12dz Chapter 232 Subjugation
Chapter 232 Subjugation
The next day.
early morning.
The sky was dark and shrouded in a thin mist. Ever since the passing of Master Bai Mu, who "transformed and perished, his body departing from heaven and earth," a light drizzle had been falling over this land of Dongshui. The fine rain carried a hint of chill, yet it could not dispel the wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys.
"Time to eat."
Inside the prisoner-of-war camp, accompanied by Yue Mingxue's shouts, several strong women carried in food buckets.
Dao Foundation cultivators can live on air and dew and abstain from grains for extended periods, but Qi Absorption cultivators clearly have not yet achieved such skill.
Upon hearing the call, many of Bai family disciples, who had been soaked to the bone all night and looked somewhat like drowned rats, consciously lined up to receive their meals.
Bai Ziye, also holding a chipped, broken ceramic bowl, couldn't help but feel a surge of anger upon seeing the rice inside: "At home, I always eat 'Jade Spring Rice'... Now we only have this inferior spiritual rice, green corn..." Although the Bai family members beside him looked somewhat resentful, they were starving and had been living in fear for a long time, so they ate with relish.
"The masters even fed us spirit rice; they are truly the most kind of people..."
"Since they're still giving us food, they obviously won't kill us. There's always a way for us to survive..."
"I'm afraid it'll be used to fill holes..."
As Bai Ziye listened, he also felt a little uneasy.
Now that the Secret Realm is vying with the Hehuan Sect, what if these surrendered generals are sent to the front lines?
Looking at it this way, what's in your hand isn't spirit rice at all; it's clearly "last meal"!
Thinking of this, I lost my appetite again.
Neither Bai Ziye nor the surrounding Bai family members, nor even the guarding monks, nor the two Taras, Moonlight White and Empty Sparrow, on the high place, noticed that behind Bai Ziye, Master Bai Mu seemed like an ethereal spirit, gazing at everything with a look of melancholy…
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, the many Bai family prisoners were assigned tasks.
Most of the work involved organizing the Bai family's collection, registering each item, and then transporting them onto the funeral ship.
"This is outrageous..."
"Our ancestors... how can we face them in the afterlife?"
Several elders of the Bai family, seeing their ancestral hall's decorations being ruthlessly dismantled and carried away, were immediately filled with remorse. Some even contemplated suicide. Their fates, of course, were as they wished: the White Bone Daoist monks demonstrated how to forge weapons from human bones. The remaining Bai family members immediately became obedient, shrinking back into their quails. Death was one thing, but to suffer the same fate as those elders, their bodies held captive by monks and masters even in death, unable to find peace, was truly terrifying… Bai Ziye, even more terrified, fell silent, diligently organizing the Daoist scriptures.
He was treated well; he was assigned to a tent surrounded by array formations.
Master Bai Mu remained entwined around Bai Ziye, using the bloodline of this descendant to conceal himself, his expression becoming calm and serene.
He has now escaped the great calamity. If he can hold on for a while longer, he can possess this child's body and resume his cultivation as "Bai Ziye," eventually becoming a Purple Mansion True Person of the Bai family! "However, the bloodline cannot decline too much… If seven or eight out of ten members of the clan die, I fear we will no longer be able to conceal it from those secret Dharma Kings…"
Master Bai Mu's mind was racing with a thousand thoughts.
Suddenly, a gentle voice came from beside him: "Benefactor Bai Mu..."
"Um?"
Master Shiraki habitually gave a reply, then his heart trembled violently: "This is bad!"
In an instant, Bai Ziye remained dazed and confused, but two points of supernatural light shone in his eyes, and a forest of illusory trees appeared around him. Even with only one supernatural power and severely damaged vital energy, Bai Ziye was still a Purple Mansion True Person!
"Heh heh... Why bother, benefactor?"
