Blood-Robed Pavilion, another day broke at dawn. Fairy Feixia leaned against the balustrade of the pavilion, her graceful figure casting a shadow that sparked the imagination.
"Thank you for everything during this time, Junior Brother Lu."
The two had just finished their cultivation. Fairy Feixia had reached her limit and would find it difficult to make any further progress in a short time.
"Today, I plan to leave the market."
Turning around, Fairy Feixia looked straight at Lu Yang.
"My state of mind cannot compare to yours, Junior Brother, and my talent is also lacking, yet I am unwilling to simply fade away into a mortal."
"After I leave, I fear it will be a long, long time before we meet again."
Fairy Feixia raised her eyes, her appearance evoking a sense of pity. She suddenly let out a soft sigh, "Perhaps the Path of the Dao lies ahead, or perhaps my bones will be buried in a foreign land. The Immortal Path is lonely, especially within the Saint Sect.
Feixia only hopes that she can see an old acquaintance again then." After speaking, Fairy Feixia gave Lu Yang a radiant smile. Her beautiful face and lovely smile seemed to open her heart to Lu Yang for the first time.
"Junior Brother... are you willing to be that old acquaintance for Feixia?"
"..."
Lu Yang remained silent for a long time. An exquisitely beautiful woman was gazing at him with deep affection, like a large net of fine threads winding around him, enough to make any man utterly infatuated. However, Lu Yang resisted.
He calmly raised his hand.
"You are always welcome to come back for tea, Senior Sister."
He was seeing her off. In an instant, the light in Fairy Feixia's eyes flickered, making it impossible to tell if it was disappointment or helplessness. Immediately after, her smile vanished, and her demeanor became cold and detached once more.
"I shall take my leave."
As her voice fell, an escaping light resembling a rainbow-colored cloud soared into the sky and disappeared over the horizon. Only after she had departed did Lu Yang let out a breath. He turned and returned to the Cultivation Chamber in the Blood-Robed Pavilion, hiding within the formation and gripping the Innate Primordial-Unity Qi Divine Talisman...
He finally managed to stop his body from trembling.
"Damn it, this must be a Foundation Establishment Daoist Master scheming against me!"
With Fairy Feixia, it was all purely about exchanging knowledge and learning. But just now, he had actually been moved. He had been momentarily infatuated with Fairy Feixia, nearly saying "I am willing" several times.
This emotion was clearly not right; it was completely inconsistent with his true intentions! With the experience of his previous lives, Lu Yang quickly came to a conclusion.
"The Foundation Establishment Daoist Master behind the scenes is getting a little impatient and has started using crude methods. He's using Fairy Feixia as bait, forcefully trying to tie me to her... He wants to lure me out of the market!"
"Seclusion... I must enter seclusion!"
Thinking of this, Lu Yang immediately announced that he was entering death seclusion and would not be seeing any outsiders for a short period, minimizing the chances of his karma being entangled with others.
"... Remarkable."
Outside the Skull Mountain Market, on a cliff, a figure stood with his hands behind his back. Behind him stood a blood-robed youth with a respectful expression. In the next second, the figure with his hands behind his back smiled.
"An ordinary disciple, with no background, yet he turns out to be such a talent with a firm Dao heart. Truly rare. I cast a spell several times to lure him, but he never took the bait... Second Brother, I really don't know whether to say your judgment is good or bad."
"Please forgive me, Senior Brother."
The blood-robed youth bowed respectfully, his tone also a little helpless.
"My original intention was just to find some cannon fodder. I just never expected that a dragon could emerge from shallow waters..."
The blood-robed youth's name was "Luo Wuya," the "Second Senior Brother" of the Three Rivers Society. His cultivation level was at the Perfection of Qi Refining, and he had also mastered a Great Divine Ability. He was, on the surface, the strongest expert of the Saint Sect in Skull Mountain, a truly significant figure.
And for someone to command such respect from him, the identity of the person with his hands behind his back was obvious. The leader of the Three Rivers Society! His Daoist name was "Yinshan."
After successfully establishing his foundation ten years ago, he became a high-ranking member of the Saint Sect in one fell swoop. He received the Sect Master's grace to establish the Yinshan lineage within the sea of clouds.
