Chapter 143: Perhaps It Is Poison

Under the temptation of a table full of delicacies and immortal brews, Xu Chen did not care about his image at all, eating ravenously and non-stop like a whirlwind sweeping away clouds; Yun Xi naturally refused to fall behind, using both hands to eat, and the two were almost in a state of fighting for food.

Lan You was not only cold by nature, but also had little interest in eating; she knelt to the side, tasting slowly with small bites and small spoonfuls. Watching Xu Chen and Yun Xi fighting over grilled ribs, glaring at each other and refusing to let go, a trace of gentle amusement appeared on her cold face, and she would occasionally lower her head and giggle non-stop.

Half an hour later, the moon climbed to the mountainside, and this grand feast of spirit food finally came to an end.

Most of it was finished off by Xu Chen, Yun Xi finished less than thirty percent, and Lan You ate at most ten percent.

Another pot of immortal fruit wine was also drunk clean, and not a single drop remained of the two bottles of Spirit Flower Dew that Yun Xi had stolen.

"Hiccup~" Xu Chen was full and satisfied, sprawling on the ground with his limbs splayed, completely unconcerned with his image, to help his digestion.

Yun Xi finished the last piece of grilled meat, licked her fingers clean, and glared at Xu Chen with great dissatisfaction: "How can you eat faster than me? This is unreasonable. Tomorrow I will definitely surpass you."

Xu Chen, reeking of alcohol, curled his lips lazily and said: "When it comes to eating, I have never lost. It's a deal, bring more Spirit Flower Dew tomorrow; it feels much better than the Hundred Fruit Brew."

"Pfft, only girls like to drink Spirit Flower Dew. The senior brothers and Elders all drink spirit wine. You are too weak." Yun Xi's face was flushed from drinking, and she rolled her eyes to show her disdain.

Lan You raised her hand and waved, collecting all the plates, bowls, and food scraps from the table into several food boxes and bamboo baskets, then brought over tea and said: "These foods look good, but I think they are not as delicious as Daoist Friend Xu's grilled meat."

Upon hearing this, Yun Xi immediately perked up, expressing with a joyful face that she also wanted to taste Xu Chen's grilled meat.

Xu Chen naturally did not refuse the overly familiar young beauty, waving his large sleeve to indicate that he would catch a Demon Beast tomorrow to have a barbecue.

"Senior Sister Lan, I am too full today, and it is dark outside, so let me stay and keep you company!"

After resting and drinking tea for a while, Lan You reminded Yun Xi that it was time to go back, but Yun Xi hugged Lan You's arm and began to act like a spoiled child.

Lan You looked at Xu Chen, and Xu Chen shook his head slightly, so Lan You said: "It is not far for you to go back; you will be there after a drink of water. Daoist Friend Xu just arrived today and needs to rest early. If you are afraid, I will see you back!"

"Then... alright!" Seeing Lan You's cold expression, Yun Xi did not dare to continue pestering her, and followed Lan You out the door with lingering reluctance; a moment later, the two left on their swords.

After Lan You returned, Xu Chen also sat cross-legged and practiced for a while, returning the vital energy from the food in his stomach to his dantian, feeling that his dantian, which had been mostly emptied after the battle with Yi Zhen, had filled up quite a bit again.

"Daoist Friend Xu, let me help you tidy up the room so you can rest!" Lan You said with slightly flushed cheeks.

Xu Chen stood up with a smile and said: "No need. This meal has given me plenty of energy. I promised Senior Baiyunzi to help refine a batch of Spirit Pills, and I cannot be lazy. Daoist Friend Lan, take me to the pill room. I cannot stay in Yuqing Hall for too long, so I must seize the time."

"Then please follow me, Daoist Friend Xu!" Lan You led the way.

The two entered a specialized pill room in the backyard. After Lan You activated the Concealment Array, Xu Chen also took out his Pill Furnace and activated it, then pulled a pile of various First-grade Spirit Medicines and Spirit Grasses from his Storage Bag. Just like when they were on the road, the two began to cooperate in refining pills.

Not long after, as a thick, fragrant pill aroma permeated the pill room, cyan-white Pill Clouds began to condense and appear in the room.

But what Xu Chen did not notice was that the Concealment Array of the pill room could not hide this strange cyan-white Pill Cloud, and it appeared directly above the pill room.

