Chapter 114 – Dao Guardian

Zhan Changfeng was completely unaware of what had transpired. She steadied her surging true qi, guiding it toward stability until it hovered like a mass of vapor within the vast, boundless expanse of her Qi Sea.

It was then that Zhan Changfeng realized her martial cultivation had already broken through the Prenatal realm, leaping two levels to reach the Peak of the Prenatal realm.

She turned her inner vision back to the Qi Sea. The mass of true qi had nearly condensed into liquid, and the power it contained compared to before was like the difference between a great river and a small stream.

Below the mass of true qi, three drops of Primordial Essence hung suspended.

Primordial Essence was the root of life and vitality. The power contained in a single drop rivaled that of the entire mass of true qi.

Zhan Changfeng rummaged around and discovered a threadbare wisp of life energy that had been worn down to almost nothing. She casually tossed it into the true qi mass to be devoured.

She stood up and stretched her limbs, only to find that her clothes felt a bit short on her. The stagnation in her height caused by her damaged physical body had been broken through, and she had actually grown quite a bit taller all at once.

Fortunately, her storage pouch contained clothing for various stages of growth.

She hadn’t prepared them herself — Yi Shang had arranged everything in advance.

Zhan Changfeng changed into a set of properly fitting clothes and stepped outside, glancing up at the sky now visible through the missing roof. It was quite blue.

She retrieved the Recording Stone from the door lintel, which looked ready to collapse at any moment. Before she could examine it, Shi’er and his companion approached.

Shi’er’s expression was complicated, and his tone considerably more polite than before. “Now that this matter is concluded, might you return the codex to us?”

“Of course.”

After Zhan Changfeng handed the codex over, they departed swiftly.

She wasn’t entirely clear on who they had been fighting or what exactly the dispute was about, so she sent her spiritual sense into the Recording Stone to review the events.

It turned out to be the True Sovereign she had seen in Ghost City, along with Mu Yunxi.

Zhan Changfeng pondered briefly. If this incident hadn’t taken place within the Bureau of Patrol, things would not have been resolved so easily.

When the gap in power was too great, reason held no sway. One didn’t even need a reason — pursuing one’s own Dao was reason enough.

Lives in the world of cultivation were truly both the most precious and the most worthless of things.

She could leverage the Bureau’s authority once, but she couldn’t rely on it every time. If you wanted others to listen when you spoke, you still needed strength to back your words.

Zhan Changfeng had assumed the Bureau of Patrol had intervened at the end, but when the Recording Stone’s playback reached the moment Ruhe True Sovereign’s invisible hand tore off the roof, the image suddenly became a blur of static. It was some time before it returned to normal, and by then, Ruhe True Sovereign was no longer in the frame.

She was puzzled by the blurred segment. Under normal circumstances, this shouldn’t have happened — unless whoever had come possessed power at such a high level that they could not be observed, or the recording had been deliberately erased.

Zhan Changfeng set the question aside for now and decided to head to the Hall of Inquiry first to finish filing the case. The murders at Qingbai Mountain Community School were likely not the work of a human.

Strangely, the entire way to the Hall of Inquiry, she didn’t encounter a single person.

The great doors of the Hall of Inquiry stood wide open. Looking inside, only Ji Guang sat lounging casually in the chief seat. From the look of things, he had been waiting for her.

“Bureau Adviser.” Zhan Changfeng performed a Dao salute.

Ji Guang rubbed his arms. “Please don’t — it gives me the creeps.”

He scrutinized Zhan Changfeng carefully. The bearing of a youth, with elegant bone structure — one part restrained coldness and nine parts composed audacity. Truly a refined beast in scholar’s clothing, bringing a heap of trouble down on their Bureau of Patrol.

Ji Guang put on a stern face. “Which way are you planning to leave?”

Zhan Changfeng had no idea what he was getting at and simply followed her own agenda. “I’m not leaving yet. I need to record the case details with Clerk Zhang.”

Ji Guang grew even more displeased. She wasn’t leaving yet?!

“That business at Qingbai Mountain, right? We’ve already dispatched people to investigate. That fellow Heitie who came with you has already headed back.”

Sensing Ji Guang’s glare, Zhan Changfeng realized she had overstayed her welcome and said decisively, “That works out perfectly then. Farewell.”

“Wait!” Ji Guang grew anxious again. “That Dao-Guarding Divine General of yours — while low-level cultivators can’t see it, those at Foundation Establishment and above can more or less sense it. Who knows how many people are watching this place right now trying to figure out what’s going on, and you want to walk out the front door?!”

