Four seasons rotated and a hundred years went by in a flash.
In Molten City of the Central region, two young men walked along a busy street.
One of them was tall and elegant, while the other looked cold and aloof, pale as if sickly.
“If this trip goes well, we should be able to find the bone in the Dragon Palace. With the dragon bone as an ingredient in the medicine, the holy Yao fruit can be completely transformed.” The elegant young man said worriedly, “When the time comes, you can break through to Return to Void, and the curse on you will also be broken.”
“You don't have to worry. Even if you can't get the dragon bone, I can break through the realm through my cultivation.” The aloof young man comforted, “It just takes more time.”
The two were transformed by Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi. The former said in a low voice, “But time is something we cannot afford the most.”
Qin Yanzhi, “Now, the demonic Dao didn’t get their hands on four Yao fruits. The several secret realms between the Yao and the demonic Dao have been removed, and other righteous sects are guarding the Yao Detention Mountain. It can be said that all passages between the Yao and the demons have been severed. Unless the Yao has another secret method to break through the barrier, it’s impossible for them to send a Yao fruit to Han Guang. Without another fruit to nourish the demon spawn, the righteous path can buy at least 2,000 years.”
Jing Yue didn’t speak as he recalled what happened 100 years ago.
Back then, Liu Feng took him, Qin Yanzhi, and the others away. Halfway through, they met Yi Ye who rushed to West Shu, and the group hurriedly turned around.
Soon, Yi Ye summoned many great masters of the righteous path to discuss the demon spawn. Due to the severity of the matter, all cultivators Return to Void and above, including Kong Miao who was in closed-door seclusion, gathered in Frostcloud Sect.
The discussion went on for three days and nights, and since the birth of the demon spawn was irreversible, they could only do two things.
First, suppress and weaken the demonic Dao and buy time for the righteous Dao.
Second, reserve strength, wait for the birth of the demon spawn, and kill it while it was weak.
On the fourth day, when Kong Miao was ready to return to Three Realm Temple, Jing Yue handed the Lotus Stand of Reincarnation to him.
According to Kong Miao, there was indeed an eminent monk in Three Realm Temple who passed away not long ago. When he died, there was very faint residual demonic energy on his chest. If not for Kong Miao’s powerful strength, it would almost be overlooked.
This eminent monk happened to have come into contact with the Lotus Stand of Reincarnation, so he must be the mole planted by the demonic Dao.
But the eminent monk grew up in the temple, while the demonic Dao only started their preparations 100 years ago. In other words, the monk was controlled or replaced 100 years ago.
Strangely enough, judging from the corpse of the eminent monk, he died recently, which showed that the people behind the scenes could control the living. This mysterious technique was most likely related to the legacy of Asura Tower.
No one on the righteous path expected that the demonic cultivator could go undercover under Kong Miao's nose without being noticed. For a time, everyone was on high alert, and there was another round of cleaning up, but nothing was found.
Unable to vent their frustrations, they could only take it out on Lurking Ghost Sect again, but Han Guang was nowhere to be found.
Without Han Guang's control, the mountain protection formation was just a decoration. In addition, Lurking Ghost Sect had been demolished by Liu Feng before, and after this time, it turned into ruins.
The disciples of Lurking Ghost Sect scattered in all directions and had not been seen for a hundred years.
When Kong Miao returned to Three Realm Temple, Wei Zhentu, who was not seriously injured, obtained consent from Hong Luan and followed Kong Miao with Ruan Jiu’s fragmented soul and two holy Yao fruits.
However, due to Qin Yanzhi’s severe injuries, he was still unconscious. Sword Inscription Sect had no choice but to leave him in the Frostcloud Sect to recuperate for the time being.
At that time, Qin Yanzhi’s dantian and spiritual dais were injured, and even Taiqing was too weak to take a human form. Jing Yue stayed by his side every day. Although he believed that Qin Yanzhi would wake up, he was always afraid that Qin Yanzhi would not wake up.
To him, this sense of uncertainty was unfamiliar.
Soon after, blue phoenix regained its energy and poured vitality into Qin Yanzhi day and night. One year later, Qin Yanzhi finally woke up.
