Chapter 562

Feng Feng Xianzi clearly saw through the Taiyin Magic Mirror inside the gourd, watching as Brother Qian Chen pried away the last foundation of Changming Sect, and sighed inwardly: "Why did you provoke him?"

"That Brother Qian Daoist is likely the most unrestrained, unbound figure in the Daoist sects. Though our two sects have produced three Nascent Soul Ancestors, we still pale beside the great Daoist lineages—why involve ourselves in Long Gong's tangled affairs?"

"Now the ancestral hall passed down for thousands of years is utterly scattered by wind and flow!"

Feng Feng Xianzi used the Taiyin Magic Mirror to manifest his soul-body, first summoning several former Qiongquan disciples to learn what had transpired over these years.

These disciples still believed they had moved into some "Cave Heaven," and upon seeing Feng Feng Xianzi, were quite startled, approaching to greet him; Feng Feng Xianzi could not bear to tell them that all these people had been sealed inside Brother Qian Chen's magic treasure, their lives and deaths no longer their own.

He learned that, aside from many Qiongquan remnants who saw no hope of reviving their old sect and defected to Changming, only a handful remained, steadfastly holding the lineage with the Young Master Han Fei.

Under the care of Changming's Supreme Elder Nan Nan Gongjing, they managed to barely endure.

Feng Feng Xianzi was a kind-hearted man; hearing that Qiongquan's former disciples still received Nan Nan Gongjing's care, he looked at Nan Nan Gongjing standing motionless in the void, studying every detail of the gourd's cave heaven, and his heart grew even more pained.

Some Qiongquan disciples also worriedly asked: After Changming relocated, how would the Young Master find them?

"You won't need her to find you—you'll already be taken back to her by others!" Feng Feng Xianzi muttered bitterly.

He soared upward, arriving beside Nan Nan Gongjing and calling out: "Elder Nangong!"

Nan Nan Gongjing glanced at him sideways, not registering him, and said casually: "You're that… that Feng Feng Xianzi? Captured by our sect, reduced to just a soul-body—how pitiful… Sigh! Your Qiongquan was too stubborn. The two branches were originally one family; why not merge into one, reviving our Xie Xie Zushi's Dao? Why bring it to this?"

"I'll petition our sect for a Xuanyin Nourishing Soul Pill, and arrange your reincarnation into a good family!"

Hearing his half-mad words, Feng Feng Xianzi felt even more pity for him, thinking: "Though I'm only a soul-body now, Brother Qian Daoist has already prepared a reincarnation spirit embryo for me."

"But this man doesn't even know his entire sect has been wiped out! Still clinging to illusions… truly pitiful and tragic!"

He stared at the disheveled, bearded True Person for a long while, ultimately unable to bring himself to reveal the cruel truth.

Only when Brother Qian Chen arrived with Hong Hong Xuesheng's ashen face did Nan Nan Gongjing turn and look at them, then say to Hong Hong Xuesheng: "You claim to have obtained the Hu Tian legacy of Qiongming Xie Xie Zushi—this is true. The treasure's seals are profoundly mysterious; it truly has opened this vast miniature world from the Immortal Vine Gourd, worthy of being called a Cave Heaven!"

"Sigh! Before our Xie Xie Zushi ascended, he left behind careful intentions! You say Changming and Qiongquan split because there wasn't enough space for cultivation…"

"Had we understood our Xie Xie Zushi's intent earlier, if several Ancestors had jointly cultivated this Immortal Vine Gourd into a Cave Heaven, wouldn't we have gained a vast foundation? Why worry about space for disciples?"

"Over these thousands of years, perhaps we could have even refined this treasure into a Spirit Treasure, truly creating a movable Cave Heaven! Then our Qiongming lineage would have long flourished—why rely on Long Gong's favor, or sink into obscurity as a third-rate sect?"

Brother Qian Chen glanced at his mobile Cave Heaven and felt displeasure, thinking: "What Qiongming Cave Heaven? This is Brother Qian's Cave Heaven now!"

