Chapter 282: The Daoist

Crunch, crunch.

The heavy stone door scraped across the ground with a ponderous sound, releasing a putrid stench from the cave interior. Chen Luo retreated half a step, casting a Dust Removal Technique into the space.

Invisible spiritual energy spread inward, circled once, and emerged carrying a cloud of impurities.

Chen Luo stepped forward, dispersing his Divine Sense to examine the interior. The secret chamber lay shrouded in darkness, but his perception revealed the general environment. A roughly ten-square-meter cavern, its unadorned rock surfaces forming both floor and walls.

At the center sat a charred corpse upon a prayer mat, while empty pill bottles lay scattered in a nearby corner.

“A failed Qiong Hua Sect senior?”

After breaking the outer restrictions, Chen Luo conducted a thorough search. This appeared to be a hastily prepared temporary abode, devoid of extraneous items. The corpse’s clothing had been burned to ashes, and even the Pouch of Holding couldn’t escape the spiritual fire’s devastation, leaving only a blackened cord hanging from the waist.

Satisfied there were no lingering dangers, Chen Luo approached and placed his hand on the corpse’s head.

The mummified brain of this Qiong Hua Sect senior, burned to death by Demonic Heartfire, retained even greater integrity than True Person Gu Yue’s. Only the passage of time had eroded some of its contents; otherwise, more information might have been retrieved.

Several strands of obsession flooded into Chen Luo’s mind:

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

“Ling’er, I’ve finally slaughtered all those villains.”

“Master, I want Wen’an County’s Niu Family Village gourd candy… Why did you drag me into this immortal path?”

After a single glance, Chen Luo abandoned the effort. This Core Formation cultivator had perished to his Demonic Heart, leaving behind fragmented obsessions that blurred reality with emotion. The remnants held no value.

Collecting the mummified brain, Chen Luo retrieved his shovel and dug a pit in the cave, offering this final tribute to the departed senior.

With the burial complete, Chen Luo emerged from the secret chamber.

He continued searching ahead, finding numerous hidden rooms, but no more corpses remained.

Crunch.

At the cliff’s edge, pebbles tumbled down the slope.

Chen Luo stood at the precipice, his brow furrowed. An inexplicable sense of wrongness hung in the air.

“What are you seeking?”

A calm voice materialized behind him. As the words echoed, the valley’s wind ceased abruptly, plunging the world into silence. A human silhouette emerged from the cliffside, coalescing like a mirage. Points of light gathered around the figure, solidifying into a complete form.

The figure wore a dark blue Daoist robe and a square wooden Daoist crown. His white eyebrows curved like swords, and his gaze was profoundly deep.

Hearing the voice, Chen Luo turned around just as the figure’s form solidified.

“I wish to pay respects to our deceased senior,” Chen Luo said respectfully. “This was a task entrusted to me by our teacher before his passing.” This excuse had been prepared in advance. To ensure absolute success, he had even accessed True Person Gu Yue’s brain, now accustomed to thinking and acting exactly like the ancient cultivator. Everything had been meticulously planned, except for the unexpected early encounter with the Grand Void Ancestor.

The moment he saw the figure, Chen Luo recognized his identity.

Danger!

Extreme danger!

Incomprehensible depth!

Kneel and beg for mercy - your only chance.

Over a hundred brains, including those of Core Formation cultivators and mummified remains, all gave the same feedback. The gap was too vast; his current knowledge reserves couldn’t handle this.

“Final wish.”

An unimaginable Divine Sense swept over Chen Luo’s body. He stood frozen in place, not daring to move a muscle.

The Daoist took a virtual step, his figure materializing beside Chen Luo as if by teleportation. The scattered pebbles beneath his feet coalesced into a flawless white jade surface, smooth as a mirror.

“Follow me.”

A hand settled on Chen Luo’s shoulder. The world spun around him, and through the disorientation, he thought he heard the hum of a sword.

The Taixu Divine Sword?

Chen Luo strained to open his eyes, desperate to glimpse this legendary weapon. But held captive by the Daoist, he felt utterly powerless. Both his vision and Divine Sense failed him completely. When the external pressure finally dissipated, Chen Luo found himself transported to another location.

A colossal cultivation chamber.

This space dwarfed the one he’d hastily excavated earlier by an immeasurable margin. The floor glimmered with an azure hue, and upon closer inspection, he realized it was paved entirely with spirit stones!

No wonder Core Formation cultivators abandoned spirit stones once they reached that stage. For high-level cultivators, these precious stones were mere raw materials to be collected and refined at will.

The chamber’s floor bore a high-grade spirit gathering formation. Standing within, Chen Luo could sense the spiritual energy outside flowing like liquid.

This place clearly possessed spirit veins far beyond third rank.

“Since you’re Gu Yue’s disciple, address me as Martial Uncle,” the Daoist’s voice echoed across the chamber. Chen Luo turned to find the man sitting cross-legged on a prayer mat, as if he’d never moved an inch.

“Greetings, Martial Uncle.”

Chen Luo immediately changed his tone. This Daoist was far more powerful than he’d anticipated. If he could align himself with such a formidable figure, securing resources for his Golden Core formation might become feasible.

“This Sword Seal Token was a gift from me to Gu Yue,” the Daoist said. “To my knowledge, he later passed it to the City Lord of Medicine King City.”

As he spoke, the Sword Seal Token hanging at Chen Luo’s waist flew autonomously into the Daoist’s hand. The Daoist gazed at the token, a flicker of nostalgia crossing his eyes.

