Chapter 393: An Ancient Family

Theft Saint Bai Wuying, concealed in the darkness, was in a state of deep indecision.

Acting against Li Musheng right now was absolutely out of the question. It would only bring humiliation on himself.

But Li Musheng handing Bai Xiaotang a finger art divine skill for no apparent reason was obviously suspicious.

It left him deeply worried, afraid that Li Musheng, a demon lord, had some ulterior motive and might well intend harm toward Bai Xiaotang.

After all, demonic cultivators using people as cultivation vessels was a common enough occurrence in the martial world.

There was a real chance Li Musheng had spotted Bai Xiaotang as exactly that kind of vessel.

But going to confront Li Musheng about it was something he still could not bring himself to do. The sight of the Sun and Moon Demonic Empress and Daoist Qingyu being devoured so thoroughly by Li Musheng was still vivid in his mind.

If he provoked Li Musheng now, he would almost certainly end up the same way.

With those thoughts turning in his mind, Bai Wuying ultimately could not make up his mind, and for the moment remained hidden in the darkness, deciding to watch how things developed first.

Meanwhile, Daoist Qingyu, her cultivation entirely stripped away, rose from the ground beside the dark pool and looked at Li Musheng with an expression that could not fully conceal her disbelief.

She had seen Li Musheng act before and knew his power was unfathomably deep, but she had still not expected his true strength to have already reached this level, far beyond anything she had prepared for.

She had originally thought that after cultivating the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art to the tenth level and absorbing the Demonic Patriarch's cultivation, even if she was not Li Musheng's match, she could at least walk away in one piece.

But she had still underestimated him by a wide margin. Subduing her had cost him a single move.

"You are so young. How do you possess such formidable strength? And the demonic nature seems to have had no effect on you whatsoever."

Daoist Qingyu steadied herself with some effort, then looked at Li Musheng, and seemed to think of something. Her pupils contracted suddenly, "Could it be... you have already reached the Transcendent Realm?"

At those words, Li Musheng glanced at Daoist Qingyu and raised an eyebrow slightly, "What Transcendent Realm? You are being too conservative. My devoted admirers all call me the number one person under heaven."

As he said this, Li Musheng flicked a finger, and a thread of energy fell into Daoist Qingyu's body in an instant.

In the next moment, Daoist Qingyu's expression changed sharply, and she said with a sharp, furious intake of breath, "You destroyed my meridians and core?"

Li Musheng gave a slight nod, "You cultivated the demonic text. Even with your cultivation drained, drawing on the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art, you would restore your demonic power within a few years."

As he said this, Li Musheng slowly shifted his gaze away from Daoist Qingyu and let it settle on the dark pool nearby, "If I had not made a prior arrangement with your Junior Brother, I would have killed you just now. With your foundation destroyed, you also no longer need to worry about the demonic text's demonic nature eroding you. Consider it a life spared."

At those words, Daoist Qingyu, who had barely managed to press her composure back down, felt it sink once more, and her expression became profoundly unpleasant.

The gentle and kind face she usually wore gradually gave way to fury. The fists beneath her gray robes clenched instinctively. But she did not dare speak a single word of anger at Li Musheng.

A visible silence settled. Li Musheng, his gaze directed at the pool, caught Daoist Qingyu from the corner of his eye and gave a quiet nod, "Those who walk the Daoist path truly do run deep in their cultivation of composure and restraint. Honestly, even Han Xin couldn't endure what you are enduring right now."

"But as long as you behave yourself from here on, I have absolutely no interest in whether you live or die."

With that, Li Musheng raised a hand toward the dark pool before him, its surface covered by the seven-colored halo, and reached. In the next moment, the water stirred with wave after wave of movement, as though something below was surging toward the surface.

Before long, a dark shape broke the water and shot upward. An angry meow rang out.

The large black cat, its entire coat sopping wet, burst out of the water and immediately looked around in furious indignation, clearly trying to identify who had yanked it out.

It had been in the middle of its most critical moment hunting for treasure down there, and someone had ruined everything at exactly the wrong time.

But the moment its round green eyes landed on Li Musheng standing at the pool's edge, the expression of bristling fury changed instantly to something meek and ingratiating.

The large black cat then leaped off the pool's surface, gave itself a vigorous shake, and water droplets flew in every direction as it shed the moisture from its fur.

Only after doing all of this did it come to Li Musheng's side, rub itself against his robe, then immediately extend a paw and begin gesturing with great urgency.

