Chapter 404

Inside the palace in Xue Hai.

Wen Jing Dao Ren's ghostly figure drifted forward, circling the Xiu Luo clan girl halfway before lightly parting his red lips and blowing a gentle breath near her ear.

Despite the girl's best efforts to endure, a faint blush still appeared on her cheeks, and her silver-white hair gently wafted.

Wen Jing Dao Ren laughed, "What a fine specimen. It's a shame to send her to Ling Shan—those old Taoists there aren't exactly experts in romance."

"Wen Jing, the ancestor's sword is a crucial token for our clan."

From the corner, that hoarse voice continued, "We have already submitted to Ling Shan, and with the Yuan Tu sword in the hands of the exalted one, it causes no loss to Ling Shan whatsoever."

"I will convey your words back exactly as they are," Wen Jing Dao Ren said with a light laugh, his fingertip brushing past the silver-haired girl's face. "But whether they hold any weight is beyond my control."

Ding ling ling—

In another corner, a burly figure seemed about to leap out of the darkness, his rough voice laced with thick anger.

"Mosquito King, what do you mean by this?"

"Just the surface meaning," Wen Jing Dao Ren replied, gently flicking his fingertip with a smile at the corner of his mouth, his phoenix eyes glancing sideways at the figure. "Not satisfied?"

The burly figure fell silent.

"Waste," Wen Jing Dao Ren snorted lightly, then suddenly turned, his blood-red skirt swirling and illuminating the entire grand hall.

In various corners, Xiu Luo figures sat, stood, or lay—ranging from old to young, weak to strong—most with anger on their faces.

"The Xiu Luo of Xue Hai are no longer what they once were, yet you cling to a sword and dream of past glory.

Have you forgotten how your ancestor died? What good is having a sword? Even if you recovered Yuan Tu and A Bi, what difference would it make?

This Xue Hai might as well wither away—so why struggle on?

Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha!"

Amid the piercing laughter, Wen Jing Dao Ren and the silver-haired girl had already vanished.

A wall was smashed by an iron fist, and the ruined palace echoed with suppressed roars, but eventually, it grew quiet.

In a streak of blood light speeding toward the boundary of the You Ming Realm, Wen Jing Dao Ren glanced at the girl he held in his hand, pondering briefly before a faint smile appeared on his lips.

Well, there's no way to contact Hai Shen Daren right now, so I should just focus on completing the task from Ling Shan and avoid any unnecessary complications.

'I was thinking of training a maid for Hai Shen Daren, after all, the bloodline of Ming He Lao Zu is quite rare these days.'

Wen Jing Dao Ren raised an eyebrow, his immortal senses sweeping toward Feng Du City.

He saw the group of war witches, carrying coffins and playing music, had already left the city's outer pass and were heading toward the You Ming Realm boundary.

The underworld's hook-soul marshal, wearing a hood, sat on a stone coffin, twisting his sturdy body in rhythm with the drumming and gonging from behind.

Wen Jing Dao Ren's mouth twitched slightly, suddenly feeling that his hard work as a spy in the Xi Fang Jiao wasn't as fulfilling as directly serving Hai Shen Daren...

It was joyful.

Just then, in the northwest of Nan Zhan Bu Continent, near a major human city.

Lu Ya Lao Dao, carrying his large gourd, descended slowly from the clouds, his immortal senses carefully scanning the city's various areas.

Perhaps too focused, as he was about to land, his foot slipped unexpectedly. The dignified crown prince of the demon clan, wielder of the Zhan Xian flying knife, and top fugitive of the Heavenly Court, inexplicably tumbled forward.

Lu Ya was startled but reacted swiftly, his figure flashing as he used a teleportation technique to appear ten zhang away, standing steadily.

Lu Ya Dao Ren furrowed his brow:

This feeling, this inexplicable misfortune—he had experienced it before...

What was going on?

Why was it happening again?

Was this bad luck due to the workings of the Zhou Tian cycle? Or perhaps the demon clan's fortunes were insufficient?

"Humph!"

How could he, Lu Ya Dao Ren, be trapped by such misfortune?!

At that moment, Lu Ya Dao Ren closed his eyes and carefully scanned the nearby city's situation. After locating the person he sought, he used a transformation technique to disguise himself as a middle-aged woman.

As he was about to step into the city, Lu Ya Dao Ren's forehead was covered in black lines.

The soft, slightly sticky sensation under his foot, and the faint 'fragrance' reaching his nose...

Lu Ya gritted his teeth, cursing some rude wild animal, and walked toward the edge of the forest.

Along the way, Lu Ya inexplicably collided with two fighting wolves, and as he walked, he stumbled into a bandits' den of mortals.

Though it posed no real threat to him, these encounters were indeed ruining his mood.

'This time, the bad luck feels much lighter than last time.'

Lu Ya Dao Ren recalled the near-fatal incident during his cultivation in the Sun Palace and couldn't help but shudder, muttering a silent prayer to his father for protection as he awkwardly exited the forest.

