Chapter 232

The next day.

Early morning.

The sky was dim and overcast, shrouded in a thin veil of mist. Ever since Spiritual Master Bai Mu had "returned to the Dao and perished, his body offered back to heaven and earth," the Eastern Waters region had been drenched in a constant drizzle.

The fine rain carried a faint chill, yet it could not disperse the curling smoke rising from countless cooking fires.

“Food is ready!”

Inside the prisoner camp, Yue Mingxue's shout rang out as several sturdy women carried large food barrels into the enclosure.

Dao Foundation cultivators could subsist on wind and dew, fasting for long periods without issue. Qi Ingestion cultivators, however, had yet to attain such a level of cultivation.

At the call, the Bai Family disciples, soaked by a night of rain and looking like drowned rats, obediently lined up to receive their meals.

Bai Ziye likewise held a chipped ceramic bowl in his hands. Seeing the rice inside, a trace of resentment rose in his heart.

‘Back home, I ate Jade Spring Rice every day and now they're feeding us inferior Green Jade Rice.’

Several Bai Family members nearby wore similarly displeased expressions. Yet after days of fear and hunger, they still ate with surprising enthusiasm.

“The masters are still giving us spirit rice. They're truly compassionate people.”

“Since they're feeding us, they clearly don't intend to kill us. There must still be a path to survival.”

“I'm more worried they'll throw us into some sacrificial pit...”

The more Bai Ziye listened, the more uneasy he became.

The Esoteric Hidden-Treasury Domain was currently locked in a struggle against the Blissful Union Sect.

What if they sent surrendered cultivators like them to the front lines?

Looking at it that way, the bowl in his hands was not spirit rice at all.

It was clearly a final meal before execution.

The thought instantly ruined his appetite.

Neither Bai Ziye, the surrounding Bai Family disciples, the guards, nor even the two Dumu manifestations, Moonlight White and Peacock, stationed overhead, noticed that behind Bai Ziye floated the faint, illusory figure of Spiritual Master Bai Mu.

Like a wandering spirit, he silently watched everything with a complicated expression.

...

After eating their fill, the Bai Family prisoners were assigned various tasks.

Most were ordered to organize the Bai Family treasury, record its contents, and transport everything onto spirit ships.

“This is outrageous...”

“Ancestors above... how can we face our forefathers in the underworld?”

Several elderly Bai Family cultivators watched helplessly as even the decorations from their ancestral hall were torn down and carried away without ceremony.

They beat their chests and wailed.

A few even lost the will to live and attempted suicide on the spot.

Their wishes were swiftly granted.

The White Bone Dao Buddhist soldiers immediately gave a demonstration of how human bones could be refined into artifacts.

After witnessing that scene, the remaining Bai Family members instantly became obedient, shrinking into themselves like frightened quails.

Death was one thing.

But ending up like those elders, with one's corpse transformed into a magical artifact and forever wielded by monks and Dharma Masters, unable to find peace even after death.

That was truly terrifying.

Bai Ziye became even more cautious, quietly sorting through Daoist scriptures without complaint.

His treatment was actually quite decent.

He had been assigned his own tent, and formation restrictions had been established around it.

Spiritual Master Bai Mu remained attached to his descendant, concealing himself through their shared bloodline.

His expression gradually returned to calm.

'I have already escaped the great catastrophe.'

'As long as I endure a little longer, I can seize this boy's body and continue my cultivation under the identity of Bai Ziye.'

'In the future, I shall once again become a Purple Mansion Spiritual Master of the Bai Family.'

'The only concern is that the bloodline must not decline too severely.'

'If seventy or eighty percent of the clan dies, even I may no longer be able to conceal myself from those Dharma Kings of the Hidden-Treasury Domain.'

Countless thoughts circulated through Bai Mu's mind.

Then suddenly—

A gentle voice sounded beside his ear.

“Benefactor Bai Mu...”

“Hm?”

Spiritual Master Bai Mu answered reflexively.

The next instant, his heart shook violently.

'Not good!'

In that instant, Bai Ziye himself remained dazed and oblivious.

Yet within his eyes, two beams of divine ability light suddenly blossomed.

A vast phantom forest emerged around him.

Even reduced to a single divine ability and heavily injured, Bai Mu remained a Purple Mansion Spiritual Master!

“Hehe... Benefactor, why go so far?”

At some unknown point, a gaunt young man had appeared inside the tent.

He wore a tiger-skin kasaya and held a string of white bone prayer beads.

It was none other than the White Bone Dharma King, Sangji.

