The Cold and Aloof Palace Master's Daily Demon-Slaying Life

The land of China is vast, with magnificent mountains and rivers, and a rich cultural heritage.

Hundreds of millions of lives have multiplied here, and countless sects have taken root here, creating the rise and fall and legends of the long river of history.

In the middle of this vast land lies a majestic mountain range with a unique atmosphere and renowned reputation—the Hanmo Mountains.

This mountain is not known for its steepness or strangeness, nor for its soaring spiritual energy, but it possesses a unique and otherworldly, dreamlike atmosphere that sets it apart in China and makes it truly exceptional.

The mountain range stretches for thousands of miles, with continuous peaks and undulating terrain.

However, whether it's the towering peaks reaching into the clouds, the winding streams, the lush ancient trees, the bare and jagged rocks, even the drifting clouds, the birds and beasts in the sky, or the monks who live here...

As far as the eye can see, everything seems to be covered by a hazy, flowing filter, presenting a unique ink painting texture that lies between "reality" and "illusion".

The colors are no longer vibrant and eye-catching.

The green of the mountains is a distinct blend of dark blue and verdant hues rendered in ink.

The emerald green of the flowing water is like a light ink wash, spreading out in a misty, clear and serene way;

The blue of the sky is a faint, almost imperceptible pale blue and grayish-white that is diffused in the blank spaces;

The red of maple leaves is a subtle and restrained crimson and ochre, adorned with vermilion...

The colors of all things are like the finest ink, Xuan paper, and cinnabar, blended and painted by a master's skillful hand, creating a harmonious and elegant effect, yet also carrying an unreal, two-dimensional beauty.

The texture also became blurry and strange.

The hardness of the rocks, the roughness of the trees, the smoothness of the flowing water, the etherealness of the clouds and mist... these distinct tactile qualities are greatly weakened and assimilated visually, as if everything were just ink marks and color blocks of different concentrations and brushstrokes on the canvas.

The shadows cast by the light are not the usual contrast of light and dark, but rather resemble the "texturing" and "shading" techniques in ink wash painting, with a soft transition and profound artistic conception.

Walking through the Hanmo Mountains is like stepping into a giant ink painting scroll created by a master painter, using the heavens and earth as its canvas and mountains and rivers as its subject. All around is a flowing, three-dimensional "world within a painting," yet possessing a flat, decorative beauty.

The air was filled with a faint, elegant fragrance of ink and paper, as well as a more profound and lingering Taoist charm that seemed to permeate the soul.

The root cause of this extraordinary phenomenon lies in the super sect located in the core of the Hanmo Mountains, in the place with the richest spiritual energy—the Fushui Immortal Sect, and the sect's pillar of strength and stabilizing force—the Fushui True Lord, who has been stationed here for over eight thousand years.

Fu Shui Zhenjun is one of the few remaining and most renowned Manifestation True Lords in the Central Plains. "Manifestation" is an honorific title for a Golden Core True Lord who is still alive and well, neither having passed away nor disappeared. His lifespan has exceeded eight thousand years, and his cultivation is unfathomable. He has already reached the peak of the early Golden Core stage and has touched the threshold of the middle stage.

Its prestige was truly forged with blood and the bones of its sect members. Eight thousand years ago, when True Monarch Fu Shui first attained the Golden Core stage, in order to stabilize the sect, he wiped out three first-rate sects that were arrogant and hostile to Fu Shui Immortal Sect. The blood flowed like rivers and the bones piled up like mountains. He fought so hard that he forged the supreme prestige of Fu Shui Immortal Sect as a "super sect" and established a peaceful foundation for eight thousand years!

However, time is the most merciless river, capable of washing away all traces.

Eight thousand years have passed, and the cultivators who personally experienced or heard about that bloody purge have long since turned to dust.

Later generations can only glimpse a trace of the horror of that time from fragments of old documents.

Over time, apart from the very top few, the vast majority of cultivators, including many young disciples within the Fu Shui Xian Sect, have gradually forgotten just how terrifyingly powerful the Supreme Elder, who was in seclusion for many years and almost never showed his face, truly was.

They only knew that the Fu Shui Xian Sect was a super sect with a profound and unshakeable foundation. However, they might not have fully understood the weight behind the words "unshakeable" and the presence of that veteran Golden Core True Monarch who had lived for over eight thousand years.

The Fruit Position of Talisman is an extremely special and powerful branch position under the Water Law lineage, representing the supreme authority of the Water and Ink Way.

Its Dao is formless and intangible, yet over the long course of eight thousand years, it has deeply merged with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the earth veins and roots of the Hanmo Mountains, forming a certain degree of "domain assimilation".

All living things and matter living in this mountain range have long been influenced and nourished by the Dao principles of the Fu Fruit position. Their external forms and inner spirituality have unconsciously shifted towards the artistic conception and characteristics of "ink painting", which has created the unique "fairyland in a painting" spectacle of the Hanmo Mountain Range.

The Fu Shui Xian Sect is naturally composed mainly of cultivators who practice the "Water and Ink Dao".

The core cultivation technique passed down in the sect, "The True Scripture of Talisman Water," as well as many derivative supernatural powers and secret arts, are all closely related to the two words "ink and water."

Disciples in the sect often use writing implements such as brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, scrolls, and fans as their personal magic treasures or commonly used ritual implements.

Legend has it that those with profound cultivation in the Fu Shui Xian Sect can wield a brush to depict mountains and rivers, determine the fate of the world with a stroke of ink, refine the fake into the real, and add the finishing touch to a painting.

A magical brush, dipped in specially made "talismanic ink," is used to draw in the air or on specially made "talismanic paper"—

When a mountain is painted, it appears as if it were a real mountain;

The painting depicts flowing water, conveying the momentum of rushing rivers;

When you paint a beast, it comes to life and possesses the abilities of the corresponding mythical creature;

There are even legends of powerful ancestors who could draw a real dragon, and when they dotted its eyes, the dragon would soar to the heavens, possessing some of the power of a real dragon.

This is a profound path that perfectly combines "imagination," "artistic conception," and "spiritual power," existing between "illusion" and "creation."

It combines offense and defense, is ever-changing, and has multiple functions such as trapping enemies, killing, assisting, and escaping. It is unique in the cultivation world, making it impossible to defend against and awe-inspiring.

Therefore, disciples of the Fu Shui Xian Sect often possess an air of elegance and refinement, and their fighting style is particularly "refined" and "unique," quite different from the styles of other sects that frequently resort to flying swords, magical weapon clashes, or hand-to-hand combat.

Of course, only those who have personally experienced the murderous intent hidden beneath this "refined" facade know how dangerous it truly is.

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[Zuo Qingqiu, the newly promoted "Nine Heavens Taihua Purple Void Responding Thunder Ancestor True Lord" of the Taihua Sect, single-handedly wiped the powerful demonic sect, Diluo Sect, which had been passed down for tens of thousands of years, off the map overnight, leaving only a magma sinkhole with a diameter of a hundred miles.]

This news, like a hurricane sweeping through the cultivation world of Central China, has already reached every corner.

The Fu Shui Immortal Sect, located in the central part of the Central Plains and with extremely good information, could not possibly be unaware of this.

In fact, the news was reported to the sect's higher-ups as soon as it arrived.

However, unlike the shock, fear, and awe felt by other sects outside, within the Fu Shui Xian Sect, whether ordinary disciples or middle and high-level elders and deacons, the attitude towards this matter was generally indifferent, and even somewhat dismissive.