Fortunately, it was late at night, and the Dao Courtyard where the Disciples lived had various other Concealment Arrays to block Divine Sense detection, so the Inner Disciples living nearby could not notice it. They could only vaguely feel that there was a fluctuation of energy different from usual in the courtyard where Lan You lived, but their Divine Sense could not penetrate the array to see clearly.

Eventually, after scanning back and forth, these probing Divine Senses slowly disappeared.

Many Disciples who had a secret crush on Lan You even breathed a sigh of relief.

Refining pills was fine; what they feared most was the two not refining pills but doing something else—that would make everyone jealous to the point of madness.

Of course, what made everyone puzzled was that as an outside cultivator from another sect, Xu Chen certainly should not have been allowed to live in the Dao Courtyard of an Inner Disciple, especially a core female Inner Disciple.

But unexpectedly, the two Supreme Elders and several Danyuan Realm Elders adopted a tacit state regarding this matter, without any intention of interfering.

This was what made everyone cough up blood and feel confused.

On the east side of the cliff at the summit of Cuihua Peak, there was a stone chamber cave dwelling that had been opened up.

At the entrance of the cave dwelling, the three seal-script characters for "Baiyun Cave" looked extremely ancient and simple. Surrounded by towering green pines, hanging ancient vines, and flowing springs and waterfalls, a full moon hung above the sea of clouds. Everything was silent, and the night was cold and bright.

The interior of the cave dwelling was simply furnished. Apart from a stone table and three meditation cushions, there was only a thin, tall, gray-haired old man sitting cross-legged inside, eyes closed in meditation. Between his mouth and nose, a faint white light flashed with his breathing. Furthermore, around his body, a large number of gray-white, shattered Soul Beads were scattered, and strands of obscure Soul energy rippled slightly within the cave.

Suddenly, the old man opened his eyes abruptly, a look of surprise appearing on his face. He released his Divine Sense to scan, and it instantly landed above a small courtyard on the mountainside, and he began to observe intently.

As time passed, the expression of the thin, tall old man in the cave became increasingly astonished. Finally, he stood up and strode out of the cave. His eyes shone with white light, piercing through the clouds below as if seeing through fire, staring at a phantom cyan flower that appeared and disappeared within a churning mass of cyan-white cloud vapor above the small courtyard. His fingers trembled slightly, and he unknowingly plucked out a few strands of his beard.

"This... this shouldn't be! A mere Kaiyuan Realm, and judging by the aura, it is only a First-grade Spirit Pill, so how could the phenomenon of a Dan Tribulation appear!"

"Hmm, no, this is not a Tribulation Cloud; there is something else going on."

"This kid is truly not simple. No wonder Uncle-Master Chixia looks at him differently."

"It seems that fellow Xuanchenzi has picked up a treasure!"

"But what kind of secret is hidden on him?"

Under the cold moonlight, Baiyunzi stood on the edge of the cliff, watching in the wind, talking to himself, but his heart was in a state of utter shock.

He now had ten thousand impulses to split Xu Chen open from head to toe to find the truth.

But the name Wuyazi was like an iceberg weighing billions of pounds, suppressing his intelligence tightly.

It made him stay calm and not act rashly.

Reaching his level of cultivation, he was indeed a rare existence in the mortal world, almost indistinguishable from a True Immortal in the eyes of ordinary cultivators.

But only they themselves knew that as their cultivation realm grew higher and they learned more about this world, the unknowns actually became more numerous.

The further one goes, the less one knows.

Only those who sit in a well and look at the sky would think they are wise men who know everything under heaven. Once they step out of the shackles of the well, they realize that there are people beyond people and heavens beyond heavens, and their so-called wisdom and knowledge are like those of an idiot in the face of reality.

The shock and confusion that Xu Chen, this little cultivator who suddenly popped out of the Taiyuan Sect, brought to everyone were too great. Even if they had the heart to get to the bottom of the truth, they did not dare to pursue it recklessly or even take overly extreme actions.

Xu Chen was not worth such care from old guys like them who had lived for hundreds of years, nor was he worth Yuqing Hall making a big fuss. Even for Xuanchenzi, who had already achieved Spirit Transformation, if he stood in the way of their immortal path to longevity, he was not someone who could not be kicked aside.

