It was not surprising for Bai Dianfeng to recognize Jing Yuan.
Because Jing Yuan's face was not unfamiliar to many cultivators, many people listened to his stories when they were young, and stepped into the road of cultivation worshiping his portrait. Although there were several other powerful beings at that time, only Jing Yuan started as a rogue cultivator to become a great master through his own efforts, established a sect, and became the first patriarch of today's cultivation world.
It was also because of Frostcloud Sect’s status today that made Jing Yuan's experience even more legendary.
Moreover, Jing Yuan also took an unusual path. He didn’t die during the Yao Catalyst but was struck to death by the heavenly lightning tribulation.
“Lightning tribulation… 10,000 years ago… Jing Yuan!” Jiang-zhenren, who was also oppressed and hunched over, suddenly shouted, “This is Nine-fraction Snow Mountain, the remains of the cave where Daoist-Master Jing Yuan crossed the lightning tribulation back then!”
Everyone felt their scalps go numb, and couldn't help swallowing. They looked at the rock wall and murmured, “Then this is…”
“This is the projection of Jing Yuan-daozu’s sword practice in the past!”
The crowd instantly exploded into chaos, wishing they had a memory stone to record all they saw in front of them. But the memory stone was not very useful so cultivators usually don't bring it. Thus after a while, everyone was like the three brothers of the Chen family, facing the rock cliff and visualizing.
Chen Guo felt dizzy after looking at the wall for a moment, and he couldn't understand it at all, so he said to the soul in his consciousness, “So this is the cave of the Daozu. Daozu is really good-looking.”
The demonic cultivator said perfunctorily, “Mm-hmm.”
But he thought inwardly it was fortunate that his soul was too weak to take on a human form, otherwise, Chen Guo would find out that he and Jing Yuan looked completely different.
That was right, in order to gain Chen Guo's trust back then, he lied to the other party that he was Daoist-Master Jing Yuan, the great Tribulation Passage cultivator from 10,000 years ago, and came to help the other party because he predicted that he had a chance encounter with Chen Guo. Later, he would bring Chen Guo to join Frostcloud Sect so that he could become fellow disciples with Yi Ye and Jing Yue.
Chen Guo was really naïve and ignorant to believe his nonsense.
Seeing that Chen Guo didn't cherish the great opportunity but got distracted instead, the demonic cultivator couldn't help but feel sorry for the other party, but he didn't bother to remind him. He stared hungrily at the projection on the cliff, thinking that it was not in vain for him to spend so much soul power!
Although Jing Yuan-daozu was not famous for his swordsmanship, the other party was a Tribulation Passage powerhouse. Just by casually performing a set of sword techniques, the details were enough to benefit him greatly! He just couldn't fully understand it yet, so he could only memorize it now and digest it slowly later.
Next to them, Qin Yanzhi was also fascinated, but it was not for the sword techniques—his attention was all on the afterimage of Jing Yuan.
For some reason, these afterimages caused a dull ache in his heart, and also carried a touch of remorse and hatred. Those emotions were strange, as if he owned them, but also as if they didn’t belong to him.
Right at this moment, the afterimage on the cliff froze and turned around abruptly. He didn't look at anyone in particular, but everyone felt that Jing Yuan was looking at them and saw through them completely.
The demonic cultivator only felt severe pain in his soul and almost collapsed. He hurriedly said, “Go! Get out of here!”
Chen Guo didn't know why, because he was distracted all the time, he was not affected by Jing Yuan's glance. He wondered, “Daozu, do you want to escape from your own cave?”
The demonic cultivator became irritated. “Why do you ask so many questions! I'm telling you to go get my treasure while no one is paying attention!”
Chen Guo hurriedly responded, and while the others were still in a daze, he quietly walked into the cave.
As soon as they moved, Jing Yue realized, but knowing that the two would walk into his alchemy room next, Jing Yue released a ray of divine consciousness to attach to Chen Guo. With his powerful degree of divine consciousness, not even the demonic cultivator could detect it, let alone Chen Guo.
