The night was like water, the moon hanging high in the heavens.
In the small courtyard of Jishan Ward, the shadow of the osmanthus tree stretched long, swaying gently with the night breeze,
casting a dappled darkness across the bluestone flagstones.
Gu Chengming stood beneath the tree, lowering his head to gaze intently at his own fist.
Expending the whole body's strength...
No matter how the Hundred Heavens Emperor had actually comprehended this technique, at the very least, for Gu Chengming, the question of what imagery to grasp had already been resolved.
Although there was no numerical value attached to this punch, nor any introduction of special effects, the single description—"expending the whole body's strength"—was, in truth, enough to convey its sheer power...?
"If only there were something to use as a reference."
Gu Chengming mused inwardly, his gaze drifting involuntarily toward that half-broken rockery stone he had been using to test his sword.
But he glanced at the sky, which by now counted as deep into the night, and in the end he gave up on the idea.
When deploying a trump card whose side effects were still unknown, with no one nearby to keep watch, he could not feel at ease.
The Hundred Bones Resonance, however, was a little unable to restrain itself.
[It urged: Emperor Gu! Quick, give it a try!]
Gu Chengming found it rather amusing, and soothed the Hundred Bones Resonance with a word: "It's too late tonight. Setting aside the matter of the commotion, if I really do exhaust my strength, I'll have to trouble someone to carry me back. I'll test it again tomorrow at the Night-Watch Bureau's training grounds."
[Hearing this, the Hundred Bones Resonance, though unwilling, could only shrink dejectedly back into its corner.]
Having pacified the Hundred Heavens Emperor, Gu Chengming pulled his attention back to reality.
At the bottom of his field of vision, that newly unlocked CG interface was giving off a faint, gentle glow.
[CG / Hundred Heavens Emperor, Aid Me!]
[Unlock Progress: 10%]
The appearance of this progress bar was actually rather similar to when he had first cultivated the «Primordial Imperial Merit»—both of the type that could be used even before the CG was fully unlocked.
But from the look of the Hundred Bones Resonance, it seemed no different from usual?
So what exactly was the condition for advancing the CG's unlock?
As he was pondering this, Gu Chengming's perception suddenly caught a faint rustle of fabric.
The sound came from the crack of the main room's door. Had he not been cultivating the «Yin-Yang Creation Strategy» at this moment, abnormally sensitive to the flow of qi-mechanism in his surroundings, he likely would not have detected it at all.
He did not turn his head; he merely used the motion of raising his teacup to sweep a glance from the corner of his eye.
He saw that the wooden door, which had originally been shut tight, had at some point been pushed open a crack, and a familiar eye was pressed against the gap, peering furtively into the courtyard. Seeing that Gu Chengming still appeared to be meditating with his eyes closed, the crack of the door tentatively widened just a little more.
Gu Chengming was inwardly amused. It seemed this Elder Yu had woken long ago and had simply been observing in secret all this while?
He did not expose her, but merely took out from his storage pouch that box of "Suxiang Pastry House" cakes that Fu Xiaoxiao had forced upon him during the day.
"Elder Yu, since you're still awake, why not come and sit a while?"
"Creeaak—"
The instant the door was pushed open, that deliberately concealed aura dispersed at once.
Yu Wenqiu was draped in a somewhat thin outer robe, and though her hair was a little disheveled, this did nothing to diminish her current "dignity" as an elder.
"I was just checking whether you were still practicing, that's all."
"Yes, yes, yes, the Elder is most considerate."
Gu Chengming lifted the lid of the box, and a sweet, enticing fragrance immediately spread through the cold, clear night:
"As it happens, this disciple has some cakes from the Suxiang Pastry House here. If the Elder does not find them beneath her, why not eat and chat at the same time?"
Yu Wenqiu, who had still been holding up her elderly airs, saw the box of cakes—and in that instant her eyes lit up with a snap.
"Flowing Cloud Pastry from the Suxiang Pastry House? This is a sought-after item, limited in quantity each day!"
She stood on no ceremony, pulled out a stone stool and sat down, and with two fingers, in an extremely practiced manner, picked up a piece and popped it into her mouth, mumbling her assessment indistinctly:
"Mm—this texture, it melts the moment it enters the mouth, sweet but not cloying. Not bad, not bad."
Yu Wenqiu swallowed the cake in her mouth and cupped the teacup to warm her hands: "You came back late today—did you run into some trouble again?"