It was clearly trying to tell Li Musheng about what was down in the pool, that there was genuinely a great treasure inside.

Daoist Qingyu, watching this, let something unusual surface on what had been an extremely unpleasant expression. She looked at the dark pool, then let her gaze settle on Li Musheng, who had fallen into thought.

Li Musheng, having managed to make rough sense of the large black cat's gestures, had gathered a general understanding of the situation. There was indeed something extremely unusual at the bottom of this pool. Only the thing seemed to create some form of confusion or illusion that muddled one's mind. The large black cat had been lurking down there for quite some time.

Though it had been able to see the thing, it had never been able to get its paws on it. Every time it thought it had caught it, the result was nothing but illusion, and it came up empty-handed every time.

Just then, Daoist Qingyu's eyes shifted faintly, and she gradually reined in her emotions, returning to her habitual composure. She suddenly pressed her palms together toward Li Musheng in a Daoist salute, "This poor nun is grateful to you for acting, though you stripped away my cultivation. Even so, the problem of the demonic nature that has plagued me has at least been resolved."

As she said this, Daoist Qingyu let out a sigh and shook her head, "Perhaps this poor nun will struggle for some time to accept having a lifetime of painstakingly built cultivation wiped away in a single moment. But one day this poor nun will eventually release the resentment within, and accept all of this with equanimity. And perhaps that is the best place for this poor nun to end up."

At those words, before Li Musheng even had a chance to reply, the large black cat poked its head out from beside him and looked at Daoist Qingyu, apparently noticing only now that there was still someone standing there.

But the large black cat very quickly narrowed its eyes. It had heard perfectly clearly. Daoist Qingyu's cultivation had been stripped, which meant she was now a waste of a person.

And she had clearly provoked Li Musheng, which was why her cultivation had been stripped in the first place.

This Daoist had given it quite a fright earlier, and was always cold and aloof. She had even persuaded Li Musheng to let that evil woman Wenyue off.

Now that the Daoist had fallen from her position, it felt the urge to give her a swipe of its claws, just to teach her not to interfere in things that were none of her business, and not to cross cats she had no business crossing.

And it would also be a way of demonstrating its loyalty to Li Musheng. Li Musheng might not have killed her, but surely that did not mean it could not scratch her.

Even so, the large black cat ultimately withdrew its paw with diminishing interest.

Clearly its enthusiasm for the martial divine treasure in the pool greatly outweighed any interest in kicking someone while they were down.

Faced with Daoist Qingyu's candid words, Li Musheng made no reply. He naturally understood she was far from a simple figure, and that she certainly had things she was keeping to herself.

But he was not particularly interested in that, and with her foundation destroyed, she was in no position to stir any meaningful trouble.

Then, Daoist Qingyu looked toward the dark pool as well, and suddenly said, "Would the young master perhaps like to know what lies at the bottom of this pool?"

At those words, Li Musheng raised an eyebrow and looked at Daoist Qingyu, "You know what it is?"

At those words, the large black cat's eyes flew open wide and immediately snapped toward Daoist Qingyu, letting out a few urgent meows.

Clearly urging her that if she knew what treasure was in the pool, she should get on with it and say so.

Seeing this, Daoist Qingyu seemed to pay it no mind. She only watched the seven-colored halo shimmering above the dark pool and narrowed her eyes slowly, "What lies in this pool is called Dream of a Thousand Autumns. It is an ancient treasure of long lineage, and..."

As she said this, Daoist Qingyu suddenly looked at Li Musheng, "Its owner is this poor nun."

At those words, the large black cat went briefly blank, then its eyes flew wide with fury, and it immediately tried to extend a paw to scratch her.

Clearly it was furious at her shamelessness. The treasure in the pool was obviously an ownerless thing, and yet this Daoist was boldly claiming it as her own with a straight face.

The large black cat had already considered the treasure in the pool to be its and Li Musheng's rightful property. How was it supposed to sit still for this?

But Li Musheng tapped the large black cat on the head and stopped it from extending its claws.

Then he looked at Daoist Qingyu with an air of comfortable composure, "Though I could dive in and retrieve whatever is in that pool at any time, what you have just said is interesting enough that you may continue."

At those words, Daoist Qingyu gave Li Musheng a long look, but showed no sign of thinking he was speaking in empty boasts.

After all, with his strength, retrieving whatever was below was genuinely not going to be a challenge.

"Perhaps the young master finds what this poor nun has said puzzling, but I can assure you that every word I am about to say is the truth."

