Chapter 23: Xuanyuan Token
Chapter 23: Xuanyuan Token
Wen Renhe and Yin Hanjing watched as the palace courtyard turned into a black cave, Yin Hanjiang instinctively held his sword in front of Venerable to protect his lord.
The ignorant Baili Qingmiao put away the windless silver moon ribbon and after observing the situation for a while she asked: “Two seniors, where is Master Qing Xue? Oops!”
As soon as she spoke, she felt a chill in her ankle and jumped out. She lit darkness with a bright light talisman and with the help of light, she saw pythons crawling around her feet. The smallest one was about a few centimeters thick while the largest one was about one meter thick.
The cave was very wide and there seemed to be some vague wind blowing. The group of pythons tangled together were spread all over the ground.
Wen Renhe held Yin Hanjiang hand and calmly said “Don’t move, I think… their purpose is not to hurt people.”
“Ah! I’m afraid of snakes!” Baili Qingmiao cultivation was suppressed so she could not fly so she jumped several times, looking like she was about to cry out.
In the book, when Wen Renhe saw so many snakes around, he immediately killed all of them but the smell of blood attracted more demonic beasts.
At this moment after witnessing the surrounding environment change from the bright fairyland into a dangerous one, Wen Renhe was in no hurry to attack. He said to Baili Qingmiao: “Don’t panic so much, choose an open space to stand, these snakes may not hurt you so attacking them would be counterproductive.”
Baili Qingmiao acted very obedient as she held back her fear and stepped on the open ground with her feet. As soon as she landed, the thickest snake crawled towards her and Baili Qingmiao was tempted to scream and attack, but thinking of Wen Renhe’s words she restrained herself strongly. When she was no longer afraid she clearly saw the python raising its head and gently rubbing against her leg like a dog, and wagging the tip of its tail.
Baili Qingmiao: “……”
“What, what’s going on?” She was frightened as she stood pressing her back against the stone wall, shivering with fear.
Wen Renhe and Yin Hanjiang were standing opposite Baili Qingmiao and clearly saw the cold stone wall behind her open a huge yellow vertical pupil eye. When it saw Baili Qingmiao, it narrowed as if it was smiling.
Wen Renhe: “……”
Yin Hanjiang: “……”
Being calm without actively attacking the demonic beast, they could profoundly feel the love of the demonic beast in this environment for Baili Qingmiao.
“Have you ever thought what this secret realm looked like before we entered?” Wen Renhe asked.
“Imagined a little,” Baili Qingmiao stood with her back against the stone wall, completely unaware of the eyes above her head moving downward. “The immortal realm should be a magnificent palace, the palace furnished with treasures. Maybe even the Broken Mountain Meteorite Iron that the elder wanted would lie on the table! Outside the palace there may be a courtyard, with small animals that would be legendary divine beasts, Green Dragon White Tiger, Black Tortoise and Vermilion Bird or something…. Huh? Why are you guys looking at me like that?”
Even a person like Yin Hanjiang, who only had his lord in his eyes couldn’t help but show an odd expression when he met Baili Qingmiao’s gaze.
The secret realm in Baili Qingmiao’s fantasy was exactly what they saw after they entered, but appeared only when Baili Qingmiao was unconscious. After she woke up, the situation she wanted to see completely disappeared, and the surroundings turned into this horrible appearance, but those demonic beasts still liked her. As long as they don’t hurt them this demonic beast only wanted to get closer to Baili Qingmiao.
“Immortal Spirit Illusion Realm. The Illusion…” Wen Renhe murmured “Then if there is medicine in this Immortal Spirit Illusion Realm that could save your elder martial brother, what should it be like?”
“The lotus flower in full bloom in the courtyard river. If it was an even-colored blue lotus heart it would be able to cure my elder martial brother…. senior, why do I feel that the stone wall behind me is moving?” Baili Qingmiao said softly.
It was probably like these snakes, trying to rub its head against you but only that its head is a little too big. Wen Renhe said silently in his heart.
“If there was an exit from this Immortal Spirit Illusion Realm, where would it be?” Wen Renhe asked again.
“The Immortal Spirit Illusion Realm I imagined is surrounded by white fog. After all, it’s a corner of the secret realm and there must be an array guarding it to prevent us from entering the secret realm. The white fog at the back door of the palace is thinner, and walking in is actually the passage back to the Golden Coast Cliff. Senior everything is just my imagination so what is the use of asking? it seems that something is sucking on me, what exactly is this stone wall?”
