darknovel Chapter 1116 Black and White
Chapter 1116 Black and White
Three days later, Chen Yuan met the original owner of the strange beast statue in the quiet room on the seventy-ninth floor of the Treasure Pavilion.
To Chen Yuan's surprise, the person was a woman, who looked to be around thirty years old. She was beautiful, with a graceful figure, and wore a light green dress. She was gentle and elegant, and there was a hint of wariness in her beautiful eyes.
Chen Yuan waited in the quiet room for a quarter of an hour before Ling Jiuque led the woman into the room and bowed to Chen Yuan with clasped hands: "Junior brother, this is Fellow Daoist Su Ling'er, who sold the exotic beast statue. She is a rogue cultivator from the Mingze Continent."
"Junior brother, if you have any questions, you can ask Fellow Daoist Su yourself. I'll take my leave now."
Chen Yuan clasped his hands in thanks, and Ling Jiuque left the quiet room, closing the door, leaving only Chen Yuan and Su Ling'er.
Chen Yuan clasped his hands in a bow and said, "I am Chen Yuan. I have purchased the fairy's mythical beast statue and have a few questions for you."
"Regardless of whether the fairy's answer is useful to me, I will offer a bottle of mid-stage Void Refinement pills as a reward."
He flipped his hand and took out a jade bottle, pouring out a pill. The pill was filled with swirling spiritual energy and was a top-grade pill for the mid-stage of the Void Refinement realm.
Su Ling'er looked at the pill in Chen Yuan's hand, her wariness lessening somewhat. She gave a graceful bow and said softly, "Fellow Daoist, please speak. I will answer all your questions without reservation."
"Please sit, fairy." Chen Yuan raised his hand and gestured for the pill to be placed back into the jade bottle.
Fortunately, he immediately asked Ling Jiuque for help after the auction, and Su Ling'er was clearly quite wary of him.
If it is delayed for a few days, and Su Ling'er takes away the pills obtained from the auction of the exotic beast statue, it will be extremely difficult to ask her to meet and inquire about the exotic beast statue.
After Su Ling'er sat down, Chen Yuan asked, "Was that beast statue crafted by the fairy, or did the fairy obtain it from someone else?"
Su Ling'er hesitated for a moment before saying, "I obtained this treasure from a cultivator in a minor world."
"May I ask which minor world this person is from? What is their name?" Chen Yuan pressed.
Su Ling'er hesitated even more, but she glanced at the jade bottle on the table and parted her red lips slightly: "Mingze Continent, Feilin Realm, Su Ling Sect Elder, Wu Shuang."
Chen Yuan nodded: "Thank you for your guidance. Please accept this bottle of pills, Fairy."
Without him making any move, the jade bottle on the table slid over and stopped in front of Su Ling'er.
Su Ling'er picked up the jade bottle, a hint of hesitation in her beautiful eyes, and said, "This Fellow Daoist Wu is also a human cultivator, and we have some acquaintance. I hope you will not make things difficult for him."
Chen Yuan smiled and said, "If you are worried, why don't you come with me to see this Fellow Daoist Wu?"
Human cultivators are not only found in the Spirit Realm; the most common races in all the heavens and myriad realms are humans and demons.
Of the five great worlds currently clashing with the spirit realm, two are dominated by humans, yet they still wage war against the spirit realm without showing any mercy.
The Spirit Realm accepts alien races, and naturally it also accepts humans, but it only accepts cultivators from minor worlds. This Flying Forest Realm is presumably the same.
Su Ling'er pondered for a moment and then agreed: "When do you plan to set off, fellow Daoist?"
Chen Yuan said, "I am temporarily unable to get away and will have to wait for some time, which could be as short as several decades or as long as a hundred years."
Su Ling'er frowned slightly: "Then am I supposed to wait in Donghua City forever?"
Chen Yuan said, "Fairy, you may return to Mingze Continent first. Just tell me the method of contact, and when I have time, I will go to find you and go to Feilin Realm together."
"Of course, I won't let you make a wasted trip. If you meet this Fellow Daoist Wu, I will reward you handsomely. How about ten low-grade immortal spirit stones?"
