Chapter 183: Chapter 179: Are You the Reincarnation of My Qing Lang?
A sudden gust of fragrant wind blew past. In his Divine Sense, Du Youqian received a message from Lin Sha. "Does Fellow Daoist Yu wish to kill him? I can act on your behalf."
Du Youqian was noncommittal. "And the price?"
"I have a premonition that this exploration of the Relics will not go smoothly. I know you must be carrying a Treasure bestowed by your honorable Sect. If an accident occurs, I ask that you prioritize rescuing the disciples of my Sect after you’ve secured your own."
Du Youqian was a little puzzled. "Why are you so concerned about these juniors? Is there someone you care about among them?"
Lin Sha took a moment to reply. "Must I care for someone personally to help them? I find it stranger that you, Fellow Daoist Yu, seem to have little affection for your own Sect."
"Isn’t that to be expected?" Du Youqian said. "In the Holy Sect, anyone naive enough to talk about affection would have been reduced to dust long ago."
Lin Sha glanced at him. "A man as unfeeling as you should have joined my Sect. You’d be a perfect match for our Supreme Purity Emotion Scripture."
Du Youqian said, "No, no, no. I’m definitely not qualified to cultivate the Supreme Purity Emotion Scripture. I’m not crazy enough."
Lin Sha was so angry her lips formed a slight pout. "Are you saying that I’m a lunatic?"
Du Youqian closed his eyes. "I wasn’t referring to anyone in particular. Please don’t take it personally."
Lin Sha’s chest heaved, a clear sign of her fury.
But she quickly controlled her emotions and said with a charming laugh, "You’re not as unfeeling as you claim, Fellow Daoist Yu. Otherwise, why would you have left a contingency for that junior from your Sect? Oh, and that little servant girl from the other day. You were gathering your Magical Power the entire time, worried I might make a move on her, ready to protect her at a moment’s notice, weren’t you?"
Du Youqian’s expression was perfectly calm. "Even if you raise a chick or a duckling, you’ll grow fond of it after a while."
"Then after so many years in the Holy Blood Sect, you feel no affection for your Sect?"
’Sorry, but no. Not really.’
’If you had changed sects three times over three lifetimes, you’d be just like me, gradually refusing to invest any emotion into a Sect.’
’I’m just a heartless wage slave. I clock in on time and clock out when my shift is over.’
Du Youqian’s expression said it all.
Lin Sha was silent for a moment before asking again, "You are a thoughtful person, Fellow Daoist Yu, yet you have no feelings for your Sect. I truly find it hard to understand. In any case, if trouble arises in the Relics, I ask for your assistance. I will reward you handsomely."
Du Youqian opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping over her with great interest. "Oh? And what kind of handsome reward would that be?"
Lin Sha felt a surge of anger rush to her head, making her cheeks burn red.
’How dare this man flirt with me?’
But at the same time, a warm current shot through her body, leaving her feeling weak all over.
’Oh no, did he poison me?’
The thought flashed through Lin Sha’s mind.
She immediately used her Divine Sense for Introspection, gathering her Magical Power to inspect her entire body.
’No, it’s not poison...’ Lin Sha came to her senses, feeling baffled.
’How could I react like this?’
’This isn’t normal!’
’I was just teased a little by some bastard. Why would I, whose heart has been like an ancient well without a single ripple for over thirty years, suddenly feel shy and flustered?’
’In the past thirty years, any man who dared to flirt with her would have had his ashes scattered to the winds, his soul tortured until its Spiritual Wisdom was erased, unable to ever reincarnate.’
’And now, not only did she feel no killing intent, but she actually felt... shy?’
’She was not herself today at all!’
Lin Sha had no desire to speak with Du Youqian any longer. With a cold snort, she turned and walked away, her face grim.
She needed to sort out just what was happening to her!
~~~~~~~
Seeing the change in Lin Sha’s expression as she turned and left, Du Youqian’s own heart became unsettled.
’She doesn’t suspect anything, does she?’
’Thankfully, the matter of me obtaining Qiu Yuanqing’s legacy back in the Zhongxuan Sect was only known to a few people and wasn’t common knowledge.’
’Otherwise, if Lin Sha had found out about it, she would definitely have grown suspicious.’
Staring after Lin Sha for a while, Du Youqian couldn’t shake his feeling of anxiety.
He had to find something to distract himself, to stop his mind from racing.
He walked over to the Garrison from the Taihe Sect. "Fellow Daoist Li."
The man smiled gently. "Fellow Daoist Yu, what can I do for you?"
"What are your thoughts on the disappearance of those two Red Lotus Sect disciples?"
Li Daojia of the Taihe Sect thought for a moment, then conveyed his thoughts via Divine Sense instead of speaking. "Actually, I felt something was off about those two."
"Oh?" Du Youqian was puzzled. "I scanned them with my Divine Sense and didn’t notice anything amiss."
Li Daojia transmitted, "Fellow Daoist Yu, the Treasures you’re carrying are the Boundary-Setting Pearl and the Thousand-Mile Shuttle, correct?"
"That’s right." There was no reason to hide it.
Li Daojia said, "Our two sects have always cooperated on matters like exploring Relics and Secret Realms. I also brought two Treasures. One is also a Thousand-Mile Shuttle. Why don’t you guess what the other one is, Fellow Daoist Yu?"
