Chapter 178: Seeing Off Maidong and Searching for the Mirror Gate

When Huiwu was brought onto the hall, the Elders were truly startled—that face, once delicate and refined, was now hideously distorted. His face was covered in scratch marks and bloodstains, and his eyes were filled with malice.

Lingxiang tossed a medicine bottle down from the platform and instructed Guanxu to apply it for him. Guanxu caught it and was just about to apply the medicine when he heard Huiwu say hatefully, "Stop putting on a show of compassion; I don't buy your act."

Hearing this, the Elders all gasped. He had been a person of few words; how had he turned into this state?

Zhaoming Zhenren had a fiery temper. Upon hearing such words, he immediately began to shout and scold:

"You filthy, foolish thing! Fucang Elder meant well; if you won't accept it, fine, but to utter such rebellious words—it is truly outrageous!"

Zhaoming Zhenren had intended to teach Huiwu a lesson, but Lingxiang spoke up to stop him.

"Fifth Senior Brother, do not get angry with him; he is not worth it." She then instructed Guanxu, "This medicine is a powder; it is extremely effective for external wounds. You only need to blow it onto his face; there is no need to smear it."

Guanxu followed her instructions, poured a handful into his hand, and blew it onto Huiwu's face. Huiwu wanted to dodge, but trapped by the Hanwu Buling Technique, he could not move even an inch, so not much of the powder was wasted.

Yet, he was truly unwilling to accept Lingxiang's favor and actually threw himself onto the ground to roll around. Seeing this, Hanwu quickly pinched a hand seal, and Huiwu immediately knelt in the hall, unable to move.

"Hmph! A fine display of benevolence, but in reality, you are full of malice! You even set a trap for me! How utterly shameless!" Seeing himself tightly bound by the witchcraft and unable to escape, Huiwu began to curse loudly.

Lingxiang, however, did not care at all. She walked down from the Hunyuan Platform and stared at Huiwu without moving. Huiwu felt a sudden sense of insecurity in his heart, though he continued to curse.

"Go ahead and curse. I can wait until dawn. If you still have the strength when dawn comes, I will wait until dark. Let's see how long you can curse," Lingxiang said, looking down at Huiwu from above.

Hearing this, Huiwu shut his mouth and only glared fiercely back at Lingxiang.

"What? You're not cursing anymore? I was just about to grab a handful of pine nuts to snack on!" Lingxiang glanced at Huiwu and said, "Daring to collude with the Demon Race—I thought you were some formidable character, but it turns out you only amount to this much."

Hearing this, Huiwu snorted and called her despicable. Before Lingxiang could finish speaking, Zhuzhang Laoren immediately began to wail: "I knew you were eyeing those treasures of mine! For a hundred years, I haven't even dared to have designs on them, and you—for the sake of that useless disciple of yours, you actually want to destroy my bamboo garden? No, no, don't even think about it."

"Hey! Why must you be like this, old man?" Seeing Zhuzhang Laoren act this way, Lingxiang began to act coquettishly. "Those black bamboos are just sitting there; it would be better to let me make a bamboo fan out of one; that would be putting it to good use. Besides, I'm only asking for one; I'm not taking them all. You don't have to be so stingy; you're already several hundred years old."

"Stingy?" Zhuzhang Laoren's beard flew up at these words. "If I were stingy, could I have let you, this little bandit, snatch so many things away? You have no idea how much effort I put into these Hundred-Year Black Bamboos; you speak so lightly of it!"

Seeing that Zhuzhang Laoren seemed determined, Lingxiang hurriedly stood up and looked down at him, saying, "You truly won't give it?"

"Absolutely not!"

The two stood in a standoff for a moment, but then Lingxiang suddenly laughed—this old man was actually trying to play mind games with her.

She sat down gracefully and smiled: "Tell me, what will it take for you to hand it over?"

Zhuzhang Laoren opened one eye to glance at Lingxiang, then cleared his throat and said, "I heard you developed a Gathering Spirit Pill a few days ago; I imagine it must be extremely useful. If you trade a hundred or eighty of them with me, perhaps I might give you one."

What a massive appetite he had—a hundred or eighty!

"You can forget about a hundred or eighty, but I have three left. If you really want them, I can give them all to you; otherwise, I'll gift them to someone else and earn a favor." Lingxiang smiled and weighed a pouch she had taken from her Universe Bag.

Hearing the pouch rustle, Zhuzhang Laoren immediately turned his head. That Purple-Leaf Golden Cloud was about to bloom, and after it bloomed, it would need proper nourishment; the Gathering Spirit Pill was indeed a top-tier choice. Never mind three, even one or two would be enough.

But that was a Hundred-Year Black Bamboo!

Forget it, forget it. He had never managed to get the better of this little bandit anyway; three would have to do!

"Since that's the case, after the Purple-Leaf Golden Cloud is used for Spirit-Refining, you must share a few pills with me. If you agree, I will give you one Hundred-Year Black Bamboo."

