Chapter 34: The Penglai Moon-Folding Record
Lu Qingyang leaned against the broken mast of the cloud boat, a wisp of Penglai Immortal Mist condensed on his fingertips. The Utambhara petals he had brought from the Dragon's Den last night were unfurling in a glazed cup. The moonlight flowing through their veins, stimulated by the blood patterns of the qingmu spirit pearl, cast a scattered star-like illusion on the deck.
He exhaled a puff of wine towards the illusion, and his Nascent Soul Early Stage Divine Sense actually glimpsed the outline of a magnificent palace: "Su Xianzi, could it be that your Taiyi Pavilion's treasure map was drawn according to a drunkard's dream?"
The jade cup suddenly overturned, and the flower juice seeped into the cracks in the ship's planks. Yinghuo’s silver bells on her wrist chimed without wind, and nine layers of tidal sounds surged from the southeast, startling away the Crested Ibis that had been perched on the cloud boat's wreckage. Lu Qingyang picked up a feather from the bird and tucked it into his hair. The morning dew on the feather's tip suddenly condensed into an ancient script—"Seven thousand steps of cloud stairs, thirty thousand acres of moonlit land."
The outline of Penglai Immortal Island appeared at a quarter past noon, its seventy-two peaks immersed in a celestial river formed by mirage Qi. Lu Qingyang stepped on a floating green brick and leaped towards the mountain gate. The dust-repelling array patterns hidden in his boot soles touched the mountain-protecting Protective Aura, causing the blood patterns of the spirit pearl in his embrace to surge three inches.
He pressed the blood patterns against the three characters "Sword-Dismissing Pond" on the stone tablet with his backhand. The Sword Qi-laden ancient script transformed into delicate, ornate calligraphy: "Welcome, Honored Master, to your rightful place."
"This old man of Penglai is quite sensible." He flicked his sleeve, shattering the three incoming Heart-Questioning Sword Qi, and then casually collected the Xuan-iron sword tablet by the Sword-Dismissing Pond into his qiankun bag. The moment the mountain-guarding Dragon sleeping at the bottom of the pond opened its eyes, the qingmu spirit pearl automatically activated the Tai Xu Swallowing Sky Skill, devouring the Dragon's breath as a resource for advancement.
When Yinghuo’s chensha stone was embedded in the Xun position of the array eye, the entire mountain-protecting grand array suddenly reversed. Lu Qingyang dragged Su Li, avoiding the inverted mountain steps. The peach blossom Gu powder he flicked from his fingertips, mixed with Dragon's saliva, burned a charred path through the sea of clouds.
The three entered the Dao-Seeking Pavilion amidst the wondrous sight of burning heavens and boiling seas. The three hundred glazed lamps hanging from the beams suddenly chanted the "Huangting Sutra" in unison, startling the spirit pearl in his embrace into continuous tremors.
"Noisy!" Lu Qingyang flicked out three Heart-Corroding Gu nails into the lamps. The sound of the Gu insects gnawing on the lamp oil actually harmonized with the rhythm of the Daoist scripture. Su Li’s Puppet Silk pried open a lamp base, revealing a half-scroll of the "Heavenly Palace Banquet Music Painting" radiating moonlight. The jade pot held by the immortal maiden in the painting was identical in shape to the spirit pearl.
The sound of jingling jade pendants came from deep within the Dao-Seeking Pavilion. Lu Qingyang slid along a gilded pillar towards the source of the sound. Behind nine layers of Jiao-silk curtains stood a life-sized bronze mirror. The reflection in the mirror, however, was not his current appearance—that figure, clad in a twelve-chapter patterned imperial robe, was embedding the qingmu spirit pearl into the Emperor's crown. The blood patterns on the crown were identical to the cracks on the current spirit pearl.
"Fellow Daoist Lu's appearance..." Su Li, who arrived shortly after, had not finished speaking when a pair of delicate hands suddenly reached out from the mirror. Lu Qingyang pulled the Jiao-silk curtain over to wrap around the wrist with his backhand, but instead pulled out a simply dressed immortal maiden holding a jade rabbit.
