Chapter 591: Changes in Heavenly Fate
After conversing briefly with the paper incarnation of the Lord of White Paper Immortal City, Ning Zhuo returned to his residence in the Hidden Yang Residence and rested for a short while.
He took out the four treasures that the Lord of White Paper Immortal City had given him and examined them carefully.
The liquor of the Cold Bone Moon Dew Wine appeared semi-transparent silver-gray. When observed from the side, a layer of pale moonlight could be seen shimmering on the surface of the wine.
If the liquor remained undisturbed for a long time, tiny floating fragments would gradually condense within it, resembling pieces of bone.
Ning Zhuo rotated his Mechanical Ring and tried taking a small sip.
The wine was extremely clear upon entering the mouth, like melted snow water. As it went down the throat, a warmth similar to a hot spring surged upward. In the aftertaste, the mouth was filled with the cool fragrance of snow pine and icy mint.
The Nine Springs Repose Incense came in nearly a hundred sticks. Each stick resembled a thin, withered branch, its surface dark purple.
Ning Zhuo snapped off a piece about half the length of a finger and tried lighting it.
When the Nine Springs Repose Incense burned, the rising smoke was straight like a hanging thread, thin and long. Its scent resembled rotting soil mixed with damp white plum blossoms.
The ash left after burning retained the complete shape of the incense stick. However, if it came into contact with anything containing yang energy, the ash would immediately transform into droplets of black water. At that moment, the smell would change into the heavy wooden fragrance of a thousand-year coffin.
The Hungry Ghost Backlash Cauldron stood over a person’s height. It was a massive bronze tripod cauldron with three legs and two handles.
Its body was covered in bronze rust, the corrosion forming blurry images of hundreds of ghosts devouring one another. The inner walls of the cauldron still bore dried dark-green ink traces. Each of the three legs was wrapped in a layer of gray bone. The handles appeared to be coated with a dark brown patina, but upon closer inspection, they were actually layers of overlapping finger marks and bite marks.
The final item was the Book of Underworld Punishments.
It was a book made entirely of iron plates and iron pages, quite heavy.
The iron shell cover was dark like night. The cast mysterious iron bands faintly formed the outline of the underworld. On the spine was a palace roof carved from black jade marrow, solemn in design.
Each page was made from cold-rolled thousand-forged cold iron, thin like blades and glowing with a dim green light.
Every page had an engraved depiction of a punishment: oil cauldron, mountain of blades, sword tree, sea of fire, ice mountain, iron bed, heart extraction, tongue pulling, ox pit, grinding millstone, sawing dismemberment, stone crushing, iron tree, intestine twisting, blood pool, and others.
When the book was opened, the iron pages struck each other, producing the sound of iron shackles clashing.
Ning Zhuo needed only to touch it with his fingers to make his soul feel pain in different ways.
“All good treasures!” Sun Lingtong observed from the side, his eyes shining.
Ning Zhuo nodded slightly and stored them away one by one.
He did not rush to use them. Instead, he began contemplating the person of the Lord of White Paper Immortal City.
Previously, the Lord of White Paper Immortal City had schemed rather obviously—simple and direct—making both Sun Lingtong and Ning Zhuo somewhat wary and dissatisfied.
But after their most recent meeting, Ning Zhuo discovered that this person acted quite frankly and straightforwardly.
“She could have concealed things like the prophetic poem and not told me at all, yet she revealed them and did not worry about me raising my price.”
“In fact, she is quite generous. Just the Cold Bone Moon Dew Wine alone exceeded the upper limit of what I expected.”
“She truly possesses the spirit of a heroic woman.”
“Back then, was it for this reason that Mother cooperated with the Lord of White Paper Immortal City? Did Mother feel about her the same way I do now?”
“My mother truly had great kindness and magnanimity. She even refused the position of Deputy City Lord… Compared to her, my own perspective is far smaller. I cannot bring myself to sacrifice for others in that way.”
“Myriad Phenomena Sect… true disciple…”
A knock on the door interrupted Ning Zhuo’s thoughts.
The visitor was none other than Wen Ruanyu.
Now Ning Zhuo knew that this person was his mother Meng Yaoyin’s junior fellow disciple, a Golden Core cultivator and also a true disciple.