In order to lure Su Ling'er into meeting him, Chen Yuan took out an entire bottle of mid-stage Void Refinement pills.
But now that he knows the origin of the mythical beast statue, asking Su Ling'er to guide him is just to save him some trouble, so he naturally won't offer her any more pills.
Su Ling'er pondered for a moment and nodded slightly: "I will follow your advice, fellow Daoist."
She took out a jade slip, probed it with her divine sense, and after a moment withdrew it, handing the jade slip to Chen Yuan.
"If you have some free time, you can simply follow the map to find my place of cultivation."
Chen Yuan took the jade slip and used his divine sense to examine it. It was an extremely detailed map, much more detailed than the one Master Fu had given him before.
He put away the jade slip, and Su Ling'er got up to say goodbye, turning around and walking out of the quiet room.
Ling Jiuque walked in again and asked with a smile, "Junior Brother, have you gained anything?"
Chen Yuan bowed and said, "I have gained a lot. Thank you, Senior Brother, for making the connection."
Ling Jiuque waved his hand: "It was nothing, just a small favor. Junior brother, just remember not to publicize this matter."
"Don't worry, senior brother, I will keep my mouth shut."
The two exchanged a few more words, and Chen Yuan also got up to take his leave. Ling Jiuque personally saw him off from Duobao Pavilion.
Chen Yuan soared into the air, and after the Donghua Auction ended, the streaks of light in the sky thinned out considerably.
He arrived at the teleportation array hall, revealed the Tai Xuan Token, stepped into the teleportation array, and after a flash of white light, returned to Tongtian Island.
Although the mythical beast statue contains the blood of true spirits, it is too diluted and is merely a clue. It may not lead to finding more refined blood of true spirits, so it is not worth expending too much effort.
Now, there are only a dozen years left before the Tai Xuan Sect marches on Ba Gui Island. Chen Yuan still has body-tempering spiritual herbs and dozens of spiritual herbs given to him by Jing Wuji, which he needs to refine into pills.
He also needed to temper his physical body and prepare some talismans and formations for the upcoming battle, so he had no time to spare and had to put the matter aside for the time being.
Chen Yuan returned to his cave dwelling, took a short break to adjust his breathing, and then went to the alchemy room. He took out the alchemy furnace herbs, drew out the raging earth fire from the deep well, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to refine pills.
Five years passed in the blink of an eye. On this day, Chen Yuan refined a batch of pills, put them into a jade bottle, and got up to leave the alchemy room.
It was time to draw starlight into his body again. Chen Yuan was extremely cautious. Although he didn't think that Master Fu could decipher the mysteries of the jade pendant, there was a dense concentration of celestial power around Master Fu in the Hall of Ten Thousand Stars, which clearly indicated that he had also studied this path quite well.
Therefore, Chen Yuan never draws starlight to his body on Tongtian Island. Whenever this happens, he will go to great lengths to travel a million miles away from Donghua City to draw starlight to his body before returning.
Anyway, his speed is extremely fast, and traveling a million miles is only a matter of a few days. It won't take much time, but it can greatly reduce the possibility of Master Fu discovering the secret of the jade pendant.
As Chen Yuan entered the stone hall, Elder Song's figure appeared and bowed to Chen Yuan: "Reporting to Master, three months ago, Daoist Cangsong and a demon general who called himself Wuxuan came to visit. However, Master was refining pills at the time, and I declined their request. Would Master like to see them?"
"Oh?" Chen Yuan's eyes flashed. "I'll trouble Elder Song to summon them."
Master Song accepted the order and left, his figure disappearing from sight.
Chen Yuan sat down in the hall, dispelled the array, opened the stone door, and clapped his hands.
Two squirrels darted in from outside. One took out a teapot and teacups from the mustard seed ring hanging around its neck, while the other took out tea leaves from the same ring.
The two agile level-four spirit beasts used their demonic power to condense wood fire to boil water, quickly brewing a pot of spirit tea. This was a supernatural ability that Elder Song had taught them. They then placed the teapot and teacups on the stone table.
