Chapter 80 – The Eternal Veil (II)

Chapter 80

The Eternal Veil (II)

It was familiar, the scent.

Hua could have recognized it from anywhere, yet he had to remain still and calm, ignorant of the reality of what was happening within that town.

He wanted to stop Lu Qi from sending the Young Lady in, but didn’t interfere, as he realized she wouldn’t be going in–that old kid, the creep, would be the one to infiltrate while she’d stay outside.

And yet, even with knowing that, he felt compelled to rush over and make sure of it. Young Lady had already almost died because of that scent, because of that temptation; if she was drawn back in again… there may be nothing anyone could do to save her.

He didn’t think that they’d come out from beyond the mountains, not this soon, anyway. However, if they were now emboldened enough to break the Oath that stood strong for almost 10,000 years…

His muscles subconsciously tensed as he stared at the hazy ‘miasma,’ as they called it. It was no wonder that nobody here recognized it. Even Elder Qin, though ‘powerful’ he was for this part of the world, was still just a figurative embryo in the path of immortality. Only those who’ve touched upon the Dao Laws would be able to recognize the clusters of Gray Matter, a horrifying byproduct of a Soul Furnace.

All hells lead back to that damned evil…

If he could go back in time to change one thing, it would be to never join the Guard, to never learn what he learned, and to never have to live with the knowledge that he cannot do anything about.

But it was his Oath, now. Even if he’d… changed it from the original purpose.

He glanced sideways at the frowning middle-aged man.

There were countless things that did not add up with the man who went by the name of Lu Qi. Hua had known he was special the day he managed to drag Dai Xiu and him out of the Soul Furnace. Naturally, they didn’t stay there willingly–that was what the Furnace did; it shaved away at the willingness and the mastery of one’s will until there was nothing left.

However, unlike practically everyone else who’d ever stepped foot into that rot, Elder Lu didn’t seem… beholden to its laws. And yet, there was nothing that Zhuang Hua could discern about the man that would lend a credible answer as to ‘Why?’.

He wasn’t even ordinary but rather worse than that.

His reputation was absolutely putrid.

He was by far the sect’s weakest Elder and likely its least educated one, too.

And yet, time and again now, he was shocked by the strange man, shocked into a muted silence that was on occasion even real.

Providing Dai Xiu with the perfectly tailored cultivation method that even the Veil didn’t have?

Rearing a disciple like Long Tao that terrified Hua in ways that even his Masters never did?

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And even producing the Heart-Stitching Art. No, perhaps the last one was the most heaven-defying. It allowed him to do something nothing else in the world could–dispel the Mortal Binds, if ever for a moment.

Despite all that, despite all threads somehow weaving the tale that Elder Lu did know something about the Seed… Hua confirmed on the journey over that the man was wholly ignorant. He wasn’t a spy or an ancient monster biding his time; he was just… a rather ordinary cultivator who somehow had means of creating or procuring extraordinary things.

And now, they were here… at the cradle of a sin most have forgotten.

He knew that they wouldn’t have been able to remain in the lull of comfort for long; they must have realized where he’d gone by now, and the word had to have spread of what was at the Spirit Sword Sect.

All he could hope for was that the strange man standing next to him could somehow procure yet another miracle.