Chapter 189: Guardian of the Dao
The topic of the humanoid stone sculpture was too heavy, so Hua Changxi shifted her gaze from the sculpture to the hammer emitting red light in the center: “I heard Fellow Daoist Baili say this is a divine hammer.”
Tong Yao nodded: “The Four Great Sacred Lands each possess two divine artifacts.”
Upon hearing this, Hua Changxi quickly looked over: “Two divine artifacts? Which two?”
Tong Yao looked at her: “Fellow Daoist Hua doesn’t know?”
Hua Changxi, hearing his surprised tone, was also surprised: “I should know?”
Tong Yao paused: “Fellow Daoist Hua, you’ve been to Kunmen Pass before, haven’t you?”
Seeing him suddenly change the subject, Hua Changxi was a bit confused: “Fellow Daoist Tong, please speak directly about what you want to say.”
Tong Yao: “I saw you at Kunmen Pass, and this is our second meeting.”
Hua Changxi sized up Tong Yao. The time she went to Kunmen Pass was her first time in the Nine Netherworlds, and she knew nothing. First, she was captured by a ghost messenger, and then she almost lost her life due to cooperating with Master Changmei. During that time, she hadn’t met anyone.
“Fellow Daoist Tong, are you mistaking me for someone else?”
Tong Yao shook his head: “I wouldn’t mistake you. You are the one who assisted Master Changmei in rescuing me and other cultivators at Kunmen Pass. Just now, when you condensed your Fire Palm, I recognized you. Your Fire Palm is very unusual, with the Buddhist ‘ Manji’
rune engraved on it. And the Fire Lotus you just condensed is exactly the same as the one that cultivator displayed.”
As he spoke, Tong Yao bowed to Hua Changxi again.
“I was one of the people you carried across the Underworld River with Master Changmei’s Kasaya and rescued from the Nine Netherworlds. I was severely injured last time and had to leave in a hurry as soon as I returned to the Human World, so I couldn’t thank you promptly. Please forgive me.”
“Fellow Daoist Hua, this is the second time you’ve saved me.”
Hua Changxi was truly surprised to hear him say this. The situation during the crossing of the Underworld River was indeed critical, and the cultivators she escorted were all disguised. She really didn’t expect Tong Yao to be among them.
“Now that you mention it, we are quite fated.”
Hua Changxi didn’t deny saving people back then: “However, what does this have to do with whether I know the divine artifacts of the Four Great Sacred Lands?”
Tong Yao looked at her in astonishment: “Fellow Daoist Hua appeared at Kunmen Pass in time last time, allowing us to escape disaster and preventing the Talisman Brush of the Talisman Saint Pavilion from falling into the hands of the Demon Race; this time, the Demon Race infiltrated Tang Valley and sabotaged the Formation Eye, and it was you who intervened in time to stop it, preventing Demonic Energy from spreading into the Human World.”
Hua Changxi: “So?”
Tong Yao looked at Hua Changxi, whose clear eyes reflected the words ‘I don’t understand’: “Aren’t you a Guardian of the Dao?”
Hua Changxi’s expression shifted: “Guardian of the Dao? What Guardian of the Dao?” This was yet more information she didn’t know.
Tong Yao fell silent, and after a while, he said: “Before the Great Battle of Ancient Times, powerful individuals had already predicted that the Four Spirit Realm would experience a great silence of Spiritual Energy. To preserve the inheritance, all Five Continents selected Guardian Families.”
“On the Central Continent, other sects and powers might have permanently disappeared over time, but the Five Great Sacred Lands, due to the Divine Wood and their role as the formation core and eye of the Demon Prison, are definitely the focus of the Guardian Families.”
“I don’t know the situation of other Sacred Lands, but the reason the Artifact Saint Palace’s inheritance hasn’t been broken is due to the secret protection of the Guardian Families. If it weren’t for the Guardian of the Dao intervening, the underground Fire Vein of the Artifact Saint Palace would have been seized by the Royal Family.”
“You appeared twice at critical moments when the Talisman Saint Pavilion and the Artifact Saint Palace were in danger, so I assumed you were from a Guardian Family.”
After hearing this, Hua Changxi also fell silent.
Before this, knowing that many Noble Families had already discovered the Spiritual Energy Revival and had seized cultivation resources and embarked on the path of cultivation, she felt a sense of urgency and dared not slacken in her cultivation.
Now, it turned out there were even more formidable Guardian Families emerging.
The world of cultivators truly had stronger beings beyond stronger beings; one could never afford to be complacent.
Hua Changxi wanted to understand the foundation of the Guardian Families and probed: “From Ancient Times until now, how many tens of thousands of years have passed? Have the Guardian Families been passed down from generation to generation without any accidents?”
Hearing her question, Tong Yao was completely convinced that she knew nothing about the Guardian Families: “The members of the Guardian Families have always lived in Secret Realms rich in Spiritual Energy. Whenever great chaos occurs in the Human World, the Guardians of the Dao will appear and save the world as the situation dictates.”
“You should know that in Great Jin, stories of myths and legends have always circulated. Apart from the Deities and Great Demons passed down from Ancient Times, most common folk speak of the Guardians of the Dao who appear in the Human World.”
Hua Changxi’s eyes flickered: “Born in Secret Realms rich in Spiritual Energy, the cultivation of the Guardians of the Dao must be very high.”
