Volume One: When the Young Met in Humble Circumstances Chapter 148: The Path of Feigned Death, Part Three

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Having achieved his purpose, Li Zhonghong no longer made things difficult for them. His original intention had merely been to teach them a lesson, and now that the effect had been immediate, it was time to stop. Otherwise, he feared it might provoke the opposite reaction.

He stepped forward and helped Elder Chen to his feet. Setting aside his usual cold expression, he said in a slightly gentler tone, “We know that Daoist Lin has a young disciple here, but we do not know how to find him.”

Elder Chen looked at him and saw, in the depths of his eyes, nothing but a towering mountain. There was not the slightest other emotion, as though everything he had just endured had been nothing more than an illusion. His opinion of the Li family rose another level.

The Heavenly Secrets Sect possessed a technique known as Mirror Heart. It could perceive the emotions hidden deep within another person’s heart. The technique was not difficult to cultivate; anyone who knew how to observe the stars could learn it. Thus, it was an essential practice for every disciple entering the Heavenly Secrets Sect.

Using Mirror Heart, he took himself as the mirror and observed the heart of another. Yet all he could see within Li Zhonghong was a towering mountain. That mountain was called the Li family.

It was obvious that every member of the Li family valued the family above even themselves. Thus, what Li Zhonghong was trying to do now was not so much to seek a way for himself to survive as to find the Li family a possibility of surpassing the Imperial Pole Hall. And that possibility rested with Daoist Lin’s disciple, Li Yu.

Only then did Elder Chen say, “You want us to find him, but I cannot be certain that my star-reading art will be able to trace his whereabouts.”

Li Zhonghong smiled as though unconcerned, though there was a hidden threat in his voice. “There are surely not many things in this world capable of escaping the Heavenly Secrets Sect’s all-seeing eye. Even if Daoist Lin’s young disciple truly fled, could he have escaped to some land beyond the Dao, some place beyond the reach of law?”

His words openly enhanced the reputation of the Heavenly Secrets Sect. On the surface, he was praising the sect for being able to investigate most matters in the world: so long as something had not been deliberately concealed and was not hidden by the constraints of time, place, or circumstance, then learning of it depended only on whether the Heavenly Secrets Sect was willing to let one know.

But the deeper meaning was clear. If Elder Chen truly could not find Li Yu, then Li Zhonghong could only assume that the people of the Heavenly Secrets Sect intended to claim him for themselves. In that case, whatever consequences followed would no longer be his decision to make.

Elder Chen was not incapable of understanding the implication. Though unwilling, he could only obey. He brought out his star compass, then guided it with his mind, projecting the Daoist’s phantom image into its depths.

Most of those present had never witnessed such star-reading before. When it suddenly appeared before them, they all found it remarkably novel.

Only Cao Xihe secretly shook his head.

“Fools courting death,” he thought. “They dare use his phantom image for divination? Are they not afraid of dying quickly enough?”

Yet he did not warn anyone. As before, he merely watched the spectacle in silence.

Elder Chen knew that when using star-reading to investigate the affairs of men, there was one great taboo: one must not attempt to calculate the affairs of lands beyond the Dao, people beyond the Dao, or beings who had surpassed the human realm. The all-seeing eye could reach only places where the Dao existed, and even those places had to belong to the human world—the realm of the living.

But he was not trying to investigate Daoist Lin’s life before his death, nor was he attempting to probe his divine powers or methods. He merely wished to use the Daoist’s phantom image to search for someone who had been closely connected to him. Judging by the passage of time, the person most closely connected to him was his young disciple in Heaven’s Gate Town.

Daoist Lin had transformed into the Dao and departed from the world. Even with the taboos involved, Elder Chen believed that, if he pushed himself, he could withstand the strain.

What he had not expected was that, when he opened his all-seeing eye and tried to investigate Li Yu, Daoist Lin’s phantom image suddenly exploded within the star compass.

A terrifying force of backlash struck Elder Chen’s mind. A flash of light passed, and he spat out a mouthful of black blood. His consciousness faltered, and he collapsed.

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At the moment he fell, he remembered only being surrounded by darkness. It was a darkness filled with despair, an absolute blackness in which not even the faintest glimmer of light could be seen.

Seeing this, Li Zhonghong hurried forward to examine him. When he discovered that Elder Chen had merely fainted, he relaxed. He was not afraid of the man dying; he was only afraid that he would die at this crucial moment.

He took out a precious elixir that nourished the divine consciousness and true spirit and fed it to him. The medicine took effect quickly. In less than the time it took to finish a cup of tea, Elder Chen regained consciousness.

He opened his eyes. Only after seeing the people gathered around him did he gradually remember what had happened.

Li Zhonghong hurriedly asked, “What happened just now? What did you see?”

Elder Chen answered between ragged breaths, “Darkness. Absolute darkness!”

This was clearly not the answer Li Zhonghong wanted to hear. His expression quickly darkened. He was about to ask whether Elder Chen was deliberately trying to deceive him when the elder forced himself up from the chair, retrieved his star compass, and continued, “Let me try again.”

Without concerning himself with the strange looks of the others, he immediately began another divination.

