Southern Barbarians' Hidden Lands.
This vast expanse, stretching over several thousand li, was mostly covered in multicolored toxic jungles, rife with miasma and dotted with swamps, breeding grounds for countless venomous creatures and monstrous beasts, conditions utterly uninhabitable for ordinary people.
Only those Southern Barbarian cultivators with exceptional skills in poisoncraft and beast-taming could manage to survive and even establish kingdoms here. Even the common folk were well-versed in identifying poisonous fauna and flora.
As a result, most of the exotic beasts traded throughout the Central Regions were sourced from the Southern Barbarians, this was their largest industry.
However, due to the notoriously brutal Blood Affliction Sect, the people of the Central Regions generally held the Southern Barbarians in disdain, regarding them as crude and savage.
There were sixteen kingdoms in the Southern Barbarian lands, the largest of which was known as Great Xi, a nation entirely under the control of the Blood Affliction Sect.
The High Priest of the Blood Affliction Sect was also the King of Great Xi.
And today, Great Xi received a group of unexpected visitors.
At the forefront was a middle-aged man of average stature, lean-faced yet full of vigor, clad in a simple grey Daoist robe, appearing no different from an ordinary cultivator.
Trailing behind him was an elderly eunuch with a pale, beardless face, stooped in a permanent bow, his expression filled with reverence.
The two paused outside a dilapidated house.
This was clearly the dwelling of an impoverished family. In the small courtyard, various poisonous insects and creatures were laid out to dry, though of mediocre quality, they were evidently the family's source of income.
Capturing such creatures was a life-threatening task. One moment's carelessness could mean immediate death. Even in the Southern Barbarians' lands, such a livelihood was only chosen out of sheer desperation.
The man in grey Daoist robes was none other than Ji Chengtian.
Among the garments hanging from the bamboo rack outside the house were swaddling cloths for an infant. Yet curiously, the house was devoid of any baby's cries, adding a strange tension to the air.
Ji Chengtian lifted the tattered curtain and stepped inside, startling a man who had been gleefully counting his silver and a nearby woman who was quietly weeping.
, The currency used in the Southern Barbarian kingdoms differed from the Central Regions. Due to their abundance of silver mines, all their coinage was made of pure silver.
The man instantly snatched up a nearby hatchet and shouted in Southern Barbarian dialect, eyes flashing with hostility:
"Who are you?! Get out! Someone help! Robbers!"
Ji Chengtian ignored him, sweeping his gaze around the room.
"It seems... we arrived too late."
He had only just received news from the Astronomical Directorate that they had divined the birthplace of the Eastern Emperor's reincarnation. Though somewhat unexpected, he hadn't thought much of it, certainly not that he'd be beaten to the punch.
And this was the Southern Barbarian territory, even Ji Chengtian could only project a divine avatar here, as he didn't wish to cause a major commotion.
The Zhou Kingdom had nothing to fear from this minor power, but if the reincarnated Sage were to perish again, it would take another exhausting cycle of divination and searching to find him.
Furthermore, although repeated reincarnation wouldn't damage the divine soul, it would erode memories.
And if it happened too often... the risk of loss of self would grow exponentially.
The eunuch behind him quickly stepped forward and said:
"Your Majesty, now that we've identified the place of the Sage's birth, retrieving them should be a simple matter."
He walked up and took out a gold ingot, offering it to the couple and speaking to them in the Southern Barbarian tongue.
The man was initially wary, but upon seeing the gold, his eyes lit up and he explained everything.
The eunuch returned and reported:
"Your Majesty, he said that two months ago, a daughter was born to this household. As soon as she was born, she was selected to enter the palace and serve the Saintess. For this, they were awarded three hundred silver taels."
Ji Chengtian frowned, his gaze darkening.
"Saintess? When did the Southern Barbarians gain a Saintess? There hasn't been a single whisper of this outside."
The Blood Affliction Sect had refrained from attacking the Central Regions in recent years, and Ji had assumed they were lying low. He hadn't expected them to pull such a move behind the scenes.
Now, the reincarnated Eastern Emperor had been brought directly into the Blood Affliction Sect's inner sanctum.
This... complicated matters by several magnitudes.
The eunuch tried asking further questions, but how could commoners possibly know anything more?
Naturally, they were utterly clueless.
"If the child is now within the Great Xi palace, it'll be near impossible to extract her any time soon."
The Blood Affliction Sect, with its mastery over gu and demonic sorcery, exercised ironclad control over their own people. Even Ji Chengtian had found it difficult to plant spies within their ranks.
