True Person Huawei slowly awakened and exclaimed in alarm: “Be careful! A strand of their souls has been drawn into the ‘Three Lives Stone.’ If you disturb their physical bodies, the wandering souls that have left their bodies won’t be able to return, and they’ll forever become the living dead!”
Song Qian Ji frowned: “How much do you know?”
“Being able to come to this place is an immense opportunity from heaven. If one’s soul enters the ‘future,’ after returning, they can gain the upper hand at every step, just like me. If one’s soul enters a ‘past life,’ and if they happened to be a cultivator in that past life, they can enhance their cultivation level with those insights upon returning. However…” True Person Huawei hesitated.
“However, the prerequisite is being able to return?” Song Qian Ji continued.
True Person Huawei: “That’s right. There are no free spiritual pills in this world. The greater the opportunity you seek, the greater the risk you must take. Of the seven people who saw the ‘Three Lives Stone’ with me back then, only I walked out of this lake alive. Because if the soul doesn’t return before daybreak, the physical body will be swallowed by the lake water!”
Song Qian Ji looked up.
The moonlight was cold and clear, chilling to the bone when it shone on one’s body. The countless stars in the sky slowly moved overhead, like the rotating gears of fate.
The calm lake was deep and silent, with a full moon reflected on its surface, like the pupil of a giant eye, coldly gazing at the night sky.
“I want to bring them back. Is there a way?”
“This…” True Person Huawei sighed, “The profound power of the Three Lives Stone is beyond human strength to counter. With the slightest carelessness, your soul might not return either! Let’s see their destiny. Each person has their fate. You’re their senior brother, not their father.”
“You have a way,” Song Qian Ji said.
True Person Huawei was startled: “What?”
Song Qian Ji: “You encountered this extraordinary opportunity, and afterward gained the upper hand at every step, establishing the Huawei Sect. This was the turning point in your destiny, the beginning of your life’s legend. Why is it that every time you mention it, you always sigh, as if unveiling an old scar too painful to recall?”
True Person Huawei fell silent.
Song Qian Ji pressed: “You mentioned earlier that you were pursued and hunted, falling off a cliff with your friends to reach this place. Where are your friends?”
“It seems I can’t hide it from you,” True Person Huawei said. “I barely survived, forcibly remaining in your domain, waiting for an appropriate opportunity when you would need my help, to make a deal with you. If you die here, naturally, there will be no deal to discuss.”
When True Person Huawei first arrived in the domain, he maintained the bearing of a founding sect master, retaining ancient language habits, always beginning with “I am so-and-so” and “you all such-and-such.”
Having stayed for a long time, influenced by Song Qian Ji and later generations, he had become quite down-to-earth.
Song Qian Ji: “Thousand Channels still have ten thousand acres of good fields; how could I be buried by the mere Three Lives Stone? I need your help now. What are your conditions, elder? Speak quickly.”
True Person Huawei was prepared: “Promise me this one thing. You don’t need to swear to the heavens, just do your utmost best.”
Song Qian Ji smiled bitterly: “Elder is formidable.”
Doing one’s utmost was far more demanding than being bound by an oath. Deceiving heaven and earth was easy, but deceiving one’s own heart was difficult.
“You want me not to be enemies with the Huawei Sect?” he asked.
“The trend is set, the new replacing the old, beyond the control of individual power. It’s just that girl called Chen Hong Zhu—if she faces danger in the future, please lend a hand to protect her.”
“Just this one thing?” Song Qian Ji asked.
“The ‘Huawei Seal’ represents identity but cannot protect her. Her path ahead is difficult, and the hope for the sect’s revival rests on her shoulders.”
Pressed by urgency, Song Qian Ji nodded: “I agree.”
True Person Huawei asked suspiciously: “So simple?”
Song Qian Ji was angry: “You don’t believe me? Do you want me to swear to see her as my child, to treat her as my daughter?!”
“You’re even younger than her, how could you shamelessly elevate yourself to take advantage of her?!” True Person Huawei swept his gaze across the lake’s surface. “There are five people here. Who will you save first? Can you save them all?”
Song Qian Ji’s face was cold as water: “I’ll do my best, with no regrets.”
“Very well, I’ll pass on to you a set of mental cultivation techniques, incantations, and the method to draw a ‘Soul-Chasing Talisman.’ Your soul can follow him into the Three Lives Stone, entering his world to find him. But he must truly trust you and willingly hand over his soul to you before the soul can return to the physical body here. Back then, my friend used this method to bring me back, but after saving me, he couldn’t return himself…”
Song Qian Ji cleared his mind of distractions and calmed his breath. Following True Person Huawei’s instructions, he pricked his fingertip, forced out his essence blood, drew talismans with blood, and placed one on Meng He Ze’s forehead.
