Chapter 224: Dharma-Transmitting Wooden Man
All preparations complete, a single Wujiao flower was tossed into the furnace. The moment its petals touched the Sword Qi, they were shredded to fragments in an instant. Impurities were flung from the field of influence like black sand.
The remaining supplementary herbs were cast in one after another, their impurities dissolved, until only a measure of medicinal liquid remained suspended at the furnace’s core.
Under the blazing heat of the purifying fire, the liquid gradually contracted, coalescing into emerald-green droplets.
Song Yan’s brows knitted slightly. His divine sense perceived that the medicinal essence was dissipating too quickly. He immediately adjusted the intensity of his Sword Qi, and a humming tremor resounded from within the furnace.
He flicked his finger, and half a lotus seed of the Moon-Holder Lotus slid into the furnace.
Upon encountering the Sword Qi, the lotus seed trembled faintly as though it were a living thing. Its outer husk peeled away, fully revealing the moonlit core within.
Song Yan’s sword seal shifted abruptly. The Sword Qi inside the furnace transformed from violent to gentle, coaxing the lotus seed’s essence forth with the delicacy of a spring breeze brushing willows.
The lotus seed merged with the medicinal liquid of the Wujiao flower from before. Silver light erupted instantly, and a sharp hissing sound issued from within the Sword Qi field.
This was the sign of clashing medicinal properties.
“It is going wrong.” Song Yan’s voice was low and urgent. His sword fingers traced rapid patterns.
The Sword Qi within the furnace split apart suddenly, dividing the silver light into countless fine streams with the precision of a master butcher dismembering an ox.
At the same time, the toad-shaped furnace lid trembled violently of its own accord, expelling a gust of cool Sword Qi that forcibly suppressed the chaotic, rampaging medicinal power.
This was the furnace’s regulatory function, and it was precisely what Song Yan considered the most ingenious aspect of Chen Yi’s design.
This furnace, purpose-built for alchemy through the Sword Dao, did more than merely capture ambient Sword Qi to ease the cultivator’s burden of infusion. It could also store a reserve of energy to be deployed at critical moments, automatically quelling the medicinal power before it collapsed entirely.
This granted the cultivator sufficient time to react and to make adjustments or corrections.
Once the medicinal liquid had gradually stabilized, Song Yan seized the precise moment and withdrew every trace of Sword Qi at once.
The temperature inside the furnace plummeted. Four pills slowly took shape.
Within the Sword Dao furnace, faint wisps of grey mist drifted.
A scorched scent permeated the air as four pills rolled forth. One was a low-grade success. The remaining three were all failed pills.
Even this outcome depended upon the furnace’s efficacy. Otherwise, the entire batch would have been ruined once more.
Though Song Yan’s divine sense had not yet reached the level of Foundation Establishment, it far surpassed the ninth level of the Qi Refining Stage.
Even a person of his caliber required such tremendous expenditure. He could not help but marvel once more at the difficulty of the alchemy path.
Song Yan first retrieved the single successful pill, examined it closely for a time, then set it aside.
His gaze then fell upon the three failed pills. Their surfaces were riddled with cracks, and in the brief interval that had passed, nearly all of their spiritual energy had dissipated.
He picked one up and studied it carefully. “The Sword Qi was too violent. The lotus seed’s medicinal properties had not been fully activated…”
The toad atop the furnace let out a soft croak, releasing a thin wisp of blue smoke.
The scene carried a faint sense of mockery.
Song Yan clicked his tongue.
Over the following month, he continued alternating between cultivation and alchemy.
With the worry of searching for the Falling True Vine removed, Song Yan’s state of mind opened considerably, and his success rate in alchemy rose rapidly.
In four attempts total, the first had gone awry, producing nothing but failures.
The second yielded a single pill, but the third and fourth each produced three.
In all, seven No-Concept Pills were completed.
This success rate had nearly reached fifty percent.
Only one lotus seed of the Moon-Holder Lotus remained. Song Yan intended to attempt two more rounds before he truly began refining the Foundation Establishment Pill.
