Chen Yindu looked despondent, but when he turned back his face showed a smile, and he waved at Venerable Nun Huiyin. “Junior sister, my heart is a Dao heart, single-minded in seeking the Dao. What woman could possibly keep me?”
Venerable Nun Huiyin nodded lightly and said, “That indeed would be you. Go, do not return and disturb my Dao heart. From now on, we will not meet.”
“Take care, junior sister.”
“You too, senior brother, take care.”
Chen Yindu left.
Venerable Nun Huiyin sat there and entered meditation again, moving each bead on her prayer beads one by one.
The Sword of Wisdom severs attachments; when the attachment is cut it can still reconnect.
So when Ji Xuanxuan came to ask her how to forget Chen Shi, she did not answer.
“The cultivation methods of the Bodhi Monastery were after all transmitted from the Divine Continent, perhaps the methods passed down were incomplete and lacked the part for separating feelings. Maybe only by returning to the Divine Continent can those be completed and the true scripture obtained,” she thought silently.
Mistress Lingsu said, “Senior brother and I are innocent, and senior brother has already left!”
The old Celestial Master said angrily, “When I was alive I couldn’t compete with him, and now even as a ghost I still can’t compete with him! I cannot swallow this grievance!”
Mistress Lingsu laughed, “When you were alive you truly didn’t compete with him? Then who did I marry? You always get jealous and have forgotten that you were the one who actually won.”
The old Celestial Master stammered, “I always felt your heart was not with me… So, what did Senior Brother Chen come here for?”
Mistress Lingsu said, “He came seeking me, wanting our Celestial Master Mansion to help Chen Shi. Chen Shi wants to proclaim himself True King and worries our Celestial Master Mansion will side with the Thirteen Great Clans.”
The old Celestial Master said, “Now that you and I are dead, we cannot act as family heads. The current Celestial Master is Celestial Master Qi, though he was our disciple, he may not listen to us. How will you reply to him?”
“I will go to the Celestial Master Mansion and manifest sanctity, speak with Celestial Master Qi, and explain the pros and cons.”
Mistress Lingsu said, “After all, he is our senior brother, and that makes him somewhat closer than the Thirteen Great Clans. Besides, Chen Shi has obtained the Western King Jade Seal and the Map of Rivers and Mountains, earning recognition from the gods of the Divine Continent. For both reason and sentiment, our Celestial Master Mansion should help him.”
The old Celestial Master nodded. The Daoists of the Celestial Master Mansion often need to call on the powers of the gods, so maintaining good relations with the gods was practical; Lingsu’s decision was not purely personal favoritism.
Mistress Lingsu smiled, “Since you are here, come with me to the Celestial Master Mansion and manifest sanctity. Celestial Master Qi is our disciple; if we appear together, he will not refuse.”
The old Celestial Master agreed. The couple’s Primordial Spirits left the Immortal Capital and manifested sanctity at the Celestial Master Mansion.
Chen Yindu, meanwhile, did not pause. He raced to the Tai Shang Hao Yuan Palace to petition the Azure Ruin Fairy, then to the Water Moon Holy Land to request audience with Senior Sister Dao Xian, and on to the Great Bao Guo Temple to ask for an audience with Venerable Nun Kuchacha. He ran from place to place, his efforts considerable.
After finishing those tasks, without resting he immediately returned to the Imperial Capital at Xinxiang.
Yang Bi, seeing him return, hurriedly asked, “How did it go?”
“It’s done.”
Chen Yindu said, “When do we depart?”
Yang Bi said, “As soon as the war begins, we depart immediately.”
“Which great clans will we attack?”
Yang Bi said, “The Li Family, the Xu Family, and… the Yang Family.”
Chen Yindu looked at him deeply. “Attacking three great clans at once, can you control the whole situation?”
Yang Bi smiled faintly. “I want to try.”
In Quanzhou, the Li Family’s young masters were grim and deadly serious.