Inside the tent, a gaunt young man appeared out of nowhere, dressed in a tiger-skin robe and holding a white bone rosary. It was none other than the White Bone Dharma King Sangji! He chuckled as he looked at Master Baimu: "Master, your plan to feign death and escape is truly ingenious. But what will the Hehuan Sect do if they find out?" The Bai family of Dongshui has been worshipping the Hehuan Sect for generations, and there are probably quite a few elite disciples who have joined the sect to cultivate.
Master Bai Mu faked his death and deserted, causing immense harm to the entire Bai family, all for his own sake.
"...Merely a bloodline descendant; as long as I live, the Bai family lives!"
Bai Ziye spoke in an aged voice: "How did the Dharma King see through my supernatural powers?"
To this, the White Bone Dharma King smiled without saying a word, letting the White Wood Immortal guess as he pleased.
Compared to the Secret Dharma King, Master Bai Mu is now the subordinate.
There's never any need to explain upward revisions to downward revisions.
Bai Ziye sighed softly, "I suppose the Secret Realm also possesses the 'Forest Creek Deer-Seeing Manual.' Has the Dharma King read this scripture? Or perhaps he has special supernatural powers of divination, or a Purple Mansion magic treasure... Oh well, in the end, I've already lost." He bowed, "I am willing to surrender, join the Secret Realm, and become a Dharma King..."
"If the True Man were to worship the secret treasure, he would inevitably have to go to the front lines to demonstrate his loyalty, which would be detrimental to both the True Man and the Bai family..."
Sangji, the White Bone Dharma King, smiled and said, "Since you, True Person, have such a desire to renounce the world, why not become a disciple of my White Bone Path? This old monk will simply consider you dead, and in the future, when you rebuild your Purple Mansion, you will become the Dharma King of my White Bone Path..." "Oh?"
Shiraki Masato's eyes lit up; this was indeed his best option right now.
It's even better than becoming a Dharma King in the esoteric realm!
He faked his death to escape and abandoned his family members, wasn't it because he didn't want to get involved in the mess between the two Golden Core sects?
"Greetings, His Holiness the Dalai Lama."
Master Bai Mu immediately knelt down: "Please, Dharma King, bestow upon me the precepts!"
It was a recitation of precepts, not an initiation ceremony, which clearly shows that Master Bai Mu still had some ulterior motives.
However, as someone who was once in the middle stage of the Purple Mansion realm and is now in the early stage, it is already quite good that he has achieved this much.
Sangji clasped his hands together and smiled, "You, True Immortal, can become the 'Secret Protector' of my White Bone Sect. There will eventually be a time to restore the glory of our family, and the many disciples of the White Family will have hope of continuing their bloodline..." "It's done!"
In another tent, Fang Qing saw that the White Bone Dharma King had successfully subdued the White Wood Immortal and was bestowing precepts upon him, which delighted Fang Qing.
The White Bone Path is his, and its strength has greatly increased, which is naturally a good thing for him.
Furthermore... there is such a [Ji Shui] Purple Mansion True Man who can serve as a reference for one's own cultivation.
Furthermore, because this matter was conducted in secret, there was no need to announce it to the outside world; it was simply assumed that Master Bai Mu had already perished.
Naturally, there's no need to explain anything to the Dharma Kings of the Secret Treasury.
A moment later, Fang Qing obtained the [Ji Shui] Purple Mansion Technique, "Linxi Jianlu Jue," presented by Sang Ji through the Dao Sheng Pearl!
"A single tree cannot make a forest, and without a forest, where can one find shelter? Indeed..."
He skimmed through it and saw that the cultivation method's foundation was "Hidden Forest Edge." Initially, it only granted the ability to conceal oneself, but later, when cultivated into supernatural powers, it could grant the ability to avoid death and prolong life—quite wondrous. "No wonder they didn't give me this method before. If they had, even a Purple Mansion cultivator could have guessed True Person Bai Mu's intentions…."
