VAP - Chapter 165
Chapter 165: Xuan Yin (4)
Before going to find those men and women, Yun Yijiu first moved the chain’s ring to lock both of their wrists together, then made the chain invisible and silent, as if obscured by something.
Of course, the chain itself was still connected; others just couldn’t see it.
The innocent immortals who shared a certain similar aura with Yue Du were all confined in a side hall of Wushuang Palace.
Though called a side hall, it was more like a pavilion with its own garden. It was well-equipped with everything one might need, so it didn't seem too neglectful.
Yun Yijiu hadn't deliberately restricted their movements, nor did she care what they did on a daily basis, only that they were not allowed to leave.
And this group of God Monarchs and immortals, whose personal freedom had been restricted, were surprisingly zen. They cultivated and meditated as usual, as comfortable as if they were in their own homes.
Especially the long-famous Five Talisman God Monarch. He was in the side hall's garden, lost in playing his qin and singing loudly. When he saw the Wushuang Venerable who had imprisoned him arrive, he even greeted her good-naturedly before continuing to lose himself in his music, the very picture of tranquility.
It made Yue Du wonder, "Did they come here voluntarily?"
Yun Yijiu: "As far as I know, no."
As the one who had personally carried out the arrests, Yun Yijiu was well aware of their unyielding spirit when they resisted.
But after being captured, they became quiet and serene. It was truly baffling.
Yue Du followed her host through the door and got a clear look at the Five Talisman God Monarch's face.
Men who could ascend to immortality were almost all handsome, and the Five Talisman God Monarch was no exception. He had the typical face of a frail, noble young master, which matched the image in the files Yue Du had received.
Perhaps not expecting another person, the Five Talisman God Monarch glanced up, nonchalant and slightly curious, after hearing Yue Du's voice.
A wrong note was struck on the qin, and the music came to an abrupt halt. The musician froze in place, his eyes fixed and unblinking.
He wasn't the only one who looked stunned.
When Yue Du had reviewed the files, she hadn't paid special attention to the information about the Five Talisman God Monarch. To her, he was just one of the powerful figures in the Xuan Yin Realm. Since he couldn't beat her host anyway, there was no need to focus on him.
But now, face to face, Yue Du finally understood what her host meant by a "similar aura."
It was an indescribable sense of familiarity, as if her soul's instinct was telling her that she and the God Monarch before her shared the same origin.
Yun Yijiu was the first to react. She raised her cloud-like sleeve, completely shielding Yue Du behind her and breaking their line of sight.
The Five Talisman God Monarch murmured, "You..."
Yue Du frowned slightly. Before she could reply, the Five Talisman God Monarch suddenly turned his head and called out to the closed main door of the pavilion, "Everyone, come out and see! I think my eyes are playing tricks on me. I'm seeing things, quickly!"
After speaking, he turned back, his gaze burning as if he could see the person behind the Wushuang Venerable.
Yun Yijiu's expression grew colder. The Wushuang Sword at her waist trembled slightly, as if eager to leap from its scabbard and draw the Five Talisman God Monarch's blood.
Yue Du tugged on her host's sleeve and whispered, "Wait, I want to know what's going on."
Her intervention worked. The Wushuang Sword was suppressed by its master. While they were talking, a woman in green robes, elegant and ethereal, was the first to push open the pavilion door. She glared at the Five Talisman God Monarch and said, "Fu Weifeng, what madness are you up to now? What's so..."
As she spoke, her gaze inadvertently shifted and fell upon Yue Du, who had stepped out from behind Yun Yijiu. The rest of her words were caught in her throat.
Other immortals came out of the pavilion one after another, and every single one of them followed the girl's example, standing frozen in place like idiots.
Yue Du's gaze swept over their faces.
Including the Five Talisman God Monarch, there were nine people in total—five men and four women. Each had their own unique qualities, yet they all gave her the same sense of familiarity.
They knew her.
Even if they didn't recognize her appearance, they could recognize her through some kind of connection. She didn't know what that connection was, but one of the True Immortals seemed rather emotional, his eyes turning red in just a few seconds.
Yue Du was horrified to find that she, too, felt a little sentimental. What was she getting sentimental about?
For a few breaths, no one spoke. The garden was silent.
Yun Yijiu was the first to break the silence. She gripped Yue Du's wrist tightly and said to the immortals, who were lost in some inexplicable emotion, "What is going on?"
The Five Talisman God Monarch put away his qin and answered her question with one of his own. "Venerable Wushuang, please allow this one to be so bold as to venture a guess. Is this your Dao Companion, the person you were looking for?"
Yun Yijiu remained impassive, but the Five Talisman God Monarch had already confirmed his guess. He sighed, "Well, this is really something. No wonder you insisted on keeping us locked up. But since you've already locked us up, why didn't you just ask us about our situation?"
Yue Du's heart skipped a beat. The next moment, she heard the Five Talisman God Monarch say, "This one, along with the others present, all ascended to Xuan Yin from the same small world. That small world was called the Five Elements Continent. Does that name ring a bell?"
The last half of his sentence was directed at Yue Du.
Five Elements...
Naturally, it was very familiar. The Five Elements Esper Ability, the Five Elements Spirit Root—Yue Du's own powers were related to the Five Elements.
"I'm from your continent?" Yue Du asked.
But the Five Talisman God Monarch didn't answer immediately. He exchanged glances with his companions, a flash of pain in their eyes, which quickly turned into the joy of rediscovering something precious, of having found what was lost.
"The Five Elements Continent where we were born was destroyed tens of thousands of years ago," the female immortal in green said. "But..."
