The next day.
Upon the steps of the main peak of Shen Cang Mountain, clouds and mist coiled.
Melodious bell sounds spread from the direction of the Longevity Palace, traveling upward along the mountain path straight into the firmament.
Shen Ci had changed into a brand-new cyan daoist robe.
This was the regulation that must be followed when meeting the Mountain Lord.
Because of the forced overdraft within the gray fog the previous day, the meridians of both his legs were severely damaged.
With every step a faint stabbing pain arose deep within the meridians.
Sang Zhi followed at his side.
The young girl stretched out both hands and lightly supported Shen Ci’s forearm.
She slightly lowered her head and carefully watched the steps beneath her feet, perfectly performing the posture of one who was terrified and heartbroken for her fated one.
Along the way they occasionally encountered a few patrolling deacon disciples.
Upon seeing this scene they could not help looking at Sang Zhi a few more times, then silently shook their heads and walked away.
Upon Shen Cang Mountain, fated ones who cared for each other to this extent… were truly unique and without parallel.
Shen Ci’s steps were steady, his complexion as usual. One could not see even half a trace of severe injury.
Meeting the Mountain Lord was an iron law established upon this mountain peak.
Whether a muddle-headed mortal skeleton who had just entered the mountain or a heavily injured person who had luckily survived the gray fog, none could refuse.
Arriving at the end of the steps, what entered the eyes was a majestic and ancient bronze great hall.
White cranes circled among the surrounding peaks.
The innate spiritual energy of this place was extremely dense, even condensing into dots of white dew outside the bronze gate.
Complicated formation patterns were carved upon the great door.
Shen Ci merely swept a glance and silently began to deduce them in his heart.
The trajectory of these formation patterns somewhat resembled the great locking-vein formation that the Qingming Dao Sect of his previous life had used to suppress evil.
Only now these formation patterns absorbed pure spiritual energy, and their method of operation was more gentle and concealed.
The two disciples guarding outside the door bowed in salute, then jointly pushed open the heavy bronze gate.
The two of them crossed the tall threshold and stepped into the hall.
The interior of the great hall was empty and deep. The floor was paved with complete black stone. Upon the dome were inlaid thousands of night-luminescent pearls arranged like the stars.
In the exact center what entered the eyes was a giant deer carved from pure white jade.
This white deer stood three zhang tall, its four hooves stepping upon a refined green-lotus sculpture.
Most eye-catching were the densely packed countless red strings coiled upon those antlers.
Some red strings were vivid as blood. Some had already faded and turned white. Some were broken in the middle and hung limply in midair.
It seemed this place was the source of all the fated contracts of Shen Cang Mountain.
Shen Ci looked at those broken red strings and understood in his heart.
Every broken red string most likely represented the disappearance of at least one human life.
“Shen Ci.”
A low voice simultaneously rang out from all four directions of the empty great hall.
The tone leaned toward the feminine. Perhaps because of some unknown reason it sounded somewhat ethereal and unreal.
“This disciple is present.”
Shen Ci cupped his fists and bowed, his etiquette complete.
Sang Zhi followed by prostrating upon the ground, her forehead pressed against the black-obsidian floor, pretending an appearance of reverence.
“Upon your destiny plate the past is a blank void.” The Mountain Lord’s tone was level.
“Forgetting the past of the mortal dust accords precisely with the cycling of the Heavenly Dao.”
“Those causes and effects were completely severed from the moment you stepped into Shen Cang Mountain.”
“From this day forward your only mission is to discard all distracting thoughts. Diligent cultivate the Purple Yang Profound Record and step into the Foundation Establishment realm as early as possible. When the day of Foundation Establishment arrives you may leave this place and go on pilgrimage to the White Jade Capital in the east.”
Pilgrimage to the White Jade Capital.
Hearing these five words, Shen Ci furrowed his brows slightly.
In his previous life that place had been the most tragic slaughterhouse of the entire Nine Provinces.
He had once held Severing Karma and with a single sword chopped the entire White Jade Capital into powder.
Now the White Jade Capital had not only been rebuilt but had become a place of pilgrimage that everyone yearned for.
Exactly what had happened…
Shen Ci put away the incomprehension in his heart.
He raised his head and said respectfully, “This disciple understands. Only, this disciple still has a trace of confusion in his heart and does not know whether it is appropriate to speak.”
The hall was quiet for a moment.
“Speak.”
Shen Ci faced the direction of that white-deer statue and opened his mouth.
“Why the White Jade Capital? What kind of place is that, and why must one go after Foundation Establishment no matter what?”
At these words the palms of Sang Zhi who knelt to the side suddenly tightened.
She almost could not hold back from raising her head.
This piece of trash who did not know whether he lived or died!
Sang Zhi cursed darkly in her heart.
Even her master regarded this Shen Cang Mountain with taboo silence, and the Mountain Lord who controlled this place possessed an absolutely unfathomable realm.
Shen Ci, a mere minor cultivator who had only just drawn qi into his body, actually dared to question the Mountain Lord’s arrangements in public?
If he angered the other party, the formations within this great hall could instantly grind the two of them into meat paste.
She even stretched out a hand and lightly tugged at the corner of Shen Ci’s robe, trying to remind him to speak and act carefully.
Yet the Mountain Lord did not grow angry.
That ethereal female voice came once more. “You are currently far too weak, having only barely drawn qi into your body.”
“Knowing too much is of no benefit to you and will instead breed heart demons that hinder your path of cultivation. When you reach Foundation Establishment everything will naturally become clear.”
Seeing this, Shen Ci knew well that continuing to press about the White Jade Capital would only arouse the other party’s vigilance.
He accordingly retreated and once more cupped his fists.
“This disciple has received instruction.”
