Editor: Sahloknir
“Everyone, I really have nothing to do with this matter!”
“…”
Ying Kai lowered the hand which was touching his brows, and he appeared even more fatigued than before, “Chengfeng, the strength of three generations of Artefact Sect Masters come mainly from the unparalleled forces of the mechanical soldiers. You know this, am I right?”
AD
Changsun Chengfeng added, “Yes.”
“You also know that in this world. you are the only person who can control these mechanical soldiers because only the eldest descendant of the lineage have the dual primordial spirit to forge the Soldier Silk. You know this too, right?”
Changsun Chengfeng answered with utmost sincerity, “I know this too well.”
Ying Kai pointed to the side. On a table between him and Xu Shuangtze, there was a huge thousand-year-old ice brick placed on a steel plate, with curls of cold air hovering above it. The plate was covered with frost, and a section of bloodied thread, thinner than silk was sealed within the block of ice. Even so, it glowed with a gloomy red light.
That was the soldier silk extracted from the bones of the Lotus Immortal.
Ying Kai asked, “What else do you wish to say?”
Mechanical soldiers are invulnerable to fire and water, not susceptible to all varieties of poison nor damaged even by regular immortal swords. Although they stood several feet tall, each was as agile as a monkey.
When deployed in groups to form battle formations or standing up against opponents in singular units, these mechanical soldiers were frightful entities to any party. The materials and blueprint to manufacture these mechanical soldiers had always been secretly passed down from generation to generation by the eldest descendant of the Changsun family. There was only one crucial artefact required to control these soldiers—soldier silk.
Ordinary puppet silk was already insidious and rare, but in comparison to soldier silk, it is like comparing an ordinary golden core cultivator to Ying Kai or Xu Shuangtze. It was in a class of its own.
In this world, countless alchemy cultivators dreamed of forging just a short piece of soldier silk, but their efforts were all in vain. After all, refining soldier silk requires one condition, the yin and yang dual primordial spirit.
Just like a person can’t grow two heads, even great masters like Ying Kai and Xu Shuangtze cannot cultivate two primordial spirits out of thin air. However, descendants of the Changsun family were born with this talent. During the refining process, the Artefact Sect Master must retain his Yang primordial spirit while injecting the Yin primordial spirit into every inch of the soldier silk.
Therefore, every unit of mechanical soldiers were connected to the Artefact Sect Master’s primordial spirit, allowing him to seamlessly control them, and for the soldiers to spontaneously protect their master without manipulation. Wherever the Artefact Sect Master went, the soldiers will follow. If the Artefact Sect Master died, the soldiers would also perish. If the Artefact Sect Master wished to control puppets through soldier silk, he did not have to exhaust much spiritual energy. He only needed to will it.
There was no doubt that it was Soldier Silk which was extracted from ‘Xiang Xiaoyuan’s’ spiritual veins by Xu Shuangtze. Apart from Changsun Chengfeng, who else could control this vicious and powerful weapon?
The four great masters were facing the Artefact Sect Master from four different directions. Even Yuchi Rui, who was snacking on peanuts, raised his eyelids and stared at him coldly.
“…”
Jtjcurec Jtfcuofcu rja raloois obg j ktlif. Lf olcjiis rlutfv, jcv rjlv, “P jcv atf Obaer Pwwbgaji tjnf cb qjra ugevufr cbg fcwlas klat fjmt batfg. Pc ojma, kf yjgfis lcafgjmafv. Ktfgf lr gfjiis cb gfjrbc obg wf ab fzqfcv foobga ab lcreia tlr lwwbgaji ybvs.”
Lf qjerfv, jcv atfc mbcalcefv klat vloolmeias, “Dea…lo kf lcrlra bc gfjmtlcu j mbcmierlbc, P vb tjnf j rerqfma.”
Yuchi Rui asked immediately, “Who?”
Chang Sun Chengfeng did not answer right away, but got up and bowed respectfully to Ying Kai.
