Chapter 83: Divine Lamp
Princes and nobles flooded into the Medical Affairs Department, and Hua Changxi felt this was not a good omen.
The Medical Affairs Department, in the end, was just a technical department specializing in medical skills. With nobles arriving, was conflict far behind?
No, the conflict had already begun. Hadn’t someone already died in the Labor Department?
Seeing Hua Changxi struggling to move the screen by herself, Yu Hui proactively offered help: “Let me help you take the screen to the Labor Department.”
Hua Changxi wanted to ask more about the Labor Department, so she didn’t refuse.
As they were about to reach the entrance of the Labor Department, Yu Hui suddenly stopped. He gestured for Hua Changxi to quickly step aside and whispered, “People from the apothecary shop at Number One, Second Street, are here again.”
Hua Changxi looked ahead and saw that it was Gu Jin Fan. She quickly lowered her head and used the screen to shield most of her body. “Isn’t this the young woman from the Duke’s Mansion you mentioned before? What is she doing here?”
Yu Hui: “Do you know about the small, dilapidated courtyard on the plaza?”
Hua Changxi immediately thought of the old courtyard facing the stone cauldron in the plaza and nodded.
Yu Hui: “She’s going there. There’s a hunched old man named Gu living in the small courtyard. She seems to know him and visits him often.”
Upon hearing this, Hua Changxi’s eyes flickered. “Young Woman Gu visits often?”
Yu Hui ‘hmm’-ed: “She goes every few days.”
Hua Changxi narrowed her eyes. The stone cauldron and the Shen Nong Cauldron seemed to have some connection. Would Gu Jin Fan’s visit to the old courtyard be related to the stone cauldron?
“She’s gone. Let’s go.”
After Gu Jin Fan’s figure disappeared, Yu Hui urged Hua Changxi to move the screen.
Hua Changxi kept this matter in mind and decided to find an opportunity to probe into what Gu Jin Fan was doing at the old courtyard.
“Brother Yu, thank you for your help. I’ll treat you to a meal when I have time.”
“Sister Changxi, my godfather wants to continue our cooperation in alchemy.”
“Brother Yu, after being punished and sent to the Medicine Farm this time, I’ve thought a lot. I’m just a laborer, and cooperating with Eunuch Yu in alchemy is truly going too far. I don’t want to continue.”
Upon hearing this, Yu Hui showed regret. “Alright. When godfather asks about this, I will tell him.”
Hua Changxi smiled again. “Brother Yu, if you need any pills, as long as you prepare the medicinal herbs, I can help you refine them.”
Yu Hui’s face lit up. “Sister Changxi, since you’ve said so, I won’t be polite. Martial artists consume too many pills, and I don’t know any pharmacists. Having you here is a great help to me. Thank you in advance.”
Hua Changxi chuckled. “Brother Yu, please don’t say that. You’ve helped me a lot, and I remember it all.”
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, the two parted ways.
Hua Changxi pushed the screen back to her living quarters, placed it between the two beds, and directly divided the room in half. Then, she hung a cloth curtain at the foot of the beds, creating a private little space.
That evening, when Du Ruo returned to the room, she frowned upon seeing what Hua Changxi had done, but she didn’t say anything. After washing up, she lay down and went to sleep.
Hua Changxi was already lying on the bed, cultivating. Hearing the movement, her eyelashes trembled. Seeing that Du Ruo wasn’t making any significant noise that would disturb her, she was very satisfied with her roommate and continued to cultivate with focus.
At midnight, Hua Changxi suddenly opened her eyes.
In her Dantian, the Black Flame suddenly grew larger, and its flames flickered in one direction.
“What’s going on?”
Hua Changxi looked inward at the direction the Black Flame was flickering. After some thought, she quietly got up, left the room, and moved towards the direction the Black Flame was swaying.
Soon, she arrived outside a courtyard.
“Isn’t this Eunuch Lu’s courtyard?”