As for now, Jing Yue swept his eyes over the mesmerized crowd, thinking inwardly that the projection of his sword practice wasn’t supposed to be used as their teaching aid, but showing them a little could be considered a chance encounter for them.
Thus, with a wave of his sleeve, the projection disappeared.
Qin Yanzhi's tensed body gradually relaxed. Just now, he almost lost himself in Jing Yuan’s gaze. At that time, a lot of things suddenly appeared in his mind, but when he tried to recall it now, he drew a complete blank.
After the projection dispersed, he felt a momentary loss and didn’t notice what Jing Yue had done.
The others at the scene also breathed a sigh of relief. That look from Jing Yuan almost suffocated them. If it continued, it might hurt their divine consciousness.
In fact, they guessed right. If Jing Yue allowed them to keep watching, based on the cultivation level of these Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators, they were likely to suffer a Qi deviation. After all, the gap between Jing Yuan and them was too big. Forcefully memorizing the moves would result in a backlash.
This time, everyone was awake, only to find that a person was missing.
Bai Dianfeng immediately glared at Jing and Qin, “Where is the other person from your Chen family?”
Jing Yue sold the other party out directly. “They went in ahead of time.”
Bai Dianfeng was immediately shocked, glared at Jing Yue, and said to the people behind him, “Let’s go!”
A group of people left boisterously. Of course, the people from Hall of Fiery Pill wouldn’t stay either, so only Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi were left here.
Qin Yanzhi, “Aren't you in a hurry anymore?”
Jing Yue didn’t answer directly, but asked, “How did you feel when you saw the afterimage of Jing Yuan-daozu?”
Qin Yanzhi's eyes narrowed. After a while, he said, “A lot, but I don't remember any of it. I just feel uncomfortable.”
Jing Yue lowered his eyes as if he had made a difficult decision. He took a deep breath and said, “I'm not in a hurry because I know those people will fight later so we can wait it out first.”
Qin Yanzhi was puzzled at first before his eyes widened slightly. Seeing Jing Yue's eyes didn’t evade, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
He had a feeling that soon, he would know Jing Yue's biggest secret—the other party had finally chosen to trust him.
About a quarter of an hour later, Jing Yue said, “It's almost time, let's go.”
When the two entered the next spacious cave, they saw a sea of fire. Flowing magma looked like a surging river in the sunset, with an occasional shiny object in the rush.
Most of the cultivators were floating in mid-air fighting to the death, while others protected themselves with spiritual energy, fumbling in the magma with their butts in the air.
“Eh?” Jing Yue was a little surprised. His alchemy room had been rendered into this state by the heavenly lightning. It seemed that the spiritual herbs were no more, but the pills were still there. The shiny things in the magma were elixirs he refined 10,000 years ago.
Qin Yanzhi, “What are they doing?”
Jing Yue, “Looking for pills.”
Qin Yanzhi, “Is this Jing Yuan-daozu’s alchemy room?”
Jing Yue, “That’s right.”
Qin Yanzhi obviously felt that Jing Yue was much more honest with him. Now that things had come to this point, he certainly had his own guesses, but he still wanted to hear Jing Yue tell him personally, so he deliberately tested, “With you here, it seems we don't need to search around?”
Jing Yue said with a smile, “If Qin-zhenjun wants to, I won’t stop you.”
Qin Yanzhi also smiled and said no more.
In a corner of the cave, Chen Guo was also groping in the magma under the protection of the demonic cultivator’s soul power. Suddenly, he touched a hard object, picked it up, and saw that it was a golden elixir.
“I found it!” Chen Guo shouted excitedly.
Demonic cultivator: %#%......@#@! “What the hell are you yelling for?”
Sure enough, a bunch of spells smashed at Chen Guo. Jing Yue wanted to block it at first, but when he saw a thin light on Chen Guo's body, he knew that the demonic cultivator was protecting him. He smiled inwardly and said to Qin Yanzhi, “Let the demonic cultivator consume his energy for a while. These attacks won't hurt him.”
