Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 332 Tong Xu (Part Two)

She couldn't remember what Shen Xinsheng looked like, nor could she remember what Mu Tieshan's father looked like. This was because marriages within the Juque Sect's Lu Yu Cave Heaven weren't ordinary unions of yin and yang, but rather governed by rules and etiquette. During those few encounters, the two never saw each other's faces, and their attire was always impeccable. Once the pregnancy was conceived, they never met again. With so many people in the Juque Sect, even if they wanted to find each other afterward, it would be extremely difficult.

Normally, after a child is born, the child is immediately sent away. For example, Tong Xu herself did not know who her parents were. It was only after she became the sect leader of the Qingpu Sect and could access the sect's secret files that she learned that her biological father was a master of the Qingpu Mountain stationed in Huaizhou City, and that her biological mother was an alchemist in the alchemy room on the mountain.

But Tong Xu's situation was somewhat special, mainly because of herself. In Shen Xinsheng's words, she was simply too beautiful, so beautiful that she would attract special attention even among the Juque Sect, which was full of handsome men and beautiful women.

The one who paid attention to her was Mu Jinchuan, an elder of the Juque Sect, who was also Mu Zhenyuan's master. He accidentally bumped into Tong Xu once and took a liking to her, so he planned to take her as his inner disciple. According to Tong Xu, this inner disciple was actually a furnace cauldron.

In some minor sects, the fate of someone serving as a furnace vessel is tragic, but it's slightly different in a major sect like Juque. Juque is considered the head of the Five Constants, a prestigious and orthodox sect. Elders like Mu Jinchuan are measured in their exploitation. Generally, their affection for someone only lasts a year or two, not enough to completely destroy them. Then they'll stay within their own lineage to do other things, and there won't be a shortage of elixirs or magical materials. If Li Wuxiang were to look at it, he'd think it was like being banished to a cold palace, but a cold palace with extremely comfortable living conditions.

Tong Xu had no right to refuse and could only comply. However, because of Mu Jinchuan's special favor towards her, she requested to bring her child with her, and Mu Jinchuan agreed.

Intelligent people learn quickly, including how to please others. Tong Xu learned from Shen Xinsheng, trying to project an innocence and willfulness unlike that of ordinary cultivators from the Thirty-Six Sects. Mu Jinchuan, being a rather unrestrained person, was quite taken with this approach. Instead of forcing her to abandon her original sect's cultivation and start over like others, he allowed her to continue practicing the techniques of Qingpu Mountain and even gave her some guidance.

Thus, Tong Xu gradually transformed from a potential furnace cauldron who might be banished in a year or two into someone trusted by Mu Jinchuan, someone to whom he could confide his innermost thoughts.

The Juque Sect was an enormous sect with tens of thousands of members, numerous branches, and constant infighting. Tong Xu advised Mu Jinchuan and helped him accomplish several major feats, making him increasingly fond of her. So one day, Mu Jinchuan told her that she could actually give up being an inner disciple and become his Daoist partner.

Outside of the diocese and the Taiyi Sect, the Juque Sect is undoubtedly the most powerful in the world, and its leader is arguably the most powerful person there. Mu Jinchuan, favored by Mu Zhenyuan, is a figure hovering on the periphery of the Juque Sect's power core. Becoming his Daoist partner is practically a meteoric rise; in Li Wuxiang's words, it's like a girl from an ordinary official family suddenly becoming a princess.

But then, that situation occurred again.

Before this, Tong Xu had actually had a very difficult time. This wasn't about food, clothing, or cultivation materials, but rather the constant fear of walking on thin ice. Mu Jinchuan wasn't the sect leader of the Giant Sword Sect, but within his lineage, he held the power of life and death. Tong Xu had to be extremely careful to observe Mu Jinchuan's words and expressions to maintain his favor and prevent him from becoming annoyed with him.

Every time she won Mu Jinchuan's favor and received his praise, Tong Xu felt a strange sense of pleasure—she didn't like Mu Jinchuan as a person, but she enjoyed the sense of accomplishment. This sense of accomplishment reached its peak when Mu Jinchuan told her that they could become Daoist partners. But at that moment, she suddenly felt as if something that had been covering the world, or perhaps her own eyes, had shattered.

Everything became dull and tasteless, just like the month or so she had spent with Shen Xinsheng. The thought of remaining in the Juque Sect and being subservient to others filled Tong Xu with a sense of gloom—the whole world was old, stale, and unchanging, and no matter how vast the world around her was, it felt like a prison.

