Chapter 581: False Body Takes the Blame, Situ’s White Hair

But once he handed over the "Huangtian Gourd," he would truly have no strength left to resist Wei Tu.

Even though he knew defeat was certain, in his mind, a desperate counterattack before death could still cause Wei Tu great pain and force him to pay a heavy price.

"As long as Senior Chilong is willing to swear an oath and spare my life, this Huangtian Gourd… I will willingly offer it up."

Ji Wuyai braced himself and said through gritted teeth.

As an Old Demon, he would never do the kind of thing where one gets sold and then helps count the money. Without Wei Tu’s promise, he would never hand over the Huangtian Gourd, his protective treasure, and then leave his own dharma body exposed in front of a body cultivator like Wei Tu, letting his life fall into another’s hands.

"An oath?"

Hearing this, Wei Tu raised his brows slightly. Inwardly, he thought, Ji Wuyai truly lived up to being an Old Demon of the Hehuan Sect—shrewd indeed.

Forcing this devil to give up the Huangtian Gourd, he had indeed planned to trick him away from it and then kill him in one strike.

Of course, it wasn’t that he couldn’t kill Ji Wuyai inside the gourd, but such a fierce method of fighting would likely damage this fine defensive treasure.

"An oath, that can be done."

"But I don’t have a spare Heaven’s Nether True Page at hand. Once the oath is made, I wonder if Elder Ji will still trust my character…"

Wei Tu smiled faintly, tossing the problem back at Ji Wuyai.

A soul oath did have some effect in the unseen, and it wasn’t something to swear lightly. But the effect took too long to manifest and was too vague. Most cultivators treated soul oaths as nothing more than empty words.

Yet an oath sworn upon the Heaven’s Nether True Page was different. With the page’s power as a binding force, the moment one broke the oath, the punishment took effect immediately.

The moment those words fell, Ji Wuyai’s heart relaxed. As the Grand Elder of the Hehuan Sect, he had naturally collected a few Heaven’s Nether True Pages. This time, he just happened to have brought one along.

"Please wait a moment, Senior Chilong."

Ji Wuyai apologized, then pulled a page from his storage pouch. He carefully lowered the Huangtian Gourd’s protective barrier and extended the page toward Wei Tu.

But just as he thought the matter had settled, he suddenly saw Wei Tu move, even though they were separated by a hundred feet.

His speed was like lightning. Residual shadows trailed behind as he shot forward. At the very instant Ji Wuyai lowered his barrier, Wei Tu appeared before him. With both hands he ripped a hole in the barrier, then stretched out his right arm and yanked him straight out of the Huangtian Gourd.

That speed caught Ji Wuyai completely off guard.

He had no idea that in Wei Tu’s battle against Lüqiu Jinyuan, his escape speed had already matched Lüqiu Jinyuan’s space movement art, the Red Spirit Wings.

Now, in Wei Tu’s eyes, a hundred feet was nothing more than the blink of an eye.

"Chilong, you break your word!"

Terrified, Ji Wuyai’s Nascent Soul instantly abandoned his flesh, trying to escape back into the Huangtian Gourd.

But just then, a black banner blocked his way. From within it rushed out two infants, giggling as they grabbed his Nascent Soul’s arms and legs, dragging him into the banner.

"Refining Soul Banner? No!"

Ji Wuyai screamed in horror. He wanted to break free from the banner’s inner space, but with the Two-Forms Infants binding him, he couldn’t even twitch.

…

"A bit weak."

Glancing once at the now-dead Ji Wuyai, Wei Tu shook his head. With a wave of his sleeve, he drew the floating Huangtian Gourd into his robe. Then with a sweep of his mana, he tore a dark red storage pouch from the corpse.

This battle had turned out far easier than he expected.

Yes, part of it was thanks to his deception, but even without that, this devil would not have lasted many exchanges against him.

The deception was mainly to protect the Huangtian Gourd intact, not because he couldn’t win in direct combat.

By his judgment, Ji Wuyai’s strength was about the same as the Second Mountain Lord or the old ancestor of the Fireburn Sect—utterly average among mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

Clearly weaker than mid-stage experts like the Daoist Liu Yu or Ji Yifeng.

"By now, calling myself a Nascent Soul killer wouldn’t be an exaggeration."

After tidying up the battlefield, this thought crossed Wei Tu’s mind.

Since advancing to the Nascent Soul realm, the number of Nascent Soul cultivators he had personally slain had reached seven or eight.

And many of them had been mid-stage.

His record was no less than that of some demonic giants who had been famous for centuries.

