Chapter 116: My Dao Fruit Has Been Stolen!
Azure Mystic Sacred Land, Heaven-Asking Pavilion.
A gentle breeze stirred the stagnant air. Nian Zhaoxi, seated in ditation, opened her eyes and looked toward the door.
"Master."
"Mm."
Guan Xuelan stepped over the threshold, her gaze lingering on the shocking white of her eldest disciple's hair. After a beat of silence, she spoke.
"You are still thinking about Gu Xiu?"
"Yes."
"Is he truly dead?"
"Dead."
"If he is dead, why dwell on him?"
"Master," Nian Zhaoxi said softly, her voice carrying the weight of dust settling in an empty room, "when a person walks through this world, they leave footprints. Even if they return to the earth from which they ca, the marks they made on our souls are indelible."
"Ignorant sentintality." Guan Xuelan shook her head. "Do you know that if a cultivator severs their soul too deeply, the very mory of their existence fades from the minds of others? If the mory is gone, where are your so-called traces?"
"I do not know if mories fade," Nian Zhaoxi replied. "But I know this: A person worth rembering is carved into the heart. Even if the mind forgets the na or the face, the scar remains. There was a person who left with a lifelong, unending regret."
Guan Xuelan frowned.
Nian Zhaoxi had changed. She had grown distant, cold. She no longer ventured out, no longer smiled with her forr gentle grace. There was a hollowness to her now that unsettled the Supre.
But Guan Xuelan did not press. She had her own obsessions.
"This Seat ca to find you for a divination."
"What does Master wish to divine?"
"Ask the heavens about the strand of 'Waste Soul' I severed five hundred years ago."
Nian Zhaoxi blinked, surprised.
When a cultivator performs the Three Severances to ascend, the severed portions—body, spirit, soul—are usually destroyed imdiately to prevent karmic backlash. But Guan Xuelan’s severed soul fragnt had escaped, vanishing into the void. The sect had searched for years without success, and eventually, Guan Xuelan had stopped asking.
Nian Zhaoxi assud it had dissipated on its own.
"That Waste Soul did not die," Guan Xuelan said, her voice tight. "It lived. It cultivated. It beca a Ghost Venerable. But today... soone severed it."
"What?" Nian Zhaoxi was stunned. A discarded fragnt becoming a Ghost Venerable? And then being destroyed?
But then, she noticed the simring rage on her master’s face.
"Master... shouldn't you be relieved? A rogue soul accumulating karma as a Ghost Venerable would eventually backlash on you. Its destruction is a blessing."
"You understand nothing," Guan Xuelan snapped. "Although it was trash, I obtained a secret technique. I intended to wait until it matured, then reabsorb it. I would have refined its power to strengthen my own soul beyond the limits of a normal Venerable!"
Nian Zhaoxi stared at her master in disbelief.
"Master... you treated it as livestock? If that soul committed atrocities—and as a Ghost Venerable, it surely has—you would absorb that sin? You would taint your Dao?"
"I am a Supre!" Guan Xuelan’s voice rose. "If I fear karma, what right do I have to rule? If that soul had beco a Ghost Emperor, I could have beco the strongest existence in this realm!"
She paced the room, her aura flaring with frustration.
"But now, my Dao Fruit has been stolen! Not just shattered—incinerated! Soone burned my soul fragnt to ash and absorbed its power as nourishnt!"
"My opportunity... is gone."
Nian Zhaoxi lowered her head, hiding the shock in her eyes. The woman before her felt like a stranger. A monster wearing her master’s skin.
"What do you need to do?" she asked quietly.
"Divine the culprit," Guan Xuelan hissed. "I want to know who dared to burn my soul!"
"Master, that soul was shielded by a Heaven's Mystery technique when it escaped. I cannot track it directly."
"Then divine a na for ," Guan Xuelan demanded. "Before the link was severed, I felt the soul's intense hatred for a specific na."
"Who?"
