CH 60

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Changming’s consciousness was aimlessly drifting through the chaos.

As his sea of consciousness was floating away, he could not control his body anymore. He could only let them get separated and try to flee the imminent dreadful oppressiveness of the demonic qi that was shrouding him.

His body was lost in memories, and countless images were flashing past him; however, when he stretched out his hand, he could not catch these traces.

The balls of light dispersed, touched by his palm, leaving nothing behind.

Changming realised that his hand had started to glow as well. Little by little, it started to dissolve; at first, it was his fingers, then his palm, his wrist…

A voice kept warning him from the depths of his consciousness, if it goes on like this, you, your mind and souls will be swallowed up.

Until not a single bone would be left, and he would scatter like ashes.

But another force, imperceptible by the senses, was pulling him down, silently shouting to him, leave this place! If your spirit and body free themselves, you will immediately attain the legendary ascension.

Changming struggled with all his might to maintain a clear consciousness, but it was a very hard task to accomplish. As soon as he got distracted, this overwhelming force would invade him, using the opportunity, ang giving him no chance to recover.

The higher one’s cultivation was, the more severe the attack, and the stronger the chains shackling them would grow.

Changming heard his own breath becoming heavier, and his consciousness sinking into even greater depths.

For your whole life, you’ve been spending all your time learning, running around homeless, but what have you achieved in the end?

He seemed to have heard a quiet voice through the dream.

What have you achieved…

For some time, Changming could not reply.

He became proficient in Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and Demonic techniques, not sparing a glance for some skills that other people could not comprehend in a lifetime, finally becoming a grandmaster who looked disdainfully at the world.

But even he did not manage to find a way to ascend. Searching for it, he came to the Sacred Mountain Wan, looking for the tiny hints left there by ancient cultivators.

Since it was said that ancient deities managed to ascend, he could as well.

And his attachment to the Human World—

Friends he had had through his life could be counted with the fingers on two hands, while his enemies were everywhere. After all, cultivators were lonely, and could even give up on their lives, so letting go of other things was not a problem.

Then, what about me?

Someone asked him all of a sudden.

Then, what about me? As soon as you ascend, you won’t even care about life or death; have you ever thought of me, and felt reluctant to leave?

Changming frowned, and his mind wavered slightly.

The voice turned into an invisible power that grabbed Changming from above, preventing his consciousness from falling deeper.

Two completely opposite forces were locked in a tug of war.

And right at this moment, Changming held on to the last piece of his clarity!

Such a miserable demon, yet it dares to act impudently.

Light suddenly burst in front of him!

“The universe is boundless; [preaching to living things, the three immortal souls sweep the sword, reasoning with the world’s principles], break!”

Following the last word, the chaos shattered into pieces; the sky and the earth returned, and the wailing demonic qi tried to scatter to the sides, but was minced by the Sifei Sword!

Wherever the sword glow passed, every person bowed their head, and every demon crawled on their knees.

The seal that had been suppressing him cracked completely, and there was nothing in the world that could restrain Jiufang Changming again.

Not Daoism, not Buddhism, not Confucianism, not Demonic cultivation. He was himself.

Either on the sky or on the earth, there was only one such person.

There were the sounds of a dying wail and groans near his ear. Those were the final struggles of demonic qi that was unwilling to yield. But as soon as Changming opened his eyes, the rest of it fled away, afraid of him, and only one person was still holding him tight.

“…Yun Hai?”

Changming opened his mouth to say something, and could not help coughing up a large mouthful of blood.

His robes were painted red at once.

But he felt better after coughing up this blood.

“It’s me.”

Yun Hai had not let him go, and Changming noticed that his actions were a bit stiff.

“Did you save me just now?”

“You saved yourself.” Yun Hai’s face was a bit distorted, pale and even a little gray.

He was dragged into this by the demonic qi just now, and almost lost his way.

He did not save Changming.

On the contrary, it was Changming who saved him.

Changming grabbed his hand to see his palm. The red line, in bends and curves, had forked, resembling two thin lanes.

The last time he saw it, it had not yet split into two.

Changming frowned and covered Yun Hai’s palm, pouring in spiritual power.

Yun Hai wanted to pull back his hand, but it was grabbed so firmly he could not take it away.

The corners of his lips rose: “Shizun guessed it right. I’m Yun Hai, not your Yun Weisi.”

Changming closed his eyes and said nothing.

He had no time to pay attention to Yun Hai. Imbuing someone with spiritual powers also required some skills; he could not barge in violently, and had to smooth properly every meridian.

