Chapter Thirty-Three: Causes and Consequences

"You want the Celestial Master's Talisman?" Ge Hong said in a grave tone.

"Yes." Bao Xincun nodded without hesitation, having gotten over his initial embarrassment.

Since everything had already been seen through, there was no point in offering futile excuses.

"If you had asked me for it, I would have given it to you long ago. Why did you have to commit such heinous acts?" Ge Hong spoke, his voice weary.

"I knew you would give it to me," Bao Xincun replied.

"Then why did you do all this?" Ge Hong's gaze swept over the entire government office.

"I've been practicing the Three Corpses Method. If I asked you for the Celestial Master's Talisman, you would surely question me, and I would have to confess everything. At that point, would you still think it meaningful for me to continue with the Three Corpses Method? You would certainly force me to abandon it," Bao Xincun answered.

He did not cry out or defend himself; he simply stated his reasons plainly.

"You learned it from the One-Eyed Lord?" Ge Hong asked.

"Yes," Bao Xincun nodded.

"Then the essence of the people of Lan Family Village—was that your doing?" Chen Jin appeared at this moment.

"Half mine, half the One-Eyed Lord's," Bao Xincun glanced at Chen Jin, then turned back to Ge Hong.

"And what about their souls?" Chen Jin pressed.

"I don't know," Bao Xincun shook his head.

"It seems the One-Eyed Lord is truly dead this time," Bao Xincun said with a note of desolation.

"I have already sent him entirely to the Underworld. The eighteen levels of hell await him; there's no escaping that," Ge Hong replied.

"Master... must I go as well?" Bao Xincun asked in a low voice.

"I will personally escort you there and explain everything to Patriarch Ge Xuan. You must face the eighteen levels of hell," Ge Hong's expression was solemn and resolute.

"I'm not going," Bao Xincun suddenly said, his mouth twisting.

Like a deflated doll, Bao Xincun's body shriveled in an instant and collapsed to the ground.

"Xinyang, dissolve those pills in the deep well in the back courtyard, then use my Rain Summoning Talisman to draw the water for the ritual."

As Ge Hong transformed into a streak of azure light and shot out of the government office, he left a message for Chen Jin.

Chen Jin nodded in understanding. He knew he could not intervene in the battle between these two, so he set about handling the aftermath.

Still, Ge Hong had left him a Rain Summoning Talisman, which meant the old man was aware of his true identity. After all, only cultivators above the Spirit-Fixing Realm could use weather-altering techniques like this.

Truly, age brings wisdom!

Chen Jin glanced at the commoners, soldiers, and physicians lying in the main hall—especially Boyang and Zhongxin. The blood on their chests had vanished, and though their faces were still pale, they were much improved. It seemed Ge Hong had already tended to their wounds.

Without delay, Chen Jin leapt to the deep well in the back courtyard.

He opened a small slit in the cloth pouch he had been holding, tipping its contents into the well.

White powder drifted down in clumps; whenever it threatened to waft away, Chen Jin tapped it back into the well.

It took about a quarter of an hour to empty the powder—all of it crushed medicinal pills.

Peering down, he saw the well water remained unchanged, but the walls were coated with a pale gray film.

Raising his right hand, he opened his palm toward the well. Upon his palm was a talisman drawn by Ge Hong.

He began to recite an incantation for summoning clouds and rain, its archaic cadence difficult to follow—a dialect from Longxi in Former Qin.

As he chanted, blue-white clouds billowed from his palm, drifting gently toward the well.

A deep, beastlike exhalation sounded from the depths as the Rain Summoning Talisman faded.

A muffled rumble, like distant thunder, followed.

Then came the bubbling and snoring of boiling water.

At last, blue-white and gray clouds surged from the well, and Chen Jin quickly stepped aside to watch the marvelous sight.

Under a brilliant starry sky, a square courtyard well spewed a pillar of smoke straight up.

The smoke connected heaven and earth, quickly staining the star-studded sky with its hue. The darkness and brilliance of the stars were swallowed, replaced by a heavy blanket of blue-white and gray clouds.

