Two New Identities

The next morning, Hao Nhien and Quan Nha left Hoa Van.

There was no formal farewell ceremony, nor were thousands of people gathered outside the city gates. Only a few close companions knew exactly when the two of them would depart. Luu Thanh, Luu Van, Quan Lam, and Tieu Nhan had all arrived early, while Lanh Hoa had already left Hoa Van the previous day for Black Wind Valley.

Hao Nhien had not fully recovered. His heart meridians had stabilized, but whenever spiritual power circulated too quickly, a dull pain still spread through his chest. Because of that, they did not travel as quickly as they had on previous journeys. Quan Nha did not urge him either, simply maintaining a pace that allowed him to avoid constantly drawing on his spiritual power.

Four days later, the walls of Thanh Van City appeared at the end of the road.

The flow of people through the city gates was as heavy as ever. Carriages crowded the broad streets, while hawkers’ cries mixed with the noise from restaurants, merchant associations, and roadside stalls into a continuous layer of sound.

After spending so many months amid the vast emptiness and blowing sands of the Western Wastes, stepping into such a crowded city made Hao Nhien feel strangely unfamiliar, as though at some point he had grown accustomed to the desolation beyond its walls without realizing it.

Before leaving Hoa Van, Luu Van had already sent word to the Thien Bao Pavilion.

So when Hao Nhien and Quan Nha entered the main hall, a female attendant quickly recognized him and stepped forward to bow.

“Young Master Hao Nhien?”

Hao Nhien nodded.

“Manager Lanh instructed us that if Young Master arrived, we were to invite you upstairs immediately.”

“Thank you.”

“It is no trouble.”

The two followed her upstairs.

The moment the door to the tea room opened, a faint fragrance of tea drifted out with the rising steam.

Lanh Tuyet sat behind the table in a pale purple dress, her hair tied simply behind her. Her Golden Core aura was restrained so deeply that an ordinary person would only see a young woman with a somewhat unusual bearing.

Lanh Tuyet looked up.

Her gaze first settled on Hao Nhien, then slowly shifted toward Quan Nha and remained there for an extra moment.

The corner of her lips curved.

“Little Brother Hao Nhien, every time I see you, the person standing beside you seems to change.”

The moment Hao Nhien heard that, he already knew what she was about to say.

Sure enough, Lanh Tuyet rested her chin on one hand while keeping her eyes on Quan Nha.

“Last time it was Tieu Lan, and now another beautiful young lady has appeared. Are you not going to introduce her, or should I guess for myself?”

Hao Nhien coughed lightly.

“Sister Lanh, this is Quan Nha.”

The smile on Lanh Tuyet’s face immediately changed.

“Quan Nha?”

She straightened slightly and studied the woman before her more carefully.

“So we finally meet.”

Quan Nha nodded softly.

“Manager Lanh Tuyet. I’ve heard him mention you before.”

Lanh Tuyet immediately glanced at Hao Nhien.

“Good things or bad?”

The corner of Quan Nha’s lips lifted slightly.

“You should ask him yourself.”

Lanh Tuyet laughed, while Hao Nhien could only rub the bridge of his nose.

“I did not come here so the two of you could interrogate me together.”

“All right.”

Lanh Tuyet poured tea for them before speaking more slowly.

“News from Hoa Van reached Thanh Van several days ago. And as usual, I discovered that everything I know about you is always one step behind whatever you have just done.”

Hao Nhien picked up his teacup but did not drink immediately.

“There is nothing worth being proud of this time.”

The smile on Lanh Tuyet’s face faded.

“I know.”

She looked at him for a moment before continuing.

“The Yin Soul Cult appeared, and after that Duong Quang personally went to Hoa Van. The final battle even caused such a violent reaction in the space of the Western Wastes that people in Thanh Van heard rumors about it.”

Her gaze grew slightly heavier.

“And in the end, you were the one who nearly died.”

Lanh Tuyet paused.

“Sometimes I truly do not understand how you are still sitting here drinking tea.”

Hao Nhien looked into the surface of his cup.

“This time, I also thought I might not be able to.”

Lanh Tuyet stopped teasing him.

“How is Tieu Lan?”

Hao Nhien was silent for a moment.

“Alive, but still unconscious.”

He briefly explained Tieu Lan’s current condition and the price she had paid to pull him back from the edge of death.

He kept everything concerning the black river, the image of Anh Nhien, and the strange overlap between the two faces to himself.

After listening, Lanh Tuyet’s expression gradually became serious.

“If it were only a severe physical injury, the Thien Bao Pavilion would have many methods. Broken meridians, shattered bones, damaged organs—there are pills and spiritual treasures that can treat all of those, as long as the person still has enough life force to receive them.”

