I Outworked the Entire Cultivation World

Chapter 738: Chapter 685: All Are Players in the Game

To the north of Yong’an City, there are many escort agencies, martial arts halls, and blacksmith shops. The Zen Forest Iron Shop is located deep in the alleys, and the surrounding shops have little business.

It was afternoon, and in each shop, the shop assistants and shopkeepers were dozing off. Only in the roadside tea shop, there were two men dressed as wanderers, drinking tea and watching the closed door of the blacksmith shop opposite.

Jiang Yuebai appeared at the corner of the street, glanced at the two wanderers, flashed her body, and appeared directly in the backyard of the Zen Forest Iron Shop.

The small courtyard was quiet. On one side were the forge and quenching water tank, and on the other side was a tea pavilion.

Enjoying a full cup of Zen Forest Five Flavors tea, the breeze scatters affairs like hemp.

These two lines were what Lin Jingyue said when asked by Ye Shiming if she had a courtesy name.

The Zen Forest Iron Shop is by no means a coincidence.

Just as Jiang Yuebai was about to look for someone, she felt a strange aura behind her.

”Were you the one chasing me on the official road before?”

Jiang Yuebai turned around and saw a bold and unrestrained, heroic young woman in black leather armor, with a short knife at her waist, quietly watching her with folded arms.

She didn’t look like Lin Jingyue, but the killing aura typical of the battlefield gave a bit of her feeling.

The hand Jiang Yuebai had gathered in her sleeve tightened around the Michen Seal as she calmly met the gaze.

”I have a friend whose sweetheart gave him a palace lantern. It got banged up a few days ago. Do you repair such things here?”

The cicadas were shrieking desperately. Neither of them showed a hint of a cultivator’s aura, yet the atmosphere in the courtyard was turbulent.

Liuu Fuyun said in a deep voice, ”This is just a blacksmith shop run by a simple man of leisure. For such a delicate item as a palace lantern, you should find another craftsman.”

”Why don’t you take a look first?”

Before the voice fell, Jiang Yuebai turned her hand to reveal a jade-green palace lantern, not Little Green, but an imitation identical to Little Green.

She wouldn’t show Little Green to the other person until she was sure this was Lin Jingyue and that she wouldn’t harm Little Green.

When the moon emerges, it startles mountain birds, chirping in the spring stream.

Seeing the lantern in Jiang Yuebai’s hand and the characters on it, Liuu Fuyun’s pupils visibly shook.

”Where did you get this lantern?”

Jiang Yuebai’s heart confirmed it. She recognized the lantern; after all, she made it by hand.

”First answer me, are you Wuwei Mountain Man, Lin Jingyue?” Jiang Yuebai asked directly.

The other’s brows furrowed, and a silent aura emanated from her, abruptly halting the cicadas’ song, triggering a chilling wind amid the hot summer, making Jiang Yuebai’s whole body tense, hairs standing on end.

Is this the Integration Stage?

Although she had mentally prepared before coming, truly facing such a formidable figure, Jiang Yuebai still couldn’t help but feel her scalp tingle.

She swallowed hard, secretly using her divine thought to connect with the Luo Fish left in her Dantian by Immortal Monarch Chongmin, and another divine thought with the two Phoenix Tail Feathers, ready anytime.

Fortunately, this aura only sealed the entire courtyard and did not exert additional pressure on her.

”Yes and no, but it shouldn’t affect what you want to discuss with me.”

Jiang Yuebai frowned. What on earth does this mean, yes and no?

Could it be... Lin Jingyue’s clone?

But it didn’t seem like an independent-minded Outer Body Incarnation?

This also made sense; otherwise, if it were her main body, she probably wouldn’t have returned to the Earth Spiritual Realm so easily.

But her clone is quite powerful too. How did she return to the Earth Spiritual Realm?

Why did she come back when she’s doing well?

Jiang Yuebai was full of questions, watching Lin Jingyue step by step, exuding a strong aura.

”W-what do you intend to do? I came to find you for serious matters; don’t think I’m just an ordinary person in the Earth Spiritual Realm. I am backed by Immortal Monarch Chongmin of the Nine Rivers Realm!”

Jiang Yuebai quickly pulled up her tiger skin. Besides settling Ye Shiming’s grudge, she also wanted to ask Lin Jingyue if she had any connection with Lu Xingyun.

Because Lin Jingyue’s Lifebound Magic Treasure is the Lotus Platform, which is the most compatible with deducing the Great Derivation Scripture, and the Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill she cultivated also has a bit of a relation to it.

Jiang Yuebai didn’t believe all this was a coincidence.

Lin Jingyue chuckled, ”You’ve got quite a background. Are you also from the Upper Realm? Don’t worry; if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it on the official road without a second thought. Sit down and talk.”

Lin Jingyue walked past Jiang Yuebai and sat at a stone table under a tree.

Jiang Yuebai awkwardly tugged at the corner of her mouth. Well, she admitted that if Lin Jingyue truly had Integration Stage Cultivation, she wouldn’t miss if she struck by surprise.

My heavens! The Earth Spiritual Realm is so dangerous!

She should be a bit more cautious in the future; one never knows if a passing mortal might just be a hidden old monster.

Jiang Yuebai sat with a tense body on the stone bench farthest from Lin Jingyue.

”Before we talk about the lantern, can you... could you return to your original appearance so I can take a look?”

