Reunion with Elders After a Long Separation

"No need."

Gu Yang's voice remained as cold as ice. "I am used to being a free spirit, I cannot stand being constrained."

"Since Fellow Daoist Li has no intention of joining our sect, then Wan'yin will not force it."

A hint of disappointment flashed in Su Wan'yin's eyes, but it was quickly concealed. She smoothed her hair blown messy by the wind and pointed to a white bone flying skiff faintly visible in the misty clouds ahead, a smile appearing on her face.

"That is Elder Mo Yuan's reception skiff. Elder Mo watched me grow up and treats me like his own granddaughter. Once we get there, we will be truly safe."

The skiff was entirely forged from the white bones of Rank Two demonic beasts, emitting a soft spiritual light. Standing at the bow was an elder with a kind face, white hair, and beard. Dressed in a plain robe, the elder was looking over anxiously. Upon seeing Su Wan'yin's figure, tears streamed down his aged face as he waved repeatedly.

"Wan'yin! Wan'yin! You've finally returned!"

The elder's voice trembled, filled with the relief and concern of surviving a calamity.

That concerned expression did not seem fake. In fact, due to extreme excitement, the elder's hand gripping the ship's rail was slightly trembling. He leaned forward, as if wishing he could immediately fly down to catch her.

Su Wan'yin's nose tingled. The grievances and tension of the past few days finally found an outlet in this moment.

"That is Grandpa Mo..." Su Wan'yin murmured softly, her eyes slightly red. "The year I failed my Foundation Establishment, he was the only one who stood guard outside my cave abode for three days and three nights."

However.

A large hand, like an iron pincer, clamped onto her shoulder without warning.

"Wait."

Gu Yang's voice was as cold as iron, completely devoid of warmth.

Su Wan'yin's body stiffened, and she turned back in astonishment. "Fellow Daoist Li? That is Elder Mo, he..."

Gu Yang did not look at her. Instead, he narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze piercing through the curtain of rain, fixing intently on that kind-faced elder.

On his retinas, a faint blue system light screen was refreshing like a waterfall.

[Ding! Daily intelligence refreshed.]

[Green Intelligence: Joyous Union Sect Outer Affairs Elder Mo Yuan (Late Foundation Establishment).

On the surface, he weeps bitterly out of concern for his granddaughter's safety, but in reality, his lifespan is nearing its end. Having been stuck at the bottleneck of Late Foundation Establishment for fifty years, his Dao heart has collapsed.

He has long secretly defected to the rival faction, the Blood Fiend Sect.

For this reception, he did not notify the sect, but privately piloted the flying skiff.

A death array, the 'Absolute Yin Spirit Trapping Array', has already been set up on the skiff.

His true purpose is to imprison Su Wan'yin and use a secret technique to refine her alive into a 'Life Extension Human Pill', seizing the 'Maiden's Exquisite Heart' within her body to forcibly extend his own life by twenty years.

Hidden inside Mo Yuan's left cuff are three 'Love-Locking Powder' poison smoke spheres that specifically counter the Joyous Union Sect's charm physiques. Once she gets within three rods, he will detonate the poison smoke, causing Su Wan'yin to lose all her spiritual power and be at his mercy.]

...

[Purple Intelligence: Sealed within Mo Yuan's body is a 'Nine Nether Soul-Locking Flame' (Ranked 99th on the Strange Fire List).

He obtained this fire from an ancient tomb. Because he could not refine it, his heart meridian was instead corroded by corpse fire, which is the root cause of his urgent need for the 'Maiden's Exquisite Heart' to extend his life.

This fire is incredibly sinister and possesses a 'Soul-Locking' characteristic. Once infected, the physical body rots, and the soul falls into the Nine Nethers forever. Once infected, if a rescuer forcibly absorbs it, the divine senses of the two people will briefly 'resonate'.

If the host can devour this fire, the power of the 'Great Sun Heaven Burning Sutra' will increase, and the 'Great Sun True Fire' will evolve the 'Soul Scorching' special effect.]

...