She set her teacup down.

“But severe depletion of one’s original life force is different.”

Hao Nhien looked at her.

“Is there a way?”

“There may be.”

Lanh Tuyet did not give him certainty.

“I have already had people search the Pavilion’s stores and older records. Several ancient life-nurturing pills and certain rare Wood-element treasures have been mentioned, but so far there is nothing I can say with confidence will awaken Tieu Lan.”

Hao Nhien merely nodded.

He had not come here expecting an easy guarantee.

“A lead is enough.”

“I knew you would say that.”

Lanh Tuyet pushed a jade slip toward him.

“Everything I found is inside. There is not much, but at least it may tell you where to begin.”

Hao Nhien accepted it.

“Thank you.”

Lanh Tuyet looked at him again for a while before narrowing her eyes slightly.

“But before we discuss anything else, there is something I want to ask.”

“What?”

“Foundation Establishment layer eight?”

Hao Nhien paused faintly.

“You can tell?”

Lanh Tuyet looked at him as though the question itself did not deserve an answer.

“Do you truly think a Golden Core cultivator standing in front of you would fail to notice the aura of Foundation Establishment layer eight?”

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Hao Nhien laughed.

“I broke through naturally not long after waking.”

“How long has it been since we last parted?”

“Not long.”

“You were still at Foundation Establishment layer four then.”

Lanh Tuyet looked at him.

“Now you are already at layer eight. That speed is not normal.”

“I know.”

“Good.”

She slowly leaned back in her chair.

“Layer eight and layer nine are still within the same realm. But Golden Core is an entirely different threshold. Do not think that simply accumulating enough spiritual power means you can force your way through.”

Hao Nhien nodded.

“I watched you cross your heavenly tribulation. Of course I know Golden Core is not that simple.”

At the mention of it, both fell silent for a moment.

The three abnormal heavenly tribulations from that day were still vivid in their memories.

Hao Nhien said:

“If I truly enter the Golden Core realm one day, moving freely in the Western Wastes may become far more difficult. So before that happens, there are several things I want to do.”

Lanh Tuyet raised an eyebrow.

Hao Nhien lifted a hand to his storage ring.

An ancient fragment appeared in his palm.

Lanh Tuyet’s eyes immediately sharpened.

“The key fragment.”

“Mm.”

“You still carry it?”

“Leaving it somewhere else would not necessarily be safer.”

Lanh Tuyet did not argue.

Hao Nhien stored the fragment away again before continuing.

“I want to trace the second fragment, but this trip is not only about the key.”

Lanh Tuyet waited.

“Duong Quang knew Hoang Sam.”

Her expression changed immediately.

“What did he say?”

“Not much. I only mentioned Hoang Sam’s name, and his reaction changed very clearly. After that, he called Hoang Sam the Divine Lord.”

The room fell silent.

All traces of teasing disappeared from Lanh Tuyet’s expression.

“You’re certain?”

“Very.”

Quan Nha, seated beside him, also slowly looked toward Lanh Tuyet.

Hao Nhien continued:

“I have heard of Hoang Sam’s Immortal Heart. I do not know how much truth there is in the rumors, nor whether such a thing can be used to save Tieu Lan. But if there is even the slightest possibility, I still want to investigate.”

Lanh Tuyet slowly nodded.

“Then your immediate target is Heavenly Eye.”

“Correct. If Heavenly Eye truly has a deep connection to Hoang Sam, there may be other information inside, perhaps even traces connected to the next key fragment.”

Lanh Tuyet remained silent for a while before speaking.

“It is more dangerous than you think.”

“I know.”

“No. You do not fully understand what I mean.”

She looked toward Quan Nha.

“You have already drawn Heavenly Eye’s attention. If you encounter someone you have fought before, there is a chance you could be recognized. But Quan Nha faces another risk.”

Quan Nha asked calmly:

“Hoang Lap?”

“Exactly.”

Lanh Tuyet nodded.

“If the two of you enter territory belonging to the Huu Thanh system, all it would take is someone who spent enough time near Hoang Lap. A glance, a habit during conversation, even the way you circulate spiritual power could make them suspicious.”

She paused.

“Changing your face alone will not be enough.”

Quan Nha’s expression did not change.

“I’m still going.”

Lanh Tuyet looked at her for several breaths before letting out a faint laugh.

“I wasn’t planning to stop you. I only wanted both of you to understand that a mask cannot solve everything.”

Hao Nhien asked:

“So what have you prepared?”

Lanh Tuyet looked at him.

“You came to the Thien Bao Pavilion because you thought all I knew how to do was make tea?”

She stood, walked to the wooden shelf behind her, and took down a long box. But when she returned to the table, she did not open it immediately.