A quarter of an hour later, Elder Song led Cangsong Daoren and Wuxuan into the cave.
"Cangsong greets the elder."
"Wu Xuan greets Elder, congratulations on your great progress in cultivation, and may you live ten thousand years." The two bowed respectfully.
Wu Xuan's face no longer showed any trace of his former arrogance. His demonic aura was now restrained, and he was dressed in a green robe, making him look no different from a human cultivator.
Elder Song quietly withdrew, and Chen Yuan looked at Wu Xuan and smiled slightly: "After more than three hundred years of separation, we finally meet today. I am very pleased to learn that you have integrated into our sect."
Wu Xuan respectfully replied, "How dare I accept the title of 'fellow Daoist' from Elder Wu Xuan? I was only spared because Elder Wu Xuan showed mercy back then. How could I not do my utmost to serve the sect?"
Chen Yuan said, "Although your cultivation is only at the Nascent Soul stage, your mastery of array formations is in no way inferior to the Void Refining Protector of the Nine Palaces. You can be called an array master. What's wrong with calling you 'fellow Daoist'? Please sit down and let's talk."
When Chen Yuanjin became an elder of the Tai Xuan Sect, Wu Xuan was still the guardian spirit beast of Hua Yu Peak.
According to Elder Yuan himself, Wu Xuan has been practicing the Tai Xuan Sect's array formation techniques, and his array formation skills have advanced by leaps and bounds, making him comparable to an array master. If he were not of demon race origin, his status would already be no less than that of a Void Refining Protector.
In the lower realm, those who can set up a Core Formation array can be called array masters, those who can set up a Nascent Soul stage array can be called array grandmasters, and those who can set up a Divine Transformation stage array are unparalleled array grandmasters in the entire realm.
However, in the Upper Realm, formations below the Nascent Soul stage are considered inferior; only those who can set up a Divine Transformation stage formation can be called formation masters.
Only those who can set up the Refining Void Array are array masters; those who can set up the Integration Array are array grandmasters; and those who can set up the Mahayana Array are supreme grandmasters.
Normally, only Void Refinement stage array masters who have touched upon the power of laws can set up Void Refinement Grand Array.
However, Wu Xuan, with his astonishing mastery of array formations and his clear, spiritual eyes' precise control over the direction of array formation energy, set up a Void Refining Array with his Nascent Soul cultivation, which was no less impressive than that of an array master.
Among the thousands of array masters in the Nine Palaces, Wu Xuan is a rare genius.
Although Chen Yuan had planted the Fire Lotus Mark within him, giving him control over his life and death, he still treated him with courtesy to avoid him harboring resentment and becoming unwilling to serve him wholeheartedly.
Wu Xuan and Daoist Cangsong took their seats, and two squirrels served them spiritual tea, which they accepted with both hands.
Chen Yuan asked, "Have you two completed that sect mission?"
Cangsong Daoren and Wuxuan nodded in agreement. Chen Yuan then asked, "What exactly is that sect mission, and why does it take so long?"
Cangsong Daoren and Wuxuan exchanged a glance, both looking troubled.
Daoist Cangsong clasped his hands and said, "Please forgive us, Elder. It's not that we are unwilling to answer, but we are also unaware of the specifics of this sect mission."
Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean by that?"
A hint of confusion flashed in Wu Xuan's eyes: "It's not that I don't know, but rather that I've forgotten."
"After we completed that sect mission, we drank some kind of spiritual liquid and forgot about it. We can't remember it no matter how hard we try."
Cangsong Daoren added, "I only remember that this task was very difficult, and it seems... it seems to be related to Bagui Island."
"After completing this task, my talisman-making skills have improved a lot. It seems that if this task continues for a while longer, I will be able to refine the Void Refining Talisman."
Chen Yuan nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly smiled and said, "Since the sect has done this, it must have its reasons. There's no need to bring this up again."
"Within ten years, our sect will launch a major offensive against Tyrant Island. Lingyun Peak is short of members, so both of you will have to participate in this battle."
"You two know better than anyone how ferocious the demons of the Burning Demon Realm are, so you must be prepared."
