CH 174

Chapter 174 – Just a Karmic Tie

“Zhu Yingyue broke through to the Divine Core stage several years ago. She is suitable to act as a furnace for the spell,” Primordial Lord Qingfu said, his unsympathetic tone ringing in Zhang Yangui’s ears.

“Ancestor!” Zhang Yangui cried out, his expression changing drastically. “Senior Martial Sister, she… she is your youngest disciple!”

A wave of light swept across the great hall, picking up Zhang Yangui and slamming him into an ornate pillar carved with dragons and phoenixes.

Zhang Yangui coughed up a mouthful of blood. After struggling for a while, he managed to slowly get to his feet. In a pleading tone, he said, “Ancestor, isn’t there any other method?”

Primordial Lord Qingfu shook his head. “The requirements for the spell furnace are extremely strict, requiring at least a cultivator with a Rank 4 Spiritual Root. They must also be at the Divine Core stage, and female. There are no substitutes for these criteria.”

He eyed Zhang Yangui, who now cut a very sorry figure. After flicking his sleeves, he continued, “If you aren’t willing, then forget it. But I can’t continue to shoulder this karmic tie any longer. You… can just commit suicide.”

Zhang Yangui lifted his head and stared with disbelief at the intimately familiar figure of the old man that he knew for so long.

Commit suicide?!

The memories of his childhood in the Suppressing Fortune Domain and the love and care that Primordial Lord Qingfu had shown towards him back then resurfaced in his mind. Primordial Lord Qingfu hadn’t hesitated to use his Primordial Spirit stage cultivation at the time to help him with the effects of the poison, to the point that he was having difficulty break through to the Clone Avatar stage all this time. Was that all because of this karmic tie he was talking about?

When he saw Primordial Lord Qingfu’s indifferent gaze, Zhang Yangui’s heart throbbed painfully.

Even as his direct grandson, did he really have no affection for me?

To the extent that he even had the heart to tell me to… kill myself right here?

Right, even if I said okay and died right here, the Burning Heart Sword Poison in my body wouldn’t go anywhere. It would continue to drain away at my Spiritual Root until nothing was left, and transform into the perfected version of the Psychic Magic Treasure, the Burning Heart Profound Sword.

“Primordial Lord, could I please have some time to think about it?” Zhang Yangui asked. His face was downcast, obscuring his expression.

But instead of ‘Ancestor’, he went back to calling him ‘Primordial Lord’ once more.

Primordial Lord Qingfu closed his eyes. Without responding, he flicked his sleeves. A wave of light swept through, wrapping Zhang Yangui up and tossing him out of the Suppressing Fortune Domain.

With a single thought, a blazing conflagration appeared next to him, transforming into the Scarlet Flame Phoenix.

As if it could feel its master’s feelings, the phoenix wrapped itself around him and cooed. The light from its wings enveloped him, comforting his hurting heart.

He climbed on the phoenix and laid down, wrapping his arms around the phoenix’s head. In a self-deprecating tone, Zhang Yangui muttered, “I should have known from the very beginning that you would be the only one to accompany me until the very end.”

The phoenix gave a sonorous cry. It flapped its wings and flew up, turning into a flaming ball of light as it soared through the air. They passed by several Primordial Lords’ domains on their way to the realm’s outer border, where they exited the Yuluo Realm.

… …

Meanwhile, in the Shangqing Mountain Range…

Red Lotus Domain was a gigantic floating island located above the Peaks of Shangqing Mountain Range. It was the place where the first Mountain Master, Red Lotus Primordial Lord, resided.

“Red Lotus Primordial Lord, disciple has relayed the order, so disciple will be taking her leave,” Zhu Yingyue said. She was not only beautiful, but her voice was also extremely pleasant on the ears. There was a youth in a black robe next to Red Lotus Primordial Lord who had been eyeing her up and down the entire time, unable to tear his gaze off her.

