Chapter 622 - The Grave Below the Poplar

Chapter 622: The Grave Below the Poplar
Translator: 
EndlessFantasy Translation 
 Editor: 
EndlessFantasy Translation

Ever since Shen Lian disappeared, no other person moved in to stay at Zifu Peak. Taiwei Pavilion became more of an off-limits area. Without the headmaster’s imperial decree, not even a Zhenren of Powang State could enter on his own accord.
Chen Jinchan added more control to the experiential realms in the whole of Zifu Peak. If there was no control by the means of an immortal Zhenren, it would still be incredibly difficult to break into, let alone alarming Chen Jinchan who kept watch in Taiyi Peak not far away. Breaking in would be mission impossible.
Thus, the strange changes that happened in Zifu Peak caused all the somewhat successful cultivators throughout the peaks of Qing Xuan to feel an inevitable inward feeling of shock.
What on earth could possibly produce such an odd change? If the strange occurrence was caused by an outsider that secretly broke in, it would be quite humiliating for Qing Xuan.
Chen Jinchan sat silently in the main hall of Qing Xuan and quietly concentrated on his supernatural powers. Golden light emanated from his eyes, and he directly shifted his gaze towards Taiwei Pavilion at Zifu Peak. With the height of his land immortal cultivation experience, surprisingly he was unable to clearly see the scene at Taiwei Pavilion at the present moment.


It was quite awe-inspiring for Chen Jinchan. If the visitor was an enemy of Qing Xuan, he or she would certainly be on par with the person Yanxu sent back in the day.
From each peak, black lights started flying everywhere and gathered at the foot of Zifu Peak. Chen Jinchan’s figure moved and he crossed over the void. In an instant, he was also already at the foot of Zifu Peak. He arranged his experiential realms that were still in intact, where the Qi of Dao was moving and flowing continuously. But its abundant vitality could surprisingly penetrate the experiential realms without damaging the realm’s original structure. It was unimaginable.
A ray of sword gleam flew by and landed beside Chen Jinchan. All the cultivators who rushed here bowed to Chen Jinchan and the bearer of the sword gleam. They waited for that second person to speak.
The bearer of the sword gleam was none other than Fang Yanying. There was practically no difference between how she looks currently compared to how she looks a thousand years ago. She looked like she was in her adolescence! This was not because of her superior cultivation experience. Instead, it was because of something else that happened many years back. Before she could manifest immortality, her Aunt-Master Gu Caiwei gave her an immortal spiritual medicine to take, prolonging five hundred years of life.
When the five hundredth year of prolonged life was almost up, Fang Yanying was finally cultivating in her eight hundredth year. She broke away from all whims and established her immortality in one go. Since then, Fang Yanying boldly and fiercely dedicated herself to progress, and her swordcraft succeeded higher and higher. A hundred years ago she entered Taishang Daoist Sect all by herself and defeated its headmaster. She forcefully borrowed the Taishang Detection Technique, and broke through the original restrictions of the Shapeless Sword Incantation, becoming aware of the Taishang Sword. Up until today, no one was worthy of challenging Fang Yanying except for a select few people. Even those of the older generation who could transcend the mortal world only realized their relative inferiority after having battled Fang Yanying.
After Fanying arrived, the faint feeling of worry in Chen Jinchan’s heart disappeared tremendously. He knew clearly that Senior Apprentice-Sister was strong. If they worked together, the matter could surely be settled – that is, unless Lu Jiuyuan was the intruder.
However, Chen Jinchan was curious himself. Who was this intruder? Chen Jinchan believed that in the flow of deities in and out of the world, none of them could match the capabilities of this intruder with the exception of Lu Jiuyuan. Wang Shidao and Song Qingyi of the Xuantian Sect were admittedly well-acclaimed. In Chen Jinchan’s eyes, the discussion of Dao between the two was still short of his own. Surely they could not block the vision of his empowered eyes from investigating the matter at Taiwei Pavilion.
His thoughts were as fast as lightning and he immediately said,
All of you need not panic. Taiwei Pavilion contains the remnants of the meaning of Dao from our predecessors. Adding to that, each the Five Peaks of Qing Xuan has the Dao rhythm of Daoist Master Taiyi. Any of the odd changes may be reasonable.

