Chapter 2916 - A Gift From a Disciple of Fangchun Mountain
The atmosphere in the hall was still and silent. Everyone stared at Li Shouhu’s imprisoned soul and sank into thought.
“Are you really the Qiongqi Mountain Lord?” Wang Zhiwu looked suspicious. He’d naturally heard of the Qiongqi Mountain Lord. He was famous throughout the Eternal Heavens Domain.
Naturally, everyone knew that the Qiongwi Mountain Lord was a Heavenly Monarch!
But now, a “Heavenly Monarch” had suppressed the soul of an expert of the Far Shore of Destiny. Who’d believe such a thing?
The Qiongqi Mountain Lord smiled. “Guaranteed authentic or your money back.”
Wang Zhiwu frowned. “In that case, you’ve sure hidden yourself deeply. Don’t tell me you’re from the Far Shore, too?”
The group’s eyelids twitched. That really was a possibility.
The Qiongqi Mountain Lord neither confirmed nor denied it. He just said to Su Yi, “When I captured this person, he was about to leave the River of Destiny...”
He went on to concisely recount what had happened before concluding, “He saw you as prey, and he most likely was leaving in order to prepare a trap for you.”
He paused, then said, “But this is just the soul of one of his clones. You won’t learn anything by searching it, and there’s even a risk of a backlash.”
Su Yi understood what the Qiongqi Mountain Lord was getting at. The gap between his cultivation and Li Shouhu was enormous indeed. Trying to search his soul would be like flinging himself to the wolves.
“I confined him, but that seal will last a month at most,” said the Qiongqi Mountain Lord. “If you don’t know what to do with him, I can help you kill him. However, if we destroy his soul, his true body is sure to sense it. I’m afraid it’ll sow the seeds of future disasters.”
“Might you give his soul to me?” asked Su Yi.
“Of course.” Mountain Lord Qiongqi smiled.
He extended his finger and pointed. Li Shouhu’s soul landed right in front of Su Yi.
Su Yi opened the world in his sleeves, putting Li Shouhu’s soul away for later. Only then did he say, “Many thanks!”
No matter what, the Qiongqi Mountain Lord had done him a big favor this time, and he had to acknowledge it.
“What’s there to thank me for? It was no more difficult than turning over my hand,” said the Qiongqi Mountain Lord. He took out a snow-white, crystalline jade slip and passed it to Su Yi. “My mistress gave this to me. I don’t know what’s inside it, either.”
Su Yi couldn’t help but find this surprising. “Who is your mistress?”
The others pricked up their ears, too. The Qiongqi Mountain Lord had hidden himself extremely deeply. What kind of hidden expert must his mistress be?
“My mistress is Young Mistress Ling Ran’s mother, but that’s all I can tell you,” said the Qiongqi Mountain Lord. “Forgive me, but I cannot divulge her name.”
Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran’s mother! Su Yi instantly understood. She must have been the one to send the Qiongqi Mountain Lord to the God Domain to fetch Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran. But why would she send the Qiongqi Mountain Lord here to deliver me a gift? And what’s hidden in that white jade slip?
Su Yi pondered briefly and subconsciously scanned his companions’ faces. All of them looked curious.
By now, Su Yi was all but certain that the Qiongqi Mountain Lord had no ill intent, so there was no need for such a massive lineup. So he said, “Everyone, might you step out for a moment so that I might have a private chat with the Qiongqi Mountain Lord?”
Everyone nodded their agreement, and soon, Su Yi and the Qiongqi Mountain Lord were the only ones left.
The Qiongqi Mountain Lord naturally realized that this meant that Su Yi had lowered his guard, and his expression mellowed accordingly. “When I left, my mistress and Young Mistress Ling Ran had already heard tell of the Battle of Sovereigns outside the Literati Continent.
“I managed to locate you because my mistress performed a divination and concluded that you’d entered the River of Destiny after leaving the Literati Continent. Thus, she sent the white deer and me here to find you.”
The Qiongqi Mountain Lord smiled. “Fortunately, I had the white deer to guide me. That let me enter the river unimpeded.”
This explanation answered several of Su Yi’s remaining questions.
He said, “Given your strength, I suspect you didn’t need the deer to guide you. You could easily explore the world beneath the surface on your own strength.”
The Qiongqi Mountain Lord shook his head. “Without my mistress’s permission, I can only access the power of a Heavenly Monarch. When I left, Mistress commanded that I was allowed to break the rules and use my natal divine ability on this expedition, but only if I ran into trouble. I captured Li Shouhu’s clone during one of those rare exceptions.”
The Qiongqi Mountain Lord patiently explained, “You needn’t ask about my precise cultivation base or my origins, as I’m not permitted to divulge them. I humbly request your understanding, Fellow Daoist.”
Su Yi couldn’t help but rub his forehead. He’d indeed wanted to ask about both, only for the Qiongqi Mountain Lord to refuse pre-emptively.
Instead, he asked casually, “Is Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran doing alright?”
The Qiongqi Mountain Lord smiled. “She’s doing well, but she was separated from her mother at a young age. The two have now been reunited, but it’ll take time for her to adjust.”
He paused, then warned, “Fellow Daoist, the title of ‘Sovereign Venerate’ carries far too much weight. There was no need to worry about such things in the God Domain, but here in the River of Destiny, you’d best be careful.”
Su Yi nodded. ‘Sovereign Venerate’ makes her sound like a Heavenly Sovereign. The weight of the title is indeed a bit much.