“Before we talk about disguises, there is another matter you once asked me to investigate.”

Hao Nhien immediately understood.

“The merchant-association system you mentioned before?”

Lanh Tuyet nodded and placed three jade slips on the table.

“Yes. Our Thien Bao Pavilion was originally only one branch beneath the Hoang Linh Merchant Association, while the Hoang Linh Merchant Associations themselves belonged to the system of the Huyen Linh Merchant Association. Above Huyen Linh stood the Dia Linh Merchant Association. I told you that before.”

Hao Nhien nodded softly.

Lanh Tuyet continued:

“But Dia Linh has always been little more than a name to me. I have never interacted with them, never seen their people, and even direct records are extremely rare. Most of what I know was passed down through the old Huyen Linh system.”

She placed a finger on one of the three jade slips.

“This time, I found only one additional piece of information, but at least it confirms that the name Dia Linh has not completely disappeared.”

Hao Nhien looked at her.

“Where?”

“Across the Sea Region.”

Quan Nha frowned slightly.

“The New World?”

“That is what people of the Eastern Plains commonly call the land beyond the sea now.”

Lanh Tuyet nodded.

“Several old trade-route records mention that the Dia Linh Merchant Association is still active there. I do not know how much of the old system they still preserve, nor what kind of relationship now exists between them and the surviving Huyen Linh Merchant Associations in the Eastern Plains.”

Hao Nhien looked at the three jade slips before him.

“And Heavenly Spirit?”

Lanh Tuyet was silent for a moment, then shook her head.

“Nothing.”

Her voice was very clear.

“Up to this point, I have not found a single document mentioning the Heavenly Spirit Merchant Association. No records of the organization, no one who has encountered them, and nothing sufficient to prove that such an organization ever existed.”

Hao Nhien frowned slightly.

“Then the name Heavenly Spirit…”

“Is only an empty space above the system we already know.”

Lanh Tuyet looked at him.

“It may truly have existed, or perhaps our assumptions are still missing part of the structure. Until we find evidence, I do not want to treat it as a confirmed organization.”

Hao Nhien slowly nodded.

That was very similar to the other mysteries he was pursuing.

The deeper he traced them, the things appearing before him were rarely answers.

They were merely larger gaps.

He looked back at the jade slips.

“How far away is the Dia Linh presence beyond the Sea Region?”

“Very far. To reach it, you would have to cross the Sea Region, and the records I have are not detailed enough to calculate the exact journey.”

Lanh Tuyet paused before adding:

“But that is something for later. For now, you do not even need to think about Dia Linh.”

Hao Nhien smiled faintly.

“I wasn’t planning to go there yet.”

“It is fortunate you still know how to say that.”

Lanh Tuyet pushed the long box toward him.

“For now, the Western Wastes and Heavenly Eye are enough. So let us discuss what you need immediately.”

She opened the lid.

Inside were two masks so thin they looked almost like layers of skin.

Hao Nhien raised an eyebrow.

“Something good from the Thien Bao Pavilion?”

“Yes.”

“They do not look like it.”

Lanh Tuyet replied calmly:

“If a disguise treasure looks like a treasure at first glance, what would be the point?”

Hao Nhien was silent for a beat.

“Fair enough.”

Lanh Tuyet took out the first mask and handed it to him.

“Try it.”

Hao Nhien placed the mask over his face.

A faint chill passed across his skin. Then the thin material contracted by itself and adhered closely to the contours of his face.

There was no pain and no discomfort.

Within a few breaths, the person in the mirror had completely changed.

His eyebrows were thicker, the bridge of his nose slightly lower, his skin darker, and the features that normally drew attention had become so ordinary that if he stood among a group of rogue cultivators, most people would struggle to remember him after looking away.

Hao Nhien studied himself in the mirror.

“Ugly.”

Lanh Tuyet laughed.

“Not ugly. Ordinary.”

She looked him over from head to toe.

“For you, those two words may simply be unfamiliar.”

Quan Nha laughed softly.

Lanh Tuyet handed the other mask to her.

“Your turn.”

Quan Nha put it on.

Her features quickly changed as well.

Her face remained harmonious, but the striking cold elegance she normally carried disappeared. Her skin became slightly darker, while the corners of her eyes and the shape of her brows softened, transforming her into a female cultivator in her twenties who was pleasant to look at but not memorable enough to draw lingering attention.

Quan Nha stared at herself in the mirror for quite some time.

“This is me?”

Lanh Tuyet answered seriously:

“If you want to live longer, sometimes you have to be a little less beautiful.”

Quan Nha turned toward Hao Nhien.

He was visibly trying to keep a straight face.

“What are you laughing at?”

