Chapter 63: Outside Lumen City Lies the Deer Platform (1)
Seven days later, Bai Chunsheng strode proudly out of the teleportation array, chest held high. Yan Yi followed behind with his sword in his arms. Next came Jiang Ji, holding He Shan’s hand. He Shan looked much better now. Jiang Ji coughed a few times every now and then, and Bai Chunsheng quietly told Yan Yi that it was because her foundation had been damaged. The reason she looked better than He Shan was only because she was forcing herself to stay strong. Although the two of them had technically saved her life, she likely didn’t have many years left to live.
They had arrived at Lumen City, nestled at the foot of Lumen Mountain in the Southern Region. Not far from here was a mystical land known as the Deer Platform.
Bai Chunsheng and Yan Jingqiu had once been trapped in the Deer Platform for a full ten years. It was a painful memory, one not worth mentioning. For Bai Chunsheng, this place was more or less a land of sorrow.
Over two hundred years ago, he had left this place forcibly, carried out horizontally by Yan Jingqiu, utterly humiliated. For a full hundred years afterward, Bai Chunsheng didn’t dare leave his home, afraid others would bring it up and mock him.
Now, seeing that he was finally about to reach his goal, he no longer wore that sullen expression. Instead, he was full of spirit and excitement, his eyes sparkling so brightly that Yan Yi was reminded of the scattered starlight beneath the low-hanging moon in the Yunhai Small World. He had no idea that Bai Chunsheng’s cheerfulness came entirely from his little scheming heart—he was already plotting how to find treasures from the inheritance to use against him.
Tianqing Sect had taken over the entire Lumen Mountain, and even the nearby fertile lands now belonged to them. As for the Xu family, they had shrunk back into a barren hilly region. Even Bai Chunsheng began to suspect there must be an error in the Immortal Spirit Register—when had the Xu family ever been this generous? It was clearly Tianqing Sect who had taken the land by force.
Bai Chunsheng didn’t feel much for the Xu family, so he simply lit a candle for them silently in his heart.
After wandering around Lumen City for a while—this place was considered a gathering spot for high-level cultivators in the Southern Region—he found that compared to the city they had first arrived at in the Grand World, there were not only more high-level cultivators here but also quite a few low-level cultivators who hadn’t yet reached the Nascent Soul stage.
Most of these were descendants of high-level cultivators. Since the land was suitable for living, they had settled down and taken root here. Perhaps after a few years—or a few hundred—a powerful clan might be born from among them.
It was said that over a hundred years ago, Lumen City had invited a powerful Law cultivator from the Dragon Clan to set up a restriction and legal system for the city. There was only one law: no cultivator was allowed to cast offensive spells against the city, whether inside or outside its borders. With this decree in place, Lumen City had enjoyed centuries of peace. As a result, many cultivators who had no hope of advancing chose to come here to recuperate and raise their descendants.
Some pale-white paper figures with rosy cheeks were quietly cleaning the trash along the roadside. The walls were inlaid with glowing stones that lit up automatically as the light dimmed. Lumen City seemed like an undying pearl nestled in the mountain valley.
Jiang Ji and He Shan put their gauzy robes back on and led Bai Chunsheng and Yan Yi through the city. After several twists and turns, they arrived at a prosperous shop in the city center. Two stone lions stood guard outside its entrance. Hanging above the doorway was a signboard bearing three large characters—“Wan Huo Quan” (All Goods Complete). The calligraphy was wild and serpentine, looking unremarkable at first glance, but the longer one stared, the more it stung the eyes. Clearly, this was a magical treasure of considerable rank.
Most of the cultivators passing by wore items that obscured their faces. The few who didn’t made it impossible to tell whether their faces were real or fake.
Jiang Ji had already informed Bai Chunsheng and Yan Yi that the face-concealing items they wore had been bought on the road. They were two masks used in ritual exorcisms—one red, one black. Bai Chunsheng wore the red one, and Yan Yi the black, looking like two fierce door guardians.
Following Jiang Ji inside “Wan Huo Quan” felt like stepping into a completely different space and time. The cultivators who had just brushed past them outside were now nowhere to be seen. The vast store seemed to contain only the four of them as customers.
This was due to a special formation inside the shop, meant to prevent others from spying on customers purchasing rare or valuable treasures. It provided excellent protection for clients who carried unique items.
Only the shopkeeper and staff inside the store could know how many guests were present at a time.
Looking closely, the entrance opened up to a counter. A clerk wearing a small round cap was casually playing with an abacus. The jade beads made a crisp, pleasant sound. He had a fair, delicate face with refined features and especially long, slender fingers. His eyelids were pale and thin, with faint traces of red at the outer corners. His cultivation was no more than Nascent Soul level, and although he moved his abacus quickly, he gave off a frivolous and flippant air. At that moment, he wore a troubled expression, which made him appear somewhat gloomy.
Bai Chunsheng felt the man looked vaguely familiar.
Jiang Ji didn’t go further into the store and simply stopped at the counter. The bookkeeper hadn’t noticed her at first, assuming she was just another customer. Several moments passed before he finished his task and realized that the four customers before him seemed to have something more serious in mind.