Among the Thirteen Great Clans, the Li Family was neither the largest nor the most powerful, but after millennia of development their influence had spread widely, branching and multiplying, and Li surnamed people were countless.
However, the most powerful Li Family scions were always in Quanzhou, because the clan’s ancestral line lay there.
The current Li Family sect leader Li Xiaozai ordered the clan treasury opened, taking out all the magic treasures and giving them to branch descendants to consecrate day and night, striving to bring each treasure to its peak power as soon as possible.
In the Li Family’s inner treasury were more than two thousand magic treasures. For smaller clans or sects, forging a single treasure could bankrupt them, but for the Li Family these treasures were simply the accumulated wealth of frugal ancestors.
“Sect leader, the Quanzhou Li Family doesn’t need so many treasures.”
Li Xiaocun came seeking him and smiled, “If each branch’s cultivators can simultaneously raise three to five hundred treasures, that would already be impressive.”
Li Xiaozai said, “Then open the pill vault and distribute the spiritual elixirs and miraculous medicines our family has accumulated over generations to them. If their cultivation is harmed, they must take medicine immediately so they can raise more treasures!”
Li Xiaocun was shocked, “The pills in the vault are reserved for when our Li Family faces great disasters! If we distribute them now, what will happen in the future?”
Li Xiaozai said, “Now is the difficult time. Listen to me, open the pill vault at once and distribute the elixirs! Also, have all the Li Family branches returned?”
The Li Family had vast influence across the fifty provinces, with masters in each county and province.
“They’ve been recalled; half have returned to the Li Family.”
Li Xiaocun said, “But to get back to Quanzhou will still take ten days to half a month.”
Li Xiaozai said, “Give them both treasures and elixirs, don’t skimp.”
Li Xiaocun winced, “They’ll get them too? After two or three generations they’ll be distant relatives, not of the ancestral line.”
“You’ll go if I tell you to!”
Li Xiaozai glared at him, and Li Xiaocun slunk off.
“Wait!”
Li Xiaozai called him back, “After you distribute the treasures, count them and see how many remain. The remaining treasures—send them all to Puming Palace.”
Li Xiaocun was even more pained and protested, “What use do the Yin Spirits have for these treasures? Sect leader, if you disperse the Li Family’s wealth, how will our family maintain its standing?”
Li Xiaozai knew he was stingy and said, “I’ll go with you to the inner treasury to count them. After that, I will personally deliver them to Puming Palace!”
Li Xiaocun had no choice but to accompany him to the inner treasury. At that time Li Qianyun hurried over and said, “Puming Palace sent an ancestral elder to borrow our family’s immortal artifact, the Patriarch’s Robe.”
“We will not lend it,” Li Xiaozai said decisively.
Li Qianyun was embarrassed, “That elder said the Patriarch’s Robe was left by the Li Family’s Divine Continent ancestor when he unified with the Dao and ascended, dropping the immortal artifact from the celestial realm. They say it is needed to deal with the rebel Chen Shi.”
Li Xiaozai said, “The Yin Spirit must not interfere with the ancestral line in the mortal world; that is the family precept. We will not lend it! The Patriarch’s Robe must be kept to protect the Li Family bloodline!”
Li Qianyun didn’t know how to reply to that Li Family ancestor. Li Xiaozai said, “Although I cannot lend the immortal artifact, I can lend most of the Li Family’s treasures, which can make up for the absence of the robe. Qianyun, you will come with me to deliver the treasures.”
Li Qianyun agreed.
They went to the Li Family inner treasury. Li Xiaozai told Li Xiaocun to take five hundred treasures, then the clan’s remaining one thousand two hundred or so treasures were lifted by their power and carried out of the treasury. Li Xiaozai and Li Qianyun went together to meet the emissary from Puming Palace.
The emissary was startled at so many treasures and exclaimed, “With so many items, which one is the Patriarch’s Robe?”
“There is no Patriarch’s Robe here.”
Li Xiaozai said, “The Patriarch’s Robe is left by our ancestors to guard the mortal bloodline and cannot be handed to the underworld. As compensation, these one thousand two hundred treasures will be placed under Puming Palace’s control.”
