My Husband’s Ascension Ch 14
Chapter 14 None But Her
The three Kunwu disciples bewitched by Mount Ling’s gu were dragged by Shan Yu and the others into a cave.
The cavern was dark and damp, jagged stone walls looming around them. By the glow of a luminous pearl lighting the path, they found a vast, smooth stone bed and laid the three upon it.
Zhao Zhao had been keeping her head down, rummaging through her spatial storage pouch for the wooden box Daoist Ming Jue had given her. When she finally looked up, she froze—
The three men on the stone bed had been stripped bare, not even a single cloth left to cover them.
Her cheeks flushed scarlet at once; she quickly averted her eyes in fluster.
“...Why strip them of all their clothing?”
The female cultivator who had just finished tugging the last robe off looked up.
“Eh? How else are we to draw out the gu? You think we can find them through layers of fabric?”
“...”
But still, there was no need to strip them so utterly clean!
Shan Yu, seeing her face nearly steaming red, could not resist teasing, “Among us, only you, Hong Hong, have been married. How is it you’re shyer than the rest of us?”
Another laughed as well. “Exactly. Surely you’ve seen your husband without clothes before?”
Zhao Zhao was younger by who knows how many decades; in terms of thick-skinnedness, she could hardly match them. She could only force herself into calm—telling herself it was nothing. Moreover, as a Divine Farmer practitioner, skilled in curing and saving, she might as well regard them as mere chunks of meat.
At that thought, the heat in Zhao Zhao’s cheeks finally eased.
She opened the wooden box given to her by Daoist Ming Jue. Every practitioner of the Divine Farmer Dao’s healing branch carried such a treasure box—though small, it contained all manner of instruments and remedies.
When the others saw Zhao Zhao draw forth a slim, razor-keen blade, curiosity stirred among them.
Spiritual gu were already rare; methods to dispel them were rarer still. None knew what kind of marvelous medical technique this young Divine Farmer practitioner was about to display…
“Oops, wrong spot.”
Her soft, lilting voice called out almost sweetly.
The sound belied the scene before them: blood spattering across her face from a mistaken cut.
Zhao Zhao pressed her fingers lightly against the man’s skin, a wash of verdant light flowing from her palm. In the blink of an eye, the wound knit together, smooth as before.
She lifted her head, smiling a little guiltily. “Forgive me. It’s my first time dispelling gu, so I’m still a little clumsy. Let me check the book again.”
Before their very eyes, she pulled out a medical manual, flipping through it as she worked, learning and dispelling as she went along.
For a moment, none knew whether to pity the unconscious disciple—sliced open again and again—or to marvel at Zhao Zhao’s astonishing healing power, able to erase each mistaken cut in an instant.
Fortunately, despite the twists and turns, Zhao Zhao still managed to dig out the grain-sized gu insects from the three men’s bodies.
“I’ve heard the stronger the gu, the greater the backlash its master suffers when it’s destroyed. I wonder if that’s true,” said Shan Yu with a genial smile, hefting a stone in her palm. “Why don’t we test it?”
At that very moment, on the cliffside, a shaman who had been preparing to depart with the veiled Wu-Shaman suddenly staggered.
Pfft—
A mouthful of blood gushed from both his lips and nose. He collapsed heavily to the ground, senseless.
“Quickly, give him a pill!” the veiled Ling Wu-Shaman snapped at once.
This man was her most capable subordinate. The other shamans dared not delay and rushed forward to administer aid.
“Dao Lord Tianshu!” the veiled Wu-Shaman, fiercely protective of her own, forced down her rage. “Kunwu and Mount Ling are allies. It was nothing more than a spar, yet your Kunwu disciples have injured my Mount Ling shaman to such a state. Is this not excessive?”
Dao Lord Tianshu regarded her steadily, the curve of his lips faint. “Victory crowns the king, defeat marks the captive. Such is the law of the cultivation world. If one’s skill falls short, what ‘excess’ is there to speak of?”
“You—!”
The veiled Wu-Shaman seethed, about to turn and leave.
“Does Miss Wu-Shaman intend to personally lead her people to settle accounts with them?”
The Dao Lord’s voice, soft as a spring breeze, drifted from behind her. His tone was mild, yet it froze her steps at once, a chill coursing up her spine.
“When Mount Ling held the advantage just now, I did not intervene to aid my Kunwu disciples. I ask that Mount Ling likewise abide by the rules—do not meddle in the disciples’ trial.”
The veiled Wu-Shaman ground her teeth. “And if… I insist on venting this anger?”
