Chapter 262 : Imperial Pool and Imperial Mausoleum

Chapter 262: Imperial Pool and Imperial Mausoleum

In front of the Dao Bell, Chu Huaixu did his best to keep his expression calm.

But the turbulence in his heart couldn’t be stilled, no matter what.

Even though he was just a play companion, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t read a book before—he recognized this verse.

“It seems to be from the Lotus Sutra.”

And the meaning behind it wasn’t hard to grasp. It was quite straightforward.

Still, this was setting the bar a little too high for him, wasn’t it?

Was he really being placed on a stage this grand?

So this was the One Lamp.

【“With one lamp lighting a thousand others, all shall be illuminated.”】

“But what the hell does this have to do with the name Huaixu?” Chu Huaixu cursed inwardly.

In fact, Xiang Yan and the others were thinking the same thing.

This was precisely what puzzled them.

This line didn’t even contain the words “Huaixu.” The format was obviously off.

But that only made Chu Huaixu more certain that his earlier speculation wasn’t just an overactive imagination.

“The Dao Seal is marked ‘Huaixu,’ and this line includes ‘One Lamp.’”

“In other words, both of my names in the Xuanhuang Realm have appeared.”

With the Dao Ancestor giving such an obvious “hint,” even if Chu Huaixu were dim-witted, he wouldn’t delude himself into thinking it was a coincidence.

He lifted his head and gazed at the sky. A few answers had already surfaced in his heart, and he felt the presence of that supreme power.

“So this is the Dao Ancestor…”

After receiving the Dao Ancestor’s seal, the three of them were brought to the main hall atop Ask-Dao Peak.

According to Xiang Yan, it was time for everyone to sit down and have a chat.

The topic, naturally, was this recent expedition down the mountain—everyone needed to share what they’d learned.

Chu Huaixu had already disclosed everything he knew.

But when it came to Jiang Zhi’s experiences, he knew nothing at all.

From their descriptions, he learned that the Dao Gate had actually discovered the Black Moon Sect earlier than he had.

But like him, they had underestimated this sect that seemed to have sprung out of nowhere.

There was no helping it—the Black Moon Sect recruited all sorts of rabble, seemingly without any threshold for joining.

As for talk of the Sect Leader’s strength being comparable to a Ninth Realm cultivator, that was considered utter nonsense by most people.

After all, no Ninth Realm evil cultivator should even exist in this world!

Every Ninth Realm expert could sense others of the same level, even locating them by the 【Origin Power】 in their bodies.

Jiang Zhi had investigated this long ago. Within the Dao Gate’s territory, there had been no trace of Origin Power activity.

But unexpectedly, someone at the Nascent Soul Stage had emerged in the Xuanhuang Realm!

What’s more, this person did possess Origin Power—though it didn’t seem fully refined.

“There’s something very strange about him,” Jiang Zhi said solemnly.

“He feels like a cultivator... but not entirely.”

“Even his own answer was: ‘I am, and I am not.’”

Chu Huaixu listened on, utterly confused.

“What the hell? The Xuanhuang Realm can support cultivation!?” he thought in shock.

He had been planning to use the Four Symbols Spirit Root inside the Accursed Pill and Ye Kongxuan’s corpse to run some future “scientific experiments,” turning himself into a mad scientist of sorts.

Who would have thought someone had already figured it out—and even achieved cultivation?!

But then, something didn’t add up.

“That doesn’t match,” Chu Huaixu said aloud.

“What doesn’t match?” Jiang Zhi asked.

“The timeline doesn’t match,” he replied.

Chu Huaixu continued, “Grandmaster, if someone in the Xuanhuang Realm had discovered the path of cultivation, wouldn’t reaching the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage take at least a few hundred years?”

“Even in the Kunlun Grotto-Heaven, taking a few centuries to achieve Nascent Soul is something only top-tier geniuses can manage.”

“If that’s true, then it would mean a cultivator has lived in the Xuanhuang Realm undetected for centuries—maybe even a thousand years—without anyone noticing.”

Jiang Zhi and Xiang Yan exchanged glances, both nodding repeatedly.

The Sect Master spoke up: “That was one of the questions I discussed with Little Martial Uncle. The fact that you identified it so quickly is commendable.”

“That scenario seems unlikely.”

“Moreover, a cultivator cannot cross over from the Origin Spirit Realm into the Xuanhuang Realm.”

“Only a Nascent Soul could accomplish that.”

Xiang Yan paused, deep in thought.

Jiang Zhi then added, “And he also possesses the Myriad Souls Banner. This man claims it once belonged to a Soul Transformation Stage cultivator and is a cultivator’s treasure.”

“Precisely because it was forged during the Soul Transformation Stage, it contains many Nascent Soul banner spirits.”

“But strangely enough, it also holds a few Eighth Realm banner spirits.”

“This suggests that several Eighth Realm experts died beneath this Myriad Souls Banner.”

“In recent years, Eighth Realm deaths have been few and far between,” Jiang Zhi said, falling silent.

Chu Huaixu understood the implication.

These banner spirits couldn’t have been forged recently.

But that contradicted everything they had just discussed.

“Could it be that someone really found the path of cultivation and wandered the Xuanhuang Realm undetected for hundreds of years?” Chu Huaixu frowned, baffled.

“Then where did he get the Myriad Souls Banner? Where did the cultivation method come from?”

At that thought, a possible theory entered his mind.

Xiang Yan spoke up: “Huaixu, earlier you mentioned they were searching for the 【Fruit Position of the Soul Transformation Stage】—that gave us a new line of thought.”

