Chapter 650

"If it's because Beichen Wanjing came into contact with something she shouldn't have, leading to being pursued by the Sage's Dao Field? No, that's not right, since she still holds the disciple token, that should have the sect's location... No, if there were a location, she wouldn't appear before me, and it's impossible that after that period someone would come to fetch her."

Thinking of this, Yan Buji became even more curious about the past of his cheap wife.

But no matter what, Beichen Wanjing must have encountered some great crisis, fleeing with a child to the Eight Dao Realm, and this disciple token has no special secret art; it merely requires fusion with a cultivator's divine soul, making it unusable by outsiders.

So she might have left something on this disciple token, placed on that child. At that time, the mortal Yan Buji didn't know much; he thought the resurrected child had been possessed by an evil spirit and was too frightened to investigate, which led to him wasting twenty years.

""So this disciple token should contain Beichen Wanjing's past and that child's origin. Regardless of whether it's her son, the person is already killed by me, so it's impossible to find... probably impossible." Yan Buji thought."

I've been wandering the cultivation world for several hundred years and never met anyone as strange as Zhang Xungui; even if he's still alive, he's probably hiding in some deep mountains and old forests.

Returning to reality.

He Caifei oddly looked at Yan Buji: "Since Hall Master Yan is a member of the Fa Tian Sect, then I was rude."

""No need." Yan Buji waved his hand: "Since I'm here, I'm merely the Hall Master of the Lian Dan Tang in the Paolong Sacred Land.""

""Alright, then I'll leave first.""

""Mm.""

Seeing He Caifei off, Yan Buji took out the jade tablet and studied it carefully.

This jade tablet possesses a special power that only its owner can break open; Yan Buji had tried many methods before, but unfortunately he couldn't extract the information inside.

""No, that's wrong. If there were Fa Tian Sect cultivators in Yingchun Gu back then, they couldn't have failed to sense this disciple token; why didn't they appear after I killed Zhang Xungui?" Yan Buji recalled the story from his mortal days."

Back then, Yan Buji plotted for twenty years just to obtain this token, using Beichen Wanjing's name to join a cultivation sect, but he didn't expect the sect's background to be so huge.

Precisely for this reason, Yan Buji's original plan was to pose as Beichen Wanjing's husband in the mundane world, then use the merchants he had arranged over twenty years to enter the Spring Literary Assembly; this would avoid attracting the mundane court's attention and also prevent those cultivation forces from investigating his tracks. The original purpose was to be cautious, as those cultivation forces also examine one's moral character; Yan Buji's actions included forcing Beichen Wanjing to be his wife, making her pregnant and bear a daughter—if discovered, it would surely be a death sentence.

As for sending his daughter to a degree holder as a plaything?

Who in the mundane world would care about that? Besides, a degree holder's status is far higher than a merchant's; some people envy not even having that connection.

Yan Buji never thought this would jeopardize his persona; on the contrary, leveraging the recommendation of Zhou Juren, he could openly enter the Spring Literary Assembly instead of causing a ruckus there.

The difference lies in that, by executing the plan perfectly, Yan Buji was confident he could find the person he sought; through communication he could learn how to enter the cultivation world, then by a series of actions seize that person's identity (the disciple token), thus smoothly entering the Fa Tian Sect.

But the plan failed.

Due to the leak of his identity, Yan Buji's twenty‑year‑crafted perfect persona collapsed instantly, and soon after he was wanted by the court; left with no choice, he opted for the worst strategy of going to the Spring Literary Assembly to seize it by force.

Even though Yan Buji knew that even if he seized the item he would hardly be able to enter Beichen Wanjing's sect, he still did it, just to put a period on those twenty years of hardship; even if it failed, he had to see it through.

""Although years ago I drew water with a bamboo basket and gained nothing, entering the cultivation world isn't as hard as I imagined; it's just that the starting point is utterly different from what I thought." Yan Buji pondered."

Why did Yan Buji meticulously plot for twenty years to perfectly enter the cultivation world? Because he knew that even a cultivator fighting alone could achieve nothing; the best choice is to join a force from the start, so as to develop better.

Thus Yan Buji reflected on the past, and there are several major problems.

""First, my identity was leaked quite suddenly; I don't know who leaked it. The greatest possibility is Lingyan, but she's also dead.""

""Second, although the Spring Literary Assembly is a gathering of mortals, it's not far from the cultivator market, but there is a formation protecting it, and cultivators naturally look down on mortals, so they wouldn't easily appear among them; thus no cultivators showed up then...."

But it's also possible that at the time a cultivator saw everything I did; besides, didn't I earlier meet a fool who called himself brother to Zhang Xungui, who was actually a newly entered Confucian cultivator?

But they wouldn't intervene in mortal disputes, because conflicts among cultivators are even more vicious; who would do you a favor without benefit?

Precisely because he knew this, when Yan Buji realized that killing Zhang Xungui had provoked the court, he knew cultivators would surely come to cause him trouble, so he dared not take the token to look for someone, which caused him to miss the chance to enter the Fa Tian Sect.

""But even if he had gambled and taken the token to find someone, given what I've done, they'd probably beat me to a pulp, which is no better than life or death." Yan Buji chuckled."

""Third, the Spring Literary Assembly is originally a gathering of mortal scholars; although I once had martial prowess surpassing all mortals and could enter easily, without an added status I could only do robbery and killing. I knew I was bound to lose, but I rushed in unwilling to accept defeat. Yet even so, causing a disturbance in the Spring Literary Assembly I wasn't caught; instead I fortunately escaped... this is indeed a bit odd.""

Yan Buji thought carefully; back then he thought that since it was the mortal period, even if cultivators saw it they wouldn't do anything.

It's like ants fighting under your feet; at most you'd crouch to glance twice, and only if you're terribly bored would anyone notice such a thing.

You say there are enthusiastic cultivators?

Yan Buji certainly doesn't rule out such people, but when a cultivator intervenes in mortal brawls, does he still have face?

Anyway, when Yan Buji passed those mortal towns, seeing people abduct women, commit murder and arson, he ignored them all; even those cultivators who claimed to be orthodox sects paid no attention.

Cultivators cultivate the individual, not the whole.

When it doesn't concern their own interests, who cares whether you live or die?

At that time Yan Buji was the biggest ant among them; who in the Spring Literary Assembly could match him? If not for a slightly larger ant suddenly appearing, there'd be no need to make such a fuss, which caused Yan Buji to have to pursue and kill for a while.

Because of this thinking, Yan Buji felt that even if cultivators had seen him back then, their reason for not acting lay here. If it weren't for Zhang Xungui's connection to a certain Commandery Princess of the court, he wouldn't have to worry about cultivators chasing him.

""Even if that Commandery Princess hadn't brought her own sponsored cultivators to observe the rites, the fact that the Fa Tian Sect's disciple token appeared, and that Beichen Wanjing herself mentioned it, shows that there must have been Fa Tian Sect cultivators in Yingchun Gu back then...."

Then why didn't they act? They neither stopped me from killing Zhang Xungui nor came to look for me who obtained the token; so what were they doing in Yingchun Gu?