In the Immortal Burial Ground, Bao Gu’s consciousness had separated from her physical body. She watched her body lying there, wrapped in dense spiritual energy and nourished by it, while her consciousness drifted through a world enveloped by Xuantian Sword Qi.
To her, Xuantian Sword Qi was the most important treasure Patriarch Xuantian had left her. It contained imprints of all his lifelong cultivation insights. She “caught” at the strands of Xuantian Sword Qi drifting around her. Whenever she “captured” one, it transformed into countless flashes of blades and swords that appeared before her “eyes.” Once she had absorbed all the Xuantian Sword Qi surrounding her, she felt her original wisp of disembodied consciousness condense into a tiny point. That point gradually grew into a human form—a miniature version of herself.
Why a human shape? If she had absorbed the Xuantian Sword, couldn’t she take the shape of a sword instead?
Thinking that, Bao Gu was startled to discover that she really had become sword-shaped. Then could she become a table? Was a sword any different from a table? As she pictured a table in her mind, she found herself turned into one.
Bao Gu froze for a moment, then understood.
She was now in a state of consciousness. Although she could condense into different shapes, she was not actually physical—or solid, to put it another way—but remained free-flowing. It was like water changing shape according to its container, or mist that could gather or disperse.
She remembered what Qingying had said before: another form of life.
Could existing as consciousness, freed from the shackles of the body, allow her to change shape at will?
She could take her own shape, the shape of the Xuantian Sword, or that of a table. Could she also become the heavens and earth, mountains and rivers, or the four manifestations of weather?
Yet she discovered that she could not become the heavens and earth, mountains and rivers, nor wind, rain, thunder, or lightning.
When cultivators cast spells, they use themselves, magical treasures, talismans, and similar things as mediums to gather energy drifting through heaven and earth and shape it into a form.
Using a formation to create the four weather phenomena, however, meant using formation materials as a foundation to build a small world resembling the greater world.
To produce those phenomena, there had to be a foundation capable of supporting their existence. Were those foundations the components of the laws of the Heavenly Dao?
Bao Gu had no idea.
Still, she was trapped in the Immortal Burial Ground recovering from her injuries, and she had nothing but time. She simply drew in the surrounding spiritual energy and used her current state—freed from her body’s restraints and able to change shape at will—to deduce, simulate, and construct a realm of heaven and earth as realistically as possible.
She began with the simplest things: a flower, a tree, a blade of grass, and a stone. She peeled off a tiny fragment of herself, drew in the surrounding spiritual energy, and tried her hardest to turn that fragment into a blade of grass.
Bao Gu thought, “Thank goodness I’m the only one here. No one can see me break off a piece of myself and ‘plant’ it as grass!”
In truth, she was not planting it at all. She was kneading it into shape, pinching the “grass” together as if she were molding a clay figure. Soon she had made a blade of grass, but it looked terribly fake. One glance was enough to tell that it had been formed by an extremely crude illusion.
She tried to remember exactly what grass looked like, then deduced and reconstructed it bit by bit. Again and again, time after time, she had no idea how many attempts she made. At last, an utterly ordinary foxtail grass stood before her. With a thought, its fuzzy tail swayed.
Once she had grass, she made blade after blade until she had a meadow. She gathered a patch of soil beneath it, then added flowers, trees, and finally more complicated creatures: birds in flight and beasts on the ground.
As Bao Gu continued her work, a world that seemed both real and illusory appeared in the air above the Immortal Burial Ground. Since everything in it had been molded from pieces Bao Gu had broken off herself, she had, in truth, simply sculpted herself into a world that looked exceptionally real but was not real at all.
Bao Gu felt this was incredibly childish, little different from playing house alone as a child. The only difference was that she had molded mud back then, whereas now she was molding herself. Once she had shaped a vast world, she worried that she might not be able to change back. With a thought, the entire world abruptly shrank, condensing into a tiny figure in her own likeness.
Relieved, Bao Gu began tearing herself apart again. She built cities and molded a dozen copies of Yu Mi, assigning them to fetch water, cook, do laundry, serve as maids, massage her back, and otherwise bustle around her.
Watching the twelve Yu Mis scurry about, she was amused at first. Then a pang of sadness hit her. When she remembered that they were merely herself transformed into Yu Mi to amuse herself, she felt like crying.
