Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 487: Chapter 487: Amidst the Undercurrents

Sanzang hesitated no longer. He transformed into a dim, golden streak of light and fled westward in a wretched state, dragging a long afterimage of blood mist.

At that moment, Xu Yunfan, plummeting stiff as a board, was less than a hundred feet from the hard, cold bluestone plaza of the Wansheng Sword Sect.

On the plaza, countless low-level disciples of the Wansheng Sword Sect looked to the sky and could now clearly see his tightly shut eyes, his bloodless face, and his faint breath.

Some were astonished, some were wary, and some even subconsciously tightened their grip on their sword hilts.

After all, the man’s origins were unknown. Although the sword light had scattered his aura, the more perceptive among them could still detect a faint, residual trace of malevolence and demonic energy.

However, in the instant before Xu Yunfan made fatal contact with the cold plaza—an instant that should have drawn a wave of horrified gasps...

The unexpected occurred once more.

Space rippled beneath Xu Yunfan, as subtly as the surface of water disturbed by a pebble.

There was no flash of light, no fluctuation of energy, not even the slightest change in the sound of the wind.

He simply vanished.

It was as if a formless, invisible giant hand had silently "erased" him from his predetermined path of descent.

The plaza fell deathly silent for a moment.

Then, an uproar of incredulous cries and noisy discussion erupted.

"Where’d he go?!"

"He was right there! How did he just disappear?"

"Was it some profound Escape Technique? Impossible! There wasn’t even a ripple of dispersing Spiritual Qi."

"Could the Ancestral Master’s sword light have... obliterated him, bones and all? No, that’s not right either..."

"Did we just see a ghost?!"

The disciples stared at each other, their faces filled with confusion and suspicion.

The Inner Sect Steward in charge of patrolling the mountain gate had an even graver expression. His Divine Sense swept over the plaza and the surrounding space like a tide, again and again, but he could no longer detect the slightest trace of Xu Yunfan’s aura.

It was as if the man had never fallen there at all.

「The scene shifts abruptly.」

The Eastern Continent. At the heart of the Primordial Sect, atop one of the Nine Great Immortal Mountains.

This Immortal Mountain was solitary, treacherous, and perilous, suspended high in the heavens. Its peak was perpetually shrouded in a bizarre storm of gravity and turbulent Gang Winds, which would instantly grind any ordinary Cultivator who touched them to dust.

Yet atop this peak stood a simple, ancient Daoist temple. Behind it lay a forest of purple bamboo, through which a corner of a pond, wreathed in immortal qi, could be faintly seen.

This was the domain of one of the Primordial Sect’s nine stabilizing True Monarchs: Pure Source Mountain, Purple Bamboo Temple, and the Celestial Lotus Pool—the sacred grounds of the Pure Source, Wondrous Way, and the Mandate of the Mysterious Vault True Monarch.

True Monarch Qing Yuan was dressed in a simple Profound Daoist Robe embroidered with the revolving Stars of the Celestial Sphere and the rising and falling veins of mountains and seas. His face appeared to be that of an ordinary middle-aged man, yet his brow was broad, and as he opened and closed his eyes, a profound Dao Rhyme flowed forth—one that seemed to contain the setting of the sun and moon and the shifting of time and space.

He sat cross-legged on a cloud bed in the temple’s main hall, his body wreathed in a mist of Pure Qi, seeming to merge as one with the entirety of Pure Source Mountain and even the boundless Heaven and Earth Laws beyond.

At the very instant Xu Yunfan abruptly vanished before the gates of the Wansheng Sword Sect...

...a minuscule ripple suddenly spread through True Monarch Qing Yuan’s eyes, which contained the stars of antiquity, disturbing his otherwise calm and placid face.

His fingers, which had been in a state of mysterious communion, trembled unconsciously, as if they had encountered an unexpected obstacle while plucking the very threads of Law.

"Hm?"

An almost inaudible hum escaped his nose.

True Monarch Qing Yuan’s brows furrowed slightly. The vast, ocean-like Magical Power and Divine Thought within him surged forth without reservation.

