“His name is Bai Ziting. Perhaps you don’t know the name, but you should have heard of Daoist Crow.” Wu Yuankong took the initiative to answer Zhai Chuman’s question.
Zhai Chuman nodded immediately, “I know about Daoist Crow. He reached Dao Confirming at Crow Star, and is famous throughout the four grand starry skies.”
Daoist Crow reaching Dao Confirming at Crow Star, and his posterity living and falling within the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land, was a fact known throughout the four starry skies. Even if Zhai Chuman didn’t care about extraneous matters, she had heard about it.
Wu Yuankong said, “Sect Master Bai’s first enemy was Daoist Crow. Perhaps in the eyes of Daoist Crow, my Traceless Immortal Pond’s first sect master was also his life and death enemy. However, despite his strength, Sect Master Bai had forced him into fleeing, to the point that Daoist Crow could only hide within Crow Star. At least, until he reached Dao Confirming.”
If Ning Cheng were here, he would have recalled Bai Ziting on hearing those words. When he first obtained Daoist Crow’s stuff, he also had received the message and warning left behind by Daoist Crow. That is, to be wary of Bai Ziting and to help him get rid of Bai Ziting, the first and only real enemy in his life. Daoist Crow hadn’t left any words to explain how Daoist Crow and Bai Ziting had become enemies.
“Ah…” Zhai Chuman didn’t expect at all that the Daoist Crow she admired the most was the biggest enemy of her Traceless Immortal Pond’s first sect master.
“I’ll tell you about these matters later. But you should know that all people from my Traceless Immortal Pond have a chance to get out of this corner of the universe and reach for positional planes where true powerhouses cultivate. Of course, the prerequisite is that we must occupy the Traceless Gate and harvest as many cultivation resources as possible from it.” Wu Yuankong said with a solemn voice.
Zhai Chuman nodded, “I know that Traceless Immortal Pond guards the Traceless Gate. And that the cultivators who want to go in naturally have to pay the required Permanent Essence Pills. Don’t worry sect master; I will fulfil my duty of helping Traceless Immortal Pond guard the Traceless Gate. I won’t let the sect master down.”
“Chuman, it’s not just that. Once someone wants to harm my Traceless Immortal Pond’s interest, we must never let it go. Even if it were the one who brought you out of the Traceless Gate, it would remain the same. You have to remember this at all times, that the sect’s interests come above all else.” Pu Yinxiang’s soft voice also turned solemn.
Zhai Chuman looked at the sect master and her master in front of her with a puzzled look. She hesitated for a while before speaking, “Master, you mean, giving that 100 million Permanent Essence Pill reward to Ning Cheng is a false promise? You mean to say that our Traceless Immortal Pond can’t let him leave?”
She wasn’t a fool. She already had some doubts before. But now that her master put it out so bluntly, she didn’t doubt it anymore. It’s just that the realisation came a bit slow. Despite this, Zhai Chuman did not dare to question her sect master directly, and instead, set her sights on her master.
Pu Yinxiang nodded, “Yes. That Ning Cheng has no good intentions. You can see the recording from the monitoring array.”
After Pu Yinxiang waved her hand, a huge array formation monitoring screen appeared on the opposite wall. On the screen, it showed the recording of the time just before Ning Cheng entered the Traceless Gate. A conversation with several other cultivators.
After the conversation on the array formation screen ended, Pu Yinxiang spoke up once again. “When this Ning Cheng entered the Traceless Gate, he felt suspicious of what Traceless Immortal Pond did. Therefore, once we let him out, his suspicions would spread out. If that happened, our Traceless Immortal Pond’s people could forget about entering high-level positional planes. Moreover, we would become the enemy of all four grand starry skies. But you don’t have to think about Ning Cheng anymore. There won’t be a person with this name existing in this part of the starry sky after today.”
Zhai Chuman looked at her sect master and master in disbelief. Previously, her master had said that Traceless Immortal Pond had endless wealth, but she still hadn’t cared about it. She assumed that what her master implied was that Traceless Immortal Pond had so much wealth because it guarded the Traceless Gate.
