Wayfarer

Three days later, on Taiqing Island, Zhang Feifan handed Xiao Nanfeng a jade tablet. "Division Leader Xiao, the sect master and I will be sending Lingjun back to the Imperial Court to have the Heavenly Emperor inspect the inheritance that Lingjun has just received. She'll also nominate you then. Here is a dossier related to the dead Martial Aspect. Starting now, you'll be able to investigate his death and take on the true culprit."

"Thank you." Xiao Nanfeng nodded in thanks.

"Lan Jiguang, Xiao Nanfeng will be headed to the Immortal city of Fengdu. You'll be responsible for helping him," Lu Yan instructed.

"Understood!" Lan Jiguang said.

Then, Lu Yan, Zhang Feifan, and Zhang Lingjun flew into the air and vanished from sight.

"Apologies for the trouble in advance, Division Leader Lan," Xiao Nanfeng said with a smile.

However, Lan Jiguang's face suddenly grew cold. He looked toward Xiao Nanfeng with a frown.

"Division Leader Lan? Have I offended you?" Xiao Nanfeng asked, frowning.

Lan Jiguang had been narrowing his eyes at him all this time, making him feel particularly discomfited. It was as though he owed Lan Jiguang plenty of money—but he was certain he had never seen Lan Jiguang before in his life! Was he crazy? What was the problem?

"What's your relationship with Yaoguang?" Lan Jiguang asked. [1]

"Ah?" Xiao Nanfeng was taken aback.

He had considered a lot of possibilities for Lan Jiguang's dislike of him, but none of it had involved Lady Yaoguang.

"Again, what's your relationship with Yaoguang?" Lan Jiguang demanded.

Xiao Nanfeng frowned. "What does my relationship with Lady Yaoguang have to do with you, Division Leader Lan? Isn't that out of your purview?"

He was suddenly enraged by Lan Jiguang's ridiculous question.

"Yaoguang's my daughter. Isn't it important that I know?" Lan Jiguang replied coldly.

Xiao Nanfeng: ...

His rising anger immediately dissipated. He hadn't known that Lady Yaoguang's father was Lan Jiguang!

"I didn't realize that, Senior Uncle. I apologize. I was upset and didn't understand the reasoning behind your interrogation. Lady Yaoguang is my senior sister, and we worked closely together within the undying realm," Xiao Nanfeng replied.

"I am hardly your senior uncle. You had better continue calling me Division Leader Lan," Lan Jiguang replied promptly.

"Senior Uncle, you were brothers in cultivation with my master and my father, and it's only right for me to call you Senior Uncle. These few years, I've been trying to find out where Yaoguang has gone. Do you know her whereabouts? Is she alright?" Xiao Nanfeng immediately asked.

"Because of you, she's in danger," Lan Jiguang said.

"Senior Uncle, please let me know where she is. I'll find her and bring her back immediately!" Xiao Nanfeng volunteered.

"That won't be necessary. You can't bring her back. She tasked me with bringing you this." Lan Jiguang retrieved a jade box.

The jade box was sealed tightly and clearly had not been opened.

As Xiao Nanfeng took the box, he asked, "Senior Uncle, you've seen Yaoguang and must know of her situation. Could you tell me what's going on?"

"There's no need for you to know right now. When she can return, she will. In order to help you secure this object, she had no choice but to ask her uncle for help. The whole reason I've been sequestering her on Taiqing Island is because I was worried her uncle would seek her, and then he found her because of you!" Lan Jiguang cried out.

"She's at her uncle's? Who is he?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

Lan Jiguang refused to explain. He countered, "I'm well aware of Yaoguang's personality, and she would never help any ordinary person out to such an extent. Tell me what the two of you did in the undying realm. How did you manipulate her?"

Xiao Nanfeng smiled wryly as he recounted the experiences of his past. "Senior Uncle, you misunderstand. I didn't manipulate her. At the time, we..."

As Xiao Nanfeng continued the story, he was given an understanding of the danger that Lady Yaoguang found herself in. If not for Xiao Nanfeng putting his life on the line, she would long since have perished. Xiao Nanfeng made the situation sound straightforward, but he could tell how hard he had to have worked. Back then, Xiao Nanfeng was still an Acquisition-realm cultivator!

Lan Jiguang's expression relaxed. In the end, he sighed. "Three days later, I'll be headed to the Immortal city of Fengdu. If you intend to accompany me, pack up now."

"Understood!" Xiao Nanfeng nodded.

He could tell that Lan Jiguang was trying to hide Yaoguang's whereabouts, and repeated asking wouldn't reveal anything. The best use of his time was to head to Fengdu with Lan Jiguang to understand the situation there.

After bidding farewell to him, Xiao Nanfeng returned to his residence and carefully broke the bindings around the jade box, revealing a jade tablet within.

He immediately began to read its contents. Indeed, the jade tablet contained a brief description of Lady Yaoguang's current situation.

"Nanfeng, my mother is a holy maiden of the Shangqing holy land. I returned to the holy land and obtained the inheritance of the Shangqing Grandmaster, becoming his official apprentice across generations. I hold a particularly important role in the holy land, so you don't have to be worried about me. The Shangqing holy land's technique specifically counters cursed effigies, and Shangqing is considered the bane of cursed effigies. After obtaining the inheritance of the Shangqing Grandmaster, I was granted the sect's strongest spiritual cultivation technique, the Shangqing Yin Body, which will surely be able to help you counter those that are plaguing you. I secretly recorded a copy of it for you, so take your time to learn it well. In the future, I'd like to try the Manchu Han imperial feast that you keep talking about."