"No wonder records of fourth-tier body cultivators are so rare in the cultivation world. And why dual cultivators of body and dharma are so highly praised."

Wei Tu suddenly understood.

With his fourth-tier body cultivation, he wasn’t yet among the top elite. But against weaker Nascent Soul cultivators, he was definitely a reaper.

Thinking of this, his heart tightened. From now on, in righteous lands he would keep a low profile, never revealing his cultivation above mid-stage fourth-tier body refinement unless absolutely necessary.

He had no desire to become everyone’s target.

"Hm?"

"Someone’s coming?"

At that moment, Wei Tu sensed two mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators rushing toward this place.

After a brief thought, he understood. These were Nascent Soul cultivators from Ancient Sword Mountain who had followed his instructions to bring righteous reinforcements.

"One of them is Venerable Master Jiuli…"

Borrowing Ancestor Chilong’s divine sense, Wei Tu identified the two approaching cultivators.

Seeing this, he didn’t immediately leave. Instead, with a wave of his sleeve, he transformed into the appearance of "Daoist Fu."

Ji Wuyai and the Daoist Liu Yu were dead, and someone had to take the blame. The Daoist Fu identity was the most suitable.

The only cultivators tied to Daoist Fu were Madam Jin and her daughter of the Myriad Yin Sect.

Right now, those two were quietly cultivating in hiding on Beiyuan Island, safe from being implicated.

Besides, Madam Jin and her daughter weren’t ordinary women. Knowing he had the Joyous Nuo Mask, they would naturally be cautious against cultivators of the Hehuan Sect.

In other words, even if the Hehuan Sect wanted to target them, they might not get the chance.

More importantly, this Daoist Fu identity had once cooperated with Venerable Master Jiuli.

They had agreed that once he obtained detailed information on Old Demon Jiuchuan, Jiuli would hand over the second half of the Little Big Dipper Star Divine Art.

Which meant that even if Venerable Master Jiuli recognized his true identity, he would cover for him and mislead righteous and demonic cultivators alike.

This way, with Daoist Fu taking the blame, hostility toward "Wei Tu" would lessen greatly.

Even if, in the future, Daoist Fu’s identity was exposed, the time gained would be enough for him to grow stronger.

In the end, no matter how bad things became, for him it would never be a dead end. At worst, he could take his people overseas and hide for a few hundred years.

…

Moments later, Venerable Master Jiuli and another mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator named Feng Yunqi arrived at the battlefield.

"Daoist Fu?" Venerable Master Jiuli’s face showed surprise as his eyes swept over Wei Tu’s appearance and the corpse of Ji Wuyai before him.

At that moment, Wei Tu seemed to notice too. Quickly, he swept his mana and stuffed Ji Wuyai’s body into a storage pouch. Then he turned a wary gaze toward Feng Yunqi and Venerable Master Jiuli.

"Fellow Daoists, could it be that seeing me kill Ji Wuyai, with my mana slightly diminished, you plan to strike at me?"

Wei Tu’s face turned cold, his voice indifferent.

"No, no!"

"You misunderstand…"

Feng Yunqi quickly shook his head and explained.

Anyone who could slay a peer of the same realm was not to be trifled with.

Besides, from his observation, this Daoist Fu’s aura hadn’t weakened much at all. He was still at full strength.

"Then what business brings the two of you here?"

Hearing this, Wei Tu’s expression eased slightly. He took a few steps back, keeping some distance from them, and asked.

Righteous and demonic paths did not stand together.

Though he and Venerable Master Jiuli cooperated in private, they could not show it openly.

In front of outsiders, acting like strangers was the norm for dealings between righteous and demonic cultivators.

"Ji Wuyai infiltrated Ancient Sword Mountain. The righteous cultivators asked us for aid, so we came…"

Venerable Master Jiuli paused a moment, then explained to Wei Tu.

That was the surface explanation.

In secret, Jiuli also asked why Wei Tu had killed Ji Wuyai.

Wei Tu’s reply was simple.

He happened to pass by, saw Ji Wuyai alone and gravely wounded, and casually killed him.

Greed for spoils was a normal thing.

In truth, Jiuli and Feng Yunqi had come for much the same reason.

Otherwise, the so-called "righteous solidarity" wouldn’t have been enough to draw two Nascent Soul experts all the way here, risking danger.

Only—

Venerable Master Jiuli felt that Wei Tu’s reason for acting wasn’t quite that simple.

The last time he met Daoist Fu in Chu Kingdom, Daoist Fu had tried to intimidate him—by tossing him a fresh piece of a Nascent Soul cultivator’s corpse.

