Chapter 585: Southern Garden Revisited

Zhang Xiaoqi mumbled a farewell and stumbled away in a daze.

Zhong Zhengyuan watched him go and heaved a helpless sigh.

He turned to Mr. Chen and asked, “Did you say those things on purpose?”

Chen Changsheng nodded. “You could say that.”

His gaze followed Zhang Xiaoqi’s retreating back. “He’d find out sooner or later. Even if you, Master Zhong, stopped him from returning, he’d still have to face this hurdle eventually.”

Zhong Zhengyuan said, “The boy isn’t lacking in talent, just too stubborn. I kept it from him because I worried he would fall and never recover after this. Sigh…”

“It’s his own path.”

Chen Changsheng said, “He must learn to stand alone sooner or later. This is only a small trial.”

Truthfully, maybe he was meddling.

But occasionally, some things he just felt compelled to do.

For Old Man Zhang, for Zhang Xiaoliu, and for the bent old woman of Autumn Moon Market.

Chen Changsheng looked back at Zhong Zhengyuan. “Master Zhong, you may see me off here. For the rest… I will seek another way.”

Zhong Zhengyuan nodded. “Farewell, Mr. Chen. Next time you visit Tianji Mountain, I shall brew tea to welcome you.”

Chen Changsheng smiled. “Certainly.”

Then he soared into the sky. Within moments, his figure vanished into the horizon.

Chen Changsheng gazed at the clouds beneath him, recalling his earlier conversation with the Mountain Lord at the temple.

“Southern Garden…”

The Demon Realm appeared at Southern Garden every year on the thirteenth day of the third month.

What made thirty-three such a special number? Why did it appear repeatedly?

Thirty-three years old. Thirty-Three Heavens. Thirteenth day of the third month…

Was it also connected to himself?

Chen Changsheng found it perplexing.

A Demon Sovereign? Himself?

He shook his head. His own temperament seemed wholly unsuited for becoming a Demon Sovereign.

Still, it served as a warning. Since the Demon Realm had ties to Southern Garden, it meant he, Chen Changsheng, was also bound to it.

Chen Changsheng flicked his wrist. A Black Pagoda appeared before him.

He lifted the spell sealing it.

The pagoda trembled slightly, as if stirring from a deep sleep.

“Well?” The pagoda’s voice was calm, seemingly resigned to its fate.

“Where is the Demon Realm?” Chen Changsheng asked.

The Black Pagoda shook slightly. “I don’t know the exact location.”

After a pause, it added, “Truly, I do not know.”

Chen Changsheng gave it a look. “Are you certain?”

The pagoda replied, “Destroying me wouldn’t change that. I’ve never been to the Demon Realm. When I saw its sovereign, he was already dead beneath Yu Xuan’s sword.”

Chen Changsheng’s heart gave a jolt. He frowned.

“How exactly did he die?”

“Don’t know.”

“You said you witnessed it.”

“I witnessed his corpse. Nothing else.”

Mr. Chen always felt the Black Pagoda held back the truth. Perhaps, he suspected, it hadn’t spoken a single honest word since the beginning.

He shook his head and tucked it back into his sleeve.

The pagoda didn’t even curse anymore. Its spirit of resistance was gone.

Chen Changsheng then flew towards the Desolate Sea Borderlands. He wanted to revisit Southern Garden. If there truly was no solution, then he’d consider abandoning the Demon Realm path.

Arriving at the place of ruined walls, numerous Cultivators still stood guard. Concealing his presence, Chen Changsheng passed through the Formation Array and plunged into the deep sea.

Through a subsea canyon, he swung his sword to sweep aside mounds of silt. Once again, that peculiar door materialized before Chen Changsheng.

But something else astonished him.

Someone was already standing before the door.

That person’s hand was pressed against the door, yet their figure remained utterly motionless, as if frozen. They were tightly packed with silt, clearly standing there for a very long time.

“Why is there another person here…?”

Chen Changsheng stepped closer. With his hand, he brushed the silt away from the figure’s face.

He looked vaguely familiar at first glance, but the memory surfaced quickly.

“Yi Zuqian?”

Chen Changsheng never imagined encountering him here.

Several years had passed. Yi Zuqian looked very different. The once neat Cultivator was now bearded, his hair wild and greasy.

Why was he here?

This place was extremely remote from the Cultivation World. No one could reach it without a Sky Skiff. Yet, no craft was visible nearby.

Setting aside these thoughts for now, Chen Changsheng needed to figure out what happened here.

Yi Zuqian’s current state was strange. Neither fully alive nor dead.

“The Soul Spirit is absent. Yet the Mortal Body remains intact?”

This baffled Chen Changsheng. For ordinary Cultivators, if their Soul Spirit left the body for over seven days, reunion became impossible. Yi Zuqian’s Mortal Body, encased in silt, had clearly been here far longer. His clothes were even half rotten in places.

Was his Soul Spirit sealed within the door?

Chen Changsheng’s eyes moved to the door surface. Yi Zuqian’s hand rested firmly on the number ‘9’.

Chen Changsheng raised an eyebrow. He retrieved the Black Pagoda again.

The pagoda seemed puzzled. “Why bring me out again?”

Chen Changsheng said, “Look at this man. What happened?”

The Black Pagoda stilled for a second. Seeing Yi Zuqian, it gave a psychic gasp. “How long has he stood here?”

“Likely, a very long time.”

“He’s… not dead?”

“Unconscious. But his Soul Spirit may have been drawn inside the door.”

“Truly?” The pagoda expressed shock. “How does one even survive that?! How did he manage?”

“What happens if one is pulled inside?” Chen Changsheng asked.

“I’m not wholly sure,” the pagoda confessed. “But when the Badger Demon brought me out, the doorway was littered with corpses – long dead, long gone. Their Soul Spirits were utterly erased.”

“I see…”

Chen Changsheng pressed, “Can he be saved?”

The pagoda looked at Yi Zuqian. “You could try… but if he dies, don’t blame me.”

Chen Changsheng considered it. “If it’s a Soul Spirit we’re dealing with…”

He might be able to try something.

The Black Pagoda saw his thoughtful expression and quickly said, “I was joking! Don’t actually go inside! I’m stuck now! If I fall here, trapped… who knows when I’ll escape again!”

Chen Changsheng ignored it. His hand reached out and landed firmly on the door where Yi Zuqian’s rested.

“Crap!”

The pagoda cursed pointlessly.

Chen Changsheng closed his eyes. Instantly, a powerful force latched onto his Soul Spirit, attempting to pull it free. Yet to him, the force felt negligible, powerless to budge his anchored spirit.

Having gauged its strength, Chen Changsheng relaxed his resistance. He allowed the pull to guide his Soul Spirit inward, inside the door.

Opening his ‘eyes’, he saw an expanse of True Flame purgatory. Though the flames felt chillingly cold, their aura seared the Soul Spirit. Chen Changsheng felt faint pricks of pain, jarring but manageable.

Within the vast landscape of True Flame…

He spotted another figure.

That figure sat cross-legged amidst the True Flame inferno, five extremities pointing skywards, eyes tightly shut – enduring the flames’ burning trial.

“Tempering his Soul Spirit with the True Flame?”

A flicker of understanding crossed Chen Changsheng’s mind. He moved forward, approaching Yi Zuqian’s meditating Soul Spirit.