"I am despicable? And you are noble? Noble enough to use underhanded tactics behind people's backs?" As she spoke, she slapped Huiwu across the face.

The Elders were stunned at the sight, but then they heard Lingxiang rebuke him: "Yuanhui was only ten years old, yet you cruelly murdered him. And Awei—you were fellow disciples for months, and you even cultivated together; how could you bring yourself to be so ruthless?!"

As she spoke, she backhanded Huiwu across the face again.

Fuyin Zhenren saw this and hurriedly stepped off the Hunyuan Platform to pull Lingxiang back. He knew Lingxiang was definitely furious, but they still needed to interrogate him.

At this moment, Huiwu began to laugh, his voice like a malicious ghost, eerie to the extreme.

"Why couldn't I bring myself to do it? I only told them that there was no hope for advancement in this life, but I didn't expect them to be so content with the status quo. And that Yuanhui, he even said he would follow the Master's arrangements! Hahahaha! A fine 'Master's arrangements'—to be assigned the title of a gate-keeping boy for so many years? A bunch of cowards!"

Zhaoming Zhenren was so angry that he wanted to walk off the Hunyuan Platform as well. It was only thanks to Chengxin Zhenren pulling him back that he didn't, though he still couldn't help but curse:

"You ignorant degenerate!"

Hearing this, Huiwu let out another burst of laughter, the sound as hoarse and terrifying as grinding stones.

"I am ignorant? Even if I am, I am still better than those fools you chose! How are they better than me in any way? You took them as your own disciples just because they came from prominent backgrounds, didn't you? One by one, you act so righteous, talking about self-cultivation, yet you've cultivated nothing but sycophants!"

"What? The tomb of the Giant Spider?" Banxia was shocked. "If that's the case, then these aren't mists, but miasma!?"

Lianqiao rolled her eyes at her and said, "If it were miasma, would it have let you jump around for so long? And there was even a gust of evil wind."

"It is unusually cold and damp here; it is definitely mist, but it is a bit strange." Liu Xia pinched his chin and said, "Since the mist is so thick, where does the light come from? I climbed up earlier and didn't see the sun, so how could there be light?"

"In that case, those lights are not always there; they only appear every so often, as if..." Long Qi pondered, "As if they are guiding the way."

Xin Yi thought about it carefully; it was indeed as Long Qi said, so he suggested, "Why don't we try following the light and see?"

The group followed the light for a long time, but no matter how they walked, they could never reach the end. There was always another light ahead of every light, as if it were endless.

"How long are we going to walk like this? This isn't a solution." Banxia sat down on a rock, discouraged.

Xin Yi looked at Banxia, his eyes full of questions. Banxia felt a chill from being stared at and hurriedly asked him why he was looking at her.

Xin Yi did not answer but walked toward Banxia. Seeing him like this, Banxia hurriedly got up from the large rock and walked away, but Xin Yi only walked past her and touched the rock.

"If you're tired of walking, just say so; you don't have to be so creepy."

Hearing Banxia's complaint, Lianqiao glanced at her: Do you think everyone is like you?

At this moment, Xin Yi spoke: "We've been walking for half a day; I'm afraid we're just walking in circles." He moved his hand aside, and there was a sword mark. "This is the mark I made earlier."

"You mean we've been walking for half a day and returned to the same spot?" Banxia looked incredulous.

"Looking at it this way..." Long Qi stepped forward, pinching his chin, "This is just like..."

"Like an Array Formation," Lianqiao interrupted.

The group looked at her in surprise.

"You understand Array Formations?" Liu Xia asked.

Lianqiao gave him a sidelong glance, her eyes full of dissatisfaction: Her family was a famous clan for demon-exorcism; she knew a thing or two about basic mechanisms and Array Formations. Long Qi hurried forward to check, but from top to bottom, it was indeed Lingxiang; he felt incredibly astonished.

"How did you recover so quickly? Could that Bone-Mending Pill be a celestial elixir from the heavens?"

Lingxiang had no choice but to explain the Puppet Technique. Zhao Wuyang listened as if he understood only half of it, and Liu Xia, besides being amazed, only let out an "oh." Only Long Qi knew deeply how dangerous this act was.

He had seen a book in the study of Youran Abode that mentioned this technique was extremely dangerous. Not to mention whether the original body was safe or not, unlike the separation of the Primordial Spirit, this Substitute Spirit Technique stripped away the divine sense and deposited it onto a puppet. If the puppet were damaged, the divine sense would be injured; if things went wrong, one might even become a fool.

Although he felt that Lingxiang was indeed like a fool in some respects.

He hurriedly voiced his worries, and Lingxiang felt quite comforted upon hearing them: he was her own disciple after all, and though he was not very capable, he was quite filial.

Thinking this, she replied to Long Qi, saying that she was already within the sect and there was no danger to speak of, and also mentioned that Maidong was guarding her physical body at Xianyun Abode and had lit an Ever-Bright Lamp, so if there were any danger, her divine sense would be summoned back immediately.