The Myriad Phenomena Sect was a super sect, on the same level as the Soul-Devouring Sect and the No-Void Sect. To become a true disciple of such a force, one’s cultivation had to be at least the Golden Core stage.
“I’m coming.” Ning Zhuo stood up and opened the door.
He was not surprised at all by Wen Ruanyu’s initiative to visit. Earlier, the Lord of White Paper Immortal City had already clearly instructed that Wen Ruanyu should cooperate with him in investigating the traitor among the upper ranks.
Wen Ruanyu cupped his hands with a smile. “I will fully cooperate with Daoist Friend Jiao Ma to accomplish this important task!”
Ever since Ning Zhuo had captured three Golden Core–level Ghost Generals alive, Wen Ruanyu’s attitude and tone toward him had become completely equal.
This time, the Lord of White Paper Immortal City had even personally instructed him to assist Ning Zhuo.
That made Wen Ruanyu lower his stance further, faintly regarding himself as Ning Zhuo’s deputy.
He was a Confucian cultivator. Regardless of what he thought internally, at least on the surface his attitude was impeccable.
Ning Zhuo returned the salute and transmitted through spiritual sense, telling him that they should avoid alerting the enemy. The identity of Jiao Ma should be maintained as much as possible. Next, Ning Zhuo would act under the identity of Jiao Ma and accompany Wen Ruanyu in investigating the traitor, outwardly placing Wen Ruanyu in the leading role.
Wen Ruanyu thought about it briefly. This was a cautious and mature approach, raising his evaluation of Ning Zhuo once more. He readily agreed.
He asked Ning Zhuo where they should start the investigation.
Without hesitation, Ning Zhuo transmitted through spiritual sense: “I’ve thought it through. Let’s first go take a look at the south side of the city.”
When they arrived at the southern gate, Ning Zhuo once again saw the giant paper figure and the many cultivators actively repairing the battlefield.
Ning Zhuo said, “I need to examine the various arrangements that Senior Meng Yaoyin made back then.”
Wen Ruanyu followed Ning Zhuo’s secret instructions. First, he ordered the other cultivators present to withdraw, leaving only the two of them. Then he opened the formation and entered the formation space with Ning Zhuo.
Here, Ning Zhuo saw the true structure of the formation. It was so intricate and complex that it made his head spin.
“Mother is truly amazing!”
“In terms of formation arrangement, her attainments were too profound. I cannot understand it quickly at all.”
Ning Zhuo secretly communicated with Sun Lingtong, his face filled with reverence and admiration.
Sun Lingtong chuckled inwardly, thinking: Wasn’t this formation jointly designed by your mother and the Lord of White Paper Immortal City over seven days and nights?
Sun Lingtong fully understood Ning Zhuo’s feelings and did not expose him.
Meng Yaoyin was a Golden Core true disciple of a super sect and was proficient in mechanical arts. Naturally, she was skilled in many cultivation techniques. Unfortunately, she had died early and had left Ning Zhuo only a set of mechanical arts manuals.
Ning Zhuo had not inherited her formation foundation and could not understand the formation here—but he had his own method.
“Senior Wen, please explain the structure to me,” Ning Zhuo directly requested.
Wen Ruanyu immediately began explaining patiently, holding nothing back.
Ning Zhuo’s formation foundation was solid. He barely understood two or three parts out of ten and made a precise judgment inwardly:
“When my mother arranged this place personally, if the various formation setups were burned with the Fire Burial Prajna Spirit-Resolving Sutra, they should yield quite a lot of spirituality.”
After examining the formation, Ning Zhuo said to Wen Ruanyu, “Let’s take a look inside the giant paper figure.”
Wen Ruanyu naturally had no objections.
Underworld.
Deep within Water Burial Valley.
The Gray Bone Elder sat cross-legged and slowly opened his eyes, gazing with complicated emotions at a skullcap in front of him.
This was the skullcap of a Heavenly Ghost—a refining-void level material.
Now, the surface of the skullcap had been refined by the Prefecture Lord until it melted like liquid, yet the inner bone remained stubborn and solid.
“No wonder you spared no expense refining this Heavenly Ghost bone, Prefecture Lord.”