Smiling warmly, he looked at Spiritual Master Bai Mu.

“Your plan of feigning death to escape calamity was truly ingenious. But if the Blissful Union Sect were to learn of it, what do you suppose they would think?”

The Bai Family had worshipped the Blissful Union Sect for generations.

Many of their elite descendants had undoubtedly joined the sect.

For Spiritual Master Bai Mu, the family's ancestor, to fake his death and flee the battlefield...

He had effectively sacrificed the entire Bai Family for his own survival.

“...They are merely descendants.”

An aged voice emerged from Bai Ziye's mouth.

“As long as I live, the Bai Family lives.”

His gaze fixed on Sangji.

“How did Dharma King discern my divine ability?”

In response, Sangji merely smiled.

He offered no explanation.

Compared to a Dharma King of the Hidden-Treasury Domain, Spiritual Master Bai Mu was now the inferior party.

Those above never needed to explain themselves to those below.

Bai Ziye let out a faint sigh.

“I suppose the Hidden-Treasury Domain possesses its own copy of the Forest Creek Deer-Sighting Art. Perhaps the Dharma King has studied it before? Or perhaps you possess some divine ability or Purple Mansion treasure capable of seeing through concealment.”

He shook his head.

“No matter. In the end, I have lost.”

Rising to his feet, he bowed.

“This old man is willing to surrender. I am willing to join the Hidden-Treasury Domain and become one of its Dharma Kings.”

“Should Spiritual Master join the Hidden-Treasury Domain, you would inevitably be sent to the front lines to demonstrate your loyalty.”

Sangji smiled faintly.

“That would be disadvantageous both for yourself and for the Bai Family.”

“Then what does Dharma King propose?”

Bai Mu asked.

“Since Spiritual Master clearly desires a life of seclusion, why not join my White Bone Dao instead?”

Sangji gently rolled the white bone prayer beads between his fingers.

“This old monk will simply treat Spiritual Master Bai Mu as already dead.”

“In the future, when Spiritual Master recultivates to the Purple Mansion realm, you will naturally become a Dharma King of the White Bone Dao.”

“Oh?”

A strange light flashed through Baimu's eyes.

A gleam flashed through Spiritual Master Bai Mu's eyes.

This truly was the best possible choice available to him. In fact, it was even better than going to the Hidden-Treasury Domain and becoming a Dharma King.

Had he not feigned death and abandoned his clan precisely because he wanted no part in the muddy waters stirred up by two Golden Core sects?

"Greetings, Dharma King."

Spiritual Master Bai Mu immediately knelt. "I ask that the Dharma King bestow the precepts upon me."

He had asked for the conferral of precepts, not empowerment.

Clearly, Spiritual Master Bai Mu still harbored a few private thoughts of his own.

Yet considering that he had once been a mid-stage Purple Mansion cultivator and was now merely at the early Purple Mansion stage, being willing to go this far was already no small matter.

Sangji pressed his palms together and smiled.

"Spiritual Master, you may serve as a Secret Dharma Protector of our White Bone Dao. In the future, there will naturally come a day when your clan's glory is restored. The descendants of the Bai Family shall yet have hope of continuing their bloodline."

"It worked!"

Inside another tent, Fang Qing's heart leapt with joy as he watched the White Bone Dharma King successfully recruit Spiritual Master Bai Mu and begin conferring the precepts upon him.

What belonged to the White Bone Dao belonged to him.

The stronger the White Bone Dao became, the better it was for him.

Furthermore...

Having a Purple Mansion Spiritual Master of the [Ji Water] lineage provided him with an invaluable reference for his own cultivation.

More importantly, the matter was being conducted in secret. There was no need to announce it publicly. Everyone could simply assume that Spiritual Master Bai Mu had already fallen.

Naturally, there would be no need to explain anything to the various Dharma Kings of the Hidden-Treasury Domain.

A short while later, through the Dao-Genesis Pearl, Fang Qing obtained the [Ji Water] Purple Mansion cultivation method that Sangji had offered up:

The Forest Creek Deer-Sighting Art!

"'A solitary tree cannot form a forest. Without a forest, what is there to hide within?' Just as I expected."

He skimmed through it briefly.

The cultivation method condensed the Dao Foundation [Hidden Forest Bank].

At first, it possessed only concealment abilities. Yet after advancing into a divine ability, it could evade death and prolong life, making it remarkably mysterious.

'No wonder they refused to hand over this cultivation method before.'