Yun Hai felt the seething anger, the bloodthirstiness and the irritation in his heart gradually calm down. When Changming retracted his hand, Yun Hai realised that, unexpectedly, the red line seemed to have gotten lighter. The two lines had turned so dim that they had almost disappeared.

“I know you are Yun Hai.”

Changming said languidly. After the battle against the demonic qi, even though he had had a breakthrough in his cultivation, he had spent too much power, so he felt weak and unwilling to move. Even his bones seemed soft, so he decided it was better to rest with his eyes closed. But his manner of speech was a bit relaxed and teasing, his expression gentle, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised.

“Are you just reminding your teacher not to forget you once again? Or, are you jealous of Yun Weisi?”

Yun Hai gasped: “Since Shizun likes me so much, I won’t let Yun Weisi appear ever again.”

Changming replied joyfully: “Do as you want. But you are calling me shizun in every breath, yet Yun Weisi has rebelled against me. Keeping in mind that you’re not the same as him, I should make an exception and let you worship me as my last disciple. Originally, I had no intentions to accept anyone after Song Nanyan.”

The corners of Yun Hai’s mouth twitched.

After Changming finished speaking, he seemed to have thought that this idea was a good one, so he patted Yun Hai.

“My fifth disciple, come here, kowtow to me.”

Yun Hai: …

“Right,” Changming still had the mood to continue, “I should also change your name, just like I did with your four shixiongs. You should be Yun, hmm… Yun Dahai, what do you think?”

Dahai: ocean/big Hai. I found it in a list called “good names for a dog”

Yun Hai suddenly thought that Zhou Keyi and the others’ vows to kill their teacher, uttered day and night in every breath, were not without a reason.

He was furious internally, and was at a loss for words for a short time, so he vented his anger on an innocent bystander. He sent spiritual power from his palm, which struck Kuhe who was standing around the corner right on the forehead.

Kuhe shouted, and suddenly woke from the dreadful sufferings that were showing on his face.

Kuhe had been submerged into an illusion world, just like Changming. After the Sifei Sword cut the demonic qi into pieces, Kuhe escaped the danger as well, but his consciousness was still bound, and he had not managed to break off the ties. Only after a long time did he gradually come back to his senses.

This place was the first floor of the Celestial Library Pagoda. The statue of the Buddha was still there, but the Basin of Plenty was gone from its hand.

He saw Changming sitting in an unsightly manner not far away, and a stranger next to him.

“This daoyou is?”

“I’m your School Master Sun Buku’s shixiong,” Yun Hai said coldly.

Kuhe: ???

He touched his head. Yun Hai’s anger towards him was an inscrutable mystery to Kuhe.

“Senior, what about the Basin of Plenty?”

“It’s gone,” Changming looked at the light that penetrated through the pagoda’s windows.

The sky had brightened.

He asked Kuhe: “Did the empress dowager say cultivators from You are entering the palace today?”

Judging by the length of shadows, people from Zhaoyue and You should already be inside the palace.

But they still had not found the emperor’s life soul.

Their trip to the Celestial Library Pagoda was fruitless.

…

Changming’s guess was right. At this moment, crowds of talented individuals were rolling inside the palace, just like the clouds in the sky.

Two shichens ago.

Ambassadors of Zhaoyue and You entered the palace, greeting the Son of Heaven and the empress dowager.

Although the national strength of Luo was said to be a bit higher, they were almost equally matched with You. Although the ambassadors were respectful, they needed not to behave too obsequiously.

The Zhaoyue Dynasty was different. Sandwiched between the two countries, they had to be humble, otherwise, they would not have survived until this day.

So, while You had only sent two assistant ministers from their Ministry of Rites, Zhaoyue’s Minister of Rites had come here himself, escorting the princess who was to marry into the Luo emperor’s harem soom.

Relatives of Luo’s ministers were standing at the sides.

The emperor was sitting on the imperial throne, his expression flat. After the others shouted the ceremonial greetings and got back onto their knees, he said nothing.

Naturally, the empress dowager spoke on his behalf: “The emperor caught a cold two days before, and still hasn’t fully recovered. But when he heard that people came here from two other countries, he didn’t want to postpone the meeting further to show his respect. Therefore, I’ll be speaking instead of the emperor today. Please don’t feel offended.”

How would they dare to feel offended? Of course, the ambassadors expressed blatant courtesy, shedding grateful tears.

But the empress dowager noticed that the emperor was not the only one who seemed listless. Zhaoyue’s princess seemed a bit sickly and lethargic as well.

“The princess is a newcomer here. Could it be that you are not accustomed to the weather?”

