When Su Hansheng left the pond, he looked back.
After telling him everything, Lan Xubai seemed to have put down a heavy burden, leaning back in his chair and fishing with ease.
He didn’t ask Su Hansheng to send him off or to make a fuss, as if he was just having an ordinary day, ready to pick up his fishing rod and bucket and go back to the study hall for a comfortable sleep.
Su Hansheng knew he couldn’t do anything, and finally turned to leave.
Today was a rare good day, with a gentle breeze rippling the pond’s surface.
Suddenly, the quiet pond stirred.
It seemed a fish had bitten.
This big fish was strong, struggling fiercely to escape the hook, sending ripples across the water.
The unattended fishing rod was dragged into the water by the fish, which finally managed to escape.
Su Hansheng didn’t go looking for Ying Zhijin. He quickly returned to the Buddha Hall and used a spirit artifact to search for Chongjue.
But Chongjue was nowhere to be found, giving no response.
At that moment, Jin Yiyuan’s voice suddenly came from outside. “Young Master Su!”
His voice sounded low, as if he’d been beaten and was coming to settle accounts.
Su Hansheng’s grip on the spirit artifact tightened. He looked up toward the Buddha Hall’s entrance.
Jin Yiyuan really had been beaten.
There was a whip mark on his neck, clearly from Chu Fenghan.
Su Hansheng, who had given the bad advice, felt unusually guilty. He coughed dryly and tried to stay calm. “Senior Jin, why did you come back so quickly?”
Jin Yiyuan gave a strange smile. “All thanks to the good advice from Young Master Su.”
Su Hansheng tried to stay composed. “Oh, did it work?”
After asking, he regretted it. With those bruises, how could it possibly have worked?
He was mentally cursing himself for asking such a pointless question when Jin Yiyuan strode over, his heavy footsteps echoing as he rushed up to him.
Su Hansheng instantly went on guard, even summoning talismans with his fingers.
“Stay calm, my Dao Companion is…”
Before he could finish his threat, Jin Yiyuan, still smiling, firmly grabbed Su Hansheng’s thin shoulder. His usually carefree face showed unmistakable joy.
“Of course it worked! It worked wonders! For the first time, he didn’t give me his usual sarcastic remarks—just called me crazy and kicked me off the spirit boat.”
Honestly, after three years, he still couldn’t get used to this guy’s strange habit of seeking punishment!
But Jin Yiyuan was delighted.
Chu Fenghan was like a cold, unyielding stone, and Jin Yiyuan, driven by jealousy years ago, had angered him, making their relationship start off as badly as possible. No matter how hard Jin Yiyuan tried to make amends, nothing helped.
Jin Yiyuan had grown up spoiled, proud and defiant. If he had ever swallowed his pride and humbly tried to appease Chu Fenghan, their relationship wouldn’t have dragged on so long.
But now, after Su Hansheng taught him the trick of “not caring about shame,” Jin Yiyuan tried it as a last resort. To his surprise, it worked wonders on the usually unyielding Chu Fenghan.
“Young Master Su,” Jin Yiyuan said seriously, “from now on, you’re my sworn junior brother. The Jin family’s doors will always be open to you. If you ever need help, I’ll give my life for you!”
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eQw DQNkGw’t IgrbIttQJw HQHw’E vaGwVI. qQEaJkE aItQEGEQJw, aI tGQH, “TaGE’t QhrJttQiSI.”
Didn’t you just say you’d do anything?
Jin Yiyuan explained, “Young Master, you don’t know. The decision to keep you at Wendao Academy was made by the dean, the World-Honored One, and Ying Daojun together. I was just joking earlier. I don’t have the courage to actually take you to Old Talisman Ridge.”
Su Hansheng: “So you’re here to watch me?”
Jin Yiyuan said, “Not exactly.”
Su Hansheng understood and stood up to leave the Buddha Hall.
Jin Yiyuan blocked him. “Are you planning to go to Old Talisman Ridge?”
Su Hansheng didn’t hide it and nodded.
