Under the big peach tree, Divination Master Bai Qiuyu was chattering about something with Daoist Yizhen, occasionally casting Xu Qing a gossip-laden glance from the Qingqiu fox.
Xu Qing, who was casually chatting with Master Jingxu, didn't mind. Those who love divination have this one downside, they like to meddle in everything.
"Could it be you think I haven't been to the Ancient Yin River Dao? That place is overrun with demons and ghosts, not a trace of pure air or even a wisp of Sun and Moon Essence, saying it's forbidden land for cultivators is not an exaggeration. How can you call it peaceful and serene?"
"When I went there in my younger years, you probably weren't even born. At that time, not only was the Ghost King guarding the gate, but many restless spirits wandered within. How could it suddenly become tranquil?"
Xu Qing blinked and said, "Are you talking about the Ghost King of Many Calamities, Temple Master? That's ancient history! The Ghost King Mausoleum now is just an empty tomb, with only a stele for the Ghost King standing outside, and as for the other wandering spirits, they're long gone!"
"Is that so? But I remember behind those spirits there seemed to be..."
Master Jingxu suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Xu Qing raised an eyebrow and pressed, "What is it? In our Jin Sect, the rule is, if you speak only halfway, future celestial ascension will only go halfway, and you'll fall!"
"..."
What a mean thing to say!
Master Jingxu's face darkened; she had never heard of such a malicious rule in the Jin Sect.
"That's not for you to inquire about. Behind those spirits, there's a Land Nuo Immortal, whose cultivation is rival to my peak... "
...
At this time, on a desolate stretch of Ancient Yin River Dao.
The Ascendant Fuluan, dressed in a floral robe, a Nuo mask covering his face and a sword case on his back, was lost in thought.
Before him, in the empty Ghost King Mausoleum, not even half a skeleton remained; even the coffins that held the bones had been completely robbed.
The Ascendant Fuluan, looking at the tomb that was stripped bare as if by bandits, felt somewhat displeased.
Without a second thought, he could discern that the tomb was burgled, and by a despicable thief at that!
He was unconcerned with the stolen second-hand coffins, funeral objects, and assorted skeletons. What he cared about was the severed finger of King Yama gifted to the Ghost King of Many Calamities!
Digging graves is one thing, but stealing bodies too?
Is this something a human could do?
The Ascendant Fuluan's gaze fell on the stone stele that stood nearly fifty feet high before the tomb.
Judging by its appearance, the stele was evidently erected just a few years ago.
Robbing graves and stealing corpses, yet even leaving a fresh stele, left the knowledgeable Ascendant Fuluan baffled.
After pondering to no avail, the Ascendant Fuluan took out a writing brush made of peach wood, squatted before the stone stele, placed his hand on the divination pen, and rolled his eyes back, revealing eyeballs that moved erratically.
At this moment, the Ascendant Fuluan had one eye completely black, the other entirely white, with a black pupil in the white eye and a white pupil in the black eye!
As the pupil-like black and white moved without pattern, the peach wood pen in the Ascendant Fuluan's hand also moved unconsciously.
The Ascendant Fuluan was an Immortal, but few knew he started his journey through the divinatory arts of planchette writing.
This technique, stemming from the 'god descending' rituals of the Zulong Emperor period, evolved through dynasties to merge with the divine birds' phoenixes, known as 'Fuluan'.
This method derived from ancient turtle divination and yarrow stem divination, organized as prophecies and omens.
The Ascendant Fuluan had used this method to evade countless disasters and secured the Nuo Immortal's legacy through it.
After entering the way, he studied ancient texts, taking the essence of ancient divination, integrating the old with the new, and finally created a powerful divinatory divine technique capable of predicting great events.
The Ascendant Fuluan, using the tomb soil of the Yin River as a sand table, held the peach wood pen as the writing tool, his hands moving as erratically as his pupils, ultimately forming an abstract pattern.
The worn drawing, though crude, still allowed the Ascendant Fuluan to discern the result of the divination.
It was the late emperor, Zhao Rong, assassinated by an intruder, who died in the Yangxin Hall years ago.
"..."
The Ascendant Fuluan furrowed his brows and tried divining once more.
This time, the vision was of a towering figure of the Ghost King.
The brain, which had never faltered in hundreds of years of the Ascendant Fuluan's endeavors, stalled momentarily.
Did the Ghost King of Many Calamities destroy himself, and in the process, ransack his own resting place?
How utterly inexplicable!
For the first time, the Ascendant Fuluan began doubting the divinatory divine technique he took such pride in.
"Could it be that the secrets of the Yin River are hidden, leading to inaccurate divination results?"
"That must be it!"
In any case, the Ascendant Fuluan refused to believe there was a fault on his end.
"No matter, it's just the loss of a piece; it won't affect the big picture."
The Ascendant Fuluan chuckled mildly, appearing unaffected.
A moment later, an ethereal mist emerged in the desolate mass grave.
The Ascendant Fuluan stepped out from the fog but didn't find the expected scene of Eight Banner Marshals leading troops to welcome him.
Looking at the cold, empty mass grave, void of any skeletons, the Ascendant Fuluan fell silent.
Nevertheless, his state of mind remained unmoved.
"The Eight Banner Marshals were ministers of the former dynasty, Dayong has fallen, the national fortune dissipated, so it's understandable he lost his place of refuge and fell to the Yin Corroding Dharma King."
The only thing that dissatisfied the Ascendant Fuluan was that the Eight Banner Marshals' skeleton was also stolen by that troublesome thief!
"It doesn't matter, as long as the Eight Banner Marshals were killed by the Yin Corroding Dharma King, the probability of King Yama's severed finger falling into his hands is high."
The Ascendant Fuluan chuckled again, still appearing confident and assured.
Nonetheless, when the Ascendant Fuluan left the mass grave and arrived at the Yin Corroding Dharma King's base, he found it had been plundered even cleaner than the Eight Banner Marshals' mass grave!