“Lord Ying, the soldier silk is indeed unique to our Changsun family. This is an irrefutable fact. But this is not a trivial matter. Please grant me seven days to catch the real culprit. In seven days, I will personally return to the Correctional Palace at Dai Mountain and receive any punishment. I swear not to escape. Is this permissible?”
There was clearly an implication in his words which suggested a determination to resolve the case. Ying Kai frowned and added, “Who do you suspect?”
Changsun Chengfeng maintained his bow and answered with an unwavering attitude, “I will provide a reasonable resolution in seven days.”
“…”
In the entire Immortal Alliance, other than the deceased Lotus Immortal, only Xu Shuangtze, Ying Kai and Yuchi Rui were Mahayana-level cultivators. Mu Duozhu had a wealth of experience and the prestige of his Golden Boat was high. His words carried more weight than Changsun Chengfeng’s.
Changsun Chengfeng was mild-mannered and gregarious. He often mingled with juniors. This gave people the impression that he was weak and overly-friendly, but in reality this kind of weakness was limited to these four people in the hall.
After all, he was the head of one of the three major sects, and the eldest descendant of the Changsun family. Any one of these positions and status was second to none in terms of prominence and could not be easily offended.
The several masters in the hall glanced at each other. Ying Kai frowned and pondered for a moment. He knew that it was not possible for Changsun Chengfeng to escape. With that, his attitude softened, “In that case…”
At this time, only Xu Shuangtze’s voice came from his side,
“You used to have a brother.”
The Artefact Sect Master had a younger brother?
Everyone did not react in time. Only Mu Duozhu blurted out, “Is it the one from the folk tales?”
“…”
“…”
“The last time I went to Yanchun Theatre, I ran into a performance troupe which was telling a folk tale of a man who killed his brother and forcibly seized his sister-in-law.” Mu Duozhu quickly held up the tea cup and blocked half of his face. His voice became softer when he saw the shocked expression of Changsun Chengfeng, “The plot is twisted, but it was heartfelt, and quite…tear-jerking.”
There was a dead silence in the hall, and even Yuchi Rui had forgotten to bite down on the peanut which he brought to his lips. Then, he looked up and down Changsun Chengfeng with amazement, as if the man had utterly transformed overnight.
“…” The Artefact Sect Master gaped before affirming, “I did have a brother, but the folklore is pure nonsense!”
Ying Kai. “Ahem!”
Ying Kai cleared his throat several times, took a sip from his teacup, and said, “Brother Mu may not be aware that the second son of the Changsun family was not killed by the Artefact Sect Master. He committed a serious crime and was exiled to the frozen lands of the Beijiang tundras nearly seventeen years ago. There has been no news of him since then.”
In that extremely cold place, which was void of life, there had never been a record of a cultivator coming out of that land alive since ancient times. Therefore, sending someone into exile there was equivalent to a death sentence. Just that it was slightly better than execution.
Mu Duozhu was surprised, “What did he do? ”
Changsun Chengfeng had almost retracted himself from the situation but Xu Shuangtze’s words dragged him right back. He was reluctant to air his family’s dirty laundry in front of everyone. After a long while of silence and amidst the people’s gaze, he sighed, “This brother followed his birth mother’s surname and was known as Du Kaixun.”
“Du Kaixun was much younger than me. As my mother died when he was young and my father was not strict in disciplining, he became extremely cold-blooded and twisted since he was a child. He once abused Bai…abused a disciple in our family.”
“The method he used was extremely cruel, he even cast a spell to force that disciple to cut out his heart in front of everyone. He almost succeeded. Later, he was sent to the Disciplinary Court. Originally, we thought that he would learn from his mistakes, but after two months, he revealed his true self.”
“Du Kaixun secretly read the forbidden book of ‘The Yin and Yang Chaos Mantra’ and picked up how to concoct the Yellow Spring poison. He laced the tea of the Lotus Immortal with poison and he wanted…he wanted to gouge out the Lotus Immortal’s right eye.”
