. Jiang Hanchuan sneaked out more than once. One day he found Du Yan setting up the formation.
When Du Yan noticed the little boy skulking about, the esteemed foremost disciple did not grow angry. Instead, he gave him a protective jade token. Jiang Hanchuan remembered mustering the courage to ask, “When you finish setting up the formation, will Fushui Plain go back to the way it was?”
Du Yan smiled. “Of course it will.”
Listening to Jiang Hanchuan repeat those four words, Xia Yunzhao’s heart ached. He could almost see the confident, spirited Du Yan of those days… and little Jiang Hanchuan, who had treated those four words as an unshakable promise.
Jiang Hanchuan seemed unusually sensitive to other people’s feelings. Sensing Xia Yunzhao’s sorrow, he immediately said, “I actually don’t blame him.”
Xia Yunzhao asked, “Who? Brother Du?”
Jiang Hanchuan nodded. “This isn’t the first time he saved me. He saved me back then, too.”
It was not only eight-year-old Jiang Hanchuan. Every mortal in Fushui Plain had believed they would be saved. Everyone believed the enormous formation would bring life back to the land.
Until the day it was activated. An ominous light covered the entire plain, countless brown currents rising from underground and pouring into the formation’s center. Every person born and raised in Fushui Plain felt an agony so immense it seemed to squeeze the marrow from their bones.
But the little Jiang Hanchuan was protected by the jade token on his body. That protection let him run out of his house and toward the so-called formation’s center.
He saw the yellow-brown light gathering in the formation, slowly coalescing into a fragment… and saw the despair and disbelief on Du Yan’s face. “This can’t be… Stop it! Stop the formation!”
But behind Du Yan, his fellow disciples merely watched him with cold, mocking eyes. One young cultivator wearing a red Daoist robe remarked lazily, “Senior Brother, weren’t you the one who set up this Qianyuan Spirit-Severing Formation with your own hands? Why are you pretending to be a saint now?”
Jiang Hanchuan watched Du Yan desperately try to move the mortals out of the formation. But the people of Fushui Plain and the land itself were bound by the same roots and ancestral bloodlines. How could they simply be moved elsewhere?
Later, Du Yan spotted him, gathered him into his arms, and said with a bitter smile, “I can’t save the others. At least… I can save you.”
Jiang Hanchuan lost consciousness. When he woke again, he was hundreds of li away from Fushui Plain. And so he became its sole surviving orphan, with only one desire for the rest of his life: revenge.
By the time Jiang Hanchuan finished recounting everything, the room had fallen silent.
Xia Yunzhao looked at him, not knowing how to offer comfort. Any words seemed weightless, the easy platitudes of someone who had never suffered what he had.
Instead, Jiang Hanchuan comforted him. “I returned the Qianyuan Spirit-Severing Formation to Qianyuan Sect. My lifelong wish has been fulfilled. For what remains of my life… this will do.” Cultivation was exhausting, and his life had held too much suffering. His aptitude was not particularly high, and he had never hoped to ascend. If he could live a few days less, it would almost be a blessing.
Xia Yunzhao suddenly said, “But Qianyuan Sect still exists. So does the Earth-Vein Office.”
Jiang Hanchuan froze.
Xia Yunzhao continued, “They’re still harming more people. The places where they’re hiding Earth-Vein Book fragments, the places where the earth veins are in disarray, even those disciples with special constitutions whom they’ve recruited… Are you willing to watch them keep doing it?”
Jiang Hanchuan said, “But I…”
“I know.” Xia Yunzhao said, “Your aptitude isn’t great and your cultivation isn’t high. And to get to Golden Core quickly, you probably forced your cultivation with some special methods, which will make it even harder to advance later. But that’s fine! You’re not the only one who can do something about this. Other people can help. Do you know how many people live in Qingxi City? We have more than four hundred thousand mortals in the city alone! And the number is still growing! That doesn’t even count the other cities in our territory. With so many people, bringing down one Qianyuan Sect ought to be easy!”
Jiang Hanchuan was stunned. This was his first time hearing anyone include mortals in the numbers when discussing a battle between cultivation forces… What use could mortals be? Were they supposed to make the enemy die of exhaustion from slaughtering them one by one?
Xia Yunzhao widened his eyes. “Wasn’t everyone mortal once? Weren’t you a mortal before you cultivated? Did you know how to refine qi when you were eight? Hey, I’ll tell you a secret. Don’t tell anyone.”
He leaned close to Jiang Hanchuan, full of mystery. “You know about Spirit-Testing Stones? I want to steal Qianyuan Sect’s stone, then test the spirit roots of every mortal in our city and give them cultivation manuals. One day, every person in Qingxi City will be a soldier! Hah! Qianyuan Sect is a major sect, but how many cultivators do they have? At most a hundred thousand, right? One day we’ll have four hundred thousand cultivators in Qingxi City. That’ll scare them to death!” He looked at Jiang Hanchuan. “What do you think of the plan?”
Jiang Hanchuan hesitated. “It sounds…”
“I knew you’d agree!” Xia Yunzhao slapped him on the shoulder. “Then it’s settled. For now, only you and I know about this plan. You have to help me!”
Jiang Hanchuan opened his mouth. He had the uncomfortable feeling that he had boarded a pirate ship and agreed to something monumental, even though he had not actually said anything…
“And another thing…” Xia Yunzhao lowered his voice. “Help me bring Brother Du into the plan.”
Jiang Hanchuan’s mouth was still hanging open. All he managed was a bewildered, “Huh?”
Xia Yunzhao slung an arm around his shoulders like they were old friends. “Ever since Fushui Plain, Brother Du has resisted cultivation. Over a hundred years have passed, and he stayed at Foundation Establishment the entire time. If he hadn’t swallowed a Mystic-Origin Mirror-Breaking Pill during the formation incident in Duxu City to save you and me, I’m afraid he’d still be at Foundation Establishment now!”
Jiang Hanchuan fell silent. He had not known that.
Watching Jiang Hanchuan’s expression, Xia Yunzhao pressed on. “That’s why Brother Du hasn’t supported my plan. But you’re different. He definitely won’t refuse if you’re the one asking. So for Qingxi City, and for our grand scheme of revenge against Qianyuan Sect, you’re in charge of persuading him!”
Jiang Hanchuan continued to stare. “But didn’t you just say only the two of us knew about this plan…?”
Xia Yunzhao said, “Just tell me whether you agree!”
Jiang Hanchuan replied, “…I suppose I agree.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded in satisfaction. “Good brother!”
Jiang Hanchuan said, “Wait, there’s something…”
Xia Yunzhao’s eyebrows shot up. “Having second thoughts?”
“No…” Startled, Jiang Hanchuan hurriedly waved his hands. “I only meant to say, I know how to make Spirit-Testing Stones. You don’t have to steal one…”
Xia Yunzhao: “…” Wait a minute. You actually know how to make them?