However, Qin Yanzhi’s realm took a fall. He had already touched the upper edge of Heavenly Grotto back then, but fell to the lower stage of Heavenly Grotto. Despite that, he had taken a full blow from Han Guang and was injured by the curse from the mountain protection barrier of Lurking Ghost Sect, so he was fortunate enough to be able to keep his dantian and spiritual dais.
With Qin Yanzhi’s resilient personality, coupled with the nourishment of treasures from Sword Inscription Sect and Frostcloud Sect, his cultivation level slowly recovered.
Now that a hundred years had passed, he had broken through the small realm and regained the mid-level Heavenly Grotto again not long ago.
Unfortunately, Qin Yanzhi's curse had not been removed, which posed a big hidden danger for his cultivation. For this reason, Jing Yue tried ways and means to refine the holy Yao fruit into something that the human race could absorb. With the powerful help of the holy Yao fruit, Qin Yanzhi would definitely recover.
His hard work paid off. He gradually found the direction, but he still lacked a dragon bone.
Of course, a dragon bone could only be found in the Dragon Palace.
In terms of origin, the dragon race also had the Yao bloodline, and they could even be considered the ancestor of the Yao race.
However, the dragon race had long broken away from the Yao race and had old grudges. They had been living in the human world for thousands of years, but dragons and humans were equally estranged. They were like bystanders, never intervening in the affairs of the human race. No matter how badly the righteous Dao fought with the demonic Dao, the dragons never interfered.
Even when the Yao saints invaded the human race back then, the dragon race did nothing.
Therefore, it was obviously not feasible to ask the dragon race for a bone.
At this moment, the news of the opening of the Dragon Tomb Secret Realm circulated in the outside world, which was revealed by the dragons on their own initiative, and most people heard about it for the first time.
One needed a Dragon Emergence Stone to enter the Dragon Tomb, which was precisely the stone that Jing Yue obtained with 10,000 spirit stones at an auction many years ago.
However, he only had one stone, and he would be worried if Qin Yanzhi went alone, so he wanted to get another one.
But the Dragon Emergence Stone would only appear with irregular intervals in East Yu on the eve of the opening of the Dragon Tomb, and the numbers were few. Thus, the two left Evernorth and headed to East Yu.
They appeared in the Central region because Jing Yue had overlooked something. He forgot to hand over the spirit of the demonic cultivator who failed to take possession of Chen Guo to Kong Miao, so he had to make a trip to Three Realm Temple again.
Since he made the promise, he had to fulfill it. This was simple karma.
Jing Yue had not returned to his senses from nostalgia when he suddenly heard someone say, “Hey, the one in front, do you want to sell your bird? I’ll give you 100 spirit stones for it.”
“…” Jing Yue thought his ears were playing tricks on him.
As for the blue phoenix who was dozing off on his shoulders, suddenly held its head high in an imposing stance, but quickly realized that not only did someone want to take it away from Jing-jing, but they were only willing to pay 100 spirit stones.
Blue phoenix felt humiliated!
“Jing-jing can't live without Ji-ji, and Jing-jing won’t tolerate Ji-ji being humiliated!”
Jing Yue, “…”
He turned his head and saw a haughty-looking Qi Refining cultivator staring intently at the blue phoenix.
“Are you talking to me?” Jing Yue was still in disbelief.
“That’s right.” The cultivator answered matter-of-factly. “My master is Young Master Jing Moon*, and he has a preference for blue birds. It’d be your honor if he took a fancy to your bird.”
(TN: The pinyin for both names are the same which is Jing Yue, but the Yue character for our MC is 岳 while the newcomer is 月which is moon. To avoid confusion, I’ll use Jing Moon.)
Jing Yue & blue phoenix: ???
Qin Yanzhi, “…”
They were at a loss, but the surrounding people were already talking in low voices.
“So it’s Young Master Jing Moon. No wonder he wanted this blue bird. I think this bird looks healthy and vibrant, much better than the one he has, and more similar to the one raised by Jing-laozu.”
“Tsk, even if someone like him gets the beloved pet of Jing-laozu, he couldn’t measure up to a ten-thousandth of Jing-laozu’s demeanor!”
