Chapter 91: Why Is Your Soul Lamp Always Flickering? (6k)

At Yan Xiao’s crude joke and the sudden appearance of Brother Zhou, Lu Yaoyao covered her face with one hand, torn inside, and instinctively glanced at the innocent Ninth Princess.

Both were suspects now, and she couldn’t tell which one it was.

Whatever. I’ll treat Xuan You Immortal as backup one, and the Ninth Princess as backup two—maybe one of them is the one.

Afraid the Ninth Princess might overthink it, Lu Yaoyao quickly said, “Yes, yes! Brother Yan is just humorous, loves to joke. Oh, my stomach’s growling—let’s head to Yushan Hall.”

After speaking, Lu Yaoyao pulled the Ninth Princess away quickly.

“Forced melons aren’t sweet—you two just aren’t compatible!”

Zhou Qing crouched down, picked up the old hen, and walked off with it.

Can’t you ever say something nice to me for once?

Yan Xiao scratched his head where he stood, muttering to himself, “That’s true though—maybe I was too blunt? A woman three thousand years older deserves to ascend to immortality—that’s fitting. What a fool I am.”

…………

Zhou Qing wasn’t curious why these two from the imperial capital were still lingering at Taiqingmen—he had more important things to do.

After ensuring the protective barrier around his quarters was active and undisturbed, Zhou Qing exhaled deeply, then tossed thirty middle-grade spirit stones into the token.

A powerful suction pulled him in; when he opened his eyes again, he stood within that mysterious space.

“Number One, you’re here!”

Soon, Number Six’s blue sphere greeted him from beside.

Number Four’s green sphere and Number Five’s cyan sphere were absent, but Zhou Qing had a decent impression of Number Six.

“Mm.” Zhou Qing replied.

Number Six invited, “How about today we visit my scene?”

Zhou Qing shook his head.

“No, I’m still stuck here. When I’ve got time, I’ll definitely come!”

Zhou Qing dared not speak much—such a senior might accidentally expose him with a single word.

“Alright, good luck!” Number Six said, then instantly turned into a beam of light and vanished into one of the paintings.

The scene instantly turned blue, its contents completely obscured.

Seeing this, Zhou Qing felt somewhat relieved and stepped inside.

…………

“Did I get lucky this time?” When Zhou Qing reentered the gravity zone, no wandering soul appeared to attack him.

He’d already prepared for battle.

He then checked his panel.

【Reduce Presence—LV3 (41/100)】

Thanks to the duel between Senior Brother and the Seventh Imperial Prince, I’ve racked up a good batch of ignore points.

Now, there’s nearly a fifty percent chance a Jin Dan cultivator will overlook me.

Since there was no danger, Zhou Qing pressed forward slowly under the crushing pressure, drenched in sweat, until he reached the corridor again.

After breaking through to Jin Dan, the gravity here had multiplied several times—if a few wandering souls of the same realm showed up now, it’d be chaos.

He skillfully placed the stone mill back in position, then returned to the familiar spot—where the Lingyun mushrooms had vanished.

Zhou Qing smiled faintly.

I wonder if Elder Duanmu Shu noticed anything strange here after she came in last time?

Maybe she thought the wandering souls ate them—or perhaps she didn’t even care about these Lingyun mushrooms at all.

Zhou Qing exhaled deeply and walked straight deeper.

After passing through the tunnel, the familiar scene reappeared.

Red River, dead crows, giant tree, heart, coffin…

Especially that black heart bound in iron chains—it still made him gasp for breath with its resonance.

But compared to last time, it was clearly better.

Creak—

Zhou Qing forced himself to endure the discomfort, scanning around—soon, the stone coffin on the opposite bank of the Red River opened again.

Immediately, a swirl of green mist drifted out.

Zhou Qing went on full alert, watching intently.

Until the green mist twisted and slowly took shape into a verdant scroll.

