Chapter 63: The Time Candle Once More

The night in the Baosu Marquis Residence was deeper and quieter than at Qingjiang Villa.

Chen Lingxi was also far more familiar with the residence.

He navigated the paths with practiced ease, soon reaching the perimeter of the southern courtyard.

This was Lin Suri's courtyard. Unlike the rest of the residence, it kept very few servants, and after nightfall, the place was practically deserted.

Only a few wind lanterns were lit in the courtyard. Their dim yellow halos swayed in the night breeze, casting the long, irregular shadows of the corridors across the ground in a shifting dance of light and dark.

Chen Lingxi hid in the shadows, gazing toward the eastern hall from afar.

Its lights were still burning.

"Lin Suri..."

He took a deep breath and stepped forward.

With that step, he ceased hiding his tracks.

He let his boots strike the bluestone paving with a crisp rhythm. His strides were unhurried and composed, like a true general inspecting his camp.

Against the paper windows of the eastern hall, a layer of cyan light abruptly vanished.

Candlelight flared up once more. The warm yellow glow filtered through the cicada-wing gauze, casting a silhouette onto the window.

The shadow sat perfectly still, only tilting its head slightly as if listening to the movement outside.

Chen Lingxi stopped before the main room of the eastern hall, coming to a halt beneath a parasol tree.

Standing beneath it with his hands clasped behind his back, he looked up at the tightly shut doors in absolute silence.

A few breaths later, the doors opened without a sound.

Lin Suri stepped out.

He wore a dark brocade robe with a jade belt clasped around his waist. His hair crown was immaculate, not a single strand out of place.

Standing just inside the threshold with his hands behind his back, Lin Suri's gaze fell upon the black-robed, ghost-masked figure beneath the tree. There was no surprise in his eyes, nor any wariness—only a profound calm.

They stared at each other, separated by a mere dozen paces.

Wind swept into the courtyard, fluttering the hem of Lin Suri's robe and making the shadows of the fangs on Chen Lingxi's ghost mask dance.

Lin Suri spoke first. "General Zhiling?"

His tone was flat, his cadence unhurried.

Chen Lingxi's heart stirred.

He didn't need to guess; Wang Chu must have passed on that title.

Steeling himself, he skipped the pleasantries. "I have come to make a trade with you, Young Marquis."

Lin Suri watched him in silence, merely lifting his chin to signal him to continue.

"I acquired three Qi-Gathering Pills from Wu Mohe." Chen Lingxi took out the wooden box and cracked the lid just enough for the medicinal fragrance to drift out. "I offer them to the Young Marquis in exchange for two things."

"Which two?" Lin Suri asked.

"First, the cultivation technique for the Six Qi True Art," Chen Lingxi said bluntly. "Second, I need one use of the Time Candle fragment."

Lin Suri's eyes flickered.

A few breaths later, he asked, "The academy possesses a vast sea of techniques. How did you know I had the Six Qi True Art? And how did you know I held a Vessel fragment of the Time Candle?"

Chen Lingxi's expression remained unchanged. "Between the grand heaven and earth and the lesser realms, there are countless bizarre individuals and rare methods. Why must the Young Marquis dwell on such minor details?"

Lin Suri stared at him for a moment before continuing, "Are you one of Imperial Consort Chun's people?"

Imperial Consort Chun.

Hearing that title made Chen Lingxi's heart skip a beat.

Why would Lin Suri connect him to her?

Remaining impassive, he smoothly steered the conversation elsewhere. "Your supply of Spiritual Amber is nearly exhausted, and the two pills you traded from Wu Mohe won't be enough to sustain your cultivation at the Qi Circulation 6th Floor. It just so happens I have Qi-Gathering Pills to act as fuel for your progress."

At those words, Lin Suri's pupils constricted.

He fell silent for a few breaths before finally saying, "The Six Qi True Art is a secret inheritance of the Chipuo Courtyard. I cannot give it to you."

Chen Lingxi didn't rush to reply. He merely waited in silence.

"The Time Candle, however, can be granted to you," Lin Suri added, "in exchange for... two Qi-Gathering Pills."

Two?

