Reflected in Chen Kuang's pupils was the flickering firelight, and the grotesque face of that Daoist before him.
A subtle chill crept up his spine, like a centipede stretching out countless legs to crawl along his skin.
The Daoist in front of him, although bearing a human appearance, gave him a sensation of unspeakable disgust.
At last, after everything he'd been through since transmigrating, drifting, hunted, pursued endlessly, he now faced one of the true culprits behind it all.
The former Grand Preceptor of Liang, the man who, according to legend, had refined the Elixir of Immortality and presented it to Su Yu.
And very likely, he was also the one who had advised Su Yu, turning him into the parasite clinging to Chen Kuang's back, a curse of living shadow.
But the strange thing was, Chen Kuang could not sense this man's cultivation.
From the karmic incarnations of Han Shan and Tong Shi, Chen Kuang had long understood that Jiang Wuya, the man captured and imprisoned in the Jingnan Prince's Manor, was nothing more than an ordinary mortal.
Yet in his heart, Chen Kuang was convinced that Jiang Wuya must be pretending.
How could someone like this possibly be without cultivation?
Even if it's hard to accurately determine someone's level under normal circumstances, so long as one possesses Spiritual Energy, their aura and bearing would be affected. At the very least, it'd be possible to gauge a general tier of strength.
And even if others couldn't see through it, how could he, possessing the passive ability Piercing Insight, fail to detect any trace of cultivation?
But now, standing face to face with Jiang Wuya, he found nothing.
There was truly not the slightest trace of Spiritual Energy on this man.
He had no cultivation at all!
"How is that possible..."
Chen Kuang took a deep breath, his alertness soaring to its peak.
Given his understanding of this world, such a strange phenomenon represented true danger.
Because he was certain: this man could not be a mortal, how else could someone without cultivation appear before him without making a sound, without him detecting a thing in advance?
Yet neither Piercing Insight nor Blood Premonition triggered at all.
Such a situation, he had never encountered before!
Beside him, Su Huaiying's pupils contracted sharply. Somewhere deep in her memory, she had seen this leprous-headed Daoist before.
But at that time, she had still been swaddled in cloth. This man had apparently told her fortune in front of Su Yu. What exactly he said, she had no memory of.
Even with her extraordinary talent and brilliance, her earliest coherent memories only began six months after birth. Everything before that was a blur.
Yet she clearly remembered who this man was.
After the fall of Liang, this man had vanished completely. The Grand Preceptor's residence was deserted. Just like the trickster Daoists in those old stories who peddled fake pills of Immortality, he had disappeared into thin air.
If it were only to evade disaster and avoid implication, she could understand. But now that he had reappeared, and directly targeted Chen Kuang.
What was his purpose?
Chen Kuang steadied his breathing, then took out the Glazed Image-Freezing Lamp. Flicking it with a finger, he said quietly:
"You're the one who informed the Prince of Jingnan of my whereabouts and identity, aren't you?"
As soon as the Glazed Image-Freezing Lamp appeared, light flared within the dilapidated temple, erasing all shadows in its radiance.
All shadows, except for the one behind Chen Kuang.
Behind him, not only did his shadow remain, it was joined by a taller, grander silhouette.
Crowned with the Twelve-bead Imperial Crown, an Emperor's visage!
Su Huaiying's expression changed in an instant.
Recalling her conversation with Zhang Zhizhou earlier, the young princess finally understood the missing piece of the puzzle.
Her father, the emperor, was not dead!
Not only was he alive, but through some means, he had attached himself to Chen Kuang!
It seemed he had been waiting, lurking... biding time to devour him whole.
Jiang Wuya chuckled, rubbing his hands together:
"That was just for self-preservation. If this poor Daoist didn't speak, the Prince of Jingnan was going to torture me, maybe even kill me."
"Self-preservation?"
Chen Kuang's smile was cold: "But I remember Wen Chai had fitted both of your feet with Crimson Dragon Spikes. If you didn't have any cultivation, it'd be impossible to break free."
"And yet here you are, not only having escaped, but completely unharmed. How do you explain that, Daoist?"
Indeed, Jiang Wuya's ankles were perfectly intact, with not a single scar, only caked grime and filth.
The leprous Daoist glanced down, scratched at his leg, and muttered:
"Oops... how'd he know about that?"
He looked up and grinned, revealing a mouth of yellow teeth. "Don't sweat the details."
Chen Kuang said coldly, "Enough dancing around. I only want to know one thing, what exactly is the Elixir of Immortality?"
Since Jiang Wuya had already revealed the existence of the "Specter Clinging to My Back," he likely had no intention of hiding the origins of this whole affair anymore.
All Chen Kuang wanted was the truth.