Since this incident happened nearly seventeen years ago, it should have been shortly before Gong Wei died on the Ascension Platform. Yuchi Rui asked immediately, “Why didn’t I know about this?”
Changsun Chengfeng said, “I am ashamed, but this matter was top secret back then. Because of-of a major family’s involvement, the Lotus Immortal was magnanimous and did not make this matter public. He only reported it to Lord Ying.”
He paused, and his tone became cold when he spoke again, “Actually, in my opinion, this wicked beast might as well be dead. Lord Ying also agreed to leave him to my disposal at that time. But the Lotus Immortal was still too merciful in the end. Seeing that the beast was not even 20 years of age, he sentenced him to exile in the frozen lands of Beijiang for the rest of his life. He was not allowed to return to the Immortal World.”
“Where is he now? “Yuchi Rui asked.
Changsun Chengfeng replied, “I don’t know. The extreme cold lands of the Beijaing tundra was a realm that even you and I may not dare to set foot into easily. Since ancient times, I have never heard of anyone who can come back alive. I always believed that he was dead, and have never tried to find him in the past seventeen years.”
Ying Kai pondered for a moment and asked, “If that’s the case, why are you so sure that this incident is related to Du Kaixun?”
Changsun Chengfeng appeared to be struggling for words. After a while, he gritted his teeth and continued, “Du Kaixun… is a rare talent.”
“My father was nearly forty years old when he learned how to use dual primordial spirits to refine soldier silk. I inherited the teachings when I was twenty-six years old.”
“However, Du Kaixun was only eighteen years old when he first produced soldier silk. He even created an exceedingly powerful and perfect mechanical solder. He trampled and torched the life’s work of the previous two generations of Artefact Sect Masters and nearly angered several of the eldest members of the family to death.”
The dirty laundry of major families tended to be covered up as tightly as possible. Hence, everyone present heard of these things for the first time today, and the room was strangely quiet.
“After this incident, I had to forbid Du Kaixun from forging any mechanical soldiers, and at the same time, I personally sealed his dual primordial spirit, preventing him from refining any solder silk. I wanted to wait for him to grow older and change his ways before considering releasing the seal. However, in the next year, he committed a series of appalling crimes such as abusing a disciple and poisoning the Lotus Immortal. This person is psychopathic and hopeless. It is regretful that the Lotus Immortal spared his life out of benevolence that year.”
Changsun Chengfeng lowered his body again. He had a very gentle and handsome face and always carried a smile, but now he was terribly serious.
“The incident at the Ding Xian Mausoleum and the soldier silk must have something to do with Du Kaixun. No matter how this person escaped from the frozen lands to cause chaos, I will catch him personally this time, and hand him over to Dai Mountain for Lord Ying to impose punishment.”
The room fell silent for a long while.
Ying Kai was fixated on Changsun Chengfeng, and hesitated for a long time before slowly saying, “Chengfeng, the great masters are all gathered here at the Sky Pavillion today. If you will swear in front of all of us that you will capture Du Kaixun within seven days and escort him to us personally…”
At this time, only a slight ‘ding’ sound was heard as Xu Shuangtze put down his tea cup. Finally he spoke his second sentence since he entered,
“Don’t bother, he is dead.”
“…”
Even Ying Kai was stunned, and Changsun Chengfeng asked at once, “What did you say?”
There was no emotion reflected in Xu Shuangtze’s dark eyes, and his tone was calm as if he was stating an insignificant fact, “Seventeen years ago, I heard about how he poisoned and attempted to cut out the eye of the Lotus Immortal. I pursued him over thousands of miles to that frozen land and personally put an end to him.”
“His body was separated from his head, and my blade went through his heart. He is dead through and through.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Sahl ~
Xu Bai: Anyone tries to hurt my wifey. They die.
