Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 426 Grand Plan
After he replied, the small seal in the void stopped spinning. Li Wuxiang placed his hand on his, and the two reappeared in the wilderness.

Zhou Xiang immediately asked, "What does Master Mei mean? He told you to cultivate to the Nascent Soul Realm in a month?"

"Yes."

"Huh? How do you plan to fix it?"

How to repair it? Of course, by taking shortcuts. His human skin can receive the blessings and power of offerings, and the disciples of the sect are also a source of those blessings. As the Sword Sect becomes famous throughout the world, he will receive even more offerings.

Many people have wanted to cultivate in this way in the past, but there are roughly two difficulties. The first is that Heaven is watching what people do. When they encounter many self-proclaimed reincarnations of spirits who gather incense offerings but are not powerful or small in scale, the disciples of the Thirty-Six Sects and the swordsmen will eliminate them. If they are highly skilled, or if the higher-ups of these sects intervene, or if the true spirits of Mount Ling intervene, they will intervene.

But now the world is in chaos, and the thirty-six sects are barely able to take care of themselves, let alone others. Besides, he is the Sword Sect Master of the Taiyi Sect, so logically he should be the one taking care of others, not the other way around.

Most importantly, he has been legitimized. The current leader of the Taiyi Sect worships the Eastern Emperor Taiyi and assists the Great Calamity True Lord. He himself can be considered a righteous god in the world, rather than one of those evil spirits that are different from the orthodox lineage.

The second difficulty was something Li Wuxiang couldn't understand before, but now he does—even if someone occasionally escaped the pursuit of cultivators in the mortal world at the beginning and survived afterward, that person's temperament would change, and they would gradually go mad.

People used to think that mortal bodies couldn't withstand the power of spirits and gods, but now Li Wuxiang knows that it's actually that the person's own consciousness will be gradually erased by the spirits and gods, and they will become something like "Li Jiaotu" or "Donghuang Taiyi".

This difficulty did not exist for him. At the last moment, Li Ye used the authority of Taiyi to create the position of Great Calamity True Lord for him. It was an empty space, waiting for him to fill it. He was the Great Calamity True Lord, and the Great Calamity True Lord was him; the two were one.

However, these are only enough to ensure that he can advance quickly, but not enough to allow him to reach the second level of the Nascent Soul realm, "Nurturing Transformation," within a month.

Another key point is his own method, a method that even Mei Qiulu didn't know about.

Li Wuxiang smiled at Zhou Xiang and said, "I naturally have my own methods. You will see the results in a month."

……

Ten disciples and ten sacks couldn't collect all the magical treasures in one go, so they had to go a second time to gather them all up.

The Sword Sect disciples spent the entire following night cleaning the filth off these magical artifacts.

Li Wuxiang, along with Zhou Xiang, went to deal with his personal affairs first.

Sun Ji and his apprentice were locked in a room in the east wing, which was a suite with a small hall outside. The suite was originally Zhao Qi's residence when he first came to Jinshui Town, but he had recently opened it up to make himself more comfortable.

Li Wuxiang led Zhou Xiang into the small hall and said, "Brother Zhou, before you meet them, I need to explain a few things to you."

"The reason I've been observing from the sidelines and not interfering these past few days is because I want you to see the world outside the church for yourself. Many things are useless if others say them; you have to experience them yourself to know—to know that those outside the church are not all savages, not all beasts, but living, breathing human beings. It's just that due to the harsh and difficult environment, people have become like this."

"I also want you to know that even under these circumstances, there are still some people with noble hearts who have not succumbed to their animalistic nature and vile virtues. As for Sun Ji, I also want you to experience the feelings between men and women—different from the feelings within the church. Then, I want to ask you something: whether you love as freely as you did before, or marry someone within the church who suppresses their humanity, which do you think is more like the behavior of beasts?"

Zhou Xiang instinctively wanted to hum in response. He had experienced immense pain from Li Wuxiang's words about "loving wholeheartedly."

But he was a clear-headed and reasonable man, so he suppressed the impulse and only sighed slightly: "I understand what you mean. If you ask me now, our church is more like a beast's act."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "So you don't blame me?"