He no longer wanted to be a pawn, blindly manipulated by unseen hands.
Jiang Wuya spread his hands. "This poor Daoist... really doesn't know."
Chen Kuang sneered: "You were the one who presented the Elixir of Immortality and you don't know what it is?"
Specters presenting medicine, that sort of lie might fool ghosts, but bringing it out now? Jiang Wuya must think him a fool.
Jiang Wuya looked at him, eyes flashing with a brilliant violet gleam.
"The Elixir of Immortality is the Elixir of Immortality. But what exactly the Elixir of Immortality is, this poor Daoist truly doesn't know."
Chen Kuang fell silent.
Can these riddle-spewing bastards just leave Cangyuan already?!
He took a deep breath.
Fine. If he was willing to make some guesses and connect the dots, he could roughly understand what Jiang Wuya meant.
The Elixir of Immortality was indeed the Elixir of Immortality.
This much had already been verified by his status screen. After consuming it, he had obtained the passive ability 'Flesh Reishi'.
But the concept of such an unreasonable, paradoxical thing, as absurd as a "perpetual motion machine", what exactly did it represent?
Apparently, Jiang Wuya didn't know either.
Chen Kuang pondered, then changed the question:
"If you don't know... then how do you intend to help me sever the specter clinging to my back?"
He pointed to Su Yu's shadow. The shadow followed his movement in eerie synchronicity, it was downright chilling.
"This thing, isn't it precisely because of the Elixir of Immortality that it's attached itself to me?"
Jiang Wuya answered:
"Then listen to this poor Daoist's humble explanation."
"Six years ago, I heard the Emperor of Liang was seeking sages and mystics to refine an Elixir of Immortality. I volunteered to ease the emperor's burden. But to my surprise... the Elixir of Immortality had already long been in his possession."
"He was only recruiting people to create a plausible cover, to make the emergence of such a thing appear reasonable."
As Jiang Wuya spoke, another of Chen Kuang's passive Abilities activated, confirming that he was telling the truth.
That put him a little more at ease.
Whatever Jiang Wuya's intentions might be, at least he wasn't lying.
That was enough for now.
But Chen Kuang still frowned and asked, "If it already existed, then where did the Elixir of Immortality come from?"
If it were something produced through normal means, there'd be no need to deceive anyone.
Which meant, its origin was not normal.
Jiang Wuya sighed. "Who would have thought... that this Elixir of Immortality was condensed directly from the national destiny of the Liang Kingdom!"
At those words, both Chen Kuang and Su Huaiying were completely stunned.
Condensed directly from Liang's national destiny?!
This was no trivial matter, national destiny was the very foundation of a state!
Earlier, it was precisely by persuading the emperor of the Yang Kingdom to summon the national destiny that Chen Kuang was able to suppress a saint by force! That alone illustrated just how powerful national destiny could be.
It was said that in ancient times, national destiny was even more terrifying, capable of directly influencing the cultivation strength of an entire nation's practitioners, granting unimaginable blessings and manifestations of divine phenomena.
And the present-day national destiny was already a weakened form, countless iterations removed from its original potency.
Yet now, to think that a Elixir of Immortality could emerge from within Liang's national destiny?!
Wouldn't that imply that the national destiny of Liang showed signs of reviving the grandeur of the ancient era?
To an emperor, such a thing was a true omen of heavenly fortune!
But then Jiang Wuya continued, "However, not long afterward, Liang's national destiny began to decline at an alarming rate, almost to the brink of annihilation."
"Sure enough, before long, news that the Elixir of Immortality was in the emperor's hands leaked out. The Zhou Kingdom began deploying troops to harass and probe the borders."
"Sigh, poor General Huo held the line alone for four years, but ultimately could not hold on."
"After that, of course, came the complete collapse of Liang's defense lines, the Black Armor Army swept in like iron, corpses piled high, the imperial city fell, the emperor was slain, and the empress was taken prisoner..."
Hearing this, Chen Kuang let out a cold, quiet laugh.
"But Su Yu had long seen it coming."
"The collapse of the national destiny, the fall of Liang, it was only a matter of time. And yet, before that happened, he had already devised a fallback plan."
Jiang Wuya grinned and looked at Chen Kuang.
"Indeed. And that fallback plan... was you."
Chen Kuang took a deep breath. "This candidate... couldn't have been chosen randomly by Su Yu, could he?"
Jiang Wuya nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes!"
He extended a withered finger, pointing proudly to himself, swaying his head in self-satisfaction as he said:
"This humble Daoist was the one who discovered, among the palace musicians, someone with a uniquely fated life, enough to break through an encirclement of thousands and carry away this final thread of vitality."
