Chapter 88-89: Book Mountain

As it turned out, Chen Luoyan really was a complete greenhorn.

Wang Ping didn't have to put in much effort at all. He easily coaxed a wealth of information out of her, some of which she even offered up completely unprompted.

For instance, the origins of Book Mountain.

"The patriarch of our sect was named Ren Changsheng, bearing the Daoist title Xuanhe," she said. "Five hundred years ago, he was a sword immortal in Shuzhong. His twin demon-subduing swords slaughtered the demonic hordes until they all bowed their heads in submission."

"After cultivating his magic power, the patriarch took pity on the mortals suffering from the demonic path's harassment. Thus, he opened his teachings to the public and established the Book Mountain lineage, taking it upon himself to save the world and aid its people. It wasn't until the sect grew strong, Shuzhong enjoyed peace, and the patriarch's merits and virtues reached perfection that he finally ascended, leaving behind the Book Mountain lineage that has been passed down to this day."

By the end of her explanation, Chen Luoyan looked exceptionally proud.

Seeing this, Wang Ping naturally heaped praise after praise upon Book Mountain. After flattering Chen Luoyan into a dizzy, compliant state, he suddenly asked his real question: "Then what is this 'karmic affinity' all about?"

"Oh, that."

Chen Luoyan answered without thinking, "The patriarch was a master of divination. He knew five hundred years into the past and five hundred years into the future. Therefore, before his ascension, he specifically established three thousand karmic affinities."

"Aside from that, he left behind a prophecy. It stated that within five hundred years, as long as all three thousand karmic affinities were fulfilled, Book Mountain could achieve perfect merit just as he did. Then, the entire sect would ascend to the Cosmic Void Immortal Realm. For this reason, the sect leaders, elders, and disciples of the past five hundred years have all diligently searched for these karmic affinities."

"I see..."

Listening patiently to Chen Luoyan's account, Wang Ping lowered his eyes, but alarm bells were already ringing in his mind. 'Something is wrong. Absolutely, completely wrong!'

'Took pity on the mortals suffering from the demonic path's harassment?'

'Taking it upon himself to save the world and aid its people?'

'Could this really describe a disciple of the Immortal Gate? Without a doubt, Chen Luoyan and these ordinary disciples of Book Mountain were definitely deceived by their patriarch.'

In all fairness, Wang Ping felt that no one understood the Immortal Gate better than he did. Expecting a good person to come from that wretched place? He might as well expect a rooster to lay an egg!

'Leaving behind Book Mountain, along with three thousand karmic affinities to take care of all his disciples, plotting for the entire sect to ascend... What is this? The first to ascend dragging the latecomers up with him?'

'It is definitely a scam!'

'Then the question is—what was Daoist Xuanhe after when he set up such a scam? What did his disciples have that was worth scheming for?'

The answer was too easy to guess.

'Great Shun... this place is the Eight Trigrams Furnace. It is specifically used for artifact forging. What else would someone who left behind a legacy in a place like this be after?'

With that thought in mind, Wang Ping immediately looked at Chen Luoyan. "Forgive me for speaking bluntly, Lady Chen... In your daily cultivation, you disciples of Book Mountain must also need to forge weapons just like secular martial artists, right?"

"That goes without saying."

Chen Luoyan nodded, then quickly emphasized, "But that's because we of Book Mountain are sword cultivators. Don't confuse us with mere martial artists."

"We sword cultivators have always had to refine a natal flying sword to polish our magic power. Our future ability to shatter the boundary and ascend depends entirely on the profound might of our flying swords."

'Uh... how is that any different from martial artists?'

Wang Ping listened carefully, becoming increasingly certain of his guess.

The only difference between these Book Mountain sword cultivators and the martial artists of Great Shun was that they cultivated immortality while the others practiced martial arts, and that they could shatter the boundary and ascend.

However—

'Shattering the boundary and ascending? Looks like pure nonsense to me. They might just ascend right into Daoist Xuanhe's pocket, instantly refined into mere materials!'