Lin Suri wasn't too greedy after all.

"Acceptable," Chen Lingxi said.

He removed one pill from the box, then flicked his fingers through the air, sending the wooden box and its two remaining pills gliding toward Lin Suri.

The box traced a smooth arc through the air, landing securely in Lin Suri's open palm.

"You are very confident," Lin Suri remarked casually, looking at the pills.

An unhurried smile flashed in Chen Lingxi's eyes. "The Young Marquis aims to seize the Ancestral Mountain spiritual aperture, even going so far as to join forces with that cultivator from the Chiyun Relay Station. At such a critical juncture, why would you kill me for nothing and make another enemy?"

"Furthermore..."

As he spoke, radiant starlight suddenly erupted from Chen Lingxi's body. His aura surged upward, instantly lending him a commanding, majestic presence!

"Furthermore... the Young Marquis cannot kill me."

Lin Suri narrowed his eyes and turned back into the room.

A few breaths later, he emerged from the eastern hall, holding a stub of a pitch-black candle.

It was the Time Candle.

"The Vessel's mighty power upon this Time Candle fragment is nearly exhausted," Lin Suri said. "It can sustain at most one more transaction. After this, the Vessel fragment will return to heaven and earth, and the Time Candle will cease to exist."

Return to heaven and earth?

Surprised, Chen Lingxi took the Time Candle and immediately turned away.

His steps remained steady and grounded, his spine ramrod straight, walking away just as calmly as he had arrived.

He crossed the main courtyard's threshold and quietly slipped out of the Baosu Marquis Residence.

It wasn't until he was far away, reaching Liujie Alley, that a thin layer of cold sweat finally broke out across his back.

Chen Lingxi looked back and scanned his surroundings. The night was dead quiet, and nothing was out of place.

Lin Suri seems tranquil, but his aura is like an abyss. Standing there, he felt like a high-hanging crescent moon, completely out of reach.

Thankfully, I had Wu Mohe and the matters at Cuojin Mountain as cover. He didn't suspect me.

Pondering this, Chen Lingxi wound his way through several streets and alleys, ensuring no one was tailing him, before finally turning into Liujie Alley. He entered the dilapidated old house he had lived in as a child and sat cross-legged on the floor.

The room was coated in dust, its pillars and beams rotting away. Cobwebs hung thick in the corners. A rat scurried past his feet and vanished into a hole in the wall.

Taking the Time Candle from his robes, he cupped it in both hands and calmed his breathing.

The strand of cyan qi in his dantian slowly circulated, channeling directly into the Time Candle.

The instant his spiritual qi entered the wax, the candle flared to life.

A blood-red ghostly light rippled out from the wick. At first, it was merely the size of a pinprick, but it soon slowly widened like a vertical pupil opening. The crimson light washed out like a tidal wave, instantly flooding the entire ruined house.

"Candle shadows sway through time, an inch of ash trades mountains and rivers. A wisp of cyan smoke fades away, a millennial song of white bones."

The ancient chant exploded in his mind.

Forcing his mind to steady, he bowed before the vertical pupil.

The pupil stared at Chen Lingxi. A few breaths later, the Venerable Cauldron spoke.

"A Qi Circulation 3rd Floor cultivator."

"Lifespan..." The vertical pupil narrowed slightly. "Sixty-eight years remaining."

It paused, a hint of amusement creeping into its voice. "You summoned me with spiritual qi to strike a bargain. Here lie thousands of treasures and wondrous methods, and endless fortune. As long as you are willing to pay the price, anything can be traded."

Chen Lingxi didn't hesitate, getting straight to the point. "This junior desires the true incantation for Daoxia Academy's Six Qi True Art."

The Venerable Cauldron's vertical pupil slowly slid shut, reopening a few breaths later.

A half-smile surfaced on that patchwork face—the corners of an infant's mouth curled up, the brow of an old man furrowed deeply, and a flash of mockery darted through a middle-aged man's eyes.

"You are at Qi Circulation 3rd Floor." The Venerable Cauldron drew its words out slowly. "Your lifespan is insufficient to trade for the true incantation. The Six Qi True Art is the secret inheritance of Daoxia Academy's Chipuo Courtyard, a method of the Dao Foundation. At your current cultivation of merely Qi Circulation 3rd Floor, even if you wagered your entire lifespan, it would not be enough."