Chen Kuang: "..."
If this old bastard wasn't still useful, Chen Kuang truly wanted to smash his head in with a single punch.
So the root cause of everything... was this damned old man!
Chen Kuang took a few deep breaths, then expressionlessly asked:
"So now I understand that national destiny and the Elixir of Immortality are bound together. But how did Su Yu himself become an ingredient in the Elixir of Immortality?"
Jiang Wuya chuckled. "Have you ever heard of something called the Eternal Life Lock?"
Chen Kuang's expression twitched.
Of course he had heard of it.
In fact, this phrase had long been a deep, unresolved mystery buried in his mind.
A month ago, not long after escaping from the imperial city, he was ambushed by two elders of the Three Calamities Sect, Wei Yan and Zhao Lie.
At the time, the two of them had spoken openly, mentioning the Eternal Life Lock during their conversation.
From what they discussed, the Eternal Life Lock seemed to be the name of a formation, one possibly connected to national destiny, dragon veins, and other such forces.
But back then, Chen Kuang didn't know much about these matters, so he couldn't grasp the full implications of what it meant.
Now, looking back, this thing was likely far more terrifying than he'd imagined.
Chen Kuang said, "I've heard of it, but I don't know what it actually is."
Jiang Wuya's eyes gleamed with purple light as he explained, "The so-called Eternal Life Lock is a forbidden secret art passed down from ancient times, one that only emperors who possess their nation's destiny can use."
"This art was originally an act of benevolence."
"Only a kind-hearted Ruler, one who truly cares for the world, would dare to use it."
"Because the purpose of the Eternal Life Lock formation is to sacrifice the emperor himself in order to amplify the national destiny, thus benefiting the common people."
"Once the formation activates, the emperor immediately sacrifices his own luck, divine soul, and flesh, everything, causing a surge in national destiny. The citizens of the country would then enjoy increased lifespans and enhanced cultivation potential."
"Through this formation, the emperor fuses with the national destiny. His consciousness becomes the consciousness of the nation itself. In other words... the ruler becomes the realm."
"From then on, the emperor can spread blessings through the national destiny and bring everlasting peace and prosperity to the country."
Jiang Wuya added in a low tone, "However, there is one problem, the emperor will henceforth be eternally trapped within the intangible and invisible national destiny."
"And thus... the art came to be called the Eternal Life Lock."
Chen Kuang frowned. "But... this secret art is now considered forbidden.. An emperor is still human. In such a long span of time, even the most virtuous ruler would eventually be tormented into becoming a tyrant."
Jiang Wuya's eyes shone with excitement as he gesticulated wildly, clapping and laughing:
"Exactly! Exactly!"
"Every emperor who has ever used the Eternal Life Lock, without exception, eventually turned into a terrifying, formless demon, burying his own nation with his own hands!"
"Because once he becomes one with the national destiny, only the death of that national destiny can bring about his own death!"
"And so, from that day forward, the Eternal Life Lock became taboo, no longer used by anyone."
Chen Kuang said, "So in the final moments, Su Yu used the Eternal Life Lock, binding himself with the national destiny."
"And at the same time, he fused the national destiny and the Elixir of Immortality, then sent it all to me?"
Jiang Wuya nodded.
"Haa..." Chen Kuang exhaled slowly.
At last, he had some idea of the kind of scheme he had been dragged into, used like a pawn in a vast and terrifying game.
But in the very next moment, he furrowed his brow again.
Something felt off.
"Wait a moment. I first heard the term Eternal Life Lock from the mouths of the elders of the Three Calamities Sect in the Zhou Kingdom..."
Jiang Wuya grinned wickedly.
"Su Yu wasn't the only one who knew this secret art."
Chen Kuang frowned. "Ji Chengtian plans to use it too? No, that's impossible. He's still alive and well in the Zhou Kingdom. Why would he use such an art?"
Jiang Wuya laughed heartily, his eyes widening, his expression turning eerie like an owl as he slapped his thigh and exclaimed:
"Ji Chengtian intends to reverse the formation!"
Chen Kuang sharply inhaled.
Beside him, Su Huaiying also immediately understood, a chill crawling up her spine. "Ji Chengtian wants to use the Eternal Life Lock... in reverse?!"
"Yes. And the target isn't the people of Zhou Kingdom, but rather... the people of the Liang Kingdom!"
As soon as Jiang Wuya's words fell, Chen Kuang felt his scalp go numb.
Damn it, it was all true!
In other words, Ji Chengtian planned to use the entire population of the Liang Kingdom as a sacrificial offering, to fuel his own power, offering up the blood and flesh of the people of Liang, in order to strengthen the national fate of Zhou!
(End of Chapter)