But soon, Wang Ping had another thought:

'Wait, since Great Shun Martial Dao only exists for the Immortal Gate to forge magical treasures, why doesn't Great Shun Martial Dao have this concept of ascension?'

'After all, once magical treasures are forged in the Eight Trigrams Furnace, they eventually need to be taken out. Efficiency-wise, wouldn't it be far more convenient to add an ascension step, letting the martial artists of Great Shun refine their divine weapons to perfection and then fly out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace on their own? Yet the Immortal Gate deliberately didn't do that.'

The more Wang Ping thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

'They didn't allow the martial artists of Great Shun to ascend. Instead, they raised a group of immortal cultivators within the Eight Trigrams Furnace and gave them the promise of ascension.'

'Why?'

'Could it be...'

The next second, a flash of insight struck Wang Ping. He dug up a distant memory, a snippet of conversation he had heard right after transmigrating into the Immortal Gate.

"Heaven and Earth Pavilion? Those Immortal Gate parasites are crazy for money, reselling precious sect assets. Who doesn't know their backer is the Divine Weapon Courtyard? With the Eight Trigrams Furnace, forging treasures is as easy as taking a shit, and the costs are practically nonexistent. Yet they sell them at extortionate prices."

Those were Daoist Nun You's exact words.

And this awakened Wang Ping to the truth:

'Daoist Xuanhe went through all the trouble of establishing Book Mountain and spreading his teachings... could it be just to smuggle magical treasures out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace?'

Because martial artists couldn't ascend, ordinary divine weapons and magical treasures couldn't be brought out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

However, Book Mountain had a path to shatter the boundary and ascend, allowing its disciples to take their painstakingly refined natal flying swords out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

'Reselling Immortal Gate assets?'

'Forging treasures as easily as taking a shit?'

'It all matches up! Everything fits perfectly!'

Compared to taking pity on the common people and saving the world, squeezing every last drop of value out of their disciples as human livestock perfectly aligned with Wang Ping's impression of the Immortal Gate.

From this perspective, the so-called ascension of the entire sect was probably not a good thing either.

Thinking up to this point, Wang Ping looked at Chen Luoyan again but had no intention of revealing the truth. After all, it was just empty talk; no one would believe him even if he said it.

Thus, he decided to take a different approach.

'To design such a smuggling system, this Daoist Xuanhe is likely no ordinary figure. I just wonder if he's a true transmission disciple?'

After pondering for a moment, Wang Ping took the initiative to ask, "Lady Chen, I've heard you mention shattering the boundary and ascending quite a few times. May I ask what specific level of cultivation is required to shatter the boundary and ascend to the immortal realm?"

Hearing this, Chen Luoyan suspected nothing.

After all, in her eyes, ascension was the ultimate pursuit of cultivation. Not knowing about it was one thing, but now that he knew, how could he not want to get to the bottom of it?

So she answered readily, "For us extraordinary persons, cultivation primarily consists of four steps: Telepathic Spiritual Perception, Flawless True Body, Cosmic Orbit Respiration, and the Borrowed Manifestation Method."

"However, the first three steps are all about foundation establishment."

"If we're really talking about combat power, the gap between the first three steps isn't actually that big. It just depends on who knows more spells and who has a better flying sword. Some extraordinary persons are even weaker than martial artists."

"But the fourth step is different."

"Once someone successfully achieves Borrowing Qi to Manifest Magic and refines magic power, they are far beyond the reach of any Mortal. Even a martial artist at the Martial Dao Grandmaster Rank wouldn't be a match for them."

"We call them Loose Immortals."

As soon as she said this, Wang Ping almost couldn't hold back a laugh.

'Loose Immortals? What an arrogant boast!'

Without refining magic power, one was just an independent cultivator at the very bottom of the Immortal Gate. Only after refining magic power could someone be considered an outer sect disciple... and even then, they had to be a native of the Immortal Gate.

