Stealing Immortal

Chapter 148: Chapter 147: The Past

Perhaps the past was too painful to revisit, for Lu Qingyu let out a long sigh.

"Somehow, word of such a clandestine matter leaked, leading to an ambush by the Yu Xiao Demon Sect. By the time I saw Master Li, she was already unconscious. The other Foundation Establishment Masters were all severely injured as well."

"One of the Masters told me that in their haste, they had lost a Magical Treasure. He said it was of great importance and asked me to dispatch everyone to search for it..."

Before he trusted him, Lu Qingyu had been guarded with Chen Qingyang. But now that the floodgates were open, the story poured out of him.

"What happened then?"

"I dispatched all the disciples, and they searched for days and nights to no avail. We eventually had to give up. After that, many more Masters arrived from the Sect, including that Golden Core Sword Master..."

Back then, Chen Qingyang was just an unpopular disciple doing Miscellaneous Tasks on Four Golden Peaks. All he had heard were the three simple words "they were ambushed," never imagining the complexity behind it.

"I wonder... Senior Brother, what did Li Qianxue look like when you saw her?"

Lu Qingyu recalled for a moment. "She looked no different than usual, as if she were just asleep. The only thing was the blood flowing down her right arm, like she had been wounded. The one caring for her was a Master named He, who looked very young. It was Master He who said that Master Li’s Divine Soul had been injured and that she would have a hard time waking up."

"There were several other Masters as well, none of them young. I especially remember Master Jing Yuan, who looked like a true elder. The first time he met me, he gave me an elixir, just like you did."

’So Li Qianxue damaged her own Divine Soul by forcefully executing her Sword Formulas to kill her opponent. Her right arm was injured because she’s right-handed.’

’Although I’ve killed my fair share of people, I never act unless I’m absolutely certain of victory; I never put myself in a dangerous situation. For Li Qianxue to be pushed to such an extent... the battle must have been brutal.’

He said, "Senior Brother Lu, the Master Jing Yuan you mentioned is my master."

Lu Qingyu was slightly surprised to hear this. "It seems fate is at work. After Master Li fell unconscious, Master Jing Yuan seemed the most concerned. He was the one who told me to dispatch all the disciples to search for that Magical Artifact."

At this point, Chen Qingyang naturally had to ask, "Senior Brother Lu, what kind of Magical Artifact was it?"

"According to the Master’s description, it’s a piece of white jade shaped like a dagger. They called it the Cyan Nether Sword Embryo."

’A Sword Embryo.’

’I’ve never seen one before, but the Danxia Nourishing Truth Sword Manual mentions them briefly. It says that when someone with profound mastery of the Sword Dao dies, their Sword Dao is so strong that it doesn’t dissipate. Instead, it condenses into a Sword Embryo.’

’If a successor can obtain and perform Refinement on it, they can make it their Lifebound Magical Treasure and comprehend the Sword Intent within. It seems this is what the people from the Demon Sect are looking for.’

"Senior Brother Lu, do you remember the specific location of Li Qianxue’s ambush?"

Lu Qingyu said, "Junior Brother Chen, you might not know this, but once Masters unleash their techniques, they can cross a thousand li in an instant. They were fighting on the move, so it’s hard to say exactly where the ambush happened. No one can say where the Magical Artifact might have landed."

’It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, then.’

As Chen Qingyang fell silent, Lu Qingyu seemed to think of something else. "A few days ago, when Junior Sister Liu killed those two from the Demon Sect, you were right there beside her, weren’t you, Junior Brother?"

Chen Qingyang replied, "That’s right."

Lu Qingyu continued, "Then Junior Sister Liu must have told you that the Demon Sect received some kind of intelligence, which is why they’re infiltrating north of the Cyan Nether River. Many people at the Temple now suspect it’s related to the Sword Embryo."

Chen Qingyang nodded in response. "I’ve heard as much... Do you know what happened after the Sword Master arrived, Senior Brother Lu?"

Lu Qingyu shook his head. "I’m not sure. I heard he was furious. In any case, he eventually took Master Li back with him, and everyone else left."

At this, he added with a hint of self-deprecation, "Even though I’m at the Essence Condensation Six Realms, this isn’t power I earned through my own Cultivation. To an Immortal Sect, I’m just a gatekeeper. Why would they let me in on such important matters..."

Perhaps because they had been talking for a while and had grown more familiar, Lu Qingyu became much more talkative with Chen Qingyang.

But Chen Qingyang disagreed. "Senior Brother, don’t sell yourself short. If you cultivate diligently, you’ll still have opportunities. In the Tai Xu Sect, no one cares how you acquired your Cultivation, only how far you can go with it."

Hearing this, Lu Qingyu simply smiled and said no more.

Chen Qingyang sat for a while longer and, after a few more sips of tea, took his leave. Lu Qingyu personally saw him to the door.

’Finally, I have a clearer picture of what happened on Nine True Mountain back then.’

’If I want to confirm what the Demon Sect is searching for and where they got their intelligence, I’ll have to capture one or two of them and loosen their tongues.’

’The Cyan Nether Sword Embryo... just the name alone sounds extraordinary. If I could get my hands on it, it would be a huge boon to my future Cultivation.’

’Stealing Immortal can take me far, but I still have to handle the early stages myself.’