So, he took Qin Yanzhi into a hidden cave. In his consciousness, blue phoenix said in disappointment, “This Grandpa Goldfinger is too useless, much worse than Lil Leaf.”
As everyone was very engrossed with the magma, no one noticed the movements of Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi. They walked out of the cave without hindrance and saw a huge pit.
From time to time, the pit glowed with luminous blue light. From a distance, it looked like a lake. Jing Yue clenched his palms and he could even feel the cold sweat in his hands. He calmed his mind and slowly approached the giant pit.
Back then, he was struck into ashes here and then taken away by the blue jade before he became who he was today. Now that he thought about it, the place where he awakened was actually not far away. It was just that he was so shocked by the rebirth at that time that he didn't sense Canglan, and just missed Canglan in a mess of events.
Mini Canglan Sword seemed to sense that its biggest enemy had appeared, and was very agitated. Jing Yue had to hold it in his hands to comfort it. Who knew that while Mini Canglan was at peace, Taiqing rushed into the pit while Qin Yanzhi was not paying attention.
Boom!
There was a loud noise and the ground shook slightly.
The blue light disappeared, and a broken sword was clearly visible at the bottom of the pit. The sword body had been broken into four or five pieces, and each piece was full of cracks as if it would shatter apart when touched.
In the pit, there was also a four or five-year-old boy kneeling beside the broken sword, his eyes filled with sadness.
Qin Yanzhi frowned, but heard Jing Yue whisper, “Yi Wang…”
He turned his head in surprise and saw Jing Yue staring blankly at the little boy, who was naturally the true face of Taiqing sword soul.
Qin Yanzhi remembered that Yi Wang was the second disciple of Daoist-Master Jing Yuan. He was the one who killed the Yao Saint back then, and Yi Wang's natal sword was called Taiqing.
He suddenly remembered Jing Yue's strange attitude towards Taiqing when they were in the Void Sword Tomb, and Taiqing had always been very close to Jing Yue. At first, he thought that Taiqing followed the footsteps of the owner. Because Qin Yanzhi liked Jing Yue, Taiqing also liked him. But now it seemed that Taiqing’s attitude was simply because of Jing Yue and not for other reasons, so Qin Yanzhi had made the wrong assumption.
If the conjecture in his mind was correct, these things were actually easy to explain.
Qin Yanzhi was in a complicated mood, and it was difficult to distinguish his emotions. Suddenly, he heard rapid footsteps behind him. It was obvious that others heard the commotion and chased after them.
“That is!” Bai Dianfeng's pupils shrank and his voice shook. “It’s… it can’t be that sword…”
Jiang-zhenren was also deeply stimulated and forgot all about his feud with Bai Dianfeng. He subconsciously echoed, “C-C-C-Canglan?”
Bai Dianfeng, “Hasn’t Canglan been completely destroyed yet?! Eh, no, who's the kid on the side?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a figure rushing forward past him, but before the figure ran to the edge of the pit, the blue light dazzled blindingly for an instant. A miserable scream was heard and Jiang-zhenren had lost his legs and was rolling on the ground.
Bai Dianfeng realized that the other party wanted to grab the treasure but his anger had not welled up before he was filled with fear and took a few steps back. The low-level cultivators knelt directly on the ground and shouted for mercy.
They were here to pick up bargains, not die. This Canglan sword was too brutal!
Under the instigation of the demonic cultivator, Chen Guo was still hesitating whether to fight or not. But now, not only did he not dare to move, but the demonic cultivator in his consciousness was also as quiet as a chicken.
Of the nearly 100 people, only Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi acted as usual.
Jing Yue, “Did you guess?”
Qin Yanzhi, “…”
Jing Yue, “Your guess is right.”
With that said, he walked to the huge pit. The broken Canglan sword at the bottom of the pit suddenly flew up and rushed at Jing Yue!
