The immortal is beside me

Chapter 72: Han, Heaven

One hour ago, at the Super Research Institute’s spiritual object storage facility.

"Now for the final file confirmation."

"Name: Zou Peng. Unit: Huake Institute of Extraordinary Studies. Position: Second-level Researcher."

"Purpose of visit: Strategic-level monk assessment."

"Request: To use spiritual artifacts to investigate the background of the ancient cultivator 'Zhou Qing'."

"Applying to borrow an ancient artifact: the Qinglong Head, a relic of the Cangtian Sect from the Han Dynasty."

At the door to the secret room, the guard read out the last word on the application page and looked up at Zou Peng standing before him: "Researcher Zou, is the above information correct?"

"Correct."

"Ok."

The commissioner nodded, stamped a red seal on the file, and handed it back to him.

"Go ahead, but remember to manage your time well and don't exceed 30 minutes. Someone will remind you when the time is almost up."

The heavy sealed iron door was slowly pushed open, revealing a mezzanine porch. Zou Peng and two accompanying specialists walked in, and the iron door at the back closed. The scanner on the iron door in front scanned their irises, and after the machine authentication was passed, the second door slowly opened.

A ray of light rushed into my eyes. Behind the door was a small, enclosed room engraved with talismans. In the center of the many talismans, there was a bronze dragon head.

Below the dragon's head was a broken piece, seemingly a fragment of a whole bronze dragon. Upon closer inspection, the bronze dragon's eyes seemed to glow faintly, as if they were alive.

Azure Dragon in the Sky. This was the totem of the Cangtian Sect, the largest sect in the Central Plains over two thousand years ago.

In the history of the cultivation world, the Cangtian Sect is considered to be the first monastic organization to truly achieve a complete sect system. It is currently believed that it originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and experienced the chaos of the Warring States Period. After the fall of the Qin Emperor, this sect rose rapidly, and at the same time, a dynasty called the Han Dynasty also rose with it.

The Han Dynasty lasted for over four hundred years, and behind it lay the Cang Tian Sect's four hundred years of glory. According to legend, this glory originated from the legendary Sect Master who achieved a breakthrough to the Refining Void Realm. Ultimately, that Sect Master perished in a celestial catastrophe, and all of their glory ended with him.

It is said that during the heyday of the Cangtian Sect, its control over the world of immortal cultivation was frighteningly high. Seventy percent of the sects in the Central Plains world of immortal cultivation were its subordinate branches. In this respect, even the later Jiuli Immortal Alliance was inferior to it.

It is precisely because of this astonishing brilliance that the name Cangtian has become a specific symbol.

Just like all Western countries claim to be the orthodox Romans and every generation in the Central Plains has the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty, there are many sects in the world of immortal cultivation that still claim to be the orthodox descendants of the Cang Tian Sect, thereby highlighting the profound historical heritage of their own sect.

There are several sects like this in existence today. In the official list, they are classified according to place names, and are called Qingzhou Cangtian Sect, Jingcheng Cangtian Sect, Huangshan Cangtian Sect, etc.

It is unknown how legitimate these sects are, but the legitimacy of the Azure Dragon emblem in front of them is unquestionable.

It was unearthed from the Cangtian Sect's Soul-Containing Ruins discovered thirty years ago. Testing revealed that the fragment contained the spiritual imprint of a cultivator. While incomplete and even the memories contained within were fragmented, it was still capable of some simple resonance and communication with cultivators from the outside world.

Because of this, this fragment is often used to verify the background of some ancient cultivators.

For example, a few years ago, China discovered a monk who had reincarnated through corpse-transmigration. After testing, it was suspected that he was from the Qin Dynasty. Due to the long time ago, it was difficult to find supporting evidence, so the remaining spiritual imprint in the fragments was finally used to verify his birth time.

This time, among the information they received, the earliest file they could find about "Zhou Qing" was during the Five Barbarians Invasion Period. At that time, he already possessed the cultivation level sufficient to exterminate the Hu Zong, which means that his time period must be pushed back several hundred years at least.

Counting back a few hundred years from the Five Barbarians' invasion of China, we reach the Han and pre-Qin periods, the era when the Cang Tian Sect reigned supreme. Perhaps within this lies a clue sufficient to verify the era of his origins.

"I'm about to start resonating, please be my guardians."

Zou Peng spoke, closing his eyes and conjuring his soul to resonate with the mark within the bronze dragon. Complex colors flooded his senses, and fragments of memory flashed before his eyes like snowflakes.

After a chaotic cacophony of memories, a group of blurry silhouettes appeared before his eyes. From Zou Peng's perspective, those people had no facial features, but as he stood before them, he felt as if he were being watched by thousands of eyes.

"Junior Zou Peng has no intention of offending any of you seniors."

Even though he knew that these people's original bodies had long been dead and that what appeared before him were nothing but shattered souls, he still carefully controlled the movement of his mind and soul, trying his best to convey the emotion of "humility".

"I just want to ask you, seniors, if you have any impression of the name 'Zhou Qing'?"

The silhouettes in front of him remained silent and had no special reaction to the name.

"Zhou Fan? Zhou Wuqing? Infinite True Fire?"

Zou Peng tried to give a few more keywords, but the brand still did not respond.

After several attempts, the power of his spiritual consciousness was drained, and he had to break the resonance and return to reality. The moment his consciousness returned, a feeling of weakness spread throughout his body, causing him to gasp heavily.

"Zou Peng, how is it?" asked the specialist who was waiting nearby.

"No results." Zou Peng sighed.

The bronze dragon did not react. There are three possibilities.

The first one is that Zhou Qing was not a person of the same era as the Cangtian Sect.

The second possibility is that he was indeed from the same era as the Cangtian Sect, but was not part of the sect's system.

The third possibility is that he was a contemporary of the Cangtian Sect and was involved with it, but he had another name at that time.

Given the current situation, it's hard to say which of these two possibilities is more likely. We need to find other ways to verify it.

He turned and walked towards the door. The heavy iron door closed behind him, and the commissioner waiting outside immediately came up to him.

"How about it?"

"Not very good, we have to keep looking." Zou Peng shook his head. "Come to think of it, wasn't the Azure Dragon Head kept in the capital before? How did it suddenly get transported to Liangzhou?"

The spiritual weapon that retains the residual soul of more than two thousand years can be regarded as one of the oldest extraordinary traces today, and its preciousness is self-evident.

In the past, if they wanted to use this artifact, they had to apply to go to the capital, but this time they were told that it had been transported to Liangzhou, which was really unusual.

"You asked a really good question."

The commissioner chuckled subtly, then suddenly changed the subject: "The reason for the transfer is confidential, and I don't know the full story. However, I did hear some information from the Environmental Sanitation Bureau."

"I heard that recently, several Cangtian Sects suddenly and simultaneously began to send more cultivators to the vicinity of Liangzhou. Judging from this situation, there must be some problems within the cultivation world, and the struggle between the forces is about to begin again."

"Power struggle?" Zou Peng frowned. "Which power are they going to fight?"

"For the Northwest region to be able to mobilize such a large force, what other hostile forces could it be?"

The commissioner chuckled, "Of course it can only be the Jiuli Sect."

(End of this chapter)