Immortalis

Death Hex: Four

Before Gu Yun could respond to Yang Wujian's words, Shen Qingshi stood up to leave but was pulled back by Yang Wujian, who said calmly, "I trust you. Stay here."

After hesitating briefly, Shen Qingshi sat back down, quietly waiting with Yang Wujian for Gu Yun to speak.

Perhaps because their expressions were so grave, Gu Yun laughed after a long pause.

"Why so tense? We've hidden for so many years—how could we be forced out so easily?"

Gu Yun shook his head. "The fourth chapter of the Longevity Heart Sutra isn't in mine or Mingshan's possession. To be honest, we don't even know where it is. As for why Guanri is pushing Longevity Palace to the brink, aside from seeking revenge, I believe it's because he wants to uncover the whereabouts of another item."

"Another item?"

"Yes—Tian Ting."

Gu Yun spoke bluntly. "I've never mentioned this to you before. Fifteen years ago, while attempting to refine the Cicada Molt, Guanri entrusted Mingshan and me with finding another object: Tian Ting."

"What is Tian Ting?"

"Unknown. Like the Cicada Molt, we only know the name, not its true nature. It's said that before our Grandmaster embarked on his distant travels, he declared that to worship longevity, one must seek the Cicada Molt and Tian Ting. Guanri scoured ancient texts and deduced that the Cicada Molt was likely a qi-tonifying medicine. As for Tian Ting... he was preoccupied with alchemy at the time, so he tasked Mingshan and me with the search."

Even Gu Yun shuddered whenever he recalled the events of fifteen years ago.

Back then, Yang Wujian was too young to be of help, so neither Gu Yun nor Mingshan ever told him about the search for Tian Ting.

After all, accepting this mission meant periodically facing the Old Palace Master, who had already abducted hundreds across the martial world by then. He guarded his Alchemy Room, piled high with corpses, day and night—nearly driven mad.

Gu Yun took a sip of cold tea and continued, "Our Grandmaster left fifty years ago. Before Guanri, Longevity Palace had two other masters, both of whom died from Blood Deficiency Syndrome. Rumor has it the Grandmaster left a letter, but since both masters died sudden deaths, its whereabouts are unknown. By the time Guanri inherited the position, all he knew were the names Cicada Molt and Tian Ting, along with the possibility that the fourth chapter of the Longevity Heart Sutra was hidden in the Underground Heaven."

"What?"

Yang Wujian started. "The fourth chapter is in the Underground Heaven? Doesn't that mean the Longevity Heart Sutra is buried beneath the Meat Well? How was this discovered? Another clue left by the Grandmaster?"

Gu Yun shook his head. "In the final years of Northern Xiang, Emperor Xianghui consulted the netherworld, learned his kingdom's fate was doomed, and fled overnight to the Northern Desert, abandoning his sister, Princess Rilie... The netherworld he consulted was none other than the Underground Heaven. Unless chosen by heaven, any ordinary person entering it would die suddenly. Hence, a rumor spread in the Northern Desert that Qingzhu Daoist Priest—the one chosen by heaven—accompanied Emperor Xianghui into the Underground Heaven that day."

Shen Qingshi murmured, "So that's when he hid the final chapter of the Longevity Heart Sutra in the Underground Heaven?"

Gu Yun replied, "The Longevity Heart Sutra originated from the Underground Heaven—how could it be 'hidden' there? It's more that Qingzhu Daoist Priest, after accompanying Emperor Xianghui to consult the netherworld, foresaw the coming chaos. To prevent the sutra from falling into the wrong hands during the turmoil, he chose to temporarily return it to the Underground Heaven.""So that's how it is, no wonder Guanri was so familiar with the locations of the Meat Wells. Not only did he deliberately have Zhou Jinglei relocate next to the Meat Well in Green Bamboo Town, but he also perfectly 'hid' Hu Rui's body beneath the well."

"He must have visited all twelve Meat Wells in Northern Xiang."

Yang Wujian frowned and said, "To worship longevity, one needs the Cicada Molt and Tian Ting. If the Cicada Molt is the Blood Replenishing Pill for breaking through cultivation techniques, then isn't Tian Ting essentially the guiding light to find the final chapter of the Longevity Heart Sutra?"