It was nothing but the stone wall behind her seemed to have a tongue, a little sticky.
“Baili Qingmiao, you make yourself unconscious.” Wen Renhe said decisively, “I guarantee that after you open your eyes, you will be back at the Golden Coast Cliff and meet Elder Qing Xue.”
“Really?!” Baili Qingmiao first questioned it but then thought about it for a moment and said “I’m so weak, even if I don’t faint I will not be able to help two seniors so it will be better if I faint.”
After that, she stopped breathing and sealed her sleeping acupuncture point. After that, she put her mind into sleep and fainted just a moment later.
In the moment Baili Qingmiao fainted, the surroundings changed back to the way she imagined.
“My Lord, is this Immortal Spirit Illusion Realm really imagined by Baili Qingmiao?” Yin Hanjiang carried Baili Qingmiao on his shoulders and asked in some surprise: “Is the cave real or the courtyard real? Or neither of them are true?”
“There is another possibility that both of them are true.” This time Wen Renhe boldly walked into the courtyard, plucked the lotus flower from the river that just appeared and took out the seven-colored blue lotus heart.
The four inconspicuous legendary divine beasts did not stop Wen Renhe at all and played with themselves.
“We have all the things we want, let’s go.” Wen Renhe said to Yin Hanjiang: “Let just go to the backdoor of the palace like she said.”
When they arrived at the back door the white fog was sure enough a little thinner than in other places and seemed to be accessible.
Yin Hanjiang put his hand into the white fog trying to scout the way for his lord but was stopped by Wen Renhe.
“We’ll walk together with our backs to each other, and we’ll carry Baili Qingmiao together.” Wen Renhe said.
“Yes!”
Two people went together side by side as they carefully carried Baili Qingmiao to the other side of the white fog.
They don’t know how long they have been walking, the white fog seems to have no concept of time and space but then they could suddenly smell the salty smell of the sea breeze. Following the direction of the wind they soon stood on the cliff with golden sea in front of them.
Finally, a color other than white appeared in the field of their vision. Yin Hanjiang put Baili Qingmiao down, turned around and saw the familiar face of his lord and breathed a sigh of relief and sat on the ground.
“Protector Yin seems to be overly nervous?” Wen Renhe did not understand Yin Hanjiang’s momentary relaxation which he saw just now. It was also the first time he had seen such careless appearance, so he sat with him on top of the cliff and asked.
Yin Hanjiang said “I was worried that in the Immortal Spirit Illusion Realm not only what Baili Qingmiao imagined would be true but also my thoughts. This subordinate was overly concerned.”
“What was Protector Yin thinking about?” Wen Renhe asked.
Yin Hanjiang lowered his head and didn’t speak. On the way back he stood side by side with Wen Renhe and was able to touch his cold fingertips that did not feel like a living person. Yin Hanjiang was very afraid that when he returned to reality, he would turn around and see a corpse.
When he was young, Yin Hanjiang woke up in a mass grave. At the age of five, he carelessly stumbled around looking for his parents. His legs were broken and he could not walk and there was also a corpse laying on top of him. After scratching around for a long time, he found familiar the patches of clothes belonging to the corpse that was holding him down, which were his mother’s clothes. At that time, he didn’t have a clear concept of life and death so when he found his relative he hugged the body in tears. Ignoring the pain in his body he turned it over only to see that his mother’s face had long since rotted and attracted maggots.
Thinking of this, Yin Hanjiang snapped out of his memories. He felt ridiculous, a hundred years had passed and ordinary people would have been in the ground for a long time already. But he still held on the memories of the five-year-old who could not get out.
His lord…. will never become a corpse, Wen Renhe was the strongest man in the world of cultivation, no one could kill him.
Wen Renhe grasped Yin Hanjiang’s hand and saw that his palm was full of cold sweat. Cultivators were different from mortals, they did not need to eat and they did not enter the cycle of reincarnation for a long time. Unless it was an extremely terrible fright, they would not break in cold sweat. Yin Hanjiang refused to say it, Wen Renhe could only guess that it was one of the first vague signs of Yin Hanjiang being consumed by heart demons in the later part of the book.
