Chapter 55 They are souls from another world. You also want to eliminate those system savers...
Shi Liuying didn't know how long she had been in this space filled with golden Dao essence and flowing sword principles.
Here she lost her sense of time, only her understanding of the sword grew taller and taller like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
Those once vague feelings became clear, the awkward transitions became smooth, and even some exquisite sword techniques that I had never thought of before seemed to grow naturally from the bottom of my heart.
She could feel the surging spiritual energy within her body, and a long-standing bottleneck was loosening, as if with a gentle push, she could step into a wider world.
She put down the jade slip in her hand, which she had studied repeatedly and which contained fragments of some ancient sword formation, and exhaled a long breath.
Only then did she slightly pull herself out of that completely absorbed state and belatedly begin to look around.
Why?
She scratched her head.
Where did they get her?
Where are the bookshelves, the dilapidated attic, and that old woman named Granny Jiang?
There was nothing there.
All that came into view was a hazy, misty "air".
Within this "qi," countless tiny golden runes swam slowly like a school of living fish, sometimes coalescing into simple sword move diagrams, and sometimes dispersing into profound Dao patterns.
The ground beneath their feet was not made of wooden planks, but rather a faintly glowing solid that seemed to be formed from the purest sword intent.
Shouldn't I be... in that dilapidated library? Shi Liuying blinked, then rubbed her eyes. The scene before her remained unchanged. Where was she?
Just as countless questions were forming in her mind, an aged, deep voice, carrying an indescribable sense of authority, suddenly rang out in the tranquil space:
"Finally...we met."
Shi Liuying looked in the direction of the sound and saw the hazy mist in front of her part to the sides, and a figure slowly emerged.
That was an extremely old-looking... old man.
He wore a dark gray robe of antique style but seemingly of excellent material; his hair and beard were all white, and his face was full of wrinkles.
If we ignore his meticulously groomed, yet still somewhat bald, beard...
That was quite dignified.
The long, snow-white beard that should have reached his chest was, for some reason, missing a small tuft here and a shorter section there, as if it had been secretly tugged several times by some mischievous person or animal, leaving uneven marks that somehow dragged down his dignified demeanor and added a touch of indescribable...humor.
Despite the person in front of her looking funny, Shi Liuying's vigilance instantly spiked to the maximum.
She took a small step back without making a sound, her fingers silently resting on the hilt of the Blazing Sword, her clear eyes filled with vigilance: "Who are you? Where is this place?"
The old man seemed unconcerned by her guard up. His deep eyes, which seemed to hold the stars, scrutinized her as he slowly said, "This place is called 'Sword Heart Reflecting the Dao.' According to your cultivation world, it is a sacred place for enlightenment, a place where one can directly glimpse the origin of the Great Dao of the Sword, a place that is only seen once in ten thousand years."
Shi Liuying's attention was immediately drawn to a certain word in his words. "According to what we cultivators say?"
She repeated it, her brows furrowing slightly, "You're not from the cultivation world?"
The old man nodded slightly, a look of approval on his face: "Insightful. I am indeed not a native of this world."
“Then, according to your local dialect,” Shi Liuying stared intently at him, not wanting to miss any detail, “what is this place I’m in called?”
The old man paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the flowing golden Dao essence and sword runes around him. His voice carried a peculiar, timeless quality, as if piercing through endless time and space: "According to our understanding and definition... this is the 'gap' between two worlds, where the barrier between them is weakest, the distance is closest, and there is even a slight connection and resonance between them."
A narrow gap? Two worlds?
Shi Liuying's heart skipped a beat.
"You're the one who dragged me into this?"
Her tone became colder.
"You could say that."
The old man frankly admitted: "But if you were not pure of heart, had not sincerely sought knowledge of the way of the sword, and your soul frequency had not been able to resonate with the Dao essence remaining in this 'Sword Heart Reflecting the Dao,' even if I had extraordinary abilities, I would not have been able to safely lead you here. You are the key."