Gu Chengming then recounted, trimming away the superfluous and keeping it brief, how he had run into Qin Qing at the mouth of the alley that day, and how he had later learned the fist art on the training grounds.
Yu Wenqiu, who had been happily eating, nearly choked. Only after she had finally caught her breath did she ask with a strange look on her face:
"Senior Qin of the Hunyuan Sect?"
Gu Chengming was somewhat surprised: "Is this Senior Qin very famous?"
Seeing the puzzlement on Gu Chengming's face, Yu Wenqiu did not keep him in suspense. She picked up another cake and explained as she ate:
"I'd heard of her name back when I was in my sect. It was about twenty years ago, I think. Back then she was the most formidable artifact-forger among the younger generation of elders in the Hunyuan Sect. They say that as long as you gave her enough materials, there was no magic treasure she couldn't forge."
"Only afterward, it seems some great affair occurred—it caused quite an uproar—and in the end she withdrew from the Hunyuan Sect, and from then on vanished without a trace."
Something stirred in Gu Chengming's heart, and he pressed on: "What great affair?"
"The specifics are told a hundred different ways, but the most widely circulated account is that it had to do with the Eternal Life Sect."
"The Eternal Life Sect?" Gu Chengming's brow knit slightly.
That name again.
"That's right."
Yu Wenqiu nodded, her finger unconsciously tracing circles on the stone table: "They say that in those years, in order to prove out her own way of artifact-forging, Senior Qin Qing poured the painstaking effort of several years into forging an extremely special set of magic treasures. It was a mother-and-child artifact set, named the Six Harmonies Spirit-Sealing Bells."
"Not only was the grade of these artifacts exceedingly high—more crucially, inscribed upon them was an extremely rare restriction, one that drew upon the dharma-position of Shi Xi."
"It is said that once these Six Harmonies Spirit-Sealing Bells are unfurled, they can spread out a domain within a certain radius. Inside this domain, apart from the pure strength of physical body and blood-energy, any spiritual power or arts become sluggish or even fail entirely—not even Third-Realm cultivators are spared."
At this point, Yu Wenqiu paused and glanced at Gu Chengming: "Doesn't it sound a great deal like that scene you ran into today?"
Gu Chengming nodded slowly. It was indeed very much alike.
That sluggish sensation, as if even one's thoughts were being stretched out; that oppressive feeling of spiritual power circulating with such obscure difficulty—had Vice-Commander Liu not broken the impasse entirely through brute force with that single blade-strike, even he might not have easily struggled free.
"Senior Qin's original intention in forging this treasure was, in fact, to give body cultivators a fair chance to fight to the death when facing dharma cultivators."
Yu Wenqiu sighed, a trace of regret in her tone:
"Her idea was very pure. Body cultivators bitterly temper their physical bodies, yet they often suffer a disadvantage before ranged arts. With this treasure, they could drag dharma cultivators into the close-quarters melee that body cultivators excel at."
"She handed this set of treasures over to her sect, hoping they could serve as a foundation to anchor the sect."
"But afterward, who knows what went wrong—this precious treasure, enough to alter the very landscape of cultivators' battles, was actually plundered during an escort mission. And the ones who acted were none other than the Eternal Life Sect."
"After it happened, that pack of madmen of the Eternal Life Sect used this set of treasures to lay ambushes all across the Nine Provinces, specifically hunting down the geniuses of every great sect."
Yu Wenqiu picked up the now-cold cake but did not bring it to her mouth again, merely crumbling off a little of it: "During that time, the world of cultivation was gripped by terror. Though the Hunyuan Sect did everything it could to track them down, the items had already fallen into the hands of an evil cult, and the slaughter they wrought was all too real."
"Some said it was because Qin Qing had forged such a demonic artifact that living souls were trampled into ruin; others said there was a traitor within the Hunyuan Sect... In any case, after that, Senior Qin broke ties with her sect and swore never again to lightly forge artifacts for others."
A brief silence settled over the little courtyard.
Gu Chengming lightly tapped his fingers against the tabletop, cross-checking Qin Qing's words and conduct from the daytime against this account of the past.
No wonder she had wanted to set a restriction-trial upon him the moment they met, and had even, upon hearing he wished to forge a flood-dragon-core Dharma Sword, put forward the harsh condition that he must learn the «Myriad Forms Creation Fist» and earn her approval.
"So that's how it is..."
Gu Chengming murmured under his breath, and in his heart, toward that seemingly languid and unrestrained senior, he could not help but feel a touch more respect.
