Chapter 64: Refining the Grotto-Heaven, Forging the Golden Portal

Chen Lingxi still wore his Ghost Face Mask, keeping his true face hidden.

Yet Lin Suri had called out his name with absolute certainty, without a trace of guesswork.

The voice drifted down from the roof ridge and into Chen Lingxi's ears.

Chen Lingxi remained seated among the ruined walls, his right hand resting on his saber hilt.

Lin Suri's dark brocade robes fluttered gently in the night wind as he stared down at Chen Lingxi.

Chen Lingxi did not answer.

The Ghost Face Mask covered his visage, its green-faced, fanged patterns gleaming with a cold light beneath the moon. The shadows of the fangs fell across his jaw, rendering the contours of his lower face even colder and harder.

Lin Suri did not speak again either.

The two of them remained locked in this standoff.

One stood atop the roof ridge with his hands behind his back, his robes snapping in the wind.

The other sat before a ruined house, his back perfectly straight, his hand resting motionless on his blade.

Only the sound of the wind remained in Liujie Alley.

The nine-zhang-tall willow tree stood not far away, its countless branches swaying gently in the night breeze.

After a few breaths, Lin Suri narrowed his eyes and finally spoke.

"I can see through your mask, but I cannot see through your cultivation."

Lin Suri paused, a faint light flashing in his eyes.

"I originally thought you were a cultivator at Qi Circulation 5th Floor, at the very least."

"But you were completely oblivious to my presence trailing you, even when I deliberately exposed a few flaws."

Chen Lingxi's pupils contracted slightly.

He truly had not noticed.

He had concealed his presence and walked cautiously the entire way, completely unaware that someone had been tailing him all along.

"Until you traded with Venerable Cauldron," Lin Suri's voice drifted down again, his gaze sharpening. "When Venerable Cauldron called out your cultivation, I finally realized you were only at Qi Circulation 3rd Floor."

At those words, the air in the alley abruptly chilled.

Chen Lingxi fell silent for a moment before speaking. "Why didn't Young Master Lin strike while I was trading with Venerable Cauldron? If you had made a move then, you could have kept the Time Candle."

Lin Suri's expression remained neutral as he gave a slight shake of his head.

"The power of a cauldron vessel—if not mastered by oneself, but merely borrowed through a fragment—will eventually bring a cauldron calamity upon the user's head."

As he spoke, moonlight slipped through a gap in the clouds and washed over him, gilding his dark brocade robes with a pale silver luster. From a distance, he looked like a jade-carved deity standing upon the roof ridge, his robes snapping in the wind, ethereal as an immortal.

"By keeping the Time Candle, I allowed it to constantly tempt me, shaking my Dao heart. It made me want to trade with him, tempting me to willingly offer up my lifespan just to nourish the master of the Time Candle cauldron vessel in the Great World."

"Now that you have traded with Venerable Cauldron and exhausted the last remaining power of the Time Candle, it is actually for the best.

From here on out, the master of the Time Candle can no longer siphon lifespan from me."

As he said this, the gaze he leveled at Chen Lingxi grew a bit more probing.

"Chen Lingxi, a mere official bondservant of my Baosu Marquis Residence, yet proficient in the arts of concealment. You managed to hide your presence from me despite only being at Qi Circulation 3rd Floor, and you seem intimately familiar with many of my secrets..."

His deep eyes suddenly shone with a divine light that pierced straight toward Chen Lingxi, as if trying to see completely through him from head to toe.

"Chen Lingxi."

Lin Suri called out his name once more.

Then, he asked softly, "Do you come from the Southern Heaven Region? The Two Sages Palace? Or perhaps the Realm of Nothingness?"

Chen Lingxi did not answer immediately.

The Ghost Face Mask covered his face, hiding whatever expression he wore.

After a few breaths, he slowly rose to his feet and looked up at Lin Suri on the roof ridge.

His movements were incredibly unhurried.

Two bright mirror-like moons hung high in the sky, their golden and silver light reflecting off one another.

A hint of a smile suddenly appeared on Chen Lingxi's face.

The smile was visible just beneath the lower edge of the Ghost Face Mask. Though only the slight upward curve of his lips could be seen, it was enough to convey his absolute composure.

"Wu Mohe once told me that the myriad living beings of this world will all inevitably die."

"Brother Lin, is that truly the case?"

Instead of answering, Chen Lingxi posed a question of his own.

Lin Suri's brow twitched slightly.

He clearly had not expected this official bondservant—whose cover he had just blown and whose cultivation was only at Qi Circulation 3rd Floor—to show zero panic and instead toss back such a question.