During this period, one other event occurred.
Xiao Ju finally broke through to the fourth level of the Qi Refining Stage, officially becoming a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator.
While celebrating this achievement, Song Yan once again considered in his heart the matter of passing the Sword-Planting Technique to Xiao Ju after he reached Foundation Establishment.
“I somehow feel that Xiao Ju may be cleverer than I am. Passing this technique to her would be tantamount to finding the Sword Sect a fine candidate for discipleship.”
In the past, whenever Song Yan regarded himself as a disciple of the Sword Sect, he had always felt profoundly solitary.
It seemed as though this long road ahead, with all the debts and mysteries that belonged to the Sword Sect, would have to be unraveled by an ordinary, unremarkable person such as himself.
This feeling had grown especially intense after entering the Sword Sect ruins under the guidance of that old man in the straw cape.
“Now that the Sword Sect has fallen so low, another seed of the Sword Dao means one more path forward.”
“The way of the sword cultivator is sharp and conspicuous, inviting both envy and covetousness. Should I perish on the path to immortality, at least Xiao Ju could carry on this legacy. The lineage would not be severed.”
Song Yan thought such thoughts.
…
This day, at the entrance of the Mist Creek Cavern.
Song Yan and Wang Ke were already waiting there. Xiao Ju stood behind the pair, as though expecting someone.
Spotting a figure approaching from the distance, she stepped forward and said softly, “Senior Song, Brother Liang and the others have arrived.”
At a bend in the mountain road not far away, Liang Feng and Hu Qing approached at a leisurely pace.
The couple had long since decided to attend the tournament as spectators. To secure seats for Hu Qing, Liang Feng had called in numerous favors.
Song Yan had remembered the matter that day as well and had spoken with Liang Feng in particular, arranging to travel together.
“This must be Fellow Daoist Wang Ke?”
Wang Ke nodded, and Liang Feng spoke warmly. “My wife is devoted to the art of Go. When she heard that Fellow Daoist Wang had advanced to the finals of this grand tournament, she was filled with admiration.”
Hu Qing offered no words, only a gentle bow.
“Not at all. It is merely a hobby,” Wang Ke replied.
The group made their way out of the Mist Creek Cavern.
Liang Feng had always been an amiable conversationalist, and Wang Ke was no introvert. The two chatted idly as they walked.
Hu Qing and Xiao Ju also talked and laughed together.
Ever since Xiao Ju had learned a bit of Go, she would seek out Hu Qing for games whenever Song Yan was in seclusion for cultivation or alchemy.
Over time, the two had grown quite close with one another.
In stark contrast to the relaxed atmosphere, Song Yan himself felt somewhat uneasy.
He had rented a flying artifact.
Today was the first time using it.
Only Xiao He knew about this, so she said nothing.
The truth was, since departing from the Wing River, Song Yan had possessed a considerable sum of spirit stones.
He had originally set them aside, hoping to use them to purchase the Falling True Vine if fortune permitted.
Now, however, he had more than enough wealth to purchase a flying artifact without jeopardizing the refinement of his improved Foundation Establishment Pill.
But the human heart was a strange thing.
Now that heaven had bestowed a miraculous fortune, granting him the rare spiritual ingredient he had longed for, he found himself unwilling to part with spirit stones for a flying artifact.
Having saved a large sum of spirit stones, he might as well save even more.
He wanted to pour every last stone into his cultivation, to press toward the realm of Foundation Establishment.
The flying artifact he had rented was called the “Red Dust Struggle,” a Spirit Vessel shaped like a flying carriage painted in vermillion lacquer with gilded accents.
They reached an open clearing. Song Yan cleared his throat lightly and produced the jade control token of the Red Dust Struggle.
As spiritual energy was channeled in, a carriage several zhang in length materialized from thin air.
Silk curtains of crimson hue draped from the carriage roof, and golden bells hung from its four corners.
It was imposing, though perhaps a touch… gaudy.
But there was no help for it. The flying artifacts available for rent here were, for the most part, rather lavish in appearance.
The Red Dust Struggle was the least expensive among those he could tolerate.
