A Guide to Self-Rescue in the Cultivation World - chapter 15

The night was thick, like ink that wouldn’t dissolve, pressing down heavily on the dilapidated peak of the Path to Immortality Sect.

Zhou Suyao was curled up on her cold bed, her eyes wide open.

Outside, the wind sobbed, sweeping through the bamboo grove with a rustling sound. But it was Eldest Senior Brother’s cold, pure golden pupils that haunted her mind, imprinted like a brand.

Not an illusion. Not a spiritual power imbalance.

It was.

Absolute indifference.

She turned over, burying her face deep into the rough cotton pillow, which carried a faint scent of soap, trying to block out the omnipresent golden light, trying to block out the chill that could freeze a soul.

What should she do? Question him? Flee? Or… continue to pretend she knew nothing?

In this moment of turmoil, the simple wooden door of her small hut let out an extremely faint, unannounced “creak.”

It wasn’t the wind.

Zhou Suyao tensed up, instantly holding her breath, every sense stretched to the extreme.

Like a startled wild animal, she sprang up from the bed, her fingers subconsciously forming a defensive spell seal. A weak spiritual light flashed in the darkness.

Looking ahead, a tall, straight figure stood silently in the doorway, like a phantom merged with the night.

The moonlight grudgingly outlined only half his silhouette. His dark, fitted clothes almost dissolved into the blackness. Only the golden Qilin embroidered on his shoulder with gold thread, lacking only the eyes, reflected a cold, hard glimmer in the extremely faint light.

Qi Jie.

Why was he here?

And on such a cold, dew-laden night?

Zhou Suyao’s heart instantly raced. For a moment, she forgot how to speak, simply staring at the vague figure in the doorway with confusion and intense wariness.

Qi Jie, however, seemed oblivious to her caution. He reversed his hand, lightly and soundlessly closing the old wooden door, completely sealing off the sobbing wind and any possibility of prying eyes outside.

The narrow space was immediately enveloped in a deeper silence, broken only by their strained breathing.

“Did I wake you?” Qi Jie’s voice sounded, still possessing that characteristic cold quality, like icy spring water hitting jade. It was exceptionally clear in the silent night, though devoid of any apology.

He took one step forward but didn’t approach the bed. He simply leaned against the wall by the door. His posture looked relaxed, but Zhou Suyao could feel the coiled tension in every muscle of his body.

“Young Master Qi,” Zhou Suyao finally found her voice, dry and raspy. “Intruding on a lady’s room in the dead of night, aren’t you worried I might not restrain myself, scream and call someone, and ruin your reputation for life?”

She forced herself to be calm, her nails digging deep into her palm. Too many things had been chaotic lately, and Qi Jie was an uninvited guest carrying an unknown storm.

Qi Jie’s gaze found her precisely in the darkness. “Urgent times call for urgent measures. Besides, based on your performance in the Underworld, you wouldn’t call anyone; you’d just try to kill me.”

Then, he cut straight to the point, his tone completely flat. “Xuan Yangming didn’t die.“

The five short words exploded in Zhou Suyao’s ears like a thunderclap.

“What?” she gasped.

The image of Xuan Yangming detonating his inner core on the altar instantly became clear, followed by the suspicion infused with the resentment of countless demons. “How is that possible?! Didn’t the RaoTian Dao say… they would deal with him…?”

“He abandoned that decaying body and most of his cultivation,” Qi Jie’s voice coldly cut her off, as if stating an irrelevant fact. “But a wisp of his remnant soul, wrapped in the final core evil energy escaping the Three-Path Meridian Flower, escaped.”

A chill shot up Zhou Suyao’s spine.

An old monster like Xuan Yangming, as long as a single wisp of his soul survived, was an endless threat, like a maggot in the bone.

She urgently pressed him: “Where did he flee to? Didn’t the RaoTian Dao lock him up? How could he…”

She abruptly stopped, a terrifying thought surfacing. “Did you deliberately let him go?”

Qi Jie was silent for a moment. In the darkness, Zhou Suyao couldn’t see his eyes. “No.”

He spoke slowly, his voice deepening with an unprecedented gravity. “The RaoTian Dao’s Soul Locking Prison could trap his body, but not the last bit of evil intent that shares the same source as the Meridian Flower. The direction he fled to…” He paused, seemingly choosing his words carefully, or perhaps confirming a crucial piece of information. “…points to the Imperial Capital of the Human Realm.”

