Chapter 33: Heavenly Secrets
Five Dragons Child’s cave dwelling.
Xu Wusu and the other members of the Five Dragons Society were all present.
“Society Head, with things as they are now, what should we do?”
Fang Qing was among them as well, following the other members in asking.
“Why would the Zhong Family of Taibai Island suddenly make a move against our Azure Sea Sect? Our sect’s overall strength should be slightly superior to the Zhong Family’s… Could it be that the Heavenly Heart Linked Islands are making a move?”
“The Heavenly Heart Linked Islands are merely an alliance of Foundation Establishment islands. They only hired a Core Formation loose cultivator as alliance leader, and have always remained neutral, helping neither side…”
Everyone discussed animatedly, then all turned to look at Five Dragons Child.
Five Dragons Child looked like a young man, with an ebony hairpin stuck into his hair and five dragon patterns embroidered along his sleeves.
Hearing this, he merely smiled.
“Our sect has never been on good terms with the Zhong Family. Previously, over that island containing a spirit stone mine, we wiped out the Wu Family of White Profound Island… That Wu Family was an in-law force of the Zhong Family. For them to harbor thoughts of revenge now is hardly surprising.”
“The Wu Family of White Profound Island?”
Fang Qing suddenly recalled the Wu Family cultivation method preserved in the Heavenly Book Pavilion—White Water Art.
Although it was a water-aspected method, its true power carried an innate yin-cold quality.
It was likely passed down from the Zhong Family.
“A sect war like this— even Foundation Establishment great cultivators may fall. We Qi Refining cultivators are nothing but cannon fodder… Senior Brother, do you have any good strategy?”
Xu Wusu spoke up to ask.
“With the sect now under unified management, war missions should be issued soon. We Qi Refining disciples have only three possible destinations…”
Five Dragons Child spoke eloquently.
“First, guarding the sect mountain gates, responsible for supplying pills, talismans, artifacts, and other resources. This is the safest option, but competition is fierce. Without a Foundation Establishment elder backing you, it will be very difficult to obtain.”
“Second, guarding various fishing grounds and medicinal gardens… If it’s on Jade Island itself, that’s fine. The farther out you go, the more dangerous it becomes. However, Zhong Family attackers likely won’t have very high cultivation, so there’s still a chance to preserve your life.”
“Third, being directly incorporated into the sect army, drilling battle formations and entering the main battlefield… Normally, formations protect you, making it hard even for Foundation Establishment cultivators to break through. But if one side collapses, casualties will inevitably be the heaviest.”
“Senior Brother Five Dragons Child, where do you plan to go?” Fang Qing asked.
“Me? Naturally, the front lines, to earn contribution points!” Five Dragons Child said confidently.
“Among the three wartime options, the front line yields the most contribution points.”
“Senior Brother truly has great courage.”
Fang Qing immediately praised him.
“Are any junior brothers willing to come with me? Anyone from the society—I’ll do my utmost to arrange things…”
Five Dragons Child looked somewhat expectant.
Xu Wusu was the first to respond.
“I will follow Senior Brother.”
Most disciples who could join the Five Dragons Society lacked background.
At this moment, nearly half spoke up to agree.
Fang Qing waited a bit longer.
Seeing several disciples choose garrison duties, he immediately followed the trend.
“I want to take a garrison mission, preferably on Jade Island…”
Once he left the sect, regardless of the war’s outcome, the world would be vast for him, with nowhere he could not go.
If true danger arose, he could simply hide in the World of Ancient Shu.
Instead, within the sect, he felt constrained.
Besides, even if he wanted to be assigned within the sect, he clearly lacked the background for it.
…
Three days later.
Red-Scaled Fishing Ground.
A streak of green light descended, revealing Fang Qing’s figure.
Above the fishing ground, a layer of grayish mist parted, revealing a cultivator whose cultivation had already reached late-stage Qi Refining.
More importantly, Fang Qing found the man’s appearance somewhat familiar.