Almost simultaneously, the two Golden Cores within Zhou Qing’s dantian responded.

“This seems related to Yin-Yang energy?” Zhou Qing was surprised.

Right—this Number One Heavenly Dao energy—Yin-Yang—was what Second Uncle obtained from here.

If there’s something missing, it’s entirely possible.

But Heavenly Dao energy is primordial spirit—yet this scroll looks like something later generations created.

Though puzzled, Zhou Qing didn’t rush forward—after all, even someone as powerful as Second Uncle had been trapped here for years, and Elder Duanmu Shu had been severely injured after entering for less than a day.

Was there some hidden danger he hadn’t noticed?

“Does this place suppress spiritual sense?”

Soon, as he extended his spiritual sense, he was stunned to find he couldn’t perceive anything around him.

Of course—since the gravity zone, Elders couldn’t sense what happened inside. If they encountered danger, they couldn’t be rescued in time—relying only on that Yang Fire Talisman and their own luck.

He then tried using spiritual power to pull the scroll toward him.

But the deathly aura of the Red River was too heavy—his spiritual power vanished the moment it touched the water, as if absorbed by the dead crows.

“How did Elder Duanmu Shu cross every time she came in?”

Zhou Qing scanned the surroundings—his spiritual sense and spiritual power were useless, and there was no bridge.

And what had injured her?

What had she come here to retrieve?

The same went for the Elder who first achieved success with the technique.

They trained hard, all to come here seeking opportunity.

As Zhou Qing pondered, a chilling sound suddenly rose behind him.

His heart jolted—he spun around instantly.

A massive black crow slowly emerged from the darkness.

Its entire body was shrouded in thick death aura, its enormous form radiating a terrifying pressure.

Death aura surged like a tide; its blood-red eyes locked onto Zhou Qing.

Zhou Qing felt his breath catch—next moment, his forehead burned with sharp pain, as if something had pierced straight through.

Then his consciousness plunged into darkness.

When he opened his eyes again, he was a red light orb.

“Did I just die? That was too fast!”

Zhou Qing was shaken—unless he was wrong, that had been a feather like steel piercing him.

So fast, he hadn’t even had time to react.

“Could it be this thing that injured Elder Duanmu Shu and others?” Zhou Qing exclaimed.

Duanmu Shu was a Soul Transformation cultivator at peak—so if this was true, then a little shrimp like me dying here was no surprise.

“I’ll go again!”

Curious, Zhou Qing plunged back in.

But he hadn’t expected the gravity zone to now spawn wandering souls—three Jin Dan beginners and six Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Unsurprisingly, Zhou Qing stopped at the third wave.

No choice—even with dual cores doubling his power, the crushing gravity limited his strength, and there were seven Jin Dan wandering souls total.

“One more chance!” When he emerged again and saw Number Six still in his scene, Zhou Qing felt envy.

Clearly, luck was bad again—he’d advanced ten meters but was still overwhelmed and killed.

“Next time, I’m definitely not going!”

In his room, Zhou Qing was still shaken.

Even if he’d held out until the third wave, he hadn’t even reached half his usual distance.

No wonder higher-level cultivators were barred—forget the wandering souls, the doubled gravity alone made movement nearly impossible.

He looked at the ten middle-grade spirit stones left in his hand and sighed.

This time, thirty middle-grade spirit stones were wasted—thrown into water without even a splash.

Not quite—still, I learned something deeper.

“Number Four, Number Four, you alright?”

At that moment, Yan Xiao’s anxious voice rang from outside the courtyard, accompanied by urgent knocking.

Zhou Qing felt exhausted.

Brother, from morning till now, twice already—can’t you stop startling me like this?

Isn’t Lu Yaoyao and the Ninth Princess at Yushan Hall? Just go pay their meal bill—you’ll gain favor instantly.

Frustrated, he opened the door again—only to see not just Third Brother, but also an elderly man with a thin face and slightly hunched posture.