Everyone else: …
Editor: Sahloknir
“Everyone, I really have nothing to do with this matter!”
“…”
Ying Kai lowered the hand which was touching his brows, and he appeared even more fatigued than before, “Chengfeng, the strength of three generations of Artefact Sect Masters come mainly from the unparalleled forces of the mechanical soldiers. You know this, am I right?”
AD
Changsun Chengfeng added, “Yes.”
“You also know that in this world. you are the only person who can control these mechanical soldiers because only the eldest descendant of the lineage have the dual primordial spirit to forge the Soldier Silk. You know this too, right?”
Changsun Chengfeng answered with utmost sincerity, “I know this too well.”
Ying Kai pointed to the side. On a table between him and Xu Shuangtze, there was a huge thousand-year-old ice brick placed on a steel plate, with curls of cold air hovering above it. The plate was covered with frost, and a section of bloodied thread, thinner than silk was sealed within the block of ice. Even so, it glowed with a gloomy red light.
That was the soldier silk extracted from the bones of the Lotus Immortal.
Ying Kai asked, “What else do you wish to say?”
Mechanical soldiers are invulnerable to fire and water, not susceptible to all varieties of poison nor damaged even by regular immortal swords. Although they stood several feet tall, each was as agile as a monkey.
When deployed in groups to form battle formations or standing up against opponents in singular units, these mechanical soldiers were frightful entities to any party. The materials and blueprint to manufacture these mechanical soldiers had always been secretly passed down from generation to generation by the eldest descendant of the Changsun family. There was only one crucial artefact required to control these soldiers—soldier silk.
Ordinary puppet silk was already insidious and rare, but in comparison to soldier silk, it is like comparing an ordinary golden core cultivator to Ying Kai or Xu Shuangtze. It was in a class of its own.
In this world, countless alchemy cultivators dreamed of forging just a short piece of soldier silk, but their efforts were all in vain. After all, refining soldier silk requires one condition, the yin and yang dual primordial spirit.
Just like a person can’t grow two heads, even great masters like Ying Kai and Xu Shuangtze cannot cultivate two primordial spirits out of thin air. However, descendants of the Changsun family were born with this talent. During the refining process, the Artefact Sect Master must retain his Yang primordial spirit while injecting the Yin primordial spirit into every inch of the soldier silk.
Therefore, every unit of mechanical soldiers were connected to the Artefact Sect Master’s primordial spirit, allowing him to seamlessly control them, and for the soldiers to spontaneously protect their master without manipulation. Wherever the Artefact Sect Master went, the soldiers will follow. If the Artefact Sect Master died, the soldiers would also perish. If the Artefact Sect Master wished to control puppets through soldier silk, he did not have to exhaust much spiritual energy. He only needed to will it.
There was no doubt that it was Soldier Silk which was extracted from ‘Xiang Xiaoyuan’s’ spiritual veins by Xu Shuangtze. Apart from Changsun Chengfeng, who else could control this vicious and powerful weapon?
The four great masters were facing the Artefact Sect Master from four different directions. Even Yuchi Rui, who was snacking on peanuts, raised his eyelids and stared at him coldly.
“…”
Jtjcurec Jtfcuofcu rja raloois obg j ktlif. Lf olcjiis rlutfv, jcv rjlv, “P jcv atf Obaer Pwwbgaji tjnf cb qjra ugevufr cbg fcwlas klat fjmt batfg. Pc ojma, kf yjgfis lcafgjmafv. Ktfgf lr gfjiis cb gfjrbc obg wf ab fzqfcv foobga ab lcreia tlr lwwbgaji ybvs.”
Lf qjerfv, jcv atfc mbcalcefv klat vloolmeias, “Dea…lo kf lcrlra bc gfjmtlcu j mbcmierlbc, P vb tjnf j rerqfma.”
Yuchi Rui asked immediately, “Who?”
Chang Sun Chengfeng did not answer right away, but got up and bowed respectfully to Ying Kai.
