Chapter 375 Golden Ocean
“I think what’s in front of us is more important, don’t you think?” Zou Qian stared at Shushan, a rare serious and focused expression on her face.
Yu Sui stared at the Wind Listening Ruler in his hand, his eyes sparkling with beautiful colors.
Shanling said, "Hello, please answer her question first, Dean Zou."
Zou Qian was amused by the sound. He kept an eye on everyone in the Shushan area. Every warlock from the Communication Academy was busy with their own things, and no one was looking in his direction.
The man's heart pounded. After a few moments, Zou Qian suppressed his breathing and answered Yu Sui: "Your senior brother is negotiating with Shui Zhou, asking him to exchange Qingyang for information about the strange fire. When that happens, the first thing Shui Zhou will do is target your Nangong family."
That's not surprising at all.
"He also asked Changsun Zi to perform divination on the spot to see whether the prophesied strange fire would burn down the Xuan Gu Continent first, or whether Qingyang would perish first."
"The divination result is that the strange fire will burn first, followed by Qingyang."
"But during the divination, all of us saints present saw the prophetic dream of divine gift. Do you know what a divine gift dream is? It's the prophecy from hundreds of years ago that a strange fire descended upon the Xuan Gu Continent, burning everyone to death. It was also from this prophecy that we learned there would be five world destroyers carrying strange fire."
Yu Sui almost instantly recalled the scene she had witnessed when she was an infant and was chosen by the strange fire.
Zou Qian stared at Shushan, but her words were meant for Yu Sui: "She said that it wasn't a dream bestowed by heaven, but just a little trick by the Fangji family to make others feel awe for the strange fire, and denied any cooperation with Mei Liangyu."
Changsun Zi eventually got annoyed by his persistent questioning and responded coldly to Zou Qian's question, but still refused to perform a divination for him.
Zou Qian scoffed, "Do you think I believe you or not?"
Yu Sui had never heard of any relationship between Changsun Zi and her senior brother, but it was hard to say if it was her senior brother who had regained his memories.
"If Dean Changsun can replicate the Dream of Heaven, then she might be able to divine the Destroyer of the World. Perhaps, as she said, it's just some kind of trick."
Zou Qian: "You believe her?"
Yu Sui: "Dean Changsun doesn't seem like the type to lie."
Zou Qian remained silent after hearing this.
If we were to ask who among all the saints of Taiyi is least likely to lie, he would definitely choose between Changsun Zi and Wei Xizhen.
He habitually reached up and scratched his neck, thinking, "Never mind, those things aren't important."
Zou Qian: "I'm done speaking, it's your turn."
Unable to glean any information about the Yin-Yang Monster from Zou Qian, Yu Sui asked directly, "Was the fragment of the Floating Pagoda taken by Kuang Chu?"
“Him?” Zou Qian raised an eyebrow. “Impossible.”
"I heard today that he was present at the Kumu Terrace at the time. It was during the fight that he broke the seal of the Temple of Earth that contained the fragments of the Floating Pagoda, and then the fragments disappeared."
Yu Sui did not directly state that she wanted to find the military strategist, but instead made Zou Qian think that her focus was on the fragments of the Pagoda.
Zou Qian didn't want to beat around the bush anymore. He really wanted to know about the existence of the Mountain Spirit, so he said, "I'll go ask."
He then hung up the call.
Currently, Sage Changgen is causing trouble for Liang Zhen and Zhang Guanyi. The three of them have left Taiyi Academy, and their whereabouts are unknown.
Unable to find Liang Zhen, Zou Qian went directly to Kuang Chu.
When he found Kuang Chu, he happened to see Kuang Chu being stopped by Leng Rouyin in front of the academy gate, who was preventing him from leaving.
Kuang Chu said unhappily, "I'm going to find someone to duel, why are you stopping me? Do you have your eye on that mechanical sorcerer?"
Upon hearing this, Zou Qian hid and listened patiently.
Leng Rouyin said calmly, "He is a wanted criminal who has been on the run in six countries. I have already informed the public, and he has now received the news and fled Taiyi."
