Chapter 188: The Fog Dissipates, Flying Snow Enters the Mountain

The Liuyunxuan she spoke of was the most famous brothel in Linxiang. Back when Zhuzhang Laoren gifted the jade bamboo flute to Lingxiang, he had intended for her to use it to summon these earth spirits to guide her way when entering an array, but she could never blow a proper tune on it, so she went to Liuyunxuan and spent a long time learning music from those women.

The madam and the flock of singing girls were tormented by Lingxiang for many days, until one day, unable to bear it any longer, they conspired with the girls to deceive Lingxiang, telling her that her musical attainments were already extraordinary and would surely move the heavens, and only then did they manage to send this great deity away.

Those earth spirits were too lazy to argue with Lingxiang, simply handing two bamboo lanterns to Rendong and Yuancheng respectively.

Just at this moment, the door to the inner room swung open violently, and a black shadow suddenly darted out, charging toward the two of them.

Long Qi and Rendong hurriedly rolled aside to dodge, and when they turned to look, the black shadow was actually a rat.

But this rat was as large as a lamb, its tail like a long whip, its entire body exuding a foul stench, its eyes blood-red, its long teeth like blades, and the sound it emitted from its mouth was not the usual "squeak" of a rat, but a roar like that of a wild beast.

With the rat like this, it was clearly already a monster!

The monster, having failed its first strike, huffed and bared its teeth, staring fixedly at the two.

The two sides confronted each other for a moment; perhaps the monster discerned their respective strengths, for it kicked off with its hind legs, sprang up, and charged straight at Rendong.

Rendong was just about to dodge, but his foot caught on something, and this stumble disrupted his footwork, causing him to fall to the ground.

Seeing this, Long Qi moved to rescue him, but the monster was extremely fast, far too quick for him to reach in time.

Although Rendong's Spirit Root aptitude was mediocre, he was, after all, someone who had passed the test of the Mountain and River Map, so he was naturally no ordinary person.

Seeing the monster's sharp claws about to tear into him, he rolled to dodge, then slashed his sword tip toward the monster's hind leg.

Rendong's sword was worth five coins! Lingxiang had not expected that such a simple riddle could have a prize of five silver coins. Taking the broken silver handed over by the lantern keeper, Lingxiang felt a surge of excitement—it was worth solving riddles all night to finally see some money!

Just then, a gong sounded in the West Pavilion by the Guyang River, and the crowd hurried toward the pavilion; it seemed they were about to announce the riddle with the night's biggest prize.

Where there is a big prize, there will inevitably be a crowd, and before long, the area outside the pavilion was packed three layers deep. This time, the riddle was for a Wolong Lantern; the lantern was crafted quite lifelike, yet no riddle slip was to be seen.

Just as the crowd was puzzled, they saw the person beating the gong take two scrolls from his bosom, hang one of them up, and cover it with a silk cloth.

"Everyone, listen to me. The riddle for this Wolong Lantern is a couplet. The first line is the riddle written personally by the City Lord. If you wish to win the grand prize, you must write the second line on this other silk scroll; not only must the riddle match, but the answer must also correspond." As he spoke, he spread the empty gold-threaded silk scroll on a small table.

Such a riddle was indeed rare, and the crowd waited for the lantern keeper to reveal that while it was called selecting weapons, in reality, it was the weapons selecting the people.

Most things in Xuancang Cave were sentient, and the Strange Scripture Array was laid outside the cave; one reason was to prevent unscrupulous people from stealing the divine weapons, and the other was to nourish the spirits of the divine weapons within the cave, preventing these artifacts and divine weapons from losing their spirits.

If the spirit perished, the vessel would become a dead object, either rusting away or becoming waste. Once the spirit perished, it would no longer have the ability to store spirits.

Of course, some divine artifacts were exceptions, but that is a story for another time, and I shall not mention it for now.

While it was said to be coming to choose weapons, in truth, every Elder knew as clearly as a burning fire which disciple was suited to use which divine weapon, which disciple could use which artifact, and what kind of divine weapon or artifact each could use.

