“But…” Xu Yangyi took a deep breath and abruptly lifted his head. “I have to look inside your robe first! That is, one end of the chain is linked to the demon king. Where is the end that belongs to you?”

“If it’s in your hand, Junior will do as you say right now. If not…” Not only did he not advance, Xu Yangyi instead took a step with great caution. “Forgive me, but I’ll be hard-pressed to comply.”

Silence. A silence like that of death. The old monk’s serenity gradually receded, replaced by a wisp of faint meaning. It came with a terrible solemness.

“Hahahaha!” The azure-robed woman’s wild laughter eventually rang out again. “You gutless noble! You may have kept heaven and earth in darkness, but how could you conceal it from the heart?!”

Gutless noble?

[1]

Everyone’s gazes looked at the monk in astonishment. The monk’s expression was still without joy or sorrow, and his eyes regained serenity.

“Senior…” Fahui gasped coldly. In Buddhism there was never a figure given the name of noble. In other words… 

Everyone had been deceived! This man absolutely wasn’t a monk! On the contrary, he was just borrowing this outer appearance!

“A great lie,” the old monk finally spoke. He seemed to see what everyone was thinking and uttered, “This poor monk is indeed a monk. Moreover, I have been one for centuries. The Buddhist will in my heart is unchanging.” He finished speaking these words and looked no more at Fahui. Instead, he gazed deeply at Xu Yangyi and said after ages, “What do you know?”

What was known? What had happened? In this instant, each person felt Xu Yangyi to be brimming with secrets. An A-rank legion commander… and just a seed at that, was capable of holding a relation with this kind of place?

Xu Yangyi didn’t yield at all nor did he answer. Instead, he cupped his hands at the azure-clothed woman. “Dare I ask Senior whether you and this senior are truly unable to move at all?”

“This Palace dares to make a Dao-Heart Oath…” The azure-clothed woman looked at the old monk like she was looking at a dead man, yet smiled at Xu Yangyi. “I… and this bald donkey have already been suppressing each other for nearly a millennium. His realm is inferior to mine, but he is relying on nothing more than the formation that the forebear laid down. Both of us… cannot move. We cannot even accomplish the external manifestation of qi.”

Xu Yangyi mumbled to himself for a brief moment. In everyone’s wide eyes, he stepped onto the Chasing Skylark and swiftly rushed ahead!

“Commander!” 

“Junior Brother?” 

“Spud! What the heck are you doing?!” 

Everyone cried out in alarm but were stopped by a wave of Xu Yangyi’s hand. 

“There’s something that if I don’t look at it… my heart will be uneasy.” He stared fixedly at the old monk whose expression was like a lake. “Relax, there’s no way that I’m going to free either of them.”

When the old monk appeared, a theory was already present in his mind. The Chasing Skylark swiftly ascended above. The closer it neared the monk, his skylark seemed to sink into a quagmire. Entering was like confronting endless tides. Retreating was simply impossible. It was like a hand was pulling him.

The old monk didn’t budge by a hair, standing calmly in the sky. At this moment, he appeared to be Buddha sitting cross-legged high up in the clouds. Regardless, Xu Yangyi deeply felt that the several thousand meters of this monk’s surroundings had transformed into a terrible quagmire. It wasn’t that the other was opposing him getting closer but rather a kind of involuntary instinct that was refusing his approach!

“Hmph!” At this time, a cold snort echoed. Xu Yangyi’s surroundings seemed to part like water. His gaze flashed and he spurred the Chasing Skylark straight to the monk.

Is this a high-level cultivator’s might?

 Xu Yangyi stopped his magik artifact at the monk’s side. Presently, even he was unable to prevent sweat from wetting his back.

What was this realm? Although spiritual force and spiritual pressure weren’t used, the monk was able to trap him by merely relying on his fleshly body! It rendered the magik artifact granted to him by a Core Formation ancestor inoperable!