Later investigation revealed that the corpse fragment had belonged to the Daoist Liu Yu.

And now Wei Tu had slain Ji Wuyai, a fellow disciple of that same Daoist Liu Yu. To claim there was no hidden connection was far too coincidental.

But Venerable Master Jiuli didn’t intend to dig deeper. He knew his own limits and had no desire to provoke Wei Tu too much.

"Brother Feng, this Daoist Fu is no ordinary man. Even if the two of us join forces, we couldn’t take him down. Best just let him leave."

After questioning Wei Tu, Venerable Master Jiuli secretly sent this sound transmission to Feng Yunqi.

"Exactly, exactly!"

Feng Yunqi had no intention of provoking Wei Tu either. Hearing Jiuli’s words, he let out a breath of relief and quickly agreed.

Yet as they cupped hands and prepared to part ways, a sudden question struck Feng Yunqi.

"But Wei Tu… where did he go?"

He frowned as he asked.

He didn’t know Wei Tu personally, but this time Wei Tu had pursued Ji Wuyai alone for the sake of helping his friend Situ You. That courage made Feng Yunqi respect him.

Besides, Wei Tu’s potential was far from small.

So when he came at the righteous sects’ request to hunt Ji Wuyai, he also carried the thought of befriending Wei Tu.

Yet now, Wei Tu was nowhere to be seen.

'Could it be… Wei Tu was killed by this Daoist Fu?' Cold sweat broke out on Feng Yunqi’s back as sorrow filled his heart.

"Fellow Daoist Fu, where is Wei Tu?"

Hearing this, Venerable Master Jiuli also felt suspicious. But unlike Feng Yunqi’s wild guesses, he directly asked Wei Tu through sound transmission.

The name Wei Tu was not unfamiliar to him.

Back then, his Dao companion Madam Lan had once entered the Great Void Realm with Wei Tu.

Later, Madam Lan’s death did have some ties to Wei Tu.

But Jiuli had pinned that debt on Old Demon Jiuchuan instead. To the Wei Tu of those days—just a mere Golden Core junior—he held no lingering grudge.

As a righteous cultivator, he had that much bottom line.

"That junior saw me come out and sensibly ran away."

Wei Tu sneered, speaking with contempt.

When those words fell, Jiuli nodded slightly and relayed them to Feng Yunqi.

Having answered, Wei Tu didn’t linger at the battlefield. With a flick of his sleeve, he turned into a streak of blood light and vanished beyond the horizon.

"Fellow Daoist Jiuli, you know this Daoist Fu?"

Watching Wei Tu disappear, Feng Yunqi turned to Jiuli with a tone of surprise.

Earlier, although Wei Tu and Jiuli hadn’t openly exchanged greetings, from their expressions and manner he could sense there was more beneath the surface.

"We met once in Zheng Kingdom."

Jiuli replied casually.

After speaking, he cast a deep look toward the direction Wei Tu had gone.

Back then, after parting ways in Chu Kingdom, he had sent people to dig into Daoist Fu’s background in demonic lands.

Only then did he learn that Daoist Fu’s true identity was the young sect master of the Myriad Yin Sect, disciple of Ancestor Chilong.

But by the time he discovered this, Daoist Fu had already joined forces with Madam Jin and her daughter to flee the sect.

Now seeing Daoist Fu alive and well was proof enough that he had indeed escaped that calamity.

Still, Jiuli felt instinctively that there was some link between Wei Tu and Daoist Fu.

But intelligence about Daoist Fu inside the Myriad Yin Sect was too scarce, tightly sealed by Deputy Sect Master Duan Changjing. Even with his suspicions, Jiuli couldn’t be certain.

…

Half a day later, Wei Tu—pretending to be gravely wounded—returned to Ancient Sword Mountain.

"Many thanks, Brother Wei. Without your great help, Ancient Sword Mountain would have been in grave danger this time!"

Sensing his arrival, Situ You walked out of the mountain gate personally to welcome him.

"Brother Situ, this…"

Wei Tu noticed then that Situ You’s once-black hair had somehow turned completely white.

"My wife died heroically. For me to cling to life in this world already feels like a betrayal of her…"

Situ You deflected the truth with heavy words.

But Wei Tu understood clearly.

This head of white hair came from his grief at watching Tian Qiuyun self-detonate before his eyes.

Hair turned white in a single day.

Yet hearing this, Wei Tu couldn’t help but arch a brow. If he hadn’t been the mastermind behind it all, he might really have been fooled.

So-called deep devotion? Clearly Situ You was just acting, using his mana to change his black hair into white.