VAP - Chapter 95
Chapter 95: Flawless Cold Bone, The Peerless Sword Venerable (19)
When her consciousness returned to her body, Yun Yijiu was still asleep.
Yue Du wasn’t in a hurry to wake her. Instead, she shifted her position slightly, propping her chin on her hand to gaze at her.
Yun Yijiu’s features were already alluringly beautiful, more like a bewitching demon than a celestial.
But now, with her eyes peacefully closed and her red lips pressed together, some of that allure faded, making her appear colder and more indifferent than usual, like a god.
A god… divine?
Yue Du inadvertently associated the word with her and, after a moment’s thought, found it quite fitting.
If there truly were gods in this world, they would surely be arrogant.
With that thought, Yue Du leaned in and pressed a kiss to the space between her brows.
Then, the tip of her nose.
And then, her chin.
Finally, her lips.
She meticulously traced the outline of those crimson lips with the tip of her tongue, then pushed inside without effort, stroking back and forth like an empress surveying her territory.
Just as she was about to retreat in satisfaction, she was hooked.
Yue Du immediately stilled, allowing the other to entangle and lead her, shifting the main battlefield into her own mouth.
A long time passed before their lips parted.
Yue Du pulled back a little and smiled. “Did I wake Sleeping Beauty with a kiss?”
Naturally, Yun Yijiu didn’t know this fairy tale, so Yue Du told it to her.
To avoid words forbidden by the Main System, Yue Du told a Xianxia version of Sleeping Beauty—a story about a dynasty’s princess who was cursed by a demonic cultivator to fall into a deep sleep. A hundred years later, a righteous cultivator broke the spell, and they ultimately had a happy ending.
“A true love’s kiss is the catalyst to break the curse,” Yue Du spouted nonsense with a straight face. “From then on, the brave cultivator and Sleeping Beauty became Dao Companions and lived a happy life of cultivation.”
Yun Yijiu seemed lost in thought, then immediately closed her eyes again.
Yue Du had a good idea of what this meant. “You’re not asleep right now.”
Yun Yijiu let out a low, “I’m asleep again,” and then lay perfectly still, her solemn expression like that of a jade statue.
As the saying goes: you can never wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.
Yue Du couldn’t help but laugh. She found Ah Jiu utterly adorable, so she leaned over and gave her another true love’s kiss.
This time, Yun Yijiu waited a long while before opening her eyes. Pressing against the corner of Yue Du’s lips, she whispered, “I’m awake, but still sleepy.”
Yue Du could no longer hold it in and burst out laughing with delight. “It’s fine, sleep as much as you want!”
After a while of tenderness, they got down to business.
Yue Du recounted her experience in the depths of the sea of consciousness, omitting the part about paying a fee.
It wasn’t that she wanted to hide it, but given her host’s tendency to get jealous of her own self, it was entirely possible she would throw lemons at her subconscious self.
It was best to keep it a secret.
Among her experiences, Yue Du emphasized the corner of a grand hall in the void-like darkness and the Wushuang Venerable on the throne within.
Yun Yijiu knew nothing about the depths of her own sea of consciousness and was surprisingly unconcerned upon hearing about such a strange scene.
“In the end, I only got two phrases—Heart-Tracing Pool and Seven-Foot Green. The ‘you’ in the sea of consciousness thinks I can find out what’s going on with just these two clues.”
Yun Yijiu looked up. “Although I don’t know about Seven-Foot Green, I am aware of Heart-Tracing Pool.”
Every cultivation sect was bound to have a secret realm used to temper the disciples’ minds, enhance their strength, or train their combat skills.
Their uses were varied, and their forms were diverse, making them something disciples would fight tooth and nail to enter.
But there was another type of secret sect realm, one open only to those with the highest aptitude. After rounds of selection and recommendations from elders, the final victor could enjoy this realm and receive a boost.
Heart-Tracing Pool was such a secret realm.
According to Yun Yijiu, Heart-Tracing Pool was actually five small, unconnected pools filled with pale cyan water.
Heart-Tracing Pool opened once every twenty years, and each time, only five of the most talented disciples below the Nascent Soul stage could enter to temper their bodies and minds by soaking in the water.
Geniuses, after all, always had resources skewed in their favor. Without good benefits, what genius would be willing to stay?
From this perspective, Heart-Tracing Pool not only seemed fine but was also a rare opportunity.
“No.” Yun Yijiu flatly denied it. “Heart-Tracing Pool exists in my memory, but only as fragments of me soaking in the pool with my eyes closed. As for how my spiritual energy circulated, or the feeling of my cultivation level loosening—impressions that should have been clear—nothing remains.”
Yue Du said, “You formed your Nascent Soul at twenty, so you must have only gone once, right?”
Yun Yijiu recalled, “I went when I was nineteen.”
At the time, it wasn’t yet time for Heart-Tracing Pool to open its slots, but an elder said it would be too much of a pity for her to miss the opportunity, so he had the opening time moved up.
That was how she managed to be sent into Heart-Tracing Pool before she formed her Nascent Soul.
And who was this elder?