But now she finally understood what her master meant by those words. Traceless Immortal Pond indeed had too much wealth, and it did come from ‘guarding’ the Traceless Gate. However, unlike what she previously thought, the Traceless Immortal Pond’s ‘guarding’ was just a ruse for running a black shop, and its wealth wasn’t clean. Traceless Immortal Pond would wipe out any cultivator that revealed the source of Traceless Immortal Pond’s wealth.
If not for doing such shady work, Traceless Immortal Pond would never have become such a wealthy sect.
But this wasn’t the most shocking news that Zhai Chuman heard. Despite Zhai Chuman’s disbelief, Pu Yinxiang continued. “Chuman, because you got lost in Traceless Gate, we didn’t get to teach you many of our sect’s workings until now. But since you advanced to the Eternal Realm, it means that you would soon be vacating the position of the Sacred Lady. Then, like me, you will become the decision-maker of Traceless Immortal Pond.”
Wu Yuankong looked at Zhai Chuman with a soft gaze before speaking, “Man’er, after dual cultivating with me, you wouldn’t have to worry about anything. I will also help you succeed in reaching Dao Confirming, and then……”
Zhai Chuman immediately sobered up. She even left aside the matter of her Traceless Immortal Pond running a black shop and asked in surprise, “Master, you mean….”
Pu Yinxiang nodded, “That’s right, Chuman. All the Sacred Ladies of Traceless Immortal Pond must undergo dual cultivation with the sect master. You are not the first, nor will you be the last.”
Zhai Chuman turned sluggish. She finally understood why her master was the last Sacred Lady and had remained in seclusion with the sect master ever since she knew about her. She also realised why she had to cultivate a bizarre pure yin cultivation method all this time.
It was all to serve herself to the sect master.
The sluggish Zhai Chuman heard Pu Yinxiang’s voice. “Chuman, our cultivation method has another name, called ‘Wedding Dress’[1]. As your master, I’m sorry for not telling you this the first time. But don’t worry, after you finish dual cultivating with the sect master, we still would have a chance to reach Dao Confirming ….”
Wedding dress, wedding dress……
Zhai Chuman now fully understood it. No wonder she always felt that her cultivation method was a bit weird. It turns out that her cultivation method was nothing more than a wedding dress.
Pu Yinxiang sighed in secret before standing up and wanting to leave. The sect master wanted to use her disciple for dual cultivation to make her disciple’s wedding dress work for him. But she didn’t want to stay here and watch. Although she knew that she was thinking about her disciple, Chuman wouldn’t understand it, nor would she even try to understand.
Zhai Chuman trembled all over. She would never allow this to happen. Her cultivation method might be a wedding dress, but she would never use it for a sect master of such a sect. When she realised what Traceless Immortal Pond did, she only had endless disappointment filling up her heart.
She was a person with principles. If this weren’t the case, she would have already killed Ning Cheng in Traceless Gate. Plus, she would have also taken away the so-called Traceless Gate’s directional-assistance artefact from Ning Cheng’s dead body.
But not only did she not do such a thing, she even prevented Bian Zhuo from doing it. Even without considering the spirit grasses on Ning Cheng, she had not demanded it. Replaced with other cultivators, they most likely wouldn’t do such a thing.
When she advanced to the Eternal Realm, she vaguely felt that there was something wrong with her cultivation method. Therefore, every time she went into secluded cultivation, she would subconsciously change her cultivation method slightly according to her body. In truth, she had achieved something significant over the years. If given a bit more time, she would have changed this Wedding Dress Cultivation Method into a cultivation method unique to herself. She wouldn’t need to consummate with someone.
But if this sect master wanted to dual cultivate with her, all of her efforts would turn to dust.
But how could she object to it? Sect Master had saved her life, and everything she had become today had all come from Traceless Immortal Pond.
“Boom….” A horrifying explosion erupted somewhere outside that shook the whole room, and Wu Yuankong stood up with a shocked face. After just a breath, his figure flashed and disappeared from the room.
Something went wrong within Traceless Immortal Pond, Pu Yinxiang and Zhai Chuman immediately understood. However, Zhai Chuman didn’t care about what happened to Traceless Immortal Pond anymore, and even Pu Yinxiang also didn’t care too much about it. Moreover, when it came to Traceless Immortal Pond, one could say that it was the largest sect within the Demon Domain. As such, no matter what happened inside it, it wouldn’t leak outside.
