“I see,” Zi Long said. “I wish to pay my respects to Brother Fan.”
“Of course,” the grand elder said. “However, I must warn you. It will be difficult to approach his body.”
Zi Long frowned. “Why is that?”
“Alas, I’m not sure why, but Master’s violet heart force lingered around him after his death. It’s formed a bubble around his body that makes it impossible for anyone to approach him. My brothers and sisters and I have all tried, but to no avail.”
“As long as I see him with my own eyes, that will be good enough,” Zi Long said.
He would investigate, of course. On the surface, the grand elder seemed like a prime suspect. He wouldn’t rush to a conclusion, however. In a sect based on deception, how could the answer be so simple?
The grand elder led him past the small group of elders. They walked into the purple mist, which did not affect them in the slightest due to the defenses of their violet heart force. After walking for an incense time, they arrived at a formation deep within the center of the cave. The formation was linked to a purple stone that hovered near the back of the cavern.
“This stone is called beguilement ore, and it was discovered here during the time of the third sect leader,” the grand elder said. “Although it’s an excellent weapon-forging material, our sect ancestor decided it was best to harness its power to train disciples. Anyone who steps into the bounds of the formation will feel their soul and heart force being tempered while they are dragged into countless illusions. Should one’s defenses lapse, physical injury will be the least of their worries.” He pointed to the front of the formation, where a thick layer of violet mist had accumulated. “Just outside the third circle is where Master collapsed.”
As they approached the runic circle, Zi Long’s face fell. He’d initially thought Brother Fan had peacefully passed away in meditation. This was clearly wishful thinking. Instead, his robes were tattered, and his arm was stretched out as though reaching for his final hope. His face was a frozen mask of fear, a steep departure from the normally calm and demure man Zi Long remembered.
“No one has been able to move him,” Mu Qian said from the side. “We tried ropes, formations, and treasures, but nothing worked.”
Before the grand elder could protest, Zi Long walked directly into the first circle of the formation. His surroundings changed, and he discovered that he was suddenly overwhelmed with grief. A single tear dropped from one eye before he banished this first emotion.
He then entered the second circle. As he did, his surroundings became eerily quiet. He couldn’t help but look around and expect a trap to spring out and attack him.
This is an irrational fear, Zi Long thought. I’m in an illusion, not a minefield. He quickly pushed his worries away and stepped forward once again.
This time, he entered the third circle, the same circle containing Fan Yong’s body. The moment he stepped into it, he felt his anger soar. He struggled for a moment as he fought the temptation to turn around and destroy the grand elder for toying with his friend’s life and depriving him of crucial information.
As he pushed this thought aside, a memory surfaced. He recalled key moments as a child when he lost his temper. He recalled the first time he saw the aftermath of a devil attack, an entire village littered in corpses.
I need to calm down, Zi Long thought, panting heavily. Little by little, his emotions returned to normal, and his rage subsided.
Let’s see what happened to Brother Fan, he thought, stepping forward to touch the cloud of violet mist. The moment he did, a violent scene flashed before his eyes. A dark figure hovered over Fan Yong as he wailed in pain. Fan Yong’s body was covered in cuts and bruises, and his tattered clothes were entirely soaked in blood. One of his eyes was gouged out, and several of his fingers were amputated.
“You’ll never find the key!” Fan Yong laughed maniacally. “I already gave it away. After all these years, all the sacrifices you made, you’re walking away with nothing.” He laughed again, and his eyes filled with madness.
The vision faded. Fan Yong’s body appeared, and his current posture and condition were incongruent with what Zi Long had just seen. His fingers and his eye had regrown, and the blood was gone from his clothes. What remained was the completely reasonable reaction of someone crawling away from a terrifying illusion.
“What happened to you?” Zi Long whispered. He took another step into the violet mist and moved to close his friend’s eyes. The mist didn’t post any hindrance to him. Instead, it welcomed him. The moment his hand swept over his friend’s face, the mist began to swirl around him. To his surprise, it rushed toward him like an unstoppable wave. His physical body posed no obstruction to the soul-based force as it dove directly into his spiritual sea.
In mere moments, the process was over. The cloud of violet heart force that had impeded the elders had disappeared. They looked at him, slack-jawed, unable to fathom what had just happened.
“Preparing Brother Fan’s body for the funeral should no longer be a problem,” he said, passing the grand elder on his way out of the cave. The vision he’d seen had given him much food for thought. And given his possession of their sect’s most important treasure, the situation had just grown immensely complicated.
Chapter 24
“Come in,” Zi Long said as he heard a soft knock on his door. It had been several hours since his encounter with Fan Yong’s deceased body in the Cave of Desires. The shock of what had transpired had faded, but his suspicions had not. The vision he’d seen had sprouted fresh seeds of doubt in his mind about the Violet Heart Sect. Were it not for Fan Yong’s clever planning, his death would have passed off as a cultivation accident. Zi Long now knew that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” the grand elder said. Mu Qian, the seventh elder, stood just behind him. “Since we were finally able to approach Master’s body, it was only fitting that we clean him and prepare the funeral as soon as possible.”