Was recovering in the Immortal Burial Ground really any different from being in prison?
Bao Gu wanted to leave and see Yu Mi again, but no matter how many times she tried, she could not. That sudden leap across thousands of miles to Yu Mi’s side, like the one she had made last time, never happened again.
She repeatedly simulated and constructed worlds. Eventually, she became so practiced that with a thought and a sweep of her sleeve, a vast and boundless world could appear within the Immortal Burial Ground. But that world was built on her as its foundation, so her will was its will. It was no fun at all.
Was she just playing with herself?
Bao Gu lay in the world she had constructed and recalled the classics and texts she had once seen in the Xuantian Library. She also dug out the cultivation arts she had committed to memory but never had time to learn, and began studying them.
***
More than eight hundred years passed. Generation after generation of newcomers entered the cultivation world, while countless cultivators fell along the path of cultivation.
Yu Mi’s personal strength and the faction behind her had both become untouchable in the present cultivation world. Whenever she traveled, people either went out of their way to avoid her or tried every possible way to recruit and flatter her. Thoroughly sick of it, she simply returned to Xuantian Sect and stopped going out.
After the disciples of Xuantian Sect had grown up, she passed the position of Transmission Elder on to someone else. She built several wooden cabins beside Thousand-Mile Lake and settled into a life of watching the sun rise in the morning and set in the evening, selling a little spirit wine when she felt like it, and leafing through the cultivation manuals in the Xuantian Library that Bao Gu had given her while cultivating and seeking enlightenment in the Dao.
After years of never emerging from seclusion, Yu Mi gradually became known among the outside factions as “that reclusive old monster.” As for the newer disciples of Xuantian Sect, they all knew that a Senior lived beside Thousand-Mile Lake and sold spirit wine there. This Senior was a female cultivator who had built several wooden cabins without even putting up a signboard. The spirit wine she sold was exceptionally good and fairly priced. Sometimes she even had second- to fifth-grade monkey wine that was nearly impossible to buy elsewhere.
However, this Senior had a poor temper and was extremely lazy. Disciples often went to buy wine only to find her missing. After circling Thousand-Mile Lake, they would find her either fishing, lying on the grass in the sun, or hugging a jug and drinking herself senseless.
One morning, Yu Mi took out some of the second- to fifth-grade monkey wine that the Duobao Spirit Monkey had given her the previous day. She poured it into jade flasks and put them on display in the wine shop, replenishing some of the wines that had sold out.
After arranging the wine, she carried a chair outside and sat in the sun. At the same time, she took out the Exquisite Cosmos Sphere that Little Martial Aunt had left her before ascending to the Upper Realm and idly played with it.
Before long, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator arrived. He saw Yu Mi lazily curled up in the chair outside the door, fiddling with a rather exquisite magical treasure without even looking up, and politely greeted her.
“Greetings, Senior. I’d like to buy some wine.”
Yu Mi gave a noncommittal grunt.
“Mm. Help yourself.”
The Foundation Establishment disciple answered.
“All right.”
He took out his spirit stones and put them into the wooden box for payment on the counter near the door. Then he went straight to the spirit wine intended for Foundation Establishment cultivators and happened to notice the monkey wine newly placed on the shelf beside it. His eyes lit up.
He hurriedly felt for his storage pouch and rummaged through it, only to find that he did not have enough spirit stones. His face fell. He returned to Yu Mi.
“Senior, I want to buy some second-grade monkey wine, but I don’t have enough spirit stones. Could you perhaps…”
Yu Mi did not even look up.
“No credit.”
The Foundation Establishment disciple said:
“Senior, I’m trying to break through to the next realm. With this monkey wine, my chances of succeeding would improve greatly.”
Yu Mi said:
“This shop accepts collateral.”
The disciple hesitated. Then he gritted his teeth and took out a jade talisman.
“This is a life-saving talisman my master gave me. I… I’ll pawn it here for now.”
Yu Mi glanced at the talisman.
“Mm.”
The Foundation Establishment disciple went to the counter and took one of the low-grade jade storage boxes piled in the corner. He opened it and placed his life-saving talisman inside. Then he picked up the brush and ink prepared on the counter, wrote an IOU, imprinted his aura on it, and sealed it onto the jade box.