“Can you lower your voice? Do you want to die?”
“I’m telling the truth.” The person who mocked just now looked at Jing Yue disdainfully. “Tsk, this world is getting from bad to worse. Everyone wants to take shortcuts by hook or by crook, and more and more people are keeping blue birds.”
“Yeah, I heard that some people even dyed their birds blue on purpose.”
The discussions that followed confused Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi more, but it didn’t stop Jing Yue from refusing. “It’s not for sale.”
The blue phoenix immediately rubbed against Jing Yue's neck happily. It knew Jing-jing couldn’t bear to part with it!
The cultivator's expression froze, and he repeated, “My young master is Jing Moon.”
Jing Yue, “Which Jing Yue? It couldn’t be the one from Frostcloud Sect, right? I don’t know the others.”
The cultivator was taunted and said angrily, “You’re in Molten City but you don’t know Young Master Jing Moon and even dare to disrespect him. Y-You’re playing with fire!”
“I know this sentence!” Blue phoenix was instantly excited. “This is the golden sentence in BL novels!”
Jing Yue automatically ignored blue phoenix’s nonsensical words. He turned around and was about to leave.
“Hey! Stop!” The cultivator probably felt embarrassed. Seeing that the two of them seemed like mortals with no cultivation, he reached out and wanted to catch them.
Qin Yanzhi seemed to have eyes on his back. Without looking back, he waved his sleeve lightly, and with a crack, the cultivator’s hand was broken.
The cultivator's screams immediately filled the street. He finally understood that the two of them were not people he could mess with, so he glared at the back of the two of them sullenly, and hurried away while clutching his arm.
‘Just you wait!’ the cultivator thought.
Neither Jing Yue nor Qin Yanzhi took the cultivator seriously, nor did they want to pay attention to the hidden details, but blue phoenix was different.
It groveled several times and finally got Jing Yue's approval, cheering as it caught up with the cultivator.
Soon, the blue phoenix flew back again, with undisguised excitement on its feathered face.
“Jing-jing! Let Ji-ji tell you…”
It turned out that there was a man in the city who looked quite similar to Jing Yue. He was favored by the only female Golden Core cultivator in Molten City and rose with the tide because of that.
The man knew why the female Golden Core cultivator took a fancy to him. To continue his favor, he changed his name to Jing Moon and imitated Jing Yue wholeheartedly. However, he had never seen the young Laozu of Frostcloud Sect and only heard everything about the other party from gossip, and his reference was at the most the picture scrolls of Jing Yue in the market.
Even so, the female Golden Core cultivator favored him a lot and indulged him in every way.
Thus, Jing Moon grew more famous in the city. Everyone knew that he loved blue birds, and the more they resembled Jing-laozu’s, the better. Most people couldn’t get in contact with the Golden Core Zhenren, so they thought of taking shortcuts, so more people raised blue birds in Molten City.
The Qi Refining cultivator just now wanted to buy the blue phoenix to present to Jing Moon.
“He even went back and complained about you!” After blue phoenix finished speaking, it raised its head proudly as if waiting for Jing Yue’s praise.
Jing Yue, “…”
He felt suffocated by blue phoenix’s words. After a while, he said, “Did you say a person resembling me became a female cultivator's boy toy?”
“Jing-jing, Ji-ji saw him. That person is not even one-thousandth of you. He doesn't look like you at all!” blue phoenix said convincingly.
“What’s the matter?” Qin Yanzhi suddenly asked.
Jing Yue hesitated for a moment, thinking it would be better not to let Qin Yanzhi know, but blue phoenix betrayed him and gestured to Qin Yanzhi.
After years of getting along with each other, one human and one phoenix could now communicate with some difficulty.
The content was too complicated. Blue phoenix patiently acted it out three times before Qin Yanzhi understood.
He turned his head to look at Jing Yue, his expression seemed calm, but Jing Yue knew that Qin Yanzhi was unhappy.
Jing Yue hurriedly took Qin Yanzhi's hand. “Let’s look for Wei-daoyou and Xiaojiu. Don’t waste time on such things.”
Qin Yanzhi paused and nodded reluctantly.