“As the sect leader, it’s only natural to preserve his image prior to cremation,” Zi Long said.
“He was an inspiration to the sect, an important source of motivation for all sect disciples,” Mu Qian said softly. “Though it pains us to hide the truth of his demise, lies are sometimes necessary for the greater good.”
This was one of the Violet Heart Sect’s key tenets, something that had remained unchanged since its founding.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Zi Long asked, inviting them both to sit for tea. To his surprise, they declined his offer.
“My apologies, Brother Zi, but we’ll be very busy in the upcoming days mourning our master’s passing,” the grand elder said. “You are, of course, welcome to the join the funeral proceedings as a presiding elder. I’m sure Master would be relieved if you did.”
“I’ll be attending the funeral,” Zi Long said, taking a sip of tea. “It will be enlightening to hear some of his personal history. Despite having a hard life, he always hid much of his suffering from others. It’s a pity he had to pass away so young.”
The grand elder seemed like he wanted to say something, but ultimately didn’t when Mu Qian placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll be heading off now,” the seventh elder said, clasping his hands in a short bow before ushering his senior out.
Zi Long stood up and bowed as they left.
The grand elder obviously wants to ask about the key and the heart force endowment, Zi Long thought. They likely want to obtain the inheritance for themselves. And while I don’t care much for the Violet Heart Sect’s leadership, I’d rather not pass it on to anyone who had anything to do with Fan Yong’s murder.
He summoned the violet key as he thought this. The ornate item, which could travel in and out of his spiritual sea, was apparently the key to the Violet Palace. Only the sect master and his guests could enter the palace, where the guardian spirit and guardian treasure resided.
It’s only a matter of time
until they try to force me, Zi Long thought. And with them sealing the sect, it seems Luo Xuehua won’t be able to enter for some time.
He flicked a switch on the door to his chamber, indicating that he planned to undergo closed-door seclusion for three days. Then he turned his attention to his spiritual sea. His soul was sitting cross-legged in meditation before the purple tablet, carefully integrating its contents using the massive cloud of violet heart force he’d gathered.
The mnemonic for the first form of the Six Desires Fate-Converging Art came to mind. The words were incomprehensible but struck a chord deep within his soul as he recited it. In fact, reciting it caused his violet heart force to circulate within his spiritual sea, following the path prescribed by the corresponding diagram. As he circulated it, however, images flashed through his mind. They were all external things that he deeply desired but supressed. These images appeared around his soul and served as a form of tempering for it. Only by gaining immunity to these visions could he successfully execute the technique.
It’ll take far too much time to cultivate this, he thought. Fortunately, while my soul is busy, I can divert some attention to cultivating. He willed his consciousness to enter his dantian. There, he focused on five crystal-clear pools of qi. Like his apprentice brothers and sisters, he cultivated all five elements. Yet despite their shared origins, he’d discovered an alternate path.
To the external observer, he only had five qi pillars with a black-and-white mist gathered in the center. He, as the cultivator, saw something else entirely. In the center of the five qi seas stood a sixth qi sea. This one was filled with a violet liquid, a different type of qi altogether. It was something rare and difficult to discover called illusory qi. And like violet heart force, this illusory qi was ideal for summoning and defending against illusions. It was both tangible and intangible, real and unreal. Its effect depended on Zi Long’s will and the will of his target.
In the center of the violet qi sea was a tall violet pillar that extended all the way to the bottom. The pillar contained many crisscrossing white runic lines of creation qi and black runic lines of destruction qi. The creation and destruction qi were what made the illusory qi pool possible in the first place. His will had condensed the pool using creation qi, while the destructive qi prevented it from becoming a reality. Illusions were nothing but a careful balance between these two primordial elements, an overlap that could shift based on the observer.
Despite having crystal-clear qi seas, Zi Long ignored his real qi pools and focused on concentrating five elements into the illusory one. The violet liquid thickened as it fed the violet pillar that hadn’t yet caught up to the rest of his cultivation base.
Three days, Zi Long thought. In three days, I’ll be ready to make a breakthrough.
“How did it go?” a bald man in a purple robe asked. This man was the fourth elder, a key confidant to the grand elder.
“As well as it could,” the grand elder said. “A process like this can’t be rushed. While it makes sense that he pass Master’s inheritance over to us, the sect’s keepers, we must tread carefully. I know that you’re all concerned about the sect’s future, but allow me to be blunt—that man does not belong to our sect. More likely than not, he doesn’t give a damn about the sect.”
The fifth elder, a short woman with blonde hair, shifted uncomfortably. “Have you all wondered why Master allowed him to inherit his violet heart force in the first place? I think this matter deserves more consideration.”
“What consideration could possibly be required?” the sixth elder retorted. She was a middle-aged woman with short-cropped hair. “The kid just got lucky and found the key before we did. If we had found it, we’d be able to absorb the cloud just like him. In fact, I think we should investigate why he didn’t reveal he had the key in the first place. It would have been far more appropriate for one of us—any of us—to inherit Master’s violet heart force. It would have saved us centuries of cultivation. Now I don’t even know if it’s possible to retrieve it from Zi Long.”