She suddenly stopped. She opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound. Her friends were the same, as if they were all bound by a secret that had to be kept.
Yue Du subconsciously met her host's gaze. Yun Yijiu was completely unprepared for this situation. When she looked back, her eyes were slightly wide, revealing a hint of surprised confusion.
Neither of them was slow to react, but the turn of events was truly bewildering. In the blink of an eye, various theories had already cycled through their minds.
"You can't say it, is that right?" Yue Du asked the female immortal in green gently.
The female immortal nodded, her expression grave. She exchanged meaningful glances with her friends, her gaze lingering longest on the Five Talisman God Monarch.
Yue Du said, "Then please tell me about the Five Elements Continent. Perhaps I'll remember something."
In the end, they pushed the Five Talisman God Monarch forward to explain.
The Five Elements Continent was a cultivation-type small world centered around talismans and spells. There, everyone was born with Five Elements Orbs embedded in their bodies—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—and could control talismans through the power of the Five Elements to cultivate themselves in return.
Compared to other cultivation worlds, the number of people who ascended from the Five Elements Continent was relatively small, but every one of them had a solid cultivation base and formidable strength. The Five Talisman God Monarch was the most prominent among them. He had only ascended a few thousand years ago but already held the rank of God Monarch and wielded imperial power over the Eastern Immortal Domain. He was the youngest God Monarch of his time in terms of immortal age.
Immortal age referred to the years a cultivator had lived in the Xuan Yin Realm after ascending. The one who broke the Five Talisman God Monarch's record was Yun Yijiu—her immortal age was less than half a minute, and she was already a God Monarch.
The host, forever a god.
Sorry, my thoughts strayed. Back to the Five Talisman God Monarch. He was the cultivator from the Five Elements Continent with the highest cultivation and status, but he was also the last to ascend. After him, no one else from the Five Elements Continent ever ascended.
At first, these seniors didn't find it strange. Ascension from the Five Elements Continent was difficult, as everyone knew. It was normal for no successors to follow for several thousand years.
However, the female immortal in green was skilled in Water and Wood divination talismans, and the Five Talisman God Monarch's destiny was linked to his birth continent, making him a Son of Heaven's Mandate. When the Five Elements small world collapsed, they both sensed it, and the other people from the same world also felt an inexplicable unease.
Pooling their strength, the female immortal in green activated a divination talisman technique, paying the price of ten thousand years of cultivation regression to divine the current state of their homeland.
Their continent had been completely destroyed.
Among the countless small worlds, the name Five Elements would exist no more.
In truth, the destruction of a small world was not uncommon. If you threw a handful of stones in a crowded place in the Xuan Yin Realm, one out of every ten people you hit would be an immortal who had lost their homeland.
Most cultivators didn't care. From the moment they ascended, they had severed ties with their past selves and everything from their past. If their native small world disappeared, so be it. It wouldn't affect their cultivation anyway.
However, many immortals did care. They couldn't return, but a thought remained in their hearts. Their bond with their native world had never been severed.
With their homeland gone, they were like rootless duckweed, a moon without a reflection.
But what could the immortals do? Once they ascended to the upper realm, they couldn't go back. Even if they learned of their homeland's destruction through certain means, they could do nothing to change it, aside from the occasional ache in their hearts.
Coincidentally, all the immortals from the Five Elements Continent were the type who held such a thought in their hearts.
The youngest among them had already lived for over ten thousand years and was long past the stage of showing joy or anger on their faces. If they didn't care, they wouldn't have lost their composure so completely upon sensing Yue Du's kindred aura.
The narrative came to a close. The female immortal in green bowed her head and said, "This is all we are able to say."
Yue Du was speechless for a moment.
To silence God Monarchs and True Immortals, to make them unable to speak—only the Main God or the rules themselves could do that.
Would the Main God be bored enough to gag them? Possibly. Yue Du had been gagged before, and that gag had left Yun Yijiu completely ignorant of her Dao Companion's true nature, causing her to search like a madwoman after ascending to the upper realm.
Since the Main God was that idle, it wouldn't be strange for him to gag everyone from the Five Elements Continent.
But there was another, more likely possibility: they were silenced by the rules. An aura related to a destroyed small world, an aura that its former inhabitants found intimately familiar, yet they were restricted by the rules from speaking of it... there were only a few possible directions for speculation.
No matter which one it was, it was something Yue Du had never considered.
She twitched her fingers, and they were quickly and gently held by Yun Yijiu. The Wushuang Venerable had been pure and simple for over nine thousand years. Even after regaining her consciousness from beyond the worlds decades ago, she was still inevitably a bit dense.
But that didn't stop her from immediately sensing her Dao Companion's thoughts.
Yue Du looked up at the cultivators from the Five Elements Continent, who were watching her with eager anticipation. After a moment of contemplation, she said calmly, "I still need to think about this."
The female immortal in green said, "You need not worry yourself over this. We brought up these old matters not to drag you into them."
The Five Talisman God Monarch added, "And even if you can't remember, that's fine too."
When Yue Du finally left, a casual glance back revealed the reluctant expressions on the faces of the Five Elements immortals.
After this incident, the Wushuang Venerable no longer kept this group of people locked up. If they wanted to leave, they could leave. What was the meaning of staying in someone else's palace all day? Some even tried to find opportunities to come over and chat with Yue Du, which the Venerable found slightly annoying.
But the Five Elements immortals stayed and refused to leave. The Wushuang Venerable couldn't violently drive them away, so she could only let them be.
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