“Chu Yi’s pill furnace is in the deepest part of the City West Dark Channel. The furnace fire hasn’t gone out. She withdrew from the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion under cover of last night’s chaos.”
Blood Orchid’s voice grew heavier by a degree. She paused, then said: “Additionally, this subordinate has determined that the batch of pills Chu Yi is refining is called Stealing Heaven. Its effects are to gather souls and condense bodies. It has the power to reverse yin and yang, to tamper with life and death. It’s said to be able to raise the dead and restore flesh to bones.”
Chao’er grew interested, leaning her body forward.
“Twenty-three years ago, Chu Yi began refining this batch of pills. Her furnace is no ordinary pill furnace. It is a Stealing Heaven Furnace that uses living people’s Essence Blood as charcoal and living souls as fuel. On the day the furnace fire was lit, seven alchemists in the underground Secluded Chamber beneath the Zhenbao Pavilion had their primordial essence drained dry at the same time.”
“For the following twenty-three years, at intervals, people would go missing.”
Chen Mo thought of the missing young men posted on the bulletin boards in the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion.
He thought of that sinister thing in Chu Yi’s Jade Box, refined from chaste young men.
Twenty-three years of furnace fire. She could no longer remember how many lives it had burned through.
She only needed to remember the last one—the primordial essence of a Pure Yin Body.
“Who does she want to resurrect?”
Chao’er asked.
“Chu Yang.”
“Chu Yang?” Nan Gong Jin’s pupils abruptly contracted.
That name, like a forbidden switch, instantly detonated every emotion hidden in her eyes!
“Chu Yi is Chu Yang’s daughter. For twenty-three years, she has used living people’s Essence Blood for alchemy, colluded with Demonic Cultivators, refined Corpse Puppets, and laid the Soul Prison Locking Heaven and Earth Formation. She did all of this to resurrect her father.”
Blood Orchid said unhurriedly: “Chu Yang’s corpse, after being slain by Yun Tian, was never completely destroyed. Instead, it was preserved by his trusted subordinate Yun Fuling using a Secret Art.”
“Yun Fuling.”
Peak Master of Chaoyun Peak. A Nascent Soul Cultivator. A collaborator with the Soul Refining Sect.
She preserved Chu Yang’s corpse after his death. Preserved it for thousands of years.
Many things suddenly made sense to Chen Mo.
No wonder Yun Tian had shielded her.
“The preservation location has been confirmed. It’s in the Luoxia Mountains, deep within the Black Wind Forest, at the bottom of a Cold Pool.”
“Outside the Cold Pool, Yun Fuling personally set up Prohibition Seals. Multiple exotic beasts are raised within the pool, already acknowledging Yun Fuling as their master. A thousand meters below the pool’s surface, the coffin sealing Chu Yang’s corpse rests within.”
Cold Pool. Flood Dragon’s belly.
Chen Mo remembered the Cold Pool Flood Dragon he’d encountered when Lin Jingzhe took him to the Luoxia Mountains to gather herbs.
It had shown intense interest in him. The Ice Soul Jade had blocked a fatal strike for him.
Lin Jingzhe had burned her Essence Blood to protect him. The Flood Dragon had memorized his scent as it retreated.
Back then, he’d thought the Flood Dragon was simply attracted to his Pure Yin Constitution.
Now he knew—
It wasn’t the Pure Yin Constitution. It was the aura of a Calamity Fate?!
That Flood Dragon had guarded Chu Yang’s corpse in Yun Fuling’s Cold Pool for centuries.
Its instinct had engraved the scent of the Calamity Fate into its very bones.
It had smelled something on him similar to the corpse at the bottom of the Cold Pool. That’s why it chased him.
Not to devour him. Instinct. Confirmation.
“The Stealing Heaven Furnace has been warm for twenty-three years.”
Blood Orchid turned, facing Chao’er. “Over three hundred kinds of medicinal ingredients have been prepared. The furnace fire has never gone out. Only the final main ingredient is missing.”
Her gaze landed on Chen Mo’s face.
Not scrutiny. Not appraisal. Transmission.
“The primordial essence of a Pure Yin Body.”
Chen Mo’s voice finished the sentence she hadn’t spoken.
Blood Orchid didn’t nod.
Silence lasted one breath.
The silence was her answer.
Chen Mo suddenly felt very cold.