When she saw the child she had given birth to, Mu Tieshan, this feeling became even stronger. When she was in Lizuo City, she had seen how ordinary people lived there—marrying and having children, then spending most of their lives struggling for their children and making a living. By the time they no longer had to do all that, they were already old. Their whole lives were trapped in an invisible frame, and the cry of the child at the moment of birth seemed to be a premature death announcement.

A cultivator's life shouldn't be like this, but Tong Xu always felt the difference wasn't that great. Even someone like Mu Jinchuan, what difference was there between him and an ordinary person in essence? He had to watch his face, while Mu Jinchuan had to watch his face. All the rules were cages, and they could never do what they liked.

The last time she felt this way, she could immediately extricate herself, but this time she couldn't. Tong Xu quickly fell ill, which greatly surprised Mu Jinchuan. Although Tong Xu was still practicing Qi cultivation at that time, she had already overcome ordinary illnesses. But her illness seemed more like that of someone about to suffer a Qi deviation; she was depressed all day long and almost lost her mind.

Mu Jinchuan patiently pressed for the reason, and finally realized that it was a heartache in her. Tong Xu was so pleasing to him that he had to reluctantly let her go and decided to let her return to Qingpu Mountain, and even designated her as the next successor to the Qingpu Sect Master.

The Qingpu Sect was a vassal of the Juque Sect. After the Juque Sect elders spoke, Tong Xu's life became quite smooth. The effects of the Yin-Yang union were compensated for by elixirs and magical materials, and she quickly achieved Nascent Soul stage. Coincidentally, the previous sect leader died before successfully achieving Yang Spirit, so she naturally became the next sect leader.

To others, Tong Xu's life seemed smooth sailing and without major incidents, but she herself found it increasingly boring. She had been interested in many things, but as soon as she achieved something or overcame a difficulty, she immediately felt bored and depressed, even when it came to being the leader of the Qingpu Sect.

She had once thought she was caught in a calamity, but it didn't seem like it. It wasn't until a few days ago, after experiencing the disaster that spread from the Great Calamity Mountain, that she finally understood why—

While others were terrified by the world-ending calamity, she felt only joy. It was as if she had been living in a stuffy, damp house, and now, because of the calamity, a hole had suddenly opened in that house, and the outside air was blowing in.

This sounds like an emotional experience, but what Tong Xu felt was hard to describe. The experience lay between emotion and reality; she felt as if she had seen something—a much wider space beyond this world. That space was indescribable; there was no heaven or earth, no living beings, and none of the rules and principles of the present world.

She felt that the "absence" wasn't because it was undefined or yet to be created, but rather a genuine void. This experience lasted only a fleeting moment, as if the world had been torn open and then closed again in the next instant. However, Tong Xu's mind and body were completely conquered by that feeling. She had an intuition—if she could go to that place, everything would be perfect, her mind and body would be completely liberated, and she would have no regrets.

Having already reached the Nascent Soul stage, she wouldn't mistake this feeling for an illusion. It felt like a homeland, a place of eternal end. It couldn't be the present world, nor could it be within or outside the diocese. Where was it?
Based on what she had seen and heard, she could only deduce one place—the Mystic Realm. After attaining enlightenment, cultivators of the Six Mystic Sects would ascend to the Mystic Realm to share ultimate bliss with the six Great Emperors. Cultivators outside the sects had always been very interested in what the Mystic Realm was like, and had made many speculations. Most of these speculations were extremely mysterious, but one of them said that those who ascended would become one with heaven and earth, returning to the primordial Qi, and from then on, roam freely throughout the universe without restraint—this speculation was remarkably similar to what she had experienced in that instant.

This led her to come into contact with the monks of Taiyin Temple, which is relatively close to Qingpu Mountain.

The leaders of the thirty-six sects were prominent figures even within the Six Departments of the Mysterious Sect. When Tong Xu took the initiative to contact them, the Taiyin Sect immediately responded, sending a Void Reset cultivator.

Tong Xu had thought she could get the answer from him, but the Void Refining cultivator not only didn't understand what the Wonderful Realm was like, but he also couldn't comprehend what she had experienced, or the emotions she felt in that instant—

It was a kind of spiritual throbbing, a serene emptiness, a boundless satisfaction, as if it were beyond the comprehension of any living being in this world. Tong Xu experienced these things only for that one moment, and afterwards, even recalling or savoring them became very difficult.

