The Corpse Driver had returned. Today, someone had fallen into the ravine, beyond saving, so he had gone to retrieve the body for the family and arrange a proper burial. Yet it left him feeling a touch of desolation—people would rather flee to this harsh, unforgiving wilderness than face the ravages of war. Perhaps one day, he too would meet such an end. But while these villagers had him to handle their remains, who would collect his bones when his time came? Or would he end up like the Hundred Poisons King, his body utterly destroyed?
"Master!" The Corpse Driver glanced at Tian Ze, who was sitting in the courtyard lost in thought, and handed over today's earnings.
"Has someone been here?" The Corpse Driver asked, detecting two unfamiliar scents.
"People from the Daoist school—a man named Wu Chen Zi and his wife, Xiao Meng," Tian Ze replied. This was the only person he could truly trust, so he held nothing back.
"Wu Chen Zi and Xiao Meng?" The Corpse Driver looked at Tian Ze in astonishment.
Unlike Tian Ze, who had been imprisoned in a dungeon for ten years without seeing the light of day, he and the Hundred Poisons King had spent those years roaming the Seven Kingdoms to gather news of Tian Ze. Naturally, they had delved into the jianghu affairs and paid attention to the Daoist school, one of the Hundred Schools' giants.
"You know them?" Tian Ze asked, puzzled, as he looked at the Corpse Driver.
"Wu Chen Zi is the leader of the Daoist Human Sect, and his wife Xiao Meng is the leader of the Heavenly Sect," the Corpse Driver explained.
Tian Ze was stunned. Though he had suspected the two were high-ranking Daoists—after all, heaven-man unity experts weren't commonplace—he hadn't imagined they were the heads of the two major sects.
"Are you alright, Master?" The Corpse Driver examined Tian Ze carefully, his voice filled with concern.
"I'm fine. They just came to tell me some things—no conflict," Tian Ze said, feeling a faint warmth. Only the Corpse Driver and the Hundred Poisons King had ever truly cared for his safety. Sadly, the Hundred Poisons King was gone now. People only realize the value of what they've lost after it's taken away—the ordinary moments we take for granted are the most precious.
"Tell me about them and the Daoist school's ways," Tian Ze requested.
"Xiao Meng, the Heavenly Sect leader, and Wu Chen Zi, the Human Sect leader, entered the Daoist school together. Xiao Meng is the strongest disciple the Daoists have seen in a century—at eight years old, she defeated the eight great elders of the Heavenly Sect, prompting the reclusive Daoist elder Bei Ming Zi to emerge and take her as his personal disciple. Wu Chen Zi is one of the rare talents in the Daoist school's millennia-long history to successfully cultivate the Daoist Scripture. No one has seen them in action, but the Hundred Schools speculate that both have at least reached the heaven-man unity realm. They joined the Daoist school at the same time and became leaders of the two sects almost simultaneously. A few years ago, they married and issued the Daoist seclusion decree, sealing the mountain. From then on, no inner sect disciples or above from either the Heavenly or Human Sect may leave," the Corpse Driver recounted what he knew.
"What is the Daoist Scripture?" Tian Ze asked. Having been in Baiyue before his capture, he was unfamiliar with it.
"It's recognized by the Hundred Schools as the foremost of all scriptures, the ultimate compendium of martial arts and classics. But it has a flaw: no one can cultivate it. Anyone who tries almost always ends up mad or foolish. Those in the Hundred Schools who reach a certain level of cultivation all study the Daoist Scripture," the Corpse Driver explained.
Tian Ze frowned again. Wu Chen Zi hadn't seemed mad or foolish at all—quite normal, in fact. Though the words he spoke did seem unlike those of an ordinary person.
"It's hard to pin down the Daoists' ways—or rather, among the Hundred Schools, they're the most inscrutable. Sometimes, even they might not know what they're doing. If I had to describe their style, it's whimsical and free-spirited," the Corpse Driver continued.
He wanted to know what the two Daoist leaders had said to Tian Ze, but since Tian Ze hadn't offered it voluntarily, he wouldn't pry. He knew his place. Toward Tian Ze, he felt both reverence and fear—from the moment Tian Ze had found him, he had been subjected to witchcraft. Tian Ze was Baiyue's crown prince, their king.
"I know a bit about the Daoist school myself," came a voice from inside the earthen hut. Yan Ling Ji emerged, dressed in simple hemp cloth, devoid of her usual alluring charm.
Tian Ze and the Corpse Driver turned to her, puzzled. After Baiyue's fall, Yan Ling Ji had been captured and held in a water prison—how could she have encountered the Daoists?