[Purple Intelligence: The periphery of the Immortal Burial Forbidden Ground is shrouded in 'Nirvana Astral Winds' that kill upon touch. Only the 'Nine Nether Soul-Locking Flame', which was the companion fire seed of the Eternal Night Empress, Tantai Jin, serves as the sole 'identity token' to open the grand array.

The entrance is located at the southeast corner of the 'Mass Grave' three hundred miles north of Holy Heaven City, where there is a headless Qilin stone statue half-buried in the soil [Click to view coordinates].

At the Chou hour (1-3 AM) when Yin energy is at its heaviest, the host needs to release the strange fire to cover his entire body and inject the origin fire seed into the severed neck of the stone statue.

The stone statue will misidentify the host as the 'Tomb-Guarding Divine General' who patrolled the mausoleum back then, thereby opening a secret patrol passage leading straight to the outer edge of the underground palace.

Risk Warning: Due to years of disrepair, three out-of-control 'Rank Two Supreme-Grade Iron Corpse Puppets' (combat power comparable to a Peak Foundation Establishment body cultivator) are wandering inside the secret passage.

Because of the array's malfunction, they have lost the ability to distinguish friend from foe. Even if the host possesses the token, he will encounter an indiscriminate, thunderous siege.]

...

Gu Yang did not have time to carefully review the intelligence on the Immortal Burial Forbidden Ground.

Su Wan'yin's figure came to a sudden halt. Her peach-blossom eyes, which always held three parts charm and seven parts calculation, were now filled only with astonishment.

She turned back to look at the man wearing a bamboo hat behind her.

Rainwater dripped down the edge of his bamboo hat, drawing a blurred curtain of water between the two of them.

"Fellow Daoist Li?"

Su Wan'yin's voice trembled slightly, not out of fear, but because of a tremendous sense of absurdity.

That was Grandpa Mo Yuan.

In this man-eating Joyous Union Sect, he was the only old man who would spare no origin spiritual power to smooth her meridians when she suffered qi deviation during cultivation; he was the only elder who would step forward and protect her behind his back when she was made things difficult by other elders.

In this deceitful Joyous Union Sect, Mo Yuan was the last pure land in her heart.

If even he wants to harm me, who else in this world can be trusted?

"Did you... see it wrong?"

Su Wan'yin bit her lower lip, trying to find a trace of wavering in those eyes that were as calm as an ancient well.

However, she was disappointed.

Gu Yang's gaze remained a deathly silent indifference, as if what he was looking at was not a long-lost elder reuniting with a junior, but a withered bone in a tomb wearing human skin.

"Look at his eyes," Gu Yang suddenly spoke, his voice so low that only the two of them could hear.

"Eyes?" Su Wan'yin was taken aback, instinctively looking toward the flying skiff again. In the rain, Elder Mo Yuan was still waving, his expression anxious.

"When loved ones reunite, their eyes should first look at the face to confirm safety," Gu Yang spoke quickly and firmly, carrying a chilling calmness. "But from the moment he appeared until now, the focus of his gaze has remained three inches below your chest."

Su Wan'yin's heart skipped a beat, and a chill crept up her spine. She wanted to refute, but found her throat a bit dry.

"And the flying skiff."

Gu Yang did not give her a chance to catch her breath and continued:

"The White Bone Skiff, being a Rank Two High-Grade artifact, is engraved with a 'Light Spirit Array'. Even if it carries a weight of a thousand catties, it can ride the wind, and it would absolutely not press the surrounding clouds down by three inches while hovering."

"Unless, some extremely heavy array disk was deliberately installed inside the skiff, or... the foundation of a trapping and killing array."

Su Wan'yin's pupils violently contracted.

Prompted by Gu Yang's words, her gaze instantly became sharp.

As the Holy Maiden of the Joyous Union Sect, she couldn't be more familiar with the sect's magical artifacts. Just as Gu Yang said, the hovering posture of that flying skiff was too 'heavy'.

That sense of heaviness was like a starving wolf disguised as a sheep, its belly actually stuffed with iron and stone, desperately suppressing the urge to pounce on its prey.