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“Go on then. Realm Master Qingfu has already relayed the order, so how can I not comply?” Red Lotus Primordial Lord flicked the sleeves of his robe, putting away the spirit essence light.

Red Lotus Primordial Lord’s eyebrows furrowed as he watched Zhu Yingyue’s retreating figure.

Zhang Yangui had been cultivating for over twenty years at the Red Lotus Domain. He had gone to the Yuluo Realm, but for Realm Master Qingfu to be issuing this order to the Mountain Masters of the Eight Mountains at this time, then…

“Primordial Lord, this spirit essence light?” the disciple in the black robe asked, his expression inquisitive. He had never seen the Yuluo Realm Master issue an order like this, so he was extremely curious about the contents.

Red Lotus Primordial Lord simply shook his head. “If you aren’t able to earn the title of Sacred Son in the Dao Foundation division and lose face for me, then…”

“Then what?” A woman in a palace dress materialized into being, appearing in front of Red Lotus Primordial Lord. There was a dangerous look in her eyes.

(TL: Palace dress)

The lofty first Mountain Master of the Shangqing Mountain Range, Red Lotus Primordial Lord, instantly shut his mouth. He didn’t dare to say a word, and stormed off with a flick of his sleeves.

In the Shangqing Sacred Sect, there were a few extremely famous dao cultivation pairs. The pair that people were the most jealous of was the Red Lotus Primordial Lord and Rippling Tear Primordial Lord pair.

To be more precise, the target of peoples’ envy was actually Red Lotus Primordial Lord.

In the past, when Red Lotus Primordial Lord wasn’t at the Primordial Spirit stage, and was just an ordinary Dao Foundation stage disciple, he had caught the eye of a certain woman in an unexpected turn of events simply because he was too handsome. He had been forced into a dao companion relationship with her.

That woman was Rippling Tear Primordial Lord.

She had another identity that was extremely terrifying. She was the youngest daughter of the Clone Avatar stage powerhouse, Greater Lord Taichu, a Saint Lord of the Shangqing Sacred Sect.

At the time, Red Lotus Primordial Lord’s status had skyrocketed. His cultivation not only advanced by leaps and bounds, but he also ended up with a tremendous amount of authority. He ended up taking extremely important posts as the Peak Master of Dao Heart Peak and the grand elder of Command Hall.

After he broke through to the Primordial Spirit stage, he was directly promoted to the first Mountain Master of the First Mountain, Shangqing Mountain Range. He established the Red Lotus Domain and came to wield an incredible amount of power.

A long time ago, there used to be a lot of people in the Sacred Sect who held criticisms towards him, but after he settled into his position as first Mountain Master of the Shangqing Mountain Range, no other doubtful rumors dared to surface. All of the slander and gossip surrounding him vanished without a trace, and everyone erased the reason behind Red Lotus Primordial Lord’s abrupt rise in status in their minds.

… …

Meanwhile, at the Ancient Nuwa Sect’s Pervasive Dark Domain…

“Sister Ling’er, did you want to go to the Shangqing Sacred Sect to watch?” Xiao Yu asked, fiddling around with her white serpent tail. Her shrewd gaze flickered with mischievous light as she looked at Lu Ling.

Lu Ling was wearing a crimson palace dress, and was dipping her bare feet in the clear spring. When she felt the massive rush of extremely pure demonic qi, her charming lips curled into a smile. “What, you wanted to go too?” she asked.

A look of excitement appeared on Xiao Yu’s small face, and she vigorously nodded. “Yeah!”

After a while of pondering, Lu Ling’s brows creased slightly. “It might be difficult, but… I’ll help you think of a way.”

“Okay!” Xiao Yu also entered the spring. When she glimpsed Lu Ling’s slender white legs beneath her red dress, a look of envy surfaced in her gaze. “I also want to transform and become as beautiful as Sister Ling’er.”

Lu Ling flicked her gently in the forehead. Her pretty eyes curled into crescents as she smiled. “Sure, I’ll help you find a husband when that time comes!”