But these minor disasters kept coming endlessly.

In his form as a middle-aged woman, he was bumped into by passersby for no reason, and while encountering children playing, a small bamboo arrow even hit him in the eye...

Or suddenly, a rainstorm would pour down, centered on him with a diameter of a hundred zhang.

Lu Ya was so furious that his Dao heart trembled, but learning from his previous lesson, he forced himself to stay calm.

He suspected someone was deliberately messing with him, but his immortal senses detected no traces.

Finally, after stumbling into the city, Lu Ya, still as the middle-aged woman, kept his head down and quietly made his way to a small alley beside the busiest tavern, stopping in front of an old man dozing at a table.

This was the place, the hidden residence of that senior.

He was a white-haired fortune-teller who specialized in divining fates;

A single table and a banner reading 'Nine out of ten divinations inaccurate, ten divinations a day' were all this old fortune-teller's possessions.

"Cough!" Lu Ya cleared his throat.

The old fortune-teller didn't even look up, replying weakly, "Can't do it today—the ten divinations are used up. Come back another day, sir."

"Is that so?"

Lu Ya Dao Ren transmitted his voice: "Senior, since you've stayed here to meet me, why not look up?"

"Hmm?"

The old fortune-teller raised his head and glanced over, his aged eyes a bit hazy as he muttered:

"Madam, who are you? Have I met you before?

Eh? This madam, your forehead is dark—looks like a bloody disaster is coming."

Lu Ya Dao Ren pulled over a stool and sat directly across the table, smiling. "It's precisely because of this disaster that I've come seeking your guidance. I wonder if it can be resolved."

The old fortune-teller stroked his white beard, his somewhat unserious face showing a hint of difficulty.

"How about you stay here a bit longer, madam? Once midnight passes, I can start divining again. I could give you one of tomorrow's ten slots."

Lu Ya Dao Ren frowned slightly and said, "Senior, I can't stay here too long—it's not safe. Why don't we find a quiet place to talk?"

"Oh, no, that won't do," the old fortune-teller waved his hands quickly. "Though I'm a bachelor with no family, I'm still a respected fortune-teller in the area. Being alone with you in a room might stir up gossip."

Lu Ya Dao Ren lowered his eyes, a touch of helplessness showing, "Senior, are you really forgetting our old ties?"

"How do you mean?"

The old fortune-teller perked up at once, scrutinizing the woman before him. "I... know you?"

Lu Ya Dao Ren sighed, his expression sorrowful, yet knowing he couldn't force it. He stood, bowed, and turned to leave.

"Cough! Your Highness? What brings you here?"

Suddenly, a voice transmitted from behind.

A middle-aged man in a short shirt poked his head out from the window on the ground floor of the neighboring tavern, holding an iron wok and flipping it as he spoke.

"Wait while I finish stir-frying this dish—hang on, Your Highness, there are still two tables of customers waiting!"

Lu Ya Dao Ren's forehead was covered in black lines, his body trembling with anger, nearly reverting to his true form and unleashing a burst of solar true fire to burn the city down!

'What could that Lu Ya be up to now?'

On Xiao Qiong Peak, Li Changshou sat quietly by the alchemy furnace, deep in thought, as the pills inside the dark furnace began to emit waves of radiant light.

He was multitasking: refining pills while remotely monitoring the black panther's movements and pondering specific measures for reforming the underworld in his secret chamber.

The black panther was heading back to his own cave abode;

But what the black panther didn't know was that the water demon Miao Miao had packed her bags and left the cave two days earlier.

Li Changshou wasn't entirely sure why, but it was probably something like...

They had loved and lost?

Perhaps the water demon had sensed the black panther's entanglement in major karma and feared she couldn't handle it, so she took this chance to leave.

The water demon had left a letter for the black panther. Out of respect for living beings, Li Changshou hadn't read it.

But for safety's sake, he had used his immortal senses to witness her writing it.

The letter simply stated that their marital fate had ended, and from now on, they should go their separate ways without searching or worrying.

Poor black panther—he had no idea what awaited him at home.

Li Changshou didn't know how much this would impact the black panther or if it would affect his temperament...

What was the plan this time?

Actually, there was no real plan. Li Changshou had issued the Heavenly Court decree to hunt Lu Ya Dao Ren and leaked the information to the black panther—that was the entirety of his scheme.

He was just tossing two stones—one large, one small—into the demon clan's pond, and whatever ripples or waves it created was unknown.

This time, Li Changshou... actually wanted to practice wu wei.

It wasn't that he found exhaustive calculations and arrangements too tiring—far from it. This was an attempt he decided on after self-reflection.

In his current understanding, wu wei meant that all possibilities in a situation were within his ability to handle;

No matter how things developed, it wouldn't affect him personally—it would just vary the benefits he gained.

For Lu Ya, who was being hunted by the Heavenly Court, the worst-case scenario was... perhaps being captured by Nü Wa Sheng Ren and sent to Sheng Mu Palace for some 'labor reform' moments.