“Are you suggesting,” Chu Huaixu looked up, “that someone from the Xuanhuang Realm might’ve stumbled upon the Soul Transformation inheritance?”

“Exactly,” Jiang Zhi interrupted before Xiang Yan could reply.

Xiang Yan shot a glance at his overeager Little Martial Uncle, his face showing a trace of surprise.

“But that hinges on the assumption that your information is correct—that there really is a lost Soul Transformation Fruit Position in the Xuanhuang Realm, and that a Soul Transformation Stage cultivator once descended here and died.”

Jiang Zhi added, “After this Soul Transformation cultivator died, the Fruit Position, along with the Myriad Souls Banner and the inheritance, was left behind.”

“The Black Moon Sect Leader then obtained the latter two.”

“His peak Nascent Soul cultivation may be linked to this.”

“But even so, many questions remain unanswered.”

By this point, Chu Huaixu’s brain had stopped functioning.

That was just the kind of person he was—if he couldn’t figure it out, then what was the point in overthinking?

Or perhaps, he was still carrying some... player mentality?

What good was speculating or theorizing? Go finish the quests and uncover the hidden storylines!

“We have to move the plot forward!” he thought.

After all, he was a cheat user—he had a system.

The whole matter of the Soul Transformation Fruit Position, he had only learned about indirectly from the system.

The Black Moon Sect’s side couldn’t yield any more clues for now.

And as a player, his instinct told him: “This probably should’ve been a late-game storyline in Borrowed Sword.”

A boss of this level showing up now? Way too early.

“He must’ve been lying low for a long time,” he thought.

“Then why reveal himself now and make such a fuss? Why act so desperate?”

“Is it really because I carry the aura of the Fruit Position?” Chu Huaixu wondered.

But during this period, the three of them had eaten, lived, and traveled together.

“If I came into contact with the Fruit Position, then Big Ice Block and Little Xu should have, too.”

“The only thing I did recently that they weren’t involved in... was treating Zhong Ming.”

“But the problem is, the 【Fruit Position】 shouldn’t be on Zhong Ming either.”

“In that round on the fifth floor of the Origin Spirit Realm, the Dao Gate took heavy losses, but ultimately cleared it.”

“Only he emerged, carrying a fragment of the Xuanhuang Origin, from the Spirit Realm.”

But the Fruit Position clearly once belonged to the previous owner of the Myriad Souls Banner.

And that banner definitely didn’t come out of that year’s Origin Spirit Realm.

That made it a contradiction.

“Also, what is this so-called 【Fruit Position of the Soul Transformation Stage】 supposed to look like?” he wondered.

Whatever the case, Chu Huaixu’s sense of crisis had only intensified lately.

First, the suspected Old State Preceptor of the Moon Country made a move against him. Now, the sudden emergence of the Black Moon Sect...

And the Sect Leader had even escaped from Jiang Zhi’s hands with only a lost arm.

“I really need to get stronger—fast,” Chu Huaixu thought.

Luckily, the date of the Third Realm Eastern and Western Continents’ Grand Competition was drawing near.

“Once I finish that, and clear the second layer of the Origin Spirit Realm, I need to find a way to level up fast, get my cultivation to the Fifth Realm as soon as possible,” he planned.

Only by becoming a Major Cultivator could he feel a sliver of safety.

“It’s still too slow.”

“I’ve been transmigrated for so long, and I’m still in the Third Realm.”

“Even with cheats, I’m cultivating slower than Big Ice Block.”

On this point, he was genuinely speechless.

Since he had leveled up the 【Six Formations of the Broken Array】 once, his realm was now stuck at the Third Realm, Seventh Heaven, and he had spent all his Experience Points.

“Troublesome,” he thought.

Chu Huaixu was someone who knew how to allocate Experience Points efficiently.

But even the most skilled cook can’t make a meal without rice.

Inside the main hall, as the conversation continued, the topic shifted to the upcoming Grand Competition.

Xiang Yan said, “You all know, the Third Realm’s competition isn’t split into Eastern and Western segments—it’s held jointly as the Eastern and Western Continents’ Grand Competition.”

“We understand,” Chu Huaixu replied. He had gone through this part of the story in Borrowed Sword, so he naturally knew the rules.

Han Shuangjiang and Xu Ziqing exchanged glances—they honestly had no idea.

Both of them thought the same thing: How do you know that?

Chu Huaixu always seemed to know more than them, and they could never figure out how.

“This time, the Third Realm’s Eastern and Western Grand Competition will be held at the Cultivation Institute of the Moon Country,” Xiang Yan continued.

“Because the previous Champion was from the Moon Country.”

“Judging by the calendar, in just over a month, you’ll depart. Once in the Moon Country, get acclimated and make early preparations.”

“Chu Huaixu, you are the Xuanhuang Champion of the First Realm. According to the rules, you don’t have to go through the earlier rounds.”

Chu Huaixu nodded. He was seeded into the top sixteen.

This was a privilege and honor for being the Xuanhuang Champion.

“We’re having you go early because Little Martial Uncle said that Qin Xuanxiao, as the Moon Country’s representative, conveyed the Moon Emperor’s stance—he’s willing to let you enter either the Imperial Pool or the Imperial Mausoleum as a reward for clearing the first layer of the Origin Spirit Realm,” Xiang Yan said.

“Mm, he did mention it.”

“Have you decided then—will you enter the Imperial Pool, or the Imperial Mausoleum?”