Chen Lingxi fell silent.

He had expected this answer, but he still found it a pity.

Merely the breathing and qi-routing techniques of the Six Qi True Art had allowed him to rise from a dying medicine slave to Qi Circulation 3rd Floor. This alone proved how extraordinary the secret art was.

He pondered for a moment before switching questions. "Then this junior boldly asks: what is the price for the final three forms of the Seven Forms of Halting War?"

This time, the Venerable Cauldron kept its eye closed much longer.

Ghostly light swirled deep within the vertical pupil, and the expressions on that patchwork face shifted constantly, as if searching through impossibly deep memories.

After about a dozen breaths, the Venerable Cauldron suddenly opened its eye. A strange brilliance flared in the vertical pupil.

"The Seven Forms of Halting War."

"Mountain-Pulling, River-Entering, City-Shattering, Sea-Calming, Jade-Breaking, Qi-Converging, Halting War! This martial art leads straight to perfection at the Nine Revolutions of the martial dao."

Chen Lingxi's heart leaped. Straight to perfection at the Nine Revolutions?

This method could actually lead directly to the peak of the sixth realm of the martial dao?

Beyond Nine Revolutions was Entering Profound, and Entering Profound was the absolute pinnacle of the martial dao...

"The price." The Venerable Cauldron paused, light flickering within the vertical pupil. "Thirty years of a Qi Circulation 3rd Floor cultivator's life."

"This junior accepts," Chen Lingxi said without a sliver of hesitation.

The Venerable Cauldron said no more.

The vertical pupil abruptly expanded, and blood-red light erupted like a tidal wave of gore, instantly drowning the ruined house.

The broken walls and crumbling debris were bathed in crimson. The cobwebs on the walls, the dust on the floor, and that dead rat in the corner were all illuminated in agonizing detail.

Chen Lingxi felt an unfathomable wave of spiritual opportunity surge from the void, pouring into the space between his brows like a breached dam.

His head felt as though it were about to split open.

An ocean of information flooded his sea of consciousness. It was as if someone had unrolled a long scroll inside his skull, painted with countless dancing figures, each demonstrating a different martial technique.

The three forms—Jade-Breaking, Qi-Converging, and Halting War—contained a total of twenty-seven variations. The qi and blood circulation methods for every form, and the crucial nodes for releasing and retracting force in every technique, were branded flawlessly into his memory.

When the final image locked itself into his mind, the surge of spiritual energy receded like a retreating tide.

Chen Lingxi was drenched in sweat, gasping for air.

He looked down. The skin on his hands seemed much looser than before, fine wrinkles had gathered at the corners of his eyes, and silver strands now peppered his pitch-black hair.

The loss of thirty years of life had aged him.

Yet, a faint smile graced his lips.

Got it.

Just as he immersed himself in the joy of his harvest, the red light of the Time Candle began to dim.

The vertical pupil slowly slid shut. That patchwork face sank deep into the wax, disappearing without a trace.

The instant the final speck of red light faded, the Time Candle itself dissolved, turning into fine sand that scattered in the wind.

The Vessel fragment had returned to heaven and earth; the Time Candle was no more.

The mighty power of the Vessel fragment will dissipate... but what about the actual Vessel?

He was in the middle of this thought.

Right at that moment, a voice called out into the ruined house.

"Chen Lingxi."

The voice sounded as casual as if calling an ordinary name.

But to Chen Lingxi's ears, those three flat syllables exploded like a thunderclap.

His head snapped up, his gaze piercing through the broken doorway toward Liujie Alley outside.

Someone was standing on the roof ridge across the street.

Moonlight spilled over the figure from behind, throwing his entire face into shadow and obscuring his features.

All that could be seen was a tall, slender silhouette with his hands clasped behind his back, his dark brocade robe snapping fiercely in the night wind.

It was a figure Chen Lingxi couldn't be more familiar with.

The Eldest Young Master of the Baosu Marquis Residence, Lin Suri.