"You know him?" Kuang Chu clicked his tongue. "Our Dean Leng knows a wanted criminal from six countries?"
Leng Rouyin ignored his sarcastic remarks and instead mocked, "You can't even recognize the Jinghong Sword in his hand, yet you're thinking of challenging someone to a duel?"
Kuang Chu was taken aback at first, then cursed, "Damn it, I knew that sword looked familiar! Who didn't recognize it? I recognized it a long time ago! It's just that..."
I'm not sure if that's it. Who the hell remembers whether that character is pronounced "惊鸿" or "惊鸟"? If I'm wrong, those mechanical wizards will laugh me to death!
Under Leng Rouyin's indifferent gaze, Kuang Chu shouted even louder, "I just didn't expect him to be so bold! He actually dared to come to Taiyi!"
"He lied to me! He said his name was Ani! How outrageous!"
Zou Qian understood after hearing this.
Gongsun Qi, a military strategist and sorcerer from the Yan state, is a wanted criminal from six states who wields the Jinghong Sword.
There were once four war gods among military strategists, but Gongsun Qi was removed from the list for treason and disappeared for a long time. People thought he was dead and never mentioned him again.
Gongsun Qi was merely a wanted criminal who had fled to six states.
Zou Qian's eyes lit up when she heard this. This was quite a scene. Mei Liangyu had just regained his memory, and his uncle had already come to find Taiyi.
Gongsun Qi has even entered Taiyi Academy; he is definitely here for Mei Liangyu.
"But then again, did you let him escape from Taiyi?" Kuang Chu asked, turning to Gongsun Qi after cursing him. "Back then, a fragment of the Floating Pagoda suddenly popped out and was being tossed around by them. Didn't Gongsun Qi take it?"
Leng Rouyin: "..."
She couldn't believe it: "Why are you only telling me this now?"
Kuang Chu retorted confidently, "You didn't ask!"
"you!"
Has anyone asked me this?!
Leng Rouyin was so angry that she turned around and left.
"Where did he go? How long has he been gone? Where did he leave from?" Kuang Chu asked, unable to catch up.
Zou Qian never expected that, after all the twists and turns, the fragments of the Floating Pagoda in the Abyss of No Return would not be obtained by those scheming students, nor by the scheming saints, but by a wanted criminal who sneaked into the academy to find a relative.
Kuang Chu is really good at holding back; he only spoke up now.
As Zou Qian walked back, she sent another telepathic message to Yu Sui: "It's a long story."
Yu Sui listened patiently.
"Do you know that your senior brother has regained all his memories?"
"……have no idea."
"That's even worse. To put it simply, your father conspired with Elder Chang to kill Mei Liangyu's mother in front of her in the Yan Kingdom. Mei Liangyu is the eldest princess of the Yan Kingdom, the son of Gongsun Xi, and her father is Dong Lanxun, a master of mechanical engineering. Dong Lanxun is exceptionally talented and not only has good relationships with the people of the four great mechanical engineering families, but has also been helping Shui Zhou research strange fire."
"Your senior brother used to be called Dong Lanli. He is Gongsun Xi's youngest son. He also has a pair of twin sisters and brothers."
"His parents are dead, his brothers and sisters are dead, and now his family only has Gongsun Qi, who has been brought back to life, and his maternal uncle."
Yu Sui's attention was still focused on her senior brother's name. When she heard that he also had a maternal uncle, her eyelids twitched involuntarily, and her bad premonition grew stronger.
“There were four war gods in the past, one of whom was Gongsun Qi, who wielded the Jinghong Sword. But Gongsun Qi was executed for treason, and his wife and daughters also died.” Zou Qian didn’t even remember how many times he had said the word “death.” He scratched his neck and continued, “Anyway, only Gongsun Qi and Mei Liangyu were left in his family. Mei Liangyu was imprisoned in Taiyi by Elder Chang to seal his memories. I guess Gongsun Qi thought he was dead.”
"Both the experts and the people in Yan are looking for Mei Liangyu. The master instructor that Dean Wu hid is the one who knows the whole truth. Oh, and I heard that Mu Yong'an is dead, and his little apprentice has also disappeared."