He placed the jade box in one of the cubbyholes in the cabinet against the wall, recorded its number, and took monkey wine of equivalent value. After cupping his fists to Yu Mi, he left with the wine.
Not long after the Foundation Establishment disciple departed, many Xuantian Sect disciples hurried over. They went into the shop, took the wine they wanted, left their spirit stones in the wooden box by the door, and left.
Monkey wine was always available only in limited quantities, and Yu Mi’s shop stocked it only occasionally. Thus, all the Xuantian Sect disciples who heard the news rushed over to buy some.
In less than half a day, all the monkey wine in the shop had sold out. The disciples who arrived too late all knew this Senior’s rules, so they did not pester her. They simply cupped their fists toward Yu Mi and left.
A boy of sixteen or seventeen picked up a flask of second-grade spirit wine. When he tried to toss the spirit stones into the wooden box, he found it was full.
“Senior, the box is full of spirit stones.”
Yu Mi replied:
“There’s a storage pouch beside it. Put the spirit stones into the pouch for me, then take any flask of wine you like from the shop.”
The boy answered cheerfully.
“All right!”
He put the spirit stones into the storage pouch for Yu Mi and brought the pouch to her. Then he went into the shop, picked out a moderately priced flask of second-grade spirit wine, and returned to Yu Mi with a grin. He waved the wine in his hand.
“Thank you, Senior.”
Yu Mi, still curled lazily in her chair, gave a slight nod and continued staring blankly at the distant lake.
The boy sat cross-legged beside her, holding his wine, and asked:
“Senior, some people say you’re the number-one slacker in Xuantian Sect. Others say you’re a hidden expert of the sect, while still others claim that this is simply another form of cultivation. Please forgive my boldness, but which are you?”
Yu Mi turned to look at the boy.
“All three. Does that work?”
The instant she finished speaking, a surge of energy rippled beside them. Yu Jianming then appeared on a teleportation platform.
The boy saw Yu Jianming and sprang to his feet in fright. Trembling, he cupped his fists and saluted.
“Greetings, Sect Master!”
He thought, “The Sect Master came to buy wine too?”
Several Xuantian Sect disciples who had come together to buy wine also spotted Yu Jianming. Startled, they hurried forward to salute him.
One disciple who appeared to belong to Yu Jianming’s lineage even asked:
“Grandmaster Taixuan, you came to buy wine too? You should have told me. I could have fetched it for you.”
Yu Jianming waved them off.
“Go on. If you’re buying wine, hurry up. The shop is about to close.”
One disciple said:
“Sect Master, it isn’t even noon yet. Isn’t it a little early to close?”
Yu Mi raised her head and looked at Yu Jianming.
“Is something wrong?”
Yu Jianming gave a grunt.
“Mm. I just received word that an Immortal Tomb has appeared, and every faction is on the move. Martial Aunt Hua and Martial Aunt Feng went to inspect it. They said the tomb is inscribed in demonic script, and its presence followed the ley lines until it surfaced in Tai Province. The estimate is that it may be the final resting place of a great expert from the Demon Domain.
“Every faction is mobilizing to open the tomb. My junior sister has already taken people there. Ever since the Grand Ancestress ascended from the Demon Domain to the Upper Realm and took Junior Sister Qingying with her, the Chop Gang and Xuantian Sect have been rather unstable. I’m worried that the struggle over this Immortal Tomb will turn ugly, so I’d like to ask you to come out of seclusion.”
The few disciples nearby who were buying wine stared at Yu Mi.
So the legendary reclusive expert was real—perhaps even the sect’s guardian powerhouse. The Sect Master had personally come to ask her to leave seclusion.
Yu Mi thought for a moment.
“Bao Gu has been gone for eight hundred and seventy-nine years, hasn’t she?”
Yu Jianming nodded.
“About that…”
Then he suddenly thought of something and sucked in a breath.
“Could it be Little Martial Aunt…”
Yu Mi said:
“I can’t say for certain. If nothing went wrong, then judging by the time, she should have emerged sometime in the past two or three hundred years. Or perhaps it is another great expert from the Demon Domain…”
She gave a bitter laugh.
“I’ve almost forgotten what she looks like.”