“Pardon Junior’s manners.” Xu Yangyi took a good few deep breaths. As he drew closer to the monk, the more he felt as if he was approaching a giant mountain. And yet, he was merely a traveler below the mountain. This sensation of unparalleled might… It would be hard to imagine if he personally experienced it.

His hand neared the monk’s worn-out robe. At this twinkling, the old monk finally spoke. “Amitabha… Benefactor, think three times before advancing.”

“Junior, you need not be worried. Although I don’t know what you want to see… concern yourself with only lifting the robe open. I have no problem protecting you!” the azure-clothed woman laughed coldly.

Xu Yangyi nodded, steeled his heart, and pushed aside the old monk’s robe!

“Hiss…” 

“This is…” 

“What the hell is going on?!”

The people roused below saw everything! Furthermore, they dared not believe the fact revealed was true!

The chain wasn’t in the monk’s robe. Everyone had thought that the other end was grasped in his hand, but it wasn’t! The other end… was deeply pierced into the old monk! It formed a strange seal! Likewise, it emitted rays of golden light!

This chain wasn’t just a one-directional imprisonment of the azure carp. Instead… a single chain was shackling two! The old monk was in no way suppressing the azure carp on his own. On the contrary, he was unable to leave! This was because he was also being suppressed here!

Xu Yangyi’s gaze flashed, and he promptly exploded tens of meters back in retreat. These two… definitely weren’t so simple as an old monk, who cherished mercy and the common people, and a Greater Demon. 

“What do you know?” Silence. After a long period, the old monk finally opened his mouth and asked.

Xu Yangyi mumbled to himself for a brief period. From his bosom, he took out a shell. It was the shell that had been sealed into an ancient pelt scroll by the Ming Clan and unsealed later again!

“If… Senior’s claw didn’t come out of the water just now, I wouldn’t have thought about this.” Xu Yangyi studied the old monk vigilantly. “Senior’s shell and color is a carbon copy of this shell.” He turned his head to look at the woman. “Perhaps Senior doesn’t know, but this shell brought Junior into an illusory realm. Someone left behind a sentence… Those words were… ‘I am at the bottom of Danxia Temple, save me!’.”

The Myriad Waters Demon King’s gaze softly flickered, conveying unmasked killing intent as she looked towards the old monk.

“Since then, I guessed that there might’ve been two people at the bottom of Danxia Temple. The appearance of these words represents that the person who left them behind wasn’t a match for the existence in Danxia Temple’s depths. There’s no way… that a person relying on themself would’ve been able to suppress that existence and talk as you do. So…” He cautiously shifted away tens of meters again and shook his head. “Junior… doesn’t believe in a single word that Senior just said!”

“Amitabha…” At last, the old monk slightly opened his eyes, wearing a smile as he looked at Xu Yangyi and nodded. “An examination down to the finest detail, a talent, eh…”

“Senior…” Fahui was completely floored. He absolutely hadn’t expected that Xu Yangyi would furthermore have a shell in his hand. And based on this shell, he hadn’t expected that Xu Yangyi would actually dare to pull the tiger’s whisker of a high-level cultivator! 

“Who… are you?”

Silence. A deathly silence. After ages, the old monk spoke again, “This old monk’s Buddhist title is Fahai. It was I that sent that information, but I don’t know why it was left inside Danxia Temple.”

“What?!” 

“Fahai?!”

“How is this possible?!”

“My god… did I hear that right?”

With a whoosh, Fang Cheng propped himself up on a lotus leaf, but his body immediately went soft and collapsed. His eyes were fixed on the old monk. “Fahai… Fahai? That Fahai from the New Legend of Madame White Snake?! The Song dynasty high monk?!”

Excited, Fang Cheng was trembling from head to toe. These two words appeared calm but caused all the misunderstandings from moments ago to collapse!

Fahai… Fahai! Yes! In legend, Fahai had ultimately concealed himself inside a crab, and a crab’s other name was gutless noble!!! It was also because a claw just extended into the air and pulled down the azure carp!