These words gave Zhou Xiang a strange feeling. Standing opposite him was the Sword Sect Master of the Taiyi Sect, a Nascent Soul cultivator who had once been blessed with the fortune of Taiyi. Zhou Xiang's current situation, to put it nicely, was that of a guest here; to put it bluntly, it was that of a prisoner. Yet Li Wuxiang was seriously asking himself, "Is it his fault?"

However, he had already experienced this strange feeling far too much in just one night, and knew that this was a habit of the sect outside... at least of Li Wuxiang's Sword Sect. He felt a little touched and nodded: "Alright, I don't blame you anymore. Let me see her."

Li Wuxiang turned around, unlocked the door, and pushed it open.

Sun Ji and Feng Yuxing were still asleep in bed. There were bowls and plates on the table in the room, which must have been their last meal. They had eaten everything clean, leaving nothing behind.

The two of them slept curled up, as if they didn't feel safe even in their dreams.

Li Wuxiang walked to Sun Ji's side, raised his hand and touched her slightly, and Sun Ji immediately woke up.

Upon seeing Li Wuxiang and Zhou Xiang, he didn't react with the usual surprise, but immediately calmed down. He sat down on the bed without saying a word.

Li Wuxiang looked at her and asked, "Aren't you surprised at all to see Brother Zhou?"

In the dim light, Sun Ji said in a low voice, "You brought him here, so you've naturally explained everything. What else can I say?"

Zhou Xiang was stunned. Li Wuxiang turned to him and said, "What she means is that she feels I've already told you that she originally intended to use her beauty to deal with you. Now that you understand the truth, she doesn't need to struggle anymore."

Then he turned to Sun Ji and said, "Actually, I didn't tell him what you told me back then."

Sun Ji was stunned for a moment, and then tears streamed down his face as he looked at Zhou Xiang: "I... I was like that at first. But after that, it was the first time I'd met someone like you, and everything I said after that was genuine... I didn't know his identity back then, and I was afraid he would harm us, so I said some things I didn't mean and tried to drive him away. Zhou Lang, my feelings for you are genuine!"

Zhou Xiang had initially appeared quite calm. But upon hearing Sun Ji's words, her face trembled slightly, and she opened her mouth as if about to call out his name with deep affection once more.

Li Wuxiang raised his hand, leaving a trail of sword light in the air that illuminated the room.

Sun Ji was startled and quickly shut up.

“Brother Zhou, it’s hard to tell whether someone is sincere just by listening to what they say. Is she trying to survive, or is she truly heartbroken and in pain? I’m afraid even in your parish, you wouldn’t be able to tell. But at least we’re not here in the church.”

Li Wuxiang swiftly wiped Sun Ji's face. Sun Ji was startled again, but had no time to dodge.

Li Wuxiang held out his hand to Zhou Xiang: "Look."

Zhou Xiang looked closely at his palm, only to find it empty.

"...There's nothing there?"

"I'm just showing you that there's nothing there." Li Wuxiang moved closer to him and reached out his hand. "Don't move."

Zhou Xiang didn't understand what he was up to, but she didn't move, letting his hand stroke her face before unfolding it in front of her: "Look again."

Zhou Xiang frowned as she looked at him, then at his hands.

Under the light of the sword inside the room, Li Wuxiang's palm was no longer white, but turned grayish.

Zhou Xiang touched his face: "I haven't washed my face in a long time, it's very dirty—" "After you and Kong Youxin left the church, did you feel great?" Li Wuxiang asked him, "After coming to my Sword Sect, did you also feel that my place is full of joy? There's something you may not know, Brother Zhou: outside the church, there is no such thing as sorrow. Or rather, sorrow can be seen."

"……What's the meaning?"

“The literal meaning.” Li Wuxiang rubbed his palms together. “This layer of grayish stuff is your suffering. When you first left the church, you could still feel the suffering. Now that your heart is no longer with the Five Sacred Mountains True Practice Church, you may be slowly being accepted by the human destiny outside the church, and thus you are experiencing new laws of heaven and earth. Therefore, your suffering has become tangible.”

He turned to look at Sun Ji: "You must have noticed it too, right? After the Great Calamity Mountain Fire destroyed the world, you felt no sorrow in your heart. Sometimes your face is dirty, but you think it's just mud or a problem with the flow of your internal energy."

