Chapter 586: Beating Them at Their Own Game

The talisman's color was very faint. Hidden within the Vermilion Fruit's golden energy, it was extremely hard to detect. If the Three-Eyed Ghost Infant hadn't felt an instinctive fear and shivered in the Kidney Aperture just now, I never would have examined the golden energy bit by bit.

Looking inward with my mind, I saw the talisman was only the size of a fingernail, densely packed with tiny characters.

What made me even more uneasy was that these characters seemed alive. They floated up and down in a set pattern, as if someone were controlling them remotely.

'I never heard Blind Liu mention that a talisman could grow inside a Thousand-Year Vermilion Fruit. Someone definitely planted this in there.' I didn't dare act recklessly. I was terrified that once the golden energy was fully absorbed, the talisman would bore into my dantian, but I was equally afraid of alerting the person who had planted it.

'Xu Yan took out the Vermilion Fruit, and the Qingcheng disciples personally delivered it. There's no way it was swapped along the way. That means this talisman was likely prepared specifically for me by Xu Yan.' A cold sneer touched my lips. 'That old bastard is up to no good. He hid his intentions well!'

I still didn't know what the talisman's purpose was, nor was I about to test it. I only wanted to get this thing out of me as quickly as possible.

Circulating the Profound Truth Mental Method, I tried to wrap it in my Pre-Heaven True Qi. But whenever I prepared to pull it away from the golden energy, the characters on the talisman would turn violent, as if they were about to explode inside my dantian.

'I can't separate it by force?' Since true qi didn't work, I tried using Yin energy, but that was useless too.

'This is going to be tricky.' A supreme treasure had turned into a ticking time bomb. I sat cross-legged on the bed, my brow furrowed. 'My mind can guide the golden energy. I wonder if it will work on the talisman.'

Even cultivators couldn't compare to the strength of my mind, something Xu Yan probably hadn't anticipated.

My mind, sharp as a knife, slowly probed into the depths of the golden energy. The closer it got to the core, the harder it became to advance. Fortunately, my consciousness had been strengthened in the Deep Dream Layer, giving me the chance to pierce right to the deepest part of the energy.

As I pressed my consciousness downward, the talisman dodged automatically, as if following some pre-set command.

'Interesting.' The person who planted the talisman was incredibly cunning. Evading consciousness prevented it from being detected, maximizing its concealment.

After discovering this trait, I decided to beat them at their own game. I used my mind to wrap around the talisman, isolating it from the golden energy.

'I'll absorb the energy first, then figure out how to get this thing out.' Since the talisman was already inside my body and couldn't be dealt with immediately, I might as well leave it alone for now and strengthen myself.

I sped up my absorption of the golden energy, frantically circulating the Profound Truth Mental Method. A thin layer of mist rose around my body. If Lu Chen saw this, his eyes would pop out of his head. The arrival of purple qi and swirling mist was a sign of mastering the basics of the Profound Truth Mental Method. Even among the core disciples of the Miaozhen temple, only a few could achieve this.

When the last trace of golden energy was converted, my body emitted a sound like a flowing spring, or a mighty river breaking its ice in early spring.

A rumbling that only I could hear echoed from my meridians and acupoints. Even the Liver Aperture and Kidney Aperture, which I had previously opened, expanded significantly.

Vitality surged within me, and my heart beat with vigorous power. Looking inward, the Heart Aperture—the most yang of all yang organs among the five viscera—had actually taken on a faint golden hue.

With every heartbeat, the gold continued to spread, appearing like cracks across the Heart Aperture.

'The Heart Aperture is already loosening!' I was thoroughly exhilarated. I had now broken two great locks. Once the Heart Aperture opened, I would be one step closer to unlocking all Nine Locks and recovering my memories.

The benefits of swallowing the Vermilion Fruit didn't stop there. True qi circulated endlessly in my lower dantian, while golden light flowed through my blood. It surged upward into the Yifeng acupoints behind my ears, bursting open those hidden points in a single stroke.

The sound of the wind rushed into my ears. I could clearly hear the faintest noises from upstairs, downstairs, and even dozens of meters away.

'Is this the Breath Listening Realm?' Focusing my attention and emptying my mind, I felt as if I were suspended in a warm ocean. I could clearly hear the cyclic changes of my own breath within the dantian and meridians: deep, long, even, fine, and subtle.