However, sometimes, certain fates arrived suddenly and unpredictably; if a disciple had a spiritual resonance with a certain divine weapon or artifact, that was naturally the most suitable outcome.

Lingxiang had only brought Xin Yi with her this time; Long Qi already had the most suitable Seven-Star Longyuan in his hand, so there was no need for superfluous actions, and Rendong was still unconscious, and due to his Spirit Root aptitude, she naturally had other plans for how to arrange things for him.

But Xin Yi could— "What a sharp-tongued little girl, actually calculating against this old man; you truly deserve a lesson." Saying this, he raised a hand and flicked Lingxiang on the forehead.

Lingxiang felt the pain, covered her forehead, and complained, "You've lived for millions of years, yet you're still like a child. It's a pity you still call yourself 'this old man'; you truly don't have a shred of elder-like demeanor."

The Spirit of the Eternal Firmament laughed toward the sky upon hearing this; although everyone knew who he was, he was occupying Zhao Wuyang's body, and this scene looked truly incongruous.

"You really shouldn't laugh like that. My Wuyang is quite cute; you've only occupied his body for so long, and he's already as tall as me. If this continues, I won't be able to bully him in the future." Lingxiang said, lowering her hand from her forehead, revealing a red mark there.

"Enough, enough. You bunch of kids, you're at least two hundred years old, yet you're not as fun as a ten-year-old girl." The Eternal Firmament said, dusting off his robes and sitting down on a large rock. "This old man won't stoop to bickering with this yellow-haired girl; if I did, I fear this entire mountain wouldn't be enough for me to play with."

Qianyuan Zhenren felt relieved upon hearing this; it seemed the Spirit of the Eternal Firmament had no hostility, but this disciple of his...

"Forget it, it's a mortal body after all; I fear he can't exert any strength, which is why he says this, and he even uses such high-sounding words. It's truly as the folks in the streets say: the older one gets, the more like a child one becomes." Lingxiang said, sitting down next to the Spirit of the Eternal Firmament.

"You girl, you really won't give this old man even half a shred of face. Even if they are high-sounding words, so what? In any case, I am currently occupying the body of one of your people; what can you do to me?" And Long Qi had already practiced the "Entangling Dragon Sword Formula"; if supplemented with the Daoist method of Guiding Spirit into Artifact, it would allow him to communicate mentally with the spirit of the Seven-Star Longyuan, and his future cultivation should be smooth. It was just that, relatively speaking, he was somewhat lacking in mental cultivation methods, but with a little guidance later on, these would not be problems.

Only the matter of Rendong's cultivation truly caused Lingxiang some concern.

Rendong's Spirit Root aptitude was not as good as Long Qi's or Xin Yi's, nor did he have any family heirlooms like them, nor was there anything outstanding about him, and he had never practiced Martial Dao before. Now, if he were to be forced to cultivate, he could only proceed step by step.

But Lingxiang was not a person who followed the rules rigidly. If she really followed the standard cultivation steps, not to mention whether this gradual progress was feasible, even if he did achieve success in the Dao, Rendong would likely be as old as Zhuzhang Laoren by then.

She herself had a Residual Spirit Root and could find no path in cultivation; could it be that she would be unable to find a way to start with someone who had a sound Spirit Root?

Just as she was completely baffled, she saw that scar on the day of the Shangyuan Festival, which truly gave Lingxiang a sudden enlightenment, as if to say, "After endless mountains and rivers that leave doubt whether there is a path out, suddenly one encounters the shade of a willow, bright flowers, and a lovely village."

Judging by that scar, although Rendong had a False Spiritual Root, he could unintentionally fuse the Five Elements and perform Guiding Spirit into Artifact. Since that was the case, she would use that as a breakthrough point to select a cultivation path that could play to his strengths.