“Calm yourself, Sixth Sister,” a white-haired man said, coughing. His face was covered in wrinkles, but his eyes were young. He took some time to recover from the fit of coughing before continuing. “We are only speculating that he has the key. And while it’s true that one of us—save me, of course—should have inherited the master’s violet heart force, we didn’t. I, for one, believe that the master had a reason for what he did. He was a cautious man who left nothing to chance.
“Have you all wondered at the irony of this conversation? As Master’s students, we’re bickering over his inheritance instead of mourning his passing. To me, that’s very telling; I gather that Master guessed this outcome before he died.”
“Second Brother is right,” the seventh elder, the youngest of the bunch, said. “I think we should all reflect over this matter over the next few days. Let’s not bother Zi Long about the issue of inheritance for now. He doesn’t seem like someone who takes kindly to pressure. Besides, Master is dead. I can’t rest easy without worshipping his soul in the temple of our ancestors for a few days. I’d rather not bicker with everyone about such mundane things as sect leadership.”
“Since he’s a member of the Alabaster Group, I’m sure he’s a righteous individual,” the fifth elder said.
Everyone shivered at the mention of the organization. With its power, crushing them would be a piece of cake. Assuming they acted, of course. “Let’s just talk with him in a week’s time. I’m sure he’ll be amenable to helping us then.”
“The Alabaster Group, the Alabaster Group,” the grand elder said. “Why do you all fear this organization so much? They don’t interfere with those who don’t commit any unsavory acts. All we’re doing is asking for our property back. Surely they can’t fault us for that. Look at Zi Long’s age—he’s likely just a junior member of their organization at most. I’ll wager Master was his strongest backer, which is why he rushed here so quickly.”
“It’s best to be cautious,” the second elder said, standing up slowly. He walked with shaky legs toward the exit. “I’ll be in the mourning hall if anyone needs me. Before I leave, however, I want to second seventh brother’s motion. None of you are to bring up the sect’s inheritance with Zi Long until after the funeral.”
“Agreed,” the fifth elder said.
“Let it be so,” the grand elder assented.
The second elder nodded after receiving this confirmation and slowly walked out of the grand elder’s cultivation abode. The door closed with a soft click, leaving the six other elders to their own devices.
Chapter 25
Yue Bing hopped off her flying sword as she approached Quicksilver City. Its imposing walls were impossible to bypass at her cultivation level, so she could only resign herself to entering through the front gates.
“Identification?” the guard asked.
Yue Bing flashed her spirit doctor medallion for the guard to inspect. He recorded the badge’s number before waving her through.
“I hope they’re not too busy,” she muttered as she hopped back onto her flying sword. She drew gazes of admiration as she flitted through the busy streets. As a master-grade professional, she was one of the few qualified to fly inside the crowded city. Others had to go on foot.
The one exception to the rule, however, was the transit system, which covered the city like a spiderweb. Small trains powered by metal-aligned cultivators could traverse the fifty-mile wide city in a little over two hours. These trains were growing longer and getting faster as time progressed. A new train was added to the network every week.
Before long, Yue Bing arrived in Central Square. She flew straight toward the Alabaster Group, a tall white building that stood opposite a tall black building where the Obsidian Syndicate resided. Righteousness and evil clashed openly here, and very few powers in the city dared meddle in the ongoing feud between these transcendent organizations.
“How can I help you today?” a middle-aged man asked as s
he entered the door. “Ah, it’s Sister Yue. You’re looking beautiful as always.”
“I’m in a bit of a hurry today, Brother Xin,” Yue Bing said. “How about we talk later?”
“Of course,” the middle-aged man said. “Don’t be a stranger.”
Yue Bing passed through the hall and entered the back courtyard, where various shops were open for business. Craftsmen plied their wares as a small number of customers browsed through them. Not many people were qualified to shop at this premium establishment. The primary qualification wasn’t money, but something else—merit. Every one of these customers had at least accumulated merit glow through virtuous actions.
Yue Bing eventually reached the tavern, which in effect was a mercenary hall for members of the Alabaster Group.
“What can I do for you today, young miss?” the barkeep said. Despite his casual appearance, the barkeep was a core-formation cultivator, a powerful expert stationed in the Alabaster Group as a first line of defense.
“It’s a little quieter here than I remember,” Yue Bing said, glancing around the tables. Only a few scattered foundation-establishment cultivators were present. With their strength, they didn’t even qualify to participate in her mission.
“It can’t be helped,” the barkeep said, shrugging. “The battle in the Iron Sand Battlefield intensified, so most of our superior cultivators were sent there. Only a few scattered members are here in their accommodations.”
“I have a mission,” Yue Bing said. “There’s a fugitive who crossed the Song Kingdom’s Southhaven Wall and took a teleportation formation to the northeastern Quicksilver Empire. It seems he was heading toward Violet City. I need either a core-formation protector or several peak-foundation-establishment members to accompany me.”
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