Four seasons rotated and a hundred years went by in a flash.
In Molten City of the Central region, two young men walked along a busy street.
One of them was tall and elegant, while the other looked cold and aloof, pale as if sickly.
“If this trip goes well, we should be able to find the bone in the Dragon Palace. With the dragon bone as an ingredient in the medicine, the holy Yao fruit can be completely transformed.” The elegant young man said worriedly, “When the time comes, you can break through to Return to Void, and the curse on you will also be broken.”
“You don't have to worry. Even if you can't get the dragon bone, I can break through the realm through my cultivation.” The aloof young man comforted, “It just takes more time.”
The two were transformed by Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi. The former said in a low voice, “But time is something we cannot afford the most.”
Qin Yanzhi, “Now, the demonic Dao didn’t get their hands on four Yao fruits. The several secret realms between the Yao and the demonic Dao have been removed, and other righteous sects are guarding the Yao Detention Mountain. It can be said that all passages between the Yao and the demons have been severed. Unless the Yao has another secret method to break through the barrier, it’s impossible for them to send a Yao fruit to Han Guang. Without another fruit to nourish the demon spawn, the righteous path can buy at least 2,000 years.”
Jing Yue didn’t speak as he recalled what happened 100 years ago.
Back then, Liu Feng took him, Qin Yanzhi, and the others away. Halfway through, they met Yi Ye who rushed to West Shu, and the group hurriedly turned around.
Soon, Yi Ye summoned many great masters of the righteous path to discuss the demon spawn. Due to the severity of the matter, all cultivators Return to Void and above, including Kong Miao who was in closed-door seclusion, gathered in Frostcloud Sect.
The discussion went on for three days and nights, and since the birth of the demon spawn was irreversible, they could only do two things.
First, suppress and weaken the demonic Dao and buy time for the righteous Dao.
Second, reserve strength, wait for the birth of the demon spawn, and kill it while it was weak.
On the fourth day, when Kong Miao was ready to return to Three Realm Temple, Jing Yue handed the Lotus Stand of Reincarnation to him.
According to Kong Miao, there was indeed an eminent monk in Three Realm Temple who passed away not long ago. When he died, there was very faint residual demonic energy on his chest. If not for Kong Miao’s powerful strength, it would almost be overlooked.
This eminent monk happened to have come into contact with the Lotus Stand of Reincarnation, so he must be the mole planted by the demonic Dao.
But the eminent monk grew up in the temple, while the demonic Dao only started their preparations 100 years ago. In other words, the monk was controlled or replaced 100 years ago.
Strangely enough, judging from the corpse of the eminent monk, he died recently, which showed that the people behind the scenes could control the living. This mysterious technique was most likely related to the legacy of Asura Tower.
No one on the righteous path expected that the demonic cultivator could go undercover under Kong Miao's nose without being noticed. For a time, everyone was on high alert, and there was another round of cleaning up, but nothing was found.
Unable to vent their frustrations, they could only take it out on Lurking Ghost Sect again, but Han Guang was nowhere to be found.
Without Han Guang's control, the mountain protection formation was just a decoration. In addition, Lurking Ghost Sect had been demolished by Liu Feng before, and after this time, it turned into ruins.
The disciples of Lurking Ghost Sect scattered in all directions and had not been seen for a hundred years.
When Kong Miao returned to Three Realm Temple, Wei Zhentu, who was not seriously injured, obtained consent from Hong Luan and followed Kong Miao with Ruan Jiu’s fragmented soul and two holy Yao fruits.
However, due to Qin Yanzhi’s severe injuries, he was still unconscious. Sword Inscription Sect had no choice but to leave him in the Frostcloud Sect to recuperate for the time being.
At that time, Qin Yanzhi’s dantian and spiritual dais were injured, and even Taiqing was too weak to take a human form. Jing Yue stayed by his side every day. Although he believed that Qin Yanzhi would wake up, he was always afraid that Qin Yanzhi would not wake up.
To him, this sense of uncertainty was unfamiliar.
Soon after, blue phoenix regained its energy and poured vitality into Qin Yanzhi day and night. One year later, Qin Yanzhi finally woke up.