The Zhaoyue princess bowed gracefully.

“Many thanks for the empress dowager’s concern. This subject hasn’t been sleeping well for the past two days, but she will be fine after a couple of days.”

The imperial palace had no customs requiring women to wear veils in court. However, not only was the Zhaoyue princess wearing gauze to cover her face this time, but her eyes were shut, and her head lowered.

The empress dowager did not like it, feeling that the princess was disrespectful.

The emperor could not take her as an empress. In the best case scenario, she would become a highest-ranking consort.

“If the princess is not feeling well, I’ll call for the imperial doctor to treat you.”

The Zhaoyue princess said: “Empress Dowager, please forgive me. This subject has no intention of showing disrespect, but her eye was stung by a bee two days ago, and it is only good for shedding tears. This subject was afraid she would present an unsightly appearance to the court, so she put on a veil in order not to be rude towards His Majesty and the Empress Dowager.”

After saying so, she took off the veil, and everyone saw that her right eye was a bit swollen and red indeed, so she could only keep it closed. However, if it was not for this flaw, she would have been elegant and charming, deserving to be described as having the countenance of a flower, and the face of the moon.

The countenance of a flower, and face like the moon: very beautiful, of a woman

The empress took pity on her: “So that’s what happened. You should have said so earlier, and I would have sent an imperial doctor to your residence to take care of you. Come, take a seat.”

The Zhaoyue princess said shyly: “Many thanks for the empress dowager’s sympathy. This subject will recover as soon as possible.”

The empress dowager: “Good child. Don’t worry, take good care of yourself. After you fully recover, the emperor will ask the Ministry of Rites to choose an auspicious day to welcome you into the palace.”

She was anxious about the fact that the emperor would have to postpone it for an unknown period of time, so the Zhaoyue princess’s wound was like a pillow offered to a person dozing off. The empress dowager sighed in relief secretly.

Everyone exchanged conventional greetings, and the empress, as always, invited everybody to the banquet hosted in the garden.

Although the emperor was not saying much and was occasionally coughing, in other aspects, his behavior was nothing out of the ordinary. It was just that the host of the banquet was the empress dowager instead of him.

After everyone had three rounds of drinks, King Hui stepped forward, cupping his hands in front of him: “Empress Dowager, last year, when You paid us a visit, some masters exchanged pointers in a competition, which was so spectacular that this subject still bears it in his mind. Are we blessed to witness such an event today as well?”

The two masters from Luo were naturally Xie Chunxi and Yue Chengbo who stayed to guard the palace.

They were sitting next to the empress, showing that they had an exceptionally high position in court.

At You’s side, there were only two people, a man and a woman.

The empress dowager did not recognise them, so she asked Xie Chunxi and Yue Chengbo with a side-glance.

“The man’s name is Lu Zhiyuan, he is an elder of the Qingbei Mountain. The woman is called Feng Suhuai, she is the master of the Zhuhai Spiritual Shelter; they are shixiong and shimei. Their cultivation level should be close to that of a master, and Feng Suhuai is a bit stronger.”

The empress dowager asked in a low voice: “Then how are they compared to you, gentlemen?”

Xie Chunxi hesitated for a bit: “Lu Zhiyuan should be close to us in level, but Feng Suhuai is probably slightly better.”

The empress dowager sighed, her heart sinking.

But it could not be helped. Since they established this rule last year, they could not just say, this year we don’t have people stronger than yours, so how about you wait for a while until we’ve found other cultivators, and then return to the competition? That would have only made You look at them with contempt, fully aware of Luo’s intentions. So, the empress dowager could not decline.

“This empress dowager is looking forward to seeing the immortals exchange pointers. But what do they think about it?”

Lu Zhiyuan got up first, cupping his hands: “It’s said that Mentor Xie Chunxi’s cultivation base is deep and profound, and his techniques are like a banner on a solitary tree; would he grace this Lu with some advice?”

A banner on a solitary tree: outstanding, unique

Originally, Xie Chunxi wanted to challenge Feng Suhuai, but another person took the initiative. If he refused this offer, he would seem inferior to Yue Chengbo in skills, so he could only follow Lu Zhiyuan’s lead.

He only said: “Please.”

When others heard this, they put down their cups, stretching their necks out and looking at them with anticipation.

Seeing two outstanding masters engaged in a fight right in front of their eyes.

Such an opportunity should not be missed.

The author has something to say:

Yun Hai: Now I think that them rebelling is excusable.

Tn:

Chapters without CM spitting out blood: 0 again