He first gave He Shan a quick glance. Just as he was about to speak, his eyes fell on Jiang Ji beside her. It was as if someone had struck him on the back of the head with a club—his whole body trembled. His lips moved several times before he finally managed to ask, “What can I help you with, esteemed guests?”
He Shan replied softly, “We heard the Wuzhi Tree has bloomed this year. Perhaps in a few years it’ll bear fruit. My lord would like to place an order for the fruits as a gift for the children in our household to use in their initiation ritual.”
The Wuzhi Tree was a species unique to the Southern Region, taking root deep within solid cliffside rock. It rarely bore fruit—sometimes once a year, sometimes only once in several centuries—its yield entirely dependent on luck. Anchored in the thick bedrock of the South, the roots of the Wuzhi Tree were believed to be aware of everything that happened upon that land. Occasionally, its fruit would retain remnants of cultivators’ enlightenment experiences. It was considered excellent material for initial cultivation, capable of awakening children who had no concept of cultivation at all.
The bookkeeper asked, “How many people?” His eyes swept over all four of them, lingering especially on Bai Chunsheng and Yan Yi.
Jiang Ji replied, “Two.”
“Two?!” The registrar seemed somewhat alarmed. “And your lord? This is a major rite of initiation! The quality of the fruit directly affects the descendant’s spiritual roots and cultivation foundation—he’s not attending in person?”
This time, Jiang Ji did not respond. She only shook her head slowly.
It was as if the bookkeeper’s spine had been suddenly yanked out—he collapsed backwards, falling into his seat like a puppet with its strings cut.
Jiang Ji watched as the man sat there with trembling limbs, unable to recover for quite a while. It was a full quarter of an hour before he rasped out hoarsely, “Understood.”
He gestured with his chin toward Bai Chunsheng and Yan Yi, who were standing behind He Shan. “And what about these two?”
“They heard there were Wuzhi Trees here and wanted to have a look, they might want two shares as well.” Jiang Ji said.
The bookkeeper still hadn’t quite recovered. His voice was dull and lifeless as he muttered, “Then follow me.” He opened the gate behind the counter and ushered the four of them in. Behind the counter was a curtain, and when Bai Chunsheng stepped through, he found another teleportation array waiting inside.
As soon as they stepped through the curtain, the bookkeeper’s cultivation level began rising rapidly, only stabilizing when he reached the late stage of the Dao realm.
Jiang Ji and He Shan removed their veils. The bookkeeper—his features delicate and beautiful, like those of a fine woman—was biting his own finger as he asked, “Shen Fangxing is dead?”
He had bitten into his index finger so deeply that the bone was visible, yet he seemed to feel no pain at all, continuing to suck on the blood he had drawn.
Jiang Ji: “Yes.”
Now that they were closer, Bai Chunsheng could smell the faint scent of medicine on the man. At last, he was able to match the face to a name.
This bookkeeper was none other than Gu Jinnian, a demonic cultivator from the Southern Region.
Strictly speaking, in the Grand World, distinctions like “demonic cultivator” should no longer have held weight. That Gu Jinnian was still referred to as one was entirely due to the unspeakable depth of his crimes.
He wasn’t originally from the Grand World either. He hailed from some obscure minor world. After ascending to the Middle Realm, he went into seclusion in a remote secret realm. Only after cultivating all the way to the Dao realm did he emerge—and everywhere he went thereafter, he left nothing but blood and corpses in his wake.
He was cunning, vicious, and brutal, and practiced obscure and unorthodox techniques rarely seen. Like a slippery loach, he was impossible to pin down. The powerful cultivators of the Mahayana stage disdained dealing with him, while those of his own level simply couldn’t handle him. And so, for quite some time, he had run free and unchallenged.
Bai Chunsheng recalled what he knew—Gu Jinnian had supposedly been defeated by Shen Fangxing during the latter’s life-cultivation trials under Tianqing Sect. Most people didn’t doubt his death. Someone as despicable and cowardly as Gu Jinnian would certainly have devised multiple backup plans and escape routes. No one had expected he’d willingly stay behind in the Southern Region, working in a humble shop on behalf of Tianqing Sect.
“Heh.” Gu Jinnian seemed not to believe it, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “‘Yes’? How do I know you’re not lying to me?”
Jiang Ji said, “You really don’t know whether he’s dead? When he died, the contract binding you would have dissolved. You wouldn’t know that? Why ask me again—just to rub salt in my wounds?”
Given that Jiang Ji had been Shen Fangxing’s lover during his cultivation trials, and the two had likely clashed before, it wasn’t surprising that her words to Gu Jinnian showed no mercy.
Gu Jinnian hesitated. “But what if this is a trick? What if he’s tricking me again…”
Jiang Ji ruthlessly cut off Gu Jinnian’s last thread of delusion. “You think you’re worth the trouble?”
Bai Chunsheng saw Gu Jinnian clench his fists—and instinctively edged behind Yan Yi, trying not to be obvious about it.
Yan Yi: “…”
Author’s Note: Little duck clings to people.
—Bai Chunsheng blinked.
I’m back, qaq.
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