“Master, why are you doing this?” Zhai Chuman looked at Pu Yinxiang and spoke slowly.
Pu Yinxiang sighed. Her eyes, however, didn’t show any signs of guilt. Rather, it had a trace of helplessness in it. “Chuman, believe in your master’s words. You’ll only have better benefits after dual cultivating with the sect master.”
As she watched her master walk out of the room, Zhai Chuman’s eyes flashed with a trace of sadness. She had remained trapped within the Traceless Gate for many years. Even then, she had always regarded her master with the utmost respect in her heart. One could even say that without her master, the world wouldn’t have any Zhai Chuman. She treated and respected her master even more than a parent.
As the sounds and roars of explosions outside grew louder and louder, Zhai Chuman suddenly started to have some expectations in her heart. She couldn’t understand this feeling, so she immediately decided to come out and investigate.
Perhaps Wu Yuankong walked out of this room too fast and didn’t care about activating his cave’s restrictions. Or maybe, Wu Yuankong didn’t worry about Zhai Chuman leaving Traceless Immortal Pond at all. Perhaps without his permission, no one could casually leave Traceless Immortal Pond.
“Who are you?” As soon as Zhai Chuman came out, she heard the horrifying shout of her sect master and suddenly froze.
Traceless Immortal Pond’s beautiful and scenic Traceless Public Square had turned into ruins. Even the several fairyland-like void waterfalls had reduced to pieces. At the same time, corpses of cultivators appeared on the messy public square. Among these fallen cultivators, she even saw the body of the late-stage Eternal elder of her sect, Jiao Yang, who had come to greet her.
Elder Qian Song also had a turbulent aura around her. She sat at the edge of the messy public square and stared at Ning Cheng blankly. It felt as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she couldn’t say anything before falling to the ground without any breath.
If this weren’t terrifying enough, something else made Zhai Chuman’s face even paler. Eight of the nine Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillars that symbolised the Traceless Immortal Pond had already collapsed. No wonder she heard all those terrifying explosions a few moments ago. From the looks of it, someone had thoroughly smashed apart eight of the nine Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillars of Traceless Immortal Pond.
One had to know that these nine Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillars symbolised the status of Traceless Immortal Pond. No other sect in the four grand starry skies had these Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillars, nor could any other sect afford to create it.
A calm-faced young man wearing a blue robe stood in between the ruins of the Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillars and the debris strewn across the public square. He replied with a flat tone, “My name is Ning Cheng.”
“Ning Cheng, what hate exists between my Traceless Immortal Pond and you? You destroyed all the Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillars of my Traceless Immortal Pond, you……” Wu Yuankong’s face paled with anger, and almost spat out a mouthful of blood. He had never imagined that Ning Cheng was the cultivator who created such a mess within his Traceless Immortal Pond.
Ning Cheng only showed a slight smile, and the Celestial Rainbow Purgatory Spear in his hand shot out. The violent celestial essence within the long spear quickly blasted through the surrounding space. From this, it was clear that the spacial distance had become meaningless in front of this shot. It gave people the feeling that this spear could split apart space directly.
The Celestial Rainbow Purgatory Spear gathered the violent celestial essence and blasted towards the only remaining Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillar. It forced another explosion resulting in the complete collapse of the pillar.
“Boom……” The last Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillar collapsed completely and crumbled to dust all over the ground.
Ning Cheng held the Celestial Rainbow Purgatory Spear once again and looked at Wu Yuankong, who kept trembling with anger. He then spoke with a calm voice, “Only now did I destroy all the Heaven Connecting Array Entrance Pillars of your Traceless Immortal Pond. You were wrong.”
[1] The raws do mention the name as ‘嫁衣 – Wedding Dress’. According to what I found, a woman wears a wedding dress just once in her life. Only for her husband on the wedding day. However, in modern times, the word ‘嫁衣’ is sometimes used as a slang for virgin prostitutes in certain regions. If you feel that the explanation is wrong, then please do point it out so that I can correct it for the rest of our readers. As a non-native Chinese translator, it is sometimes difficult to accurately translate certain words/phrases into English. I hope you understand.