Those they did manage to infiltrate were children of Southern Barbarians whose bodies had been forcibly seized via Soul Possession Secret Arts, and who were then "coincidentally" inducted into the sect.
Unlike reincarnation, soul possession was a vicious, sinister technique that severely damaged the soul. If one could not return to their original body within a set period, at most twenty years, the possessed host would die instantly.
Such spies were costly to produce, and once exposed, represented a major loss.
Ji Chengtian pondered in silence before finally saying:
"Contact the Hive."
The eunuch nodded. "Yes."
The two conversed for some time in the Central Region tongue. The couple standing beside them, both thrilled and anxious, only breathed a sigh of relief once the visitors had departed.
The eunuch bowed respectfully until Ji Chengtian's figure vanished from view. Only then did he slowly turn around.
Raising a hand with a subtle gesture, the man's firewood hatchet flew up into the air, gleaming like a silver flash.
Schk! Schk!
Blood spurted from the couple's necks. Their last expressions forever frozen in stunned surprise, they collapsed to the ground.
The eunuch chuckled coldly, then waved his hand again, storing away the silver coins in their hands and in the box behind them.
No mortals may learn of His Majesty's whereabouts.
Disguising it as a robbery-homicide would suffice.
....
Within the Great Xi Imperial Palace.
Taixin Palace.
Once a temple devoted to the Blood God, it now served as the Saintess's private residence.
Countless palace maids clad in crimson dresses, adorned with silver ornaments from head to toe, bustled within. Each carried an infant less than three months old.
All around the palace, incense burners filled the air with a strange fragrance, curling purple mist through the halls.
The babies grew drowsy from the scent.
Per the High Priest's decree, the Saintess must be served only by infants, pure as blank slates, to avoid any possibility of divided loyalty. Furthermore, they must all be female, so as not to disrupt the Saintess's purity.
Today, the chosen infants were being presented for the Saintess to review.
Should she express discontent, they would be replaced.
The crowd of new attendants had pushed many original handmaidens out into the courtyard. A few, finding themselves momentarily idle, whispered among themselves.
"Hey, I heard the Green Saintess came from the Central Regions?"
"That's right. She's the daughter of the previous High Priest. When the last civil war broke out, he died, but managed to entrust someone to smuggle the Saintess into the Central Regions."
"Too bad the one who protected her ended up killed by the Central Region cultivators. Truly hateful!"
"I heard she's just a descendant of the former High Priest, still quite young, actually."
"Our current High Priest is truly formidable, managing to find her again."
"No, no... they say it was the Saintess herself who found her way back."
"Speaking of which, I was born a farmer and had never even heard her name before. Do you girls know?"
"Of course. Her name is Qingcuo. I'll write it down for you."
This Saintess, who had suddenly appeared a month ago, was named Qingcuo.
Inside one of the swaddled bundles in a maid's arms, a baby's eyes, clear and tranquil, suddenly furrowed ever so slightly. Her tiny fingers twitched.
Though reincarnated, her divine soul remained strong. Some things, she could still sense with clarity.
Such as... her parents in this life.
Why... had they suddenly died?
...
Somewhere within the rivers of the Yang Kingdom.
"Gulugulu..."
Beneath the surging waters, bubbles suddenly began to rise in great number.
"Boom!"
A pillar of water shot into the sky, and in its wake, emerged a massive, snow-white dragon, weaving freely through the heavens and earth.
"Screeeech-!!!"
A dragon's roar reverberated through the heavens. The white dragon coiled in midair, surveying the mountains and rivers below with curious eyes.
As it floated there, memories began to return, of when it had been but a slender rattan rope.
Its expression slowly softened.
A gentle, affectionate voice echoed in her ears,
"I'll name you Yuxue Long. But for now, I still don't know if you'll take form as male or female. If you consider yourself female, then add the jade radical to the character Long, making it the female 'Long' instead."
The white dragon fell into contemplation.
"Am I male? Or female?"
She had no concept of either, nor did she understand what the distinction entailed.
"But having more... seems better! More is good!"
She quickly stopped worrying, thinking gleefully to herself:
"From now on, I'll be called Yuxue Long!"
"Right! Where's Father?"
The white dragon, no, Yuxue Long now, gazed at the vast world before her, her large dragon head full of questions.
She could faintly sense where her father was, but it seemed too far, and she couldn't accurately locate him.
"Doesn't matter. I think Father said he wanted to see me. I must go find him!"
With a long roar, the white dragon soared into the distance.
...
Yang Kingdom.