The old man’s hair was white and sparse, yet he radiated a calm, mountain-like presence.

The top of his cane was shaped like a peculiar soul lamp.

In an instant, Zhou Qing understood the man’s identity.

“Disciple Zhou Qing, pays his respects to the Elder!”

Yan Xiaohu, seeing Zhou Qing unharmed, let out a long breath and quickly introduced him.

“Fourth, this is Elder Jiang Pu, keeper of the Soul Lantern Tower. Elder Jiang, this is my junior brother Zhou Qing—he’s perfectly fine, I told you I just saw him! You scared me half to death, I thought he’d been assassinated again.”

Yan Xiaohu spoke to the Elder.

Jiang Pu studied Zhou Qing from head to toe, also puzzled, then spoke.

“It’s like this: recently, your soul lantern inside the tower kept flickering dim and bright, but eventually stabilized, so we didn’t pay attention. Today it did it again, so I came to check.”

Hearing Jiang Pu’s words, Zhou Qing instantly realized it was caused by his spiritual sense entering the first layer of the Divine Ruins Tiangong and dying accidentally during the simulation.

He hadn’t expected that leaving a strand of soul fire upon becoming a disciple would have such protective effects.

Zhou Qing hurriedly said, “Thank you for your concern, Elder. As you can see, I’m fine—probably your soul lantern is just old and in disrepair.”

Zhou Qing joked with a smile.

Jiang Pu shook his head, then thought again and said, “Perhaps when you left your soul energy, you hadn’t yet entered cultivation, so your soul force was weak. When you have time, come back to the Soul Tower and re-leave your soul lantern.”

“Yes!” Zhou Qing said.

Jiang Pu said nothing more, then turned into a streak of light and departed.

Zhou Qing watched the retreating figure, suddenly furrowed his brows—as if remembering something—and quickly asked Yan Xiaohu beside him.

“Third senior brother, how many Elders guard the Soul Tower?”

Yan Xiaohu frowned. “Just one.”

“Elder Jiang Pu?” Zhou Qing pointed at the fading black dot in the sky.

Yan Xiaohu nodded. “The Soul Lantern Tower isn’t large—it only holds the soul lanterns of the Supreme Elders, Peak Masters, Elders, Hall Heads, Executives, and us core disciples. Count them up, there aren’t many.”

“True disciples, inner disciples, and outer disciples don’t even qualify. That’s why they work so hard—having your soul lantern placed inside is a supreme honor. If you’re in danger, they can detect it immediately and send aid.”

Zhou Qing fell silent.

He, a core disciple, had his soul lantern flicker a few times—and Elder Jiang Pu came knocking immediately. When Senior Brother Gao Xian perished, his soul lantern must have gone from bright to dim, then extinguished completely.

If a Peak Master’s soul lantern had malfunctioned, how great would the shock have been? Yet the Sect Master and the others knew nothing.

Could it be that Elder Jiang Pu—

After brief hesitation, Zhou Qing voiced his suspicion to Yan Xiaohu.

Yan Xiaohu frowned in thought, then quickly shook his head.

“That’s not certain—after all, Second Sister’s soul lantern isn’t in the tower!” Yan Xiaohu said.

Zhou Qing blinked, confused. “Why is that?”

Yan Xiaohu chuckled bitterly. “It’s because of her cautious nature. You know soul lanterns are made from our blood as oil and soul force as wick—they accurately reflect our life state.”

“Ever since Second Sister reached Golden Core, she felt leaving her blood and soul force there was unpredictable and uncontrollable—she couldn’t feel safe. After all, some curses only need a single drop of blood.”

“She said if Taiqingmen were ever destroyed, the moment someone seized the Soul Lantern Tower, everything would be over—so she asked her Master to retrieve her soul lantern.”

“And First Senior Brother too—he walks the path of relentless advance, fearless of death, always fighting or heading to fight. He’s often gravely wounded. Being constantly watched and cared for bothers him—he needs to fight with his back to the wall.”

