Chapter 2089 - 7: Schemer

Chapter 2089: Chapter 7: Schemer

"What are you doing here?" Beside the Nine Yin River, Wei Tianchen constructed an array using the bones of an unidentified giant beast as a temporary shelter.

"I was worried you might encounter danger."

"You’re lying with your eyes open." Wei Tianchen sneered, "If this could lead to the Heaven and Earth Dao, you’d probably be at the Divine King Realm by now."

"Old Imperial Physician, don’t be so harsh; they say doctors are benevolent, how can you think of me like this?" Zhao Xing’s gaze fell on Wei Tianchen’s leg bone, where there was a distinct black mark. "Look, you’re injured, so my concerns were not unfounded."

Wei Tianchen broke off the leg bone, burned it, and replaced it with another from a bone ring.

From his skilled manner, it was clear this wasn’t his first time.

Zhao Xing watched as the poisonous bone was burned to ashes, pondering for a moment: "Recently, while exploring the Nine Yin River, have you been unusually unlucky, unable to harness the poison and instead becoming a burden, injuring yourself?"

"How did you know that?" Wei Tianchen was quite surprised.

During his battles, he constantly collected ’bone poison’ to temper himself; the art of poison manipulation was Wei Tianchen’s main offensive technique.

The current bone body was no longer the Sun Bone Body, but a special type called the [Heavenly Poison Bone Body].

This was a bone body cultivation method Wei Tianchen created in the Divine Domain.

However, he’d been quite unlucky lately; after exploring the Nine Yin River for several years, although he made some gains, he frequently found himself inexplicably ’going astray’.

Wei Tianchen suspected there was an issue with his self-created magic technique, but what Zhao Xing suddenly said now made him doubt again.

"It’s not a problem with your self-created cultivation technique," Zhao Xing mused, "your issue lies with your destiny."

"Are you talking about qi fortune?" Wei Tianchen clearly didn’t believe it. "How is that possible."

"Think carefully about it," Zhao Xing said. "Doesn’t your poisoning situation occur every time you pass a particular location by the Nine Yin River?"

Wei Tianchen abruptly stood up; obviously, Zhao Xing’s words had awakened him.

The fire blazed, reflecting an image.

The river roared, winding back and forth, with glimpses of islands appearing like ink in the water.

The flow of water was directionless, with no north-south or east-west direction, chaotic like black dragons aimlessly swimming between the islands.

"You’re right," Wei Tianchen said, "Three times of going astray in seven years, it’s clearly not right, and every time after I explore this area of the Nine Yin River, I encounter an uncontrollable state of bone poison."

"Originally, I thought it was because the cultivation technique was not perfect, and it was minor, but why would it be due to qi fortune?"

Zhao Xing raised his hand, the green flame dissipating to reveal a purple finger bone.

"Old Imperial Physician, you should have the Qi Observation Method; can’t you see the peculiarity of this bone?"

Wei Tianchen remained unmoved: "I don’t know the Qi Observation Method."

"How could you not, considering you provided Great Zhou with a qi fortune treasure..."

Wei Tianchen sighed: "Though I gifted Great Zhou a qi fortune treasure, I don’t practice it because I once vowed to the Li Emperor Divine Statue not to pursue the path to godhood through qi fortune and not to practice any qi fortune technique."

"Why?" Now it was Zhao Xing’s turn to be surprised.

"Do you know how the Five Emperors’ Money came about?" Wei Tianchen asked.

"The Five Emperors minted coins, embedding their qi fortune within the ancient money for circulation, to protect the subjects," Zhao Xing said.

"At first, it was indeed like that," Wei Tianchen said, "The Five Luck Coin Casting Method was then viewed as a blessing to the people, but later it changed. It led to endless turmoil."

Zhao Xing listened quietly.

"The principle of the Five Luck Coin Casting Method involves weakening the strong to support the weak; the Heavenly Destiny Five Coins Bureau mints coins by first integrating the ancient coin materials into the strong, imbibing the ancient coin with the strong’s qi fortune, and after many years, take it out for circulation."

"The Five Emperors’ Money was also known as ’man-made money’."

Zhao Xing was shocked: "Wouldn’t that be..."

Wei Tianchen nodded: "No magic technique inherently has good or evil; its use for good is good, use for evil is evil."

"With qi fortune, blessings are abundant, cultivation becomes more efficient, everything goes smoothly... it’s a shortcut to strength."

"Everyone wants a shortcut, and when the Heavenly Destiny Five Coins Bureau leaked the secret technique, reversing the Heavenly Gang, the use of this secret technique changed in nature."

"Various officials drew power from the Heavenly Destiny Coin, absorbing it for themselves. Later on, the Heavenly Destiny Coin became scarcer, and some, impatient with the slow process, resorted to massacring cities, killing people to extract qi fortune to create qi fortune coins."

"There were even instances where people became gods through qi fortune, since qi fortune itself meant the stronger were predisposed to good luck. Even if one committed heinous acts, as long as one’s qi fortune was strong enough, they were unlikely to be investigated, instead rising to high positions. Even the Divine Emperor was deceived."

"Thus, this method completely became a root of chaos, and during the restoration of order, many powerful individuals fled to the territories of the Demon Race, or the Desolate Domain."

"The country suffered greatly from this, and later generations, due to their naturally diminished qi fortune, faced a power vacuum."

Wei Tianchen sighed: "It can be said that during the Five Emperors Era, except for the Void Ancestor’s strict control period, the other Four Emperors all experienced major upheavals due to this technique."

Zhao Xing was stunned, not expecting such secrets in the Five Emperors Era; evidently, some dark histories were only known thoroughly by old practitioners like Wei Tianchen.

"Afterwards, qi fortune techniques were banned and completely abandoned, even leading to the Divine Emperor’s fury, temporarily blocking the path to godhood through qi fortune."

"Blocking the path to godhood?"

Zhao Xing suddenly realized something, as the fire flickered.