It was not surprising for Bai Dianfeng to recognize Jing Yuan.
Because Jing Yuan's face was not unfamiliar to many cultivators, many people listened to his stories when they were young, and stepped into the road of cultivation worshiping his portrait. Although there were several other powerful beings at that time, only Jing Yuan started as a rogue cultivator to become a great master through his own efforts, established a sect, and became the first patriarch of today's cultivation world.
It was also because of Frostcloud Sect’s status today that made Jing Yuan's experience even more legendary.
Moreover, Jing Yuan also took an unusual path. He didn’t die during the Yao Catalyst but was struck to death by the heavenly lightning tribulation.
“Lightning tribulation… 10,000 years ago… Jing Yuan!” Jiang-zhenren, who was also oppressed and hunched over, suddenly shouted, “This is Nine-fraction Snow Mountain, the remains of the cave where Daoist-Master Jing Yuan crossed the lightning tribulation back then!”
Everyone felt their scalps go numb, and couldn't help swallowing. They looked at the rock wall and murmured, “Then this is…”
“This is the projection of Jing Yuan-daozu’s sword practice in the past!”
The crowd instantly exploded into chaos, wishing they had a memory stone to record all they saw in front of them. But the memory stone was not very useful so cultivators usually don't bring it. Thus after a while, everyone was like the three brothers of the Chen family, facing the rock cliff and visualizing.
Chen Guo felt dizzy after looking at the wall for a moment, and he couldn't understand it at all, so he said to the soul in his consciousness, “So this is the cave of the Daozu. Daozu is really good-looking.”
The demonic cultivator said perfunctorily, “Mm-hmm.”
But he thought inwardly it was fortunate that his soul was too weak to take on a human form, otherwise, Chen Guo would find out that he and Jing Yuan looked completely different.
That was right, in order to gain Chen Guo's trust back then, he lied to the other party that he was Daoist-Master Jing Yuan, the great Tribulation Passage cultivator from 10,000 years ago, and came to help the other party because he predicted that he had a chance encounter with Chen Guo. Later, he would bring Chen Guo to join Frostcloud Sect so that he could become fellow disciples with Yi Ye and Jing Yue.
Chen Guo was really naïve and ignorant to believe his nonsense.
Seeing that Chen Guo didn't cherish the great opportunity but got distracted instead, the demonic cultivator couldn't help but feel sorry for the other party, but he didn't bother to remind him. He stared hungrily at the projection on the cliff, thinking that it was not in vain for him to spend so much soul power!
Although Jing Yuan-daozu was not famous for his swordsmanship, the other party was a Tribulation Passage powerhouse. Just by casually performing a set of sword techniques, the details were enough to benefit him greatly! He just couldn't fully understand it yet, so he could only memorize it now and digest it slowly later.
Next to them, Qin Yanzhi was also fascinated, but it was not for the sword techniques—his attention was all on the afterimage of Jing Yuan.
For some reason, these afterimages caused a dull ache in his heart, and also carried a touch of remorse and hatred. Those emotions were strange, as if he owned them, but also as if they didn’t belong to him.
Right at this moment, the afterimage on the cliff froze and turned around abruptly. He didn't look at anyone in particular, but everyone felt that Jing Yuan was looking at them and saw through them completely.
The demonic cultivator only felt severe pain in his soul and almost collapsed. He hurriedly said, “Go! Get out of here!”
Chen Guo didn't know why, because he was distracted all the time, he was not affected by Jing Yuan's glance. He wondered, “Daozu, do you want to escape from your own cave?”
The demonic cultivator became irritated. “Why do you ask so many questions! I'm telling you to go get my treasure while no one is paying attention!”
Chen Guo hurriedly responded, and while the others were still in a daze, he quietly walked into the cave.
As soon as they moved, Jing Yue realized, but knowing that the two would walk into his alchemy room next, Jing Yue released a ray of divine consciousness to attach to Chen Guo. With his powerful degree of divine consciousness, not even the demonic cultivator could detect it, let alone Chen Guo.