He was alone and couldn’t reach the Heaven-Reaching Tower at Old Talisman Ridge. He’d have to find Ying Zhijin and see if he could get a spirit boat there.
Jin Yiyuan looked thoughtfully at Su Hansheng for a while before saying, “I’ll take you.”
“You just said you didn’t have the courage.”
Jin Yiyuan laughed. “But if you’re determined to go, I can’t stop you. In the end, you’ll go to Old Talisman Ridge anyway. I’m free, so why not join you and see what happens?”
After all, the Heaven-Reaching Tower wasn’t a place ordinary people could casually approach.
Jin Yiyuan might not have much, but he was bold. He’d go anywhere for a bit of excitement.
Su Hansheng was in a hurry, so he agreed right away.
A short while later, Jin Yiyuan brought the sect’s most luxurious pleasure boat, and together with Su Hansheng, they flew from Wendao Academy, heading quietly toward Old Talisman Ridge.
The Heaven-Reaching Tower.
Chongjue and Zou Chi had planned to break the formation and enter the tower at noon, but after expanding their spiritual sense for a while, they couldn’t find any trace of Ying Jianhua.
He had been sitting alone, watching the tower from a distance last night, but by morning, he was gone.
Ying Jianhua wasn’t the type to flee from battle.
Zou Chi closed his eyes and calculated, then shook his head. “I can’t find him. It’s as if his aura is blocked by invisible spiritual energy.”
Just like Zhuang Lingge’s life-long lamp going out.
Qifu Yin was impatient. “He’s just Su Xuanlin’s disciple. It doesn’t matter if he’s here or not. Now that the four sacred objects are gathered, let’s enter the tower. If we wait past midnight, our luck will fade, and breaking the formation will be even harder.”
Chongjue stood outside the spirit mustard seed, silently watching the Heaven-Reaching Tower, which was still collapsing.
After a long time, he suddenly said, “No need.”
Qifu Yin was annoyed. “What do you mean?”
“No need to break the formation.”
The others sensed something was wrong and stepped out of the spirit mustard seed, all looking at the giant tower in the distance.
An ordinary person might not notice anything strange, but everyone present was a sacred object. Looking closely, they saw that the Heaven-Reaching Tower, which had been slowly shedding stones from all sides yesterday, now had a strange tilt.
The stones were only falling from one side of the tower, like rain.
The deafening sound of falling stones could be heard for dozens of miles.
Dust filled the sky, blocking out the sun.
There was no need to break the formation.
By tomorrow, the Heaven-Reaching Tower would probably collapse completely, spanning the entire Three Realms.
Chongjue’s Great Ascension spiritual sense spread out, and his brows furrowed tighter.
The Heaven-Reaching Tower was too massive. Even the tallest mountain in the Three Realms was like an ant before it. If it fell straight down, it would destroy half the Three Realms.
Half of Old Talisman Ridge and all of Magpie Ridge would be buried.
Zou Chi and the others were frowning when they saw Chongjue suddenly act out of character, almost with disgust. “Enter the tower from the southeast first, destroy the long-life lamp inside—what are you all dawdling for? Are you giving birth? You bunch of fools.”
After Chongjue spoke, his expression instantly returned to its usual calm, serene look.
He rubbed his temples, realizing for the first time how truly separate the evil one inside him still was.
The evil one, remembering how Su Hansheng had been indirectly killed by the Heaven-Reaching Tower in his previous life, had been restless in his spirit sea. Unable to hold back, he had burst out and started mocking everyone indiscriminately.
Zou Chi and Qifu Yin, though scolded, strangely felt a sense of reunion.
Chongjue sighed helplessly. “You two take Gong Handan into the tower first.”
Gong Handan, like a real lamp, was unobtrusive, quietly sitting and not saying a word. Only when she heard her name did she react, standing up.
Qifu Yin asked, “And you?”
“I’ll go look for Ying Jianhua,” Chongjue said. “No matter if I find him or not, I’ll enter the tower within half an hour.”
Qifu Yin was extremely impatient, but he couldn’t interfere with Chongjue’s decision. He only frowned and left with a sweep of his sleeve.
