【Year 6,200 — through the long years’ bitter cultivation, you have at last thoroughly digested the experience the predecessor left behind. This is an ability belonging to the Spirit-Transformation realm, yet you have mastered it in full.】
【Parting-Flame Heart-Burning Palm, Upper Volume: Perfection.】
Shen Yi still stood where he was, the surging purple-gold flame from before gone from his body, replaced by nine great suns circling round him. Around those colorless blazing suns, even the tender green grass took not the slightest harm, still lush and full of life. The terrifying heat had been wholly gathered and bound within the suns. This was the utmost mastery over power.
Shen Yi slowly withdrew his palms. The nine great suns swiftly collapsed, turning back into purple-gold flame and returning into the path infant, restoring the near-drained Heaven-Devouring demon infant to its earlier state of fullness.
By the annotations the estate’s master had left, the Parting-Flame volume could only be reckoned an ordinary Spirit-Transformation technique; it had to be paired with the Heart-Burning volume to count as a Rare method that overpowered the Spirit-Transformation realm. Six thousand years — near enough two lifetimes of a Mixed Origin Grandmaster’s lifespan. Only a true Spirit-Transformation-realm cultivator had the standing to cultivate this technique to Perfection.
“Not bad. The consumption’s just a bit much.”
Shen Yi adjusted his breath. Even with his Heaven-Devouring demon infant’s foundation far surpassing that of same-realm cultivators, he could only unleash the Parting-Flame Palm once. Drawing aura from oneself was, in the end, a lesser path; to display the full might of so profound a technique, only heaven and earth could supply the sustenance.
【Remaining demon lifespan: sixteen thousand five hundred years.】
Sure enough, so long as he didn’t touch demon martial arts, the lifespan lasted quite well.
Shen Yi set off toward the Eight-Direction Dining Hall. He’d only just caught sight of that tall building when he happened to see Aqing walking out with a richly dressed old man.
“Big Brother Shen, he has business to find you about.”
Aqing came hurrying over, walking to Shen Yi’s side a little ahead of the man, and said in a low voice, “He says he has news about killing-force, but won’t guarantee it’s a spiritual root, and the asking price is extremely high. I truly can’t make the judgment.”
Her experience all came from books; met with something the books didn’t cover, she was somewhat at a loss.
That old man’s cultivation wasn’t high, merely Core-Nurturing. Yet he wore an exceedingly luxurious robe, a jade hairpin atop his head, his white hair meticulously arranged, looking exceedingly particular.
Seeing Aqing finish her low-voiced report, he nodded courteously toward Shen Yi. “Jin Baowen greets the Senior.”
Having introduced himself, Jin Baowen then walked closer and said outright, “My asking price is high, but it isn’t idle boasting — it’s that I’m braving an enormous risk. Let me speak plainly with the Senior: were Xuanguang Cave’s Perfected Master Zhang not left behind in the cave estate, then however much you offered, I still wouldn’t dare sell you this news.”
Though Perfected Master Qingfeng had already spoken, saying Perfected Master Zhang had in all likelihood fallen, so long as it wasn’t confirmed, others could only say he’d been trapped in the estate — otherwise, offend Xuanguang Cave, and one wouldn’t even know how one had died.
“…”
Shen Yi glanced at his surroundings, then turned his gaze to Aqing and said blandly, “Give it to him.”
“Oh.”
Though Aqing was somewhat puzzled why he didn’t confirm the details a little more, to avoid throwing a meat-bun to a dog, she still took a heap of heaven-and-earth treasures from the storage pouch and handed them to the old man.
Jin Baowen noticed the shift in the young man’s gaze, and a layer of cold sweat at once broke out on his back. He stared at the things in Aqing’s hand and, after a hesitation, didn’t reach to take them. “I trust the Senior. Let me give you the news first, and you can then decide whether it’s worth this price.”