An artifact-forger who sealed her furnace and withdrew into seclusion because her work had been used for evil—that in itself was an immense form of self-punishment.
And as for that so-called "mother-and-child artifact," there were six child-bodies in all, and one mother-body.
The ones now scattered out in the world were surely those child-bodies.
If the mother-body were still in Qin Qing's hands...
Gu Chengming sighed softly, lifted the teapot, and refilled Yu Wenqiu's already-empty cup with hot tea.
Yu Wenqiu, too, seemed to sense that the mood had grown somewhat heavy. She shook her head, brushed off the crumbs she had crumbled in her hand, picked up a fresh piece, and stuffed it into her mouth with a beaming smile:
"Whatever the case, being able to receive her guidance counts as a stroke of fortune. Didn't this elder say so—your luck, little Gu, has always been quite good."
Gu Chengming laughed despite himself: "Is the Elder praising me or mocking me?"
"Praising you, of course!" Yu Wenqiu glared at him with full righteousness, then, as if recalling something, leaned forward slightly and asked with a rather gossipy air:
"By the way, since she's agreed to forge a sword for you, what sort of thing are you planning to refine that flood-dragon core into?"
"Haven't decided yet. I'll have to wait until my fist art is mastered before I figure that out."
As the night deepened, the last wisp of tea-fragrance in the little courtyard scattered on the wind as well.
Having eaten and drunk her fill, Yu Wenqiu wrapped her outer robe tightly around herself and, like a well-fed cat, returned to her room thoroughly contented to make up her sleep.
After seeing Yu Wenqiu off, Gu Chengming sat alone beside the stone table, in no hurry to return inside.
Now he understood why Fu Xiaoxiao had told him to "come into contact" with more people.
Just like this matter of Qin Qing—the various powers were intertwined at their roots, and behind people and events that seemed utterly unconnected ran a thousand threads of cause and effect.
The so-called red-dust qi was, perhaps, precisely something to be sought within these unresolved threads of karma.
He rose to his feet, tidied up the remnants on the stone table, then returned indoors and sat down cross-legged.
The true essence within his body flowed slowly through his meridians, running a Greater Heavenly Circuit along the path of the cultivation method, adjusting his state to its peak. Then he closed his eyes to rest his spirit, quietly awaiting the break of dawn.
The next morning, the sky had only just begun to pale.
On the training grounds of the Night-Watch Bureau's rear mountain, the morning mist had not yet dispersed. Qin Qing had been blasted out of bed, quite forcibly, by a message-talisman from Gu Chengming.
When she appeared at the edge of the training grounds—draped in that somewhat loose lotus-pink long dress, yawning—the bun she usually wore casually pinned up was now even looser and more slovenly, with several stubborn strands of hair sticking up. Her whole person radiated an extremely obvious got-out-of-bed grumpiness.
"Gu Chengming, you brat had better really have had some major breakthrough."
Qin Qing leaned lazily against a stone pillar, eyes half-narrowed, her tone carrying an undisguised irritation and impatience:
"How many hours have even passed? By the most generous count it hasn't been a single night. And you're telling me you've comprehended it through?"
She truly did not believe it.
Although this «Myriad Forms Creation Fist» had no fixed moves, it was precisely because it had no moves that the "imagery" used to fill out the fist's framework was the hardest thing to find.
An ordinary cultivator might observe a fierce tiger descending the mountain, or feel out the murmuring of flowing water. Even a genius of exceptional comprehension, wishing to find an imagery that suited his own spiritual power and could also draw forth a resonance with heaven and earth, would need at the very least ten days to half a month of grinding effort.
A single night? If he had just grabbed any old flower, bird, fish, or insect to fob this seat off with, then he shouldn't blame her for going to complain to Zhou Qingmu.
Faced with the suspicion all but written across Qin Qing's face, Gu Chengming was not the least bit annoyed.
Today he wore a set of short, fitted, easy-to-move-in garb, and standing in the morning mist he had something of the air of a deep abyss and a towering peak.
"Since the Senior has come, this junior naturally would not dare to fob her off."
"It's only that the imagery this junior comprehended expends a tremendous amount of strength. When I perform it shortly, I'll still have to trouble Senior Qin to act as my protector, lest something go wrong after this junior is drained of strength."
"Protector? Drained of strength?" Hearing this, Qin Qing nearly burst out laughing in exasperation.
Though this «Myriad Forms Creation Fist» of hers sounded impressive at first—what with "Myriad Forms" and "Creation"—and could be quite intimidating to the ear, at its root it had in fact been born from the «Longevity Art» she herself had created.