Dao-Guarding… Divine General?

What was that?

Zhan Changfeng’s mind raced. Her instinct told her it was connected to the blurred segment in the recording. She probed cautiously, “And what if my identity is discovered?”

“Are you stupid? At your current level, if your identity gets out, you’ll either be hunted down and killed by the enemies of your Return-to-One Sword Sect, or you’ll attract a pack of wolves with wild ambitions—” Ji Guang nearly bit his own tongue mid-sentence. Would someone guarded by a Dao-Guarding Divine General really ask such a question?

A bad feeling crept over him. “You do know about the Return-to-One Sword Sect, right?”

Zhan Changfeng nodded. “I do now.”

“…” This is exactly why I can’t stand you Imperial Arts practitioners.

Great. This was someone who didn’t even know her own identity. Good heavens — could she be the reincarnation of some ancient ancestor? Otherwise, there was no way someone this young would have already received a divine blessing.

Then again, Ji Guang reconsidered — she might also be a successor of the Return-to-One Sword Sect who was about to pass her trials, and had been placed under protection ahead of time.

Either way, this was unmistakably a future powerhouse of a major sect.

Sigh. Can’t afford to provoke her, can’t afford to provoke her.

No matter how much Zhan Changfeng pressed, he refused to say another word. Whether she was a successor undergoing trials or a reincarnated being awaiting the awakening of her true spirit, both were classified secrets of the Return-to-One Sword Sect. If he carelessly let something slip, those sword-crazed maniacs would come knocking at his door.

“You’ll know what you need to know when the time comes. Now stop talking — I’m taking you out through the tunnel.” Ji Guang added, “You were in seclusion for over ten days, so I sent Heitie back first and told him you were staying to investigate the attempted assassination.”

From their conversation, it was clear the Bureau of Patrol was indeed helping to conceal her whereabouts. Regardless of the circumstances, she owed the Bureau a favor.

Zhan Changfeng spoke with gravity. “I am truly grateful for everything the Bureau of Patrol has done this time. If the Bureau ever faces hardship in the future, I will do everything in my power to help.”

“Hardship? Don’t jinx us,” Ji Guang grumbled, though deep down he felt considerably better. Having someone with potential owe you a favor was never a bad thing.

After leaving through the Bureau of Patrol’s tunnel, Zhan Changfeng emerged in a mountain hollow. She then traveled more than ten li before arriving back at Green White Mountain.

The villages around Green White Mountain had gained quite a few newcomers, all drawn by the prospect of exploring Medicine Mountain.

Upon entering the Community School, Zhan Changfeng learned that the Martial Exam had been moved up.

Teacher Yangming told her, “The head of the Martial Arts Academy visited Medicine Mountain recently. I suspect that after seeing how many cultivators have gathered here following the incident at Medicine Mountain, he wants to recruit some talented fighters. So they’ve moved Falling Blossom City’s Martial Exam up by two months — it’s now set for ten days from now. Given your situation, staying at the Community School won’t teach you much more. You might as well try the Martial Exam and get into the Martial Arts Academy sooner.”

The Martial Exam was open to all gifted cultivators below Foundation Establishment, so the testing center wasn’t a single school but an entire city. That meant thousands upon thousands of cultivators would be participating together.

Zhan Changfeng wasn’t worried about the numbers. She simply hadn’t decided whether she wanted to enter the Martial Arts Academy. “Let me think it over. But about the ordination—”

“There’s no rush on that. If you enter the Martial Arts Academy, they arrange ordination ceremonies for all unordained cultivators as a group.” Teacher Yangming offered a few words of reassurance, then continued, “As for the cannibalism cases, the investigator from the Bureau of Patrol says it’s very likely the work of a monster. There’s been no progress so far. Try to stay within the school grounds and don’t wander off.”

“I’ll be careful.”

——

Shi’er and Baizhi found Chuanduan, who had been drowning himself in drink for who knew how many days, and without a moment’s delay, the three of them returned to their sect. Three thousand years ago, the Shennong Sect had not been called the Shennong Sect — it had been the Shennong Clan. It was only after the loss of the Shennong Codex that they had been reduced from a clan to a mere sect. The Shennong Codex was the foundation of their Dao lineage. Now that the sacred relic had been recovered, restoring the Shennong Dao lineage was within reach!