Yet he merely said coolly: "That would only make things worse."

Nan Nan Gongjing turned and glared at him, his eyes wild and comically fierce: "What? You think I'm wrong?"

"Qiongming Xie Xie Zushi left few relics; the seas are perilous—only by uniting can we survive. Yet you split into two branches! If you had such a foundational treasure, a treasure that lets one carry an entire sect, wouldn't those few direct disciples have fought to the death for it?"

Nan Nan Gongjing nodded unconsciously: "That's true… Wait, who are you calling dog-brains?!"

He blew his beard and glared: "That was my Changming Xie Xie Zushi!"

"So you think Changliu Xie Xie Zushi would have slaughtered his own brothers over the Gourd Cave Heaven, smashing their brains out?" Brother Qian Chen retorted.

Only then did Nan Nan Gongjing sense something amiss: Hong Hong Xuesheng, usually so arrogant, now trailed Brother Qian Chen like a junior disciple. He frowned slightly: "Master Hong, why are you so timid? Who is he?"

"Another Penglai true disciple? Is that why you grovel so?"

Hong Hong Xuesheng remained silent. Now manipulated by Brother Qian Chen, his soul bound, refined by the Primordial Taiji Gourd, he moved like a puppet—every action, even every thought, was not his own. How could he answer Nan Nan Gongjing's question?

Feng Feng Xianzi also saw Hong Hong Xuesheng's state, felt pity, and sighed: "Brother Qian Daoist! Hong Hong Xuesheng may have erred and committed many evils, but give him a quick death…"

"Enslaving cultivators is not the way of a righteous sect!"

Brother Qian Chen shrugged: "I still need his identity to infiltrate Penglai. Once Penglai is driven out, I'll personally send him to the Nine Heavens of Darkness."

These words sent a chill through Nan Nan Gongjing's soul. He studied Hong Hong Xuesheng for a long while, then roared: "Who dares turn my Changming Master into a puppet with dark arts? Where is Xia Xia Zhenyan?"

Only now did he sense the danger. With a sweep of his sleeve, countless colorful lights and golden flowers rained down; a divine aura radiated from his body, noble and majestic, lending the old, disheveled man a touch of divine majesty.

At this moment, Nan Nan Gongjing summoned his Daoist Yangshen. A tiny infant-like spiritual form emerged from behind his head, inch by inch growing larger, manifesting myriad spiritual powers as Yang Fire, flying thunder, and other wonders, born alongside his Daoist Yangshen body.

In an instant, he revealed unimaginable divine power.

"Daoist, show mercy!" Feng Feng Xianzi cried anxiously, rushing to stop him.

Nan Nan Gongjing was usually foolish and sluggish, but now that his Master had been transformed and the sect's lineage endangered, he revealed a glimmer of decisiveness—yet he did not realize Feng Feng Xianzi's plea was not for him, but for Brother Qian Chen.

The two illusory paradises of spiritual energy instantly became one real, one illusory!

The Yin-numbered clans became the illusory, while the Changming disciples and their entire sect's spiritual island, piercing through space, became the real—illusory and real interwoven, forming the Primordial Taiji.

The Primordial Taiji diagram rolled toward Nan Nan Gongjing's Nascent Soul body, dissolving all its terrifying phenomena and magic power, effortlessly suppressing him. Had Brother Qian Chen not left a thread of mercy, returning the Primordial Taiji Gourd to chaos, he could have refined him into nothing with a single thought.

The very design of the Primordial Taiji Gourd's seals arose because Brother Qian Chen had repeatedly suppressed Nascent Soul cultivators and realized that suppressing them was easy, but utterly annihilating them was extremely difficult—earlier, Zang Shan and Huo Fa had both escaped his grasp for precisely this reason.

Thus, Brother Qian Chen refined this treasure: once suppressed, the target could be instantly refined.

It was meant for thorough extermination—after suppressing any Nascent Soul cultivator, simply draw them into the gourd and shake it, and they were finished. Utterly cruel.