What was longevity? It was a method that emphasized conforming to the seasons, regulating yin and yang, and nurturing one's qi and blood.
To put it plainly, this was a health-preserving fist art!
What imagery could you have comprehended that would expend such a tremendous amount?
Grumbling inwardly aside, looking at the way Gu Chengming carried himself, Qin Qing nonetheless heaved a sigh, waved that wide sleeve of hers, and casually laid down a barrier to seal off the aura within.
"Fine, stop dawdling."
She found a reasonably clean bluestone and sat down, propping her cheek on one hand and waving listlessly:
"Whatever special skill you've got, show it. This seat will cover for you."
Seeing this, Gu Chengming drew a deep breath and nodded.
"Many thanks, Senior."
He turned to face the thick black-iron outer wall of the training grounds, parted his feet slightly, closed his eyes, and concentrated his spirit.
Gu Chengming silently intoned in his heart.
Here we go, Hundred Heavens Emperor.
As if it had been waiting a long while.
[Emperor Gu, lend me your physical body for a moment!]
"Boom—"
In the real world, Qin Qing, who had been watching lazily all along, noticed that the aura on Gu Chengming's body had abruptly changed.
In her field of vision, behind Gu Chengming, a blurry phantom seemed to surface out of thin air.
Qin Qing could not help but be stunned. This was indeed the path of her «Myriad Forms Creation Fist»—intent preceding form, governing qi with spirit.
But why did this imagery feel somewhat... off?
Before she could think it through, Gu Chengming moved.
His movements were very slow. He drew his fist back to his waist, his spine bowing slightly like a great dragon, the muscles of his whole body tightening and then relaxing again.
At the same time, the originally blurry, white-haired phantom behind him began to grow ever clearer.
That phantom slowly raised its arm, its motion perfectly overlapping with Gu Chengming's.
With this single motion, the morning mist within the training grounds seemed to take fright, fleeing frantically in all directions.
"Hummm—"
The fragments of stone on the ground began to tremble faintly, and then floated up into the air.
His aura was now utterly withdrawn, yet Gu Chengming's pair of eyes were frighteningly bright.
Qin Qing instinctively rose to her feet. She sensed something was wrong.
And that right fist, which had been gathering momentum for so long, at last blasted out—without the slightest flourish.
No complicated moves, just a simple, straightforward straight punch.
Then, Qin Qing felt a light breeze brush past, several strands of her hair stirred by it.
Immediately after, a wild gale erupted!
The bluestone floor beneath Gu Chengming's feet didn't even have time to form cracks before it was reduced directly to fine powder by the recoiling force of this single punch.
"Bang bang bang bang bang bang—"
A white wave of qi, visible to the naked eye, swept forward in a fan shape like a heavy cannon fired from its barrel, wrapped in an unmatched, overbearing will.
Everywhere it passed—whether the wooden posts of the training grounds or those thousand-catty boulders used to test strength—all of them, before this force, were like things made of paper, shattering and annihilating in an instant.
Finally, that wave of qi slammed heavily into the outer wall at the edge of the training grounds—a wall a full three feet thick, built of black-iron rock.
There was no stalemate, no sound of collision—only a muffled "pop," sunken to the utmost.
That black-iron wall, enough to withstand the full-strength strike of a Third-Realm cultivator, could not hold out for even a single breath before this punch. It was blasted clean through, leaving an enormous gaping hole a full two zhang in diameter!
The shattered bricks and stones shot out like artillery shells, flying off dozens of zhang, and mowed down a great swath of the lush little grove on the rear mountain as if reaping wheat.
Smoke and dust rolled, blotting out the sky and obscuring the sun.
The entire training grounds fell, in this moment, into a deathly silence.
Only the "clatter" of a few stone fragments tumbling down from the ruined walls sounded especially jarring.
Qin Qing stood rooted where she was, holding that same posture from a moment ago, her mouth slightly agape as she stared at that enormous hole, then looked at the ravaged little grove in the distance, and finally stiffly turned her neck to look toward the swaying figure at the center of the field.
At this moment, Gu Chengming still held the posture of his punch.
But the white-haired phantom behind him had already dissipated, and that astonishing aura had receded like an ebbing tide.
Thud.
At last, Gu Chengming's legs went weak, and he plopped down onto his backside amid the floor strewn with stone debris.
The strength that had once brimmed within his body had run utterly dry. The «Hundred Bones Resonance», both satisfied and exhausted, went straight offline and played dead.