“This level of talent matches you extremely well—no, it is practically heaven-made for you.”
The Prefecture Lord laughed loudly. “If it were not so, why would I go to such lengths?”
After obtaining the skullcap, he had studied it carefully and discovered that a portion of its divine ability remained. After painstaking arrangements for over a hundred years and continuous investment of manpower and resources, he had finally seen signs of success this year.
Only a small portion of bone remained in the Heavenly Ghost skullcap.
Once it was fully refined, the Prefecture Lord would absorb it completely and gain a new innate talent.
The Prefecture Lord sighed with emotion. “To obtain this talent, I spared no effort. Just acquiring the Heavenly Ghost Transformation Calamity Offering Ritual alone cost three tenths of my treasury in exchange from another prefecture.”
The Gray Bone Elder remained silent for a moment before saying, “This ritual originates from Confucianism. It sacrifices to Heaven and Earth. In the underworld it counts as virtue, but in the mortal world it counts as sin. Therefore it caused countless killings and blood debts in White Paper Immortal City.”
The Prefecture Lord sneered. “Those who accomplish great deeds do not concern themselves with trifles. I am the king of the underworld—why should I care about the morals of the mortal world?”
“I will certainly destroy White Paper Immortal City. The entire city will be used for blood sacrifice to complete my Heavenly Ghost Transformation ritual!”
The Gray Bone Elder sighed softly. “Thus this skull is the source of calamity. Using the calamity aura within it, I performed the Divination of Calamity Ash Covering the Lines. But I also calculated that there remains an obstacle before your success.”
The Prefecture Lord nodded slightly. “I know.”
“To absorb this skull, I need the foundation of at least a million souls, and sufficient killing aura to withstand the shock of this foreign talent.”
“As the lord of a prefecture, my soul foundation has long surpassed ten million souls. One million souls is no obstacle.”
“And by launching the ghost tide against White Paper Immortal City, I can obtain battle-killing aura to help withstand the impact.”
The Gray Bone Elder nodded slightly, then shook his head again. “There is more.”
“Oh?” The Prefecture Lord looked surprised. “Can Daoist Friend Gray Bone calculate it for me?”
The Gray Bone Elder shook his head. “No. But I can remind you of one or two things.”
The Prefecture Lord cupped his hands. “Please enlighten me.”
Gray Bone Elder said, “In truth, it is simple. According to my divination techniques, these obstacles are essentially a struggle of fate.”
“You are the lord of a prefecture. In the mortal world, that would be equivalent to a king of a nation, extremely powerful.”
“But this Heavenly Ghost Transformation Calamity Offering Ritual spans both the underworld and the mortal world. Your status in the underworld is stable and unshakable, but in the mortal world you are greatly lacking.”
“To succeed in the mortal world, you must surpass the strongest currents of fate there.”
“And the strongest currents of fate in the mortal world are obvious: first, the Yin Tide Black Marsh Wetlands; second, White Paper Immortal City; third, the various super sects.”
The Prefecture Lord laughed loudly. “I have long planned for these three. The City-Toppling Alliance can neutralize the terrain, the traitors inside can deal with the immortal city, and the super sects have already been divided by me.”
Hearing this, the Gray Bone Elder slowly nodded. “You have planned for decades, acting cautiously. According to the current situation, success is the natural course.”
“However, talents are granted by Heaven. Any acquired talent sought by mortals goes against the Heavenly Dao and will never proceed smoothly.”
“The fate of Heaven is the greatest of all. Compared with Heaven, we are like mayflies or ants—utterly insignificant.”
“So you must not be careless. It may be that Heaven has already prepared some variable, merely not yet revealed.”
The Prefecture Lord’s smile faded, and he fell into thought. “If that is the case, then if I find this variable early and eliminate it in its infancy, would that not double the result with half the effort?”
The Gray Bone Elder replied, “That is the method of dissolving calamity.”
“But first you must find the variable, which is already extremely difficult.”
“Second, you must resolve it at the correct moment. To dissolve a calamity of Heavenly fate, the timing must be perfectly precise.”
“If it is too early, eliminating the variable will generate other variables—perhaps more, or perhaps stronger ones. If it is too late, the variable will already have caused irreversible damage.”