Yu Jianming thought, *But you’ve been waiting for her all along. Otherwise, you would have ascended with the Grand Ancestress and Junior Sister Qingying two hundred years ago. You wouldn’t have suppressed your cultivation to remain in this lower realm, cooped up here every day, growing mold and sunning yourself.*
He asked:
“What about the Immortal Tomb?”
Yu Mi rose from her chair.
“Of course we have to go take a look. If they happen to dig up Bao Gu before she’s ready to emerge from seclusion, that would be bad.”
She turned to the few disciples standing there in a daze.
“Are you still buying wine? If you are, hurry up. We’re closing.”
The disciples came to their senses.
“Yes, yes, we’re buying!”
They plunged into the shop and, trembling, selected the wine they wanted and put the spirit stones into the wooden box beside the door.
Once they had finished buying, Yu Mi carried her chair back inside. She picked up the brush and ink on the counter and swiftly scrawled several sweeping words on a sheet of paper:
“Closed for the day!”
She shut the door and slapped the paper onto it. Then she summoned a teleportation platform and headed straight for Tai Province.
Tai Province lay within the Yue Kingdom.
The Immortal Tomb was easy to find. All one had to do was see where the cultivators were rushing. Once Yu Mi drew nearer, she could see a sky full of multicolored radiance even from several hundred miles away, without releasing her divine sense. The light was caused by terrestrial qi leaking from the ley lines and shooting straight into the sky.
The Immortal Tomb that was about to emerge lay amid a stretch of towering mountains. The surrounding area had already been sealed off so tightly by the various major factions that not even water could pass through.
The Chop Gang, Soul Chasing Pavilion, and Yue Kingdom remained allied. Their forces were deployed in a formation that enclosed the site of the Immortal Tomb in a semicircle.
The tomb was still underground. The factions were using all sorts of methods to probe the earth and determine its exact location.
As soon as Yu Mi appeared beside the Immortal Tomb, one of the female attendants responsible for communications beside Bao Nianhui approached her and bowed respectfully.
“Greetings, Order Envoy. The Young Lord requests your presence.”
Yu Mi nodded lightly and boarded the hundred-zhang warship forged from Daluo Scarlet Gold, where Bao Nianhui was waiting. When she entered the ship, she saw Qu Yirou, Jade Shura, and Si Ruo already inside.
Jade Shura called out:
“Look who’s finally willing to come out! I heard you holed up in Xuantian Sect until you nearly grew mold. Is that why you sun yourself every day—to dry it off?”
Yu Mi replied:
“If I don’t sun myself to get rid of the mold, am I supposed to keep busy cultivating?”
Jade Shura felt a pang of frustration and shouted:
“Don’t talk to me, you damned woman who keeps suppressing her cultivation instead of undergoing the Ascension Tribulation!”
Yu Mi said:
“Do you think this is easy for me? I have to keep my tail between my legs all day, afraid that one day I’ll make a little too much noise when I act and alert the Heavenly Dao, causing it to send down the Ascension Tribulation. When that happens, even if I don’t want to leave, I’ll have no choice.”
Jade Shura shouted:
“Stop showing off! We’re discussing business! I’m only at the late stage of Tribulation Transcendence!”
Just thinking about it made her want to cry.
Yu Mi consoled her:
“Don’t cry. Your master will suppress her cultivation and wait for you.”
Qu Yirou rubbed her forehead.
“I’m the one who gets struck by lightning every day. Do you really think I can hide from the Heavenly Dao’s notice?”
Yu Mi said to Jade Shura:
“Then once everyone has ascended, you can stay in the lower realm and play by yourself.”
Jade Shura became even more depressed.
“Let’s discuss business.”
Si Ruo shot Jade Shura an exasperated look.
“What are you so depressed about? I’m more than a thousand years older than you, and I’m only three minor realms ahead of you. I’m not crying.”
Anyone whose cultivation was stuck at the peak of Tribulation Transcendence had it rough; no matter what they did, they simply could not cross into the Mahayana stage. Si Ruo could not understand how Yu Mi had advanced by leaps and bounds in just over eight hundred years and was already almost an immortal. Had she been eating immortal pills?
She looked at Yu Mi.
“Be honest. How do you cultivate? How did you advance so quickly?”