Not a cold of the body, but a chill seeping up from the deepest layers of fate—he was not Chen Mo.
Or rather, he was not merely Chen Mo.
He was Chu Yang’s mirror. The host chosen by the Calamity Fate.
The echo Nan Gong Jin had caught scent of. The presence that Cold Pool Flood Dragon had recognized in the depths.
The final missing ingredient in Chu Yi’s pill furnace.
Everyone looking at him was looking at Chu Yang.
Who was looking at Chen Mo?
He lowered his head, looking at his own hands.
There was a faint blue vein on the back of his hand, extending from the wrist bone to the root of the middle finger.
When Su Wan’er lifted her bridal veil, this hand was trembling.
When Qin Shuying hugged him from behind, this hand clutched her sleeve.
A few days ago, when Chao’er placed her jaw in his palm, the fingers of this hand curled slightly, gently wrapping around her face.
In those moments, this hand trembled, clenched, curled.
In those moments, he was Chen Mo, not Chu Yang.
“Speak clearly!” Chao’er’s voice was ice-cold and piercing.
Blood Orchid, enduring the terrifying pressure, explained rapidly: “Based on fragmentary information from our planted agents and inferences from Fragmentary Scrolls on pill dao, the Stealing Heaven Pill defies heaven’s will. It requires a life essence of the same origin or similar nature as a conduit, to bridge life and death, to reconnect the severed path.”
“Chu Yang fell a thousand years ago. His soul has scattered. Though his flesh remains, its spiritual nature is lost. Ordinary life essences cannot possibly resonate with the residual Elegance of his corpse. Only—”
She glanced at Chen Mo again, her tone carrying a hint of disbelief:
“Only one whose Fate Pattern subtly resembles Chu Yang in life, whose complete Yin Essence carries the imprint of life, mixed with a certain Secret Art, can serve as a bridge—to activate the Stealing Heaven Pill’s potency, channel its power into Chu Yang’s corpse, and attempt to awaken the deepest, most residual life Brand within his body…”
No wonder it was called Stealing Heaven.
To reverse is to resist. To rob is to plunder. To steal—is to take something that isn’t yours without a sound, so that by the time heaven notices, the thing is already gone from where it used to be.
The name was chosen with precision.
The Nine Revolutions Soul Returning Pill can reshape flesh. The Tai Xu Soul Nourishing Pill can repair the Spirit Soul.
But their effects all share a prerequisite—the wounded must still have a breath of life, their soul not yet scattered.
True resurrection of the dead. Making a dead person open their eyes again.
Making a soul that has already returned to heaven and earth condense once more. In the cultivation world, this is taboo.
Not because it’s impossible. Because it shouldn’t be done.
The price for reversing life and death has never been paid in medicinal ingredients—it’s paid in human lives.
Chao’er looked at Chen Mo tenderly.
“Honored Teacher… did you hear that?” She turned sideways, her fingers gripping his chin.
“Someone… wants to use you to resurrect another man. Using your life, your essence, to trade for an old thing dead for a thousand years…”
Her voice was sweet as poison, yet every word stabbed the heart:
“Tell me… how should this sovereign ‘repay’ their… delusional fantasies?”
Chen Mo smiled. “As a part of Nan Gong Jin, shouldn’t you be happy?”
A flicker of surprise passed through her dark purple eyes, then was replaced by something deeper—a twisted pleasure.
“A living Chen Mo and a dead Chu Yang—I know how to choose. Besides, you’re mine now. This sovereign’s property. No one else gets to take it away…”
She straightened up, coldly addressing Blood Orchid, still kneeling: “Send more people. Watch the Black Wind Forest like hawks. Watch Chu Yi and Yun Fuling! Report any movement immediately!”
She paused, a cruel calculation flashing through her eyes. “The entrance to the City West Dark Channel—has it been found?”
“It has.” Blood Orchid drew a thin silk scroll from her sleeve, presenting it with both hands.
“The channel has three layers. The upper layer is the old city’s drainage system, already occupied by Yun Fuling’s Corpse Puppets. The middle layer holds the Soul Refining Sect’s altar ruins—that’s where Chu Yi’s pill furnace is. The lower layer—” She paused. “The lower layer is sealed by an extremely powerful formation. Our covert agents cannot get close.”
Chao’er’s fingers stopped.