The Prefecture Lord listened carefully and gained much insight.
White Paper Immortal City.
Southern Giant Statue.
Ning Zhuo and Wen Ruanyu were investigating inside the giant statue.
“This is a mechanical construct, but it mainly uses the cultivation techniques of talisman crafting and paper effigy creation. Mother’s mechanical skill was so profound, and her creativity so remarkable—I cannot compare at all!”
Ning Zhuo felt his heart surge with excitement.
Although he was determined to study mechanical arts, he was still too young. His cultivation had only just begun, so his foundation and level still had much room for improvement.
At that moment, a message bird flew into the statue and landed in Wen Ruanyu’s hand.
Wen Ruanyu swept it with his spiritual sense and showed joy.
“Daoist Friend Jiao Ma, good news. The City Lord personally interrogated those three Golden Core Ghost Generals and obtained much information. They all come from an underworld power called the Forgetting River Underworld!”
“The Forgetting River Underworld?” Ning Zhuo’s expression changed slightly. “That corresponds to the power of a nation in the mortal world. The Prefecture Lord must be at the Soul Formation level, right?”
Wen Ruanyu nodded but reassured him.
“Even so, the underworld and mortal world are separated. The stronger the Prefecture Lord is, the less likely he can cross into the mortal world. Otherwise, if he personally attacked, White Paper Immortal City would have long been destroyed.”
Ning Zhuo narrowed his eyes.
“In the past there were no ghost soldiers or ghost generals. Yet this ghost tide has such new circumstances. From what I hear, the Forgetting River Underworld has been secretly interfering for a long time?”
Wen Ruanyu nodded.
“That’s right. Ghost tides are normal phenomena, but they do not erupt frequently. The Forgetting River Underworld has secretly intervened for decades, fueling each ghost tide.”
A sharp light flashed in Ning Zhuo’s eyes as he gritted his teeth inwardly.
“Forgetting River Underworld… good, very good. It was you who made my mother pay so much, even shortening her lifespan to protect the city.”
After thinking for a moment, he asked again, “Why did the Prefecture Lord start harming White Paper Immortal City decades ago? Could it be that he intends to step out of the underworld and seize the mortal world?”
Wen Ruanyu shook his head. “I don’t know the details. However…”
“However what?” Ning Zhuo pressed.
Wen Ruanyu hesitated before answering.
“Back then, Senior Sister Meng seemed to have found certain clues and made some conjectures.”
“What clues?” Ning Zhuo asked again.
Wen Ruanyu shook his head.
“I only heard Senior Sister Meng mention it once. She left a secret treasure meant for a destined person. It was specifically arranged for this matter.”
Ning Zhuo heard about the secret treasure again and continued asking.
Wen Ruanyu gave a bitter smile.
“I have searched for that secret treasure for many years in White Paper Immortal City, but never found anything. Sometimes I think perhaps it was simply Senior Sister Meng’s clever method of motivating the city’s citizens to actively participate in defense. Perhaps the treasure never existed.”
Ning Zhuo nodded and continued observing.
Sun Lingtong grew impatient and asked secretly, “Little Zhuo, you’ve been looking for so long. Have you found any clues about the traitor?”
Ning Zhuo answered honestly in his heart, “Boss, I’m not Zhu Xuanji. I don’t have any investigative skills.”
“My purpose here is simply to look at the arrangements Mother made and judge how much spirituality we can obtain by burning them with the Fire Burial Prajna Spirit-Resolving Sutra.”
Sun Lingtong fell silent.
Ning Zhuo laughed softly. “Prepare for defeat before seeking victory. Hmm?”
Sun Lingtong asked, “What is it?”
Ning Zhuo’s tone changed.
“Boss, take a closer look. Doesn’t the mechanism here resemble one of the applications described in Mother’s manuals?”
Sun Lingtong examined it carefully.
“That’s correct. It was your mother’s original creation—very ingenious. When operated forward, it produces one effect. When operated in reverse, it produces another.”
“This arrangement… let me think. There should be another hidden space here!”
“Little Zhuo!”
“Why do you think your mother arranged it like this?”
Ning Zhuo’s heart trembled, and he almost blurted out:
“Secret treasure?”