The emissary rejoiced, “That will be enough.”
Fourteen hundred years ago, the Li Family’s Yin Spirit rebelled, killed the Puming Palace’s Yama Lord Chu Jiang Wang’s incarnation, seized Puming Palace, restructured the underworld, and established the Eighteen Hells. The Li Family’s influence in the underworld grew until it exceeded that in the mortal world, but most wealth remained in the mortal Li Family’s hands, arousing much covetousness.
Generations of Li Family sect leaders had been wary of the Yin Spirit Li Family, so they did not transfer wealth to the underworld. Now, Li Xiaozai was giving out so many treasures at once; the Yin Spirit Li Family’s power would inevitably grow a great deal.
Li Xiaozai personally escorted the treasures into the underworld.
Puming Palace corresponded to Quanzhou’s underworld. First they passed through the Gate of Ghosts into the first layer of hell, then descended layer by layer to the eighteenth layer, where Puming Palace sat.
Li Qianyun set foot in the Eighteen Hells for the first time and felt her heart jump in fright.
She saw powerful ghosts and gods in the hells enslaving countless ghosts, opening hellfires and forging magic treasures. Countless ghosts crawled over the surfaces of mountain-sized treasures; blood was used to paint talismanic seals. Countless ghosts held incense aloft and kowtowed to the treasures.
Li Qianyun also saw them lock up a gigantic Huo Dog, cut it, and extract its pure yang blood.
Black smoke billowed up to the sky in the hells.
Suddenly, a judge roared, gathering boundless divine power into a demonic body that grew taller and more imposing, muscles grotesque.
He roared again and again, and the first layer of hell was slowly raised and fused with his Realm of Emptiness.
In the hell, countless ghosts and gods ran in panic. Inverted volcanoes spewed lava like waterfalls from the sky. Collapsing furnaces rolled and crushed countless ghostly creatures.
When that judge finished raising the hell, things gradually stabilized. The ghosts, under the restraint of underworld officers, resumed their duties and busied themselves.
This Tongue-Pulling Hell had been forged by the former Chu Jiang King. When the Li Family seized Chu Jiang King’s position, they easily took over Tongue-Pulling Hell. It had not suffered much loss, and once raised its power was still astonishing.
However, that Li Family judge felt an immense burden from carrying the hell; his legs shook and he nearly knelt. Fortunately, by mobilizing the hell’s power he was able to bear it.
“He’s Ancestor Tinglan,” Li Qianyun said in surprise.
Before she finished speaking, the space trembled violently. Layer after layer of hells drifted left and right. The connecting River of Forgetting seemed like water in the wind, aimlessly drifting.
One by one, towering ghost gods thousands of zhang high revealed their hideous bodies, some lifting hells with supreme brute force, others raising hells with supreme divine power, trying to integrate the hells with their own Realm of Emptiness.
There were also Tai Ao who seized segments of the River of Forgetting or withdrew the Naihe Bridge, and underworld registrars who withdrew the Gate of Ghosts. Underworld marshals commanded ten thousand strange, grotesque ghost creatures, standing in the void, ferocious beyond measure.
There were powerful vice magistrates who raised their hands and countless Li Family ghosts rose uncontrollably, each settling into the Realm of Emptiness behind his head. Thousands of gods circled, venerating him alone, as if he were a god king.
The road ahead was cut off. Li Xiaozai and Li Qianyun stopped and looked forward. Before Puming Palace, this generation’s Yama Lord, Li Tang, rose to his feet and Puming Palace floated up behind him.
Li Xiaozai bowed from afar and said loudly, “Ancestor Li Tang, the Patriarch’s Robe is an heirloom left by our ancestors to guard the mortal bloodline and cannot be lent to the underworld. I beg your forgiveness. I have prepared more than one thousand two hundred magic treasures for command.”