“Lord Ying, the soldier silk is indeed unique to our Changsun family. This is an irrefutable fact. But this is not a trivial matter. Please grant me seven days to catch the real culprit. In seven days, I will personally return to the Correctional Palace at Dai Mountain and receive any punishment. I swear not to escape. Is this permissible?”
There was clearly an implication in his words which suggested a determination to resolve the case. Ying Kai frowned and added, “Who do you suspect?”
Changsun Chengfeng maintained his bow and answered with an unwavering attitude, “I will provide a reasonable resolution in seven days.”
“…”
In the entire Immortal Alliance, other than the deceased Lotus Immortal, only Xu Shuangtze, Ying Kai and Yuchi Rui were Mahayana-level cultivators. Mu Duozhu had a wealth of experience and the prestige of his Golden Boat was high. His words carried more weight than Changsun Chengfeng’s.
Changsun Chengfeng was mild-mannered and gregarious. He often mingled with juniors. This gave people the impression that he was weak and overly-friendly, but in reality this kind of weakness was limited to these four people in the hall.
After all, he was the head of one of the three major sects, and the eldest descendant of the Changsun family. Any one of these positions and status was second to none in terms of prominence and could not be easily offended.
The several masters in the hall glanced at each other. Ying Kai frowned and pondered for a moment. He knew that it was not possible for Changsun Chengfeng to escape. With that, his attitude softened, “In that case…”
At this time, only Xu Shuangtze’s voice came from his side,
“You used to have a brother.”
The Artefact Sect Master had a younger brother?
Everyone did not react in time. Only Mu Duozhu blurted out, “Is it the one from the folk tales?”
“…”
“…”
“The last time I went to Yanchun Theatre, I ran into a performance troupe which was telling a folk tale of a man who killed his brother and forcibly seized his sister-in-law.” Mu Duozhu quickly held up the tea cup and blocked half of his face. His voice became softer when he saw the shocked expression of Changsun Chengfeng, “The plot is twisted, but it was heartfelt, and quite…tear-jerking.”
There was a dead silence in the hall, and even Yuchi Rui had forgotten to bite down on the peanut which he brought to his lips. Then, he looked up and down Changsun Chengfeng with amazement, as if the man had utterly transformed overnight.
“…” The Artefact Sect Master gaped before affirming, “I did have a brother, but the folklore is pure nonsense!”
Ying Kai. “Ahem!”
Ying Kai cleared his throat several times, took a sip from his teacup, and said, “Brother Mu may not be aware that the second son of the Changsun family was not killed by the Artefact Sect Master. He committed a serious crime and was exiled to the frozen lands of the Beijiang tundras nearly seventeen years ago. There has been no news of him since then.”
In that extremely cold place, which was void of life, there had never been a record of a cultivator coming out of that land alive since ancient times. Therefore, sending someone into exile there was equivalent to a death sentence. Just that it was slightly better than execution.
Mu Duozhu was surprised, “What did he do? ”
Changsun Chengfeng had almost retracted himself from the situation but Xu Shuangtze’s words dragged him right back. He was reluctant to air his family’s dirty laundry in front of everyone. After a long while of silence and amidst the people’s gaze, he sighed, “This brother followed his birth mother’s surname and was known as Du Kaixun.”
“Du Kaixun was much younger than me. As my mother died when he was young and my father was not strict in disciplining, he became extremely cold-blooded and twisted since he was a child. He once abused Bai…abused a disciple in our family.”
“The method he used was extremely cruel, he even cast a spell to force that disciple to cut out his heart in front of everyone. He almost succeeded. Later, he was sent to the Disciplinary Court. Originally, we thought that he would learn from his mistakes, but after two months, he revealed his true self.”
“Du Kaixun secretly read the forbidden book of ‘The Yin and Yang Chaos Mantra’ and picked up how to concoct the Yellow Spring poison. He laced the tea of the Lotus Immortal with poison and he wanted…he wanted to gouge out the Lotus Immortal’s right eye.”