Fang Qing had already obtained the Bai family's fundamental cultivation techniques and numerous Daoist scriptures. Now, with the acquisition of the "Forest Stream Deer-Seeing Technique," he immediately gained considerable insight. "Water element is not adept at combat, yet possesses many profound mysteries..."
"Water benefits all things without striving, therefore none in the world can contend with it..."
"The virtue of water lies in giving birth, in storing, in accumulating, in illusion..."
"If the 'Long-lasting Sweet Rain' divine power governs the generation of water, then 'Hidden Forest' governs the storage of water... Only with the combination of these two divine powers can one hope to reach the mid-stage of the Purple Mansion realm." "And my 'Position Facing the Wind'... represents the image of the Water Virtue devouring the Xun Wind in the past, governing the accumulation of water, with the image of the ocean embracing all rivers?" "Only when the four divine powers of the Purple Mansion are perfected can one seek gold... There is also a final divine power, which must also overlap with a part of the gold position imagery of 'Ji Water' to advance to the perfect Purple Mansion realm..." "The final divine power, is it the 'Illusion' that governs water, presiding over the interplay of reality and illusion?"
Fang Qing's heart stirred. He knew that the water-based cultivation he had received through the tribulation of lightning, combined with his exposure to the Daoist scriptures accumulated over a thousand years by the Dongshui Bai family, had finally triggered a qualitative change. "According to my deduction... the [Ji Shui] Purple Mansion Technique I possess is enough to break through to the late stage of the Purple Mansion realm! Perhaps if I find another [Ji Shui] Purple Mansion Divine Power Technique, specializing in illusion and deception, it should be able to complement these three divine power techniques, allowing me to cultivate to the peak of the Purple Mansion realm?"
Of course, reaching the peak of the Purple Mansion realm is one thing, but being able to sense the mysteries of the Golden Position and seek the Golden Position is another.
The Bai family of Dongshui was only at the early stage of the Purple Mansion realm in their time. Even their current mid-stage Purple Mansion cultivation path was forged through countless lives over generations. Fang Qing, on the other hand, was able to comprehend the Dao and vaguely see the Purple Mansion path of the [Jishui] sect. He had a slight idea of how to cultivate further, and in terms of the brilliance of his path, he far surpassed Purple Mansion families like the Bai family of Dongshui. However, compared to major sects like the Canghai Sect, he still couldn't compare.
After all, he only knew the types of supernatural powers, and could only find one book to cultivate.
The general direction might be correct, but there are many errors in the details. Cultivating a particular supernatural power, while seemingly on the right track, could lead to a dead end. A major sect, on the other hand, would likely consider the compatibility between different supernatural powers, and even more factors…
In short, they have rich experience in details and have explored more mature formulas through generations of cultivators.
"Someday... I'll still have to go and take a look at the Canghai Sect."
Fang Qing was filled with excitement.
"As for my war, let it end here..."
Attacking the Hehuan Sect is part of the overall strategy of the Secret Realm, but for Fang Qing, it is a completely useless move.
"Now that the White Bone Sect has revealed the Eastern Water Land, someone needs to guard it... Let Sangji order me to guard this place."
"The subsequent war is dangerous and perilous; only a fool would go..."
"I'll stay here and, if I sense anything amiss, I'll flee immediately..."
Even though this attack on the Bai family in Dongshui was mainly for Fang Qing to gain benefits for himself.
Now that he has the benefits, and he has no intention of cultivating the [Room Sun], attacking the Joyful Union Sect again would be far more risky than rewarding, so he'd rather decline. "If pushed too far, I really won't want anything; I'll hide in the Qi Refining Path and come out again after decades or even centuries..."
"Or perhaps, abandon everything now and head further east to the authentic territory of the Taiyi Xuanmen sect?"
Back then, Fang Qing faced danger when he tried to escape, but now that he has attained a high rank and his strength is comparable to the early stage of the Purple Mansion realm, he no longer has that concern. If he wants to escape, he can do so anytime!