That was completely within Li Changshou's tolerance and might even give him a chance to sense the saint's Dao rhythm and elevate his own Dao realm.

Looking down at the lines on his palm...

This feeling of not needing to overthink while still keeping everything under control was quite nice.

It was a ripple effect from his rising cultivation, increased influence in Daoism, growing resources at hand, and increasingly solid backing.

But Li Changshou knew this wasn't true wu wei.

Like his teacher, Tai Qing Sheng Ren, that was the real deal.

When Tai Qing Sheng Ren encountered something displeasing, he could casually arrange for excellent treasures or people to handle it, or simply erase it outright.

Xuan Huang Tai Ji Tu, one breath transforming into three purities;

The pinnacle among the six saints, one move shaking gods and spirits.

He was still far from that minor realm he had just reached.

Buzz buzz—

The furnace's light stabilized, and Li Changshou halted his wandering thoughts. He channeled a wisp of immortal power into it, enveloping the pills and slowly expelling the remaining impurities.

Then, the furnace lid opened, and pill after pill flew out, hovering in his palm as the radiance gradually faded.

A faint fragrance wafted through the alchemy room.

Li Changshou examined them carefully and felt a bit disappointed.

Was this furnace's limit just sixth-grade spirit pills?

Now, the main things holding back his progress in alchemy were those heavenly treasures and earthly herbs, along with the equipment itself.

He could borrow Lao Jun's Bagua furnace, of course;

But going to Dou Shuai Palace to use the Bagua furnace for alchemy would basically be indirectly asking Lao Jun for pills. If that annoyed Lao Jun or displeased his saintly teacher, it would be a case of gaining little and losing much.

"Xiao Shoushou?"

A familiar voice came from the alchemy room door, and Li Changshou turned to see a head with medium-short hair peeking in.

"What good stuff are you refining now? Let me try some!"

"Here," Li Changshou said with a smile, waving his right hand and flicking a pill toward her.

The head at the door opened its mouth and swallowed the pill in one gulp. Before she could chew, it had already turned into a stream of clear liquid sliding down her throat.

"Wow... why does it taste bitter?"

The head muttered, and the figure hiding by the door, accompanied by beams of holy light, hopped inside—it was Jiu Jiu.

Li Changshou laughed, "This is for Xiong Ling Li to strengthen her physical body. If you got it, you profited."

"What?" Jiu Jiu exclaimed in surprise. "This strengthens the physical body?"

"What's wrong?"

"I can't grow any more! Otherwise, it won't be harmonious!"

Li Changshou chuckled, "That would truly be a great loss for the Hong Huang... Cough, don't worry.

Are you here for wine? It's in the usual spot."

"Hee hee," Jiu Jiu's eyes lit up. She jumped over to the nearby bookshelf, grabbed two tiny wine pots, and said, "Thanks, Xiao Shou!

Hmph! I'm heading back to dominate the battlefield!"

Watching Jiu Jiu's satisfied figure ride the clouds away, Li Changshou chuckled softly, a hint of emotion in his eyes.

Wasn't this a form of wu wei?

It was just that Jiu Jiu ignored worldly affairs and focused on cultivation in the mountains, while he had to face all sorts of complex struggles among the great teachings.

He put away the pills, and with his immortal senses, he checked on Xiong Ling Li, who was cultivating in the forest—he wasn't in a hurry to give them to her yet.

Xiong Ling Li had bulked up even more than before, her body radiating a fierce aura, with her witch clan bloodline fully awakened.

Li Changshou had obtained a copy of Ba Jiu Xuan Gong, but it wasn't the right time to teach it to her.

Ba Jiu Xuan Gong was tailored for those with powerful physical bodies, and the stronger the body, the easier it was to master.

Having just begun studying Ba Jiu Xuan Gong, Li Changshou discovered that this mystic art from Hou Tu Niang Niang wasn't just a simple physical cultivation method—its greatest value lay in how a strong body enhanced the primordial spirit.

Li Changshou decided to try cultivating it himself to moderately strengthen his physical body;

Not only would it boost his safety, but it could also improve his physique's lines and robustness, increasing his masculine appeal and confidence. It was truly a multi-benefit, rare witch clan technique.

Hou Tu Niang Niang had mentioned sending some witch clan secret scripts, but there was no word yet. If they came with scripts that could temporarily enhance his physical strength...

Imagine this scenario:

One day, Li Changshou has Ta Ye on his head, facing a siege of enemies. They exhaust all their efforts to suppress and seal Ta Ye, or knock it away;

The enemies rejoice wildly, thinking victory is near, and launch a fierce assault on Li Changshou, with treasures raining down—yet they only produce a series of crisp "ding ding" sounds.

Swords break, rulers shatter, bricks crumble...

Li Changshou calmly adjusts his robe, revealing his faintly golden skin.

On a rainy day, a merit golden body paired with Ba Jiu Xuan Gong—perfect match.