“I’m not laughing.”

“You are.”

Hao Nhien looked at her unfamiliar face.

“I just think it looks quite good.”

Quan Nha narrowed her eyes.

Lanh Tuyet laughed.

“Do not worry. I have a few uglier sets.”

“No need.”

This time, Hao Nhien and Quan Nha answered almost simultaneously.

The atmosphere in the room lightened.

Lanh Tuyet stopped teasing them and placed two small jade pieces on the table.

“The masks only deceive the eyes. These are what help blur the identifying characteristics of your aura.”

Hao Nhien picked one up.

“Aura concealment?”

“Not entirely. They make the spiritual power you display externally more indistinct. Anyone who has never been in close contact with you will have a harder time identifying your elemental affinity or recognizing familiar characteristics.”

She looked at Hao Nhien.

“But do not rely on them too much.”

“The Tieu Dao Sword cannot be used. You should replace the Fire Spirit Sword with another weapon as well. Techniques too closely associated with Hoa Ky, and the characteristic rhythm you use when changing movement with Wind, must all be restricted as much as possible.”

Hao Nhien nodded.

“I’ll prepare another fighting style.”

Lanh Tuyet looked toward Quan Nha.

“You need to be even more careful with your habits when using spiritual power.”

Quan Nha nodded softly.

“I have ways to conceal them.”

Lanh Tuyet did not ask further.

“Most importantly, if you truly enter territory controlled by Huu Thanh, stay as far away from Hoang Lap as possible.”

Quan Nha was silent for a moment.

“I know.”

Only then did Lanh Tuyet take out two identity tablets and place them between them.

“These are what you truly need to memorize.”

Hao Nhien picked up the first.

The name written on it was Giai Nhien.

Quan Nha took the second.

Tieu Nha.

Lanh Tuyet said:

“The two of you are Dao companions. You may also present yourselves as husband and wife if necessary. Both of you belong to a small trade caravan that once traveled between Thanh Van and several regions along the edge of the Western Wastes.”

“The caravan’s records are real. These two identities were inserted into a minor branch that receives little attention. They are solid enough to pass ordinary inspections, but obscure enough that very few people would claim to have met you.”

Hao Nhien looked at the tablet again.

“Giai Nhien and Tieu Nha.”

“Correct.”

Lanh Tuyet continued:

“Giai Nhien is a sword-using rogue cultivator whose displayed cultivation is Foundation Establishment layer six. Tieu Nha is his Dao companion, specializing more in support and medicinal knowledge, with her displayed cultivation at Foundation Establishment layer four. The two of you met in Thanh Van and later joined a trade caravan to make a living in the Western Wastes.”

Quan Nha looked at her.

“Why medicinal knowledge for me?”

“Because that gives you fewer reasons to demonstrate combat techniques in front of others.”

Lanh Tuyet answered naturally.

“The less you use anything that someone familiar with you may have seen before, the safer you will be.”

Quan Nha nodded softly.

Lanh Tuyet looked at them both.

“You have been Dao companions living together for several years. So when other people are present, do not behave like two strangers who only met yesterday.”

“The way you address one another, the distance you keep when standing together, the way you react when something happens to the other—all of it needs to feel natural.”

The corner of her lips slowly curved.

“I doubt I need to teach you that part too carefully.”

Hao Nhien remained silent.

Quan Nha was far calmer.

“No need.”

Lanh Tuyet looked at her for a moment, then laughed.

“Even better.”

She tapped the two identity tablets lightly.

“From the moment you leave this room, if you truly intend to use these identities, you need to start getting used to them immediately.”

“Not only the names, but also your backgrounds, displayed cultivation, the way you address one another, and what the two of you are supposed to know.”

Hao Nhien looked at his new face in the mirror.

A complete stranger looked back at him.

Then he lowered his eyes to the identity tablet in his hand.

From the moment he left Thanh Van, this journey would no longer resemble any of the ones before it.

He was not going to take part in an examination.

Nor would he openly step onto an arena to confront an opponent.

This time, he and Quan Nha would enter a place where people already wanted him dead, wearing two different faces, bearing two different names, and carrying identities prepared long in advance.

Within Hao Nhien’s soul, the Cosmic Ark remained quietly present.

Tieu Lan slept amid dense Wood spiritual qi.

Ahead might lie traces of Hoang Sam, secrets hidden by Heavenly Eye, or even clues to the next key fragment.

Hao Nhien did not yet know where any of those paths would truly lead.

But as long as even one road offered a chance to bring Tieu Lan back, he would take it.

Hao Nhien closed his hand around the identity tablet and looked at the name written on it one final time.

Giai Nhien.

From tomorrow onward, Quan Hao Nhien would temporarily disappear.