“The journey to North Watch Mountain will take approximately three hours,” Song Yan said. “Though the Red Dust Struggle cannot match certain flying spirit beasts in speed, its advantage lies in its stability…”
He glanced sideways and caught Xiao He crouching beside the carriage, scratching at the gilded patterns on its surface with her small fingers.
He strode over and gave her a light flick on the head.
Everyone boarded the carriage. Following the shopkeeper’s instructions, Song Yan infused spiritual energy into the jade token, placed spirit stones one by one into their slots, and then tossed three more into the central groove of the driving array plate.
The Red Dust Struggle rose slowly into the air.
Song Yan exhaled in relief. Operating this flying artifact was not as troublesome as he had imagined.
Xiao He pressed her face against the window, watching the Shouyang Mountain shrink below them. She suddenly turned and asked, “Yan Yan, what if we run out of spirit stones while we are flying?”
The interior of the Spirit Vessel fell silent at once.
Song Yan silently pushed another spirit stone into the driving array.
The Red Dust Struggle was indeed not fast, but its flight was remarkably steady, with almost no swaying felt at all.
With time to spare, several of them set up a Go board inside the carriage.
Hu Qing and Xiao Ju faced each other in a match while the remaining three watched from the sidelines.
Song Yan was still studying the controls of the Red Dust Struggle. Since it was his first time piloting the artifact, he felt uneasy if he was not watching it.
Fortunately, two hours passed without incident, and they arrived within the territory of North Watch Mountain City.
Along the way, they had encountered no ambushes or attacks. It seemed the cultivators who had been eyeing Wang Ke, upon seeing him traveling in a group, had decided to back down.
The Red Dust Struggle descended gently, and the group disembarked one after another.
Having come from the direction of the Mist Creek Cavern, Song Yan was unfamiliar with this area. Fortunately, Liang Feng and Hu Qing were locals, and guiding the way was no trouble.
To avoid an encounter with the Cold Flower Valley and the trouble it might bring, the couple had taken care to disguise themselves.
With the Go tournament approaching, many local cultivators were on hand to receive visitors.
A man and a woman, both wearing the Daoist robes of North Watch Mountain City, approached them.
The man appeared to be in his early thirties, clad in an indigo robe. The woman looked to be in her twenties, dressed in a gauze skirt, her eyes warm with a smile.
The male cultivator was the first to cup his hands, his voice deep. “Greetings, fellow Daoists. I am Zhou Ming, steward of North Watch Mountain City. This is my junior sister, Tian Mei.”
“Greetings.”
Xiao He, currently in human form, observed the others’ gestures and offered a clumsy bow of her own.
“Might I ask what brings you here…”
Even without the Go tournament, North Watch Mountain saw a steady flow of cultivators at all times.
The man’s gaze swept over the group as he spoke, lingering for an extra moment upon Wang Ke’s coarse cloth garments.
A mortal?
Wang Ke straightened his collar at the remark and produced a name card from within his robe. “I am Wang Ke, a native of Cloud Dream Mountain. I have come to compete in the finals of the Go tournament.”
When the card unfolded, the phantom images of one black and one white Go stone rose into the air — the tournament’s specially crafted credential of participation.
“So it is Fellow Daoist Wang Ke!” Tian Mei’s eyes lit up.
She drew a bamboo scroll from her Cosmos Bag and unfurled it. Numerous lines of information immediately surfaced upon its surface.
Zhou Ming also seemed to recognize the name.
This man was no mere mortal. While compiling the list of participants, Zhou Ming had heard many speak of this formidable player, a leading contender for the championship.
Some whispered he was a disciple of a hidden sect whose cultivation had been sealed by an elder.
Others said he had been gravely injured by villains, losing all his cultivation.
No one knew the truth.
Liang Feng now stepped forward as well, producing two jade tokens. “I am Liang Feng of the Mist Creek Cavern. This is my wife, Hu Qing. We have been invited to attend as spectators. These are the credentials of attendance issued by the Cavern.”
The jade tokens shimmered with the spiritual patterns of the Mist Creek Cavern.