“The Imperial Capital?” Zhou Suyao was stunned. This answer was completely unexpected. “What would he do in the Imperial Capital? Could it be…”

She suddenly remembered Xuan Yangming’s insane declaration on the altar—to unify the Three Paths.

A horrifying realization gripped her.

“Perhaps,” Qi Jie confirmed, his voice sinking even lower, like a whisper, yet every word carried immense weight. “The new Human Emperor has been on the throne for a short time; his foundation is unstable, and the court is rife with undercurrents. Xuan Yangming… may have planted spies in the Human Realm’s Imperial Palace long ago. His current target is very likely that young Imperial Majesty.”

Zhou Suyao gasped, feeling her bl00d turn to ice.

She had considered many possibilities, but never realized Xuan Yangming’s ambition was this vast!

If he succeeded in controlling or replacing the Emperor with dark arts, the Human Dao’s fate and its Dragon Vein would inevitably be twisted by him, causing unimaginable conflict and distortion with the Heavenly Dao and the Spiritual Dao.

The imbalance of the Three Paths would lead to chaos across the land.

The candlelight flickered in Qi Jie’s bottomless pupils, casting abyssal shadows, as if reflecting the coming catastrophe. “He needs the Human Emperor’s Fate Dragon Vein as the final stepping stone for his re-refinement of the Three Paths and his ascent to ‘True God.'”

A stepping stone… always a stepping stone! Ning Qinggui was one, Ming Luo was one, she, Zhou Suyao, was one, and now even the supreme ruler of the Human Realm was merely a tool in his eyes to achieve his ambition!

Extreme rage and frigid cold intertwined, rushing to her head. Zhou Suyao’s body couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

“So,” she forced herself to be calm, her voice sharp with tension. “You came here in the middle of the night to tell me that Xuan Yangming has gone to plague the Human Emperor? What does that have to do with my Path to Immortality Sect, or with me, Zhou Suyao? Your RaoTian Dao is massive, with experts everywhere. Can’t you deal with an old ghost who’s just a remnant soul?”

Her words were laced with obvious sarcasm and distance. Eldest Senior Brother’s secret weighed heavily on her heart, filling her with distrust toward everyone.

Qi Jie did not take offense at her challenge. He simply watched her quietly, his gaze so sharp it seemed to penetrate her forced indifference.

His voice remained steady: “The Three-Path Meridian Flower ultimately went out of control because of your bl00d and soul. Although Xuan Yangming fled, the hidden connection between that flower and you has not been completely severed. Therefore, I believe Xuan Yangming’s actions in the Imperial Capital could eventually reactivate the residual power of the flower. When that happens, you, as the former core ‘vessel,’ will inevitably be affected, and may even become his anchor point for locating and drawing power again.”

“Furthermore, the major figures in the RaoTian Dao don’t want to get involved in this matter.”

An anchor point…

Zhou Suyao’s face instantly went pale. The painful memory of being inverted and drained on the altar, of having the resentment of ten thousand demons forcibly poured into her, rushed back like a tidal wave, turning her stomach. She bit down hard on her lower lip, tasting faint bl00d.

“In addition,” Qi Jie’s gaze swept over her paper-white face. His tone was still flat, yet strangely contained a hint of indiscernible… emotion.

“Xuan Yangming has been dormant for a century, and his goal is immense. His entanglement with certain individuals in the Xincong Sect may even trace back further. The Imperial Palace of the Human Realm is a deeper, murkier pool than you imagine. The RaoTian Dao alone might not be able to strike successfully and eradicate him. I need you to help me.”

“I don’t know!” she almost shrieked, her voice jarringly loud in the small space, trembling on the edge of collapse. “I don’t know anything about Xuan Yangming! Go ask him yourselves! Don’t come asking me!”

She was like a small animal driven into a corner, raising all its quills.

Qi Jie frowned slightly, apparently not expecting such a fierce reaction. He looked at the fear, anger, and profound confusion swirling in Zhou Suyao’s eyes and remained silent for a moment. Just as the suffocating standoff continued.

“Buzz.!!!”

An extremely sudden, ear-splitting screeching sound erupted, instantly tearing through the silence of the hut.

The sound came from a jade pendant hanging on Qi Jie’s waist. The pendant, normally warm and subtle, suddenly glowed with a scorching red light, like ice thrown onto a red-hot iron.