“Junior Fahui… Buddha Child of Mount Song’s Shaolin Temple pays respects to Senior!” Without any hesitation, Fahui had already cast himself on the ground, prostrating in admiration. He continued to pay respects. Nevertheless, everyone’s astonishment was inferior to Xu Yangyi’s!

Another riddle had been solved. At the bottom of Danxia Temple, the ‘me’ in ‘save me’ was actually Fahai! In that case… this azure carp… 

Xu Yangyi wasn’t willing to entertain this thought, because the answer was too outrageous! He wordlessly glanced at the azure-clothed woman. To his surprise, she didn’t utter a retort this time!

This old monk truly was Fahai!

“Benefactor, do you now know… why I was unwilling to reveal the truth?” Fahai took a long sigh and looked at Xu Yangyi. “In that year, I descended into waters and fought against Bai Suzhen. The responsibility lays with this monk. Karma is clear, and my cultivation was unable to advance another inch. To justify this karma, I voluntarily entered this place to suppress this azure carp forever.”

“HAHAHAHA!” the demon king faced upwards and roared in laughter. “You old donkey, you truly still do jest!”

Fahui’s gaze studied the demon king profoundly. “Whether it is true or false is up to the benefactor to judge.”

“Benefactors, listen to this poor monk’s tale I have for everyone. A very long… very long tale… A story that spans several thousand years…”

“Good…” The woman curbed her wild laughter and looked at Fahai with dense killing intent. “I also want to know… how you found this place that year.”

Fahai’s expression was without the stirring of great billows. He joined his hands together in prayer. “Amitabha…”

“3,600 years ago…” Fahai’s eyes finally carried a wisp of emotion. Great changes like that of azure seas transforming into mulberry fields.

“In the Wei River, there was an azure carp. At that time, there were countless numbers of fantastic creatures in the river. Marvelous demons of all kinds could be found everywhere… Meishan’s Seven Devils, the Three Demons of Xuan Yuan’s Tomb. All of them famous demon cultivators. There were also natural spirit-objects birthed together with the heavens. This carp’s intelligence had yet to bloom. Day by day, it drifted in the Wei River… Benefactors, is there something odd?”

Upon hearing these words, a kind of incredulous expression was revealed on each person’s face. They gasped coldly and looked at each other one after another.

Xu Yangyi sucked in deeply, his heart beating violently. Gritting his teeth, he asked his first question, “Dare I ask Senior… does the history of the Godseal War truly exist?”

This was a question… that he HAD to ask! What was the pursuit of cultivation?

To live long and unaging, to be free and unshackled!

However… Dao Masters were no more than 400 years old. The legendary, long-lost Nascent Soul Dao Lord had a longevity of 800 years! But after 800 years, they would still turn into a handful of yellow earth!

There was only one thing… An incomparably ancient legend. In the modern day, it had long since been called a thing of myth, to be everlasting in the world! A legend that survived countless epochs!

Immortal!

To achieve the Dao and become immortal! To ascend to the heavens in the light of day! This was the ever-tireless pursuit of every cultivator and even each emperor! 

If the Godseal War truly existed… then that was enough to prove that in this world… there were immortals! And even gods!!!

Although their traces were no longer known in the present day, they had once existed! Truly existed! The Three Demons of Xuan Yuan’s Tomb, Erlang, and Laozi… These figures weren’t fabricated!

[2]

The cultivation world… he himself would have a true pursuit! To the extent… that the entire cultivation world would be revised because of this!

1. Gutless noble is the literal phrasing, but in Chinese, this phrase has another meaning, that being “Bowelless crab”. Have you all been paying attention and perhaps looking up the things that I make a note of? Is the picture becoming clearer? Hahahaha!

2. Note about Erlang and Laozi. In the text, Erlang is also known as Yang Jian. Laozi is written down as something that might be translated as “Supreme Daoist Laojun”, Laojun meaning “Old Ruler/Gentleman/Lord”.

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