[CG / Hundred Heavens Emperor, Aid Me: Unlock Progress +5%]
Gu Chengming gasped for breath in great heaving gulps, his chest rising and falling violently as his true essence circulated rapidly to replenish his physical strength.
This sensation really was marvelous. Even though his strength was exhausted, his true essence had not been affected in the slightest. Once it registered the deficit of strength, his true essence began rapidly replenishing Gu Chengming's strength.
Good, good—if this was the kind of expenditure involved, then it was acceptable.
Gu Chengming breathed a sigh of relief. In roughly half a shichen—about an hour—the depleted strength would be fully replenished, and during that period it wouldn't even affect his other means.
Looking at it this way, it was essentially throwing one punch of tremendously powerful direct damage, and then applying a weakness debuff onto himself?
At this thought, Gu Chengming felt satisfied. He barely managed to lift his head to look toward that figure still frozen in petrification not far off, and called out: "Senior Qin, does this junior count as having passed?"
Hearing this voice, Qin Qing finally snapped abruptly back to her senses.
She drew a deep breath of the dust-flavored air, trying to calm her badly frightened little heart.
With somewhat stiff steps, she walked up to that enormous hole, reached out, and touched the broken edge.
"Myriad Forms Creation Fist..."
Qin Qing murmured to herself, her gaze complicated to the extreme.
Her original intention in creating this fist art had been for health preservation, for longevity, for comprehending the way of life through imitating the myriad forms of heaven and earth.
But this brat...
What kind of monster had he stuffed into this empty shell?!
That aura—overbearing, brutal, supremely self-exalting—what the hell did that have to do with longevity?
This was plainly a short-lived fist meant for killing!
Qin Qing helplessly pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a long, drawn-out sigh.
She had originally thought he was merely a little genius who'd earned Zhou Qingmu's approval.
But now it seemed she had still underestimated the gold content of "Zhou Qingmu's approval."
—Where on earth had that madwoman Zhou Qingmu dug up this freak?
"Forget it."
Qin Qing waved her hand, stepped forward, and fished a pill out of her sleeve, stuffing it into Gu Chengming's mouth with a slightly pained-at-heart expression: "This is a Withered Wood Meets Spring Pill. Recuperate properly."
The pill melted the instant it entered his mouth, and a warm, gentle medicinal power instantly spread through his whole body. Gu Chengming was inwardly startled—a fourth-tier pill?
Feeling his strength and condition recovering rapidly within his body, Gu Chengming's complexion grew a little ruddier, and he struggled to stand up.
"Many thanks to Senior for bestowing the pill."
"All right, stop moving about." Qin Qing pressed down on his shoulder and shot him an annoyed glare: "Though this punch's power is passable, the foundation of your body is still too thin. From now on, use this move as little as you can unless there's absolutely no other choice."
Though she scolded and grumbled with her mouth, the appreciation in Qin Qing's eyes was something she could not hide no matter what.
As an artifact-forger and body cultivator both, she had to admit that the punch just now had been very much to her taste.
"This Myriad Forms Creation Fist hasn't been wasted in your hands."
"Does this mean the Senior approves?"
"Obviously." Qin Qing rolled her eyes at him: "This seat has always been one to keep her word."
She stood up, patted the dust off the hem of her skirt, and resumed that languid, casual demeanor:
"Are the materials ready? That flood-dragon core, and the other auxiliary materials."
"All ready."
Gu Chengming hastily took out a wooden case he had long since prepared from his storage pouch.
After receiving the flood-dragon core, Qin Qing nodded with satisfaction, then told him to go back and wait—once the sword was forged, she would call for him.
Gu Chengming naturally had no objection.
Perhaps because the commotion had been a bit too large, not long after Qin Qing left, Vice-Commander Liu came hurrying over.
And then he saw the scene before him.
The hard bluestone ground was cracked like a spider's web, the specially made wooden posts all around had been reduced to fine powder, and there was that draughty wall to be seen amid the ruins.
Even this Vice-Commander, who had seen plenty of grand spectacles, was struck dumb and stared blankly, unable to come back to his senses for a good while.
What surprised Gu Chengming even more was that, afterward, when he was preparing to dig into his own purse to compensate for the damage to public property, he was informed that before Senior Qin had left, she had not only waived his artifact-forging fee but had even advanced the spirit stones to repair the training grounds out of her own pocket.
Coupling this with that precious pill she had casually gifted him, now in his hand, he could not help but think to himself:
This Senior Qin really was a good person.