Su Huaiying sat in the newly constructed Martial Saint Manor, gazing out at the pond in the courtyard.
Lately, she had directly involved herself in internal struggles, rallying many familiar forces and allies from her past life. She had amassed no small amount of strength.
When she was invited by the owner of this Martial Saint Manor, none other than the legendary Martial Saint's Divine Clone, she had hesitated at first. But the moment the man mentioned that Chen Kuang was his benefactor, she came without a second thought.
Now, the fractured Martial Saint Pavilion remained a formidable power.
"Your Highness."
Without her noticing, Zhang Zhizhou appeared behind her and gave a cupped-hands salute, saying:
"If my calculations are correct, Chen Kuang should currently be en route to the Buddhist Kingdom."
Su Huaiying responded with an indifferent "Oh," then curled her lips:
"Knew it, that guy's got a tough life to snuff out."
Zhang Zhizhou continued: "Now that the Night Barbarians have launched a full-scale invasion, I fear the demonic cultivators lurking within the Central Regions may stir once again."
There was a jarring shift between his two statements.
But Su Huaiying knew this man never spoke aimlessly.
She turned to look at him, brows furrowing. "What do you mean?"
Zhang Zhizhou replied:
"When Master left seclusion this time, he brought with him a message. He suspects... that the Pure Land has become, or is about to become, a Demonic Nest."
Su Huaiying's face instantly turned grim.
"Is that true?"
She frowned and said, "That doesn't make much sense... If a place were to become a demonic nest, it shouldn't be the Pure Land. Those bald monks are way more righteous than even the Mysterious Divine Path Sect!"
Zhang Zhizhou shook his head. "Even Master is uncertain."
He spoke in a low, somber tone: "But while he was at Liberty Mountain, he read through countless Buddhist scriptures. In the end, he began to suspect that perhaps the Buddhist cultivation techniques had been swapped out by Night Barbarian spies a very, very long time ago."
Su Huaiying drew in a deep breath.
If that were true... then the situation they were facing would be far more terrifying than just a Night Barbarian invasion.
Even worse, Chen Kuang was currently headed to the Buddhist Kingdom.
"Phew..."
Su Huaiying slowly exhaled, feigning levity as she muttered:
"Knowing that troublemaker, by the time we hear from him again, the entire Buddhist Kingdom might have already been torn apart by him."
...
"Ah-choo!"
Chen Kuang's eyes snapped open as he inhaled a lungful of dust, immediately sneezing.
He jolted awake and rubbed his nose, grumbling inwardly:
"I'm a Moon-Embracing Realm cultivator, how could I sneeze that easily? Someone's definitely talking trash about me behind my back!"
"Benefactor Chen, you've finally woken up!"
A slightly familiar, bashful voice called out beside him.
Turning his head, Chen Kuang saw the young monk Xiuzhu beaming, his face lighting up with relief.
"You were unconscious for three days. If not for your steady heartbeat and pulse, I would've been scared to death!"
Looking around, Chen Kuang realized they were inside an abandoned temple. Dust-covered Buddha statues surrounded them, their craftsmanship faintly visible but worn down by time.
Xiuzhu had been sweeping the statues, which had stirred up the dust that made Chen sneeze.
"Why're you so scared when I'm the one with issues?"
Chen Kuang patted his robes and cracked a joke.
He checked the state of his divine soul, his once-dried-up heart-lake had been replenished, but his soul remained fractured.
Because he hadn't chosen a Dao Foundation, the passive effect of Destruction and Rebirth didn't seem to activate. Yet strangely, golden light flickered faintly within the cracks of his soul, as if some transformation was taking root.
Xiuzhu responded sincerely:
"Benefactor entrusted me with your life when you told me to take you away. Of course I'd be worried about your safety."
"If something happened to you, I'd be responsible."
Such a kind-hearted monk...
Truly, the Pure Land's compassion was not in name only.
Chen Kuang chuckled. With Xiuzhu's help, he stood up and asked curiously:
"So this is the Pure Land? Why's the temple abandoned? I thought everyone here was devoutly religious."
Xiuzhu placed his palms together and said, "I'd been meaning to tell you earlier. I could only teleport us to the nearest post station outside the Pure Land, not directly into it."
"We're still about three li away."
Chen Kuang nodded. "Not far."
He said, "In that case, let's head out now."
Xiuzhu replied, "No rush. There's something I must discuss with you first."
Chen Kuang turned in confusion, only to see Xiuzhu wearing an oddly cryptic smile:
"Benefactor... are you really planning to impersonate that Lionheart?"