After much thought, if she really wanted to start from this aspect, she still had to consult Zhuzhang Laoren, who had been through it all. It happened that on that day, Zhuzhang Laoren had spoken to her about the Purple Leaf Golden Cloud, so she asked him by the way. "Lingxiang is indeed a good girl, but she is not someone you can covet. Even if she is safe and sound now, her fate is one of nine deaths and one life, and that only path to survival is one you cannot give."

Hearing this, Xiaobai was greatly shocked.

"What does this mean?!"

Ajin did not answer, looking at the overlapping mountain peaks before him, his thoughts returning to not long ago.

"Ajin." On the bed, Lady Qiao was extremely weak; even the Pill gifted by Lingxiang could no longer help her lift her Qi.

Ajin looked at this gentle woman before him, stroking her forehead, as if just the day before she were still that little girl in the Qiao Family with her hair tied in small buns.

"Ajin, these years I have troubled you to take care of this sickly person. But I am not the person in your destiny, and I cannot let you ascend. Yet from the bottom of my heart, I am grateful to you, grateful that you are still able to be so kind to others."

Lady Qiao coughed twice as she spoke, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. Seeing this, Ajin hurriedly took a handkerchief to wipe it for her, but Lady Qiao gently turned her head away.

"It's too late. You must listen to me finish. From the time I saw you when I was small, I saw today, and I knew what would happen to you in the future, but the heavenly secrets are truly impossible to reveal. The thing you pursue will soon arrive, but before that, I hope you can go to Jiuque Mountain to find him. He is a kind child; apart from my husband, he is the one I cannot let go of most."

"Although it will be safe in the end, as a mother, how could I bear to let my child suffer such hardship? You must promise me to protect Wuyang and keep him safe." As she spoke, Lady Qiao looked at Ajin, her eyes full of pleading.

This was the girl he had watched grow up since she was small! Yet now she had fallen into such a state. Although he had seen all of human life and death for thousands of years, he had never been able to take it lightly. Moreover, she was the most different of all.

She was the only person in thousands of years who understood him!

"Alright, I promise you!"

In those years, Zhuzhang Laoren had also suffered from his Spirit Root aptitude in his cultivation, but fortunately, Wuweidaoren discovered his immense talent in array formation, so he persuaded Zhuzhang Laoren, who had wanted to give up, to try using this as a breakthrough point. Sure enough, it truly allowed him to achieve great success in this area, and because of his superb array techniques, his cultivation progressed, and he broke through realms repeatedly. Even half of the array technique books studied by Zhaoming Zhenren came from his hand.

Banxia looked at Zhao Wuyang, who was sitting with his legs crossed, and was extremely surprised in her heart. How could this still be the gentle and soft-spoken Zhao Wuyang from before? This was clearly one of those scoundrels from down the mountain.

"It is naturally helpless," Lingxiang said, sitting just like him, "but in any case, you cannot exert any strength in this body, so from now on, you will just have to endure my anger every day. The years are long, this body will eventually decay, and you will eventually change back. The days ahead are long, no need to rush, no need to rush. If I am unfortunate enough to achieve success in the Dao, I fear you will have to be angry for a few hundred more years."

The Spirit of the Eternal Firmament laughed loudly upon hearing this: "Ascending to heaven is but a somersault; with your Residual Spirit Root, you want to achieve success in the Dao? I fear it is harder than the Divine Envoy attaining the Dao, yet you still boast that you want to anger this old man. Let's see who angers whom."

As usual, for him, weapons were all the same; as long as they were handy, even a stone from the roadside was something he could use.

But Lingxiang did not want him to come for that; it was because in this Xuancang Cave, there was definitely something he absolutely had to have—the Deer Horn Twin Blades.

Speaking of these Deer Horn Blades, they were the weapons of the Lu Family, a family that exterminated demons in those years. After the Lu Family was slaughtered, through a twist of fate, they fell into the hands of Fuyin Zhenren, who was wandering outside, so he brought them back to the Yuanqing Sect and kept them in Xuancang Cave ever since.