Such generous care actually stirred up a few pangs of guilt in Gu Chengming's heart.
He resolved inwardly that once his cultivation had advanced, or he'd obtained some rare item, he would surely seek out an opportunity to repay this kindness.
Two more days passed.
Just as Gu Chengming thought the days would pass peacefully like this until the Dharma Sword came out of the furnace, an unexpected farewell shattered this tranquility.
Fu Xiaoxiao was leaving.
This elder of the Harmonious Joy Sect had come abruptly, and she left in haste too.
That afternoon, she made a special trip to the little courtyard of Jishan Ward. She did not climb over the wall, but knocked on the door in a proper, formal manner.
The osmanthus blossoms in the courtyard had mostly fallen. Fu Xiaoxiao stood beneath the tree, kicking at the fallen leaves by her feet, her tone sounding offhand, yet lacking a few measures of her usual flamboyance.
"This seat is returning to her sect."
She did not give a specific reason, merely clasping her hands behind her back, like a stern teacher about to set off on a long journey giving her final exhortations:
"After this, there'll be no one to teach you the Red Dust Art hand by hand. But you brat do have rather good comprehension, and I've taught you all that ought to be taught. Though this seat always says you're dim, in all fairness, you really are the most gifted person in the way of the Red Dust Art that I've ever seen."
At this point she paused, held out her fingers to gesture a measurement, and added with a touch of proud bashfulness:
"Just a tiny, tiny bit short of this seat back in her day, that's all."
Gu Chengming smilingly agreed and did not refute her.
Fu Xiaoxiao gave a hmph, then began fishing things out of her sleeve.
"Here, this is a VIP voucher for the Suxiang Pastry House. Take it to buy cakes and you won't have to queue, and you'll get a discount too. If you ever crave cakes in the future, remember to go buy some—don't shortchange your mouth."
"And this, and this..."
She crammed a whole pile of things into Gu Chengming's arms all at once—from things to eat and use to things for self-defense, a dazzling array.
Holding this heap of things, the subtle feeling in Gu Chengming's heart grew stronger and stronger.
This whole setup—no matter how you looked at it—carried an ominous air of "making final arrangements."
"Senior Sister Fu..."
Gu Chengming couldn't help but speak up and interrupt her actions, saying helplessly: "Why are you giving me so many things? Even as a parting gift, this is far too lavish."
Fu Xiaoxiao's motion of fishing out things came to an abrupt halt.
She lifted her head, her gaze flickering for a moment, then immediately put on a righteously indignant expression and lectured him with a straight face: "What are you thinking? This seat is helping you cultivate!"
"Haven't I taught you before? To enter the red dust, you must steep yourself in cause and effect. Giving you so many things is precisely meant to make you owe me favors—the more you owe, the tighter these karmic threads bind, and the better you can comprehend the true essence of the Red Dust Art."
"All right then."
The gifts had been given, and everything that needed saying had been said.
Fu Xiaoxiao clapped her hands, drew a deep breath, turned around with feigned nonchalance, and waved her hand with her back to Gu Chengming:
"Don't pine for this seat too much. Cultivate properly, and don't forget what this seat has taught you. Later... this seat will come back to test you."
Though she said with her mouth not to pine for her, the steps with which she departed were very slow. That red figure in the back looked somewhat frail, and no matter how you looked at it, she seemed the one more reluctant to part.
The day after seeing Fu Xiaoxiao off.
The morning mist had not yet fully dispersed, and the bluestone flagstones of the street were damp.
Gu Chengming, as usual, walked along the long street outside Jishan Ward toward the Night-Watch Bureau.
He had not actually slept soundly the night before. For some reason, he kept feeling that Fu Xiaoxiao's departure was not as simple as she had made it sound on the surface.
But the road ahead was still long, and it would not do for him to drown in the sorrow of parting.
At least for now, he had to first focus his attention on cultivation.
To be honest, this time the Hundred Heavens Emperor CG, just like the Primordial Imperial Merit before it, had unlock conditions that were quite hard to find. Gu Chengming had studied it for a long while and still hadn't figured out exactly what the degree of this CG's unlocking depended upon.
The first time he performed this punch, the CG unlock progress jumped a full five percent; but the several times afterward, when he performed the punch under Elder Yu's protection, the unlock progress was only one percent.
Fortunately, there wasn't a pressing need right now to unlock this CG quickly, so Gu Chengming could only grind it out slowly and muddle along day by day.
