Chapter Fifty-Six: The Old Immortal’s Efforts in Taking a Disciple

The golden seal descended slowly, and the crisis of life and death loomed before them.

The nine-palace diagram engraved on the bottom of the seal was clearly visible. In a trance, Ji Feichen recalled the nine-palace mnemonic he had memorized back in elementary school in his previous life.

Suddenly, Ji Feichen’s eyes widened, and from the center of his brow a giant dragon burst forth once again. “Yin-Yang Heaven-Cleaving Sword!” The twin dragon whiskers transformed into enormous swords that split the golden seal apart, before drifting lightly like sheets of thin paper into the Ghost Mother’s hands.

“Ghost Mother, how can your art of the nine-palace Eight Trigrams compare to my method of Yin-Yang and the Two Principles? You must know, all things are born from the Dao, which first gives rise to Yin and Yang. Your Eight Trigrams and Nine Palaces—far too antiquated!”

A glimmer of understanding dawned in Li Jingxun’s heart. Seeing Ji Feichen break free, she too summoned a golden page from the Book of Moral Virtue. “All things bear Yin and embrace Yang; their blended breath brings harmony.” The twin energies of Yin and Yang formed a Taiji symbol above her brow, easily dissolving the golden seal. This technique, also drawn from the True Classic of Virtue, used the harmonizing breath to emulate the Grand Way, thus breaking the opponent’s spell.

“As the saying goes, ‘The Dragon King sits at home, the Turtle Minister greets at the door.’ Old turtle, how could you hope to match my divine dragon path? Best to bow your head and submit—I’ll toss you in my garden pool as a softshell turtle, and at least you’ll keep your life!” Ji Feichen’s every word prodded the Ghost Mother’s temper, until at last she could bear it no longer. She charged up to the Xuanpin Gate before them and swung her sword down.

“Stop calling me old turtle! I’m only half spirit turtle by blood!”

“Half? You’ve used nine blood descendants to refine nine spiritual turtle apertures, seeking to attain the thousand-year true body of the spirit turtle. By then, you’ll be a true ancient Turtle Mother. Should the younger generation address you as the Sacred Mother of Turtle Spirits? And as the adage goes: ‘A king turtle lives a thousand years, a common one ten thousand.’ To call you Turtle Mother is to slander the turtle clan—for the spirit turtle rules longevity, one of the Four Sacred Creatures. How can you, old tortoise, compare?”

What the Ghost Mother hated most in life was anyone speaking of her origins. “You little beast, the first thing I’ll do after catching you is rip out those sharp teeth of yours—let’s see how you wag your tongue then!”

“Chewing one’s tongue has nothing to do with teeth—” Suddenly, Ji Feichen’s expression changed. “Junior sister, now!”

Taking advantage of the Ghost Mother’s agitation, both produced their coffins. Ji Feichen slapped the Emperor’s True Talisman onto his coffin, while Li Jingxun affixed the Golden Turtle Divine Talisman to hers.

A crimson dragon soared, golden light danced, and both coffins simultaneously unleashed a force like a whale inhaling. “Seal!” The coffins contained the Ghost Mother’s shed remains, stained with the blood of the Qiu sisters—destined by fate to restrain her. As the Ghost Mother drew near, the twin forces pinned her down, dragging her toward the coffins.

“The Xuanpin Gate is the root of heaven and earth, lingering yet present, inexhaustible in use.” Li Jingxun invoked the Xuanpin Gate again—dragon and phoenix whirled in the air, crashing down on the Ghost Mother’s crown.

Ji Feichen refused to be left behind; the Yin-Yang Twin Dragon Shears at his waist sliced the Ghost Mother clean in half.

A chilling ghostly aura tried to re-form, but the vital breath of the Xuanpin above dispersed any hope of recovery. Severed, her spirit body lost connection and was easily sealed within the two coffins.

A ghost immortal’s body is but a spiritual shade. Once confined in a coffin, her divided spirit fused with the desiccated bones, suppressed by dragon energy and divine power, unable to break free.

A constant pounding and shrill shrieks sounded inside. “You little beast, you’ve tricked me!”

“That’s because you, Turtle Mother, couldn’t handle provocation—what’s that to do with me?” Ji Feichen sat cross-legged, Li Jingxun at his side, and together they began to chant, refining the twin ghost immortal spirits sealed within the coffins.

