Dual Realm Exchange System

Mu Qingyao sat quietly beside her father’s bed, watching the old man’s face with an expression that had become increasingly difficult to describe over the past few days.

There was worry within it, but that had never really disappeared.

Now though, beneath the exhaustion and fear that had followed her for months, something else had finally begun taking root.

Hope.

Mu Jianhong remained unconscious beneath the layered formations surrounding his bed, his once-powerful body reduced to a pale and withered shadow of the Foundation Establishment cultivator who had carried the Evergreen Sect upon his shoulders for decades.

However, something had changed.

His breathing was stronger, the deathly grey color that once stained portions of his skin had receded slightly, while the faint spiritual fluctuations occasionally escaping his body no longer resembled those of a candle about to be extinguished.

Ever since Lord Damian entered their lives carrying those miraculous foreign medicines, two things had happened.

One was very good while the other was sufficiently bad that Mu Qingyao had barely slept properly since receiving the news.

She reached toward the bedside table and picked up a small glass vial.

Empty.

There had once been red liquid inside.

The Vial of Healing was supposedly intended for beings around what Damian described as Level 5 and below, which roughly corresponded to the upper limits of Body Tempering when compared against Shengyuan’s progression.

Damian had warned them that the effect diminished sharply against beings exceeding that range.

Mu Qingyao remembered worrying about precisely that when they first began using the potions upon her father.

Mu Jianhong was not merely beyond Body Tempering, he was Foundation Establishment.

Mu Qingyao didn’t know this, but this equated to the Adept Rank, the same level as Ronan.

At his peak, the difference between her father and a Body Tempering cultivator could scarcely be measured using ordinary combat logic.

However, his current state was completely different, because even a powerful cultivator could still become a dying man.

Mu Jianhong’s body resembled a vast territory that had suffered years of drought, war and encroachment.

The invading Corpse Qi had claimed one region after another, leaving flesh, meridians and organs damaged behind its advance while Mu Jianhong exhausted himself merely preventing the corruption from reaching his deepest foundations.

Against something so ruined, even the weaker effects of Damian’s low-level medicines became precious.

Rainfall did not need to fill an ocean to save cracked farmland.

It only needed to arrive before everything died.

Mu Qingyao placed the empty red vial down and picked up another.

Green.

The Vial of Vigor had been the simplest of the three, yet its effect upon Mu Jianhong was surprisingly important as it restored stamina.

For an ordinary cultivator, such an effect might merely allow them to continue running, fighting or training after exhaustion.

For Mu Jianhong, it meant something completely different.

Every trace of physical strength restored by the green potion allowed his weakened body to support his cultivation for slightly longer.

That, in turn, allowed him to mobilize more of his remaining True Essence against the Corpse Qi.

The blue Vials of Restoration went even further.

Their effect upon someone of Mu Jianhong’s realm was pitiful compared to what would be required to genuinely refill the True Essence reserves of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but pitiful did not mean useless.

Even the small amount restored was immediately turned against the invading Corpse Qi, and every little portion mattered in that fight.

The process had gradually developed into a strange battle of attrition.

The Vial of Vigor restored enough physical strength for Mu Jianhong’s body to resist.

The Vial of Restoration returned small portions of the power required to push back.

Then, after Mu Jianhong’s True Essence reclaimed a portion of his body from the Corpse Qi, the Vial of Healing repaired some of the damage left behind.

It was slow, painfully slow.

But for the first time in years, the movement was going in the correct direction.

Mu Qingyao’s eyes softened as she looked toward her father.

Three days ago, his fingers had moved.

Yesterday, his eyelids had trembled several times while one of the Evergreen Sect physicians examined him.

Earlier this morning, a faint pulse of awareness had briefly emerged from his soul before fading again.

He was trying to wake up.

That alone nearly made Mu Qingyao cry when she first noticed it.

Her father was still dying, and the Corpse Qi had not disappeared.

Nothing about his condition could yet be considered safe, but he was no longer merely waiting for death.

Unfortunately, the bottles lined beside his bed had become increasingly empty.

Mu Qingyao’s expression tightened.

They had been forced to use the potions repeatedly.

A weak medicine could only produce results through repeated application, and Mu Jianhong’s condition was far beyond what those Common-grade products had originally been designed to treat.

Their remaining supply would not last much longer.

Mu Qingyao had personally gone to Lord Damian’s Guest Elder residence twice.

The first time, she learned that he was absent.

The second time, the answer remained the same.

Lord Damian had effectively disappeared into thin air.

Had he not previously warned them that he possessed circumstances requiring him to occasionally leave without explanation, Mu Qingyao would already have assumed something terrible had happened.