'And the human materials inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace couldn't possibly become outer sect disciples even if they did refine magic power. Could it be that they felt they had outgrown the independent cultivator group but couldn't become outer sect disciples, so they deliberately created the title of Loose Immortal just to elevate their status in the chain of contempt?'

Wang Ping speculated with more than a little malice.

On the other side, Chen Luoyan continued, "Once you have the cultivation of a Loose Immortal, the next step is simply to diligently do good deeds, walk the righteous path, and accumulate incense and destiny."

"All while continually refining your flying sword."

"Given enough time, when your incense and destiny meet the standard and your flying sword is tempered to its utmost limit, you can ascend through the path the patriarch opened in Book Mountain."

Wang Ping clicked his tongue in wonder as he listened.

'Incense? If I remember correctly, this stuff can also be refined into the Immortal Gate's dharma currency. So, on top of smuggling magical treasures, this scheme even involves money laundering?'

Roughly translated from the perspective of the Immortal Gate, Chen Luoyan's description meant:

'As long as you save up enough money and pack the goods that Daoist Xuanhe wants, you can deliver the package to the Immortal Gate, ultimately losing both your money and your goods in the end.'

'What a beast!'

To do such a thing and design such a perfect process for draining every last drop of value from human livestock... this was clearly no ordinary disciple of the Immortal Gate.

'An inner sect disciple, at the very least!'

The Immortal Gate's true transmission disciples were judged solely by their talent, regardless of their cultivation. However, the inner sect disciples, outer sect disciples, and independent cultivators below the true transmission rank were all subject to strict cultivation limits.

There was no need to even mention independent cultivators.

An outer sect disciple had to be at least at the Tribulation Transcending First Layer, a cultivator who had refined magic power.

The absolute worst inner sect disciple had to be at the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer, a cultivator who had survived the heavenly calamities and condensed their Divine Powers. The entire process proved that one general achieves fame at the cost of ten thousand withered bones.

Considering that only a cultivator at the Tribulation Transcending First Layer could shatter the boundary and ascend, Daoist Xuanhe's cultivation must have already been at the Tribulation Transcending Second Layer.

'Otherwise, he might not be able to keep the situation under control.'

'Factoring in his audacity to smuggle magical treasures inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace while brazenly laundering money, he might even have the backing of a Qi Refining practitioner!'

'Incredible.'

As he kept thinking, Wang Ping's eyes gradually brightened.

He suddenly realized that if the patriarch who founded Book Mountain was truly who he thought he was, then his lineage was definitely considered orthodox within the Immortal Gate.

'Could the lineage left behind by such a person possibly be weak?'

'Even if it's just for smuggling magical treasures, to ensure that Book Mountain produces ascendants to deliver his packages generation after generation, wouldn't he have to pass down some genuine techniques?'

'He definitely would!'

At this thought, Wang Ping immediately realized the importance of Book Mountain. This was a place where he could receive teachings from the orthodox system of the Immortal Gate!

Although the price was acting as a delivery boy for Daoist Xuanhe, nothing in this world was absolute. Daoist Xuanhe himself wasn't perfectly secure. Smuggling magical treasures and laundering money—Wang Ping refused to believe there were no risks involved. And once Daoist Xuanhe fell, the entire system would be reshuffled.

'When that time comes, human materials can become true talents.'

The Immortal Gate was far from a monolith; instead, it was riddled with factions and endless infighting. To advance within the Immortal Gate, one had to learn how to exploit this fact to their advantage.

'If used well, ascending to the heavens in a single step isn't just a dream.'

'If used poorly, no matter how high you climb, you'll eventually fall.'

'Taking ten thousand steps back, I can resurrect anyway. Even if I die, it's not a loss.'

'And if my luck is good, I might just be able to forge a new path! Instead of relying on the Taiping Sutra to fabricate an identity, I could take the orthodox route and officially become a disciple of the Immortal Gate!'