Shi Liuying did not relax; instead, she gripped the Buling Sword even tighter: "Who exactly are you? What do you want with me here?"
She didn't believe that a free lunch would fall from the sky, especially one given by an old man of unknown origin who spoke strangely.
Looking at Shi Liuying, who was tense all over and like a small beast ready to pounce at any moment, the old man suddenly sighed softly. There seemed to be a hint of helplessness and... weariness in that sigh.
“You can call me… ‘Director of the Transmigration Bureau’.”
Transmigrating to the Book Bureau? The Bureau Chief?
Shi Liuying pursed her beautiful lips into a straight line.
She had never heard of such a name or organization in the cultivation world.
This further confirms the other party's claim that they are "not from this world".
Seeing her remain silent and her eyes grow even more wary, the old man continued, "You don't need to be so wary of an old man from another world like me."
"In fact, those senior brothers and sisters of the Myriad Manifestations Sect that you care about, Rong Yan, Jun Lintian, Chong Cang, Chen Hanzhou, and your junior sister Su Wan... including Chi Yang of the Heavenly Beast Sect, they are also not native souls of this world."
These words were like a thunderclap, suddenly exploding in Shi Liuying's ears.
Are my senior brothers and sisters also from another world?
A completely unfamiliar feeling crept into my heart without me even realizing it.
She only knew that they had something called a system, but she didn't know that they all came from another world.
The warmth of spending every day together, the unreserved protection, the noisy yet intimate moments... were they all built on some kind of "abnormality" that she was completely unaware of?
When they looked at her, did they also carry a sense of alienation, as if they were looking at a "native of this world"?
The shock of this realization left Shi Liuying with an indescribable sense of loss, and a faint stinging pain spread through her heart.
She lowered her eyelashes, concealing the emotions that surged within her eyes, and remained silent for an even longer time than before.
When he spoke again, his voice was calmer than before, but also drier: "Is it because of... the 'system' on them?"
For the first time, the director of the Transmigration Bureau showed obvious surprise, and even his sparse beard seemed to tremble: "Among them... someone has already informed you of this matter?"
His gaze sharpened, as if trying to pierce through Shi Liuying's calm. "Who is it? One, or two?"
Shi Liuying kept her mouth tightly shut and did not answer.
She couldn't possibly reveal any more.
Seeing her unyielding attitude, the director's surprise gradually turned into a deeper contemplation. He spoke as if to himself, yet also as if testing her: "They actually... told you everything? Such trust..."
Shi Liuying suddenly looked up, a furious rage of being tricked igniting in her eyes: "You're trying to trick me!"
The bureau chief was taken aback by her glare, then waved his hand helplessly: "I've already said, there's no need to hate me like this."
"Our interests are aligned to some extent."
He leaned forward slightly, his deep eyes, capable of holding the stars, clearly reflecting Shi Liuying's angry face. His voice was low, yet carried an undeniable force:
"You also want to eliminate those 'systems,' don't you?"
-
Jun Lintian bid farewell to Zhan Cangqiong.
He did not tell Rong Yan and the others where he was going, but only sent a message saying that he needed to go out for training for a while and told them to wait for their junior sister to come out of seclusion.
After leaving a message, he quietly left the Sword Sect's territory and flew towards the "Valley of Ten Thousand Herbs" where the Pill Sect was located.
The Dan Sect and the Jian Sect have very different styles.
Even before approaching the core area, the air was filled with the fragrance of various spiritual plants and herbs.
The pavilions and towers are mostly built around the spiritual veins and medicinal fields, exquisite and beautiful. They have lost some of the cold and sharpness of the Sword Sect, but have gained more of the misty spiritual energy and gentleness.
Jun Lintian concealed his aura, changed into an inconspicuous outfit of a rogue cultivator, and used a high-level concealment talisman to silently infiltrate the outer perimeter of the Dan Sect, like a drop of ink blending into water.