However, Qin Yanzhi’s realm took a fall. He had already touched the upper edge of Heavenly Grotto back then, but fell to the lower stage of Heavenly Grotto. Despite that, he had taken a full blow from Han Guang and was injured by the curse from the mountain protection barrier of Lurking Ghost Sect, so he was fortunate enough to be able to keep his dantian and spiritual dais.
With Qin Yanzhi’s resilient personality, coupled with the nourishment of treasures from Sword Inscription Sect and Frostcloud Sect, his cultivation level slowly recovered.
Now that a hundred years had passed, he had broken through the small realm and regained the mid-level Heavenly Grotto again not long ago.
Unfortunately, Qin Yanzhi's curse had not been removed, which posed a big hidden danger for his cultivation. For this reason, Jing Yue tried ways and means to refine the holy Yao fruit into something that the human race could absorb. With the powerful help of the holy Yao fruit, Qin Yanzhi would definitely recover.
His hard work paid off. He gradually found the direction, but he still lacked a dragon bone.
Of course, a dragon bone could only be found in the Dragon Palace.
In terms of origin, the dragon race also had the Yao bloodline, and they could even be considered the ancestor of the Yao race.
However, the dragon race had long broken away from the Yao race and had old grudges. They had been living in the human world for thousands of years, but dragons and humans were equally estranged. They were like bystanders, never intervening in the affairs of the human race. No matter how badly the righteous Dao fought with the demonic Dao, the dragons never interfered.
Even when the Yao saints invaded the human race back then, the dragon race did nothing.
Therefore, it was obviously not feasible to ask the dragon race for a bone.
At this moment, the news of the opening of the Dragon Tomb Secret Realm circulated in the outside world, which was revealed by the dragons on their own initiative, and most people heard about it for the first time.
One needed a Dragon Emergence Stone to enter the Dragon Tomb, which was precisely the stone that Jing Yue obtained with 10,000 spirit stones at an auction many years ago.
However, he only had one stone, and he would be worried if Qin Yanzhi went alone, so he wanted to get another one.
But the Dragon Emergence Stone would only appear with irregular intervals in East Yu on the eve of the opening of the Dragon Tomb, and the numbers were few. Thus, the two left Evernorth and headed to East Yu.
They appeared in the Central region because Jing Yue had overlooked something. He forgot to hand over the spirit of the demonic cultivator who failed to take possession of Chen Guo to Kong Miao, so he had to make a trip to Three Realm Temple again.
Since he made the promise, he had to fulfill it. This was simple karma.
Jing Yue had not returned to his senses from nostalgia when he suddenly heard someone say, “Hey, the one in front, do you want to sell your bird? I’ll give you 100 spirit stones for it.”
“…” Jing Yue thought his ears were playing tricks on him.
As for the blue phoenix who was dozing off on his shoulders, suddenly held its head high in an imposing stance, but quickly realized that not only did someone want to take it away from Jing-jing, but they were only willing to pay 100 spirit stones.
Blue phoenix felt humiliated!
“Jing-jing can't live without Ji-ji, and Jing-jing won’t tolerate Ji-ji being humiliated!”
Jing Yue, “…”
He turned his head and saw a haughty-looking Qi Refining cultivator staring intently at the blue phoenix.
“Are you talking to me?” Jing Yue was still in disbelief.
“That’s right.” The cultivator answered matter-of-factly. “My master is Young Master Jing Moon*, and he has a preference for blue birds. It’d be your honor if he took a fancy to your bird.”
(TN: The pinyin for both names are the same which is Jing Yue, but the Yue character for our MC is 岳 while the newcomer is 月which is moon. To avoid confusion, I’ll use Jing Moon.)
Jing Yue & blue phoenix: ???
Qin Yanzhi, “…”
They were at a loss, but the surrounding people were already talking in low voices.
“So it’s Young Master Jing Moon. No wonder he wanted this blue bird. I think this bird looks healthy and vibrant, much better than the one he has, and more similar to the one raised by Jing-laozu.”
“Tsk, even if someone like him gets the beloved pet of Jing-laozu, he couldn’t measure up to a ten-thousandth of Jing-laozu’s demeanor!”