These days his attention gradually shifted to Yin Hanjiang and he gradually found that his left protector heart hides a seemingly unfilled hole. If this heart knot was not untied, Yin Hanjiang would never be able to advance to the Mahayana realm.
“It seems that when I’m free in the future I will need to drink and have a heart to heart talk with protector Yin.” Wen Renhe said “At that time, Protector Yin will have to tell this Venerable his thoughts, how about it?”
Yin Hanjiang’s face actually showed a hint of embarrassment, he did not want his lord to understand him.
Wen Renhe could order Yin Hanjiang to tell the truth, but he didn’t want to force his Protector Yin so he just said: “In that case, the time will be decided by Protector Yin. When you want to talk, this venerable will always be ready to accompany you.”
As he spoke, a person climbed up from the sea, it was Qiu Congxue.
In the golden sea you can’t use your genniue Qi so it took her a long time to swim back and climb up the cliff again.
Seeing that Qiu Congxue’s arm had yet to regrow, Wen Renhe asked “How long were we inside?”
“Less than an hour.” Qiu Congxue said “Did Venerable encounter any dangers in the Immortal Spirit Illusion Realm ?”
Wen Renhe would naturally not answer Qiu Congxue and patted Baili Qingmiao, who seemed to be always fainting to wake up. He put the Seven-colored Blue Lotus Heart and the Broken Mountain Meteorite Iron together in front of her and said “I originally thought that the Broken Mountain Meteorite Iron was my chance. Now it seems I took it for granted. These two things belong to you. It’s up to you to decide what you want to do with them.”
“How can they all be mine?” Baili Qingmiao waved her hand and said , “I have done nothing, I have only been dragging your feet senior. Senior not disliking this junior is already a blessing. The Broken Mountain Meteorite Iron naturally belongs to seniors as for the even-colored blue lotus heart …… can it be regarded as something that this junior borrowed? This junior will definitely pay you back in future.”
“The opposite,” Wen Renhe picked up the Broken Mountain Meteorite Iron and said “This is considered something this Venerable is borrowing.”
“Venerable?” Baili Qingmiao tilted her head.
Wen Renhe took out the Xuan Yuan Sect sovereign token just like in the book and said “This is this venerable token, if you need something from me in future you can exchange it with this venerable for one favor, no matter what the favor is.”
Baili Qingmiao took the tiger talisman-like token with both hands and asked: “Can this junior ask for this senior name?”
“This venerable’s name is Wen Renhe.”
Hearing his words, Baili Qingmiao was so frightened that she dropped the talisman in her hand, stammered for outside help, and said to Qiu Congxue: “Master Qing Xue, senior, senior is the demon sect’s patriarch.”
“What are you so excited about?” Qiu Congxue said “Anyway, you and I together can’t beat him, so forget about the matter of slaying the demonic path and defending the righteous path.”
Her calmness actually calmed down Baili Qingmiao. If Wen Renhe wanted to kill her, it would be very easy for him.
“Patriarch Wen Renhe, I can’t accept this token.” Baili Qingmiao said his name, shook her head and said: “The righteous and demonic way both have their own justice and during the Massive Demon War, there were many injured and killed people on both sides. My sect master who was wounded by you is still in coma. My elder martial brother’s cultivation was destroyed by a demonic path cultivator. Patriarch Wen Renhe helped me many times and Baili will not dare to forget this kindness. In the future, if justice is not involved, Baili will definitely repay the patriarch. But after this, I can no longer contact seniors, let alone take your token.”
Baili Qingmiao gave a goodbye salute to Wen Renhe and solemnly handed back the token in her hand returning it.
“Don’t be so hasty. You will need to use it.” Wen Renge didn’t take it, “And the matter between the righteous and the demonic path is not as simple as you think. One day, when the Shangqing Sect will try to destroy you, harm you, or trap you, you can then decide whether to use it or not.”
“How can my sect harm me?” Baili Qingmiao did not understand.
Wen Renhe did not answer her question but turned into bloody light and took Yin Hanjiang away from the golden coast cliff, leaving Bai Li Qingmiao and Qiu Congxue in a daze.
Before leaving, Wen Renhe said to Qiu Congxue: “You and Baili Qingmiao should delay the return journey for a few days so there would be a slight delay in saving He Wenchao.”
He deliberately left a little time for He Wenchao and the old blood ancestor to see what they would do this time.
Edited by: Ninja
Proofread by: Nio