Assassination was hardly impossible as the Nightmare Corpse Sect already knew that Damian was dangerous.

Other powers might have discovered his value as well.

There was also the possibility that Damian had simply decided the Evergreen Sect was no longer worth his attention and gone elsewhere with his miraculous goods.

Mu Qingyao did not truly believe that.

Lord Damian had never behaved like someone preparing to abandon them.

He had negotiated aggressively when necessary, certainly, but he had also repeatedly demonstrated that he preferred long-term cooperation over squeezing every possible benefit from a desperate transaction.

Still, uncertainty remained uncertainty.

Mu Qingyao looked down at the remaining bottles.

”Lord Damian, you really chose an unpleasant time to disappear.”

Her voice was soft enough that only the formations surrounding the bed heard her.

The problem was not merely her father’s dwindling medicine.

Damian’s arrival had changed the balance of the Azure Water Sector far more quickly than anyone initially understood.

And the other factions had noticed.

......

The Azure Water Sect’s reaction had been manageable.

Their alliance with the Evergreen Sect had survived years of pressure from the Nightmare Corpse Sect, and neither side could afford to casually destroy that relationship now.

Once information concerning Damian’s foreign medicines began circulating, the Azure Water Sect naturally became interested.

Questions arrived first, then formal inquiries.

After that came Deacons asking whether the mysterious Guest Elder would be willing to conduct business with the Azure Water Sect as well.

Mu Qingyao could hardly refuse them outright.

Even if Mu Jianhong awakened tomorrow, the Evergreen Sect and Azure Water Sect remained allies fighting the same enemy.

More importantly, the Evergreen Sect was hardly in a position to monopolize Damian as though he were their property.

He was an independent Guest Elder and he had made that fact perfectly clear from the beginning.

If Damian wanted to sell to the Azure Water Sect, Mu Qingyao possessed neither the right nor the desire to stop him.

In some ways, cooperation could even strengthen their alliance.

However, that was the manageable problem.

The Nightmare Corpse Sect was something else entirely.

Mu Qingyao’s expression gradually hardened.

On the same day as the incident involving Ning Ruomei and Damian’s terrifying fire-based Daoist Art, an ultimatum reached the Evergreen Sect.

The message had been simple enough that nobody could misunderstand it.

Kill, expel, or hand Damian over to the Nightmare Corpse Sect.

Otherwise, the Nightmare Corpse Sect would abandon the existing balance of deterrence and launch an all-out war until one side ceased to exist.

At first, several Evergreen Sect Elders had believed it was intimidation.

Mu Qingyao did not, and neither had the remaining senior leadership.

The Nightmare Corpse Sect was genuinely frightened.

And when frightened, they became more dangerous rather than less.

Damian’s medicines alone were enough to provoke concern.

The Nightmare Corpse Sect had spent years exploiting one terrifying advantage over both the Evergreen Sect and Azure Water Sect.

Every battle weakened their enemies more than it weakened them.

Corpse cultivators could turn dead cultivators into resources, they could contaminate wounds and even destroy foundations.

They could use Corpse Qi to leave injuries that ordinary medicines struggled to repair.

A battle did not necessarily need to end in victory for the Nightmare Corpse Sect to profit from it.

If ten Evergreen Sect cultivators survived with serious Corpse Qi injuries while ten Nightmare Corpse Sect cultivators died, the exchange might still favor the Nightmare Corpse Sect over time.

Damian’s products threatened that arithmetic.

A medicine capable of restoring wounds rapidly meant more soldiers returning to battle.

A product capable of restoring exhausted stamina meant longer fighting endurance.

Anything capable of restoring spiritual reserves, even imperfectly, meant cultivators could recover faster between engagements.

That alone was troublesome, but Damian himself was worse.

Mu Qingyao had personally witnessed the aftermath of his battle against the infiltrator connected to Ning Ruomei.

The strange flames he commanded did not merely burn flesh, but had displayed an unnatural effectiveness against Corpse Qi.

Mu Qingyao still did not fully understand what sort of Daoist Art Damian practiced.

It did not behave like a proper Shengyuan technique as it lacked familiar circulation principles and its energy moved strangely.

Yet when it met Corpse Qi, the corrupted power suffered tremendously.

That created an intolerable possibility.

What if Damian taught it to the Evergreen Sect?

What if he could teach it to the Azure Water Sect as well?

The Nightmare Corpse Sect’s greatest advantage could disappear almost overnight.

Even if only a fraction of cultivators became capable of directly countering Corpse Qi, battle lines that had remained stable for years could collapse.

The Nightmare Corpse Sect would go from being the faction that profited from attrition to the faction most vulnerable to it.

Their days would be numbered.