Daoist Qingyu began to speak slowly, then turned her gaze toward the dark pool, "The Dream of a Thousand Autumns is a family heirloom of this poor nun's family, the Meng clan, which is one of the oldest families in all of this world."

"The young master may not have heard the name of the Meng clan, and that is because the Meng clan has always lived in seclusion in the sea, in a place called Qishan."

As she said this, Daoist Qingyu paused briefly, then shook her head with a quiet sigh, "To many people in the coastal regions, Qishan is also known as the Hidden Immortal Mountain, believed to be the dwelling of divine beings."

"But in truth it is inhabited by people, just people of a rather unusual kind. Three of the world's most ancient families live there, along with a community of people of divine nature. The Meng clan is one of those three ancient families."

At those words, Li Musheng rubbed his chin, "Interesting. But as you have described it, the treasure called Dream of a Thousand Autumns is a family heirloom of the Meng clan that has been kept far out at sea. How has it come to be within the borders of the Great Xuan dynasty?"

And at this point, the large black cat, which had been convinced Daoist Qingyu was talking complete nonsense, had its ears perked up and was listening attentively.

She had just mentioned people of divine nature, and it was a person of divine nature. And there were very few people in the entire martial world who knew anything meaningful about people of divine nature.

Yet here was a place that apparently housed an entire community of such people, which naturally caught the large black cat's complete attention.

Daoist Qingyu was quiet for a moment. Her thoughts seemed to return to the past, to certain experiences she had lived through. The light in her eyes gradually shifted toward something cold, a brewing killing intent just barely visible beneath the surface.

But very quickly, Daoist Qingyu closed her eyes, drew a slow breath, and said, "The reason the Dream of a Thousand Autumns and this poor nun came to be in Great Xuan is that the Meng clan no longer exists."

"One of the world's oldest families, with a lineage spanning thousands of years, was exterminated several decades ago, when this poor nun was still a young child."

At this, Daoist Qingyu opened her eyes again. The killing intent gradually faded, and she gave a general account of what had happened to the Meng clan.

Qishan, though called the Hidden Immortal Mountain by those in the coastal mainland, was not inhabited by immortals. It was home to people, people with the same seven emotions and six desires as anyone else.

For thousands of years, the three ancient families had lived in seclusion on Qishan without interfering with one another. Their strengths had been roughly equal, none of them able to overcome the others, and they had coexisted in peace.

But over a thousand years ago, the Tianqi Emperor, who styled himself the ruler for the ages, had sought immortality and dispatched countless experts to scour the seas for traces of divine beings.

Among them, one group of experts from the Great Qi dynasty found Qishan by a turn of circumstance.

At the time, the Great Qi dynasty under the Tianqi Emperor was more prosperous and powerful than any era before it, with martial world experts beyond counting.

After learning the general details about the three ancient families, those experts assumed the families must be hiding immortality elixirs, and began threatening them, even attempting to seize each family's divine treasure.

The three ancient families naturally had no intention of submitting. They joined forces and fought back.

They did succeed in driving off the first wave of Great Qi experts who made it to Qishan. But that was a beginning, not an end.

The Great Qi dynasty subsequently brought in one of the era's Martial Gods. The three families suffered enormous casualties, and were forced to deploy their three divine treasures to completely sever Qishan from the outside world.

But this created a profound vulnerability that the three families had never known about from the very beginning. Beneath Qishan's earth since ancient times had lived a community of people of divine nature.

These people of divine nature dwelt in underground darkness without sunlight, and after the three families had depleted themselves using their divine treasures, the underground people began coming up to the surface.

These people of divine nature possessed strange and unpredictable abilities. In their prime the three families would not have feared them. But the three families at that time, severely weakened from their losses, could no longer suppress them. Two of the three families were forced to allow intermarriage between their people and the people of divine nature just to maintain a fragile coexistence.

The Meng clan's ancestors, however, believed the people of divine nature were calculating and scheming in their intentions, and consistently refused to allow intermarriage.

As a thousand years passed, the two families who had intermarried with the people of divine nature grew steadily more powerful.

The descendants of those people of divine nature naturally produced people who awakened divine nature powers only rarely. But after intermarrying with the two ancient families, such awakenings occurred in roughly one out of every three children.

As the balance of power among the three families shifted further and further, the people of divine nature ultimately stirred up conflict between the two more powerful families, and the two ancient families moved to exterminate the Meng clan.

Daoist Qingyu was the only survivor of the Meng clan who had escaped Qishan.