Chapter 329: Barren World

The news of Anji’s disappearance hit everyone worse than the bombardment attack on the Red Palace. Against all odds, Elder Shen managed to contact Yan Ping with news just as she arrived at Chang’an to meet with Liu Guiya. It was a devastating night for everyone.

After emergency treatment and handing over Pu Jianming’s final research notes, Yan Ping isolated herself in the Imperial Ancestral Hall, with only Zhao Yihao permitted to enter. Not even the Emperor dared question the living sage.

Two weeks passed just like that with no news about Anji. Hong Nian Niang stepped up with her investigative efforts in Luoyang, but even the lead Mingshen found seemed to have vanished, as if they never existed in the first place. Nobody knew what happened at the Crystal Lake Town as it was reduced to ash overnight. Yet, one thing remained certain. A huge wave of disaster was looming.

The four mythical beasts slumbering reacted faintly when Yan Ping approached them. It seemed as if her successor had done something to the sacred array. In just a few days after her arrival, Yan Ping understood Anji’s mission.

"The golden scale is corrupted," she noted. "Your sister told you to continue suppressing the area of curse with yang energy, didn’t she?"

Stiff as a board, Yihao nodded only to remember he was dealing with a blind woman.

"Yes, ma’am! I’ve never skipped a day of purification!"

Yihao was as earnest as she remembered him to be. However, this method was only temporary.

The reason Anji sent word to her was to figure out how to solve the missing part of the ancient array. She rewired the real anchor that used to be the golden scale to something else. However, that medium was presently too weak to support the recovery of all four beast guardians. It was up to her, the sect leader of the Mystical Qilin Sect, to solve this mystery.

"Do you know how to emit yang energy into a contained aura?" she asked.

Yihao’s silence was everything she needed to know. The young man had simply been pouring his yang energy like a scattered beam, hoping it would hit its intended target. No wonder progress had been slow.

"Starting today, we will be having a crash course in refined energy control," she informed him. "Your sister was being polite, but I’m not that nice. If you want to be of any real help, you must learn to control your strength."

Wincing at the criticism, Yihao bowed his head in shame. Bai Dajin taught him how to become more powerful. Yet, this very strength was becoming a hindrance in the real world. Yan Ping was right. It had been something he struggled to cope with ever since attaining the Enlightened Core.

Clicking her tongue in annoyance at how mopey the men of the Celestial Dragon Sect were, Yan Ping beckoned the youth over with her finger.

Like a kicked puppy, Yihao approached her hesitantly.

Once he was within range, Yan Ping tapped her staff on the ground once and placed her palm across the centre of Yihao’s chest. The surge of immense energy startled Yihao, but he remained still. Already, he could feel something from inside him shifting drastically.

Like a cool breeze on a hot summer’s afternoon, Yan Ping’s energy felt like a soothing patch over scalded skin. For a moment, those broad shoulders sagged with relief. However, the moment the energy transfer stopped, he was back in the blazing internal hell.

"Your inner world is barren," Yan Ping frowned. "Soil that has been scorched this badly can never promote life. To build a stable environment in an Extreme Yang body, you must grow deeper roots than anyone else. Yet your soil is baked dry with no signs of being toiled before."

It was no wonder Yihao constantly leaked energy. Bai Dajin only taught him to increase the intensity of his Extreme Yang nature, but not to control the balance. It was very much like the martial artist’s method of body tampering. However, at the Enlightened Core stage, it was no longer a tampering issue. A prolonged yang-only harmonisation will cause different issues in the long run. The heart demons become harder to fight. The constant thirst and pain would drive even the most resilient individual mad. Back when Bai Dajin ruptured all his meridians in the previous war, Yan Ping was the one to find him half dead and restitched his physical body. Yihao was in a similar state. But thankfully, a young sapling can still be easily guided back on the right path without needing to cut off many branches.

Nervously, Yihao listened to Yan Ping recite four lines. He had no idea what they meant, but was told to commit every word to memory. She did not permit him to leave until he did, and then confined him next to the ancestral furnace to meditate.

"Eight hours a day," she told him. "No more, no less. Chant that until you can find water in your inner world. I’ll be monitoring closely as I work."

Stiffly, Yihao bowed and tiptoed to the ancestral furnace, taking his assigned spot to start meditating. Truthfully, he was too nervous to enter a trance state. However, with the repetition of those four verses, he finally managed to sink into his inner world. It had been a while since he visited, and the first time since pushing into the Enlightened Core stage. He always hated this place as it was unbearably hot. Externally, his body is resistant to damage as Bai Dajin promised. However, internally, there was no resistance at all.

If his previous inner world was as hot as the heat of an afternoon sun in the middle of a sandy desert during the hottest month of summer, it was now closer to standing at the edge of a boiling volcano. Within two minutes of sitting in his inner world, Yihao began to visibly sweat. The exhaustion sank bone-deep, but he chanted the four lines committed to memory, unsure what they meant or did.

From the other side of the room, Yan Ping observed with her second sight the swirling mess of energy fighting within Yihao’s golden core. Now that the source was ready, she could begin work.

Extracting tiny threads of yang energy like an expert weaver, Yan Ping used it to weave her flag formation web in the ancestral hall. The old spell might still work, but Anji did not need her to be here to do renovation works. She was here to build a trap for the eventual villain who would visit.

And what better way than to fight extreme Yin with extreme Yang?