His goal was clear: to find out the location of the sect leader of the Dan Sect.
The disciples of the Dan Sect are mostly enthusiastic about discussing the timing of pill preparation and the cultivation of spiritual plants, but they have little interest in fighting and killing.
Jun Lintian chatted with several low-ranking disciples, but failed to find out the sect leader's whereabouts. However, he did learn about another, even stranger person.
Ao Hao.
Several lower-ranking disciples said that their senior brother had become increasingly reclusive recently, almost never accepting requests to refine external elixirs anymore. He even claimed to be ill and did not participate in the sect's grand competition. He only stayed near his private "Youhuang Elixir Chamber," supposedly in seclusion to study some ancient elixir formula.
The Youhuang Danshi is located deep in a secluded bamboo forest on the back mountain of the Danzong sect. Although the spiritual energy here is abundant, it is close to a "misery forest" that never dissipates, so ordinary disciples are unwilling to stay there for long.
Jun Lintian concealed himself, avoided several simple warning formations, and quickly found the quiet courtyard surrounded by green bamboo.
It was late at night, the bamboo shadows swayed, and the moonlight was like water.
The alchemy room was dark, devoid of any spiritual energy fluctuations or medicinal fragrance characteristic of alchemy; it was deathly silent.
He secluded himself to refine elixirs, yet no fragrance of elixir emanated from them?
Jun Lintian held his breath and focused his mind, raising his perception to the extreme, like the most patient hunter, quietly waiting.
Around midnight, a hidden door on the side of the alchemy room quietly slid open, and a dark figure silently flashed out, quickly disappearing into the depths of the bamboo forest and heading towards the edge of the miasma forest.
Jun Lintian's gaze sharpened, and he followed closely behind.
The man's movements were unpredictable and swift, quite unlike the rumored image of Ao Hao as a man of few words who was only skilled in alchemy.
Even stranger, Jun Lintian sensed a cold, twisted, and gloomy feeling from its extremely faint aura, which carried a hint of... demonic energy.
At the end of the bamboo forest was a small clearing, facing a slowly swirling gray-green miasma.
The dark figure stopped in the open space, the moonlight illuminating his profile.
It was Ao Hao.
He looked completely different from the last time I saw him.
The Ao Hao I remember was just a man of few words, a true philanthropist.
The Ao Hao before them had sunken eyes, a gaunt face, and an extremely unstable spiritual energy fluctuation emanating from his body, sometimes appearing weak and sometimes violent, clearly on the verge of going berserk.
However, what made Jun Lintian's heart tighten suddenly was not this obvious sign of inner demon intrusion.
Instead, it was his unconventional training movements.
His limbs twisted and stretched at extremely bizarre angles, making all sorts of postures that completely violated the structure of the human skeleton.
His neck was tilted back so far it almost broke, his waist was so flexible it seemed boneless, and his arms were bent backwards...
In the silent forest, a series of teeth-grinding, strange "creaking" and "crackling" sounds could be clearly heard.
The scene and the sound instantly struck a certain fragment deep in Jun Lintian's memory!
Myriad Images Sect! Punishment Hall! Yun Zhishui, who has escaped!
When Yun Zhishui broke free from his restraints and escaped, his body also exhibited a similar... strange, twisted sensation, as if it had been "shattered and rebuilt".
At the time, he only felt something was strange, but he didn't understand why.
Now, the same feeling has reappeared in Ao Hao of the Dan Sect!
A terrifying association flashed into Junlintian's mind like lightning—
What if... Yun Zhishui, who harbored inexplicable malice towards his junior sister and acted strangely, did not flee far away after escaping the Myriad Manifestations Sect, but instead used some unknown means to possess... Ao Hao?
The thought sent a chill down his spine.
Then, he remembered another, even colder truth—
Junior sister, you once consumed the "Nine-Turn Lotus Pill" refined by Ao Hao!
-----------------------
Author's note: Red envelope [pat on the head]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