Nan Nan Gongjing's soul was sealed. Seeing Brother Qian Chen summon the Immortal Vine Gourd, he suddenly realized: "This gourd is your treasure! Feng Feng Xianzi, you conspired with outsiders, secretly passed down our Xie Xie Zushi's great art, aiding outsiders to betray our own sect!"

Feng Feng Xianzi felt slightly ashamed, but Brother Qian Chen sneered: "Same sect? When you served as Long Gong's claws and destroyed Qiongquan, where was your sense of shared lineage?"

"And is the Great Technique of the Gourd's Inner Days and Months so impressive?" Brother Qian Chen tilted his chin slightly. "If it's your sect's secret art, why can't you use it?"

Nan Nan Gongjing instantly flew into a rage: "Our Qiongming Xie Xie Zushi made this technique famous across the seas—who doesn't know it?"

"So you still know your Xie Xie Zushi was Qiongming True Person… I thought you'd already become Long Gong's lapdogs!"

Brother Qian Chen casually raised his hand, summoning Xia Xia Zhenyan's shattered soul, and demanded: "When did you defect to Long Gong? How many in Changming have joined Long Gong's ranks, willing to be dogs for the Dragon Clan? Name them all…"

Xia Xia Zhenyan mumbled dazedly: "The Xia clan secretly defected to the Dragon Clan even when Changliu Xie Xie Zushi was alive. Over thousands of years, their infiltration ran deep. Even I owed my Nascent Soul attainment to Dragon Clan aid. Like me, other non-human cultivators, like aquatic Nascent Souls, all have a fragment of their soul anchored to the Four Seas Mirror—constantly monitored, and the Dragon King need only activate the mirror to curse us to death…"

He then named several others, mostly Core Formation cultivators, leaders of Changming's major clans.

He added: "As far as I know, nearly all the cultivation clans within Changming have defected to the Dragon Clan. Only the master-disciple lineage, under the watch of that old fool Nan Nan Gongjing, still retains a few unrecruited souls."

"But that old fool is utterly foolish. Over these years, even the master-disciple lineage has been largely eroded—not by Long Gong, but by Penglai's influence."

"The current Master, Hong Hong Xuesheng, is a collateral branch of the Hong clan. He only gained the Nascent Soul method by pledging allegiance to Penglai. How else could a collateral branch ever attain Nascent Soul?"

Xia Xia Zhenyan recounted one by one the dirty deeds Changming had committed under his and Hong Hong Xuesheng's control, with Hong Hong Xuesheng adding details. Nan Nan Gongjing, bound by Brother Qian Chen's seals, grew colder with each word, until he was nearly overcome with shame and despair, his last spark of vitality drained, leaving only a hollow, thousand-year-old shell breathing feebly.

Feng Feng Xianzi watched Nan Nan Gongjing's eyes turn utterly lifeless, whispering softly: "I've betrayed my Ancestors. I've betrayed my Master!"

In his heart, he wrote one giant word: TRAGEDY.

Brother Qian Chen listened quietly to both men, then pulled the Primordial Taiji diagram, summoning all those named in Xia Xia Zhenyan and Hong Hong Xuesheng's confessions. With a casual shake, he reduced them to ash, returning their essence to refine the Primordial Taiji Gourd.

At this moment, nearly all Changming's administrators, Elders, and Core Formation cultivators were dead. Only the lowly Foundation Establishment disciples, barely cultivated, suffered little loss. Yet the slaughter was so thorough it chilled the bones—Brother Qian Chen didn't wait for them to beg, didn't ask them a single question.

He slaughtered them like chickens and dogs, treating them as less than human.

Feng Feng Xianzi, seeing Brother Qian Chen's ruthless hand, trembled inwardly: What a demon!

These cultivators were the backbone of their sects; among free cultivators, they were regional tyrants. Yet before Brother Qian Chen, he didn't even blink—he crushed them like ants.