"My Fire Charm Technique is innate, but the cultivation method was guided by a Daoist expert when I was very young," Yan Ling Ji explained.
As a child, she had met a Daoist who offered to take her as a disciple. Being so young, she hadn't understood what that meant and refused. The expert left, saying there was no master-disciple fate and that it couldn't be forced. Still, they imparted a method for cultivating flames, warning that without control, it could harm others and herself.
Yan Ling Ji hadn't realized then how destructive her awakening flames would be, leading to her tragedy. By the time she sought the expert out, Tian Ze had found her. She joined the Baiyue crown prince's residence initially to use its resources to locate that person. But Daoist experts were elusive as enigmas—impossible to find when sought. After Baiyue's destruction, she fled everywhere, still searching, until her capture.
Even during the heaven-man clash outside New Zheng, where a Daoist expert battled Hēi Bái Xuán Jiǎn, she considered approaching but couldn't due to their flight. By the time news reached her, the trails had gone cold. She wondered if the one who fought Hēi Bái Xuán Jiǎn was that same expert.
"Your Fire Charm Technique was taught by a Daoist expert?" Tian Ze asked in surprise. Their abilities were all from ancient inheritances, innate from birth.
The biggest difference between Baiyue and the Seven Kingdoms was that their powers weren't solely from postnatal cultivation.
In Baiyue, some were born with various abilities and were recruited by the royal residence for training—like the Hundred Poisons King's innate poison control, the Corpse Driver's corpse manipulation, or Tian Ze's own innate phenomenon, the Red-Browed Dragon Snake.
Yan Ling Ji had been recruited after awakening her flames and destroying a village, with the residence teaching her the Fire Charm Technique. So Tian Ze was shocked to learn she had another cultivation method.
"The Fire Charm Technique is just one way to wield flames. My true cultivation heart method has always been what the Daoist expert taught me," Yan Ling Ji clarified.
Baiyue's inheritance was incomplete—the Fire Charm Technique wasn't a cultivation heart method but a control and application technique, akin to sword forms. True progress required the Daoist heart method for mastery. She sought the expert because she could no longer control her flames and needed the advanced methods.
Thus, Baiyue's strength relied on innate talents, making them seem overwhelmingly powerful to ordinary people but helplessly weak against true masters.
"So you've never truly been under control?" Tian Ze remarked, having long suspected Yan Ling Ji wasn't bound by him.
When the prince's residence gathered these extraordinary individuals, they tampered with their cultivation methods and implanted gu sorcery. Yan Ling Ji had acted as if controlled, but Tian Ze always sensed otherwise.
"I joined the prince's residence initially because I couldn't control my flames anymore, so I used the Fire Charm Technique to manage them," Yan Ling Ji said.
She felt lost—Baiyue had fallen, leaving her adrift. When Tian Ze and Wu Shuang Gui found her, she rejoined them out of nowhere else to go. She didn't know what she wanted, feeling directionless. Tian Ze's goals became hers by default. Her true flame potential was far greater, but uncontrollable, so she sealed most of it with the Daoist heart method.
"I've always wondered why your flames never reached the potential we saw when we found you—so you sealed them yourself?" Tian Ze asked.
When they discovered her, it was amid her uncontrolled awakening that razed a village. They had assessed her ability and potential, but her current performance was merely average—not the powerhouse they anticipated. This had puzzled Tian Ze.
Yan Ling Ji nodded. The terror of uncontrolled flames made her wary of unleashing that power, so she sealed it away.
"So you want to leave and search for the Daoists?" Tian Ze asked again. If she wasn't under his control, he couldn't stop her.
"I don't know," Yan Ling Ji replied. She truly didn't—lost without a purpose or direction. Seeking that childhood expert was partly to gain one, to have someone tell her what to do.
"The Daoists are like dragons—visible only at the head, not the tail. If you want to find them, go through Han Fei!" Tian Ze suggested after a moment's thought, his voice grave.
"Master!" The Corpse Driver instinctively tried to intervene. They had already lost the Hundred Poisons King—they couldn't afford to lose Yan Ling Ji too.
Tian Ze waved him off, silencing what he was about to say, tacitly approving Yan Ling Ji's departure.
Li Haimo's words had left him adrift too. He craved revenge and restoration but now questioned the catastrophe it might bring to Baiyue's people.
The Daoists were infuriating—saying things halfway. You tell me revenge and restoration are possible, yet warn of disaster for Baiyue. Then be a true good Samaritan and tell me how to do it right. I'd listen, and if it made sense, I'd follow. But you say half and hide the rest—if I could find you or beat you, I'd want to kill you.
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