Hua Changxi frowned as she looked at the courtyard. She took out an invisibility talisman from Old Daoist Jiang’s storage ring, stuck it on herself, and leaped into the courtyard. She looked around and finally stopped at the door of the East Wing Room.
Inside the East Wing Room, Steward Leng sat cross-legged, his hands placed above his lower abdomen. Above his palms, a black jade lotus petal was suspended.
Seeing the black jade lotus petal, Hua Changxi’s eyes lit up.
She had always kept the matter of searching for the Asura Gate in mind, but she knew very little about the Asura Gate and hadn’t figured out where to start.
Seeing that Steward Leng actually had a black jade lotus petal in his hand, she was overjoyed.
Since Steward Leng could control the black jade lotus petal, he was very likely a member of the Asura Gate.
At the same time, inside the East Wing Room, Steward Leng, who was cultivating with focus, suddenly felt a sharp pain in her palm. She opened her eyes and saw that the black jade lotus had ignited with a Black Flame, and her expression immediately changed.
“Who is it? Come out!”
Without her igniting it, the black jade lotus would not have ignited with a Black Flame. Now that the Black Flame had ignited, it could only have been affected by something else.
Someone was outside!
“Creak,” the door opened, and then, with another “creak,” the door closed again.
Steward Leng looked at the empty doorway, her vigilance reaching its peak.
The intruder was a cultivator!
“May I ask which fellow Daoist is gracing my humble abode? Please show yourself.”
As Steward Leng spoke, she stood up and was about to put away the black jade lotus petal when, with a “bang,” a surge of spiritual power struck, knocking the black jade lotus petal to the ground.
“What is the meaning of this, fellow Daoist? Are you trying to snatch my magic tool?”
Her palm, struck by the spiritual power, throbbed with a shattering pain. Steward Leng’s face turned pale, knowing that the opponent’s cultivation was far superior to hers.
“Are you from the Asura Gate?”
A low voice echoed in the room.
Upon hearing this, Steward Leng’s eyes flickered. Although the speaker had deliberately lowered their voice, she could clearly discern it was a female voice, and she even detected a hint of familiarity. “Are you from the Labor Department?”
“Bang~”
Another surge of spiritual power struck, knocking Steward Leng to the ground.
“Answer my questions honestly, don’t force me to kill you.”
Steward Leng suddenly laughed. “As soon as you approached, you ignited the black jade lotus. I assume the Yin Flame within your body has been ignited.”
“Bang~”
Seeing that Steward Leng was constantly trying to seize control of the conversation, Hua Changxi unleashed another surge of spiritual power. This time, it directly made Steward Leng spit blood.
Steward Leng wiped the blood from her lips. Unwilling to be captured, she glanced at the black jade lotus petal on the ground. Knowing she couldn’t take the sect’s magic tool this time, she just wanted to crush the teleportation talisman and escape quickly.
Unexpectedly, as soon as her hand moved, another surge of spiritual power struck.
Steward Leng cried out in pain. Just then, a pill flew over and landed in her mouth. Before she could react, the pill had already entered her stomach.
“What pill did you give me?”
Steward Leng sensed that the spiritual power within her body was sealed, and a look of horror finally appeared on her face.
“Answer whatever I ask you, and don’t test my patience.”
“You have a black jade lotus petal in your hand, so you must hold a not-low position in the Asura Gate. I ask you, what exactly is the black jade lotus petal? And what is the Black Flame burning on it?”
Steward Leng pursed her lips and remained silent.
Seeing this, Hua Changxi frowned. “I know you’re not afraid of death, and I won’t kill you, but I will cripple your spiritual meridians and end your cultivation path.”
Steward Leng’s face changed drastically. “You can’t do that.”
Hua Changxi, too lazy to waste words, unleashed a surge of spiritual power directly at Steward Leng’s Dantian.
She had read almost all the books left by Old Daoist Jiang and knew a lot about cultivation common sense, understanding the importance of the Dantian to a cultivator.
