Xie Dao Ling held the jade tag tightly and closely examined the content inside.
A minute later.
She told Gu Qing Shan: “This place is the Palace of Burning Incense. According to the ancient rules, all cultivators preparing to scale the Heaven-supporting pillar must perform the rite of burning the incense for one entire day in this place, only then can they scale the Heaven-supporting pillar and head up to Mount Sumeru”
Gu Qing Shan asked: “The Heaven-supporting pillar was already broken, and Heaven Pillar World had turned into this desolate wasteland, but Shifu would still adhere to the ancient rites?”
“Hm, I am prepared to remain here for tonight and begin scaling the Heaven-supporting pillar tomorrow”
Saying so, Xie Dao Ling summoned the Spirit Tortoise.
She handed the jade tag to the Spirit Tortoise and said: “Same rules as before, return it”
Gu Qing Shan asked: “Did Shifu fully memorize it?”
Xie Dao Ling nodded: “This scripture has a total of 94 issues, 1089 points that can be improved, and 61 points with double meaning. I’ve pointed them out and made the corresponding improvements, consider it my thanks for using their cultivation scriptures”
Gu Qing Shan then asked: “Did Shifu do the same for each cultivator’s scripture as well?”
“Indeed. After all, we are not acquainted nor hold a grudge against one another; I used something that belonged to them, so I helped them avoid the roundabout in return; this way neither sides will be indebted to one another, it is for the best”
Gu Qing Shan was about to praise her but recalled how those people were chastising, insulting Shifu earlier, so he held himself back.
As the Spirit Tortoise received the jade tag, he vanished without a trace.
The only people left in the palace were the pair of master and disciple.
Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit and asked: “Shifu, could you really continuously break through and advance without facing a Tribulation?”
Xie Dao Ling nodded.
“I do not know why it is like this either” she slowly said, “But ever since I fully refined the golden lotus, my comprehension of cultivation has far surpassed myself in the past, fully comprehending many things at a single glance. Occasionally, some visions would flash through my head”
“What kind of visions?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Xie Dao Ling appeared a bit lost and muttered: “I can’t really say, occasionally, sometimes there are creatures that I have never seen before, sometimes the scene of a world’s destruction, as well as numerous unfamiliar faces and languages”
“Perhaps they were visions of a dream? Can you see the cultivators from the Age of Old?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
He was asking this because when Gu Qing Shan was searching for the Heaven sword, he once entered Xie Dao Ling’s dreamscape.
To avoid the Temporal Oasis where he was forging the Heaven sword from being discovered, the Immortal King had hidden the final jade disk within Xie Dao Ling’s dreamscape.
Xie Dao Ling thought for a bit, then replied: “No, if they were cultivators, I would have been able to infer somewhat, but the objects and scenes that I witnessed were definitely things that I had never seen before in my life”
The two of them exchanged glances.
Xie Dao Ling waved her hand to arrange several formations around them and whispered: “I once left all of our sect’s inheritance to you, have you learnt [Unbreakable Mountain Range]?”
“I have” Gu Qing Shan admitted: “That Skill can manifest a shadowy figure”
“Right, it was that figure, I saw that figure in my visions” Xie Dao Ling explained.
Gu Qing Shan was shocked.
He recalled that figure.
It was a gigantic humanoid monster, the face could be faintly recognized to be human, but the body was an extremely long body of a snake—– or perhaps it wasn’t a snake, but a—— dragon?
Xie Dao Ling continued: “When I noticed this, I immediately searched for the jade tag that I used to study this technique, to find out who or what that entity was; but unfortunately, that martial arts jade tag did not contain this Divine Skill, not a single word about it”
For some reason, Gu Qing Shan felt cold sweat rolling down his back as he heard this, and couldn’t help but ask: “Could it be that you misremembered? It wasn’t that jade tag, but a different one?”
“There was no mistakes”
Xie Dao Ling lowered her gaze and muttered in an incredibly low voice: “It was when I was checking through that jade tag that I finally recalled, [Unbreakable Mountain Range] was a technique that I personally created”
Gu Qing Shan froze.