Moreover, the natural order of Destiny covered every last inch of the River of Destiny. Using the title “Sovereign Venerate” wantonly was likely to invite unexpected variables.
Su Yi couldn’t help but ask, “You really don’t know what’s hidden in the tube?”
The Qiongqi Mountain Lord shook his head. “Mistress didn’t tell me, so I couldn’t ask.”
Su Yi was starting to feel a bit exasperated. “Did she say anything else?”
“She didn’t,” said the Qiongqi Mountain Lord.
“?” Su Yi didn’t know what to make of the situation. Who sends such mysterious, inexplicable gifts?
"I suggest you open it and see for yourself, Fellow Daoist,” said the Qiongqi Mountain Lord. “Mistress never does anything without a reason. There must be a deeper reason behind her decision to send me here.”
Su Yi pondered briefly, then separated a wisp of his divine sense and inserted it into the tube.
At least, he tried to. Against his expectations, an invisible power blocked his divine sense!
No matter how hard he tried, he sensed nothing at all!
Su Yi pondered briefly before something occurred to him. This time, he tried a wisp of the secret power of the heart.
The white tube shook as the invisible seal opened, scattering a swath of dreamlike, ethereal Dao Light.
The light condensed into a tranquil, elegant female figure. She looked like she was in her thirties, with skin as smooth as jade. She wore loose, pure white Daoist robes, and her dark hair was casually tied into a bun and held in place with a black bamboo hairpin. That aside, she had no other embellishments.
She wasn’t particularly stunning, nor was she eye-catching, but she seemed natural, tranquil, and elegant. The mere sight of her was soothing enough to make one forget the mundane world.
“Mistress?” The Qiongqi Mountain Lord stiffened, then bowed.
Mistress? Su Yi’s heart shook. Don’t tell me that this is Miss Ling Ran’s mother?
Indeed, when Su Yi examined her more closely, he discovered that her features bore a striking resemblance to Ling Ran.
The woman in Daoist robes said, “Step outside and let me have a private chat with our fellow Daoist.”
“Understood!” The Qiongqi Mountain Lord solemnly assented, then left the hall.
The woman in Daoist robes raised a jade-like hand and formed a hand seal. A restriction instantly covered the entire hall.
“Junior Su Yi greets you, Senior.” Su Yi clasped his fist and bowed in greeting. He and Ling Ran addressed each other as members of the same generation, so it seemed only proper to call her mother “senior.”
The woman grinned, then shook her head and corrected him. “If you really get down to it, I ought to call you senior.”
Su Yi was flabbergasted, but before he could ask questions, the woman said solemnly, “I’m not joking. I am the disciple of the master of Fangchun Mountain, and he knew your first incarnation.”
The master of Fangchun Mountain!? Su Yi instantly recalled his encounter with Grandmaster Bodhi’s avatar in the Path of the Ancient Gods. He was the master of Fangchun Mountain!
Su Yi would never, ever have guessed that Ling Ran’s mother was a disciple of Fangchun Mountain!
“But truly gauging our relative seniority is complicated. My youngest apprentice brother is acquainted with Dao Venerate Chen Xi, a master of reincarnation, while Dao Venerate Chen Xi and your first incarnation were fellow Daoists.
“It was Dao Venerate Chen Xi who helped your first incarnation enter the cycle of reincarnation to cultivate anew. In doing so, they threw seniority into upheaval. It seems to me that it’d be best if we just addressed each other as ‘Fellow Daoist.’”
Su Yi nodded, but inwardly, he struggled to remain calm.
He noticed that when the woman spoke the name “Chen Xi,” the restriction covering the room shook.
A sentence rose unbidden to Su Yi’s mind: the Grand Dao is formless and without name.
Some experts were so powerful that their names were like the Grand Dao, unspoken, formless, and impossible to speak out loud.
If someone spoke them by force, they’d suffer divine punishment!
There was no doubt about it. “Chen Xi” was one such name.
If the woman in Daoist robes hadn’t placed a restriction over the hall, obscuring it completely, there’s no telling what would have happened when she’d spoken it.
Su Yi thought back to the Human Realm, where he met Chen Xi’s son, Chen Pu. It was just that Su Yi hadn’t known who he was then.
“My Daoist title is Ruo Su. I’m the third disciple of Fangchun Mountain,” the woman said in a soft, tranquil voice. “I came here to deliver you this jade slip on my master’s orders.”
“You mean Grandmaster Bodhi?” asked Su Yi.
Ruo Su nodded. “That’s right. Master said that he encountered you in the River of Epoch’s Path of the Ancient Gods. Thus, he reached out and told me to give you this jade slip when you reached the River of Destiny.”
Only then did Su Yi understand. It was the events in the Path of the Ancient Gods that had led to this encounter today.
“It’s just that I agreed to create a prison for myself a long time ago. I cannot break my promise to my master, so I cannot intervene directly in external affairs. I had no choice but to arrange for my subordinate to deliver this in my stead,” Ruo Su explained.
Finally, Su Yi couldn’t hold back any longer. “What exactly is hidden in that slip, Senior? Why is it so important?”
Ruo Su called him her fellow Daoist, but Su Yi couldn’t overstep. After all, he was Su Yi, not his first incarnation. Besides, he was acquainted with Miss Ling Ran. Calling Ruo Su “Fellow Daoist” would feel like taking advantage of her.
Ruo Su raised her finger, and the snow-white jade slip floated over to Su Yi. “The ancestral grounds of Fangchun Mountain!”