Long Qi felt slightly more at ease after hearing this, yet he felt something was not quite right—Maidong was crazy and erratic all day long; could he be a reliable person?

After finishing, Lingxiang stated her purpose directly: she had come to find Xinyi to speak with him.

Long Qi was rather surprised to hear this; apart from Chengkai, whom she had come to enlighten at the request of Elder Zhaoming last time, Lingxiang usually came to Zhuyuan because of him, with the other three just tagging along, but now she was explicitly saying she had come to find another man.

Since when had she become so close to Xinyi?

Although Lingxiang had stated her purpose, before that, she should first resolve the matter of the three people before her.

Thus, without any preamble, she asked Liu Xia directly why he was so dejected; time waits for no one!

Liu Xia was startled by her words, and immediately recounted what had happened over the past few days.

"Since you can meet, it is fate; what is there to hide? As for the matter of cultivation, everything requires an opportunity; just let things take their natural course, there is no need to worry about other things, it is just that the time has not yet come." Lingxiang said this, and without asking if Liu Xia could accept it, she turned to ask Zhao Wuyang.

Zhao Wuyang explained that he could neither understand the true mysteries of the Dao formulas nor perform the Sword Formula elegantly, and then looked at Lingxiang with eyes full of expectation. "Furthermore, firstly, if I really have taken a fancy to these people, there is nothing wrong with teaching them in advance; could it be that I, this Peak Master, am just a mere ornament? And secondly..." She slurped her tea, as if intentionally making the sound extremely loud, "No one has stipulated that disciples cannot seek out Elders to ask about Daoist methods. Since they have come to cultivate, if they cannot take the initiative to seek out a master early to ask questions and resolve doubts, then one can only say that this person's heart for the Dao is insincere, and they cannot blame others if they fall behind."

As soon as Lingxiang mentioned this, she thought of Banxia; she admired that female disciple greatly, and although it seemed that Senior Brother Donghui had his eye on her, that did not prevent her from liking her herself.

As for why she liked her, whether it was flattery or sycophancy, when she had used a Spirit-Substitution Puppet to find Xinyi that day, she had run into her, and she had actually showered her with praise, and in the end, she had even openly stated without reservation that she wanted to learn talisman arts from her.

Perhaps the sweet words had intoxicated Lingxiang's mind, for this time she had even included her when looking for people.

The so-called meeting is fate, and since she was devoted to cultivation, helping her once could also be a favor to Senior Brother Donghui; why not do it? Who knows, perhaps one day he might have some good item, and she could use this as a bargaining chip to ask for it as a plaything?

Thinking of this, Lingxiang felt a wave of regret: she had actually forgotten about Chengkai; Senior Brother Zhaoming was in charge of the Mountain Guarding Array, and he had the most treasures.

Lingxiang beat her chest and stamped her feet in secret regret, but then heard Qianyuan Zhenren speak:

"I observe that Zhao Wuyang's character is truly excellent; although he was born into a powerful and wealthy family, he has no air of arrogance or extravagance. He is a talent worth molding, if only..."

"If only you could let him to you, Senior Brother, you would surely be able to lead him into the Supreme Dao Realm?" Before Qianyuan Zhenren could finish, Lingxiang interrupted: "So that's why you are acting like this, Second Senior Brother; it turns out you wanted to ask me for a disciple."

As Lingxiang spoke, she slurped her tea again and smacked her lips with great gravity, as if she were truly savoring the tea.

"Very well, since you have taken a fancy to this person, Senior Brother, it is his good fortune. I will go with the flow and do you a favor, but..." Lingxiang said as she set down her Tea Cup, "but for those who cultivate the Dao, integrity is paramount. I promised to help him cultivate, and there is no such thing as going back on one's word. Besides, look at this tea of mine; it is not even as good as the one you and the Eldest Senior Brother have. Since I am letting one disciple go to you, you really shouldn't make me suffer a loss, should you?"

Qianyuan Zhenren smiled upon hearing this; this Junior Sister had never been willing to suffer a loss, and all that talk before was merely waiting for him at this final sentence.

"I am not like the Fourth or Fifth Junior Brothers who sit on a pile of magical treasures; managing the various affairs of the sect every day is already exhausting enough. If you want to squeeze even a tiny bit of benefit out of me, I fear it would be harder than ascending to heaven. If I don't ask your Qingwei Peak for Pills, you should be kowtowing to the Three Pure Ones every day."

"Oh~ look at what the Second Senior Brother is saying; when have I ever made things difficult for you, Senior Sister?" Lingxiang said as she picked up her Tea Cup.

Qianyuan Zhenren muttered to himself upon hearing this: as if there have been few things from your childhood to now that have made this old bone of mine suffer.

"You don't seem surprised as to why I would come looking for you." Lingxiang said, turning and leaping lightly to sit on the windowsill.

Xinyi did not respond to this, still lost in his own thoughts.

"Where should I start this story? Is it the Taishang Sect, the Life-Prolonging Pill, or perhaps..." Lingxiang said, taking an object from her sleeve; it was actually the Compass for the Summoning Array!