Chapter t.i.tle says it all.

C22. Speaking of the Past

Deserted forests in an empty valley, the calls of birds coming from deep within the mountains.

Chen He squatted on the ground. With a slightly sharp shard of stone as a tool, he began to dig a pit diligently.

He did not use spiritual energy or any other tricks. Just like that, he dug into a layer of the soil where the cl.u.s.ter of bamboo plants had been, then snapped off large amounts of bamboo twigs and leaves and threw them into the pit, preparing to conceal the dead bamboo with the ashes of a bonfire.

"Fire…"

Even after Chen He held his breath for a long time, the Stone-borne Flame in his dantian did not budge an inch.

'This fellow, what use is having it around!' Chen He thought, infuriated.

They were in the wilderness. He had no fire-starters, and had never learned any sort of mystical ability for this, so where could he get a source of fire?

Chen He, as a seventeen-year-old, could only claim to have three days' worth of memories. He was secretly regretting the fact that Senior Brother had raised him to be overly dependent for food and clothes, without having eaten even food that that had gone cold or hard. Forget about knowing how to start a fire.

The Liquor-Wisdom Technique could not do everything possible, since it did not transmit experience. Many people knew how to start fires, but they still got choked half to death by the smoke when they tried it for the first time in the wild.

"Why didn't Senior Brother think of teaching me something like the Flaming Palm or whatever?" Chen He mumbled.

It was said that the Mi Sect, a buddhist sect of the western lands, had many strange arts; things like the Blazing Blade and Palms of the Raging Sun all sounded so grand. Their actual functionality in combat was unknown, but at least they could light a fire.

"It's sealed so tightly, is it completely unusable?" Unwilling to give up, Chen He tried once more.

The slumbering Stone-borne Flame must have felt its master's impatience, for it moved slightly.

"Chhh."

A wisp of flame emerged from Chen He's fingertip, setting the bamboo leaves alight.

The tiny flame leapt several feet high at once, burning furiously in the pit—an advantage of the True Samadhi Flames being that they could light fires instantly without any fussing about, burning as usual even if the wood was damp. Of course, to avoid having smoke rising and attracting attention, Chen He had picked dry leaves and thinner twigs.

When they had been burned down completely, and the fire seemed to be spreading, Chen He waved his hand.

The flames were pulled over at once, flowing back to his dantian along with his spiritual energy. To Chen He, it was as if the tiny, curled-up Stone-borne Flame had snored, blown a bubble, and sucked it back right afterward.

The temperature of the pit dropped immediately.

A pile of ashes sat in the pit. Satisfied, Chen He clapped, letting the ashes spread a little on their own.

After this, he stepped heavily and pushed the bamboo grove apart, fabricating the steps of a mortal who had been traversing the mountains, stepped through the stream, left this source of water in the night, and returned to the stream in the daytime.

By the stream at the end of the bamboo grove, the ground was covered with the tracks of wild animals. There was no way to track them through those.

Thus Chen He busied himself for two hours. Only then did he cross the stream, jump into the valley, and pa.s.s by swathes of bamboo below, heading straight for a cliff in the distance.

After ensuring he had left no traces behind, Chen He carefully pried the hanging vines apart, slipping into a slightly narrow cave. The black python that had originally inhabited this cave was hidden in the corner; it raised its head, alerted by the noise. After seeing that it was Chen He, it s.h.i.+vered, then tucked its head back into the coils of its curled-up body, pretending it did not exist.

s.h.i.+ Feng's feet did not the touch the ground. He sat hovering in the air, his hands on his knees.

His right leg was not crossed, instead resting on his left foot and hanging down. His outer robe was red like blood, air currents swirling around him, but those were limited to a five-foot radius around him. Standing out of range, Chen He could not feel a single wisp of spiritual energy.

The true essence containing Wood-borne Flame seemed like flames of light burning all around s.h.i.+ Feng.

Every now and then, the true essence's movement sent the long, loose-hanging hair drifting backwards, revealing s.h.i.+ Feng's ear, temple, and brow.

Chen He stared intently at the left edge of s.h.i.+ Feng's forehead. There were three small red moles—previously, s.h.i.+ Feng had been covering those with his hair, so he had never seen them.

Unconsciously reaching up to touch his own temple, Chen He became suspicious of his own records for the first time.

Why had Senior Brother mentioned the fact that he also had red moles at his temple? Why had he never discovered this?

Why would Senior Brother have those too, was Senior Brother one of his relatives by blood?

The things about the Yunzhou Chen family weren't true, he didn't have an insane older cousin, and neither did he have an aunt who plotted to kill him for the family inheritance, and he didn't have relatives who cared nothing for him. Only Senior Brother was his blood relative, all the memories in the jade orbs were false!

The hand Chen He rested at his side clenched and relaxed. Finally, he walked to the mouth of the cave, looking far ahead from between the lush vines. At the edge of the sky, the sun was about to rise, and the clouds had dispersed.

He picked up the jade orb and put it away carefully.