Mu Qingyao understood why they refused to wait and discover whether Damian was actually capable of sharing his powers.

Such assumptions were too dangerous.

A fool waited for certainty while his enemy prepared the blade, and that bastard, Xie Man, had never been a fool!

Mu Qingyao’s eyes became cold at the thought of that name.

The infamous ancestor of the Nightmare Corpse Sect had begun as little more than a bandit.

He did not have an ancient clan behind him, no prestigious lineage, and no respected inheritance.

Yet through ruthlessness, caution and an almost animal instinct for survival, Xie Man had climbed from the mud until he stood above countless cultivators born with advantages he could never have imagined as a young man.

People liked to dismiss him as a butcher, but that was dangerous.

Xie Man was indeed a butcher, but he was also patient when patience benefited him, cautious when caution was required, and vicious enough to destroy a threat before pride convinced him to underestimate it.

Damian had become precisely such a threat.

If the Nightmare Corpse Sect could no longer rely upon assassination because Damian possessed some unknown method for identifying infiltrators, the remaining solution became brutally straightforward.

Attack before he had time to establish himself.

Attack before he taught anything.

Attack before his medicines spread.

Attack before Mu Jianhong recovered.

Turn uncertainty into war and gamble everything upon destroying the problem before the problem matured.

Mu Qingyao’s hands slowly clenched upon her knees.

The logic was sound, and that was what frightened her.

The Nightmare Corpse Sect had already begun moving more aggressively along disputed territories.

Scouts reported unusual disciple concentration while several corpse-storage sites had been emptied.

Minor affiliated families were being drawn inward rather than left scattered across the sector.

None of those actions proved that all-out war would begin tomorrow.

Together, they suggested preparations were well underway.

And the Evergreen Sect’s strongest deterrent was still lying unconscious before her.

Mu Qingyao looked at her father again.

If Mu Jianhong woke before the attack, everything changed.

The Evergreen Sect would regain its Foundation Establishment pillar.

If Damian’s medicines continued improving his condition, their situation might stabilize even further.

And if Damian possessed additional goods capable of countering Corpse Qi...

Mu Qingyao exhaled slowly.

Too many hopes now depended upon one strange man who disappeared whenever he pleased.

The thought should have irritated her more than it did.

Instead, she found herself wondering whether Lord Damian was eating properly wherever he had gone.

Mu Qingyao’s expression became slightly strange.

When exactly had that become one of her concerns?

Before she could examine the thought too carefully, rapid footsteps approached from beyond the chamber.

The protective formations surrounding Mu Jianhong’s room immediately reacted.

A disciple stopped outside rather than daring to cross them.

”Elder Mu! Elder Mu!”

Mu Qingyao frowned and rose. ”What happened?”

”Lord Damian has returned!”

For a moment, she thought she had misheard.

The disciple continued hurriedly.

”Jian Rui sent word from the commercial tower. Lord Damian has returned to the Evergreen Sect and is presently waiting there. He also said that Lord Damian brought another shipment and requested that you be informed immediately.”

Mu Qingyao was already moving before the disciple finished.

She turned toward Mu Jianhong’s bed, hesitated, then crossed the room in several quick steps.

Her fingers formed several seals and the layered defensive formation surrounding her father brightened one section at a time.

A transparent barrier settled around the bed while additional warning, concealment and defensive arrays activated along the walls.

Only after confirming every layer did Mu Qingyao turn away.

The disciple barely had time to move aside before the chamber doors opened.

”Inform the physicians that nobody enters Father’s chamber without my permission. If his condition changes, send for me immediately,” Mu Qingyao ordered.

”Yes, Elder Mu!”

Mu Qingyao was already halfway down the corridor, her usual measured elegance disappearing beneath pure speed.

Robes fluttered behind her as she crossed the inner courtyards, ignoring the surprised greetings of disciples who had never seen the normally composed Elder Mu Qingyao moving with such obvious urgency.

Her heart felt considerably lighter than it had minutes earlier.

Lord Damian was back!

The medicines could be replenished!

And perhaps... he had brought something even stronger?

Perhaps... her father could finally wake?!

Perhaps the pressure surrounding the Evergreen Sect had just gained the answer it desperately needed!

And beneath all those perfectly respectable reasons for hurrying, there existed another emotion Mu Qingyao had little interest in examining.

She actually wanted to see him, and that realization only made her move faster.

From a distance, the elegant Evergreen Sect Elder no longer resembled a senior cultivator rushing to discuss matters of war, commerce and sect survival.

She looked far more like a young maiden who had just heard that the man she had been waiting for had finally returned from a distant battlefield.

Mu Qingyao did not care as the commercial tower was already visible ahead.

All she knew was that Lord Damian had returned!