'If they had, any Purple Mansion cultivator would have immediately guessed Spiritual Master Bai Mu's intentions.'

Previously, Fang Qing had already obtained the Bai Family's foundational cultivation method, along with numerous Dao scriptures.

Now, after acquiring the Forest Creek Deer-Sighting Art as well, many insights suddenly surfaced in his heart.

'The Water Virtue is not adept at direct combat, yet it contains countless profound mysteries.'

'Water benefits all things and does not contend. Therefore, nothing beneath heaven can contend against it...'

'The Water Virtue governs life, concealment, accumulation, and illusion...'

'If Long-Awaited Sweet Rain governs the life-giving aspect of water, then Hidden Forest Bank governs concealment.'

'Only by combining these two divine abilities can one hope to reach the mid-stage Purple Mansion realm.'

'As for my Wind-Positioned Dao...'

'It represents the image of Water Virtue devouring Xun Wind in ancient times. It governs accumulation, carrying the aspect of the sea accepting a hundred rivers.'

'Only after perfecting four Purple Mansion divine abilities can one seek Golden.'

'Therefore, the final divine ability must also correspond to a portion of the Golden-position symbolism within [Ji Water]. Only then can one advance to Purple Mansion perfection.'

'That final divine ability should govern the "illusion" aspect of water, overseeing the mutual generation of reality and falsehood?'

A thought flashed through Fang Qing's mind.

After receiving the Water Virtue insights infused by lightning tribulation and studying the thousand years of accumulated Dao scriptures from the Eastern Waters Bai Family, he had finally undergone a qualitative transformation in understanding.

'According to my deductions...'

'The [Ji Water] Purple Mansion cultivation methods currently in my possession are already sufficient to break through into the late Purple Mansion stage!'

'If I can find one more [Ji Water] Purple Mansion divine ability cultivation method, one specializing in illusion, reality and falsehood, or similar techniques, then it should complement these three divine abilities and allow cultivation all the way to the peak of Purple Mansion!'

Of course, reaching the peak of Purple Mansion was one thing.

Whether one could perceive the profundities of the Golden position and successfully attain Golden was an entirely different matter.

The Eastern Waters Bai Family's inheritance had only originally reached the early Purple Mansion stage.

Even their current path toward the mid-stage Purple Mansion realm had been carved out through generations of trial and error, paid for with countless lives.

For Fang Qing to discern the overall path of the [Ji Water] Purple Mansion Dao merely through enlightenment already placed him far beyond a Purple Mansion clan such as the Bai Family.

Compared to a great sect like the Canghai Sect, however, he still fell far short.

After all, he only knew the general types of divine abilities required.

And he could only cultivate whichever suitable cultivation method he happened to find.

The overall direction might be correct, but many details could still be flawed.

He might cultivate a divine ability that appeared compatible on the surface, only to discover later that he had wandered into a dead end.

A great sect, on the other hand, would carefully consider the compatibility between divine abilities and countless other factors.

In short, they possessed generations of accumulated experience, refining ever more mature combinations through the efforts of countless cultivators.

'One day...'

'I still need to visit the Canghai Sect.'

Fang Qing felt his heart surge with anticipation.

'As for this war, it ends here for me.'

The campaign against the Blissful Union Sect was part of the Hidden-Treasury Domain's grand strategy.

For Fang Qing personally, however, it offered no meaningful benefit whatsoever.

'Now that the White Bone Dao has conquered the Eastern Waters region, it needs someone to govern and defend it.'

'I'll simply have Sangji appoint me to remain here.'

'The battles ahead will only become more dangerous. Only a fool would continue marching forward.'

'I'll stay right here. The moment anything seems wrong, I'll immediately flee using the Dao-Genesis Pearl.'

Even this assault on the Eastern Waters Bai Family had been undertaken largely because Fang Qing saw opportunities to profit from it.

Now that he had obtained what he wanted, and had no intention whatsoever of cultivating the [Fang Sun] lineage, continuing on to attack the Blissful Union Sect would expose him to risks far exceeding the rewards.

Naturally, he declined with thanks.

'If things truly become desperate, I can simply abandon everything and hide within the Qi Refining world. I can wait several decades or even a hundred years before emerging again.'

'Or perhaps I could discard everything I currently possess and travel eastward into the territory of the Orthodox Supreme Unity Mysterious Gate?'

Back in the past, fleeing had carried considerable danger.

But now, with divine status upon him and strength comparable to an early Purple Mansion cultivator, Fang Qing no longer had such concerns.

If he wanted to leave, he could do so at any time.