He fell silent for a breath, then gave a slight nod.

"Yes."

Just one word.

Chen Lingxi asked again, "Does Fellow Daoist know how the living beings of this grotto-heaven will meet their end?"

Lin Suri furrowed his brow.

A flicker of confusion passed through his eyes.

He stood atop the roof ridge with his hands behind his back, remaining silent.

Chen Lingxi chuckled. "If Daoist Brother is willing to clear up my confusion, I will tell you where I come from."

Bathed in the moonlight, Lin Suri radiated a daunting aura. His robes rippled despite the still air. After a full two or three breaths, he asked, "Which minor sect do you hail from? Which minor clan? Has your faction never claimed a grotto-heaven or a secret realm for themselves?"

"Between heaven and earth, there are countless grotto-heavens and secret realms," his tone was perfectly level. "When a sect or clan discovers a new grotto-heaven or secret realm, they naturally make full use of it."

Chen Lingxi asked, "Then—how exactly will this grotto-heaven be put to use?"

Lin Suri spoke with icy indifference, as if discussing something that had nothing to do with him at all. "This grotto-heaven already belongs to the Xi Family of Que Star."

"The Patriarch of the Xi Family is a true monarch who rules over Que-Ten Star and wields the cauldron vessel known as the Realm-Refining Furnace."

He paused before continuing, "This grotto-heaven is going to be refined into that furnace by the Xi Family true monarch. He will use the complete karmic fire of this grotto-heaven to forge the Great Profound Golden Portal for his clan's most outstanding disciple, Xi Hengsu."

Forging the Great Profound Golden Portal.

These words slipped from Lin Suri's mouth without the slightest shift in his tone.

But to Chen Lingxi's ears, it felt as though someone had struck a thousand-jin bronze bell straight inside his skull. The heavy, deafening toll reverberated endlessly through his mind.

He drew in a long, deep breath.

The biting night winds of early winter filled his lungs, chilling his chest and finally helping to quiet the ringing in his head.

He found himself silently repeating the words in his mind—

True monarch.

Refined into the furnace.

Forging the Great Profound Golden Portal.

These words were completely unfamiliar to him.

Yet they were chillingly real!

Was the power of a true monarch truly this terrifying?

A grotto-heaven was unimaginably vast.

This world contained Great Li, Great Zhou, and dozens of smaller nations. It held rivers, lakes, seas, towering mountains, and sprawling deserts. It boasted thousands of cities and countless villages, with untold numbers of living beings who thrived here, working from sunrise to sunset.

Yet in the eyes of this Xi Family true monarch—

This was nothing more than a grotto-heaven to be tossed into a furnace!

It was nothing more than a pile of cultivation resources used to forge a Golden Portal for a clan disciple!

Roughly a billion living beings—hundreds of millions of lives—were nothing more than a handful of firewood for the furnace. They would be casually burned to ash and transformed into karmic fire to forge a Golden Portal, all to pave the way for a genius named Xi Hengsu.

Chen Lingxi lowered his head, his gaze darkening.

Lin Suri furrowed his brow.

He kept his eyes fixed on Chen Lingxi, waiting for him to speak.

Chen Lingxi remained silent for a long time before finally lifting his head.

He met Lin Suri's gaze head-on.

"Fellow Daoist guessed that I came from the Southern Heaven Region, the Two Sages Palace, the Realm of Nothingness, or perhaps some minor sect or clan..."

"But the truth is entirely different."

The night wind howled through the alley, snapping the hem of Chen Lingxi's black robes. It rattled the copper clasps on his saber scabbard, producing a faint, rhythmic clinking.

"This grotto-heaven will be tossed into the furnace."

"The native beings of this world are utterly irrelevant. They are just specks of dust fated to become cultivation resources."

He tore his gaze away from Lin Suri and looked toward the dilapidated adobe houses beneath the willow tree.

That had been his entire world until he was five years old.

Then he had left. Later, everyone in this alley had died.

And now, everyone in this entire grotto-heaven was going to die.

He drew his gaze back and leveled it on Lin Suri once more.

"But let me tell you this, Fellow Daoist..."

"I did not come from the Great World."

"I am not some high-and-mighty cultivator of the Great World like you."

"I am just a speck of dust native to this very grotto-heaven. I merely stumbled upon a fortuitous encounter and stepped onto the path of Qi Circulation."

Chen Lingxi's words were a soft murmur, as if he were answering Lin Suri and talking to himself all at once.

A look of profound shock finally broke through Lin Suri's previously unshakable composure.

