Chapter 487: Chapter 293: The Possibility of Dual Cultivation, the Strangeness of the Black Turtle Shell, the Empress’s Surveillance?
’Could it be...’
Sui Yuqing’s pupils constricted, as if she’d thought of something. She bit her thin, red lips but didn’t dare say a word.
At this moment, Lu Mingyuan stepped forward, his gaze earnest as he clarified,
"Fairy, don’t misunderstand. Nothing happened."
Perhaps feeling a chill and some discomfort on her chest, Sui Yuqing stood up, crossing her arms to hide her embarrassment and indignation. The profile of her delicate face appeared noble and composed as she said calmly,
"Of course, I know."
"Even if something did happen, so what? We cultivators regard worldly affairs as insignificant. Our only focus is the Great Dao of cultivation. I, in particular, cultivate the Supreme Forget Emotion Dao, so Your Majesty has no need to be nervous."
Hearing this, Lu Mingyuan actually laughed.
’Trying to act like a seasoned veteran, are we?’
He had just checked.
Fairy Ci Hang’s Primordial Yin was perfectly intact, clearly indicating she had never engaged in dual cultivation.
In short, she was still an inexperienced young maiden.
’Oh, no... I should say an old maiden.’
Sui Yuqing looked young, but she was actually over a hundred years old.
She embarked on the path of cultivation very early, and she achieved success just as early.
She had likely entered the Middle Fifth Grade before she was thirty.
And before fifty, she had already reached the Twelfth Realm.
Such talent was terrifying.
However, she had spent fifty years without being able to break into the Upper Three Grades.
Lu Mingyuan understood this point.
On the path of the Great Dao, one either advances or falls behind.
No one ever knows at which step their cultivation journey will halt.
Everyone’s bottleneck is different. Smooth sailing now doesn’t guarantee you won’t encounter mental state issues or difficulties in the future.
A so-called genius is just someone who hasn’t yet reached their limit.
Sui Yuqing was now a figure at the level of a Daoist True Monarch, with a lofty status and noble identity. But she had her own troubles, and her path of cultivation was not always smooth.
"Fairy, if you’ve encountered any difficulties, you might as well tell me."
Lu Mingyuan looked at her with an extremely sincere gaze, hoping she would entrust him with the full story so he could help her find a solution.
To him, Sui Yuqing was not only a great asset but also, in the words of the Yuqing Ancestor Master, the future Sect Leader of the Celestial Master’s Mansion. He couldn’t just stand by and watch her sink into the tribulation of a Heart Demon.
Sui Yuqing composed her expression, looked back at him, and sighed, her eyes dimming.
"It seems I’ve harmed many people during the time I was unconscious."
"I suppose I no longer have the face to remain in Great Yan."
As a Tributor of the Great Yan’s Taoist Sect, to be mired in the Demon Dao... if word of this got out, it would be devastating to the reputation of the Dragon Tiger Mountain Celestial Master’s Mansion and an even greater blow to the prestige of Great Yan.
Hearing her say this, Lu Mingyuan couldn’t help but console her. "Rest assured, this matter has not spread. People only know that a Demon Cultivator broke into the Golden Crow Palace. As for who it was, I have already ordered it to be kept secret and have not revealed anything. As long as we work together to find a solution, it’s not impossible to overcome."
When Sui Yuqing learned that Lu Mingyuan had done so much for her, her heart was stirred.
She had already guessed.
During the time she was unconscious, she must have caused immense losses to the Golden Crow Country and Great Yan.
Since Lu Mingyuan was the one who appeared here...
...it must have been Lu Mingyuan who found a way to save her.
In other words, Lu Mingyuan had saved her life.
After a brief struggle in her eyes, Sui Yuqing sighed and decided to tell Lu Mingyuan about her situation.
"This... is a long story."
In the time that followed, Sui Yuqing gave Lu Mingyuan a general account of the flaws in her cultivation and her experiences from her early years.
After listening, Lu Mingyuan fell into deep thought.
He hadn’t expected Sui Yuqing to have such a painful past.
People always talk about the shadows of childhood.
It seemed that the things one encounters in youth would ultimately become scars that could never be erased.
When Sui Yuqing was young, she had already displayed extraordinary talent and Destiny, which was why she was nearly used as a Tripod Furnace by her own master, as a stepping stone for his own advancement.
Her former Demonic Thoughts, due to her initial Integration with the Dao, had transformed into a Karmic Obstruction of the Buddhist Dao. This rendered her Buddhist Dao cultivation useless and unable to suppress the Heart Demon’s growth any longer.
Because the Karmic Obstruction of the Buddhist Dao had also begun to fester within her.
Resisting the Heart Demon’s Demonic Thoughts had already left her utterly exhausted.
The dual impact of the Buddhist Karmic Force and the Dao Heart Demons left her in constant torment. Subtly, over time, the Heart Demon’s influence over her had grown profound.