A thousand miles away, turbulent waves erupted from a Mystic Turtle Pool, followed by a black gale and dark light soaring skyward, charging toward Ji Feichen and Li Jingxun.

“This is your doing! Now that I’m using my true form, there will be no reconciliation between us!” The Ghost Mother, livid, was forced to reveal her real body—her ghost immortal avatars could only manifest three phantasms, and now, with one suppressed by Ji Feichen and Li Jingxun, nearly a third of her cultivation was lost.

And so her true form emerged. Black winds and evil mists billowed across the land, rushing toward Golden Turtle City.

But midway, she saw a young woman standing atop a hill. Seeing the black cloud approaching, the girl smiled, “Might that be the Ghost Mother of Nine Spirits?”

The Ghost Mother paused, halting her cloud. Looking closer at the yellow-robed woman below, her anger flared anew: “Another wretched disciple of the Virtue Sect? You little girl court death!” She sped her cloud downward, lunging at Zhou Yan’er.

Zhou Yan’er shook her head. “The elder originally asked me to persuade you, but since you attacked first, you can’t blame me for being ruthless!” She had never liked the Ghost Mother’s temperament and immediately scattered a shower of golden sand.

The sand shot into the cloud. A scream rang out from within, and the Ghost Mother withdrew her cloud and fled in a streak of black light back to her lair.

Seeing how quickly she ran, Zhou Yan’er hurried back to Golden Turtle City to find Li Jingxun and Ji Feichen.

At that moment, the two were just finishing the purification of the Ghost Mother’s avatar in the coffins. Ji Feichen had waited but saw no sign of the Ghost Mother’s true form and wondered aloud, “By my reckoning, she is far from calm—after we destroyed her avatar, how could she not seek revenge?”

Li Jingxun tried to divine her whereabouts, but the Ghost Mother’s cultivation outstripped her own, making calculation impossible.

“She was driven off by me, of course she didn’t come!” Zhou Yan’er arrived, brimming with pride.

The other two rushed up in surprise. Before Ji Feichen could ask, Zhou Yan’er took the offensive: “Senior sister, you and Brother Qinghong are awfully close—meanwhile, I, your own junior sister, am treated like an outsider. You sent me away before dealing with the Ghost Mother. What does that mean?”

Her outburst left Li Jingxun and Ji Feichen exchanging awkward glances.

Li Jingxun quickly soothed her. After Zhou Yan’er’s temper cooled, she asked, “Now you’re back—what about Bi Rong?”

“She was taken away by an elder, who said she would be his successor.”

“An elder?” The three sat down as Zhou Yan’er recounted the tale…

Not long before, Zhou Yan’er had carried Bi Rong away on a cloud. Halfway there, they were stopped by gleaming rainbow clouds—an old immortal intercepted them.

“Please wait, young friends!” he called.

Zhou Yan’er eyed him warily. “Senior, who are you?”

The old immortal wore a cinnabar-red phoenix robe, held a golden staff shaped like a bird’s head, his white beard flowed to his knees, and a pure-yang crown adorned his head—his Daoist bearing inspired trust.

“I come from Wutong Slope. I am fated with this child and have come to accept her as my disciple.”

“Wutong Slope?” Li Jingxun cried out in astonishment. “Could that elder’s surname be Feng?”

“That’s right. He said he has old ties with our Virtue Sect, and so took Bi Rong away. Senior sister, do you know him?”

Ji Feichen’s gaze sharpened as well.

Li Jingxun explained, “Swift as the wind for a thousand miles, the phoenix dances the nine heavens. Senior Feng Qianli is a renowned earth immortal of our time.”

At this, Ji Feichen’s expression shifted. Feng Qianli—rumored to be the son of a human and a demon, with an eccentric temperament, who used his own demon bird blood as his foundation, forsaking the orthodox immortal arts to cultivate the true law of the phoenix, transforming into the celestial phoenix of the nine heavens.

Ji Feichen’s interest stemmed from the fact that Feng Qianli’s “Phoenix Heaven Formula” was both complementary and opposed to his own “Profound Demon Dragon Sutra.”

“I see,” Li Jingxun continued, linking the chain of events. “It seems we meddled too much. The Bi family possesses the bloodline of the Bifang divine bird, making their descendants naturally attuned to the Phoenix Heaven Formula. No doubt the elder has had his eye on them for some time.”