The thirteen disciples wandered for a long time, but only three chose weapons, and one chose a Dharma artifact.

Lingxiang saw that Xin Yi had nothing in his hands and felt extremely astonished—could it be that he had not seen the Deer Horn Twin Blades? But after she went in to see for herself, she was furious, and as soon as she came out, she began to shout aggressively at Zhaoming Zhenren.

The riddle was still a mystery, but she heard the person beating the gong say: "This lantern prize is a 'Prisoner Ox Lying Down to Listen to Wind-Blowing Rain'; this zither is a dowry item of the City Lord's wife, and it has been specially brought out today as a prize." As he spoke, he pulled away the silk cloth behind him.

The riddle had not yet been solved, but the lantern prize was shown to everyone first; it seemed the City Lord was quite confident about this riddle. However, the crowd's thoughts were not on that; they were all attracted by the Prisoner Ox zither on the stage.

That ancient zither was shaped like the Fuxi zither, its brown surface and red-tinted finish revealing a deer-horn-frost grey, with ox-hair-like cracks on it; one look told you it was no ordinary object. Yet what was even more unusual was that the head of the zither was carved with a Prisoner Ox, lying down with its body, eyes closed in quiet listening, appearing incredibly lifelike.

Even a layman seeing this zither, even if they obtained it and did not use it to play, would certainly gain a considerable fortune if they sold it to someone who understood zithers.

Lingxiang was also caught by the sight of this zither, not because of the zither's value, but because there were wisps of Spirit Qi lingering upon it.

This is an Ancient Dharma Artifact!

It was still the unsealed Soft Sword distributed by the Yuanqing Sect at the beginning, but firstly, the Demon Beast's charge was fierce, and secondly, when he used the sword, he unconsciously brought out a bit of Spirit Qi; the Demon Beast's hind leg was sliced open, the skin and flesh actually splitting apart.

The demon creature was struck by the sword, squeaking as it crashed to the ground, rolling several times before stopping; it struggled to get up, but that injured hind leg could no longer move.

Seeing it dragging its injured leg and trying to escape, how could Long Qi let it go? He hurriedly gathered his Qi and caught up, piercing the Demon Rat's head with one strike of his sword.

The Demon Rat spat out bright red blood; although it had been stabbed to death, its body kept twitching, and it still emitted strange squeaking sounds from its mouth.

Long Qi pulled the sword out, shook off the foul-smelling blood on it, and was just about to wipe away the remaining blood when the sword body suddenly emitted a red light, and the blood remaining on the blade was instantly absorbed.

Rendong only then discovered that this big fellow was actually five goblins stacked together, and each of them had arms and legs, but these arms and legs were as thin as firewood, making him worry—how could such thin arms and legs support their bodies?

"Hold this lantern well; if you drop it, you will be lost in this Array Formation, so don't blame me for not warning you!" the goblin with the shrill voice said haughtily.

And just after it finished this sentence, the goblin with the thick voice only said "Follow," and this big fellow split into five round stones and began to roll into the Ancient Bamboo Forest.

Walking along the way, Rendong felt the surroundings were incomparably dim and looked extremely eerie, with only the area illuminated by the lantern in his hand allowing him to see clearly. Just as he was astonished, he heard a howl behind him; he just wanted to turn his head, but heard Shoucheng shout in a low voice behind him:

"Do not turn your head!"

Rendong hurriedly stopped and looked straight ahead.

"This place is the Yin and Yang Spirit-Bewitching Array set up by Zhuzhang Laoren; if you turn your head, you will fall into the array, and no one will be able to save you," Shoucheng then explained.

After walking for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, he saw a bright light shooting from ahead, stinging Rendong's eyes with pain, and he hurriedly closed his eyes.

"It is the Gate of Life, hurry and walk!" Shoucheng urged.

Rendong carefully followed the sound of the goblins rolling and walked quickly; before long, he saw that light suddenly enlarge, and then he found himself in front of a courtyard gate.