After learning that she had contacted the Taiyin Sect because of this, the Void Refining cultivator thought it was some kind of trap—some people come to the Xuan Sect for status, some for cultivation techniques, and some for rare and precious materials, but this Qingpu Sect leader was actually after her momentary feelings.

Tong Xu didn't know how the higher-ups of the Taiyin Sect felt after the Void Refining cultivator returned to the main altar and reported the matter, but they must have been very puzzled. Therefore, there was no response for over a month afterward.

The response only came a few days ago, after Mei Qiulu and Li Wuxiang killed the Descended True Spirit and made a thirty-year agreement with the Six Departments of the Mysterious Sect.

The Taiyin Sect, one of the six sects, was very disciplined. It sent neither cultivators nor mortals from its territory. Instead, it sent two demon kings from the Eastern Continent, Xu Zhen and Xu Pianpian.

Tong Xu learned what the Six Departments of the Mysterious Sect wanted to do—

The thirty-year agreement must naturally be kept, and those within the diocese will never venture outside. However, the Taiyi Sect and the Blood God Sect are about to ignite a protracted war, which presents the best opportunity within three thousand years for the Six Mysterious Sects to completely control the Central Plains. They will not stand idly by.

They hoped that the Taiyi Sect and the Blood God Sect would fight each other as fiercely as possible, ideally creating an uncontrollable situation within thirty years, resulting in mutual destruction. From the Xuan Sect's perspective, they feared the Yangshen Sword Immortal even more than the Siming Zhenjun of Mount Ling. In order to eliminate Mei Qiulu, they paid a price in exchange for the aid of the Eastern Continent Demon King.

It wasn't just Xu Zhen and Xu Pianpian who came; they also brought with them the "Heavenly Demon Dissolution Technique."

This kind of cultivation method cannot be practiced by humans; only demons can. If Li Wuxiang knew this, he would realize that what he had thought before was entirely correct—the Blood God Sect's cultivation method involves humans cultivating into demons, and then demons cultivating into "human essences." And what happens after becoming a human essence? Cultivation methods cannot be developed in a short period of time, and Mei Qiulu would not give them time.

Therefore, regardless of whether one becomes a "Dan Immortal," "Infant Immortal," or "Yang Immortal," there are no more cultivation methods available. The Blood Nerve integrates a person's meridians and acupoints into one, and it is also mixed with the remains of a dragon's body, so ordinary methods are not feasible—except for the "Heavenly Demon Dissolution Technique" brought by Xu Zhen.

The Six Mysterious Sects demanded that Tong Xu offer this cultivation technique to the Blood God Sect, tracing its origins back to her. Simultaneously, they requested that she provide the two demon kings with the necessary assistance and further fuel the momentum outside the sect's territory.

In exchange, after the thirty-year agreement expires, the Taiyin Sect Master will tell Tong Xu what she saw back then.

This promise itself is an answer, meaning that the emotions Tong Xu saw and experienced were not illusions, but real, and that at least the Taiyin Sect Leader knew what they were.

This was a thirty-year promise that belonged only to her. For this promise, she felt she could endure anything—Li Yin and Zheng Jingxi's foolishness and weakness, Xu Zhen's capriciousness, Xu Pianpian's cruelty and violence—these things no longer tormented her; instead, they became challenges as she continued to move towards her goal. Like the hardships she encountered while traveling the world with Shen Xinsheng, like the cautiousness she felt when interacting with a certain Jin Chuan, overcoming these things would bring her joy.

Li Wuxiang and Xue Baoping had sharp eyes; they were able to see that he was "troubled by love." If their methods were a little more sophisticated and their actions a little quicker, they probably would have been able to figure out his relationship with Mu Tieshan and Mu Zhenyuan.

To be honest, compared to what she was pursuing and that feeling, Mu Tieshan was completely insignificant. There were many times when she would even forget that she still had a son in Luyu Cave.

However, this child has now come in handy. Mu Tieshan died at Li Wuxiang's hands, and so did Mu Zhenyuan. He will likely try his best to resolve this "grudge" between the two—he can certainly try his best, and she herself can be moved by his sincerity and "forgive past grievances"—

Thinking of this, Tong Xu finally let go of the matter of Xue Baoping and smiled slightly in the darkness.

(End of this chapter)