Steward Leng also knew that once the Dantian was destroyed, she would no longer be able to cultivate. After feeling the violent tremors in her Dantian Qi Sea, she finally relented. “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you.”
“The black jade lotus is the Asura Gate’s foundational magic tool. It uses a person’s Seven Emotions and Six Desires as fuel and can ignite the desires in a person’s heart.”
“The Black Flame, also known as the Yin Flame, looks like fire, but it is actually a person’s desires.”
“Once the Black Flame is ignited, as long as the person still has desires, it cannot be extinguished.”
Hua Changxi’s brow furrowed. Recalling her experiences since the Black Flame appeared, she felt it was indeed related to desires.
“The Black Flame cannot be extinguished. Can it only be allowed to grow larger?”
Steward Leng: “I said, the essence of the Black Flame is a person’s desires. If you don’t want the Black Flame to grow larger, you must learn to control your desires.”
Hua Changxi: “What if I can’t control them?”
Steward Leng smiled. “Then you’ll have to wait to be controlled by your desires.”
As soon as she finished speaking, another surge of spiritual power struck her.
Hua Changxi looked at her coldly. “You’re not telling the truth. Your Asura Gate members cultivate using black jade lotus petals. I don’t believe everyone can control their desires. You must have other ways to solve this problem.”
Steward Leng endured the intense pain and looked at the sky resentfully. “I didn’t lie to you. The only way to control the Black Flame is to control your own desires. As for how to control your own desires, you’ll have to figure that out yourself.”
Hua Changxi still didn’t quite believe her. “You’d better not lie to me or hide anything from me, or no matter where you run, I will kill you.”
Steward Leng was stunned. “You’re not going to kill me?”
Hua Changxi: “Didn’t you say you need to control your desires? I have no enmity with you, so why would I kill you? But if you deceive me…”
Steward Leng’s eyes flickered. “Are you telling the truth? You really won’t kill me?”
Hua Changxi looked at the black jade lotus petal on the ground. “The black jade lotus petal can help the Black Flame grow stronger. You can stall for a while longer until I can’t control my killing intent.”
Steward Leng hesitated. “There is another way to control the Black Flame, which is to ignite the Yang Flame within your body, also known as the White Flame.”
Hua Changxi frowned. “What is Yang Flame?”
Steward Leng: “Everything in the universe requires Yin-Yang balance. Where there is Yin Flame, there is naturally Yang Flame. If Yin Flame stimulates a person’s evil side, then Yang Flame stimulates a person’s good side.”
Hua Changxi’s expression shifted. “So, besides the black jade lotus petal, there’s also a white jade lotus petal?”
Steward Leng ‘hmm’-ed. “White jade lotus petals are not as easy to ignite as black jade lotus petals. Many people, even if they possess white jade lotus petals, cannot ignite the Yang Flame.”
Hua Changxi: “Where is your white jade lotus petal?”
Steward Leng shook her head. “I don’t have one.”
Hua Changxi: “How could you not have one?”
Steward Leng: “Of course I don’t. In the entire Asura Gate, only the Sect Master and the Left and Right Yin-Yang Envoys have white jade lotus petals. Besides, the forces with the most white jade lotus petals are the Royal Family, the Celestial Master’s Mansion, and the Bodhi Temple.”
Hua Changxi unleashed another surge of spiritual power. “You’re lying again. Black jade lotus petals and white jade lotus petals sound like a pair. If the Asura Gate has black jade lotus petals, how could they not have white jade lotus petals?”
Steward Leng felt her body was almost numb with pain. She gritted her teeth. “I’m really not lying to you. The black jade lotus petal and the white jade lotus petal are not complete magic tools, but merely fragments of a divine lamp.”
Hua Changxi: “What divine lamp fragments?”
Steward Leng: “I don’t know the specifics, but I do know that the Asura Gate’s most prized treasure is a black and white lotus lamp. The black jade lotus petal and the white jade lotus petal fell from this divine lamp.”
