“Alright, don’t cry anymore,” Mei Qing comforted Bi Zhen, who lay in his arms like a pear blossom drenched in rain. “Who would have thought you’d become such a weepy person.”
“You still dare to say that,” Bi Zhen’s fists pummeled him like raindrops, “all because of you, always trying to scare me to death!”
Now Bi Zhen also possessed the cultivation level of a true cultivator. Her delicate fists, though seemingly weak, could reduce even granite to powder. Fortunately, Mei Qing’s current cultivation had advanced remarkably, his body as strong as refined steel. Otherwise, enduring the affections of such a beauty would have been quite difficult.
Originally, after Mei Qing escaped his predicament, he flew toward Anlu while extending his divine consciousness to contact Bi Zhen. With his greatly enhanced cultivation and the deep emotional connection between them, they immediately sensed each other.
Bi Zhen suddenly received Mei Qing’s divine message, and overwhelmed with joy and surprise, she immediately flew out to meet him. Upon seeing each other, Bi Zhen rushed into his arms, crying and hitting him at the same time, while Mei Qing could only soothe her gently.
Just as they were entangled in this emotional moment, a gust of wind blew behind them—it was Bi Zhen’s mother chasing after them.
During these days of Bi Zhen’s desperate searching, her mother had been deeply worried. Suddenly sensing her daughter flying away in haste, she didn’t know why and hurriedly followed. When she saw that her daughter had received news from Mei Qing and that her future son-in-law was safe, she couldn’t help but feel immense joy.
Seeing her mother arrive, Bi Zhen felt somewhat embarrassed and stepped out of Mei Qing’s arms. The three returned to the mansion.
Bi Zhen’s mother, seeing that Mei Qing was unharmed, finally felt relieved. After exchanging a few words, she left the two alone and hurriedly sent out a transmission talisman to notify Zhang Yuchong, Master Ku, and Lu Bing.
At that time, everyone had been confused when they saw Lu Ze suddenly display astonishing cultivation, taking Mei Qing and the two others, Tao and Duan, away. With no choice, they had split up to search in different directions.
Now that they had received news of Mei Qing’s safe return, responses soon arrived. However, Zhang Yuchong had to return to his sect to deal with some internal matters after the recent incident. Master Ku had coincidentally met an old acquaintance and also could not return immediately, sending only a message to Mei Qing saying they would meet again later.
As for Lu Bing, upon receiving news that someone in the imperial court was plotting against the emperor, he hurried back to the capital immediately. There had recently been a major incident in the palace, nearly costing the emperor’s life.
“He’s always like that, never thinking of his family,” Bi Zhen muttered angrily, then turned to Mei Qing and asked, “Oh, what’s the deal with Lu Ze? How did he become so powerful? I’ve seen him before, but I never noticed anything special.”
Mei Qing gave a bitter smile and began recounting all that had happened in the past few days to Bi Zhen. When Bi Zhen heard that both Lu Ze and Marquis Guo were actually possessed by Fan Wentai, her face turned pale.
“The Plum Blossom Immortal? He… he actually survived? I’ve met Marquis Guo many times before. Never would I have imagined this. But… how exactly did this happen? And how did it get connected to you? Also… are you really Zhang Liusun or Mei Qing? I’m so confused now.”
“I’m definitely Mei Qing,” he said, pulling Bi Zhen closer and speaking softly. “But the matters involved are quite complicated, and I’ve only just begun to understand them.”
Bi Zhen pouted slightly, feeling wronged, and said, “Then tell me everything from the beginning.”
“If you really want to know, I’ll tell you,” Mei Qing said, thinking for a moment. “Some of this comes from memories left behind, and some is my own speculation. But I believe it’s not far from the truth. The beginning of this story must start with Zhang Liusun.”
“We already know the beginning of Zhang Liusun’s story. As the leader of the Xuanjiao Sect, he destroyed the Shenxiao Sect because he believed his own Daoist cultivation methods were not advanced enough. After acquiring their scriptures, although he diligently cultivated, the Shenxiao methods were vastly different from his original path, so he never fully mastered them.”
“Zhang Liusun was indeed extremely clever. Although his personal cultivation wasn’t at the highest level, as the Imperial Preceptor, he wielded immense power, which he used as an advantage. Thus, he searched everywhere for a blessed cave and protective formation that could help him survive the Tribulation. Eventually, he discovered the Minghai Jieshi, and broke through its formation to enter.”
“Normally, with such a cave and formation protecting him, Zhang Liusun should have had no problem surviving the Tribulation. According to his own account, he perceived celestial omens and chose not to ascend, instead planning to cultivate further before ascending again. But it’s also possible that Xu Fu suddenly attacked him by surprise.”
“Regardless, in the end, human plans are no match for fate. Although Zhang Liusun managed to repel Xu Fu and seize the Zi Cauldron, his physical body was destroyed by the Tribulation lightning, forcing him to exist temporarily as a disembodied soul.”
“Luckily, the Jieshi cave was an ancient dwelling place for immortals, so his soul could survive undamaged within it. However, he became trapped inside the formation, unable to escape. As the saying goes, heaven never completely cuts off a path. By chance, a young Fan Wentai, who had sneaked out at night to play in the Fishbone Temple, was discovered by Zhang Liusun and lured into the Jieshi cave.”
