Chapter 903: Cloudy Valley

Chapter 903: Yunruo Gu

The night sky was profound, with shattered stars like dust.

Atop the majestic mountain peak, Ye Chen sat in meditation, awaiting news from his clone. He remained as still as an old monk in deep Zen, unmoving like a mountain.

"Boss." Soon, a voice echoed in Ye Chen's divine sea—it was from his Xingchen Daoshen.

"What is it?" Ye Chen replied calmly, not stirring in the slightest.

"Hearing your voice is damn touching." His Xingchen Daoshen spoke with excitement, rambling on incoherently.

Ye Chen said nothing, keeping his eyes closed as if dozing.

His Xingchen Daoshen felt awkward and cleared his throat. "I ran into your Xianhuo Daoshen. You could've just assigned this to me! Why make him travel all that way? What if someone ambushed him?"

"I tried calling you before. Did you respond?"

"To be fair, I was asleep at the time." His Xingchen Daoshen scratched his ear. "But that's not my fault. I've been feeling off lately—keep nodding off without warning. It's got me scared to even close my eyes."

"There's something I need you to answer honestly." Ye Chen spoke again. "When I was in Wuwang Daze, could you contact me?"

"No way!" His Xingchen Daoshen said firmly. "If I could've reached you, the Heavenly Court army wouldn't have risked charging into Bei Chu, and Dao Huang and the others wouldn't have gone to Panlong Haiyu. But it's weird—when I was in the desert forbidden zone, you could contact me just fine. So why did we lose connection when you entered Wuwang Daze?"

Ye Chen fell silent, his eyes flickering with uncertainty. This was puzzling to him too. Both the desert and Wuwang Daze were forbidden zones in Da Chu, both deadly places, but they differed in many ways.

"Can't figure it out—damn, just can't!" On the other end, his Xingchen Daoshen was scratching his head furiously.

"If you can't figure it out, don't bother." Ye Chen said lightly. "For now, stay put in Nan Chu and don't go anywhere."

"Got it." His Xingchen Daoshen replied half-heartedly. "Boss, we've found Yunruo Gu."

As they spoke, another clone's voice came through. "Southeast, eight hundred li away."

Ye Chen instantly locked onto the clone's location, rose abruptly, and stepped into the void, heading southeast.

After a quarter of an hour, he stopped at the entrance of a valley. Frowning, he looked at the stone stele standing before the valley, which bore four large characters: Tianlan Yougu.

"Is this the Yunruo Gu you mentioned?" Ye Chen glanced sharply at the clone beside him.

"Boss, I swear on my life, this is Yunruo Gu." The clone protested hastily. "I asked the villagers in the surrounding area—it's always been called Yunruo Gu. Some bastard must've changed it to Tianlan Yougu. Otherwise, with our setup, we wouldn't have searched for a whole day and night."

"Hope you're right." Ye Chen said coolly, his sharp gaze already fixed on the valley before him. The valley looked unremarkable at first glance, but it hid hidden mechanisms, including concealed array patterns. To him, though, those arrays were as simple as a child's game.

Without hesitation, he stepped forward into the valley, ignoring the defensive barriers.

The valley was serene, filled with peach blossom trees covering the slopes. It reminded him somewhat of Luoshen Yuan. What excited Ye Chen was that every peach tree here had a name carved into it: Ye Chen.

His vision blurred, turning hazy as he looked at the trees. He could almost see a graceful figure in the dark night, her white hair flowing, holding a bamboo knife and carefully etching the characters "Ye Chen."

Subconsciously, he quickened his pace and, deep among the flowering trees, spotted a row of bamboo houses. To his disappointment, his divine sense swept the entire valley and detected no sign of anyone.

Not here? Ye Chen murmured to himself and pushed open the bamboo door.

A rush of ancient, weathered energy surged out, carrying a faint trace of a woman's fragrance. He couldn't help but reach out to grasp it, for that unique scent belonged to Chu Xuan.

Chu Xuan, you were indeed here! Ye Chen smiled with a touch of weariness and stepped into the bamboo house.

The room was sparsely furnished, with only a table, a chair, and a bamboo bed. Nothing else.

"It must have been a long time since she returned." Ye Chen touched the dusty table and chair, glancing around. Dust had settled in many places, and spiders were weaving webs in a few spots.

"Since you told Liu Ruyan to come here and find you, I'll wait for you here." He waved his hand to clear away the dust in the house and lay down on the bamboo bed, exhausted, inhaling the lingering trace of feminine fragrance in the air.

"One day, you'll come back." He smiled gently, full of warmth.

Outside the window, peach blossoms scattered, with one or two petals drifting into the house and landing on his weary face.

He didn't know when, but he fell into a deep sleep, peaceful and sound.

He slept for three days and three nights straight.

It wasn't until the fourth night's evening that his furrowed brows suddenly twitched as he slept. Then, his holy body began to tremble uncontrollably, his face turned pale, and sweat poured from his forehead. His brows knit and relaxed alternately, his expression laced with pain, as if he were having a nightmare.

Soon, his state grew even stranger—his ethereal soul would sometimes leave his body and sometimes return, unstable and fluctuating.

When the heavenly demons assault the Seven Sha, that will be the time for the immortals to war against the heavens! Suddenly, a vague voice echoed in his ear, lingering like a Buddhist sutra, repeating endlessly.

His expression became even more pained, his hands flailing wildly as if swatting at persistent ghosts.

Ah! At some point, he jolted upright, gasping for breath, his clothes soaked with sweat.

What happened? He rubbed his forehead hard. Waking from the dream, his mind felt unclear—sometimes sharp, sometimes muddled. Some memories were vivid, but others grew fuzzier the more he tried to recall them.

Suddenly, a scene flashed in his mind: the final battle in Wuwang Daze against the black Ye Chen. He vaguely remembered many people aiding him in the fight.

But when he tried to think carefully, it all became a blur. His mind was foggy, and he couldn't tell if it was a dream or reality. He even doubted if he was still dreaming.

"Holy Lord, this..." In the grand hall of Tianxuan Men, before the Huan Tian Shui Mu, Fu Ya looked astonished at Donghuang Taixin beside him. "Has this kid lost his mind or something?"

"I'd rather he had." Donghuang Taixin replied meaningfully.

"What do you mean?" Fu Ya was stunned.

"By some twist of fate, he connected the illusory and the real, touching a forbidden realm." Donghuang Taixin explained slowly. "The ultimate emperor techniques, those heaven-defying divine abilities, aren't for everyone to control. His mind and memories are suffering backlash from the clash between illusion and reality. This side effect will worsen over time, dragging him deeper until he's lost in the cycle of illusion and reality, becoming a mindless husk."

"So, the Xingchen Daoshen falling into slumber was because of his influence?" Fu Ya asked, glancing at Donghuang Taixin tentatively.

"Exactly."

"For some reason, seeing Ye Chen like this reminds me of someone else." Fu Ya stroked his beard lightly.

"You're thinking of Hongchen, aren't you?" Donghuang Taixin said flatly. "Both of them are just stumbling around in a daze."

Fu Ya touched his chin, pondering. "Hongchen must have touched a realm he shouldn't have, leading to this backlash, turning him into a walking corpse."

"As you thought." Donghuang Taixin turned and vanished like the wind, her faint voice lingering. "I'll give you three years. You must find that third person in Da Chu who has transcended the six paths of reincarnation."