Chapter 745 530: Chengyi

The Mirror contains Heaven and Earth.

Heaven and earth were shrouded in darkness, myriad moon-white buildings arrayed in strict order, nestled among rocky mountains; most of these jade-like palaces curved in pure elegance, with vast stone beasts crouching upon precipices, bathed in moonlight and aglow with silver radiance.

Lu Jiangxian sat quietly before a jade table, as a faint azure glow began to manifest before him.

Chi Buzi had just revealed his presence on Sect Spring Island, which startled Lu Jiangxian awake; the trap he'd left within Chi Buzi's soul instantly relayed everything, and the scenes of East Sea came flooding into his pupils.

Two breaths passed; Lu Jiangxian once more composed himself at the jade table.

"Chi Buzi."

Back then, Lu Jiangxian set a contingency within Chi Buzi's soul—both to seize the chance to read his memories, and to suppress Chi Buzi. Now, with the Immortal Official's memories in hand, he immediately sensed something was amiss.

"Since memories have returned… the contingency left within the soul has not failed."

Lu Jiangxian furrowed his brows, reading over those memories: in recent years, Chi Buzi truly sparred wits and schemes with that Water Mansion Immortal Official, wandering all across the Four Seas in search of so-called traces of the Immortal Court.

Yet those memories had been hastily fabricated by Lu Jiangxian for the Immortal Official's origins; how could they possibly add up? After circling the Four Seas, man and soul alike realized something was wrong.

This world's Taoism, though resembling a source from past lives, held peculiar differences—Taoist spells and arts found their roots, and the soul division created for Chi Buzi bickered for a while, but in the end had to admit that the Immortal Court had collapsed and vanished amidst some immortal-demon conflict.

That Immortal Official's soul was originally a shard of Jin Lian Maha's divided soul—an aberration from the start. Seeing the Immortal Court lost, he immediately grew cunning and plotted to seize Chi Buzi's body for a new life.

The two struggled incessantly: one a Zifu Perfected Person, a veteran fiend risen from Green Pond Sect; the other, though self-claimed former righteous cultivator, proved no less unscrupulous when scheming. They vied and plotted against each other for over ten years.

In the end, Chi Buzi got his wish and accepted the Talisman Qi; the Immortal Official suffered devouring. Yet the glow in Lu Jiangxian's palm testified: the Immortal Official, having learned and refined soul techniques over those years, perhaps still hid in some corner of Chi Buzi's soul.

Meanwhile, the banishment within Chi Buzi's soul still shimmered faintly; Chi Buzi and the Immortal Official, cruelly locked in rivalry, nonetheless tacitly refrained from touching it.

Lu Jiangxian sat quietly on the Jade Throne for a while; he was no longer the Lu Jiangxian of yore. Silently, he speculated:

"Chi Buzi may well know the Immortal Official yet lives; perhaps he dare not kill my pawn, and deliberately hands the evidence to me… letting me believe he can be controlled."

"As for banding together against Lu Shui…"

Lu Jiangxian, naturally, felt not nearly reckless enough to contend with Lu Shui now. The more he understood this world, the more cautious he became—intent solely on restoring the Dharma Mirror, not daring provoke Lu Shui.

"I cannot even leave the Mirror, how could I have the power to drag him down from that rank…"

The others still battle beyond the skies; his true body hidden within The Great Void, he faintly sensed the tremors within. The slightest sign of himself, he feared, would be instantly detected.

"Shangyuan has ascended as Perfected Lord…"

Lu Jiangxian set aside all the myriad cultivation techniques and spells from those memories, moved his divine sense, and indeed found that his own previously researched Witch Talisman arts had changed, now with an added Jade True pairing—quite different from before.

He sat at the stone table for a moment, quietly calculating:

"In a hundred years, I gradually came to understand this realm; Zifu Monks need not be spoken of, I now know plenty even of the Golden Core Cultivators…"

"Yue Country's Green Pond Lu Shui, Jin Yu Taiyuan, Xiuyue Taiyue—these three are all Perfected Lords. Wu Country's scale rivals Yue Country's; only Changhuai Taiyi is known, likely two or three as well. By this reckoning, South River should hold six or so Perfected Lords."

"East Sea has two Dragon Kind, and rumor holds Pin Shui among them; Northern Sea is said to have two; South Sea matches East Sea in scale; Four Seas should yield about nine…"

"Counting in Wang, Xie clans, Luoxia Mountain, and Yin Si… the tally truly grows sizable."

Lu Jiangxian made his calculations—no matter how it went, the Immortal Path has ten Perfected Lords at least, enough to dominate, no wonder Northern Buddhism stayed prudently low…"

"As for ancient Perfected Lords—their number must be greater still!"

From the Immortal Official's memories, Lu Jiangxian gleaned much; most pressing was his quest for true origins—if he did possess a past life, it was as Manor Lord of Moonlight Origin Mansion.

He surveyed all, still judging [Ying Ze] the most likely.

First, his Dharma Mirror, while a Moonlight treasure, was said to be matched by Moonlight Origin Mansion's [Sun-Moon Two Principles Profound Light], presumably forged from Taiyin Profound Light and Taiyang Profound Light—embodying both Yin and Yang, which accords perfectly with [Ying Ze].

Second, [Ying Ze] belonged to Qing Song Temple, and that Yang Ring bore the inscription [Lu Jiangxian of Qing Song Temple], which also matches the identity.

But most crucial is the Qing Song Temple Cave Heaven, which mirrors above and below—exactly fitting that of the mirror. And indeed, that Cave Heaven was wrought by [Ying Ze].

With these three points aligned, [Ying Ze] seems the most probable.

"Jin Yu Taiyuan hailed [Ying Ze] as senior; [Ying Ze] was at least Perfected Lord, perhaps even Dao Embryo…"

Yet matters are not so simple—two questions still puzzle him:

"The Moonlight Origin Mansion's Manor Lord is said to be Immortal Monarch; [Ying Ze] may be somewhat lacking. Moreover, Li Jiangqun has met me—showing my trace persisted until recent antiquity, yet [Ying Ze] appears to have fallen ages ago."