“This token was given to me during Medicine King City’s Alchemist assessment not long ago,” Chen Luo replied calmly. “Senior Yan said it belonged to his Master and should be returned to its rightful owner.”

Only when facing the Grand Void Ancestor himself did Chen Luo realize how riddled the City Lord’s plan was with flaws. The Daoist possessed far more knowledge than the City Lord’s investigations had uncovered. Their positions differed fundamentally - in cultivation, power, and influence - leading to entirely different perspectives on the world. What appeared flawless to the City Lord was nothing but a crude joke to the Daoist.

“Could you tell me how Gu Yue met his end?”

“Dan Refinement.”

While Chen Luo might have been ignorant of other matters, the memory fragment he’d accessed contained a complete record of True Person Gu Yue’s final moments.

“After Master Gu Yue accepted me as his disciple, he became utterly obsessed. He spent every day ranting about wanting to refine the Nascent Soul Pill. The last time I saw him, his face brimmed with confidence as he claimed to have found the method for refining the Nascent Soul Pill. After that, I never saw him again. Until half a year ago, when I discovered his corpse in an ancient ruin.”

Chen Luo’s words contained nine truths and one lie.

The truth was that True Person Gu Yue had gone mad, and the truth was that he had sought to refine the Nascent Soul Pill. The only lie was that he had taken Chen Luo as his disciple. There was no way to prove this - True Person Gu Yue had died hundreds of years ago, his brain taken by Chen Luo, and the yin soul that had formed from his corpse had been ground to dust and scattered. It had died in the ruins of Iron Spear Temple, creating a perfect closed loop.

“How long have you practiced cultivation?” The Daoist looked at Chen Luo and asked the most obvious question.

“This disciple has practiced cultivation for forty-one years.”

“True Person Gu Yue died seven hundred years ago.” The Daoist’s eyes turned cold. Since he had issued the mission to search for True Person Gu Yue, people had come forward to claim his identity at regular intervals. He had already crushed and killed over a hundred pretenders.

“The place where my Master passed away is quite peculiar. It resembles a fragment of the realm of spirits. I stumbled upon it accidentally, and found many deceased people living there. They repeat their habits from life, just like living beings.”

Chen Luo spoke these words with deliberate falsehood, an excuse he had previously coordinated with the City Lord of Medicine King City. Fragments of the realm of spirits were not uncommon in the Southern Heaven Domain; the City Lord himself had encountered one such place. Such locations could no longer be considered part of the real world, but rather a寄托 for ‘wishes’ and ‘spiritual essence’.

The rebirth of the dead in such places was not impossible.

Chen Luo retrieved a pill furnace from his Pouch of Holding and began refining pills right before the Daoist’s eyes.

Nothing speaks louder than a practical demonstration.

With True Person Gu Yue’s brain at his disposal, he feared no such tests.

Spiritual materials flew out from his Pouch of Holding. Chen Luo extended his index and middle fingers, activating the Starlight Fire Pill Refining Technique. The Daoist made no move to stop him, simply observing from the side.

As the Starlight Fire Pill Refining Technique took effect, the medicinal liquid in the pill furnace was soon refined. Three crimson pills flew out from the furnace.

All top-grade spiritual pills.

The Daoist examined the successfully refined pills, picking up one to assess its quality. The killing intent on his face faded, his expression softening.

“How long have you practiced the Starlight Fire Pill Refining Technique?”

“I began learning it at the first layer of Qi Refining, and only mastered it recently. My skills still fall far short of Master’s.” Chen Luo had never truly practiced the Starlight Fire Pill Refining Technique; all his techniques came from True Person Gu Yue’s mummified brain.

“You’ve achieved remarkable proficiency.”

The Daoist’s imposing aura completely dissipated, transforming him into an ordinary elder.

“Even after centuries of secret study, the City Lord of Medicine King City couldn’t match your skill.”

The Daoist knew the City Lord possessed this alchemy art, but he cared little. This technique contained deeper mysteries known only to him and his brother.

“Merely a Foundation Establishment disciple, how dare I compare myself to Senior Yan?”

“Yan Qiuming? What kind of trash does he think he is to be mentioned in the same breath as you?” The Daoist rose, his terrifying aura surging like a tsunami.

Crack!

The ground split as the Daoist departed the cultivation platform.

All the magic swords in the cultivation chamber began to hum softly. The approaching Daoist moved with the grace of a heavenly sword, his aura piercing through the clouds. Chen Luo stood frozen in place, helpless as the man advanced step by step, placing his hand on Chen Luo’s shoulder.

One hand.

Chen Luo felt as if a mountain had crushed down upon him. His Demon Bone Array Sigil Art activated, and his half-formed Pseudo-Core Seed began to spin wildly. Yet even this couldn’t withstand the power of that single hand. The Silver Carapace Corpse King within his Corpse-Raising Sack was forced back before it could even emerge.

None of his miscellaneous defenses proved effective against this overwhelming cultivation realm suppression—not his yin souls, nor his strange insects, all of which lost their potency.

“Too chaotic.”

The Daoist withdrew his hand. Chen Luo immediately felt a lightness in his body, an unprecedented sense of ease washing over him.

“It’s clear you have ambition—you seek to form a High-Grade Golden Core.”

The Daoist gave Chen Luo an approving look. He had already confirmed that Chen Luo bore no traces of Southern Heaven Domain cultivation techniques. More importantly, there was one crucial detail—the habits Chen Luo displayed during his pill refinement process.

They matched his memory of True Person Gu Yue exactly.

This authenticity couldn’t be faked. The Daoist was certain no one could deceive him.

Therefore, the person before him was truly the direct disciple of his younger brother Gu Yue.