Chapter Nine: Disciple Hao Xiaona

On the mountainside behind the Sect Master's peak, at the core of the Formative Transmutation Sect, there stood three small wooden huts. This was where the Sect Master usually cultivated. Though the accommodations were simple, the richness of spiritual energy here was incomparable to the disciples’ living quarters.

Inside the central hut, the furnishings were sparse and mundane; even pots and pans were present, though it seemed they had not been used for many years.

The Sect Master sat cross-legged on the bed and said to Zhou Xuanhong, “From now on, you will live here at the Sect Master's peak. The room on the left belonged to your senior brother. Now he is gone, lost to the hands of the Corpse Shade Sect; you may move in. The room on the right is your Senior Sister Xu’s abode; she has her own peak now and rarely returns, but you'd best stay out for now.”

“Yes, Master!”

Perceiving Zhou Xuanhong’s gloom, the Sect Master offered comfort: “You need not be so despondent. If you cultivate diligently and fortune smiles on you, perhaps you will one day catch up to that remarkable young woman.”

He himself did not believe these words; if hard work alone sufficed, golden core cultivators would be as common as the grass.

Zhou Xuanhong understood this was only comfort. “Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Master. I know my place. From now on, my beloved and I are separated by great distance, and I do not know when we shall meet again.”

“There will be a chance.”

Chance, he thought with bitter irony. With your talent, boy, when you see her again you’ll have barely built your foundation, while she may already be at golden core or even higher.

Zhou Xuanhong asked, “Master, will the Supreme Yin Corpse Sect truly nurture her safely? In the mortal realm, I heard from some itinerant cultivators about a secret art called Soul Seizing.”

The Sect Master frowned. “Are you suggesting the sect would throw a genius disciple into the fire?”

Zhou Xuanhong quickly knelt. “I would not dare!”

The Sect Master snorted. “Don’t overthink it. The Supreme Yin Corpse Sect is not strictly evil; they walk the line. Your wife’s Profound Yin Spiritual Body is the best foundation for cultivating their secret art, the Supreme Yin Corpse Dao. They wish to protect her more than anyone. Soul Seizing does exist, but the new body never fits as well as one’s own. Compared to your wife, any usurper would be inferior, and the true power of the Profound Yin Body would be greatly diminished. Using it would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Rest assured.”

“I understand, Master!”

The Sect Master’s expression softened, and he sighed. “Seeing your concern for your wife, I see you are a man of deep feeling. I will not hold your impertinence against you.”

“Thank you for your understanding, Master!”

The Sect Master sipped his tea, exhaling lightly. “I am a man of quiet temperament and dislike ceremony. There will be no formal initiation. Here, take this token. With it, you may freely enter and leave the Sect Master’s peak. Your status and cultivation resources will be equal to a direct foundation-building disciple, and you will receive the same monthly allotment.”

Zhou Xuanhong accepted the token with both hands. Its surface was smooth and heavy, its material unfamiliar. The front was inscribed with “Sect Master,” the reverse with “Personal Disciple.” With this, he was now a figure of some note in the Formative Transmutation Sect.

Just then, the Sect Master seemed to receive a message and glanced oddly at Zhou Xuanhong’s dantian. “Are you currently at half-step Foundation Establishment?”

Zhou Xuanhong’s heart skipped a beat, but he remained calm, removed the necklace around his neck, and his aura rose from Qi Refining sixth level to ninth.

“It’s true. I found this in the lair of a golden core cultivator in the mortal realm. I also obtained…”

The Sect Master raised a hand to cut him off. “That is your fortune; I will not press. But I am curious—why has your cultivation advanced so swiftly with your yellow-grade talent?”

Zhou Xuanhong feigned embarrassment. “To be honest, Master, I was only at Foundation Establishment fifth level, but after a night of passion with my wife, my cultivation soared directly to the peak of Qi Refining.”

The Sect Master’s eyes showed disappointment, but soon glinted with schadenfreude. “Well, well, your luck is not bad at all. Who knows, perhaps one day you and your wife may reunite.”

In his heart, the Sect Master laughed: So, this boy has taken the girl’s primordial yang. The old relics of the Supreme Yin Corpse Sect have no idea what’s happened—what faces they’ll make when they find out, ha!

“Since you’re close to breaking through, I’ll give you a token of greeting. Don’t say your master is stingy.”

Zhou Xuanhong caught the storage pouch tossed to him and, feeling the treasures within, quickly thanked him, “Thank you for your generosity, Master!”