Du Youqian thought for a moment. The Boundary-Setting Pearl was for temporarily stabilizing Space if the Relics or a Secret Realm were about to collapse. The Thousand-Mile Shuttle was for rescuing people.
’If the Treasure the Taihe Sect brought is meant to work in tandem with the Holy Blood Sect’s Treasures, then it should be...’
"Could it be a Treasure that senses a Cultivator’s aura?" Du Youqian asked tentatively.
Li Daojia smiled. "Fellow Daoist Yu is as sharp as ever. Correct!"
As he spoke, he took out a Round Mirror.
The Round Mirror was made of some kind of metal. One side had complex patterns, with both recessed and raised engravings, that seemed to contain an Array.
Li Daojia didn’t let Du Youqian examine it closely, flipping the Round Mirror over to show him the smooth side.
Li Daojia then channeled Magical Power into it, and the surface of the Round Mirror lit up with a clear, elegant, milky-white glow.
Looking closer, hundreds of dots of light appeared on the Copper Mirror, each with a different color and brightness.
"Are these all the disciples who entered the Secret Realm?" Du Youqian asked.
"And us." Li Daojia pointed to several particularly bright dots in a corner, clearly not in the same space as the others.
"Fellow Daoist Yu, you’re actually using a Cultivation Technique of the Profound Sects Orthodox Sect. To be honest, I can hardly believe it. You wouldn’t happen to be a spy our Sect sent to the Holy Blood Sect, would you?" Li Daojia laughed.
Du Youqian looked at the bright dots. The Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the Red Lotus Sect was blood-red, the one from the Destruction Sect was iron-black, and Lin Sha’s was orange.
Meanwhile, the dots for everyone else, including himself, were bluish-white.
Apparently, this Copper Mirror Treasure could also reflect the nature of a person’s Cultivation Technique.
Du Youqian smiled. "If I were a spy, I would have cultivated the Red Phoenix General’s Qi Circulation Technique to avoid suspicion, wouldn’t I?"
"True enough."
After a pause, Li Daojia said seriously, "Those two disciples from the Red Lotus Sect... their brightness was flickering, just like... right, just like this one. And this one, and this one."
Li Daojia poked at the dots of light on the Round Mirror with his finger.
Du Youqian leaned in for a closer look. "What does the flickering brightness of the dots mean?"
Li Daojia explained, "The color of the dot represents the nature of the main Cultivation Technique. The brightness represents the strength of the Divine Sense. For example, among us here, your Divine Sense is the strongest, Fellow Daoist Yu. I’d estimate it’s already reached 900 zhang, wouldn’t you say? Even among Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivators, that’s considered quite powerful."
Du Youqian smiled without a word, but a sense of vigilance rose in his heart. ’In the future, I need to find two Secret Techniques: one to conceal the nature of my Cultivation Technique, and one to hide the strength of my Divine Sense.’
The feeling of having his secrets exposed was not pleasant.
"Fellow Daoist Li, you’re saying the flickering brightness of these dots means the strength of their Divine Sense is constantly fluctuating?"
"Precisely."
"How is that possible?"
Li Daojia gave a slight smile. "Is it really impossible?"
Du Youqian had only said it rhetorically.
Seeing Li Daojia’s smile, he understood.
It was just as he had suspected.
’These people... none of them are playing fair.’
’We all agreed only Qi Cultivation disciples would come, but one Sect after another has had a Core Formation Ancestor use some trick to secretly send a part of their Divine Soul over, attached to a disciple.’
Du Youqian counted the dots that were still flickering.
One, two... five in total.
’Five Core Formation Masters...’
’The Taihe Sect and the Holy Blood Sect are both very rule-abiding. They probably wouldn’t send a Core Formation Master.’
’The Heavenly Emotions and Oceanic Resentments Sect...’
’They’re on the verge of losing their status and are severely lacking in Core Formation Cultivators. They probably wouldn’t get involved in this mess.’
’Besides, Lin Sha pleaded so earnestly, which means she really doesn’t have any tricks up her sleeve.’
’But the other six Sects all had Core Formation Masters tag along.’
’The Red Lotus Sect even sent two.’
’It’s a shame both of their disciples perished. The Core Formation Masters possessing them probably suffered a hidden loss as well.’
’What exactly is in these Cyan Yang Sect Relics that’s attracting so many Core Formation Ancestors?’
’And what kind of thing could ambush a Cultivator possessed by the Divine Sense of a Core Formation Master, and silently carry them away right under the noses of so many Foundation Establishment Cultivators?’
When you thought about it, it was truly terrifying.
~~~~~~~~~~
From a distance, Lin Sha watched Du Youqian and Li Daojia converse.
She finally understood why she experienced such emotional fluctuations—anger, laughter—in Du Youqian’s presence.
Although this man’s appearance, height, and even his aura and Divine Sense were completely different from her Qing Lang’s...
...his movements, his way of speaking, even the angle of his shoulders and the curve of his smile were identical to Qing Lang’s.
She hadn’t recognized it before, but her heart had perceived the similarities long before her mind did. That was why her emotions were in turmoil because of this man, why she even felt shy and flustered when he teased her.
’There’s no such thing as a coincidence like this.’
’How could there be two people so alike!’
’Are you deliberately acting this way, or are you truly so similar to my Qing Lang?’
’Could you... be the reincarnation of my Qing Lang?’
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