Immortal of the Nine Realms

The next morning.

Waking up, Fang Chen sat up from the bed and looked to his side. To his surprise, that graceful figure wasn’t by his side.

His gaze swept around and fell upon a letter on the table. A sense of unease rose in his heart as he got up to open the envelope. It bore the elegant handwriting of Fairy Yu.

Lord, some days ago, due to my selfishness, I placed you in danger. If it weren’t for the senior who intervened and saved you, my lord, I might not have been able to see you ever again. At that time, my thoughts were simple. I just wanted to accompany you and be by your side. But it turned out that my presence only tied your hands and feet.

You have your own path to walk, and I should also find mine. I’m leaving. If you ever miss me, my lord, perhaps you will find me at Grand Xia, just like the first time we met. By the way, I’m honored that you haven’t had any romantic entanglements with women all these years. Hehe!

The letter was short, but Fang Chen read it over a dozen times before gently sighing and putting it down.

”Little Mirror, has her karma really been severed? Even you can’t find her?” Fang Chen asked inwardly.

”It’s indeed been severed. Younger brother, let me tell you something.... If you two are destined to meet again, it won’t be difficult. What she said now makes a lot of sense. If you were to lose control again due to using the immortals’ blood, perhaps the first to be harmed would be those around you. For now, parting isn’t a bad thing for you two.”

”Little Mirror, since when did you become an expert of the heart?”

”When you’ve seen enough of these things, it’s hard not to understand a bit,” said Mirror of the Universe with a hint of sigh. ”I once deeply loved a woman.”

Seeing that was about to drift further off, Fang Chen immediately interrupted, ”Why did I sleep so heavily last night? It should be impossible for that to happen to me.”

”Your woman drugged you last night. I did notice it, but since it was just a sleeping drug and was harmless, I didn’t bother to bring it to your attention. I thought she wanted to make things a bit more spicy, you know. I never suspected she planned to sneak away the next day.”

”If something like this ever happens again, remember to remind me,” Fang Chen said after a moment of silence.

”Got it, got it,” the Mirror of the Universe responded, perhaps sensing a hint of anger in Fang Chen’s voice and not daring to continue its usual nonsense.

After a long period of silence, Fang Chen took out the jade slip the old man had given him and compared its contents with the route in his mind to verify its authenticity. He found that the two routes looked similar but differed significantly in many crucial places.

For instance, in Senior Yun He’s map, the destination occupied most of the map. However, in the map of the Greenwood Sect’s ancestor, the destination was just a small dot. Furthermore, the Greenwood Sect ancestor labeled the area in which the Three Thousand Dao Sect was located ”the Azure Dao Manor.”

Senior Yun He’s route did not mention anything like it, which was quite strange.

Regardless, the destinations seem similar. It will be easier to follow the route in the the map of the Greenwood Sect’s ancestor.

Fang Chen put away the jade slip and slowly merged into the shadows.

***

Outside the Greenwood Sect, a cultivator surrounded by numerous bamboo sticks was performing divination.

Several other cultivators stood nearby, emitting varying levels of cultivation from the Fusion Realm to the Enlightenment Realm.

Suddenly, the bamboo sticks showed signs of movement.

The leading Daoist’s face lit up with joy. ”The target has set off; he’s leaving the Greenwood Sect.”

The others gathered around him.

”Where is he now?”

”It seems he’s heading toward us....”

”Heh, we didn’t wait in vain.”

Soon, the time it took for a stick of incense to burn passed.

”Where is he now?”

”This doesn’t make any sense. I clearly calculated that he is near us, so why can’t I see any trace of him? He’s about to pass us too.”

”Could it be some kind of concealment technique?!”

The group’s expressions turned grim.

The Daoist in the Fusion Realm immediately waved his sleeve and personally performed the Innate Eight Trigrams Technique. He came to a conclusion similar to that of his junior; the target was nearby.

Meanwhile, Fang Chen was swiftly moving through the shadows. Passing by them, he recognized that their aura was similar to that of the Immortal Seedling from the Innate Dao Sect, the one whom he had killed.

Fang Chen’s eyes flashed with a cold, mocking light. ”It seems the Innate Dao Sect didn’t let this rest. They were just preparing to strike at me from the shadows.”

Fortunately, they couldn’t see through his Shadow Buddha Technique and could only estimate his approximate location through calculations.

Even if the opponents followed him all the way, once Fang Chen reached the Three Thousand Dao Sect, everything would resolve itself smoothly. As he anticipated, the Daoists caught up with him, but they couldn’t pinpoint his exact location, resembling headless flies.

Meanwhile, Li Hao and Li Xiaoqing arrived at Fang Chen’s cave. After knocking for a while without receiving a response, they realized that Fang Chen had already left.

”Ah, what a pity. It seems he’s not willing to engage deeply with me,” Li Hao sighed softly.

Although Li Xiaoqing remained composed, a hint of coldness flashed in her eyes. He actually left without a word? Ancestor has been watching him closely. When did he leave?

Shortly later, Li Xiaoqing and Li Hao returned to their cave, and the first thing Li Xiaoqing did was meet up with the ancestor.

”Ancestor, Fang Chen is gone,” she reported.

the old man remained silent for a moment before speaking slowly. ”I must say, this kid has some tricks up his sleeve. But many people are watching him closely. Be vigilant and you should be able to find him.”

Li Xiaoqing nodded lightly. ”Yes.”

***

The Daoists had been pursuing Fang Chen for several days now, and they were becoming increasingly restless. They knew where Fang Chen should be, but no matter how much they looked, they couldn’t see a trace of him. They were slowly feeling as though they were being toyed with.

”Elder brother, why not make a move? How long are we going to chase like this? He probably won’t dare to use the same trick he used last time. If he falls into madness again, he might not even be able to save himself,” one of the Daoists suggested.

The Daoist at the Fusion Realm pondered for a moment. In the next instant, he waved his sleeve. Suddenly, a dazzling golden eight trigram formation appeared in the sky, directly enveloping an area of thousands of miles.

The Fusion Realm Daoist bowed respectfully and said, ”Junior, I am Yu Donglai from the Innate Dao Sect. Please come out for a chat.”

Fang Chen, attempting to pass through the formation from within the shadows, discovered that the surrounding heavens and earth seemed completely sealed off. He looked toward Yu Donglai, the Fusion Realm cultivator who identified himself, his eyes showing a hint of contemplation.

A dozen of breaths passed without a response from Fang Chen.

Yu Donglai smiled faintly, and the formation began to shrink bit by bit. At this rate, the array would shrink to be about ten feet in diameter within the time it took for a stick of incense to burn.

Just then, a streak of sword light burst into the sky, slashing toward the edge of the formation. The sword light was instantly nullified the moment it met the formation, causing only a ripple to appear. The formation hadn’t been damaged in the slightest.

Yu Donglai’s lips curled upwards. ”Found you.”

Glancing in a certain direction, Yu Donglai chuckled softly. ”Junior, this isn’t like that Sealing Immortal Formation that Golden Core Realm cultivators operate. This one you can’t easily break.”