BOOK 2: CHAPTER 409: JADE PENDANT SECRET, DIFFICULT TO SEND MESSAGE

Vol 2 Chapter 409: Jade Pendant Secret, Difficult to Send Message

The Heavenly River Venerable’s… jade pendant?

Hearing Lord Shuyu Dragon say this, Zheng Fa’s heart trembled slightly, but his face remained expressionless.

The Yin-Yang Fish jade pendant was the most lethal, the secret he could never expose.

It was not arrogance;

he was no longer afraid of bearing the consequences of the Heavenly River Venerable’s deeds—the so-called debts piling up without worry. Even without the Heavenly River Venerable issue, neither Leiyin Temple nor Haori Mountain would let him off.

But the modern world was always his weak spot.

If the existence of the Yin-Yang Fish jade pendant were discovered, the modern world would very likely be exposed as well.

At the thought of this, even someone like Zheng Fa felt his mind clog up, momentarily at a loss for words.

Xiao Yuying, however, was curious: “A jade pendant? Master, what jade pendant? The Heavenly River Venerable even left behind a jade pendant?”

She was already fascinated by history, and the Heavenly River Venerable was an unavoidable figure in Xuanyi, so naturally, Xiao Yuying was very interested.

Lord Shuyu Dragon glanced at his disciple but didn’t notice Zheng Fa’s silence, waving his hand: “What those Yaochi people said, I’m not exactly sure either. If you hadn’t mentioned the Heavenly River relic, I wouldn’t have remembered it.”

Zheng Fa recovered and asked the question he cared about most: “Did Yaochi and the others say what the jade pendant was for?”

Seeing Zheng Fa’s eager expression, Lord Shuyu Dragon thoughtfully recalled for a long while before nodding uncertainly.

“They said that the Heavenly River upheaval was actually quite strange.”

“Strange?”

“The Heavenly River Venerable was not defeated by the Four Sects—no, they didn’t even fight.”

Upon hearing this, Zheng Fa and Xiao Yuying both widened their eyes.

“Then why did the Heavenly River Venerable die?”

“He seemed to have…” Lord Shuyu Dragon fell silent for a moment, furrowing his brows in puzzlement, “chosen death himself.”

This answer was chilling to Xiao Yuying.

But it was not unexpected to Zheng Fa.

Or rather, he was somewhat confused about the Heavenly River Venerable’s final choice.

Regarding the Heavenly River Venerable’s strength, Zheng Fa had some guesses: at minimum, Golden Immortal.

The Four Slaying Immortal Swords had already slain True Immortals. As their owner and wielder, the Heavenly River Venerable’s power would generally far surpass True Immortals;

otherwise, it would be difficult to control the four swords.

On the other hand, unifying Xuanyi Realm likely required more than a True Immortal—perhaps even a Golden Immortal was barely enough. Yet Zheng Fa could not fully understand what a Golden Immortal was, so he dared not judge rashly.

Even if all of Heavenly River Sect revolted, they would not pose a fatal threat to the Heavenly River Venerable now.

Therefore, the Heavenly River Venerable’s death being so complete was even stranger: the Great Freedom Demon Ancestor could still hop around a few times.

“Suicide?”

Xiao Yuying’s expression was dazed, as if unable to believe the Heavenly River Venerable would make such a choice.

“So no one can believe it.” Lord Shuyu Dragon shook his head, “Everyone fears…”

Fear of what?

The greatest fear was that the Heavenly River Venerable wasn’t dead, hiding in the shadows preparing to strike hard.

Even if he died, such a death was hard to believe left no backup plans.

Zheng Fa could vouch for that—he was the backup plan.

Thinking of this, he asked again: “Then how did Yaochi know that the thing to find was a jade pendant?”

“The Heavenly River Sect originally had a Tongtian realm called the Myriad Swords Realm. One of its Tongtian treasures was missing a jade pendant.”

Zheng Fa was suddenly enlightened.

He had even seen that incomplete Tongtian treasure—back when the Six Sect Alliance was formed, Sect Master Yan held a formation plate and wanted to check if Zheng Fa had the jade pendant, but was injured by the Nine Nether Demon Ancestor.

“The Myriad Swords Realm was the foundation of the Heavenly River Sect, but after the Heavenly River Venerable’s fall, this Tongtian realm was almost abandoned.” Lord Shuyu Dragon knew quite a bit, “But Yaochi said some Heavenly River Sect founding masters mentioned that within the Myriad Swords Realm, there were legacies and even treasures left by the Heavenly River Venerable.”

“Treasures?”

“The Heavenly River Venerable unified Xuanyi, collected spiritual materials, magical tools, and secret techniques from the world. Guess where he stored them?”

“The Myriad Swords Realm?”

