The three fragments of the Dongyang Seal were cast simultaneously into the hazy green light. The grand gate instantly solidified, no longer resembling clouds or mist, but rather like amber or green jade, exuding a strange beauty.
Before anyone could recover from their slight astonishment, the inner gate gradually opened—heavy and slow, as if dragging along the weight of countless years, piercing through layers of ancient vicissitudes.
At this moment, including Jiang Hengchuan, Wang Buchi, and Ruan Yaoguang, no one made a move. All gazed intently into the gate. Would the origin of the Maoling incident truly be worth such a grand commotion?
Dim and shadowy, the first thing to enter Meng Qi’s vision was a twisted crack. It resembled a stiff, undying centipede, striving to widen the wound in the void.
Through the crack, Meng Qi saw thick black mist, within which vague outlines of mountains, rivers, sun, moon, and stars emerged.
At the same time, an unimaginably intense evil aura rippled outward. Even Ruan Yaoguang, a top-tier expert, couldn’t help but shiver involuntarily.
“Jiuyou…” Wang Siyuan’s low whisper traveled far in the silent atmosphere.
Jiuyou? Meng Qi was startled into sudden realization.
Just then, a gigantic hand emerged from the black mist and seized the crack!
This hand was purely black, without even a glimmer of light, as if it could swallow even sight itself. As soon as it appeared, it triggered tremors in the void, sending ripples outward, dispersing the black mist and expanding the crack.
The surrounding darkness cleared, revealing to Meng Qi and the others a long river suspended in the void. It flowed silently in a murky blood-yellow hue, its source and destination unknown.
A black sun rapidly approached the crack, pressing down so heavily that the void itself seemed to collapse, as if marking the end of the world.
From the moment the pitch-black hand appeared, Meng Qi and the others had been unable to move. Their bodies and souls were completely overwhelmed by an incomparable oppressive force. The void had become a cage, gradually tightening.
What terrifying evil!
The black sun drew closer. Meng Qi felt his body growing heavier, his bones, muscles, and organs creaking under the pressure, as if he might collapse into a pile of pulp at any moment.
The Dongyang Secondary Estate was utterly plunged into darkness—not because there was no light, but because all light had been drawn into the crack, rushing toward the black sun.
Splashing louder and louder, the Jin River surged, forming waves over ten zhang high.
The mountains and rivers surrounding Maoling, along with the rising morning sun, were all veiled in a seven-colored radiance, beautiful as a dream.
Beside the dragon-willow tree, the old man carving wooden figurines had set down his chisel and block of wood. His gaze was fixed intently in the direction of the Jin River, as if seeing through layers of obstruction to witness this wondrous spectacle.
His eyes held nostalgia, recollection, and sweetness, but ultimately, all transformed into a soft sigh:
“Ahh.”
Then, he picked up the plain black-sheathed longsword beside him.
Inside the Dongyang Secondary Estate, Meng Qi felt the black sun drawing near. His thoughts slowed to a crawl, even more helpless than when he had encountered the Arhat Zombie at Ling Mountain.
“Dust returns to dust, earth returns to earth. Jiuyou should remain hidden—why resurface?”
A familiar voice entered Meng Qi’s ears. Layers of void shattered, and a sword light arrived leisurely.
His mind could not keep up with the changes. After hearing the voice and seeing the sword light, all he could see was a blinding white expanse, as if the sun itself had descended before him, brighter than words could describe.
The pressure vanished, and his body felt light once more. Meng Qi’s thoughts resumed, cascading like waves.
“Why is there a Jiuyou crack here in the Dongyang Secondary Estate?”
“Did he come here every year to observe the tide, intending to prevent the crack from spiraling out of control?”
“No, he was a man of single-minded purpose. He would never act so half-heartedly. It must have just been a chance encounter, a spontaneous act…”
“Earlier, I suspected that if there were changes surpassing even the Xuantian Sect’s contingencies, as a righteous expert, he would certainly not stand idly by…”
A figure emerged within the blinding whiteness. Meng Qi strained to discern its identity. Suddenly, he saw a faint green light envelop Jiang Hengchuan’s form.
Jiang Hengchuan seemed to sense Meng Qi’s gaze. He offered a slight smile, nodded, and then vanished.
“The Reincarnation Talisman…” Meng Qi felt neither surprised nor particularly calm about this change. It was like witnessing a long-suspected event finally unfold—mixed emotions stirred within him.
“Myth,” “Immortal Traces,” and the Master of the Six Realms were undoubtedly deeply connected!
Regarding the nature of that connection, further investigation was required. Perhaps some of their official or reserve members were also reincarnators, or perhaps the relationship was entirely different in form.
Of course, someone like Chu Guan or Snake King, who clearly hadn’t even touched the threshold of the “Myth” organization, could only be considered an outer force developed through bribery, persuasion, intimidation, or other means.
Watching Jiang Hengchuan retreat confidently, Meng Qi’s lips twitched slightly. He chuckled inwardly. No wonder he never seemed to fear imminent death—he had the Reincarnation Talisman all along. I should have known. As the Wenchu Star Lord, how could he not leave himself an escape route?
However, while the young master Wang might not understand the talisman’s mysteries, how could Meng Qi not?
Using the Reincarnation Talisman to return differs from being pulled into a mission world by the Master of the Six Realms. Upon returning, there is always a time gap of several hours. Like in Yedu, if Gu Xiaosang had just entered the Celestial Gate and then reappeared immediately, she would have been caught on the spot by the numerous Exteriors rushing to the scene. When Meng Qi used the talisman late at night before, he returned just before dawn.
Precisely because of this time gap, even if the return location remains unchanged, it is easy to escape pursuit. After all, if the enemy doesn’t know the truth, how could they possibly wait in the same place for hours?