Zhou Ming’s attitude grew markedly warmer after verifying the credentials. “Fellow Daoist Wang Ke, as one of the eight finalists, and Fellow Daoist Liang and his wife, as specially invited spectators, you are all entitled by regulation to stay at the Shanyang Villa.”
Song Yan had once heard Yan Xun speak of the Shanyang Villa. It was a premier estate under the Yan Clan’s name, reserved for receiving distinguished guests.
Had the Abyssal Cave Sect’s delegation not stayed at the Cold Flower Valley on their previous visit, they would have been housed at the Shanyang Villa as well.
Tian Mei smiled sweetly. “The finals will be held at the Four Palace Chess Valley in five days. Would you all prefer to visit the tournament grounds first to familiarize yourselves with the setting, or proceed directly to the villa to rest?”
Wang Ke was impatient to see the grounds, but he turned to glance at Song Yan. “Shall we go take a look at the venue first?”
Song Yan, who had been drifting in thought at the back of the group, suddenly found every pair of eyes fixed upon him. He was somewhat bewildered.
He waved his hand. “As you please.”
What did he care about some Go tournament, big or small? Song Yan wanted only to obtain his Falling True Vine.
Liang Feng exchanged a glance with his wife and said gently, “My wife and I are weary from the journey and would like to settle in at the villa first. If Fellow Daoist Song is willing, perhaps you could accompany Fellow Daoist Wang to the venue.”
After a moment’s thought, Song Yan nodded. He offered a nod of acknowledgment to Zhou Ming and Tian Mei. “I will trouble you both to lead the way.”
Zhou Ming and Tian Mei were both individuals of keen perception.
Though they could not gauge the depth of Song Yan’s cultivation, it was plain from the way things stood that he was the leader of this group. They naturally dared not treat him with any less respect.
Zhou Ming immediately formed a hand seal and summoned a cloud mount. “Please, follow me. My junior sister will escort Fellow Daoists Liang and Hu to the villa.”
The Four Palace Chess Valley lay not within the city but in a nearby spirit mountain.
The cloud mount flew only a short while before alighting upon a mountain path.
Nestled among encircling mountains, a secluded valley lay in quiet repose.
At the four corners of the valley stood pavilions built of blue stone, their eaves carved respectively with the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, and Black Tortoise of the Four Symbols. Within each pavilion sat a set of Go equipment.
At the center rose a towering stone wall. Nineteen lines ran across its surface, glowing faintly with spiritual light. Below it rested a special white jade Go board.
This was the special board to be used in the decisive match. The games played by the two competitors below would be projected upon the great stone wall above, visible even from a distance.
“This is the Four Palace Chess Valley.” Zhou Ming’s voice carried a note of pride. “Legend holds that this Chess Valley was constructed by the second city lord of North Watch Mountain City using the Four Symbols Formation.”
“This spirit jade Go board at the center is quite remarkable. The images upon the stone wall will shift in accord with the players’ moves. On the day of the finals, one look will suffice.”
The valley already held some twenty or thirty people.
Beside the eastern pavilion, several stewards in North Watch Mountain City attire were channeling spiritual energy to construct something.
Wang Ke strolled about, and Song Yan followed along.
Xiao He and Xiao Ju were also somewhat curious. They paused for a time beneath the towering stone wall beside the spirit jade Go board.
Not far away, a cultivator in green robes caught sight of Zhou Ming and approached at a measured pace.
Song Yan glanced up casually, and a jolt of surprise shot through his heart.
“Fellow Daoist Rong?”
The man turned at the sound of his voice, looked at Song Yan, and surprise brightened his gaze.
“Fellow Daoist Song!”
This man was none other than Rong Xiaofeng, the life companion of Wu Huaguo.
Since their parting at Lin Qinglong’s tomb years ago, Song Yan had never seen the couple again.
When he had traveled to North Watch Mountain for the Flower Festival some time back, he had originally intended to pay them a visit. Various matters, however, had delayed him.
He had never imagined that their reunion would take place in this Chess Valley.