“So it’s Senior Brother Zeng Shu? Weren’t you on duty at the Heavenly Book Pavilion?”
This person was none other than Zeng Shu, who had once explained cultivation methods to him.
“Sigh… Being on duty at the Heavenly Book Pavilion never had much oil to skim, just leisure. Unfortunately, a great war came, and a Foundation Establishment elder’s son took over the position.”
Zeng Shu shook his head, then looked surprised.
“Junior Brother, you’ve progressed quite fiercely. You’re already at the sixth layer of Qi Refining?”
Fang Qing was accustomed to hiding his strength.
Moreover, in a cultivation-world war like this, concealing one’s true power was better for survival.
Naturally, he had long used the Dao-Birth Pearl to conceal his cultivation, setting it to around early sixth-layer Qi Refining.
“Just luck…”
“Mm. Sect rules—first verify the disciple token… Today, by coincidence, another junior brother has also been sent here to garrison.”
After verifying Fang Qing’s disciple token, Zeng Shu led him to patrol the fishing ground.
“This Red-Scaled Fishing Ground has a first-tier spiritual vein. At its core, the spiritual energy can barely reach second-tier levels. Back then, the sect dispersed it and guided water veins to form this lake, all to raise Red-Scaled Treasure Fish… These Red-Scaled Treasure Fish only count as half-demons. If they become Red-Scaled Spirit Fish, their value increases a hundredfold. Consuming them not only benefits cultivation but also greatly replenishes qi and blood… Their scales are also primary materials for refining several types of artifacts.”
“This area here is the fish-farmer zone. We cultivators can each choose a place to build a cave dwelling… I suggest staying closer to the core, to leech some of that quasi–second-tier spiritual energy.”
Zeng Shu brought Fang Qing to a cave dwelling.
“This is the cave dwelling chosen by the newly arrived junior brother… Junior Brother Li?”
When Fang Qing saw the person emerge from the cave dwelling, he was immediately shocked.
“Li Yusu?”
Li Yusu was missing an arm.
His face was still pale, clearly not recovered from severe injuries.
How had he been sent out here?
“Senior Brother Fang…”
Li Yusu barely managed a salute, his face ashen, as if his heart had already turned to rotten wood.
‘Could it be… he was implicated and exiled?’
The thought stirred in Fang Qing’s mind, but he would certainly not tear open the wound and embarrass him to his face.
“So you two know each other? That’s even better… The array used here at the fishing ground mainly only has an alert function. If we truly encounter a powerful enemy, it’s not very useful. We mainly rely on daily patrols. Now, let’s first assign time slots…”
Zeng Shu could tell Li Yusu had a story, but couldn’t be bothered to listen.
Getting assigned to the Red-Scaled Fishing Ground was already the result of his painstaking maneuvering.
After all, the fishing ground was on Jade Island.
If real danger arose, they could still flee back to the sect—barely counting as safe.
Fang Qing naturally had no objections, but deliberately chose a cave dwelling far from the other cultivators, in a relatively quiet location.
When night fell, he looked out over the great lake, where scattered fishing lamps swayed uncertainly.
He nodded and entered his cave dwelling, pasting several talismans.
Light flashed.
Clear and turbid qi formed a gateway, and Fang Qing’s figure had already vanished…
…
Land of Ancient Shu.
Fang Qing touched the jade bottle in his robes containing the Great Sun Purple Qi, took a deep breath, and habitually began to calculate.
Boom!
He had only just entered the state when his expression suddenly changed.
Within his divine sense, the heavenly secrets of Ancient Shu were no longer a tangled mess—they were a cesspit! A cesspit!
“Ugh!”
His head felt as if struck by a heavy hammer, and two streams of blood flowed from his nose.
“This is… backlash from the heavenly secrets?”
At this moment, Fang Qing finally understood why, although the Land of Ancient Shu possessed predictive arts, they were so chicken-rib.