After hearing Yan Xiaohu, Zhou Qing blinked. “So only our two soul lanterns are in the tower?”

Yan Xiaohu nodded. “Yes, and that’s reassuring, isn’t it? Like when the official Feng Cheng from Qingmu City was trapped by Blood Tai Sui—we could tell from his soul lantern whether he was alive or dead, whether to rush in or investigate cautiously. That’s a world of difference.”

Zhou Qing pondered. “What if Senior Brother Gao Xian’s soul lantern was still in the tower?”

“Then there’s only one possibility—Elder Jiang Pu is in league with Gao Xian,” Yan Xiaohu said.

He comforted Zhou Qing: “Don’t worry—ever since you told Old Mo and the others about the cave, they must’ve investigated. Like the Soul Lantern Tower…”

“No, I need to ask my Master directly!” Zhou Qing said, then hurried toward the mountain peak.

Yan Xiaohu was speechless.

When did he learn Second Sister’s survivalist tactics?

…………

“Gao Xian’s soul lantern is in the tower—and it never went out!” Mo Xingjian said slowly, looking at the two.

Zhou Qing’s brow tightened further.

He was now one hundred percent certain: the current Gao Xian was an impostor. First came the blood-stained stone from “One Inspection Per Day,” then the binding of “Heart-Viewing Sight.”

But he hid himself perfectly—his soul lantern never extinguished, he barely stopped the Deputy Head of the Spirit Field Office’s assassination, and every trace afterward was logically sound.

Judging by his Master’s and the Sect Master’s expressions, they probably thought he’d imagined things from stress.

Could Elder Jiang Pu really be in league with Gao Xian?

If so, he must retrieve his own soul lantern.

After all, Second Sister’s concerns were not unfounded.

“Master, can you retrieve my soul lantern too?” Zhou Qing asked Mo Xingjian.

After all, from now on, whenever he had money, he’d enter the Divine Ruins Tiangong. If his soul lantern kept flickering, it would inevitably raise suspicion—and worse.

Mo Xingjian smiled. “Don’t worry—Elder Jiang Pu is a veteran of the sect. Almost everyone’s soul lanterns are entrusted to him.”

“Still, please help me, Master!” Zhou Qing bowed.

Seeing Zhou Qing was determined, Mo Xingjian shook his head slightly. “Once you retrieve your soul lantern, if you ever face danger, we won’t be able to detect it at all.”

Zhou Qing said, “If real danger strikes, it happens in an instant. Even if we saw the lantern dim, it’d be too late to help. Some things are better kept in one’s own hands.”

“Kept in your own hands? When Second Lady reached Golden Core, she told me the same thing. Fine—take it if you want. What about you?” Mo Xingjian turned to Yan Xiaohu.

Yan Xiaohu grinned. “Since Master’s going, could you grab mine too? If everyone else is taking theirs back, me being the only one left in the tower would look odd.”

“You’re such a nuisance, always making trouble!” Mo Xingjian said, then left immediately.

Yan Xiaohu gave an awkward laugh, then froze.

Wait—why am I the one making trouble?

It was Fourth who came asking for his soul lantern—I was just tagging along!

Is the youngest always the one who gets the advantage?

That’s so unfair!

Seeing Yan Xiaohu’s resentful gaze, Zhou Qing cleared his throat and quickly turned away.

Soon after, Mo Xingjian returned.

In his hand were two soul lanterns.

“Take them. From now on, be careful—no one’s here to cover for you anymore!” Mo Xingjian said solemnly.

The two took the lanterns and bowed respectfully. “Yes, Master!”

…………

Back at his quarters, Zhou Qing immediately absorbed the strand of soul force and destroyed the lantern, finally exhaling in relief.

Thinking it over, Second Sister had foresight indeed.

“Now that I’ve successfully reached Golden Core, I can pause on advancing my realm. What remains is making money and grinding points.”