As for now, Jing Yue swept his eyes over the mesmerized crowd, thinking inwardly that the projection of his sword practice wasn’t supposed to be used as their teaching aid, but showing them a little could be considered a chance encounter for them.
Thus, with a wave of his sleeve, the projection disappeared.
Qin Yanzhi's tensed body gradually relaxed. Just now, he almost lost himself in Jing Yuan’s gaze. At that time, a lot of things suddenly appeared in his mind, but when he tried to recall it now, he drew a complete blank.
After the projection dispersed, he felt a momentary loss and didn’t notice what Jing Yue had done.
The others at the scene also breathed a sigh of relief. That look from Jing Yuan almost suffocated them. If it continued, it might hurt their divine consciousness.
In fact, they guessed right. If Jing Yue allowed them to keep watching, based on the cultivation level of these Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators, they were likely to suffer a Qi deviation. After all, the gap between Jing Yuan and them was too big. Forcefully memorizing the moves would result in a backlash.
This time, everyone was awake, only to find that a person was missing.
Bai Dianfeng immediately glared at Jing and Qin, “Where is the other person from your Chen family?”
Jing Yue sold the other party out directly. “They went in ahead of time.”
Bai Dianfeng was immediately shocked, glared at Jing Yue, and said to the people behind him, “Let’s go!”
A group of people left boisterously. Of course, the people from Hall of Fiery Pill wouldn’t stay either, so only Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi were left here.
Qin Yanzhi, “Aren't you in a hurry anymore?”
Jing Yue didn’t answer directly, but asked, “How did you feel when you saw the afterimage of Jing Yuan-daozu?”
Qin Yanzhi's eyes narrowed. After a while, he said, “A lot, but I don't remember any of it. I just feel uncomfortable.”
Jing Yue lowered his eyes as if he had made a difficult decision. He took a deep breath and said, “I'm not in a hurry because I know those people will fight later so we can wait it out first.”
Qin Yanzhi was puzzled at first before his eyes widened slightly. Seeing Jing Yue's eyes didn’t evade, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
He had a feeling that soon, he would know Jing Yue's biggest secret—the other party had finally chosen to trust him.
About a quarter of an hour later, Jing Yue said, “It's almost time, let's go.”
When the two entered the next spacious cave, they saw a sea of fire. Flowing magma looked like a surging river in the sunset, with an occasional shiny object in the rush.
Most of the cultivators were floating in mid-air fighting to the death, while others protected themselves with spiritual energy, fumbling in the magma with their butts in the air.
“Eh?” Jing Yue was a little surprised. His alchemy room had been rendered into this state by the heavenly lightning. It seemed that the spiritual herbs were no more, but the pills were still there. The shiny things in the magma were elixirs he refined 10,000 years ago.
Qin Yanzhi, “What are they doing?”
Jing Yue, “Looking for pills.”
Qin Yanzhi, “Is this Jing Yuan-daozu’s alchemy room?”
Jing Yue, “That’s right.”
Qin Yanzhi obviously felt that Jing Yue was much more honest with him. Now that things had come to this point, he certainly had his own guesses, but he still wanted to hear Jing Yue tell him personally, so he deliberately tested, “With you here, it seems we don't need to search around?”
Jing Yue said with a smile, “If Qin-zhenjun wants to, I won’t stop you.”
Qin Yanzhi also smiled and said no more.
In a corner of the cave, Chen Guo was also groping in the magma under the protection of the demonic cultivator’s soul power. Suddenly, he touched a hard object, picked it up, and saw that it was a golden elixir.
“I found it!” Chen Guo shouted excitedly.
Demonic cultivator: %#%......@#@! “What the hell are you yelling for?”
Sure enough, a bunch of spells smashed at Chen Guo. Jing Yue wanted to block it at first, but when he saw a thin light on Chen Guo's body, he knew that the demonic cultivator was protecting him. He smiled inwardly and said to Qin Yanzhi, “Let the demonic cultivator consume his energy for a while. These attacks won't hurt him.”