After all, it was someone she had admired since childhood. Finally meeting face to face, and having to look at a fake face, she wasn’t happy!

Lin Jingyue raised her palm and swept it across her face, immediately changing appearance.

Jiang Yuebai gazed at that radiant and fiery face, wild and rebellious, like a red plum blossom in the snow, proud and solitary amidst the cold, and her eyes gradually went blank.

It’s truly the Wuwei Mountain Man!

Exactly the same as in Ye Shiming’s memories!

In her lifetime, she actually got to see her with her own eyes!

Jiang Yuebai was so excited that her body trembled slightly, an indescribable emotion surged in her heart, making her want to scream twice.

Hurriedly, Jiang Yuebai pulled a copy of the ”Five Flavors Collection” from her ring and placed it in front of Lin Jingyue, her eyes shining brightly.

”Can you... can you write two words for me? I especially... no, my master especially admires you!”

Lin Jingyue raised her eyebrows in surprise and reached out to pick up the ”Five Flavors Collection,” ”How is this still being circulated?”

Jiang Yuebai nodded, ”Yes, you have no idea besides having a General Temple and millions of followers in Yun Country, you have many admirers throughout the Cultivation Realm, and several of my friends grew up reading your ’Five Flavors Collection.’”

”Including you?”

”Right, ah no, I mean, I only casually read some of it.”

As Lin Jingyue flipped through the book in her hand, it was as if she returned to the time of traveling the world alone with a horse and a spear.

Although nearly a thousand years have passed, many things remain vivid in her memory.

This time she returned, solely to utterly eradicate the delusions in her Dao Heart to clear the final obstacle for advancing to the Mahayana Realm. Therefore, she returned to the mortal world, to refine her Dao Heart.

Apart from avoiding some troublesome matters, she would use spells, but for the past few years, she has visited various places in Yun Country as a mortal.

She had also been to Heavenly Interence Sect, Feifeng Forest, and the battlefields of two countries, thinking everything about Ye Shiming had long vanished in the wind, with no resentment left behind.

Unexpectedly, there are other reasons and karma.

”Why did you come back to the Earth Spiritual Realm?” Jiang Yuebai asked curiously.

Lin Jingyue’s hand stopped flipping through the book, her pupils contracted sharply, and she pressed the book on the table, urgently asking, ”Where did these numbers come from?”

Jiang Yuebai was stunned, this book she had taken from the pillow beside Shi Xiaowu when she was creating a reincarnation dream for him upon returning this time.

Although she had seen it before, wanting to revisit it despite not having looked at it for a long time, she forgot to return it, leaving it in her storage ring.

The place where Lin Jingyue pointed was a formula written by Shi Xiaowu, which was rapidly disappearing at this moment.

The point is...

”How do you know these symbols are numbers?” Jiang Yuebai spoke with confusion.

The ’numbers’ in that formula were numbers from her Immortal Cultivation Panel.

At the time, she thought these symbolic numbers were more convenient than textual numbers, so she taught them to Shi Xiaowu and her master, cautioning them not to pass them on, not even teaching them to her junior sister Jiang Ziying, who was not good at Math Dao.

It can be said that besides the three of them, no one would know these symbols represented numbers, unless...

Jiang Yuebai’s pupils contracted sharply, staring at Lin Jingyue and asked, ”Could it be that you have...”

Before the words were finished, Jiang Yuebai and Lin Jingyue thought of the same thing, showing the same expression of fright and shock.

But before they could continue speaking, Jiang Yuebai watched Lin Jingyue’s whole body dissipate like burning paper ashes.

Lin Jingyue’s lips opened and closed, but no sound came out, and in just the blink of an eye, she vanished silently into ’ashes and smoke.’

The shrill cicada cries rang again in Jiang Yuebai’s ears, shaking her Sea of Consciousness, making her feel dizzy.

In the Lotus Platform Small World, the golden light trapped on the island flickered like the ’breath’ of a living being.

*

Somewhere in the Upper Realm.

Lin Jingyue, who was in seclusion, spat out a mouthful of blood; her clone was destroyed, and her Divine Soul was injured, but that was less shocking than the realization she just had.

As the Spiritual Energy in her body began to collapse, Lin Jingyue helplessly had to suppress her panicked mind and start internal energy circulation to stabilize her cultivation.

Just waiting for the next meeting, to get a clear understanding.

*

Heavenly Interence Sect, Heavenly Chief Peak.

Lii Jiuchuan finished reading the letter written by Jiang Yuebai and looked over Tao Nian in front of him, finding Tao Nian staring in a daze at a portrait on the side wall of the study.

”That is the ancestor of our Heavenly Interence Sect, Lu Xingyun. I remember when Jiang Yuebai first saw it, she had the same expression as you.”

Tao Nian suppressed the unusual look in his eyes and smiled, ”Really, perhaps it’s because the ancestor has an extraordinary presence, causing one to be lost at first sight.”

Lii Jiuchuan hadn’t thought much of it, ”Since you also have Five Spirit Roots and practice the Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill, why not go to Heavenly Cry Peak? I’ll have someone take you there.”

Tao Nian took a deep breath, saluted respectfully, ”Thank you, Sect Master.”

*

Unknown Realm, Unknown Place.

Under the green bamboo, on the stone platform.

A game of chess, chaos reborn!