Lord Shuyu Dragon nodded with a laugh: “Even I was tempted after hearing that.”

“What are your plans regarding the Myriad Swords Realm?”

At the Heavenly River Sect camp, inside a large tent, Lady Nishang and three others gathered again, but the atmosphere was less cheerful than before.

“Why not wait for Immortal Yun from Haori Mountain?”

Old Monk Zhizhong was no longer impatient, speaking calmly: “Immortal Yun will depart soon. He has already entrusted the Myriad Swords Realm matter to Old Na.”

Lady Nishang glanced at Ancestor Xuanding.

The relationship between Leiyin Temple and Haori Mountain was closer than they thought, unlike Yaochi and Taishang Dao, who claimed to be allies but had conflicting interests.

It made sense—Haori Mountain’s Lu Immortal had relied on Leiyin Temple to achieve Immortal status.

Ancestor Xuanding remained silent, but Li Sanxian acted like his mouthpiece, asking: “The Myriad Swords Realm Tongtian treasure is incomplete and unrepaired. What’s the plan?”

Zhizhong smiled without answering, only looking at Ancestor Xuanding.

After a long silence, Ancestor Xuanding asked: “Not waiting?”

“Not waiting.”

Li Sanxian’s eyes widened in surprise, but the three True Immortals in the tent seemed to understand immediately. Suddenly, he realized: “Have we been waiting for the one who holds the jade pendant to appear?”

Lady Nishang shook her head to explain: “Not exactly.”

“We saw in the last era that to control the Myriad Swords Realm, lacking the Tongtian treasure made it nearly impossible.”

Li Sanxian was confused.

“If we can’t control the Myriad Swords Realm, then we can destroy it completely.”

Li Sanxian suddenly understood: “So in this way, no matter what backup the Heavenly River Venerable had, it would be useless?”

Lady Nishang nodded: “Moreover, if lucky, some treasures might be preserved.”

Li Sanxian stammered: “Then… why didn’t we do this before?”

“The four Heavenly River Sect branches’ founding masters were unwilling. They were limited by the four sword restrictions and always sought the Heavenly River Venerable’s legacy.” Lady Nishang was frank. “Besides, who would willingly destroy such a wealth in Xuanyi Realm?”

Li Sanxian lightly nodded. The Myriad Swords Realm’s treasures, those that could be preserved, even one percent would be good.

Old Monk Zhizhong continued: “Destroying the Myriad Swords Realm is not so simple. Without the Four Sects’ joint formation, we wouldn’t have the strength.”

“So what about the one holding the jade pendant…”

“Just incidental.” Old Monk Zhizhong clasped his hands. “If that person doesn’t come, then the Myriad Swords Realm naturally has no connection to them, and the jade pendant is irrelevant.”

“If they do come, even better.”

Zheng Fa was thinking about going to the Heavenly River Sect.

By now, he had to admit the most likely place to find the Heavenly River Venerable’s legacy was indeed the Myriad Swords Realm.

The question was whether to go, and how to go.

He stood in the courtyard of Ziwei Yuan, watching the Heavenly Emperor body sitting on the divine chariot, slowly rising from the east, pulled by the Little Golden Crow.

If he went, with the Heavenly Emperor body, he was not so afraid of death: the One Qi Transforming into Three Purities technique gave him some resurrection ability.

But it was not without problems.

On one hand, the Four Sects had tightly surrounded the Heavenly River Sect. What identity could he use to enter and how to access the Myriad Swords Realm were major issues.

On the other hand, if the jade pendant could really unveil the Myriad Swords Realm’s secret, the repercussions would be numerous:

Once the Myriad Swords Realm showed obvious changes, it would almost confirm the pendant’s emergence.

The Four Sects’ reaction could be imagined.

If he didn’t go, these problems wouldn’t exist.

Only one thing was troublesome: how to perfect the Heavenly River Method.

The four Heavenly River Sect founding masters had spent an entire era on this, yet only came up with a makeshift solution…

This obviously did not align with the Yellow Court Scripture’s approach.

Although Zheng Fa was very confident in his research abilities in Jiushan Realm, trying to perfect the Heavenly River Method in such a short time was probably only possible in dreams.

If it failed at this critical moment, Jiushan Sect might be doomed.

Besides this, there was one more reason deeply buried in Zheng Fa’s heart.

He wanted to know how exactly he had crossed over to the modern world, whether everything in the modern world was real or false, and more importantly, whether his fate had been arranged by someone—that he… was a pawn?

Compared to this, the Heavenly River Method was nothing.

Zheng Fa looked up at the sky.

Who exactly had the Heavenly River Venerable swung his sword at that day?

The best method now was still to quietly obtain the Heavenly River legacy—at this moment, he somewhat missed Shi Nandang, the keen judge of talent.