None other than the Third Elder of that time, the Flying Star Sword Venerable, Li Baisheng, who had perished five thousand years ago.
However, a point worth noting…
He was Mu Xingluo’s grandmaster.
Meaning, he was the master of the current Third Elder, the Star River Sword Venerable.
His close relationship with Mu Xingluo and his past assistance in getting Ah Jiu into Heart-Tracing Pool early—the two things together seemed too much of a coincidence.
Although both men were known to be upright and honorable gentlemen, Yue Du silently gave the Third Elder’s team one point.
The suspiciousness of the master-disciple pair was currently second only to Situ Chu and Situ Que.
Some parts of the plot were reliable, others were not. Yue Du was used to it.
In any case, having clues was a good thing.
Once she had two specific terms, finding related information became much easier.
Within three days, she had results.
Seven-Foot Green, also known as the Heartless Vine, was an extremely rare spiritual plant named for the fact that every vine branching from its main root was exactly seven feet long, no more, no less.
This type of vine liked to grow in places where spiritual energy was so dense it could almost condense into liquid. If the concentration of spiritual energy fell below the standard, they would wither and die.
Seven-Foot Green was one of the few medicinal herbs that could exert its full effect without being refined into a pill with other herbs. Its purpose was also simple and clear: to seal memories.
There were no side effects, it didn’t affect cultivation, and one could forget as much as they wanted.
It was only because of its demanding growing conditions that it hadn’t harmed too many people. Perhaps this was a balance struck by the world in the grand scheme of things.
Speaking of which, the spiritual energy around Heart-Tracing Pool perfectly met the requirements. In fact, a Seven-Foot Green plant grew right by the edge of the pool.
The reason Yue Du knew this was because she had gone to Heart-Tracing Pool to see for herself.
The Seven-Foot Green was heartless, yet the Heart-Tracing Pool sought the heart.
When combined, who knew what kind of strange reaction occurred, but it caused those soaking in the pool to remember half and forget half, never noticing that anything was amiss.
Through the pale golden water, Yue Du saw three rings carved into the solid jade wall at the bottom of the pool, identical in shape to the rings at the core of the mountain protection formation.
One ring linked to another, just like this whole affair.
For a moment, she really wanted to smash Heart-Tracing Pool into a five-ringed crater and destroy those disgusting rings. It was only the thought of not wanting to alert the enemy that made her suppress the urge.
Every twenty years, five disciples were sent to Heart-Tracing Pool. Over the past nine thousand years, excluding repeat visitors, the total number was at least fifteen hundred.
Among them, some had ascended, some had perished, some had advanced by leaps and bounds, and some had faded into obscurity.
Well, and there was one currently recuperating in a spiritual sense state, that being Yue Zhuo.
All in all, only about a hundred people could still be found.
Yue Du decided to pay them a visit.
Yun Yijiu: “Can I go this time?”
Yue Du ruthlessly rejected her. “Still no. You’re too conspicuous. The person behind the scenes will see it and think, the Wushuang Venerable, who hasn’t bothered to leave her residence for nine thousand years, is suddenly visiting juniors one by one to chat? That’s far too strange.”
But Yun Yijiu couldn’t rest easy letting her go alone.
The residences of some disciples might be even more dangerous than the formation’s core. After all, many of the disciples who had survived through the years came from powerful families. There were three or four Tribulation Transcendence venerables among them, and some had even reached that stage themselves.
This time, she wouldn’t be going in secret but would be visiting openly. Who knew if there were any radicals among them who hated demon cultivators?
It was best to be cautious.
Yun Yijiu lowered her eyes in thought. Suddenly remembering something, she reached up and pulled the pin from her hair bun, letting her dark hair cascade down.
“This is for you.”
Yue Du had only known that the hairpin was made of a special material and was quite beautiful, but looking at it now… it was clearly a small sword, and one without a sheath.
Yun Yijiu showed her the small sword before fastening it in Yue Du’s hair with a gentle motion. “I can only be at ease if you wear this.”
Yue Du: “Is this a sword-pin?”
“No, it’s a sword. I just got used to using it as a hairpin.”
Yue Du: “…” That was very Yun Yijiu.
She touched it herself and found that the blade was tightly encased in a layer of invisible spiritual energy, like a sheath made of spiritual power.
Shaking her head with a smile, Yue Du asked, “Are you at ease now?”
Yun Yijiu averted her gaze. “Mn.”
“And you can’t follow me with an avatar,” Yue Du stressed.
“Oh.” A very reluctant reply.
Watching Yue Du leave, Yun Yijiu sat cross-legged and waited a moment before closing her eyes and releasing a portion of her spiritual sense, which formed into a thumb-sized figure.
This was certainly not an avatar, just spiritual sense.
The little spiritual sense figure stretched its limbs, quickly slipped out of Wushuang Hall, and chased after Yue Du’s departing figure.
This little figure would disguise itself as the spiritual energy acting as the sword’s sheath, remaining vigilant at all times, undetectable to anyone.
However, was Yue Du a person? No, she was a system.
Feeling the energy belonging to her host quietly approach from behind, merge with the small sword, and pretend not to exist… Yue Du was both amused and exasperated.