“Sister Ling’er, you’re so naughty!” Xiao Yu pouted. “But when is your marriage with Hong Zhao going to be confirmed? Pervasive Dark Primordial Lord also brought this matter up recently. Hong Zhao’s bloodline is a bit lacking, but he’s really handsome, so he might be able to just barely match up to Sister Ling’er.”

Lu Ling didn’t respond. She just sat there on a rock, dipping her white, creamy legs in the spring. The water of the gurgling spring soaked the hem of her red dress as she stared off into the distance in the direction of the clouds and mist surrounding the Pervasive Dark Domain.

… …

The Jade Water Array Flag was a top-grade Magic Treasure with absorption and suppression capabilities. Its Corroding Jade Water could melt human flesh and even damage Magic Treasures.

Xu Disheng took out the watery blue colored array flag. After refining it so it belonged to himself, he took a while to understand its functions.

He wasn’t sure whether it was He Junyu’s intention or not, but this array flag was very similar to the White Lotus Array Flag. The only difference between the two was the Soul-Devouring White Lotuses as opposed to the Corroding Jade Water. The former attacked the soul, while the latter corroded flesh and Magic Treasures. It was almost as if they were both parts of one array flag back when it was fully intact.

Sure enough, when he took out the White Lotus Array Flag, he could sense some sort of faint resonance between the two array flags. There clearly seemed to be some kind of unknown connection.

But it didn’t mean that much in the end. Even if a complete version of the array flag existed, it was still horribly incomplete now with only these two array flags remaining. There was no way to completely restore it.

Xu Disheng didn’t worry about this matter. He put away the two array flags and turned his attention towards the ten or so jade slips next to him.

He hadn’t returned to Morning Dew Peak in a while, so a huge pile of message jade slips had piled up. After skimming through them and filtering them accordingly, Xu Disheng picked out the few most important jade slips and read them carefully.

The most eye-grabbing one was the jade slip from the sect sent to notify the participants in the Eight Mountains Grand Tournament. It was wrapped in a conspicuous deep green glow.

“Xu Disheng of Morning Dew Peak. Fourth place in the Mingxin Mountain Range’s Sea of Qi division. Qualifications to participate in the Eight Mountains Grand Tournament acquired.”

“The Eight Mountains Grand Tournament is a grand occasion that occurs in the Shangqing Sacred Sect every 50 years, and is split into the Sea of Qi and Dao Foundation divisions. The first place of each respective division will be conferred the title of Sacred Son or Daughter.”

It was a simple introduction, but just reading it ignited the competitive spirit.

The Shangqing Sacred Sect was one of the overlord sects in the Shan Mountain Territory, occupying a little under half of the landmass in the Shan Mountain Territory. It possessed a fearsome prestige, and its heritage and inheritances traced back countless years.

Each Mountain Range had several tens of thousands of Sea of Qi stage disciples. That meant that in the Eight Mountains, there was a total of a few hundred thousand disciples at the Sea of Qi stage!

Out of those few hundred thousand disciples, only one single person would emerge first place. One person whose talent surpassed those of all his or her peers as they forged their way to the top and earned the title of Sacred Son or Sacred Daughter.

They would earn unending glory and be allocated massive amounts of cultivation resources, allowing them to experience a meteoric uprise.

Every person who received the title of Sacred Son or Daughter had swept the competition of other unparalleled geniuses. Becoming a Divine Core stage Spirit Master was just a matter of time for them, and it wouldn’t be long before they glimpsed into the Primordial Spirit stage.

Almost all of the people who had earned the title of Sacred Son or Daughter in the past had chosen to cultivate in the Shangqing Mountain Range’s Yuluo Realm.

There were a few dozen Primordial Lords residing in the Yuluo Realm, and there were also many Divine Core stage Spirit Masters. This tradition, which had existed for years untold, made it so that there was no shortage of previous recipients of the Sacred Son or Daughter title in the realm, cultivating in the domain of some Primordial Lord within.