As he passed by, the Dao Lord, sculpted of ice and jade, came to a halt. With a smile, he said, “My words have reached their end. Mount Ling is welcome to try.”
His tone was unfailingly gentle.
Yet no one present could mistake it for kindly counsel.
—Whosoever dared to try, would meet only death.
…
“…My thanks, Miss Immortal, for your aid. Had it not been for your peerless skill, I fear we would have brought calamity upon ourselves this day.”
After swallowing the antidote pill that dispelled the effects of the Mellowheart Grass, the three male disciples soon awoke from their stupor.
At first, discovering themselves stripped bare left them utterly aghast. But once they beheld the remnants of the spiritual gu and learned that they had been compelled by a Mount Ling shaman to assail their own brethren, each was left shaken to the core.
Zhao Zhao dared not accept such lofty praise as “peerless skill.” She waved her hand quickly and said, “You flatter me, you flatter me! It is mainly because your bodies are so robust…”
Behind her back, she clutched a small blade whose edge had already curled.
Zhao Zhao was certain it was not from cutting too many times—no, it was assuredly because their bodies had been tempered far too well.
“—Dao Lord?”
At the entrance, Shan Yu, who had been keeping watch, caught sight at once of that snow-white silhouette and hastened to bow with reverence.
“Has Dao Lord received word? Ji Qian and the others struck only because they were under the thrall of spiritual gu—”
“All of you, withdraw.” Dao Lord Tianshu interrupted in a voice calm and faint.
“I have words to exchange with the Miss Immortal of Cloudculm Abode.”
The disciples exchanged uneasy glances; Ji Qian and his two companions were especially ill at ease. Yet none dared defy the Dao Lord’s command. They could only cast a look toward Zhao Zhao before filing out with submissive obedience.
Within the cavern, only Zhao Zhao and Dao Lord Tianshu remained. Zhao Zhao’s heart lodged itself in her throat.
“…Does Dao Lord have something he wishes to say to me—”
“Xie Tanzhao! What was it you promised me!”
The thunderous cry nearly stopped her heart altogether.
Yet in the next instant she realized—the voice was Dao Lord Tianshu’s, but the tone was by no means his.
“Miss—Miss Immortal Lanyan?” Zhao Zhao ventured cautiously.
‘Dao Lord Tianshu’ strode forward in great fury, his face storm-dark. “Did you not promise to stay away from him? How dare you still enter the Blessed Land of Langhuan? You dare make a fool of me!”
Zhao Zhao blinked in a daze.
“So it truly is Miss Immortal Lanyan… This face-altering pill is remarkable! Your countenance is identical, and even the voice and bearing are near perfect… Hmm? The one you gave me—was it not the same kind?”
“Do not prattle to change the subject!” Shi Lanyan slapped away Zhao Zhao’s hand that had been boldly prodding at her face. “What are you doing here? Blessed lands are brimmed with danger, how could a mere mortal like you dare set foot within it?”
Zhao Zhao beamed. “Why, all thanks to the artifact Miss Immortal Lanyan bestowed for my protection.”
Shi Lanyan let out a cold snort.
Had Zhao Zhao not unfurled the Karmic Fire Lotus Parasol, she might never have recognized her beneath this altered visage.
“…That artifact was given to keep you far from Tianshu, not to flaunt yourself before him.”
Seeing the Miss Immortal’s displeasure deepen, Zhao Zhao resorted once more to her old stratagem, beginning with: “You know, those two young disciples of our sect have been orphans since childhood…” and thus painting a pitiable picture of Cloudculm Abode’s destitution, and how direly they needed this chance to enter the blessed land.
“…After parting with Miss Immortal Lanyan last time, they kept speaking of you for days on end.” Zhao Zhao let out a soft sigh. “They said Lanyan jiejie is truly an Immortal both beautiful and kind. If all under heaven were like Lanyan jiejie, they would never have spent so many years as little beggars…”
“All right, enough, spare me your glib tongue.”
Shi Lanyan’s ire had long since cooled, and she could not be bothered to press the matter further.
Her gaze fell upon the stone bed, where a mangled mass of blood and flesh lay smeared. Shi Lanyan frowned and stepped closer.
“What is this?”
Zhao Zhao gave a succinct account of the Mount Ling shamans and their use of gu.
Shi Lanyan gave a derisive snort. “A paltry barbarian sect, fit only for such disgraceful, petty trickery.”