Daoist Cangsong respectfully agreed, but Wuxuan paused for a moment and said, "I came here today to ask the elder for instructions. The Nine Palaces have summoned me, along with the array masters and spirit seekers of our sect, to go to Tyrant Turtle Island to explore the terrain of the spiritual veins in preparation for the future construction of the city and the setting up of the array. I would like to ask the elder for his instructions on whether I should accept."
Chen Yuan asked, "Is there any danger on this trip?"
Wu Xuan said, "This trip is extremely secretive, and the sect will also send cultivators to protect us, so there shouldn't be much danger."
Chen Yuan said, "This concerns the great battle on Turtle Island, so we cannot refuse. Be careful on this trip, and if possible, find out more about the situation on Turtle Island."
Wu Xuan's expression turned solemn: "Yes."
Chen Yuan gave a few more instructions, and the two got up to take their leave.
Chen Yuan pondered for a moment, then summoned Elder Song and said, "I would like to trouble Elder Song to summon Yanwei."
Elder Song respectfully agreed and disappeared. Chen Yuan took out two jade slips and probed them with his divine sense.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Zhang Yanwei entered the hall under the guidance of Master Song and bowed deeply: "Disciple greets Master. What are your instructions, Master?"
His cave dwelling, along with those of Cangsong Daoren and Wuxuan, was not far from Lingyun Peak. Upon receiving Chen Yuan's summons, Zhang Yanwei dared not delay and immediately interrupted his cultivation, arriving quickly.
Before Zhang Yanwei arrived, Chen Yuan had already left his divine sense imprint on the two jade slips.
He handed the jade slip to Zhang Yanwei and said, "Take these two jade slips to the Dragonman and Green Mantis clans and give them to Chu Weicai and Fuluohai. Tell them to do as instructed and not to make any mistakes."
“Disciple obeys!” Zhang Yanwei’s expression turned solemn as he accepted the jade slip with both hands, bowed, and stepped back.
Chen Yuan sat quietly in the hall for a while, his eyes flashing, then suddenly got up and walked out of the cave, flying towards the teleportation hall.
……
In the void and chaos, a magnificent sea stretched out in all directions, boundless and limitless. White, red, yellow, blue, and purple seawater mixed together, and every drop of seawater was like a star, radiating brilliant light.
In this strange sea, there floats a stone island.
The island is only a few miles in size, like an ant floating on the ocean, swaying with the rise and fall of the waves, seemingly about to capsize at any moment, yet always managing to escape danger and struggle desperately in the waves.
The island was shrouded in a warm, milky-white shimmer, keeping out the colorful seawater.
The island is full of life, with lush bamboo forests standing straight and tall, and green grass covering the ground like a carpet. Spiritual herbs that would drive even Nascent Soul cultivators crazy are scattered on the grass like wildflowers everywhere.
Beside the bamboo forest, a lake lies as clear as a mirror. No matter how the rocky island shakes, it remains as stable as a mountain, and the azure lake water does not ripple at all.
In a stone pavilion by the lake, two figures sat facing each other.
One person was dressed in a pure white long robe, and the other was dressed in a jet-black outfit. The person in white held a black chess piece, and the person in black held a white chess piece.
On the stone table between the two, the chessboard was already filled with chess pieces, and the winner was about to be decided.
Now it was the man in black's turn to make a move. He held a white piece between two fingers, hovering it above the chessboard. He looked down at the complex game, but couldn't bring himself to place it. His arm was frozen in place like a sculpture.
The man in white didn't urge him on. He also looked down at the chessboard, a black piece tumbling and jumping between his fingers, seemingly trying its best to escape his palm, but it just wouldn't get out.
Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this black speck is actually a ferocious beast shrunk a thousand times over, covered in jet-black fur, screaming in terror but unable to utter a sound.
Suddenly, a dazzling golden light illuminated the void, and the people in white and black seemed to be startled, slowly raising their heads.
Only then could one see that they actually had two identical faces, with the same indifferent expression, like the black and white sides of one person appearing in this world simultaneously. (End of Chapter)