“Because the Royal Family coveted the divine lamp, a great battle broke out with the Asura Gate. During the battle, the divine lamp shattered, and both the black and white jade lotus petals scattered in all directions.”
“The Asura Gate searched for hundreds of years and only found a limited number of black jade lotus petals. The white jade lotus petals are almost all in the hands of the Royal Family, the Celestial Master’s Mansion, the Bodhi Temple, and other factions.”
Hua Changxi listened, feeling a bit confused, and sorted out Steward Leng’s words.
The Asura Gate possessed a divine lamp composed of black and white jade lotus petals. This lamp was coveted by the Royal Family, who wanted to possess it, leading to a great battle with the Asura Gate.
During the great battle, the divine lamp shattered, and the black and white jade lotus petals scattered everywhere.
The Asura Gate found some, but more were in the hands of other factions.
Whether these words were true or false, she couldn’t tell, but she did glean some key points.
“Black jade lotus petals can aid in cultivation. So, according to you, the Asura Gate, the Royal Family, and the Celestial Master’s Mansion have had cultivators for a very long time?”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Then when did you start cultivating?”
“Last year.”
“What about the others in the Asura Gate? When did they start cultivating?”
“From what I know, most of them only started in the last two years.”
“What was the Asura Gate’s purpose in arranging for you to infiltrate the Labor Department?”
“My mission was to search for the whereabouts of black jade lotus petals and white jade lotus petals.”
Seeing that there was no sound in the room, Steward Leng thought for a moment and then said, “Actually, igniting the Black Flame isn’t entirely a bad thing.”
“The Black Flame can reveal a person’s fears, thereby stimulating their desires. When people have desires, they can unleash their potential. When a person’s potential is unleashed, they sometimes gain unexpected benefits.”
Hearing this, Hua Changxi thought of the time she was trapped by the Buddha’s Hand. Was it the Black Flame that ignited her fear of death, and then spurred her destructive desire to fight against the Buddha’s Hand?
Hua Changxi didn’t entirely believe what Steward Leng said. Seeing that she couldn’t get any more information from her, she didn’t linger any longer.
Steward Leng watched the door open and close, and after confirming that the invisible cultivator had left, she let out a huge sigh of relief. She looked at the black jade lotus petal left on the ground and showed a surprised expression.
“They didn’t kill me for my treasure.”
It seemed the Black Flame within that cultivator wasn’t very strong yet.
Who could that person be?
The thought that there was a cultivator in the Labor Department stronger than her made Steward Leng restless, especially after having been on the brink of death just now, which made her even more fearful.
“The Medical Affairs Department is becoming more and more lively.”
Thinking about the mission the sect had recently assigned her, to steal the Body Transformation Pill refined by the Medical Affairs Department, she felt a headache coming on.
Before tonight, she felt that as a Qi Sea Realm cultivator, she could at least move freely in most parts of the Medical Affairs Department, if not walk around with impunity.
But it just so happened that the Labor Department harbored a cultivator even more powerful than her.
If things were like this in the Labor Department, what about the nine streets ahead? Were there even more powerful cultivators hidden in the shadows?
After returning to her living quarters, Hua Changxi couldn’t calm down enough to continue cultivating.
The Black Flame couldn’t be extinguished; this was something she hadn’t anticipated. Even though Steward Leng said the existence of the Black Flame wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, it couldn’t put her at ease.
“A divine lamp fueled by Seven Emotions and Six Desires.”
Hua Changxi looked inward at the Black Flame below her Inner Core, feeling a headache.
Currently, the only things she could do were: first, control her desires; second, find a white jade lotus petal and ignite the White Flame.
With the White Flame, it should be able to neutralize or prevent the Black Flame from growing.
But where could she find it?
Hua Changxi thought of the Royal Family, the Celestial Master’s Mansion, and the Bodhi Temple mentioned by Steward Leng. These were places she had never encountered before.