However…
The flesh scraped from the gu-afflicted during the antidote ritual, shaped like a honeycomb, seemed strangely familiar…
“Why is the meat shaped like this?”
It was Zhao Zhao’s first time cutting into human flesh; she had nearly retched earlier and dared not look too closely now. She only murmured, “The books say… those are the traces left when the gu insects strive to flee their host.”
Mount Ling’s spiritual gu could seize command of an individual without leaving the faintest trace. Most often, once its purpose was fulfilled, the gu would depart the host’s body of its own accord, leaving behind no more than a pinprick of blood upon the skin. Or—
When the host perished, the insects, no longer constrained by their life or death, would force their way out just so, rending flesh as they struggled free.
“...Was Cloudculm Abode subject to an evil yao attack recently?”
Shi Lanyan’s sudden remark left Zhao Zhao somewhat surprised.
“Yes… Why the sudden question?”
Shi Lanyan pressed her lips together, her countenance turning grave.
“The day I parted from you in the city, I heard rumor of evil yaos prowling near Cloudculm Abode. When I went, however, the yaos had already been slain. I only made a cursory inspection of their corpses. There was nothing much amiss—save that on some of the evil yaos, the wounds bore this same honeycombed scarring.”
Shi Lanyan lifted her gaze, solemn as she fixed it upon Zhao Zhao. “Tell me truly, does Cloudculm Abode harbor some enmity with Mount Ling?”
With Mount Ling…?
Zhao Zhao’s mind went utterly blank.
At that time, she had not yet even laid eyes upon the veiled Wu-Shaman, much less offended her.
If those evil yaos that night truly bore some tie to Mount Ling, then the true target should have been Daoist Ming Jue. Had Dao Lord Tianshu not arrived in time, Daoist Ming Jue might well have perished beneath their claws.
Could it be that the “complete annihilation” spoken of by Yao Ling was but a calumny contrived by Mount Ling?
Yet if Daoist Ming Jue had died that night, it would have been but one life lost. How then could it be called a complete annihilation?
Yao Ling was but an orphan, what household was there to destroy?
…The clues were too few, the threads too tangled; she could make no sense of it.
Zhao Zhao was forced to set the matter aside.
“This… can only be asked of my master once we leave the blessed land.” She shook her head, bewildered. “For you to be…disguised as Dao Lord Tianshu—can you linger here long? What if someone sees through you?”
“Why do you think Polaris Confucian Sect sent me?” Shi Lanyan waved it off without concern. “Even if I am discovered, Tianshu will still be bound to show regard for the ties between our sects and spare my life.”
After a pause, she commanded, “Do not follow those Kunwu disciples later—come with me.”
“Why?”
“Why else? To keep watch over you! What if, the moment I turn my back, you go pestering Tianshu again?” Shi Lanyan spoke with perfect certainty, her tone lofty and imperious. “Besides, have you not cultivated the Divine Farmer Dao? You can both dispel gu and tend to wounds. If you stay with me, I shall be far safer.”
Truthfully, there’s no harm in going together with Shi Lanyan.
Zhao Zhao could not shake the suspicion that Mount Ling had planted gu on those disciples at least in part because she had offended the veiled Wu-Shaman that day, and Mount Ling sought vengeance on her behalf.
If that were so, then it was indeed she who had brought misfortune upon the others.
However—
“But… the immortals of Kunwu have treated me kindly. They promised that should we gain heavenly treasures, they would share half with me…”
“Half? What is half worth?” Shi Lanyan swept her hand grandly. “I did not come to claim treasures. If you desire them, take all that we encounter.”
Zhao Zhao’s face lit in a radiant smile, as though she had been waiting all along for just these words.
“Then let me bid them farewell, and we shall set out together!”
Shi Lanyan: …
Why does it feel as though I have once more fallen prey to this little swindler?
Shan Yu and the rest waiting outside were taken aback when they heard Zhao Zhao’s words.
Dao Lord… actually allowed this disciple of Cloudculm Abode to accompany him?
Each gaze carried a glimmer of surprise and curiosity. Zhao Zhao thought quickly and offered an explanation, “Dao Lord said there are still others afflicted with Mount Ling’s gu. He wishes me to help dispel it for them as well.”
Though doubtful, none dared question the Dao Lord’s command, and so they merely nodded their assent.
As they parted, Ji Qian, upon hearing that Zhao Zhao had lost a stalk of Scarlet-tail Ginseng on their account, vowed with great fervor that before leaving he would capture ten such stalks to present to her.
Zhao Zhao offered thanks in advance.