Gu Yun smiled approvingly: "Exactly. Back then, Guanri assigned the task of finding Tian Ting to Mingshan and me. Initially, what came to mind was the Cage Play you encountered earlier in the Yin House Case."

Shen Qingshi and Yang Wujian both changed expressions: "You mean that heaven-connecting drug?"

"Correct. What the Northern Desert people call Tian Ting is actually the guidance to the Underground Heaven. Apart from directly entering the Underground Heaven to glimpse Tian Ting, if we're talking about unorthodox methods, it would be the heaven-connecting drug they take in the Cage Play."

"What exactly is that drug..."

"Just the shell of a Stone Cicada. Wujian, I recall you mentioning you've seen this substance before in the Immeasurable Manor case."

Gu Yun's next words made the hairs on Yang Wujian's back stand on end.

How could he ever forget about the Stone Cicada?

Shen Qingshi also looked grim: "The Green Rain Sword said that the person who sold him the Stone Cicada told him: 'The Stone Cicada molts flesh internally, glimpses the heavenly way externally'... And after Lu Wenxiu took the black powder ground from the Stone Cicada's shell, he went completely mad."

She and Yang Wujian exchanged glances, both simultaneously realizing that the first person who told them about the Stone Cicada was Song Lan - who was actually Guanri.

Gu Yun said: "At that time, the Old Palace Master had already gone mad from alchemy. Mingshan and I didn't dare delay reporting indefinitely. To buy time, we could only report whatever we found. Guanri had us find this Stone Cicada, knowing that like the Underground Heaven, it also appeared during the natural disasters at the end of the Crimson Gold era. We didn't know what exactly Guanri did back then, only that a few days later he declared that the Stone Cicada wasn't Tian Ting and told us to keep searching."

Though Gu Yun's account was vague, Yang Wujian suddenly remembered what he saw that day in the Alchemy Room - those female corpses with open eyes, neither decaying nor rotting - and instantly understood.

The Stone Cicada was stone outside but insect inside. The stone drove people mad, while the insect drained people's vital energy and blood, making the corpses deathless and incorruptible, hard as stone.

And Guanri had used those Flesh Conduits for experimentation.

"Beast..."

Yang Wujian couldn't imagine what exactly happened in the Alchemy Room that day, and could only feel grateful that Shen Qingshi ultimately didn't become one of those corpses.

Gu Yun smiled bitterly: "By then, several of the Ten Elders had already died in battle. Guanri spent every day either killing people or processing those Flesh Conduits in the Alchemy Room. Mingshan and I were both terrified of him, not daring to disobey his orders, so we had to keep searching. And eventually, I actually found some clues."

As he spoke, Gu Yun rummaged through the Alchemy Room and produced a letter, handing it to Yang Wujian and gesturing for him to open it.

Yang Wujian unfolded the slightly aged letter paper and found only a simple sentence:

"I have cast the Death Hex upon myself. Come find me at the Aconite Kiln in fifteen years."

"Tian Ting?"

Yang Wujian stared wide-eyed at the signature: "This is a letter from Tian Ting to you? He found you?"Gu Yun nodded: "Correct. One day while I was inquiring about Tian Ting's whereabouts in a marketplace, a beggar suddenly handed this letter to me."

However, Shen Qingshi couldn't help feeling strange as she looked at the letter in Yang Wujian's hand.

The Longevity Palace was located underground, where even wooden beds would rot, let alone these few thin sheets of paper?

Yang Wujian, however, didn't dwell on this. He frowned and asked, "Who is this Tian Ting? He says he cast a divination for himself - is he a fortune teller?"

Gu Yun nodded: "Exactly. Because the authenticity of this letter was hard to verify, and I couldn't find the messenger, I had to inquire everywhere. I spent nearly half a month trying to learn what the Aconite Kiln was and who Tian Ting might be. Eventually, I discovered there indeed was a fortune teller named Tian Ting, but he didn't tell fortunes for people - he told fortunes for mines."