Tong Yao nodded: “That’s for sure.” As he spoke, he looked at Hua Changxi, wanting to say, ‘Your cultivation is also very high,’ and your Divine Abilities are powerful. It was for this reason that he guessed she was a Guardian of the Dao.
Who would have thought, she wasn’t.
Tong Yao looked at Hua Changxi. If she wasn’t a Guardian of the Dao, then she must be a disciple of another Cultivation Noble Family.
However, he hadn’t heard of any Cultivation Noble Family with the surname Hua.
Could she be a rising star?
Seeing Tong Yao looking at her with an inquisitive expression, Hua Changxi interrupted him: “You still haven’t told me what two divine artifacts the Four Great Sacred Lands possess?”
Tong Yao withdrew his thoughts: “From the names of the Four Great Sacred Lands, you can guess one of their divine artifacts. The Dan Saint Hall’s is an Alchemy Furnace for Alchemy, the Artifact Saint Palace’s is a Divine Hammer for Artifact Refining, the Talisman Saint Pavilion’s is a Talisman Brush for drawing talismans, and the Formation Saint Sect’s is the Heavenly Cycle Star Luo Formation Disk for deducing Array Formations.”
Hua Changxi: “I know this. What about the other one?”
Tong Yao: “The other divine artifact is the same for all Four Great Sacred Lands: a Demon Slaying Sword.”
Upon hearing this, Hua Changxi’s eyes moved. She now understood what sword the wooden token from Qihuang Hall referred to. Suddenly thinking of something, she asked again: “You mentioned the Five Great Sacred Lands earlier, what was the name of the remaining one?”
Tong Yao: “The remaining Sacred Land is the Central Sacred Land. The Central Sacred Land is the center of the Central Continent and the place where the Jianmu grows. The Jianmu connects the Nine Heavens, the Human World, and the Nine Netherworlds, and it is the formation core of the Demon Prison.”
Hua Changxi pondered: “The four major formations, Dan, Qi, Fu, and Zhen, are located in the east, south, west, and north. The Central Sacred Land is likely in the center of the Four Great Sacred Lands, so…” She looked at Tong Yao, “The location of the Heavenly Department is the Central Sacred Land?”
Tong Yao nodded: “Correct.”
The fact that the Heavenly Department was the ruins of the Central Sacred Land had been known to the Royal Family and various forces long ago.
Hua Changxi asked again: “The Heavenly Department is under the jurisdiction of the Royal Family, so doesn’t that mean the Central Sacred Land is already controlled by the Royal Family?”
Tong Yao shook his head: “From my observation, the Heavenly Department only outwardly obeys the Royal Family to maintain stability in the Human World. However, the most powerful force in the Heavenly Department, the Demon Suppressing Army, has its Left and Right Generals as members of the Royal Family. The Left General, Chu Junyi, is the son of the War King; the Right General, Chu Junling, is the eldest son of the current Emperor.”
Hua Changxi knew nothing about the Royal Family and asked curiously: “Is the War King the Emperor’s brother?”
Tong Yao nodded: “The Grand Emperor had two Empresses, one was the deposed Empress Su, and the other is the current Empress Dowager Zhu. The War King is the son of Empress Su, the Grand Emperor’s legitimate eldest son. If Empress Su had not been deposed and the Su family had not been exterminated, the Grand Emperor’s throne should have been passed to the War King.”
“Unfortunately, Empress Su was deposed, and the Su family was uprooted. Although the War King survived, he was exiled to guard the border. He fought valiantly on the frontier until his death and finally died in a foreign land.”
“When the War King was guarding the border, he was known as the God of War due to his undefeated record. After his death, the Grand Emperor bestowed upon him the title of ‘War King’.”
Tong Yao spoke with some emotion: “Chu Junyi, as the son of the War King, appeared with an auspicious sign of a Fire Qilin in the sky when he was born. The Grand Emperor personally raised him. At the age of five, he became a disciple of the Heavenly Department Minister, Wei Zhenjie, and later joined the Demon Suppressing Army, gradually becoming the Left General of the Demon Suppressing Army.”
“At the royal banquet where the Grand Emperor abdicated, Chu Junyi was jokingly called the Royal Kirin Son by the Grand Emperor. Because of this, Chu Junyi was feared by many in the Royal Family, especially the princes born to the Emperor, who saw him as a thorn in their side.”
“Within the Demon Suppressing Army, Chu Junyi and Chu Junling also disliked each other and were often competing.”
Hua Changxi treated the news about the Royal Family as gossip. As for whether the Central Sacred Land was truly controlled by the Royal Family, she couldn’t do anything about it and didn’t want to do anything. As long as it didn’t affect her, it was fine.
“What about this crack?”
A humanoid stone sculpture was also more than half shattered, revealing a crack.
Tong Yao walked over and propped up the stone sculpture: “Once I recover my Spiritual Energy, I will repair the stone sculpture.”
Hua Changxi: “It can be repaired?”
Tong Yao nodded: “The Formation Eye is made of Boundary Stones, and the Artifact Saint Palace happens to have some Boundary Stone powder remaining. We can use the Boundary Stone powder to repair the stone sculpture.”
Hearing him say this, Hua Changxi handed over several bottles of Third Rank Fire Returning Pills: “Take these pills to recover faster.”
Tong Yao took the pills and, seeing that they were all Supreme-grade Pills, looked surprised: “Fellow Daoist is also an Alchemist?”
Hua Changxi nodded: “I have some talent for Alchemy. Fellow Daoist Tong can refine artifacts, and I can refine pills. We can exchange resources in the future.”