Xie Dao Ling continued: “At the time, I was only 19 years old, my sect had just been destroyed not too long ago. While drifting alone on the outside, I killed a certain martial artist filled with malicious intent and learnt a martial arts scripture from him, while I was taking a look at it, I subconsciously created this Divine Skill—— at the time, I was fearful of it myself and understood that something wasn’t right, so I sealed this memory away—— it was only when I went in search of the technique that this memory resurfaced and the truth came to light”
Gu Qing Shan tried his best to retain his composure and asked: “Shifu, then what about [Forgetting River]?”
“It was also a Skill that I created, or rather, ‘realized’ on my own” Xie Dao Ling admitted.
“When was it?”
“21 years old”
Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath.
He had seen many strange and unusual things in his life, but in the case of Xie Dao Ling, this was something that he hadn’t even heard of, let alone witness.
Xie Dao Ling continued: “Unlike the entity manifested from [Unbreakable Mountain Range], the ferryman of [Forgetting River] was an entity that can be communicated with, she’s always the one who asks how much vitality I’m willing to give up each time I use the technique, so I took an opportunity to ask her what exactly happened”
Gu Qing Shan immediately asked: “What did she say?”
“She had never told me anything before, there was only one time when I insisted on it too heavily that she sighed and told me that I was ‘pitiful’”
Gu Qing Shan’s heart almost jumped out from his chest.
This statement had always remained at the bottom of his mind, never once did he forget about it.
In the world of the giant corpse, the monster that took all of his strength and the Earth sword’s near-sacrifice to kill had told him the same thing.
It said that I was pitiful.
Pitiful?
Why am I pitiful?
A heavy sense of fear heavily grasped at Gu Qing Shan’s heart.
He abruptly stood up and walked around the palace.
“My disciple, what’s wrong?” Xie Dao Ling asked.
Gu Qing Shan displayed a forced smile and replied: “It’s nothing, I was just thinking about what kind of Deity that ferryman of the Forgetting River is supposed to be”
—–the Huang Quan fragment under the rule of the Wraith realm shouldn’t have such a Deity.
She is too powerful, so the Wraith realm might not necessarily be able to deal with her.
Which means, she must have come from an unknown Huang Quan realm fragment world.
Why did she say that Shifu was pitiful?
What does she know?
In the first place, is Shifu’s matter even related to the monster that I met?
Gu Qing Shan felt like his mind could explode.
Xie Dao Ling frowned: “I once performed a few Divinations, attempting to foresee if there were any ways for me to come into contact with the matters in my visions”
“What was the result?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“The results all pointed at this Sumeru Lord realm Tribulation—— as you know, I originally did not need to face this Tribulation, but since facing the Tribulation would allow me to learn more about myself, as well as help our world collect more cultivation scriptures, I decided to come”
Gu Qing Shan stopped.
Seems like I’ll have to use everything I have this time around.
Not only is this matter related to Shifu, but it might also be related to me.
Xie Dao Ling continued: “Ever since the Heaven-supporting pillar was broken, both the {Mahesvara King} realm Tribulation and Sumeru Lord realm Tribulation had gotten considerably more dangerous. I’m not particularly confident about this, so Qing Shan, you mustn’t let your guard down either”
“I understand. I’ll go strolling outside and take a look around” Gu Qing Shan said.
“Very well, this place isn’t a location that anyone can simply arrive at, only those who face their Tribulation would be able to make it here. You can take a look around, perhaps you’ll find something new”
Xie Dao Ling’s tone suddenly became softer and asked: “When can you return to the sect? Xiu Xiu and the rest are all missing you”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “I’m caught up with some task for the next while, but as soon as I’m done, I’ll return to visit everyone”
He then recalled something and asked: “Shifu, are you currently at {Mahesvara King} realm?”
“Indeed” Xie Dao Ling replied.
Gu Qing Shan cautiously asked: “The legends say that a {Mahesvara King} has 48 Dependants, but what does that mean?”
Xie Dao Ling exclaimed a curt ‘ah’, climbed down from her hair, both hands clasped behind her back as she walked in front of Gu Qing Shan.
She reached her hand out——-
But Gu Qing Shan was too tall, and her current body can’t reach Gu Qing Shan’s forehead.
Xie Dao Ling glared at him and bit and said: “Lower your head”
So Gu Qing Shan lowered his head.
Xie Dao Ling tapped her finger between his eyebrows, then returned to her chair, climbing back onto it.