He looked Chen Lingxi up and down for several breaths.

"A native of a Qi-less world..." he said slowly. His tone carried a trace of disbelief, but also a dawning realization. "Yet you have stepped onto the path of Qi Circulation."

"It seems you possess great fortune and profound mysteries of your own."

Chen Lingxi stood tall and straight as a pine, his hand on his saber. "Just as I said before, whether it is the Great World or a minor world, the heavens are filled with countless fortunes and opportunities."

"These fortunes are not the exclusive property of cultivators from the Great World. What does it matter if I have stumbled upon a few myself?"

Lin Suri nodded slightly and pondered for a moment, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes. "If that is the case, how do you know so many of my secrets? Are you a subordinate of Imperial Consort Chun? Did she use mirror divination to help you?"

But no sooner had the question left his mouth than Lin Suri shook his head.

"The power of a cauldron vessel fragment is strictly limited. Every use drains it further, and it is accompanied by cauldron calamity. Why would Imperial Consort Chun waste the power of mirror divination on me? I have never crossed paths with her."

He raised his eyes and looked at Chen Lingxi once more.

"Still... for a native of a Qi-less grotto-heaven to step onto the path of cultivation..."

He broke off, suddenly cupping his fists in a formal salute to Chen Lingxi. "You are more than worthy of being called a Fellow Daoist."

Chen Lingxi was slightly taken aback.

An instant later, Lin Suri straightened his posture.

The moment he did, a blazing radiance erupted in his eyes!

The light surged from the depths of his pupils. It started as a tiny flicker, but in the blink of an eye, it exploded like a wildfire, turning his eyes into a blinding, brilliant gold.

His aura abruptly exploded.

An unimaginable pressure radiated from his body. It felt as if an ancient idol that had slumbered for ten thousand years had suddenly opened its eyes, shining with an intensity that forbade anyone from looking directly at it.

He stood there like a blazing sun, radiating a terrifying pressure.

"However, Fellow Daoist!"

His voice remained completely flat, but it carried an undeniable, absolute finality.

"You know far too many of my secrets. I have no choice but to kill you."

Before his words even faded, a tremendous suction force erupted from his body.

The pull was invisible and intangible, yet so overwhelmingly powerful that it suffocated the air itself.

It felt like an invisible giant hand descending from the heavens, its five fingers spread wide as it clamped down toward Chen Lingxi.

The air in Liujie Alley churned violently, producing a low, howling wail.

Dust, rubble, and shattered pottery lifted from the corners of the alley, caught in the suction force and dragged violently toward Lin Suri.

The force was overwhelmingly tyrannical, descending in an instant.

Chen Lingxi's black robes whipped violently around him. The suction pulled so hard that the edges of his Ghost Face Mask bit deeply into his cheeks.

The saber at his waist buzzed violently in its scabbard, as if it might rip itself free at any second.

Yet he remained rooted in place.

His feet were planted firmly on the bluestone pavement, immovable as a mountain.

His right hand gripped his saber hilt and his back was entirely straight. He stood like an ancient, deeply rooted tree—no matter how fierce the tempest, he would not yield.

Lin Suri furrowed his brow.

He had not expected a cultivator at a mere Qi Circulation 3rd Floor to be able to withstand his pressure.

But what surprised him even more was the look in Chen Lingxi's eyes.

The eyes visible through the holes of the Ghost Face Mask were completely and utterly serene.

It was the look of a man who had predicted this exact situation from the very beginning, and was simply waiting for the inevitable to arrive.

"This man..." Lin Suri's thoughts stirred.

But before that thought could fully form—

Chen Lingxi suddenly opened his mouth.

A streak of purple light shot from his lips.

"Purple True Precious Qi?" Lin Suri was stunned!

The purple light was as fine as a cow's hair as it slipped past Chen Lingxi's teeth.

And then...

To Lin Suri's absolute shock, the purple Qi did not shoot toward him.

Instead, it whipped around and pierced straight into the center of Chen Lingxi's own forehead.

Thwip.

A faint, incredibly soft sound echoed through the alley!

Lin Suri's pupils contracted violently.

The terrifying suction radiating from his body vanished in an instant. The dust, rubble, and dead weeds dancing through the air fell back to the earth, clattering harmlessly against the stone.

He stood upon the roof ridge, staring down at the black-robed, ghost-masked figure below. His face was a mask of sheer astonishment.

—

Meanwhile, before Chen Lingxi's eyes, the moment the purple light pierced his forehead, the entire world shattered like glass.