The jade rabbit's red eyes reflected the illusion of the spirit pearl, and it suddenly spoke in Dragon language: "The punishment of eye-gouging is not yet complete, how dare you again pry into heavenly secrets!"
The entire Dao-Seeking Pavilion began to collapse. Lu Qingyang stepped on falling glazed tiles and leaped towards the dome. The "Heavenly Palace Banquet Music Painting" in his embrace suddenly came alive. The immortal maiden in the painting poured wine from her pot, and the divine nectar turned into a sea of fire upon hitting the ground.
He pressed the illusory wine pot towards the spirit pearl, and the blood patterns, upon encountering the immortal brew, bloomed into a thousand-petaled Utambhara, temporarily suppressing the mirror image of the immortal pursuing him.
At midnight, the three fell into a secret chamber at the bottom of the Sword-Washing Pond. Lu Qingyang wiped the golden blood from the corner of his mouth, examining the four walls by the faint light of the spirit pearl—in a star map composed of three hundred rusty swords, the Taiwei Constellation position conspicuously lacked a gap the size of the qingmu spirit pearl.
He pried off a piece of wall skin and threw it at the star map. The peeling sword rust actually condensed in mid-air into a fragmented chapter of the "Purple Mansion Sword Canon."
"This deal is profitable!" He formed a sword with his fingers and practiced the incomplete moves. The moment his Sword Qi touched the wall, the entire star map suddenly reversed. Yinghuo’s chensha stone fragments flew towards the Yaoguang position, opening a three-foot-square light gate in the sword array's gap.
Lu Qingyang rushed in half a step ahead, but his boot landed on something soft and warm—it was an un-dried rouge inkstone, with cinnabar writing in it: "Ye Wuchen came here to punish the heart."
Beyond the light gate was a ten-mile moon osmanthus forest, with each osmanthus leaf engraved with a sword chant. Lu Qingyang picked a leaf and chewed it. The bitter juice condensed into Sword Intent in his Sea of Consciousness: "Su Xianzi, your Taiyi Pavilion's traitor..." Before he finished speaking, the entire osmanthus forest suddenly bloomed with blood-colored flowers, and the falling petals transformed into Sword Qi and attacked.
He pulled Su Li’s wide sleeve as a shield. The Puppet Silk hidden in her sleeve intertwined with the Sword Qi, actually weaving a sword net under the moonlight. The qingmu spirit pearl automatically suspended itself in the center of the net, absorbing all the Sword Qi into its blood patterns. The Dragon soul imprisoned within the pearl suddenly opened its eyes, but what it uttered was not Dragon language, but the ancient Penglai melody "Moon-Folding Ballad."
At the end of the moon osmanthus forest, a white jade altar appeared. Suspended above the altar was not a Divine Artifact, but a half-shattered Penglai Mirror. Lu Qingyang used the spirit pearl as a guide to illuminate the mirror surface, and the cracks actually reflected the Lock Dragon Well in the Taiyi Pavilion's Forbidden Land.
The well water in the mirror suddenly poured out in reverse, engulfing a figure bound by nine layers of Seals—that person's features were seventy percent similar to his, but a complete qingmu spirit pearl was embedded in his forehead.
"This magic trick has become..." He flicked his finger at the mirror surface, and the cracks suddenly multiplied. Yinghuo’s silver bell cord wrapped around his wrist, pulling him back sharply. The mirror person's fingertips had already penetrated the boundary between reality and illusion, leaving a bloody mark on his neck. The spirit pearl's blood patterns, protecting themselves in danger, actually transformed that attack, which contained Soul Transformation Divine Might, into pure Spiritual Qi.
After three strikes of the fifth watch drum, Penglai Immortal Island began to sink into the Guixu. Lu Qingyang stepped on the falling moon osmanthus and leaped towards the wreckage of the cloud boat. The fragments of the Penglai Mirror in his embrace struck the spirit pearl, playing a section of the "Nishang Yuyi Dance."
He raised his cup towards the gradually sinking immortal mountain. What floated in the wine, however, was not the reflection of the moon, but the complete spirit pearl on the forehead of the person in the Lock Dragon Well.
"This game of chess," he splashed the remaining wine into the Guixu vortex, "is becoming more and more interesting."