Chongjue watched the three depart, his spiritual sense spreading even further, searching for Ying Jianhua’s trace.
High above, thousands of miles away.
Su Hansheng sat alone on the edge of the pleasure boat’s railing, swinging his legs and staring blankly at the swirling sea of clouds below, lost in thought.
Jin Yiyuan leaned beside him, lazily saying, “We won’t arrive until nightfall. Don’t you want to rest?”
Su Hansheng’s black hair fluttered wildly in the wind as he shook his head.
Jin Yiyuan copied his posture, sitting on the railing. “With the Heaven-Reaching Tower about to collapse, no boat can approach within a hundred miles. We’ll probably have to fly there.”
Su Hansheng’s cultivation wasn’t high, but he’d learned to fly these past three years. “Fine.”
Jin Yiyuan raised an eyebrow. “Something on your mind?”
Su Hansheng had always been carefree, content to wait for Chongjue’s return at the academy. But Lan Xubai’s divination had completely disrupted his plan to loaf around and do nothing.
In his previous life, he’d rather die than hand over the Phoenix Bone to save the people. But in this life, he seemed unable to escape the fate of a sacred object.
Su Hansheng yawned, listlessly gazing at the endless sea of clouds. “I just feel that fate and destiny are so boring.”
If everything was predetermined, and he was just a chess piece on the board, every move controlled by someone else, what was the point of living?
Just to entertain others?
Su Hansheng didn’t say much, exchanged a few words with Jin Yiyuan, and returned to his quarters, continuing to try to contact Chongjue.
But whether the signal was blocked or Chongjue was still busy, his message never got through.
Su Hansheng threw the spirit artifact aside, lying down on the soft couch.
He knew if he kept thinking like this, he’d probably have another breakdown. He forced himself to sleep deeply, hoping to wake up at the Heaven-Reaching Tower.
This sleep was extremely heavy. Vaguely, he seemed to hear that lullaby again.
Su Hansheng dazedly opened his eyes, instinctively thinking he was back in the cradle dream.
But looking around, he found himself in a blood-soaked Infinite Hell.
In the broken slaughter formation, a blood-covered man held him, humming a lullaby to soothe him to sleep.
“Black magpie wants to fly, the distant traveler will return. When the black magpie arrives, the phoenix comes.”
Su Hansheng only remembered this fragment, but at the time, his mind was muddled and he hadn’t clearly remembered the lyrics. This dream now cleared the dust from his memory, and the familiar song filled his ears.
Su Hansheng knelt in the blood, watching the blood-stained man smile gently at him.
“Little magpie, walk forward, cross the sea of fire and become a phoenix.”
Su Hansheng suddenly woke from the dream, nearly tumbling off the edge of the bed.
It was just a dream from memory, nothing special, but Su Hansheng was still shaken, his mind in chaos, clutching his chest and gasping.
Only when his breathing calmed did he realize there was someone in the boat’s room.
It was almost sunset, the window dim, and the wind could be heard outside.
Someone stood by the window, seemingly looking down at the clouds, but it was unclear how long they’d been there.
Su Hansheng stared blankly, feeling like he was still dreaming. Otherwise, Ying Jianhua, who shouldn’t be here…
Why was he on the pleasure boat?
Ying Jianhua noticed Su Hansheng was awake and slightly turned, his face in shadow, unreadable.
Su Hansheng’s forehead was covered in sweat. Hesitantly, he said, “Senior Brother?”
Ying Jianhua softly “mm”ed, slowly walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed, casually brushing the sweat from Su Hansheng’s forehead. “Had a nightmare? Why are you so scared?”
Su Hansheng stared blankly, dazedly looking at Ying Jianhua.
Ying Jianhua smiled, about to speak, but suddenly felt a killing talisman sweep toward his chest.
A protective barrier instantly activated, colliding with Su Hansheng’s killing talisman, shattering into broken sparks.
Ying Jianhua stepped back, staring straight at Su Hansheng.
Su Hansheng looked at him expressionlessly, ten talismans silently appearing on his fingertips, his voice cold.