He’d barely finished a single sentence, and the other was already observing the surroundings, preparing to kill. Where had this demon-cultivator come from — no wonder he wanted news related to killing-force.
“That’s not what you said just now…” Aqing blinked.
Jin Baowen paid her no more heed, but looked at Shen Yi, warily arranging his words. “Senior, this matter must be told starting from this humble old man’s identity. My Jin family was originally a small cultivating clan of a region; the most our ancestors ever produced was an entry-level Mixed Origin. Later, our luck was good, and we formed a marriage tie with the Zheng family.”
The old man explained, “That very Zheng family attached to Xuanguang Cave — reckoned a first-rate great power too, second only to the immortal sects and Great Qian. Nearly every thousand years, a clansman would successfully be taken into Xuanguang Cave. At present they rely on Perfected Master Zheng Zisheng.”
Reaching this point, he paused. He’d already made clear the news concerned Xuanguang Cave; whether to keep listening depended on the other’s nerve.
“Continue.” Shen Yi nodded.
At this, Jin Baowen swept a glance around, confirmed no one was near, and only then continued. “What this humble old man wishes to speak of — the treasure polluted by killing-force — is precisely an age-tree that someone transplanted to the Zheng family!”
“You may not know what an age-tree is.”
Jin Baowen shook his head. His cultivation was low, but by his connection to the Zheng family, he’d come to grasp a secret only the immortal sects and Great Qian knew.
“It is a treasure left within cave-estate ruins. Whatever one’s realm, so long as one swallows its fruit, one can extend one’s years and prolong one’s life… Zheng Zisheng’s uncle-master, Perfected Master Zhang, moved an age-tree out of a cave estate and lodged it with the Zheng family. There’s actually more than just me who knows this news.”
He lowered his voice again. “But the matter of the Zheng family raising the age-tree into a disaster — absolutely no one else would dare tell you. I guarantee, this spiritual plant has long since been raised by them into something foul with killing-force!”
Hearing this, the ever-so-quiet Aqing suddenly raised her hand, and only after getting Shen Yi’s signal did she say softly, “It’s false. Even Wutong Mountain hasn’t grasped the means to transplant an age-tree.”
Shen Yi of course knew this was false. If the thing could be transplanted, why would War Temple disciples go to such pains courting death in the Thousand Demon Den’s territory?
“Hah! I knew you wouldn’t believe it!”
Jin Baowen glared at Aqing in exasperation. “I’ll swear a vicious oath — that age-tree is certainly kept alive! I’m the Zheng family’s marriage relation…”
“Take the things.”
Shen Yi cut off his oath-swearing.
“My thanks, Senior!”
Jin Baowen’s taut face at once broke into a bloom of joy, and he hurriedly snatched the heaven-and-earth treasures from Aqing’s hand to stow into his storage pouch. Just then, he heard a sentence that made his expression change.
“Take the things, and take me into the Zheng family.”
The old man’s two palms trembled, and he hurriedly declined. “No — I’m the Zheng family’s relative. Trading a bit of treasure for their age-tree has already offended them to the death; how would I still dare pay a visit to their door?”
Before his words had fallen, the young man lifted a hand slightly, and the originally unremarkable black-vine hand-string abruptly floated out, bored into the old man’s sleeve, and looped about his forearm.
“I always have to confirm whether this news is true or false.” Shen Yi set off toward the Eight-Direction Dining Hall.
Jin Baowen felt the brambles jutting faintly from his arm, and could only smile bitterly. “The Senior speaks with reason.”
Then he followed along, head hanging in dejection.
Aqing watched curiously, then took out paper and brush, recording this valuable experience too in her little booklet. Just as she was preparing to catch up—
Suddenly a palm pressed down on her shoulder.
“…”
Aqing couldn’t move. Watching Shen Yi’s figure vanish through the dining hall’s gate, at this close a distance, she’d had not the slightest sense of the other. She looked back helplessly, and met a face full of anger.
(End of Chapter 280)