His perspective shifted, and he found himself looking down upon the Divine Chamber!

Within the Divine Chamber, streams of boundless information flowed past.

"Steal the spiritual awareness of heaven and earth. Plunder the spiritual essence of past and present."

A line of text slowly drifted through the void, shimmering with a brilliant golden light that dyed the surrounding mist a pale gold.

Then, the phantoms of three distinct objects materialized one by one.

A Qi-Gathering Pill.

An Undying Willow Leaf.

An Undying Willow Twig.

"Of the three items obtained from the Divine Chamber, you may take only one."

Chen Lingxi barely hesitated.

He focused his consciousness on the Undying Willow Twig.

The twig gave a faint tremble, twitching as if it were a living creature.

In the next instant, the phantoms of the other two items popped like bubbles. They dissolved back into the mist, vanishing without a trace.

The void distorted once more.

Light and shadow inverted, and the world flipped upside down.

When Chen Lingxi opened his eyes again—

The twin mirror-like moons had vanished from the sky.

The dark night had somehow given way to broad daylight.

Chen Lingxi drew in a deep breath.

The clear, biting chill of the morning air filled his lungs, pulling him completely out of the lingering afterglow of his Thorough Awakening.

Yet Lin Suri's words continued to echo through his mind.

"This grotto-heaven already belongs to the Xi Family of Que Star."

"The Patriarch of the Xi Family is a true monarch who rules over Que-Ten Star and wields the cauldron vessel known as the Realm-Refining Furnace."

"This grotto-heaven is going to be refined into that furnace by the Xi Family true monarch. He will use the complete karmic fire of this grotto-heaven to forge the Golden Portal for his clan's most outstanding disciple, Xi Hengsu."

He closed his eyes and turned those sentences over and over in his mind.

"The power of a true monarch is great enough to actually refine a grotto-heaven."

He muttered softly to himself.

To reduce a billion living beings to karmic fire.

To forge a Golden Portal for a single disciple...

Chen Lingxi furrowed his brow. He could not help but feel that the mere thoughts of such a true monarch were akin to a natural disaster.

In the face of a heavenly calamity, not only would life be eradicated, but the world itself would be wiped from existence.

Human strength has its limits. When a deluge pours from the heavens, when the mountains crash down upon your head, what can one mortal man possibly do?

Nothing at all.

He closed his eyes and pondered in silence for a long time.

Finally, Chen Lingxi exhaled a long breath of stale air.

"Since it is a heavenly disaster, it is far beyond my ability to influence."

He opened his eyes, his gaze turning clear once more.

"Only by raising my cultivation can I find a chance to break this tribulation."

"Regardless, my gains from this Thorough Awakening were tremendous."

He sank his consciousness back into the Divine Chamber.

Within the void, the Undying Willow twig hung suspended amidst the mist. It was a vibrant, dripping green, warm to the touch, and as pliant as silk.

Sensing the twig's presence, he closed his eyes and recalled the blood and Qi circulation methods for the final three forms of the Seven Forms of Halting War.

Severing Jade, Unifying Qi, Halting War. The Seven Forms of Halting War were now whole, offering a direct path to the perfection of Nine Revolutions!

A genuine smile finally curled the corners of Chen Lingxi's lips.

He pushed the door open and stepped outside, making his way back to Liujie Alley until he arrived before the Undying Willow.

The nine-zhang-tall trunk of the willow tree was knotted and twisted like a dragon. The bark on the two-chi-thick main trunk was heavily fissured, layered with deep cracks that resembled the patterns on a tortoise shell.

Countless branches cascaded down, swaying gently in the morning breeze.

Chen Lingxi reached out and placed his hand against the Undying Willow.

An Undying Willow Leaf drifted down into his palm.

Then, a willow twig and a willow branch lowered themselves toward him.

Chen Lingxi did not hesitate.

He reached out and grasped the bare branch.

The branch felt rough and dry to the touch, like a piece of wood that had been dead for a very long time. It possessed none of the warm, pliant texture of the willow twig.

But the moment his fingers closed around the branch, a surge of information flooded into his mind.

"Undying Willow Branch. Place within the mouth of a corpse to refine them into an Undying Willow Puppet."

An Undying Willow Puppet?

Chen Lingxi's smile deepened as he stowed the Undying Willow Branch into his Cosmos Bag.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the canopy and dappled across his face. He tilted his head slightly, peering toward the direction of Cuojin Mountain.

"Three days from now, I will go claim the Qi-Gathering Pill."

"I will consume the pill, circulate my Qi, and climb to the next floor."