—he was no longer a three-year-old child, and he knew that things would not change to what he wished just like that.

Senior Brother would not trick him.

The red moles were but a coincidence. He was only a lost, unwanted moron from the Chen family.

Chen He spent another long night. Previously, in the Redwinds Desert, he had been anxiously guarding his senior brother in the early hours as well. He began to wonder if the camouflage he had rigged the previous night was working. That band of illicit salt traffickers had taught him that lies had to be perfect; no matter how well one spoke, it was never as effective as meticulously crafted details.

Divine Master of the Snowy Mountain, Liang Qianshan.

Chen He filled his fingertip with spiritual energy, writing down words on a section of hollow bamboo.

At first, they were crooked because of the unfamiliarity. After grasping the right level of power, the words became smooth and flowing, and fury could be felt from looking at these words.

Following this Chen He wrote three words, Ju-he-sect.

After hesitating for a long time, Chen He did not write the words 'Secret Beixuan Treasure' on it—he had to consider that his things could end up in another's hands. The bamboo was not a jade orb crafted by Senior Brother, and it could not distinguish spiritual energy or auras.

He wrote Beixuan Sect on the inside of the bamboo, adding a doodle of a meat bun as a hint.

Just as Chen He was thinking of how to leave even more subtle hints, s.h.i.+ Feng's aura changed behind his back. The greyish-white true essence was retracted and his hair settled on his shoulders.

Chen He hurriedly shoved the bamboo into his sleeve. Then he thought about it and felt it unsafe, pulling it back out and tucking it into his belt at his side, covering it with his sleeve. It did not seem too obvious.

His eyes opened, his right foot touching the ground. The entire cave trembled slightly; s.h.i.+ Feng had ceased his cultivation. He immediately saw his junior brother hiding something in a panic.

Dew in the hair, dirt and bamboo leaves on the shoes; he must have snuck out to cover their tracks.

s.h.i.+ Feng smiled before he realised it. With a wave of his hand, the bamboo section Chen He was hiding flew to him.

"Ah!" Frustrated, Chen He stood where he was.

As his fingers brushed over the words on the bamboo, s.h.i.+ Feng's smile dissipated. He looked up at Chen He, seeing his junior brother avert his gaze and pretend nothing was the matter. s.h.i.+ Feng suddenly felt indescribably suffocated.

His junior brother was working so hard just to remember things that had happened. Even mortals could do it easily, but to Chen He, it was a luxury he could only hope for.

Gesturing for Chen He to come to him, s.h.i.+ Feng brought out an unused jade orb from his mustard seed storage treasure.

Chen He's eyes lit up.

"I had not intended for you to remember such disturbances." s.h.i.+ Feng stroked Chen He's hair, his gaze full of apathy as he looked to the carving of Liang Qianshan's name. "Originally, after we returned to Black Depths Valley, the matter would no longer be related to us."

"Originally?" Catching on quickly, Chen He lifted his head, a little lost because he had guessed the implication. "What Senior Brother's saying is, we can't go back any more?"

"Yes."

Chen He thought as hard as he could, soon arriving at the answer. "Because of the Secret Beixuan Treasure?"

"That is right."

s.h.i.+ Feng had not spoken for many years. When facing Liang Qianshan, he was full of scorn, but had not felt it; now that he was to explain the complicated origins of the Secret Beixuan Treasure to his junior brother, he was a little hesitant.

"Wait, Senior Brother." Chen He s.n.a.t.c.hed the jade orb over and began fiddling with it.

Since he did not know when they would be able to return, s.h.i.+ Feng did not wish to see the ridiculous sight of Chen He's wrists and neck laden with jade orbs. He quickly stopped his junior brother, teaching him how to control usage of the jade orbs.

s.h.i.+ Feng had also taken this opportunity to piece his words together well, for he was unwilling to speak of his past, and was prepared to gloss over with a single sentence.

"The Beixuan Sect was once prosperous. Millennia ago, it was the largest sect in the world, but after experiencing tribulations, it deteriorated again and again. Now, only you and I are left."

Hearing this, Chen He blinked. He did not ask what had happened to the Beixuan Sect that only s.h.i.+ Feng alone had been left behind.

"In ancient times, the distinction between the demonic and orthodox cultivators was not distinct. In the same sect, there were monsters, there were ghost cultivators, there were also the most down-to-earth alchemists.

"Eight thousand years ago, the ruling dynasty of the mortal world changed, and the new and old factions warred endlessly. The outer disciples of many sects worked for each faction, and in the end, the entire cultivation world was pulled into the conflict. The two factions chose the Beixuan Sect and Nanhe Sect to be their respective masterminds. After years of fighting, numerous cultivators died, and countless minor sects were unable to pa.s.s on their teachings.

"Their belongings were taken charge of by the masterminds of each faction. In the end, the new dynasty supported by the Beixuan Sect was victorious, and the Nanhe Sect was decimated. The magic items, cultivation practices, and elixirs and pills that this war, this tribulation of the cultivation world gave to the Beixuan Sect, this is the rumoured Secret Beixuan Treasure!"