The doyens of each peak and their respective disciples were all bright people who could understand completely. Deep inside, they knew that for more than a thousand years, such events had never happened before. So how could it happen now on such a whim? Perhaps the headmaster himself could not be certain of what is truly happening on Zifu Peak, leading to them being more astonished. After all, even if headmaster did not make the battle of mana his forte, he was nevertheless publicly known and accepted to be the successor of headmaster Shen Lian – the number one genius that even Lu Jiuyuan himself has commended. In this sense, it showed that whatever that happened today was very odd indeed.
Before Chen Jinchan could continue speaking, two divine dragons flew out of Taiyi Peak. On their own accord, they charged at Zifu Peak. Though the experiential realms were designed by Chen Jinchan, there was no way it could hold off the simultaneous release of power of both the dragons. At once the dragons were left to charge into the peak.


The doyens and disciples originally thought that there would be an immediate and drastic change, and so they inwardly and attentively applied their mana. They would never have thought that once the Divine Guardian Dragons of the Mountain entered Zifu Peak, it was completely noiseless. There was absolutely no activity.
Each of them ineffably turned pale. What on earth was happening inside Zifu Peak? The divine dragons endured compared to two immortal Zhenren. Back then when Chen Jinchan had yet to achieve immortality, he relied heavily on these two Divine Guardian Dragons of the Mountain to protect the status of Qing Xuan by intimidating the evil spirits outside of Dao.
Today, the two Divine Guardian Dragons of the Mountain surprisingly entered Zifu Peak and yet with no news. This was when everything was most peculiar.
Chen Jinchan turned to Fang Yanying,
Senior Apprentice-Sister, let us go together and take a look. We shall get to the bottom of the matter and see what the current situation is.

Fang Yanying nodded. She had the same thought. Today’s happenings were too weird not to do anything about it. She also harbored a lot of doubts,
If the situation is not right, I will use the Taishang Sword.

Chen Jinchan understood what she meant. The Taishang Sword had immense power. Once it was unleashed in Zifu Peak, it could potentially destroy all the decorations inside it. Granted, if the time comes when the source of the odd changes was averted and pacified, it would still spell humiliation for Qing Xuan.
Perhaps what Fang Yanying inherited was the orthodoxy of the Temple of Killings outside of the Qing Xuan Sect. If the Forbidden Area of the Ancestors was damaged, it would indeed be possible that those actions will carry negative associations, affecting Chen Jinchan’s authority.
Chen Jinchan could not care less about these minor details and instructed,
Doyens and disciples, I ask that for the moment you do not enter Zifu Peak.
After finishing his sentence, Chen Jinchan and Fang Yanying went up the mountain and promptly reached Taiwei Pavilion.
They were doubly shocked. Their suspicions had been true all along – someone did indeed enter Qing Xuan.


All they saw was a person standing with their hands clasped at the back, facing the grave at the base of the poplar tree. The both of them only saw his back. If they did not actually see ‘him’, surely he would not notice that a person was standing there.
The gosling-yellow of the poplar flowers looked like an ear of wheat. They alternated between the leaves of the tree so that some were visible and some were hidden, and petals swaying gently and gracefully with the wind. The scene was beautiful, but it gave one’s heart an inexpressible feeling of sorrow.
Both the Divine Guardian Dragons of the Mountain shrunk themselves to three feet long and crept on the ground.
There was a length of a Blood Red Long Sword in front of the two dragons. The sword was finally noticed by Chen Jinchan and Fang Yanying. For reasons she did not know, after Fang Yanying saw the Blood Red Long Sword, the inexplicable sorrow in her heart completely transformed into an insuppressible pain and suffering. Her tears silently trickled to the ground.
Chen Jinchan opened his mouth to ask, but before a word could be uttered, the person turned around slowly. As he turned, the person exhibited an aura that was incredibly familiar to the both of them. They were quite astonished, and that astonishment immediately turned into wild joy. The both of them kneeled immediately.

Headmaster.


Uncle-Master.

Shen Lian spoke,
When did my Senior Apprentice-Sister pass away?

Chen Jinchan’s emotions were immeasurably stirred, but he tried his best to control himself and replied,
Aunt-Master had left us for about thirty years now. Before she left, she instructed the disciples to lay her to rest here.

Even if Shen Lian was already among those of Tianyi, he still could feel an endless sorrow after losing two of his closest colleagues within one day.



Senior Apprentice-Sister, you were still unable to crash through that preoccupation of yours, to the extent that you could not be rid of that wild fantasy. It was my fault.
Shen Lian thought to himself, Gu Caiwei decided that after she passed she must be laid to rest here. However, Shen Lian could not understand the reasons why Gu Caiwei was unable to rid herself of the fantasy. She had never stated clearly this sentiment, and now she had passed away and laid to rest in her grave.
And today was truly a day where his heart was filled with grief – words could never describe the pain he felt now that Gu Caiwei was in eternal rest.