Indeed, Feng Qianli had already glimpsed the Grand Dao; his ascension was imminent. Yet, after flying to the heavens, he would leave no successor—wouldn’t his Phoenix Heaven Formula be lost to the world?

Thus, his preparations began a hundred years ago. From before Bi Rong’s birth, the old immortal intended her as his successor. The dried well at the Bi estate, and the golden turtle beneath it, were both fated encounters he had arranged for her.

Years later, when the Ghost Mother launched her ninefold geomantic trap, Bi Rong would fall into the dried well and meet the Golden Turtle Heavenly Official. Then, she would seize the chance to step onto the immortal path, joining forces with the Turtle Official to avert her family’s calamity. At the end, the elder would drive off the Ghost Mother, and Bi Rong would be free to follow him into the mountains to cultivate.

All these arrangements were meant to unfold ten years from now, corresponding to the ten-year disaster foreseen by the Turtle Official.

But who could have guessed that Ji Feichen and his companions would intervene, and with the Virtue Sect’s involvement, the old immortal was forced to act early—taking Bi Rong in mid-journey and sending Zhou Yan’er to distract the Ghost Mother.

“If so, Bi Rong’s future is secure. But you said you drove the Ghost Mother away?”

“The old immortal left me a jar of golden sand. I just used it to drive her off.” Zhou Yan’er handed the sand to Li Jingxun.

Li Jingxun examined it closely. “Indeed, this is the Celestial Jade Sand of Dubhe, a divine sand refined by Senior Feng in the western deserts. Keep it well—it will serve as a powerful ward.”

Truly, Zhou Yan’er’s fortunes were exceptional: she obtained a jade sword in Turtle Mountain, and now, with the old immortal’s parting gift, a pouch of spiritual sand.

The three returned to the Bi estate. Ji Feichen recounted what had happened and congratulated the Bi and Qiu families. “That elder is a true adept. With your son’s cultivation, your lineage will surely endure for a thousand years.”

Soon after, the three prepared to take their leave, but the Bi family urged them to stay. Suddenly, a message arrived borne by a crane. Li Jingxun read it, and her mind changed—she agreed to remain at the Bi estate for a while.

“Brother Qinghong, soon there will be a contest of immortals and demons in Golden Turtle City. Would you care to join?”

With the golden turtle freed, the city’s spirit veins were surging, and a jade egg was about to emerge—a key ingredient for the Black Pool Adept’s “Profound Underworld Seven Apertures Pill.” Inevitably, the Underworld Sect would come to seize it.

The Daoist sects, foreseeing the consequences, had dispatched their disciples to intervene. While not a full-scale war of immortals, the gathering of so many disciples at the transformation stage promised an excellent trial.

After some thought, Ji Feichen politely declined. “I must journey east in search of treasure—I’ll leave this matter to you.”

He set out alone, vanishing halfway, then returned in disguise as a disciple of the Demonic Sect.

At that moment, he tore the black dragon scale from his body—his fate was instantly concealed, and he rejoined the ranks of the Underworld Sect, perfectly disguised.

As luck would have it, the place he arrived was exactly the site of his earlier battle with the Ghost Mother. All five branches of the Underworld Sect had gathered, raising mists and black clouds in the suburbs, where palaces sprang up in the fivefold formation.

Previously, golden clouds had appeared; now, demonic mists surged, terrifying the townspeople—none dared venture out.

“The Underworld Sect moves quickly,” Li Jingxun remarked, standing on a crane with her sister, watching the malefic aura drifting in the distance. “The demonic sects sure know how to choose a spot. Just recently, Brother Qinghong and I set up formations there—the vitality is abundant. Now they’re using it to forge their demonic nodes and construct the Nine Yin Demon Palace.”

“Nine Yin Demon Palace? Senior sister, is this palace formation the Underworld Sect’s Nine Yin magic?”

“Indeed. Nine Yin extinguishes Yang—ten enter, none survive. Look, the malefic aura is forming a skull in the air—that’s the Underworld Sect’s Bone Demon God. If we draw near, we’ll be devoured.”

“So what should we do now?”

“The demonic sects have arrived, and our people are on their way. Soon, beneath the walls of Golden Turtle City, let us see whose Dao is truly orthodox!”