In an instant, the starry rivers in his eyes reversed. His fingertips formed seals like phantoms, and Innate Five Elements and Eight Trigrams Runes flickered in and out of existence in the void. His immense Primordial Spirit soared above the nine heavens, establishing an arcane connection with the river of fate deep within the endless expanse of time and space. Countless Cause and Effect Threads and fragments of Xu Yunfan’s destiny converged like a torrent for divination.

However, something he found utterly bizarre occurred.

No matter how he traced or divined, no matter how many supreme techniques he used to peer into Celestial Secrets and investigate cause and effect, the trajectory of "Xu Yunfan’s" existence, at that precise moment...

...the instant before he fell toward the Wansheng Sword Sect’s plaza, had been abruptly severed.

It wasn’t cut, nor was it obscured. It had vanished completely.

It was as if an invisible sword capable of annihilating even fate itself, or perhaps an all-encompassing vortex of creation that dissolved all things, had forcibly erased his existence—from the entanglement of past and future, from the markers of his position in space, and even from the causal marks of fate that sustained a living being.

The result of the divination was a chaotic void.

No direction, no fortune or misfortune, no sign of life.

Only absolute "nothingness."

"How can this be?"

True Monarch Qing Yuan murmured, his voice laced with a rare solemnity and confusion.

This feeling of being out of control was exceedingly rare for him, something he hadn’t experienced in the several millennia since he had ascended to the rank of True Monarch and taken charge of a branch of the Primordial Sect’s Destiny.

’Logically, Xu Yunfan carries the "seed" I secretly planted. I marked his fate and aura long ago with a special Secret Technique. Even if he fell into the hands of the Wansheng Sword Sect, or was even imprisoned by Pure Yang True Monarch himself, I should still be able to vaguely sense his presence and condition. At most, his specific location would be obscured.’

’But now, there is absolutely no trace of him.’

’His Celestial Secret trajectory has been severed so cleanly, so abruptly, it’s startling!’

’That sword light from Pure Yang... what kind of incredible power did it contain? To think it could even sever my mark?’

Thoughts raced through True Monarch Qing Yuan’s mind, and his wariness of his old rival deepened.

Then, a deeper worry surfaced. ’If Xu Yunfan really fell into Pure Yang’s hands, given that old codger’s personality, and now that Xu Yunfan has revealed the "Profound Capital Eight Sceneries Celestial Refining Creation Cloud Scripture," it’s bound to pique his interest... If he digs too deep, there’s no guarantee Xu Yunfan’s true origins won’t be discovered...’

’If he’s under Pure Yang’s nose the whole time, then my plan for the ’Primordial Dao Seed’ will be...’

Just then, an extremely faint thought, hidden deep within the folds of the void in a corner of the Daoist temple and concealed by the vast Primordial Qi of Pure Source Mountain’s Earth Vein, also let out a barely perceptible sigh.

’What a pity. The Eight Sceneries of Profound Capital, evolving into creation itself... This Furnace Cauldron’s foundation and potential far exceeded my expectations. He was the most superior ’seedbed.’ Given time, he would have been sufficient to bear my ’Primordial Dao Seed’ and forge a supreme Dao Foundation for taking that next step. But alas... he had to run right into the Wansheng Sword Sect and alarm that old fellow, Lv Chunyang!’

The owner of this thought was none other than the mastermind who had disseminated the strange Cultivation Technique, the "Profound Capital Eight Sceneries Celestial Refining Creation Cloud Scripture"—one of the true architects of this entire scheme.

His or her aura was ethereal and unfixed, as if parasitic upon the crevices between Laws, exceptionally skilled at Concealment.

’A thousand years ago, that single Sword Intent from Pure Yang pierced the Nine Netherworld and struck down a demonic star from beyond the heavens. The memory of its dazzling might still shakes my spirit to this day.’

’His Sword Dao has already reached the pinnacle, simplifying the complex, Returning to the True Self within his Pure Yang True Gang. For such a master of the Sword Dao, his Dao Heart comprehends the Ten Thousand Laws, and his insight is both infinitesimally subtle and profoundly mysterious.’

’Once Xu Yunfan falls into his hands, scheming for him again will be as difficult as ascending to the heavens. The ’primer’ I left on the boy has likely evaporated like dew under the shroud of that Pure Yang Sword Gang, rendered completely ineffective...’

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