Yet in truth, compared with such heavenly treasures and herbs, what she longed for most at this moment were sword manuals and the like.
She had seen in her dream that Rong Yu was born a demonic fetus and possessed his own path of cultivation. But Yao Ling’s vast righteous Qi and unmatched sword intent—it had never been revealed where she had learned it.
Still, it could be guessed. For a girl orphaned and alone to cultivate such profound sword arts, she must have endured untold suffering.
Yao Ling had always spoken of wishing to acknowledge her as master, believing her a formidable cultivator. But Zhao Zhao knew full well—within this realm she stood frail and unsupported, unlike those august Immortal Lords who could guide disciples with word and deed.
All she could truly do was gather what she could, stockpiling resources to pave the way for Yao Ling’s future cultivation.
As she watched Shan Yu and the others depart, Zhao Zhao turned back, her heart heavy with thought.
Beyond the cavern’s mouth stood a figure cloaked in snow-white.
Looking deep into the cave was Dao Lord Tianshu.
Mu Ling and Zong Fei traced Shi Lanyan’s movements step by step, until at last here, in this very place, they caught her in the act of masquerading as him.
Fortunately, they had seized her in time, before she could fully probe the Blessed Land of Langhuan.
He enclosed her with a barrier, placed several on watch, and determined that once the blessed land shut, she would be brought forth for judgment.
Dao Lord Tianshu’s gaze remained tranquil as he watched the young woman running toward him.
What remained now… was her.
It was clear Shi Lanyan had come seeking this girl. The gulf between their identities and stations was vast, how the two had come to know one another was beyond comprehension.
But there was no need to unravel it. Better to render her unconscious as well, cast her into the barrier, and sort all matters once they returned—
“Let’s head northwest!”
The hand he raised to subdue her was suddenly, unexpectedly caught and held.
The habitual smile at his lips froze in place.
Zhao Zhao, oblivious to all, had her mind fixed only upon her treasures.
“‘The Langhuan Compendium’ says the northwest abounds in ores. I want to find a few fine pieces of iron to forge a sword. Could we not go there first?”
Her bright and guileless face leaned close without the slightest wariness, the young woman’s faintly sweet fragrance—familiar yet also unfamiliar—wrapped around him like gossamer mist.
Her fingers, soft and delicate through the fabric of his sleeve, clutched his arm with little force yet somehow he could not break free.
In all this world, there was but one person from whom he could not pull away.
“…Xie Tanzhao?”
“Hm?” Zhao Zhao tilted her head, utterly unguarded. “What is it?”
Only moments before, she had been speaking with Shi Lanyan, disguised as Dao Lord Tianshu. Zhao Zhao could never have imagined that, in the brief instant she had turned, the fake Dao Lord behind her had been replaced by the true one.
And yet… he allowed her to cling to him, offering not the slightest sign of revealing himself.
Dao Lord Tianshu found his own composure slightly taken aback by his actions.
But after a moment’s thought, he reminded himself: here in the Blessed Land of Langhuan, there was little to occupy him beyond awaiting the two fated individuals whom Mount Ling had foreseen would come to strike him.
For the time being, playing the part of Shi Lanyan posed no hindrance to his true purpose.
Moreover, he was curious. How had Xie Tanzhao managed, in such a short span, to undergo such astonishing transformation?
Having reasoned through countless excuses, Dao Lord Tianshu finally persuaded himself.
The stiffness in his posture gradually softened, and in a voice calm and warm, he said, “…Then let us head northwest.”
Though the voice was identical to that which Shi Lanyan had mimicked just moments before, Zhao Zhao felt a strange disorientation.
She could not help but steal a glance at the side profile of the person beside her.
…It really was uncanny.
Could it be that, having grown up together as childhood companions, Shi Lanyan could, if she wished, mirror even the subtlest expressions and intonations so precisely?
A swirl of emotions stirred within her, and her hand, clutching his sleeve, tightened unconsciously.
Sensing her small movement, Dao Lord Tianshu lowered his gaze and asked, “What is it?”
Zhao Zhao mumbled softly, “…Nothing. Just worried we might not find any good ore.”
A faint smile curved Dao Lord Tianshu’s lips.
“Do not worry. We will.”
Perhaps due to preconceived notions, Zhao Zhao did not suspect “Shi Lanyan” for maintaining the guise of Dao Lord Tianshu even in private.
She only hoped…
that they would find a good vein of ore.
Then she could forge Yao Ling a sword capable of slicing iron as if it were clay, delivering a fatal strike in a single blow.