These somber clouds shrouded all of Wenma County: city, villages beyond, coastal hills, and wilds—all beneath their pall.

Without warning, the rain began—fat drops pelting the earth.

Chen Jin did not simply watch. He carried all the townsfolk from the government office into the main hall, then the front hall, so they could be bathed in the medicinal rain.

Throughout the city, the oppressive aura was washed away by the downpour.

The miasma of plague was slowly dispelled.

To be honest, the so-called plague disaster had not left much impression on Chen Jin. Perhaps there had been too many omens: the earlier torrential rains and mountain floods had been far more dramatic, so this subtle, nearly imperceptible plague seemed hardly a disaster at all. Maybe it was because it hadn't spread widely or lasted long.

As the rain began to subside, Chen Jin sat silently on the steps, reflecting on the twists and turns of recent events.

He had broken through to the Qi-Fixing Realm in the monastery, been summoned by Ge Hong to Wenma County to help Boyang and others, then sent to Gaoping Mountain, tricked twice by Bao Xincun, and finally, on the true journey to Gaoping Mountain, had encountered Ge Hong and learned the facts of the affair.

All these days, everything that happened was the work of Bao Xincun and the One-Eyed Lord in concert.

Yet Chen Jin—or rather, Xinyang—was an anomaly. His presence drew Ge Hong's attention to the One-Eyed Lord, an evil cultivator. Fortunately, Bao Xincun was also involved, so their plan continued.

Both practiced the Three Corpses Method, which allowed them to split off three primordial spirits. These spirits were both one and separate, but the method had a flaw: it required external essences to replenish the spirits, or else they would collapse.

In theory, perfecting the Three Corpses Method would allow the three spirits to merge, achieving celestial immortality. But this was only a theory; the method was incomplete, so both men coveted the Celestial Master's Talisman.

Of the two Celestial Master's Talismans in the world, one was held by the Zhang family of Dragon Tiger Mountain, the other by Ge Hong. Xu Xun, the True Lord, had not yet succeeded in his cultivation, and whether he would become a Celestial Master was unknown. Even if the One-Eyed Lord and Bao Xincun knew he would, they would not dare provoke him, for Xu Xun practiced the True Art of Heavenly Thunder, the nemesis of the Three Corpses Method.

The plot to seize the talisman began as soon as they set their sights on it.

First, they spread rumors that a plague would strike Wenma County. Ge Hong went to consult Xu Xun, who confirmed the coming plague demon.

From there, things progressed: the plague began, and the young man Chen Jin had seen self-immolate on the mountain was one of the One-Eyed Lord's three spirits, bearing the seed of the plague. Ge Hong, upon discovering this, intervened, resulting in the great rainstorm and taking the spirit away.

But that spirit had ambushed Ge Hong earlier, tying him up on Gaoping Mountain. In fact, it was the One-Eyed Lord's strongest spirit, strong enough to deceive and battle Ge Hong.

The earlier torrential rain and the demon serpent were also its doing.

They thought that, after the flood was unleashed, Ge Hong would be forced to use the Celestial Master's Talisman to resolve the crisis, giving them a chance to seize it. But they failed, losing a spirit. Earlier, Chen Jin had slain another in Lan Family Village, leaving only the last spirit, which had taken the form of a youth.

With this, the One-Eyed Lord achieved the fusion of his three spirits and desired the talisman even more. Thus, the plague erupted anew; in Ge Hong's anxiety, he was ambushed and fought with the One-Eyed Lord on Gaoping Mountain.

Bao Xincun had no choice but to continue with his part of the plan: wounding himself, Boyang, and Zhongxin severely, hoping to force Ge Hong to use the talisman to heal them. In this way, he could observe the talisman's mysteries and possibly seize it to perfect his own Three Corpses Method and achieve immortality.

Bao Xincun's plan was clever but underestimated Ge Hong's strength. Ge Hong swiftly suppressed and slew the One-Eyed Lord, then rushed to Wenma County, catching Bao Xincun in the act and instantly piecing everything together.

All because of the anomaly that was Chen Jin.

With a dull thud, a charred figure suddenly crashed to the ground in front of Chen Jin.

……