“The City West Dark Channel. We move in three days. Yun Fuling’s Corpse Puppets—leave none standing. Chu Yi’s pill furnace—smash it. As for the lower layer—”
She paused.
“I’ll go personally.”
Blood Orchid’s head snapped up. “Old Ancestor! Your soul’s Fusion with this body is not yet fully stable. Once you fully return to the Deity Transformation realm—”
Chao’er cut her off. “By then, the vegetables will be cold.”
The Dark Tan Wei beneath the Ginkgo Tree remained silent.
No one tried to persuade her further.
“Old Ancestor, there’s also the matter of Qin Shuying. Our scouts outside the city sent word—she’s already broken through the third layer of restrictions on the Ten Thousand Soul Banner Formation. The Tianheng Sect’s Grand Elder has joined forces with her, and they’re racing toward the southern border—”
Silence lasted three breaths.
Chao’er stood up straight.
“Blood Orchid. Go open all the internal and external restrictions. Triple-layered formations. Highest level.”
Chao’er waved her hand.
Blood Orchid withdrew with the thirteen Dark Tan Wei.
The sound of footsteps faded. The veranda returned to silence.
The Ginkgo Tree’s shadow moved slowly across the ground, swallowing the oil lamp with its scorched wick on the stone table bit by bit into darkness.
Chao’er stood alone beneath the tree for a long time.
Then she turned and walked toward the Western Wing Room.
Chen Mo stepped back from the window.
The door was pushed open.
Chao’er stood at the threshold.
The hem of her dark black robe brushed gently against the door frame.
The Silver Thread Tanhua embroidered on the robe’s surface flickered in and out of existence in the gray-white light.
Her gaze landed on Su Wan’er’s face—her Honored Teacher’s complexion was slightly better than yesterday.
Her breath was steady. Her eyelashes lay still and quiet.
Then her gaze shifted to Chen Mo.
She just stood there at the door, neither entering nor retreating, watching him.
“Honored Teacher has understood everything?”
Chen Mo nodded.
Chao’er stepped across the threshold.
She walked to the bedside, looking down at Su Wan’er sleeping in her dreams.
From this angle, Chen Mo could see her profile.
Her hair was tied up, revealing the full contour of her face—the line of her jaw, the curve of her cheekbones, the shape of her ear.
An eighteen-year-old girl’s frame, yet bearing a thousand years of burden.
“Honored Teacher’s life was bought with Honored Teacher’s own life,” her voice was very soft.
“Honored Teacher agreed to come with this disciple. This disciple kept Honored Teacher’s breath alive. This transaction—this disciple fulfilled it.”
“Before this, Honored Teacher used this disciple to establish authority,” her fingers moved away from above Su Wan’er’s brow. She turned, facing Chen Mo.
“Making this disciple kneel before everyone. Making this disciple into Honored Teacher’s blade. This disciple accepted willingly.”
Chen Mo’s jaw tightened slightly.
Chao’er stepped forward.
Very close.
So close that her robe brushed against the hem of his clothes.
She tilted her face up. “But Honored Teacher… should know what I truly want to trade for…”
Chen Mo’s breath stopped for a moment.
Chao’er lifted her head. Her eyes were red enough to bleed, yet tears never fell.
Two expressions alternated across her face—a young girl’s pleading, and the calm of a thousand-year-old monster.
Her voice became fragmented, as if two people were fighting to speak the same sentence.
“In three days, at the City West Dark Channel, I’m going to kill Chu Yi. I might die.”
Her fingers rested on the door frame, her fingertips turning faintly white.
“So, this disciple wants to feel it once—what it truly means to be a woman…”
The door closed softly behind her.
Chen Mo stood in place.
“You’ve been waiting for me to offer it myself,” he said.
Chao’er’s eyelashes trembled slightly.
“Yin Essence. One drop condenses every ten months. The essence of a man. It is the foundation of procreating offspring.”
“After Nan Gong Jin’s soul fused with Chao’er, though she was reborn through Chao’er’s body, the rift in the soul never fully healed.”
“The innate wisp of pure yin energy contained within the Yin Essence of a Pure Yin Constitution serves as an adhesive for the fused soul—allowing Chao’er and Nan Gong Jin to completely merge into one, eliminating the hidden danger of spiritual fragmentation.”
Chao’er’s breath stopped for a single moment.