Chen He was at once solemn.

Things were worse than he imagined. Though it was called the Secret Beixuan Treasure, this treasure did not belong to the Beixuan Sect. According to the norms of the cultivation world, possessions left behind after a cultivator's death could be entrusted to close friends, who would then search for inheritors on their behalf.

Chen He had the general knowledge given by the Liquor-Wisdom Technique, so he knew about the ma.s.sive war that had implicated the mortal world, the cultivation world, and the heavens eight millennia ago. For every ten sects in the world, it was hard to find even a single sect that survived. There was no way the Beixuan Sect had not been coveted by others after obtaining so many good things!

"Finding inheritors was not an easy task. People could be close or distant, near or far, and the characters and qualities of each person differed. The Beixuan Sect would naturally start from the sects they were closer with, and it would take them at least eighteen hundred years to finish.

"Furthermore, there were inheritances from sect who had killed members of the Beixuan Sect, which had fallen from the Nanhe Sect into the hands of the Beixuan Sect. Needless to say, the Beixuan Sect would never help such sects search for inheritors.

"Here lay the problem. Anyone who could kill members of the Beixuan Sect had decent cultivation practices and magic items, and having definite evidence would cause even more suspicion—people claimed to be the grand-disciples or direct descendants of the deceased cultivators, and came to claim elixirs, magic items, cultivation practices and such. Even the ones who received inheritances from the Beixuan Sect, they flipped through their old tomes and muttered that what they had received was incomplete, doubtful of the a.s.sertions that some of the magic items had been destroyed in the war."

s.h.i.+ Feng took a deep breath, his expression icy and grim.

The Beixuan Sect had been large. So people hid their fury and doubts in their hearts, pa.s.sing them from generation to generation. When this ancient sect became weakened, the entire cultivation world exploded.

"Three millennia ago, the demonic cultivators joined forces with the six major orthodox sects and many rogue cultivators to invade the Beixuan Sect's stronghold, leaving nothing unturned. In the end, they used the lives of the sect members to force the then sect leader, Lin Qingshang, to reveal the location of the Secret Beixuan Treasure, and seized the records pa.s.sed down among the sect leaders. Due to suspicions of secret pa.s.sageways in the grounds, they even burned down the entire sect's grounds, reducing the Beixuan Sect's stronghold to rubble.

Although no one other than the demonic cultivators had killed indiscriminately, Lin Qingshang, stricken with grief, fury, and severe wounds, pa.s.sed away a year later. His disciples could only leave the central lands, carrying their deceased sect leader in the coffin, to the Great Snowy Mountain."

"The Great Snowy Mountain?" Chen He thought he had heard wrong.

"Yes, Qiankun Abbey had not existed then. The Great Snowy Mountain once belonged to the Beixuan Sect which had lost its home."

Chen He balled his fists, asking in a low voice, "Did those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds get the Secret Beixuan Treasure?"

"It is unknown."

s.h.i.+ Feng gazed towards the distance, speaking slowly,

"There are many stories about this. Lin Qingshang said the secret treasure had been buried for years, and the location became unknown after the ascension of the last sect leader who knew about it. He swore to be consumed by inner demons and let his soul scatter without even a place to rest if there was any bit of untruth in what he said, and only then did they back down. When word of this spread to the rest of the cultivation world, there were people who said the six major orthodox sects had already obtained the secret treasure and were only putting out a false lead to fool everyone. Some also said the demonic cultivators had obtained the treasure. Some even suspected that Lin Qingshang was not yet dead, and rushed to the Great Snowy Mountain to exhume the body…"

The cave was quiet inside, with only the rustling sounds of vines blown by the wind.

"In the end, no one knew the whereabouts of the treasure after all. Afterwards, every few centuries, news of the Secret Beixuan Treasure would spread, causing the deaths of countless innocents once more."

After hesitating for a little, Chen He asked in a small voice, "Senior Brother, what if it's true this time?"

s.h.i.+ Feng lowered his head to look at him.

"I do not want to take this risk, for you are more important than the Secret Beixuan Treasure."

Seems like the Beixuan Sect went through lots of bad s.h.i.+t even before s.h.i.+ Feng's time.

Also, YAS SF, YOUR JUNIOR BRO IS IMPORTANT, YAS

New names:

Lin Qingshang = 林青商. (青=can mean green/blue/black depending on what you're describing, 商=business, trade; discuss; is also a surname but is acceptable as a given name character) A former sect leader of the Beixuan Sect from about 3000 years ago, as stated above. That's all you need to know, really.

New sects mentioned:

Nanhe Sect 南合宗: a sect from the ancient era, was the Beixuan Sect's opponent in a major war that involved both mortals and cultivators. No longer exists.

As for the Mi Sect 密宗, they were mentioned before—they're the one who invented the Liquor-Wisdom Technique that SF used on CH back when the latter was still a child.

And, no footnotes! Fellow cultivators of the Footnotes Dao, we're taking a break today.

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