Zhou Xiang pondered for a moment, then said, "I still don't understand..."

"After the Great Calamity Mountain Fire, the True Spirit of the Fate Master descended to earth. You should know about this. After Mei Qiulu and I destroyed the descended True Spirit, its fortune also changed something in the world, namely the suffering of humankind. However, it has only been a few months, and not many people know about it yet. Or if they do know, they don't understand what happened."

Li Wuxiang briefly recounted what had happened that day: "So, Brother Zhou, she's not suffering at all right now. She really doesn't have any feelings for you."

Zhou Xiang stood there, stunned.

Sun Ji opened his mouth as if to speak, but seemed unsure what to say. After a while, staring at Li Wuxiang, his eyes shone brightly, and he said in an almost dreamlike voice, "Are you... Li Wuxiang?"

Li Wuxiang didn't answer her, but instead asked, "If you felt you had encountered a swordsman, based on your past actions, should you live or die?"

Sun Ji's lips trembled; he knew that in the face of such an existence, saying anything would be useless. After a moment of silence, he whispered, "Damn it."

Where is your apprentice?

Sun Ji lowered his head and thought for a moment: "She... deserves to live. She's still young, and I forced her to."

After saying this, he raised his hand to wipe his face and showed it to Li Wuxiang: "My Lord, I am speaking from the heart."

There was indeed a layer of dark, oily liquid on her palm.

Li Wuxiang nodded: "Alright. Brother Zhou, would you like to excuse yourself for a moment?"

"...Avoidance? What?"

The sword light hanging in the room suddenly flashed, and a spot of crimson appeared on Sun Ji's forehead, which then slowly grew larger, and he slumped softly onto the bed.

Zhou Xiang leaned forward, raised his hand as if to pounce, but stopped abruptly—for he had actually seen Sun Ji's spirit. He sat up from the corpse, looking bewildered, as if he didn't know what had happened for a moment.

The mysterious light emanating from Li Wuxiang's left eye socket flickered, and her soul was instantly absorbed into it.

Neither of them spoke for a moment. But Zhou Xiang understood. What he had seen before tonight was Li Wuxiang showing him the camaraderie, harmony, and benevolence of swordsmen. But now, Li Wuxiang was showing him the code of conduct and ruthless methods of swordsmen.

He raised his hand and touched his face, feeling a dampness, as if he were sweating. The sweat increased, until it seemed to flow from his pores. But the more damp his palm felt, the less distressed he felt. Looking at Sun Ji's body on the bed, he saw no emotion, only the clear distinction between Li Wuxiang's love and hate, and how everything he had done was impeccable.

He sighed and flicked the black liquid in his hand onto the ground: "I understand what the swordsman did. Alright, let's go."

The two left the house. Li Wuxiang greeted Zhao Qi and then took Zhou Xiang to see the four demons they had captured earlier, asking them to explain the affairs of the Great Western Kingdom and Immortal Cui in person.

After leaving the demons, Zhou Xiang said to Li Wuxiang, "Alright, you don't need to prove yourself to me anymore. Your name is Li Wuxiang, and you are a swordsman; based on these two points, I already believe you. Since you're not hiding anything from me, I'll be frank with you—I'm just worried about how to accomplish what you want me to do. Once I see Mei Qiulu, if I think your idea is feasible, I will do it. Until then, find me a place to stay in your dojo and bring Youxin to my side."

……

The night finally came to an end.

As dawn broke, Li Wuxiang approached Zhao Qi and Xue Baoping and said, "Let's discuss something."

Zhao Qi frowned: "I'm telling you, can't you at least let people rest? So many things have happened tonight, can't we wait a day before discussing this?"

Are you still going to sleep?

"I don't want to sleep, but I'm also mentally exhausted, Brother Li?"

"Alright, then you can rest by yourself. Bao Ping, come with me." Li Wuxiang called to Xue Bao Ping, and the two walked out of the courtyard gate.

Zhao Qi watched them walk a dozen steps ahead, then sighed and followed, saying, "Alright, wait for me! What are you all discussing while I, the Great Sword Master, am not here?"

Outside the present-day Jinshui Town lies farmland, while outside the Jinshui Town in the Wanhua Fang lies a flat, green meadow. Xue Baoping was not yet accustomed to the grand and expansive aesthetic of Li Wuxiang's place, so she had some disciples transplant some trees from elsewhere in the town, forming a sparse wall of trees a hundred paces from the courtyard gate.