Puming Palace floated in the halo behind Li Tang. Though a ghost god, Li Tang appeared unusually sacred, incense energy swirling around his body and giving him an immortal bearing. His expression strained as he said, “The Twelve Great Clans have long discussed suppressing the rebel Chen Shi. They have agreed that this time they must do everything possible to annihilate the traitor. You are withholding the immortal artifact Patriarch’s Robe—where is your righteousness?”
Li Xiaozai bowed lower and said seriously, “The Patriarch’s Robe was left by our Divine Continent ancestors and is not an object for outsiders. It is the precept set by the Li Family’s ancestor; Xiaozai does not dare violate it.”
Chu Jiang King Li Tang snorted and waved his sleeve. The one thousand two hundred treasures flew toward the hells behind the eighteen judges’ heads.
In the hells, Li Family ghosts and gods rejoiced, leaping up to seize the treasures.
They had long coveted the Li Family’s treasures; some treasures were ones they had forged in life but because they weren’t direct clan members, they could not take them into the underworld after death. Now with the treasures in hand, they were overjoyed.
Li Xiaozai bowed, “Ancestor Li Tang, I beg you to take the first nine hells. The remaining nine hells will guard the Li Family.”
Li Tang’s face darkened and he fixed a cold glare on him, “Why not change the mortal Li Family’s sect leader?”
Li Xiaozai was unmoved, “The mortal Li Family is the foundation of the underworld Li Family’s foothold; it cannot be lost. If the skin is gone, where would the hair attach? Please leave nine hells!”
His expression suddenly hardened, “The underworld Li Family depends on the mortal Li Family; this is a rule set by generations of sect leaders. Ancestor Li Tang, do you intend to break that rule?”
He flicked his sleeve and his robe burst with immortal light, making him look like an immortal descending from the heavens and bringing terrifying pressure.
Li Tang’s expression shifted between dark and bright. Suddenly he laughed, “We are all doing this for the Li Family, why divide Yin and Yang? Since the mortal sect leader requests it, I will leave the front nine hells and their ghosts for you to command.”
Li Xiaozai bowed, “Many thanks, ancestor!”
Li Qianyun broke out in a cold sweat, breathless with tension. She had always deeply revered the underworld Li Family’s ghosts and gods as ancestors; even the clan’s sect leader must show them utmost respect.
But this time Li Xiaozai had shown her what a true sect leader’s authority looked like: even when facing Chu Jiang King Li Tang, he forced concessions and secured the mortal family’s legitimacy!
“This is the real sect leader,” she thought.
Li Tang waved his sleeve and his garments covered the sky, plunging it into darkness. When the sky brightened again, he and nine other judges had already left, vanishing without a trace.
After Li Tang and the others left, the remaining nine judges relaxed and prepared to lower their hells. Li Xiaozai immediately shouted, “Do not lower the hells! Raise them, all of them!”
Judge Li Tinglan of Tongue-Pulling Hell laughed, “We only listen to Chu Jiang King, not you.”
Judge Li Zhou of Iron Tree Hell mocked, “You are the mortal Li Family’s sect leader; we are the underworld’s. You cannot command us. Come to think of it, you are our descendant—by generation you should be calling us ‘Great-Great-…-Great Grandfather!’”
Countless Li Family ghosts roared with laughter, unrestrained.
“Li Xiaozai, go back to the mortal world.”
“Rest assured, we are kin; we will not abandon you. If someone truly attacks the Li Family, we will help!”
“Go back!”
Li Xiaozai’s face darkened. For the first time he felt the helplessness that Yang Bi had felt. He silently began to retreat. Li Qianyun hurried to his side and whispered, “Sect leader…”
“I’m fine.”
Li Xiaozai’s expression was calm as if nothing were stirring. “This is the responsibility of a sect leader. Qianyun, you will understand this one day.”
He lowered his voice, “On the day of my ascension when I proclaim myself True King, while the Twelve Great Clans attack, seize the opportunity to strike them all at once and capture the Twelve Great Clans. I only dare imagine it—Chen True King, do you dare to do it?”
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