But both are difficult right now.

In the days since his Golden Core breakthrough, the Seventh Imperial Prince, Xuan Yuan Yichen, challenged the top disciples of several peaks.

To avoid embarrassing each other, all matches ended in draws.

He’d missed many opportunities to grind points.

Too bad—he’s finished challenging, and the other peak tops seem to have left on missions.

Third senior brother probably made a lot.

But he has those followers to split with.

Forget it—his own affairs must be handled by himself.

“After forming dual Golden Cores, my spiritual power is far stronger than a normal Golden Core beginner’s—I can start practicing the second move of the Azure Thunder Sword Art!”

With a plan, Zhou Qing retrieved the jade slip and began studying…

Two days later, at night, Yan Xiaohu arrived with a jar of wine, looking disgruntled.

“Lu Shimei has it in for me!” Yan Xiaohu downed a gulp of wine, clearly annoyed.

Zhou Qing chuckled in confusion. “What now?”

Yan Xiaohu said, “From the start, I sensed something off—whenever I got near the Ninth Princess, she’d tense up, as if afraid I’d talk too long with Mu Qian. Lately, it’s gotten worse—she’s been sabotaging me constantly.”

“Every time I manage to create a private moment with Mu Qian, she pops up out of nowhere—even outright refuses for her. What’s her deal?”

Yan Xiaohu looked furious.

Zhou Qing was stunned.

He poured Yan Xiaohu more wine. “To be honest, the Xuan Yuan family, as rulers of the Sacred Martial Empire, have deep roots and murky waters—countless people like us at Taiqingmen are watching.”

“I know, I know. From the Ninth Princess’s attitude these past two days, I’ve realized I’m just kissing cold feet. And I’m not the only one—other peaks have the same intentions.”

“After today, I’m done with her. I’m not bad-looking, look at this round face, these single eyelids—I’ve had plenty of girls flirt with me.”

Yan Xiaohu pulled out a mirror and examined himself closely.

Zhou Qing smiled faintly, also feeling relieved.

That’s good.

Suddenly, Yan Xiaohu leaned in, glanced around, then whispered to Zhou Qing: “Fourth, do you think Lu Shimei is… that one?”

“Which one?” Zhou Qing didn’t follow.

Yan Xiaohu spoke mysteriously: “Listen, since joining Taiqingmen, she’s had five senior brothers. Let’s not even mention others—Li Daoxuan and He Han aren’t bad-looking, right? Not as good as us, but decent enough.”

“Yet she ignores them completely—yet she’s cozying up to you, causing misunderstandings. That’s just an act—making people think she’s normal.”

“Then, when the timing’s right, she drags you and the Xuanyou Immortal together—after using you, she’s done with you. Now, facing the Ninth Princess…”

Zhou Qing cut him off, saying, “Third Brother, you’ve had too much to drink. Sure, that girl can be infuriating sometimes, but it’s not at all what you think—better not say things like that again.”

Yan Xiao could only give up after hearing this.

Who cares? Being myself again feels damn good.

Lately I’ve been so humble I’ve started to despise myself.

“We’re short on snacks—how about roasting your chicken?”

“Get lost!”

…………

After three rounds of wine, Zhou Qing asked Yan Xiao about making money.

At the mention of money, Yan Xiao immediately perked up.

“Guess how much I’ve made these past few days?” Yan Xiao asked, beaming.

Zhou Qing shook his head, but from his third brother’s expression, he knew it was a lot.

“After deducting costs and labor, I netted a thousand low-grade spirit stones—that’s ten mid-grade spirit stones!”

Zhou Qing was genuinely pleased for his third brother; it had taken only a few days.

“That’s almost as much as I made in two trips to the Cave Heaven—Brother, you’re amazing!” Zhou Qing praised.

Yan Xiao said, “Of course! Your brother here is—wait, what did you just say?”

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(End of Chapter)