Of course, going on like this for the long term wasn't really a solution either. After all, the cost of using this CG was no small matter, and Qin Qing had also warned him to use this move sparingly. Although the Hundred Bones Resonance's favorability would rise a little each time due to the "possession," for the sake of his own body, Gu Chengming nonetheless decided to slow the pace and seek out a method that could truly unlock the CG quickly.
At this hour the sky was still early. The breakfast stalls by the roadside had just set up their steamer baskets, white steam mingling with the fragrance of flour curling upward, only to be quickly scattered by the cold wind.
Reaching a secluded corner, Gu Chengming's steps faltered slightly.
It was not that he had seen anything, but rather an extremely subtle illusion—
the sounds around him had slowed.
The hawking cry of the charcoal-seller in the distance had grown drawn out and low; the stray cat by the road that had just leapt up hung suspended in midair; and even the withered yellow scholar-tree leaf drifting down on the wind seemed held up by an invisible hand, descending inch by inch at an extremely slow pace.
This scene was infuriatingly familiar.
Gu Chengming raised an eyebrow slightly, feeling somewhat resigned in his heart.
Could it be that Senior Qin of the Longevity Sect had grown bored forging the sword, and had come running over early in the morning to play out this trick of a lofty master's grand entrance just to test him?
"Senior, playing this move once is quite enough..."
Gu Chengming turned around, but the words, halfway out, jammed abruptly in his throat.
The person standing in the shadows at the mouth of the alley was not Qin Qing in her languid lotus-pink long dress.
It was a man, clad in a wide black robe, the hood pressed down very low, concealing the greater half of his face.
Gu Chengming's pupils contracted slightly.
This was not Qin Qing's jest.
This time, the wolf had truly come.
"Lord Gu, a pleasure to meet you."
The black-robed man's voice was hoarse, carrying an unpleasant, cold gloom.
Gu Chengming did not speak; he merely, without any change in expression, let his hands hang at his sides.
Yet when he tried to mobilize the true essence within his body, he found it had become heavy and sluggish. The spiritual power that on ordinary days obeyed him like his own arm could not, at this moment, be mobilized to even one-tenth.
"No need to waste your effort trying to send a message."
The black-robed man seemed to see through Gu Chengming's action. He was in no hurry to act, merely extending a withered finger from his sleeve at a leisurely pace to point all around:
"I have laid down a restriction here. Everything within this radius has become a dead zone."
Gu Chengming narrowed his eyes, his gaze falling on that hand of the other man's.
"The Eternal Life Sect?"
"Lord Gu is indeed sharp."
The black-robed man did not deny it; on the contrary, he nodded openly: "This one is precisely an idle steward of the Eternal Life Sect."
Gu Chengming sensed the fluctuations of the other's spiritual power.
Second-Realm Consummation... most likely he'd suppressed his strength too. And this scene, identical to the one when Qin Qing made her entrance...
"The Six Harmonies Spirit-Sealing Bells?"
A flicker of surprise crossed the black-robed man's eyes, and then he clapped his hands and chuckled softly:
"Lord Gu knows even more than I imagined. Since you know of this item, then you ought to understand your present situation as well."
"We've studied you." The man stepped slowly forward, his boot-soles treading on the bluestone flagstones with a muffled sound.
"Sword intent crystal-clear, Red Dust Art treacherous and strange, even able to command the Four Symbols Sword Formation at the Second Realm... but whether sword cultivator or arts cultivator, the whole of one's abilities rests upon that one body of spiritual qi and true essence."
"If I truly wished to kill you, there'd be more than just me in this alley right now. I'd only need to arrange a couple more death-warriors, and beneath a chaos of blades, you, this proud genius of the Hidden Dragon Ranking, could only be reduced to a puddle of mincemeat."
Gu Chengming still did not speak, but instead used the «Yin-Yang Creation Strategy» to sense the qi-mechanism all around.
It was indeed as the man said—there was no ambush nearby, only this single black-robed man before him.
"You've said all this and don't make a move—I take it it's not to brag to me about how formidable your Eternal Life Sect's artifacts are?" Gu Chengming said indifferently.
"That goes without saying."
The black-robed man sighed, reining in that aggressive aura, and instead adopted a tone of heart-to-heart confidence:
"As I said, the Eternal Life Sect comes today with no ill intent. We merely wish to seek an opportunity to speak with Lord Gu calmly and in private."