"Sang... Sang..." Guan Xuelan furrowed her brow, her fingers twitching. "The na is... strange. Why can't I rember it?"
She paused, looking genuinely confused. "I can feel that the person is still alive. But the na... it’s gone. Did that trash fail to transmit even a simple na before dying? Useless waste!"
She cursed again, her anger irrational and explosive.
Nian Zhaoxi remained silent. There was sothing deeply wrong here. A na forgotten by a Supre? That wasn't just mory loss. That was erasure.
Before she could probe further, a massive surge of spiritual energy erupted in the distance.
Guan Xuelan’s head snapped up. "That’s Chunlei’s Artifact Spirit Peak! Jiang Xun’s Dao Sword is nearly complete!"
Her mood shifted instantly from rage to urgency. "Where is Qin ran? Is she back yet? Jiang Xun needs her Talisman Path power to empower the blade!"
"She has not returned."
"Useless! Everyone is useless these days!" Guan Xuelan waved a hand dismissively. "Send the Fourth Disciple. Lu Qingyao is decisive. Tell her to drag Qin ran back imdiately. Nothing can delay the sword forging!"
Cloud Firmant City.
The morning sun was bright, the sky a piercing blue. It was a picture-perfect day, yet the city was buzzing with nervous energy. Cultivators who usually stayed indoors had spilled into the streets, seeking the comfort of sunlight and crowds.
"Damn it," a burly cultivator grumbled, rubbing his temples. "I had nightmares all night. Just... cold. Endless cold. Like I was standing next to a grave."
"You too?" his companion whispered. "I heard from a ghost cultivator that last night was a catastrophe. 'Yin Soldiers Passing Through.' Ten thousand ghosts descended on the city. He said he almost got his soul sucked out."
"Bullshit. With our city's restrictions, what ghost would dare invade?"
"That’s the thing! The restrictions activated last night! Didn't you feel the vibration?" The companion looked around nervously. "But... tell sothing. Who built this city? What's the history?"
The burly cultivator paused, his brow furrowing. "I... don't know. Why don't I know?"
"See? It’s weird! And the ghost cultivator said all the spirits fled the city before dawn. Like they were terrified of sothing inside."
Whispers filled every teahouse and alleyway. A mass amnesia seed to hang over the city regarding its origins, coupled with a lingering dread from the night before.
Wan Xiaobei walked through the bustling streets, listening to the rumors with a scowl.
"What a ss," she muttered. She glanced at her subordinate, Su Rui. "Hey, do you know who the City Lord is? Or when the city was built?"
Su Rui blinked. "I... I don't know, Pavilion Master. I feel like I used to know, but... it's gone."
"Weird," Wan Xiaobei murmured. "Even the City Lord is a mystery? I heard he's powerful, but nobody's seen his face? That sounds like a tall tale."
She sighed. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. We're here for business."
They stopped in front of a modest courtyard.
"Listening-to-Rain Pavilion," Su Rui announced. "This is Feng Bugui's residence. Pavilion Master, rember, don't underestimate him. He jumped from Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishnt in a month. He's a monster."
"I know, I know!" Wan Xiaobei rolled her eyes. "Why do you think I'm here personally? Just knock."
The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion had won their skirmish with the Four Seas Gang, but the Gang's sudden alliance with the Azure Mystic Sacred Land had complicated things. Securing a talented rogue cultivator like 'Feng Bugui' was now a top priority.
Su Rui stepped forward and raised her hand to knock.
Creak.
The gate swung open before her knuckles could touch the wood.
A figure walked out.
It was an old man with a wine gourd at his waist and a longbow slung across his back. His hair and beard were white, and his face was wreathed in a bright, friendly smile.
He wasn't looking at them. He was looking back into the courtyard, waving his hand cheerfully.
"I thought since you rarely co ho, kid, it would be my turn to protect you!" the old man laughed, his voice hearty and full of life. "I didn't expect I'd end up guarding you again!"
He chuckled, shaking his head.
"Looks like my promise to guard you for three years... might actually co true!"
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