"Gongsun Qi may have learned about Mei Liangyu from Mu Yong'an, so he infiltrated the academy, only to encounter Kuang Chu. During their fight, a fragment of the Floating Pagoda was accidentally knocked out, and Kuang Chu said that the fragment was in Gongsun Qi's hands."
Yu Sui got the answer she wanted, but her heart sank suddenly.
If the Yin-Yang Monster is actually Gongsun Qi, and is his senior brother's only relative in this world, then he might not be able to accept his identity.
Gongsun Qi used deadly moves against Nangong Ming's son, and he would show no mercy to Nangong Ming's daughter either.
No wonder he inquired about Nangong Sui beforehand. Besides the reason why Mei Liangyu liked Nangong Sui, it was also because she was the daughter of the enemy born to a true traitor.
Yu Sui touched the cold surface of the ruler.
Why wasn't Nangong Ming burned to death by Gongsun Qi's strange fire?
Has he never used the strange fire even once?
For Gongsun Qi, there were too many people who would be burned to death in Yan alone, and Nangong Ming was not in the right place at the right time.
Yu Sui could never have guessed that the man who sounded calm and reliable through empathy and telepathic communication was actually already insane.
After the true identity of the Yin-Yang Monster was confirmed, Yu Sui hesitated.
When I go to the appointment that evening, I absolutely must not reveal my identity first. I need to check whether the information Gongsun Qi got from Shui Zhou was given to me by my senior brother. If my senior brother also knows that Gongsun Qi is in Taiyi, he should be taking action.
According to Sheng Fei, he did nothing, yet Gongsun Qi chased after him with a sword.
If Gongsun Qi knew that he had given the fragments of the Floating Pagoda to Nangong Ming's daughter... Yu Sui was truly afraid that he would directly unleash a strange fire to burn himself.
Yu Sui raised her hand and pinched the space between her eyebrows, remaining silent for a long time.
After a long silence, Zou Qian asked, "Are you scared?"
"What are you afraid of?"
"Didn't you want to steal the fragments of the Floating Pagoda?" Zou Qian said. "Are you afraid you can't beat Gongsun Qi, or are you afraid that he is your senior brother's maternal uncle?"
Yu Sui did not answer.
Zou Qian added, "Now it's Mei Liangyu's turn to kill your whole family."
Yu Sui laughed when she heard this: "What you said is really scary."
Zou Qian didn't know what she was laughing about, and thought that Yu Sui didn't care, so she reminded her: "After your senior brother regained his memories, he is a completely different person from before. He even dared to break with Elder Chang, and now he is using the same methods as your father to win over Shui Zhou to do things and kill for him."
Don't assume he still likes you the same way he used to.
Yu Sui had a premonition that she would often hear such advice and reminders in the future.
"Dean Zou, I have a question I'm very curious about."
"What's the problem?"
"Do all the sages of Taiyi know about Senior Brother's past, and do they know that he has a grudge against Master?"
Zou Qian said, "I know."
"But no one said anything, nor did anyone stop Master from going to Yan to kill people?"
"The sages of Taiyi only care about Taiyi," Zou Qian said casually. "What others do outside of Taiyi is none of anyone's business. Besides, your master's strength is undeniable; who can stop him?"
If we had known in advance, we might have been able to stop it.
However, Chang Gensheng's act of killing Gongsun Xi was entirely an act of anger, and the more impulsive and unexpected it was, the less it could be stopped.
Everyone knew, yet silently watched as Mei Liangyu stayed by the side of Saint Changgen for many years, watching him take pride in having Saint Changgen as his master.
Yu Sui stopped herself from thinking too much, looked up at the spirit puppet, and said softly, "Do you know the three requirements for using the Wind Listening Ruler?"
“Learning to read, filling in blanks, and memorizing the positions of stars,” Zou Qian said. “But those were requirements from decades ago. In the last ten years, after several reforms, you only need to know the first two.”
"In the past, only nobles could use the Wind Listening Ruler. It was only after the reform of the mountains in the last ten years that everyone could have one. Ordinary people can also use the Wind Listening Ruler to communicate by sending messages and transmitting voices."