Since this incident happened nearly seventeen years ago, it should have been shortly before Gong Wei died on the Ascension Platform. Yuchi Rui asked immediately, “Why didn’t I know about this?”
Changsun Chengfeng said, “I am ashamed, but this matter was top secret back then. Because of-of a major family’s involvement, the Lotus Immortal was magnanimous and did not make this matter public. He only reported it to Lord Ying.”
He paused, and his tone became cold when he spoke again, “Actually, in my opinion, this wicked beast might as well be dead. Lord Ying also agreed to leave him to my disposal at that time. But the Lotus Immortal was still too merciful in the end. Seeing that the beast was not even 20 years of age, he sentenced him to exile in the frozen lands of Beijiang for the rest of his life. He was not allowed to return to the Immortal World.”
“Where is he now? “Yuchi Rui asked.
Changsun Chengfeng replied, “I don’t know. The extreme cold lands of the Beijaing tundra was a realm that even you and I may not dare to set foot into easily. Since ancient times, I have never heard of anyone who can come back alive. I always believed that he was dead, and have never tried to find him in the past seventeen years.”
Ying Kai pondered for a moment and asked, “If that’s the case, why are you so sure that this incident is related to Du Kaixun?”
Changsun Chengfeng appeared to be struggling for words. After a while, he gritted his teeth and continued, “Du Kaixun… is a rare talent.”
“My father was nearly forty years old when he learned how to use dual primordial spirits to refine soldier silk. I inherited the teachings when I was twenty-six years old.”
“However, Du Kaixun was only eighteen years old when he first produced soldier silk. He even created an exceedingly powerful and perfect mechanical solder. He trampled and torched the life’s work of the previous two generations of Artefact Sect Masters and nearly angered several of the eldest members of the family to death.”
The dirty laundry of major families tended to be covered up as tightly as possible. Hence, everyone present heard of these things for the first time today, and the room was strangely quiet.
“After this incident, I had to forbid Du Kaixun from forging any mechanical soldiers, and at the same time, I personally sealed his dual primordial spirit, preventing him from refining any solder silk. I wanted to wait for him to grow older and change his ways before considering releasing the seal. However, in the next year, he committed a series of appalling crimes such as abusing a disciple and poisoning the Lotus Immortal. This person is psychopathic and hopeless. It is regretful that the Lotus Immortal spared his life out of benevolence that year.”
Changsun Chengfeng lowered his body again. He had a very gentle and handsome face and always carried a smile, but now he was terribly serious.
“The incident at the Ding Xian Mausoleum and the soldier silk must have something to do with Du Kaixun. No matter how this person escaped from the frozen lands to cause chaos, I will catch him personally this time, and hand him over to Dai Mountain for Lord Ying to impose punishment.”
The room fell silent for a long while.
Ying Kai was fixated on Changsun Chengfeng, and hesitated for a long time before slowly saying, “Chengfeng, the great masters are all gathered here at the Sky Pavillion today. If you will swear in front of all of us that you will capture Du Kaixun within seven days and escort him to us personally…”
At this time, only a slight ‘ding’ sound was heard as Xu Shuangtze put down his tea cup. Finally he spoke his second sentence since he entered,
“Don’t bother, he is dead.”
“…”
Even Ying Kai was stunned, and Changsun Chengfeng asked at once, “What did you say?”
There was no emotion reflected in Xu Shuangtze’s dark eyes, and his tone was calm as if he was stating an insignificant fact, “Seventeen years ago, I heard about how he poisoned and attempted to cut out the eye of the Lotus Immortal. I pursued him over thousands of miles to that frozen land and personally put an end to him.”
“His body was separated from his head, and my blade went through his heart. He is dead through and through.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Sahl ~
Xu Bai: Anyone tries to hurt my wifey. They die.
Everyone else: …