“The heavenly secrets… are too damn chaotic! Before, at the Azure Sea Sect, I didn’t feel it. But compared to here… I feel that even possessing divine sense in Ancient Shu might not be enough to even get Plum Blossom Divination started…”
If the heavenly secrets at the Azure Sea Sect were like the clear skies before a world war in his previous life, with no radio-wave pollution at all—
Then Ancient Shu was like the modern era of that previous life, with all kinds of electromagnetic pollution everywhere.
‘Here, I can’t even calculate my own fortune or misfortune… the heavenly secrets are a sea of chaos.’
‘A cesspit! A cesspit! With heavenly secrets this chaotic, only by forging a Dao Foundation—specifically a divination-type Dao Foundation—would one have even a bit of ability to calculate. And even then, the results would be just like when I was at Qi Refining: only rough fortune or misfortune… Anything slightly more advanced can’t be divined, and it’s easy to be tampered with or deceived…’
Fang Qing shook his head with a bitter smile, knowing that the Plum Blossom Divination he had painstakingly cultivated was mostly crippled here.
‘The only hope… is that the golden finger is strong enough and can provide some kind of boost?’
‘But as I am now, I don’t even know how to do it…’
The Dao-Birth Pearl’s “As If Within the Calculation” was a passive effect.
Fang Qing had no idea how to actively make use of it to enhance his divination abilities.
‘Forget it. At least there’s still a bit of hope.’
‘But relying on divination to safely use or trade this batch of spiritual resources is impossible.’
Fang Qing shook his head.
In the end, it boiled down to one sentence.
Ancient Shu was too fiercely competitive.
Only Purple Palace cultivators could barely deduce cause and effect.
Over at the Azure Sea Sect, it was an untouched blue ocean.
Even a small cultivator like him, who had just entered the sect, could calculate quite a bit of fortune and misfortune.
‘Mm… I previously calculated my luck. At the Red-Scaled Fishing Ground, it’s minor good fortune… It seems there won’t be any attacks during the garrison period.’
‘But with the heavenly secrets in chaos here, even if one can calculate fortune or misfortune, one must still be careful—or rather… be even more careful.’
Fang Qing let out a long breath and silently thought through his plans.
‘Great Sun cultivation methods are hard to find. Should I sell off this batch of “Great Sun Purple Qi”?’
‘That’s actually nothing. It’s a renewable resource anyway. I can just toss out a stone to test the waters and see the reaction of this cultivation world to the reappearance of Great Sun methods…’
‘In that case, I’ll need to find the right force.’
Almost instantly, Fang Qing thought of a suitable guinea pig—the Luo Family of Heavenly Water!
After all, they had enmity with him.
Good things never reached them; bad things would surely have their share!
‘Azure Fall Market… Nine Rivers Water Pavilion… perhaps those are Luo Family forces?’
‘Once the Luo Family obtains the Great Sun Purple Qi, even if outsiders don’t know, I will definitely leak the news.’
‘Mm, this kind of thing is extremely dangerous. Even the Fang Shui identity can’t touch it… Best to use the Dao-Birth Pearl to disguise another identity.’
With these thoughts, Fang Qing walked into a mortal city.
Compared to Ba Commandery from several years ago, ravaged by war and plague, this mortal city finally had some signs of life.
He found a tavern and was just about to satisfy his appetite when he saw a courier on a fast horse delivering news at the city gate.
The entire city erupted in cheers.
“General Li has taken another city and now occupies more than half of Ba Commandery!”
“Ah, General Li truly is a living Bodhisattva who saves the suffering…”
“Ever since General Li arrived, good days have finally come.”
The entire city buzzed with discussion.
Fang Qing’s hand holding the wine cup paused.
“This Li Rulong… his fortune truly has become unstoppable. Even if he’s only occupying mortal territory, it’s no easy feat… In terms of cultivation, he’s probably already at late-stage Qi Ingestion, perhaps even peak completion?”