"To be able, at the Second Realm, to wield a sword formation with such consummate divinity to slay a Third-Realm cultivator, to have mastered several utterly different top-tier cultivation methods, and to conduct yourself in a manner so extremely incongruous with your age... Lord Gu, you carry no few secrets upon you. But we do not care."
"We do not care whether you are some ancient great power who seized a body to cultivate anew, or whether you truly bear some great fortuitous encounter. We only wish to offer Lord Gu a word of advice."
He leaned his body forward and lowered his voice:
"Do not trust the Great Qian court, and do not trust Zhou Qingmu. The more secrets you have, the more thoroughly they'll devour you, bones and all."
"Of the past generations' chart-toppers on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, how many came to a good end? Lord Gu might do well to look into it."
Hearing this, Gu Chengming's expression did not stir; he merely sneered faintly within his heart.
Gu Chengming cut off the man's recruiting words before he could continue: "You went to all this trouble just to tell me these things?"
"A fine bird chooses its tree to roost in."
The black-robed man straightened up and extended a hand toward Gu Chengming, making a gesture of invitation:
"Though the Eternal Life Sect's reputation is poor, we revere the strong and also embrace the aberrant. Here, no one will covet your secrets; we will only help you attain the true Great Dao, the true... eternal life."
"So long as Lord Gu nods his head, this restriction will naturally lift today, and hereafter the resources of the Eternal Life Sect will be yours to take as you please."
Gu Chengming looked at that hand extended toward him, and suddenly smiled.
"Then I understand."
Gu Chengming nodded.
During the conversation just now, he had already quietly set the «Yin-Yang Creation Strategy» in motion.
Although his true essence was suppressed and he could not perform arts, that passive perception of qi-mechanism and emotions still remained.
Within a hundred zhang in every direction, apart from this black-robed man before him, there was no other aura carrying malice.
Just as the man had said—to show "sincerity," and to avoid alarming the dragon-qi, there truly was only him here, alone.
But this made Gu Chengming feel it was somewhat absurd.
He simply could not understand: since the other side knew he had slain a flood-dragon, and knew his means were many, why would they still think that as long as they sealed off his true essence, he was a lamb awaiting slaughter?
Was it because of force of habit? Was it because the cultivators of this world relied far too heavily on that one breath of innate true qi?
"For matters one can't figure out, one shouldn't dwell on them any further."
Gu Chengming muttered in a low voice to himself.
The next instant, his right hand, which had originally been hanging at his side, abruptly clenched tight.
—Myriad Forms Creation Fist.
Hundred Heavens Emperor, aid me!
[Emperor Gu, I've been ready all along!]
The black-robed man had still been smiling, waiting for Gu Chengming's reply, when suddenly, he sensed something amiss.
The aura on the Gu Chengming before him had changed.
It was not a fluctuation of spiritual power, but a pure, savage, suffocating sense of oppression.
Before he could react, Gu Chengming had already thrown his punch.
The astonishment in the black-robed man's eyes hadn't even had time to fully spread before that terrifying fist-force, enough to blast apart a city wall, had already arrived before him.
His proudly relied-upon body-protecting dharma shield, without any true essence to clash against it, faced with this physical force of destruction pure to the utmost extreme, was like a fragile sheet of white paper.
Bang.
A muffled sound.
It was both like a heavy hammer smashing a watermelon to pulp, and like a great boulder grinding withered bones to dust.
The black-robed man's chest instantly caved in, and immediately after, that terrifying force penetrated his body, in that single instant shaking his five viscera and six bowels, the bones of his whole body, and every inch of his flesh and blood into the finest particles.
He didn't even have time to scream. His whole person, like a blood-bag fiercely slapped flat, burst open with a "splat."
Red and white spattered all over the ground.
And that bronze bell hovering at his waist, the one maintaining the restriction, also let out a mournful wail amid the lingering aftershock of that violent fist-wind.
"Hummm—"
As the artifact shattered, the stagnant air all around instantly began to flow once more.
The clamor of human voices, the sound of the wind, the chirping of birds—all came surging back into this remote alley.
Gu Chengming withdrew his fist and stood.
His complexion was slightly pale, his chest heaving violently. He looked at the puddle of bloody, fleshy muck before him, no longer recognizable as human, and shook the bloodstains off his hand.
—What a brutal scene.
Gu Chengming grumbled inwardly.
[What a glorious scene!]
[The Hundred Bones Resonance was beside itself with excitement.]
[CG / Hundred Heavens Emperor, Aid Me: Unlock Progress +20%]
"...?"
Now he knew how he was supposed to unlock the CG.
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