Yu Sui said, "The reason why people who practice the art of listening to the wind do not need the five elements of energy when using the wind-listening ruler is because the connection between the wind-listening ruler and the number of mountains inherently contains the five elements of energy. When the wind-listening ruler is separated from the number of mountains, it captures the five elements of energy between heaven and earth and connects with the number of mountains at a certain point. This is not much different from the art of absorbing the five elements of energy between heaven and earth and then transforming it into energy for their own use through the light core in their body."
"So, Dean Zou, do you think the existence of the 'Shushan' technique can be considered a concrete manifestation of some kind of 'Nine Schools of Arts'?"
Zou Qian returned to the Institute of Communications and stood once again before the three great mountains of numbers.
He did not deny Yu Sui's statement that the initial creation of the Shushan Mountain was inspired by the connection between sorcerers and the Five Elements Light Core.
"I guess so." Zou Qian touched her nose, feeling as if she were listening to Nangong Sui give a lecture.
He is clearly the teacher.
“The wind-listening rulers that are projected outwards are like individual ninth-rate sorcerers cultivating in the outside world. However, these thousands of ninth-rate sorcerers all share the same five-element light core,” Yu Sui continued. “The energy transformed by these ninth-rate sorcerers will eventually return to the light core, which is the three great number mountains. After returning, this energy is materialized by the number mountains and becomes the inscriptions within them.”
Zou Qian became very interested in her explanation: "According to you, the current mountain spirit..." He stared at the three glowing mountains in front of him, "can be regarded as the five elements light core belonging to the number mountains?"
Yu Sui recalled the countless times she had dissected the mountains in her dreams after gazing at them for the first time. Even when she was still a practitioner of basic arts and knew nothing about the various schools of thought and techniques, she could easily decipher the tangible inscriptions formed by the transformed energy within the mountains.
She used to think this was her advantage as a practitioner of magic, but later she learned that it was the power of the Divine Eye.
Tianmu allowed her to dismantle the mountains, the wind-listening ruler, and the five elements, and then granted her the ability to reshape them.
Yu Sui said, "If we consider the mountains as a ninth-rate sorcerer with a five-element light core, then the mountain spirit is that living, personified five-element light core."
“Alive?” Zou Qian was horrified by her choice of words. “You can’t say that.”
Yu Sui joked, "If famous masters can bless a cloud chariot and a flying dragon so that it will never fall, what's so strange about them blessing several mountains with words?"
Zou Qian: "Is the mountain spirit given a concrete form by a famous person?"
“It’s not just the techniques of famous masters, but also the techniques of the Yin-Yang school,” Yu Sui said. “In the future, we will still need Dean Zou to protect the Taiyi Mountain.”
After all, she was about to leave Taiyi.
Zou Qian: "Don't worry, I will protect this thing with my life from today onwards."
After he had a pretty good grasp of the situation, he ignored Yu Sui and went to study the mountain spirit.
Yu Sui determined Gongsun Qi's current location through the mountain spirit. This senior brother's maternal uncle was unaware of the danger level of the Listening Wind Ruler, believing that the Listening Wind Ruler on the Mechanism Island was not under the surveillance of the Taiyi Academy's numerous mountains.
“Track his location,” Yu Sui said to Shan Ling.
“Okay,” the mountain spirit replied, “I have tracked down the Wind Listening Ruler’s number, Grass and Wood B.”
Yu Sui added, "Change the number, you yin-yang monster."
Mountain Spirit: "The Listening Wind Ruler has been renamed to Yin Yang Monster."
After talking with the mountain spirit for a while, Zou Qian felt that what the thing was saying was a bit strange. He even wondered if he had degenerated into Kuang Chu and could no longer read during his conversation with the mountain spirit.
In his self-doubt, he couldn't help but drift off into thinking about how Nangong Sui managed to dismantle the mountains.
I simply can't think of an answer.
Zou Qian looked up at the three large mountains again, but in her heart she secretly cursed Nangong Sui as a monster.
...
Yu Sui confirmed that Gongsun Qi was still on the Mechanical Island. After thinking for a moment, he decided to check if the Five Elements Light Core had improved before going to keep the appointment, just in case.