So, he took Qin Yanzhi into a hidden cave. In his consciousness, blue phoenix said in disappointment, “This Grandpa Goldfinger is too useless, much worse than Lil Leaf.”
As everyone was very engrossed with the magma, no one noticed the movements of Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi. They walked out of the cave without hindrance and saw a huge pit.
From time to time, the pit glowed with luminous blue light. From a distance, it looked like a lake. Jing Yue clenched his palms and he could even feel the cold sweat in his hands. He calmed his mind and slowly approached the giant pit.
Back then, he was struck into ashes here and then taken away by the blue jade before he became who he was today. Now that he thought about it, the place where he awakened was actually not far away. It was just that he was so shocked by the rebirth at that time that he didn't sense Canglan, and just missed Canglan in a mess of events.
Mini Canglan Sword seemed to sense that its biggest enemy had appeared, and was very agitated. Jing Yue had to hold it in his hands to comfort it. Who knew that while Mini Canglan was at peace, Taiqing rushed into the pit while Qin Yanzhi was not paying attention.
Boom!
There was a loud noise and the ground shook slightly.
The blue light disappeared, and a broken sword was clearly visible at the bottom of the pit. The sword body had been broken into four or five pieces, and each piece was full of cracks as if it would shatter apart when touched.
In the pit, there was also a four or five-year-old boy kneeling beside the broken sword, his eyes filled with sadness.
Qin Yanzhi frowned, but heard Jing Yue whisper, “Yi Wang…”
He turned his head in surprise and saw Jing Yue staring blankly at the little boy, who was naturally the true face of Taiqing sword soul.
Qin Yanzhi remembered that Yi Wang was the second disciple of Daoist-Master Jing Yuan. He was the one who killed the Yao Saint back then, and Yi Wang's natal sword was called Taiqing.
He suddenly remembered Jing Yue's strange attitude towards Taiqing when they were in the Void Sword Tomb, and Taiqing had always been very close to Jing Yue. At first, he thought that Taiqing followed the footsteps of the owner. Because Qin Yanzhi liked Jing Yue, Taiqing also liked him. But now it seemed that Taiqing’s attitude was simply because of Jing Yue and not for other reasons, so Qin Yanzhi had made the wrong assumption.
If the conjecture in his mind was correct, these things were actually easy to explain.
Qin Yanzhi was in a complicated mood, and it was difficult to distinguish his emotions. Suddenly, he heard rapid footsteps behind him. It was obvious that others heard the commotion and chased after them.
“That is!” Bai Dianfeng's pupils shrank and his voice shook. “It’s… it can’t be that sword…”
Jiang-zhenren was also deeply stimulated and forgot all about his feud with Bai Dianfeng. He subconsciously echoed, “C-C-C-Canglan?”
Bai Dianfeng, “Hasn’t Canglan been completely destroyed yet?! Eh, no, who's the kid on the side?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a figure rushing forward past him, but before the figure ran to the edge of the pit, the blue light dazzled blindingly for an instant. A miserable scream was heard and Jiang-zhenren had lost his legs and was rolling on the ground.
Bai Dianfeng realized that the other party wanted to grab the treasure but his anger had not welled up before he was filled with fear and took a few steps back. The low-level cultivators knelt directly on the ground and shouted for mercy.
They were here to pick up bargains, not die. This Canglan sword was too brutal!
Under the instigation of the demonic cultivator, Chen Guo was still hesitating whether to fight or not. But now, not only did he not dare to move, but the demonic cultivator in his consciousness was also as quiet as a chicken.
Of the nearly 100 people, only Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi acted as usual.
Jing Yue, “Did you guess?”
Qin Yanzhi, “…”
Jing Yue, “Your guess is right.”
With that said, he walked to the huge pit. The broken Canglan sword at the bottom of the pit suddenly flew up and rushed at Jing Yue!