“Can you lower your voice? Do you want to die?”
“I’m telling the truth.” The person who mocked just now looked at Jing Yue disdainfully. “Tsk, this world is getting from bad to worse. Everyone wants to take shortcuts by hook or by crook, and more and more people are keeping blue birds.”
“Yeah, I heard that some people even dyed their birds blue on purpose.”
The discussions that followed confused Jing Yue and Qin Yanzhi more, but it didn’t stop Jing Yue from refusing. “It’s not for sale.”
The blue phoenix immediately rubbed against Jing Yue's neck happily. It knew Jing-jing couldn’t bear to part with it!
The cultivator's expression froze, and he repeated, “My young master is Jing Moon.”
Jing Yue, “Which Jing Yue? It couldn’t be the one from Frostcloud Sect, right? I don’t know the others.”
The cultivator was taunted and said angrily, “You’re in Molten City but you don’t know Young Master Jing Moon and even dare to disrespect him. Y-You’re playing with fire!”
“I know this sentence!” Blue phoenix was instantly excited. “This is the golden sentence in BL novels!”
Jing Yue automatically ignored blue phoenix’s nonsensical words. He turned around and was about to leave.
“Hey! Stop!” The cultivator probably felt embarrassed. Seeing that the two of them seemed like mortals with no cultivation, he reached out and wanted to catch them.
Qin Yanzhi seemed to have eyes on his back. Without looking back, he waved his sleeve lightly, and with a crack, the cultivator’s hand was broken.
The cultivator's screams immediately filled the street. He finally understood that the two of them were not people he could mess with, so he glared at the back of the two of them sullenly, and hurried away while clutching his arm.
‘Just you wait!’ the cultivator thought.
Neither Jing Yue nor Qin Yanzhi took the cultivator seriously, nor did they want to pay attention to the hidden details, but blue phoenix was different.
It groveled several times and finally got Jing Yue's approval, cheering as it caught up with the cultivator.
Soon, the blue phoenix flew back again, with undisguised excitement on its feathered face.
“Jing-jing! Let Ji-ji tell you…”
It turned out that there was a man in the city who looked quite similar to Jing Yue. He was favored by the only female Golden Core cultivator in Molten City and rose with the tide because of that.
The man knew why the female Golden Core cultivator took a fancy to him. To continue his favor, he changed his name to Jing Moon and imitated Jing Yue wholeheartedly. However, he had never seen the young Laozu of Frostcloud Sect and only heard everything about the other party from gossip, and his reference was at the most the picture scrolls of Jing Yue in the market.
Even so, the female Golden Core cultivator favored him a lot and indulged him in every way.
Thus, Jing Moon grew more famous in the city. Everyone knew that he loved blue birds, and the more they resembled Jing-laozu’s, the better. Most people couldn’t get in contact with the Golden Core Zhenren, so they thought of taking shortcuts, so more people raised blue birds in Molten City.
The Qi Refining cultivator just now wanted to buy the blue phoenix to present to Jing Moon.
“He even went back and complained about you!” After blue phoenix finished speaking, it raised its head proudly as if waiting for Jing Yue’s praise.
Jing Yue, “…”
He felt suffocated by blue phoenix’s words. After a while, he said, “Did you say a person resembling me became a female cultivator's boy toy?”
“Jing-jing, Ji-ji saw him. That person is not even one-thousandth of you. He doesn't look like you at all!” blue phoenix said convincingly.
“What’s the matter?” Qin Yanzhi suddenly asked.
Jing Yue hesitated for a moment, thinking it would be better not to let Qin Yanzhi know, but blue phoenix betrayed him and gestured to Qin Yanzhi.
After years of getting along with each other, one human and one phoenix could now communicate with some difficulty.
The content was too complicated. Blue phoenix patiently acted it out three times before Qin Yanzhi understood.
He turned his head to look at Jing Yue, his expression seemed calm, but Jing Yue knew that Qin Yanzhi was unhappy.
Jing Yue hurriedly took Qin Yanzhi's hand. “Let’s look for Wei-daoyou and Xiaojiu. Don’t waste time on such things.”
Qin Yanzhi paused and nodded reluctantly.