Yu Mi said:
“I cultivate both the Xuantian arts and the Vermilion Bird arts. Both are inheritances from the Upper Realm, so there are fewer bottlenecks in the later stages…”
Si Ruo imitated Qu Yirou and rubbed her forehead. She thought, *I don’t want to talk to you either.*
She said:
“Let’s get back to business.”
After a pause, she continued:
“Before you arrived, the few of us discussed the matter. We all have one concern: we fear this is Bao Gu’s tomb. Yu Mi, didn’t your Grand Ancestress tell you where Bao Gu was buried before she ascended?”
Yu Mi replied:
“She was afraid I might disturb Bao Gu, so she refused to tell me. She only told me to wait patiently.”
Bao Nianhui said:
“All the factions have gathered here, and the Immortal Tomb is too tempting. Whether or not it is Master’s tomb, they are determined to obtain it. I’m afraid even the three of our factions working together won’t be able to stop them from opening it. If it really is Master’s tomb, then once they open it and destroy its feng shui, I’m afraid Master’s centuries of seclusion will be ruined.”
An informant from the Soul Chasing Pavilion hurried in, knelt before Bao Nianhui, and cupped his fists.
“Young Lord, they’ve confirmed the location of the Immortal Tomb.”
Bao Nianhui looked at Yu Mi.
“Martial Uncle, if I mobilize the Scarlet Gold flagship, I may be able to hold them off for a while. But afterward, the Chop Gang will inevitably face their counterattacks and assaults elsewhere.”
She pondered for a moment.
“I’m afraid it really is Master’s tomb. I think we should do everything we can to stop them.”
Yu Mi considered it.
“If it truly is your master’s tomb, let’s take a look first.”
Bao Nianhui made a questioning sound.
“But if we disturb Master…”
Yu Mi said:
“Your master’s Immortal Burial Tomb was built personally by the Grand Ancestress. With her methods, how could it fail to withstand a few grave robbers? Besides, because of the boundary-breaking portal, the Chop Gang, Xuantian Sect, Yue Kingdom, and Soul Chasing Pavilion are already in the crosshairs of the entire cultivation world. Now the emergence of the Immortal Tomb has stirred up every side again. If we try to stop them, we may well trigger an all-out war throughout the cultivation world…”
A disciple standing guard outside the ship came to report.
“Greetings, Young Lord and Order Envoy. Elder Hua and Elder Feng of Xuantian Sect request an audience.”
Bao Nianhui rose.
“Admit them.”
As she spoke, Hua Sheng and Feng Menglong hurried in.
Hua Sheng said as soon as she entered:
“How can you still sit there so calmly? They’ve already laid formations sealing off the entire area around the Immortal Tomb.”
Yu Mi quickly made her decision.
“Then this is what we’ll do: Xuantian Sect, the Chop Gang, the Soul Chasing Pavilion, and the Yue Kingdom will all withdraw.”
Feng Menglong cried out:
“What? Did I hear you correctly? Withdraw?”
Yu Mi said:
“If this is the tomb of an ancient great expert from the Demon Domain, then at most it will contain rare natural treasures, sacred artifacts, and some cultivation techniques from the Demon Domain. For us, those things would be nothing more than icing on the cake. If you feel you’ve lost out, Little Martial Aunt left me a whole pile of artifacts she refined before ascending. Later, each faction can choose a few.”
Jade Shura waved a hand.
“Forget it. Given our friendship, do you really think we’d covet a few of your possessions?”
Yu Mi said:
“The most important thing is that I’m worried this is Bao Gu’s tomb… If they open Bao Gu’s tomb…”
She paused, then said:
“Heaven only knows whether every living thing in this region will be wiped out!”
Everyone present changed color.
That really was Bao Gu’s style. If someone disturbed Bao Gu’s tomb, their first concern was not that damaging its feng shui would make all her previous efforts go to waste, but that it might trigger the extermination of every living thing in the area.
Compared with whatever was inside the Immortal Tomb, the elites they had painstakingly nurtured were far more important. Fortune might indeed be found in danger, but with a fifty-percent chance of disturbing Bao Gu, this was a risk none of them dared take.
Just as the various factions had finished locating the Immortal Tomb and were preparing to open it, the Yue Kingdom, Xuantian Sect, Chop Gang, and Soul Chasing Pavilion all withdrew as quickly as possible, leaving not even a single scout behind.