“This disciple still has one matter he does not understand. Yesterday within the gray fog I witnessed the fierce might of the turbid beasts. Since the outside is so perilous, how did this disciple originally come to this Shen Cang Mountain?”
Shen Ci asked the second question.
This was also the intelligence he currently urgently wished to verify.
The Mountain Lord was silent for several breaths.
“Everyone was rescued by me from within hell.”
“Including you, including that injured girl at your side, and also including every single person upon this Shen Cang Mountain.”
“You should have become the blood food of those monsters within the Avici Hell. It was I who used great magical power to forcefully pull your fleshly bodies and souls back from the edge of death.”
Hearing this answer, Shen Ci’s thoughts raced like lightning.
If the Mountain Lord had not lied.
Then the source of his rebirth was not upon this Shen Cang Mountain, but…
within that place called “hell.”
After severing the heavens in his previous life his three souls and seven spirits should have completely burned to ashes.
Could it be that a single residual strand of origin had fallen into the gray fog and was subsequently fished up by the Mountain Lord, who then reshaped this physical body?
Or was this so-called hell fundamentally the polluted former soil of the Nine Provinces?
Shen Ci suppressed the surging thoughts and deeply performed a salute.
“Many thanks to the Mountain Lord for the life-saving grace. This disciple has no further questions.”
“Mm.”
Accompanying the falling of this single character the dome above the great hall suddenly brightened.
A streak of golden light projected downward from a night-luminescent pearl in the exact center and unerringly enveloped Shen Ci’s entire person within it.
This was the rule of Shen Cang Mountain.
Every disciple who met the Mountain Lord had to accept the baptism of the golden light in order to examine whether the flow of spiritual energy within the body was smooth and whether there were any hidden injuries or hidden dangers.
Shen Ci stood within the golden light and allowed that vast probing power to penetrate his meridians.
At present his body was completely empty.
All traces of his previous life had been erased.
Only a single strand of pure spiritual energy cultivated from the Purple Yang Profound Record circled within his dantian.
Logically speaking this body was as clean as a blank sheet of paper.
Yet.
The golden light suddenly stagnated.
The radiance that had originally gently enveloped Shen Ci’s body began to violently tremble.
Immediately afterward…
“Eh?”
The Mountain Lord seemed somewhat puzzled.
“Upon your body…”
“There is actually the seed of that kind of evil thing?”
At these words.
Shen Ci’s brows slightly raised. A warning rose in the depths of his heart.
The seed of an evil thing?
Since his rebirth he had examined this body countless times and had never discovered any abnormality.
If there truly was an evil thing, why had he himself not sensed it in the slightest?
Did it refer to residual corpse miasma he had absorbed in his previous life?
Or fragments left behind by the shattered Formless Dao Bone?
Or perhaps… when he slew the divine corpse years ago he had been stained with some curse of a higher dimension?
Sang Zhi to the side was struck as if by lightning.
She abruptly raised her head, disregarding the feigned timidity, and blurted out, “Evil thing? Mountain Lord, what is inside his body?”
Sang Zhi’s heartbeat skipped half a beat.
Shen Ci was her fated one, the prey she had locked onto.
She had once carefully examined this body with secret methods and had discovered no problems whatsoever.
Yet today the Mountain Lord told her that upon her “possession”…
there was actually something even she did not know about?!
The Mountain Lord did not answer Sang Zhi’s pursuit.
Weng—
The golden light instantly surged and completely swallowed Shen Ci’s figure.
“Shen Ci!” Sang Zhi subconsciously stretched out a hand to grab.
Her fingertips only touched a stretch of emptiness.
The light dispersed.
Shen Ci had already disappeared from within the great hall.
Upon the empty black-obsidian floor only Sang Zhi remained alone.
“You remain here and wait patiently.” The Mountain Lord said lightly.
“I need to examine his body alone and ascertain the source of that evil thing. Do not act rashly.”
The voice fell. Silence returned within the great hall.
Sang Zhi knelt alone upon the ground.
She slowly withdrew the hand that had stopped in midair. Her five fingers tightened little by little and finally clenched into a fist.
The timidity and panic upon the young girl’s face completely faded away.
A layer of cold frost gradually covered her face.
“Examine the body…”
Sang Zhi pressed her lips together. The tip of her tongue unconsciously licked the back of her teeth.
She knew all too well what “examine the body” meant in the cultivation world.
The other party would forcibly probe divine sense into Shen Ci’s body.
Inch by inch sweeping across his bones, meridians, and organs.
Even forcibly peeling open the dantian and qi sea, seeing cleanly through all of his secrets and all of his past.
He… would be completely exposed without reservation before that woman who dared not even reveal her face.
Shen Ci was hers.
From the moment the red string was tied, Shen Ci from head to toe, every drop of blood, every inch of bone, was the private possession of her, Sang Zhi.
He was the sacrificial offering for her to reach the supreme Great Dao.
Not to mention some inexplicable seed of an evil thing.
Even if Shen Ci’s body truly hid a supreme treasure of the Heavenly Dao, it ought to be dug out by her personally!
What right did another woman have to touch him?
What right did she have to take him away from her side and even use divine sense to probe the prey that belonged to her?
Sang Zhi slowly stood up.
She ignored the Mountain Lord’s warning of “do not act rashly” and raised her head to stare at that lofty white-deer statue.
The red strings upon the statue’s antlers, under the halo of the night-luminescent pearls, appeared especially glaring at this moment.
The ferocity in the young girl’s eyes nearly solidified into substance.
If not for knowing that her current strength was insufficient, she truly wished to directly draw a sword and chop this eyesore of a white-deer statue into pieces.
“Best not touch him.”
Sang Zhi stared at the statue and murmured in the depths of her heart.
“He belongs to me alone.”