With Zhao Qi, the Blood God, here, everything is easy to sustain. Now the trees have all come back to life, sprouting new branches and lush greenery. When the three of them walked under the trees, the sunlight, though seemingly illusory, shone from the east, making it feel like early summer.

Li Wuxiang stopped and said, "I just killed Sun Ji. Bao Ping, you asked me what to do if you encounter evil people again, and I told you to come up with a plan. You probably haven't figured it out yet, but I have a system here that I can give you some reference."

"Let's start with our Sword Sect. We're quite prominent now, and we should be well-known in the Xuan Sect and the Eastern Continent. Now that we've come this far, there's no turning back—if we compare three thousand years ago to World War I, then the second one has already begun. In the past thirty years, the Xuan Sect hasn't been able to send more people out of its territory because of the previous agreement, but it will definitely continue to use other methods to sow discord among those outside the sect, just like it is now."

“I’ve talked to Senior Sister Mei about this a lot these past few days. Our plan is to take advantage of this opportunity to destroy the Blood God Cult, unify the area outside the church, and then use thirty years to recuperate and prepare for the great war with the Six Ministries thirty years from now.”

"I still need to spend another month cultivating to reach the second stage of the Nascent Soul realm. This requires a lot of incense offerings and prayers—Senior Sister Mei said that a large number of people have gathered at the Blood God Sect's Jade Heart Lake, and they can help me. At that time, these people in the sect can be dispersed to make our Sword Sect more powerful and influential."

"You should have a pretty good understanding of the disciples' character by now, so I plan to have them start cultivating the Guang Chan Zi. The Guang Chan Zi is extracted from the Xiao Jie Jian Jing, so it's not very advanced. But its advantage is that it can absorb incense offerings and vows in the early stages, making its progress incredibly fast. When we distribute them out, I can benefit from the incense offerings, and they can benefit from them too, killing two birds with one stone."

"If anyone is unwilling to practice the Guang Chan Zi—Li Guichen will be back soon, and he can reshape their physical bodies for them. Zhao Qi, you are a Blood God, and you can learn Li Guichen's skills. Have him teach you. Once their physical bodies are reshaped, they will have the same good aptitude as you, Bao Ping. In the early stages of cultivation, they are not as good as those who practice the Guang Chan Zi, but in the later stages, with a solid foundation and vigorous blood and qi, they will have their own advantages."

"That's how everyone does it now. But when we recruit disciples later, these two things won't be something they can choose casually. Like other sects, they'll have to select, test, and send disciples to the illusionary realm to temper their character before they can choose which path to take. If they fail, they won't be able to join the sect—our advantage here is that we don't care about a new disciple's aptitude, but only about their character. This way, things won't get too chaotic."

"Then, regarding your question, Aquarius, what do you do when you encounter evil people, and evil people who sincerely repent?"

"This can also be applied to our disciples, those who have committed grave mistakes and evil deeds. Such people must die, but I have the Pointing Moon Mystic Light here, which can be used to raise ghosts and serve as a purgatory. The Heavenly Heart Sect has a method for cultivating ghosts within the Pointing Moon Mystic Light. We have established rules, specifying what kind of sins will result in what kind of suffering, all within my Pointing Moon Mystic Light. There is no purgatory in this world, only Mount Ling. For many cultivators, death is not necessarily a second chance—but there will be no such good thing here. We have a purgatory here."

"After you've suffered enough here and paid off your debts, we'll see whether you, Bao Ping, will resurrect them as mortals and send them back to the mortal world, or whether Zhao Qi and Li Guichen will be resurrected as disciples of this sect and stay to repent and reform. Since there is no such thing as reincarnation in this world, we'll create one here to make those who do evil know what to fear."

"In this way, with more disciples in the sect and greater influence, everyone will know that we distinguish between good and evil, and are happy to determine good and evil. More people will come to us on their own, asking us to uphold justice. The sect will grow stronger in this way, and its incense will become more and more prosperous, completely different from the Taiyi Sect of the past. Then, we can use our own methods to establish a new order outside the sect."

(End of this chapter)