The red light flickered frantically, bathing the dim hut in a bloody hue, full of ominous portents.

Qi Jie’s face changed drastically.

He reached out to press the restless pendant, channeling spiritual power to try and suppress it, but the red light didn’t diminish. Instead, it grew more violent, practically trying to break free from the jade’s constraint.

Just as the red light reached its peak, a man’s sharp, desperate scream suddenly burst from the pendant, harshly colliding with Zhou Suyao’s and Qi Jie’s eardrums.

“Qi Shuo Bei—! Ming Luo has been captured by Xuan Yangming and taken into the Imperial Palace…! We don’t know if he’s alive!”

It was Qi Shuo Bei’s voice.

The sound abruptly cut off, as if strangled by an invisible hand, leaving only a bone-chilling echo lingering in the bl00d-red room.

The red light on the pendant, like a spent force after the scream ended, suddenly extinguished, turning into a dull, colorless stone that slid from Qi Jie’s waist and fell onto the cold ground with a clatter.

Silence.

A deeper, thicker silence than before once more enveloped the hut. Only the desperate “Ming Luo” and the vague “Imperial Palace” continued to ring wildly in their ears, every word steeped in despair.

Zhou Suyao froze, her entire body’s bl00d seemingly drained the moment she heard the plea, leaving only an icy chill. She stared at the cracked jade pendant on the floor, then snapped her head up to look at Qi Jie.

Qi Jie remained motionless, maintaining the posture of pressing down. His head was lowered, most of his face hidden in the heavy shadow cast by the doorframe. His expression was impossible to read.

But Zhou Suyao clearly saw that his hand, which was pressed in the air, was clenched so tightly that his knuckles were dead white, trembling slightly, uncontrollably.

A violent, terrifying aura was slowly seeping out of his body. The temperature in the hut plummeted, the air seeming to solidify into heavy splinters of ice.

Xuan Yangming!

Qi Shuo Bei’s final, broken plea not only confirmed the terrifying news Qi Jie brought but also pushed Xuan Yangming’s madness to the extreme.

He had actually made his move on Ming Luo right now, in the heart of the Human Realm—the Imperial Palace.

“It’s just…”

She thought better of voicing her confusion.

Before her, Qi Jie very slowly retracted his trembling hand. He raised his head, the shadow sliding past his sharply defined jawline.

He didn’t say a single word, just stared intently at Zhou Suyao. But the weight of that gaze was heavier and colder than any roar or accusation, carrying an absolute determination and compulsion.

All her suspicion, resistance, and fear of Eldest Senior Brother’s secret seemed utterly pale and ridiculous in the face of this gaze and Qi Shuo Bei’s abruptly silenced plea.

Zhou Suyao’s lips parted slightly, her throat too dry to make a sound.

She looked into the eyes of Qi Jie, where a consuming fire raged, and saw flashes of the striking “Same Life” seal beneath Ming Luo’s collarbone on the altar, Ning Qinggui’s bl00d-and-tears-stained accusing face, and Xuan Yangming’s withered claw pointing toward the Human Emperor’s throne…

She took a deep breath. Then, meeting Qi Jie’s gaze, she nodded very slowly, yet with absolute resolve.

All hesitation and self-preservation were utterly crushed in that moment.

“Let’s go.” Her voice was hoarse, yet exceptionally clear, carrying a desperate finality. “To the Imperial Capital.“

In the dark, ink-black night of Water Cloud Peak, the cold wind instantly poured in, pressing Zhou Suyao’s thin clothes tightly against her and chilling her to the bone.

She took one last look at her small, humble hut that had provided her with a brief period of peace, then turned away without the slightest lingering attachment. Facing the vast, chaotic expanse, she gritted her teeth and summoned her spiritual power, which was no longer pristine.

Instantly, a deep crimson Qilin Sparrow materialized beneath her feet.

She tapped her toe and stepped onto the sparrow. The small, red avian shadow let out a faint, clear cry, soaring into the all-consuming darkness outside the door, following Qi Jie’s direction, and speeding toward the majestic Imperial City—the symbol of Human Dao order, yet about to become the core of the storm.

The wind howled shrilly in her ears, the icy air cutting across her face like knives. The mountains and rivers beneath her feet blurred into a chaotic, ink-black smear in the darkness.

The Spiritual Dao had finally torn away its last disguise, revealing its menacing fangs.