"For mines?"

"Correct. It's said Tian Ting was once a miner, but all four of his limbs were crippled in a rock collapse. After surviving for several days in the mine shaft, he gained the ability to discern gold and silver and predict life and death. Just by having him carried to a mining area, he could tell at a glance what minerals lay beneath and whether disasters would occur in the mines."

"A miner..."

Yang Wujian couldn't help but think of the Meat Well excavated by Emperor Beixiang.

The Meat Well itself was also a mine shaft. If the Longevity Heart Sutra was hidden underground, then if Tian Ting was a mine reader, everything would make sense.

After all, there were twelve Meat Wells alone - they needed to know under which one the Longevity Heart Sutra was buried.

Shen Qingshi asked, "Did you look for him afterward? The name 'Aconite Kiln' also sounds like a mining site."

Gu Yun shook her head: "His whereabouts remain mysterious. Because of his ability to detect precious metals, the court feared private mining would run rampant and placed a heavy bounty on him, but nothing came of it for years. I also inquired about the Aconite Kiln, but no one had ever heard of such a place..."

"Then this matter..."

"Later, Ming Shan and I discussed whether to report this to Guanri. After all, we both knew that blindly obeying Guanri would only drive him deeper into madness. In the end, we decided to temporarily conceal the matter and delay reporting it. Another half month passed like this, and then you, Wu Jian, helped Miss Shen escape from the alchemy chamber..."

Gu Yun smiled bitterly and drained her cup of tea in one gulp.

Yang Wujian said softly, "So even before that incident happened, you and Ming Shan had already..."

Gu Yun looked at him, as if revealing this long-hidden secret had lifted some weight from her shoulders. She continued, "Back then, Ming Shan and I were constantly worried about your safety. Every time I went out searching for clues about Tian Ting, I feared returning to find that Guanri had thrown you into the furnace. But at that time, even if Ming Shan and I joined forces, we might not have been a match for Guanri. If he and Baihe hadn't been ambushed during those final days, draining their inner energy, we would likely have both died at his hands when we made our move."

She stood up and added the final two medicinal ingredients to the Medicine Furnace, sighing, "I suspect he might have guessed that Ming Shan and I were withholding information... Wu Jian, as you mentioned earlier, Guanri wanted to force Ming Shan and me to compromise - he could only be after this."

So it seemed Guanri's true objective was indeed the Longevity Heart Sutra.

Yang Wujian thought back to how Guanri had repeatedly interfered during their journey. His ambiguous attitude toward Shen Qingshi, even having the Ghost Market intervene to protect them from the Zhaoming Division - this could only mean Shen Qingshi still held value to him.However, why didn't he simply abduct Shen Qingshi?

Yang Wujian couldn't help but voice his confusion. Unexpectedly, Gu Yun merely gave him a profound look, sending a chill down Yang Wujian's spine. Meanwhile, Shen Qingshi calmly provided the answer herself.

"He must still be waiting for me to develop a death wish, right?"

Shen Qingshi said indifferently, "His disguise as Song Lan was precisely for this purpose."

What kind of medicine could be so sinister that it required the voluntary death of its catalyst to be completed?

Yang Wujian gritted his teeth and suddenly grabbed Shen Qingshi's hand: "We absolutely cannot let him succeed! Gu Yun, I think it's best to temporarily refrain from detoxifying her. Maintaining the current state might actually deter Guanri from targeting her."

"Oh? So Miss Shen should remain in this muddled state forever—can you accept that?"

Gu Yun's tone was teasing. Before Shen Qingshi could grasp his meaning, Yang Wujian sighed helplessly, "Let's focus on more immediate matters. Guanri believes you know Tian Ting's whereabouts and intends to use the martial world as a pawn to force you and Mingshan into submission. There's no way around this unless..."

"Unless we find Tian Ting first and then locate the fourth chapter of the Longevity Heart Sutra."

Gu Yun stated bluntly, "Guanri sees human lives as worthless in his pursuit of immortality. We must never let the Longevity Heart Sutra fall into his hands... Wu Jian, you understand what I mean, don't you?"