“These are some of my old treasures, which I no longer need. A few are extremely powerful—be careful with them. I suggest you visit the Sutra Pavilion to familiarize yourself with them. You may go now. Unless it is urgent, do not disturb me. Do not use your status to bully others or sully my reputation, and never invoke my name to oppress the weak. If I catch you, I’ll drive you from the peak!”

Zhou Xuanhong stood and bowed lightly. “Yes, Master. I will remember your teachings.”

Leaving the hut and shutting the door behind him, Zhou Xuanhong sneered inwardly: If I’m not to use power to bully others, what good is this status?

After Zhou Xuanhong left, the Sect Master, Xuan Qizi, sighed. “He must think becoming my disciple is a stroke of luck. In time, he’ll see what dangers await those who become my disciples. Fortune and peril always travel hand in hand!”

He had his reasons for accepting Zhou Xuanhong. The power of the Grand Elder’s faction had grown ever more unruly, and even a Supreme Elder had begun leaning toward them. Should the two factions come to blows, Zhou Xuanhong, caught between them, would surely become a target. If he were harmed, how could his former wife stand idly by?

Yet he did not realize that accepting this disciple would bring the greatest catastrophe the Formative Transmutation Sect had ever known!

…

Near the Outer Forearm Sector of the Nameless Region, an endless mountain range stretched into the distance. Here, the Supreme Yin Corpse Sect—ruler of the Nameless Region—was rooted.

Amidst a raging blizzard, the grand palaces of the mountain range were shielded by a sky-piercing barrier, reminiscent of the royal clans’ defensive arrays, but the difference was like that between drifting petals and towering trees; before it, even an ant would be insignificant.

Beneath the surface grandeur, in the depths below, countless corpses lay dormant—silent and unspeakably terrifying. In one subterranean area, the entire remains of a family were buried; one bore a token at his waist, inscribed with the character “Zhou.”

Deeper still, there sprawled an underground palace complex. In a grand hall, a massive blood pool glimmered with viscous liquid, nearly solid. Every surface—walls, floors, pillars—was etched with runes, their grooves filled with blood so thick it seemed motionless.

All this blood flowed into the pool, where an ancient crone absorbed it atop a lotus dais, her body glowing with a demonic red light. Her withered skin was as scaly as a serpent’s; the stench of blood was nauseating.

Suspended above the crone, a young woman hovered in the air—a beauty clad in the clothes Zhou Xuanhong had bought for Xiaona in Luoshui City. It was none other than Xiaona herself, her appearance fully restored.

The crone’s eyes snapped open, the red light receding, and Xiaona’s delicate form drifted down to stand before her.

Withered fingers caressed Xiaona’s fair, tender cheek, as if admiring a work of art.

At the touch, Xiaona awoke with a start. Seeing her surroundings, her hair stood on end. “Where am I? Wasn’t I to be initiated into the sect?”

The crone’s voice rasped like a duck’s, harsh as a saw on wood. “Be good, girl. Don’t you wish for vengeance? Don’t resist—let me take control of your body and lead you to power beyond imagination, so you may avenge the Hao clan’s destruction!”

“How do you know about the Hao clan? Let me go—senior, I have done nothing to wrong you!”

Xiaona struggled fiercely, but her body would not respond; she couldn’t move a finger.

Sensing the moment, the crone gave a chilling smile, then closed her eyes. A formidable soul surged from her crown and plunged into Xiaona’s head.

With her soul gone, the crone’s body lost all vitality, crumbled to dust, and vanished.

Xiaona’s eyes widened in agony, her vision blurred, and she slumped unconscious, her body plunging into the blood pool below.

A thunderous boom split the silence as the hall doors were blasted open. Several figures appeared at the pool’s edge—an elder, a youth, and a woman—each exuding overwhelming power, their combined presence cracking the very hall.

The youth’s voice rang with fury. “That old demon An Rui dared use the soul-seizing art, an abomination condemned by all! Does she wish to drag the Supreme Yin Corpse Sect wholly into evil?”

The woman’s voice was calm. “The Profound Yin Spiritual Body is rare indeed. With time running out, her actions are understandable. In her place, I might have done the same.”

The white-robed elder sighed, sending a spiritual message to the current Sect Master. “What’s done is done. Seal all news of this. Announce to the world that An Rui Supreme Elder has passed into meditation, and that this girl is to be adopted as our final disciple—chief among our sect!”

Then he commanded, “Protectors!”

The three formed a triangle around the blood pool, layering restriction upon restriction to make it impenetrable.

Several hours later, a graceful figure slowly rose from the blood pool. Her eyes gleamed with an eerie crimson light, and her lips curled in a breathtaking, demonic smile—at once bewitching and alluring.

“Senior brothers—no, three Grandmasters—disciple Hao Xiaona greets her revered elders!”