"But Senior Brother, I still don't understand. Must it be a disciple of the Saint Sect?"
"Second Brother, you don't know."
Daoist Master Yinshan shook his head.
"The Ancient Witch Ghost Sect was a great demonic sect, and its secret realm is heavy with karma. Even I am unwilling to be easily tainted by it."
In this world, karma was everywhere. Once you received a benefit and formed karma, you must repay it. The Ancient Witch Ghost Sect had set up the secret realm precisely to find someone with great fortune, to plant the seeds of karma with their sect's inheritance, seeking a chance for their Dao lineage to be revived.
"If I were to act personally, finding the Witch Ghost Secret Realm would naturally be as easy as turning my hand. I wouldn't even need to look for it; the Witch Ghost Secret Realm would reveal itself on its own. But in that case, the karma of the Witch Ghost Sect would fall upon me. Who knows how much trouble that would bring? It would be a hindrance to my cultivation..."
To put it bluntly, Daoist Master Yinshan wanted the goods but didn't want to pay the price.
"That's why I need someone to open the Witch Ghost Secret Realm for me. The Witch Ghost Sect was a great demonic sect, so choosing a disciple of the Saint Sect is the most suitable."
"I had originally chosen that 'Blood-Robed Pavilion Master' and even specially lured many significant enemies to him. As long as he was willing to step out of the market, I would have been his backer, helping him slay his enemies and accumulate fortune. When his fortune was sufficient, the Witch Ghost Secret Realm would have been drawn out by it..."
If Lu Yang were here and heard these words, he would surely find them familiar. Because that was how Xiao Shiye had died back then. A man-made Son of Heaven, seemingly blessed with boundless luck, invincible in every battle, was in reality just bait used by a Foundation Establishment Daoist Master to fish for a great opportunity.
And once the opportunity was reeled in, the bait was no longer useful. Behind Daoist Master Yinshan, the blood-robed youth Luo Wuya bowed his head deeply, feeling a secret dread at the terrifying methods a Foundation Establishment Daoist Master could use to manipulate karma and fate.
"... Forget it."
Suddenly, Daoist Master Yinshan shook his head.
"Since that 'Blood-Robed Pavilion Master' is unwilling to cooperate, we'll just switch to another. It doesn't have to be him."
At this point, Daoist Master Yinshan let out a light laugh.
"Second Brother, do you remember how the Ancient Witch Ghost Sect was destroyed?"
"I know, it was the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion."
Luo Wuya nodded and said, "The Sect Master of the Sword Pavilion of that generation, a Golden Core True Monarch, unleashed a single sword strike from the Seven Stars Cliff of the Sword Pavilion, and the mountain gate of the Witch Ghost Sect immediately sank into the earth..."
"That's right, just a single sword strike."
Daoist Master Yinshan said with emotion, "During the peak of the Ancient Witch Ghost Sect, they had a double-digit number of Foundation Establishment Daoist Masters, and even a fourth-grade formation to suppress their fortune."
"Even so, they still couldn't block that single sword strike unleashed from tens of thousands of miles away."
"In fact, that sword strike is still within the secret realm of the Witch Ghost Sect to this day!"
As he spoke, a trace of fear appeared in Daoist Master Yinshan's eyes.
"The Daoist Master's decree states that as long as the sword qi remains in the world and the Witch Ghost Sect is not destroyed, the sword qi will naturally not dissipate."
This was also the reason he was unwilling to get involved personally. The sword qi of a Golden Core True Monarch, and from the leader of the righteous path, the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion, no less. What if he went to open the secret realm, and the sword qi inside conveniently struck him down?
So, it was much safer to find a pathfinder.
"That sword qi and the Witch Ghost Secret Realm have been entangled for countless years and have long since become one. So, since we can't open the Witch Ghost Secret Realm through a disciple of the Saint Sect, we can try another direction. If we can find a way to lure a disciple from the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion over to obtain that sword qi, the effect would actually be the same..."
At this point, Daoist Master Yinshan's gaze shifted, and he finally left the market. At almost the same instant, Lu Yang, who was in seclusion in the market, suddenly felt his body lighten, as if an infinite burden had been lifted from him, revealing a look of astonishment.
(End of this chapter)