As he read Lady Yaoguang's letter, Xiao Nanfeng smiled wryly. "There's no need for you to write in so indirect a fashion. I know how you must feel—you've lost your freedom in order to secure the Shangqing Yin Body technique, haven't you? Oh, you fool! Why didn't you tell me about this beforehand? I don't care about these cursed kings! Don't you worry. Once I grow a little stronger, I'll help you escape from the Shangqing holy land. No one will be able to stop you."

He took a deep breath and continued reading the jade tablet. What remained was the text of the Shangqing Yin Body. It seemed particularly familiar,

because he knew that the Shangqing Yin Body derived from his Body of Yin technique.

The supreme Body of Yin technique had been divided into three, one for each sect bearing the name 'Qing'. This meant that cultivating that technique would be relatively easy for him.

However, how was he to cultivate it? Did he have to form another avatar?

"I can't create any more avatars, or I'll end up with multiple personality disorder eventually. On the other hand, if my main body cultivates it, it'll surely be eaten by my silver moon. I'll have to cultivate it with my avatar, then," Xiao Nanfeng said, taking a deep breath.

Back in Yongding, Xiao Nanfeng's avatar told his officials that he would be in secluded cultivation in the cultivation hall set up in the palace.

The red stars in his avatar's stellar lake were slowly joined with blue ones.

The moment the blue stars appeared, they began competing for territory along with the red stars. The two colors of stars seemed to be attacking each other, as though intent on choking the other color to death. His cultivation stalled.

"The Dao births one, and one births two. Why can't the two of you get along? I'm going to continue!" Xiao Nanfeng insisted.

However, neither moon refused to budge.

As the stalemate persisted, Xiao Nanfeng's main body arrived from Taiqing Island. He immediately switched to his yin body.

A burst of silver light shot into his avatar's stellar lake. Silver, red, and blue light appeared simultaneously. After the silver light suppressed the red light, the blue starlight condensed and finally formed an incandescent blue moon that emerged from the lake.

The blue moon slowly rose into the air. The red moon, feeling a threat to its supremacy, instantly released bright red light to suppress the blue moon.

"Both moons, out of my body!" Xiao Nanfeng commanded.

The red and blue moons floated into the air, still clashing against each other.

Xiao Nanfeng was silent for a moment. His eyes sparked resolutely as he used his candle power on the blue moon, as though opening a wormhole. His avatar passed through it and vanished as he entered the blue moon.

Xiao Nanfeng's main body considered the blue moon. "How sinister. My avatar's yin body melted into water within the moon... I hope my method will work, or there's going to be trouble."

The blue moon suddenly shone with resplendent light as if it were growing rapidly. The red moon, feeling even more threatened, attempted to batter it once again. Fortunately, with Xiao Nanfeng's main body suppressing the red moon, it failed to strike the blue moon down.

Two whole days later, a hole opened up in the blue moon as a hand extended from it, followed by a body. Xiao Nanfeng's avatar had crawled out from within.

His avatar, which had melted into water, reformed as a human as he appeared. The blue moon quickly returned to its original appearance.

The red and blue moons all shone with blinding light as they fought over his yin body.

Xiao Nanfeng's avatar condensed a set of robes with spiritual power. The blue moon trembled, causing the robes to turn blue; the next moment, the red moon trembled, causing the blue robes to turn red. Then, the two moons began to fight over the color of the robes.

They continued to wrestle for control of Xiao Nanfeng's avatar, causing his robes to flicker between red and blue.

Xiao Nanfeng's main body sighed and huffed. "This isn't a fashion show!"

He tried to suppress the transformation, but couldn't seem to do anything. The fashion show couldn't be stopped.

"I guess I'll just leave it like this for now," Xiao Nanfeng's main body sighed.

He strode out of the cultivation hall and flew toward Taiqing Island. The three-day deadline was almost up, and he would be heading to the Immortal city of Fengdu with Lan Jiguang. His avatar, still flashing between red and blue, was all but incapacitated. Only his main body could go.

Xiao Nanfeng's avatar kept both his moons within his mindscape. The stellar lake within continued to shine with red and blue glows as the twin moons fought.

Xiao Nanfeng had no solution to the problem as yet; all he could do was to leave them as is for the moment.

He walked quickly toward his study to see Ao Zhou waiting for him from afar.

"Xiao Nanfeng, you're wearing blue today? Interesting. You must be getting tired of your red clothes. I do prefer the blue." Ao Zhou seemed to have a request to make of Xiao Nanfeng and was trying to be on his best behavior. He immediately praised Xiao Nanfeng's new clothes.

The next moment, Xiao Nanfeng's body flashed with red light. His clothes turned red.

Ao Zhou stiffened. What sort of situation was this? The moment he praised the blue clothes, Xiao Nanfeng switched to red ones!

"Ahem, to be frank, you look like you have more vitality when you wear red. It shows your exceptional status. Wearing blue makes your complexion darker, and it doesn't look as good," Ao Zhou corrected himself.

With a hum and a flash of blue light, Xiao Nanfeng's clothes turned blue.

Ao Zhou pursed his lips. "Did you guess what I'm here to do? Are you trying to stop me from making my request?"

"It's nothing. Continue," Xiao Nanfeng said.

Ao Zhou's face twitched as he saw that Xiao Nanfeng's clothes had changed color again. What in the world was going on? Wasn't he trying to tell Ao Zhou to scram, that he didn't want to listen to Ao Zhou?

"Keep talking," Xiao Nanfeng repeated.

"If you keep changing clothes like this, I'll get disoriented. I'd rather wait until you stop," Ao Zhou said.

"Then keep waiting."

Ao Zhou internalized his thoughts. I don't believe your clothes will keep changing color. I'll wait.

1. The Lady Arclight returns, but shall be known hereafter as Lady Yaoguang to better suit the translation of other characters to date. Sorry for the inconvenience! ☜

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