Moreover, within the Reincarnation World, aside from improving one’s strength, one can also liquidate assets to accumulate sufficient Virtue Points. These can be used to request the Master of the Six Realms to eliminate the glow upon return or to exchange for talismans or artifacts that grant invisibility. Even if, by some rare coincidence, someone were to wait nearby, one could still vanish without a trace!
Generally speaking, when using the Reincarnation Talisman in danger, Meng Qi believed one must prepare accordingly upon return. Better safe than sorry.
“Luckily I didn’t use the Reincarnation Talisman in front of Jiang Hengchuan…” He felt slightly relieved. Of course, even if Jiang had been waiting, as long as it wasn’t in a relatively enclosed environment, there was still a fifty percent chance of escape—after all, the exact timing of return was hard to predict, and there were invisibility aids available.
Hmph! Daring to scheme against me? Just wait for your “corpse”!
That’s just how narrow-minded I am!
The white brilliance finally faded entirely. Within the inner chamber, the centipede-like Jiuyou crack coiled into a ball, shrinking smaller and smaller until it condensed into a pinpoint and vanished completely.
“Master Lu?” The slightly aged Wang Buchi turned his head toward Maoling.
Lu Daxian, the founding patriarch of the Huamei Villa of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, known as the “Single-Minded Sword,” had perfected the Indestructible Body of Metal, ranked fourth on the Celestial List, and was the greatest swordsman under heaven!
Wang Siyuan’s expression was filled with excitement and frenzy. The situation had run wild beyond his control, igniting a roaring flame within him.
“No wonder, no wonder…” he muttered words no one else could understand.
Jiang Zhiwei and Ruan Yushu were not surprised, as Meng Qi had already told them about encountering a swordsman suspected to be the “Single-Minded Sword.”
Among them, Jiang Zhiwei had once considered visiting Master Lu, but after careful consideration, she decided against it. She was still in the stage of exploring her own path and cultivating her inner world. Observing various sword techniques was fine, but encountering a sword master too strong might easily influence her own path, causing her to lose her sense of self. She would wait until she had passed this stage before even considering returning to visit her master.
“Not having set foot in the martial world for over a decade, yet now he severs the Jiuyou crack in one strike…” Ruan Yaoguang’s expression was filled with emotion.
As for Jiang Hengchuan’s disappearance, they had all noticed, but without any clues, they could only assume he had taken advantage of the earlier chaos to escape.
With the Jiuyou crack gone, the complete scene within the inner chamber was revealed to all. There was only a stone bed, a stone table, simple and plain—nothing like the abode of a divine monarch, more like the dwelling of a Daoist sage wandering the mountains.
On the stone bed was empty. Upon the stone table lay four items: a green scroll, a purple ruler, a golden flame burning away the surrounding darkness, and an ancient, unadorned ring.
The scroll had a pale cyan hue, exuding a faint glow, clearly no ordinary object. In Meng Qi’s eyes, it should be the most valuable item—likely the inheritance of the Dongyang Divine Monarch.
“The Donghua Qing Shu…” Everyone present who could recognize ancient seal script spoke the scroll’s name aloud. Ruan Yaoguang and Wang Buchi exchanged slightly puzzled glances.
Wang Siyuan was still in a strange state of excitement, yet his voice remained calm: “The Donghua Qing Shu is one of the inheritances of the Green Emperor’s branch lineage. It’s not particularly outstanding, but it’s nothing to scoff at either.”
Since this is merely a secondary estate, it must have been just a book Dongyang Divine Monarch casually flipped through… Meng Qi corrected his earlier assumption. However, if even Wang Siyuan considered it “nothing to scoff at,” it must at least be a decent cultivation method among Exteriors.
Beside the scroll, the jade ruler exuded swirling purple qi, clearly a treasure-grade weapon, worth a fortune.
“The Solar Flame Essence,” Ruan Yaoguang observed, staring at the gently burning flame.
Wang Buchi sighed: “If this were seventy or eighty thousand years ago, this Solar Flame Essence could be used to forge divine weapons. But after such a long time of consumption, it’s probably only an average Exterior item now.”
As for the ancient ring, both Jiang Zhiwei and Ruan Yushu secretly informed Meng Qi through sound transmission—it was a Jiezi Ring.
Among the four items, its value was the hardest to determine. No one knew whether it contained anything inside. If it was empty, it would be the least valuable of the four. But if it held many treasures, it would surpass the combined worth of the other three.
“With Master Lu watching outside, we mustn’t make a spectacle of ourselves,” Ruan Yaoguang suddenly spoke, unwilling to engage in conflict with the Wang family.
Wang Buchi glanced upward at the slowly recovering mist around the estate’s outer perimeter: “That’s reasonable.”
“Besides, with such a commotion earlier, and the estate’s barrier already breached, others will arrive soon enough.”
The implication was clear—if the two sides fought, they might only end up benefiting outsiders.
Wang Siyuan “flew” from his small boat to the shore, his cheeks still flushed: “Four items. How about we each take two?”
Ruan Yaoguang cast a questioning glance at Meng Qi, as he was merely an assistant.
“I have no objections,” Meng Qi replied. He had never been greedy. Though their side held the advantage in strength, it was only a slight one. Could the young master Wang truly be a mere name?
Still, Meng Qi raised one question: “But who chooses first?”
Wang Siyuan held his sword, coughed twice, and looked toward Jiang Zhiwei and Meng Qi: “How about this—excluding the two seniors, we’ll have two matches. You alternate sending challengers. If anyone can force me to retreat in defense within ten moves, they win. One loss means one choice forfeited.”
As soon as he spoke, a battle of wills began.
After exchanging glances with Meng Qi, Jiang Zhiwei calmly stepped forward.
“Fine.” Calm and composed, she was like a sword hidden in its scabbard!
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