Gongsun Qi was known as one of the Four War Gods of the Military School. Although he was removed from the list, he still possessed a strange fire, so his strength should not be underestimated. Moreover, the strange fire would bring extraordinary abilities to each world destroyer. She did not know what Gongsun Qi possessed.
Yu Sui placed the new Five Elements Light Cores into the spirit puppet's body, waiting for them to upgrade and change.
Because of refining the Yin Fish and suppressing it in the Nine Provinces Star Sea, Yu Sui had some expectations for the upgrade of her light core, but the success of the Mountain Spirit today had already satisfied her, and she wouldn't care too much even if the light core didn't upgrade.
While waiting, Yu Sui leaned against the wall to rest for a while.
The cabin was quiet. The Five Elements Light Cores were transforming into Qi within the Spirit Puppet's body, breaking through layer by layer, but the speed was much slower than the last upgrade.
When Yu Sui opened his eyes and woke up, he saw that the light core had risen to the eighth realm.
This time the speed is a bit slow.
Yu Sui blinked, only to find that although it was slow, these light cores did not stop operating after reaching the eighth realm, but continued to operate.
There should be some improvement!
Yu Sui began to wait patiently, and summoned the mountain spirit: "Mountain Spirit."
"Hello."
Yu Sui thought for a moment, then changed its response and called out again, "Mountain Spirit."
Mountain Spirit: "I'm here."
Upon hearing this, Yu Sui couldn't help but think of the Sage Chang Gen, and a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes.
She had intended to send a telepathic message to Zhong Lique to share the existence of the mountain spirit, but then she remembered that Zhong Lique didn't have the Wind Listening Ruler. If Zhong Lique had access to the Wind Listening Ruler, she would have sent her a message long ago.
I wanted to tell Mei Liangyu, but my senior brother doesn't have a wind-listening ruler either. None of the people on that boat carry wind-listening rulers to prevent any accidents.
Although Yu Sui was a little disappointed, she was still very happy.
She suddenly remembered that Mei Liangyu had given her the Water-Wind Well, a communication mechanism created by Dong Lanxun, which was different from the existence of the Mountain-Listening-Wind Ruler.
Yu Sui took the Water-Wind Well out of the mechanism box. The red paper windmill remained still. Only when Yu Sui moved the windmill blades could he sense the presence of the Five Elements Qi.
She didn't know if Mei Liangyu would receive it, and she couldn't give too direct a message, lest others discover it.
Yu Sui finally used the water well to send a message to Mei Liangyu: I went to see the wanted criminal in your family.
The red paper windmill whirred as Yu Sui suddenly looked up at the Five Elements Light Core within the Spirit Puppet's body.
The Five Elements Light Core before us is breaking through the eighth level and ascending to the ninth.
Yu Sui raised her eyebrows, inwardly praising today as a lucky day. She happily got up to take out the Nine Realms Five Elements Light Cores, only to find that they had not yet stopped operating.
Could it be that...
Yu Sui, who was originally happy because of the mountain spirit, calmed down and stared intently at the movements of the five elemental light cores in front of him.
The flow of Qi is very slow, yet it is still evolving.
Yu Sui had no mind to think about Gongsun Qi at the moment. Countless guesses were running through her mind, but she calmly suppressed all her emotions until they came true.
The world outside the ship had changed from bright to dark, with countless stars dotting the sky and reflected in the vast sea.
In the clear night, Sheng Fei handed Su Jichun, who had been freed from the Love Poison, over to the Sheng family caravan and instructed them to send her back to the Su family in Yan State.
He gave away Su Jichun's mirror.
From now on, he will see himself in different mirrors.
Sheng Fei stood beside the merchant ship docked at the shore, his gaze fixed on the distant direction of Qingyang, unaware of the other world inside the cabin beside him.
Within the five elements light cores that emitted a lustrous white light, a wisp of golden five elements energy flowed, gradually becoming brighter from its initial pale gold color. In the dim light, one golden light core after another lit up.
Yu Sui looked at them and seemed to see a golden ocean of the future.
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