Forget it, she thought. As long as she knew, it was fine. No one else could see it anyway.
With that thought, Yue Du reached up to touch the hilt of the sword-pin and continued on her way.
Under the guise of visiting old friends and guiding juniors, Yue Du visited three hundred households within a month.
Only about a hundred had been to Heart-Tracing Pool; the others were just to round out the numbers and avoid revealing her intentions.
The disciples, and the former disciples who had since become elders, were all thinking: “…”
Did this demon cultivator take the wrong pill?
The matter of the Duyue Demon Venerable returning to the Sword Sect with the Wushuang Venerable was now known to all. The younger cultivators were naturally curious about this demon venerable who had “forsaken darkness for the light.”
After chatting with Yue Du, many of them would think: Ah, this demon cultivator isn’t so bad, just a bit too arrogant.
The older disciples didn’t think so, especially those who had known Yun Yue Zhuo and the reasons for her fall to the demonic path. Their faces were filled with regret.
“Why did you have to do this to yourself?” a female cultivator, who had since been promoted to manager of the Mission Hall, lamented with a sigh.
“Back then, you told me you wanted to follow your heart and cultivate the demonic path, and I thought nothing of it. Cultivating as an immortal or a demon is still cultivation. But why did you have to come back to the sect? If you were dissatisfied with your father, you could have chosen other ways. There was no need to throw your own life away.”
It seemed this person had been quite close to Yue Zhuo.
Yue Du said sincerely, “It has nothing to do with Wuqiu Dao Venerable. I truly admire the Wushuang Venerable, the kind where I want to become Dao Companions.”
The female manager was suspicious. “Really?”
“Absolutely true.”
“Then why did you curse the Yun family as a bunch of old monsters back then, including the Wushuang Venerable? You don’t think that way anymore, do you?”
Yue Du: “Naturally.”
At the end of their chat, the manager seemed reluctant to let her go. “When you have time, come find me again.”
“I will.”
Of course, Yue Du wasn’t just making small talk. Her main focus was on the other person.
From the perspective of Absolute Observation, no anomaly could hide. Yet, among the hundred or so disciples who had been to Heart-Tracing Pool, not a single one was bound by a ring.
But their memories of soaking in the pool were indeed vague. Yue Du didn’t press too deeply, just coaxed out enough information to understand.
Heart-Tracing Pool was likely a screening process.
It brought the most talented disciples over to select those who met a certain standard. Only such people could be locked by the rings.
Whether it was Yun Yijiu’s sword bone or Mu Xingluo’s life force, combined with the talent of a single gold spirit root, they were both exceedingly rare, prodigiously gifted individuals.
When did Heart-Tracing Pool appear?
Ten thousand years ago.
Ten thousand years ago, when the previous Sect Master had just taken over the position from his master, Heart-Tracing Pool was the first great gift he brought to the sect.
“What’s your impression of the previous Sect Master?” Yue Du asked as she handed the small sword back to Yun Yijiu.
“Situ Wen?”
“That’s him.”
Yun Yijiu said nonchalantly, “Average.”
In truth, Situ Wen was technically Yun Yijiu’s senior martial brother. They had learned from the same elder, with the only difference being that Yun Yijiu had never formally become a disciple.
Yun Yijiu had forged her own path. The Wushuang Sword Art was also a technique she created herself. Her master’s teachings were of little significance to her, serving merely as a way to learn common knowledge.
The elder understood this, which was why he never had her formally become his disciple.
That being said, she still had to address others as senior martial brother or sister. Yun Yijiu’s impression of Situ Wen was simply—the Sect Master she had to call Senior Martial Brother.
Concise and to the point.
After Yun Yijiu finished, Yue Du imagined her calling someone senior brother or sister with a deadpan expression and suddenly felt a wave of cuteness.
In reality, Yun Yijiu had rarely addressed anyone as senior brother or sister in the past. For no other reason than she didn’t want to. Unless it was a necessary occasion, she would call them by their full names.
And no one would correct her—as long as one was powerful enough and valuable enough, no one would trouble her over such a small matter.
But at this moment, Yun Yijiu tilted her head and thought for a moment. “Your surname is ‘Yue’?”
Yue Du: “It is.”
“Senior Sister Yue,” Yun Yijiu said with perfect enunciation.
Yue Du accepted it calmly, savoring it for a moment before correcting her righteously, “The seniority is all mixed up.”
“Then Junior Sister Yue.”
“Aren’t we still in the same generation?”
After some lighthearted teasing, Yue Du’s heavy mood lifted considerably.
She brought the conversation back to the main topic. “Alright, no more joking. Regarding the rings, I think it’s Situ Wen.”
Nine thousand years ago, it was Situ Wen. Nine thousand years later, it was Situ Que.
One built Heart-Tracing Pool and planted a Seven-Foot Green next to it.
The other used Heart-Tracing Pool to target Mu Xingluo and sent numerous puppets to guard the formation’s core, terrified that someone would stumble upon it and connect it to the ring symbol in Heart-Tracing Pool.
That father and son pair, they really put on an excellent act.
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