Shi Nandang’s days were not easy.

In a valley two thousand miles from the Hundred Immortals Alliance.

Shi Nandang stepped out of the courtyard, looking around.

The spiritual energy here was sparse. Although the collapsed rubble had been cleared, the surrounding mountains looked like they had patchy bald spots, revealing large patches of bare yellow soil.

Outside the courtyard, people came and went;

over half were disciples of Haori Mountain.

But no one spoke to this half-step Haori True Disciple;

even their gazes were filled with taboo.

Shi Nandang’s expression remained unchanged, but he was helpless inside.

The Trapping Immortal Sword incident had caused severe losses in the mountains.

Not only were twenty percent of the spirit veins destroyed, but more importantly, a perfectly good Trapping Immortal Sword had become a laughingstock—too embarrassing to show off.

As the top person in charge of the Heaven and Earth Divine Fiend Array, naturally, this blame was on him.

If not for Ancestor Luo rushing to take the blame and then being killed by Zheng Fa’s sword, Shi Nandang would have faced interrogation by the sect long ago.

Now, with Ancestor Luo’s resurrection and Heavenly River Sect matters, the sect was in chaos, and no one came to manage him.

But none of these senior brothers were fools;

everyone could see that Shi Nandang would never get a good position in the Lu family and might even get into serious trouble.

No one dared to get involved.

Their attitude made Shi Nandang even more panicked.

Lost in thoughts, suddenly a red Talisman Edict streaked across the sky and flew over his head.

Immortal Yun’s stern voice came:

“Haori disciple Shi Nandang, return to Haori Mountain immediately and come with me to the Heavenly River Sect.”

Shi Nandang took the talisman edict and looked around.

He saw some disciples whispering a little ways off, their eyes filled with schadenfreude.

His heart chilled, knowing he would receive no good treatment returning to Haori Mountain.

Most importantly, among so many Haori disciples, he was the one summoned.

Just thinking about it, he knew Lu Immortal truly suspected him, only too busy before, but now departing Haori Mountain, he intended to bring Shi Nandang close.

Shi Nandang took a deep breath, ignoring the stares, and cupped his hands toward Haori Mountain: “Following the order of the ancestor!”

Then he soared with his escape light toward Haori Mountain.

Halfway there, Shi Nandang scanned the surroundings with his divine consciousness, found no one, took out the Tongjian, and reported to Zheng Fa.

After a while, Zheng Fa sent a message back: “Jiushan Realm has reached Haori border, return first.”

“Return to Jiushan?”

Shi Nandang’s heart leapt. For a Haori disciple, returning to Haori Mountain made him hesitant, but returning to Jiushan was like flying.

He used the Heavenly and Earthly Fiend Transformations to disguise as a middle-aged cultivator and sped toward Jiushan Realm desperately.

Within two hours, he arrived at Haori Mountain’s border again.

Upon entering Jiushan Realm, he saw that unlike the Nine Islands of the Heavenly Palace, it had already turned into hundreds of stars.

“Come to the Lingyao Workshop in Tianshi Yuan to see me.”

Zheng Fa’s voice rang in his ear.

An island in the distance glowed faintly. Shi Nandang knew it was the Lingyao Workshop and hurriedly got up to fly there.

Although anxious, his eyes couldn’t help but be amazed by the prosperity of the Tianshi Yuan archipelago along the way.

Part of the Tianshi Yuan archipelago was originally the mortal-inhabited Letu Island. But the more important part was the expansion of the Jiushan markets.

According to different trade types, there were now four main market districts:

Lingyao Workshop, Magical Tool Workshop, Immortal Pill Workshop, and Spiritual Talisman Workshop.

Each market had many cultivators coming and going. On the docks beside the markets, Divine Thunder Warships landed like raindrops.

Shi Nandang became more and more amazed.

Though not good at business, he had seen many markets in Haori Mountain.

Wu Ri Mountain was the first in artifact forging in Xuanyi, and its markets were among the best.

In the past, he only thought Haori Mountain’s markets earned huge daily profits;

today he truly gained insight:

Precious spiritual herbs, rare in Dong Continent, were brought in by the boatload. Occasional price quotes made Shi Nandang itch to buy some.

The Divine Thunder Warships that just unloaded the spiritual herbs did not rest but turned to fly to the Immortal Pill Workshop, loading bottle after bottle of Taishang Dao’s exclusive spiritual pills, flying directly outside Jiushan Realm.

Looking farther, Jiushan Sect’s crafted magical tools and spiritual talismans were also in high demand.

Shi Nandang understood:

To supply Yaochi and the Hundred Immortals Alliance, at least one-third of Taishang Dao’s spiritual pills were sent here.

Yaochi also traded thirty percent of its spiritual herbs here.