Back in his small courtyard, Chen Qingyang began to cultivate. While meditating, he took out all the Immortal Seedlings he had and used them on the Danxia Nourishing Truth Sword Manual.

Instantly, the golden light in his Mingtang Acupoint intensified, and his Cultivation grew once more.

He continued to meditate until noon, when Liu Tao returned.

"Senior Sister, how did your patrol go?"

Liu Tao waved a hand dismissively. "It wasn’t smooth or rough, it just was. I feel like whenever I’m away from you, a lot less happens. Didn’t you notice how quickly I got back?"

’Her words weren’t exactly flattering, but after giving it some serious thought, I realized she had a point. It seemed most of the trouble Liu Tao ran into was related to me in some way.’

"In that case, you should go on your patrol by yourself tomorrow, Senior Sister. I’ll just wander around the city and the Daoist Temple, then meditate for a bit, and the day will be over."

Liu Tao had no objections. "That works too. I have to do this patrol every day anyway, and it must be boring for you to always tag along. You might as well just wait here for my return."

"Alright." Chen Qingyang added one more instruction, "Senior Sister, remember: if you run into any trouble, be sure to tell me right away."

Liu Tao had no idea what he was thinking and asked, perplexed, "Why would I tell you? I’d just report it to a Master. It’s not like you’re a Master, are you?"

To that, Chen Qingyang had just three words for her: "Fine, fine, fine!"

...

The first light of dawn broke, and a rosy hue spread across the sky, as if the clouds gathered behind the mountains had been set ablaze.

The weather on Nine True Mountain was ever-changing. Another heavy rain had fallen last night, leaving a chill in the air this morning.

Chen Qingyang stood at the mountain gate to see Liu Tao off. His gaze swept around, taking in the nine peaks of varying heights that stood like nine great Masters.

"Why are you holding your sword? Are you coming with me?"

Chen Qingyang shook his head. "No."

"Are you going out, then?"

"Not going out. Holding my sword is just a habit."

Liu Tao stared at Chen Qingyang for a long moment. "Alright then. I’m off."

Just as the sky began to brighten, she rode a streak of fiery light toward the dawn glow. Chen Qingyang followed moments later, heading in a different direction.

’Since they’re targeting the patrol routes, I’ll go off-route. Let’s see if I can run into them that way.’

’With my Conscious Fish, I can detect any disturbance within a radius of nearly three hundred li. The terrain here is vast, true, but not so vast that it can escape my patrols.’

From morning till night, he followed a strict routine: he’d leave when Liu Tao left and return when she returned. He was so thorough it was as if he were meticulously plowing the entire area.

After five or six days of this, Chen Qingyang extended his search to a far more distant area.

Upstream on the Cyan Nether River, nestled among the mountains, he finally spotted a group of five or six people.

’Patrolling with my Conscious Fish every day, I run into plenty of disciples from the Tai Xu Sect, so I’ve grown familiar with their auras. These five or six people felt completely different. They could only be disciples from the Yu Xiao Demon Sect.’

’I moved closer slowly. They didn’t seem to react. I tested it on Xu Wuji before; anyone below the Essence Condensation Six Realms can’t perceive my Conscious Fish.’

’I could discern the Cultivation of four of them—they were at the Essence Condensation First and Second Realms. I couldn’t read the other two, which means their Cultivation is higher than mine.’

"...There’s been trouble recently, with two of our junior brother and sister dead, so the Daoist Sect is bound to have noticed. But Master said that Zhu Qi is a lazy oaf who just wants to coast through his last year here. He won’t bother with what we’re doing. He’ll just strictly order his disciples to stick to their designated routes and avoid conflict with us..."

’Zhu Qi. That’s the name of the Xuanwei Master of the Nine True Temple.’

’He was the one who ordered all the Tai Xu Sect disciples here to stick to their routes and not provoke the Demon Sect.’

’I originally thought he did it to protect the disciples’ lives. Now it seems it was also because he was afraid of trouble.’

’That makes sense. After all, the Sect’s problems are everyone’s to bear, but your own future and life... those are yours alone.’

"Senior Brother, we’ve been searching like this for two whole months and still have nothing to show for it. Is the intelligence even real? Or is there no Sword Embryo to begin with?"

Chen Qingyang couldn’t discern the Cultivation of the man who had just been speaking. As for the one who was now complaining, it was a woman at the Essence Condensation Second Realm.

This senior brother was very gentle with her. "Junior Sister, the Sect has given us our orders. We just need to carry them out. Worrying about anything else is useless. Besides, if it’s this hard to search now, imagine how much more trouble it’ll be when they eventually replace him with a more diligent Xuanwei Master."

"Hmph!" The woman sneered, her expression full of malice. "That Junior Brother Lin was just unskilled and courting death. If it had been me, the outcome would have been very different. At worst, we’d just have to throw down with that bunch of Daoist swine."

"Junior Sister, no more complaining. It’s getting late. Let’s all move out."

The senior brother gave the order, and the group split up. The two with the highest Cultivation headed off individually—one east and one west, following the Cyan Nether Great River upstream and downstream. The remaining two pairs, each a man and a woman, began searching separately in the direction of Nine True Mountain. It was unclear what method they were using, but they simply pressed onward.

As the two teams grew farther apart, Chen Qingyang chose the pair with the weaker Cultivation. Sending his Conscious Fish ahead, he began to follow them stealthily.

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