This time, he had learned from his earlier mistake. He no longer attempted to investigate the Daoist’s phantom image, for he now understood that although the Daoist had transformed into the Dao and no longer existed in this world, the image he had left behind in the past was still the very peak of the human realm.

Moreover, even if he had not yet crossed the Fifteenth Realm and entered the realm of immortals at that time, the Dao of the human world could no longer contain him. That was why all Elder Chen had been able to see was darkness.

He became even more curious about the Dao Daoist Lin had cultivated. What kind of Dao could be so profound that even the human world was unable to contain it?

Thus, he changed his approach. Rather than starting with the Daoist, he began with the former residents of Heaven’s Gate Town, seeking to discover which person had had the most contact with him. The one who had spent the most time with the Daoist would naturally be his disciple.

This method of observing the heavens consumed an enormous amount of cultivation. Although half of Elder Chen’s cultivation had been stripped away, he was working on behalf of the Li family. How could the Li family allow him to fail?

Therefore, whenever Elder Chen showed signs of exhaustion, Li Zhonghong had Li Xiyan draw in the surrounding true spirits and channel them into Elder Chen’s body.

This was evidently another technique of the Li family. Those watching were left trembling with fear and unable to look away.

They had never seen a cultivation method capable of transforming true spirits into cultivation. If such a technique existed, did that not mean that one could continually absorb true spirits and allow one’s cultivation to rise without end?

Seeing fear and disgust begin to appear in everyone’s eyes when they looked at the Li family, Li Zhonghong explained, “Everyone, rest assured. This technique is the Li family’s Stellar Transposition. Just as you have seen, it can draw in the true spirits nearby and convert them into cultivation for someone else to use. But the technique has its limitations. We can absorb only true spirits that have already died—in other words, what we commonly call dead spirits. Even if we did not absorb them, they would gradually disappear between heaven and earth. Furthermore, the supply of dead spirits we can use is limited. We cannot absorb them without end, so there is no need to worry that this will harm you. In truth, we use this technique only occasionally.”

No one knew whether his explanation was true, but at least he had offered one, and they felt somewhat reassured.

Elder Huang, however, was unwilling to let the matter pass so easily. She looked at Xie Tong, Lu Ming, and Cao Xihe, who were seated nearby, and asked, “Do the three of you truly have nothing to say? We are all fellow practitioners, after all. Earlier, when the Li family attacked us, you remained unmoved. And now, even after witnessing such a heaven-defying technique, you can still sit there calmly? Are you not worried that one day the Li family will use this technique to grow stronger and stronger?”

Her attempt to sow discord was exceedingly direct. Yet perhaps only such blunt provocation could have any effect now.

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Lu Ming was unconcerned. He looked at her as though she were a flea and was not moved in the slightest by her words.

In his view, no matter what changes the Li family might make in the future, if they ever did anything harmful to the human world or to Green Mountain, he would cut them down with a single stroke of his sword. Why bother with anything else?

Xie Tong’s thoughts were not much different from Lu Ming’s, though he considered the matter one step further. Whatever might happen in the future, the Li family had not yet used this technique to cause widespread chaos in the cultivation world. They could not target the Li family over something that had not happened and had, at most, only a fifty percent chance of occurring.

That was the sword of Green Mountain—and Xie Tong’s sword.

Cao Xihe’s view was that he had no view at all. He said calmly, “If you lack sense, read more books. Then you will know he is telling the truth.”

After being silenced by those words, Elder Huang wanted to throw another tantrum as she had in the past. Yet she also understood that she no longer possessed the strength to do so. Thus, after enduring the mockery, she could only swallow her anger and quietly record this grudge in her heart.

Elsewhere, after receiving the cultivation transmitted by Li Xiyan, Elder Chen steadied his all-seeing eye. It crossed the river of time and traveled through every fragment of Heaven’s Gate Town’s past, visiting every place.

Yet when he looked through his all-seeing eye, he discovered that he could see nothing.

He knew that Heaven’s Gate Town was a land beyond the Dao. Thus, he had never intended to observe the town’s past itself, but rather the past formed by the people who had lived there.

Although those people lived in a land beyond the Dao, they themselves were not beyond the Dao. They had been conceived from the vital essence of heaven and earth, and the principles of yin and yang were hidden within them. Therefore, by observing them, he should still have been able to see certain fragments.

What he had not expected was to see nothing at all.

It was as though the people of Heaven’s Gate Town were merely phantoms, acting out a performance for someone else to watch.

The moment this thought arose, the mist before his eyes suddenly parted. He saw expressionless people walking through every corner of Heaven’s Gate Town, carrying out the things they did every day.

They had no thoughts and no selves. Everything seemed to be proceeding according to a script that had already been written, while they were merely insignificant characters within it.

The more he watched, the more uneasy he became.

Then a voice sounded beside his ear.

“You have seen so much. Have you discovered anything?”

The instant he heard it, every alarm within him began to ring.

In the real world, cold sweat broke out across his back, and every hair on his body stood on end.

He slowly turned his head to look.

All he saw was a headless man. Blood still clung to the severed neck, as though it had not yet dried.

The man asked him, “Where is my head?”

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