What everyone was worried about was another person, an ancient figure who only existed in legends and of whom only a few words had been passed down. That person might even be a predecessor of the Taiyuan Sect.

The Void Immortal Wuyazi.

That was a completely unfamiliar but not false existence.

A Spirit Realm Great Cultivator might seem to be a top existence in the mortal world, but in front of these True Immortals who had already achieved Void Breaking and Ascension, they were as powerless as infants.

Therefore, no matter how many secrets Xu Chen had, here in the Great Song territory, no one dared to truly touch a single hair on his head.

Legend had it that a True Immortal could destroy the world with a single thought. Although the description was exaggerated, it was definitely not a myth. Who knew what had happened in the depths of the Black Wind Ridge cave and what mysterious communication had occurred between him and Wuyazi.

Moreover, Xu Chen was a successor of the Taiyuan Sect.

These two seemed to be separated by a hundred thousand miles, but if one spoke of their identities, it made perfect sense.

It was not strange at all for Wuyazi to like meeting descendants and casually point them in the right direction, passing on one or two True Immortal Magic Treasures or Magic Spells that he had no use for.

Baiyunzi believed that compared to the few of them, the Spirit Realm Great Cultivators of the outer sect, Xuanchenzi had a greater interest in Xu Chen, but he still did not dare to act rashly.

Because this could be an opportunity, or it could be a poison; one careless step and one would be doomed beyond redemption.

People like them have exhausted every hardship, endured twists and turns and the Heavenly Tribulation, and only with great difficulty reached this step to see a glimmer of the shadow of the Dao of longevity; they would absolutely not casually hand their fate over to curiosity and bury it in such a vague and ethereal matter.

Therefore, this is also the reason why True Monarch Xuanchen felt at ease letting Xu Chen come to the Yuqing Hall.

Perhaps he also hoped to clarify the changes in Xu Chen through the hands of the Yuqing Hall.

It is just that this is a hot potato; whoever touches it may one day have to face the reproach of a Heavenly Immortal.

That hurdle is a dead end, which no one can break.

Xu Chen's encounter in the underground cave of Black Wind Ridge is, until now, known only to the few of them, the True Monarchs; the low and middle-level cultivators of the Song Kingdom Immortal World still do not know of it.

Therefore, this matter cannot be widely spread, yet they must ensure that all the disciples and grand-disciples of the Yuqing Hall who are kept in the dark do not threaten Xu Chen's life and safety; this is the thing that gives their group of old fellows the biggest headache.

"Perhaps this Xu Chen is truly our only chance to see through the mortal world in the future!"

True Monarch Baiyun watched quietly for nearly an hour, until the Pill Cloud and blue flowers churning within the Lan You Dao Courtyard completely vanished and a furnace of pills was presumably refined, only then did he exhale a long, faint breath, turn around, and return to his cave dwelling to continue meditating, yet his state of mind was shaken, and he was unable to settle his heart into a meditative state.

This was something that had never happened in the thirty years since he achieved Spirit Transformation.

After seeing the strange phenomenon of Xu Chen's pill refining just now, he felt that his Dao heart had begun to lose control; he had an urgent, desperate desire to pursue the truth, yet he was also inexplicably terrified.

"That which cannot be seen is called 'Yi', that which cannot be heard is called 'Xi', that which cannot be grasped is called 'Wei'..."

"Reach the extreme of emptiness, hold fast to stillness. All things flourish together, and I observe their return. The myriad things grow, each returning to its root. Returning to the root is called stillness, stillness is called returning to one's destiny..."

Baiyunzi sat upright in the pitch-black cave dwelling, eyes closed, continuously reciting the first introductory Dao Scripture he learned when he first stepped onto the Immortal path, using it to clarify his heart and see his nature, forcing himself to calm down.

However, just as he felt his Soul gradually calming and was about to enter a meditative state, a cryptic fluctuation of energy once again stirred his Soul, and his Divine Sense suddenly fell upon the sky above the Dao Courtyard on the mountainside, only to see another mass of cyan-white cloud energy beginning to condense, within which a phantom cyan flower slowly took shape, floating under the cool, bright moonlight, as if real yet illusory, carrying an incomparable magic that captivated the soul.

(End of this chapter)