My mind and breath intertwined. Stray thoughts vanished before I knew it, and it seemed as though even my breathing had ceased to exist. I had entered a wondrous state.

It felt like I could hear everything, and everything was completely under my control.

To listen not with the ears, but to listen with the breath—this was the Daoist state of Breath Listening.

Having reached this realm, many unspeakable mysteries naturally became clear.

I opened my eyes. Breaking through to a new realm was the most satisfying thing I'd experienced lately.

'With the Yifeng points opened, my hearing has become much sharper. Paired with the Judging Eye, my future streams might actually get a little easier.' A month ago, Blind Liu had mournfully declared me the person with the worst aptitude in five hundred years. Yet now, in just over a month, I was already catching up to him. I really wanted to call him right now to share the good news, just to see the shocked look on his face.

Looking inward again, the smile slowly vanished from my face when I saw that pale talisman wrapped in my consciousness.

The talisman was still loitering in my lower dantian, refusing to leave. It was impossible for me to constantly maintain a state of deep meditation, exhausting my mental energy just to keep it contained.

'I need to find a way to get it out of my body.' I didn't act rashly; planning before making a move had always been my style.

'Why did Xu Yan slip this talisman into my body? He didn't even hesitate to give away a Thousand-Year Vermilion Fruit to do it. He must have a massive scheme in play.' I narrowed my eyes. 'There's no grudge between us, and my secrets haven't been exposed. He has no reason to target me. Their main mission this time is to kill the Ghost Mother, so this talisman is likely meant to be used against her.'

The sect members misunderstood me, believing I was the Ghost Mother's husband. When Wang Yu couldn't be found, I was considered the person closest to her.

'The Ghost Infant was the first to detect the talisman earlier. Even while slumbering, it instinctively felt threatened by it. That proves this talisman heavily counters ghosts and can inflict massive damage on them. Xu Yan planted this talisman in my body probably because he wants to launch a sneak attack on the Ghost Mother when I get close to her!'

Cold sweat broke out as I realized this. I wasn't the Ghost Mother's husband at all. If I hit her with something like this when I got close, the enraged Ghost Mother would definitely tear me to pieces first.

'Old fox!' I ground my teeth in hatred, staring at the tiny characters floating on the talisman. 'This talisman has remained in a semi-active state. If it was purely for a sneak attack, there'd be no need for it to be active at all times.'

At that moment, I recalled a very strange action taken by that group of orthodox cultivators. Back in the private room, they had been passing around a piece of Xuan paper, which seemed to have something written on it.

'Doing something so odd right in front of me, and then claiming they had divined the exact date to kill the Ghost Mother... Most importantly, they could have easily waited until I left to do it, but they didn't.' Thoughts surfaced in my mind one by one, bringing every question back to the starting point.

'How did Xu Yan divine the date of the Ghost Mother's death? When she left back then, no one knew where she went. It isn't even certain if she's still in Jiangcheng.' I shook my head and decided to apply criminal psychology, using reverse psychology to deduce their plan.

'If I were Xu Yan...'

If they wanted to kill the Ghost Mother, they first had to find her.

Aside from the highly esoteric arts of divination, there were only three ways.

First: mobilize manpower and resources, wasting a vast amount of time to search every place the Ghost Mother might be. Second: do what they did last time and use Wang Yu to lure her out into the open. Third: find someone who knew her whereabouts to lead the way.

In Xu Yan's eyes, I was the Ghost Mother's husband. Coincidentally, I was also a Ghost Cultivator. It would make no sense for a Ghost Cultivator to lack any connection to his own ghostly wife.

Therefore, from his perspective, I had to know where the Ghost Mother was. If he openly asked me to guide them, I might intentionally lead them astray. But if he acted from the shadows, I might fall right into his trap.

'Passing messages on Xuan paper and telling me they divined the date of her death... could that have been an act specifically put on for me? Trying to disrupt my mind, knowing that concern leads to panic. Are they hoping I'll sneak out to warn her?'

'If that's really the case, then this talisman must have another function: tracking and guidance. They can use it to pinpoint my location.' Having thought this far, I licked my dry lips as an idea slowly surfaced in my mind.