Then he silently recited the incantation and placed another blood talisman on himself.
“Your skill in creating talismans at the stroke of a brush and your insight are truly remarkable. Xian Jian Chen is so fortunate; why don’t I have a disciple like you?” True Person Huawei rambled on, praising the younger generation, and finally warned, “If the bright moon sinks and the sun rises before you return, your souls will be forever trapped in the Three Lives Stone, and your physical bodies will sink to the bottom of the lake. From within your physical body’s domain, I will remind you of the moon’s position in the real world.”
“Thank you for your trouble, elder,” Song Qian Ji said.
“Go now!”
As Song Qian Ji’s soul was about to leave his body, he wondered what Meng He Ze had experienced and at what point he could catch up.
It would be best to return to when they first entered the Huawei Sect, when Little Meng was sincere and valued righteousness, making him most likely to trust others; returning to when Meng He Ze was just pushed off the cliff by him would also work—at worst, he would have to jump once more; failing that, returning to after the cliff fall, as long as he avoided the tragic massacre of the Meng family…
If he were to go to the future of this life, it would be simple, as Meng He Ze would surely trust him.
When he opened his eyes again, he felt dizzy and nauseous.
Song Qian Ji shook his head and found himself standing on a busy street against the flow of people, wearing old robes, and holding a sword in his hand.
It wasn’t the Solitary Light Sword that had dominated the world.
Fortunately, it wasn’t, which meant he hadn’t arrived too late.
The sky was approaching dusk, with red clouds spreading, as if a raging fire had been lit in the western sky, about to burn through the heavens.
Flying magical artifacts continuously passed through the colorful clouds, heading westward, leaving behind graceful cloud tracks.
The surging crowd on the street also rushed in the same direction, murmuring words, their expressions fervent.
They were all cultivators, their cultivation levels around the Golden Core stage, with various attire and accents.
Song Qian Ji turned and took a few steps, trying to sense his cultivation level, only to feel a familiar pain throughout his body.
“I’m already at the Golden Core stage; why am I still so injured? Indeed, in my previous life, I was injured year-round.”
He overheard someone calling to a companion: “Hurry up, the ship at the dock is about to depart!”
Song Qian Ji stopped the person: “What year is it now?”
“You mean what day, right? Today is the fifteenth of the eighth month. Everyone’s rushing to the Golden Cave, don’t block the way.” The person, seeing no response from him, impatiently broke free.
“The fifteenth of the eighth month, the Golden Cave, how could this be…”
Song Qian Ji stood stunned in the middle of the road, with hurried passersby constantly bumping into his shoulders, yet he seemed unaware.
The Golden Cave wasn’t a cave on a mountain but a floating island in the Western Sea, originally named the “Golden Palace.”
Legend had it that the island only had three types of establishments: brothels, gambling dens, and taverns.
Wine pools and meat forests, jade trees and golden bricks, countless fine wines and beautiful women, magical artifacts and treasures.
Regardless of whether they were righteous or evil, anyone could go to the island to try their luck—those selling stolen goods, gambling with their lives, seeking treasures, seeking pleasure—either losing everything or turning their fortunes around overnight.
The cultivation world was unwilling to call this demonic territory “Golden Palace,” referring to it as “Golden Cave” instead.
Such a place gathered people from all walks of life, with demons running wild. Without a sufficiently powerful backing, it would be impossible to survive.
The Golden Cave flourished continuously, peacefully, and happily, only because it was one of the Evil Buddha’s properties.
Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the night of the full moon, the Evil Buddha would be on the island, definitely in his “Red Dust Arena.”
On this night, the Golden Cave would hold its largest auction and set up the most luxurious banquet.
Song Qian Ji cleared his thoughts and felt a darkness before his eyes.
—Judging by the scale of these thousands of excited people, the Golden Cave must have been open for many years.
In his previous life, Meng He Ze had become the master of the evil path.
In his previous life, Song Qian Ji never went to places like the Golden Cave. He advanced cautiously, always vigilant, avoiding all pleasures.
While the evil path master practiced expedient evil techniques and indulged in sensual pleasures, naturally becoming famous earlier than him, he also died earlier.
“The Golden Cave of the Western Sea, I don’t want to go,” Song Qian Ji sighed softly, hurriedly following the crowd.