“Exactly what happened inside remains unknown. But Zhang Liusun took control of Fan Wentai, making him a Cauldron Slave, and assigned him the task of creating a new physical body for himself. Then, he forcibly split his soul into two halves. One half remained in place, while the other half was stored inside the Zi Cauldron he had seized from Xu Fu, which Fan Wentai carried outside the formation for the purpose of shaping a new body.”
“Why did Zhang Liusun split his soul into two parts, leaving one half behind and taking the other out? This was actually a reluctant decision. To send Fan Wentai out, Zhang Liusun had to remain inside the formation to perform the ritual. Therefore, despite the damage it would cause to his soul, he devised this method. According to his plan, once Fan Wentai was outside, he would follow the instructions to create an ideal physical body and then implant the other half of Zhang Liusun’s soul into it. Then, this new self would quickly become a top expert and return to Jieshi to reunite with the half of the soul left behind.”
“However, things often look better in imagination than in reality. From the very beginning, there were deviations, leading to the first attempt’s failure.”
At this point, Mei Qing shook his head and laughed, saying, “Zhang Liusun underestimated the difficulty of creating a physical body. How hard is it to shape a body? Could a mere fisherman’s son like Fan Wentai possibly accomplish such a task? Although Zhang Liusun taught him some basic Daoist techniques, how much could Fan Wentai learn in such a short time? As a result, the first physical body was far from satisfactory to Zhang Liusun.”
“If it were just unsatisfactory, it would have been simple. The real problem arose when Fan Wentai merged the half of Zhang Liusun’s soul from the cauldron into the new body after it was formed. Thus, Zhang Liusun had no choice but to temporarily reside in this less-than-ideal body, and began guiding Fan Wentai to start planning anew, determined to create a completely satisfactory body.”
Mei Qing smiled at Bi Zhen and said, “Guess who this first body was?”
Bi Zhen blinked her eyes for a while before suddenly exclaiming, “I know! It’s Ah Nu, right?”
“Smart girl,” Mei Qing laughed. “Exactly. If I guess correctly, Ah Nu’s body was actually not inferior to that of an average person. However, this half of Zhang Liusun’s soul must have developed its own thoughts after leaving the main body, striving for perfection and refusing to settle for anything less, which led to the decision to start over.”
“Meanwhile, Zhang Liusun realized that if he didn’t find a way to elevate Fan Wentai’s cultivation level to a sufficient degree, Fan would never be able to complete the tasks assigned to him. Thus, he began to truly impart his Daoist teachings to Fan Wentai.”
“To help Fan Wentai quickly enter the path of cultivation, Zhang Liusun even tried temporarily extracting his soul from Ah Nu’s body and entering Fan Wentai’s body directly, controlling him to practice cultivation and even engage in battles. At the same time, to accelerate Fan Wentai’s progress, he made him constantly challenge various Daoist sects, aiming to improve his cultivation through combat.”
“However, the human soul is inherently the most unpredictable thing. Despite Zhang Liusun’s abilities, he did not anticipate that as he continuously guided Fan Wentai in training and fighting, often lingering within Fan’s body, the two souls began to exhibit a strange tendency to merge.”
“Merge?” Bi Zhen’s eyes widened. “How could such a thing happen? Then how could they distinguish themselves from each other?”
Mei Qing shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure either. I only know from some residual memories left behind by Zhang Liusun. Initially, the situation wasn’t serious—only some memories mysteriously disappeared and mixed into each other’s minds. At that time, both had the same goal: to enhance Fan Wentai’s cultivation and find a suitable vessel to shape a new body, so they didn’t pay much attention.”
“According to Zhang Liusun’s plan, the next step required finding a man with the most yang energy and a woman with the most yin energy. They would cultivate specially designed Daoist techniques, supplemented by pills and spells, so that the child born from them would naturally possess the strongest body. At the moment of the child’s birth, other methods would be used to erase the child’s mind, into which Zhang Liusun’s soul would enter. Once the child grew up, he would return to Jieshi to reunite with the other half of the soul, completing the grand plan.”
“The so-called ‘Nine Yang Body’ does exist in the world—at least the Immortals who ascended are of pure yang essence. However, such figures were beyond Zhang Liusun’s capability to subdue at that time. Therefore, Zhang Liusun cleverly compromised. In the mortal world, the emperor was naturally the ultimate yang. However, the Zhengde Emperor at that time was addicted to wine and women, his body ruined, and he had long lost his ability to reproduce. Therefore, Zhang Liusun resorted to Daoist techniques to calculate the next emperor’s identity and made plans in advance, thus giving rise to the so-called ‘Mao Yang Immortal’ appearing at the Xianxian Prince’s mansion.”
“As for the ultimate yin woman, that was naturally my mother,” Mei Qing said with a puzzled expression. “But I still don’t know where she came from or what kind of experiences she had. This part of Zhang Liusun’s memory is vague, perhaps lost within Fan Wentai’s mind. Sigh, although I’ve figured out the entire story, I still cannot understand who my mother truly was.”
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