If this continued, in the best-case scenario, she would lose her mind and be unable to distinguish friend from foe.
In the worst-case, her body would be seized by the Heart Demon, and she would fall completely into the Demon Dao.
She told Lu Mingyuan that at first, the Demon Barrier would erupt once a month. Later, it evolved to once every half-month.
Now, it was once every seven days.
She could still resist the Heart Demon at the beginning, but now she was finding it harder and harder to hold on.
Throughout her hundred years of cultivation, the Heart Demon had never disappeared or been eradicated. It had only been suppressed by the Buddhist Cultivation Method. It had grown alongside Sui Yuqing for decades, becoming extremely powerful.
’No wonder the Demonic Qi is so deeply rooted and difficult to remove,’ Lu Mingyuan thought.
"Actually, it’s quite strange. The Demon Barrier wasn’t this powerful at first. At most, it could create an Illusion Realm. But recently, it began to erupt and lash out against my consciousness. The difference is like night and day," Sui Yuqing said, a lingering fear in her voice.
"Recently? When exactly?" Lu Mingyuan asked.
"Around the time... the Empress and the Great Nether Empress swapped their Flesh Bodies."
Sui Yuqing recalled.
Prompted by Lu Mingyuan’s question, Sui Yuqing had a sudden realization.
’Could my chronic Heart Demon problem be related to Wu Gongyu?’
She felt it was very likely.
Before encountering the Great Nether Empress, her symptoms were still manageable. But after meeting Wu Gongyu, they grew increasingly severe, and the Heart Demon grew even stronger.
Lu Mingyuan frowned at her words. He didn’t believe that Wu Gongyu, locked in a prison, could control the Heart Demon inside Sui Yuqing from such a distance. He reminded her,
"It was probably because of the full moon."
"The Yin Qi is very heavy on that day, which would accelerate the Heart Demon’s growth."
Sui Yuqing shook her head firmly. "Impossible. I’m aware of that theory, which is why I usually shut my windows and doors at this time of year. But today was very strange."
The full moon was a contributing factor, more or less, but it probably wasn’t the main reason.
There was no point in studying the problem now. The most important thing was how to solve it.
Lu Mingyuan asked, "Is there any way to completely cure the Demonic Thoughts you’re suffering from?"
For some reason, as soon as he said this...
Sui Yuqing’s expression became a little unnatural.
"There is..."
"Use an extremely powerful Six Pure Yang Qi Fortune to grind away the demonic nature. This process... takes a very, very long time."
Hearing this method, Lu Mingyuan nodded slightly.
This was the very method he had used to restore Sui Yuqing to normal.
"You should have said so earlier. If that’s the method, then it’s simple," Lu Mingyuan said with a smile.
"To be honest, this is the method I used to temporarily suppress the Heart Demon in your body. So it turns out the cure uses the same method."
Sui Yuqing lowered her gaze, her voice growing much softer. "There’s still a difference between suppressing it and curing it."
"What’s the difference?"
"To truly use Destiny to cleanse the demonic nature from one’s Flesh Body, it requires... intimate contact..."
"How intimate?" Lu Mingyuan asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The more intimate, the better..."
Seeing her delicate body tremble and goosebumps rise on her neck, Lu Mingyuan understood in an instant, a look of realization dawning on his face.
He simply smiled slightly. "I don’t mind. It’s up to you."
"After all, it’s to help cure you. It doesn’t involve any romantic feelings between a man and a woman, so I don’t see any problem with it."
Lu Mingyuan’s frankness left Sui Yuqing at a complete loss.
"What, you’re not willing to dual cultivate? Or do you think this method won’t work?"
Sui Yuqing stared at the handsome, jade-like, and masculine man opposite her, who had the appearance of an Exiled Immortal. Her breathing suddenly quickened, and she took several steps back like a budding maiden before fleeing out the door. "Let me think about it for a while longer."
Lu Mingyuan watched her retreating back and smiled inexplicably.
He took a sniff of the lingering fragrance on the bed, noticed a piece of clothing with a jade-green flying fish pattern, and then looked at the Black Turtle Shell that had suddenly appeared in his palm, his gaze profound.
"Wu Gongyu, what in the world are you up to?"
Back during the war of the Seven Kingdoms...
...Lu Mingyuan had discovered that the red prompts from the Black Turtle Shell were not so simple.
In a way, it wasn’t helping him.
Although it did indeed help him discover the Golden Crow Country’s movements...
...and grasp the enemy’s actions...
...at the same time, it had also plunged him into grave danger.
If not for the hexagram’s hints, combined with his own formidable strength, the Great Yan he led would have been crushed by the allied forces of the Six Kingdoms.
It was a hint, but also a trap.
Now, it seemed to be guiding Sui Yuqing’s Heart Demon from the shadows.
He took back what he just said.
Now he suspected that this Black Turtle Shell was a listening device planted on him by the Great Nether Empress.
...
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