Today’s Tianshi Yuan was the common trading market for the three great sects: Taishang Dao, Yaochi, and Jiushan Sect.

One could imagine how much income Yaochi and Taishang Dao had thanks to Tianshi Yuan.

Lost in thought, Shi Nandang landed in the Lingcao Market.

Zheng Fa stood among the crowd, speaking to Senior Sister Zhang. Seeing him arrive, he waved to him.

Shi Nandang hurried over.

He heard Zheng Fa say to Senior Sister Zhang:

“The pilots of the Divine Thunder Warships can be trained from the Hundred Immortals Alliance cultivators.”

“Tell Taishang Dao that the price of spiritual herbs can’t be lowered. We have transportation costs too.”

Shi Nandang listened to a few more sentences, compared with previous spiritual herb prices, and his gaze toward Zheng Fa turned strange—your Jiushan Sect is way too greedy!

“Senior Sister, calculate how much merit points can increase this month.”

Shi Nandang thought:… The Sect Leader is right. Taishang Dao can buy or not buy as they please!

After Zheng Fa finished, Senior Sister Zhang spoke again, giving a few instructions to the disciples managing the Lingyao Workshop. Then the three flew out of Tianshi Yuan, returning to Ziwei Yuan.

“Sect Leader, about that talisman edict…” Shi Nandang hurriedly asked, “If I return to the sect, I’m afraid… I can’t withstand Immortal Yun’s methods.”

Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang exchanged a glance.

They understood Shi Nandang’s intentions.

After all, Shi Nandang was indeed not clean. If Immortal Yun’s suspicion flared and he used soul searching, it would be very difficult for Shi Nandang not to leak secrets.

“What do you think?”

“I… I want to hide in Jiushan Realm.”

Shi Nandang said quietly, feeling a little guilty for betraying the Sect Leader’s expectations.

He clearly understood the Sect Leader had his reasons for placing him in Haori Mountain.

The problem was… he really…

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Zheng Fa didn’t get angry but smiled.

“Sect Leader?”

“You stay in Jiushan Realm.” Zheng Fa smiled. “But Shi Nandang, you must return to Haori Mountain.”

Shi Nandang blinked, initially not understanding, but having suffered losses before, he quickly realized Zheng Fa’s plan.

“Sect Leader, do you want… to disguise yourself as me?”

“Not allowed?”

Shi Nandang scratched his head, pondered for a long time, and couldn’t help but grin.

“What’s so funny?”

“Sect Leader, will I one day not see Immortal Yun in Jiushan Realm?”

“You really dare to think!”

…

“You want to go to the Heavenly River Sect?”

Zheng Fa leaving Jiushan Realm was a big deal, naturally not known by everyone, but the sect’s upper echelons would be informed, or many Jiushan Sect affairs would be hard to arrange.

Xie Qingxue hurried over upon hearing the news.

“Hmm, not necessarily going.” Zheng Fa thought clearly, “I’ll try first. If there’s no chance, I’ll come back.”

In short, it was still a wait-and-see approach.

Xie Qingxue looked at him and suddenly said: “I’ll go with you.”

Zheng Fa shook his head: “Fairy Xie, I have the Nine Nether Talisman Edict. Dao Fruit cultivators can all be concealed.”

Heavenly and Earthly Fiend Transformations were not omnipotent, at least unable to hide the divine consciousness.

It was precisely because of the Nine Nether Talisman Edict that he felt more confident.

“You… why do you want to go?”

Zheng Fa was stunned: “Of course, I want to see if I can perfect the Heavenly River Method.”

Xie Qingxue looked at him steadily, then suddenly shook her head: “That’s not your character.”

“The Heavenly River Method isn’t enough to make you like this.” Xie Qingxue interrupted him quickly, “The approach that suits you best is to revise the Yellow Court Scripture, to see if you can bypass the Heavenly River Method’s obstacles.”

I suspect she was calling me a coward.

But it had to be said, Xie Qingxue saw through him—he was never one to blindly follow predecessors’ cultivation methods. Moreover, the Yellow Court Scripture itself was incomplete;

there was more than one path.

In his heart, Zheng Fa wanted to go to the Heavenly River Sect mainly to understand the Yin-Yang Fish jade pendant matter.

Previously, he hadn’t delved into it because his strength was insufficient, but now, having some confidence, he naturally wouldn’t ignore it.

But he didn’t want to tell Xie Qingxue this.

He hadn’t even told Senior Sister Zhang about the Yin-Yang Fish jade pendant.

Thus, he didn’t know how to explain it for a moment.

Seeing his silence, Xie Qingxue’s gaze softened even more: “I will watch over Jiushan Realm for you.”

“Fairy Xie, I’m not…”

“I understand.”

Understand what?